Pylon + The Fresh And Onlys - 2008-11-18 - The Independent SF

Pylon
2008-11-18
The Independent
San Francisco, CA USA

***32 bit/48kHz recording***

taper: lammah
gear:  Edirol R-09HR (built-in mics) [48kHz/32 bit] > Adobe Audition 1.5 (normalization) >
       CD Wave Editor (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

Tracklisting

01.  Cool [3:51]
02.  Dub [4:25]
03.  Read A Book (breakdown) [0:24]
04.  Read A Book [2:06]
05.  K [5:05]
06.  No Clocks [3:33]
07.  Weather Radio [5:12]
08.  The Human Body [3:46]
09.  Working Is No Problem [2:32]
10.  Gravity [5:39]
11.  Danger [2:19]
12.  Crazy [3:19]
13.  Volume [4:36]
14.  Sugar [3:32]
15.  Beep [4:06]
16.  Feast On My Heart [6:18]
17.  Stop It [2:53]
18.  M-Train [4:45]

Total [68:30]

Notes from when this was shared on a certain Bittorrent site back in 2008.

Caught them briefly during Part Time Punks, only taped the encore track (M-Train), as I decided to go see Savage Republic instead, figuring that they were playing in SF a couple days later so I could catch them then.  [2021 note:  Sadly, guitarist Randy Bewley would tragically pass away from a heart attack in January 2009, this was their penultimate show playing with him.  In retrospect, I should have skipped SR and seen them instead]

This time, remembered to use the bass cut on my Edirol.  Works wonders.  [2021 note: did it?  I can improve on this now, but am presenting this as shared back in 2008]

Also included a scan of my ticket, a couple of photos of the setlist...note that while 3x3 and Beep were was listed, they weren't played  [2021 note: actually, only 3x3 wasn't played, I had Beep mis-id'ed as "Permanence"], and there was going to be an encore whether whe liked it or not, though most people enjoyed themselves very very much, lots of hardcore Pylon cones in the City, it seems.

REMEMBER

Please do not leverage for material gain.
Please do not redistribute in mp3 format. 

(stopped caring about that years ago)

CONED  (pCloud download + streaming)

While I couldn't locate any video of the proceedings that night, here's one from 8 years later featuring Vanessa with Pylon Reenactment Society....that Pylon was no more Randy is an ultimate testament to his presence and that PRS still honors their legacy and records their own material (well-worth listening to) is even more so....

Here's M Train, from 2016-12-12 at the Independent...

 
Also, for the first time, I present my recording of the openers, The Fresh and Onlys, featuring Tim Cohen, Wymond Miles, and Shayde Sartin.   More after the jump....

 

Part Time Punks Festival 2008 - PYLON - M Train + Medium Medium (pt 3.)

Screen capture of Lyndsey Parker's footage

A random item from the AMH archive, before I start in again on all my old recordings....

"M Train" -- Live @ Part Time Punks Festival - 16 November 2008  [256kbit MP3]

One of the last times the band played live before the unfortunate passing of guitarist Randy Bewley a scant few months afterwards.

I had been upstairs catching Savage Republic, as I figured since I had tickets a couple of nights later at The Independent, I could catch Pylon then...however, after SR wrapped up, I was able to see them perform their encore, M Train.  After witnessing the excitement surrounding them,  I wish I had stayed downstairs for the entire set....but did see it in full a couple days later back in San Francisco (as well as a produce a recording) which will appear in due time.

There's some footage online, including an amusing one where someone jumps onstage to join Vanessa...but the audio quality is subpar, so I'll leave it to your web searching skills to find more of these.

Medium Medium (who had played with them at the first Part Time Punks fest) for the following year opened their set with a heartfelt tribute to Pylon, which you can watch here...the video's pretty compressed, but is a very good listen and a brilliant cover.

And here's their 2008 set.

Medium Medium
2008-11-16
'Part Time Punks' festival
The Echo
Los Angeles, CA USA

taper: lammah
equipment:  Edirol R-09HR > Adobe Audition 1.5 (EQ/limiting) > CD Wave (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

Tracklist:

01.  Further Than Funk Dream    6:39
02.  Nadsat Dream               4:30
03.  Serbian Village            6:54
04.  Mice Or Monsters           6:37
05.  Off We Go                  6:49
06.  Them Or Me                 5:03
07.  7th Floor                  4:04
08.  Hungry, So Angry           5:17
09.  Guru Maharaji             10:04

Total                          56:02

Notes

A band that I had not heard of previously, who ended up greatly impressing me, especially the guitarist, who had a style just right of Andy Gill's.  Turns out they were another early-80s outfit that had only modest initial success before calling it a day but for whatever reason or another deciding to make another go of it.  In any event, a good pairing for Pylon and (later on) ACR.
 

Like all my PTP recordings, bass-overloaded, but nothing that a good re-EQ couldn't fix.

A bit of annoying chatter during the middle of 'Further Than Funk Dream' but otherwise a satisfying listen.

    DOWNLOAD / Medium Medium live set

    (pCloud)

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

Note, three of the tracks "Off We Go", "Hungry, So Angry", and "Guru Maharaji" were officially  released on the "Fluxus & Funk" release put up by Kommissar Hjuler.

Finally, here's a live portion of "Nadsat Dream" from this performance, originally filmed by Lyndsey Parker, but with audio synced against my recording....

And finally, Part 4...

Part Time Punks Festival 2008 - ACR + Savage Republic (pt. 4)

 

 

A Certain Ratio

2008-11-15

Part Time Punks Festival

The Echoplex

Los Angeles CA

 

Recorded by thehappyone, using an Edirol R-09HR with built-in mics.

