Beehive Recommends - King Wilkie

OK it's a double header today, with a second Beehive Candy recommendation, and this is superb (I know, in my opinion).

A little record label called Casa Nueva based in Boston, USA, recently put out their first release, King Wilkie Present: The Wilkie Family Singers by the acclaimed Brooklyn-based stringband King Wilkie.

I'll quote the press release because as I listen again to the album now, this kind of summarises matters..

"It’s a cinematic concept album, consisting of songs written and recorded by the fictional, dysfunctional Wilkie family as part of a music therapy program spearheaded by the mysterious Dr. Art. This haunting backdrop is brought to life with music that draws from clattering, rustic stringband sounds, while adding more contemporary and eccentric overtones – from shimmering electric guitars to wheezing, Salvation Army brass. Special guests include Robyn Hitchcock, Peter Rowan, Abigail Washburn, Sam Parton (The Be Good Tanyas), David Bromberg, and John McEuen".

Or to put it another way, it's a good listen, with some very talented support along the way.

Listen:

King Wilkie - 'Hey Old Man'



MP3: HERE.
Website: My Space.
Purchase: King Wilkie

It's great when a new band come along and grab your attention on the first song, OK they have been around a while but this is all new to me and hopefully some of you will enjoy the discovery as well....

Beehive Recommends - First Aid Kit

A quick update on one of my favorite new bands First Aid Kit.

The band are touring throughout August and have just launched their new website This Is First Aid Kit.

They are also recording and filming various covers following on from a very feisty version of Fleet Foxes 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' some months back.

You are invited to suggest songs for them to perform and can do this through their website.

So far covered are Buffy Sainte-Marie's classic 'Universal Soldier', Johnny Cash's 'Walk The Line' and most recent a version of Graham Nash's 'Simple Man'. All can be viewed and listened to over at their new site.

Listen:

Tiger Mountain Peasant Song:

MP3: HERE.

From the debut 'Drunken Trees' EP check out the excellent 'Cross Oceans'.


Finally if you are at an event that includes First Aid Kit on the bill, don't be surprised if they turn up elsewhere for an impromptu session this summer!

Beehive Recommends - The Dimes

I may be a little late in on The Dimes, who are based in Portland, Oregon, and made quite a splash with their 2007 debut release, The Silent Generation, getting praise and from everyone from SPIN and Magnet Magazines... to USA Today and NPR... and a ton of blogs including Large Hearted Boy, KEXP, Three Imaginary Girls, Pampelmoose and many others.

Having received some promo material back in June, I kinda lost site of this one until I decided to spend some time going through each mail, and am I pleased I listened to their 'New England' EP !

Based on real stories and events born of and around Boston, Massachusetts, the four song EP is rich with texture and a consistent pastoral thread, complete with mandolins, acoustic guitars, stomps, claps, banjos, melodicas and more pop-laden harmonies than you'll know what to do with.

The record reveals a glimpse of the latest material from The Dimes, as they wrap up a new full-length record based of the same themes, due out August 2009. The New England EP also contains a special John Lennon cover of Watching the Wheels - a song that is near and dear to Dimes singer-songwriter, Johnny Clay's heart.

Listen:


MP3: Save Me, Clara
Web Link: Official Site , My Space.
Buy: The Dimes

On a separate note Beehive Candy will present new music recommendations on a rolling basis from now on, rather than monthly(ish) compilations, The Dimes seem a great place to start!

Nick Lowe - Live In London 2001.

This is the second Nick Lowe concert to appear on the Beehive, this one some sixteen years later, and it's a superb concert Live at the London Palladium, back on October 14th, 2001.

Source: Soundboard

Sound Quality: Very good stereo MP3@192kbps.

Genre: Pub Rock, New Wave, from rock to country to soul to pop.

Set: Full concert performance.

Set List:

01 Intro By Robert Elms
02 Let Things Slide
03 Intro by Nick Lowe
04 What’s Shaking On The Hill
05 Half A Boy
06 Has She Got A Friend
07 Faithless Lover
08 Man I’ve Become
09 True Love Travels On A Gravel Road
10 I Live On The Battlefield
11 You Inspire Me
12 Cruel To Be Kind
13 Indian Queens
14 Let’s Stay In
15 Band Introduction
16 Wildest Dream
17 I Knew The Bride

Band Line Up:

Nick Lowe - rhythm guitar, bass guitar, vocals
Geraint Watkins - keyboards
Robert Trehern - drums
Steve Donnelly - lead guitar

Links: Official site HERE. Wikipedia piece HERE.

