The Beths- Lincoln Hall, Chicago, March 6, 2019

 

Reflecting back on the last few years, I realize I haven't listened to a lot of new music and I'm losing touch of bands that have have appeared into the 2020's. One band that I can say for certain I follow and enjoy are The Beths from Auckland, New Zealand. To date, the band has released three studio albums, one live and an EP in 2016. I first heard the band when I listened to a live recording of a show they played in 2018, in the UK. This was before I actually heard their first album, Future Me Hates Me, which blew me away with it's infectiously catchy pop melodies and songs that are instantly likable. Every song on their debut album is excellent and they've carried over the solid formula on their follow-up releases. They have to be the most unpretentious and non-flashy band I've heard in a long time, no gimmicks, pyro or over-the-top stage shows for this band. The lead singer/guitarist, Elizabeth Stokes is a cute, modest lovable presence that I enjoy and lead guitarist, Jonathan Pearce is an outstanding player that drives the sound of the band. They've toured several times to the U.S. (unfortunately haven't seen them live), so catch them if they come to your town.

The earliest live recording I have from the Beths is a set that performed in Chicago (you sense a "Chicago"-theme for the last few posts? The NHL outdoor classic is today at Wrigley in Chicago) in 2019, that features songs from the EP (Warm Blood) and the then, soon-to-be released debut. The recording is from a Webcast and the audio is a soundboard, so the sound quality is outstanding and is as good as any live album. The band's official live album, Auckland, New Zealand, 2020 was released in 2021. Great performance and a worthwhile listen for anyone that appreciates good power-pop and rockin' melodies!

Enjoy!

There is some video from this concert, Live At the Lincoln Hall on YouTube (webcast?)

Happy Unhappy

Little Death

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use

Please share!

 

 

 

The Beths
Lincoln Hall
Chicago, Illinois
March 6, 2019

Lineage: LIVE Webcast -> FFmpeg (capture & edit) -> uncompressed .ts
Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920x1080 16:9 2240 Kbps 30.00 fps
Audio: AAC 128 Kbps 48.0 KHz stereo

Setlist:

01. Whatever
02. You Wouldn't Like Me
03. Not Running
04. Warm Blood
05. Great No One
06. River Run: (Lvl 1)
07. Idea/Intent
08. Lying in the Sun
09. Happy Unhappy
10. <chit-chat & thank you's>
11. Little Death
12. Less Than Thou

Encore:
13. <applause, crowd>
14. Future Me Hates Me
15. Uptown Girl

 

TRT: 00:57:42

 

Notes: The Beths occupy a warm, energetic sonic space between joyful hooks, sun-soaked harmonies, and acerbic lyrics. Hailing from New Zealand, they've already won fans as a live act — the band released its first album, 'Future Me Hates Me', in August 2018 after first wowing critics with their EP, 'Warm Blood'.

The Beths are:
Elizabeth Stokes - vocals, guitar
Jonathan Pearce - guitar, vocals
Benjamin Sinclair - bass, vocals
Ivan Luketina-Johnston - drums, vocals, tambourine

https://thebethsnz.bandcamp.com/ 

THE BETHS- 2019-03-06 Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL FLAC. rar

Graham Parker- Squeezing Out Sparks Solo Acoustic

Thoughts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) have taken over our lives. It has affected the way we interact with people, how we cautiously move about and how a weird sense of taking back control of our lives has led to hoarding toilet paper and hand sanitizer. Schools, universities, professional and amateur sports, movie theatres, galleries, museums, theatre/concerts, restaurants and many businesses are shutting down to help stop the spread of this deadly virus. It's the uncertainty that is one of the biggest concerns and who knows how long it will take for our lives to return to normal, whatever that'll look like. Today at my place of employment (my real job), we made the decision to be closed, except only by appointment to pick up completed work (I work at a picture framing shop). For the rest of week, one employee will be physically there to field phone calls, inquiries and pickups and most likely by next week we temporarily close completely. Since hockey has been a no-go for almost a week now, I will have a lot more free time to dedicate what I truly love best, writing posts on this blog. Expect to see more updates than once a month.

One of the key annual events in the music industry, Record Store Day is also effected by the virus. RSD was to take place this year on April 18th, but has been postponed until June 20th. This is a popular day for a mass of new releases, many limited edition and/or reissues. To be fair and realistically the stores might not be open even a month from now so this is a good decision to maximize the full retail potential. This year, one item that caught my attention was a new release from the Young Fresh Fellows, Toxic Youth, that will be limited to 800 copies. Check the RSD and the Record Store Day Canada website for more details and for participating stores in your area.

