Thursday Music Miscellany
Posted on July 17, 2008 at 10:45 am | No Comments
Whew. Summertime. And the living ain’t so easy. Too busy for (typing) words.
Hope you dug all those live 1992 Sub Pop fest Mp3s, and if you haven’t grabbed them yet, best get on that, as they’ll be gone soon enough. Y’know, I think I burned out on computer time after editing and sharing up all those suckers, which partially explains my bloggy absence over the past week or so. That and the busy-ness, the dad-ness, the working for the man, the living of the life.
I’m compelled to first mention TONIGHT: I’m back at Central Square’s River Gods for the excellent Tourfilter DJ Night (excellence independent of my involvement, ‘natch). At 9pm I climb the stairs to the booth and play a couple hours of songs by bands that are coming to the area sometime soon. Following my set is Chris from Tourfilter, who takes over until closing. And for the sticklers: Yes, I’m kind of bending the rules on this one, though, by including tracks from a few of the many ATP NY bands. For that September weekend, as far as this excited guy is concerned, the Catskills is officially “in the Boston area”.
Hey, while you’re listening to all those live Sub Pop fest songs I shared, you might as well do some appropriate reading, so check out Blurt’s excellent coverage of all the Sub Pop 20th Anniversary festivities last weekend.
Online radio listeners, there are two different places to direct your ears today:
Ted Leo appeared on the (so sadly now-canceled) Bryant Park Project this morning to chat (about band names, the musical he’s working on, and more) and play a couple songs, including a brand new song called “The Mighty Sparrow” and cover of the Waterboys’ “Fisherman’s Blues“. Ted plays with his Pharmacists tonight at the River to River festival in Manhattan. Gloriously, Bottomless Pit, and supposedly/hopefully their current tourmates the Kadane Bros., will appear live on KEXP this afternoon. The Seattle-based station is broadcasting from Chicago this week, and their site says BP at 1pm, so that’d be 4pm EST. Unless that’s Chicago time. Oh hell, I’ll just listen all day to make sure I don’t miss it. The sounds of their amazing show here last Friday are still reverberating around my brain.
Tickets for The Wedding Present‘s return to Boston (Monday, October 6th at the Middle East) are on sale, so get with the grabbing. Their just-released “El Rey” is a worthy addition to their catalog, maybe even an improvement on their previous album, and that’s saying a lot. Unsurprisingly, Frank expresses my thoughts on the new Weddoes using better words, and more of ’em, over here.
While I’m at it, a quick mention of some other October shows recently announced: Wire (who released a new album this week) plays the Middle East two days later, on October 8th (tix, on sale tomorrow); Billy Bragg plays two shows at the Somerville Theatre on October 21st (tix) and 22nd (tix); And how about the terrible timing of Stereolab playing in town on the very same night as The Wedding Present? Drat and double drat on that. My loyalty to Gedge is unbreakable, but that’s a painful one (new Stereolab song here, by the way).
Audio gold for not just Buffalo Tom fans: Singer/guitarist Bill Janovitz recently wrapped up his weekly, month-long residency at the tiny Toad in Cambridge, and Dan from BT fansite the Kitchen Door was there to record much of it. He graciously shares up the results right here, and to be found within are a wide variety of fantastic covers, both acoustic and with some of Bill’s friends behind him, as well as some Buffalo Tom and Crown Victoria songs. We’re talkin’ Elvis Costello’s “Oliver’s Army“, Modern Lover’s “Roadrunner“, alongside BT’s “Tailights Fade” and “Tangerine“. And that’s just naming four tracks out of almost 100. Like I said, gold.
Details on Eric Bachmann’s next Crooked Fingers album are out, including the title (“Forfeit / Fortune”), the release date (October 7th), and the label (none!). Yes, Eric has left the Merge stable to go it on his own, and you can read why here. When the album does arrive, it’ll be available on vinyl, as well as a deluxe edition that will feature a bonus DVD and special artwork.
Los Angeles fans can get a preview of that special edition tomorrow night: Eric will be performing an intimate set at LA’s Tangiers Restaurant, and it’s being videotaped for inclusion on that bonus DVD. Tickets here. If you’re a Boston-based Bachmann fan, well, I wish I had good news for you, but alas: The closest Eric is bringing Crooked Fingers this fall seems to be Northampton on October 8th. No closer date yet, but I’m keeping my own crooked digits crossed.
