I think he likes it: TAR - Jackson (lossless revisit)

Tap tap. Is this thing on?

Apologies again for the (relatively) lengthy delay in new postings. With the onset of summer comes additional projects to tackle in and around the homefront, taking more and more of my tiny slice of available time to devote to the blog.

So it is at the risk of repeating myself that we revisit Tar (as we've done before).



Now last year I posted most of this Chicago proto-grunge noiserock band's Amphetamine Reptile catalog, as MP3. Tar's whole AmRep catalog is now out-of-print, and only selectively available via your usual download-only retailers. This includes one of my favorite records of all time, their 1991 LP Jackson.

If heavy duty factory machinery had a soundtrack to their day, it would be Tar. Dual guitars relentlessly threshing and grinding away, propelled by propulsive bass and drumming, gloriously captured by Steve Albini (in "beautiful downtown Chicago in July, 1991" at Chicago Recording Company). Vocalist John Mohr doesn't need to "sing" to this soundtrack, so he doesn't. There is no singing at the factory. I don't understand how the hands of progress could be so cold, indeed ("Trauma").

So rather than burying this wonderful record amongst a Tar mega-pack, here be it freed as lossless FLAC. Please enjoy responsibly, keep your hands out of the equipment, wear hard hats at all times, etc. Slight remastering from an original 1991 CD issue (as if there are any others, considering this record probably sold less than 10,000 units)...

But first - a video! This is exactly how I imagined a Tar video would look, when I only heard there was one for this song. Now thanks to the magic Internets you can enjoy it too! Also this is perhaps close to the most melodic Tar song in existence, at least chording-wise.



"Goethe"

So enjoy. And a slight warning: the second side of the LP (starting with "Dark Mark") is slightly better than the first - bar "Short Trades", one of the best tracks by any band ever.

- - - - -

TAR
Jackson
1991 Amphetamine Reptile Records



01 Short Trades
02 Cross Offer
03 Walking The King
04 On A Transfer
05 Trauma
06 Dark Mark
07 Goethe
08 Tellerman
09 Land Luck
10 Viaduct Removal

Get it here.

And, if the interest is there, I recently acquired 1990's Roundhouse/Handsome CD (also out-of-print) and would be happy to FLAC it here.

essential: Neil Young - Time Fades Away HDCD

While today's record may seem incongruous from my typical blogpost, in all reality, it's not.

You see, your humble blogger has been a Neil Young fan for over 20 years. And while many of his songs are classic rock anthems, he's not been called the "godfather of grunge" for nothing. He once called Sonic Youth's "Expressway to Yr Skull" the greatest guitar song of all time, he's championed many an indie act via his annual Bridge School Benefit gigs to support the Bridge School (an organization set up by the Youngs in 1986 to help children impaired by severe physical and speech impairments), and he's never seen fit to kowtow to his fans or public.

Case in point is today's featured record, 1973's Time Fades Away.



On the back of the massive blockbuster success of his 1972 acoustic record Harvest ("Heart of Gold" among others), Young put together an all-star band and toured to an audience raptly anticpating recasts of the classic commercial Neil. However.... In his words: "'Heart of Gold' put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch."

Writing an entirely new body of work on the road, the Harvest tour soon saw Neil performing sets of never-before-heard material to audiences expecting "Heart of Gold". And the all-star band backing Young didn't get it - not like Young wanted them to, at least. But Young had an idea, why not make the next record a record of these new songs, played live in front of audiences completely unfamiliar with the material? So he did, releasing the results (assembled from a multitude of live dates) as Time Fades Away.

And he hated it, as did contemporary critics (though you'll not find a critic today who doesn't love the record).

It was a bad period in Neil's career, with the deaths of several musicians in the Young orbit from drugs hanging heavily on his back at the time. The music and the lyrics of this period (the oft-termed "Ditch Trilogy" series of LPs Time Fades Away, Tonight's The Night and On The Beach, recorded in that order from 1973-1974) reflect this entirely.

