Pree - New Album - Rima

This is an unashamed plug for Pree. Totally unashamed and I do not care! I will add that Paper Garden Records who released Pree's latest album Rima earlier this week, seem to have a knack in finding great artists, Little Tybee and Eli Mardock to name just two others.

So what's all this Beehive Candy being even more upbeat about a new recording than normal, bearing in mind we tend to write only about music we like anyway! Well cards on the table, I have loved Pree's music since the above mentioned record label first introduced them to me a few years back.

As regards the new album here are the eloquent words that came my way a week or so ago - Known for their unique and vibrant pop songs, Rima was crafted after returning to DC following touring, and a time of reorientation and reexamination of relationships. The ten tracks of Rima (which takes its name from geologic fissures on the Moon) are a series of confrontations--perceptions enhanced and at times distorted by the narrator's own fractured understanding of others.  The album is a study in these divergences of personal relationships and how the narrator copes with their implications as she seeks to define herself and determine what to leave behind, and what is worth hanging onto.

All I would say is I like Pree's music and I love this album, but then I do tend to put things a little more simply using smaller words.

They are touring in May:

5/8 - Washington, DC @ Black Cat (Record Release Show!!).
5/14 - Durham, NC @ The Pinhook
5/15 - Atlanta, GA @ 529 Bar
5/17 - Decatur, AL @ The Leonard Limoy Center
5/18 - Hattiesburg, MS @ The Thirsty Hippo
5/20 - New Orleans, LA @ The Looking Glass
5/22 - Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
5/25 - San Diego, CA @ The Hideout
5/26 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Mint
5/27 - San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
5/29 - Eugene, OR @ The Lorax
5/30 - Portland, OR @ Hawthorne Theatre Lounge
5/31 - Seattle, WA @ The High Dive
6/2 - Denver, CO @ The Lion's Lair
6/11 - New York, NY @ Rockwood Music Hall
6/12 - Brooklyn, NY @ The Living Room (Northside Festival: Official Paper Garden Showcase).

Pree Website HERE. Check out the opening song below, and find more on their website.

Hawkwind - Live, Demos and Sessions

This is Hawkwind in three parts, concentrating on rarities from 1970 to 1980. It is also an introduction to another website that if you enjoy Hawkwind's music should know about (perhaps you already do, but no harm in sharing the details).

One of the fascinating things about unofficial recordings is the various sources they come from and the levels of audio quality available. These three recordings kind of demonstrate this.

The first one is clearly a home recording of BBC radio sessions and the music is joined by the wonders of 'radio' noise. That said, I reckon any self respecting Hawkwind fan may well have a copy of this somewhere, for the sake of completeness if nothing else. Don't get me wrong, it is quite listenable, it's just that there is a considerable amount of far better material around, more about later. Audio quality - Average, listenable

Part One:

BBC Radio One Sessions 1970-71

John Peel Intro
Paranoia
See It As You Really Are
I Do It
Hurry On Sundown
See It As You Really Are
Master of the Universe
You Know You're Only Dreaming
You Shouldn't Do That.

Then we have the demo recordings. Now as you know, there are a variety of sources for demo's, it may be one member of the band doing his guide vocals over a guitar or piano for the band to build on. Or it's the full ensemble trying out ideas in the studio and of course anything in between.

Although this is described as the Quark demo's, I am not certain all of it is. Some appears to be studio doodling (if there is such a thing, if not you heard it here first), and some is more rehearsal sounding, whatever it's a must for Hawkwind fans and another part of the jigsaw. The copy I have declares the recording is remastered, I will leave it to you to figure that one out. Audio quality - Good, it's a demo!


Part Two:

Quark Demos (remastered)

Instrumental 1
Damnation Alley 1
Damnation Alley 2
Damnation Alley 3
Spirit of the Age
Days of the Underground
Fable of a Failed Race
Hassan I Sahba
Forge of the Vulcan
Instrumental 2
Instrumental 3

Finally of course there are the live concert recordings. I cannot count the times the term Soundboard is used, when clearly it is an off air recording. FM stereo recordings can often be better than direct soundboard copies as the processing, mixing and means of recording may be superior. Getting it from the soundboard however suggests an inside job, 'being in the know' and so forth. Don't get me wrong sometimes the recording is sensational and the good thing is unless the audience riots you can be sure the quality is going to be pretty good.

This recording was made from the sound desk by a roadie and is remarkably good despite the fact it was straight onto a EMI cassette tape & don't forget in 1980 cassette tapes were pretty hissy affairs. OK it's been cleaned up and is really worth hearing. Audio Quality - Very Good Stereo Soundboard.


Part Three:

Hawkwind Live - Glasgow Apollo - 21-10-1980

Levitation
Motorway City
Death Trap
Shot Down in the Night
Spirit of the Age
World of Tiers
5th Second Forever
Dust of Time
Space Chase
PSI Power
Awakening
Brainstorm
Drum solo
Brainstorm reprise
Silver Machine
Master of the Universe

OK Beehive Candy's lecture on boots and all now concludes, I feel better for it, apologies to all of you who do not.

