VIDEO: "X Way Vision - Xpressway Artists and Their Friends...Live In Dunedin" (1992)

Here's a great Kiwi Rock video from that "other" New Zealand label, Xpressway Records. More avant garde and experimental than the more famous Flying Nun, they nevertheless shared many artists, at least now and then. And if you're a Peter Jefferies fan (and you should be) this is a particular boon as he appears in about half these clips. I guess these two facts befit a small, insular country like New Zealand.

These are raw live performances recorded late in 1991. Mostly single-cam and with plenty of low-tech video effects that I once would have found quite annoying but at this late date are rather charmingly anachronistic. My favorites here are the Heazlewood and Plagal Grind clips.

This is a 700MB VHS rip in the Divx format. No whining. The AVI compression I tried looked pretty crappy (and my research tells me this is a dying format anyway). But this actually looks virtually pristine with the VLC Media Player which everyone should have cos it's free and plays absolutely everything flawlessly. Looks much better with that than the Divx player, which is kinda funny/strange. But anyway it's an old VHS not a DVD so no worries. Just get it. It's an amazing video. Right HERE.

Clips:
01. GATE - Cropped Silver Hi-Lo
02. PETER JEFFERIES - Difficult Days
03. CHUG - Oozing
04. SANDRA BELL - Dreams Of Falling
05. HEAZLEWOOD - Surf Shitty
06. CYCLOPS - Steel White Bed
07. ALASTAIR GALBRAITH - Huxley
08. SON OF A GOBLIN - Travelling Grave
09. CARTER/JEFFERIES/BULL - Big Fat Elvis
10. PLAGAL GRIND - Sceaming E
11. THE DEAD C. - Helen Said This

Funny thing about the title of the video, though: It sounds, in my fucked-up mind, like Tweety Bird or Elmer Fudd is saying it. Weird.

Kelley Stoltz - "Crockodials" (2006)

This is a track-by-track cover of Echo & The Bunnymen's 1980 debut LP "Crocodiles" (or the U.S. version of it since I don't think the U.K. version had the single Do It Clean). It's not a particularly great record (as opposed to the original); more of a curiosity. Liner notes say it was recorded on an 8-track in 2001, though it was not released until 2006. Some of the songs are pretty faithful renditions, others, like All That Jazz, are more inspired interpretations. Either way, it's obviously a labor of love.
I don't know much about Kelley Stoltz or even how I came to acquire this CD. Prolly cos I was always a pretty big Bunnymen fan and was curious. I do know that it's not on the blogs and goes for big bucks on the interweb sites. So ya might as well get it HERE if you're interested. Or just curious as I was.

Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukat - "Lamppu palaa" (2002) & "Kunpa Tietäisitkin" (2004)

I haven't posted any Finnish music in a while, and since I had a request for this (from Chile!) I thought I might as well. Marko Haavisto & Poutahaukat were the Salvation Army Band in Aki Kaurismäki's film "The Man Without a Past". They are classic Suomi Pop, kind of a cross between Topi Sorsakoski & Agents and Laika & The Cosmonauts with a bit of Rock 'n' Roll and Country thrown in.
Of the two albums, "Lamppu palaa" is my favorite, but probably just cos I've had it longer and have listened to it a hundred times. It includes a great cover, in Finnish, of Hank Williams' Ramblin' Man. It's truly a delight to hear the lyrics in the famously complicated Finnish language melifluously snaking around the melody. Even if you don't speak Finnish.

One note: I only have these albums in the iTunes AAC format, which I usually don't post (and is prolly the only reason I haven't posted these before). If you don't have iTunes you will have to convert them with the free Switch program, or similar.
So don't let that be a hindrance. These are great albums. Both HERE in one download.

Happy 9/11 With...

This is from a stream available over at WFMU's blog. I recorded it with Audacity and split up the tracks and titled 'em. That's all. Get it while you can.

I can't believe they've reformed and are touring. Or rather, I can't believe they're not coming within 6 hours drive of here. Not even stupid Phoenix. Oh well. I've seen 'em a kajillion times, in their prime. But they are sure sounding fucking great here. Recorded at ATP a couple months ago. 19 songs.

Fuck yeah.

Indian Jewelry - "Sangles Redux" (2008)

This is a limited edition (500) vinyl-only pressing from Skinny Wolves Records of Dublin, Ireland. It consists of early material recorded 2002-2004. "Collected singles and extra tracks" as it says on the inner sleeve. Tracks 8-10 are credited to NTX, a band which apparently morphed into IJ. Tracks 11 and 12 are credited to Erika Thrasher, an IJ band member.

This is a 320 vinyl rip of a new LP I got at one of their shows. There are a couple flaws in it, despite being an apparently high quality heayweight pressing. But this might just be due to some of the source material (old vinyls?), particularly since the first song on Side 2 (the excellent Bombing Nightclubs) is sorta bad, but the next song perfectly fine. So I dunno.

I am a huge fan of IJ; the show that I got this at being about my favorite show of the year so far. It was in an old quonset hut, the band set up on the floor pounding out their primordial psychedelic stomp. I was pleasantly reminded of long-ago Buttholes shows (though their lo-tech "stage show" consisted only of one strobe light flashing at a very slow rate consistently throughout the set). Band members switched instruments and vocal duties on various songs.
Later they came through town again, opening for !!! at a bar show, but I had to work that night so missed it. Hope to see them again real soon.

If you are already a fan of their great "Free Gold!" album or any of their fine other releases, I highly recommend getting this. Good for filling in the "formative years" gaps, etc. I hear much less of the Buttholesian psychedelia on this and more Suicide and even Throbbing Gristle influences. Not a bad thing at all.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Flesh Floating By
02. Going South
03. The Same Mistake Man
04. Lost My Sight (Lil Electode Vrsn)
05. Chasing Rats Out
06. Downtown
07. Bombing Nightclubs
08. Pain Reliever
09. Warm Boxcutter
10. Pasadena Skies
11. Titanium
12. When We Dead Awaken

As an added bonus (because I've been neglecting you all for so long!), HERE is a 10-minute psychedelic mindfuck called Zing Zang they did on a 12" split with Future Blondes. I was gonna rip the whole thing, and tried TWICE, but just couldn't get through it. And I can take most anything. I love Whitehouse fer chrissakes! But something about their song just bugged the shit outta me. Can't explain it, don't wanna waste time or effort trying to.
But the IJ cut is awesome!

Robert Hazard & The Heroes - S/T EP (2 Versions) (1982)

While gathering together music for a Philadelphia Music radio special, I went on the blogs looking for some Robert Hazard. After digging around in a haystack I finally found one rip of his first EP. But it was so horribly distorted I decided to suck it up, dig out my old vinyls and rip them myself.

