Iain Burgess: BLOODSPORT I Am The Game (1985)

Iain Burgess Month: BLOODSPORT



In 1985 the Chicago punk scene was fairly disjointed, having split into factions with only Naked Raygun uniting the scene.  The Effigies had devolved into sub-pop (not Sub Pop), and among the early scene players only Raygun was moving forward with any momentum (or even still really a band).

Some members kept the torch alive, though, and joined up to form the largely underrated Bloodsport.  As the two main bits online about this band both mention, the band was really more famous for who the musicians played in prior to, and then after, Bloodsport (Effigies, Pegboy, Trial by Fire, Strike Under...).  The history - while important - is not really relevant to the fact that their one and only record, the 7-song I Am The Game released on Homestead in 1985, is spectacular.  It's as forward-looking as any Chicago punk record ever was, and it's a shame the band didn't carry on because it's blatantly obvious that there would have been even greater things to come based on these 7 tracks alone.  The last track even features acoustic guitar!

So enjoy this FLAC set, from a (surprisingly) not-poor transfer from original Homestead vinyl.

BLOODSPORT
I Am The Game
Recorded by Iain Burgess at CRC, Chicago
1985 Homestead Records

01 Better and Best
02 Hangman's Dance
03 Rhymes of Reason
04 Ghosts of Scrooge
05 Sixes and Sevens
06 Mettle of Man
07 Killing Floor

Grab it here.

Enjoy!

RIP: Engineer Iain Burgess month on the PoIT

It was two years ago last month that one of your humble blogger's greatest musical heroes - in a technical sense, not specifically songwriting or performance sense - passed away.

There's not a 48-hour period that goes by that I don't listen to at least one track engineered by Iain Burgess.  In fact, I continue to investigate, learn and enjoy "new" records engineered by this Giant among men, just because Iain's one of those people who just had "it".  "It" being taste; "it" being sensibility; "it" being genius.  It's not hyperbole in the slightest to say that musically, I would not be what I am today if not for entire swaths of records engineered by Iain.

To celebrate this man's contribution to our collective musical heritage, this month I will only be posting records engineered by Iain.  By nature of the man's location during his heyday (Chicago, 1980s), this series will necessarily focus on the Midwest punk axis, and by this I mean Chicago and Minneapolis.  I, as has been the case lately, will focus on otherwise out-of-print records, because any band that manages to keep its Iain-produced records in print today needs massive piles of cash flung its way.

*I* know what records I have in my pipeline for this series; if you have suggestions please leave a comment!  It's entirely possible your suggestion will trump something on my list.

R.E.M. 9 June 1984 Passaic, NJ SBD - analogloyalist master

Ask me what my favorite live era is for R.E.M. and depending on the day (and my mood) it'll vacillate between their 1984 (Little America) and 1985 (Reconstruction) tours.  On the one hand, in 1984 they are, at the base, still the garage band of their pre-I.R.S. days playing garage punk folk.  On the other, in 1985 what they lose of that garage sense is made up for by increased mysticism and atmosphere.

I'm not sure if Peter Buck changed his rig between tours, but the 1984 sets feature that signature jangle crunch, perhaps at its finest, while 1985 saw Buck's tone gain a fair bit of range (it sounds like he discovered chorus pedals, that is).  The difference is there, though - any of the band's pre-Fables material, when played on the Reconstruction tour, does sound markedly different in terms of guitar sonics.

So depending on my mood and mental place I'll either reach for an '84 soundboard, or one of the many '85 gigs.

 Of late I've been studiously evaluating my catalog of '84 soundboard recordings.  I guess one would place, from a pure sonic perspective, the July 7, 1984 Aragon Ballroom, Chicago (Brawlroom as we lovingly/hatingly referred to it, my relationship with that venue tends more to the hate side than love, but that's a story for another day) - as released on the Reckoning Deluxe Edition - at the top of the heap, with the others ranked against it as the baseline.

While there are rarer sets than today's feature, or more interesting from a setlist or performance perspective, there are - in my humble opinion - no greater-sounding sets than the band's one-off (for MTV) gig June 9, 1984 at the Capital Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey.

