Happy Birthday Cal: A Live Mp3 Compilation
Posted on January 27, 2008 at 4:29 am | No Comments
Two years ago today, Janet and J. Robbins welcomed son Callum into their music-filled world. To Cal, Janet and J. are just mom & dad, but to the rest of us, he’s got veritable rock stars for parents, with J. having played in the seminal Jawbox, Burning Airlines, & Government Issue, and alongside Janet in Channels. Hanging around the recording studio will surely feel completely normal to the little guy, as J. spends much of his days in his Baltimore-based Magpie Cage studio, tracking and mixing a whole bunch of damn good bands.
As recounted here, 8 months or so after Cal was born he was diagnosed with the genetic disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or Type 1 SMA. While research into a cure is ongoing, right now it’s incurable, and those who live with it are in for costly therapy and assistive medical devices. That’s why, as word spread of Cal’s diagnosis, the Robbins’ friends and fans rallied with benefit shows, the excellent “For Callum” compilation, and even a benefit disc of Jawbox covers performed on cello.
One of those benefits, which took place over two nights last summer at Somerville’s PA’s Lounge, brought a bunch of Boston-area (and one NY) bands together for Cal’s cause. And regardless of reason behind it, the shows were easily in my musical highlights for the year: Solo sets from Mark Robinson (Teenbeat/Unrest/Air Miami/Flin Flon) and Drew O’Doherty. Duos in the form of Dan & Liz from Ida, benefit organizer Geoff Farina (Karate/Glorytellers) & Jodi Buonanno reunited as Secret Stars, and Chris Brokaw with Geoff, dusting off some old-tyme covers. Then the full band performances: the mighty trio Helms, who were absolutely on fire that night, the noisy Neptune, who gave us a bunch of new songs, and an admittedly ramshackle but rockin’ set from Thalia Zedek and her band, with Hilken Mancini (Shepherdess/Fuzzy) guesting on a song or two.
Ida served up some old faves, new ones from their almost-out “Lovers Prayers” album (one they played, “Lolo Sang“, is the vinyl-only closing track), and a couple children’s songs for Cal. Secret Stars gave us magical versions of their best work. Drew played stuff from his “Starts”, along with the track he contributed to the “For Callum” compilation. And Mark Robinson even sang us the seldom-heard Lowell, Massachusetts theme song. All in all, eight performances over two nights filled with special moments, appreciative fans, and many warm vibes for a worthy cause.
So here’s the deal: I’d like to let those benefit performances keep on giving. As a present for their growing boy, I’m offering up this “Happy Birthday Cal” Mp3 compilation, with 18 live songs from most of bands who played at last summer’s Somerville shows, with their permission. And if you download it, or have ever downloaded and enjoyed any of my recordings here on the ‘Nac, I’d be psyched if you’d consider dropping a few dollars for the Robbins family in the Paypal bucket (by clicking the button below), or send a check if Paypal isn’t your thing (info at DeSoto). I’ve just kicked things off with a donation of my own, so as you spend time listening to all the great songs below, pretend you were there at the shows with me, and send a cover charge their way…
Recorded on July 13th & 14th, 2007
at PA’s Lounge in Somerville, MA
01. Drew O’Doherty – “Angels Live In My Town“
02. Drew O’Doherty – “You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly“
03. Chris Brokaw & Geoff Farina – “St. James Infirmary” (Animals)
04. Chris Brokaw & Geoff Farina – “It Hurts Me Too” (Meldon London)
05. Chris Brokaw & Geoff Farina – “That’ll Never Happen No More” (Blind Blake)
06. Helms – “There’s No ‘i’ In Team But There’s One In ‘Tina’“
07. Helms – “Fat Bird“
08. Helms – “More Blackouts Than I Care To Remember“
09. Secret Stars – “Shoe-In“
10. Secret Stars – “5,000,000,000“
11. Secret Stars – “Eyelashes“
12. Mark Robinson – “There’s A Lot To Like About Lowell“
13. Mark Robinson – “Fantastic and Spectacular“
14. Mark Robinson – “Isabel“
15. Ida – “Little Bird, Little Bird“
16. Ida – “Tellings“
17. Ida – “Lolo Sang“
18. Ida – “Les Etoiles Secretes“
Update 1/29/08: A number of very cool benefit items are starting to appear on eBay, the proceeds from which will all go to Cal’s cause. So far, you can bid on items donated by Kristin Hersh (a Toby Snax pack), Geoff Farina (a guitar lesson), Zach Barocas (a drum lesson), and Dan McCarthy (a gorgeous rare screen print). More should be added soon, so keep checking here.