But let me backtrack a bit first. Growing up in Philly, this stuff was inescapable. Looking online now I found that this EP sold either 100,000 or 300,000 copies in Philly alone. Whichever number is correct, I'll believe it. Let's just say it was a shit-ton of records. And deservedly so. This is pure new wave brilliance, every song an anthem. The first two tracks, Escalator Of Life and Change Reaction were the massive hits, but all five songs saw much airplay. And the closing Dylan cover is simply explosive.
The story on the 2 versions is that after Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder wandered in to a bar where they were playing (he was in town to review the Stones' 1981 show at JFK Stadium) and got blown away by their always great set, he wrote about them in the mag. Kind of unheard-of back then for an unsigned local band. Major label boobs at RCA read it and, having had their work done for them, signed the band.
And instead of just re-releasing the perfect original, being major-label idiots, they remixed 3 of the 5 songs. Vastly inferior mixes, of course. But maybe this is just because we were so used to the originals. Though I distinctly remember thinking "What the fuck have they done?" upon first hearing the new versions.
They also dropped the "& The Heroes" part; I guess thinking it was easier to market a solo act in the era of Paul Young and Thomas Dolby, etc. ad. nauseum.

Whatever. I have included both versions in a 320 rip for your evaluation. Keep the one you like best, don't trust my clouded judgment. The RCA version sounds cleaner having of course spent much less time on the turntable. But they're both OK.
The reason there's no cover image up there is that both versions came wrapped in a poster of the man. I couldn't find any decent pics online of it, but the files themselves have art of the underlying cover - the RCA version has lyrics and the indie version just the name and song list.

Robert Hazard passed away at 59 about a year ago. He had recently been signed to Rykodisc and released a very decent Americana/Folk record, "Troubador", that I found while scouring the blogs. I'm sure you can find it too. Don't know much about the intervening years; something about an antiques store in upstate New York. But I'm sure he was well taken care of over the years having written a little song you might have heard called Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

Get both versions HERE.

Tracks:
01. Escalator Of Life
02. Change Reaction
03. (I Just Want To) Hang Around With You
04. Out Of the Blue
05. Blowin' In the Wind

Funny thing about that '81 Stones concert mentioned above: I went to that, pretty much solely because I thought it might be my last chance - them being so fucking old and all. It was ok. You Can't Always Get What You Want was fantastic and is today my only clear memory of the show. That and their garish, ridiculous stage set.
Also, because the scalpers over-bought or sometrhing I got in for a mere $3 from a guy with a fistful of tickets. So it was worth it, haha.

Eugene Chadbourne - "I've Been Everywhere" (1988)

One of our perennial favorites here at The Pessimist Club, the good Dr. Chadbourne has a seemingly endless supply of fine albums to be discovered. This one from 1988 is no exception, coming from a time of great creative output for him, the late Eighties. This was the time of his collaboration with Camper Van Beethoven, "Camper Van Chadbourne", as well as the absolutely essential "Vermin Of The Blues" (available HERE).
A friend of mine just picked this (vinyl LP) up on a recent trip home to Philadelphia and we listened to it right away upon his return. It's the typically fried and wonderful psychedelic folk he's known for, interspersed with his (I think) grandmother's musings on being a young girl in Nazi Germany. Makes for a unique listening experience to say the least.
Also there is some Legendary Stardust Cowboy contained herein, though I can't tell if it's any more than samples of Paralyzed. The back cover states, somewhat cryptically, "The Legendary Stardust Cowboy would like to apologize for his tape recorder breaking down".

Anyway, after that first listen I brought the record home to digitize. The next morning my friend got called away for an emergency gig filling in on drums on some rock stars' tour (no names, haha).
So, this is for you, D. HERE it is.

(PS - It's been brought to my attention that you might have trouble with Track 10. If so, I've uploaded it separately HERE. Cheers.)

Tracks:
01. The Ring
02. It Takes Longer Saying Yes Than Saying No
03. You Still Live With Mom and Dad
04. The Liar Song
05. Too Damn Bad
06. Buck Owens Medley / My Heart Skips a Beat
07. We Keep the KKK In Line
08. The Mountain Men
09. Oil Platform
10. I've Been Everywhere
11. Neurologically Impaired Leaders

V/A - "Sudden Death" (1982 Smoke Seven)

Here's a nice little old SoCal comp I unearthed whilst preparing for a record fair a couple weeks ago. Hadn't listened to it in years, and looking at it I remembered how much fun the JFA version of War's Low Rider was. Plus it's got Redd Kross (prolly their first appearance with the 2 d's and the K), Sin 34 and Youth Gone Mad. Looking over the track selection, I smiled at the song Nuclear War. How quaint it was we used to worry about that. I put it on, loved it all over again so I did a nice 320 vinyl rip for y'all.
Back then this stuff got lumped into "hardcore", but it's basically great trashy punk rock.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Low Rider (JFA)
02. Guess What (JFA)
03. American Buttfuckers (JFA)
04. Only Love (Sin 34)
05. Nuclear War (Sin 34)
06. Who Needs Them (Sin 34)
07. America (Moral Decay)
08. TV News (Moral Decay)
09. Life Is Getting Faster (Crankshaft)
10. Massacre Killer (Crankshaft)
11. Twisted Cross (Sadist Faction)
12. Peace Corpse (Sadist Faction)
13. Rat Society (The Sins)
14. All Your Tomorrows (The Sins)
15. Sins Prayer (The Sins)
16. Back To the Bed (The Demented)
17. Deadly Game (The Demented)
18. How Can I Kill You (The Demented)
19. Tatum O'Tot and the Fried Vegetables (Redd Kross)
20. St. Lita Ford Blues (Redd Kross)
21. Ode To Darby (Youth Gone Mad)
22. Diaperhead (Youth Gone Mad)
23. Homo Mommy (Youth Gone Mad)
24. Linda Is a Monster (Naughty Women)
25. Jealousy (Naughty Women)
26. Phantom Citizen (Dead Youth)
27. Kern County (Dead Youth)
28. Radiation Fall Out (Dead Youth)

Years ago at a Pavement show at the Troc in Philadelphia, the guy who looks like Corey Feldman (or was it Corey Haim?) had this LP proudly displayed on his amp during the show. Then he held it up afterwards, showing us all his great find in case we hadn't noticed. Guess he scored it at the Record Exchange...

Yves Mourousi / Paul Hardcastle - Dix Neuf (Single 1985)

In 1985 I returned to France after 5 years to visit friends I had made there while ostensibly going to school. At the time, Paul Hardcastle's 19 was a massive hit in the States, and we all loved it. Everyone was going around stuttering N-N-N-N-Nineteen like retarded Max Headroom clones. I was not immune. When I got to Paris with some friends, we were quite surprised to hear it was a massive hit there as well. Except they were stuttering D-D-D-D-Dix Neuf. We fell out laughing every time we heard it, so naturally I bought the single. I don't think we thought about the larger ramifications of a French version of a Viet Nam war song. I mean, yeah they had their tussle in Indochine so it made more sense than, say, a German version. But couldn't they have their own song?
Whatever, who cares. It still makes me laugh. Sorta.

I think the song is the basic Paul Hardcastle track with French tacked on top. The awkward chorus remains in English ("Destruction of men in their prime / whose average age was nineteen" I mean, c'mon...)
For refresher's sake, I've also included the American original.
Get it HERE.