This set was a one-off arranged for MTV, for their "Rock Influences: Folk Rock" episode.  As such, and the band still relatively tight from having recently come off an European tour, the band wasn't as sloppily loose as sets from this era could be.  It's obvious that the band is intent on delivering a knockout punch, both for the TV audience and for the assorted celebs/heroes that were in attendance, because the last three songs (not included here, as they were not broadcast/on the master reels) featured various Byrds and others guesting.  It's a wonderfully tight, smooth, well-executed gig by an amazing rock band.

So as not to be completely professional, the band chose this spotlight to debut not one, but three new tracks: "Hyena", "Old Man Kensey" and "Driver 8".  Except "Hyena" which is - moreso than the others - clearly a work-in-progress, the new tracks sound as if they could have been in the set for years.

I'm not sure the provenance of the tape/source used for this post, as I've had it in my collection on CD-R for years, but it's certainly not a recording of the TV broadcast, and not an after-the-fact radio rebroadcast either.  I would bet a hundred Bucks (Peter) that this is copied from the actual master or a first-generation dub of it.  There's no hallmarks of FM or TV lineage, it's got full frequency range up to 22.5 kHz (FM cuts off at ~17kHz, and TV even lower), and it doesn't have that classic FM compression feel to it.  It also is thankfully lacking in that high-frequency "smearing" (usually audible in the cymbals) characteristic of FM broadcast.  Nearly all the other circulating soundboard sets of '84 R.E.M. are ultimately broadcast-sourced, or Nth-generation tape dubs of pre-broadcast radio show LPs (such as the Seattle "The Source" gig), and come nowhere close to sounding as good as this.

How does this Passaic set compare to the Chicago set used on the Reckoning Deluxe Edition?  I think it's of a piece with it - while I disagree with the mastering on the Chicago set, I have no quibbles with the performance or overall sound.  I would just rather listen to this gig than the Chicago set.

I spent a fair bit of time touching up this Passaic set to the point that the band could lift this set from this blog and release it tomorrow, and nobody would know it was mastered by some dork in his bedroom office.  It's *that* good.  You can put that (put that put that) on your wall.

I don't care if you've grabbed this gig in the past from any other place on the Intarwebs, this version here is the definitive version.  I place my reputation on it.

Enjoy!

R.E.M.
9 June 1984
Capital Theatre, Passaic, New Jersey
For MTV's "Rock Influences: Folk Rock" episode
mastered February 2012 by Analog Loyalist

Soundboard reel -> ? -> FLAC -> analogloyalist mastering -> you

Setlist:

01 ...intro...
02 Pale Blue Eyes
03 Second Guessing
04 Hyena *
05 Letter Never Sent
06 Harborcoat
07 Seven Chinese Brothers
08 Pretty Persuasion
09 So. Central Rain
10 Gardening At Night
11 9-9
12 Windout
13 Old Man Kensey *
14 Sitting Still
15 Driver 8 *
16 Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)
17 Radio Free Europe
18 Little America
-- So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star (w/Roger McGuinn)**
-- Do You Believe In Magic (w/John Sebastian) **
-- Gloria (w/Roger McGuinn) **

* - live debut.
** - not broadcast, and not included here. (I've never seen these on any soundboard set from this gig; it appears only an audience recording captured them.)

FLACs to put on your wall, here.

What are your favorite - both in terms of performance, setlist and sound quality - REM soundboard sets from this era?  Anybody sitting on an unreleased soundboard from either Pageantry or the Work Tour?  Please share!

A petition to release Smiths "Sheila Take A Bow" (Porter version)

I've created a petition, for shits and giggles, encouraging Rhino/Warners (and Morrissey and Marr) to release the John Porter recording of "Sheila Take A Bow" (as found on the stellar Demos and Outtakes 2xLP bootleg) as a single.


Sign it!

Spread the word too.  Who knows, perhaps we'll effect change in Smithdom.

Fugazi.

