#131 DAVID BOWIE - BBC 50th Birthday Broadcast 1997 (Flac)

David Bowie celebrates his half century, an unlikely looking event after he had hit rock bottom in the mid 70's, barely coherent, stick thin and lost in a haze of drug addiction. Yet the spark of creativity would burn bright as he released a searing series of albums, Station to Station (1976), Low (1977), Heroes (1977), Lodger (1979), Scary Monsters (1980) and the massive selling Let's Dance (1983), hitting another commercial peak ten years after becoming one of the biggest UK rock stars on the planet. 

BBC Radio 1 FM marked Bowie's 50th birthday with 'Changesnowbowie' an hour-long special that featured exclusive acoustic performances of classic tracks and the man himself answering questions from those he has influenced over the years. Broadcast at 9pm on Wednesday 8th January 1997.

BBC DJ Mary Ann Hobbs, begins the interview discussing his age and he declares it as an "English thing, this pre-occupation with age." He admits a sense of satisfaction with his life and discusses the alternatives on how it could have turned out.  

The interview also includes questions and contributions from:
Robert Smith (The Cure), Ian McCulloch (Echo & the Bunnymen), Brett Anderson (Suede), Bono (U2), Scott Walker, Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Damon Albarn (Blur), Sean Ryder (Happy Mondays / Black Grape) & Brian Molko (Placebo). Bowie is genuinely overcome by the tribute from Scott Walker (see track 7).

The session was recorded on Tuesday 7th January 1997 at Studio Instrumental Rentals Studios, 520 West 25th Street, New York, during rehearsals for the 50th Birthday show that took place at Madison Square Gardens on Thursday 9th January.

BBC Radio>wav>GoldeWave Edit>CDR>EAC>FLAC

01. Interview
02. The Man Who Sold The World (1970)
03. The Supermen (1970)
04. Interview
05. Andy Warhol (1971)
06. Repetition (1979)
07. Interview
08. Lady Stardust (1972)
09. White Light White Heat (1968, VU cover)
10. Interview
11. Shopping For Girls (1991)
12. Interview
13. Quicksand (1971)
14. Aladdin Sane (1973)
15. Interview
16. BBC Promo Clip

'I Can't Read' was performed but omitted from the broadcast. It was aired later on the Mark Goodier show.

Band:
David Bowie: Vocals
Reeves Gabrels: Guitar
Gail Ann Dorsey: Bass, Vocals
Mike Garson: Piano
Zachary Alford: Drums

LINK 

#130 ARCADE FIRE - Capitol Studios, LA. 2013 (flac)

Capitol Studios
Los Angeles, CA
October 28, 2013

The surrounding area of Capitol Records was coned off and managed by traffic officers all while lines built up, leading into the iconic building’s parking lot. At first glance, it was just a swarm of anxious-looking 20-40 year olds waiting for…something, but only one thing could justify closing the streets of Hollywood during rush hour on a Tuesday evening: Arcade Fire. 

One of the most talked about bands of the year, on the day their new album was released, performing live in the Capitol Records building. The crowd wore glitter, sequins, and tin foil; true fans didn’t take the album name Reflektor lightly, and the LP being released that day only reinforced enthusiasm to dress up. 

A few minutes after 6:30pm, a spotlight beamed to the top of the Capitol Records building, well above the stage area, and as people noticed waving hands moving towards the ledge, the members of Arcade Fire each appeared under giant paper mache heads. This got the growing audience excited for the full performance.

Moving down a few dozen storeys, Arcade Fire took their positions and their instruments and drove straight into “Reflektor.” With a setlist rife with tracks from the new album, the band didn’t hold back on expressing their appreciation for the opportunity to play this special show. Whether it was dancing to the music or getting out of a camera man’s way, everyone was moving or at least nodding to the beat, of this captivating band. Towards the end of the set, confetti shot into the sky, glitter scraps filled the air, creating a temporary curtain that veiled the band before they completed their set after thanking the audience once again.

An encore was an unexpected surprise for this unique show in such an unprecedented location. The band returned to the stage, even playing “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” from The Suburbs. The confetti, the lights, and the slightly dangerous mirrors taped onto t-shirts and tuxedos all sparkled in the stage lights, but nothing could outshine Arcade Fire’s explosive performance. (Review by Angelica Coron, October 31st, 2013)

01. Intro
02. Reflektor
03. Flashbulb Eyes
04. Afterlife
05. Supersymmetry (with Lou Reed's 'Perfect Day' intro & 'Satellite Of Love' outro)
06. It's Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
07. We Exist
08. You Already Know
09. Normal Person >
10. Here Comes The Night Time
Encore:
11. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

Lineage:
Source: FM > Sony XDR-F1HD > Sony M10 (16/44)
Transfer: microSD > Sound Studio > xACT > flac
Run Time: 63 minutes

LINK

#129 PORTISHEAD - Bizarre Festival 1998 (Flac)

Elysium
Bizarre Festival 1998 at Butzweilerhof, Cologne, Germany
August 21, 1998

The Bizarre Festival took place over three days in August 1998 from Friday 21st through to Sunday 23rd.

As well as Portishead's appearance on the first day, festival goers were treated to sets from Cornershop, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Green Day, Iggy Pop, PJ Harvey, Tindersticks and The Jesus & Mary Chain. Saturday featured Deftones, Goldie, Placebo, Afghan Whigs and the Cure. Sunday's hard rocking final day included Danzig, Jimmy Page & Robert Plant, Queens of the Stone Age, Rancid & Therapy.


