The Stems - 'Last' Show in Australia (2009)

Step Inn

Brisbane, Australia

Oct. 11, 2009

 
(billed as the band's last-ever show in Australia)
 

Dom Mariani and The Stems play a 'farewell' show in Perth, Australia
photo by lunderall via Flickr

audience recording (sound quality VG+; this one earns a high rating for an audie: the house sound coming from the club’s PA, the recording quality, and the just-right rowdiness from the crowd — it's ALL good. Taper used binaural in-ear mics, so he suggests listening with earbuds or headphones for best effect…)

DEEP DEBT O’ GRATITUDE to ex_king_john (Turnitupto10 blog) for recording and sharing this show.

ROB SEZ: Didn't know anything about The Stems (or Dom Mariani or his many Aussie-based bands) until blog friends at Ash pointed me to their music. The Stems were a garage-pop band in the mid-1980s based in Perth, Australia. They didn't last long, but produced some wildly impressive music (think Flamin' Groovies meets Hoodoo Gurus, and you're in the ballpark). They reunited in 2007, but declared there would be no more Stems after a tour of Australia & Europe in 2009 & 2010. (Now, I hear they're still doing live shows — never say "never", Dom!)  REPERCUSSION: After The Stems were no more, Dom Mariani collaborated many times with Mitch Easter, who produced recordings by The Someloves, The Orange Humble Band and DM3.

Dom & The Stems, live in Spain
photos by Ricardo via Flickr

SAMPLE: "Mr. Misery" (Brisbane 2009)  

01 intro + Get to Know Me

02 Mr. Misery

03 Hellbound Train

04 band intros + Man With the 
     Golden Heart

05 Leave You Way Behind

06 The Otherside

07 Move Me

08 You Can't Turn the Clock Back

09 Undying Love

10 Make You Mine

11 For Always

12 She Sees Everything

13 Rosebud

14 Surround Me

15 Sad Girl

16 She Waved Goodbye

17 She Waved Goodbye (outro)

18 Love Is Gone

19 Sorry (Easybeats cover)

20 She's a Monster

21 At First Sight

22 outro

TT: 1 hour, 34 mins.

MP3@320

The Stems:

Dom Mariani - guitar, vocals

Julian Matthews - bass
Dave Shaw - drums
Richard Lane - keyboard, vocals

 

Learn more about the music of 

The Stems at Wikipedia 

Cliff Hillis – Bordentown, N.J. 2014 + bonus

The Record Collector

Bordentown, N.J.

Dec. 27, 2014

  

audience recording (sound quality VG+; a very solid recording with slightly distant-sounding vocals, but virtually no distracting crowd noise). The live set is #1-9; the rest are bonus tracks from various sources.

  

The Paradox of Cliff: How can such an unassuming guy make such compelling music?

HECK YES THANKS to TheCommish for recording & sharing, and to CH himself for sharing some of the bonus tracks

ROB SEZ: Where has Cliff Hillis been all my life? (OK, not my whole life, but the past 14 years, when he's been making awesome pop-rock music as a solo artist...) AllMusic says Cliff's music is inspired by artists like Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush, with a "ringing, guitar-driven classicist sound." The LA Times says his music would "fit snugly on a play-list with Squeeze, Teenage Fanclub and Jason Falkner." I recently read a post by a blogger who was raving about Cliff, and I wondered, "What's all the fuss about?" Check the sample, stream some music at his web site, and find out why I'm fussing, too.
   

01 Just One More

02 Dashboard

03 Keep the Blue Skies

04 Turn On a Dime

05 Start Again

06 I Saw the Light

07 Goodnight Sunlight

08 Welcome to You

09 Ways and Means

10 Dream Good

11 I Saw the Light

12 Soul and Fire

13 Like an Island

14 Good and Bad

15 Follow You

16 Better Than Myself

17 Christmas Wish

18 Mother of Pearl (early version)

BONUS TRACKS INFO:

10 = Ticked Off Music Fest, Wilmington, DE 2013-06-15 (thanks to thezenengines)

11 = Todd Rundgren cover, performed by In the Pocket, feat. Cliff Hillis, lead vocals; WXPN live, Philadelphia, PA 2014-05-09 (thanks to A. Hickman)
12 = Sebadoh cover; YouTube-only release posted by CH
13 = TQ Show (somewhere in Delware), 2007-05-02 (thanks to Cliff Reinert)
14 to 16 = (with Roger Hillis), The Jared Morris Show, WGMD-FM Summer 2009 (thanks to JM)
17 = NRBQ cover; YouTube-only release posted by CH
18 = Starbelly with Cliff on lead guitar; YouTube-only release (thanks to mikintyre)

TT: 58:24

MP3@320 (bonus tracks @256 kbps)

The great Pop Fair blog has more Cliff Hillis goodies.

(Tell Haper that Rob sent you...)

