The dB's + Mitch Easter @ W-S Music Extravaganza

The dB's, Mitch Easter, Don Dixon perform 

at Winston-Salem Music Blowout

'Yesterday's Tomorrow'
The Ramkat
Winston-Salem, N.C.
May 12, 2018

Pictures worth at least a thousand words:

(l-r) Mitch Easter, Bob Northcott, Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey — Rittenhouse Square

&

Holsapple, Stamey & Dixon performing May 12 in Winston-Salem

IMAGINE: The dB's, Let's Active, Don Dixon, Sneakers, Little Diesel, Sacred Irony, Rittenhouse Square and lesser-known (!) N.C. bands performing in one place on one big night of nostalgia-inducing music. It happened on May 12 at The Ramkat in Winston-Salem.

Our friend Larry T. was there, and reported it was "amazing". He shot some videos, which he kindly shared (see below). At some point, I hope to be able to share additional music from the night, once the requisite permissions are in hand.

For now, please enjoy these two video souvenirs, courtesy of Larry T.

Little Diesel - Kissy Boys (May 2018)

Let's Active - Every Word Means No (May 2018)

Chris Stamey - New Book + 2017 Podcast

Chris Stamey wrote a book!
A Spy In the House of Loud

It's available now, and it's excellent.

The subtitle is key: New York Songs & Stories. A combination memoir and reflection on the downtown NYC indie music scene in the late 1970s, early 1980s and beyond.
There's a lot to like for fans of The dB's and/or Chris' solo career.

         

READ A GENEROUS PREVIEW of the book HERE.

Order the book directly from University of Texas Press HERE or from Amazon HERE.

                    

Chris might be coming your way soon for a book store reading, chat & musical performance.
I'm reading the book right now; I'll plan to post a review here later.
For now, here's the Winston-Salem Journal's feature story about the book, a Yes! Weekly review/feature, and Rob Ross' review in Popdose.

Occasional Shivers Podcast 2017

How did I miss this? Perhaps because I was crazy busy when it premiered and later, when it was released in 10 brief podcasts. Chris Stamey's "Occasional Shivers" is a work of musical fiction. It's described as "a narrative song cycle set in Manhattan in the early 1960s" and centers around a circle of jazz theater performers. Renowned jazz musician Branford Marsalis is the host.
 
It was broadcast by more than 100 public radio stations around the country.

Have a listen HERE.

Learn more HERE and HERE.

Cosmic Rough Riders - Live 2001 + 2004

Reading Festival, UK

Photos of Cosmic Rough Riders in Stoke, 2003 by Marg B

Aug. 24, 2001

FM recording (sound quality: VG+) 

01 Melanie

02 Pain Inside

03 Charm

04 Country Home (Neil Young cover)

05 Gun Isn't Loaded

06 Revolution (In the Summertime)

07 Sometime

08 Loser
        
This appearance features band founder Daniel Wylie on lead vocals and guitar

'Morning Becomes Eclectic'

KCRW live session

Village Recorders

Santa Monica, CA 

Aug. 3, 2004

webstream

(sound quality: Ex-) 

01 Justify the Rain

02 Sunrise

03 She's Never Around

04 Life In Wartime

05 For a Smile

06 The Need to Fly

07 Because You

08 Interview with Nic Harcourt

Musicians (KCRW session 2004): 

Stephen Fleming - lead vocals & guitar  

James Clifford - bass & backing vocals

Mark Brown - drums, mandolin, & vocals

Paul Docherty - guitar & backing vocals

ROB SEZ: Cosmic Rough Riders — wow! Daniel Wylie and collaborator Stephen Fleming took the basic sounds of 1970s West Coast pop & rock (think Buffalo Springfield, CSNY, The Byrds) and added terrific melodies and a Glasgow point of view. What they created in the late 1990s was worthy of much broader acclaim & fame than they actually found. In 2002, musical differences prompted Wylie to leave the band to pursue a solo career. The group kept on with Fleming becoming lead vocalist and chief songwriter. Eventually, amends were made. By 2015, the group released an album credited to "Daniel Wylie's Cosmic Rough Riders." There's precious little live material by CRR in circulation, so please enjoy these and the mystery bonus share. Kudos to Klasw for sharing the Reading 2001 live set & to KCRW for the 2004 session.
       
