Friday, May 23

The Milestone, Charlotte - 1984

The dB’s
The Milestone
Charlotte, NC
May 20, 1984

audience recording (sound quality VG; transfer from master tape; very good recording of a very good show; I hope you enjoy it very much ...).  
Pretty sure this is the only recording I have of The deeBs covering Bubble Puppy.

The dB’s in 1984 at South of the Border (S.C. roadside institution)
Peter’s lookin’ like he overdid it a bit…

EXTRA THANKS to TheBynumite for taping & sharing.

SAMPLE: "Not Cool" (Charlotte 1984)


01 Living a Lie
South of the Border: put it on the bucket list.
02 Rendezvous
03 Love Is for Lovers  
      + band intros
04 Bad Reputation
05 We Were Happy There
06 Not Cool
07 Amplifier
08 New Gun In Town
09 Spitting In the Wind
10 Death Garage
11 A Spy In the House of Love
12 Any Old Thing
13 She Got Soul
14 Hot Smoke & Sassafras (Bubble Puppy cover)
15 Black and White
16 pH Factor
17 Neverland
18 White Train
19 Purple Hose


MP3@320 


The dB’s:
Gene Holder – lead guitar
Rick Wagner – bass
Peter Holsapple – guitar & lead vocals
Will Rigby – drums & vocals



Friday, May 16

Chris Von Sneidern - The Uncollected CvS (+ Flying Color)

The Uncollected CvS
unreleased & rare tracks
1981 – 2013

mostly soundboard recordings (quality range VG to Ex-; the first 10 of these are streams from CvS master recordings; the others are FM captures, soundboards or vinyl rips)
Never heard of Chris Von Sneidern? Me neither.
But I found out he played with Flying Color & heard some of his stuff...
Then I said, 'Who IS this guy, and why haven't I heard of him before?!?'

01 Halfway There
02 Tree Fort
03 Feline
04 Never Again, My Love (1998 recording)
05 It's Time to Go
06 Blue Moon (Big Star cover)
07 Fight Song
08 Rock n Roll - Hey Ron
09 Patina Soul
10 Grow Up and Start Having Fun
11 Hippy Hippy Shake (U-Turns live session 1981)
12 Doctor (live at The Birdhouse, 2010)
13 Annalisa (live at The Birdhouse, 2010)

14 Look My Way (Flying Color B-side, 1985 – no CvS)
15 Take It for a Ride (rare Flying Color track with CvS)

As usual, I’ve put additional info in the comment tags for each track. Chris Von Sneidern sings and plays nearly all instruments on tracks 1-10 & 12-13. Exceptions & other musical info about tracks 1-11 — including absorbing essays about the songs — can be found at the Song of the Week page at Chris’s web site.

REPERCUSSION: Gene Holder recorded (most of) and mixed CvS' 1997 album Wood + Wire.

MP3@256 (includes the following bonus set):
Chris Von Sneidern & friends 
Joe Strummer Tribute &
Strummerville Foundation benefit
Bottom of the Hill
San Francisco, CA
Aug. 25, 2012

soundboard recording (quality VG++)

01 Tight Is Tight
02 Rudie Can't Fail
03 Spanish Bombs
04 band intros
05 Groovy Times
06 The Card Cheat

07 Train In Vain (Stand By Me)

CvS & Friends:
Chris Von Sneidern – vocals & guitar
Prairie Prince - drums
Marlon Daranciang - guitar and backing vocals
Ed Daranciang - bass
Johnny Blair - keyboards

THANKS to GilW for sharing


 
Learn more about the music of CvS at his web site or at AllMusic. There's a recent documentary called Why Isn't CvS Famous? that's worth watching...


Thursday, May 8

Let's Active - Every Dog Has His DEMOS (link)

Let's  Active - Every Dog Has His Day DEMOS


Pretty good week to be a fan of LA,
the 1988 live show here at this blog,
and the set of demos just in at Wilfully Obscure.
ENJOY! 

