Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Young Fresh Fellows- Live Acoustic In Seattle 1984

 
 
I think a good way to end the year would be live recording from the Young Fresh Fellows. Despite the uncertainty in our world this past year, it was a very productive year with several Scott McCaughey/Fellows-related releases. New releases from the:
As well, Scott appeared on a new ep from the Junior League (Summer of Lies) and maybe there were others. A new Young Fresh Fellows record was a much needed breath of fresh air this year. The album's release date was pushed back a couple times to coincide with Record Store Day and it was finally released during the third RSD on October 24th. I ended up buying from a seller on Discogs (no regrets!), so I didn't get a vinyl copy of the album for a few weeks later (on bright toxic green colour vinyl!). It's an excellent record, definitely one of my favourites of the year and might be their best album since, Because We Hate You or even, Electric Bird Digest! Unfortunately, live shows were a no go this year, so hoping to see YFF/Scott play some live shows in the near future. I see the No Ones have already booked some live dates from the spring of 2022, I'm optimistic there will be more live shows way before then. Fingers crossed! 
 
 
For the final post of 2020, I've unearthed a live recording from the Young Fresh Fellows from 1984. This is a rare acoustic performance from the early days after the release of their debut album, The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest and includes a couple songs from their next record, Topsy Turvy and an interesting cover of Elvis Costello's, Green Shirt. I don't know much about the lineage of the recording or know how much longer the set was (it cuts during track 13). I received this in a trade many years ago, but it sounds pretty good, I'm always interested in hearing Chuck-era live shows which I don't have a lot of. Season's greetings and happy new year, hopefully 2021 will be a tad bit better. Continue to listen to good music in the new year!
Enjoy!
 
Essential Listen of the week: In a couple days it will be new year's eve, traditionally an evening of celebrating with family, friends and complete strangers, but this year will be significantly different. Some of my favourite live concert recordings are from new year's eve shows with the countdown and sometimes bands kick it up a notch with a unique show (Local H for example is know for their "themed" shows). Some years back I posted a Young Fresh Fellows NYE show from 1987, that is special to me, not only because it was the first YFF live show I received in a trade, but because it is very cool. I only wish this was a complete set, but regardless there isn't a better way to bring in the new year!
 
#14yearsoftrouble
Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording! 
Do NOT convert to lossy formats. (except for personal use)
Please share!
 
Seattle, WA
September 25, 1984 
(acoustic)
AUD recording

01. Big House
02. Dodge City
03. The New John Agar
04. Down By the Pharmacy
05. This Little Mystery
06. Back Room Of The Bar
07. Teenage Dogs In Trouble
08. Sharing Patrol
09. All Messed Up
10. Green Shirt
11. Very Fine Man
12. Rock 'n' Roll Pest Control
13. Young Fresh Fellows Theme (cuts off) 
 
 

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Juliana Hatfield- Live At Q Division Studios, Dec. 2020

 
 
With the continuation of restrictions due to the ongoing pandemic, live online concert streams have become pretty popular through a lot of 2020. The loss of income from live performances have caused many artists to seek alternative ways to earn a living and to reach out to fans. The live stream concerts help connect the artist with fans and while some shows are pay per view, others are free or rely on donations and selling merch/recordings. 
 
Juliana with the "setlist" for the show
 
Juliana Hatfield performed her first live stream concert on Saturday, December 19th from Q Division Studios in Somerville, MA. She played a solo acoustic performance of her classic second album (or her first with the Juliana Hatfield Three band) from 1993, Become What You Are (played in it's entirety) not once, but twice! After a shaky start (according to her), she repeated the first track on the album, Supermodel and when she completed the album with two bonus tracks (Christmas Cactus, her latest 7" single and Make It Home from the My So-Called Life soundtrack), she switched guitars and played the whole record all over again. Since I wasn't going anywhere, I stuck around and enjoyed part two, the "Martin guitar version" of Become What You Are
 
It was a joy and pleasure to see and hear Juliana perform live, just her voice and guitar. Hearing these songs acoustically without the JH3, takes the songs to a different level especially so many years later from their original release and lays bare the quality of songwriting and song structure and that Juliana is a really good guitar player. Once she became more comfortable and during the second run, she warmed to the idea of doing this again, possibly another album in it's entirety. At the end of the two sets, Juliana answered questions from fans who were able to live comment throughout the stream. We found out she's going to release her next album in 2021 called, Blood and she is planning on recording another "covers" album and she took suggestions about which artist to cover. She said she has some ideas, but suggestions ranged from the Carpenters to Nirvana and everything in between. She seemed interested in the possibility of covering someone like, Madonna, R.E.M. or Dinosaur Jr. (she's cover Dinosaur twice before!), but then again I didn't see Olivia Newton John or the Police on the radar before those records.
 
Juliana played her Martin acoustic guitar for the second set.
 
The sound quality is excellent and if you want to hear the audio only, I recorded the show live directly from the feed (line-out) into my recorder. I've split the tracks and though I considered splitting the two sets, the total download file isn't too large. (For burning purposes, I would suggest splitting the two sets (after track 16) and if you don't want to hear the Q & A from fans online, track 29 is quite long and could be omitted)
Enjoy!

The video of the show is still available online and you can watch it below or on YouTube


 
Essential listen of the week: During the Q & A portion when Juliana asked what album she should play next, a popular request was her unreleased album demos from circa 1996, God's Foot. Got me thinking about those recordings again and are worth another listen. I previously posted about it in 2009.
God's Foot (download mp3)
God's Foot (stream YouTube)


#14yearsoftrouble
Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!
Do NOT convert to lossy formats.
Please share!

JULIANA HATFIELD
Q Division Studios
Somerville, MA
Live Stream
December 19, 2020
Become What You Are album (acoustic)


01. Supermodel
02. Supermodel (take 2)
03. My Sister
04. This Is the Sound
05. For The Birds
06. Mabel
07. A Dame With A Rod
08. Addicted
09. Feelin' Massachusetts
10. Spin The Bottle
11. President Garfield
12. Little Pieces
13. I Got No Idols
14. Christmas Cactus
15. Make It Home
16. <Talk>

17. Supermodel
18. My Sister
19. This Is The Sound
20. For the Birds
21. Mabel
22. A Dame With A Rod
23. Addicted
24. Feelin' Massachusetts
25. Spin The Bottle
26. President Garfield
27. Little Pieces
28. I Got No Idols
29. <talk (viewers Q & A)>

 
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