Teenage Dogs In Trouble

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

2012-01-31T00:14:00.007-06:00

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

2012-01-30T23:29:00.005-06:00

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 Dream s 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)

2012-01-30T00:02:00.004-06:00

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

2012-01-26T00:34:00.004-06:00

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)

Death of a Clown
Love Me Till the Sun Shines
Suzannah's Still Alive
Funny Face
Lincoln County
There Is No Life Without Love
Hold My Hand
Creeping Jean
Mindless Child of Motherhood
This Man He Weeps Tonight
Come on Now
Wonder Where My Baby Is Tonight
I Am Free
What's in Store for Me
I'm Not Like Everybody Else
Party Line
You're Lookin' Fine
Mr. Reporter
Wicked Annabella
Mr. Shoemaker's Daughter
Strangers
Rats

DAVE DAVIES- The Album That Never Was. rar

Still Here!

2012-01-25T23:50:00.005-06:00

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

2012-01-23T23:39:00.003-06:00

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

BEST KISSERS IN THE WORLD- Yellow Brick Roadkill. rar

Weezer- Songs From The Black Hole

2012-01-17T22:08:00.004-06:00

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 Cuom o, 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

2012-01-14T22:39:00.005-06:00

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

2012-01-11T22:06:00.003-06:00

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)

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

MARY LOU LORD- Real. rar

Kathleen Edwards- Building 55 (Re-post)

2012-01-06T23:02:00.006-06:00

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

2012-01-04T00:06:00.005-06:00

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

2012-01-01T15:11:00.006-06:00

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

2011-12-31T00:16:00.003-06:00

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!

2011-12-26T19:21:00.005-06:00

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

2011-12-21T00:13:00.007-06:00

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)

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

VARIOUS ARTISTS- Estrus Half Rack. rar

Estrus Gearbox

2011-12-13T00:06:00.006-06:00

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

2011-12-04T23:21:00.003-06:00

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?

2011-11-25T22:31:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-22T23:04:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-22T00:14:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-17T10:57:00.007-06:00

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

2011-11-11T22:25:00.004-06:00

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) *

*bonus tracks from the 2009 reissue

VOLCANO SUNS- The Bright Orange Years. rar

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

Orange Humble Band- Assorted Creams

2011-11-07T21:58:00.003-06:00

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)

Fanclub Requiem
Down In Your Dreams
Sleepin' In My Caravan
It Doesn't Matter
Spindizzy
Anywonder How
Can't Get What You Want #1
Little Picture Story Book
Katie Said No
Cherrytime
Rainin' Like Soft Fun
Hello, Emptiness
Think I'm Gonna Get You (Oh, Dwight)
Apple Green Slice Cut (Tamra Tamla)
Through Your Veins

ORANGE HUMBLE BAND- Assorted Creams. rar

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

2011-11-06T00:29:00.007-05:00

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)

(Intro)
Milk Me
Chinese Rocks
Get Off the Phone
London
Take a Chance
One Track Mind
All By Myself
Let Go
I Love You
Can't Keep My Eyes on You
I Wanna Be Love
Do You Love Me?
Pirate Love
Too Much Junkie Business
Don't Mess with Cupid
So Alone

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

J Church- Prophylaxis

2011-11-04T00:12:00.003-05:00

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)

Foreign Films
No Surprise
Lucidity
Financial Zone
New Dreams Broken
Picture This
Marge Schott
Why I Liked Bikini Kill
Chemicals
A Letter To A Friend
I Can't Be Nice To You
Priest
I Can't Be Nice To You (alternate version)

J CHURCH- Prophylaxis. rar

Jawbreaker- Unfun

2011-10-30T23:56:00.004-05:00

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)

Want
Seethruskin
Fine Day
Incomplete
Imaginary War
Busy
Softcore
Driven
Wound
Down
Gutless
Drone
Lawn
Crane
Eye-5

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

JAWBREAKER- Unfun. rar

The Squirrels- What Gives?

2011-10-25T23:40:00.004-05:00

There have been a lot of records that haven't received the attention or gotten the recognition they fully deserve. This is the first of a mini-series of what I consider overlooked classics, albums that I think are important and should be heard. Some of these albums are out-of-print and hard to find, while others might be still readily available, so hopefully there's something of interest for at least some of you.

The first album I want to share is a request, The Squirrels, What Gives? This is an amazing album (CD) that is bizarre and strange with some unbelievably catchy songs, but it is unlike anything you'll hear today. Rob Morgan leads an all-star cast of Seattle cult-heroes from the likes of all the Young Fresh Fellows (McCaughey, Bloch, Carroll, Sangster, Hutchison), a couple of Posies (Auer, Stringfellow), Dennis Diken (Smithereens) as well as the regular Squirrels line-up (Eric Erickson, Joey Kline and Craig Ferguson) as they make up various incarnations of the Squirrels Group/New Age Urban Squirrels/Mighty Squirrels. Some great covers (Game Of Love, Vincent Van Gogh), and an eclectic mix of originals highlighted by, Oz '90 (an all-new mix of their previously released classic single, "Oz on 45"). This song is worth the price of the CD alone, but the whole disc is a wild ride of weirdness that must be heard to be believed. As I've previously mentioned on past posts, this was my first ever CD (I bought it in Seattle in the early 90's!), even preceding my purchase of my first CD player. I got a friend to dump it onto a cassette tape so I can at listen to it. Probably one of my best "blind" (albums/CD's I had no idea what the band sounded like before buying) purchases ever!
Enjoy!!

THE SQUIRRELS
What Gives? (1990)

1. Game of Love
2. Vincent Van Gogh
3. One in the Spirit
4. Timothy
5. TV Leg
6. My Gal
7. Wild Honey Pie
8. Please Behave
9. Oz '90 [Medley: Ding, Dong the Witch Is Dead/If I Only Had a Brain
10. Pope on a Rope (Cigarette Butt)
11. Get Down
12. The Demise of Ricky Nelson
13. Lean on Me
14. Woman's Prison
15. Let Me!

THE SQUIRRELS- What Gives. rar

It's Lowe Beats Time!

2011-10-22T00:18:00.004-05:00

If you're a big fan of Nick Lowe or one of his past bands, Brinsley Schwarz or Rockpile, you must have a listen to The Lowe Beats. The Lowe Beats are the ultimate Nick Lowe cover band consisting of some veterans of the Seattle music scene, Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows), Jim Sangster (Young Fresh Fellows), John Ramberg (Model Rockets, Minus 5), Graham Black (Model Rockets) and Hugh Jones. What began as a "one-off" project in the late 90's has included gigs in 2002 and in 2008 to reunite for the Jesus Of Cool 30th Anniversary. Video of that show is available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube. Here's the first of six from that show. Recently, Scott opened for Nick Lowe in Seattle.

The show I'm posting I received in a trade years ago is from 2002 and although it was billed as Minus 5, it was really a Lowe Beats warm-up gig for a New Year's Eve show 3 days later at the Sunset Tavern. I have a recording of the NYE show as well, which has a much expanded setlist, but the sound quality is much better (less crowd noise) from the Crocodile show. Great songs and a fun, loose and inspired performance!
Enjoy!

The Lowe Beats (aka Minus 5)
Crocodile Cafe
Seattle, WA
December 28, 2002
Audience recording

01. Let's Eat
02. Born Fighter
03. Look I Like
04. Marie Provost
05. Crackin' Up
06. Lately I've Let Things Slide
07. Cruel To Be Kind
08. Switchboard Susan
09. She's So Fine
10. I Don't Want The Night To End

Scott McCaughey- vocals
Jim Sangster- guitar, vocals
John Ramberg- guitar, vocals
Hughie Jones- bass
Graham Black- drums

THE LOWE BEATS- 2002-12-28. rar

Rockpile- Live At Montreux 1980

2011-10-18T20:22:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posts for the past week. I was out of town (in Edmonton) and before I left I actually stockpiled and uploaded some music that I had meant to post if I was bored in my hotel, but I was just too occupied (lots of hockey to watch on TV) and busy, you know how it is...

I noticed there has been a bit of a Nick Lowe renaissance recently with the release of a new album, The Old Magic, the re-release of the classic, Labour of Lust and a new release of an old recording from his band, Rockpile. Live At Montreux is latest product from Rockpile who previously released their only "official" studio album, Seconds Of Pleasure back in 1980. Actually, that was the only album released under the Rockpile name as the members of the band, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner and Terry Williams have recorded as a band on solo albums from Lowe (Labour Of Lust) and Edmunds (Trax On Wax 4 and Repeat When Necessary) due to contractual obligations with Lowe and Edmunds on different record labels. In fact, R.W.N. and L.O.L. were recorded simultaneously in 1979 during the same recording session, and they were probably the best known albums from both artists. Live At Montreux is an opportunity to hear Rockpile at their peak drawing from both their solo albums, though Edmunds songs dominate the setlist with only 3 Lowe tracks, but the band sounds excellent and showcases their amazing musicianship. There are better sounding live recordings available from Rockpile around, but it's great a "semi-official" release is available to exposure more of their music to the masses.

Enjoy!!

ROCKPILE
Live At Montreux 1980 (2011)

1. Sweet Little Lisa
2. So It Goes
3. I Knew the Bride
4. Queen of Hearts
5. Switchboard Susan
6. Trouble Boys
7. Teacher Teacher
8. Girls Talk
9. 3 Time Loser
10. You Ain’t Nothin’ But Fine
11. Crawling from the Wreckage
12. Let It Rock
13. I Hear You Knocking
14. They Called It Rock
15. Ju Ju Man
16. Let’s Talk About Us

ROCKPILE- Live at Montreux 1980. rar

R.E.M. Cassette Set

2011-10-11T16:16:00.003-05:00

Last week I read an article online from Paste Magazine about a cassette demo recorded by R.E.M. back in 1981. Apparently, this has leaked on the good ol' internet and has appeared on some music blogs. A couple days earlier I saw it on Dime and didn't think much of it (since there are only a handful of songs), then I read the article and realized what a rare find this really is and how I would be crazy if I didn't download this artifact. I thought there might be some R.E.M. fans that read this blog or at least fans like myself that bought all their albums up until the early 90's. I've been re-buying (and downloading) their early albums again mainly for the bonus material. It brings back pleasant memories of when I first heard the song, So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) and buying the album, Reckoning when it was first released at Pepper Records, that was directly across the street from the University of Winnipeg. Nowadays, I've been happy to listen to Peter Buck's projects such as The Minus 5, Baseball Project, Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 and Tired Pony or anything he and Scott McCaughey have a hand in.

The cassette tape contains three songs, a couple versions or takes of each and supposedly there was only about 400 made. For a more detailed history and story behind the tape, I recommend the music blog, The Power Of Independent Trucking.
Enjoy!!

R.E.M.
Cassette Set (1981)

Sitting Still (fast "Polka" version, snippet)
Sitting Still
Radio Free Europe
White Tornado
White Tornado (take 2, snippet)
Radio Free Europe (radio dub)

R.E.M. Cassette Set. rar (mp3)
R.E.M. Cassette Set FLAC (get this one if you know how to convert the files!)

The Jayhawks- Mockingbird Time Live!

2011-10-03T23:32:00.003-05:00

The Jayhawks released their latest record, Mockingbird Time on September 20th, their first studio release in eight years and their first with their "classic" lineup of Olson/Louris/O'Reagon/Perlman/Grotberg since 1995's, Tomorrow The Green Grass. They have definitely retained their distinct sound on this release that makes you almost think this could have been recorded right after TTGG. Instead Olson split from the band in 1996 and Louris carried on with the rest of the band to produce some equally (even better, depending on your taste) fine music. This new record has risen the band from their reunited status and are touring in support of the new album instead of only playing songs from pre-1996 as if time stood still. I'm hoping they incorporate some songs from the post-Olson records on the latest tour, because I would love to hear, Big Star, I'm Gonna Make You Love Me and Tailspin, again.

What we have here is an invitation-only performance at the historic Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota a week before the release of Mockingbird Time. The show was recorded and broadcast on the 89.3 The Current and emceed by Mary Lucia. The band performs most of the album along with interview segments with Mary and they close the show with some of their classic tunes. A stream of the concert and some video is now on The Current page, as well as at npr. I'm not sure if the broadcast includes the entire concert (anyone there?), but the sound quality is near perfect so this is a must...and the new stuff sounds good, especially live!
Enjoy!!

The Jayhawks
Fitzgerald Theater
Saint Paul, MN, USA
September 13th 2011

Live Broadcast on 89.3 The Current
MC - Mary Lucia
FM Broadcast

1. Intro's
2. She Walks In So Many Ways
3. Closer to Your Side
4. Hide Your Colors
5. interview / bio /etc
6. Tiny Arrows
7. stage banter
8. High Water Blues
9, Guilder Annie
10. Interview
11. I'd Run Away
12. Anne Jane
13. Tampa to Tulsa
14. Red's Song
15. Blue
16. Outro's

THE JAYHAWKS- Sept 13, 2010. rar

Wilco Live In Studio Q

2011-09-28T01:07:00.004-05:00

The new Wilco album, The Whole Love was released yesterday. What better way to celebrate than to have Wilco perform live in studio on the CBC radio program Q.
Wow!!

More Ramones Covers- Screeching Weasel and MTX

2011-09-26T23:43:00.004-05:00

Covering the Ramones isn't anything unique as evidenced by the number of tribute records that have been released. Some have a variety of artists on one record of assorted Ramones songs while there are many that feature full album tributes covered by one band. Selfless Records and Clearview Records released several of these tributes in the 1990's featuring punk bands covering Ramones albums such as; The Vindictives (Leave Home), The Queers (Rocket To Russia), Boris The Sprinkler (End Of The Century), Beatnik Termites (Pleasant Dreams), The McCrackins and Jon Cougar Concentration Camp (Too Tough To Die).

The first in the series was Screeching Weasel's interpretation of the first Ramones record (Ramones). It's no surprise because Screeching Weasel has always been hugely influenced by the Ramones which led to Ben Weasel forming a side project called the Riverdales which was even more a homage to the Ramones in both sound and image. The album was recorded in 15 hours and was released on vinyl limited to 1700 copies.

SCREECHING WEASEL
Ramones (1992)

Blitzkrieg Bop
Beat on the Brat
Judy Is a Punk
I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
Chainsaw
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement
Loudmouth
Havana Affair
Listen to My Heart
53rd & 3rd
Let's Dance
I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World

SCREECHING WEASEL- Ramones. rar

Another band that counts the Ramones as one of their influences is the Mr. T Experience. I stumbled on MTX after hearing the song Danny Partridge which led me to buy their first album, Everybody's Entitled To Their Own Opinion. The second LP I bought was the EP, Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood which had a song on it called, The End Of the Ramones which was played in the "style" of The Ramones. In 1998, the Mr. T Experience released a complete cover of the album, Road To Ruin and it was the first time the abbreviated MTX appeared on one of their records. The album was originally released as a marbled vinyl tour edition of only 300. The album was later re-issued in black vinyl limited to 1700 copies and has yet to be issued on CD. I singled out the Mr. T Experience and Screeching Weasel and decided to post their tributes because I'm a fan of both bands and have most of their album releases. In the early 90's, I acquired several live recordings from both bands which I'm planning to convert digitally someday...stay tuned!
Enjoy!!