THE FALL - "The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall" (1984) [Vinyl Rip: 320 mp3 & FLAC]

So I thought I'd do a nice vinyl rip of this since the old Beggars Banquet CD is so crappy. Never mind the fact that some record company stooge decided to break up the album's perfect sequencing by putting the bonus tracks between the LP's sides; it just sounds thin and anemic. And yeah, I saw on the "unofficial Fall website" that they're doing a remaster soon. Or someday. But I have a mistrust of remasters. We'll have to wait and see.

I noticed through my sitemeter that lots of people were arriving on The Pessimist Club looking for this, but landed on the similarly titled video doc instead. Oh well, sorry guys. Hope you got the doc anyway, though!

I was quite stunned listening to these mp3s back-to-back with the CD I have in my iTunes. Sounds SO MUCH better. And my old vinyl is in surprisingly good shape. A bit crunchy at the start of the "Lay Chant", but that's it. Smooth sailing from there on in. I don't think I'd want to try this with my vinyl copies of "Grotesque" or "Dragnet", though. Those have always been my favorites. But this is my favorite of the Brix era (I just read in the MES autobiography that he hates the term "era". But I can't think of a better way to put it, so...)

And just to try something new, I uploaded a lossless FLAC version. I don't know much about FLACs; I just put all the settings on as high as they'd go (24 bit, etc). You guys'll have to let me know if you want FLACs in the future. Or WAV or AIFF. I don't mind doing 'em, it's no big whoop. But I'm not gonna bother if no buggers download 'em.

Get the 98MB 320 kbps mp3s HERE.
Get the 486MB FLACs HERE.
Front and back artwork included.

RIP Jim Carroll

No download here. Plenty bloggers have posted his (classic and necessary) "Catholic Boy" LP. Just enter "Jim Carroll" in the CaptainCrawl box up there and there's tons of hits.
Anyway, I was saddened to here of one of my literary hero's passing on Friday. I remember getting The Basketball Diaries at a boardwalk bookshop in Ocean City, NJ as a teenager. I read it all on the beach that day, laughing my ass off (and boiling like a lobster). Over the years I must have read it ten times. And despite the fact that I've lent it out, eagerly, to anyone interested, I still have that yellowed, frayed copy.
Jim Carroll spoke to me like no one else I had read up to that point. Not that I was a jock or anything (nor was he, just an amazing natural talent). Teachers, older friends and various mentors had tried to get me to read On the Road, but to me it sounded as archaic as Shakespeare. Reading Carroll was as easy and natural as hanging out on a street corner bullshitting with friends. And he fed my fascination with New York City which had started as a wee lad with Simon & Garfunkel. In fact, years later when I moved there, I moved into Carroll's neighborhood: Washington Heights. When friends came to visit me I'd spread my arms wide and proclaim, "This is Jim Carroll's 'hood!". Ok, I lived several blocks to the south; he actually lived in Inwood. But I lived closer to Inwood than Washington Heights proper. But fuck, close enough. It's all that skinny finger on the top of Manhattan when you look at a map. We rode the same 'A' Train.
When I'd go swimming in the Hudson (yup), I'd always recall his tales of swimming on the other side in the Harlem River. Thankfully, the ejections of raw sewage that he would time his dives between were long gone by then.

When the movie came out I was gonna see it but never did. Still haven't. I remember talking with a friend about it back then and she said it was too depressing. I said, "what? It's not funny?". She looked at me like I was talking about something else entirely. So if you've never read it, I highly recommend it. Maybe it would be different for me if I just read it now rather than when I was a teenager, but I don't know. Good writing is good writing is good.
And that fucker could write.

Maybe I'll see if I can DL that movie somewhere...

VIDEO: The Frogs - Coney Island High, NYC 1997 (54m.)

Here's a fun video I watched the other day and thought I'd post for you guys. If you've never seen Jimmy Flemion in his glorious green glitter angel wings, now's your chance! Pretty fucking glam.
I think I went to this show partly cos there was quite a bit of hype at the time with how un-PC they were. But mostly cos The Bunny Brains also played. It was a fun night and the video's good.
There's even a little surprise for all you ex-hair metal fans (you know who you are don't deny it). Watch and see. 'Nuff said.
I'm going to bed. Good night.

Get the AVI file HERE.
Watch online HERE. (As always, go to the toolbar and switch it to 4:3 to avoid the stretchiness cos it's not in widescreen. Duh, it was 1997).

Beck & Record Club - "The Velvet Underground & Nico" (2009)

Here's another one from the interwebs, specifically beck.com. As he relates there, a bunch of friends and him got together in the studio for a day to record a "classic" album in it's entirety. The choice was this or "Sex Packets". I think you will agree they made the right choice even before you've heard it. They dubbed themselves Record Club (I have listed them as "Beck & Record Club" - a: to keep this organized with Beck in my iTunes and b: cos it sounds nice with the "Velvet Underground & Nico").
The songs were posted as videos, one a week over an eleven week period. You can go there and watch them all now.
These were posted as Vimeo videos. And even though the videos themselves were charmingly old school, with cheesy pixelation effects, etc. we can be glad they were not on Youtube with their horrendous audio quality. These sound great. I captured them with Audacity mainly to play on my weekly radio program, then made 192kbps mp3s of them.

I am not a huge Beck fan, nor am I a hater. I think they have done a good job and not disgraced the original. It's mostly an acoustic-based affair. I think my favorite is Run Run Run which gets a nice arrangement with cheap keyboards, followed closely by Venus In Furs with it's eastern-sounding raga feel. In fact that vibe permeates the whole session. Waiting For the Man is a gloriously detuned jam. All Tomorrow's Parties is appropriately narcoleptic with a female Icelandic singer providing the necessary Nico-ish accent.
The only one I don't really like on this set is Heroin, which is done as a screaming punky romp courtesy the drummer. Oh well, I guess it's hard to provide the gravitas for a straight reading if you're not, um, a junkie. So why not have some fun with it? After all, I think an overabundance of reverence would have rendered this session flat and dull. Artistic freedom!

All in all, a very interesting and entertaining take on one of my (and I suspect, all of our) all-time favorite LPs.
Good on ya, Beck!

Get it HERE

Tracks:
01. Sunday Morning
02. I'm Waiting For the Man
03. Femme Fatale
04. Venus In Furs
05. Run Run Run
06. All Tomorrow's Parties
07. Heroin
08. There She Goes Again
09. I'll Be Your Mirror
10. Black Angel's Death Song
11. European Son
12. Heroin (Alt. Version)

UPDATE 9/07/09:
There's a new track, an alt. version of Heroin. More of a standard reading than the earlier version I poo-pooed above. Beck takes the vocal on this one. Funny thing is, I've grown to like the other one. Oh well, I'm an idiot, what can I say?

The link above now contains all 12 tracks. If you've already gotten the 11 song version, you can get the individual track HERE.

