Monday, December 27

The dB's - New Year's Eve 1986, Raleigh, NC

*bumped for 2021 — 35th anniversary!*
The Brewery
Raleigh, NC
Dec. 31, 1986 into the wee hours of Jan. 1, 1987
   
audience recording (sound quality VG+; a well-balanced, solid-sounding recording).
  
Gene models the kind of hat all well-dressed  
New Year’s Eve revelers should wear
(a sideways Like This LP jacket!)
01 Any Old Thing
02 She Got Soul
03 Auld Lang Syne -- Never Say When
04 Rains Around Here
05 Lonely Is as Lonely Does
06 Not Cool
07 Never Before and Never Again
08 A Better Place
09 Today Could Be the Day
10 White Train
11 I Lie (end cut, fades out)
12 New Gun In Town
13 Change With the Changing Times
14 Amplifier
15 Love Is for Lovers
16 Witchi-Tai-To (Jim Pepper cover; Will sings lead)*
17 A Spy In the House of Love
18 Why Don't We Do It In the Road?
    
*16 is a traditional Native American peyote chant set to music (leave it to Will to find something that cool & include it in a dB’s show...)

TT: 78:25

ROB SEZ: A fired-up dB’s play a rowdy New Year’s Eve show — a perfect way to ring in any New Year. During the show, Peter announces (for the first time in public?) that I.R.S. Records has signed The dB’s and that a new album will be recorded and released in 1987. BIG THANKS to TG for recording the show and RIDICULOUS THANKS to dB’s Fan for the share.

FLAC
  
MP3@320
 
These photos were taken at a show in Boston at The Rat in the mid-1980s. But it probably looked a lot like this on New Year's Eve in 1986 at The Brewery in Raleigh.
  
  


















The dB's:
Peter Holsapple: guitar, vocals
Gene Holder: lead guitar
Will Rigby: drums, backing vocals
Jeff Beninato: bass, backing vocals
   

Wednesday, December 15

Rapid Eye Movement - Holiday Fanclub Singles (complete)

bumped from several Christmases ago...
R.  E.  M.
Holiday Fanclub Singles (complete)
1988-2011

ROB SEZ: I can think of no better musical celebration of the holidays than listening to the complete set of fanclub singles issued by R.  E.  M.  After calling it quits, the guys shut down the fanclub in 2011. In early 2013, a certain Mr. Buck made noises about releasing these on a possible future boxed set for charity.

soundboard recordings (sound quality range VG+ to Ex-; many are vinyl rips with attendant pops & a few skips)

First fanclub single, issued in 1988
THANK YOU KINDLY to the original rippers, sharers & posters.

1988a Parade of the Wooden Soldiers
1988b See No Evil (Television cover)
1989a Good King Wenceslas
1989b Academy Fight Song
1990a Ghost Reindeer In the Sky
1990b Summertime (final seconds cut)
1991a Baby Baby (Vibrators cover)
1991b Christmas Griping
1992a Where's Captain Kirk?
          (Spizzenergi cover)
1992b Toyland
1993a Silver Bells
1993b Christmas Time Is Here
1994a Sex Bomb (Flipper cover)
1994b Christmas In Tunisia
1995a Wicked Game (Chris Isaak cover)
1995b Java (Allen Toussaint cover)
Artwork for 1999 holiday single
1996a Only In America
           (Jay & The Americans cover)
1996b I Will Survive (Gloria Gaynor cover)
1997a Live for Today
1997b Happy When I'm Crying
           (Pearl Jam cover)
1998a Lucky (M. Stipe w/Radiohead)
1998b E-Bow the Letter
           (live w/Thom Yorke)
1999a Country Feedback
           (Live w/Neil Young)
1999b Ambulance Blues
          (Live w/Neil Young)
2000a Christmas Time (Is Here Again)
2000b Hastings & Main
2000c Take Seven
2001a Let Me In (Live)
2001b Find the River (rehearsal)
2002a No Matter What (Badfinger cover)
2002b Jesus Christ (LX Chilton cover)
2002c M. Stipe reads Martin Luther King
2003a Country Feedback (Live)
2003b It's the End of the World As We 
          Know It (And I Feel Fine) (Live)
2004a I Wanted to Be Wrong (Live)
2004b She Just Wants To Be (Live)
2005a Turn You Inside-Out (Live)
2005b The Great Beyond (Live)
2006a Tongue (Live) [performed by Tin Cup Prophette]
2006b So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) (Live)
2006c These Days (Live) [performed by The Observatory]
2006d Begin the Begin (Live)
Final fanclub single, issued in 2011
2007a Merry Xmas Everybody
          (Slade cover)
2007b Magnetic North
2008a Living Well Is the
          Best Revenge (Live)
2008b Let Me In (Live)
2008c Just a Touch (Live)
2009a Santa Baby
2009b Crazy Like a Fox
      (Link Cromwell & The Zoo cover)
2010a Christmas
          (Baby Please Come Home)
2010b IHT->U->EDIYTW (Dubmix)
2011a Perfect Circle (Live)
2011b Life and How to Live It (Live)

