World Party - Give It All Away (rarities comp)

The Best of the Studio Rarities

soundboard recordings (quality: VG+ to EX)

SAMPLE TRACK 14 (1990s era studio demo)

TURN IT UP — and stay with it.

Notes:

01 You're a Hurricane, I'm a Caravan (demo, undated) - just Karl at the piano

02 Ship of Fools (demo, partial 1984) - first time Karl ever recorded the song

03 Holy Water (vinyl-only B side) - inexplicably left off any album or comp

04 The Little Man Within (demo 1985) - "Gets him mixed up with Him"

05 All the Young Dudes (edit)+ - a soundtrack cut worth keeping

06 Penny Lane* - how does one guy DO all this?

07 Martha My Dear* - simply great

08 Piece of Mind - not sure what he was on about; not sure KARL knew, either

09 Little Bit of Perfection (outtake - Dumbing Up) - on the original LP, then cut

10 Nowhere Man* - early recording & rather simple, but it does the job

11 All You Need Is Love* - ditto my comment for Track 06

12 The Long & Winding Road* - if 1980s-era Prince covered the Fabs?

13 A World Without Love - written by 16 year-old Paul McCartney

14 Your Freedom - Rainy Days (demo 1990s) - worthy of a good listen; wow

15 Sunset - a studio jam worth a head bang, or three

All songs by Karl Wallinger, except: +David Bowie (by way of Mott the Hoople), *Lennon-McCartney

ROB SEZ:  The sprawling 5-CD Arkeology is a great thing, and every self-respecting World Party fan needs to have it, at least digitally. That said, I was uncomfortably aware that it left out a lot of strong material. So I did what I typically do: I hauled out my archive and looked for Karl's gems that didn't make it to the box set or the streaming services of Apple Music, Spotify, etc. So what you have here is about a disc's worth of RARE FINDS — and not the throwaway kind. Most are sourced from my own CD singles and vinyl, but a few are lossless captures of lossy webstreams of one sort or another. I doubt that even the most fervent fan has heard ALL of these. Track 14, for instance, is something I found recently when I was picking & choosing. A quick sidetrack: did Karl have a serious Beatles fetish or what? Answer: obviously! Yet I challenge you to name another artist who consistently pulled off Lennon-McCartney cover versions of such high quality and right feel — even when he radically revamped the music, as he did on track 12. There's plenty more out there that didn't make it into Arkeology. But I am convinced this is the rarest and best of the lot.

FLAC some lossy-sourced material

MP3@320

Stay tuned for a few more World Party shares.

My musical cupboards are emptying, but they're not bare yet.

 

   

World Party - Australasia to N. America (Live Sessions 1993)

Triple J Live at the Wireless 

Melbourne, Australia

April 1993

 

    and

 

World Cafe Live

Philadelphia, PA

June 1993

ROB SEZ:  I snagged these many years ago from Karl Wallinger's "The Joint" at one of his websites, either worldparty.net or karlwallinger.net. The overall sound quality range is VG- to VG. The exact date of each session is not known. The first set contains a true rarity: a live version of the beautiful B-side "No More Crying." The files came in the Apple-friendly M4A format, in high enough bitrate to be considered lossless. Upon checking the wave forms, however, it appears these are from lossy sources. Please note: I am posting them in FLAC, but only to prevent further sonic degradation from making lossy copies of lossy-sourced files.

FLAC lossless captures of lossy sources

 

MP3@320

World Party - 1993-09-29 Hamburg, GR (FM)

Grosse Freiheit 36

Hamburg, Germany

Sept. 29, 1993

  

FM recording (sound quality: VG+)

  

01 Private Revolution

02 Is It Like Today?

03 Put the Message in the Box 

04 Sooner or Later

05 Is It Too Late?

06 Radio Days

07 Mystery Girl

08 Thank You World

09 Sunshine

10 Love Street

11 All I Gave

12 Take It Up

13 Way Down Now

14 And God Said... > Give It All Away

15 Sweet Soul Dream

16 Ship of Fools

APPETIZER, ANYONE? "All I Gave"

ROB SEZ:  I picked up this bootleg CD at a lovely little music shop in Western Massachusetts a few years ago. I always thought the performance sounded strong, but the mix and/or mastering was iffy. Pulled it out the other day and tried a digital revision, which I think turned out well — so I'm sharing it with you.

The original source sounds like an FM recording or (less likely) the audio from a TV broadcast. I used compression and a bit of eq to enhance clarity and improve instrumental separation.