In an interview from 1987 with the BBC, Young stated that his "least favorite record is Time Fades Away. I think it's the worst record I ever made - but as a documentary of what was happening to me, it was a great record. I was onstage and I was playing all these songs that nobody had heard before, recording them, and I didn't have the right band. It was just an uncomfortable tour. It was supposed to be this big deal - I just had Harvest out, and they booked me into ninety cities. I felt like a product, and I had this band of all-star musicians that couldn't even look at each other. It was a total joke."

And that's the funny thing - it's absolutely NOT a bad record. In fact it's many a fan's favorite Neil LP of all time. Perhaps this is because the record's been out of print for nearly 35 years, and it's the sole remaining "canon" piece from Neil's extensive catalog not to see a CD release (in 2003, 4 of the 6 Neil LPs that up to then had not been on CD were finally issued as HDCD CD's by Reprise, though TFA and 1972's soundtrack LP Journey Through The Past were not).

I think Neil's recollection of this record is colored by the events of the time within his orbit. He's completely dismissing the fantastic songwriting on this record, and while the performances may not be up to par (which is completely fitting with Neil Young records, as any semi-serious fan will know), the record, as a piece, is stunning.

So as mentioned, this record - to this day - has never seen an official CD release anywhere in the world.

That being said........ in 1995, when Reprise Records first seriously considered officially issuing the "Missing 6" mentioned previously on CD, HDCD-encoded "test pressing" CDs of this - and several other at-the-time unavailable Young LPs - circulated. Not test pressings per se, more likely they were review copies or promo releases that escaped Reprise clutches before Young put his official DNR tag on the product. Of course the 1995 campaign ended with no Missing 6 CDs actually being released, but the escaped copies are still out there in the wild, and sound completely gobsmackingly fantastic.

You see, TFA was mixed by computer in 1972, as the songs rolled off the multitrack reels into the mastering house. There was no "master tape" per se, the mixdown was mastered direct to disk. Neil Young collector Jef Michael Piehler of SideStreet Records: "The problem with Time Fades Away is even worse, as it naively stated on LP labels: "This Recording Was Mastered 16-Track Direct To Disc (acetate) by Computer"; the multi-track master tape was recorded/mixed LIVE, leaving little room for remixing the "warts & all" tape hiss, bad notes & crowd noise. To reassemble the album, someone would need to sort through fifty or so ¼" and/or 2" multi-track reels & "a few" cassettes. Finding the right version by date would be easy enough, but at what stage would the mix be at? Raw recording? Truck monitor mix? Mono PA monitor recording? And what about necessary over-dubs ("LA", "Last Dance")? Where are Crosby's vocals? How'd they layer the voices like that? ...impossible."

So how'd they do it in 1995? Well, the record did see release on 8-track and cassette in the 70s, and it's presumed a backup safety reel of the live-as-she-goes computer mixdown was simultaneously made at the same time the LP was mastered, and Young may have used this to master the '95 HDCD encoding. But it's never actually been discussed, so we'll never know until the official release (if that ever comes).

So enjoy. I certainly do, this record, by leaps and bounds, is the most played Neil Young LP in my entire collection (and I've got most of 'em).

1995 CD:



1995 tray card inlay:



- - - - -

NEIL YOUNG
Time Fades Away
1973, Reprise Records
this version ripped from a 1995 HDCD-encoded mastering, subsequently withdrawn
*still entirely out-of-print*

01 Time Fades Away
02 Journey Through The Past
03 Yonder Stands The Sinner
04 LA
05 Love In Mind
06 Don't Be Denied
07 The Bridge
08 Last Dance

Get yer FLACs here!

let's begin again: Bedhead - WhatFunLifeWas

So it's been a while since I've posted anything new.

Life has intruded, ebbs and flows, but eventually settles down.

What also helps is discovering new music. Not new as in released-last-week, but new as in "why haven't I heard this before, and why is this NOT in my record collection?!?" music. Such as it is with today's feature, a record that 5 days ago I was completely unaware of and had no musical knowledge of. Oh I knew it existed, as an entry in a discography kind of way, but nothing more than that.



You see... I've been on a Kadane brothers blitz off and on for the past several months. Starting with their current project The New Year and working my way backwards, I've been discovering the utter musical genius that is the Texan brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane and the jawdroppingly-beautiful music they create.