MP3@320

Scenery for Dreamers is the latest studio offering by Cosmic Rough Riders
You can find it at iTunes, Amazon & 7 Digital

Learn more about Cosmic Rough Rider's music at 

Wikipedia, AllMusic & Daniel W's FB page

Felt - Bristol, UK 1986 + Spanish TV 1985

Tropic Club

Bristol, UK

April 24, 1986

audience recording (sound quality: VG; although the sound is quite good, there’s too much intrusive audience chatter near the taper for my liking — but it’s one of the few full-set Felt recordings around)
   

01 Spanish House

The mysterious Lawrence, bathed in purple majesty...

02 The Day the Rain Came Down

03 Roman Litter

04 Fortune

05 Penelope Tree

06 Ballad of the Band

07 Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow 

08 Primitive Painters

09 Outdoor Miner

10 Caspian Sea

11 Penelope Tree (reprise)
    

Live On Spanish TV

venue + city unknown

1985 (exact date unknown)

    
TV audio recording (sound quality: VG-; the vocals & instrumental sounds are clear enough, but rather tinny — perhaps the taper put his/her device in front of the TV to make the recording?)

       

12 Roman Litter

13 Ballad of the Band

14 The Stagnant Pool

15 Cathedral

16 Sunlight Bathed the Golden Glow 

17 Whirlpool Vision of Shame

*18 Mexican Bandits

 

*bonus track = Camden, UK 1987-04-23 (aud - unknown venue)

ROB SEZ: Here's one final post to wrap up the Felt series. HUGE THANKS to whatdoidonow, TMATMATMA and tsukko3 for sharing. One of the other posts sported some hidden bonus material. Did you find the buried treasure? Please enjoy.

MP3@320

Felt - Oporto, Portugal 1988 (aud)

Teatro Rivoli
Oporto, Portugal
April 1, 1988

Dream Remaster by Colin 

audience recording (sound quality: VG-; there's distortion, but fairly decent instrumental separation + an extremely enthusiastic crowd)

Felt's Lawrence (rt.) & guitarist Maurice Deebank
The were the band in the early years

01 The Old Man Down the Road
      (J. Fogerty cover)
02 Walking Under a Spell
      (Weather Prophets cover)
03 Grey Streets
04 I Will Die With My Head In Flames
05 Stained-Glass Windows In the Sky
06 She Lives by the Castle
07 Ape Hangers
08 Tuesday's Secret
09 How Spook Got Her Man
10 Don't Die On My Doorstep
11 Primitive Painters
12 Outdoor Miner (Wire cover)
13 Bitter End
14 The Final Resting of the Ark
15 Sapphire Mansions
16 The Old Man Down the Road [reprise]
17 Primitive Painters [reprise]


ROB SEZ: Here's another collaboration with Colin from the Dream Remaster blog. Colin did his best with iffy-sounding files, which came courtesy of ziggyswoon & DarkCircleRoom. When you hear the somewhat distorted sound, just know it was worse before Colin worked his magic — thank you, kind sir! Check out Colin's blog to hear more of his remastering work. There are precious few Felt bootlegs out there, so I wanted to share this one in the best-possible sound quality. For this gig in Portugal, Felt prepared its usual brief setlist, but was surprised when the promoter insisted they continue playing after just 30 minutes on stage. This explains the repetition of songs at the end of the show.
  
FLAC
  
MP3@320

Learn more about Felt's music at Trouser Press, Wikipedia, 
AllMusic & this fab fan site

  

Beachwood Sparks - Live 2000 + 2001

KCRW-FM
'Morning Becomes Eclectic' 
Santa Monica, CA
April 28, 2000
+
House of Blues
Los Angeles, CA
April 30, 2000

soundboard recording + FM capture
(sound quality: VG++)

           

Cafe du Nord

San Francisco, CA

Nov. 16, 2001

audience recording (sound quality: VG+)

ROB SEZ: No time for a comment today, except to say I really don't know what to make of this extremely quiet nouveau-folk & country-rock revival band. I trust there will be fans among Repercussion blog followers, but I have no idea how many. HUGE THANKS to Mick for compiling these and creating the artwork, and to Don for sharing them way back when at the old ASH blog.