Friday, May 2

Two Pound Planet - Demos & Outtakes Collection

Demos & Outtakes
(various locations)
1991 – 1994

studio recordings (sound quality range: VG+ to Ex-; all of these are in the “very listenable” category; the more polished ones could be released commercially)

Join the intriguing discussion re: is this or is this not 
a giant snuggie at the band's new Facebook page

REPERCUSSION: Mitch Easter is strongly connected to this band as producer. Here’s what AllMusic writer Dave Sleger said in his review of the group’s only full length album, Songs From the Hydrogen Jukebox: Two Pound Planet is “one of the few Mitch Easter-produced bands that escaped widespread recognition, Two Pound Planet released this stylishly packaged independent masterpiece.... From Winston-Salem, NC, this power pop quartet combines Beatlesque hooks and harmonies with Elvis Costello-like quirkiness and the deadpan delivery of the Kinks. While Easter is presumed to be the genius behind their songs and arrangements, Two Pound Planet are responsible for their own sound. Easter hopped aboard after being blown away by their demos.” (AMG rating: 4 out of 5 stars)

ROB SEZ: If the above recommendation isn’t enough, then take it from me. These guys are at the top of my list of fantastic undiscovered alternative bands. They’re really good, and they list The dB's and Let's Active among their fave groups.

SUBSTANTIAL THANKS to whoever first shared tracks 1-10, and to the band, Randy Layton, Thundercrack and R.U.Kiddingme for sharing the others.

02 Sinister Sun                                  This is a funny/cool promo video for "One Time"
03 Daylight                                  SPOT MITCH at the DRIVE-IN! FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS to the VAN!
04 Dr. Six
05 Another Lonely
06 High
07 Heaven Sent
08 Imagination
09 Gone
10 Daylight + Midnight
11 Hard To Believe
12 Trust
13 Carolyn Says
14 Nothing Matters
15 Wash This Mountain Down
16 Big Bang (alt.)                                      
17 Acid On   
xx mystery bonus track
                         
SOURCE INFO:  
1-10 = demos circa 1991-92  
11-12 = four-track demos, 1991 (thank you Randy Layton)  
13-14 = undated demos (thank you Thundercrack)  
15 = Whispering Delicious outtake (thank you Randy Layton)  
16 = Mitch Easter produced alt. version, 1994 (thank you TPP)  
17 = Mitch Easter produced demo, 1994 (thank you R.U.Kiddingme)

A handful of these appeared in finished form on the group’s final official release,  
the 6-song (or is it 7?) EP Whispering Delicious

Five other Two Pound Planet demos & live tracks can be found HERE at Soundcloud      
 
MP3@320     
Two Pound Planet, photographed at Wake Forest University
in Winston-Salem, 1991

Two Pound Planet:
Jerry Finley - drums, vocals
Jerry Chapman - bass, vocals
Jason Buss - keyboards, guitar, vocals
Tom Shaw - guitar, vocals
             
Buy Two Pound Planet's awesome music
SAMPLE the song "Now I Know" from the album 

THE FULL-LENGTH ALBUM                             THE FOLLOW-UP EP
 
iTUNES    AMAZON                                                      AMAZON (only avail. on disc)       

Big Bottom - a bit too big??


With all due respect to Spinal Tap and their classic song "Big Bottom," I need to ask you, dear blog readers, about a different kind of bottom:
 the bass frequencies on the music you download from here.

I keep noticing that after I do eq work on music files to bring out the bottom end on some of the music I share here, it often sounds too bass-heavy when I play the same music on my car stereo.

I usually do the eq and related work using ... (gasp, shock, horror!) Apple earbuds. As you might know, there's not much bass response in those things. So I must be adding too much on the bottom end, but I don't realize it until I play the music on a decent stereo.

ANYONE ELSE NOTICING THIS?
If so, leave a comment here, 
and I'll try to avoid this problem in future posts...
  

Thursday, May 1

Let's Active - In Little Ways promo video

This just in on YouTube:
"In Little Ways" promo video
THANK YOU whitesharks3 for sharing...

Who can answer the questions:
1) Where was this filmed?
2) Did Mitch wear eyeliner totally of his own free will?
3) Did Angie really have to lug a piano
through the woods?