KCRW releasing archive of ’80s and ’90s recordings of Tom Waits, R.E.M., Nick Cave and more

In the ’80s and ’90s, radio DJ Deirdre O’Donoghue hosted SNAP on KCRW. The show was an abbreviation for Saturday Night Avant Pop, and featured on-air performances from underground independent bands at the time. Now, for the first time in decades, KCRW is making those archives available.

Released as part of the archives of Bent by Nature, a podcast about O’Donoghue from 2021, these 55 live performances include R.E.M., Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Camper Van Beethoven, The Meat Puppets, Cowboy Junkies, Robyn Hitchcock, Pere Ubu, Throwing Muses, Tom Waits and more. Check out the full archive below.

The complete archive of SNAP performances will be available on November 14, but KCRW members will have access to them starting today. KCRW has also launched Bent24, a 24-hour streaming channel featuring O’Donoghue’s interviews with artists.

R.E.M., Nick Cave, The Meat Puppets, Cowboy Junkies and Tom Waits are all featured on our list of the 150 Best Albums of the 1980s.

SNAP performance archives:

Luka Bloom (4/26/1990)
The Blue Aeroplanes (7/18/1990)
Camper Van Beethoven (8/10/1987)
Camper Van Beethoven (9/14/1989)
Peter Case (8/7/1989)
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (3/3/1989)
The Chills (5/10/1990)
The Church (3/24/1988)
Shawn Colvin (11/20/1989)
Concrete Blonde (4/23/1987)
Cowboy Junkies (12/6/1988)
Cowboy Junkies (2/19/1990)
The dB’s (12/3/1987)
Downy Mildew (12/20/1990)
The Dream Syndicate (2/27/1986)
The Dream Syndicate (7/14/1988)
Fetchin Bones (10/16/1989)
Glass Eye (9/3/1987)
Glass Eye (2/21/1990)
John Wesley Harding and the Deceivers (6/10/1991)
Hetch Hetchy (5/31/1990)
Hex (1/21/1991)
Peter Himmelman (5/29/1991)
Robyn Hitchcock (4/24/1989)
Peter Holsapple, Chris Stamey, & Ilene Markell (7/19/1990)
Hurrah! (11/19/1987)
Paul Kelly & The Messengers (10/7/1988)
Kitchens of Distinction (2/14/1991)
Daniel Lanois (12/11/1990)
Love Tractor (1/8/1990)
Love Tractor (6/26/1989)
Lyle Lovett (4/26/1989)
Nick Lowe (2/26/1990)
Sarah McLachlan (3/30/1989)
Meat Puppets (1/16/1986)
The Mighty Lemon Drops (5/12/1988)
Aaron Neville (10/15/1990)
Pere Ubu (as Petit Ubu) (6/14/1991)
Sam Phillips (6/6/1991)
Poi Dog Pondering (6/13/1988)
R.E.M. (4/3/1991)
The Railway Children (9/21/1988)
The Reivers (1/29/1988)
Shelleyan Orphan (7/9/1989)
The Silos (4/18/1990)
Harry Dean Stanton (6/24/1987)
Martin Stephenson & The Daintees (9/20/1990)
Syd Straw, Peter Holsapple, & Ilene Markell (9/4/1986)
Syd Straw & Marc Ribot (8/23/1990)
That Petrol Emotion (10/26/1989)
Throwing Muses (5/27/1991)
Timbuk 3 (8/11/1988)
Suzanne Vega (4/10/1985)
Tom Waits (8/24/1987)
Steve Wynn (12/9/1987)
Dwight Yoakam & The Babylonian Cowboys (7/30/1986)