Comments: This concert was part of the promotion for the then new 'The Convincer' album. It contrasts dramatically with the 1986 gig previously featured, this is considerably more laid back, much less pub rock or rockabilly and far more lounge lizard, that said, it still has some mid tempo rockabilly moments.

The Palladium is a venue more usually associated with theatre and musicals, Nick seems to use it well to his advantage with a comfortable and intimate feel.

In my opinion it is a must have for any Nick Lowe fan, and an excellent introduction to his more recent works for those unfamiliar.

Download link - either click on the above picture or go to comments below.

Buy - MP3's at Amazon.co.uk - Nick Lowe

Ry Cooder - The Record Plant, California, 1974

This is Ry Cooder performing live at the Record Plant, Sausalito, California, USA, on the 7th July 1974.

This recording is from KSAN's broadcast series, and is also available in the excellent Wolfgangs Vault.

Ry is known for his slide guitar work, his interest in the American roots music, and, more recently, for his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries. Ry Cooder was ranked number 8 on Rolling Stone's "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Ry remains one of the very few studio icons who has gained the reputation as a "musician's musician."

Source: Pre FM Master.

Sound Quality: Extremely good stereo mp3 @320kbps.

Genre: Rock, roots music, folk, blues, soul, and more.

Set: Complete performance

Track List:

1. Police Dog Blues
2. FDR In Trinidad
3. If Walls Could Talk
4. Tamp Em Up Solid
5. Ax Sweet Mama
6. Billy The Kid
7. Vigilante Man
8. How an A Poor Man Stand Such Times & Live
9. Tattler
10. Comin In On A Wing & A Prayer
11. Alimony
12. Teardrops Will Fall
13. I’m A Pilgrim

Band Line Up:

Ry Cooder - guitars, vocals, mandolin
Russ Titelman - bass
Jim Keltner - percussion, drums
Milt Holland - percussion, drums
Bobby King - backing vocals
Gene Mumford - backing vocals
Cliff Givens - backing vocals

Links: Ry Cooder Non Such Records HERE.

Comments: This is how Wolfgangs Vault describes the setting and the performance.

Ry Cooder was promoting his third solo album, Paradise & Lunch, which most critics still regard as his best LP to date.

Personable, humorous, and unquestionably talented, this intimate performance by Cooder is a long lost gem in his long and well-celebrated career. He performs a wide spectrum of material that includes covers and originals from his then-current and previous Warner Brother's albums.

Whether it's a Depression-era styled blues classic, such as "Police Dog Blues," or Little Miton's "If The Walls Could Talk," Cooder is a master at the craft of blending smooth vocals and tasteful guitar licks around a compelling storyline song.

If you don't love the characters he sings about, you are bound to love his true musicianship, which has graced hundreds of recordings by the likes of James Taylor and The Rolling Stones.

I listened to this again yesterday, it may seem along way from more recent material and yet it is easy to imagine Ry doing a set like this anytime.

Reloaded - 29/May/2015 - download link in comments. 

Purchase: MP3's (Amazon.co.uk) - Ry Cooder

Talking Heads - Las Vegas 1979

This is Talking Heads live at The Stardust Room, Las Vegas, NV in the USA way back on the 29th September 1979.

David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth were 'alumni' of the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island.

There David Byrne and Chris Frantz formed a band called "The Artistics" in 1974.

Tina Weymouth was Chris Frantz's girlfriend and often provided the band with transportation. The Artistics dissolved within a year, and the three moved to New York, eventually sharing an apartment.

Unable to find a bass player in New York City, Chris Frantz decided to encourage Tina Weymouth to learn to play bass. They played their first gig as "Talking Heads" opening for the Ramones at CBGB on June 8, 1975.

In a later interview, Tina Weymouth recalled how the group chose the name Talking Heads: "A friend had found the name in the TV Guide, which explained the term used by TV studios to describe a head-and-shoulder shot of a person talking as 'all content, no action.' It fit.

Source: Soundboard recording.

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3 @320kbps.

Genre: New Wave, Post Punk, Forerunners of Indie Rock

Set: Full Set

Set List:

01 - Artists Only
02 - Stay Hungry
03 - Cities
04 - Paper
05 - Mind
06 - Heaven
07 - Electric Guitar
08 - Air
09 - New Feeling
10 - Building On Fire (intro only)
11 - Found A job
12 - Psycho Killer
13 - Life During Wartime
14 - Take Me To The River

Band Line Up:

David Byrne
Chris Frantz
Tina Weymouth
Jerry Harrison

Links: Official Site HERE.