Mr. T Experience
Road To Ruin (1998)

I Just Want to Have Something to Do
I Wanted Everything
Don't Come Close
I Don't Want You
Needles and Pins
I'm Against It
I Wanna Be Sedated
Go Mental
Questioningly
She's the One
Bad Brain
It's a Long Way Back

MTX- Road To Ruin. rar

Shonen Knife- Osaka Ramones

2011-09-21T22:44:00.004-05:00

Speaking of all-girl bands from Japan, this past July Shonen Knife released a Ramones tribute record, Osaka Ramones: Tribute To The Ramones. Shonen Knife might possibly be the best known alt-rock Japanese band here in North America and their influence of the Ramones is evident in their music, so it was appropriate they should celebrate their 30th anniversary by paying tribute to their favourite band. Interesting enough, Shonen Knife has an alter-ego, side-project band called Osaka Ramones that only plays Ramones covers live. They do a commendable job and it sounds like they had a fun time recording this. Sure, they'll never have the growl and grit of the Ramones, but who cares they can still play it fast and loose even with their slight Japanese accents and this effort would have made the Ramones proud!
Enjoy!

Ooooo...and here's a live clip with an all-Ramones encore!!

SHONEN KNIFE
Osaka Ramones: A Tribute To the Ramones (2011)

1. Blitzkrieg Bop
2. Rock and Roll High School
3. We Want The Airwaves
4. She’s The One
5. Rockaway Beach
6. Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
7. Scattergun
8. Psychotherapy
9. The KKK Took My Baby Away
10. We’re A Happy Family
11. Chinese Rock
12. Beat on the Brat
13. Pinhead

SHONEN KNIFE- Osaka Ramones: A Tribute To The Ramones. rar

Japan Film Festival- Linda Linda Linda

2011-09-18T01:11:00.005-05:00

I usually don't talk about or promote films too much here, but if it is music related and especially if it features an all-girl rock band, I will make an exemption.

If you live in Winnipeg, next weekend (September 24 & 25) at Cinemateque the Consulate General of Japan is organizing (with the Japan Foundation) the annual Japan Film Festival. They will present four films, 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday afternoon for free of charge and open to the public. The idea is to create interest and awareness of Japanese cinema. I'm personally excited because they are screening the film, Linda Linda Linda! Here's the summary:

Linda Linda Linda (Comedy / Drama, 114 min, dir. Nobuhiro Yamashita, 2005)
Only three days before their high school festival, guitarist Kei, drummer Kyoko, and bassist Nozumi are forced to recruit a new lead vocalist for their band. They choose Korean exchange student Son, though her comprehension of Japanese is a bit rough! It’s a race against time as the group struggles to learn three tunes for the festival’s rock concert—including a classic '80s punk-pop song by the Japanese group The Blue Hearts called “Linda Linda”...

Sounds totally like something I would enjoy and might be of interest to all of you. I'm sure you can find a copy of the film somewhere online, but on the bigger screen might be kind of fun...and did I mention this was free! Anyways, enjoy a clip from the film (thanks Jeffen for your post a couple of years ago about the film and the song) and support this festival!

Sugar- The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes

2011-09-17T21:14:00.004-05:00

With the popularity and convenience of music downloading from stores such as iTunes, record labels have to find a creative ways to sell physical CD's and records. The addition of bonus tracks and special deluxe editions are becoming more common to entice buyers who want more bang for their buck. Vinyl records are making a comeback as many bands are producing a limited run, but I suspect this is appealing more for collectors and the "cool" hip kids as each LP includes a digital download of the same record. Many reissues and remastered CD's are even including bonus discs of unreleased material and outtakes from the sessions. A great example would be reissues of early Elvis Costello and REM CD's that have included extra discs of live concerts and demos.

A couple years back, I posted the bonus disc for Sloan's, One Chord To Another, entitled, Live At the Sloan Party. The extra disc was included only with the early pressings of the US release and is great example of something unique and lives up to the word "bonus". Another CD with a similar concept is Sugar's final release, Besides. Besides is a compilation of b-sides from previously available singles, as well as live and remixed versions of songs from their 2 full lengths and EP. The first 25,000 copies included the bonus disc, The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes, a live concert from the First Avenue in Minneapolis. Every time I see these CD's in a used music store, I always check inside to see if it includes the extra disc, but thanks to other music fans/bloggers on the worldwide web, I can share it here.

SUGAR
The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes (1995)
November 2, 1994
First Avenue Minneapolis, MN

Gift
Company Book
Hoover Dam
After All The Roads Have Led To Nowhere
Where Diamonds Are Halos
Slick
Going Home
Running Out Of Time
Frustration
Changes
Can't Help You Anymore
Helpless
If I Can't Change Your Mind
In The Eyes Of My Friends
Clownmaster
Gee Angel
Explode And Make Up
The Slim

SUGAR- The Joke Is Always On Us, Sometimes. rar

Evan Dando- B-Sides & Live

2011-09-01T00:08:00.003-05:00

Evan Dando is another American songwriter that has fronted a band that hit a peak in popularity in the mid-90's. The Lemonheads headlined tours, played large music festivals, performed live on late night TV talk shows and released a couple of critically acclaimed records. Then following the band's tour in 1997, something happened (drug use perhaps?), and the band and Dando seemed to disappear from the public eye for several years. In the late 2000's he reappeared as a solo performer that including a solo acoustic tour that renewed interest in both Dando and his former band. His "comeback" continued with the release of his solo record, Baby I'm Bored (2003) and two Lemonheads records, the self-titled, The Lemonheads (2006) and the all-covers album, Varshons (2009). More recently he has played a handful of acoustic shows with Juliana Hatfield to perform a set of both their catalogs of songs together...very nice! Presently, the Lemonheads are scheduled to tour North America and the UK to perform their breakout album, It's A Shame About Ray in it's entirety.

I'm posting an assortment of B-sides and live tracks from Evan Dando and the Lemonheads. I believe I downloaded these songs from a Dando fan site many years ago. Some of these songs are probably available in other sources, but for the most part I haven't seen or heard many of these versions anywhere else.

Enjoy!!

EVAN DANDO (and The Lemonheads)

B-Sides & Live

Learning The Game
Pin Yr Heart
Shaky Ground
Deep Bottom Cove
Fade To Black
Favorite T (live in session)
He's On The Beach
How Will I Know
I Don't Want To Go Home
Paint
Keep On Loving You
Seagulls Aren't Free
All My Life
Hard Drive
Fall Down Dead
Why Do You Do This?
Todd Killings
Wine Coloured Grass
Streets Of Baltimore
Do Your Own Thing (w/Ben Kweller)
Fat Broke Bald Armed And Angry (w/Ben Kweller)
Night Too Long
Mrs. Robinson (acoustic band version)
If I Could Talk I'd Tell You (single version)

EVAN DANDO- B-Sides & Live. rar

Whiskeytown- Those Weren't The Days

2011-08-31T00:32:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned before that Ryan Adams is such a prolific artist with many unreleased projects and a shit load of great songs that have never been heard by the masses. I always thought his best work was with Whiskeytown, particularly the era of their first two albums, Faithless Street and Stranger's Almanac. Between the release of those two records, the band also recorded tracks that went unreleased (many were demos for Stranger's) until Stranger's Almanac was reissued in 2008, as a deluxe edition that included bonus tracks and an additional disc of unreleased tracks.

Those Weren't The Days compiles some of those songs along with others they recorded about 6 months after Faithless Street. This period is a very fertile period as the deluxe versions of both albums attest to (quantity-wise) and quite possibly Adam's strongest material ever, not to say he still doesn't write quality songs, but the first two albums really showcased Adam's strength as a prolific and important songwriter.

...and yes, track 19 is a Fleetwood Mac cover!

Enjoy!

WHISKEYTOWN

Those Weren't The Days (1996)

1. My Heart Is Broken
2. Things I Heard
3. Luxury Liner
4. Kiss And Make Up
5. Further Down The Road
6. Believe
7. 10 Seconds ‘Til The End Of The World
8. The Rain Won’t Help You When It’s Over
9. Ticket Time
10. Wither, I’m A Flower
11. Hipshake
12. Here’s To The Rest Of The World
13. Empty Baseball Park
14. San Antonio
15. Factory Girl
16. All You Can Feel
17. New York Angel
18. Only To Lose
19. Dreams

WHISKEYTOWN- Those Weren't The Days. rar

Keri Latimer- Chop Shop

2011-08-29T16:18:00.006-05:00

If you live in the Winnipeg area, keep an eye out for a stolen Boler trailer. Some low-life had the guts (and nerve) to steal this trailer straight from the backyard of Keri Latimer from the band, Nathan (She lives in my neighborhood!). It's a very distinct and unique looking trailer that was taken when she was out of town this past weekend and she has asked friends and family to keep a lookout and I've noticed she has posted the picture on Facebook and the local newspaper. If there's been anything good about this ordeal, it's that Keri has already written a song about this camper that was stolen. You can hear it below or here.

If you spot the camper or you have it in your backyard, please contact the police!

Enjoy!

Chop shop by kerilatimer

Update:
yippee! a man across the street saw 2 people physically pulling our boler down the alley in the middle of the night, and at some point must have realized the futility of it, and it got towed for blocking the alley. i guess it wasn't reported to the police, which is strange, but we're ecstatic. devin and the kids are enroute to the tartan towing yard, to assess any damage. fingers crossed! thanks to everyone who helped spread the word! smooches to all, the latimers

Dead Milkmen- Eat Your Paisley Demos

2011-08-26T22:45:00.006-05:00

If you're a fan of the Dead Milkmen, you might be interested to know they have a new album out. It's been 16 years since they recorded anything new. They're last studio album, Stoney's Extra Stout was released in 1995 before the band faded from our memories when they officially disbanded around the same time. After the death of original bass player, Dave Schulthise (Dave Blood) in March 2004, the surviving band members reunited for 2 shows in November 2004 in their hometown of Philadelphia. Since then the band has played the occasional show and began to write new material for a new record, The King In Yellow which was released this past March. I've had a listen to the new record and though it's good effort with some strong material, it's far from the sharp-witted humour and catchiness of their early releases. The band members are older and possibly wiser and mature, but some of the humour seems a little forced. I have to admit I could only listen to their last two previous records (Stoney's and Not Richard, But Dick) only once because maybe they were trying to be too serious and they lost their focus, but overall because they weren't that good. I'll give this new record a chance with some repeated listening with an open mind and see if they can woo me like they did in 1986.

Speaking of 1986, this was the year Eat Your Paisley was released and it was the song from that record, The Thing That Only Eats Hippies that first got me interested in the Milkmen. This album and their debut, Big Lizard In My Backyard are essential if you want to hear satirical pop punk at it's finest. I put the Descendents in that same category, both bands coming from the hardcore scene and producing infectious punk that is driving, catchy and funny. It's interesting to see they playing on the same bills at FYF Festival and Riot Fest East this September.

I'm posting demos from Eat Your Paisley that I downloaded from Jack Talcum's website. He has been posting Bootleg's of the Month, that feature recordings from the band's he's played in including some solo projects. He has generously shared lots of interesting material, some of it pre-Milkmen, along with unreleased songs, rehearsals, live shows and various cool stuff. Check it out!

DEAD MILKMEN

Eat Your Paisley Demos (1986)

Where the Tarantula Lives
Swampland of Desire
Air Crash Museum
I Hear Your Name
Beach Party Vietnam
Dance Wtih Me
50 Things
Earwig
Moron
Take Me Apart
KKSuck2
Happy Is
Vince Lombardi Service Center
Surfin' Cow
The Thing That Only Eats Hippie
Six Days

Note: Jack posted the tracks on his site in 192k mp3 or FLAC. I downloaded the FLAC and converted and posted a higher quality mp3 @ 320k.

DEAD MILKMEN- Eat Your Paisley Demos. rar

The Kinks- The "Club Vegas" Session

2011-08-23T23:06:00.005-05:00

There are only a couple of bands that I haven't seen live (that are technically still active) that I would "kill" to see. As a reader of TDIT you know my all-time favourite bands are the Replacements, Young Fresh Fellows (of course!) and the Kinks. I saw the Fellows twice and I had the opportunity to see Paul Westerberg (sans the Mats) in Minneapolis for a hometown show. The closest I ever came to seeing the Kinks was Ray Davies at the Winnipeg Folk Festival a few years ago. Sure he played a set filled with Kinks' classics, but it was acoustic, with no band and though I felt I was in the presence of greatness, it didn't quite match my expectations of the "real" Kinks. For years, there have been rumours of some kind of Kinks reunion with at least Ray and Dave, but I shouldn't get my hopes too high, but you never know...I'll be there if it happens!

Today's post is an interesting recording, it's not quite a live concert and the information I've found indicates it's probably a rehearsal for a Kinks tour in the early 90's. It's a live session in the studio with songs given some interesting interpretations and different arrangements. There are instrumentals, incomplete songs and some songs played with a loose "lounge-Vegas" vibe to them that makes for a listening experience that you won't find on record. If you're a fan of the Kinks, you'll love this (if you don't have this already), but if you've never listened to the Kinks, maybe start with a greatest hits album and their late sixties stuff first, then you'll get the humour of this.

Enjoy!!

THE KINKS

??/??/1993?

"Club Vegas" Session

Live at The Kinks' North London Konk Studios

01 Club Vegas Intro

02 Catch Me Now I'm Falling/Tired of Waiting

03 Dedicated Follower Of Fashion

04 I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Dave)

05 Now And Then

06 Victoria

07 Hard Way

08 I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Instrumental)

09 Come Dancing (Partly Instr.)

10 Till The End Of The Day (Partly Instr.)

11 Top Of The Pops (Instr.)

12 Tired Of Waiting (Partly Instr.)

13 Set Me Free (Mainly Instr.)

14 Well Respected Man

15 Muswell Hillbilly

16 Have A Cuppa Tea (Partly Instr.)

17 Uncle Son

18 Sunny Afternoon

19 Dead End Street

20 David Watts

21 "Satisfaction"Jam (brief intro)

22 Autumn Allmanac

23 Around The Dial (Partly Instr.)

24 Low Budget

25 Welcome To Sleazy Town

26 Stat Of Confusion (Partly Instr.)

27 Superman (Partly Instr.)

28 Superman/Destroyer (Partly Instr.)

THE KINKS- The Club Vegas Session. rar

Jonathan Richman Is Coming To Town!

2011-08-19T22:14:00.006-05:00

Hey! According to my local newspaper, Jonathan Richman is visiting my city on October 2 at the Pyramid Cabaret. I'm a huge Jonathan fan, butI haven't seen him live since 1999 when I road-tripped to Fargo, ND and before that in 1994 in Winnipeg. A lot of time has passed since then, (he's been a bit of a movie star) so I'm excited by the prospect of seeing the always entertaining Jojo (with Tommy Larkins) again. One of my most memorable shows was seeing a solo Jonathan at the Warehouse Theatre just over 22 years ago (1989), he was Hilarius and engaging...an amazing show! Previous to that I saw him at the Folk Festival, but there's something so much better spending an hour and half with Jonathan in a theatre rather than outdoors for a short set of songs.

I'm posting a show from a year before I saw him at the Warehouse, a great sounding soundboard recording (circa Modern Lovers 88 era) that was a radio broadcast. I might post more Jonathan Richman (and the Modern Lovers) shows as a prelude to the October concert if there's interest and let me know which era of his career you would prefer to hear.
Enjoy!

