It's Been A Good Couple Of Weeks For Kathleen Edwards

Yes, the power of promotion for a new record! Well, for Kathleen Edwards there was no shortage of exposure especially from the mother corp, CBC who went all out to promote Kathleen's latest record, Voyageur, with appearances on CBC radio 1, 2, 3, and CBC -TV George Strouboulopoulos Tonight. To recap, she played a special invite-only show at CBC's Studio 11 in Toronto on January 14th that aired on CBC Canada Live (and CBC 3) the following week. She appeared on CBC 2's Drive on January 20th and performed 3 songs (acoustic) in studio with guitarist Gord Tough. On January 23rd, she was on CBC 1's Q with host Jian Ghomeshi for a short interview and 2 song performance. To complete the CBC tour, Kathleen and band appeared on Stromo's show that aired on January 27th. To top off the Kathleen Edwards mini-mania she also made another appearance on Late Show With David Letterman that aired on January 18 singing, Change The Sheets, not a bad two weeks!

It was a good week for me as well because last Wednesday I bought a pair of tickets on pre-sale to Kathleen's concert here on April 14th at the Garrick and the new CD arrived in the mail on Friday...oooh and it's autographed!

KATHLEEN EDWARDS
January 14th, 2012
CBC Studio 11
Toronto, ON

01. [dj introduction]
02. Empty Threat
03. Chameleon/Comedian
04. Pink Champagne
05. [banter]
06. Snowbird [Gene MacLellan]
07. Asking For Flowers
08. [banter]
09. Soft Place To Land
10. [banter]
11. House Full of Empty Rooms
12. Change The Sheets
13. [banter]
14. September Girls [Big Star]
15. [banter]
16. I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory
17. Going To Hell
18. [dj OUTRO]

KATHLEEN EDWARDS- 2012-01-14 (mp3)
2012-01-14 Empty Threat (video)
2012-01-14 Soft Place To Land (video)
2012-01-14 Change The Sheets (video)

2012-01-18 Late Show with David Letterman- Change The Sheets (YouTube)

Download these files directly from the great Haterhigh music blog (He has recorded some other excellent Kathleen Edwards shows from Toronto):
2012-01-14 FLAC/mp3
2012-01-20 FLAC/mp3- CBC Radio 2- DRIVE
2012-01-23 FLAC/mp3- CBC Radio 1- Q
2012-01-27 FLAC/mp3- CBC-TV George Strombo Tonight

Neil Young- Chrome Dreams

Even major artists have a slew of unreleased albums that for whatever reason never saw official release. Such is the case with (local legend) Neil Young who recorded a whole albums worth of songs (these versions) that wouldn't be heard for years. These tracks were thought to be the unreleased Chrome Dreams readied for release before rethinking his strategy. A document that accompanied the acetate gave the indication it would be called Chrome Dreams and outlined the same 12 tracks as listed below.

Here's more information about the record (Wikipedia):
Chrome Dreams features a large amount of still-unreleased material. The version of "Powderfinger" included is the original acoustic demo, while the "Sedan Delivery" featured is at a slower pace than the Rust Never Sleeps take and contains an additional verse. "Pocahontas" is the same version heard on Rust Never Sleeps without overdubs. "Hold Back the Tears" is a radically different take compared to the one that appears on American Stars 'n Bars, also featuring additional lyrics. "Too Far Gone" would not see release until 1989's Freedom. It is presented on Chrome Dreams with Crazy Horse's Frank "Poncho" Sampedro accompanying Young on a 1917 mandolin. "Stringman", a piano ballad, was (according to Shakey) written for Jack Nitzsche and is presented as a performance from Young's 1976 European tour with slight studio overdubs. Eighteen years later Young revived it for his Unplugged performance, never having released the song as a studio track. "Homegrown" here is a different mix than the version on American Stars 'n Bars. The rest of the songs are for the most part identical to their releases on subsequent albums.

Anyways, this would have been one of his strongest albums of the 70's. With all the genres and styles Young tried to recreate in the his career, Chrome Dreams stands out as one of his highlights...Highly recommended!
Enjoy!

NEIL YOUNG
Chrome Dreams (Rust Edition) 1977

01. Pocahontas
02. Will To Love
03. Star Of Bethlehem
04. Like A Hurricane
05. Too Far Gone
06. Hold Back The Tears
07. Homegrown
08. Captain Kennedy
09. Stringman
10. Sedan Delivery
11. Powderfinger
12. Look Out For My Love

Neil Young- Chrome Dreams FLAC. rar

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers- S.O.B. (Re-up)

By request, I'm re-upping another download from a few years ago, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, S.O.B. This post is still receiving some views and I've been informed (thanks!) the file doesn't download properly. I've disabled the link from the original post and posting new links at the end of this post, so please let me know if there are still any problems. If you don't have this CD already (or download yet) and if you're a Heartbreakers fan, this is rare Japanese bootleg that was limited to only 250 copies. It consists of 4 live concert recordings from 1976 and 1977 that range in sound quality, but are a nice document of the Heartbreakers in their prime.

(Please note, there are two discs for download and the track listings are included in the disc 1 rar.)

Enjoy!!

JOHNNY THUNDERS and the HEARTBREAKERS- S.O.B. disc 1. rar
JOHNNY THUNDERS and the HEARTBREAKERS- S.O.B. disc 2. rar

Dave Davies- The Album That Never Was

When you think of the leader of the Kinks, Ray Davies is immediately thought of because he was after all the principal songwriter and front man for the band. Without a doubt, I consider Ray's songs an inspiration for my own songwriting and the music of the Kinks is an important part of the soundtrack of my life. More often than not, his brother Dave is in the shadows of Ray, but the Kinks wouldn't be the Kinks without Dave. He is the driving force behind the band and his catchy, guitar riffs have been the foundation to some of the most memorable rock songs of the sixties. Though a majority of the Kink's songs were penned and sung by Ray, Dave has sung lead on a lot more songs than you might think. After the success of Death Of A Clown (on the Something Else LP), there was talk of a Dave Davies solo album to be released in 1968 or 1969. Even though Dave recorded several other solo singles, the proposed project never happened due to a number of circumstances. Eventually, a collection of Dave Davies solo singles and B-sides from the sixties were compiled together and released in the UK and an expanded Japanese release as, The Album That Never Was. Essentially it was a Kinks album that featured Dave on lead vocals with most of the tracks already available on compilations and Kinks albums. Another great "lost" Kinks album!
Enjoy!!

DAVE DAVIES
The Album That Never Was (originally 1987)
(This version is the Japanese reissue released in 2002)

1. Death of a Clown
2. Love Me Till the Sun Shines
3. Suzannah's Still Alive
4. Funny Face
5. Lincoln County
6. There Is No Life Without Love
7. Hold My Hand
8. Creeping Jean
9. Mindless Child of Motherhood
10. This Man He Weeps Tonight
11. Come on Now
12. Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
13. I Am Free
14. What's in Store for Me
15. I'm Not Like Everybody Else
16. Party Line
17. You're Lookin' Fine
18. Mr. Reporter
19. Wicked Annabella
20. Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter
21. Strangers
22. Rats

DAVE DAVIES- The Album That Never Was. rar

Still Here!

