Scruffy The Cat- WERS July 27, 1986

I apologize again, my nights have been busy this past week attending Fringe Festival plays, so I haven't had time to upload much music lately. I have a small window of time right now and by Monday my schedule loosens a little bit, at least for a week.

Here's a live recording I uploaded a while back and meant to post it earlier when I posted several other radio broadcasts from WERS at Emerson College. It's a prime Scruffy the Cat session from 1986 and if you downloaded the previous Scruffy The Cat, Spit And Paulish #9 (A live comp. of Scruffy radio and live songs), tracks 16-19 of that disc are from this broadcast. I'm posting the complete show and if you're a fan of the band this is a keeper because the sound quality is excellent. I was reading on the Scruffy The Cat Facebook fan page and there was discussion about the old Scruffy the Cat site, tinybum.com and how it's not up and running any longer. Apparently the person that operated the site passed away, but you can still access the archive posts for tinybum.com  at the "Wayback machine" at the archive.com site. There are still some active downloads on the music page (including this one in mp3 format), as well as a couple other live shows. I have more Scruffy live shows, please let me know if you want me to hear more.

SCRUFFY THE CAT
WERS Studios
Emerson College, Boston, MA
July 27, 1986
FM Radio Broadcast
Live in studio

1. Big Fat Monkey's Hat/Momma Killed Hate
2. Shadow Boy
3. The Ghost Song
4. Lover's Day
5. Time Never Forgets
6. When My Ship Comes In
7. Upside Down
8. Hello Angel
9. Never Never
10. Life Is Fun
11. Happiness To Go

SCRUFFY THE CAT- WERS 1986-07-27 FLAC. rar 

The Rolling Stones Live At The Palais Royale 2002

Back in 2002, before the Rolling Stones headed out on their "Licks" tour, the band descended on Toronto for rehearsals at the Masonic Hall. They took a break from rehearsals to play a surprise warm-up gig at the Palais Royale Ballroom in front of a crowd of less than 1000 fans and invited guests. If you were lucky enough to score a $10 ticket to this club show, you were treated to an amazing set that resurrected some nice gems and rarely performed material. A loose, raw set filled with mistakes (that's why it's a warm-up gig, right?), but the band seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'm sure if the Stones had their way a tour of smaller venues and clubs would be a nice way for a comeback, but with money talking and the amount of people that would like to see the band at mass (in arenas and stadiums), that's probably not gonna happen anytime soon.
Enjoy!

Here's a report and review about the show.

THE ROLLING STONES
Palais Royale
Toronto, ON
August 16, 2002(Soundboard)

01. It's Only Rock'n Roll
02. Sad Sad Sad
03. If You Can't Rock Me
04. Stray Cat Blues
05. Hot Stuff
06. Don't Stop
07. Honky Tonk Women
08. Torn and Frayed
09. Wild Horses
10. Happy
11. I Can't Turn You Loose
12. Heart of Stone
13. Can't You Hear Me Knocking
14. Jumping Jack Flash
15. Brown Sugar (encore)

THE ROLLING STONES- 2002-08-16 Palais Royale, Toronto FLAC. rar

The Rolling Stones Live At The Double Door 1997

Last week the Rolling Stones celebrated the 50th anniversary of their very first gig at London's, Marquee Club. The lineup for the gig was vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Brian Jones, bassist Dick Taylor, pianist Ian Stewart and Mick Avory on drums. Taylor (Bill Wyman replaced him) and Avory (joined the Kinks) soon left the lineup, while Stewart switched to a backup role; drummer Watts joined in 1963 and guitarist Wood in 1975. There is talk of a tour this fall or 2013 and this might be your last chance to see the living legends live in concert. I've never seen the band live, I have all their albums, pre-Steel Wheels and had my chance to see them when they came here for stadium shows in 1997 and 1994, but for whatever reason I didn't go. I think my feeling at the time is that they were past their prime and I wasn't too keen on any of their albums after Tattoo You which was released in 1981. If they did tour again, I'm sure I would have to travel and since I've been feeling more nostalgic and have been re-listening to all their reissues and special edition versions of their earlier catalog, I might consider making the effort...this could be the last time.