 

Setlist

 

00 intro  [2:55]

01 Choir ~ Waterline ~ Do The Du (medley)  [6:05]

02 I Feel Light  [4:37]

03 And Then Agan  [3:08]

04 Flight  [6:15]

05 Rialto  [3:59]

06 Mind Made Up  [5:45]

07 Way To Escape  [4:18]

08 Everything Is Good  [4:45]

09 Wild Party   [4:07]

10 Wonder Y  [6:28]

11 Shack Up  [5:01]

12 Heart And Soul [Joy Division]  [6:22]

13 Si Firmir O Grido  [5:51]

 

Total 69:36 

Outstanding set from arguably Factory Records' most influential band, barring a certain Godlike Genius that knows how to strum a chord or three, or a half-Salford/half-Macclesfield beat band of some renown...whom they pay homage to by covering one of their songs.  

 

A real coup for Part Time Punks to bring them to the last gig they played in the States.  Was of course front and center for this one, and this recording has made the rounds before but is to this day one of my favorites and I still listen to it from time to time.

The photo montage is made up of my original super-blurry photos, some more of which are below.

For professionally-taken pictures, I direct you to the Los Anjealous archive for this show.

 

SHACK UP 

(download & listen to on pCloud)

 

Videos...

 

 Shack Up, LyndseyParker vid synched with my audio

 Do The Du (HotPantsDiva)

 

Flight (bossharmony)

2008-11-16 - Part Time Punks Festival, The Echo LA (Part 2)

Part Time Punks Festival

Sunday, November 16, 2008 

(Part 2) 

 

See part 1 here....

The Muslims  

(right before they changed their names to The Soft Pack)

00 soundcheck, opening jam  [0:56]

01 On My Time               [1:47]

02 Right and Wrong          [4:18]

03 Besides Myself           [3:06]

04 Extinction               [2:53]

05 Answer To Yourself       [3:44]

06 ?                        [2:21]

07 Parasites                [4:53]

Total 23:58

 

DOWNLOAD / The Muslims (pCloud)

Daytime Television

Without their normal singer, who was out with a cold....

01 Teenage Kicks [The Undertones]               [2:54]

02 'the dog ate our lead singer'                [1:44]

03 Everybody's Happy Now [Buzzcocks]            [4:05]

04 Part Time Punks  [Television Personalities]  [3:19]

 

Total 12:02

 

                     

I procured the video for "Everybody's Happy Now", which was online and synced it up with my audio as the original capture (from Lyndsey Parker) was distorted....

 

DOWNLOAD / Daytime Television (pCloud)

 

Bonus:  Live footage from The Nightengales, also from Lyndsey Parker.

As well as Love Is All...too bad the audio is distorted....

As finally, Mika Miko....this time from David (bossharmony) Orlando.  This is frankly brilliant (maybe the best 23 seconds you'll ever spend watching something on YouTube)....I'm bummed that I somehow missed their performance, again, probably got there too late....

Onto Part 3...

2008-11-16 - Part Time Punks Festival, The Echo LA (Part 1)

  

Part Time Punks

Sunday, November 16, 2008 

(Part 1)

I traveled all the way down from SF to catch A Certain Ratio, which to date has not come back to the West Coast, so glad that I did.  What's remarkable isn't who I saw but who I didn't see.  Namely:  The Nightingales, Nervous Gender, Vivian Girls, Mika Miko, Warpaint, The Urinals, Magic Bullets (who I did catch a few times the following year) and Ben White (otherwise known as Benny Shambles) Softboiled Eggies, nor do I remember any of the DJs...and only saw the encore track (M-Train) from Pylon.  Luckily I caught them in SF a few days later, their penultimate performance before guitarist Randy Bewley sadly and suddenly passed away.  

 

The good news though is that I missed Ariel Pink, that I do not regret!

First up, Grimble Grumble.  I came in midway through their set and only captured several songs (forst two unidentified), the last being a cover of "Here Come The Warm Jets" by Brian Eno, and then outro music of the Chills' amazing 'Pink Frost'.

(photo from LosAnJealous)

DOWNLOAD / Grimble Grumble live set (pCloud)

And then, Wild Stares.  When researching this, I learned that they just released an album last October ("Automatic Writing Machine"), based on an album they started working on this very show.  It's actually excellent.

Check out their Bandcamp to listen.

I still need to identify a number of tracks, only have three of them named:

Setlist, missing titles provided from Justin in the band...

00  intro                [0:33]

01  Sport Of Kings       [4:59]

02  Looking 4 U          [2:37]

03  Babies Falling       [3:56]

04  The Long March       [6:08]

05  The China Song       [3:28]

06  Like a Sparrow       [6:08]

07  Piece of the Picture [5:34]

08  Motor Drive          [5:20]

09  Fleshtones           [3:49]

10  outro                [0:47]

 

 

(photo from LosAnJealous)

DOWNLOAD / The Wild Stares live set (pCloud)

Both sets were recorded with an Edirol R09-HR with built-in mics, which did a pretty good job for what they are.

Part two...

Minipop / Birds and Batteries / The Botticellis - 2008-11-07 - The Independent SF

 

Video of full set from Bottom Of The Hill, Feb 2008 (Paste Magazine)

All recorded by thehappyone using Sonic Studios DSM-6 mics plugged into an Edirol R-09HR.  These have not been shared widely before.