Comments: A couple of points of note for the bootleg purists, track ten (Building On Fire) is only the first part of the song and finishes rather abruptly. The audio on the beginning of track twelve (Psycho Killer) is notably poorer but does seem to correct itself.

All that noted this is a fine example of the band, and their desire for the audience to be able to dance and get into the whole show, wonderful stuff!

Download link in comments below - or just click on the picture above.

Purchase: MP3's - Talking Heads

The Flaming Lips - Circus, Stockholm, 2006

The Flaming Lips formed back in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA in 1983, and have enjoyed varying degrees of critical, and popular success down the years, perhaps this past decade has been the best one for them.

This recording gives those yet to see them live an audio taster, however there is no substitute for the real thing so 'catch them if you can'. If you are new to the band check them out, fans either have a copy of this, or will love it!

This then is The Flaming Lips live on the 2nd May 2006, at Cirkus, Stockholm, Sweden.

Source: FM recording.

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3 @192kbps.

Genre: Alternative rock, Indie rock, Neo-psychedelia, Space rock, Experimental rock.

Set: Full Set (possibly edited for broadcast, cannot confirm).

Set List:

1. Introduction
2. Race for the Prize
3. Free Radicals
4. Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt.1
5. Vein of Stars (Introduction)
6. Vein of Stars
7. Yeah Yeah Yeah Song...
8. In the Morning of the Magicians
9. The W.A.N.D.
10. The Spark That Bled
11. Do You Realize??
12. War Pigs

Band Line Up:

Wayne Coyne – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, theremin, bass.
Michael Ivins – bass, keyboards, backing vocals.
Steven Drozd – guitar, drums, percussion, keyboards, bass, backing vocals.
Kliph Scurlock - drums, percussion.

Links: Official Site HERE.

Comments: Someone else wrote this over on Wiki: 'The band is known for their lush, multi-layered, psychedelic arrangements, spacey lyrics and bizarre song and album titles (for example, "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles", "Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)" and "Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin' Pigs Is Still Radical"). They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and front man Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die".

Sums them up nicely, and make this post easier for me!

Download link in comments below - or just click on the picture above.

Purchase: MP3's - The Flaming Lips

ZZ Top - Live Nationwide 1980

I did not realise until checking out some background for this recording that ZZ Top originally formed in 1969.

The band holds the distinction of being among the few rock bands still composed of its original recording members, (and for nearly 40 years until September 2006, the same manager producer, and image maker, Bill Ham).

I suppose it is yet another 'how old do you feel' moment, as at the time of this concert, the band had already released seven albums including a 'best of' good thing they still look pretty much the same!

This is ZZ Top live at The Capitol Theater, Passaic, New Jersey, USA on the 30th August 1980.

Source: Soundboard recording.

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3 @192kbps.

Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, distinct and oh so ZZ Top!

Set: Seems to short for full set, includes all final songs.

Set List:

1. I Thank You
2. Waiting For The Bus
3. Jesus Left Chicago
4. I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide
5. Low Down In The Street
6. A Fool For Your Stockings
7. Cheap Sunglasses
8. Arrested For Driving While Blind
9. She Loves My Automobile
10. Hi-Fi Mama
11. Dust My Broom
12. Jailhouse Rock
13. Tush

Links: Official Site HERE.

Comments: This is yet another concert that was originally circulated on The Swingin' Pig Records, this copy on CD (TSP-CD134), I am not sure if this was a lift from a vinyl original, or straight to CD.

In order to ensure we cover bands from A-Z on the Beehive, it was only a matter of time before ZZ Top showed up, at least they are one fine band and this particular concert may well not, be in every fans collection.

Download link in comments below - or just click on the picture above.

Purchase: MP3's - ZZ Top

Squeeze - Live In Oxford, UK, 1981

This is Squeeze back in 1981, and to make you feel as old as I do, this concert was performed a couple of years after 'Cool For Cats' was released, and almost a year after Jools Holland left the band, you know the score 'oh how time flies'.

This includes some of the best Squeeze songs from their early years, and goes to show just how good a live act they have always been.

This concert was performed at the Oxford Polytechnic on the 15th May 1981.

Source: BBC radio FM broadcast.

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3 @320kbps.

Genre: New Wave, 'Indie' pop & rock.

Set: Almost the complete set recorded by the BBC (two songs missing).