"The Bristol trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley have been making albums that dramatize the paradox of staying new yet original. It was easy, or at least easier, in the beginning:

1994’s Dummy swims in the sea of possibilities that emerge from self-discovery in a private context. Nothing like them had been heard before, and they seemed to know it. 

Barrow was a sound engineer and producer barely out of his teens: Inspired by hip-hop, and by Public Enemy especially, his percussion tracks strove for turbulence, precision, and density. Utley, a seasoned jazz guitarist 14 years his elder, had studied classical composers closely: his melodic gravity anchored the sonics in a higher register. Finally, there was Gibbons, a self-trained vocalist whose lyrics, while retaining the simplicity natural to song, were closer to poetry in their free-standing, serious tone. 

A word that frequently recurs on her Dummy lyrics is side: pretending inside, being doubled up inside, realizing why this side belongs to you, taking a look from our side. Her songs about love never overlooked its difficulty, how the barriers of selfishness and silence kept people apart: “But the thoughts we try to deny / Take a toll upon our lives / Struggle on in depths of pride / Tangled up in single lives.”

Emotionally speaking, Dummy was an ordeal. Musically, however, it was soothing even in its moments of menace. Hearing a beautiful voice over tasteful production, easy listeners delved no further; their interest was enough to turn Portishead into a band, and eventually a brand. Posh dinner parties and boutiques played Portishead. The new attention came as a shock, and perhaps a bit of an insult, to the band members. 

Like a plant releasing noxious chemicals to ward off pests, their second, self-titled 1997 album pushed forward harsher facets of their sound submerged during the first. Gibbons’s lyrics had always been covertly political, but now they were confrontational as well. The melodies went angular and somber. Utley and Barrow performed odd rituals in the pursuit of authenticity: They recorded their compositions on wax, subjected the records to wear and tear, and only then did they sample them. The efforts succeeded, but only to a point. They preserved their integrity, but only at the cost of flexibility; they had refitted their old style instead of arriving at a new one. 

Their touring culminated in a monumental live album, 1998’s Roseland NYC Live, but it also wore the band members down. Barrow and Utley got divorces; Gibbons fell ill. Everyone was drinking heavily. The only honorable choice remaining was to part ways for a time, and they took it." (Frank Guan, Vulture - May 2018)

This silver disc bootleg by Roach Records (UK, 1998) features eight tracks from their Bizarre festival set and a further six tracks comprising, three rehearsals and three live tracks from their 1998 UK appearances (possibly Glastonbury but unconfirmed.)

The Setlists FM site has twelve tracks listed, with these following 'Sour Times' - Humming, Cowboys, All Mine & Mysterons.



01. Half Day Closing
02. Over
03. Elysium
04. Glory Box
05. Roads
06. Western Eyes
07. Strangers
08. Sour Times
09. Wandering Star (Rehearsal 1)
10. Wandering Star (Rehearsal 2)
11. Mysterons (Rehearsal)
12. Sour Times
13. Roads
14. Strangers

tracks 1-8: Bizarre Festival 1998
tracks 9-11: Studio rehearsals
tracks 12-14: Live UK 1998 (possibly Glastonbury but not confirmed)

Musicians:
Beth Gibbons - Vocals
Geoff Barrow - Decks
Adrian Utley - Guitar
Dave McDonald - Engineer in band
Clive Deamer - Drums
Jim Barr - Bass
John Baggott - Keyboards
Andy Smith - DJ

LINK

#128 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS - Bizarre Festival 1996 (Flac)

'Ring Of Wild Roses'
Bizarre Festival, Cologne
17 August 1996

01. Brother, My Cup is Empty
02. Loverman
03. Mercy
04. Your Funeral, My Trial
05. Where the Wild Roses Grow
06. The Weeping Song
07. The Mercy Seat
08. Nobody's Baby Now
09. Jack The Ripper

10. Stagger Lee (The White Room, 24/02/96)
11. Henry Lee (The White Room, 24/02/96, w. PJ. Harvey)

12. Do You Love Me? (London 14/08/96)
13. Into My Arms (London 14/08/96)
14. Where The Wild Roses Grow (London 14/08/96, with Kylie Minogue)

In 1996 Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds released ‘Murder Ballads’ their ninth studio album in February -  it became their best-selling record, aided in no small part by Nick Cave’s duet with Kylie Minogue on ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow.’ The video received repeated airplay on MTV throughout the world. The Bad Seeds toured Europe, Asia and South America in support of the album, and their performance at the Bizarre Festival on August 17, 1996 is posted here.

It was an electrifying set with Cave bonding with his German fan base after his three-year residency in Berlin, despite him admitting that he had learned none of the language. Broadcast on FM radio, the performance captured the dark, brooding nature of’ Murder Ballads’ and the set also included the classic tracks ‘The Mercy Seat’ & ‘The Weeping Song’ from the extensive back catalogue. The two bonus tracks were taken from their ‘White Session’ appearance and fit well here, the latter three audience recordings from the Brixton Academy are in inferior quality.


This show was released on the KTS label in Italy. Short for Kiss The Stone, the bootleg label was synonymous at the time for releasing high quality shows.