I'm not so familiar with the brothers' backstory so I won't go into much detail (because I don't know it!), but starting in 1992 Matt and Bubba Kadane (both guitarists) began releasing records as Bedhead, and when that band ended in 1998 later formed The New Year - which is still active.

I really haven't a clue where to begin describing Bedhead, but today's record - Bedhead's debut LP from 1994 - sounds as if Slowdive raided J Mascis' guitar collection, added some Louisville, KY math rock to the blender, and threw away the effects pedals. It's perhaps the best shoegaze record I've ever heard, but it's not shoegaze. It's perhaps the best slowcore record I've ever heard, but it's not slowcore. It's not post-rock but they could post-rock Tortoise to the end. It's not math rock, it's not punk rock, but it's all those.

Where has this record been and why hasn't it been in my collection for the past 16 years?

Take the second track here "Haywire". The guitars are straight out of the 1990-1992 UK Midlands shoegaze scene, but the ending is completely and utterly mindblowing. The song sounds like it was recorded live to two-track (which wouldn't surprise me at all) which makes the record even more impressive, considering what they're able to do with the simple three guitars, bass and drums formula.

For a quick hit intro to Bedhead just check out "Bedside Table" - a track that gently glides along on lovely intertwined guitars, and ends in a chaotic fury that had to have been AMAZING live.

I'll stop now because I'm too busy swooning to "Crushing".

BEDHEAD
WhatFunLifeWas
1994 Trance Syndicate



01 Liferaft
02 Haywire
03 Bedside Table
04 The Unpredictable Landlord
05 Crushing
06 Unfinished
07 Powder
08 Foaming Love
09 To The Ground
10 Living Well
11 Wind Down

edit: Removed link.

The Power of Independent Trucking : Best Of (so far...)

This is something I've been thinking about for a while, even before recent debacles have caused me to re-evaluate the blog. I know every post gains at least a new reader or two, and sometimes it's too much effort to browse through history and see what stuff you've missed. I know this from my own experience as a blog reader myself.

So I put together a "Best, so far..." post. And being me, I couldn't really edit down from my super list of tracks. So I figured who *doesn't* want 7+ hours of wonderful music to listen to, courtesy of your humble blogger? I would gather this would be roughly 5 CD-Rs worth of material, an even 100 songs from throughout the course of this blog's history.

Every track here I've posted at one time or another previously, so faithful readers from the beginning - assuming they pull down everything I post - will have all this material. If that faithful reader is you, I applaud you. And ask you to start your own blog too, because anybody who likes everything I post obviously is my kind of person.

Even I - the blogger with far too much attention to detail - couldn't fathom how to assemble 100 tracks into 5 (give or take) seamlessly-flowing CDs. So I lazied out and went alphabetically, by artist, and then chronologically by release when more than one track is featured from an artist. And you know what? Barring the occasional odd junctures as we leap styles now and then, it actually works as an easy listen! Only the very first, and very last, tracks are out of sequence: 1 because it gave the blog its name, and 100 because when I put it on a compilation, it *always* ends the comp.

As comprehensive as this compendium is, obviously this just touches the iceberg of material I like. There are easily 50 artists I love that haven't blogged, and obviously aren't in this compilation (hello Pavement, Guided by Voices, Yo La Tengo, and the like). So with that said, consider this my musical journey, in a nutshell.

I'm too lazy to post the relevant links-to-the-original-post in the below tracklist, but if you click the artist name on the sidebar -> over there, you'll eventually find the original post.

Enjoy!

- - - - -

The Power of Independent Trucking : Best Of (so far...)



