Nick Lowe - Around and About (Live 1990-2011)

Six broadcasts — three discs

 

FM captures (sound quality VG+ to VG++) 

Disc 1 - KCRW Santa Monica, CA 18 Feb. 1990 + Live From Daryl's House 15 June 2008
     

Disc 2 - Acoustic Magic + Frognerbadet Oslo, Norway 10 June 2011

Disc 3 - KEXP Seattle, WA 14 Oct. 2011 + KUT FM Austin, TX 1 Dec. 2011

51 tracks in all

MASSIVE THANKS to Don for sharing!
     

MP3@320

     
ASH Tuesday post #88

   

Difford & Tilbrook - Live 1984 + 1991 (FM)

Friars Club
Aylesbury, England
June 23, 1984
 


FM recording (sound quality: VG to VG+; sounds like a 2nd-generation tape source)



01 Man for All Seasons
02 Picking Up the Pieces
03 Love's Crashing Waves
04 Woman's World
05 Hope Fell Down
06 Band of Gold (Freda Payne cover) 
07 Tears for Attention
08 Action Speaks Faster
09 Annie Get Your Gun
10 Black Coffee In Bed
11 band intros + Labelled With Love
12 radio ID

ROB SEZ: Even for me, it's rather surprising this is my first Squeeze-related post — given the kind of music I normally share here. If you don't know the musical delights created by the founders and perennial leaders of the mighty Squeeze, you're in for a treat. If you're already a fan and don't have these, you'll know you need to snatch them immediately. All praises to Atlasstar and his friends for sharing these with the world.

WNEW
Hard Rock Cafe
New York, NY
October 25, 1991

FM recording
(sound quality: VG+) 

01 Heart sings 'Happy Birthday'
02 interview
03 The House of Love
04 intro to live set
05 Crying In My Sleep
06 Pulling Mussels from a Shell 
07 Wicked and Cruel
08 Goodbye Girl
09 Satisfied
10 interview 2

MP3@320

Learn more about Difford & Tilbrook's music

at the official Squeeze site, FB page & this fab fan site

Squeeze - New York, NY 1988 (FM)

The Ritz

New York, NY

July 31, 1988

FM capture (sound quality: VG to VG+)

01 Footprints

02 Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)  

03 Take Me I'm Yours

04  She Doesn't Have to Shave

05 Striking Matches

06 Piccadilly

07 Is That Love?

08 In the Heat of the Night

09 Up the Junction

10 Cool for Cats

11 Boogie Woogie Country Girl 

12 Another Nail In My Heart

13 Melody Motel

14 The Prisoner

15 Hourglass

16 Tempted

17 Vanity Fair

18 Annie Get Your Gun

19 When the Hangover Strikes

20 Such a Night

21 Black Coffee In Bed

22 Too Busy Thinking about 

     My Baby

BIG, SLOPPY THANKS to Don at the old ASH blog!

MP3@320

ASH Tuesday post #87

come back in a few days for Difford & Tilbrook live

Wondermints - The Early Years (demos galore)

Blue, Purple & Green tapes 
4-track recordings
Darian's bedroom
Los Angeles, CA
1992-1994

soundboard recordings (quality: VG+ to VG++; tape cases say "Produced, Arranged and Recorded in homegrown quadrotrack splendor by Los Wondermintos")

SAMPLE: "Silly Place" (4-track recording, 1992)

    

The Wondermints in their early years: all praises to Angelo at Power Pop Criminals
Angelo compiled these & created the artwork.
Some of these songs ended up on the debut album, but only after being re-mixed & mastered.

    

'Mintsmania' collection

More demos, live tracks, rarities

1990s

MP3@192 (best available bit rate)

 

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

   

Octopus - Live 1996 + B-Sides

Golders Green Hippodrome
North London, UK
BBC Radio 1 Live Broadcast
June 17, 1996
     
FM capture (sound quality: VG+)
           

ROB SEZ: Over the years, many bands have called themselves Octopus. This Octopus is the Scottish group that recorded one album, the excellent From A to B, released in 1996. These guys were lumped in with the whole Britpop thing — presumably because they played rock, were active in the late 1990s, and are from that part of the world. If you know the album and think it's pretty good, you should hear them play live. Mick compiled the tracks and created the artwork for the live show, and Don is the guy to thank for the B-Sides & Rarities comp below. I'm the culprit who created the cover art for the latter.

B-Sides & Rarities
various recording info
sourced from singles & an EP

CD singles & vinyl rips (sound quality: VG to VG++)
         

14 non-album tracks from Octopus singles & one EP. 

None is in print or otherwise available through official channels. 

MP3@320

This is ASH Tuesday post #86
     
Learn more about Octopus' music 

at Wikipedia

     

Semisonic - Live (19 Years Apart)

Irving Plaza
New York, NY
Oct. 17, 1998 

audience recording (sound quality: VG to VG+; overall, an impressive recording, with vocals slightly distant at times, but audience noise is not an issue)
  
01 F.N.T.

Semisonic: 2017 reunion show
(this & purplish photo below: Vito Ingerto)

02 Singing In My Sleep 
03 Never You Mind
04 Secret Smile
05 Down In Flames
06 If I Run
07 In Another Life
08 DND
09 Erotic City (Prince cover)
10 Delicious
11 Closing Time
12 encore break
13 This Will Be My Year
14 I Got You (Split Enz cover)
15 California
16 taper ID

Taped and transferred by KamenLiter; tracked by smores; normalization, eq’ing & minor compression added by Rob-in-Brevard. MEGA THANKS to smores for sharing.

