New Order: Part 1 of a series, 1980-1984

New Order has - for over 20 years - been amongst my most favorite groups ever. For 15 or so years they made music that served as the soundtrack to my life, more often than not reaching perfection (or pretty damn close to it) with everything they did.

They had a few clunkers ("Sub-Culture" 12-inch mix, anyone?) but the true best of New Order is among the best music EVER from ANY artist ANY era. Not bad for a bunch of self-taught Salford/Macclesfield, UK misfits.



The history of the band can be found all over the internets so I shall not rehash it here. What I will be doing, however, over a series of posts, is compile my favorite tracks into the SuperFan's MegaSubstance MegaBest Of or what-have-you. The band has been anthologized over a ridiculous number of compilations and quite a few tracks are repeated across releases, while deep catalog tracks - as good as any single they released - are continuously ignored.

Our first selection features their best works from the 1980-1984 era - the era that served as the "hey, we used to be Joy Division" bridging to the "hey, I think we're onto something with this weird dance/rock/indie hybrid thing" timeframe, before they became megastars. This era saw the band creep ever so hesitantly out of the Joy Division shadow, suddenly becoming trendsetters in discos, and then rediscovering guitars again.

So onward.

NEW ORDER "Seems like I've been here before..."
1980-1984, anthologized

01 Ceremony (original 3-piece version, recorded Sept. 1980)
02 In A Lonely Place (7-inch edit, different from Substance version)
03 Ceremony (re-recorded late 1980 with Gillian Gilbert on board)
04 Procession
05 Everything's Gone Green (7-inch version)
06 Dreams Never End (Jan. 1981 Peel Session)
07 ICB (Jan. 1981 Peel Session)
08 Cries and Whispers
09 Mesh
10 Truth (mix candidate #1, Hannett)
11 Doubts Even Here
12 Denial
13 Temptation (7-inch version)
14 Hurt (7-inch version)
15 Temptation (12-inch version)
16 586 (June 1982 Peel Session)
17 Too Late
18 Blue Monday (rare 7-inch edit)
19 Age of Consent
20 The Village
21 Your Silent Face
22 Ultraviolence
23 Ecstasy
24 Leave Me Alone
25 Confusion (7-inch promo edit)
26 Thieves Like Us (7-inch promo edit)
27 Lonesome Tonight
28 Murder

Nothing whatsoever taken from the abysmally-mastered 2005 compilation Singles, and many taken from mint vinyl copies.

Three RAR's as usual, gotta grab 'em all of course...

Part I / Part II / Part III

enjoy!

a blog without qualities II: New Fast Automatic Daffodils II

One of the most popular features on the blog so far was my original post about those mad Mancunians New Fast Automatic Daffodils. Drawing comments from not one, but TWO musicians whose bands supported the New FADS on tour at one point or another, it's obvious this band has been sadly ignored by history.

I can't fix that but what I can do is post more out-of-print material for everyone.



Oddly enough one of the most-hyped American releases by this combo was their Peel Sessions release on Dutch East India Trading - home of Homestead Records, Giant Records, Rockville Records, and numerous other tiny indies that fell off the map when the home label Dutch East ceased trading around 2000.

While various bands' American versions of their Peel Session releases, through Dutch East India Trading, often featured different cover art then the UK variants, the New FADS' American cover art for this record is about the worst I've ever seen on a commercial release. No wonder it didn't sell.

Original UK version:



Nothing terribly bad, it looks like Strange Fruit commissioned the Happy Mondays' designers Central Station Design to design it.

On the other hand.......... Original US version:



My eyes! they burn! Really bad design - did they have the front office receptionist do this in 2 minutes as the product was going to manufacture?

Anyhow - the large image at the beginning of the post is your humble blogger's reappraisal of the Peel Sessions design. At the very least it looks good and in line with the rest of the band's releases of this period.

So without further ado......



01 Purple Haze
02 A Man Without Qualities II
03 Jaggerbog
04 Big II (Instrumental)
05 Get Better
06 Part Four
07 A Man Without Qualities I

1-4 recorded 19 Dec. 1989, broadcast 9 Jan 1990
5-7 recorded 11 Nov. 1990, broadcast 24 Nov. 1990

One ZIP file for you -- CLICK HERE.

-----

Tracks 1 through 4 display clearly why the New FADS were once labeled "The Fastest Men In Pop" or some such nonsense - they are blistering! "Big II" is almost a new track entirely, albeit based on "Big" itself. I can't imagine how spectacular the musical bed of "Big II" would sound combined with Andy Spearpoint's vocals on "Big" itself.

