Posts

Traffic - The Low Spark Of High Heeled Sessions

Image
This is Traffic during 'The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys' recording sessions, at Olympic Studios, London, developed across various dates in 1971 . After the break-up of Blind Faith in 1969, Steve Winwood began working on a solo recording, bringing in Chris Wood and Jim Capaldi to contribute, and the project eventually turned into a new Traffic album, John Barleycorn Must Die, their most successful album yet. Traffic went on to expand its lineup late in 1970, adding Ric Grech on bass. The group further expanded in 1971 with drummer Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominos and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah. The live album Welcome to the Canteen was released in September and marked the band's break with United Artists Records. It did not bear the "Traffic" name on the cover, and instead was credited to the band's individual members including Dave Mason, who returned for his third and final spell with the band. The album ended with a version of The Spencer Davis G

REM - KCRW Live Session 1991

Image
This is R.E.M. with tracks 1-15 performed live at KCRW Studios, Santa Monica, California, April 3rd, 1991. Tracks 16-17 were perfomed on Saturday Night Live, in New York, on April 13th, 1991. Regarding the lead up to this period of R.E.M. and the gigs themselves wikipedia informs us - The band's 1988 Warner Bros. debut, Green, was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, and showcased the group experimenting with its sound. The record's tracks ranged from the upbeat first single "Stand" (a hit in the United States), to more political material, like the rock-oriented "Orange Crush" and "World Leader Pretend", which address the Vietnam War and the Cold War, respectively. Green has gone on to sell four million copies worldwide. The band supported the album with its biggest and most visually developed tour to date, featuring back-projections and art films playing on the stage. After the Green tour, the band members unofficially decided to take the followin

Josh Ritter - Toronto 2005 (Internet Archive)

Image
Internet Archive Replacement - This is Josh Ritter live at The Rivoli, Toronto, Ontario, Canada back on January 29th, 2005. This is a solo set recorded to a high standard and a must for any fans of his music and a great acoustic introduction for others. Josh Ritter was born in Moscow, Idaho in 1976. As a teenager, after hearing Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” on his parents' copy of Nashville Skyline, he attempted to write songs on a lute that his father had built, before abandoning the lute and buying his first guitar at K-Mart. Josh Ritter attended Oberlin College to study neuroscience, but later changed his major to the self-created "American History Through Narrative Folk Music". At the age of 21 Josh recorded his first album Josh Ritter at a recording studio on campus. After graduating, Josh moved to Scotland to attend the School of Scottish Folk Studies for six months. Josh then moved back to Idaho for a few months, before moving to Pr

2011Candy - September Edition One

Image
Background: The Coasts are Eric Mount and Ike Peters. The two met as freshman in college, became best friends, played music together just once, and laid down a rock n' roll album shortly thereafter. Enter Lovely Hearts Club. The advent of turntable.fm has allowed us to not only meet a ton of really great folks out there on the interweb but also hear some really special demos. Ike, a copywriter in Little Rock and one half of The Coasts, played a track for us in the Paper Garden Records room and we were hooked. How do we promote ourselves? Do we suck? These were just a few questions The Coasts had for us. No, you don't suck. You rule. Let us promote you! So here we are. The Coasts are just effortlessly fun, as if The Black Keys and Elvis Costello conceived an uncombed lovechild. The first track off their self-titled release, which you can listen to here, "Poltergeist" is a infectious, rolling pop song about moving into a haunted house. The thing is, you're nev

Sade - Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam,1984 (Re-loaded)

Image
This is Sade performing live at Ahoy Hallen, Rotterdam, back on the 21st September 1984. This was a few months after her single 'Your Love Is King' launched her successful musical career. Her web sites biography includes the following - Music was not her first choice as a career. She studied fashion at St Martin's School Of Art and only began singing after two old school friends with a fledgling group approached her to help them out with the vocals. Somewhat to her surprise, she found that while the singing made her nervous, she enjoyed writing songs. Two years later she had overcome her stage fright and was regularly singing back up with a North London Latin funk band called Pride. "I used to get on stage with Pride, like, shaking. I was terrified. But I was determined to try my best, and I decided that if I was going to sing, I would sing the way I speak, because it's important to be yourself." Sade served a long apprenticeship on the road with Pride

Manic Street Preachers - Early Demos 1985 - 1990.