A gig I definitely would have loved to be at was when the Stones played at the Double Door in Chicago in 1997. It's funny cause I walked past the Double Door when I was strolling down Milwaukee Avenue in the Wicker Park area when I visited Chicago last month. I commented to my wife that the Rolling Stones played in this bar as we peeked in and thought how cool it would have been to see the Stones in such a small venue. The place's capacity is less than 500 and with a $7 ticket price it would have been insane to be there. This pre-tour gig wasn't confirmed until midnight the night before and there was a rush to buy tickets (for an arm wrist band) with only 230 tickets sold to fans and another 170 to VIP's with some other last minute tickets at the door.
For more about the gig and a review, read this: www.iorr.org

This is a great sounding soundboard/aud matrix recording that captures the energy of the crowd and intimate feeling of the venue. It's raw sounding and with so many Stones arena/stadium live recordings out there, I prefer the bar shows that make it seem so much more real, if that makes sense. This is a good one, more Stones next post!
Enjoy!

THE ROLLING STONES
The Double Door
Chicago, IL
September 18, 1997
(SBD/Matrix)

1. Little Queenie
2. 19th Nervous Breakdown
3. You Got Me Rocking
4. Crazy Mama
5. The Last Time
6. Anybody Seen My Baby
7. Out Of Control
8. Let It Bleed
9. Shame Shame Shame
10. Honky Tonk Women
11. Start Me Up
12. Jumping Jack Flash
13. Brown Sugar

THE ROLLING STONES- 1997-09-18 Double Door, Chicago FLAC. rar

Golden Smog- First Avenue 1992

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. There was a major heatwave here for the past two weeks (or more) and it's been difficult to stay cool here at home without air conditioning. It's not that I'm not using my computer, it's that it's hard to think and write when all I want to do is drink a few cold ones and veg on the couch. For the last couple of days the heat has broken (more heat/humidity coming at the end of the week) and I'm ready to get back at this because I'm feeling somewhat guilty neglecting my (unpaid) job of writing about music (which I love!). I spent part of Sunday browsing through boxes of CD's choosing material to rip to the computer to post in the near future. The next week and half my schedule is pretty busy because the Fringe Theatre Festival starts on Wednesday and my son is in a play almost every night (late night show), so my blogging will be with less talk and (hopefully) more music...we'll see.

In my last post I said it would be the last Tweedy-related post for a while, that is true and not true. Today's post is a rare early Golden Smog show that pre-dates Jeff Tweedy's participation in the project and when Chris Mars was still in the band. David Pirner from Soul Asylum plays a larger role singing lead on at least 3 songs including a pre-Soul Asylum version of Keep It Up. Golden Smog was a loosely connected group of musicians, kind of an Minneapolis all-star band with members from well-known Twin Cities bands; Dan Murphy, Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum), Gary Louris, Marc Perlman (Jayhawks), Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run), Chris Mars (Replacements) and later Jeff Tweedy (Wilco), Noah Levy (Honeydogs) and Jody Stephens (Big Star). Later in 1992, the band released their first EP,  On Golden Smog, an album entirely of covers. In the early days they played covers as a reaction to the punk and hardcore scene that was popular in town and even when they released albums of original material, the covers in concerts was always a mainstay. Country-rock and classic rock covers seemed to be their favourites. This early show is a perfect example of the spirit and fun the band conveyed without playing any material from their own bands and the tongue-in-cheek cover versions that must have been hilarious and very entertaining...the way it should be!

I received this show in a trade many years ago (over 10-12?) and I have never seen it shared online or anywhere else, except on trade lists. I was tempted to post it on Dime, but I know there are fans of the Smog here, so this is an TDIT exclusive.
Enjoy!

GOLDEN SMOG
First Avenue
Minneapolis, MN
January 29, 1992

01. Superstar
02. We're An American Band
03. Handbags And Gladrags
04. Tarpit
05. Spooky
06. Wild Fire
07. Keep It Up
08. You're So Vain
09. Backstreet Girl
10. Son
11. Help Me Make It Through The Night
12. Shooting Star
13. Most Beautiful Girl In The World
14. Easy To Be Hard
15. No More No More
16. Bell Bottom Blues
17. Almost Cut My Hair
18. Revolution Blues

GOLDEN SMOG- 1992-1-29, First Avenue, Mpls FLAC. rar

Wilco- Live On Letterman Webcast, September 21, 2011

photo by Heather Wines/CBS 2011

I promise this will be the last Jeff Tweedy-related for a while, but this show was too good to pass up. This is the live webcast concert for Wilco's performance on the Letterman show as the band played a mini-concert, that I assume was broadcast live over the web, as well as the taping for the song that would appear on the show that night.  Anyways, the sound quality on this is almost perfect and could easily be officially released (let me know if this is commercially sold) with the band performing songs from their (then) forthcoming album, The Whole Love. I've included the audio tracks from the show and at the bottom of the post the video of the "Live On Letterman" broadcast.
Enjoy!