Minipop

band intro  (2:02)
intro piece  (2:17)

Monsters  (4:27)

Ask Me A Question  (3:42)

Generator  (3:53)

Like I Do  (3:45)

Let Go  (3:24)

Stars  (5:08)

Black Metallic [Catherine Wheel]  (6:37)

The Way You Are  (4:43)

10 tracks, 39:58

Excellent band fronted by Tricia Kanne (vox/keyboard/guitar), with Matthew Swanson (keys/guitar), Nick Forte (bass), Ross Grant (guitars), and Lauren Grubb (drums).  Lauren would later pound the skins for a bit for Topographies.  "Like I Do" is as terrific now as it was then.

Normally, I don't redo my FLACs for such old shows, but I noticed that the original set had final track "The Way You Are" cut at the 3:22 point.  I checked my original master WAVs and that was complete, so I went ahead and grafted the last minute or so from that onto the file, and while I was at it, I cleaned up some of the handling noise (decrackle filter plus channel cloning on the high frequencies), limited some of the loud clapping and whooping (mostly from yours truly), and applied automatic phase correction.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM

Birds and Batteries

intro  (0:17)

I'll Never Sleep Again  (3:45)

Soft Surveillance  (5:49)

After A Flood  (3:45)

unknown (unreleased)  (5:02)

Another Inferno  (5:06)

La Carena (unreleased)  (3:28)

We're An Industry  (4:08)

Star Clusters  (4:08)

9 tracks, 35:50

Essentially a project Michael Sempert and cohorts were doing for a few years.  Quite sophisticated synth pop.

This recording isn't ideal, due to some handling noise that sounds like a strap being fastened/unfastened and a chattery crowd, and it sounds like the right mic wasn't aligned properly.  A couple of unreleased tracks appear on this.

DOWNLOAD/STREAM

Out.Of.Focus.TV (out of SF) filmed them at SXSW back in 2011.  Here it is:

The Botticellis

pre-gig  (1:18)

Old Home Movies  (3:34)

Stay With My Brother  (3:43)

I Feel Betrayed  (3:32)

The Prodigal  (4:47)

Table By The Window  (3:35)

Up Against The Glass  (3:59)

Sister's Telling Stories  (4:38)

unknown  (4:37)

Here I Go Again [Whitesnake]  (4:11)

Awaiting On You All [George Harrison]  (5:11)

outro (Brass Monkey)  (0:09)

12 tracks, 43:17.  How does the opening band end up playing the longest set?

Psych/power pop group.  My friend Josh released out their album on his Rocinante Records imprint.  Well worth seeking out.  This was years before...

DOWNLOAD/STREAM

Bonus video, this is The Botticellis playing acoustically as featured on The Mercury Sessions, which was a very short-lived music feature set done by the SJ-based newspaper.  They only did five total.

To quote from the posting...

From San Francisco's Outer Richmond district, the Botticellis love to make delicate pop music and love to surf. Members Burton Li, Blythe Foster and Alexi Glickman swung by on April 25, 2008, to chat with San Jose Mercury News music writer Shay Quillen and perform "Flashlight" and "Up Against the Glass" from their debut CD, plus the previously unreleased "Lucy Lucia."

Paige Heimsoth - 2008-11-02 - Edinburgh Castle, SF

Photo from Studio One Reading Series

 

Paige Heimsoth

2008-11-02

Edinburgh Castle

San Francisco CA

Don't think this has been shared before.

 

Taped as a favor for my ex-coworker and friend Jason D.

Setlist

01 The Circus (soundcheck)  [4:45]

02 Cold Concrete Slab  [7:03]

03 Big Bull Horn  [5:33]

04 Can't Run Away  [5:08]

05 Drink Up  [4:23]

06 Ships Sailing Away  [5:38]

07 Mandi From LA (interlude)  [2:32]

08 Under Chandeliers  [5:41]

09 Cat Out Of The Bag  [5:52]

10 Nothing  [5:48]

11 Babydoll  [3:45]

12 Broken  [5:06]

13 The Circus  [5:13]

Total  [66:27]

DOWNLOAD / STREAM

 

I remember very little from this show, unfortunately. 

 

Wow, my quip after "Under Chandeliers" was pretty off-color this or any other time of month.  She mentioned at the end that she didn't bring any CDs, so couldn't buy anything to help support her.

Here self-titled debut EP can be heard/streamed here.

On Discogs, her 2005 "Whisky Was The Medicine" can be viewed as a release from 'Paige(12)'.  I bought one of the two copies for sale.  That will allow me to better flesh out the entry on the site which among other things is missing artwork.

 

2008's "Under Chandeliers" has no such entry.  I will remedy that once my CD arrives.

Update:  now done

 

Paige is not on Bandcamp, at least for her solo efforts.  In fact, the link to the Studio One Reading Series is the only information about her that I could find.