Just noticed my last post was my 400th, yay!! Hopefully this site will be around for another 400, but in the past the week with news about Megaupload falling and many blogs taking a hit because they lost some or all their links from Megaupload (and other storage sites), scares me. I recently registered with Megaupload, since I have decided to post some FLAC files (larger files) for live recordings because I wanted more space in case my present storage became filled, but I had yet uploaded to Megaupload. I've spent the last few nights browsing around other music blogs and have read stories of closed blogs, locked out access and the challenge and struggle to find affordable, reliable storage sites to post music from. It should be noted these blogs share music, not sell and provide an invaluable service to guys like me that are always looking for new, otherwise unheard music who listen and write about it. Many of these music blogs have been around for years and the amount of work and time these guys have dedicated into their site is amazing and I feel for them. I spend a huge chunk of my online time downloading and listening to music, so it would be a huge setback for music lovers if this witch-hunt by the entertainment industry and the US government continues to threaten and unfoundedly close sites and shut down anything they feel is a threat. The SOPA/PIPA legislation would have had a huge impact on bloggers like myself, especially since I'm based outside of the U.S.

This site will continue on, business as usually (hopefully) because writing about and sharing music is the reason operating this blog is fun and a constant joy in my life. I'm not too worried about being shutdown, I will continue to post live recordings and albums and other recordings that are out of print or hard to find, but I will be careful not to post any copyrighted material from any of the major labels. If I post anything you think is an infringement (or any artists that object), please let me know and I'll immediately remove the offending material. Sometimes it's hard to tell.
Thoughts or opinions?

BKITW- YBR

Back in my tape trading days, one of my favourite acquisitions was a copy of the unreleased album Seven Days A Week from Tommy Stinson's band, Perfect. Stinson formed Perfect after his first post-Replacement's solo project, Bash and Pop disbanded. This led to Perfect recording an EP, When Squirrels Play Chicken which showed much promise and wetted the appetitite for a full-length. In 1997, the band recorded the album, tentatively titled, Seven Days A Week with Jim Dickinson producing and despite completing the record it was shelved. It had more to do with the record label being acquired by another label, you know that kind of bullshit, rather than the quality of the music, I think. Advance copies of the record were sent out, which is why copies of the album circulated (hence my copy). I thought this album was one of the best albums by an ex-Replacement and it was definitely the best thing Tommy Stinson has produced (so far).

Not knowing the biz at that time, I couldn't understand how a band couldn't get their product into the hands of their fans, but in those days it seemed a band was made or broken by their label and distributors. Nowadays, indie bands have more options to be heard, but it's still challenge to make a real living, recording, selling and performing. Eventually, Seven Days A Week was remixed, resequenced and retitled, Once, Twice, Three Times A Maybe and released by Rykodisc in 2004, years after the band broke up.

A band that has a similar story is Best Kissers In The World and their unreleased album that was to be the follow-up to their first full length, Been There. I first discovered the band when I bought a used cassette of Been There for $3.00. Not knowing anything about the band, I bought it souly on the fact that they were from Seattle and I was pleasantly impressed by their noisy guitar sound and their surprisingly catchy melodic songs. Their sound is not unlike Perfect and reminded me of an amped up Posies or Model Rockets, probably the best 3 bucks I've ever spent on a tape. For the next record, Yellow Brick Roadkill, BKITW recorded, mixed, mastered and sent out advance copies only to be dropped by their label and never see their album released. Fortunately, some advance copies are floating around on eBay and the web which give fans a listen to what could have been. Listening to these tracks makes me wonder if the band might have continued on longer if Yellow Brick Roadkill was released, much like Perfect, both bands disbanded shortly after their failed releases....talk about deflating!

Have listen, as far as I know YBR hasn't been released yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does because this album is even better than Been There...and since it was completed (promo released) the sound is flawless. A great, great sounding album!
Enjoy!

BEST KISSERS IN THE WORLD
Yellow Brick Roadkill (1996)

01. Hit Parader
02. I Suppose
03. They Give Each Other Diseases
04. Diary
05. Dance Of the Spanish Fire Weasel
06. Roadside Attraction
07. Worried About It
08. Royal Pain In The Ass
09. Lonely Enough To Lie
10. I Fucked Up Again
11. Dead Have Everything
12. Countin’ Out Dexedrine
13. One Of These Daze

Sorry, I had to remove the link (see comments). PM me if you have any questions.
Thanks.

Weezer- Songs From The Black Hole

Recently there has been a renewed interest in Weezer, more specifically their first two albums, Weezer (The Blue Album) and Pinkerton. Many bands have been performing their classic albums in their entirety live and Weezer is no exception. A recent release on their webstore showcases such a show and the reissues and expanded deluxe editions of both albums are now available. Even a (Rivers Cuomo approved) Canadian Weezer-tribute band, Sheezer is playing material only from the first two records. I'm just a casual Weezer fan, but I do regard Blue and Pinkerton as their essential recordings, the rest of their catalogue isn't as required, but they're still better than most of the newer bands today.

It came as a bit of a surprise when I was digging around researching information about "lost" albums and discovered (why didn't I know this?) that Weezer have a lost album. Songs From The Black Hole was a concept conceived by front-man Rivers Cuomo that was to be the follow-up to their debut album, The Blue Album. This concept album was a space themed rock opera/musical that Rivers wrote and demo-ed, but in the process the concept was scrapped and the album evolved into Pinkerton instead. To read about the history of the recordings and the plots of the concept there's a huge wikipedia entry dedicated to this recording that remains unreleased and unfinished. There has much interest in the Weezer community to try to coax the band into releasing the album. To feed the interest, Rivers Cuomo has posted the lyrics and music for some of the SFTBH tracks. Also Cuomo has released 3 solo albums of home recordings, Alone: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo, Alone II: The Home Recordings Of Rivers Cuomo and Alone III: The Pinkerton Years that included many tracks that were intended for SFTBH. Cuomo considered releasing the entire Songs From the Black Hole, "I knew 'Blast Off' and some of these other Songs from The Black Hole had to be on there, because for years Weezer fans have been wanting to hear these songs, and I knew if I put out the album without these songs on there, they would hunt me down and kill me." He also added, "I thought about it for a long time. I thought maybe I should release it as The Black Hole and put the demos in the right order, but like I said, it was never finished, so it wouldn't really stand up, like it wouldn't be a very good listen... It was a very tough decision".

Instead of the space-theme opera of SFTBH, Weezer recorded an album that is named after B.F. Pinkerton from the opera Madame Butterfly as the album is loosely based on around the opera. The album includes references to Japan, Japanese people and Japanese culture from the perspective of an outsider who considers Japan fragile and sensual. Many consider Pinkerton to be Weezer's best record and I would agree, it's darker in tone and sound than the first record, but the songs are more solid and still stand up well today.

The tracks I have posted were compiled by a fan who combined both track listings from the original SFTBH demos to recreate the plot Cuomo might have intended. The songs are edited to flow seamlessly into each other as there are pieced together demos, b-sides, and other tracks to create what he felt was the concept Cuomo had in mind. The result is a enjoyable cohesive album that provides a glimpse of what might have been. Thanks for the effort and this is something every Weezer fan (or casual fan...) should listen to, as this may in fact be, the greatest lost album hardly anyone has ever heard!
Enjoy!!