-----------------------------

On another note, I must mention that the "Big" CD single tracks as included in the previous New FADS download here were incomplete and/or not sourced from the proper release ("Big" itself from a compilation, for example).

Here be the entirety of the actual UK Big CD single (Playtime Records, Amuse 7CD) for you - the full Instrumental variant (similar to "Big II" from Peely), Baka and of course the full-length "Big" in itself.



Get it! (one ZIP file)

01 Big
02 Big (Baka)
03 Big (instrumental)

R.E.M. "Tourfilm 2.0: The Audio, enhanced"

I just can't help it. The alluring melodies of Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe have been refusing to leave my ears of late. I go through these periods where an artist captivates my entire attention for sometimes weeks on end. I might switch to a different artist for an album or two, just as a mid-session palate cleanser, but I end up coming back to the original artist. And not until the next one dislodges the original artist do I stop.



I happen to be amidst one of these R.E.M. periods - not a bad period to be stuck in, I admit - and keep coming back to their live stuff. Of late I've been watching a lot of their 1990 live video Tourfilm, an exercise in "guerrilla filmmaking" that is so far outside the typical "you saw the gig, now here's the live video" it's an artpiece in itself.

Not only is the video itself great, the performance is spectacular. Coming at the end of 1989's yearlong Green World Tour, the band was as tight as they've ever been, and the songs themselves are fantastic.

Some time back I made my own Enhanced version of the video's audio soundtrack. What was presented on the video aren't all the songs that were released from these same several gigs filmed, there are a couple live tracks that saw release elsewhere but for whatever reason not included on the video. Also, the tracks have been somewhat resequenced on the video - while this video was assembled from five different gigs, the set staples tended to be performed in the same order from night to night, and I was able to resequence the out-of-sequence tracks into what was performed on those particular nights.

Additionally I also tracked separately some of Stipe's intro musical snippets, at least where it made sense to do so. And I also detailed out the two new-at-the-time tracks "Belong" and "Low" - neither of which were listed or mentioned on the video itself, but were indeed filmed and snippets of each included in the video - which would ultimately be recorded the following year for the 1991 album Out Of Time.

So here it is, the Power of Independent Trucking's Tourfilm 2.0 - The Audio, enhanced - enjoy!

As usual, lossless requests will be considered.....

R.E.M.
Tourfilm

Recording dates/locations:
7 November 1989 - Civic Center, Roanoke, Virginia
8 November 1989 - VA Coliseum, Hampton, Virginia
10 November 1989 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
11 November 1989 - Macon County Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
13 November 1989 - L.E.A.F. Benefit, Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia

- - -

Original video tracklisting:

Stand / The One I Love / These Days / Turn You Inside-Out / World Leader Pretend / Feeling Gravitys Pull / I Believe / I Remember California / Get Up / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) / Pop Song 89 / Fall On Me / You Are The Everything / Begin The Begin / King Of Birds / Finest Worksong / Perfect Circle

Not listed on the packaging: Snippets of "Belong" and "Low", the mini intros "We Live As We Dream, Alone" / "Future 40's (String Of Pearls)" / "With The People", and the closing track "Afterhours"

- - -

Tourfilm 2.0 - The Audio, enhanced

01 Stand
02 The One I Love
03 So. Central Rain (detail)
04 Turn You Inside-Out
05 Belong (full version from 10 Nov. 1989)
06 Orange Crush
07 Feeling Gravitys Pull
08 These Days
09 We Live As We Dream, Alone / World Leader Pretend
10 poem ("I'll Believe in Anything When I'm There...")
11 Future 40's (String Of Pearls)
12 I Believe
13 I Remember California
14 Get Up
15 It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
16 Pop Song 89
17 Fall On Me
18 You Are The Everything
19 Begin The Begin
20 With The People
21 King Of Birds
22 Low (detail)
23 Finest Worksong
24 Perfect Circle
25 Afterhours

sources:
Tracks 5 and 6 from the "Radio Song" Collector's Edition CD Single
All the rest from Tourfilm DVD

09 "We Live As We Dream, Alone" intro - Gang of Four
10 "poem" - unknown poet
11 "Future 40's (String Of Pearls)" - Syd Straw and Michael Stipe
20 "With The People" - Kevn Kinney

Sequencing assistance: The R.E.M. Timeline

Oh, you want the music?