Stereolab w/Richard Swift - 2008-10-21 - The Fillmore SF

 

Stereolab
2008-10-21
The Fillmore
San Francisco CA

taper: lammah
equipment:  Sonic Studios DSM-6Ls > Sonic Studios PA-6 bat box > Edirol R-09HR (24 bit/48khZ) > Adobe Audition (decrackle; normalize) > FLAC24 (6)

Tracklist:

00 - intro  [1:21]
01 - Percolator  [3:36]
02 - Neon Beanbag  [5:03]
03 - Eye Of The Volcano  [4:23]
04 - Mountain  [3:19]
05 - Chemical Chords  [5:25]
06 - Two Finger Symphony  [3:18]
07 - Ping Pong  [3:09]
08 - Valley Hi!  [3:45]
09 - Lo Boob Oscillator  [8:19]
10 - The Ecstatic Static  [5:49]
11 - Double Rocker  [5:21]
12 - Silver Sands  [3:40]
13 - John Cage Bubblegum  [2:56]
14 - French Disko  [3:24]
15 - Cybele's Reverie  [5:32]
16 - pre-encore break  [1:45]
17 - Vortical  [3:29]  (introduced as a new song)
18 - The Emergency Kisses  [5:29]
19 - Stomach worm  [12:30]

Total  [91:35]

2008-era notes:

My first outing with my new Edirol recorder, and as you're about to hear, the results were very good, but again, there was some crackle which I had to use Adobe Audition's pop/click removal to eradicate, though you'd be hard-pressed to hear any of it.  I'm wondering if the PA6 I have is malfunctioning  (or if the battery powering it was simply dead), next gig I think I'll try to go without it.

Only glitch here was when I decided to adjust volume at the start of Percolator (17 seconds in), which unfortunately, produces a stutter...I removed the worst of it, but you can here what sounds like the track speeding up for a split second as a result.  Every woven Persian rug has an imperfection; that is mine.

NOTE:  This is a 24 bit / 48khz seed, which will need to be downsampled to convert to CD-A format.

DOWNLOAD / STREAM (pCloud link)

REMEMBER - PLEASE don't leverage this recording for material gain, Stereolab is known to be taper-friendly,  so don't betray their faith in us.  And keep the MP3s to your iPods.

2020 note:  2008 me was pretty quaint in what I chose to focus on.  In reality, I didn't know very much about Stereolab and their importance to independent music, even if I had seen them once prior in 1993 at none other than Mod Lang Records in Berkeley CA.  I do have a full recording of it on VHS that I was loaned, but alas it's been misplaced to my utter shame.

The only track that seems to be online from this seminal performance is "John Cage Bubblegum".

There's also some video from the 2008 Fillmore appearance on YouTube, which I've playlisted.  However, it seems that both filmers went to the following night's show (from 22nd October), and not the one I went to as Laetitia's outfit is different than in the pics that I took.  It's pretty fragmentary but I'll work at ID'ing the ones w/o titles...and see if I can sequence them better...

Cybele's Reverie (davidparkerl)

 

Playlist of all vids.

Opener Richard Swift after the jump... 

Wire - 2008-10-15 - The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA [atrocious SQ]

 

Wire

2008-10-15

The Fillmore

San Francisco CA

taper - thehappyone

kit - Apple iPhone

Yes, you read that right.  An iPhone.  And the sound quality is absolutely atrocious.

What happened?

Simple.  I got caught.  I was asked to check in my Edirol R-09HR, which I think I had just acquired.  So I did.  Arrived way too late to see the openers...

As I detailed an a later email....

I've been caught once. Trying to tape Wire at the Fillmore back in 2008. The staff just held the recorder for me and gave it back to me. Very nice about it too...think it was the band/touring manglement instructed the venue to put up no-taping signs, other shows I've been to there didn't have these... Ended up being one I "recorded" on my iPhone, with the built-ins. It's horribly distorted, all it's good for is hearing Colin Newman talking between songs and figuring out the setlist.

Anyway, it's here if you are morbidly curious...

WIRE - WARNING - HORRIBLE ATROCIOUS SQ 

 

...only useful for ID'ing tracks!!  Which are...

Our Time
Mr. Marx's Table
Comet
Being Sucked In Again
Mekon Headman
Perspex Icon
Advantage In Height
The Agfers Of Kodack
Silk Skin Paws
All Fours
One Of Us
Boiling Boy
The 15th
106 Beats That
I Don't Understand
He Knows
Pink Flag
Lowdown
Underwater Experiences
12XU

 

(Thanks to Lee McFadden for these)

 

I never bothered, but here's an Atlanta setlist from the 12th to compare this to if you want to try...i included an MP3 version because I was fiendishly contemplating sharing this on YouTube and the program I use is limited to 100Mb filesizes. Luckily, sanity won the day.

I'll instead feature my friend Mike's recording from 2000, which was shorter and from some accounts I've read, a much better set.

My Bloody Valentine + Spectrum - 2008-09-30 - Concourse Design Center SF

 

Photoset by Donte

This post is to fully document the MBV/Spectrum Concourse Design Center SF show, which is probably the loudest show most people who went have ever been to!

For more recollections, please visit the Alternapop site.

Spectrum
2008-09-30
Concourse Design Center
San Francisco CA USA

taper:      lammah
location:   About 20' in front of the mixing desk in the center of the warehouse
equipment:  Sonic Studios DSM-6L mics > bat box > iPod 5th gen classic w/Belkin Tunetalk mic/line-in >  Adobe Audition > CD Wave Editor (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

tracklist:
01 - Transparent Radiation  (7:47)
02 - How You Satisfy Me   (5:27)
03 - When Tomorrow Hits   (5:13)
04 - Revolution  (11:51)
05 - Suicide   (11:32)

Total 41:46

SPECTRUM - DOWNLOAD / STREAM on pCloud

Peter Kember and company playing as "Spectrum"...almost lost in the Noise that is MBV.

The last gasp for this particular iPod as it had enough of being subjected to the aural assault of MBV and locked up.  Ended up having to pull out the HD and having to hook it up and recover the data on there, unfortunately damaging the internal cable soldered to the unit.  I did recover the MBV set (recorded up to midway of 'Soon') but the copy dmaster shared on DIME is far superior to mine, so I  don't think I'll be seeding it.  [note: mine will make its debut here!]