JONATHAN RICHMAN
Central Park Summerstage
New York, NY
1988-07-09
pre-FM later broadcast on WBAI

1. intro
2. introduction by Joe Killian
3. The Beach
4. Chewing Gum Wrapper
5. Heart of Saturday Night
6. Give Paris One More Chance
7. Action Packed
8. Vincent Van Gogh
9. The Neighbors
10. Gail Loves Me
11. California Desert Party
tape flip
12. instrumental
13. When Harpo Played His Harp
14. This Kind of Music
15. Everday Clothes
16. That Summer Feeling
17. encore applause
18. It's You
19. outro

JONATHAN RICHMAN- 1988-07-09. rar

The Replacements- The Shit Hits The Fans...again

2011-08-19T20:39:00.005-05:00

Due to popular demand...or at least because the link didn't work properly and I've had requests to re-up this gem from the Replacements. This is probably the tape that got me interested in Replacement's live concert recording and I originally bought this tape at a record collectors show sometime in the early 90's. Read more about my story in my original post from 2 years ago, and I'll spare you the details now.

Please let me know if there are still problems with the link...fun show!!
Enjoy!!

THE REPLACEMENTS
The Bowery
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
November 11, 1984
The Shit Hits The Fans (released 1985)

"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (Lloyd Price)
"Ye Sleeping Knights of Jesus" (Robyn Hitchcock)
"Lovelines" (Westerberg/Stinson/Stinson/Mars)
"I'll Be There" (Berry Gordy, Jr./Bob West/Hal Davis/Willie Hutch)
"Sixteen Blue" (Westerberg)
"Can't Hardly Wait" (Westerberg)
"I Will Dare" (Westerberg)
"Hear You Been to College" (Westerberg/Stinson/Stinson/Mars)
"Saturday Night Special" (Ed King/Ronnie Van Zant)
"Iron Man" (Butler/Iommi/Osbourne/Ward)
"Misty Mountain Hop" (Page/Plant/Jones)
"Heartbreaker" (Bonham/Jones/Page/Plant)
"Can't Get Enough" (Mick Ralphs)
"Jailbreak" (Phil Lynott)
"Breakdown" (Tom Petty)
"No More the Moon Shines on Lorena" (Alvin Pleasant Carter)
"Merry Go Round" (Nikki Sixx)
"Left in the Dark" (Ken Draznik)
"Takin' Care of Business" (Randy Bachman)
"I Will Follow" (Hewson/Evans/Clayton/Mullen)
"Jumpin' Jack Flash" (Jagger/Richards)
"Radio Free Europe" (Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe)
"The New World" (Cervenka/Nommensen Duchac)
"Let It Be" (Lennon/McCartney).

THE REPLACEMENTS- The Shit Hits The Fans. rar

Jeff Tweedy- 2011 Winnipeg Folk Festival

2011-08-17T19:40:00.005-05:00

It's been over a week since my last post, so sorry! I spent all week at a pavilion for an annual multicultural festival in my city called, Folklorama, as entertainment co-coordinator/stage manager. Most of the days I went straight from work (from my "real" job) to spent another 5 hours on my feet volunteering, so by the time I got home I was unwinding and trying to relax or catch up on my sleep. Anyways, I'm back and ready to keep this blog updated and hopefully interesting!

I noticed that last week marked the 5th anniversary of the Teenage Dogs In Trouble blog and I'm surprised and thrilled it's still active and online. Yesterday, I surpassed the 50,000 visits milestone with half that amount in the past year. This seems like a modest amount of visits for the average music blog, but for me it's quite a accomplishment considering during my first few years I was lucky to have a visit or two per day. Now there are approximately 100 visits a day, which I hope to increase, so it's my mission to keep posting new material to keep you all coming back. I invite requests and I'll try my best to find things that interest me (and you), but I sometimes need help or suggestions. Thanks for visiting and please add yourself as a follower if you have done so already.

Closing out the 2011 Winnipeg Folk Festival was Wilco frontman, Jeff Tweedy. He delivered a solo acoustic set that featured some Wilco and Uncle Tupelo material along some new songs from the upcoming Wilco record, The Whole Love. He seemed all business for the first half hour of the show without really acknowledging the large outdoor crowd and he kept the banter to a minimum for most of the show. I think he was disappointed people didn't sing along during Heavy Metal Drummer, "Thanks for singing along for that part, I guess Yankee Hotel Foxtrot didn't sell a whole lot up in Winnipeg". Still it was a great to see Jeff Tweedy solo, much different than with the band. I considering going to Fargo to see his show the night before, as I prefer shows in theatres instead of outside in a field, but the WFF was fun and it exposed his talent many friends of mine in the crowd that weren't too familiar with Jeff's work or Wilco.

My recording turned out okay. There was a fair amount of chatter at a tarp beside me, but like the Blue Rodeo set, the sound was loud and clear, so it's very listenable and besides until a better version emerges (I doubt), this is a nice souvenir of a rare show. I posted the show last week on Dimeadozen, so if you are a member and want the FLAC version, go here.
Enjoy!!

JEFF TWEEDY
Winnipeg Folk Festival
Mainstage
Birds Hill Park
July 10, 2011
Audience MASTER

01. Introduction
02. Someone Elses Song
03. Remember The Mountain Bed
04. Via Chicago
05. I Am Trying To Break Your Heart
06. One Wing
07. New Madrid
08. I Might
09. Hummingbird
10. So Much Wine
11. Born Alone
12. Jesus, Etc
13. Bull Black Nova
14. I'm Always In Love
15. Not For the Season
16. Airline To Heaven
17. Walken
18. I'm The Man Who Loves You
19. Heavy Metal Drummer
20. Shot In The Arm
21. Acuff-Rose

JEFF TWEEDY- 2011-07-10. rar

4th Of July With Wilco- Jay Bennett's Last Show...again

2011-08-06T22:34:00.004-05:00

I've had many requests to fix this post from a couple years back which features the last Wilco concert with Jay Bennett in the band. It's come to my attention (thanks everyone that informed me) that the file is flawed and is missing the last 2 songs in the show. I finally investigated the problem and looked back at the original disc I ripped it from and found it contained only 14 of the 16 songs. So there wasn't a flaw, I just didn't compare the setlist with the contents of the disc. Anyways, I've found a complete copy and converted it to a rar file. It is an upgrade, first because all the songs are there and secondly I converted it to a higher bit-rate mp3 (320) than previously posted.

So, let's try this again. If you downloaded the other file, I recommend you replace it with this one instead of just adding the last two songs...sorry it took so long to fix the file!

WILCO
Petrillo Music Shell
Grant Park
Chicago, IL
July 4, 2001

Source: FM (WXRT)

01. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart
02. War on War
03. A Shot in the Arm
04. She's a Jar
05. I'm Always in Love
06. Airline to Heaven
07. Feed of Man
08. Remember the Mountain Bed
09. California Stars
10. Kamera
11. Ashes of American Flags
12. Red-Eyed and Blue
13. I Got You (At the End of the Century)
Encore:
14. I'm the Man Who Loves You
15. Sunken Treasure
16. Outta Mind (Outta Site)

WILCO- 2001-07-04 (fixed). rar

Five Days In July with Blue Rodeo

2011-08-03T22:16:00.004-05:00

When the organizers of the Winnipeg Folk Festival were choosing a headliner for the opening night, a light bulb must have went off in someones mind with the suggestion of the album, Five Days In July to commemorate the 5 days of the festival in...July! The concept of a band performing an entire album live has been discussed before on this blog and I'm generally receptive to the idea especially if it's one of the band's most well known record or if it's one of those "hidden gems" albums. I guess this album falls into the latter category as I thought Casino and Lost Together had more commercial appeal, but in actuality Five Days is the band's best seller and many regard it as their best record. The record does have a kind of epic feel to it, experimental in parts and if the listener is patient they are rewarded with a rich and solidly cohesive album. As Greg Keelor says, "It's sort of weird record to play live, because it's a pretty mellow record and it's sort of strummy strummy stummy, ballad ballad, strummy strummy, but a perfect place to do it, so we're really glad to be here...nuff said!

This was recorded from my tarp situated maybe about halfway back, just beyond the tower in the middle. I was impressed how clear and loud the sound was and it really filled the whole area even when I browsed around to the washroom and kettle corn stand at the back. There is some chatter from nearby tarps as well as my own, but if you blackout the conversations, the recording is still enjoyable. As a bonus they closed the main set with one of their hits, Trust Yourself and for the encore the song, Lost Together, an brilliant choice for a singalong closer. I don't know if Blue Rodeo has ever performed this complete album live before or ever will again, so if you're a big Blue Rodeo fan this unique show is a keeper!
Enjoy!

BLUE RODEO
Winnipeg Folk Festival
Mainstage
Birds Hill Park
July 6, 2011

Audience MASTER

01. 5 Days In May
02. Hasn't Hit Me Yet
03. Bad Timing
04. Cynthia
05. Photograph
06. What Is This Love
07. English Bay
08. Head Over Heels
09. Til I Gain Control Again
10. Dark Angel
11. Know Where You Go/Tell Your Dream
12. Trust Yourself

Encore
13. Lost Together

(Tracks 1-11: From the album, 5 Days In July)

For the FLAC version (uncompressed): I've posted the show at Dimeadozen (members only)

(mp3 version) BLUE RODEO- 2011-07-06. rar

Chuck Prophet- Winnipeg Folk Festival 2011

2011-08-02T23:57:00.007-05:00

One of the acts I bookmarked to see at this year's Folk Fest was a solo set from former Green On Red guitarist, Chuck Prophet. I've only recently started to seek out his solo material and I'm surprised I haven't sooner, thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Before I attend music festivals I like to do homework on the bands I haven't heard of or given a good listening to. Even though I attended only one "day-time" day (smaller stage workshop/concerts), I'm still choosy over what bands I would dedicate an hour or so with.

The Chuck Prophet set was short, but a good sampling of his character and songwriting. The recording came out pretty good with minimal amount of chatter from the surrounding blankets and lawn chairs (though there was some conversations picked up), despite the extreme heat situated directly in the sun. There is some sound bleed from an adjacent stage, which would have pissed me off if I was him, but Chuck was good natured, "There's an Irish pub in my head". I don't know how popular this show will be here at TDIT, but I know of at least a couple followers that will be interested.
Enjoy!

CHUCK PROPHET
Winnipeg Folk Festival
"Little Stage"
Birds Hill Park
July 10, 2011

Audience MASTER

01. Let Freedom Ring
02. Little Boy, Little Girl
03. Would You Love Me?
04. Museum Of Broken Hearts
05. Summertime Thing
06. Sister Lost Soul
07. Hot Talk
08. You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)

(Thanks Discohoho Stu for help with the setlist!)

CHUCK PROPHET- 2011-07-10 Winnipeg Folk Festival. rar

You, Me and the Devil Makes Three

2011-07-22T01:16:00.008-05:00

I leave on vacation tomorrow, we'll actually today, so I thought I would squeeze in one more post. I've been working on some Winnipeg Folk Festival sets, splitting tracks, converting files, writing setlists, making torrents and making rar files. I will be in a place that has very limited internet, so I'm not sure I can post anything until the beginning of August. I'll prepare some future posts on my laptop and when I have full wireless, you can start downloading. A couple of those shows I want to post on Dime first and then I'll offer them up here.

Spiro

Blind Pilot

Joy Kills Sorrow

As a teaser, here's a small stage workshop featuring three bands I've never seen live. One of the bands, Blind Pilot, I was slightly familiar with them because I downloaded their album before the fest. The other two, Spiro (from England) and Joy Kills Sorrow (the hosts)I had never heard of, but were a pleasant surprise. Since I only attended one full day, I had to pick and choose my time carefully...this was a good choice! I'll tell you more about these bands when I have more time, but please have a listen and imagine your sitting on the ground in 30c degree heat enjoying the sounds of summer!
Enjoy!

JOY KILLS SORROW (Host)
BLIND PILOT
SPIRO
"You, Me and the Devil Makes Three"
Winnipeg Folk Festival
Snowberry Stage
Birds Hill Park
July 10, 2011

Audience MASTER

01. Intro
02. SPIRO- You're Been Too Long Away, Woody Gray
03. BLIND PILOT- 3 rounds And A Sound
04. JOY KILLS SORROW- We Will Have Our Day
05. SPIRO- Softly Robin
06. BP- One Red Thread
07. JKS- You Make Me Feel Drunk
08. SPIRO- Bobby Shafta
09. BP- Things I Cannot Recall
10. JKS- ?
11. SPIRO- Mr. Key's Horn Pipe
12. BP- The Story I Heard
13. JKS- One More Night
14. SPIRO- The White Hart
15. BP- Two Towns From Me
16. JKS- Fall On My Knees

Various- You, Me and the Devil Makes Three. rar

The Pretenders- Live Almost 31 Years Ago!

2011-07-20T01:23:00.003-05:00

Damn! I'm so sorry for the lack of posts lately, I was at the Folk Fest last week and this week has been so insanely HOT, I haven't been able to sit down and write anything. Without AC, my house is unbearable, it feels like a sauna, and even though I have been on the computer a lot, trying to sit down and write has been hard a challenge. Thanks for your patience, I find it much easier to write when it's -30 C outside rather than +40 inside. I am on vacation right now and later in the week I'm heading out of town, so posts will be at a minimum the next week or so. I did record a couple of key shows at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, so expect the Jeff Tweedy and Blue Rodeo sets soon, along with a couple of workshop small stage shows. My recording of the Jayhawks is marred with too much talking, but if there's an interest, I will post that as well. Music festivals such as the Folk Fest are always difficult to get a quality recording, battling the elements (wind, rain, excessive heat!) as well as casual conversations on tarps which are next to impossible to avoid, especially during the main stage concerts.

I'll try to post a couple samples of the Folk Fest before I leave, but to tide you over here's a unrelated Pretenders show from 1980. It's a great sounding radio broadcast with the original (and still the BEST!) lineup of the band. So sit back, grab a beer, face the fans on your face and enjoy the summertime sounds of the Pretenders!
Enjoy!

THE PRETENDERS
Riviera Theatre
Chicago, IL
September 8, 1980
FM Broadcast

01. Precious
02. The Adulteress
03. Kid
04. Talk Of The Town
05. Space Invader
06. Cuban Slide
07. I Go To Sleep
08. Private Life
09. Brass In Pocket
10. The Wait
11. Stop Your Sobbing
12. Louie Louie Had His Day
13. Bird Of Paradise
14. Tattooed Love Boys
15. Up The Neck
16. Whatcha Gonna Do About It

THE PRETENDERS- 1980-09-08. rar

The Fastbacks- Last Show?

2011-07-08T11:19:00.002-05:00

The Fastbacks are scheduled to play their reunion show today, so I thought now would be the appropriate time to post their last official concert from over 9 years ago. A great overview of their entire career and to make things even better, the sound and their performance is top notch. This is a pre-FM source that was broadcast KEXP-FM soon after the show. I'm really hoping the band stays together to play more shows in the future because I would love to see the band live. This recording is almost the next best thing!
Enjoy!!

FASTBACKS
2002.03.02
Bottom Of The Hill,
San Francisco
Last live show
Pre-FM source.

1. No Information
2. Gone To The Moon
3. Like Today
4. As Everything
5. New Painter Man
6. On The Wall
7. We Tried
8. Just Say
9. The World Inside
10. Hung On A Bad Peg
11. Went For A Swim
12. Old Address Of The Unknown
13. Goodbye, Bird
14. Fortune's Misery
15. K Street
16. Time And Matter
17. (encore break)
18. One More Hour
19. In America
20.(encore break)
21. They Don't Care
22. Under The Old Lightbulb
23. In The Summer

THE FASTBACKS- 2002-03-02. rar

The Replacements Last Show!

2011-07-04T23:49:00.003-05:00

When I think of the 4th of July, I think of the excellent recordings that have come from the 4th of July Taste of Chicago free concerts broadcast on XRT in Chicago. Many great bands have graced the stage to huge crowds, but none greater (in my opinion) than the final live concert by the Replacements in 1991.