The setlist is noteworthy for the not-often-played nugget "All I Gave" and a sweet segue from a semi-acoustic version of "Thank You World" straight into "Sunshine."

PLEASE ENJOY.

Thanks yous are always welcome, y'all.

FLAC

MP3@320

    

World Party - 1997-07-24 New York, N.Y. (sbd)

“Sessions at West 54th” live recording 

Sony Music Studios 
New York, N.Y.
1997-07-24

 

soundboard recording (EX quality)

I sourced this one many years ago from a Karl Wallinger-maintained website via downloaded FLAC files. The lineage of the source files is unknown, but presumed to be from a digital copy very close to the soundboard master. This performance was recorded for what became Episode 15 in Season 1 of “Sessions at West 54th," the American public television series. It first aired Oct. 11, 1997. Sinead O’Connor was the other featured artist in the episode. Setlist FM says the taping happened on July 24th, 1997, in the midst of a World Party tour of U.S. east coast cities.

HAVE a LISTEN

SETLIST:

01 It Is Time

02 Beautiful Dream

03 Is It Like Today?

04 Vanity Fair

05 She's the One

06 Call Me Up

07 Put the Message in the Box

08 Way Down Now

09 (Tuning)

10 Vanity Fair (Take 2)

11 Put the Message in the Box

(Take 2)

12 (Talking)

13 (Talking)

14 (Talking)

15 Ship of Fools

ROB SEZ:  I downloaded this from either worldparty.net or karlwallinger.net, back when Karl was alive and well and prone to uploading goodies like this for fans like me to snag. You hear it as I received it: all I did was re-track, tag the files, and raise the levels on the talking in certain places to make it easier to hear what Karl is saying. I forgot just how smashingly good this recording is, sound and performance wise. There are too many highlights to list, but I especially like the killer set-closing Ship of Fools and the tight rhythm section and guitar-forward mix on Way Down Now. There's even a horn section on a few songs. If Karl had lived longer and looked for archival material to officially release, this would’ve been an easy contender. Karl and the band sound swaggeringly confident, they’re playing in a state-of-the-art NYC music studio, and the rather polite attendees sound more & more enthused as the performance rolls along. Now that we’re approaching the 29th anniversary (!) of the recording, the time seems right to get it out to anyone who remembers just how damn good Karl was. I like to think he’s hanging with Sly, John Lennon, and Prince somewhere very groovy right now.

FLAC

 

MP3@320

Big Star - 2002-03-20 San Francisco, CA (sbd-aud matrix)

The Fillmore

San Francisco, CA

March 3, 2002

 

soundboard-audience matrix (sound quality: EX — a pristine recording)

 

00 stage entrance, tuning

01 In the Street

02 Don't Lie to Me

03 When My Baby's Beside Me 

04 I Am the Cosmos

05 Way Out West

06 Till the End of the Day

      (The Kinks)

07 The Ballad of El Goodo

08 Back of a Car

09 Daisy Glaze

10 Thirteen

11 Baby Strange (T. Rex)

12 For You

13 Feel

14 September Gurls

15 Big Black Car

16 Thank You Friends

17 Slut (Todd Rundgren)

18 Patti Girl (Gary & The Hornets)

19 Hot Thing

20 Wouldn't It Be Nice? (Beach Boys)

Musicians:

Alex Chilton – guitars, vocals

Jody Stephens – drums, vocals 

Jon Auer – guitar, vocals

Ken Stringfellow – bass guitar, vocals, keyboards

HUGE THANKS go out to the anonymous recordist and sharer, as well as ccrider895 for getting this out to a wider circle of fans. In case you already snagged ccrider's version, please note this is modestly different, as revealed in the info file. 

ROB SEZ: Gotta love it when these little gifts fall out of the digital sky, and for free. (A lot things about the digital era SUCK, but this is not one of them.) Someone with access to a lot of raw soundboard-sourced live music dropped dozens of recordings recently onto the interwebs, with the clear understanding, "You didn't get these from me." This is the only Big Star recording in the bunch, but it's very tasty. Alex seems more engaged than usual here, and there are several standout performances, including my now-favorite live version of "Thirteen." A live performance, however, cannot redeem the dreck that is "Hot Thing," a song tossed off in the studio to add to a BS compilation issued in 2003. Happy to say it's the only bum note I can find. Please enjoy.