Mark E Smith - Greenwich Sound Radio 1983

I got this from the The Fall website which they were so kind to post as a download for all us fans. The only thing I did to it was split it up into individual tracks from the one big mp3 that you get there.
It's MES on a radio program playing records, reading poetry and chatting. Also some then just recent live Fall tracks. It's really good and it's great quality. But I can't get my head around him playing Spandau Ballet!? Oh well, there's plenty of the obscure countrybilly he's known to love.
Oh, and now that they're individual tracks you can delete the radio station's offensive promos. Or not.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. The Fall - Words of Expectation (Live: Arena, Rotterdam, 12 Feb. 1983)
02. Mark E. Smith's Guide to Writing Guide
03. MES Poem: London
04. MES Poem: Manchester
05. Spandau Ballet - Communication
06. Greenwich Sound promo
07. The Fall - Fantastic Life (studio)
08. Chat with Greenwich Sound, part 1
09. Slim Jacobs - That's Truck Drivin'
10. MES Poem: Centimeter Square
11. MES Poem: Village Bug
12. MES Poem: Amsterdam
13. The Fall - Totally Wired (studio)
14. Chat, part 2
15. Bobby Sykes - Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves
16. Greenwich Sound promo
17. Willie Nelson & Dolly Parton - Everything's Beautiful
18. MES reads "a piece I found in an international newspaper on the floor"
19. The Fall - Hexen Definitive/Strife Knot (Live: Arena, Rotterdam, 12 Feb 83)
20. Crickets

In a related item, I just read Guardian writer Dave Simpson's book "The Fallen", about his quest to find and interview all 50-some ex-Fall members. It's really good and I blasted through it in two days. What I found most interesting is that the few who were not sacked but quit all regret their decision, and most of the Fallen would go back in a heartbeat if asked. And all have warm-and-fuzzy opinions on MES, despite the alleged "bad treatment", which is analyzed as his way of getting the most out of his musicians.
There are several laugh-out-loud anecdotes and a few shockers.
It's not out here in the States, but I would recommend getting it from a secondary seller on Amazon.co.uk. It's just come out there in an updated paperback and I got mine new for 3½ quid + 7 shipping = about $15. And it came in 4 days. Or it's on eBay for about $25.

Now I've got to read MES's autobiography "Renegade" to get the other side of the story...

Coin - "Attract Mode" (1999)

Here is an insanely fun record by Thermos Malling, ex-of Doo Rag.
Here's a description straight from the back cover:

"Every synthetic beep, chirp, buzz, drone you hear on this album was ripped directly from videogame soundtracks composed between 1983-88. The original scores were painstakingly coded in Basic on a Commodore 64 home microcomputer. The raw data was converted by Coin into waveforms and assembled into new full length tracks using cut and paste techniques associated with modern software. Sampled live drumming augments these arrangements by filling gaps from the editing process and offers a unique percussive setting unparalleled by any drum machine. The text-to-speech capabilities of Apple generated every vocal element on this record."

It's a truly great and fun record and yup, very hard to find. Vocals sound very Flying Lizards-ish, adding to it's early-80s charm.
It's only a 128 kbs rip of a CD-R, but sounds fine. A friend of mine has the (very limited) vinyl and I will try to do up a proper 320 rip in the next few days. I'll let ya know. But for now definitely get this and ENJOY!

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Intro
02. Coin (That's Right)
03. Intro
04. Circular Beats
05. 9" (All the way Down)
06. Intro
07. Play Fascination
08. 98 Coins
09. Intro
10. Xmas on a Boat
11. Tuff Actin' Lady
12. Intro
13. Laundrymat B.J.
14. Intro
15. Pod Position
16. Outro

Eugene Chadbourne - "Country Boobs" (2007 CD-R)

Here's a CD-R the good Doctor has been offering on tour. Don't know if it's available elsewhere. My favorites are the typically fried versions of well-known songs, particularly the Ween/Billy Idol one-two punch. Or slap. I guess these are not so much fried as baked as the whole disc's languidly paced.
Good stuff.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Cowboy Girl
02. Condoleeza
03. Saddamn Me
04. Hello In There
05. Time After Time
06. Jackson
07. Some Velvet Morning
08. We Don't Need The Men
09. Piss Up A Rope
10. White Wedding
11. She Fainted At Bonaroo
12. Danger!
13. Snow (Hey Oh)
14. Feel Good Musik 4 Fucked

The Flaming Lips - Boom-Box Experiment No.19 (1998)

Here's one I've just acquired after years of searching. I saw it on several "trade lists" online, but none of the buggers ever got back to me. Finally found it from a dude in Brazil (thanks, Luis!). Traded a Melvins DVD I shot for it, and well worth the price.

The Boom-Box Experiments, for those of you that don't know, were 40 volunteers from the audience armed with pawn shop boom-boxes and a bag of tapes. These tapes had various music pieces and sound effects on them and the boom-boxes were wired through to the PA. It was an ungodly racket, made all the more so by people fucking up their cues and the tapes never quite synching. Head Lips Wayne Coyne and Steven Drozd "conducted" the participants which were separated into halves, facing each other. Michael manned the mixer.

The main reason I was searching so diligently for this particular show was that on this particular night, September 27, 1998 at Wetlands in NYC, yours truly was a member of the "orchestra". In fact, Steven parked me in a chair at the edge of the stage and shoved about two six-packs of beer and cigarettes under the seat. Not only was I to participate, but apparently was to be his personal valet for the night. Not that I minded since I would be helping myself to the beer as well, haha.
But the best part is that I get admonished by Wayne three (three!) times.
The first time I was fumbling with a tape and he looks over at Steven and asks, "Is Pete kinda drunk?" I was, as he well knew. The second he kinda stutters a "P-Pete..." and looks over at Steven again and asks, "Is he opening that for you?" I guess he got a blank look cos then he says, "I told my side No Drinking... well, maybe it'll help".
The third time he just tells a rather blotto me, in support, "Two more Pete! Hang in there".

It was of course all in good fun. Even if I was famous for drinking copious amounts of their alcohol.
The recording is a real nice soundboard tape. Lotsa loopy stereo effects, and even though you can in no way capture the sonic mayhem that was unleashed it is a fair representation.
A high quality 320 kbps rip. Mind though, that when the music starts there is a lotta hiss: 40 cheap pawn shop boom-boxes will do that.
The "Intro" track is Wayne explaining the proceedings. The Test 1 and Test 2 tracks are just that: tests to make sure everything's hooked-up and operating properly. Things get going for reals on Track 4. And Speed Of Life is my favorite with 40 babies that had to be experienced to be believed.

Get it HERE.

Tracks:
01. Intro
02. Test 1
03. Test 2
04. The Big Ol' Bug Is the New Baby Now
05. Car Accident
06. Speed Of Life
07. Heralding In a Better Ego
08. Sunrise
09. Altruism

VIDEO: Six Finger Satellite - Westbeth Theatre, NYC 9/7/95 (46m.)

