WATCH: Death & Co. live at the Blossom in Charleston, 1989

This isn't just a video of a fantastic performance by Keith Dunleavy and Jon Nathan's post-Unwanted Christmas Presents band Death & Co. playing at the Blossom in Charleston. It also shows some shaky but great footage of downtown Charleston in 1989 and some scene kids hanging out. The info says it is on Virginia Street, but the Blossom Deli was/is on Quarrier, and in the beginning of the video the kids are hanging out on Hale Street next door to where the excellent Stray Dog Antiques is now. I find it unfortunately ironic that in the video that Keith (in the black turtleneck) comments to the filmmaker who replies, "Just getting you beatniks while you're still alive." Less than a year later Keith died in a car accident. Also, based on the way they dress, I could be convinced that this was filmed recently on the east side of Austin. (Charleston's music scene didn't always have bad style.)

Of course, the highlight of this video is Death & Co.'s performance. I really wish I could track down recordings of this band - if recordings exist. I hope someone sees this and can give me some more information. Below is Death & Co. covering Echo and the Bunnymen's "Do It Clean" and Keith reading poetry at the same show.

WATCH: Unwanted Christmas Presents live in Morgantown, 1988

I love Unwanted Christmas Presents, and I love this video of the duo playing in Morgantown. The performance is simple and raw but I find it to be powerful and beautiful - half punk, half poetry. Keith Dunleavy died less than two years after this, and it's a shame, as I think he could have become quite iconic in the music scene.

LISTEN: Unwanted Christmas Presents - LP

As I mentioned Friday in a post about The Mad Daddys, Unwanted Christmas Presents were brought to my attention by my friend Eric who read about them on the Terminal-Boredom forum. UCP was an improvisational garage-noise punk band from Charleston in the mid- to late-80s. The duo was made up of Keith Dunleavy on vocals and Jon Nathan on guitar/percussion/electronics. Dunleavy, who along with Nathan also played in Death & Co., died in a car accident in 1990 at the age of 26. By that point he had already established himself as a sort of Jim Shephard of West Virginia. As an experimental rock cult figure in the region, Dunleavy was seemingly as controversial and confrontational as he was creative and brilliant. It is difficult to compare Unwanted Christmas Presents to any other bands. The music is abrasive and sleazy punk rock but with a poetic and bluesy backbone to it that brings to mind the MC5, Pere Ubu or Cheater Slicks. While UCP may not be easily approachable by those who don't listen to artists from the In the Red, Siltbreeze or Flying Nun rosters, there is a beauty to the songs. It is a tragedy that Keith Dunleavy died so young - the cause of which I do not know. Jon Nathan did an interview with Negative Guest List magazine (of Australia) in 2010 that my friend is trying to track down. Maybe that will shed some light on this somewhat mysterious Charleston band, who only hinted at their potential to exist among some truly great experimental noise acts from that era. So take a listen to these two tracks from the band's LP, which was recorded in the late '80s but not unearthed until 1993 by Electrocution Records. This is a truly fantastic piece of West Virginia punk rock history.

LISTEN: Unwanted Christmas Presents - Industrial Death
LISTEN: Unwanted Christmas Presents - Everything Is Fine