This farewell show boasts broadcast quality sound and was circulated in the bootleg circles as, It Ain't Over 'Til The Fat Roadies Play. I had this recording on cassette received in a trade back in the early 90's and it included the DJ introduction and outro (missing on, It Ain't Over...), but I opted to post the boot version because the sound quality is far better than my tape transfer. An enjoyable and historic show for Mats fans lucky enough to have a documentation of the last show. The concert ends with Hootenanny (the song when they switch instruments), with the band members passing their instruments to the road crew to ring out the final feedback to end the show...a fitting end to a wonderful wacky career.
Enjoy!!

THE REPLACEMENTS
Live at Petrillo Music Shell,
Grant Park,
Chicago, IL USA
July 4th, 1991

I Will Dare 3:56
Bent Out of Shape 3:09
Achin' to Be 3:53
Merry Go Round 3:52
Happy Town 2:55
Swinging Party 4:10
One Wink at a Time 2:53
Waitress in the Sky 2:27
When it Began 3:15
Someone Take the Wheel 4:09
Talent Show 4:24
Nobody 3:53
Another Girl, Another Planet f2:41
Hey Good Lookin' 2:39
I'll be You 4:05
I don't know 1:48
Within Your Reach 4:18
Can't Hardly Wait 3:14
Hootenanny 3:44

THE REPLACEMENTS- 7-4-1991. rar

Oh Canaduh!

2011-07-04T00:45:00.003-05:00

The tribute to (belated) Canada Day continues with a fine compilation, Oh Canaduh, which features some excellent bands from Canada, the US and beyond (Japan). Cover songs from bands from the late 70's and early 80's Vancouver punk scene, such as DOA (Disco Sucks), K-Tels (I Hate Music), Modernettes (Won't Have To Worry) and Viletones (Screaming Fist).

Many of the bands on this compilation have been featured here on Teenage Dogs, so you know I appreciate this collection. I'm not certain, but I think most of these tracks are/or were exclusive to this release, so it makes this even more special and essential. A fine soundtrack to your Canada Day (or Independence Day) and the rest of your summer!!
Enjoy!

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Oh Canaduh! (1996)

1. Teengenerate - Top Down
2. Bum - Screaming Fist
3. Lord High Fixers - Fuck You
4. Tonics - I Hate Music
5. Young Fresh Fellows - Disco Sucks
6. Smugglers - What Do You Want Me To Do
7. Al Perry - Fun While It Lasts
8. Fastbacks - Won't Have To Worry
9. Supersnazz - I Don't Like You
10. Evaporators - I Can't Puke
11. Man Or Astroman - Eisenhower & The Hippies
12. Onyas - I Don't Give A Shit
13. Cryin' Out Louds - Now I Ain't Got No Face
14. Stupes - American Bandstand

VARIOUS ARTISTS- Oh Canaduh!. rar

Happy Canada Day...More Live Sloan!

2011-07-03T23:57:00.004-05:00

Make that belated Canada Day! Sorry, I was too busy watching Will & Kate and that kid from Winnipeg, Maria Aragon during the Canada Day celebrations at Parliament Hill on TV...jeez, I'm starting to hate that kid!! I eventually did leave the house to take a stroll through Osborne Village, but I missed watching the fireworks, which really isn't an essential priority in my life. Instead I sat on the deck and watched episodes of Modern Family on the laptop and drinking beer...man, I love that show.

I thought that in celebration of Canada Day I would post another Sloan show, by request. It's also from 1996, like the previous show I posted, but it's longer and features more songs. It was also broadcast on CBC radio and it is another concert I had on cassette that I recorded off the radio and by coincidence I was thinking of transferring it to digital, but someone on Dime beat me to it. Bonus, because it saved me time and energy and this transfer sounds really good!
Enjoy!!

SLOAN
The Rage,
Vancouver, BC
Oct. 11, 1996
CBC Broadcast

01. intro
02. Nothing Left to Make Me Want to Stay
03. G Turns to D
04. Can't Face Up
05. The Lines You Amend
06. Coax Me
07. Everything You've Done Wrong
08. 400 Metres
09. People of the Sky
10. Snowsuit Sound
11. I Hate My Generation
12. The Good In Everyone
13. Penpals
14. Deeper Than Beauty
15. I Am the Cancer
16. outro

SLOAN- 10-11-96. rar

Fastbacks- Europe '96

2011-06-28T00:08:00.002-05:00

By default, I'm a huge fan of the Seattle band, the Fastbacks. I first heard of the band when I was ordering Young Fresh Fellows albums and merch from the Popllama catalog back in the early 90's. The Fastbacks album, Very, Very Powerful Motor was released by Popllama and I realized Kurt Bloch from the Fastbacks was also in the Fellows. Bloch had formed the Fastbacks with Kim Warnick and Lulu Gargiulo back in 1979 and in 1989 joined the Fellows after guitarist Chuck Carroll left the group. Bloch played in both bands until the Fastbacks disbanded in 2002. The Fastbacks were important in my musical taste development because they one of the first female fronted bands I really enjoyed. Their songs have a punky edge with a poppy sensibility, but it was Kurt's guitar sound that sold me on the Fastbacks...and besides anything Kurt Bloch plays on or produces is amazing!

Good news for Fastback fans that missed them the first time, the band is reunited for one show on July 8th for the Annual West Seattle Fest!! The best thing is that it's free and all ages, but unless you live in Seattle or are travelling there, you're out of luck. Of course, I can't be there, but I would kill to hear a recording of their set, so if you hear (or see) anything posted, please let me know.

To tide you over, here's a tour compilation of the Fastbacks when they toured in Europe opening for Pearl Jam in 1996. The sound quality is outstanding, as it is soundboard recordings and the performances are top notch.
Enjoy!

FASTBACKS
Europe '96
Tour compilation,
November 1996

Source: Soundboard

01. No Information 2:30
02. Hung On A Bad Peg 1:43
03. Fortune's Misery 2:42
04. Which Has Not Been Written 0:57
05. I Found The Star 1:40
06. Gone To The Moon 1:41
07. All About Nothing 2:31
08. Impatience 3:37
09. On Your Hands 2:35
10. Stay At Home 5:43
11. Apologies 1:33
12. Just Say 2:29
13. Banner Year 2:43
14. Parts 1:46
15. Set Me Free 6:02 (w/ Mike McCready, guitar)
16. Leavin' Here 3:27 (w/ Eddie Vedder, vocal)

Kim Warnick: Vocals and Bass,
Kurt Bloch: Guitar and vocal,
Lulu Gargiulo: Guitar and vocal,
Mike Musburger: Drums (bass on 07)

Tracks 1, 2, 4-7 and 15 recorded 96.11.24 at Cascais Pavillion, Portugal.
Tracks 3, 9, 10, 14 and 16 recorded 96.11.25 at Cascais Pavillion, Portugal.
Tracks 8 qnd 13 recorded 96.11.03 at Deutschlandhalle, Berlin, Germany.
Tracks 11 and 12 recorded 96.11.22 at Anoeta Velodrome, Barcelona, Spain

Track 11 originally by Pointed Sticks

FASTBACKS- Europe '96. rar

Gutterball- Turnyor Hedinkov

2011-06-23T23:48:00.003-05:00

Gutterball is a supergroup that formed with members from prominent college-radio bands. Steve Wynn (vocals, guitar) from the Dream Syndicate, Stephen McCarthy (guitar, vocals) is from the Long Ryders, Bryan Harvey (vocals, guitar) and Johnny Hott (drums) from the House Of Freaks and Bob Rupe (bass) of the Silos. This all-star band concept reminds me a bit of Golden Smog because the music they make together is just as good (and often better) as the member's original bands. When you listen to Gutterball and Golden Smog records and their live recordings, you can hear the joy and feel the chemistry these musicians have. Gutterball recorded three albums, mainly of original material and toured during a good chunk of 1993-1995. For a tour archive and an extensive concert recording archive of the band, check out the Gutterball page at the Stevewynn.net traders site.

Turnyor Hedinkov is a hard to find import and was limited to only 2000 copies. It is a collection of demos of songs not found on Weasel (2nd album) and Gutterball (first album), as well as alternate versions of songs previously released. All the bands albums are well worth tracking down, I bought the first album on cassette, back in the day and I love it so much, I recently bought it on CD (used) because the tape sounds wavy. I bought the Weasel CD on eBay years ago and it too is excellent.
Enjoy!

GUTTERBALL
Turnyor Hedinkov (1995)

Jimmy The Weasel
That Fire That Burns Both Ways
Turn Down The Heat
Cheaper By The Pound
Tarzana
Turnyor Hedinkov
Top Of The Hill
Lester Young
Trial Separation Blues
Last Call Comes Mighty Early 'Round Here

GUTTERBALL-Turnyor Hedinkov. rar

The Long Ryders- Three Minute Warnings

2011-06-22T00:29:00.003-05:00

Speaking of great sounding concert recordings, here's a Long Ryders show at the Bottom Line in New York City on May 7th, 1987. Recently I've been highlighting key bands from the Paisley Underground genre from the mid-1980's such as Green On Red, Dream Syndicate and the Long Ryders who were some of the bands I was into at the time. Much like the Dream Syndicate concert, the Long Ryders are at their creative peak on this album and this live recording showcases the band at their rocking best. Though the band was touring their latest (and final) album at the time, Two-Fisted Tales, the setlist reflects the band's entire career.

I can't remember where I got this CD, I might have downloaded it from a trial eMusic account I had briefly, but I believe it is available only as an import. The sound is amazing, as it was professionally recorded for a live radio broadcast and if you're a fan of the band, it's almost like being there...in 1987.
Enjoy!!

THE LONG RYDERS
Three Minute Warnings: Live In New York (2003)

Prairie Fire
Lights Of Downtown
Man Of Misery
A Stitch In Time
State Of My Union
Harriet Tubman’s Going To Carry Me Home
Capturing The Flag
Long Story Short
Baby’s In Toyland
I Want You Bad
Spectacular Fall
I Had A Dream
You Just Can’t Ride The Boxcars Anymore
Gunslinger Man
Looking For Lewis & Clark
Prisoners Of Rock
10-5-60

THE LONG RYDERS- Three Minute Warnings: Live In NYC. rar

The Dream Syndicate- The Complete Live At Raji's

2011-06-18T22:25:00.003-05:00

Back in the late 80's, there was a period when the vinyl record format was in decline and CD's were still the new technology, so I bought lots of pre-recorded cassettes. Up to this time I mainly used blank cassettes to tape LP's from friends and my own collection to enable me to listen to my music in my car and on a portable player...the Walkman! I wasn't convinced the CD would replace record albums, but I quickly found many albums were only released on CD or cassette. The first CD I bought was The Squirrels, What Gives? released in 1990 (because it was ONLY available on CD), which pre-dated my actual purchase of a CD player, so I got a friend to dub it to cassette.

One of my best cassette purchases was The Dream Syndicate's, Live At Raji's which was a limited edition, (long out of print) live album which captured the band at height of their career. Actually, Live At Raji's was released in 1989 after the band had broken up, but was recorded before their last studio record, Ghost Stories was recorded. What struck me the most by this live album was it's sound. It was crisp sounding, without overdubs and over production, in my opinion, the ultimate live album. Definitely one of the best sounding live albums I've heard. These live versions easily outshine the studio versions with an energy and passion felt only at a live show. I have their earlier live official release, This Is Not The New Dream Syndicate Album....Live! which pales in comparison both in sound and performance. The original release of Raji's was an edited version of the show, but thankfully the re-release is the complete concert. My cassette was sounding a little ragged, so this upgrade is very welcome! If you're a fan of the Dream Syndicate, this is a must-listen and if you've never heard the band or have a passing interest, this is a good place to start!
Enjoy!

THE DREAM SYNDICATE
(The Complete) Live At Raji's (1989 and 2004)

01. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean.
02. Still Holding On To You.
03. Forest For The Trees.
04. Until Lately.
05. That's What You Always Say.
06. When You Smile.
07. Burn.
08. All Along The Watchtower.
09. Tell Me When It's Over.
10. Merritville.
11. The Days of Wine and Roses.
12. The Medicine Show.
13. Halloween.
14. Boston.
15. John Coltrane Stereo Blues.

DREAM SYNDICATE- The Complete Live At Raji's (CD1). rar
DREAM SYNDICATE- The Complete Live At Raji's (CD2). rar

Scruffy The Cat Reunion 2011!

2011-06-14T00:26:00.003-05:00

The first reunion show for Scruffy the Cat in 21 years took place at TT the Bears in Boston on Sunday. I would have loved to have been in Boston since Scruffy the Cat was one of my favourite bands in the 80's (right up there with the Replacements and Young Fresh Fellows) and a certain hockey game on Monday night would have been a bonus and worth the trip to Beantown.

Read more about the benefit show on the event's Facebook page and the Chaz & the Motorbikes website.

Here's a video for My Baby She's Alright from the show and links to 2 other videos on YouTube:

Scruffy The Cat- Live At The Ritz 1989

2011-06-13T23:50:00.008-05:00

As a tribute to Scruffy the Cat and Charlie Chesterman, here's a great Scruffy show from 1989 after the release of their last full length LP, Moons Of Jupiter. On this past Sunday, the members of Scruffy the Cat reunited for a benefit concert to help Chesterman as he battles cancer. Haven't seen an audio recording of the show so far, but there are some live videos from the show posted on YouTube. I'll post some here soon.
Enjoy!

SCRUFFY THE CAT
The Ritz
New York, NY
February 4, 1989
soundboard

Capital Moonlight
Kissing Galaxy
Little Nasty Habits
Blue Russian
You Dirty Rat
True Love
The Twist
Where'd Ya Go
Bus Named Desire
Buy A Car
One Bad Apple
Moons Of Jupiter
Never, Never
My Baby She's Alright
Carol
Life Is Fun
Rave On
Bucknaked
Upside Down

SCRUFFY THE CAT- 02-04-89. rar

Green On Red- No Free Lunch

2011-06-08T00:11:00.004-05:00

For no apparent reason other than one of my co-workers played, Gas Food Lodging (which I gave him!) on his iPod today at work, I thought I would post some Green On Red. My first exposure to Green On Red was back in the day (circa 1985-ish) on a mix tape of music and I vaguely remember hearing, Time Ain't Nothing and the song, No Free Lunch. I bought the vinyl mini-album a short time later, it was followed by the purchase of Gas Food Lodging and taping a copy Gravity Talks, their first full length.

No Free Lunch was Green On Red's major label debut and I doubt it sold huge numbers, but it showcased the strong contributions of newcomer, Chuck Prophet and singer/songwriter, Dan Stuart's ragged and jaded view of Americana. This record still has a place on my turntable and on my iPod and it brings to mind fond memories of my younger, more carefree days of living at home and cruising in my mom's Honda...yay, it's finally summer!
Enjoy!

GREEN ON RED
No Free Lunch (1985)

1. Time Ain't Nothing
2. Honest Man
3. Ballad of Guy Fawkes
4. No Free Lunch
5. (Gee Ain't It Funny How) How Time Slips Away
6. Jimmy Boy
7. Keep on Moving

GREEN ON RED- No Free Lunch. rar

Young Fresh Fellows vs. Scruffy The Cat

2011-06-01T23:53:00.004-05:00

Since Scruffy is scheduled to reunite for a show in June, I thought I would offer up a rare-ish piece of 7" vinyl. Here's a one-off release featuring a split single featuring two of my favourite bands, Scruffy The Cat and Young Fresh Fellows. I have most of their official releases and I enjoy it all, but these two bands stand out in my mind because of their incredible live shows. I saw Scruffy The Cat at the Le Rendez-Vous in Winnipeg opening for Vancouver band, 54-40. Suffice to say, I left after the Scruffy set and didn't stick around to see 54-40, I saw what I came for and the 35-40 minutes of STC's frantic set was well worth the money! Their energetic show had me wish I saw them in a smaller venue as the headliner and I regret not seeing them a year or two later in an Osborne Street bar. The Fellows are always a great live band and unfortunately I've only seen them also as an opening band. In Winnipeg, in 1990 (?) with the Hoodoo Gurus and in 1992 opening for They Might Be Giants at the legendary Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. Definitely some of my fondest concert memories and all these shows left a lasting impression that had a huge impact on the music I listen to.

