WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

There's not enough time in the day to get everything I want done and something has to suffer.  One of the things that I didn't have time for this past month is posting to the blog, my spare time spent building the bookcase, repairing the walls, texturing the walls, painting, replacing the floor boards, replacing all electrical fixtures and then putting things back together again. The room is largely done, except for replacing the books and paintings/prints.  This project was hard to complete because I was not motivated to do it from the very beginning.  It was accomplished only because I was a zombie and simply went through the motions to get it done.  This project effectively completes the interior of the house, the last room to be renovated.  Yet other lesser projects remain to be completed in the coming years.  I like to believe they are smaller in size and scope, but that's always an illusion based on my experience, with unplanned tasks always requiring added effort.

But the music kept on playing.

Sex Pistols
Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, CA, USA
September 3, 2003

At the Warfield on Wednesday, the Sex Pistols crawled from history's crypt and returned to the city where they ended their brief but brilliant career in 1978. Someone should have nailed the crypt door shut. It isn't that the resurrected Pistols -- singer John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and original bassist Glen Matlock, who preceded the late Sid Vicious in the lineup -- were technically awful. Just embarrassing for anyone who saw them when they were still vibrant, twentysomething malcontents caught between trying to destroy a bloated music industry and milk it dry.

The real Sex Pistols met their Goetterdaemmerung with open arms on a spit- soaked Winterland stage in 1978. The embalmed facsimile that played San Francisco on Wednesday as part of its second blighted reunion tour (the first was in 1996) barely qualified as an homage. With eyes closed, the hourlong set, which included all of 1977's "Never Mind the Bollocks" album and a few singles (including the marathon cover of the Stooges' "No Fun"), seemed like a cool jolt to the memory circuits. Most of the songs still live as powerful and euphoric expressions of a certain time and place; Lydon's voice retained its distinctive sneer, and his band mates churned through their limited repertoire with workmanlike precision.

"Any of you got anything funny to say?" he demanded after a competent rendition of "God Save the Queen."

"F-- you!" replied a few middle-aged voices enthusiastically. "How do you like your meat?" Lydon spat back. "Old and tough?"

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Sex-Pistols-Lydon-tries-but-can-t-revive-rage-2590991.php

Download it here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|340p7|3549447949|5.%20Warfield%20Theatre_%20San%20Francisco_%20Ca_%20USA_%2003.09.03.rar|49812|0|0

Angry eye of red
Stares down upon corruption
Death is in the air

Their moral conflicts
In a world of black and white
Colored with denial

Words meant to persuade
Spoken with such eloquence
The truth’s not required

Van Halen
Atlantic City, NJ, USA
March 24, 2012

A fan writes:

First, as you can tell, I don't post much but I am a regular on this board (basically a troll...lol). I have seen every VH tour (all except with that Cherone (spelling) joker) since the beginning when they warmed up Black Sabbath at the Spectrum. I saw the Philly show a couple weeks ago and to be honest there was no way I thought they could top that show. Boy, was I wrong. The band was tight and the acoustics in AC were tremendous. I was in the 18th row on Eddie's side and they kicked ass from start to finish. Less "chitter,chatter" from Dave tonight than Philly. This is definitley a new version of VH. I consider this the "mature" version of the band. I paid 170 both shows and it was worth every penny. A whole lot of band hugs and joking with each other. It was a tremendous show and all I can hope is that they do this again some day. KUDOS to this board as you guys all rock. I have followed many tours on here. No comparision to the tour 3 years ago. This one is tops.

Read it all here: http://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/showthread.php?p=1502382

Download it here:
http://www.depositfiles.com/files/c1virkzhv

Clergy's whitewashed room
Sun shines outside its window
There beyond the bars

Sun rises so red
Omen of some prophecy
Nation in decline

High upon the stage
Preaching their morality
Swept up by the lies

Look to the future
But when eyes close forever
He's stuck in the past

Their optimism
Farther than the eye can see
Suffer from blindness

Joy Division
Live at Nashville Ballroom, London, UK
September 22, 1979

Excellent sound to this classic recording of the band led by Ian Curtis.