Part I
Part II

(two RAR files, as usual, you gotta grab 'em both!)

time of outtakes: R.E.M. 1990 demos

Apologies, if you're not into it, for the heavy R.E.M. content of late on the PoIT. Try as I might, R.E.M. is one of those bands your humble blogger keeps coming back to, being one of the touchstones of his music history/collection.

Hope everyone enjoyed the 1983 Larry's Hideaway set - it was a great choice for the live set to complement the album itself for the Murmur Deluxe Edition, regardless of how it was presented on the release.



Moving 7 years forward, 1990 saw the band regrouping from an exhausting year's worth of global touring, in support of 1988's Green LP (their Warner Bros. debut). Having planned an extensive rest period following the tour's end in November 1989, instead January 1990 found the three musicians regrouping in their Athens, GA rehearsal space and starting the songwriting cycle up afresh. As Peter Buck said, "it's what we do".

Heartily sick of their traditional instruments after 10 years of almost exclusively playing them night after night, the three musicians decided to try out those instruments they'd be staring at over the top of their own, night after night. So instead of Peter Buck sticking exclusively to guitars, Bill Berry drums, and Mike Mills bass, they'd often end up in odd permutations such as Berry on bass, Mills on organ and Buck on drums. And vice versa. As time wore on, they'd often migrate back to their traditional roles, but in the end, when Mills played bass on the resulting recording sessions for the LP, he would more often than not be playing bass lines originated by Berry (or Buck).

Now and then, the band would enter John Keane's studio in Athens to demo the tracks they'd been working on, with singer Michael Stipe taking this opportunity to try out his planned vocals, or just wordlessly wail along to give a melody idea while he wrote the lyrics. Usually these recordings just stayed demos, but now and then, they'd come up with a recording so good it'd end up on the resulting LP, nearly untouched ("Country Feedback"). Other times, they'd keep the backing tracks as recorded for the demo, and finish it up later in the "real" studio when recording the rest of the LP ("Endgame").

R.E.M. often had a problem with keeping their demos under wraps. Demos for every record between 1981 and 1990, barring 1985's demo session with Joe Boyd prior to recording Fables of the Reconstruction, have leaked out of their clutches. No different is this set of demos, essaying songs written for the 1991 LP Out Of Time.

These songs have been available in various permutations over the years, all unofficially. Some sources are better sound quality than others, and some sources more complete than others. The best source, quality-wise, happens to be a bootleg CD entitled Time of Outtakes, from which I've drawn the majority of the material presented here.

However, rather than just rip the CD, I've decided to reassemble the tracks in the order the resulting LP used, which makes it much more of an interesting listen. You hear mostly (musically) fully-realized tracks, with either Stipe's guide vocals on top, in varying states of completion ("Losing My Religion" is nearly complete, for example, while "Me In Honey" is just wordless wailing to the melody line). Other tracks such as "Texarkana" are unique to this release - in this case, "Texarkana" features Stipe's original lyrics and singing, while the LP version famously is all Mike Mills and entirely different lyrics.

Additionally, there were another eight or so tracks not released on the resulting LP, which I've sequenced to follow the album tracklisting. We have the second, electric version of "Radio Song" which more resembles the final album version than the first-demoed acoustic variant, and we have tracks such as "Forty Second Song" which did end up seeing release - this very recording of it - as B-sides, et cetera. In actuality, "Forty Second Song" presented here is actually taken from the "Shiny Happy People" CD single, hence its quality being crystalline - as opposed to the nearly-crystalline quality of the rest of the tracks.

So enjoy!

- - - - -

R.E.M.
Out Of Time demo recordings / outtakes
John Keane Studios, Athens, GA 1990

01 Radio Song (soft)
02 Losing My Religion
03 Low
04 Near Wild Heaven
05 Endgame
06 Shiny Happy People
07 Belong
08 Half A World Away
09 Texarkana
10 Country Feedback
11 Me In Honey

- - - end LP tracklisting - - -

12 Forty Second Song
13 Radio Song (hard)
14 Fretless (instrumental)
15 It's A Free World, Baby
16 Here I Am Again (Kerouac No. 4)
17 Night Swim
18 Speed Metal
19 Sugar Cane