MP3@320

ASH Tuesday post #90

     

Felt - Final Gig 1989 + BBC Sessions

Burburries
Birmingham, England 
Dec. 19, 1989

audience recording (sound quality: VG to VG+)

01 Declaration

02 Bottoming Out
      (Lou Reed cover)
03 All the People I Like Are
     Those That Are Dead
04 Budgie Jacket
05 New Day Dawning
06 Riding on the Equator
07 Roman Litter
08 Red Indians
09 Fortune
10 The Final Resting
     of the Ark
11 Primitive Painters
12 She Lives by the Castle
13 Penelope Tree
14 Ballad of the Band

Live at the BBC

Janice Long & Andy Kershaw sessions 

1984 & 1986

 

FM captures (sound quality: VG+)

         

01 Dismantled King Is Off the Throne

02 Roman Litter

03 Vasco da Gama

04 Crystal Ball

05 Ballad of the Band

06 The Day the Rain Came Down

07 Caspian See

08 I Didn't Mean to Hurt You

      (end cut, fades out)

09 When the Dawn 

     Starts Creeping In

10 Sapphire Mansions

11 Rain of Crystal Spires

12 All the People I Like Are Those That Are Dead

13 Why Did You Have to Cry (London 1985)
                

TRACK NOTES
01-04 = Janice Long Session 1984-09-30

05-08 = Janice Long Session 1986-02-12

09-12 = Andy Kershaw Session 1986-09-11 

13 = (bonus track) Boston Arms, London, UK 
       1984-04-12 (audience recording)

ROB SEZ: FELT! Where have you been hiding all these years? How did I miss you when I was enjoying similar British bands like Lloyd Cole & The Commotions in the 1980s? Band founder / lead singer / chief songwriter "Lawrence" channels Tom Verlaine & Lou Reed (and at times a male Patti Smith) in the vocal department and, to some extent, in his guitar stylings. The sound of early-period Felt is dominated by Maurice Deebank — a very talented Johnny Marr-esque guitarist, who quit the band in 1985. Later-era Felt leans more heavily on the keyboard prowess of Martin Duffy (later of Primal Scream). The curious are encouraged to find one of the readily-available compilations like Absolute Classic Masterpieces or Stains On a Decade. Unfortunately, the full-length albums are hard to find at reasonable prices except as digital downloads.

MP3@320
(all sources were lossy; no FLAC share this time)
 

Learn more about Felt's music at Trouser Press, Wikipedia, AllMusic & this fabulous fan site

River Whyless - Cumberland, MD 2017

Delfest 2017
Allegheny County Fairgrounds 
Cumberland, MD
May 25, 2017

audience recording (sound quality: VG++; taper used 8-ft. raised mics, so crowd noise is at a minimum)

01 The Hunt
02 Kalangala
03 track 03
04 Blood Moon
05 We All Deserve The Light 
06 Miles of Skyline
07 track 07
08 Bend Time 
09 It Ain't Me Babe (cover)
10 track 10
11 track 11
12 Falling Sun -> Fortunate Son

TT: 67:51

ROB SEZ: Here's one more N.C. band, after featuring Mipso last week. River Whyless is even closer to me, located just up the road in beautiful Asheville. Their sound is a great blend of folk, world, rock and jam band — with the occasional psychedelic flourish. The band's next long-player is due in June, and you can pre-order it (immediate download of 3 tracks) here. Extra thanks to soling for taping & sharing. Anyone have the track titles for 3, 7, 10 & 11? If so, please leave a comment.

Snag a free 7-track sampler HERE from Noisetrade

FLAC
    
MP3@320
    

Learn more about River Whyless at 
the band's web site, FB page & Twitter