Lineage:  KTS 622 (Kiss The Stone, Italy) > Silver Boot CD > Flac
           
'Murder Ballads' European tour - summer 1996
28 June  Roskilde Festival, Orange Stage
30 June  Milano, Italy, Sonoria Festival
04 July   Kristiansand, Norway, Quart Festival
06 July   Belfort, France, Eurockeennes Festival
20 July   Bern, Switzerland, Gurten Festival
26 July   Stockholm, Sweden, Lollipop Festival
27 July   Wiesen, Austria, Forestglade Festival
14 Aug   London, Brixton Academy
15 Aug   London, Brixton Academy
-------------------------------------------
17 Aug   Koln, Bizarre Festival
------------------------------------------
24 Aug   Pukkelpop Festival, Hasselt

Further details on the live shows performed by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds can be found here:
http://home.iae.nl/users/maes/cave/

15 songs were performed, these were omitted from the FM broadcast:

Stagger Lee                   
From Her To Eternity          
Do You Love Me?
Red Right Hand
Black Betty                     
Are You The One...  

LINK                      

#127 BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS - Paul's Mall, Boston 1975 (Flac)

The greatest bootlegs listing continues after the recent break for the special posts sequence (most had been previously available, albeit briefly.)
I have another sequence that includes radio sessions and live shows from Elvis Costello & The Roots, Johnny Marr, Iggy Pop, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Sonic Youth and the Afghan Whigs that have not been available on the blog before. These will appear in the coming summer months.


Bob Marley & The Wailers
Paul's Mall, Boston, MA
June 25, 1975

The 'legendary' Lyceum show in July dominates the 1975 tour, recordings of both dates are now available on official release. In bootleg circles the recordings from the Quiet Knight club in Chicago and the Boarding House in San Francisco provide an unofficial perfect representation of the tour. This upgraded source from Paul's Mall can now be added to those two shows.

A consequence of the Wailer's growing popularity and fame enabled the quantity of live recordings to increase markedly for each subsequent tour. More in-depth information about the tour dates and set lists became available.

After a warm up show in Miami, the tour began with a trip over the border to Massey Hall, Toronto in Ontario, Canada; early dates in June then covered the north eastern states of the USA. After a seven day consecutive run at Paul's Mall in Boston, the tour broke for a few days with some much needed rest and the inevitable travelling time for the remaining dates on the west coast.
Ten consecutive days in California followed, beginning on July 4 with a four-night stand at the Boarding House in San Francisco. One night at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland followed before finishing this North American leg with a five night run at The Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles.  Only four days later, the group were in London for the previously mentioned Lyceum shows. One show followed in Birmingham before finishing this short visit to England in Manchester on July 20.

Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop, located on Boylston Street, was a popular venue from it’s opening in 1963 until it closed in 1978. Bob Marley and the Wailers played there for 7 consecutive nights, from June 23-29, 1975.  Each show had 350 people in attendance and tickets were priced at $7.00.

I've heard a few versions of this in the past and prior to hearing this, the best was the 24-bit Dubwise source. This is an upgrade to that, despite a few small flaws; a tiny cut after a minute and an area of tape damage during "Get Up Stand Up" but only for a few seconds.

Set list:
01. Trench Town Rock
02. Concrete Jungle
03. Rebel Music
04. No Woman No Cry
05. Natty Dread
06. Get Up Stand Up
07. Kinky Reggae
08. Stir It Up
09. I Shot The Sheriff

Total Time: 61:22 min

Source : WBCN-FM > Cassette Master (Maxell UD C120 w/Dolby B on)
Transfer : Sony TC-WE 475 (w/Dolby B off) > Tascam DR-40 Linear PCM Recorder 16/44.1 kHz) 
Editing : Soundforge (tracking) > Wave > TLH (SB's aligned) Flac level 8
Originally uploaded to Traders Den - 1/12/19
Transferred, Tracked & Pitched Corrected by kingrue upload 1767 (grateful thanks to him)

Band members:
Bob Marley : guitar, lead vocals
Al Anderson : guitar
Aston Barrett : bass
Carlton Barrett : drums, percussion
Alvin Patterson : percussion
Tyrone Downie : keyboards, percussion, backing vocals
Lee Jaffe : harmonica - Manager of the Wailers

The I-Threes : backing vocals
Rita Marley
Judy Mowatt

Marcia Griffiths was absent because of her pregnancy

LINK

#126 TOM WAITS - Complete VH1 Storytellers (1999) (Flac)

Complete VH1 Storytellers
Burbank Airport, Los Angeles
1 April 1999

Soundboard - Remaster

Prior to 1999, Tom Waits last toured in 1987. He had only performed a handful of dates (usually benefit appearances) between then and his first show of 1999 at the SXSW festival. When his appearance at the Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas was announced the demand for tickets was completely insane. The festival's organizers had wanted him to play the Austin Music Hall (capacity 3,000), but Waits was determined to keep the show as intimate as possible, opting instead to play the 1,300-seat Paramount Theatre. That performance can be found on volume 8 of the Wolf HQR remasters.

Less than two weeks later Waits appeared on the VH1 Storyteller’s programme, the broadcast only consisted of seven songs and was first aired on May 23. This post has the links for the complete audio recording. It’s high quality and an intimate performance by Waits accompanied with Larry Taylor (upright bass) and Smokey Hormel (guitar, banjo and percussion)

After this special show for TV, tour dates to promote the Mule Variations album (released April 1999) began in June and continued at a leisurely pace through to the end of October as listed below. 