Sorry for the lack of posts of late. Been consumed with suvival. Trying to find a job in Arizona in the summer in these economic times is needle-in-a-haystack futility. Ugh. All my CD's are gone (except four stacks of The Fall, Mekons, TVPs and Ween each). Records next? I've sold so many records over the years and it's always a regret... "Ah, I used to have this". CDs who cares good riddance. Maybe I could sell hard drives full of music? Would that even be legal??? Anyway, somehow things always work out, more or less. I got a gig at a theater here that usually gets me by but bands tend to avoid this area in the summer. I guess those festivals in Europe are pretty appealing...

Anyway, I just wanted to get this video posted as I've had two requests (from the same person?) for it. So here you are whoever you are. Hope you like it.

Much more soon!

The AVI video is HERE.
Watch online HERE. (Switch it to 4:3 to avoid the srertchiness).

The Buff Medways - A couple singles...

Damaged Goods 7" DAMGOOD 240 (2005)
A-side is from the Buff's best LP (in my opinion), "Medway Wheelers", wherein we find Billy Childish and the boys in a decidedly mod vein. The B-side, A Quick One, as if to prove this is a cover of the "You Are Forgiven" part of Pete Townshend's first stab at rock opera, A Quick One While He's Away. The sleeve doesn't list this as from any album so you'd be led to think it's a non-LP B-side. However, a different take of this cut ends 2002's "Steady the Buffs" LP, only there it's titled Ivor (as in "the Engine Drivor"). So, for completeists, I guess...

Transcopic 7" TRAN 025 (2003)
A-side is yet another take on Just 15, which Billy originally did with Thee Mighty Caesars in the 80's, and was a live staple with Thee Headcoats in the 90's. And yeah, I bought it anyway cos the song rocks. One of my favorites of his. And if you go back on this very blog and download The Original Sins' Just 14 single, you can play them back-to-back and think you're clever (like I did DJ'ing one night tho no one noticed of course).
B-side is exclusive to this 7" so far as I can tell.

Get them both HERE.

VIDEO: The Fall - Brownies, NYC, 7 April 1998 (56m.)

As per several requests since my Fall documentary post, here is the complete train-wreck of a show. This is the one with the onstage row. Watching it again after many years, I was surprised how the show even went for nearly an hour since the fracas takes place about 24 minutes into it. MES takes Karl's drumsticks and throws them around on the stage which causes him to jump from his kit and assault him. But shit must have been brewing long before this. And yes, the first half of the show pretty much sucks. MES is wandering around, flipping through papers and barely bothering to sing (strange, too cos the night before at Coney Island High was such a great set).

After the scuffle the band continue on for a song MES-less, then he returns for a scorching take on Lie Dream Of a Casino Soul, preceded by MES whipping the guitarist with the mic cord and finishing with him telling them, "Well done, lads!".
Behind the Counter is next and equally fierce. MES seems to have been awakened from a stupor for these two songs at least, and the beast we all know and love/loathe is in fine form, spitting the lyrics clearly and with venom.
Alas, it is not to last. He Pep is next and falls apart, the band walk off and MES and Julia are left alone for a mostly acapella Powderkeg, with improvised lyrics about the night's proceedings.

But stay tuned all the way to the end cos there's some funny bits with Tommy and Steve, proving they didn't take it all so very badly. Even if they were all sacked that night.

Get it HERE. Watch online HERE.

This is a 775 MB AVI file ripped from my master Hi8 tape (accept no substitutes!). If anyone wants a pristine, uncompressed DVD of this or any show I've posted leave a comment and we'll work it out for postage or something.
Cheers.

Lime Spiders - "Lime Spiders" (1987 Virgin Promo Live EP)

Here's a cool little 7" I bust out every now and them for some balls-out garage rockin'. I got this as a free handout at one of their shows at Trenton City Gardens. Funny to think now that they were on Virgin Records. Maybe Aussie garage was in line to be the next big thing? 'Til grunge anyway.
The versions here are a lot less psychedelic sounding than their studio counterparts (the 2 songs I got on a comp, anyway). Flat-out rock 'n' roll.

As far as I know, this remains a rarity. There's one on Discogs for 32 euros and one on Musicstack for 12 bucks (well it is in glorious green vinyl. Of course). So ya might as well download it, right HERE.

Tracks:
01. Space Cadet
02. Just One Solution
03. Action Woman
04. Stone Free

Nice sleeve, too, eh?

The Cramps - "I Ain't Nuthin But a Gorehound b/w Weekend On Mars" (1984 New Rose)

These are tracks that were recorded live at NYC's Peppermint Lounge in February 1983. Gorehound was included on the "Smell Of Female" live Mini-LP of tracks from the show. Weekend On Mars is a great little ditty that was a bonus track only available on the New Rose Records' 7-inch box set version of that album. And this single release. (I presume that it's simply one of the 45s from the set). Kinda strange this never featured as a bonus track on any of the CD re-releases of the album, but if you have the CD and you get this you'll now have 4 bonus tracks instead of 3, woo-hoo!

Get the 320 vinyl rip HERE

And while I'm on The Cramps...
A few days ago I was hunting the internet for The Blenders' Don't Fuck Around With Love and The Clovers' Rotten Cocksucker's Ball. I found them on an incredible series of 12 (!) compilations called "Lux & Ivy's Favorites" on WFMU's blog. Now I used to check their great blog almost daily so I was a tad ashamed for having missed something so great that's been posted since February. Oh well, got 'em now! And can't stop listening!

These are very different from the famous "Songs The Cramps Taught Us" comps and the similar "Born Bad" comps. Those featured songs The Cramps had covered, either on recordings or live. But these are all songs that Lux and Ivy have spoken about in interviews or written about as influences, favorites, etc and just generally cool, whacked-out stuff in their record collections. It's not all wild rockabilly, either. Lotsa doo-wop, blues, etc. A deeper look into the soul of our heroes, as it were.

Zip files for the first eleven volumes are HERE. You need them all, trust me. There's also a link there to a cool radio interview and a link to Lux's "Purple Knif Show". What more could you want???
Oh yeah, the 12th volume! Subtitled "The Lux Interior Memorial Edition", is HERE.

And since there is no art for these (except Vol.1), I of course made some up for each volume. Searched out some Lux & Ivy pics, downloaded some suitably Cramps-y fonts, a bit of Photoshoppe and...voila!
I've put all the covers in a zip file HERE.

I didn't make Volume 1's but included it in the file. My favorite is Volume 8's, Lux & Ivy looking all Sailor & Lula Lynch-ian... Hope you like!

Update July 23:
Kogar, who makes these comps, has just posted a new one, Number 13! Visit his blog for it HERE. This edition actually has artwork! And it puts my piddly efforts to shame...

The Fall - "Blindness" US LP Version (2005 Narnack)

Bit of a late entry in "The Fall Wednesday" for me...
In my tireless quest to post original things not on a ton of other blogs, I give you this: a far superior version of the song Blindness from the 2005 LP "Fall Heads Roll". According to the authoritative Fall website, this has never been released anywhere but on the US double-vinyl release. Not even on that box-set that looked like The Peel Sessions box and where they dumped a buncha other rarities so us Fall Freaks would presumably pony-up the dough for yet another mostly redundant comp.