Cliff's latest release is Song Machine
Buy the CD for $10 from TallBoy Records 

Learn more about the music of Cliff Hillis at 
his web site, AllMusic &/or Noisetrade  
(where you can also download his current single for free)

Sneakers - Durham, N.C. 1976 + Sacred Irony

Duke University

Durham, N.C.

August 1976

audience recording (quality GD; sound improves considerably by track 2; there’s hiss, distortion and a lack of instrumental separation, but it's listenable and — hey — this is musical history, people!)   

Sneakers: Robert Keely, Will Rigby, Rob Slater, Chris Stamey

ROB SEZ: In this New Year, it's time to go back to the roots of this blog, with Sneakers (a group that Mitch Easter and Chris Stamey were involved in) and a separate group that Mitch was in a few years prior. Sacred Irony was Mitch's first "proper" band, which made many studio recordings but never released any singles or LPs. After Rittenhouse Square and Little Diesel, Sneakers was the next Winston-Salem band with Chris' involvement that made recordings, played public gigs, and (later on) recruited Mitch into the fold. Here is the only known live recording of the group prior to its break up and subsequent reunion shows in 2007 & '08. Much thanks to WR and RK for help with song titles not known to me. 

SAMPLE: "On the Brink" (Durham 1976)

OMNIVORE RECORDINGS just reissued Sneakers' debut EP
on vinyl (with digital download card), RSD Black Friday
FIND IT & BUY IT ... 'CUZ YOU NEED IT

01 S'il Vous Plait

02 Condition Red

03 No Money Downs

04 (Love's Like a) Cuban Crisis

05 Some Kinda Fool

06 Nonsequitur (of Silence)

07 Pedestrian Confession

08 20/20

09 On the Brink

10 Leftovers

11 Ruby

12 Kissy Boys

13 Let's All Apologize

14 Hip Secrets

15 Story of a Girl (semi-acoustic)

16 You Told Me

17 The Train Stops Here

18 mystery bonus track

 
Sneakers 
(presumed lineup for this show):

Mitch Easter
Robert Keely

Will Rigby

Rob Slater
Chris Stamey
 

MP3@256  

A big, sloppy THANK YOU to a special friend of the blog 

for supplying me this show

Sacred Irony

A Sacred Irony Compendium 

studio recordings  

sound quality: VG to VG+

SACRED IRONY: wistful in the graveyard (Mitch Easter, far right)

SAMPLE: "I See Love"

01 radio intro (for I Am Your Dr.)

02 I Am Your Doctor

03 Collaboration

04 I See Love

05 Gone, Gone, Gone

06 Secret Lover

07 Let's Go Steady

08 Where No One Cares

09 Teenage Lust (MC5 cover)

10 Good Times

11 Sure to Fall

12 Face Without a Name

13 All Up to You

14 Changes In Me

Sacred Irony:

Mitch Easter - guitar prodigy 
Ted Lyons 
Rick Reich 
Dale Smith 
Troy "Corky" McMillan   

MP3 (192-256 kbps)   
 

A most hearty THANK YOU to Fantom

for providing some of the music in this post, and for pointing me to this vintage drawing of Sacred Irony back from Peter's high school daze:

When he posted this at Sacred Irony's FB page, Peter wrote: "I did this with my trusty Rapidograph in 9th grade at Exeter (1970-71) sometime. Corporeally, I was in New Hampshire, but my heart was in Winston-Salem. Band represented in this picture is absolutely Sacred Irony."

READ MORE about these groups and many other N.C. bands  at Michael Slawter's most excellent blog site

 (earlier version of the blog HERE)    
     

Wondermints - Tokyo, JP 1999 (sbd)

Club Quattro

Tokyo, Japan

July 16, 1999

  
soundboard (quality VG++)

  

The Wondermints: perfectionistic purveyors of pure pop

01 Dois Mil e Um (2001)

02 In and Around Greg Lake

03 Invisible Paint

Thanks to Jake for the artwork (included in DL)

04 Open My Eyes

05 Cellophane

06 Dream Machine

07 Love In the City

08 Cris Craft #10

09 Joy

10 Porpoise Song

11 Hypnolove

12 Global Village Idiot

13 Tracy Hide

14 Bubbles

15 Puppet Grrls Are Go

16 Galactic Patrol

17 Proto Pretty

18 Playtex Aviary

19 Hocus Pocus

  
SINCERE THANKS to Angelo, who first posted this at Power Pop Criminals (he posted a bunch of rare Wondermints, but you might have to ask nicely for some re-ups, since most of the links appear to be dead...).

  

WONDERMINTS: wowed the crowd at Club Quattro, Tokyo, in 1999

MP3@320

Note: this set does not reflect the original sequencing of the live show, which probably explains the sometimes abrupt transitions from one track to another.

Wondermints:

Probyn Gregory

Mike D’Amico

Nick Walusko

Brian Kassan

 Darian Sahanaja

  
Several of the guys sing and play multiple instruments, so I’m just listing the band members… 

 

Learn more about the music of The Wondermints at AllMusic or this FB page