Band members are as the VH1 special but with the addition of Danny McGough (keyboards) and Andrew Borger (drums, marimba, percussion)

1999 Live Performances:

Jun. 09 & 10 - Paramount Theatre. Oakland, USA
Jun. 12, 13 & 14 - Wiltern Theatre. Los Angeles, USA
Jul. 13 & 14 - Cirkus. Stockholm, Sweden  (see volume 6 of the Wolf HQR remasters)
Jul. 16, 17 &18 - Metropol Theatre, Berlin, Germany
Jul. 20 & 21 - Congres Centrum, The Hague, The Netherlands
Jul. 23, 24 & 25 - Teatro Comunale, Florence, Italy (see volume 7 of the Wolf HQR remasters)
Aug. 23 & 24 - Hummingbird Centre, Toronto, Canada
Aug. 26 & 27 - Chicago Theatre, Chicago, USA
Aug. 29 & 30 - State Theatre. Minneapolis, USA
Sep. 19, 20 & 21 - Orpheum Theatre. Boston, USA
Sep. 23, 24, 25 & 27 - Beacon Theatre, New York, USA
Sep. 27 - CBS Late Show with David Letterman, New York, USA TV appearance performed: Chocolate Jesus
Oct. 12 & 13 - Paramount Theatre, Denver, USA
Oct. 13 - "KBCO radio/ Studio-C with Bret Saunders". Boulder, USA. Radio interview and session: Picture In A Frame, Fall Of Troy, Can't Wait To Get Off Work & Jesus Blood Never Failed Me. (session on Rats and Angry Flowers, the interview is excluded)
Oct. 15 - Hult Center, Eugene, USA
Oct. 17 - Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver, Canada (see Rats and Angry Flowers)
Oct. 18 & 19 - 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle, USA
Oct. 19 - KMTT radio "The Mountain Music Lounge" Seattle, USA Interview and performed: Hold On & Picture In A Frame
Oct. 30 - Annual Bridge School benefit (Neil Young's Charity) at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, USA (see circulating bootleg DVD with the Letterman appearance)

---------------------------
original notes:

Lineage:SBD > Non-Broadcast Tape > CDRx > Remaster (Cool Edit Pro 2.1)  > shn (mkw Audio Compression Tool)  Sound Quality A+
                                                                                                                                                 

Original Remaster Notes:
After receiving various flawed copies of this set, I decided to do a little research. As it turns out, the copy that generally circulates contains various digital copy errors throughout, though most noticable on the end of disc 1. With the impossibility of obtaining a clear copy of it, I took upon myself
the laborious task of remastering these discs. The first step was to listen through with my headphones and remove all of the skips, gaps, and other bizarre problems that had been introduced onto the discs. Tracks 10 and 11 on the first disc were especially difficult, and a close listen will still reveal a few imperfections scattered throughout. I didn't want to alter the original too much, so the really tough ones remain.No noise reduction or EQ of any kind was performed. While these discs are still not perfect, this version is a hell of a lot better than the versions that I was able to find circulating around.

Original Performance Notes:
I had a difficult time writing a review of this concert as I was listening to it because I was simply laughing too hard. While many performers have a hard time with the Storytellers format, Tom really flourishes, making the most of each opportunity to tell one of his hilarious stories that sometimes have a little to do with the lyrics and sometimes nothing at all. Mule Variations is one of my favorite Waits albums, and my three favorite songs on it are included here. The version of Tom in his 1999 voice performing Ol' 55 (and the hilarious story that preceeds it) is priceless.
The band is excellent, the arrangements are tasteful and interesting, and the vocals are simply perfect. I won't spoil it any more for those who have yet to hear this, but I will say that it should be one of the first Waits bootlegs you should have in your collection. (Remastering and review by Stephen Pickett)
                                                                                                          
Disc 1:
01. Story
02. Tango Till They're Sore
03. Story
04. Hang Down Your Head
05. Story
06. Ol' 55
07. Story
08. Strange Weather
09. Story
10. Hold On
11. Story
12. Picture In A Frame
13. Story
14. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work
15. Story
16. House Where Nobody Lives
17. Story
18. Get Behind The Mule
19. Story
20. Chocolate Jesus
21. Story
22. What's He Building

LINK D1

Disc 2:
01. Story
02. A Little Rain
03. Story
04. Downtown Train
05. Black Wings
06. Story
07. Jesus Gonna Be Here
08. Story
09. Jersey Girl
10. Story
11. Chocolate Jesus
12. Tango Till They're Sore
13. Story
14. Hang Down Your Head

LINK D2

Artwork included

Thanks to Fransbo at TC (4-22-2009) > whatmamasaid at HC ( 8-17-2009)
(note the track listings on the original artwork included are incorrect - use the blog track listing)

#125 JANE'S ADDICTION - The Pyramid Club, L.A. 1986 (Flac)

The Pyramid Club,
Los Angeles, CA
November 13, 1986

SBD > bootleg CD "Live and Profane"
silver boot CD>EAC>FLAC

01. My Time
02. Whores
03. Pigs in Zen
04. Ain't No Right
05. I Would for You
06. Idiots Rule
07. Trip Away
08. Mountain Song
09. Filler: Then She Did (unknown date/location)

EAC & compression by terrapinstation 01/26/2001

In the early '80s, the insular Los Angeles underground music scene, made up largely of over-educated misfits and art-school dropouts, exploded from the violent impact of suburban hard-core punk and scattered into a thousand fragments. Some of the fragments-the American-roots thing embraced by bands such as X and the Blasters, the neo-sixties scene that spawned the Bangles-became quite popular both inside and outside L.A.

The self-described 'art' scene-depressed, black-clad musicians playing music almost as performance art, usually as an, ironic comment on the state of pop culture-produced a lot of bands and venues but not many fans. Basically, all but the most popular of L.A. art bands played to each other, to the 26 people on the guest list at the Anticlub on a Thursday night.