WEEZER
Songs From The Black Hole (1995)

1. "Countdown" - [0:53]
2. "Blast Off!" - [1:58]
3. "Who You Callin' Bitch?" - [0:44]
4. "Oh Jonas"* - [0:27]
5. "I Do" - [1:56]
6. "Come to my Pod" - [1:29]
7. "Oh No, This Is Not for Me" - [0:45]
8. "Tired of Sex" - [2:54]
9. "She's Had a Girl"* - [0:46]
10. "Dude, We're Finally Landing (Good News!)" - [0:51]
11. "I Don't Want Your Lovin'" - [3:02]
12. "Getchoo" - [2:49]
13. "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" - [2:40]
14. "Superfriend" - [3:16]
15. "Superfriend (Reprise)" - [0:27]
16. "O Lisa" - [2:31]
17. "You Won't Get Me Tonight" - [3:26]
18. "Why Bother?" - [2:00]
19. "Waiting on You" - [3:55]
20. "No Other One" - [2:44]
21. "Devotion" - [3:05]
22. "Purification of Water" - [3:55]
23. "Longtime Sunshine" - [3:06]
24. "Longtime Sunshine (Reprise)"* - [1:13]

*Covers not performed by Weezer
An interpretation by Kyle K - Chitown, IL, USA

WEEZER- Songs From The Black Hole. rar

Velvet Underground- VU

Last weekend I began to think about "lost albums", records that may have been recorded and for whatever reason never was given a proper release. The album could have been a concept that was intended, but because of record label bottom lines and lack of commercial potential may have been shelved for later release or never at all. One record that comes to mind is Juliana Hatfield's, God's Foot which was recorded in 1996 and never released officially by her label, and instead Atlantic elected to drop her from their label. She made ill-attempts to buy back the rights, but to this day it has only seen the light of day through bootlegs and the songs circulated on the Internet.

I've always been interested in outtakes and unreleased material because it sometimes shows the artist in a different light. Sometimes the songs aren't up to the standard of the label or what they feel their fans wouldn't want to hear. It's always interesting to listen and think to yourself, "What's wrong with this?" or "why don't they release this?". A lot of the time it's obvious, but the odd time you shake your head and wonder. I've spent the past week searching online and looking through my CD's to find records that fall into some of these categories and I've uploaded some cool items. The first album I'm posting is actually a record that was eventually released even if it was 16 years after it was recorded.

The Velvet Underground's, VU was intended to be the band's 4th release, between Velvet Underground (third album) and Loaded, but because MGM records was purging their less profitable acts, the band was released from their contract. The band had previously recorded 14 songs that were possibly intended for their second album on MGM, but instead the tracks were shelved and weren't rediscovered until Verve/MGM was re-releasing their first three albums and the unreleased "lost" tracks were found. These tracks were remixed and cleaned up for release as VU along with some John Cale-era songs. The result is the missing link between Velvet Underground and Loaded which explored the band's evolution to a more pop-rock sound from their art-rock, experimental sound especially on their first two albums. Personally, overall my favourite Velvet Underground record is VU, it's loaded with some truly great songs that might have changed the perception of the band in 1969, as it might have had commercial potential, so it's too bad it took so long for these tracks to become available in their more or less original form. Some of these songs appeared on 1969 Live and many were re-recorded on Lou Reed's early solo albums, but the Velvet Underground versions are much better.
Enjoy!!

VELVET UNDERGROUND
VU (1985)

1. I Can't Stand It
2. Stephanie Says
3. She's My Best Friend
4. Lisa Says
5. Ocean
6. Foggy Notion
7. Inside Your Heart
8. One Of These Days
9. Andy's Chest
10. I'm Sticking With You

VELVET UNDERGROUND- VU. rar

Mary Lou Lord- Real

Here's kind of sequel to a post I wrote about Mary Lou Lord last month about her self-titled CD and this one concerns her first recording, Real, a cassette tape only release. I thought I would never come across a copy of the tape (I still actually haven't), but I have the next best thing, mp3's from the tape I found online at another music blog. Thanks to the poster for transferring the tape to digital and I hope you don't mind me spreading and sharing this rare and very hard to find gem. I've always had a fascination with early recordings of artists that have gone on to "stardom" because I figure these recordings shouldn't embarrass or come back to haunt the artist because if they are the real deal they should think of these recordings as a record of their growth and progression as a recording artist.

The material on the tape is fairly typical MLL, just her and her guitar, more like a demo than a polished finished product and features a few originals and some interesting covers. MLL covers probably one of the most recognizable songs from the past 20 years, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana, which is interesting considering her connection and involvement with Kurt Cobain. Throw in some covers by Big Star, Dylan, Allman Brothers, Billy Bragg and Zeppelin and you have a sampling of some of the songs she must have performed busking in the subways and streets of Boston around this time. If you're a fan, this will be of interest, if not I have some Velvet Underground coming up next, stay tuned.
Enjoy!!

MARY LOU LORD
Real (1992)

1. Andalucia (John Cale)
2. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
3. Thirteen (Big Star)
4. Not Necessarily The Bubonic Plague
5. St. Swithens Day (Billy Bragg)
6. Eternal Circle (Bob Dylan)
7. Memories of You
8. Can You Fool (Allman Brothers Band)
9. Please Be With Me (Scott Boyer)
10. Only Business (Rain Parade)
11. Walkin’ On Air (Schulman)
12. That’s The Way (Led Zeppelin)
13. London Bridges

MARY LOU LORD- Real. rar

Kathleen Edwards- Building 55 (Re-post)

With the risk of repeating myself, I'm re-posting an album I posted back in 2009. The original post was part of a mini-series of "Before They (She) Was Famous" where I posted "pre-fame" music from select artists that had gone on to make a successful career from music. In anticipation of the release of Kathleen Edward's fourth full length album, Voyageur on January 17, I thought now might be an appropriate time to re-post her first release, the six-song EP, Building 55. This release is rarely mentioned in Kathleen's discography's and is hard to find because there was only 500 copies pressed. An interesting listen if you're a fan and gives an early glimpse at the talent Kathleen possesses as she went on to release three excellent (and I would say, essential) records.

Speaking of the new Kathleen Edwards album, I've had the pleasure of previewing the record already and if you're a fan, you won't be disappointed. There are at least a couple songs that have stuck in my mind and I'm already pencilling it in for my best of list for 2012. I downloaded a copy months ago, but I won't post it here in fear of the copyright police. For more information on the album, check here. You can pre-order an autographed copy of the CD at Maplemusic.com.

At the time of the original post for Building 55 I posted the tracks individually, but they have since expired and have been unavailable. Below is a download for the mp3 rar file for the complete EP, please let me know if there are any problems.
Enjoy!