Set List:

1. Take Me I'm Yours
2. Another Nail In My Heart
3. Separate Beds
4. Slightly Drunk
5. Out Of Touch
6. I Think I'm Go Go
7. Is That Love
8. Heaven
9. Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)
10. Yap Yap
11. Cool For Cats
12. Up The Junction
13. Messed Around
14. Goodbye Girl

('To Many Teardrops', and 'I've returned' and 'Slap And Tickle' are missing from the original BBC recording, otherwise it is the full concert recording).

Links: Official Site HERE. Informative Wikipedia HERE.

Comments: Back in the 1970's & 80's the BBC use to record live (pop/rock) concerts for broadcast predominately on Radio One, and also press the recordings as live transcription discs (12inch vinyl albums), that were sold on under copyright to other radio stations to broadcast.

In my younger days, and sadly unaware of the historical value of these recordings, I visited the BBC department who looked after these items (for my then employer), and the person I was dealing with offered to lend me any of the recordings I chose for the weekend, if I wanted to hear them at home.

It is with hind site one of those personal 'if only' moments in life, still at least they continue to surface as bootlegs, and I bet there are a good number of these discs sitting in ex BBC staff's record collections.

Replacement download link in comments below - or just click on the picture above (11th January 2010).

Purchase: MP3's - Squeeze

The Rolling Stones - You Can't Do That Baby - 1972

The Rolling Stones American Tour of 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour (for Stones Touring Party), was a much publicized and much written about concert tour of the United States and Canada in June and July 1972.

According to the Wikipedia entry for this tour: 'the tour followed the release of the group's album Exile on Main St. a few weeks earlier on 12th May.

But this was far more than a rock band's typical promotional tour following the release of a new recording.

Rather, it became a major pop cultural event of the time. It came at the height of the Stones' reputation as "The Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band in the World."

At the same time, singer Mick Jagger was by now a glamorous celebrity who had moved into the jet set of high society. These aspects were all intertwined, and so the tour attracted much attention from observers of both high culture and low culture'.

This particular bootleg, is a compilation of four shows, over two nights, when the band played an early and late performance, on the 24th June 1972, at the Tarrant County Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas, and on the 25th June 1972, at the Hofheinz Pavilion, Houston, Texas.

As I understand these are the best recordings of each performance, the set list being broadly consistent for each gig.

Source: Soundboard (remastered).

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3 @192kbps.

Genre: Rock, Pop, Come on It's The Stones!

Set: Full set material, compiled from two venues over two days.

Set List:

Introduction - Houston 2nd Show.
Brown Sugar - Houston 2nd Show.
Bitch - Fort Worth 2nd Show.
Gimme Shelter - Fort Worth 1st Show.
Dead Flowers - Fort Worth 1st Show.
Happy - Fort Worth 1st Show.
Tumbling Dice - Houston 1st Show.
Love in Vain - Houston 1st Show.
Sweet Virginia - Fort Worth 1st Show.
You Can't Always Get What You Want - Houston 1st Show.
All Down The Line - Houston 2nd Show.
Midnight Rambler - Houston 2nd Show.
Band Introductions - Fort Worth 2nd Show.
Bye Bye Johnny - Houston 1st Show.
Rip This Joint - Fort Worth 2nd Show.
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Houston 1st Show.
Street Fighting Man - Houston 2nd Show.

Band Line Up:

Mick Jagger - vocals, harmonica
Keith Richards - guitars, vocals
Mick Taylor - guitars
Bill Wyman - bass guitar
Charlie Watts - drums

Additional musicians

Ian Stewart - only as a road manager, not on stage.
Nicky Hopkins - piano
Bobby Keys - saxophone
Jim Price - horns

Links: Official Site HERE.

Comments: No live album was released from this tour, although one was planned as far as having a front and back cover designed and studio touch-ups being made on several recorded tracks.

Eventually, the album was shelved due to contractual disputes with Allen Klein.

Back to Wikipedia: Fans of the band divide the tour in three parts: the first part (Vancouver Canada, to Long Beach) features an under-rehearsed Stones, and the performances were still a bit rough. The second part (Los Angeles to Montreal, Canada) features some of the best shows of the tour, with highly energized performances with the band melding as a well oiled machine. Many fans of the tour feel that the remaining part of the tour is somewhat marred inconsistent performances as a consequence of an exhausted band.

Based on that review it's good to know these recordings are from the best period of their 1972 tour.

SCROLL DOWN IN COMMENTS BELOW FOR REPLACEMENT LINK FOR PART ONE (PART TWO AS BEFORE).

Purchase: MP3's - The Rolling Stones