One of these bands, and by no means the best, was Psi-Com, whose lead singer Perry Farrell, was king of the ring nose dreads. Psi-Com broke up out of ennui after half the members left to join a religous cult, but not before Eric Avery auditioned for the band in 1986, playing one bass riff 45 minutes while Farrell improvised vocals. Psi-Com would never play another gig, but a few months later Stephen Perkins and Dave Navarro, the high-school-age drummer and guitarist for a local glam-metal band, joined the group, which named itself Jane's Addiction after the habit of a junkie friend of Avery's and Farrell's. (Jane, now clean, works as a secretary in Hollywood-her idealized portrait, as the Virgin Mary, is on the inside cover of the lyric booklet that comes with the Ritual de lo Habitual CD.)

By the end of 1986, the thrashings of Hollywood postpunk had all but withered away; what rose up in its place was plain old heavy metal again, and the heat that had surrounded local alternative music cleaved onto the retro-seventies hard-rock grooves you now hear on MTV. Guns N' Roses came out of the scene that formed at the club Scream, which happened a couple of times a week in a big, empty room under the Embassy Hotel in downtown L.A. Jane's Addiction, which by this time had acquired a heavy, metallic sheen to underpin Farrell's arty meanderings, was also wildly popular at Scream, where the kids didn't care how left-field a band was as long as it had loud guitars. The standard comparison in those days put them as Led Zeppelin to Guns N' Roses' Aerosmith, because Farrell's voice was shrill, the song structures powerful and abstract.

Jane's Addiction stood out as art music that metal kids could like too-"neometal" as easy to bang a head to as to contemplate to on headphones-and the success of the non-genre genre made it possible for other West Coast bands like Faith No More, Primus and Soundgarden to cross over without confining themselves to a genre either. Where the record industry tends to peg bands as pop, rock, metal or alternative, Jane's Addiction was all of the above.

In 1987, the band was signed by Warner Bros. Records for a sum large enough to stun the underground; in early 1988, it released a live album on local Triple X Records that included the classic "Whores"; in late 1988 it released its first major-label album, Nothing's Shocking, which included a song about Ted Bundy, a pile of metaphors for heroin addiction (a problem that has plagued all members of the band except for drummer Perkins) and an album cover that pictured Casey as naked Siamese twins with their heads ablaze. The nude videos accompanying the album were banned by MTV. Nothing's Shocking was nominated for a Grammy but lost out to Jethro Tull! 

In 1990 Ritual went gold in less than a month, and the band went from playing small theatres to selling out Madison Square Garden. The band was speaking to somebody.

Jane's rehearse as the Smiths, U2 and the Jesus & The Mary Chain look on

'Sweet Jane'

 LINK

Below is an edited version of one of the finest pieces I have read about a particular bootleg. This is the edited 'short read' you can find the original 'long read' here:
https://longreads.com/2017/11/13/bootlegging-janes-addiction/

"On November 13, 1986, two months before recording Triple X, Jane’s Addiction recorded themselves through the soundboard at The Pyramid Club in Hollywood. Located at 1743 N. Cahuenga, east of the famous Mann’s Chinese Theater, The Pyramid was one of many small venues where L.A.’s underground bands performed in the 1980s. Goth, post-punk, and art rock thrived at little holes in the wall like Raji’s, Club Lingerie, and Black Radio Club, and Jane’s Addiction taped themselves playing at many of them. It took a a few years for copies of their other 1986 soundboard recordings to stray far from the band’s personal collection. Once copies of the Pyramid show leaked, bootleggers released it in the early 1990s on unauthorized CDs like Live and Profane and Addicted, where it circulated widely and remained, for a while, the earliest live recording that most Jane’s fans had. For people like me, who hadn’t experienced the band in all their pre-fame glory, the bootlegs were a windfall.

The Pyramid show is searing. It’s the kind of unhinged rock and roll that built Jane’s Addiction’s reputation as one of Los Angeles’ best bands, and whose fame helped Nirvana and Pearl Jam make alternative music mainstream in the early 1990s. Now that Jane’s Addiction plays arenas and everyone from your surgeon to your grandma has tattoos, it’s hard to imagine these familiar things being limited to the subculture. But back in the late 1980s, before singer Perry Farrell embraced the true dark side of Los Angeles - namely, reality television and cosmetic surgery - and guitarist Dave Navarro leveraged his musical fame for that comfortable TV show money, the band was revolutionary.

Designing their own album covers and sharing clothes, generating buzz without generating much profit, shooting heroin and fighting on stage, Jane’s Addiction’s spooky mix of dark art and forceful deviance was enthralling, and the sense of its inevitable implosion only heightened the appeal. Back when the band handed a blank tape to The Pyramid’s soundman, Jane’s Addiction was L.A.’s own Iggy and The Stooges, and their recording of “Whores” that night is one the grittiest rock songs ever captured on tape.

The band had been referred to as “feeling’ man’s metal.” That seemed to fit. It was Jane’s Addiction’s cover songs that introduced me to the music of The Velvet Underground, Stooges, and X before I knew these were covers. And like an older sibling who lends you his favorite records and winks, You’re not a virgin anymore, it was Jane’s Addiction who showed me what L.A. bands like Dream Syndicate and Suburban Lawns already knew: that no matter how many of us Arizonans treated L.A. as one big beach and discounted its interior as a cultureless silicone implant sewed onto the movie industry’s chest, this city had a fertile musical underbelly that many of us had been missing, and it was thriving just six hours west of my Phoenix home. “Whores” changed me permanently.