Speaking of Record Store Day, here's a little something from RSD 19, a reworking of sorts of one of Graham Parker's best albums, Squeezing Out Sparks. This edition is an album of all new solo acoustic performances from Graham (sorry, no Rumour) that celebrates the 40th anniversary of this classic. It was a limited UK edition limited to 500 copies on blue vinyl and is long out of print. It is sequenced in the same order as the original record with the addition of a bonus track of Mercury Poisoning, which I think is arguably one of his best songs. Just imagine Graham Parker, acoustic guitar in hand performing these songs in your living room (or where ever), no band, no overdubs and no special effects. It's clear and refreshing and he serves up a mighty fine performance. Though the songs are strong and powerful, what this recording lacks is the "sparks" and the angry rebelliousness raw sound that Parker's music expressed 40 years ago. I can't help feeling after listening to this album that I have to put on the original disc from 1979 to remind myself why Allmusic cited it as, "[his] finest album", "a masterful fusion of pub rock classicism, new wave pop, and pure vitriol". Parker's career has varied greatly over the years and he often revisits some of his past triumphs. In the mid-90's he joined up with The Figgs as his supporting band after years of performing solo and his recent collaborations with his former band, The Rumour (Three Chords Good & Mystery Glue) continues to be promising. Parker still has a lot more gas in his tank and he's always worth a listen even if it's not a full tank.

Take care, wash your hands, stay at home, share your toilet paper and listen to good music!
Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!


Graham Parker
Squeezing Out Sparks (2019)
(Solo Acoustic 40th anniversary)

01    Discovering Japan   
02    Local Girls   
03    Nobody Hurts You   
04    You Can't Be Too Strong   
05    Passion Is No Ordinary Word   
06    Saturday Nite Is Dead   
07    Love Gets You Twisted   
08    Protection   
09    Waiting For The UFOs   
10    Don't Get Excited   
11    Mercury Poisoning   

GRAHAM PARKER- Squeezing Out Sparks-40th Anniversary solo acoustic FLAC. rar

Yo La Tengo- Request-A-Thon 2019

Once again, Yo La Tengo performed on WFMU-FM (out of Jersey City in the good ol' USA) for an afternoon of accepting fundraising pledges in exchange for a song. This annual, Request-a-Thon has had the honour of having Yo La Tengo live-on-air taking your requests for something like 24 straight years, if that's true it's simply amazing! As a music fan outside of the listening zone of New Jersey (though, I'm sure online is a possibility) I await for someone to post the show so I can hear YLT always interesting covers and I'm more than eager to share it here. I've posted the last three years broadcasts along with a couple others from the early 2000's and to make it easier to access the previous posts, I've started to add tag labels (at the bottom of the post). For example, at the bottom of this post, if you click Yo La Tengo or WFMU, the search will bring up the other posts with the same label, easy eh?

In case you're not completely familiar with the format of the all request live-on-air show, here's an excerpt from Yo La Tengo's page:
  Anybody who pledges at least $100 gets to make a song request, and we will do our best to play it.  And if you’ve heard this show before you are well aware that all too frequently our best, to quote Eric Burdon, just ain’t good enough.  This is the 24th year in a row that we’ve done this, and you’d think we’d have it down by now.  

A word or two about these requests.  We will not be consulting computers, phones or anything else to help us play these songs, relying strictly on our “wits” and a lifetime of listening to records.  We do not pretend to know every song ever written, and by the end of the afternoon, you’ll be wondering if we in fact know even one.  If you are of a mind to give us a couple of choices, or “any song by _____,” you’ve got a better chance of hearing us try to take your request.  Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen.            

As the show goes by, the requests tend to pile up faster than we can keep track of them, so pledging in advance will increase the odds that we play your song. We swear on a stack of Hit Paraders that the four of us will know nothing of the requests until after the show begins.

Special thanks to Yo La Tengo and WFMU-FM for making this recording available. WFMU-FM is a listener supported, independent community radio station. It is the longest-running freeform radio station in the U.S.

Donations to the station can be made here:
https://pledge.wfmu.org/donate?step=landing
Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell!
Please do not trade this in lossy format.
Convert to lossy for personal use only.

Yo La Tengo
Live on Todd-o-phonic Todd's
Request-a-Thon with Gaylord Fields and Evan Funk Davies
WFMU-FM's Monty Hall
Jersey City, NJ USA
2019-03-09
7 sets from 3-6pm

Broadcast live over 91.1 WFMU-FM, Jersey City, NJ USA.