KATHLEEN EDWARDS
Building 55 (1999)

1. Injustica
2. Nagasaki
3. 5 Years
4. Bigstar
5. Wordgamething
6. Violin For Mom
7. Titled Untitled

KATHLEEN EDWARDS- Building 55. rar

Reliving New Years Eve One More Time With The Young Fresh Fellows in 1987

We're already into the first week of 2012, but I have one more New Year's eve show to share. This one's for the Fellows fans, a rare vintage show from 1987/1988 with original guitarist, Chuck Carroll. This is taken from a tape I received in a trade close to 20 years ago and this was the first Young Fresh Fellows live recording I had in my collection. The good news is that the recording sounds pretty good despite the fact I transferred it from a 20 year old cassette, not sure if it's a really good audience recording or a soundboard. It was and remains one of my favourite shows, but...The bad news is that it's incomplete and unfortunately cuts off during Ain't It Alright. This recording is from one side of a cassette (45 minutes) and I'm sure the complete concert was twice as long. If anyone has any idea of the source or if the rest of the show is available anywhere, please let me know! A classic New Years eve type-show complete with the countdown and an impromptu singing of Auld Lang Syne and a (original?) song called Happy New Year. The Fellows even cover the Replacements (On The Bus) whom they toured with earlier in 1987 (the reason for the photo), but the above photo with both bands is NOT from this show.

Here's to hoping 2012 is even better than 2011, at least musically anyways. Thanks so much for reading and TDIT will be around to bring more to you in the upcoming year with hopefully a few surprises along the way. Just a reminder, please leave a comment and/or offer up suggestions of what you'd like to hear this year.
Enjoy!

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS
The Backstage
Seattle, WA
December 31, 1987
Audience recording?

01. How Much About Last Night Do You Remember?
02. On The Bus
03. Get Outta My Cave
04. Hank, Karen And Ringo
05. new year's countdown/Auld Lang Syne
06. Happy New Year
07. Trek To Stupidity
08. Gus Theme
09. Togetherness
10. Amy Grant
11. Fuji-a-ma Mama
12. Young Fresh Fellows Theme
13. Hang On Sloopy
14. Why I Oughta
15. Ain't It Alright

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS- 1987-12-31 Backstage, Seattle, WA. rar

Happy New Year With The Kinks

photo: Thomas Besson

Happy New Year and what better way to bring in 2012 is a classic Kinks concert from over 30 years ago. It's from a FM broadcast so the sound is perfect and the era is circa, One For The Road on the later part of the Low Budget tour. The setlist includes 2 songs from Dave Davies first solo album (AFL1-3603) and the title track of their next album, Give The People What They Want. This is another show that has been available as a bootleg in various carnations with edited tracks, but to my knowledge this is the complete show.
Enjoy!

THE KINKS
Palladium
New York City, NY
December 31, 1980
FM Broadcast

DISC 1
01. Opening instrumental/The Hard Way
02. Where Have All The Good Times Gone?
03. Catch Me Now I'm Falling
04. Bird Dog
05. New York City Blues
06. Lola
07. Dead End Street/Til The End Of The Day
08. Low Budget
09. Imagination's Real/Nothing More To Lose

DISC 2
01. I'm Not Like Everyone Else
02. Come On Now
03. You Really Got Me
04. Give The People What They Want
05. Gallon Of Gas (cuts)
06. Celluloid Heroes
07. All Day And All Of The Night
08. All Day And All Of The Night (reprise)/Stop Your Sobbing/
David Watts/Pressure
09. Superman

KINKS- 1980-12-31 FLAC (disc 1). rar
KINKS- 1980-12-31 FLAC (disc 2). rar

The Jayhawks- New Year's Eve 1998

New Year's Eve is traditionally a busy night for social activity with many partaking in events that celebrate the end of the year and that welcome in the new year. For music lovers, a lovely way to ring in the new year is celebrating with your favourite band and partying the night away. Personally, I haven't been to many New Year's Eve concerts, but I have been tempted to travel out of town to see a band or two. One band that has played some New Year's Eve shows in their hometown of Minneapolis that I have been tempted to attend is the Jayhawks.

For the next couple days leading up to New Year's Eve (and a bit after), I'm posting a few random live recordings from December 31st (not this year). The first show is The Jayhawks opening for fellow Twin Cities band, Soul Asylum at the State Theatre in 1998/99. It's a great sounding show and again I am posting FLAC (loss-less) files for download. If you are having any troubles downloading or playing the files etc, please let me know. Sorry about the last post, this concert should be complete.
Enjoy!!

THE JAYHAWKS
State Theatre
Minneapolis, MN
December 31, 1998
(Opening for Soul Asylum)

01. Waiting For The Sun
02. Nothing Left To Borrow
03. Man Who Loved Life
04. Think About It
05. Two Hearts
06. Someone Will (early version of I'm Gonna Make You Love Me)
07. I'd Run Away
08. Driving Wheel
09. Blue
10. Young Queer
11. Expecting To Fly
12. Trouble
13. Ruby
14. Queen Of The World

JAYHAWKS- 1998-12-31 State Theatre, Mpls FLAC. rar

Merry (Belated) Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Teenage Dogs In Trouble!!

I meant to post this show before Christmas, but didn't have the time to upload the file. Anyways, I'm still in Christmas mode and hopefully you are too to enjoy a fabulous Christmas theme concert from one of my all-time favourites, The Kinks. There have been many different versions of this recording floating around, some have less songs or the setlist order has been altered. This version I downloaded on Dime a couple of years ago and supposedly this was taken from the original broadcast and appears to be complete. I remember many years ago taping a Kinks concert on the radio and playing that tape over and over, turns out (after listening to this version) that concert was an edited version of this. This show contains my fav Christmas song (Father Christmas), it's an amazing concert and the sound quality is as good as it gets without being an official release. Video snippets of the concert can be seen on YouTube and downloads of the complete concert video can also be easily found.

I've had it brought to my attention that I have posted some live recordings that were originally posted elsewhere and it has been requested I leave them in uncompressed FLAC format instead of mp3. I don't know how everyone feels about this, but I'll respect the original sources by not compressing the files of live recordings if I post them on this blog. It takes me a lot longer to upload and longer for you to download, but in the end everyone will be happier if I post a better sounding and better quality live recording. If you are not familiar with the FLAC format, read about it here and if you want to convert the files to mp3 for your own use, I use this and here's the download. I'll try this for a while and see how it goes, please leave me a comment if you have an opinion. Personally for me I like to download albums in mp3 format so I can add them to my Portable mp3 device, so for now I'll leave album and non-live concert recordings in mp3 format.
Enjoy!

Editor's note: It's come to my attention that the file I posted has a flaw in it. Track 15 (Get Back In The Line), for whatever reason is not included in the rar file. I looked at the original file I uploaded and on the disc I burned from it and #15 is missing. I'm thinking it might have been removed by the original poster on Dime possibly because the track was officially released somewhere else (one of the policies on Dimeadozen). I apologize for this incomplete recording, but if it's any consolation, I've posted for download the mp3 version of Get Back... If you insert the track after Celluloid Heroes and remove track 16 (Dialogue...it's the same that is included within the mp3), Get Back In The Line will fit in nicely. I know the purists won't be happy, but I tried to look for the FLAC version for #15, but to no avail...sorry!