This 7" featured exclusive songs from both bands, as the Scruffy the Cat side is what I think is their last song they ever released (correctly if I'm wrong). The Fellows song is amazing, one of my favourites. Fun, super short, but sweet!!
Enjoy!

(Note: Not sure which side is the A or B-side? I didn't transfer my vinyl copy, but instead uploaded a digital copy I downloaded.)

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS vs. SCRUFFY THE CAT
Split 7" single (1989)

YFF side- My Boyfriend's In Killdozer
STC side- Love Song #9

YFF vs STC- 7 in. split. rar

Scruffy The Cat- Boom Boom Boom Bingo

2011-05-30T23:29:00.003-05:00

I had a request for this, but also I thought it was a nice tie in with the start of the Stanley Cup finals on Wednesday with the Vancouver Canucks versus the Boston Bruins. Scruffy The Cat hails from Boston or should I say hailed, since they haven't released an album or performed together in over 20 years. Scruffy the Cat is a long time favourite of mine (as well as here on TDIT) and I even had the thrill of seeing them live once in 1987 (?) when they were touring the BBBB record.

Fans of the band will be thrilled to hear they are planning to reunite for a one-off show on June 12th at TT the Bear's in Boston. Unfortunately, the circumstances of this reunion is a fundraising benefit concert for Scruffy front man, Charlie Chesterman who was diagnosed with colon cancer last year and has been undergoing intensive chemotherapy treatments. There is a sweet line-up of bands performing, including The Upper Crust, The Raging Teens, Barrence Whitfield, Chaz & The Motorbikes (Charlie's most recent band) and former Scruffy members Stephen Fredette (guitar), Randall Gibson (drums), Burns Stanfield (keyboards), and possibly Stona Fitch (banjo) are expected to play onstage together, with Chesterman, for the first time since disbanding in 1990. If you are anywhere near the Boston area on June 12th, I urge you to support this cause and take in what I expect to be an amazing day of music. For more details about this show and about how you can contribute and donate to a fund set up for Chesterman and his family, go to www.charliechesterman.com and the Facebook event page, Friends Of Charlie Chesterman Benefit. I hear they might be selling some new Scruffy the Cat t-shirts at the benefit, I would LOVE to buy one of those! I bought a shirt back in 1987, but it's now threadbare, torn .

Boom Boom Boom Bingo is a five-song EP that was released between the Tiny Days and Moons Of Jupiter albums. The EP consists of 2 new originals and 3 live songs and the music is upbeat. Song for song it's a pretty good listen, too bad it's so short.
Enjoy!!

SCRUFFY THE CAT
Boom Boom Boom Bingo (1987)

1. You Dirty Rat
2. Blue Russian
3. Shadow Boy (live)
4. Runaway (live)
5. Happiness to Go (live)

SCRUFFY THE CAT- Boom Boom Boom Bingo. rar

Sloan- Live At The Halifax Music Festival 1996

2011-05-29T21:05:00.006-05:00

The cartoon above was drawn by Paul Covello.

Last night, Sloan played in my city as part of their 20th anniversary tour. I slightly regret not going, as I have never seen the band live, but I had family from out of town visiting so I missed the show. I heard they might play at least a song from each of their 10 albums and I'm really hoping someone recorded the show. Sloan's latest album, Double Cross (XX) is a fine album, maybe their best since the 90's and I wouldn't mind hearing live versions of songs from that record.

Until someone posts a show from their current tour somewhere online, I'll have to be content to listening to older shows. During the mid-90's many of their live shows were broadcast on CBC radio, I have a few I've downloaded and I have a couple on cassette that I recorded off the radio. One such show is from 1996, during the Halifax Music Festival which I recently transferred from cassette. During the broadcast, there was short sets by Change Of Heart, Scud Mountain Boys, Push-Kings, SIANspheric and Sloan. I'm not sure if Sloan's set is complete or not, but I'm hoping it was just short because of all the other bands on the bill on the same night. This show would have been circa, One Chord To Another and some consider this Sloan's height of commercial popularity (at least this is one of my favourite Sloan records), if they ever really had any. Anyways, if the response is good I'll post more Sloan shows and if anyone can help with the setlist (I'm too busy and tired right now), that would be appreciated. Thanks!
Enjoy!!

SLOAN
The Birdland
Halifax, NS
September 14, 1996

SLOAN- 9-14-96. rar

Blake Babies- Rosy Jack World

2011-05-26T00:21:00.004-05:00

This week I will try to post your requests!

When I was in Toronto, I bought a used copy of the Blake Babies first album, Nicely, Nicely. I had a digital version already, but I figured it's hard to find and it would be cool to have the actual CD. It was a consideration to post here, but I had already posted their last EP and then I was asked if I had a rip of the Rosy Jack World, the last release before the Blake Babies broke up...the first time!

Released in 1991, this 5-song EP featured 2 covers (Temptation Eyes, Severed Lips) and 3 originals. This mini-album was a solid way to close out their all too brief career. The disc also gave foreshadowing of what was to come for Juliana Hatfield who went solo after this release and even re-recorded the song Nirvana (just acoustic guitar and vocals from Juliana) for her debut album, Hey Babe released a year later.
Enjoy!

BLAKE BABIES
Rosy Jack World (1991)

Temptation Eyes
Downtime
Take Me
Severed Lips
Nirvana

BLAKE BABIES- Rosy Jack World. rar

They Might Be Giants- The Flood Show

2011-05-24T00:36:00.005-05:00

Credit: Susan Howson / Richmond.com

Thanks for your kind comments, I will be do best to get to some of your requests this week. Before I get to that, I have something else on my mind. In the city and Province where I live, there are two major news stories dominating the headlines for the last few weeks. First, the NHL looks like it will return to Winnipeg when the sale from Atlanta is completed. Supposedly, according to reliable sources, the sale is a mere formality and an official announcement is expected any day now. If you aren't from Canada or even North America, you might not understand why this is such a huge issue. You see here in Winnipeg, we lost our NHL franchise, the Jets when it was sold and moved down south to Phoenix. You would think a franchise in a cold, hockey-type climate could support a pro hockey team, but with the financial situation at the time with high salaries, low Canadian dollar and an inadequate arena, it became difficult and seemingly impossible to keep the team. Winnipeg is a hockey hungry city and though it's AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose was a suitable substitute, it still wasn't the NHL. Anyways, their return is imminent and this is huge news in our mid-sized Canadian city.

The other "big" news story in my region is the flood. The rising waters of the Red River and Assiniboine River has kept people on edge with evacuations and much loss of property and homes in this annual battle against Mother Nature. This appears to be one of the worst floods ever for this region even topping the "Flood of the Century" in 1997.

As a tribute or at least because I came across this CD the other day, I'm posting a live show from They Might Be Giants performing the complete Flood album. This album was originally released in 1990 and this concert celebrated the 10th anniversary of the album. I received this disc in a trade, but it was recorded and released exclusively through TMBG Unlimited which was a collection of mp3-only albums which were available to eMusic subscribers (no longer). The sound quality is excellent, thought there is some static on the opening track and according to the setlist for the show, this recording is incomplete because they play additional songs besides the Flood set. Regardless, this is a great compliment to one of They Might Be Giants most popular albums.
Enjoy!

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
Bowery Ballroom
New York, NY
"The Flood Show"
November 30, 2000

Theme From Flood
Birdhouse In Your Soul
Lucky Ball & Chain
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Dead
Particle Man
Twisting
Your Racist Friend
We Want A Rock
Someone Keeps Moving My Chair
Hearing Aid
Minimum Wage
Letterbox
Whistling In The Dark
Hot Cha
Women & Men
Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love
They Might Be Giants
Road Movie To Berlin

TMBG- The Flood Show, 11-30-00. rar

The Sadies- In Concert, Volume One

2011-05-23T00:12:00.005-05:00

To round out my mini-tribute to Toronto is a live recording from Toronto-based band, The Sadies. Their music combines garage rock, traditional country and surf rock, and they have collaborated for albums with Andre Williams, Jon Langford and Neko Case. They backed up Neko on tour and for the release of her the excellent live album, The Tigers Have Spoken and they seem to be to go-to back-up band for others including Greg Keeler from Blue Rodeo.

The Sadies recorded their own double live album over a two-night stand at Lee's Palace in Toronto and proved they are as good on vinyl as they are live. For this concert, the band shares the stage with many of those collaborators as well as other guest appearances which makes this show seem like their version of the Last Waltz. Guests include, Kelly Hogan, Jon Spencer, Garth Hudson, Gary Louris, members of Blue Rodeo and of course, Jon Langford and Neko Case. The album is a little long and sprawling at times, but it's a nice sampling of the range of sound The Sadies possess. The guest appearances are a treat, but at times it pushes the Sadies back into the back-up role when it should be their time to shine. Overall, a great tribute to the band, amazing performances and a mighty fine listen!
Enjoy!

THE SADIES
In Concert, Vol. 1 (2006)

DISC 1

IntroductionCheat
Why Be So Curious (Pt.III)
1,000 Cities Falling (Pt. II)
Rat Creek
Song Of The Chief Musician (Pt. I)
16 Mile Creek
Taller Than The Pines
Lay Down Your Arms
Higher Power
Uncle Larry's Breakdown
Eastern Winds
Stay A Little Longer
Northumberland West
Lonely Guy
Snow Squad
Leave Me Alone
Ridge Runner Reel
1,000,002 Songs
Dying Is Easy
Tiger Tiger

DISC 2

Back Off
Justine Alright
Talking Down
American Pageant
Strange Birds
Home
Hold On, Hold On
Evangeline
Tailspin
Good Flying Day
Lucifer Sam
Another Day
All Passed Away
The Story's Often Told
You're Everywhere
Within A Stone
Food, Water, Etc.
Jason Fleming
Her Love Made Me
Memphis, Egypt  

THE SADIES- In Concert, Volume One (Disc 1). rar
THE SADIES- In Concert, Volume One (Disc 2). rar

Weeping Tile- 1995 Live CBC Broadcast

2011-05-22T00:50:00.008-05:00

Photo of Weeping Tile by Graham Kennedy

Another CBC radio broadcast recorded in Toronto. This is also from 1995 with Kingston band, Weeping Tile, that helped launch the career of a TDIT fav, Sarah Harmer. Much of the material is from their first major label record, Cold Snap and fans of the band will be pleased to hear this is a great sounding show recorded at the Opera House. This is the only Weeping Tile show I've heard, so I'm guessing they are hard to come by. So if you have any of their shows, let me know.
Enjoy!

WEEPING TILE
Opera House
Toronto, Ont.
Sept. 22, 1995
CBC Real Time

01. intro
02. Joint Account
03. Poked
04. Cold Snap
05. UFO Rosie
06. Good Fortune
07. Westray
08.
09. The Room with the Sir John A. View
10. Handkerchiefs and Napkins
11. Pushover
12. The Grin
13. Sinner
14. outro

WEEPING TILE- Toronto 9-22-95. rar

The Muffs- Live In Toronto 1995

2011-05-16T14:45:00.003-05:00

Photo by Shiki-jitsu

I was nowhere near Toronto when this show was recorded in 1995, but I did walk past Lee's Palace on Bloor Street West last week. Many great bands have played this venue and hopefully sometime in the future I'll get the opportunity to see a show there. (I noticed the Baseball Project is there on June 1!)

This Muff's show was recorded and broadcast on CBC's Real Time concert series and the sound quality is excellent. I built up a large collection of concerts recorded off the radio and CBC usually broadcast the complete unedited concert with a nice matrix mix that sounded as crisp and clear as any official concert recordings. I haven't listened to much Muffs recently, but I have their first 4 albums and this show would have been circa, the Blonder And Blonder record, their second album.

THE MUFFS
Lee's Palace
Toronto, Ont.
Aug. 30, 1995
FM Broadcast

01. intro
02. Agony
03. Lucky Guy
04. Saying Goodbye
05. Ethyl My Love
06. Sad Tomorrow
07. Laying On A Bed Of Roses
08. What You've Done
09. Beat Your Heart Out
10. Red Eyed Troll
11. End It All
12. I Don't Like You
13. Right In The Eye
14. Big Mouth
15. I Need You
16. Oh Nina
17. encore break
18. Just A Game
19. From Your Girl
20. New Love
21. outro

THE MUFFS- Lee's Palace, Aug 30, 1995. rar

The Rugburns- Mommy I'm Sorry

2011-05-16T00:05:00.003-05:00

Back from Toronto and I was thinking the theme of the next few posts will be Toronto-related in some way. Probably not Toronto bands, but either the venue or a song reference or something. Had a great time, though in reality I was only there one full day and two halves, I love walking around and exploring a different city. You see, I live in a mid-sized city (3/4 million), so when I visit a larger city, I'm still in awe of their subway system, art galleries, shopping (record stores!) and tall skyscrapers.

Speaking of skyscrapers of Toronto, I've been meaning to post this EP, Mommy I'm Sorry by The Rugburns for some time now. If you're never listened to or heard of the Rugburns and you like music with some humour and lots of cynicism, this is a good one! This 6-song EP contains probably their best-known song and live favourite, Dick's Automotive. I have a few live versions of this song and it's one of the craziest insane songs I've ever heard...a classic! The rest of the disc is pretty good too, including a nice remake of the Sesame Street theme. These guys are great and I highly recommend their full-length albums, Morning Wood and Taking The World By Donkey.

Though the band doesn't play much anymore front-man, Steve Poltz still tours and records regularly. You may see him at a house concert near you.
(FYI- Poltz is Canadian-born (Halifax)!)

For a sampling of the Rugburn's live show, archive.org has downloads and streaming of some of their concerts.

THE RUGBURNS
Mommy I'm Sorry (1995)

The Fairies Came
Lockjaw
Dick's Automotive
This Flood
Skyfuckingline Of Toronto
Sesame Street

THE RUGBURNS- Mommy I'm Sorry. rar

Blake Babies- Epilogue

2011-05-10T00:27:00.003-05:00

While browsing the PledgeMusic page, I couldn't help myself and I bought an original Juliana Hatfield artwork (acrylic painting) with proceeds going towards her new album and her support of dog (and cat) shelters. Looking forward to framing it up and getting up in my music room, I'll post a photo when I receive the artwork.

I also noticed she had up for sale, the rare last Blake Babies EP called, Epilogue which was sold only at shows (Some Girls) and was self-released through Juliana's, Ye Olde Records. This is now her preferred manner to release new music without having to appease record label execs and the mass audience. This five-song EP was the last ever songs recorded by the Blake Babies around the time they got back together for their 2001 reunion tour. On the PledgeMusic page, Juliana was selling the last three sealed copies and they sold out quickly for $200 each. I know this isn't a substitution for the real thing, it would be extremely cool to have a copy of this EP, but for those that can't afford it or can't find it because it's out of print, I think it's definitely worth the listen. Some interesting covers and a re-mix of Nothing Ever Happens, is an appropriate nice end to this chapter of the Blake Babies. I'm still kicking myself for not driving to Minneapolis to catch one of their reunion shows! It's been another 10 years since then, how about another reunion?