Now as alluded to earlier there is a very fine website for all Hawkwind fans. The even better news is that Hawkwind (along with many other enlightened artists elsewhere) have formally allowed any non commercially released Hawkwind material to be shared there. Therefore this will be my first and last share of Hawkwind 'stuff' here as you can go and get it all over there!

The Hawkwind Bootleg Emporium is HERE.

Download links (three) in comments below.

R.E.M. - Athens, GA, USA 1981

Reloaded - 05/May/2015 This is R.E.M. recorded live (soundboard sourced) at one of the bands local venues namely Tyrone's O.C., in Athens GA, USA, way back on the 23rd September 1981. This recording features both sets and includes the sound check (not proven but by sound quality etc generally agreed to be from this gig).


This was the bands 26th gig at Tyrone's O.C. the first at this venue taking place just over a year earlier on the 6th May 1980, and that performance was only their 5th ever full live gig. As regular home town shows go, the band sound incredible, full of natural energy, respectful of a growing local following and clearly enjoying and developing their craft.

Noting their early history wikipedia tells us: In January 1980, Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly punk rock and protopunk artists like Patti Smith, Television, and The Velvet Underground. Stipe said, "It turns out that I was buying all the records that [Buck] was saving for himself." Stipe and Buck soon met fellow University of Georgia students Mike Mills and Bill Berry, who had played music together since high school. The quartet agreed to collaborate on several songs; Stipe later commented that "there was never any grand plan behind any of it". Their still-unnamed band spent several months rehearsing and played its first show on April 5, 1980 at a friend's birthday party held in a converted Episcopal church in Athens. After considering names like "Twisted Kites", "Cans of Piss", and "Negro Wives", the band settled on "R.E.M.", which Stipe selected at random from a dictionary.

The band members eventually dropped out of school to focus on their developing group. They found a manager in Jefferson Holt, a record store clerk who was so impressed by an R.E.M. performance in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, that he moved to Athens. R.E.M.'s success was almost immediate in Athens and surrounding areas; the band drew progressively larger crowds for shows, which caused some resentment in the Athens music scene. Over the next year and a half, R.E.M. toured throughout the Southern United States. Touring was arduous since a touring circuit for alternative rock bands did not then exist. The group had to tour in an old blue van driven by Holt, and the band members lived on a food allowance of $2 a day.

During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded its first single, "Radio Free Europe", at producer Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The single was released on the local independent record label Hib-Tone with an initial pressing of one thousand copies, which quickly sold out. Despite its limited pressing, the single garnered critical acclaim, and was listed as one of the ten best singles of the year by The New York Times.

Source: Soundboard. 

Sound Quality: Very good stereo mp3@192kbps.

Genre: Alternative rock, college rock, jangle pop.

Set: Full set.

Set List:  

First Set:

01 Just A Touch
02 Ages Of You
03 1,000,000
04 Get On Their Way
05 There She Goes Again
06 Action
07 Wait
08 Sitting Still
09 Permanent Vacation
10 Mystery To Me

Second Set:
11 White Tornado
12 I Can't Control Myself
13 Burning Down
14 Shaking Through
15 Laughing
16 Romance
17 Pretty Persuasion
18 That Beat
19 Stumble
20 Radio Free Europe
21 Carnival Of Sorts (Boxcars)

Encore:

22 The Lion Sleeps Tonight
23 Skank
24 Gardening At Night
25 Windout
26 9-9

Sound check (most probably):

27 Unknown instrumental
28 Sitting still
29 100000030
30 The lion sleeps tonight

Links: Official HERE.

Reloaded 5th May 2015 - download link in comments below.

Bootleg Originals Part Seven - King Crimson - San Francisco 1969

Reloaded 05/May/2015 King Crimson made their live debut on April 9th, 1969. They became widely known three months later, by playing at the free concert in Hyde Park, London, staged by The Rolling Stones in July 1969, before 650,000 people.

The first King Crimson album, In the Court of the Crimson King was released in October 1969. Among those impressed by the album was Pete Townshend from The Who, who described the album "as an uncanny masterpiece."

King Crimson (along with quite a few other bands) have been credited as the founders of progressive rock - I am never really sure if that is a good thing!

This is King Crimson live at The Fillmore West, San Francisco, on the 14th of December 1969. King Crimson were the opening act at the Fillmore West on this particular night, providing support for The Chambers Brothers and The Nice.

Not only was this the final night of King Crimson's first U.S. tour, it was also the last concert played by the original lineup.

Set List:

1. (Introduction)
2. The Court Of The Crimson King
3. Drop In
4. Pictures Of A City
5. Epitaph
6. 21st Centruy Schizoid Man
7. Mars

Band Line Up:

Robert Fripp - guitar
Greg Lake - vocals, bass
Ian McDonald - woodwinds, mellotron, vocals
Michael Giles - drums

The sound quality is excellent, taken from the soundboard master recording @320kbps bitrate. It captures a very 'young' band in terms of performance and experience, playing extremely well.

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Reloaded 5th May 2015, download link in comments below.

Some King Crimson albums to browse HERE.