I had do some tweaking with this to get it to sound listenable, involving dealing with brickwalling due to overdriving the mic-in, parametric re-EQ and notching out an annoying 8500hz whine that for 
some reason I was picking up.  I did shortly afterwards purchase an Edirol... There's also a brief stutter at 3:55 of 'Transparent Radiation' no idea what caused that.  Nor can I explain the slagging-off of EAR at the start, to each their own I guess.

obEarplugs:  yes, I did take out my earplugs for MBV, which weren't the venue-supplied ones. For about 5 seconds.  One would have to have been insane or stoned (or at the very back) to listen to Shields and Co. without them, even to the songs before YMMR's 'holocaust' section.

PLEASE:  Do not redistribute for material gain or make MP3 transcodes of this recording publicly available

Video recordings 

Transparent Radiation (1:30, the second half audio-only)  (chasingphantoms)

This is the only known video for Spectrum, though I did find a clip from them playing at the Hemlock Tavern that got missed in my original compilation of Hemlock live clips.

Revolution, live 27 Sept 2008, Hemlock Tavern, 8:31, filmed by ymousavinia

Excellent quality!

MBV after the break....

Mission Of Burma - 2008-09-26 - The Independent SF

Mission Of Burma
2008-09-26
The Independent
San Francisco CA
USA

taper: lammah
equipment:  Sonic Studios DSM-6L binaurals > batbox > Belkin Tunetalk > iPod Nano 2nd gen
processing: Adobe Audition (re-EQ/declip/compression) > CD Wave Editor (tracksplits) > FLAC(6)

Setlist

00 - pre-gig  [12:33]
01 - Playland  [2:58]
02 - Peking Spring  [4:29]
03 - Nu Disco  [3:53]
04 - Eyes Of Men  [3:14]
05 - Anti-Aircraft Warning  [2:29]
06 - Academy Fight Song  [3:40]
07 - Max Ernst  [3:17]
08 - Devotion  [4:13]
09 - Execution  [2:42]
10 - That's When I Reach For My Revolver  [4:17]
11 - Outlaw  [3:16]
12 - Fame And Fortune  [3:49]
13 - This Is Not A Photograph  [7:12]
14 - All World Cowboy Romance  [6:33]
15 - 1001 Pleasant Dreams  [4:48]

16 - 2Wice  [3:35]
17 - Let Yourself Go  [4:00]

Total  81:06

DOWNLOAD / STREAM  some MoB....

(contemporaneous writeup)

Here they are, Mission Of Burma doing "Signals, Calls and Marches" in its entirety.  Well, almost, don't think they did "Red".  Can I get my money back?  Only kidding, these guys certainly didn't disappoint.  In fact, they smoked.

Amazing as their old stuff is (I have truly died happy seeing 'Revolver' played live), their lastest album (Obliterati) seems to pick up where they left off...2Wice (encored here) is simply an amazing song.

I'd say I was let down by my kit, but it should have been expected given the sheer volume of their sound, which caused the auto-leveller in the Belkin to muffle everything due to attack of the drums.  

I've tried best to correct it, but for these sorts of shows I'm better off using my Hi-MD recorder and setting levels manually, which I better do if I have any hope of capturing MBV next Tuesday night.  Still, it sounds pretty decent.  There's a brief cut partway into "Outlaw" due to the iPod deciding to tracksplit, but it's a very small bit, and I've trimmed a little bit off to get the drumbeat to line up.

I've included some blurry photos (including a quite striking one of their backline which has OBURMA FOR OBAMA written on it) and a scan of the ticket. [P]

If you're wondering, I did tape the opening act (Hank IV, a local punk act best described as being fronted by a dead ringer for Christopher Hitchens w/o the posh UK accent) but accidentally deleted it!  Both tomzero and arrrrr32 say I didn't miss much, as while they were entertaining, their set wasn't one for the ages.  tomzero said he was writhing like Ian Curtis channeled through Ricky Gervais.  Ouch. [1]

REMEMBER, KIDS
*  While there's nothing I can do about this being converted to MP3 and being put up on Rapidshare, I'd prefer you dont.  Keep it lossless. [1]
*  Please do not leverage for material gain.  Bootlegging for profit sucks. [2]

lammah (my DIME handle)

Notes

[P]  This cam a month before the 2008 election where the "hope and change" of one Barack Obama would just turn out to be politics as usual.  Let's just say the president after him would deliver anything but, and of this writing is still scheming to stay in power even after his successor has won both the popular vote and the Electoral College.

[1]  This was written in 2008.  Turns out that I would catch Hank IV in May 2011, opening for A-Frames, and liked them quite a bit more than what my compatriots would have suggested, though perhaps even then they're still a bit PBN (Punk By Numbers)

[2]  Not as bothered now about K.I.L.L. (Keep It LossLess).  In fact, I'd subsequently start upping my recordings to YouTube.

[3] This is still very true!  

According to their Wikipedia, as of June 2020, the band is finished, so this is a good memento to document their live prowess.

I should add the following:

Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

Odessa Chen / Carta / John Vecchiarella - 2008-09-19 - Hotel Utah SF

 

All sets recorded by myself with the following rig:

Sonic Studios DSM-6L > SS PA-06 batbox > Belkin Tunetalk > iPod nano 2nd gen 8Gb

As far as I know, none of it has ever been circulated, though the tracksplits/preparation were done shortly after this was recorded.