01 BIG BLACK The Power Of Independent Trucking
02 A CERTAIN RATIO Flight
03 ARCWELDER Raleigh
04 BEDHEAD Parade
05 BHOPAL STIFFS Bottle It Up
06 BIG BLACK Passing Complexion
07 BIG BLACK Kerosene
08 BITCH MAGNET Americruiser
09 BITCH MAGNET Mesentery
10 BITCH MAGNET Crescent
11 THE BOMB Never Want To See You Again
12 THE BOO RADLEYS Does This Hurt?
13 THE CHARLATANS Between 10th and 11th
14 THE CONNELLS Darker Days
15 DIDJITS Joliet
16 DURUTTI COLUMN (MARTIN HANNETT) First Aspect of the Same Thing
17 the FEELIES Raised Eyebrows
18 the FEELIES Slipping (Into Something)
19 the FEELIES Away
20 the FEELIES Invitation
21 fIREHOSE Brave Captain
22 fIREHOSE In Memory of Elizabeth Cotton
23 HAPPY MONDAYS WFL (Think about the future)
24 HÜSKER DÜ The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill
25 HÜSKER DÜ Flip Your Wig
26 the JESUS LIZARD Mouth Breather
27 the JESUS LIZARD Dancing Naked Ladies
28 JOY DIVISION No Love Lost (pitch corrected)
29 JOY DIVISION Dead Souls (pitch corrected)
30 JOY DIVISION Colony (pitch corrected)
31 LOW Immune
32 LOW Dinosaur Act
33 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO Northstar Blues
34 MINUTEMEN The Anchor
35 MINUTEMEN Corona (1987 mix)
36 MINUTEMEN History Lesson, Part II
37 BOB MOULD Paralyzed
38 BOB MOULD I Am Vision, I Am Sound
39 NAKED RAYGUN Managua
40 NAKED RAYGUN Soldiers Requiem
41 NINA NASTASIA Superstar
42 NEW FAST AUTOMATIC DAFFODILS Big (single version)
43 NEW FAST AUTOMATIC DAFFODILS Stockholm
44 NEW ORDER Homage (7 September 1980 Western Works)
45 NEW ORDER Ceremony (September 1980 E.A.R.S. New Jersey)
46 NEW ORDER Temptation (7 inch version)
47 NEW ORDER Lonesome Tonight
48 NEW ORDER Let's Go (unreleased original 1985 vocal)
49 NEW ORDER When I'm With You (22 June 1982 Milan)
50 NEW ORDER Your Silent Face (16 June 1989 Irvine Meadows)
51 NEW ORDER Runwild (mix 3) [Primitive Notion]
52 NEW ORDER Shipwreck Of A Broken Man ["Turn My Way", no Billy Corgan]
53 NEW ORDER Run 2 (26 June 1989 unedited old arrangement)
54 THE NEW YEAR Folios
55 NORTHSIDE Moody Places (12" version)
56 THE OTHER TWO Selfish (unreleased mix from 1992 advance promo)
57 PARIS ANGELS Perfume
58 PEGBOY Through My Fingers
59 PEGBOY Strong Reaction
60 PEGBOY You
61 JOEL RL PHELPS Counsel
62 JOEL RL PHELPS & THE DOWNER TRIO Then Slowly Turn
63 POSTER CHILDREN Question
64 POSTER CHILDREN Water
65 R.E.M. Seven Chinese Brothers (9 July 1983 Toronto)
66 R.E.M. With The People -> King Of Birds (Tourfilm 2.0)
67 R.E.M. Kohoutek
68 RAPEMAN Marmoset
69 RED HOUSE PAINTERS Song For A Blue Guitar
70 RIFLE SPORT Exploding Man
71 RODAN Bible Silver Corner
72 SEAM Sweet Pea
73 SEAM Port of Charleston
74 SEBADOH Soul and Fire
75 SEBADOH Cliche
76 SEBADOH Mystery Man
77 SECTION 25 New Horizon (edit)
78 SHELLAC Canada
79 SILKWORM Couldn't You Wait?
80 SILKWORM That's Entertainment
81 SLINT Ron
82 SLINT Washer
83 SLINT Rhoda (re-recorded version)
84 SONGS: OHIA The Old Black Hen
85 THE STONE ROSES Elephant Stone (original Peter Hook mix)
86 BERNARD SUMNER Getting Away With It (March 2009 Songbook)
87 TAR Mel's
88 TAR Short Trades
89 TAR Barry White
90 TEENAGE FANCLUB Star Sign (edit)
91 JEFF TWEEDY & JAY BENNETT Via Chicago (25 July 1999 Chicago)
92 THE WEDDING PRESENT Crawl
93 THE WEDDING PRESENT Suck
94 WILCO Someone Else's Song
95 WILCO & BILLY BRAGG California Stars
96 WILCO Ashes of American Flags (album track)
97 WILCO Sunken Treasure (2 November 2002 Tampa)
98 WILCO At Least That's What You Said (28 June 2003 Philadelphia)
99 SHANNON WRIGHT Black Little Stray
100 NAKED RAYGUN New Dreams

- - - - -

Whew.... Grab the 10 RAR files comprising the set here.