More Mp3s: Kristin Hersh + Tanya Donelly @ the Brattle – Part 2
Posted on January 23, 2008 at 2:34 pm | No Comments
As I promised last week, here’s my recording of the second Kristin Hersh & Tanya Donelly team-up show from the Brattle Theatre last October. I wrote about the Muses-filled day here, and you can still download the full earlier show there as well.
For the uninitiated (or if you’ve never visited the ‘Nac before), Kristin and Tanya were longtime Throwing Muses bandmates, and the step-sisters have each since been involved in their own projects (Tanya releases solo material, fronted Belly, and helped start the Breeders, Kristin releases solo stuff, and plays in 50 Foot Wave as well). They got together last fall to play these two special gigs in Cambridge, Mass., treating us to separate solo sets and then joining together for some old faves.
I actually felt this second show was the stronger of the two, performance-wise, and the setlists contained a bunch of personal faves that didn’t make the first: Kristin’s “Sundrops” and “Spain“, Tanya’s “Slow Dog” and “Acrobat“, and the two performing Muses faves “Counting Backwards” and “Rabbit’s Dying” together. Anyone who was there might notice the absence of Kristin’s “Husk” and “Banks of the Ohio” below, and this can be blamed on batteries (like I said, it was a long day of music), which died during “Speed & Sleep“. Fortunately I noticed soon enough to only miss a couple songs, and you can make up for it by grabbing them from Kristin’s earlier set here.
Live at The Brattle Theatre
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
9PM show on Saturday, October 6th, 2007
Download: a 174MB ZIP file containing all 30 tracks below
Kristin Hersh’s solo set…
01. Freeloader
02. Spain
03. Poor Wayfaring Stranger
04. Sundrops
05. Windowpane
06. Speed & Sleep (fades out)
07. Deep Wilson
08. Cartoons
Tanya Donelly’s solo set…
(with Joe McMahon & Dean Fisher)
09. Tanya Arrives
10. Acrobat
11. Whiskey Tango Ghosts
12. Every Devil
13. Kundalini Slide
14. This Hungry Life
15. Slow Dog
16. Keeping You
17. Stay
18. Low Red Moon / Dusted
19. Green
Kristin & Tanya together…
20. Kristin Returns
21. Counting Backwards
22. Rabbit’s Dying
23. Fear
24. Sinkhole
25. Red Shoes
26. Pandora’s Box
27. Dragonhead
28. Honeychain
29. Soul Soldier
30. Two Step
Some Kristin & Tanya linkage…
Kristin’s official site, Wikipedia entry, and MySpace page. Tanya’s official site, Wikipedia entry, and MySpace page. Additional Audio: Be sure to check out the CASHmusic site, where Kristin is releasing her latest material, song-by-song, as pay-what-you-will downloads, and hit up the freemusic page at Throwing Music for some KH, TM, and 50 Foot Wave tracks. Tanya has also shared some free music, in the form of the original demo recordings of songs that later became Belly’s “Star” album. Video: A Kristin Hersh YouTube search turns up official videos and live clips, as does a Tanya Donelly YT search. Get old skool with a Throwing Muses YT search as well. There are also a couple clips from the Brattle show I shared above, including Tanya doing “Low Red Moon” & “Dusted“ and Kristin doing “Husk” & “Snakeface“. Photos: My Flickr-hosted shots from both Brattle shows are here. Check out a few full Flickr tag searches: Kristin, Tanya, & Throwing Muses. Listen to any and all ‘Nac-hosted Mp3s at the Hype Machine.
the fine print… If anyone has an issue with these Mp3s being made available, just let me know (my contact info in the ‘nac faq). Live sets recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps Mp3s. Files are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.