BLAKE BABIES
Epilogue (2002)

Walk A Thin Line
Shakin' Street
I Wanna Be Sedated
My Motor
Nothing Ever Happens (remix)

BLAKE BABIES- Epilogue. rar

Juliana Hatfield- Live In Toronto, November 18, 1997

2011-05-06T00:02:00.005-05:00

There are two reasons for this post. First, I'm going to Toronto for a couple of days next week, so I thought it was appropriate to post a live show from Toronto (Lee's Palace, in this case) and secondly, Juliana Hatfield is recording a new album that might be released as early as July!

Toronto is always cool, I've been there more in the last 5 years than the 40 years previous, so I'm trying to explore and check out different things each time and I'm realizing there is a lot I haven't seen. I've visited the Hockey Hall Of Fame two times (or is it 3?), I've been to a Argos and Jays game, I've seen a show at Second City, done the Science Centre and I've made my usual rounds to CD/record stores. Things I haven't done in Toronto include, seeing a live concert, Leafs game, Art Gallery Of Ontario, ROM, up the CN tower...any suggestions? Not much in the way of live bands when I'm there, I guess the time to go would be during NXNE next month.

I don't know if you've heard about this yet or not, but there's a brilliant program called Pledgemusic, that allows fans (like myself) to pledge money directly to musicians to help fund music projects such as recording albums, touring, etc.

Here's how it works (taken from the site): PledgeMusic provides fans and artists the opportunity to work together to make new records and raise money for charity. By combining new social networking technology, old school music biz know how and an irresistible menu of exclusive incentives, fans can visit the site to hear great new music, enjoy and share unique experiences with the artists they love and actively participate in the release process. Juliana is also donating a portion of the proceeds to the Save A Sato Shelter and a portion to the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, Massachusetts, where she volunteers.

I've done my share as I've donated money to go towards the making of Juliana Hatfield's new album. She will be using the money raised to go directly to assist in the recording expenses, production, packaging and marketing for the album. When you donate, you will have access to her updates on the project with exclusive mp3's, video, photos and Juliana's thoughts on the process. For incentive, the donation is in the form of items to purchase with as little as $10 for a new album download to as much as $1000 for one of the guitars she is using to record the record. There are many unique items that hard-core Juliana fans would love to get their hands on such as, original artwork, cassette of song ideas, workbook, a skype session and locks of her hair. Unfortunately, most of these items are sold already, but she has been adding more items as this has been going on. I bought a signed CD almost a month ago (as I missed most of the good stuff), but I may pledge more. Presently, Juliana is in the studio recording tracks for the album and she has given us daily updates and video clips of the process. Very interesting and well worth the tiny investment.

This is a great show, I remember when it was broadcast on CBC radio and I missed half the set and recorded (on my cassette-blaster) only the last bunch of songs. Fortunately, the excellent blog, Wilfully Obscure posted the concert a few years ago and my search for the show was satisfied. A nice sounding FM recording with Juliana at the height of her commercial success (arguably?), which even includes a couple of songs from her never released, God's Foot recording, as well as a cool version of the Blake Babies, Take Your Head Off My Shoulder and the Descendant's, Hope.

JULIANA HATFIELD
Lee's Palace
Toronto, ON
November 18, 1997

01. I Got No Idols
02. Outsider
03. Fade Away
04. Dying Proof
05. Fleur De Lys
06. Waves
07. What Have I Done to You
08. My Sister
09. My Darling
10. For the Birds
11. Live on Tomorrow
12. Addicted
13. Dumb Fun
14. Spin the Bottle
15. Take Your Head Off My Shoulder
16. Trying Not To Think About It
17. Hope

JULIANA HATFIELD- Toronto, 11-18-97. rar

Imaginary Cities Opening Set Before The Pixies

2011-05-03T00:31:00.004-05:00

One band that has been generating a big buzz recently, is the Winnipeg band, Imaginary Cities. They formed about a year ago with members Rusty Matyas (from the Waking Eyes and currently a member of the Weakerthans) and Marti Sarbit (The Solutions), who released their debut full length, Temporary Resident in February 2011. They put together a full band last May and debuted live at Toronto's NXNE music festival in June. They have since toured the country and lucked out supporting the Pixies on their current tour.

I previously saw Imaginary Cities before Christmas when they opened for the Weakerthans marathon show. I recorded the show, but I haven't even listened to it yet...I guess I should. I also recorded their set before the Pixies last week and I have had a couple listens and I'm quite impressed. Their sound is tight and their songs are catchy and well crafted. I'm kind of on the fence with Marti's voice, but I'm enjoying the music and I would probably go see them again. Have a listen and let me know what you think. CBC radio is all gaga about the band, so judge for yourself.
Enjoy!

IMAGINARY CITIES
Centennial Concert Hall
Winnipeg, MB
April 27, 2011
(Sorry, I don't have a setlist.)

FLAC version on Dimeadozen (need to be a member)
So far, no one has downloaded the show!

IMAGINARY CITIES- 2011-04-27. rar (mp3)

The Pixies- Live In Winnipeg, April 2011

2011-05-02T16:40:00.007-05:00

Photo by Pong0814

If you're a fan of the Pixies and specifically the Doolittle record, this show is a must listen. I've listened to my recording of the concert show twice at work already and I'm pretty happy how it turned out, except of course for the usual overly enthusiastic fan boys behind me. Apparently one of them "loves Kim" and he wasn't ashamed to let everyone know for most of the show. At least they weren't talking throughout the concert, which in my taping annoyances list is the worst offense.
Enjoy!

If you have an account, I recommend the FLAC version posted on Dime. (If you love live recordings, try to sign up!) If you don't plan to trade the show or you don't care if the music is compressed, see the mp3 file below.

PIXIES
Centennial Concert Hall
Winnipeg, MB
April 27, 2011

01. Dancing The Manta Ray
02. Weird At My School
03. Bailey's Walk
04. Manta Ray
05. Debaser
06. Tame
07. Wave Of Mutilation
08. I Bleed
09. Here Comes My Man
10. Dead
11. Monkey Goes To Heaven
12. Mr. Grieves
13. Crackity Jones
14. La La Love You
15. No. 13 Baby
16. There Goes My Gun
17. Hey
18. Silver
19. Gouge Away

20 encore crowd
21. Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
22. Into The White

23. encore 2 crowd
24. Winterlong
25. Bone Machine
26. The Holiday Song
27. Nimrod's Son
28. Where Is My Mind?
29. Gigantic

PIXIES- 2011-04-27. rar

The Breeders- Last Splash Demos

2011-04-28T00:43:00.008-05:00

Just got home from the Pixies concert at the Concert Hall! It was the second night of two and the sold-out crowd ate it up like crazy. Here's how the show went: b-sides, songs from the Doolittle album, long encore break, 2 more b-sides, extra long encore break, house lights come up and then they play a short set of "hits" (not on Doolittle), end of show.

I just read the review in the Winnipeg Sun from last night's first show and it probably a good thing I didn't read it before the show. Sun writer, Old Coot Sheridan didn't exactly think it was the concert of the year and he makes good points and I can't disagree totally with his critical review, but I think if I read it beforehand it might have ruined some of the experience. Granted, playing an entire album isn't always a crowd-pleaser, there are a lot of deep tracks they probably don't perform much live and the b-sides weren't anything special, but it was a different experience than a greatest hits show. (There was a more favourable review in the Free Press.)

I think I've been to enough concerts to judge a good/bad show and despite the criticisms, it was still an engaging show. I liked the band's music back in the mid/late 80's and I still listen to their music now. If they wrote and released new material, I'm not sure it would be my cup of tea now or if I would enjoy it as much. They were part of my musical soundtrack at that time of my life, but that was a long time ago and other bands/music have taken their place. But once in a while it's nice to relive those nice memories.

As I write this, I'm listening to my concert recording of the show and it sounds fantastic! I'll get around to posting it on Dime in the next day or so, and then I'll post it here, If anyone's interested. Please let me know.

I meant to post this earlier in anticipation of the concert, Kim Deal's other project, the Breeders. These are demos from the sessions for their best known album, Last Splash.
(The following taken from the notes about the sessions) The demos are sourced from two sessions both recorded at Cro-Magnon Studios in Dayton, Ohio. The first 8 tracks are from September 1992. This was apparently a very preliminary recording session, just to sketch out the songs, with most of the tracks being instrumental. The second batch (tracks 9-17) is from November 1992. The songs are a bit more together and include vocals for the most part. Still, there are some very noticeable differences to the finished album versions in songs such as "Divine Hammer" and "Saints". Perhaps the highlight of the tape is a completely unreleased song called "Go Man Go", previously known only to fans by one low-quality live recording. The vocals are very high in the mix for this 2nd set.
Enjoy!

THE BREEDERS Last Splash Demos
Cro-Magnon Studios,
Dayton, Ohio, USA
September and November 1992

01 No Aloha (instrumental, with Kelly's guitar)
02 No Aloha (instrumental, without Kelly's guitar)
03 Divine Hammer [Ding Ding] (instrumental)
04 Invisible Man (instrumental)
05 Cannonball [Grunge] (some vocals)
06 Saints (instrumental)
07 New Year (instrumental)
08 Invisible Man (with just backing vocals)
09 Saints
10 Cannonball [Grunge]
11 SOS [Figure 8]
12 I Just Wanna Get Along
13 Go Man Go
14 No Aloha
15 Divine Hammer
16 New Year (instrumental)
17 Roi

THE BREEDERS- Last Splash Demos. rar

The Pixies- Doolittle Demos

2011-04-26T00:07:00.005-05:00

Later tonight and Wednesday, the Pixies play a two-night stint at the Winnipeg Centennial Concert Hall. The last time the Pixies were in town it was their second show of their original reunion tour back in April 2004. For that show, the band played a "greatest hits" type show, performing their most well known songs, but for this tour the band is concentrating on their second studio album, Doolittle. The popular trend of the day, especially for veteran bands that have broken up and later reformed is to play an entire album (usually their "most popular or well known") in it's original running order, filled out with other random songs. Bands such as the Jayhawks (Hollywood Townhall and Tomorrow The Green Grass), Camper Van Beethovan (Key Lime Pie), Steve Wynn (playing Dream Syndicate's, Medicine Show and Days Of Wine And Roses), Liz Phair (Exile In Guyville) and most recently in Winnipeg, the Weakerthans (3 nights=3 albums and 4th night=all 4 albums) all performed unique shows. The Pixies are expected to play the Doolittle album along with b-sides and other "from that era" songs.

The second night (the first to go on sale) sold out almost instantly, but I noticed there are still tickets available for the first night on Tuesday (you can still get row 8 on the floor!). I guess there are only so many Pixies fans and going to both concerts makes no sense. If we can guess the setlist will be almost identical for both shows (I could be wrong?), why would I want to shell out $67.00 to see the same thing twice. When bands play a two or three night stand we should be expected there would be variety in setlists with some songs performed exclusively at each show. During a recent two night stand for Jeff Tweedy in Chicago, he played approximately 30 songs each night without playing the same song on the other night, no repeats. I'm just saying if the Pixies had played Doolittle one night and Surfer Rosa the other, they would both be sold out! Anyways, it should be a great concert no matter what night you go to!

To get you in the mood, here's the demos from Doolittle.
Enjoy!!

THE PIXIES
Doolittle Demos (1988)

Tame
Debaser
I Bleed
Wave Of Mutilation
Crackity Jones
Bailey's Walk
Mr. Grieves
Dead
Gouge Away
Manta Ray
Santo
La La Love You
No. 13 Baby
There Goes My Gun
Silver
Monkey Goes To Heaven

THE PIXIES- Doolittle Demos. rar

The Jayhawks- First Avenue 2010

2011-04-25T12:53:00.004-05:00

Yikes...so sorry, it's been two weeks since I last posted. Been busy and lazy lately especially with the NHL playoffs underway, I seem to eat up a lot of my spare time (little as I have) watching hockey. I'll do my best to make it up this week.

I last spoke about the Winnipeg Folk Festival and thanks for all your suggestions! My most anticipated act is The Jayhawks who have their reunited "classic" line-up, that includes Mark Olson, Marc Perlman, Tim O'Reagon, Karen Grotberg and Gary Louris. Their setlist concentrates on the era that included Olson, (ignoring all their material from 1997- ) including some songs from their debut album which was re-issued last year. I thought it would be appropriate to revisit a concert from June 2010 when the band played a three night stand at the First Avenue. I remember at the time, fans were asked by the band (or their management) not to record the show, as the Jayhawks are usually pretty cool with fan's taping their concerts and that it would be recorded professionally for later release. Even better, the band has posted one of those nights on their website for your listening pleasure. I'm giving you the option, you can download the show here or if you desire, can go to the official Jayhawks site and download or stream the show there.
Enjoy!

THE JAYHAWKS
First Avenue
Minneapolis, MN
June 21, 2010

1. Intro
2. Wichita
3. Over My Shoulder
4. Real Light
5. Red's Song
6. Nothing Left To Borrow
7. Tomorrow The Green Grass
8. Let the Critics Wonder
9. King of Kings
10. Two Hearts
11. Settled Down Like Rain
12. Martin's Song
13. Take Me With You (When You Go)
14. She's Not Alone Anymore
15. Band Intros
16. Blue
17. I'd Run Away
18. Miss Williams' Guitar
19. Lights
20. Bad Time
21. People In This Place On Every Side (encore)
22. Encore
23. Tampa To Tulsa
24. Waiting For The Sun
25. Will I Be Married
26. Almost Saturday Night

THE JAYHAWKS- First Avenue, 6-21-10. rar

Tweeeedy!!!!!

2011-04-11T12:41:00.003-05:00

The announcement in Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press, about Jeff Tweedy closing the Winnipeg Folk Festival has now convinced me I must attend the Festival this year. I've already committed (in my mind, anyways) I would at least attend the opening Wednesday night, headlined by Blue Rodeo and one of my all-time favourite bands, The Jayhawks. The news of Tweedy performing a solo set on the Sunday night mainstage has me thinking I might even buy an early bird full festival pass. I don't think I've gotten the weekend (now includes many non-weekend days) pass since the early 90's, but it might make sense financially if I go more than 2 days.

Anyways, I'm kind of fired up! There are some interesting acts, though I'm not super excited about the rest of the line-up. Please look over the list of performers and recommend who would be worth seeing live. I'm sure I'm overlooking some gems and folk fests are a good way to discover talent you haven't heard of previously. That's how I discovered the Jayhawks when they played the festival in 1988 (?).

Jeff Tweedy performing, Open Mind on The Hour (CBC TV)
(sorry for all the damn commercials...can't be helped.)

Fellows Live In Japan 1993

2011-04-10T20:34:00.003-05:00

This amazing photo is by Dena Flows (2009)

One of my favourite Young Fresh Fellows (bootleg) live shows is when they toured Japan in 1993. This is a nice sounding show from Tower Records featuring an interesting setlist of some less known stuff. An appreciative, yet polite Japanese audience luck out for being there. By no means is this a full YFF concert, but a short, but sweet record store appearance complete with an autograph signing. I'm just happy there was at least this show that was recorded. Thanks, to whoever recorded this!

During this tour, there's an all too-brief clip from the film, Hype! of the Fellows. Also at this time, the band issued a CD-EP 7 song tour promo sampler, Japan Tour 1993 which includes 5 original and two covers. I have this disc, so if anyone's interested I could post this rarity as well.
Enjoy!!