FLAC

MP3@320

Let's Active - Los Angeles 1989

LOSSLESS REPOST

Club Lingerie

Los Angeles, CA

March 24, 1989

Mitch at a Let's Active show, 1989

audience recording (sound quality: VG; a solid audience recording from the master tape with only a modest amount of crowd noise)
 

ROB SEZ: One of the better late-period L.A. shows in my collection, with a good performance & sound quality. I decided to repost it in FLAC in 2026 after realizing how few of these are available to enjoy.

01 stage entrance, tuning
02 Orpheus In Hades Lounge
03 Night Train
04 Fell
05 Sweepstakes Winner
06 Horizon
07 In Little Ways
08 Too Bad
09 I Feel Funny
10 Mr. Fool
11 Badger
12 Every Word Means No
13 Last Chance Town
14 Every Dog Has His Day
15 Ten Layers Down
 

FLAC

MP3@320

Indianapolis show, 1986

Let’s Active:

Mitch Easter – guitars, vocals
Jon Heames - bass
Eric Marshall – drums
Angie Carlson – keyboards, vocals, additional guitar
 

WORD TO THE WISE: if you poke around a bit, you should find 
a very groovy set of bonus tracks somewhere... 

 

The dB's (etc.) - RSD 2026 releases to grab

A live dB's album? 

You mean an OFFICIALLY-RELEASED LIVE ALBUM from The dB's?!?

Yes, Virginia, there is a benevolent, music-loving Santa Claus. 

The upcoming Record Store Day will feature The dB's Cycles Per Second: US Tour 2024 as well as archival material from Tommy Keene (Songs From the Film: The 1984 Reflection Sessions), Marshall Crenshaw (The Bootleg Sounds of Marshall Crenshaw 1984-1987), and Talking Heads (The CBS/Columbia Demos).

Regarding the dB's live LP, April 18 will see Propeller Sound release a special version for nut cases like us: "Pressed on Firework Splatter vinyl for Record Store Day 2026, with a full-color insert of tour photos. Limited to 1500 copies." It's mixed by Chris Stamey (de rigueur), and here's the track listing:

A SIDE: A1. Black and White A2. Big Brown Eyes A3. Love Is for Lovers A4. Happenstance A5. Cycles Per Second A6. Lonely Is (As Lonely Does)

B SIDE: B1. That Time Is Gone B2. She's Not Worried B3. Ask for Jill B4. Amplifier B5. Neverland B6. Dynamite B7. Window to a Screen

Don't sleep through this one. Although The dB's RSD selection (alas) probably won't disappear terribly soon with a pressing of 1,500, the Tommy Keene release will be limited to 1,000 copies and the Crenshaw collection to just 900 (both as "Limited Run / Regional Focus" releases).

 

Happy Hunting.

Let's Active - Two More from 84

 1984-04-01 New York, N.Y. (aud - G. Poole)

and

1984-11-21 Detroit, MI (aud - JEMS, 2026 edit)

sound quality: VG to VG+

 
SAMPLE: Room With a View (Nov. 21)

Check out the new site HERE

ROB SEZ: Woke up the other day and realized I hadn't posted anything by this, one of the two bands that originally inspired the blog, in ... forever. Now that you can FINALLY stream Let's Active's officially-released tracks on all the platforms AND download them all in hi-res lossless glory, I think it's time to post at least a few more by Mitch Easter's overlooked musical combo. 1984 was a good year for the band, despite Sara Romweber's departure as drummer in the spring. Sara is heard here on the first, but not the second recording. Before she left, the band completed basic tracks for Cypress, and then embarked on an extensive tour. With Sara out, Mitch recruited Jay Peck on drums and also brought on board Tim Lee (The Windbreakers) on keyboards. Although 1984 would be the last year for Faye Hunter's active involvement, she's heard here on both recordings with her superlative bass playing and singing. I didn't touch the NYC recording from April 1, originally made by Gene Poole and shared by elegymart. The Nov. 21 recording from Detroit was fine (no surprise, since it came from the JEMS crew). Even so, I thought it could use more presence in the middle frequencies, so I created a minor revision using one pass of filter curve EQ and one pass of volume adjustment. 

Do you just love Mitch's metal band hair?? 

FLAC

MP3@320

Pylon - 1983-04-22 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt

Athens, GA

April 22, 1983

  

soundboard recording (EX quality; cassette copy of master)

SAMPLE: Feast On My Heart

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals

Curtis Crowe - drums

Michael Lachowski - bass

  

LINEAGE: online download of 16-bit lossless file > Audacity 3.7 for Mac for normalization & DC offset, track splits, removing dead spots, fades, tagging, and 1 pass of EQ > FLAC16  *NO COMPRESSION, NO NOISE REDUCTION*

  

Vanessa fronts Pylon Reenactment Society.