Lineage:
WFMU-FM > Sony XDR-F1HD > Edirol R-09HR (44.1/16) >
Sony Soundforge 10 > FLAC level 6 aligned on SB

Set 1:
01 - Rumble (Originally by Link Wray) (2:03)
02 - For Pete's Sake (Originally by The Monkees) (2:03)
03 - Daydream Believer (Originally by The Monkees) (2:47)
04 - Puff The Magic Dragon (Originally by Peter, Paul and Mary) (2:00)
05 - Be My Baby (Originally by The Ronettes) (2:53)

Set 2:
06 - Rock n Roll High School (Originally by Ramones) (1:45)
07 - I'm A Man (Originally by Spencer Davis Group) (2:28)
08 - Mother-In-Law (Originally by Ernie K Doe) (1:54)
09 - Autumn Sweater (Originally by Yo La Tengo) (4:54)
10 - Agitated (Originally by the electric eels) (1:48)

Set 3:
11 - Girls Just Want To Have Fun (Originally by Cyndi Lauper) (2:01)
12 - Panic In Detroit (Originally by David Bowie) (2:06)
13 - Ya Ya (Originally by Lee Dorsey) (2:35)
14 - He's Frank (Originally by the Monochrome Set) (3:21)
15 - Betty Lou's Got A New Tattoo (Originally by the Creep) (1:59)

Set 4:
16 -  TV Party (Originally by Black Flag) (2:05)
17 -  Cast A Shadow (Originally by Beat Happening) (2:16)
18 -  Lay Lady Lay (Originally by Bob Dylan) (2:33)
19 -  Synthetic World (Originally by Swamp Dogg) (2:47)
20 -  Rock And Roll (Originally by the Velvet Underground) (3:16)

Set 5:
21 - Get Dancin' (Originally by Disco-Tex and Sex-o-lettes) (1:38)
22 - Cowgirl In The Sand (Originally by Neil Young) (2:40)
23 - Ever Fallen In Love (Originally by Buzzcocks) (2:20)
24 - Can You Get To That? (Originally by Funkadelic) (1:46)
25 - You Really Got Me (Originally by The Kinks) (2:21)

Set 6:
26 - Theme from M*A*S*H (OST) (1:19)
27 - Chewy Chewy (Originally by Ohio Express) (2:40)
28 - Unsatisfied (Originally by the Replacements) (2:38)
29 - She's Not There (Originally by the Zombies) (2:16)
30 - Babysitter (Originally by Ramones) (3:15)

Set 7:
31 - Ain't Got No Home (Originally by Clarence "Frogman" Henry) (2:16)
32 - Mickey (Originally by Toni Basil) (2:36)
33 - Anything Could Happen (Originally by The Clean) (2:15)
34 - Poison Ivy (Originally by the Coasters) (2:03)
35 - She Cracked (Originally by the Modern Lovers) (3:09)
36 - Re-Make/Re-Model (Originally by Roxy Music) > Medley of Requests (5:56)

With references to:
Auntie Grizelda - Monkees
Why?
The Beautifule Ones - Prince
Bumpy Ride - Mohombi
I Am A Scientist - Guided By Voices
Kids - MGMT
The Beautiful Ones - Prince
What Do I Get - Buzzcocks
Follow Me Around - Radiohead
Always Everytime
Do You Love Me - Kiss
See The Sky About To Rain - The Byrds
New Girl In School - Freedy Johnston
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
Insane Clown Posse/X-Ray Burns

Total Running Time: 1hr 30min 59sec

Personnel:
Georgia Hubley - drums, vocals
Ira Kaplan - guitar, vocals
James McNew - bass
Bruce Bennett - guitar, vocals

YO LA TENGO- 2019-03-09 WFMU-FM Jersey City, NJ FLAC .rar

Neil Young & Crazy Horse- Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg Feb. 4, 2019

Since there was a policy of no photography during the show, this is the best I have.

Back in December, when pre-sale tickets for a pair of Neil Young & Crazy Horse shows in early February went on sale I had no idea he was even coming to town. My brother asked if I was a member of the Neil Young Archives because being a member meant first dibs for tickets. I wasn't, so he joined and snagged tickets in the sixth row for the first show on February 3rd at the Burton Cummings Theatre. I used his password for the second show at the Centennial Concert Hall the following night. Before I bought the tickets I agonized whether I should "invest", I hadn't seen Young live before and he was on my imaginary list of bands I should see before I (or they) die, but tickets weren't cheap and the cheapskate that I am hasn't paid that much for concert tickets ever. What pushed my decision towards going was the fact his band Crazy Horse would be performing as well as Neil solo and I figured this might be one of the last opportunities to see the electric Neil. My theory is he can play the solo musician-thing for longer than the full-on band. I opted for the third most expensive price level which meant I was back to row 22 on the floor, but dead centre. This could be good!