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS
Tower Records
Tokyo, Japan
February 21, 1993

Young Fresh Fellows Theme
Hang On Sloopy
I Wanna Be Your Driver
Celebration
Two Brothers
Don't You Wonder How It Ends?
Why I Oughta
Picture Book
99 Girls
12 Bar Blues
Hillbilly Drummer Girl
2 Guitars, Bass And Drums
Rock 'n' Roll Guitars

YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS- Tower Records, Japan 2-21-93. rar

Supersnazz- Superstupid!

2011-04-08T10:51:00.005-05:00

Here's something sweet to end your week with, the debut album from Japan's, Supersnazz, Superstupid! I bought this back in the day (1993) sight unheard mainly because it was produced by Kurt Bloch who seems to only produce bands I have come to love. The result is a high energy, infectious garage rock!

On their 1993 Sub Pop debut, Superstupid!, Japanese rockers Supersnazz -- who borrow their name from an album by the Flamin' Groovies -- deliver an electric album of spiky, retro rock & roll. What they lack in technical prowess, they make up for with sheer spunkiness, showing fresh zeal for the simple pleasures of surf-tinged rock, without any of the jaded weariness of their American counterparts. With a joyous energy equaling that of fellow Japanese imports of the same era, Teengenerate and Guitar Wolf, these ladies approach their songs as if they were discovering the cool rebellion of rock & roll for the first time. They cruise through an album of simple high-energy songs, anchored by a rough garage-flavored guitar that launches into vigorous solos, and a direct, pummeling drum assault. Spike's frayed vocals slither, growl, and scream, and although the lyrics are often unintelligible through her thick accent, her tone clearly communicates a tough rock attitude. Everything the genre should be -- tough, sexy, cool, and fun -- Supersnazz rocks. ~ Sarah Tomlinson

Enjoy!!

SUPERSNAZZ
Superstupid! (1993)

Breakout
Johnny
Black Cat
Sometimes
Middle Of The Way
Playing My Guitar
Uncle Wiggly
Hardcore
Comanche
Creeps
First Time Is The Best Time
Papa Oo Mao Mao

SUPERSNAZZ- Superstupid. rar

The Playmates- Short Wave

2011-04-05T00:06:00.003-05:00

Here at TDIT, it's "Tribute to Japan" week, featuring a few Japanese bands and maybe some concert recordings from Japan. I looked through my CD's and I was disappointed to see I don't have a lot of music from Japanese bands, but I must admit my music taste doesn't take me too far out of North America, except for the United Kingdom. This is my mini-tribute to this Earthquake and Tsunami torn country that has always been known for it's culture, fine art and good music.

I knew nothing about The Playmates when I received their CD in the mail with my order from Rockboss many years ago. It was thrown in as a freebie and at first I didn't take much interest, though the cover art got me curious. When I did finally spin the disc, I couldn't ignore their infectiously catchy power-pop, that had a kind of Beatles-esque, British Invasion sound or maybe a faster, poppier Posies. Their music is fun and happy with just the right amount of manic punk edginess that keeps it from being too sweet. If you didn't know the Playmates were Japanese it's because they sing exclusively in English, and they could easily be mistaken for being British. Probably the best free CD I've ever received, definitely worth the download! I'm pretty sure this CD is out of print or at least hard to find. Also highly recommended is their 2003 release, Listen!
Enjoy!!

THE PLAYMATES
Short Wave (1995)

Love Is You
When It Rains
Do It Again
Sleep
Salty Dog
Tonight
Short Wave
Finger Action
Yes, It's True
Don't Tell Me
Leave Me Alone
My Little Soul
We Don't Wanna Know (bonus track)

THE PLAYMATES- Short Wave. rar

Japan Earthquake Fundraising Concert

2011-04-04T14:29:00.004-05:00

With the devastating results of the earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, there is worldwide urgency to contribute in some way. The Red Cross is taking monetary donations that will hopefully be used to send aid to Japan. Since Japan is one of the wealthier countries in the world and they have put aside funds for this very purpose, the hope is that the people that are living there can reap the benefits for their basic needs and to provide assistance to rebuild.

Locally, there is no shortage of fundraising events that are contributing the proceeds to the earthquake relief. It's always interesting to observe how it's always artists and musicians that step forward and volunteer their talents and livelihood to unselfishly donate to a cause. You never hear about professionals such as doctors or lawyers donating their profits to fundraising causes.

One upcoming event that I encourage people to support is the Japan Earthquake Fundraising concert held at the West End Cultural Centre on Tuesday, April 19 at 8:00pm. This concert will feature performances from Ridley Bent, Greg MacPherson and Keri Latimer. The WECC is donating the venue, Stu Reid created the poster and the musicians are donating their performances. Keri Latimer, who fronts the band, Nathan is organizing this event and I strongly urge everyone in the community and the city to attend this show. Keri and Greg are well known treasures in the local music scene and a chance to hear them at this intimate (and great sounding) venue will be a treat. I haven't actually seen Ridley Bent live, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity. See you there!

Tickets available from Ticketmaster $15 adv/$20 door. All proceeds to the Red Cross.

Here's some samples:

Nathan (Keri Latimer)- John Paul's Deliveries. (live 2010-01-31)

Greg MacPherson- First Class

Ridley Bent- Buckles and Boots

Gear Daddies- KABL 1987

2011-04-03T22:31:00.003-05:00

As promised, here's a Gear Daddies live show from the KABL studios. I'm not sure if this is in Minneapolis (anyone know?), because this is the only information I have as I received this in a trade many years ago. Good sounding show with great early versions of songs from both their studio records. Highlights include, covers of Werewolves of London and Tide Is High (Blondie) and a hilarious rendition of the theme from Hee Haw. Good stuff!
Enjoy!!

GEAR DADDIES
KABL 1987

Iguana Man
Stupid Boy
Cut Me Off
Time Heals
Don't Forget Me
instrumental
George & Tammy
Hee Haw
Boys Will Be Boys
Werewolves Of London
My Maria
Gonna Change
Dream Vacation
Eat Shit
Drank So Much
He Stopped Loving Her
Zamboni
Tide Is High

GEAR DADDIES- KABL 1987. rar

note: In the file, the song track numbers start at #4 , but Iguana Man is the first song from the set. I had three other songs from a different show on the original disc I ripped this from. Sorry, I should have re-numbered the files, but I created the rar file before I thought of it...oops.

Gear Daddies- Let's Go Scare Al

2011-03-25T20:24:00.003-05:00

I had a request for some Gear Daddies, more specifically their debut, Let's Go Scare Al, from 1988. A sometimes forgotten and overlooked band from Minnesota, they were maybe overshadowed by some of the bigger names, but the Gear Daddies definitely have an important place and influence on the Minnesota music scene. Lead singer Martin Zellar is still very much active as a solo performer and the band occasionally reunites for concerts almost annually. Their Zamboni song is a staple at hockey rinks everywhere, my hometown included.

After the last post I dug around and found some live shows from the Gear Daddies I acquired in a trade years ago. I'll upload one of them for my next post.
Enjoy!

GEAR DADDIES
Let's Go Scare Al (1988)

Cut Me Off
Statue of Jesus
Boys Will Be Boys
Don't Forget Me
Heavy Metal Böyz
Drank So Much (Just Feel Stupid)
She's Happy
Blues Mary
This Time
Strength

GEAR DADDIES- Let's Go Scare Al. rar

Take It To The Limit...One More Time!

2011-03-21T23:40:00.003-05:00

This is actually Soul Asylum (around the same era), couldn't find any photos of the TITTL band.

I think I've taken this "Cover's Series" to the limit for now, so I'll lay it to rest for a little while. But first, we're going to conclude the series with a rare one-off show with a band that billed themselves as, The Take It To The Limit Band featuring an all-Eagles (almost) covers show. The band consisted of Dan Murphy (guitar, vocals) and Dave Pirner (drums, vocals) from Soul Asylum, Martin Zellar (guitar, vocals) from the Gear Daddies and Jim Boquist (bass, vocals) later of Son Volt. Fans of Golden Smog should note, many claim this is the earliest incarnation of Golden Smog considering the lineup and concept with founders Pirner and Murphy gradually adding members to it's loose lineup of members. This same group of musicians also played a all-Rolling Stones cover show in 1989 under the name, "Her Satanic Majesty's Paycheck." If anyone has a recording of that show, please let me know!

What can I say, if you love the Eagles, you'll hate this concert and if you hate the Eagles, you'll be happy to know they must have been playing these songs with their tongue-in-cheek throughout (I hope?). The set featured sloppily performed versions of Eagles songs along with some solo members songs and even a Bangles cover to end the show, all performed to the displeasure of the "lucky" crowd at the Uptown bar. Personally, I love this show, it must of been a fun time and I will admit some of these songs are horrible and laughable, but in a good way. A must listen for all Soul Asylum, Golden Smog and anti-Eagles fans everywhere!
Enjoy!!

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
Uptown Bar
Minneapolis, MN
January 8, 1987

Lyin' Eyes
Heartache Tonight
Take It Easy
Rocky Mountain Way
Already Gone
Best Of My Love
Tequila Sunrise
Witchy Woman
Peaceful Easy Feeling
In The City
Take It To The Limit
Walk Like An Egyptian

TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT- 1-8-87. rar

Grand Champeen Play Soul Asylum

2011-03-17T23:04:00.003-05:00

When I first heard Grand Champeen, my first impression is they sounded like Soul Asylum used to sound. Their sound had the urgency and intensity of early Soul Asylum albums and shows and their recorded input thus far has revealed they can also write some great rock songs. They sound like a continuation of Soul Asylum, circa, And The Horse They Rode On, as if they never recorded Grave Dancers Union. Don't get me wrong, Soul Asylum is still one of favourite bands from the 80's, but unfortunately with huge mainstream success comes mediocre songs that seem to have taken the edge off the band. I saw Soul Asylum live around the time when the success of Grave Dancers broke (1993) and they were just starting to get some commercial radio play and then saw them again in the 2002 in Fargo (for $15), well after they were chewed up and spit out by the mainstream. One thing I can say about the band is that you have to see them live, to fully appreciate them. Back in the late 80's they were heralded as one of the hardest working bands live and it still rang true when I saw them. I love all their albums pre-Grave Dancers and I have piles of concert recordings from all periods of their career that I still covet. In the 80's, they were probably most comparable to the Replacements for their live shows filled with cool covers and their spontaneous drunken performances.

In 2006, Grand Champeen took on the challenge to perform the Soul Asylum songbook in front of a Minneapolis crowd (SA's hometown) for a Benefit for the Karl Mueller foundation. The results were amazing, they sounded so much like Soul Asylum if you weren't a hardcore fan (or a collector of their live shows), you might think it's actually them! For the hometown crowd, they were treated to a setlist restricted only to their earlier material up to, And the Horse They Rode On and as a bonus to close the show they played the awesome, James At 16 medley, song by song, a SA live classic. This unique show is a must listen for Soul Asylum fans that miss the old songs and also it's a pleasure to hear a talented band like Grand Champeen having the time of their lives paying tribute to a band that has influenced and inspired their own music!
Enjoy!!

GRAND CHAMPEEN
April 14th, 2006
7th Street Entry
Minneapolis, MN

01. All the Kings
02. Tied to the Tracks
03. Closer to the Stars
04. Easy Street
05. Crashing Down
06. Marionette
07. Can't Go Back
08. Sometime to Return
09. Chains
10. Broken Glass
11. Sun Don't Shine
12. Stranger
13. Long Way Home
14. Spinnin'
15. Never Really Been
16. Standing in the Doorway
17. Nowhere to Go
18. Made to be Broken
19. Freaks
20. Be On Your Way
21. Cartoon*
22. Heavy Rotation
23. medley 1
24. medley 2

Guitar/Vocals: Channing Lewis
Guitar/Vocals: Michael Crow
Bass: Alex Livingston
Drums: Ned Stewart

GRAND CHAMPEEN- 4-14-06 Mpls, MN. rar

fIREWHOSE- Live Who covers 8-25-89

2011-03-14T23:27:00.005-05:00

This might be a little obscure, but Firehose was a band that formed after D. Boon of the Minutemen died accidentally and left the two remaining members, Mike Watt and George Hurley without a frontman, singer and guitarist. Minutemen fan, Ed Crawford from Ohio, expressed a desire to fill the void and he made his way to California to try to convince Watt and Hurley to let him audition. Crawford played the Who's, I'm One and a couple of Minutemen songs and the other two were so impressed, they together formed Firehose in 1986. The band went onto to record five full-length albums, two Ep's and played 980 shows before disbanding in 1994.

This is a very unique Firehose show as they open the show with 7 Who covers! Ed says it's their way of welcoming the Who who were in town at the time. If you were at this concert you must of been confused and wondered if their whole set was going to be Who songs. If you love the Who, this must have been quite the treat, they do a commendable job and I doubt they duplicated this feat ever again...Amazing!

fIREHOSE
Music Machine,
Santa Clara, CA
August 25, 1989

1) Naked Eye
2) Long Live Rock
3) Helpless Dancer
4) I’ve Had Enough
5) A Quick One While He’s Away
6) Join Together
7) Going Mobile
8) Max & Wells
9) Chemical Wire
10) What Gets Heard
11) In My Mind
12) Whispering While Hollerin’
13) Riddle of the 80’s
14) If’n
15) Some Things
16) Mas Cojones
17) ‘Nuf That Shit, George
18) In Memory of Elizabeth Cotton

FIREHOSE- 8-25-89

The Feelies (aka Foggy Notion) Play The Velvet Underground

2011-03-12T23:41:00.003-06:00

Back when I was in university, a friend of mine had a job through the cities Parks and Rec department, booking entertainment for block parties and noon hour concerts in the downtown area. One of his regular performers was two guys sporting sunglasses, playing acoustic guitars and performing covers of Velvet Underground (and a couple Violent Femmes) songs. They were called The Sons Of Batman and for a group that played for next to nothing they were pretty good. Technically, a group like that might be considered a tribute band, but to me they were a couple of guys that took the spirit of the band and made it their own. They weren't trying to impersonate or copy the Velvet Underground's music note for note, but instead they played the songs acoustically maintaining a cool laidback style, yet they were scraggy and unpolished.

The Feelies are a band, in my mind anyways, that come closest in sound and vibe to the Velvets. The Feelies often include covers in their setlist of bands they admire and are influenced by, Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, The Stooges, Neil Young, Television, the Rolling Stone and the band they cover the most, The Velvet Underground. I've posted a recording that features The Feelies play a complete set of Velvet Underground songs back in 1983. At least it sounds like the Feelies, but the line-up is debatable according to another source (in the comments section), it seems Foggy Notion is more an off-shoot of The Feelies with members from a number of different bands. Regardless, it's a great set of outstanding music that if you close your eyes and listen (okay, you really don't need to close your eyes), you almost swear it's the Velvets...kinda?
Enjoy!

THE FEELIES (aka Foggy Notion)
Maxwell's
Hoboken, NJ
May 15, 1983

I'm Waiting For My Man
White Light/White Heat
Here She Comes Now
There She Goes Again
Run Run Run
I'll Be Your Mirror
Cool It Down
All Tomorrow's Parties
What Goes On
Kill Your Sons
Sister Ray
Foggy Notion

THE FEELIES- 5-15-83. rar

Yo La Tengo All-Request Marathon 2004

2011-03-08T23:29:00.003-06:00

As you might have noticed it's unofficially all-covers week here at TDIT with another WFMU pledge week, all-request marathon with Yo La Tengo. This edited version of the marathon was originally posted at sunsquashed.com, but the site hasn't been updated in years and all the internal links don't work anymore. Fortunately I archived this show to disc back in the day and recently came across it when I was searching through the cases of live recordings I have on CD looking for interesting stuff to post. This show is just as fun as the 2000 fundraiser with lots of great interpretations of some killer songs. I know I have at least another year of YLT on WFMU, but does anyone have any of the others? They've been doing this since 1996, so there should be some more recordings somewhere...right?
Enjoy!