I love this band and the Live Series concept even more. I own their discography, worship at the 13 Songs/Repeater/Steady Diet/Kill Taker altar. But I simply cannot find a way into the other half of their discography. "Birthday Pony" on Red Medicine ruined that record for me, and while I do love "Arpeggiator" and whatever the first track is on End Hits, I can't really get through the whole thing. I simply have no memory of The Argument whatsoever. Convince me on their '95 and onward discography. Anyone have the Albini Kill Taker sessions lossless?

Fixing Shitty Mastering: an occasional series

Deep in the recesses of my reptilian brain, I've had an idea for a semi-regular (longtime readers will know how much this blog sticks to a plan...) series of posts exposing really poor mastering, or other critical sonic faults with some of my favorite records.

This plan, at times grandiose, scaled itself back when I realized a lot of the records I'd critique - and post my fixes of - are still in print.  And nothing bugs me more than when I hear a "better" version of a favorite, but only tantalizingly brief, and therefore I can't get the whole thing.  Therefore, if I were to do this right for myself, meaning that it would satisfy me as a critical listener, I would want to post the entire thing.  So, with my mostly-solid stance on not posting full length in-print records, I would only be able to put up snippets of in-print records.

Which, while limiting the reach of this series, doesn't cripple it.  There are plenty of my favorite records that are in dire need of "fixing", and out-of-print.

What is a shitty mastering?  The ten-second version:  Band records a record.  Tapes are finished.  Stuff happens.  Record is manufactured, and you buy it.  It's the "stuff happens" in that process that really defines what the end product will sound like:  were the songs recorded in different sessions, with different studio characteristics?  Different personnel?  Different engineers/producers?  That "stuff happens" is mastering - whereby the discrete entity we call a "record" is assembled from the component parts being the "tracks".  One of the key, if not THE key, aspects of mastering is to give the record an overall feel and cohesion, a sense of the record being an "album".  It's hard to describe, but let's say you record ten songs, in ten different studios, with ten different engineers.  John Smith plays guitar on three tracks, Jim Bob on four, and your stepfather on the closing song.  Track six is your neighbors banging on their laundry tubs, with your guitar plugged into your Walkman.  While you could just take those ten final tracks and bang them in sequence onto your "record" as-is, they will sound like ten separate, discrete, non-cohesive sessions.  For some, this is what works (see Guided by Voices).  For the majority, though, the record isn't complete until various magic happens to give the ten discrete tracks a sense of unity, cohesion, and common (in as much as is needed) feel, a "record".  This magic is what mastering is, in this definition.

Sometimes mastering just doesn't happen because the band can't afford it.  Sometimes a record is mastered for a particular format (say, vinyl), and isn't really re-jiggered for different formats, as there is a distinct difference in what is needed for records mastered for vinyl, and those same records mastered for CD.  Sometimes it's just that, shitty mastering (did the mastering engineer forget to take out his earplugs?).

I have my own evolving list of classic indierock, "alternative", what-have-you records that meet one of the above categories, and sound worlds different when I get to work on them.  The list is smaller when in-print records are winnowed out - I really don't want to be DMCA'ed...

What would readers like to see worked on?  What do you think is sonically terrible, but you still suffer through it because the songs are just so damn good?  I'm curious to see if our opinions of shitty mastering overlap.

LOUD: the Jesus Lizard 27 Aug 1989 Chicago

01: Why is there blood on my clothes?
02: And then his oats from the night before came up with the sun.
03: Lies in a bath with no water, and a bath full of blood.
04: You can't expect too much from two braindead brickheads.
05: He lazy eye bagging but sorely, no morsel of spunk had he left, who was he drained.
06: Let them sing.
07: When you take off your stockings, flower blossoms and bird sings.
08: Some kind of bra-wearin' hairy fish droolin' into your dish.
09: I remember, but not very well, marinating in a pool, a puddle of blood and urine.
10: Fuckin' ass waxeatin' bastard, always mean and always plastered.
11: Your first mistake was to think that you could fuck with the ranch.
12: Helios Creed?.
13: Your blood flows by like a meandering stream, bubbling, gurgling, brook-like.
14: May we rest with the weight of your fresh steamin' shit on our backs.