Sweden’s poptastic Labrador Records has made a wonderful 30-track 2008 Summer Sampler available for downloading either straight from their site as a .zip file or via PirateBay bittorrent. Some included artists are the Sound Of Arrows, Pelle Carlberg, Club 8, the Legends, the Radio Dept., Acid House Kings, and the Mary Onettes. UPDATED: As noted in the comments, Labrador’s servers were overwhelmed by people downloading the .zip file, so I’ve decided to help out a bit: Grab it right here for a limited time. Being the, um, anal-retentive detail-oriented music fan that I am, I’ve fixed some titling and tagging problems as well. Enjoy.
Congrats to Eugene in South Carolina, Ray in Cambridge, Mass., and Shawn in Louisiana, who all have a copy of that Brushfire Records vinyl sampler on its way to them. Hopefully the mail delivery truck doesn’t get too hot in the summer sun, or they’ll be opening up a slab of melted wax.
See you at River Gods tonight…
Live Mp3s: Celebrating Sub Pop’s 20th
Posted on July 8, 2008 at 9:30 am | No Comments
If I didn’t have these soundboard recordings, ticket stubs, and an old disintegrating t-shirt as proof, I’d have a hard time believing that Sub Pop‘s 1992 Vermonstress Festival actually took place. As an indie-rock-lovin’, college radio DJin’, drum-learnin’, band-startin’, early-20-something kid living in the relatively isolated Burlington, Vermont, imagine how stunned I was to hear that one of my favorite record labels was planning a music fest pretty much on my doorstep. No travel necessary. Fifteen bands over two autumn days, some on the Sub Pop roster and others that the label just loved, and for no discernible reason. All I’d heard was they dug our little college town (pop: around 40,000), and who knows… maybe this was just a fun way to blow some cash from the post-“Nevermind” explosion.
Whatever the reason, the SP team and all the invitees descended upon the Champlain Valley and blessedly rescued me and my friends from cheesy cover bands and Phish for a weekend (and inspiring a friend and I to start up our own yearly fest, but that’s another post). With Pond crashing at our band house for a few days beforehand (they were on their way back to home from their first UK tour, opening for Throwing Muses), and with us hosting a big party in the middle of the madness, the whole thing felt like one long celebration, and as a local, it was easy to tell that most of the sell-out crowds had traveled down from Montreal or up from Boston and NYC.
the Vermonstress tee (click to enlarge)
It was a surreal couple days, to say the least, with the Metronome stage hosting current faves and newfound revelations — so many bands I’d have driven a great distance to see (Codeine, Velocity Girl, Come, Drop Nineteens, Beat Happening, Buffalo Tom), and others I’d consider myself lucky to hear so early on (Six Finger Satellite, Eric’s Trip, Barbara Manning, Giant Sand, Sloan, Green Magnet School). Hell, brand new Sub Pop signees Pond hadn’t even released their first album yet, and getting to see them then was a true gift. Their set was frenetic, intense, and totally inspiring… maybe the best of the weekend, and given the amazing lineup, that’s saying a hell of a lot.
the Vermonstress press release (click to enlarge)
A few years back, in the relatively early days of the Almanac’s current incarnation, I finished converting, editing, and sharing up all of my Vermonstress soundboard cassette recordings. 130 songs by 15 bands, adding up to almost 9 hours of digital goodness. And so, in honor of this week’s celebration of Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary, I was inspired to remaster all the songs (I’ve learned a bit about that in the years since) and share them as higher quality Mp3s (from original .wavs as 192kbps vs. the former 128kbps).
A few things of note…
Included are some excellent covers: Chris Harford doing Prince’s “Pop Life“, Pond with the late Bo Diddley’s “Pretty Thing“, GMS’s take on Neil Young’s “Don’t Cry”, Barbara Manning covering The Bats, and yes, two different Madonna covers. Unfortunately my original cassette of the Buffalo Tom and Gravel sets disappeared years ago (the victim of a band-house party, I think), so their sets are sadly missing. Also missing are a few song titles below, especially from the HP Zinker set, so if you know any of them, kindly let me know in the comments. As is often the case with multi-band festivals, soundchecks were a rarity, so the mix can be wonky at the beginning of each set. They improve greatly as they go, though, so hang in there. I’ll have these up for a fairly limited time (a couple weeks, max), as it eats up most of my server space and will no doubt do the same with my monthly bandwidth. And if you’re dreading clicking on 130 links, you’d do well to grab Firefox and the DownThemAll add-on. If you don’t already use it, you’ll thank me later. If streaming is more your style, don’t forget to hit up the Almanac page at the Hype Machine.