But whatever. This version is completely diferent, with a fuller sound and very different lyrics (well, it actually HAS lyrics compared to the CD version). I am sure you will like it.

As for the pic, I did a quick image search and found that, a poster for some prolly stupid Miramax movie I didn't even bother reading about. And now that I've mentioned that, the handful of people Googling the movie will come here and go "Huh?".
I am probably taking this artwork mania too far...

Get the 320 kbps vinyl rip HERE.

Billy Childish - "Trembling Of Life" (1993 Damaged Goods)

This is an out-of-print box set of three 7" EPs and a book and a couple post cards. It's Billy reading his bilious poems for you. It's all recorded at one sitting, probably in his house or something. Billy rages on his girlfriend, drinking and his "inability to even fucking spell". What's funny to me is the contrast in his attitude here from what I've seen of him live, when he's always laughing and smiling and having a good time. Even when I saw him reading poetry at a record store. Maybe this was because it was before he went sober and before he broke up with that Tracy Emin girl who ripped off his art stylee and exploited their relationship publicly for her own personal gain. Whatever, it IS entertaining. Even if it is bleak stuff.

The Poems:
The Magical Prose Of Beer / For the Deceived / My Bitterness / And Hers / Give Me Truly Harts / The Snakes Of Desire / On the Tube / To Understand Murder / The Sudden Fart Of Laughter / Morn the Poor Whores Of Chatham / Under the Clock / Dragin Thru This / Grow You Afraid In Dark / My Hart Dosent Rest Easy (1985) / Poem To the Noseless One / A Darker Currency (Hamburg 92) / Fleas Flys and Women (1985) / The Typeriter That Couldnt Spell / Legercy / Merry Little Fascists / Just In This Way / The Moth / And the Cider Bottle Passes As My Eyes / One For the Bludless (Kunsthaus Zurich 91) / Never To Fake It / Here Let Bitterness Evaporate (Amsterdam 92) / The Unutterable / A Little Less / Gentle Love / And Cruelness Here / Sick September / Trembling Of Life

As in my previous Billy post and as per usual for his releases, Billy's idiosyncratic/dyslexic spelling has been retained.

Get my 192 kbps vinyl rip HERE.

"The Sunshine Hotel" (1998 NPR radio documentary) 21m.

"Welcome, come on in, if you got the rent money, you can stay, if you ain't beat it! This is an eat it and beat it hotel. Normally, people come in, they stay for a day or two and get out. But for some reason or another, people come here and they like to stay -- for a year, for two years. In other words they like to give you aggravations. If you like aggravations come to the Sunshine Hotel -- it's a lovely place."

It's funny how downloading things off blogs will remind me of something I've got in a box somewhere I had completely forgotten about. I've started several blog posts with the exact same lead. So anyway, I got and listened to "The Evolution Of a CRO-MAGnon" by John Joseph their lead singer (Cro-Mags, duh) from Cosmic Hearse blog. Comes on all like a gutter Jim Carroll, and the best parts are the first half; his fucked-up childhood. I could well see why they titled the post "And You Thought Your Life Was Fucked Up". I really liked that he read the book himself and not some ponce like DiCaprio. The authentic New Yawk accent and his fond reminiscing of "the old New York" reminded me of this tape here, "The Sunshine Hotel".

I was living in NYC when this aired in '98. I wasn't really a regular listener of NPR but I was a straphanger and therefore read the papers. This got a lot of press and so I listened and taped it. Good thing, too, cos it's great!
The Sunshine Hotel was a flophouse on The Bowery. Ten bucks a night for a cubicle with chickenwire for a ceiling. The eccentric and erudite manager, Nathan Smith narrates and introduces us to the likes of Vinny the throat cancer victim and his lovebirds, Cookie the toothless loan shark, etc. A wonderful cast of characters.
I won't say too much, just download and enjoy.
Your humble narrator, Nathan Smith, 1935-2002
In researching a bit for this post, I found it was released on CD but is now out-of-print. There's a used copy on Amazon for $99.99, but it was a good source for the cover.
There is a complete transcript online HERE. Read along! (and Google translate for you less-than-fluent international readers).

The Sunshine Hotel was awarded the Prix Italia, "Europe's oldest and most prestigious broadcasting award", in 1999.

My 192 kbps cassette rip is HERE.

The Fall - "Mixing It" Session (BBC 2006)

A while back I got a great Fall collection called "Unreleased Radio Sessions 1981-1999" (from YoungMossTongue blog which is now private but you can get it here at Pathway To Unknown Worlds blog). It's a great collection of sessions which are not Peel. It set me on a search for other sessions, and I found this one at Burning World blog. Their download links are down so I'm making it available again here. Lucky you. Cos it's a great session. The versions of three songs from "Fall Heads Roll" are all excellent, especially Midnight In Aspen, as well as the Monks cover Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy which they did for the great Monks tribute CD Silver Monk Time. But the thing that makes this session an extra treat are the two interview excerpts with MES. Not that he says anything particularly insightful, but it's his attitude coupled with his slurring that I find charming. He actually explains the songs and his songwriting process and talks about the Monks. (And he is a bit clearer than the I/V bits in the video...)

As regular readers of this blog are well aware, I often make cover art for things that have no art. I don't spend a ton of time on them, usually about 20 minutes, and I'm not no graphic designer please, but I know what I like, like they say. So I made that one up there from a drawing from a Fall article in Believer magazine a couple years ago. I got that issue (the same one with a CD available on this very blog) but I took the pic from an image search cos my scanner's busted. The page I got it from was from some guy who recognized the drawing as an exact copy of a photo he took. And they didn't credit him. Boo-hoo! Join the club buddy with me and my uncredited footage in the BBC doc, haha.

But the coolest part is I titled it with the Mark E Smith Handwriting Font! How fucking cool is that?! And it's available for free right HERE for Mac and PC.

OK blah blah I've prattled on enough. Get the session HERE.

Tracks:
01. Higgle-Dy Piggle-Dy
02. interview pt1
03. Assume
04. Midnight In Aspen
05. interview pt2
06. Pacifying Joint

Note - The folder contains an earlier "cover" I made for it. You may like that one better, who knows. But if you want the one above you'll have to click on it and drag it over.
Ta.

Sebadoh - "Asshole" EP (Vertical Industries 1992)

Here's a quick one cos I wanted to post a record after all those videos. Back to mah roots, hah! Plus I just wanna see that bright red Asshole heart up there...

This 7"er is pretty much what you would expect: lo-fi out-of-tune Lou strumming and humming, noise collage, scorching punk rockers. Beautiful, in other words!

My copy says it's the 2nd pressing of 500.
There's no track listing and I can't find any online, so I guess they're untitled.
As I recall, this came with a bunch of plastic ants thrown into the sleeve. For some reason. I imagine someone got a tape from Lou to put out a 7" and they sat around their living room getting fucked-up with friends, stenciling and Speedball linoleum printing the labels, splattering 'em with a bit of spray paint and generally doing everything they could think of to make a nice record.
Good job, guys.