I must admit I'm not a big fan of opening acts. I get the reason why they have them, it extends the actual performance time for your evening so you're not there for only an hour and a half to see the actual reason why you're there as opposed to two and a half hours with the opening act and the intermission before the headliner. No offensive to the opener (William Prince was fine), but I'm paying the big bucks to see Neil Young. In this case, a quick run to the bathroom during intermission turned into an overly long lineup and without warning (that I know of), the concert resumed as I was walking down the row to my seat. Without announcement, the lights go out, pitch black dark as Neil wanders onto the stage and launches into the first song. I scramble for my recording equipment, setup and hit record, trying the best I can to set the volume levels. Because it's so dark I use my small flashlight to see which shines "like headlights" according to the people beside me as I struggle to level on the fly. The woman beside me tells me, "could you please stop that" and I don't look at the levels again, this isn't a good thing!

Neil played seven songs for his solo mini set, meandering between guitar, piano and banjo which was mellow and cool, not overwhelmingly exciting, but probably satisfied the older folk festival going fans the most. Things got cooking more once Crazy Horse joined Young for the electric band set. Rockin' In The Free World was the perfect set opener, I think Neil is at his best when he plays with Crazy Horse. Songs like, The Losing End, Roll Another Number and Winterlong are great underrated songs from his extensive catalog and Cortez The Killer is truly a Neil Young & Crazy Horse classic! For me, the guitar interplay on that song was worth the price of admission and seeing Neil shred with the great Nils Lofgren was a thrill. The main set closed with Fuckin' Up, which of course led to a two song encore with another classic, Like A Hurricane and ended the evening with Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black), which also closed the show the prior evening. Overall, a solid show, but wish there was a longer set from Neil with Crazy Horse, but I'm glad I was there.

The sound on the live recording is really good, not much nearby crowd noise or talking, so the sound is clear thanks also to the supreme acoustics of the concert hall, which is made specifically for concerts. There are though some imperfections on this recording I should mention before you listen:

• The recording joins the first song (Out On The Weekend) a verse or so into the song. I missed the start before I got to my seat. There was no introduction before the song so you don't miss much. 
• After the first song when I was adjusting the sound levels, the sound is stabilized and the rest of the solo set is fine. Thanks again to the lady beside me for talking in my ear, I didn't take any photos because I was worried she would freak out with the light from my phone if I dared.
• During the beginning of Rockin' In The Free World the volume shoots up (Warning, you might want to turn it down a bit) for a moment, as I blindly turn the levels down almost too low for the rest of the song. By Danger Bird, the sound levels are up more evenly and stays that way to the end.

I originally was going to post this show to Dime (you have to be a member), but since I took my sweet time preparing the files and writing this, someone beat me to it. There is another recording from this show posted, I haven't listened to it, but it probably didn't have the issues I mentioned above. Also, on Dime there is a recording of the first night at the Burt. If you are not a member and you are interested, I might re-post the show here with the permission of the taper (please let me know). Since I don't want to post another version on Dime, this recording is exclusive to TDIT and is available for all to enjoy.
Enjoy!!

Please do NOT sell or convert to lossy format
Please share!

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
Centennial Concert Hall
Winnipeg, MB, Canada
February 4, 2019
AUD Master

Sony ECM-DS70P mic> Tascam DR-07> SD card > 16 bit Wav>
Direct Wave MP3 splitter> FLAC> rar file

Neil Solo
01. Out On The Weekend (in progress)
02. Distant Camera
03. War Of Man
04. Old King
05. Green Is Blue
06. Don't Let It Bring You Down
07. Journey Through The Past

with Crazy Horse
08. Rockin' In The Free World
09. Danger Bird
10. Wonderin'
11. The Losing End
12. Roll Another Number (For The Road)
13. Winterlong
14. Cortez The Killer
15. Fuckin' Up

Encore
16. Like A Hurricane
17. Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black)

Crazy Horse
Neil Young- vocals, guitar
Nils Lofgren- guitar
Billy Talbot- bass
Ralph Molina- drums

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE- 2019-02-04 Winnipeg, MB FLAC Master. rar