There was no better live band on Earth than the Jesus Lizard.  Here's the proof - and it was only their third gig, an in-store performance at Chicago's Reckless Records on Broadway.  Having been to this store hundreds of times, and knowing the size of the "performance space" (ha!), the thought of seeing this band *there* just blows my mind.

This featured gig is an absolutely stunning soundboard, provided by Whitney their sound guy.  Here, given the mastering love of the Analog Loyalist, this document is easily the best (and I include Club and Show here) Lizard gig in existence, from an audio perspective.  It's as if they dialed in the settings used to record Head, and just played the songs.  Is Albini hiding behind the mixing desk?  Forget the version on Dime (which I used as my source), it blows compared to this.

Sims' bass is full of guttural wallops.  Mac's drums pillage your eardrums.  Duane's guitars bleed.  Yow's vocals terrify.

I was going to let you figure out the song titles from the lyric snippets leading the post, but decided to play nice...

the JESUS LIZARD
LOUD
27 August 1989
In-store performance
Reckless Records, 3126 N. Broadway, Chicago IL

01 Starlet
02 One Evening
03 Bloody Mary
04 Rabid Pigs
05 (None Other Than) Killer McHann
06 Metropolis (aka Tight 'N Shiny)
07 Good Things
08 S.D.B.J.
09 My Own Urine
10 Waxeater
11 Blockbuster
12 Chrome
13 Pastoral
14 7 vs. 8

Starts out a bit phasey in "Starlet" but quickly settles into sonic perfection.

Yer lossless FLACs are here.

Now go play this LOUD!

the Jesus Lizard: Peel remastered (must hear!)

Some time back we brought to you a spectacular set of BBC Peel session recordings by the Jesus Lizard, lifted by a kind soul direct from BBC master reels.  As detailed in that original post, these recordings have never been released and are exactly as you would imagine in regards to quality direct from BBC masters.

Two sessions were recorded for John Peel, at the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios: a set in the Goat timeframe on February 24, 1991 with BBC producer (and former Mott the Hoople drummer) Dale Griffin, and one in the era of Liar on September 27, 1992 with BBC producer Nick Gomm.

Mutual blog friend Chunklet posted the '91 session as MP3s some time back on Chunklet, which drew a companion blog response from none other than tJL bassist David Wm. Sims.  Among other tidbits and musings on the Queen, Sims offered a recollection of the moment when the band, after recording basic tracks, marched into the control room to have a first listen with producer Griffin.  Griffin's response?  “It’s certainly not music for pussies, is it?”

I laughed, at least (when I read it, that is; of course I wasn't there!).

The thing is, the final mixdown of both sessions (granted, as per custom most Peel sessions had the band track, mix and edit everything for that particular session over one grueling day, not slaving weeks over the mix etc.) didn't really force the point home that it certainly wasn't music for pussies.  When I listen to the Jesus Lizard, I like that it's the aural equivalent of thumbscrews to my head.  I hate the term "slamming" with regards to music, but really, that's what this band sounds like at its very best.  The Peel recordings almost sound neutered, perhaps so Granny won't run for the hills after walking into the kitchen, when she realized little (insert very English-sounding boy's name here) left the kitchen radio on playing Radio One's Peel program?  While excellent, the recordings just don't really compare to the albums recorded with Albini with regards to overall sonic impact.

So, I got to work.  Following mastering engineer Bob Weston's recipe for when he and Albini remastered the tJL Touch and Go records for the 2009 reissues, after a 10k bump and cranking the limiter, here we are.  Joke!  Joke!  (Weston, when asked on the Electrical Audio forums what he and Albini did (if anything) to the material when remastering it, replied as an inside mastering engineer joke "10k bump and crank the limiter" - a wry remark as to what often happens when your favorite record is remastered and trumpeted as the latest and greatest...)