Get it HERE.

VIDEO MEGAPOST: The Ex / Royal Trux / Flat Duo Jets / Ruin... / The Wedding Present / Mekons

I've been busying myself in my free time this past week digitizing my rapidly deteriorating collection of analog Hi8 videos of shows I filmed for my public access show in NYC. Talk about drudgery! But I make the fruits of my labor available to you, dear reader! Several of these shows have glitches edited out, generally at the beginning, and I'll let you know where and how bad (actually I think the problem is my crappy camera not the tapes). But mostly they're just fine. They are all great shows, shot close up and with great audio.

I'm still experimenting with video file formats, etc. So some are AVI, some are MOV. I am leaning towards the MOV format cos the files are smaller, there's less pixelation and the audio is uncompressed. Like I've said before, you should definitely have the awesome free cross-platform VLC media player. It plays EVERY video format in ANY operating system and is FREE. 'Nuff said. No whining.

Alternately, I was surprised to learn that Megaupload has an "Instant Video Link" for these vids. It's pretty cool: you just gotta close one pop-under window, then click "play" again. The viewer is huge, much better than Youtube's, and you can skip to any part of the video. So it's good for preview purposes at the very least; see if you wanna download 'em or not. (I would suggest clicking the "Switch to 4:3" format cos the viewer is widescreen and they do that weird stretchy thing, though it's not too bad).

Alright, here's what I got for ya:

The Ex - The Knitting Factory, NYC, 2/18/99, 78m.
An absolutely furious set from the Dutch anarcho-punks. One of the best shows I've ever seen. Shot close-up with wide angle lens. Awesome. Essential viewing for all, especially if you've never seen them and/or live in some bumfuck burg which they will never visit...
776 MB AVI file HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

Royal Trux - The Cooler, NYC, 9/12/98, 57m.
A great set from the classic scuzz rockers. Up close, great audio.
800 MB AVI file HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

Flat Duo Jets - Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ, 3/29/96, 78m.
Just saw the Dex Romweber Duo last week and was reminded that I had this old video. The man has mellowed a bit over the years but the set was still great. And his sister is bad-ass on the skins. This set is classic FDJ fury, non-stop.
362 MB MOV file is HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

Ruin... - Upstairs At Nick's, Philadelphia, 11/30/96, 76m.
One of my favorite bands to go see growing up in the Philly area in the early 80's. Read what I posted about them earlier (and download their ESSENTIAL discography on one CD) HERE. This is a video of the second of three shows they reunited to do for the release of said remastered discography. It's about the ONLY Ruin there is on video, according to Cordy and Tom.
799 MB AVI file is HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

The Wedding Present - Tramps, NYC, 9/7/96, 57m.
Probably my all-time favorite "pop" band, David Gedge and the Weddoes (as the trendy Brit press dubbed them) emerged from the C86 scene along with Primal Scream, Close Lobsters, etc. I could identify with Gedge's melancholic yearnings exploding into passionate guitar fury (I mean, look at the pic!), especially at that time of my life. I always thought they should be at least as big as The Cure. But perhaps it's for the best they're not. Cos last year and the year before they came to Tucson (!) and played intimate club dates. Furiously.

I'll give a set list here cos I know all the songs, woo-hoo!:
Crawl / Come Play With Me / Kansas / Sports Car / Snake Eyes / 2, 3, Go / Love Slave / Drive / Real Thing / Venus / Gazebo / Click Click / Convertible / Montreal / Swimming Pools, Movie Stars / Brassneck / Heather

699 MB AVI file is HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

Mekons - Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ, 10/17/95, 107m.
A much more rollicking set than the previous Mekons video post, this show had lotsa old favorites I thought they'd long forgotten. Much of the typical Mekons banter hilarity between songs. A must for fan and neophyte alike.
(There were a couple nasty glitches I edited out in the first 2 songs. Then it's pretty much smooth sailing.)

Set list:
Last Dance / Fantastic Voyage / Millionaire / Sleepless Nights / Hole In the Ground / Brutal / Spit / Lyric / Wild and Blue / Sympathy For The Mekons / The Curse / Where Were You / Memphis, Egypt / Shanty // Ghosts Of American Astronauts / Prince Of Darkness / Sweet Dreams // Echo / Road To Florida / 100% Song

489 MB MOV file is HERE.
"Instant Video Link" is HERE.

More video in the coming weeks as I digitize more tapes, including: The Frogs, Oblivians, Dwarves, Killdozer, Melvins, Jesus Lizard, Mike Watt, Thee Headcoats, Sonic Youth, Trail Of Dead, RL Burnside, Hasil Adkins, Smog, Built To Spill, Some Velvet Sidewalk, Six Finger Satellite, Geraldine Fibbers... to name a few.

Let me know what you'd like to see first. And let me know if you'd like full, uncompressed downloads of any of these things. And generally if you appreciate my efforts here or am I wasting my time???

The Dead C. - "The Operation Of the Sonne" (1994 Siltbreeze)

As per request, here is The Dead C.'s 1994 vinyl-only release. I think I got this off the Kiwi Tapes blog a while back, and the requester - "Anonymous" - says the link is dead. Well, the blog is pretty much dead so I guess so. Anyway, three long pieces. Fucking Dead C. - what can I say that I haven't before? Plus I'm just lazy and as this is a request I hadn't thought of much to say beforehand.

It's awesome. It's HERE.

Tracks:
01. Marriage of Reason and Squalor
02. Mordant Heaven
03. Air

And a note: If you request something, and I have it, and it's not on a ton of other blogs, I'll be happy to post it. But if you're going to request anonymously at least sign off with a name, any name.
Just so I don't have to call you "Anonymous"...

The Flaming Lips - "The Soft Bulletin - The Companion CD" (1999 Promo)

I found this thing on a torrent site whilst looking for a particular Lips show boot. Not my favorite era Lips but what the hell it's the Lips... I've decided to post it since I've never seen it around on the blogs. It's a promo-only thing. I think some of these songs/versions eventually came out as tracks on CD singles. There's also lotsa radio sessions. Definitely a must for the Flaming Lips completeist, anyway.

I have a feeling that Disc 1 might be the "official" release and Disc 2 might be a bootleg put together by someone. Not least because it's listed as a 1999 release and the radio sessions are from 2000. But also because it's called simply "The Companion CD", not CDs... If anyone has any info on this leave a comment...