ROB SEZ:  If you like a feisty lead singer delivering your Pylon art-punk vocals, look no further. Vanessa growls and screeches impressively here. HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is a copy of the soundboard master. As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, normalize, apply fades, remove dead spots, and apply one pass of modest eq to bring the high frequencies into better balance. No compression and no noise reduction were used in this edit. 

  

This recording had a couple of anomalies: it's missing the first few seconds of the opening song, and an oddly-placed cut resulted in only a minute-ish of track 04 being captured and just a bit more of track 05. I applied fades judiciously to preserve as much music as I could. All other tracks are full song renditions.

  

This is my last post in the Pylon mini flood. I hope someone enjoyed it; it's been awfully quiet in the comments department lately.

FLAC

MP3@320

 

Pylon - 1988-12-31 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt
Athens, GA
Dec. 31, 1988
  
soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)
  

SAMPLE: Gravity

An old Pylon gig flier I defaced.

LINEAGE: online download of 16-bit lossless file > Audacity 3.7 for Mac for normalization & DC offset, track splits, removing dead spots, fades, tagging, and 1 pass of EQ > FLAC16  *NO COMPRESSION, NO NOISE REDUCTION* 

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.)  - guitar
Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals
Curtis Crowe - drums
Michael Lachowski - bass

ROB SEZ: HECK YES: New Year's Eve with Pylon. HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a cassette copy of the soundboard master. As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, normalize, apply fades, remove dead spots, and apply one pass of modest eq to bring the high frequencies into better balance. No compression and no noise reduction were used in this edit. Vanessa announces Catch as "a new song" (a studio recording appears on the 1990 LP Chain). On this recording, Crazy features a minute-long Randy Bewley instrumental prior to the rest of the band joining in; I like it.

FLAC

MP3@320

  

Pylon - 1988-07-23 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt

Athens, GA

July 23, 1988

soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)

00 stage entrance, tuning

01 Driving School

02 Cool

03 Working Is No Problem 

04 Gravity

05 Altitude

06 Show

07 Crazy

08 Danger

09 No Clocks

10 Read a Book

11 There It Is

12 Weather Radio

13 Volume

14 Beep

15 Stop It

16 pre-encore applause, etc.

17 M-Train

18 Feast On My Heart

19 pre-encore applause, tuning, etc.

20 Dub

SAMPLE: Cool

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals

Curtis Crowe - drums

Michael Lachowski - bass

LINEAGE: online download of 16-bit lossless file > Audacity 3.7 for Mac for normalization & DC offset, track splits, removal of dead spots, adding fades, tagging > FLAC16   -NO EQ, NO COMPRESSION, NO NOISE REDUCTION-

Do yourself a favor: get Pylon Box

ROB SEZ: HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a first-generation cassette copy of the soundboard master. As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, normalize, apply fades, and remove dead spots. No eq, compression or noise reduction were used; no small animals harmed.

Vanessa not only thanks the 40 Watt, but also R.E.M. — the reason for which is not evident, since REMTimeline has the band in N.Y. state in this part of July, and they played no known gigs on 23 July. 

I like this recording a bit better than the 1983 soundboard I shared last week. Vanessa's voice is more prominent in the mix, and the band sounds tighter than ever. Please enjoy.

FLAC

MP3@320

    

Pylon - 1983-06-29 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt

Athens, GA

June 29, 1983

  

soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)

   

SAMPLE TRACK: Buzz

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals

Curtis Crowe - drums

Michael Lachowski - bass

The recording I'm sharing is pretty good.
But this official release is AMAZING.
A must have; go get it.

ROB SEZ:  HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a first-generation cassette copy of the soundboard master. Sounds pretty damn good to me! Apparently, two sets were played this night: Set 1 is comprised of tracks 1-9. The tape flip happened near the end of Yo-Yo and the start of K. About 30-45 seconds from the end of the former was lost as a result, but only a few seconds of the latter's opening notes are missing. Otherwise, this is the complete performance. 

 

As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, remove dead spots, create fade-ins and fade-outs, and apply 1 pass of modest eq to bring the high frequencies into better balance. No compression and no noise reduction.

Vanessa: if you happen to read this, please remember I did ask! 42 years later, I hope you'll agree there's no real harm in letting the band's fans hear this amazing performance. No one's making any money here. This is from a fan for fellow fans.

    

FLAC

MP3@320