Seriously, I did pull some tricks and magic dust and really worked on the overall sonic impact of these sessions.  They now very comfortably sit within the band's overall (Touch and Go) catalog, convincingly not being "music for pussies".

I am, as last time, posting this as FLAC.  This really needs official release and I do hope that if it ever comes to pass that this does get an official release, they don't use the raw material as-is but consider what the band is and present the record as such.  I would expect BBC engineers probably have better tools at their facility than I do with regards to mastering, but then again, I don't lose David Bowie one-of-a-kind broadcasts either...

the JESUS LIZARD
PEEL
mastered by Analog Loyalist 12/2011



Session One:  Recorded 24 Feb 1991, broadcast 17 March 1991
Producer: Dale Griffin
Engineers: Julia Carney & Mike Robinson
Studio - Maida Vale 3

Tracks:

01 Wheelchair Epidemic
02 Bloody Mary
03 Seasick
04 Monkey Trick


Session Two: Recorded 27 September 1992, broadcast 29 October 1992
Producer: Nick Gomm
Engineers: R. Jordan & N. Gomm
Studio - Maida Vale 3

Tracks:

05 Gladiator
06 Whirl
07 Puss
08 Boilermaker

---

Mac McNeilly (Drums)
David Wm. Sims (Bass)
Duane Denison (Guitar)
David Yow (Vocals)

requests 2.0: help a blogger out

Last time we did this, it proved rather successful and I had several holes filled in my collection thanks to the kindness of my followers.  So, it's now time for Part II.

This batch mostly focuses on the 1980s-early 1990s Chicago/Minneapolis punk axis.  Why?  It's been flooding my ears lately (in the best way possible) and I've long intended to put together a comprehensive post detailing this extremely prolific era and scene.

The problem with this era/scene is that while documented, and celebrated, a lot of these records never saw CD release.  Which is a shame, because there's some really terrific music out there languishing on beat up LPs that for one reason or another has not been approached in the reissue game.  The versions that are out there, usually on fellow blogs, are (typically) the same vinyl dub, clicky and poppy, and not transferred with the greatest of care (a LOT of inner groove distortion from beat up equipment and vinyl, mostly).

Here's hoping my readership can help rectify this.  If you have any of the below and can provide as requested in the details below, please contact me at analogloyalist at gmail dot com and let's play ball!

In no particular order...

STRIKE UNDER - Immediate Action EP
The celebrated first Wax Trax! release - and nowhere near what the label would eventually become known for.  Strike Under is straight-up punk, Chicago style, and this record is a celebrated document of the early 1980/1981 Chicago punk scene.  Only one track has seen CD release (on the Wax Trax! Black Box anthology), yet the whole record - all 13 minutes of it - needs further recognition.  Not likely any of my readers has this original 12", but if so, a FLAC rip done with care would be fantastic.


BREAKING CIRCUS - The Very Long Fuse / The Ice Machine / Smoker's Paradise
Really underappreciated postpunk from the Strike Under singer/guitarist Steve Björklund, who on the first record The Very Long Fuse backed himself with Roland (Big Black's drum machine).  Then he moved to Minneapolis, hooked up with Rifle Sport's rhythm section Flour (bass) and Todd Trainer (drums), and released two terrific records before disappearing.  These long out of print records were all released on the seminal Homestead label, and never saw CD release.  Word is that Björklund has put the kibosh on various official entreaties to reissue these records, for some unknown reason.  Again, these are widely available in BlogWorld, but usually in low bitrate MP3 and usually seem to be the same scratchy rip with distortion.  FLAC rips, transferred with care/good equipment, would be stellar.

RIFLE SPORT - Primo (CD appends White [Made In France])
This Minneapolis band is fantastic.  Their rhythm section (Flour and Trainer, as described above) is among the best EVER - so much so that Steve Albini stole Trainer for Shellac, a drumstool he still occupies today.  Their two top albums, 1987's White (Made In France) and 1990's Primo, saw some limited CD release in 1990 on a single disc, the Big Money-issued Primo.  There's a copy today on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $79.99...  That should say it all... Certainly one of my readers has this CD and can FLAC it up for me.  It's not available anywhere on the darker sides of the Internets, at least not from CD - the rarity shows in that most of the Rifle Sport material available on the webz is from clicky vinyl.