Maybe in another year we'll have a Part II of this... Or not!

New material coming up soon - I do have several items in the pipeline.

read the blog, bought the record?

Have any of my readers been compelled to, you know, actually PURCHASE any of the items I've blogged? Whether physical product, or digital download, I am curious.

I get the feeling I'm doing this whole thing backwards sometimes.

I, the blogger, have been compelled to purchase quite a few of the items I've blogged. A quick rundown, off the top of my head:

Both BITCH MAGNET CD's. I had downloaded lossless copies on the interwebs before, but I became so obsessed with this band around the time I blogged them, I had to actually have the product. So I purchased Ben Hur new (still available via many online retailers on CD), and a used copy of Umber And Star Booty via half.com. Funnily enough, there are enough postings elsewhere with people griping how pricey used copies of Umber And Star Booty are, but - including shipping - I paid less than retail cost for the new CD (as you'd expect for used product). Yeah, some of the online sellers are charging exorbitant amounts for this CD, but you can also find it at a much more reasonable cost.

TAR - Roundhouse/Handsome. Also used, via half.com. Again, online complaints about how hard it is to find affordably, but again, cost me less than the original retail price including shipping. Granted, the cover did have a bit of water damage, but I didn't buy the disc for the inlay.

RODAN - Rusty. Purchased new, and glad I did.

JOEL RL PHELPS / DOWNER TRIO - Virtually everything. Warm Springs Night, 3, Blackbird and Inland Empires all via either half.com or Amazon Marketplace, and all used. All I'm missing is the Downer Trio EP, and Customs (with the bonus CD). I may have pissed off Joel's label head Tim Cook, but I walked the walk. I'd gladly purchase these new if I could, because the money should go to JRLP and not some online seller. BTW all these were less than $5 each, not including shipping.

SILKWORM - Libertine. Used via half.com, and $10. Not bad for a CD that many seek, and many bitch about the cost.

the JESUS LIZARD - Head/Pure, Goat, Liar and Down, all new from my local indie record store, the remastered editions. Granted I'd owned all the above in their original release masterings, but after downloading lossless copies of the remasters, I had to own them for the liner notes alone. I'm damn glad I purchased them as they are nothing short of spectacular.

Anyone?

waiting for the JD Recycle tracks?

The "alternate" variants will come, lossless, as promised. Not the majority of tracks over at the Recycle blog, just the pitch-fixed etc. versions. As I've long said, I'm respecting 50poundnote's wishes to keep the majority of these out of lossless circulation, but I have his blessing to put the non-canon variants up lossless, over here.

We wait, though. I don't want to prematurely spoil FAC213 now do I?

In the meantime, your humble blogger is busily thinking about new avenues to explore on the blog. I'm glad I had the chance for a rethink, and while I'm not really changing my approach, I may do less full albums and more quick hits touching on a wider variety of music. Or not.

Let me posit a question:

Please leave a comment regarding what your favorite post has been on this blog. I see the download statistics, of course, but they only tell half the story.

What has been your favorite post? Favorite series of posts? What artists do you want to see blogged more, that I've already touched on? By now loyal readers should know my "style" of music, so what artists would you like to see touched on that I've not done so already?

So keep this on your blogroll and stay tuned....

Like Kohoutek, you were gone.

For various reasons I am compelled to post this track and this lyric today.

"Kohoutek"

Who will stand alone?

She carried ribbons, she wore them out
Courage built a bridge, jealous tore it down
At least it's something you've left behind
Like Kohoutek, you were gone

We sat in the garden, we stood on the porch
I won't deny myself, we never talked

She wore bangles, she wore bells
On her toes and she jumped like a fish
Like a flyin' fish, you were gone
Like Kohoutek, can't forget that

Fever built a bridge, reason tore it down
If I am one to follow.. who will stand alone?