Of these recordings, three were released officially:
-- "Country Feedback" on the album, with only a single word re-recorded, as far as I can tell
-- "Low" in 2005 as a B-side to "Wanderlust", however the quality is much worse than this!
-- "Forty Second Song" as a B-side to "Shiny Happy People" in 1991

The following tracks saw re-recorded versions released:
-- "Fretless" with lyrics partially drawn from "Here I Am Again", on 1991's Until The End Of The World soundtrack
-- "It's A Free World, Baby" on 1993's Coneheads soundtrack
-- "Here I Am Again" as an instrumental, recorded by Mike Mills in a Minneapolis basilica, retitled "Organ Song" and released as a B-side to "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" in 1993
-- "Sugar Cane" as an instrumental, retitled "Mandolin Strum", released as a B-side to "Everybody Hurts" in 1993

grab 'em below, two RAR files you need to download:
Part I
Part II

R.E.M. 9 July 1983 Larry's Hideaway - lossless

Nothing "new" this week as people are still enjoying the recent New Order / Joy Division materials and I don't want to overload the teeming millions with legendary, quality stuff (not to say I have anything further of the sort)...

But as promised, here's the complete, remastered R.E.M. 9 July 1983 gig originally discussed here on this very same blog (but as mp3), as lossless FLAC this time.

Are you listening, R.E.M./Athens LLC (and Capitol/EMI)? You can swap out CD2 from the Murmur reissue with this and make everyone happy!

And pigs will fly.

Enjoy....



R.E.M.
9 July 1983
Larry's Hideaway
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DEFINITIVE EDITION - LOSSLESS FLAC FORMAT
(flac.sourceforge.net)

Reassembled and Remastered from two sources:
1) Rising bootleg silver CD
2) 2nd CD in Murmur Deluxe Edition

Includes songs not broadcast on Toronto radio, and not included on the Murmurs reissue!

01 Wolves, Lower
02 Moral Kiosk
03 Laughing
04 Pilgrimage
05 Moon River
06 There She Goes Again
07 Seven Chinese Brothers
08 Talk About The Passion
09 Sitting Still
10 Harborcoat
11 Catapult
12 Pretty Persuasion
13 Gardening At Night
14 9-9
15 Just A Touch
16 West Of The Fields
17 Radio Free Europe
18 We Walk
19 1,000,000
20 Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)

Tracks 1/2/5/12 were not included on the "official" version.

Grab all 5 parts - it's a must!

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V

And Track 17 by itself - if you get a message that Track 17 in the above RAR files is corrupt, download this. Should verify just fine with the .md5 signature included in the RAR files....

Joy Division 28 Sept 1979 The Factory, Hulme (soundboard)

Not much to say. Featured today is a previously-unknown (partial) recording of Joy Division's 28 Sept. 1979 gig at the Factory, Hulme, recorded from the mixing desk and presented in lossless FLAC for your pleasure.



This is the legendary gig where Hooky thumped an audience member with his bass and stormed off the stage - unfortunately, this moment is not captured on this recording.

This gig features the original set of lyrics Ian Curtis wrote for "Colony" and as a whole, is stellar sounding. Note that for whatever reason the mixing itself changes from wide stereo to mostly mono (but with effects spread across the stereo soundstage) about halfway through the tape, perhaps the mixing desk guy was having problems with the mix? Who knows but it isn't really noticeable except in headphones, and even then doesn't detract from the gig whatsoever.

Presented warts and all (several slight dropouts here and there, likely due to tape age and/or poor quality tape used in 1979 in the mixing desk), enjoy!

01 - Twenty Four Hours (detail, soundcheck)
02 - Atmosphere (fades in)
03 - Wilderness
04 - Shadowplay
05 - Insight
06 - Colony
07 - Twenty Four Hours (fades out, incomplete)

Please note that track 1, the soundcheck track, is not a mixing desk recording, but the gig itself is. Don't let Track 1 fool you....

Part I / Part II
(gotta grab both parts!)

"Colony", lyrics from here (as best I can make out):

Afraid to walk, afraid to look behind
Afraid to talk, afraid I'll fall in line
Hope to find some friends to maybe lead astray
Maybe make some plans to achieve the one with day (?)