Turf Club
Saint Paul, MN
Dec. 13, 2017

audience recording (sound quality: VG++; quite excellent audience recording; no complaints)

01 intro/stage banter
02 Closing Time
03 Singing In My Sleep 
04 Made To Last
05 Never You Mind
06 stage banter
07 Secret Smile
08 tuning/stage banter
09 DND
10 Completely Pleased
11 This Will Be My Year
12 All Worked Out
13 California
14 tuning/stage banter
15 She Spreads Her Wings
16 tuning/stage banter
17 Gone to the Movies
18 I Got You (Split Enz cover)
19 tuning/stage banter
20 All It Would Take*
21 Basement Tapes*
22 tuning/stage banter
23 Long Way From Home+
24 Chemistry
25 crowd noise
encore:
26 Take Me With U

*new songs
+from Feeling Strangely Fine sessions

ROB SEZ: For a brief time in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Semisonic was "that band" — the group that had a huge hit with "Closing Time", with other catchy songs on the soundtracks of a few high-profile movies, and multiple live appearances on late night TV. Semisonic's popularity encompassed rock fans, Top 40 radio, and even alternative music aficionados. Later, frontman Dan Wilson parlayed his band's popularity into well-deserved success as a songwriter for hire. Even if you don't know Wilson, you've heard his songs (in most cases, co-writes): Adele's "Someone Like You", the Dixie Chicks' "Not Ready to Make Nice", John Legend's "You and I", Taylor Swift's "Treacherous", etc., etc. Last year, Wilson recorded and released Re-Covered, an album of his songs made famous by others, but sung this time by the man himself. MEGA THANKS to norma023 for taping and sharing the 2017 reunion show.
 
FLAC  |  MP3@320

Learn more about Semisonic's music at 
Dan Wilson's official site, Dan's FB page & AllMusic

Dumptruck - Boston, MA 1985 (aud)

The Rat
Boston, MA
Dec. 14, 1985 

audience recording (sound quality: VG; source is a 1st-gen. tape from bassist Spike Priggen's JVC recorder; the vocals are clear and there’s good instrumental separation)

01 stage entrance, tuning

02 Alone

03 Back Where I Belong

04 Change

05 Seven Steps (Up)

06 Secrets

07 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere

08 Nine People

09 Ethics

10 Autumn Light

11 pre-encore applause --> How Come?   
12 Walk Into Mirrors

ROB SEZ: Dumptruck was formed by Seth Tiven and Kirk Swan in Boston, MA in 1983. Around the time R.E.M. was starting to get noticed by a wider audience, Tiven and Swan were combining jangle pop, the twin guitar sound pioneered by Television, and a judicious touch of twang. By the time of Positively Dumptruck, their second long-player, the band was creating something unique and compelling. for the country was the group's third — and some say best — LP before a legal dispute with its label blew up and general fatigue set in, bringing Dumptruck's first musical phase to a close. Tiven relocated to Austin, TX and revived Dumptruck in the 1990s, releasing three albums up until the recent release of Wrecked, the latest studio project (see below). This 1985 live set commemorates bassist Spike Priggen's first gig with Dumptruck. Thank you, Spike, for sharing your audio souvenir & most of these photos.
      

Dumptruck:

Seth Tiven - guitar, vocals | Kirk Swan - guitar, vocals
Spike Priggen - bass, vocals (at left) | Shawn "King" Devlin - drums

MP3@256

New Dumptruck Studio Album!

Seth Tiven says this is the album he's been trying to finish for 10 years.
A recent PledgeMusic campaign finally did the trick. It's worth the wait.
Stream the entire album at Soundcloud. Buy it at Collector's Choice or Amazon.

Learn more about Dumptruck's music 
at the band's FB page or AllMusic

   

Field Music - Glasgow, SCT 2018

The Quay Sessions
BBC Pacific Quay studios
Glasgow, Scotland
Jan. 10, 2018 (first broadcast was the following day) 

web stream (sound quality VG++)

SAMPLE: "Let's Write a Book" (live 2018)

Field Music = David & Peter Brewis & collaborators

01 Roddy Hart intro
02 Time In Joy
03 Them That Do Nothing 
04 Count It Up
05 interview
06 Disappointed
07 Let's Write a Book
08 The Noisy Days Are Over
09 Share a Pillow
10 No King No Princess
11 Stay Awake
12 Roddy Hart outro

TT: 45:53 mins
 
HUGE THANKS to auto_pilot for sharing

KEXP Radio
Live Session
Seattle, WA

A visual representation 
of what Field Music sound like...

March 28, 2015

preFM recording (sound quality: VG++)

01 The Noisy Days Are Over
02 I'm Glad
03 Disappointed
04 Don't You Want to Know 
     What's Wrong?

ROB SEZ:

The new album: Open Here

Are Field Music the next XTC? Or a combination of XTC, Wire, Prince & some band you've never heard of? The answer probably depends on which Field Music album you're enjoying and your own taste in music. One writer describes their sound as a "colorful and hyper-musical blend of tricky Beach Boys melodies filtered through a post-rock-meets-prog-rock-meets-soft-rock aesthetic" — which probably fit their sound several albums ago. However you describe it, it's rather "out there" for my sensibilities. But Field Music have been releasing music since 2005 and there's no denying they're hugely talented & quite entertaining. Your new cup of tea, perhaps? The new album, Open Here (4-star review from Mojo), is out today.

FLAC (2018 set in flac; 2015 lossy set is included) 

MP3@320

         
Learn more about Field Music at the band's own site, FB page and AllMusic