John Vecchiarella 

 

sc/01 11:09 

sc/02  8:27 

   01  5:40 

   02  4:10  

   03  3:49

   04  4:45

   05  3:48

   06  4:15

   07  5:13

   08  5:34

   09  3:27

Sorry, I have no track IDs for these.  Seems to have featured quite a bit of handling noise, and a bit of conversation with Carta.

John Vecchiarella / link to stream or download

 

Carta 

 

 00 soundchecking  3:56 

 01 Sexton   5:18 

 02 Santander   4:34 

 03 Hourglass   5:28 

 04 Sidereal  5:19 

 05 Perdido  5:56 

 06 Descension  10:21

 07 outro   1:31  

 

For Carta, "Santander" / "Hourglass" / "Sidereal" / "Descension" was released on 2010's An Index Of Birds.  Perdido appears on 2007's The Glass Bottom Boat.  As far as I know, first track "Sexton" (which is outstanding) has never been officially released.

 

Carta / link for streaming or download

 

 

Odessa Chen 

 

00 soundchecking  5:42 

01 Kill The Lights  4:58 

02 Made Up My Mind   4:36 

03 Harm  6:10 

04 Between Twilight and the Morning (new one)   4:35 

05 Snow Angels  5:17 

06 'Your Arms Around Me'  6:32 

07 The Ballad Of Paper Ships  4:23 

08 Small Birds  5:35 

09 outro  0:52

 

Both of these acts have gorgeous instrumentation, and Odessa wass in fine voice here for this show.  I remember the acoustics were weird because the bar was outside of the interior gig room but seemed to wrap around, so you could never quite forget that playing at the Utah was still in effect a bar show.

A couple of notes for songs played by Odessa.

"Between Twilight and the Morning" (which I had listed as 'Between Today and Tomorrow' and have amended) is on her 2013 EP Invisible Stories. 

 

I'm not sure if 'Your Arms Around Me' was ever released.

 

She sang vocals on a couple of Carta songs on their first album.

Odessa Chen / streaming + download link 

 

 

Some videos....  they're linked to a playlist so it should show you others of here.

 

Kill The Lights

 

 

Harm

Finally, I saw this on her contact page. 

I’m well aware of my shortcomings…so please hold any criticism and use it to inform the creation of your own work.  - ODESSA CHEN 

Well said.   I can tell you having produced a few of my own original works... I am in no way qualified to inform my own works with any criticism I may have of others!  That's not to say I can't critique the phenomenon of someone like Miley Ray Cyrus in terms of the lack of equilibrium in terms of her position in the mainstream or as a part of the machinery inherent in the sausage grinder of late capitalism (versus her own musical ability and muses), but what have I done compared to someone like that, much less someone like Odessa?

The Subways w/The Bruises - 2008-07-30 - Bottom Of The Hill, SF

photo credit: dothebay

photo credit: theowlmag

This is the story of one that got away....

First, the Subways...to pull from an email written to my gig-going compatriot the following day...

"Not my best effort, as I missed the first 3 tracks (don't know what happened there, luckily noticed this) and had to leave out the last pre-encore track as I was running short of battery. Also, having to free up my hands during "I Won't Let You Down" meant the mic got stuck in my pants pocket...ended up muffling the sound...lesson learned: don't be a sheep and clap when Billy orders you to. :)

Still, very listenable, and it looks to be only live performance of theirs up on (a certain Bittorrent site). I'm sure a few Brits will pull this down, and hopefully reseed their 6 Music performance for me to grab.

The opening act (The Bruises) sounds really good, BTW...due to the Sonic Studio mics and nice female vox harmonies...but haven't mastered that one yet."

It turns out I would never get the chance...I vaguely remember HDD failure around this time and lost the WAV files as they're not archived anywhere, so this is the veritable one that got away.

At least I have the Subways set, which I'm listening to, from the alternate pull, done by a certain PunkRockster. And to honor his wishes, the files have been kept untouched, and I have included his text file both here and in the fileset.

The Subways
2008-07-30,
Bottom Of The Hill,
San Francisco, California, USA

Giant Squid Omni's with External Battery Box > Edirol R-09 > 24bit/44kHz > SD USB card reader > Mac OS X > Logic Express (Balance, fades, tracking, POW-r #3 Noise Shaping Dither to 16bit .wav) > xAct (FLAC LEVEL 8, Tag, Verify) > BitTorrent > YOU

Recorded, tracked and seeded by PunkRockster.

01 Kalifornia
02 Young For Eternity
03 Oh Yeah
04 Alright
05 Mary
06 Shake! Shake!
07 I Won't Let You Down
08 I Want To Hear What You Have Got to Say
09 Turnaround
10 With You
11 Girls & Boys
12 Rock & Roll Queen

Trade freely and losslessly. Include this txt file. No remasters.

SUBWAYLAID AND BRUISED

P.S. If my own Subways recording can be located, I'll add the link here for it, but pretty sure The Bruises opening set recording is lost. The SF-based band have a few vids up on YouTube to give you some idea of what they were on about. 

Update:  I was supplied with a copy of my own recording.  Sample it here:

MY SUBWAYS RECORDING

 

Contemporaneous notes: 

Up and coming UK indie group in the vein of Ash or The Arctic Monkeys.
See http://www.myspace.com/thesubways if this catches your fancy.

Taper: lammah

Equipment/lineage:  Belkin Tunetalk > iPod 5th gen > WAV > Adobe Audition  (Clip reduction > sloping Hi EQ in parts   > normalize to -1dB) > CD Wave (tracksplits) > FL

First three songs not taped, sadly.  Not sure what happened...only starts with the end of the 4th track.