Maybe you're not the problem
scissors, paper, stone
If you stand and holler, these prayers will talk

She carried ribbons, she wore them out
Michael built a bridge... Michael tore it down
At least it's something you've left behind
Like Kohoutek, you were gone

Michael built a bridge... Michael tore it down
If I stand and holler... will I stand alone?

from R.E.M.'s 1985 LP Fables Of The Reconstruction

the song is here.

Always one of my favorite R.E.M. tracks, of late - specifically the past 10 days - for various reasons, this track has taken on new meaning to me in all sorts of ways. Some good, some not.

post removals / blog future

I've removed the Joel R.L. Phelps post because of a discussion with the label head that started to become rather heated.

I mean no harm to anyone by this blog and I need to reiterate:

If anybody wants anything removed from here, or objects to any material posted, please email me at analogloyalist at gmail dot com.

Tim Cook, please contact me if you can. I would appreciate it.

This blog exists purely because I love music, and I'm bigheaded enough to think that others need to hear the music that rocks my world on a daily basis. Whether that's ultimately true or not I don't care, I just enjoy blathering about music, my thoughts on it, and giving people the opportunity to hear what they most likely will never come across during their daily travels across the Internets.

I've suspended posting for a duration because I'm rethinking my approach to this site. Will I continue to post about my favorite music? I don't know. If so, will I continue to link to files? I don't know. I'm not sure my interest in maintaining this site can be sustained by just writing about records, it's the feedback in the comments that I also enjoy almost as much as the process.

So allow me my time to have a rethink about the blog's future direction, if you will. Please share your comments below about what you like (or dislike) about this blog. Do you enjoy the full albums? If you are a loyal reader, do you download the links, or do you just read my writings?

Do you want more writing, or more files?

Thanks.

MINUTEMEN Double Nickels On The Dime rare 1987 remix

In 1984 the legendary (and already blogged) MINUTEMEN released their masterpiece, the double LP Double Nickels On The Dime.

Suffice it to say that this record features on nearly every "Top 100 albums of the 1980s" list you'll find - and for good reason: it's utterly fantastic.



But being a double album, it didn't fit on one disc in 1987 (the land of the 74-minute maximum CD timing). So Mike Watt, having to edit the record already to fit in the 74-minute time constraint, decided to remix the entire record with Vitus Matare in August 1987. (The original record was mixed by Ethan James on 8-track in one long marathon session in 1984.)

Besides remixing the whole album, Watt and Matare also removed the tracks "Don't Look Now", "Mr. Robot's Holy Orders", "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", "Doctor Wu" and the remake of "Little Man With A Gun In His Hand".

Released in 1988 and subsequently available for a short time only, this is the rarest Minutemen CD. The remix does nothing for the music, and Watt thought so himself: the CD was quickly withdrawn and the original mix restored, with "Don't Look Now" and "Doctor Wu" re-added to the proceedings.

In 2007, Watt said that this remix was a "nightmare" and "totally worse than the Ethan James mix."

When I bought my Double Nickels... CD in 1988, it was this version I purchased. I immediately realized it sounded "different" than my original vinyl copy, so I eventually sold it because it just didn't sound right. The version I subsequently purchased was the restored-mix version, and that's what I've had since.

Since I found out what the issue was with the 1988 CD, curiosity has lead me on a search for this thing and to this day the best I've found are high-bitrate MP3's on the internets. So of course I'm featuring it here, and also casting the net out there for anyone who has this CD and can rip it losslessly for the public.

Enjoy! You won't want to replace your common Double Nickels... set with these, but as a companion piece of history, it's pretty good.