Like most great rock songs, “Whores” isn’t complicated. It’s a simple metal guitar riff chugging over a dirty baseline in the key of B. Between guitar solos, Perry howls about a marginalized existence, “way down low where the streets are littered.” The popular rock songs from 1986, like Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name,” build themselves around clichés and sappy sing-alongs that encourage mindlessness and nostalgia. “Whores” has no glitter, no pretense. Instead of numbing you, it shocks you awake, taking listeners where few straight-laced, tax-paying citizens ever visit: the places you go to cop dope, and where prostitutes ply their trade. Although “Whores” isn’t sui generis, with no predecessor and no equal, it’s a unique artistic vision that resulted when a group of young musicians with different styles and ideas first started jamming together, and their recreational drugs were still working.

Unfortunately, the more I read about the band, the clearer the role drugs played in the rise and fall of their creative output became. All the songs they wrote during their first few months resulted from a unique combination of talent, vision and drugs - heroin specifically. And during the second half of their life as a band, heroin was the reason they wrote nothing new.

Jane’s Addiction’s early iterations performed “Whores” and songs like “Ain’t No Right” in 1985 and ’86 with a different guitarist named Ed Dobrydnio, and Matt Chaikin on drums. Their versions established many songs’ basic structures. When Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins joined in early ’86, Dave wrote stronger, more imaginative guitar parts and the band turned “Whores” into what it is today.

The new lineup fleshed out their songs at the Wilton House, the beautiful, run-down, 1910s Craftsman that Perry rented from two cops at 369 N. Wilton. Many artists lived there, including Eric, photographer Karyn Cantor, and the band’s namesake. “It was one of those houses where everyone in the music scene in the mid-80s seems to have done a lot of time,” Eric said, “where every single closet was rented out.”

“I remember showing up when everyone got off work,” Stephen said, “going into the garage, and writing all those songs - ‘Whores,’ ‘Pigs In Zen.’ It’s like that moment when you fall in love.” Residents kept guitars in the living room and beat bongos on the wraparound porch. People like Angelo Moore from Fishbone and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers came over to jam and hang out. “The first song Perry, Eric and I ever played with Dave together as a four-piece was ‘Whores,'” Stephen said, “and at that moment, for me, the sound of Jane’s Addiction was born. And it hasn’t changed since.”

After that, Jane’s Addiction wrote most of their first three albums before they even released their first one. Bootleg recordings reveal the truth about the band in ways that all the early magazine interviews and TV spots did not: That they experienced an extremely fertile period of creativity during the first few months of collaborating on that porch and in that living room.

Live and Profane surprised me. Its fidelity was excellent, and the band played with unbelievable fire. To me, this was rock and roll. No second thoughts. No overdubs to correct mistakes and make improvements. They played each song in one take, feeling their way through with their guts with the energy of a local band free to experiment with their sound before anyone expected anything from them.

I hunted for more Jane’s Addiction recordings. Before the internet let fans trade digital files from the comfort of their bedrooms, you had to search for hardcopy bootlegs. Because they’re illegal, not every store stocked bootlegs, but I gradually found more soundboard shows mixed in with the legitimate releases: from L.A.’s Variety Arts Theatre in 1987, and the John Anson Ford Theater in 1989. I loved the then-unreleased song “Kettle Whistle” from the Variety Arts show. That and another vinyl bootleg I had were the only recordings on which that song was available. Perry had conceived it with his previous band in 1985 and didn’t release a version until 1997. By then it had hypnotized me for seven years, and the bootleg performances were better than the official. Whoever this bootleg company named Totonka was, I felt indebted to them.

To me, live recordings frequently has immediacy that studio albums do not. Although soundboard cassette recordings lack the lush dimensions caught on a multi-track studio console and good microphones, live performances often have more fire. There’s power in a first take, and over-thinking can diminish it.

Before Jane’s Addiction played their songs enough for them to become rote, the band was still exploring their sound. On stage, Stephen experimented with different drums and rhythms. Dave soloed wildly and tried different guitar effects. Live, Perry experimented the most. He put more echo on his vocals, adding layers of lysergic reverberations to his already psychedelic lyrics. Lots of bands add reverb to their guitars and voices. Few singers used as much as Perry did in the early days.

At shows like The Pyramid, Perry went crazy with the echoes, turning knobs on his electronic processor to warp their frequency high and low and cranking the volume so high that he sometimes drowned out Dave’s solo. These hypnotic, pulsing frequencies drifted through the club, filling the space between verses and laying an eerie texture underneath the instruments that started loud and trailed away. “Pigs in zen, zen, zen, zen,” Perry sang, “Talking ’bout the pigs, pigs, pigs, pigs. Ooow!” Back when I took acid, I loved this effect. Even after I quit tripping, the effect enchanted me. It’s a defining part of Jane’s Addiction’s sound. You hear it on the best board tapes.

The bootlegs let us hear Jane’s Addiction at the peak of their power, a band not yet locked into their musical or destructive habits, a band unafraid to take chances. And if some weasel black market capitalists hadn’t leaked these performances, fans would never have been able to enjoy them. Which is to say: sometimes bootlegs perform a cultural service. As one classical music bootlegger told Stereo Review in 1970, “We ‘pirates’ - if you must call us that - are the custodians of vocal history and we’re doing a damn good job of it - a job you can’t expect record companies to do because they’re not in business for that.”

Board tapes made me a lifelong fan of live recordings. When you hear the crowd yell, you feel the electricity between band and audience. Of all the early recordings I’ve collected, The Pyramid show, thirty-one years after Jane’s Addiction made it, still sounds fresh and strange.

Located in a nondescript building between Yucca Street and Hollywood Boulevard, the owners called the venue The Pyramid Club on some nights and The Continental Club on others, presumably to draw different musical crowds.