During track #7 I stuck my iPod in my pants pocket, which ended up muffling the sound.

Had to omit 'Oh Yeah' (song #10, last one before encore as I was running out of battery power)...didn't help, as I didn't make it all the way through Rock and Roll Queen.  Oh well.

My friend Tomzero was visibly annoyed by Billy's over-the-top "San Francisco put your hands in the air" routine. I thought it brilliantly Spinal Tap, it was all in good fun.  We were a bit of a loss as to why they were playing for only 200 when in the UK they can do ten times that.  Somebody's blowing it...

Carta / Society Of Rockets - 2008-06-11 - Bottom Of The Hill SF

Carta / Society Of Rockets

2008-06-11

Bottom Of The Hill

San Francisco, CA

taper: thehappyone
recording (for Carta): Belkin Tunetalk > iPod nano 1st gen 2gb

recording (for Society Of Rockets): Belkin Tunetalk > iPod classic 5th gen 30gb

 

These have not been shared publicly before.

 

I arrived too late to catch Odessa, sadly.  Lots of handling noise during the Carta set, but even through that, this was the best performance of the nine I saw and taped, and I used to play this recording all the time...

 

Carta setlist

00  PA Background music (The Hundred Days - "This Precious Town" plus two others, with the last track coinciding with the band soundchecking)  [9:44]

01  The Likeness Is Undeniable  [4:50]

02  Prettier At Night  [6:42]

03  Sidereal  [5:42]

04  The Glass Bottom Boat (w/Odessa Chen on vocals)  [8:41]

05  Burning Bridges  [10:05]

06  Descension  [9:02]

07  outro  [0:14]

Total 55m

Unfortunately, I don't seem to have taken any photos.  Not like any photos I took back then (or even now) were any good.  They have a website which has a bunch of things, including photos of the band, so peer at those.

 

According to cartamusic.com/shows this was played by Kyle, Sacha, Raj, Ray, and Alex Kort on cello, with Odessa on vocals, for one song. 

 

DOWNLOAD / STREAM CARTA

 

The Society Of Rockets setlist, most of which I don't have IDs for.  I'd describe them as psych-classic-postrock which I'm not sure was meant as a compliment or not (I kid, it is!), though I actually liked Mountain Magic enough back in the day to ID it.

01  Mountain Magic  [6:34]   the start of this has some chatting between myself and Kyle of Carta, so I learned that at one point his guitar cut out...

02  Blowout Chief  [2:34]

03  I Am A Battery  [4:38]

04  California's Burning  [5:25]

05  Horses Of Mars  [10:08]

06  Plug In City  [6:19]

07  outro  [1:01]

 

Total 36:39

DOWNLOAD / STREAM tSoR

 

A YouTube playlist of all of their songs, which helped me to ID the rest of these.

The Breeders - 2008-05-01 - Amoeba Records, SF

 

The Breeders
2008-05-01
Amoeba Records
San Francisco CA

taped by: thehappyone

location: on the left-hand side, a few feet FOB, about 15" away from the stage

lineage: Sony ECM-MS907 > Belkin Tunetalk > iPod 5th gen > Adobe Audition 1.5 (fades, edits, and crackle removal) > CD Wave (tracking) > FLAC (6)

Tracklist

00 - soundchecking [11:59]
01 - (intro) [1:34]
02 - No Aloha [2:15]
03 - (the Deal with Shirley, a new song, and insanity) [0:59]
04 - Bang On [2:12]
05 - Walk It Off [3:00]
06 - (the Deal with Steve Albini's lyrics) [1:55]
07 - Night Of Joy [4:18]
08 - Pacer [The Amps] [2:14]
09 - (the Deal with Tommy, the time, and Cheryl) [1:29]
10 - We're Gonna Rise [4:42]
11 - Cannonball [3:44]
12 - (the Deal with the Peavey, Mom, and the death certificate) [1:43]
13 - Here No More [3:11]
14 - Divine Hammer [3:07]
15 - (outro) [1:38]

Total: [50:00]

DOWNLOAD / STREAM

Notes

The Breeders at what's becoming my favorite haunt to see music these days.  And the best part is...no cover charge!

Yes, this is a same day special.  That mod NightshifTed may say there's no races, etc., but my enthusiasm for being able to tape this and share it with you knows no bounds, so here it is.  I'd say I'm three for three here...check out my Malkmus and Flipper seeds if they're still on the tracker.

The fourth time with this particular kit, and the second with this particular external mic attached.

For some reason, there was clipping at certain points, perhaps brickwalling due to not using a battery box (was using the iPod for plug-in power)...for the most part, these cleaned up nicely using Adobe's click/crackle removal, but next time I'll power the mike separately.

Please support the Deals and their bandmates and purchase their new album if you enjoyed this show, like I did.  The LP version of their new release (Mountain Battles) comes  with a download code for 256kbps MP3s.  Pictures from the performance (taken with my iPhone, so a bit crappy) as well as a signed copy of the LP are on display in the 'photos' dir [ note: as well as below ]

REMEMBER

Please do not leverage this recording for material gain, and keep it lossless.  [note: I no longer really care, as long as you reference where you got it from and all the info I've shared. ]

Above all, ENJOY!

That ends my 2008-era writeup.