THE KINKS
Rainbow Theatre, London
December 24, 1977

01. Broadcast introductions
02. Jukebox Music
03. Stage introductions
04. Sleepwalker
05. Life On The Road
06. Dialogue
07. Well Respected Man
08. Death Of A Clown
09. Sunny Afternoon
10. Waterloo Sunset
11. All Day And All Of The Night
12. Dialogue
13. Slum Kids
14. Celluloid Heroes
15. Get Back In The Line
16. Dialogue
17. The Hard Way
18. Lola
19. Alcohol
20. Skin And Bone
21. Father Christmas
22. You Really Got Me

THE KINKS- 1977-12-24 Rainbow Theatre FLAC. rar
15. Get Back In The Line (mp3). rar

Estrus Half Rack

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, one a week is not acceptable! I personally can't stand when a blog I follow can't keep semi-updated, but of course most bloggers don't do this for a living (except for those so-called, "celebrity-bloggers" or the ones that give a day to day update on The Bieb or Lady what's her name), so it's excusable that life does get in the way. My excuse is the holiday season, when my real job gets busier and my mind is constantly trying to figuring out what to buy for gifts (for Christmas). A dear friend of mine delivered a baby two weeks ago, but her baby is very sick and they still haven't left the hospital, so that too is weighing heavily on my mind. Enough with the excuses, I promise to post plenty of entries between Christmas and New Years when I have a couple extra of days off from work. I'll also try to compile some kind of "end of year" list of my favourite albums as I've been listening to as many new releases as possible this year.

As a follow-up to the last post, Estrus Gearbox, I found a download for another box in the series. To get you in the mood for the holiday season here's a set of music about drinking, everyone's favourite holiday pastime. Estrus Half Rack: the 12 Drunkest Bands in Showbiz is a compilation of drinking songs and was originally a 7" vinyl box-set that contained 3 singles, matches and a set of beer coasters. The box set was limited to 1500 black vinyl and 500 colour. It was also issued in CD format and only 1500 CD's were made. A fine collection that featured some of the same bands as the Gearbox (Fastbacks, Mono Men, Marble Orchard,Untamed Youth) with many from the Seattle/West Coast area.
Enjoy!

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Estrus Half-Rack (1991)

1. Derelicts: Lost Cause
2. Fastbacks: Beaujolais The Beat
3. Gorilla: Everybodys Glad
4. Kings Of Rock: Little Girl Be Good
5. Marble Orchard: Munsters Theme
6. Mono Men: Pisswater
7. Mudhoney: March To Fuzz
8. Mummies: What A Way To Die (The Pleasure Seekers)
9. The Phantom Surfers: 6 Pack
10. Prisonshake: Beer Break
11. Seaweed: Foggy Eyes (Beat Happening)
12. Untamed Youth: She Cares
    

VARIOUS ARTISTS- Estrus Half Rack. rar

Estrus Gearbox

Did you notice there seems to be an insane amount of box-sets issued this year. I realize that a lot of them were released a month a two before Christmas to capitalize on the season, but it seems that every classic album is getting the remastered, deluxe and super deluxe version treatment.

Case in point, the recent reissue of the Rolling Stones 1978 album, Some Girls. Let's count the "new" versions:
1.) Some Girls deluxe edition ($19.99*) - 2 discs, the original album remastered and a bonus second disc of previously unreleased tracks from the Some Girls sessions.
2.) Some Girls Gift case set ($47.53)- 2 discs, same as above + it is housed in a 24 disc CD holder which contains a 4-pack guitar pick pack, a button 4-pack and a Some Girls metal key chain. Each set is numbered and limited to 1250.
3.) Some Girls Wig Box ($149.89)- same 2 discs + hair pick, red lipstick USB (w/1g storage), compact mirror, a Rolling Stones t-shirt housed in a hairspray can packaged in a wig box (or record box?). This is even more limited and numbered to 600.
4.) Some Girls Super Deluxe Boxed Edition ($145.36)- 2 CD + 1 DVD, banned Beast Of Burden 7", 100 page hardcover book, Helmet Newton print, 5 postcard set and poster.
5.) Since the Stones were in a cash grab mode they also released a live DVD/CD: Some Girls- Live In Texas 1978 and a live "bootleg" from 1973, The Brussels Affair, all in the last couple of months.

My point in all this proves how off track these box sets and super deluxe versions are becoming. All these editions contain the same two CD's along with a bunch of phony memorabilia you don't need that tries to recreate some kind of feeling you're back in 1978...$$$!! I'm not saying I don't enjoy all the fun, sometimes cool stuff that comes with a record or CD, because I do, but I'm not crazy about spending all the extra $$$ to get it. There comes a point when it no longer becomes "bonus" material, just grabbing more cash.

Back in the early 90's, the Estrus Records label released a series of little box-sets that contained 3-5 7" singles from various artists on their label usually with a common theme to the songs. The original Estrus Gearbox contained 3 7" records with 4 songs on each, a Estrus sticker, a Estrus promo card and a glow in the dark Estrus key chain. I have the CD version which is housed in a smaller box and contains the sticker, promo card and a mini 1965 girly calender. I believe when I bought this from Estrus, the vinyl version was sold out. Both are sadly out of print. The songs in this collection celebrate cars and hot rods...12 revved-up bands on a thrill-mad rampage! A very cool find!
Enjoy!

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Estrus Gearbox (vinyl 1992/CD 1993)

1. Cheater Slicks - Cheater Slicks
2. Hot Rods To Heaven - Fastbacks
3. Road Runnah - Gas Huffer
4. Burrito Grand Prix - Huevos Rancheros
5. ’57 Nomad - The M-80’s
6. Warm Piston - Mono Men
7. Nova ’69 - Marble Orchard
8. Nitroglycerin - Mortals
9. Brand New Chevy - The Muffs
10. Boss Hoss - Nomads
11. SS 396 - The Untamed Youth
12. Cheater, Cheater - The Vacant Lot

VARIOUS ARTISTS- Estrus Gearbox. rar

Scruffy The Cat- Spit & Paulish #9

I noticed on Facebook there is a Scruffy The Cat fan page that allows fans to post on it's wall, comment, share photos and link to items of interest. Someone posted a link to this blog, which of course is cool (more proof someone is reading this site!) and mentions there are downloads for some Scruffy the Cat related recordings. The poster also wonders about the legality of it.

Now might be a good time to clarify my position and stand on posting recordings on this blog. I should state that this site does not host the downloads, but links to external servers. Any links posted on this blog are for educational, promotional, review and research purposes only. I try to post music that is out of print or hard to find and if I infringe on any of the copyright holders of the music or if you are the artist or artist's representative that wants me to disable the links, please let me know and I will immediately remove any files that offend. I'm not out to make any money on this site and I only have time to write this blog in my spare time. I write this blog because I'm a lover of music and a fan of every one of the bands that are featured on TDIT. I want to share this joy with anyone that will listen and read this blog...I hope this all makes sense and clears up some confusion. I will post a disclaimer on the right panel very shortly.

As a tribute and to acknowledge the Scruffy the Cat fans, here's a disc I acquired in a trade years ago, a compilation of live tracks, I believe it was my first disc of live Scruffy. When looking at the list of tracks and their sources I realize I have many of the shows these tracks are from. I couple months back I posted the Ritz show from 1989 and I also have the WERS and the T.T. the Bears shows from trades. This is a nice sounding comp, (but be forewarned the sound quality and volume varies) and gives you only a small sampling of how great Scruffy the Cat was live.
Enjoy!