(includes artwork for all singles)

Check out the many connections between 
R.  E.  M. and The dB's at THIS earlier post.

For complete fanclub singles discography info, look at these
two great fan sites: HERE and HERE.

   

Friday, December 10

Straitjacket Fits - Radio & TV Sessions 1989-1993

Live Sessions 1989-1993
FM & TV broadcast captures 
various dates & venues

sound quality: VG+

01 Dialling a Prayer
02 Seeing U Fled
03 Bad Note for a Heart
04 Hand In Mine
05 Roller Ride
06 She Speeds
07 Follow & Fall 
08 Headwind
09 Quiet Come
10 Hail
11 Roller Ride
12 Hand In Mine
13 Bad Note for a Heart
14 Grate
15 Skin to Wear
16 Cast Stone
17 Dialling a Prayer 
18 Down In Splendour 
19 Brittle

sources:
01-10 - KPFK Radio, Los Angeles, CA Oct. 21, 1989
11-13 - John Peel Session, BBC Radio, UK Nov. 12, 1989
14-16 - Triple J, ABC Radio, Australia April 29, 1991
17 - The Factory, ABC TV, Australia April 1989
18 - MTV, Basement Studio, Australia 1990
19 - Late Night with Conan O'Brien, NBC TV, USA, Nov. 1993

ROB SEZ: No time for a longer comment this week, so I'll just say I hope fans of New Zealand rock with an avant garde edge will appreciate Straitjacket Fits, active from the mid 1980s into the '90s. BIG THANKS to mondoprune for sharing the Radio & TV collection and to crankingamps for the 1989 Triple J session below.

Live at the Wireless (2JJJ FM) 
ABC Studios
Sydney, Australia 
Aug. 7, 1989

FM recording (sound quality: Ex-)

01 DJ intro
03 Quiet Come
04 interview 1
05 Bad Note for a Heart
06 interview 2
07 Mellow Cheer
08 interview 3
    
note: officially-released tracks from the session were omitted in the original share, thus the tracklisting above is missing 02 and 09 as intended


     

Friday, December 3

Neil Finn & Dave Dobbyn (Party Boys) - Live 1985 (aud)

The Party Boys
Wellington, N.Z.
September 18, 1985

audience recording (quality: GD+ to VG-)

01 What's the Matter With You? (cuts in)
The Party Boys with Dave Dobbyn
before Neil joined in '85
02 Devil You Know
03 Mercury Blues (KC Douglas cover)
04 Love You Like I Should
05 Me and Bobby McGee (Roger Miller cover)
06 I Got You / Pretty Woman (Roy Orbison cover) 
07 Steal Yourself
08 Can't Carry On
09 Dancing Days (Led Zeppelin cover)
10 Be Mine Tonight
11 I Walk Away
12 Petticoat Junction (TV show theme)
13 Daydream Believer (Monkees cover)
14 Not Fade Away (Buddy Holly cover)
15 Now We're Getting Somewhere
16 Fire (Jimi Hendrix cover)
17 Bliss
18 Love Me Two Times (The Doors cover)
19 One Love (+ next song intro)
20 History Never Repeats
21 Hang Onto Yourself (David Bowie cover)

ROB SEZ: Can't have a 1980s & 1990s-centric N.Z. music series without posting this one. The recording goes back to the time just after the demise of Split Enz. Neil Finn had formed The Mullanes, but not yet signed to Capitol Records or changed the band's name to Crowded House. Meanwhile, Dave Dobbyn & friends began touring in 1984 as "The Party Boys" (kind of an odd name, since Jenny Morris was a member). Neil joined for the band's tour in Sept. & Oct. of 1985. This recording's sound quality isn't up to my usual standards, but the fun of hearing these two Kiwi legends playing & singing so many classic covers — and some of their own originals — makes up for what's lacking. Please enjoy.