Listening to this with 2020 ears reveals what a delicious set of tunes this May Day record store performance is, even if not reaching the stratospheric standards of Pod and Last Splash and how lucky we are to have had the Breeders, especially their delicious twin hits of "Cannonball" and "Divine Hammer", one of the best one-two punches independent music has ever thrown.  I think calling Kim's between-song patter "the Deal with" was fairly inspired on my part.  Also, I can't believe that I used an iPod to record music with....I'd limp along like this until I bought my Edirol R-09HR in October, which I still use to this day, though it's mostly consigned to desktop digitization duties....though the first outing with it, I didn't manage to get it in the door, but that's a story for a later time.

Here's a closer look at my signed copy of Mountain Battles... which I'll be listening to after I finish up this post.

 

Some live footage preserved on Ye Olde Tube... Unfortunately, unlike Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks or Flipper, there seems to not even been any indication that Amoeba themselves put up their performance....

From alisonbiggs, a pretty extraordinary segue from these band vids (as well as a Ringo Starr vid) -- the only music-related footage she captured....into vids of her adorable young children.

No Aloha (1:08)

 

Cannonball (0:38)

And from luizbeck510, alas quality is pretty low on this video capture....

The first three songs... "No Aloha", "Bang On", and "Walk It Off"...  (9:10)

And The Amps "Pacer" (2:22):

 

The Last Days Of April - 2008-03-18 - Cafe Du Nord SF

From the band's Tumbler

 

Last Days Of April

2008-03-18

Cafe Du Nord

San Francisco CA

taper: thehappyone

kit;  Sony ECM-MS907 > SS PA-06 batbox > iPod classic 5th gen 30Gb

 

Here's a recording that's not been made available before.

 

Looked them up and they seem like they are a Swedish act who are still around!

They have an official Tumblr which was being kept up to date.

There are 11 tracks in my recording.  I've done a re-EQ job since it seemed a bit boomy, as well as phase corrected.  Aside from the Flipper and Stephen Malkmus shows, which were done with a Belkin TuneTalk that I still have around here somewhere, I'd been using mics borrowed from friends and co-workers, with the Sony ECM-MS907 (one of the ones I borrowed) being one I used quite a bit in 2008-09, set aside for a couple of years and then used again from 2012-14 for a total of 50 performances, and then sent back last year as the person I had borrowed it from (Jason D.) had moved to Portland a number of years prior.

Also discovered I missed a couple of tracksplits.

As for the music from Karl Larsson....makes sense he's a big Lemonheads fan as this has the same breezy quality, but maybe more earnest.  I wonder if some of these tracks were ever released, there's a gap between the 2007 and 2010 albums which may offer some unreleased material, so don't have any track IDs, except for the last two songs in the main set (#10) called "Live The End" and (#11) called "At Your Most Beautiful", which was announced.

Sorry for the talking during tracks 9 and beyond, my friends showed up at that point, and had to share my assessment that they (the band, not my friends) were about "15 years late to the party" during that track.  I think for this reason it's why I've never shared it.  Sorry, Karl.

DOWNLOAD / STREAM

 

I found video footage of them from five days prior in Dallas TX (Granada Theatre) 13 March 2008.

 

Track #2

 

 

Who's One The Phone (not played in SF)

 

Live The End (track #10)

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - 2008-03-05 - Amoeba Records SF

 

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

2008-03-05

Amoeba Records

San Francisco CA

 

Recorded using Belkin Tunetalk > Apple Ipod Nano (1st gen) >
Adobe Audition 1.5 (normalization/fades) > CD Wave Editor (tracking) > FLAC(6) > you

This is my master recording.

Tracklisting

1. 00 - intro   1:40
2. 01 - Dragonfly Pie   6:40
3. 02 - Hopscotch Willie  7:17
4. 03 - Cold Son   4:47
5. 04 - Real Emotional Trash   10:09   
6. 05 - Out of Reaches   5:59
7. 06 - Gardenia    4:49
8. 07 - Elmo Delmo   7:20
9. 08 - outro   0:38

Total: 49:17

After the Flipper show a couple weeks back, it was time for another outing to the best record store in SF these days, which has also been a good place to catch free shows.  Hence, this recording, on the heels of their new album "Real Emotional Trash", featuring songs from that album, played in order (one was skipped to preserve the element of surprise in the set).

I had arrived just in the nick of time, and boosted the volume of first minute by +6dB since I was still making my way in.  You can see from the included photos about where I was in proximity to the stage, was about 20" behind the mixing board, which is where the boom mic in the photo is located.  Recording is very clear but not as 'hot' as the Flipper set, some compression can fix that, but by rule I do very little tinkering, leaving any possible remastering for others.

I didn't tracksplit the between-talk banter from Malkmus, which features various musings about his guitar, the now-defunct I-Beam club which was a couple of blocks away from where they played, LA vs SF (Dodgers vs. Giants, Germs vs. Dils, Plimsouls vs. Translator), and a bit about Geddy Lee from Rush being talented enough to play complicated bass parts AND sing.

Overall, an enjoyable set, and I'm not even a big Malkmus/Pavement fan!  Or wasn't...

PLEASE, FOLKS...

* No leveraging this recording for material gain.  Buy the album!  I just did (on Itunes), as I'd be a hypocrite otherwise...

* Do not redistribute in lossy form, keep your MP3 or AAC's on your iPod, and not in the trading pool.

 

DOWNLOAD / STREAM

 

Unlike with Flipper, the full set from the Amoeba stream is online, and obviously being taken from the mixing desk is a better listen.  Older Amoeba sharings use Flash Video so are not long for this world but luckily, this one has been captured and transcoded by "ilovewaterslides" and preserved on Ye Olde Tube. 

 

Oh, and that's Janet Weiss formerly of Sleater-Kinney on drums.  Didn't realize that at the time.