WILCO
Ed Sullivan Theater, NYC
September 21, 2011
"Live On Letterman" webcast
Soundboard

1. Intro
2. Art Of Almost
3. I Might
4. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart>
5. One Wing
6. Born Alone
7. Whole Love
8. Handshake Drugs
9. Jesus Etc.
10. Impossible Germany
11. Dawned On Me
12. War On War
13. Shot In the Arm
-----------------------------------------------------
14. Born Alone #

#="Late Show With David Letterman" 5pm taping

Jeff Tweedy - guitar, vox
John Stirratt - bass, b.vox
Nels Cline - guitar
Glenn Kotche - drums, percussion
Pat Sansone - multi-instrumentalist
Mikael Jorgensen - keys

WILCO- 2011-09-21 Letterman webcast FLAC. rar

I was also considering posting the WXRT-FM live broadcast of the Wilco concert from Fifth Third Bank Stadium in Geneva, Illinois from this past Sunday, but it's a large file so instead here are the links where you can download the concert.
WILCO- Geneva, Illinois, July 8, 2012, WXRT-FM broadcast
Dimeadozen- (members only)
bt.etree.org

Wilco- "Happy Birthday America. Hope You Like Crap". July 4th, 1996

Since I seem to be on a bit of a Jeff Tweedy kick lately with some of his other projects, Uncle Tupelo and Golden Smog, I thought today would be a fine day for some Wilco to celebrate America's birthday. Each year bands perform at Grant Park for their Taste of Chicago 4th of July festival and fortunately, WXRT simulcasts the concerts to provide fans with a very good quality recording. I have lots of great shows from this festival and I'll slowly post more of them every 4th of July, I previously posted the Replacements last show (1991) and Wilco (2001). The concert from 1996 is Wilco's first appearance on the Petrillo Band Shell stage (as a supporting act) and they returned 5 years later (as headliners) which turned out to be guitarist Jay Bennett's last show. This show features a setlist featuring 6 songs from the yet to be released second album, Being There and if you're a fan of early Wilco, this is a keeper!

I pulled this off Dime a few weeks back and it previously was posted on the great Owl & Bear site that offers downloads of many Wilco (and other related bands) shows, including a couple of mine.
Enjoy!

WILCO
Petrillo Band Shell,
Grant Park
Chicago, IL
1996-07-04
Source: WXRT-FM 

01 Intro
02 Casino Queen
03 I Must Be High
04 Red-Eyed And Blue / I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
05 Hotel Arizona
06 New Madrid
07 That's Not The Issue
08 Outtasite (Outta Mind)
09 Monday
10 Passenger Side
11 Kingpin
12 We've Been Had

WILCO- 1996-07-04 Chicago FLAC. rar

The Lemonheads- "Strat's Rat" April 5, 1990

Evan Dando and the Lemonheads have been pretty much living in the past recently with the "covers" record, Varshons in 2009 and the more recent release of the Hotel Sessions, a lo-fi recording taken from a cassette recorded from a Walkman in his hotel room in Australia, circa 1993. The recording is basically Evan solo acoustic playing songs that would eventually appear on Come On Feel The Lemonheads. It's a rare glimpse into the artist working through songs without the full-band treatment, but these songs are more like demos than finished products. The sound quality is bootleg quality and so rough for an official release that it would have been more plausible to release this as a bonus disc on their next record or an extended special edition version of Come On Feel (which is probably in the works). The most recent Lemonhead's tour took them across North American and extended to the UK performing, It's A Shame About Ray in it's entirety. My prediction is he will play the Come on Feel album in it's entirety next tour.