Question: Should TDIT have a Facebook page or Twitter page? Could be another source for me to post quickie posts and links...?

SCRUFFY THE CAT
Spit & Paulish #9 (1984-89)

01. Rave On (The Ritz, NYC 2/4/89)
02. Buck Naked/Upside Down (The Ritz, NYC 2/4/89)
03. Upside Down (Austin, TX early '88)
04. Beg, Borrow And Steal (Studio 9/85)
05. Ticket To Ride (Studio 9/85)
06. Time Never Forgets (T.T. The Bears, Cambridge, 8/8/87)
07. You Are My Sunshine (T.T. The Bears, Cambridge, 8/8/87)
08. Little Nasty Habit (WERS 4/6/89)
09. New Song (?) (WERS 4/6/89)
10. Where'd Ya Go? (WERS 4/6/89)
11. I Don't Believe In (WERS 4/6/89)
12. Everything (Studio early '84)
13. Shakin' All Over (Johnny's D's, Allston 7/5/84)
14. Come On Down To My Boat (Johnny's D's, Allston 7/5/84)
15. Scruffy Lullaby/6 Days (JJ Flash, Boston, 2/1/85)
16. Big Fat Monkey's Hat/Momma Killed Hate (Metrowave, WERS, 7/27/86)
17. Shadow Boy (Metrowave, WERS, 7/27/86)
18. The Ghost Song (Metrowave, WERS, 7/27/86)
19. Lover's Day (Metrowave, WERS, 7/27/86)

SCRUFFY THE CAT- Spit & Paulish #9. rar

The First And Last Sonic Youth Shows?

According to reports, Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth have separated. Usually this blog doesn't really care about celebrity couple gossip, but this married couple make up the core of band I enjoy from time to time and could possibly affect the status of the band as we know it. Though there hasn't been any word whether the band will proceed beyond their tour of South America they completed in Brazil on November 14th, will their show in San Paulo, Brazil be their last? If it is, here's the video of the last show!!







To complete this "circle of life", I'm also posting a live audio recording of their first ever live performance from 1981 at Noise Fest in New York. Appropriately, the band makes music that resembles a avant-garde type of noise. This is similar to the band's early albums and their sound has progressed album to album to include more song structure and vocals that didn't resemble shouts and cries, if anything at all. I can't honestly say I've listened to every note, but all things considered the sound quality isn't too bad. Not for every one's taste, but this is sound art and you can make what you want from it...
Enjoy!

SONIC YOUTH
Noise Fest
White Columns
New York City, NY
June 18, 1981

01 Unknown Song 1
02 Unknown Song 2
03 Unknown Song 3
04 Unknown Song 4
05 Unknown Song 5

The actual line-up was:
Thurston Moore on guitar and vocals,
Kim Gordon, bass and vocals
Ann DeMarinis, keyboards and vocals
Richard Edson on drums.

SONIC YOUTH- Noise Fest 1981. rar

The Stand GT- They're Magically Delicious

This is the last album feature for the "Unappreciated Classics" mini-series I've been posting for the last couple of weeks and I thought it would be appropriate to end with a Canadian band. I bought this CD years ago at a used CD store (I can't recall where exactly) not only because of the awesome eye-catching cover art, but because it's produced by Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks and Young Fresh Fellows. I previously praised Mr. Bloch's handiwork as a producer on a past post and his work on The Stand GT's full length debut does not disappoint. This is pure power punk pop at it's best! This record's amazing! To record this album, the band left their home base of Glengarry, Ontario and travelled to Seattle's Egg Studios to work with Bloch. The band went on to record two more full length albums and a bunch of 7" ers, but their crowning achievement has to be Magically Delicious, which of course in this country remains fairly unknown.

Lead singer/songwriter/guitar player, Chris Page went on to record some solo albums, the first two under the name, Glen Nevous, then two under his own name. As well, Chris formed another band, Camp Radio and they have released two albums, the most recent, September of this year. I have their first self-titled album and it's sound is almost a continuation of The Stand GT (maybe better!) and you can stream the most recent disc, Campista Socialista on their website. As a matter of fact, you can stream and buy all Chris' projects (solo, The Stand GT and Camp Radio) on the site, so if you enjoy this post, please be sure to sample and purchase/download directly from the artist.
Enjoy!

STAND GT
They're Magically Delicious (1994)

01. Mudsick
02. Paying The Piper
03. The Wait
04. The Great Big Brainwave
05. No Punchbacks
06. Planet Bob's
07. Strain
08. Near In Control
09. Always A Laugh
10. Into Downs
11. Dragged Across This Boredom
12. Mary's Favourite Number
13. I Retire
14. Bonus Track (note: The second half of the track is silence)
15. Bonus Track

THE STAND GT- They're Magically Delicious. rar

Mary Lou Lord- Mary Lou Lord

While surfing around the other night I came upon a link to, "Help Mary Lou Lord Make Her New Record" on the website Kickstarter. If you've never heard about Kickstarter, it's a great fun concept that allows artists to post their projects (music, films, etc...) and appeal for donations and funding from "private backers" in exchange for incentives such as an advance copy of the product, signed and personalized mech (t-shirts, posters, CD's) and personal connecting experiences (Skype conversations, dinner, house concerts). Similar to Pledgemusic, it allows the fans to contribute in advance with some pretty cool rewards. Anyways, this MLL project caught my eye because I'm a fan of her music and I have some of her live concert recordings. She seems to be such a genuine music fan and she's an enjoyable performer. I feel bad I missed the deadline to donate, but the project successfully reached its funding goal and I look forward to the first new Mary Lou Lord full length album since 2004. The last I heard about MLL was that in 1995 she suffered a vocal cord affliction called spasmodic dysphonia. I assume as a vocalist this could be career ending, but I'm guessing she wants to make music again and hopefully tour. This could be good!

Though she only put out 3 full length albums, Mary Lou released a several EP's and singles on the Kill Rock Stars indie label. Possibly her finest moment was her self-titled 8-song (mini-LP) EP, which featured a cover of Daniel Johnston's Speeding Motorcycle. The first song is the only song that gets the full band treatment, as the rest of the songs are only Mary Lou and her guitar. Her simplistic sincere approach and the honesty and sweetness in her voice had me hooked first listen and in case you didn't know, Mary Lou started out honing her craft busking in and around Boston's subway stations. Some might think of her as a Juliana Hatfield wannabe, but her own style and identity is evident on all her recordings, it's just unfortunate she didn't quite reach the full potential of her talent with the vocal cord issue that stalled her. In some ways, her career has come full circle from her early indie records to a stab at a major label with Got No Shadow and now to a (future) self-funded record. I know she wants to impress with the new record and prove she still has the goods. Years ago, I burned a CD-R of this EP together with Got No Shadow, but there are some glitches in the sound. Alas, the other day I found an upgraded version online and after downloading it I thought this was something that is too good not to be further shared. If you don't have this already and even if you don't appreciate soft breathy vocalists, trust me, this is well worth the download! It's a wonderful record.
Enjoy!