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/cf9ab4c/n/Joy_Division_1979-09-22_Nashville_Ballroom,_London._U.K._(FLAC).rar

Scatter the ashes
Turns his back and says goodbye
Nothing but silence

A gorgeous sunset
Brilliant light shines from within
Everyone is special

Public Image limited
Belgrade Calling Festival, USCE Park, Serbia
June 29, 2012

Excellent recording from their 2012 tour, playing both old classics and new songs off their recent release.

"This summer the beautiful Ušće Park, set in New Belgrade at the confluence of the Danube and Sava rivers, will be the setting for one of the largest music festivals that the city have ever seen, with headliners including the legendary Ozzy Osbourne featuring guitarist extraordinaire Slash, the criminally underrated American rock band Faith No More, and the absurdly popular British singer Jesse J (who we had literally never heard of before writing this, but apparently has hundreds of millions of views on on Youtube). For us some of the 'supporting' acts are even more noteworthy, with the likes of Public Enemy, the Cult, Public Image Ltd, Orbital and the Horrors all taking to the stage over the festival's three days. Definitely one event not to be missed!"

Download it here, thanks to Pilhead:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wxd0gcok778r4cb

Leaves his childhood's town
Their down turned heads are weeping
Lay them in the ground

Iggy Pop
Roadkill Rising

I listened to discs two (1980's) and three (1990's) from the Shout! Factory’s 2011 release, Roadkill Rising, a collection of live, unreleased tracks from the 1970s through the 2000s, culled from numerous gigs around the world.

"Discs two and three mix in some of Iggy’s almost-hits, like “Nightclubbing”, “Real Wild Child” from Blah Blah Blah, and “China Girl”, which David Bowie rode as a huge hit in the summer of 1983. Other surprises include the “Batman Theme” and a filthy version of “Louie Louie” that segues into “Hang on Sloopy”, while older tunes like “Loose” and “TV Eye” are still in the setlist. A particularly delicious highlight is a ten-minute-plus version of the bluesy “One for My Baby” from the much-reviled Party album. It’s unexpectedly hilarious to hear Iggy trying to quiet down the audience so he can hear himself sing; this version is so long because he keeps stopping to harangue the crowd. The sound on these discs is clearer than disc one, with heavier bass, although the buzz-saw guitars are still there and the crowd noise remains prominent throughout."

Read it here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/141611-iggy-pop-roadkill-rising/

What's most interesting on the second disc is the recording of "One for My Baby (Quarter to Three)." It's more than ten minutes, if only for several false starts due to a rowdy audience. Iggy even starts to get pissed off as he's unable to sing his song. The thing is, he sounds like he means it when he says he wants to sing the song. So despite critics panning the bulk of his 80s output, apparently Iggy did believe in what he was doing. The song's low key croon isn't at all bad, and Iggy pulls it off convincingly. It's refreshing (and perhaps revitalizing) to hear his pleading with the audience though, as it does add levity to his patchy studio work through that strange decade.

Read it here:
http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=2573752

Go out and buy it!

Van Halen
Right Here, Right Now

Van Halen with Eddie and Sammy at their finest!  I was in a mood for 90's Van Halen from the Hagar era.

Go out and buy it!

Echo and the Bunnymen
O2 Brixton, London, UK
December 9, 2010

My recording from that night. 

When I listened to it on Saturday night I was somewhat disappointed at the fact that there was something lacking in me, unable to connect, as though a part of me had turned the page on this band, particularly in light of their recent failings.  It's as though the magic has gone.

Read about the trip here:
http://whatatemper.blogspot.com/2010/12/london-calling.html

Iggy Pop
Live At Channel, Boston, MA, USA
July 19, 1988

Great CD reissue of the Iggy live at the Channel Boston 1988 "when he was touring to promote Instinct, one of his less impressive solo albums, when he performed the concert taped by the King Biscuit Flower Hour and presented here, on July 19, 1988. Since Instinct was a return to simple hard rock, the seven songs from the album fit well stylistically, if not qualitatively, with the Iggy and the Stooges evergreens -- "1969," "No Fun," "I Wanna Be Your Dog," "Penetration," "Search and Destroy" -- that fill out the set list. The revved-up, near-metal arrangements are reminiscent of Lou Reed's revamping of his catalog on Rock and Roll Animal, if not as imaginative. But Pop is an enthusiastic, appreciative frontman, even if his lyrics and spoken remarks contain so many four-letter words that the original broadcast must have been heavily edited."

