John Peel Archive: T means Tackhead, Tad and Tall Dwarfs

There are a few overlaps in my own collection and the Peel Archive's T shelf, mostly with Talk Talk and Talking Heads.

I've decided to highlight three slightly forgotten acts. First of all Tackhead
or TACK>HEAD, who were an industrial hip-hop act, almost a "supergroup" of that genre given that they comprised of Skip McDonald, Doug Wimbush and Keith LeBlanc (who were pretty much the backing band for the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash) with the renowned producer Adrian Sherwood. [Our interview with Mr Sherwood is here]
They only made two albums, both of which are in the Peel collection.



Tad were a Seattle grunge band inspired by the Melvins and Black Sabbath, and their first few releases were heavy and uncommercial. Of the two albums here, I reckon God's Balls is better than 8-Way Santa but I haven't either one in such a long time.



Tall Dwarfs are yet another great band from New Zealand, who in my opinion haven't dated as much as the other two acts on this page. They were formed in 1981 and were one of the pioneers of lo-fi recording techniques and as such were hugely influential on bands that emerged much later - in particular Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, and a lot of the Elephant 6 acts. They were essentially a duo - Chris Knox and Alec Bathgate - and they preferred to release their music as EPs. In fact both albums included on the Peel shelves are EP collections.