Live Five Star

For a break from (non-)50B work, I’ve been remastering some Five Star Crush live tracks from back in 2007.  At the time we were playing what we thought could well be our last show, and I hired a guy to multitrack it, so it’s a pretty good-sounding recording.

We haven’t done anything with it and I don’t know that we ever will, but if you make a comment and include your email address, next weekend I’ll send the six songs to you via YouSendIt.  Just put your email in the “email” field; it’s secure and won’t be published publicly, it’ll just show up on my side.

Some of these versions I like listening to better than the studio cuts, because they sound much more like being on stage feels; they bring up stronger sense-memories.

The tracklist:

1. Cali

2. Aasta

3. Silver-Yellow Girl

4. Ms. Trouble

5. Transient

6. Under Spinning Lights

-h

Short of piracy…

…where can I stream full albums?

I’m looking for a replacement to Lala.com, which shuts down at the end of this month due to an Apple buyout.  iTunes store & Amazon mp3 don’t stream full songs or albums, which is what I’ve used Lala for to check out new music.

Hopefully p4k will find a new partner, but in the meantime, what do you suggest? -h

Chicago Vinyl

I went to Chicago last weekend to see Bear.  After that, and getting deep-dish pizza, the next thing I wanted to do was check out some record stores and see if I could find things I haven’t been able to in KC.

This list was a help, Bear picked out a couple within walking distance of her place, and off we went.

2010-05 Chicago record shopping.jpg

Groovin High is a cool little shop with handwritten receipts and an owner/operator who clearly knows the scene and his jams.  He had more new vinyl than used, which surprised me, but I found some great stuff, starting with the Madonna shown above.  When I went to pay, owner-guy complimented my eclectic choices.  It seemed to be a genuine compliment from a record store guy; I wondered if hell had frozen over.

  • The Pretty Things, “S. F. Sorrow” (2008 Sundazed reissue) – Drew’s gotten me into The Pretty Things, and this is one of their classics.  It’s not original, but it will sound great and be fun to have.
  • Madonna, “Like a Virgin” – I don’t have any Madonna, and this seemed like a place to start.
  • Nilsson, “Aerial Pandemonium Ballet” – Groovin High actually had four Nilsson records I didn’t, but I wasn’t prepared to shell out twelve bucks apiece for four records.  Bear used her iPhone (handy in the city!) to pull up Allmusic and we figured out which one might be best.  This is selected tracks from “Pandemonium Shadow Show” and “Aerial Ballet,” some with new mixes and/or new vocal tracks

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From there we continued down to Reckless on Broadway, one of three Reckless Records stores in town.  It was giant, about 50/50 new/used, and thankfully had major artists separated out to make it easier to browse.  I started slow there, but eventually found finds:

  • Elvis Costello, “Trust” and “Imperial Bedroom” – All my Costello was on CD until now – mixing media for an artist isn’t my favorite thing to do – but I got good deals on these albums.
  • The Pretty Things, “Silk Torpedo” – At this point I have more ’70s Pretty Things than ’60s, but I’m still excited to hear this.
  • U2, “The Joshua Tree” – It was kind of high, but it’s in beautiful shape, with the original poster, and it completes my U2 vinyl up to “Achtung Baby;” worth it.
  • Bruce Springsteen, “Greetings from Asbury Park NJ” and “Born to Run” – These aren’t in great shape, but I think they’ll play, and they mostly finish out my Bruce.  At $2, I couldn’t pass them up.

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I was thoroughly satisfied and thought I was done at this point, but a couple days later on my trip home, I stopped in Iowa City to see Scott and he took me to Record Collector.

  • Heart, “Little Queen” – I’d been looking for this ever since CA sang “Barracuda” at karaoke, including in Chicago, but finally found it here.
  • Black Sabbath, “Paranoid” – In beautiful condition.
  • The Beatles, “Abbey Road” – My year of late-onset Beatlemania continues.
  • Blondie, “Eat To The Beat” – Hey, it was a buck.
  • Erroll Garner, “Gems” – I never pass up a cheap Garner record.  If you’ve heard him, you probably dig why.

Congrats Jessie!

I played Bright Eyes’ “First Day of My Life” for Jessie’s first dance at her wedding the other week, and someone snapped this pic.

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Thanks for sending it on, Jessie, and congratulations to the happy couple! -h

Get On Your Boots

The drum kit’s set up again, and today I started seriously practicing to record the 4 drum tracks I need to do for “You Have To Wear The Boots.” It’s been a long time since I played drums; for the past couple weeks I’ve just been sitting down to jam for a few minutes at a time, trying not to get blisters. I should have some vacation later this month, and one of the things I want to do is record the drums and bass for “…Boots.” Then I can start mixing; the last voice and flute parts will be easy to slide right in, whenever they are recorded.

This is only possible because the first tunes by the Band Formerly Known As Fifty Bears In A Fight are exxxxxxxtremely close to being DONE. -h!