Stephen Perkins remembered playing there in 1986. “At the time,” Stephen said, “Dave and I weren’t twenty-one, so we weren’t allowed into the club until the band was announced. Perry went and got us a six-pack of beer, and we went and drank it in a car outside the club, waiting to get on stage. Then the guy said ‘Jane’s Addiction!’, and the back door opened and we came running onstage. We had to vacate the premises right after the show.”

For reasons that remain unclear, Jane’s Addiction constantly taped shows. Maybe they treated live recordings as demos to circulate to labels. Maybe they wanted to capture their best takes for possible releases, or capture new ideas as they generated them: a bass line Eric came up with on stage, a melody they spontaneously jammed between songs.

The Pyramid show’s sound quality isn’t as three-dimensional as Triple X, but it’s equally inspired. As Jane’s Addiction often did in those days, they opened with acoustic songs, with bassist Eric playing rhythm guitar on “Slow Divers,” “Jane Says” and “My Time.” Before “Jane Says” Perry tells the crowd, “Here’s one we haven’t done in a long time.” Although they’d played it before, this is the earliest known live recording of what became their “Stairway to Heaven.” Perry delivers it with feeling, drenched in effects. Afterwards he says, “Alright, let’s get down into it now.” Meaning: play electric. Dave tunes his guitar. Someone burps near a microphone, and Stephen rolls his sticks across his drum heads, sending a cascade of trippy echoes through the air. Then they tear into “Whores,” “Ain’t No Right,” “Idiots Rule,” “Mountain Song,” and “Summertime Rolls.”

Still excited by these new songs, probably loosened by beer, Dave solos with a spirit you don’t expect from a 19-year-old. Perry screams “Owooo!” and grunts whenever it feels right, punctuating the space between verses the way his idol Iggy did in Stooges songs like “Down on the Street,” letting his voice trail into the distance.

Like me, Stephen Perkins recognized the magic of their early sets. This explains why, when the band reunited in 1997, they released this version of “Whores” on their miscellany, Kettle Whistle. And to think that teenagers chugging beer in a parking lot delivered such a furious performance.

1743 N. Cahuenga became many different clubs after The Pyramid. Last time I checked, the building sat deserted, as vacant as my youthful attempts at poetry. Fronted by a lone palm tree, cigarette butts collected below its white walls where the landscaping had gone feral. Cars pass on nearby Hollywood Boulevard 24 hours a day. Some transport their drivers to work. Others are filled with tourists going to photograph themselves on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2013, Jane’s Addiction finally got a star on the Walk. It’s number 2,509, located three blocks from The Pyramid."

If you have made it this far, well done. This boot marks the first quarter of the alternate 100 posted. The listing is as follows:

#01. JOE STRUMMER & THE MESCALEROS - Key Arena, Seattle, WA. 17 October, 2001
#02. BROADCAST - BBC Radio & TV Sessions (1996-2000)
#03. FELT - BBC Sessions
#04. NEW ORDER - Central London Polytechnic 1985
#05. TINARIWEN - The Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool 2017
#06. PRIMAL SCREAM - XTRMNTR Live, BBC Maida Vale Studios, London. 20 March, 2000
#07. The VERVE - Unreleased Urban Hymns
#08. TOM PETTY & the Heartbreakers - Capitol Records Tower, Hollywood. 11 November, 1977
#09. STEELY DAN - The 'Lost' Gaucho
#10. JOHNNY CASH & The Tennessee Two - Radio Broadcasts 1956-59
#11. RICKIE-LEE JONES - Theatre Carré, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 3 September, 1979
#12. CAT POWER - Black Sessions 2008
#13. The CLASH - Last Gang In Town (Rarities 1976-84)
#14. PJ HARVEY - State Theatre, Sydney, Australia. 19 January, 2012
#15. LED ZEPPELIN - MSG, New York, NY. (Matrix Version) 12 February, 1975
#16. BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE - Entering a New Ride (1997)
#17. ARCTIC MONKEYS - Earls Court 26 October, 2013
#18. LED ZEPPELIN - How The East Was Won 1971 (EVSD) Tokyo, Japan. 29 September, 1971
#19. The CRAMPS - Club 57, Irving Plaza, New York, NY. 18 August, 1979
#20. JEFF BUCKLEY - Knitting Factory, New York, NY. 4 February, 1997
#21. The CURE - Rock Werchter Festival, Werchter, Belgium. 5 July, 1981
#22. The VERVE - Hultsfred Festival, Sweden. 13 August, 1994
#23. The SMITHS - Demos & Outtakes (Mixed Locations)
#24. LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - Bersee Museum, Bremen, Germany. 27 June, 1980
#25. JANE'S ADDICTION - The Pyramid Club, LA. 13 November, 1986
 

#124 LINTON KWESI JOHNSON - Bremen 1980

Caribbean Week
Bersee Museum,
Bremen, Germany
27 June 1980

01. Reality Poem
02. It Noh Funny
03. Want Fi Go Rave
04. Reggae Fi Peach
05. Inglan Is A Bitch
06. band intro
07. Bass Culture
08. Loraine
09. Di Black Petty Booshwah
10. Sonny's Lettah
11. Independant Intavenshan
12. Two Sides Of Silence
13.  It Dread Inna Inglan (for George Lindo)
45:55 min

FM - Cassette (1. gen) - Audacity - xACT

LINK

Last year saw the 40th anniversary of the debut album released by Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was originally released on the Virgin Front Line label and titled 'Dread Beat an' Blood' by Poet and The Roots. On later editions the name Poet & The Roots was dropped for Linton's own name. It was a ground breaking release incorporating spoken political poems together with a roots reggae backing. 

