Guided By Voices classic live: Crying Your Knife Away (analogloyalist remaster)

Some time back we were running through a compendium of sorts of key Guided By Voices tracks from the band's "classic years", roughly from 1990 - 1996.  The series petered out after Vampire On Titus, mainly because I realized what a fool's errand it was trying to pick a limited subset of tracks from the three following LPs (Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under The Bushes Under The Stars) and (seemingly) hundreds of singles/EPs/errata that the band released.  For the most part, except for the non-LP sets *all* the LP material is essential.  The non-LP sets had many key moments, but my enthusiasm for picking through those releases faded as well.  Ah well, such is the life of the blog-as-diversion, not blogger-for-life.

And then I had the thought:  Y'know, this has already been done (mostly).  Back in the dark, dusty ages of 1995 I purchased this amazing 2xLP live set called Crying Your Knife Away, from the late, lamented Record Swap in Naperville, Illinois.  Barring less-critical thoughts about sound quality, and excusing the absence of some utter classics ("Echos Myron" / "A Salty Salute" / etc), this pseudo-bootleg had it all.  A virtual travelogue of the band's "greatest hits" up through the then-newly-recorded-but-unreleased LP Scalping The Guru (which was retitled and resequenced to become Alien Lanes), and a few classics from Propeller and Vampire On Titus.

Somewhere in the sands of time my 2xLP set disappeared.  I don't remember if I sold it, lost it, or what.  It's just gone, but for the magic of the internets it's not gone forever!  Also helpful was the 1998 reissue of this set on CD, packaging it all up oh-so-conveniently in a modern, portable, perfect-sound-forever medium.

The CD's sound quality was meh, however.  While obviously soundboard, and from a master, the "mastering" - or what passes for it - is shit.  It's been so long - 17 years? - since I've heard the original LP pressing that I have not a clue if the CD is faithful or not.  Regardless, the CD mastering needs a fair bit of help.

As a result, this thing shines - warts (beer too) and all.  One minor issue is that the sheets of feedback embedded in quite a few of the songs - audible on the original CD, but subsumed under the din - are brought almost too far forward in my version.  It's not something I've been able to solve, but then again, it was presumably present at the gig, too.

So here we go.  I love this record, and now you shall too.  Enjoy hearing the band, over the course of an hour, get progressively drunk(er) and as a consequence the endearing looseness it maintains.  Send in striped white pants!

GUIDED BY VOICES
Crying Your Knife Away
(analogloyalist April 2012 remaster)

Bass - Greg Demos
Drums - Kevin Fennel
Guitar - Robert Pollard (track 21)
Striped white pants - Greg Demos
Vocals - Robert Pollard
Vocals, Guitar - Mitch Mitchell , Tobin Sprout

Recorded live at Bela Koe-Krompecher's 26th birthday party in Columbus, Ohio on June 18th 1994.
Music interspersed with jokes and quips of Robert Pollard.
CD re-release of limited edition LP originally released in 1994.

01 [intro]
02 Postal Blowfish
03 The Closer You Are The Quicker It Hits You
04 My Valuable Hunting Knife
05 Gold Star For Robot Boy
06 Lethargy
07 Striped White Jets
08 Non-Absorbing
09 The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
10 Shocker In Gloomtown
11 Motor Away
12 Awful Bliss
13 Tractor Rape Chain
14 Blimps Go 90
15 Exit Flagger
16 I Am A Scientist
17 Quality Of Armor
18 Cruise
19 Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy
20 Some Drilling Implied
21 If We Wait
22 Weed King
23 Pimple Zoo
24 Break Even
25 Ester's Day

Bela Koe-Krompecher's 26th birthday party at Stache's in Columbus, Ohio, June 18, 1994. The party actually started at 3:00 PM in Bela's backyard. Kegs were flowing, and Pete Jamison manned the grill, while Bela's grandmother, (beer in hand), presided over the whole affair from a lazy boy in the middle of the yard. Records were traded, lies were told, and perception was severely impaired. Around 10:00 PM the party went mobile, stumbling a few blocks away to Stache's. The drink of choice was Rolling Rock, and before GBV took the stage, at least one band member caught a nap.

Grab it here, lossless FLAC as usual.

Anybody have, or can make, a high-res (600dpi would be nice) scan of the original LP cover?  The original is full color while the CD reissue is greyscale.  I've not been able to source quality versions of either on the webz.

TAR is back! At least one gig confirmed.

For at least one gig, that is - the PRF BBQ 2012 open-to-the-public event in Chicago with about a bajillion bands playing, all friends of Electrical Audio to a degree (Steve Albini's studio) and members of the PRF.

Details here.

The details were slowly developing on the band's Facebook page (sudden meetups for practices, etc) and now it's official.

Oh to be in Chicago for this...!  I've seen Tar at least twice and twice wasn't nearly enough.  Fantastic live band and they're back!

Goers, report back.

Tangentially related to this month's theme - Tar's first full-length LP was recorded by none other than Iain Burgess.

Homestead vinyl sucks.

In auditioning material to clean up for my Iain Burgess series, I've had the opportunity to inspect a lot of assorted vinyl transfers from vintage mid-80s punk vinyl.

Man, Homestead used some really cheap vinyl and from my investigation had a lot of really poor pressings.

Breaking Circus is a perfect case.  In auditioning the EP The Very Long Fuse, I've heard three different FLAC transfers, from presumably three separate copies of the record, on three different setups (turntables, cartridges, etc) - and they all suck.  Not the fault of the rippers, I think, it's just that all the copies used are presumably beat to hell, and are poor pressings to begin with.  Same goes for the Smokers' Paradise EP.  Oddly, the one Breaking Circus that's giving me the least issues is the only full-length album The Ice Machine - which is odd in that it has the least bit of inner groove distortion on the side-ending tracks, yet the sides themselves are longer than either EP sides.  I know that one of the rippers provided his rips of Fuse and one of his rips of Ice Machine, and his Fuse is craptastic while his Ice Machine is really nice - which rules out his setup being the problem.

So again I place the call:  Does anyone have *nice* transfers, in FLAC, of either Breaking Circus EP?  Someone somewhere has to read this blog, have a near-mint copy of the record(s), and has the ability and capacity to transfer them to FLAC on nice equipment.  If I had the records I would, but my setup is less than ideal for good-quality playings off vinyl.

This is why if I had a million dollars I would somehow gather up the rights for all the non-rereleased Homestead releases, start up a reissue label, and get these classic records back in print and up to speed in the digital era.  There's no reason why half the Homestead catalog - if not more - languishes in out-of-print obscurity, and more often than not never made available on CD from the start.  I'd also pay royalties, both earned from my stewardship, and unpaid from Homestead's tenure.

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!