ARSENAL - Factory Smog Is A Sign Of Progress CD
Big Black broke up in 1987 because Santiago Durango enrolled in law school.  Albini states the secret to Big Black's awesomeness was Sant's guitar.  Sant still had something musical to say, so stole Roland (him again) and a bassist and released two industrial-sounding EPs.  Touch and Go released both EPs on the Factory Smog... CD, but let it lapse out of print.  FLACs are nowhere to be found online.

BLOODSPORT - I Am The Game EP
A mid-80s Chicago band that featured members of the Effigies, the other Björklund brother (Chris) from Strike Under, and Pegboy; a bit more riff-focused snapshot of mid-period Chicago punk.  This record was their only release and never saw CD issue.  Online rips are all the same clicky vinyl, all MP3-only, and suffer from poor transfers the most of these that I seek.  A nice, clean transfer in FLAC would be great.

BLATANT DISSENT - Hold The Fat
DeKalb, Illinois punk rock largely in awe of Naked Raygun.  This band disbanded to form Tar; or, the sound of the band was changing enough that the members decided to change their name too.  This record was only released in Germany and never saw CD release either.  As is becoming a motif, online copies are all low-bitrate MP3s and are poor transfers.  A clean transfer in FLAC would be pretty neat.

DEFOLIANTS - Grrr
Chicago surf-punk from the late 80s that really has to be heard to be believed.  This band was my first live punk rock gig; they opened for Naked Raygun when I went to see my first big-city big-punk-rock gig and I was *blown away* by this band.  Fittingly, my hometown never saw fit to, you know, RELEASE the album as they had to go to Germany (I sense a trend here...) to release their sole LP.  I finally found it online this year (over 20 years of searching!), but (gasp) as clicky MP3s only.  I would die a happy man if someone transferred this, cleanly and distortion-free, and offered up FLACs.

Help a blogger out!

Rex: 3 (Brooklyn-via-Chicago "slowcore")

It's not very often I post about a band or record I know very little about.  Usually when in my trawls through unheard (by me) music, I come across something that piques my interest, I put it on my iPhone for future in-depth listening.  Sometimes it turns out not my cup of tea, and sometimes I just can't turn away despite my best attempts.  Very rarely am I driven to post about something I have only the barest familiarity with.

Rex was a band from Brooklyn that was active in the mid-90s.  I was not in a musical state at that time to really appreciate this band (or so I tell myself), but it could also be that I'd simply not been given exposure to their records.

So in my trawls through the darker side of the Internets I ran across two of their records.  Now, having heard of this alleged slowcore (I hate that term) act in passing, and liked the record they made with Califone as a combo called Loftus, I figured I'd give them a listen in their own right.

This is plain and simple beautiful music.  I suppose the slowcore label fits (after all, drummer Doug Scharin was in Codeine for a couple years), but it's more than that.  There is beautiful guitar, skillfully mixed with beautiful string playing.  Some might call this boring but given half a chance - these two records C and 3 are all I've listened to for the past three days - the pure beauty and melancholy seeps from every musical pore.  It certainly doesn't hurt that the records were impeccably recorded by Chicago producer Brian Deck.

So here is 3, their third and final record.  Less rocky than the previous album C, it's perhaps the band's essence of beauty in one encompassing package.  If I had found this in 1997, when it came out, I don't think I would have appreciated it nearly as much.  "Balloon" finds me hitting the repeat button over and over; other tracks reek (in a good way) of Red Red Meat and other Tim Rutili/Califone sounds.  Chicago guitar dude Bundy K. Brown plays on a track or two (he known primarily for Tortoise and the other John McEntire scene bands) too.

Rex3
(1997, Southern Records)

01 Gathered
02 Jet
03 Waterbug
04 Other James
05 One Stew
06 Oafish
07 Balloon
08 Yah Land
09 Clean

enjoy!