MARY LOU LORD
Mary Lou Lord (1995)

01 Lights Are Changing
02 Helsinki
03 That Kind Of Girl
04 He'd Be A Diamond
05 The Bridge
06 I'm Talking To You
07 His Indie World
08 Speeding Motorcycle

MARY LOU LORD- Mary Lou Lord. rar

Baby Astronauts- All The Pancakes You Can Eat...Plus Bacon

Here's another album I bought on a whim, not knowing anything about the band or the type of music they performed. I'm certain I bought this on a trip to Minneapolis in the early 90's or so and my only hint about the band's background judging by the CD back cover was that it was released on a label based in Minneapolis. I figured they must be a local band and I pretty much was buying anything from the Twin Cities circa mid-80's because of the amazing bands from this era (Husker, Mats, Soul Asylum, Run Westy Run, Magnolias etc.).

During my first listen of All The Pancakes You Can Eat, I knew I made a good decision. Their sound fits in nicely with the above mentioned bands and they sounded not unlike the Volcano Suns and maybe even the Minutemen. Catchy, gritty, and full of intensity, this probably isn't the best choice of background music for a romantic evening with your wife (...or whoever). I think it's an instant classic, at least it should be! I still don't know much about the band, but I did recently download their Strawberry Enema cassette. Other than that, I don't know if they recorded much else. The expanded CD version of the vinyl record has 14 bonus tracks (from the original 16), so you definitely get your money's worth (probably another reason I was attracted to this CD).

Cool note: The cover photo of the CD features the band members sitting on what looks to be a large painting. What they are actually sitting on is 1000 white "blank" album jackets laid out together to create on large abstract painting created by the band. I'm guessing they squeezed, sprayed and rolled around in paint to create 1000 unique album covers each featuring 1/1000 of a original art piece (some examples I found online are pictured). Sounds like a really cool idea, I'm going to keep a lookout to buy one of these records if I can find one. Let me know if you've seen or own any.
Enjoy!

BABY ASTRONAUTS
All The Pancakes You Can Eat...Plus Bacon (1986)

1 Intro / I Hate This Song
2 Tricycle Hell
3 Set An Example
4 Underwater Pastor's Daughter
5 Grey Bosom Jut
6 Lost At Your Party
7 What's In The Fridge?
8 Lovely Town
9 Brain Surgeon
10 Just About To Lose It
11 Patrik
12 Shade Tree Mechanic
13 Self Help Books
14 Fishing Song
15 Worst Thing You Can Do (For A Living)
16 Ron Goes To The Faust
17 Makin' Time
18 Christmas Part II
19 Fuckcess
20 Gorilla Meat Cup
21 Haircut
22 Heard This Before
23 Liquor Store
24 Joe Part II
25 Lobotomy (Vacation From My Mind)
26 Candy Girl
27 XMas Trees / Marital Aids
28 Some Kind Of Superman
29 Colour My World With Shit
30 Whole Lotta Love

BABY ASTRONAUTS- All The Pancakes You Eat. rar

Volcano Suns- The Bright Orange Years

It must have been very cool living in Massachusetts in the 80's and early 90's with so many great bands coming from the Boston area. Much like the scene in Minneapolis around this time, many key and influential bands emerged from Mass that have dominated my play lists and record (CD) collection. Many TDIT favs are from in and around the Boston area, The Pixies, Jonathan Richman, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, Blake Babies (Juliana Hatfield), the Lemonheads, Scruffy The Cat, Belly, the Dogmatics, and the Breeders are just a small sample. The Volcano Suns are a band that included members and past members that were a part of other well known Boston-area bands. Founding member (and the only constant member), Peter Prescott was a member of Mission Of Burma before he formed the Volcano Suns in 1984 with Gary Waleik and Steve Michener who left the band before the first album to form Big Dipper. Michener also was in Dumptruck. The Volcano Suns went on to record six albums and the best way I can describe their sound is noisy, often compared to Husker Du and possibly Mudhoney. I have their first two albums on vinyl and their next two on cassette, and their finest moment in my opinion is their debut, The Bright Orange Years.

The Bright Orange Years sounds like a band jamming in their basement or garage, but shining through the noise is a tuneful melody that is fast, furious and a wonderful mess of audacious fun. I love this record, it's loaded with lots of really good songs that grab you and take hold more than the imitative crap available today. All the bands mentioned above that have a connection to the Volcano Suns are also in my own collection of music and in the case of Dumptruck, I recently bought the reissues of the first 3 albums on CD even though I have them on vinyl and cassette already (hmmm...possibly another post idea!). I highly recommend them as well as the Big Dipper 3-disc anthology, Supercluster which includes their first EP and first two full length albums along with demos, outtakes and unreleased songs. Anyways, these bands are more proof Boston is much more significant than just Aerosmith, Boston and the Cars.

VOLCANO SUNS
The Bright Orange Years (1985)

01. Jak
02. Descent Into Hell
03. Truth Is Stranger Than Fishing
04. Balancing Act
05. Promise Me
06. (I'm Gonna) Make You Mine
07. Cover
08. The Mouth That Roared
09. Cornfield
10. Animals
11. It's Stewtime
12. Silvertone
13. Sea Cruise *
14. Greasy Spine *
15. Tree Stomp *
16. Nature And Me *
17. Old Paint *
18. The Central *
19. Local Wise Man *
20. Testify (live on WERS) *
21. 1999 (live on WERS) *

Sorry, link removed!

Volcano Suns (for The Bright Orange Years)
Peter Prescott- vocals, drums
Jeff Weigand- bass guitar
Jon Williams- guitar

Orange Humble Band- Assorted Creams

Up until about a month ago I didn't know this record existed or had I ever heard of the Orange Humble Band. I stumbled upon it on another music blog, as I noticed the singer of the band was Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) and that Mitch Easter was also involved. Orange Humble Band's debut album, Assorted Creams was released in 1998, but the band was formed in 1995 by Daryl Mather (Lime Spiders, The Someloves) who had an albums worth of songs, that would be the basis of their first album. The recording began in 1995 with Bill Gibson (bass), Matt Galvin (guitar), Peter Kelly (drums), and Anthony Bautovich (vocals). This line-up recorded the early version of the album in Australia, with final recordings taking place in Mitch Easter's studio in North Carolina with Ken Stringfellow adding lead vocals.

As a big fan of the Posies, I'm surprised I hadn't come across anything by OHB, though if you look at the number of bands Ken Stringfellow has played with and contributed to (Posies, Minus 5, R.E.M., Big Star, Saltine, The Disciplines, etc.), I'm not surprised I missed this. Back in the 80's I bought up anything that had Mitch Easter's name on it, either as a producer and of course his awesome band, Let's Active, so when I heard these two names were involved I was excited, yet hesitant. On the surface, this line-up has quasi-supergroup implications written all over it, but it's anything but that because it has a very cohesive and unique sound to it. The first time I listened to Assorted Creams I was instantly in love with their sound, the great melodies and the richly layered pop songs. This album is as good (or even better!) than the best Posies records and should be considered one of the best power pop albums of the 90's. It's a shame it hasn't gotten the exposure it deserves, so do yourself a favour and have a listen to this essential unappreciated classic!
Enjoy!!