Can you hear me, can you spare the time?
No apologies for all these thoughts were mine
My brother taught I had to take the blame
Now I'm sitting here to make my great escape

I can't see why all these complications
I can't see why all these dislocations
No family life just makes me feel uneasy
Lying here inside this colony

In this colony
In this colony
In this colony
In this colony

May god and his wisdom take you by the hand
God and his wisdom made you understand

May god and his wisdom take you by the hand
God and his wisdom made you understand

God and his wisdom took you by the hand
Your god and his wisdom made you understand

Your god and his wisdom took you by the hand
Your god and his wisdom made you understand

In this colony
In this colony
In this colony
In this colony

unplugged: New Order's Bernard Sumner

In 2007 legendary bassist Peter Hook announced he was leaving New Order, leaving singer/guitarist Bernard Sumner and drummer Steve Morris in the lurch. No reason ever was given.

After some hemming-and-hawing over the New Order name, word escaped that Sumner and Morris had a new project called Bad Lieutenant and would be writing/releasing new music under that name. People said "ummm, OK".

In March 2009 Sky Arts in the UK featured Bernard Sumner on their recurring series "Songbook" that blends MTV/VH1's "Storytellers" and "Unplugged" series into a narrative interview with several acoustic performances interspersed.



Bernard, backed by guitarists Phil Cunningham and Jake Evans, performed 4 tracks "unplugged" - just acoustic guitars and Bernard's legendary voice.

That's not that impressive in and of itself - the thought of New Order tracks unplugged just doesn't really jibe, if you know what I mean - but it turns out Bernard turned in one of his most inspired performances ever.

Not only that, but it was the first public airing of a Bad Lieutenant track, which I'll get to shortly.

What was played? Well, you've come to the right place!

1) "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (Joy Division, 1979)
High-bitrate, high-quality mp3

Three acoustic guitars, no "whooping" from Bernard. Perhaps the best non-Joy Division performance of this song, ever. Really really good performance, perfectly suited for Bernard in this interpretation.

High-quality YouTube footage

- - -

2) "Bizarre Love Triangle" (New Order, 1986)
High-bitrate, high-quality mp3

Oddly I'd never imagined this song in an acoustic setting, but it works, and it's fantastic. Of course I'm discounting Frente!'s version but I don't really count that....

High-quality YouTube footage

- - -

3) "Getting Away With It" (Electronic, 1989)
High-bitrate, high-quality mp3

The debut Electronic single (the side project that Bernard started with Johnny Marr in the late 1980s), never before heard in an acoustic setting. Again, a stellar performance, and it really gets to the root of the melody. And when Jake comes in with a fairly spot-on Johnny Marr imitation in the solo, it's really something else.... I would have to say this is the best version of this song I've EVER heard, no question.

High-quality YouTube footage

- - -

4) "Sink Or Swim" (Bad Lieutenant, 2009)
High-bitrate, high-quality mp3

The first public airing of this brand-new Bad Lieutenant track, this is REALLY good. Interestingly, the main guitar motif suggests a possible Peter Hook bassline, which makes this even more poignant. Stellar, stellar stuff, and a fantastic teaser for any further upcoming efforts....

High-quality YouTube footage

- - -

On YouTube you can also find the interview segments, but I'll leave that for you guys to get. I just wanted to feature the music... ;)

enjoy!

R.E.M. 9 July 1983 Larry's Hideaway, Toronto mp3

It's funny, one of my all-time favorite acts is R.E.M. yet I've done nowt but post one track of theirs, in the second-ever post on this here blog. And it's been removed.



Last year saw their classic debut LP Murmur reissued/repackaged/remastered, as a deluxe 2 CD package with the second CD featuring their 9 July 1983 gig at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, Ontario. While a good gig, the released variant was missing several tracks and was a Loudness War victim - though not as bad as it could have been.

Funnily enough, this gig existed as a bootleg CD entitled RISING that has as good, if not better, overall sound than the released variant. However, this version was glitchy in places, with skips and dropouts that the "official" variant did not suffer from. So, as a challenge, I used bits and bobs of each source together to make the definitive Larry's Hideaway CD - and I think you'll love it. You'll never spot the patches - I guarantee it. Listen through entirely and you'll never, ever know this is a composite production, and you'll never, ever realize that I patched at least a dozen fairly significant glitches. Now if only Capitol (I.R.S.) would release this - I'd be glad to give 'em my 32-bit work project ;)

So without further ado, please enjoy!

