The 1992 Sub Pop Vermonstress Fest : Live Come

Posted on September 16, 2003 at 8:29 am | No Comments

The fourth installment of my ongoing live music encoding project has arrived. I’ve been converting sets from old cassettes to mp3s, archiving my recordings of the Sub Pop Vermonstress Fest that took place in Burlington, Vermont over a couple days in the fall of 1992.

I started back in May with a set from Six Finger Satellite, and quickly followed with Velocity Girl and Codeine. After a long summer, and by special request, the fourth set is from Boston’s own Come.

In 1992, Come still had their original lineup of Thalia Zedek, Chris Brokaw, Sean O’Brien, and Arthur Johnson. The band was just two years old, and their amazing debut full-length, Eleven:Eleven, wasn’t even out yet (although Sub Pop had already released the “Car” 7” as part of their singles club). Their live set was powerful, cathartic, messy, and unlike anything I’d ever seen. Soundboard recordings rarely capture the impact of live sets, but this one comes damn close once the levels even out. It has some incredible high points, especially “William” and set closer “S.V.K.”. Go on and get ’em.

Almanac Mp3(s) of the Week : Archers of Loaf vs. Treepeople

Posted on September 15, 2003 at 9:32 am | No Comments

It was in 1994 that I discovered the Archers of Loaf. All it took was ‘Web in Front’ to make them one of my new faves, and it ensured I’d pick up just about everything they did from then on. That song still gets me, every single time. So when Boston label Sonic Bubblegum put out a split double 7” with the Archers and the Treepeople (who I hadn’t yet heard), of course I was gonna get it. It was a novel idea… each band doing a song of their own, backed by a cover of one of the other band’s songs. The Archers did Treepeople’s “Funnelhead”, and Treepeople took on “Web in Front” (my first exposure to Doug Martsch’s pre-Built to Spill band). In the almost 10 years since, Sonic Bubblegum has faded, the Archers are long gone, and Doug chugs on with Built to Spill. While the Archers’ cover of “Funnelhead” was eventually released on a cd compilation, I don’t believe Treepeople’s “Web in Front” ever went digital. So here they both are. Thanks for all the records, Mike. Ever thought about a retrospective Sonic Bubblegum compilation disc?