Download it from the Concert Vault:
http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/iggy-pop/concerts/agora-ballroom-march-21-1977.html?utm_source=CVNL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=120917#channel-july-19-1988.html

Van Halen
Rogers Arena, Vancouver, BC, Canada
May 7, 2012

A fan wrote about the show:

At its fullest, I'd say it hit about 85% full. Not a sell out, but pretty well attended. Very fun crowd both inside and outside the arena; there were large groups of vans strolling through the street before the show drunkenly singing VH tunes. That they butchered the music was irrelevant - it was the thought that counted.

The show was fantastic, IMO. Dave had some struggles lyrically/vocally at points, but he made up for that with his typical Diamond Dave showmanship. He worked the crowd to his advantage and moved the evening along as a Maestro would. Ed, Al and Wolf didn't miss a beat all night - just extremely tight, and the background harmonies provided by Ed and Wolf were one of the best parts of the evening.

Vocally and musically, Wolf more than capably fills Mikey's void. He definitely doesn't possess the stage presence/fan interactivity that Mikey had, but he was still noticeably better than 2007. As the kid gets older, he's going to be fierce.

The whole show flew past, it was just like a shot of adrenaline full in the face. They ripped through everything and the energy level was fantastic. I'd rate it easily above the 2007 show that I saw. Again, just a great, fun evening.

Funny moment: When China Town started, I am 99% certain that Dave began singing the lyrics to "Bullethead" instead. He stopped, frozen on stage as the others kept chugging a long, and then deadpanned into the mic: "I fucked up the lyrics." Everyone laughed, he waited for the next verse and leapt back in.

Best moment: Eddie's solo, IMO. Didn't drag it out, didn't make it too short, it was just right - and man oh man, the man is fucking amazing.

Read more here:
http://www.vhlinks.com/vbforums/showthread.php?p=1517463

Download it here:
http://www.filefactory.com/file/78qcya8qjfal/n/VaHa.2012-05-07.Vancouver.FLAC.by.T.U.B.E.zip

1979 ALL OVER AGAIN

A couple of downloads I was wanting to listen to lead to the concept of making a theme out of this weekends music collection of virtual concerts, going back to some great bands that were on the rise in 1979.  That was the year I finished my first year of graduate school in Oregon, spending the summer running around the Cascade Mountains mapping the geology of 100+ square miles of rugged, forest covered terrain in support of my Masters thesis.  Alone, camping out every day, the wild beauty with views of the snow capped volcanic peaks from the meadows atop the ridges I crested before turning around and plunging back into the forest.  It was one of my favorite summers in life.  I try not to think what would have happened had I been as focused on the music back them as I am now, more interested in attending concerts than studying.  Life could have turned out very differently.

Story in a book
Salvation from the darkness
Needing to believe

Man from long ago
A prophet, one of many
Promises he can't keep

In the robes embrace
Words that make them fall in line
Fear the consequence

First up was Public Image Limited, one of their early shows at the Russel Club in Manchester, UK on June 18, 1979.  An excellent soundboard (?) recording.  Back in Oregon on that day I was running around the forest with backpack, rock hammer in hand jotting down notes with every opportunity at finding exposed rock on the steep sloped forest floor.

During this show they had a new drummer and it showed in this "rehearsal" performance, especially when they played "Public Image," the beat out of sync but the band members trying to make it work.  They stop early into the song and the crowd expresses its displeasure: "Shut up, I told you it was a fucking rehearsal." "Oi, this drummer only joined us three days ago, a big round of applause for him right now, because he's game."  Johnny then asks around whether anyone has a light after calling someone else a "wanker."  Then there was a second false start.  "We admit our mistakes and we know we got many."  At the end Johnny introduces the band members.  "On drums, on drums we have Richard Dudanski!"