Even before It's A Shame About Ray, the Lemonheads had a solid following, in fact a lot of early fans of the band didn't care for their more pop-rock sound of the 90's compared to a more grittier, punk rock sound. The band formed in 1986 (in Boston) with original members Evan Dando, Ben Deily and Jesse Peretz (did you know Peretz directed Our Idiot Brother, The Ex and episodes of New Girl?) and the early albums, Hate Your Friends, Creator, Lick, featured both Dando and Deily as the frontmen. When Deily and Peretz left the band, so did the punk sound, as Dando reformed the band with a more melodic pop commercial sound. The show I'm posting is pre-It's A Shame About Ray, actually it was just before their major label debut album, Lovey was released. His attempt at a new song, Half The Time is priceless! This show is drunken and loose and is noteworthy for his interesting "tuning songs", it's a fun set with a lot of covers. I got this off Dime many years ago, it's a radio broadcast so the sound is good...and please play it loud!
Enjoy!

The Lemonheads
April 5, 1990
"Strat's Rat"/M.I.T. Student Center
Cambridge, MA
WMBR Broadcast > JVC Tape Deck > Goldwave

01. I Remember You (First Attempt) *
02. Homos @
03. Mallo Cup
04. Come Back BA
05. Nothing True
06. Tuning (Hickory Wind) #
07. Clang Bang Clang
08. Don't Tell Yourself
09. Tuning (Gloomy Sunday) $
10. Half the Time
11. Hate Your Friends
12. I Remember You (Second Attempt) *
13. I Don't Wanna
14. Out
15. Stove
16. Die Right Now
17. Strange +
18. Different Drum %
19. Luka &

* Skid Row Cover
@ Frogs Cover
# Byrds Cover
$ Billie Holiday Cover
+ Patsy Cline Cover
% Mike Nesmith/Linda Ronstadt Cover
& Suzanne Vega Cover

LEMONHEADS- 1990-04-05 Cambridge, MA FLAC. rar
 

Broken Mascis Scene- Toronto 2006

Happy Canada Day! I was searching through my discs to find something appropriately Canadian to post for this special holiday day and surprisingly I found it difficult. I have lots of shows from Canadian performers, but I struggled to find something I felt was worthy to post today. Last year, I posted a show from Halifax's, Sloan who I regard as the quintissential indie-ish Canadian band that has been around for what seems like forever. Actually, it was just announced a couple days ago that Sloan will be embarking on a tour in celebration of their 1994 album, Twice Removed which has been a fan and critics favourite. In fact, according to a reader's poll in Chart magazine in 1996 (and in 2005), Twice Removed was voted the best Canadian album of all-time, which at the time surprised me, but after repeated listenings it definitely is my favourite Sloan record and is one of my top ten Canadian albums. Sloan will be playing Winnipeg on September 20 and they will perform Twice Removed in it's entirety, as well as a selection of their "greatest" hits. I'll grab tickets as soon as they are available, which had me thinking about how all the concerts I have or am going to attend this year are all Canadian. So far I've seen John K. Samson (Weakerthans), Ron Sexsmith and Said The Whale. On deck in the fall is the Kathleen Edwards show that was postponed in the spring, Sloan and if I go to any of the Winnipeg Folk Festival there is a large percentage of Canadian talent. I recently bought my daughter tickets to the Metric/Stars concert in November, so music is alive and well here in the great white north.

Today's post is a live collaboration between of a great American guitarist/songwriter and a Canadian band musical collective that has seen some of it's former members go on to find further success in other bands. J. Mascis is the leader of Dinosaur Jr, a band that I have followed and enjoyed since their second album, You're Living All Over Me grabbed me and sucked me in. J's distinct guitar sound and vocals sound great with any band and don't lose any of their power with Broken Social Scene as his backing band. Broken Social Scene is almost known more for it's ex-members with Emily Haines fronting Metric, Amy Millan in Stars and Feist enjoying a very successful solo career (who headlines the opening night of the Winnipeg Folk Festival). This show was a fundraiser (Amma foundation Benefit) and it took place in the Mod Club in Toronto. The sound is good and there seems to be a nice energy with the crowd and the band, which makes this listen a pretty good way to celebrate Canada's birthday. Hey, even Feist makes an appearance!
Enjoy!

J MASCIS w/ BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
"Broken Mascis Scene"
Mod Club
Toronto, ON
June 23, 2006

01. Intro
02. Feel The Pain
03. Out There
04. Same Day
05. The Lung
06. Stop Choppin'
07. Freak Scene
08. Ammaring
09. Tarpit
10. They Always Come
11. Thumb
12. The wagon
13. Get Me
14. crowd (talking)
15. Alone

BROKEN MASCIS SCENE- 2006-06-23 FLAC. rar