Enjoy the wealth of greatness below, as if I had to tell you that…
Vermonstress – Day 1
Saturday, October 10th, 1992
Codeine
01. Realize
02. Jr.
03. Barely Real
04. Cave-In
05. Hard to Find
06. D
07. Broken-Hearted Wine
Come
01. Dead Molly
02. William
03. Submerge
04. Last Mistake
05. Fast Piss Blues
06. Bell
07. Car
08. S.V.K.
Drop Nineteens
01. Delaware
02. Mayfield
03. Winona
04. Astral
05. Happen
06. My Aquarium
07. Reberrymemberer
08. Angel (Madonna cover)
Velocity Girl
01. Doesn’t Matter
02. 57 Waltz
03. Copacetic
04. Pretty Sister
05. Stupid Thing
06. Warm/Crawl
07. My Forgotten Favorite
08. Creepy
09. Crazy Town
Crow
01. Eyes are Bruised
02. Railhead
03. Light
04. Prisoner
05. The Charley Horses
06. God-Fearing Shareholders of the World
07. EJ
Pond
01. Grinned
02. Young Splendor
03. Perfect Four
04. Wheel
05. Pretty Thing (Bo Diddley cover)
06. Spots
07. Agatha / Filler
Beat Happening
01. Tiger Trap
02. Teenage Caveman
03. Sleepyhead
04. Dreamy
05. banter
06. Red Head Walkin’
07. Other Side
08. Revolution Come and Gone
09. Nancy Sin
10. Noise
11. Godsend
12. Cry For A Shadow
13. Me Untamed
14. You Turn Me On
15. Crashing Through
Vermonstress – Day 2
Sunday, October 11th, 1992
Six Finger Satellite
01. Sex Transistor
02. Niponese National Anthem
03. Laughing Larry
04. Polish the Shine (Satchmo)
05. Home for the Holy Day
06. Crippled Monster Bearing Malice
Green Magnet School
01. Sonic Exterminator
02. Noxin
03. Barmecide Room
04. Don’t Cry (Neil Young)
05. Singed
06. 12 Guage
07. Penance
Sloan
01. Sleepover
02. Lucky For Me
03. Shame Shame
04. Ill-Placed Trust
05. Underwhelmed
06. Take It In
07. Marcus Said
08. Pretty Voice
Giant Sand
01. Neon Filler
02. Song 02
03. Sage Advice
04. Wearing the Robes of Bible Black
05. Solomon’s Ride / Stuck
06. Unwed and Well Sped
Barbara Manning
01. Never Park
02. Breathe Lies
03. Someone Wants You Dead
04. Don’t Rewind
05. Winter Song
06. On On and One
07. Smoking Her Wings (Bats cover)
08. Lock Yer Room (up tight)
09. Scissors
Eric’s Trip
01. Kiss Me Baby / Smother
02. Listen
03. Haze
04. Belong
05. Happens All The Time
06. Float
07. Belly
08. My Chest Is Empty (part 2)
09. Blinded
10. Bring Down the Rain
11. Easier Last Time
12. Open Your Heart (Madonna cover)
Chris Harford
and the First Rays of the New Rising Sun
01. Swinging Bridge
02. Raise the Roof
03. Looking For Light
04. Road With You
05. If You Forget Me
06. Pop Life (Prince cover)
07. You Brains
08. The Living End
09. Gather Round / Sing, Breathe, and Be Merry
HP Zinker
01. Song 1
02. Song 2
03. Song 3
04. Trapped
05. Song 5
06. Song 6
07. Song 7
08. Song 8
09. Song 9
10. Warzone City
11. Song 11
There’s been some cool coverage leading up to Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary shindig this coming weekend, including a lengthy interview with SP founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt over at Pitchfork, as well as an audio interview with Poneman courtesy of NPR’s World Cafe.
During that NPR chat, Poneman tackles the difficult task of naming his five fave SP-released songs. For the curious, they are: Pernice Bros.’ “Monkey Suit“, Fleet Foxes’ “White Winter Hymnal“, Iron & Wine’s “Lion’s Mane“, Vaselines’ “Dying For It“, and Zumpano’s “Here’s the Plan“. Don’t think I could ever force myself to pick just five from their catalog… hell, I’d probably have trouble just naming five faves from the discographies of certain Sub Pop bands. The label has been helping to make my life better for so many years, and it’s an understatement to say I’m grateful. If you’re fortunate enough to be attending SP20, my jealousy is directed your way. Wish I could be there.
(and if Pond had reunited to play, I probably would be!)