Richrad was one of many early drummers, who played with PiL mid-1979. He left soon after the Leeds show disillusioned with PiL's working ethos. Even going to the extent of sending a letter to the editor of 'NME' to explain his actions. PiL simply blamed his departure on his inability to keep time; due to nerves live on stage. Levene also claimed he became increasingly difficult to deal with due to an amphetamine habit; a claim which Dudanski venomously denies: "I never had, and was never near to having, an amphetamine habit! (which doesn't mean to say that I've never taken the stuff). People can say what they like about why "I left/was thrown out" of PIL, ie not being able to keep time, but it is a bit ironic having the drugs bit thrown at me, when in fact the effects of a much more insidious drug on another member were in fact from my point of view the main reason for the band's stagnation at that point, and the reason for my leaving"...

Download it here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9RLDAWRI

Church every Sunday
He's following all the rules
Does not stop the pain

Next up was Gang of Four performing a live show at Mothers in Chicago (mistakenly identified as NYC) on September 9, 1979. It’s a great recording that captures the fire and energy of the times when it was still all evolving.  Mothers is a bar/nightclub off Division in Chicago. "While they are most well-known for being an upscale, trendy, singles bar with a very strict dress code, Mothers' basement was the home of a number of punk shows during 1979.  This "Summer of Punk" lasted from about July to October of 1979 and only played punk shows during the week."
By this date while in Oregon I was wrapping up the summer field mapping season, probably back in Eugene preparing to resume another semester at the university.

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynyh4wykyoo

Lets get back to basics!  I ended the night and rolled over into the following morning listening to Van Halen, a very good recording of a show they played in Osaka, Japan on September 10, 1979.  Classic Van Halen: big sound, Eddie's burning guitar, Dave tring to connect with his foreign audience with his banter between song, telling they were the best audience ever! The World Vacation Tour was a 1979 concert tour by hard rock band Van Halen to support their second album Van Halen II. It was the band's first world tour as a headliner, previously having been a support act for Black Sabbath for that band's 1978 Never Say Die! 10th Anniversary World Tour.

A fan writes of a March 1979 show they did in Logan, Utah:

"I have never stood on the tarmac behind a 747 when it takes off, but it can’t be unlike the experience of seeing Van Halen open a concert. The sheer power of “Light Up the Sky” erupting from the amplifiers as Van Halen took the stage was an experience to behold. What a complete rush! It was a show unlike anything I had ever seen prior to that. There was the technical wizardry of Eddie Van Halen on guitar, offset by the exaggerated macho posing, high-pitched wails and animated song intros of frontman David Lee Roth. There was action all over the stage, augmented by Michael Anthony pounding on his bass and Alex Van Halen

Read it all here:
http://theeditingroomfloor.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-introduction-to-mighty-van-halen.html

Download it here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PETFDKZ0

Saturday night opened up with a short show by Echo and The Bunnymen, made up of Ian, Will, Les and the drum machine! It was August 2, 1979, the first of the 4 night alternative rock festival at the YMCA, Prince of Wales Conference Centre in London, the same night the Joy Division and the Teardrop Explodes also performed. This was Echo and the Bunnymen's 10th ever gig and their first in London before they were signed (The A&R man that signed them was watching them at this gig).

"In his teens the singer, Ian “Mac” McCulloch, was a lanky, short-sighted Bowie-worshipper, already a pop star in his own mind. Will Sergeant, the brooding guitar boffin, and Les Pattinson, the amiable bass-player who built boats for a living, had been at school together."

Read more here:
http://www.pauldunoyer.com/pages/journalism/journalism_item.asp?journalismID=280

In this Ian recording sounds really young and in need of additional practice, his voice still trying to find that smoothness that that characterized his later performances.  Even back then he was directing technicians from the stage: "Ollie, this mike stand isn't any good."  "Harry, less echo on the vocals, and more drum machine."

Buy this time during the summer of 1979 I had covered a lot of ground in the Cascades, have a pretty good idea what was going on geologically: successive episodes of volcanism, commencing 15 million years ago and ending in the fresh lava that flowed down to the shores of the swift flowing McKenzie River, the earth's crust cracking and settling as magma chambers deep below inflated the mountain range.

DownloaD IT HERE:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5DIYDHS6

The Bunnymen were followed by the Joy Division, a collection of live performances between March 4, 1979 and April 3, 1980.  Another excellent recording.