Image
This is a collection of demo recordings from the Manic Street Preachers , recorded between 1985 and 1990 (it is more likely that the earliest material was actually recorded in 1986). A reasonable amount of this was probably recorded before Richey Edwards became a member of the band. An early version of their debut single (plus B side is included). Of the rest some made it on to B sides of single releases, some would eventually morph into tracks for the first album and some remained just as demos. From Wikipedia regarding the early days of the Manics - The band was formed in 1986 in Oakdale Comprehensive School, Blackwood, south Wales. During this time, Bradfield had tried writing lyrics, but this later changed and Wire wrote all their earliest lyrics, leaving Bradfield, alongside the classically-trained Sean Moore when he joined, to write the music. Original bassist Flicker (Miles Woodward) left the band in early 1988, reportedly because he believed that the band were moving away fr

Leonard Cohen - More From The 1979 Tour

Image
The officially released album 'Field Commander Cohen - Tour of 1979' is a live album by Leonard Cohen released in 2001. Songs were recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London, on 4th, 5th, and December 6th, 1979 and at the Dome Theatre, Brighton, on December 15th, 1979. Leonard Cohen said it was his best tour ever. Accompanying Leonard Cohen was the jazz band Passenger from Austin, Texas, see line up details below. These additional recordings include six songs from the Brighton Dome Concert Hall, (Brighton, England 15th December 1979) that were not on the official release including a stunning version of 'Silent Night'. The Birmingham concert has circulated as a bootleg in it's own right. The sound leveling and editing on a couple of songs suggests this was a soundboard tape that was not part of the material recorded for the live album, that said this is a wonderful concert and the overall audio is fantastic. From Wikipedia regarding this era - In 1979,

Lucinda Williams - KPFK Los Angeles 1989

Image
This is a recording of Lucinda Williams from KPFK-FM Radio, in Los Angeles, CA performed on the 26th February 1989. This has circulated as 'Sweet And Tender Kisses', and included three songs that were officially released and have been excluded from this version in line with our music sharing policy. This performance features mostly material from her third album (titled Lucinda Williams) which was released a few months prior to this performance. The recording has been professionally edited down for a radio programme and excludes any audience noise and thankfully no DJ chatter. The three officially released songs are 'Nothing In Rambling', 'Disgusted' and 'Side Of The Road', which were included originally on her 'Passionate Kisses' EP and subsequently on the reissue of Lucinda Williams'. From Allmusic.com regarding Lucinda around this time - Lucinda Williams eventually caught on with an unlikely partner -- the British indie label Rough

Isaac Hayes - Indianapolis Jazz Festival 1999

Image
This is Isaac Hayes live in concert at the Indianapolis Jazz Festival back on the 19th June 1999. Isaac Hayes was born in Covington, Tennessee, in Tipton County. He was the second child of Isaac Hayes, Sr. and Eula Hayes. After his mother died young, and his father abandoned his family, Isaac, Jr., was raised by his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Willie Wade, Sr. The child of a poor sharecropper family, he grew up working on farms in Shelby County, Tennessee and in Tipton County. Isaac dropped out of high school, but he was later encouraged by his former high school teachers at Manassas High School in Memphis to complete his high school diploma, which he did at the age of 21. After graduating from high school, Hayes was offered several music scholarships from colleges and universities. Hayes turned down all of them because of his obligations to his immediate family. Hayes next worked at a meat-packing plant in Memphis by day, and he played music at nightclubs and juke joints

2011Candy - August Edition One

Image
Background: Named for the idiosyncratic Cocteau Twins remix EP, Otherness is the collaboration of two California musicians, David Reep (Elephant & Castle) and Dylan Travis (Man/Miracle). With an ear for the unique and the limitless, the pair began production on a number of experimental pop songs in the midst of a winter both emotional and literal. The result has been a number of beautiful songs, first delicately cut from a web of sampled records and then elaborated upon with live instrumentation and bedroom-recorded vocals. The collaboration has also given rise to a live performance unlike any other. Almost exclusively improvisational, the pair create an impossible-sounding wall of Monome-manipulated vocals, warped into shuddering bass and icy re-pitched harmony. However, the four songs here, from an upcoming album, are catchy, structured, and fully-realized pop. The lush, sample-oriented backing tracks suggest electronic music innovators such as DJ Shadow or Juan Atkins, while