MINUTEMEN
Double Nickels On The Dime
SST 028 CD
Remixed August 1987 by Mike Watt and Vitus Matare
Withdrawn sometime in 1988/1989

01 D's Car Jam
02 Anxious Mo-Fo
03 Theatre Is The Life Of You
04 Vietnam
05 Cohesion
06 It's Expected I'm Gone
07 #1 Hit Song
08 Two Beads At The End
09 Do You Want New Wave Or Do You Want The Truth?
10 Shit From An Old Notebook
11 Nature Without Man
12 One Reporter's Opinion
13 Mike's Car Jam
14 Political Song For Michael Jackson To Sing
15 Maybe Partying Will Help
16 Toadies
17 Retreat
18 The Big Foist
19 God Bows To Math
20 Corona
21 The Glory Of Man
22 Take 5, D.
23 My Heart And The Real World
24 History Lesson - Part II
25 George's Car Jam
26 You Need The Glory
27 The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts
28 West Germany
29 The Politics Of Time
30 Themselves
31 Please Don't Be Gentle With Me
32 Nothing Indeed
33 No Exchange
34 There Ain't Shit On T.V. Tonight
35 This Ain't No Picnic
36 Spillage
37 Three Car Jam
38 Untitled Song For Latin America
39 Jesus And Tequila
40 June 16th
41 Storm In My House
42 Martin's Story
43 The World According To Nouns
44 Love Dance

Grab the files here - 320kbps MP3.

PLEASE I beg of my readers, someone somewhere has to have this actual CD. You know you have it if track 01 is "D's Car Jam", and track 02 is "Anxious Mo-Fo." The common original-mix CD has a snippet of "D's Car Jam" appended to "Anxious Mo-Fo", and the whole thing is titled "D's Car Jam / Anxious Mo-Fo" as track 01 on the 1989-to-current CD.

Recorded by STEVE ALBINI: 17 unconventional songs

(This turned out to be my favorite blog post to assemble - because in researching entries for this post over the past several months, I discovered some wonderful music I've never heard before - music that's leapt to the top of my new favorites list.)

I've always been more of a music than lyrics guy.

See, I think the best records are those records that you don't listen to for the effects or the singer's thoughts, you listen to for the music. The performances. The cohesive jelling of the band, performing their music, as one.

Oh I like those "studio creation" records as much as the next guy, because I think the studio - given the right circumstances and the right personnel - can be just as effective of a compositional tool as a band's jam session in the basement. But to me, nothing beats the sound of music performed by a well-rehearsed band, firing on all cylinders, captured in glorious room-sound-and-all recordings.

And the master of this is Steve Albini.



Now I'm no Albini fanboy (though I'm sure the world's laughing at that statement), because I know not everything he's touched is gold (last week's Bitch Magnet EP for starters). And the man records anything that comes his way and pays his fee (that's right, unlike any other "name" recordist/engineers (he hates the term "producer") out there, he charges a flat fee rather than royalty points), as long as he doesn't violently despise the music. And given the man's rep as a master noisemonger, it's a wonderful breath of fresh air to know that virtually anybody - from Nirvana to the three kids in the basement next door, playing Appalachian jug band folk songs - can walk up to Steve and record with him.

I suppose it's best to define "the Steve Albini sound" though, before we really get started. Albini is a no-bullshit engineer who, to the best of his ability (and it's an INCREDIBLE ability) tries to capture the sound of the band performing live. Most of the time the bands do exactly that, and while anybody can stick a mic or twenty in front of a band playing live in studio, it's the actual mic techniques, the dedication to capturing the natural room sound, the non-reliance on computers, and the basic "know your shit before you set up in studio with Steve" preparation that makes Albini's recordings sound so damn good.

So in celebration of this - and to bring greater appreciation to the breadth of music that sometimes never gets heard - I made this mini mix-tape-of-a-post celebrating the Unconventional Steve Albini: recordings that are antithetical to the common perception of the man, recordings that capture a mood, a sound not normally associated with the "recorded by Steve Albini" tag, etc. Basically, it's a fantastic compilation of wonderful songs, all recorded by Albini, that have nothing to do with noise rock, hardcore, "Chicago sound" punk, or what-have-you.

And I pre-emptively warn you (though you know... is there any other kind of warning than a pre-emptive one? Just asking...) however: There are some tracks here that will surprise you. Genres you'd never associate with Albini, or tracks you'd expect to hear at the local joint that has $1 Pabst drafts (or for those non-Americans, substitute your local hillbilly/redneck/low-class beer instead) for the regulars.

As with the blog's other compilations, I am not claiming this is anywhere close to definitive: by his own count, Albini has recorded thousands of projects. I only have perhaps, and this is a stretch, a hundred of them. If not less. So this is just the proverbial tip o' the ol' iceberg, as you will.