"If I had a flair for understatement, I could say that Joy Division were good too. The truth is they were phenomenal - the most physical hard rock group I've seen since Gang Of Four. This Manchester band have been allowed to grow at their own pace, uncramped by commercial pressures. The result is that they've created a totally distinctive, cohesive sound over the last two years...They have the spirit and the feeling." - Adrian Thrills, NME review 11th August 1979.

Download it here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VRYNZBW8

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0DCWNHOS

Saturday night closed with my listening to Public Image Limited's Metal Box, their second album released on November 23, 1979. The title refers to the album's original packaging, which consists of a metal 16mm film canister embossed with the band's logo and containing three 12" 45rpm records. It is ranked at 469 out of 500 of the greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine:

"After the Sex Pistols exploded, Johnny Rotten reclaimed his real name — John Lydon — and started his bold new band. PIL played eerie, futuristic art punk with dub bass and slashing guitar. The U.K. release Metal Box (retitled Second Edition in the U.S.) originally came as three vinyl discs in a metal film canister."

Julian Cope writes:

This sprawling and austere album is worth noting in its original release as it is probably one of the most sonically soaring albums of the seventies. All titles are brevity itself as the numbers are free-form musical expressions pushed through an extreme dub production. Released as a three 12 inch single set in a metal film can completely anonymous save an embossed PIL logo, the cutting of the grooves themselves were so widely separated from each other that they’re visible to the naked eye. This encourages the tracks to boom out in analogue warmth and fullness; deemed necessary by bassist Jah Wobble’s domineering and lush contributions in the low end department (For further evidence of 12” sonic booming, check out The Cramps’ “The Crusher” or Joy Division’s “Novelty.”) It’s a pity this version of the later released “Second Edition” can get pretty cost prohibitive. But for most, the quickest admission into this huge, avant rock structure is “Second Edition.”

“Metal Box” is hard, abrasive, rhythm-dominated and sonically all-there. The opening cut “Albatross” sees Lydon more quietly venomous than before. The oblique lyrics leave no clues, but he’s obviously cut all ties with his past and has moved on, if a bit wearily. “Slow motion…” are the first sung lines, and “Albatross” is just that: a sedate dub groove that sets the tone, hanging every splintery Keith Levene riff, drum and cymbal crash on Jah Wobble’s lumbering and relaxed bass lines are powerful enough to shoulder the whole track for its ten minute duration. “Memories” is all Leslie-f(r)ied guitar, magnetic pull dub bass and tinny hi-hat compressed into a metallic Joe Meek-out. Volume and tempo shift abruptly when a purposefully nasty editing job cues into Lydon’s sung “I could be wrong/It could be hate/As far as I can see/Clinging desperately” lines, The Sex Pistols an already an ever-distancing bad dream. “Swanlake” is about as unflinchingly terrifying a track as P.I.L. ever recorded: a tribute from a son to his recently departed mother. The tempo builds into a bonfire of scrap metal guitar, hi-hatted rhythms with a coursing, zooming bass line and insanely catchy Wobble bass hook to hang the whole thing on. Levene’s glacial synthesizer appear on the horizon, and by the ending everything else is starting to fade like the wilted flowers by the hospital bedside while the synth lines jut further and further out, getting louder and louder until you realise it’s a locked groove (On “Second Edition” it cuts off brutally, but here on the massively cut 12”) repeating forever after.

Read it all here:
http://www.headheritage.co.uk/unsung/thebookofseth/164/
Lydon himself verges on the unrecognizable. While he sometimes wanders into the same nasally, Pistols-era vocals, his voice generally remains in a substantially lower register. In exploring the lower regions of his range, Lydon never lets go of the anger that made the Pistols so electric. While other post-punkers would sometimes sound so depressing they were maudlin, Lydon keeps the vitriol flowing all throughout Metal Box. Lydon also evolved as a lyricist. No longer content to rely on his No Future mantra of yore, he expands his lyrical repertoire, touching on themes of his mother's death, murder and the corporate grind. Metal Box is an avenue for Lydon to unleash his inner audiophile out.

Read it all here:
http://forthedishwasher.blogspot.com/2010/07/public-image-ltd-metal-box-1979-45rpm.html

Download it here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H35UWRYS