ORANGE HUMBLE BAND
Assorted Creams (1998)

1. Fanclub Requiem
2. Down In Your Dreams
3. Sleepin' In My Caravan
4. It Doesn't Matter
5. Spindizzy
6. Anywonder How
7. Can't Get What You Want #1
8. Little Picture Story Book
9. Katie Said No
10. Cherrytime
11. Rainin' Like Soft Fun
12. Hello, Emptiness
13. Think I'm Gonna Get You (Oh, Dwight)
14. Apple Green Slice Cut (Tamra Tamla)
15. Through Your Veins
    

ORANGE HUMBLE BAND- Assorted Creams. rar

Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers- Live At Max's Kansas City

The Heartbreakers only recorded one official studio album, so most of their releases were live performances released both officially and through many bootlegs. Many of these live albums suffered from either poor sound quality or inconsistent and incoherent performances from Johnny and his band. These live recordings are lasting documents of the career of Johnny Thunders (he also recorded a couple of studio solo albums), both the good, bad and the ugly. There were also some sweet gems that showcased what a great band they were live or at least give you a glimpse of what a interesting and entertaining performer he was when he wasn't all drugged-up. Among the better sounding live albums I own is D.T.K. Live At the Speakeasy, Live At the Lyceum Ballroom and Live At Max's Kansas City.

The Live At Max's Kansas City album was the first Johnny Thunders And the Heartbreakers I ever heard which immediately led me to become a Johnny enthusiast. If you listen to just one Johnny Thunders record, I strongly recommend Live At Max's because it possesses all the good reasons that I love about the band. It captures the band at their sloppiest best with some excellent guitar-play and amusing on-stage banter between Thunders and Walter Lure. This recording captures the band in fine form and they deliver a powerful and coherent set of great rock music far exceeding the performances of their debut studio album (L.A.M.F.), as the sound quality is amazing.

The album was recorded in 1978 at a series of reunion shows at Max's Kansas City with Johnny Thunders, Walter Lure (vocals, guitar), Billy Rath (bass) and Ty Styx, sitting in for original drummer, Jerry Nolan who at this point hadn't returned to the band. The version of the album that I have posted is the expanded reissue that includes additional tracks from a live recording a year later (with Jerry Nolan). These tracks were intended for a second live recording from Max's that was taken from a 3 night stand that resulted in only 5 usable tracks (4 of these tracks on the reissue) recorded on the third night. Apparently, Thunders suddenly left the stage after the first 5 songs and never returned that night...strange, but true, which is unfortunate because the recording both in sound quality and performance up to that point was quite good. Apart from the bonus tracks, this reissue is a much improvement as it sounds much fresher and crisper than the original vinyl. Another unappreciated classic...if you're a fan of Johnny Thunders and/or The Heartbreakers, this is "must-hear"!!
Enjoy!!

JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBREAKERS
Live At Max's Kansas City (1979)

1. (Intro)
2. Milk Me
3. Chinese Rocks
   
4. Get Off the Phone
5. London
   
6. Take a Chance
7. One Track Mind
8. All By Myself
9. Let Go
   
10. I Love You
    
11. Can't Keep My Eyes on You
12. I Wanna Be Love
    
13. Do You Love Me?
    
14. Pirate Love
    
15. Too Much Junkie Business
16. Don't Mess with Cupid
    
17. So Alone
    

JOHNNY THUNDERS & THE HEARTBREAKERS- Live At Max's. rar

J Church- Prophylaxis

I mentioned in the last post about having some J Church on the flip-side of the Jawbreaker tape, so I thought it would be a good time to post some J Church. I have a fair bit of their music to choose from as I have a good chunk of their discography spread throughout my collection on cassettes taken from vinyl, CDs I've bought and mp3s I've downloaded. This is nothing compared to the extensive amount of material the band has recorded and released. In the band's first 3 years, they released two full length albums, a singles collection and over 30 singles and compilation tracks. In total, the band has released an estimated 150 records, an incredible achievement for any band! Check out the band's discography page on their website to marvel at what a prolific band J Church was.

I chose J Church's second full length, Prophylaxis as my choice for part 3 of "Unappreciated Classics" (see the last 2 posts), not because it was their best album, but mainly because it was the first album that introduced their music to me. I taped this and their first singles collection (Camels, Spilled Corona And The Sounds Of Mariachi Bands) onto cassettes from my younger brother's albums and they still hold up with me even today. Prophylaxis contains some of their more well known songs that really defined their sound, such as No Surprise, Foreign Films, Financial Zone, Marge Schott and Why I Liked Bikini Kill, always a live fav. I think to really fully appreciate J Church, I suggest a listen to the many singles collections albums (there was at least 4) they released as a good starting point to hear the best of the band.

Lance Hahn was huge supporter of the punk music scene in San Francisco as well as an amazing songwriter, a great live performer and he released a staggering amount of good music. He and his band will be sadly missed since Lance passed away in 2007 at the age of 40 due to Kidney complications, but the music he left behind will surely be his lasting legacy.
Enjoy!

J CHURCH
Prophylaxis (1994)

1. Foreign Films
2. No Surprise
3. Lucidity
4. Financial Zone
5. New Dreams Broken
6. Picture This
7. Marge Schott
8. Why I Liked Bikini Kill
9. Chemicals
10. A Letter To A Friend
11. I Can't Be Nice To You
12. Priest
13. I Can't Be Nice To You (alternate version)

J CHURCH- Prophylaxis. rar

Jawbreaker- Unfun

Continuing with another classic record that needs to be re-explored, I have the first album from Jawbreaker. The band managed to score a major label deal in 1995 and recorded their most accessible, Dear You to some negative response from their fans and music critics. The band's sound was much more polished and produced than their past releases and the tensions in the band at this time led to the demise of Jawbreaker. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Dear You, the songs were catchy and the guitars were much more clean sounding and obviously the band/label were trying to cash in on the whole Nirvana/Green Day-punk going mainstream-thing, but if you want to hear why Jawbreaker is such an influential force in punk/alternative circles during the early 90's, dip deeper into their back catalog.

Unfun was probably the most punk record Jawbreaker recorded. Every song has an urgency and the songs have some bite. The recording is rougher and the band is grittier, but this is the reason I like Jawbreaker. Bivouac and 24 Hour Revenge Theory are also very good, but you can't discount the impact the first record had on my musical tastes at the time. My brother bought Unfun on vinyl back when it was released and of course I dubbed it to a TDK cassette (doubled up with some J Church) for my listening pleasure. The version I'm posting is the remaster from 2008 which included songs from the 1989 7" EP, Whack & Blite.
Enjoy!

JAWBREAKER
Unfun (1990)

1. Want
   
2. Seethruskin
   
3. Fine Day
   
4. Incomplete
   
5. Imaginary War
   
6. Busy
   
7. Softcore
   
8. Driven
   
9. Wound
   
10. Down
    
11. Gutless
    
12. Drone
13. Lawn
    
14. Crane
    
15. Eye-5

(Tracks 13-15 from 7" Whack & Blite)

JAWBREAKER- Unfun. rar