So let's roll the tapes...

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RECORDED by STEVE ALBINI
17 "unconventional" songs recorded by Steve Albini
a powerofindependenttrucking.blogspot.com exclusive

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01 THE NEW YEAR / Folios
From the 2008 Touch and Go LP The New Year

Twee pop and Steve Albini? You got it! Twee with a subverted twist of course...

02 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / The Dark Don't Hide It
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

Imagine you were given an extremely detailed blueprint of the typical Neil Young and Crazy Horse sound. Then, taking that blueprint, you made a record. This is what the Magnolia Electric Co (Jason Molina) tracks on this compilation sound like: Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" dissected, thrown into the Crazy Horse blender, and the results sliced/diced and recorded by Albini. Absolutely reverential, absolutely essential.

03 LOW / Dinosaur Act
From the 2001 Kranky LP Things We Lost In The Fire

The drums on this track are amazing - I imagine a giant, empty cavern, with a lonely drum kit in the middle, and microphones all around the walls - and the resulting recording being just of the room reverbs. Stellar.

04 PALACE MUSIC / More Brother Rides
From the 1995 Drag City LP Viva Last Blues

This sounds as if Albini showed up on Will Oldham's porch armed with a tape machine and microphones, and just started recording Will and the guys. Appalachian hillbilly porch music at its finest modern interpretation.

05 NINA NASTASIA & JIM WRIGHT / Odd Said The Doe
From the 2007 Touch and Go LP You Follow Me

Brooklyn singer/songwriter Nina Nastasia teams up with Dirty Three drummer Jim Wright to record a beautiful collection of tracks based on Nina's fragile voice, gentle guitars and White's fractured drumming.

06 JOEL R.L. PHELPS & THE DOWNER TRIO / Always Glide
From the 1998 Pacifico Recordings LP 3

Just beautiful, barebones acoustic guitar, drums, wistful pedal steel and Phelps' unique voice.

07 SHANNON WRIGHT / Black Little Stray
From the 2004 Quarterstic Records LP Over The Sun

A very loud, quiet electric guitar and powerful drumming song. Very dynamic and a great showcase for Shannon's powerful voice.

08 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / Hard To Love A Man
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

09 BEDHEAD / Parade
From the 1998 Trance Syndicate LP Transaction de Novo

This "slowcore" band from Dallas, TX made their final record (as Bedhead) with Albini, before "reforming" in 2001 as The New Year. Basically this band is the Kadane brothers with whomever plays with them. The New Year trends towards more upbeat, acoustic and/or piano-based stylings, while Bedhead was a bit louder but slower. If that makes any sense.

10 LOW / Lion/Lamb
From the 1999 Kranky LP Secret Name

11 SILKWORM with KELLY HOGAN / Young
From the 2002 Touch and Go LP Italian Platinum

Bassist Tim Midgett wrote this piano-based song for noted Chicago-based alt.country chantreuse Kelly Hogan to sing. Midgett, to this day, thinks this should have been a Nashville hit.

12 SONGS: OHIA / The Old Black Hen
From the 2003 Secretly Canadian LP Magnolia Electric Co

Jason Molina's first sessions with Albini produced this amazing record, after which he changed his band's name to the name of this album. This track features the outlaw country vocals of a Lawrence Peters and is perhaps among the least likely songs you'd picture Albini recording - but it's just plain beautiful. I love the harmonies on the chorus as well.

13 NINA NASTASIA / One Old Woman
From the 2006 Touch and Go LP On Leaving

I just love these drums.

14 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / Northstar Blues
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

15 SILKWORM / Goodnight Mr. Maugham
From the 1997 Matador LP Developer

Andy Cohen's simple acoustic number is just beautiful. I like the opening.

16 THE NEW YEAR / 18
From the 2004 Touch And Go LP The End Is Near

17 MAGNOLIA ELECTRIC CO / I Can Not Have Seen The Light
From the 2005 Secretly Canadian LP What Comes After The Blues

And off we go gently into that good night.

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enjoy! Grab the project here.

And if you have any suggestions of similar records that I've not covered, recorded by Albini, please drop a comment below!