Whiskeytown - Live at Cats Cradle 1995

Whiskeytown only released three albums, and yet they are often cited as one of the key elements in the development of the alternative country rock scene or 'Americana' during the 1990's.

Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary were the only two members of Whiskeytown to see the whole adventure through, indeed Ryan Adams had a reputation of being difficult to work with during the bands history, and therefore the overall turnover of members was quite high.

Formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1994, the bands first album was released in 1996.

Describing this era the entry in Wikipedia states:

Faithless Street, released on Mood Food Records in 1996, established the band as one of the genre's leaders, thanks to glowing reviews in publications such as No Depression, and helped the band score a major-label record deal with the Geffen Records imprint Outpost.

Faithless was re-released on the imprint in 1998 with nearly a dozen bonus tracks from the era, some of which are new, and others of which showed up on Stranger's Almanac, Rural Free Delivery, and other early EPs in different versions. One track, "Oklahoma," was removed. Adams claimed that the reason for the re-release was the muddy sound of the original version and his distaste for "Oklahoma," which was added to the album despite his objections.

The liner notes to the re-release provide some insight to the band's dynamic at the time, referring to the lineup as "this version of Whiskeytown" and featuring a quote from Adams regarding the 1995 recording sessions: "In retrospect, I knew that was the last optimism I was gonna have for a long time."

All of which makes this particular recording poignant.

Recorded 'relatively' close to the bands hometown of Raleigh North Carolina, at Cats Cradle a highly established venue at 300 East Main Street, Carrboro, North Carolina, USA, this is a fascinating concert before their debut album was released.

It also captures the band in their early stages of development and comfortable to play a few diverse cover songs along with their own material.

This then is Whiskeytown at Cat's Cradle, Carborro, NC, on the 25th May 1995

The Set list is:

01. Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart
02. Lucky Me
03. Drugstore Truck Driving Man
04. Don't Take Your Guns To Town
05. Tennessee Square
06. Desperate Ain't Lonely
07. Top Dollar
08. Midway Park
09. Western Stars (Chris Isaak)
10. Blank Generation (Richard Hell)
11. Way Down In The County
12. This May Be The Last Time (Staple Singers)
13. Faithless Street
14. Encore Break/Interlude
15. Drank Like A River
16. If He Can't Have You

The band line up is:

Ryan Adams
Caitlin Cary
Phil Wandscher
Steve Grothmann
Skillet Gilmore

The sound quality is exceptional, it is most likely a direct stereo soundboard copy.

THE REPLACEMENT DOWNLOAD LINK IS AVAILABLE IN COMMENTS BELOW (3rd September 2009).

Whiskeytown, Ryan Adams, and Caitlin Cary, material is available HERE in the Beehive Candy Amazon affiliate store.

Pink Floyd - Studio Out Takes & Demos 1971 - 1972

Pink Floyd out takes and demos from 1971 and 1972.

There is plenty of Pink Floyd material around from this era, including studio out takes.

I plan to feature a couple of live concerts from the seventies in due course, however decided to start with these out takes for one specific reason.

The quality is really good, all mp3's are at 320kbps, and the journey from the original masters is a limited one, retaining much of the initial quality.

I am personally fascinated by the first track 'On The Run' and where this piece of music may have originally gone, alas - as with all musical history from bands like Pink Floyd there remain so many 'what ifs'.

Track listing is:

1. ON THE RUN (OUTTAKE) 1.44m
(Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, November 1972)

2. TIME (DEMO) 6.05m
(Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, June 1972)

3. MONEY (ACOUSTIC DEMO) 1.38m
(Recording location unknown, 1971)

4. US & THEM (DEMO) 5.27m
(Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, June 1972)

5. BRAIN DAMAGE / ECLIPSE (DEMO) 3.24m
(Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, June 1972)

6. BRAIN DAMAGE (OUTTAKE, PART 1) 1.24m
7. BRAIN DAMAGE (OUTTAKE, PART 2) 2.18m
(Both recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, November 1972)

8. ONE OF THESE DAYS (DEMO ONE) 4.50m
9. ONE OF THESE DAYS (DEMO TWO) 6.49m
(Recording studios unknown - 1971)

Reloaded - 03/June/2015 - download link in comments.

The White Stripes - Live In London 2007

I hate the expression 'back to basics'.

Yet The White Stripes even when enlisting the bag pipes as part of their sound, have such a raw primal energy, they takes rock'n'roll music 'back to b...

I cannot think of another two piece band that generates such an impact (actually I am struggling to think of another two piece rock band as I write this - go on, shame me with the obvious).

This is The White Stripes earlier in 2007, performing live for BBC Radio One, in front of an audience of very fortunate fans.

Unfortunately there is a little bit of Radio One 'speak' early on, however once the band get going, its all good stuff.

Set list:

01 Icky Thump
(Performed for Jo Whiley Live Lounge - followed later by Zane Lowe hosting the remaining full show)
02 Let's Shake Hands
03 Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground
04 The Denial Twist
05 I'm Slowly Turning Into You
06 Effect and Cause
07 The Same Boy You've Always Known
08 I Think I Smell A Rat
09 Ball and Biscuit
10 Wasting My Time
11 You're Pretty Good Looking
12 A Martyr For My Love For You
13 Hotel Yorba
14 Blue Orchid
15 Hello Operator
16 We're Going To Be Friends
17 I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself
18 Seven Nation Army

The performance was at the Maida Vale Studios, Maida Vale, London, and originally broadcast live on the 13th June 2007.

This is a very high quality recording of the show - fully mixed stereo soundboard, with digital post production.

Reloaded - 03/June/2015 - download link in comments.

Alanis Morissette - Miss Thing (1996)

Back in July, I ran a piece on the 1991 'Alanis' album, and the rather dated 1980's 'disco' sound. This was rather cruel considering how young she was at the time (1991 that is, not last July!).

I am, I hope in my own small way, something of an advocate for some of the excellent artists that have come out of Canada and achieved international recognition.

Alanis Morissette is no exception, indeed as previously mentioned, she was absolutely fantastic when I saw her live in London some years ago.

So in order to address the balance here is a concert of Alanis from 1996.

This is from a CD boot that seems to have emerged from the Czech Republic on 'Oxygen' records.

The album title is 'Miss Thing' which considering that the CD back cover, claims to have 'art direction and design', makes me wonder about the creativeness amongst bootleggers in that part of the world, (anyway is is now digitized and free of charge).

This is Alanis Morissette live at the Melkweg, Amsterdam, Holland on October 17th 1996.

The set list is (I think) as follows - it is different to the CD cover, so much for 'design':

1. All I really Want (7.07)
2. Right Through You (3.39)
3. Not The Doctor (7.39)
4. Hand In My Pocket (4.46)
5. Mary Jane (6.24)
6. Ironic (4.29)
7. You Learn (5.27)
8. Forgiven (6.02)
9. Wake Up (5.28)
10. You Ought'a Know (7.21)
11. Head Over Feet (4.30)
12. Perfect (3.27)
13. You Ought'a Know (4.28)*

* track 13 was recorded live during the MTV Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall, New York City, NY, on the 7th September 1996.

The material is good soundboard quality, and captures the energy and adrenalin of Alanis back in these heady days!

Reloaded August 2015 see comments.