YO LA TENGO
WFMU All-Request Marathon
March 20, 2004

I'm Your Captain (Grand Funk)
Gigantic (The Pixies)
Barstool Blues (Neil young)
Next Big Thing (Dictators)
Build Me Up Buttercup (Foundations)
Jesus (VU)
Surfin Bird (Trashmen)
Psychotic Reaction (Count Five)
Chicken Scratch Shuffle (??)
Cars (Gary Numan)
The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Tokans)
Hold On (I'm Coming) (Sam and Dave)
Tonight's The Night (Neil Young)
banter
Tonight's The Night (Rod Stewart)
Monk Time (The Monks)
She Cracked (Jonathan Richman)
This Boy (Beatles)
Drawing To A Hole (The Clean)
White Light/White Heat (VU)
banter
Hey Ya (Outkast)
Close To Me (The Cure)
Taxman (Beatles)
The Rain, The Park and Other Things (The Cowsills)
London Calling (The Clash)
We Didn't Start The Fire (medley) (Billy Joel)
outro

YO LA TENGO- WFMU 2004. rar

Yo La Tengo- WFMU Fundraiser 2000

2011-03-07T23:48:00.004-06:00

Photo by WFMU (actually this is from their 2006 fundraiser)

When most bands start out it's only standard they throw a few cover songs into the mix of their originals. Lots of people like to hear something familiar that they've heard before, that's why cover bands are always a popular crowd-pleaser especially for things like weddings and socials. Sometimes it's hard for a band that plays all-originals to gain the trust of the audience, but if they're good they should be able to win over and convert these sceptics into fans. It really saddens me to see singers get famous performing other people's songs, kind of a slight step up from karaoke or American Idol.

Case in point, "Lady Maria", the 10 year old from my hometown that skyrocketed to international stardom after Lady Gaga viewed her video on YouTube of a cover of her song, Born This Way, and tweeted about it. I guess if this is your idea of stardom, having Lady Gaga tweet about you, drawing more than 20 million views on YouTube, appearances and interviews on Ellen, Good Morning America and Access Hollywood and singing on stage with Lady Gaga, then good for her. Lady Gaga's message on Twitter was, "This is why I make music. She is the future." In my opinion, if Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Maria Aragon are the future of music, then get me the hell out of here!...and give me bands like, Yo La Tengo!!

Beginning in 1996, Yo La Tengo started making annual visits to WFMU, an independent radio station in New Jersey to help out their annual fundraising campaign. Listeners who pledged money during the band's on air performances were offered a chance to request a favourite non-YLT song that the band would attempt to perform. This made for some interesting listening with the band valiantly trudging through the songs despite flubbed lyrics and missed chords. Lots of classic covers, as well as obscure and goofy tunes that really tests the bands knowledge of all kinds of music. This is truly a band that is more concerned about entertaining and showcasing their amazing musical skills than fame, fortune and international stardom, thought YLT does have a very dedicated cult following. The band released a compilation of their appearances (1996-2003) at the WFMU fundraisers on an album called, Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics, a very appropriate title! Yo La Tengo carries on this tradition to this day with their most recent session last week at WFMU...please support stations like this so we aren't left with only stations that cater to the "future of music"...!!

This recording is most of the songs from their appearance in 2000 (not sure of the exact date?).
Enjoy!!

YO LA TENGO
WFMU (2000)

Roadrunner (Modern Lovers)
Return Of The Grievous Angel (Gram Parsons)
Take Me To the Hospital (The Replacements)
Sweet Lady Genevieve (The Kinks)
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This (Eurythmics)
American Pie (Don McLean)
Color Me Impressed (The Replacements)
A Place Called Altamont (Nightmares)
Rock The Boat (Hues Corporation)
19th Nervous Breakdown (The Rolling Stones)
Too Many Creeps (Bush Tetras)
Don't You Want Me Baby (Human League)
Nothing (Fugs)
Watching The Detectives (Elvis Costello)
I've Got A Feeling (The Beatles)
Top Of The Pops (The Kinks)
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (The Ramones)
Needle Of Death (Bert Jansch)
Ring Of Fire (Johnny Cash)
Panic In Detroit (David Bowie)
Roundabout (Yes)
Mendocino (Sir Douglas Quintet)
Raindrops Keep falling On My Head (Burt Bacharach)
Raw Power (Stooges)

YO LA TENGO- WFMU 2000. rar

Golden Smog- Collection Of Live Covers

2011-03-03T00:12:00.003-06:00

When Golden Smog first formed in 1989, they were kind of a side project covers band featuring members of some well known Minneapolis bands such as The Replacements (Chris Mars), Soul Asylum (Dan Murphy, Dave Pirner), Jayhawks (Gary Louris, Marc Perlman) and Run Westy Run (Kraig Johnson). They played a handful of shows annually and released an EP called, On Golden Smog which consisted of 5 cover songs, in 1992. Chris Mars eventually left and the band added Noel Levy (Honeydogs) and Jeff Tweedy (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco) to record a proper full-length all-originals album. Up until then, their live shows were heavily laden with interesting and often unrehearsed drunken covers which were tongue-in-cheek in nature, but always good natured.

Even after releasing their first two full-length albums, Down By The Old Mainstream and Weird Tales, the band continued to include a good amount of covers in their shows. What I have here is a collection of soundboard recordings between 1996 and 1998 of some cover songs Golden Smog performed and to this day they still perform many of them. These recordings sound excellent and they play great ("almost better than the original") versions of many songs I'm sure you'll recognize. Thanks to whoever compiled this collection and shared in at Dime.
Enjoy!

GOLDEN SMOG
Live Covers

1. On The Beach (Europe Radio 1996)
2. What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding*
3. Signed DC*
4. Sad Peter Pan*
5. Photograph*
6. Most Beautiful Girl in the World+
7. One More Night+
8. Pink Turns To Blue+
9. Love and Mercy+
10. Seven Year Ache^
11. Easy To Be Hard #
12. Revolution Blues#
13. Who Loves The Sun#
14. Hanging On the Telephone #
15. Fooled Around and Fell in Love **
16. I Got You **
17. Spooky **
18. Buick MacKane ^
19. Powderfinger+
20. Five Years+
21. Do You Know How It Feels To be Lonesome (Europe Radio 1996)

** First Avenue, Minneapolis December 12, 1998
# Great American Music Hall, San Francisco June 26, 1996
^ Tramps, NYC April 13, 1996
+TLA, Philadelphia April 16, 1996
* 9:30 Club, Washington DC April 17, 1996

GOLDEN SMOG- Live Covers. rar

Graham Parker- One Stop Clearance

2011-02-27T01:09:00.003-06:00

Here's a special treat for Graham Parker fans wanting to hear re-recorded versions of some of his older songs. The idea was to generate royalties from the new versions because the rights to the original recordings are owned (forever, apparently) by his old publishing company. So, his current publishing administrators proposed he re-record these songs to pitch to TV/film and other media and to generate royalties to Parker and his publishers, Primary Wave. Graham explains this in more detail on his blog, HERE. He's obviously not crazy about this idea, but he has to make a living. As far as I know this hasn't been "officially" released, but it is available as a promo and not officially for sale.
Please respect Mr. Parker's wishes and do not sell this recording.

Mike Gent on drums, guitar, backing vocals
GP on guitars and backing vocals
Ed Valauskas on bass
Professor “Louie” Hurwitz on keyboards and accordion

GRAHAM PARKER
One Stop Clearance
AKA: "Stick It To The Man"
2008 promotional-only

1. Don't Let It Break You Down
2. Life Gets Better
3. Discovering Japan
4. Can't Be Too Strong
5. Depend On Me
6. Heat Treatment
7. My Love's Strong
8. Get Started, Start A Fire
9. Don't Ask Me Questions
10. Local Girls
11. Last Stop Is Nowhere
12. Protection
13. She Wants So Many Things
14. Soul Shoes
15. The Sun Is Gonna Shine Again
16. Next Phase
17. White Honey
18. Wake Up (Next To You)

GRAHAM PARKER- One Stop Clearance. rar

The Replacements- January 19, 1985

2011-02-25T00:24:00.004-06:00

By request, here's the complete concert for the Big Star cover, I'm In Love With A Girl, I posted last week. This is a favourite Replacements show with plenty of covers and a guest appearance by Alex Chilton. This show was a couple years before the Mats recorded and released the song, Alex Chilton, so this is kind of cool! Alex joins the band later in the set for a medley of covers from BTO, Bad Company, the Jackson 5, among others. This show doesn't get as crazy and drunken as their CBGB's show in December or as silly as the "Shit Hits The Fans" recording months earlier. Personally, some of the most memorable shows by the Mats are in the 1984-86 years, so if you see any of these recording, I highly recommend a listen. This period was when they were unpredictable and every setlist was different, there is never a dull moment. They could be brilliant one moment, then a totally drunken mess the next.

If you are interested in the legend of the Replacements' live show, be on the lookout for a new documentary that will analyse the influence the band has had on their fans and their personal stories of the band's mystique. Here's a brief description for the film, Color Me Obsessed:
Director Gorman Bechard brings an extraordinary vision to a unique filmmaking challenge with COLOR ME OBSESSED, the first documentary on the influential '80s indie-rock band, The Replacements. "I wanted to give the band god-like treatment," he explains, "but I didn't want to make a VH-1 where-are-they-now style documentary." Combining the band's mystique with the passion of their fans, Bechard made a music documentary with no music and not one single image of the band. 'People believe in god without ever seeing or hearing him or her," the director says. "I'd like viewers to believe in the band that way.'

I'm pretty excited about this project, though it would have been more amazing to see some actually footage of the band, but anything about the Replacements will peak my interest. Did I mention I'm an "backer" for this film? (and you can too!) I donated some money and I'll get an advanced copy of the film and my name will appear in the end credits...!! The film is almost done and should be released sometime this year. When I screen the film, I'll let you all know more about it.

THE REPLACEMENTS
Uptown Bar And Grill
Minneapolis, MN
January 19, 1985

Nowhere Is My Home
Heard You Been To College
Color Me Impressed
I'm In Love With A Girl
Can't Hardly Wait
I Will Dare
Favorite Thing
Polly Wolly Doodle
Waltzing Matilda
September Gurls
I Can't Turn You Loose
Baby Strange
Black Diamond
Lookin For Ya
When The Lights Are Out
Heart Of Stone
Left Here In The Dark
Answering Machine
Left Of The Dial
Gary's Got A Boner
Go
If I Only Had A Brain
Kansas City Star
Yeah!*
Takin' Care Of Business*
Help Me Rhonda*
Little GTO*
Can't Get Enough Of Your Love*
I'll Be There*
Hitchin' A Ride*

* Alex Chilton performs with the band

REPLACEMENTS- 1-19-85. rar

Riff Randells- Doublecross

2011-02-22T00:06:00.003-06:00

As you may have noticed I'm a huge fan of girl-pop/punk bands. I love girl vocals set in front of fast guitar driven rock with no pretentiousness and no concern with overproduced vocals and overdubs. I like the music pure and simple, straight from the heart.

Vancouver has produced many fine all-girl bands such as Cub, Maow, Vancougar and The Riff Randells. The Riff Randells formed in 1999 and they built a strong following touring frequently around Canada and the States as well as tours through Europe and Japan. Their infectious lo-fi pop punk sound is not unlike early Donnas, Nikki And The Corvettes and the Ramones. Their band name is named after the character in the film, Rock 'n' Roll High School, who is the Ramones biggest fan in her high school. A crazy, strange movie, see it if you can, especially if you're a fan of the Ramones...a cult classic!

I'm not certain, but I think Doublecross is the last album the Riff Randells have released and I'm not sure if the band is actually still active. They have previous releases on 7" and 10" vinyl and a couple of CD-EP's that might be hard to find. Some great classic three-chord rock that's catchy as hell and a lot of fun!...Get it while you can!
enjoy!

RIFF RANDELLS
Doublecross (2007)

1. Traitor Of The Heart
2. When He Looks At Me
3. Listen Up
4. Parker Place
5. All I Know
6. The Only One
7. When You Go
8. Nothing Without Me
9. Double Cross
10. Bandana
11. Gotta Move On

RIFF RANDELLS- Doublecross. rar

Cub- Mauler

2011-02-15T23:40:00.003-06:00

As the text on the bottom of album cover suggests, this is a collection of oddities that was released after the band split in 1996. Cub only released 3 full length albums, but along the way, they also recorded and released a fair share of 7' singles and appeared on many compilations. What we have here is a collection of some of those singles and comp tracks, but unfortunately instead of including all their rarities, this CD includes tracks already available on those 3 proper albums. There are some real gems on here and interesting covers and in some ways it's their most complete and full sounding collection of songs.

I will always have a place in my heart for bands like Cub. Their "cuddle core" sound is undeniable fun and infectious and they play a melodic jangly style of music that is on the surface so simple and unadulterated, yet they could also fuzz it up garage-style when they got too sweet. Considering the band members had no prior musical experience, with each album's release the band's sound matured and it was obvious their musicianship improved as well.

CUB was Lisa Marr (vocals, bass), Robynn Iwata (guitar)and Lisa G. (drums) Original drummer, Valeria Fellini played only on their first album. Neko Case also played drums on some of their early recordings and for you Neko trivia buffs, she sang in front of a live audience for the first time ever when she was with Cub when they performed in Ohio (the song was Cub's, So Far Apart). If you're not familiar with Cub, check out their 3 full length CD's (Betti-Cola, Come Out Come Out and Box Of Hair) or better yet seek out their 45's...if you can find them.

CUB
Mauler (1997)

1. you know he did
2. nicolas bragg
3. day i said goodbye
4. she's like a rainbow
5. exit
6. pregnant
7. my flaming red bobsled
8. pillow queen
9. green eyes
10. freaky
11. fb song
12. secret nothing
13. go fish
14. new york city
15. runaway
16. my chinchilla

CUB- Mauler. rar

Song Of The Day- "I'm In Love With A Girl": Twice!

2011-02-14T23:41:00.003-06:00

Alright, it was Valentine's Day today so hopefully everyone got their fill of chocolate, red foods (including wine) and valentine cards. It's always sickening to see all those happy loving couples "enjoying" themselves on this otherwise normal day, by doing happy loving couple things like dinner, flowers, chocolate and some good luvin'! I did half of those things, I ate leftovers, had a glass of wine, went to see the latest Harry Potter flick (it's at the cheap seats now!), ate popcorn, drank Coke and came home and inhaled a handful of M & M's. Yup, just a normal day.

The most sentimental I get on Valentine's is posting a love song, that hopefully my wife might have a listen to. Mariel posted a link on Facebook from a blog posting called, "Alex Chilton's I'm In Love With A Girl Is the Best Valentine's Song Ever" and I can't disagree. It's a beautiful heartfelt song featuring just Alex on the acoustic guitar. It's funny, because I first heard this song on a live Replacements bootleg from 1985, before hearing the original. Paul Westerberg was a huge Big Star fan and the band would often throw in a couple Big Star numbers in their live shows. I thought it would be fun to share both versions of the song and as a added bonus, The Replacements demo version of Valentine!
Enjoy!!

BIG STAR- "I'm In Love With A Girl"

THE REPLACEMENTS- "I'm In Love With A Girl" (live: Uptown Bar And Grill, Mpls, MN, Jan. 19, 1985)

THE REPLACEMENTS- "Valentine" (demo: Aug. 1986- last session with Bob Stinson)