Linton was an integral part of the UK reggae scene and helped it become accepted in Jamaica and worldwide as a valid section of British music and reggae culture. His vivid and unflinching descriptions of London during those times, led to him being named as the first artist to deal with the reality of the black experience in Britain. 

I was fortunate to see him as the support act backed by the Denis Bovell Dub Band on the 'Ju Ju' tour by Siouxsie & The Banshees in 1981. This show was recorded a year earlier in 1980, well before the New Cross fire and the Southall riots. On my initial listen I thought Linton was reciting over backing tapes, primarily because the music fades out at the end of each track while the audience applauds. He introduces the band after 'Inglan Is A Bitch' and the recording does have a live ambience, the fading out seems a bit strange and not something I have heard on any other live show recording.

Desmond Hunt interviewed Linton in 1981 and gave the following excellent analysis of his career to date.

"Poets today, in this world of escalating violence, social pressure and greed, have to make one of three choices. They can be escapist and lapse into mysticism and hallucinatory drugs. They can compromise their views and try commercialism. Or they can do as Linton Kwesi Johnson has done, that is face up to injustices and write dear, invincible poetry, about black working class experience – and set it to accessible and very beautiful reggae music. The result is that the poet draws upon the dialects of the black community and gives it a sense of gut-solidarity.

Linton was born in August 1952 in Chapelton, Jamaica. He left to join his mother who had emigrated to England in 1961. Between 1963 and 1970 Linton attended the Tulse Hill Comprehensive School in Brixton, graduating with six O levels. He then went on to attain 2 A levels. In 1973 he entered Goldmiths College where he got a B.A. Degree in Sociology. After a spell of unemployment he worked as an assembly worker at Twinlocks in Croydon.

In 1977 Linton was awarded the Cecil Day Lewis Fellowship as a writer in residence in the Borough of Lambeth. His first work was published in Race Today in their monthly journal and soon they were to publish his books of poems, namely “The Voices of the Living and the Dead”. Boyle L’ouverture published his second volume “Dread Beat and Blood” and Race Today have recently put out “Inglan is a Bitch”.

Although not disillusioned with record companies “They only exploit artist, they act like they’re doing you a favour just by releasing your work”, he recorded “Dread Beat and Blood” on Virgin and “Forces of Victory”, “Bass Culture” and “LKJ in Dub” on Island. Perhaps the biggest break through was when a documentary of the poet-at-work was financed by the Arts Council of Great Britain and screened by the BBC of all people, at peak viewing time!

Ever since leaving Comprehensive School, Linton has been active in the black struggle. At 18 he joined the Black Panther Movement, a mass organisation of working blacks mobilised to pursue the liberation of blacks from what they called “Colonial oppression” in Brixton.

“Race Today is an independent black organisation which puts out a monthly journal. It is important because it mobilises support for campaigns and tries to heighten the consciousness of black and white people involved in the same causes. We want to work with those whites who are interested in isolating the fascists among them and dealing with them in the same way that we have to isolate those backward racists amongst us as well. We have the small minority of blacks who believe in the “back-to-Africa” idea, or nonsense like hating the white man. These elements represent the ass-hole end of black politics. They preach the same kind of race hatred that the British Movement and the National Front preach. You saw what happened at Brixton when the police started their swamp intimidation. Black and White people rose to the occasion and made their protest that they were not going to take any more of this. As long as these conditions prevail acts of insurrection will happen.” How right he was in retrospect with further rioting at Southall, where Blair Peach’s memory lives on and later-all over the country.

LKJ is hardly what the Daily Mail would call a “Wild rampaging black”, he is the representative voice of a troubled black community. In fact he was one of the main organisers of the recent “Black Peoples Day of Action”, a march of Black Solidarity through Fleet Street, and the centre of London, to protest at the media wall of silence to the fire in New Cross which claimed the lives of 13 and injured 26 others.

“In Dublin when they had the fire in the discotheque, they had a day of mourning and the Prime Minister made a speech, but not a single member of our parliament mentioned the massacre. That is why we demonstrated to show the country at large, the police, the government, and the fascists, that we’re no longer prepared to have so many people killed and say nothing about it, but we’re here to stay and if it comes to it we’re prepared to fight and soon. The inquest was a farce, the jury were totally misled and confused and lots of important evidence was mysteriously covered up by the police which was later revealed”.

Linton has always associated himself with reggae music, although he doesn’t believe that Rastafarianism is the answer to the black problem. He feels there is a danger of mystifying the struggle and he feels there is a Rasta trap.

“Music is a weapon, it is a vehicle for transmitting ideas, so many Rasta get sucked into Bob Marley imitations. The role of black music should be to create something out of your own experience. They should have some integrity instead of getting bogged down with this ever changing religion. They’re saying “Jah” will help us, and talk about leaving for Zion, but there’s so much more happening in this country. People are being killed by fascists and we’ve had a constant struggle with the police since we’ve been here, we don’t have proper housing, health services or education. The Rastas, to a large extent, have completely ignored those things. I think it’s a bit of a cop-out, it’s reactionary and it’s not taking us anywhere.”

He then seethes with a glowing rage! “You think of the colonial conditions, a white guy working in the Tate and Lyle in some cushy office job gets six or seven times the amount of money as the black guy working on the sugar plantation. He’s actually helping produce the sugar and picking it. You can’t say that black exploitation doesn’t still go on.”

Which track means the most to him? “Well on an emotional and artistic level, Sonny’s Lettah (anti-sus poem) still leaves a tremendous impact on me. I feel it is an accurate reflection of the mindless violence going on around us. It is also a plea that self-defence is no offence”.