R.E.M.
9 July 1983
Larry's Hideaway
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DEFINITIVE EDITION - MP3 format

Reassembled and Remastered from two sources:
1) Rising bootleg silver CD
2) 2nd CD in Murmur Deluxe Edition

01 Wolves, Lower
02 Moral Kiosk
03 Laughing
04 Pilgrimage
05 Moon River
06 There She Goes Again
07 Seven Chinese Brothers
08 Talk About The Passion
09 Sitting Still
10 Harborcoat
11 Catapult
12 Pretty Persuasion
13 Gardening At Night
14 9-9
15 Just A Touch
16 West Of The Fields
17 Radio Free Europe
18 We Walk
19 1,000,000
20 Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)

Tracks 1/2/5/12 were not included on the "official" version.

IMHO this version stomps all over the released version, kicks it to the curb, and plants a flag on it. It's that good. Just drop a comment if you want this lossless....

(edit: Lossless version posted today - grab it!)

Part I
Part II
(need to grab both parts, as usual)

RIP Jay Bennett (Wilco): 11/15/1963 - 5/24/2009

So I just heard the news that Jay Bennett, ex-Wilco, died in his sleep over the weekend.

I had the pleasure of seeing Jay perform quite a few times with Wilco (and once at an instore as a solo gig after being booted from the band), and got the chance to chat with him a few times as well. One of the nicest guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet in the industry.

I even saw his last gig with Wilco, on the 4th of July at Grant Park, Chicago in 2001 - and briefly chatted with him as well after that gig. Little did anyone know what was to come.

Oddly enough, even before this weekend, I haven't been able to stop listening to another Bennett-related gig (which I'm posting) - a fantastic soundboard recording of Jay and Jeff Tweedy performing at the Old Town School Of Folk Music Festival in July 1999, the first Wilco-related gig I saw (with my friend Brad).

It's sad listening regardless - these two obviously shared a close bond at one point (and Jay's contributions to this gig are amazing - just listen to his piano and background vocals on "Via Chicago") - and doubly sad with the news of the hour.

So in memoriam... on Memorial Day in the US...



Jeff Tweedy & Jay Bennett
July 25, 1999
Old Town School Of Folk Music Festival, Chicago, IL

01 intro
02 James Alley Blues
03 She's A Jar
04 New Madrid
05 Blood Of The Lamb
06 Down In The Willow Garden
07 The Auld Triangle
08 Another Man's Done Gone
09 Hesitating Beauty
10 Via Chicago
11 Sugar Baby
12 I Got You (At The End Of The Century)
13 Forget The Flowers
14 I'm Always In Love
15 The Lonely 1
16 Summerteeth
17 Pecan Pie
18 True Love Will Find You In The End
19 Casino Queen
20 California Stars
21 Hoodoo Voodoo

part I
part II

- - - - -

Some video from other gigs/sources...

"Cars Can't Escape"
"Another Man's Done Gone"
"Monday"

divide and conquer: Hüsker Dü in 1985

No long intro this time. Just a quick 1985 Hüsker Dü hit, perhaps this seminal, groundbreaking punkpop band's best year ever, creatively speaking. Each song sung by its primary songwriter, guitarist Bob Mould and drummer Grant Hart perhaps are at their creative peaks (as far as Hüsker Dü is concerned) with each back-and-forth track. We have January 1985's New Day Rising - a more melodic carrying-on from 1984's Zen Arcade, and then we have September 1985's stellar Flip Your Wig - a record that's basically one giant hook from the first notes of the first track to the very last note of the last song.



Hard to imagine these two records (each amazing on their own) were released only 8 months apart. Closest I can think of would be Joy Division, a band that in the space of 10 months recorded two independently-amazing bodies of work in Unknown Pleasures and Closer.

- - -

NEW DAY RISING (SST 031, January 1985)



01 New Day Rising
02 The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill
03 I Apologize
04 Folklore
05 If I Told You
06 Celebrated Summer
07 Perfect Example
08 Terms Of Psychic Warfare
09 59 Times The Pain
10 Powerline
11 Books About UFOs
12 I Don't Know What You're Talking About
13 How To Skin A Cat
14 Whatcha Drinkin'
15 Plans I Make


FLIP YOUR WIG (SST 055, September 1985)



01 Flip Your Wig
02 Every Everything
03 Makes No Sense At All
04 Hate Paper Doll
05 Green Eyes
06 Divide And Conquer
07 Games
08 Find Me
09 The Baby Song
10 Flexible Flyer
11 Private Plane
12 Keep Hanging On
13 The Wit And The Wisdom
14 Don't Know Yet

- - -

Two RAR files, gotta grab 'em both to extract the whole deal

edit: Removed link.

enjoy!