A 2 Disc set at 192 kbps in one download HERE

Tracks:
Disc 1:
01. 35,000 Feet Of Despair
02. 1,000 Foot Hands (Early Mix)
03. Riding To Work In The Year 2025 (You're Invisible Now)
04. Buggin' (Lips Mix)
05. A Machine In India (Edit Version)
06. Okay, I'll Admit That I Really Don't Understand
07. The Captain Is A Cold Hearted & Egotistical Fool
08. Satellite of You (Written by Lou Reed)
09. The Spiderbite Song (Early Mix)
10. Slow Motion (Early Mix)
11. 1,000 Foot Hands (Final Mix)
12. Little Hands (Written by Alexander "Skip" Spence)
13. The Big 'Ol Bug

Disc 2:
01. Race for the Prize (Eve Sessions on 4.21.00)
02. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (Eve Sessions on 4.21.00)
03. The Spiderbite Song (Eve Sessions on 4.21.00)
04. Above The Daily Hum (Eve Sessions on 4.21.00)
05. The Spiderbite Song (GLR on 4.23.00)
06. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (GLR on 4.23.00)
07. Everyone's Gone To The Moon (GLR on 4.23.00)
08. Feeling Yourself Disintegrate (XFM on 4.27.00)
09. The Spiderbite Song (XFM on 4.27.00)
10. The Switch That Turns Off The Universe (Peel Sessions 6.8.00)
11. We Can't Predict The Future (Peel Sessions 6.8.00)
12. If Remained Unrealized (Peel Sessions 6.8.00)
13. The Captain (GLR on 6.10.00)
14. Waitin' For A Superman (GLR on 6.10.00)

VIDEO: "The Fall - The Wonderful and Frightening World Of Mark E Smith" (2005 BBC Four) 60m.

"You are the worst group I've ever seen. In the history of mankind. The worst tuneless rubbish I've ever heard, even worse than Siouxsie and the Banshees. I didn't believe it was possible. Please do a Session."
--John Walters, Peel Sessions producer, in a letter to Mark E. Smith

And thus, ignominiously started the longest stretch of Peel Sessions by any artist: 24. Such are the little nuggets in this great documentary to satisfy the most rabid Fall fan. (Me, I've watched it at least ten times). It's loaded with great live footage, interviews with luminaries such as John Peel, Tony Wilson and oft-time producer Grant Showbiz, interviews with ex-band members Steve Hanley and Marc Riley (lots of great anecdotes), and of course the man himself.

I don't know if this documentary is going to change anyone's mind on The Fall but, you know, fuck them. Who cares? And sure, MES is difficult to understand. He's smoking and drinking and slurring. But I transcribed that quote up there directly from his relating the tale in the film, so it's not impossible. You just gotta... Listen.
There's great old television footage (just clips, alas), and our interviewees take us on a trip through all the ups/downs/ins/outs of The Fall from the earliest days up 'til the making of this doc, which coincided with the taping of the last Peel Session. There's great footage of them recording Blindness and I Can Hear the Grass Grow and Mark admonishing his then-bandmates ("You've got to fucking play a bit harder and you've got to be in tune and you've got to do it on the changes").
The video itself is great quality. Nice widescreen picture. It was digitally recorded and I downloaded it from some forgotten spot a couple years ago (I can't find it today). If you just want to watch the film, there is a single-download 700 MB AVI version that will play in any media player and looks just fine. If you want to archive this or burn it onto a DVD, get the uncompressed 3-part download. It's pristine. But it's an MPEG file, as I got it. But if you have the great VLC Player, which everyone should cos it plays every format perfectly (and it's free and they never bug you for donations), you will have no problems.
And last but not least: My Connection (there always is, isn't there?). This film includes footage I shot in 1998 in NYC. It was their infamous "onstage row". Karl jumps out from behind his kit and assaults MES, to which he implores us to "Bear witness, laddies". Karl, Hanley and that Tommy guy all quit/sacked the next day.
There's about two minutes of my footage and it is really crappy-looking! Granted, it wasn't one of my best shoots, what with Brownies' having just built their gigantic stage and I wasn't prepared for that (TOO close), and of course it wasn't the greatest gig (The night before at Coney Island High was phenomenal - MES positively menacing with a black eye and the band smoking - there's a still photo in the film). But the worst part is it's from a very high-generation copy. I traded this with one guy in Manchester I traded lotsa Fall stuff with, and I assume he traded his out and they traded theirs out... But you'd think a bloody BBC researcher could have easily traced it back? But then maybe it wasn't in the budget. Maybe they liked that grainy bootleg look.
Oh well, at least I can say I've got footage in a BBC documentary!
At least that's something...

The 700 MB AVI single-download is HERE.

The 1.84 GB 3-part download: PART 1 * PART 2 * PART 3
(Download all 3 parts, double click file marked ".001" to extract all 3 parts and end up with one MPEG file. Burn to DVD, etc.)

Also: check out this very excellent compilation, Songs The Fall Covered over at Doctorfuckwit's blog!

The Dead C. - "The Dead C." (2000 Language Recordings)

An excellent 2 disc set of haunting noisescapes from the New Zealand masters. No vocals on this one.
A cursory interweb search reveals that this, apparently, is sometimes known as "Language Recordings 1&2", though that is the label (not the 1&2 part). I think. Their discography lists this as their eponymous (S/T) album. Whatever; it rules. Recorded between 1995 and 1999. The recording quality is excellent and this is a big 320 kbps rip to take full advantage of that fact.

Necessary. One download right HERE.

Tracks:
Disc 1:
01. Accelerate
02. Dec
03. Pussyfooting
04. Speederbot
05. All Channels Open

Disc 2:
01. One Night
02. Realisation con Slider
03. Fake Electronics
04. Tuba is Funny (Slight Return)
05. Drillbit
06. High Original
07. Tidewater

Eugene Chadbourne - "LSDC&W; - The History of the Chadbournes In America" (1987)

Here's a real treat from the fucked-up genius of the good Dr. Chadbourne. If you're familiar with his work with Kramer in Shockabilly, this treads similar ground, but in an even more whacked-out improv vein. The title "LSDC&W;" is very apt. The 20+ minute Beatles Medley is worth the download alone. But then you also get his Roger Miller Medley, his take on Burma Shave and Cash's Tennessee Flattop Box. His Third Stone From the Sun is a totally unrecognizable noise-fest. Some truly fried shit.

Very hard to find on blogs and the bricks and mortar, I have to thank my friend Dimitri for letting me rip his double-LP for y'all (no window hopping involved). Ripped at 320 kbps in two downloads:

Disc 1 and Disc 2

Tracks:
Disc 1:
01. The Beatles Medley
02. In A Sentimental Mood (The Duke) (Pt. 1)
03. In A Sentimental Mood (Pt. 2)
04. Winchester, Va.
05. Tennessee Flattop Box
06. Dr. Chadbourne's Ordeal In Nashville
07. Burma Shave
08. Dixie Fried

Disc 2:
01. Wine Me Up
02. Roger Miller Medley
03. House Burning Down
04. Third Stone From The Sun
05. Funny How Time Slips Away
06. Ghosts
07. 7 + 7 =
08. Burl Ives Medley
09. Wild Horses
10. W Va Spec (Zorn Tribute)
11. Nobody Loves Me But My Mother
12. No Reason To Quit

ps - My apologies for the crappy cover art. I neglected to photograph the LP after I ripped it and this was the best I could find on the web. Stay tuned and I will soon have a better version for you...