Lydia Loveless

here's sperry's tape of lydia's set at comfest, with the volume jacked up and the tunes titled and tagged. assuming he was situated more back towards th' soundboard as there's quite a bit more ambience than we heard being about 10 or 12 feet back directly in front of the stage right stacks. no matter, her set was fucking magical, and you can hear it (most) all here (caveat: it's missing a coupla encore tunes 'cause evidently someone dicked with sperry's deck - don't fret, just a bonus for those who were actually there): pretty much all of her new record minus a couple tracks which she throws a few off the first lp in place of and a KILLER ke$ha cover. no lie.

i've gotta admit i've only caught lydia about once a year since she started playing this type of stuff cuz tho' i dug it when she first started i wasn't i guess you could say blown away. WELL NOW CONSIDER ME BLOWN. she's better than neko at her own game at this point; that's a decent reference point for starters, but she's way more of a belter a la miranda lambert (and that ain't faint praise, neko and miranda being th' only two girls who've bothered to sing country music in recent memory, 'cept mebbe if yr countin' donna hughes), and her ridiculous gift for twisting melodies and lyrics so goddam effortlessly thru th' shouldn't-it-sound-way-less-revolutionary-than-it-does? relatively/seemingly-trad bed her impeccable cohorts are layin' down (alongside her own guitar, of course) is somethin' neko can't claim (tho' hell she sure can pick them covers good - excepting that ugly nick cave thing that was shat behind th' true blood season debut last wk). lydia's gonna be our own paul westerburg real soon (hell she probably already is…paul was all of 21 when 'sorry ma' came out) - and here ya thought she was gonna be our tommy (hey don't count it out she might up an' join g'n'f'n'r) - and i damned sure ain't gonna miss any of her shows around here anymore if i can help it.

download

photo credit: paula masters travis

SPERRY FESTIVAL

i hope you guys know that mike sperry has been documenting th' col's live "scene" in a very big way over th' past few years. very early in this blog's career we posted an el jesus show he recorded a while back. many more of his recordings are here:

mediafire folder

it is very suggested you grab some and enjoy what you've been missing due to inebriation &c.

THE BYGONES 'In Threes'

here's a comfest special for ya - and probably the most important (insofar as posting records on the internet can be considered important) thing we'll ever do here at th' mtf blog. 'in threes' is the bygones' belabored, gorgeous, & as-yet-unreleased second lp. who knows why nobody's had the sense(¢) to make this a plastic reality but it's been done since spring 2007 and it's high time everybody heard it. HIGH TIME.

download

photo credit: c a s s e r o l e

PAGANS: Pirate's Cove 9/24/79

been awhile since we delved into any cle rock lore (dammit yes that last revelers lp i need to post is in th' queue!) so here's th' REAL pagans live LP you NEED. sorta-boot, sorta-legit release from sometime in th' '90s on thermionic… young fast drummer era… definitive take on "heart of stone"… fuck, if i hafta SAY SOMETHING to convince you to grab this you can't be helped in th' first place.

download

Cheater Slicks 'Bats In The Dead Trees' LIVE

here's th' disc that came free with th' second pressing of th' slicks' improv LP - live tape from th' release show i think where they extrapolated on some of th' ideas they used on th' recording. i figure you can probably track down lots of their other stuff some way or another but this might be one you've overlooked. don't keep makin' that mistake.

download


and yes i realize there's some hey this cd is fucked up clicking going on for two or three minutes of th' second track & then it stops like 5 minutes before th' end but th' rest of th' bits are good ok! i guess th' burn's bad cuz it ain't scratched or nothin'. anybody's got one that works real good plz send it over.

Tolford & Co.: 'Extraordinary Love'

as i've said elsewhere it ain't rilly my style to go posting shiz you RILLY SHOULD BE PAYING FOR, but this WAY deserves to be heard by everybody, so please - if ya like it go buy it on wax or get one of th' funny little cd copies or go to a buncha shows or buy some t-shirts or tank tops or just hand nick or mike o. or lara or eveybuddy blank checks when ya see 'em on them streets ok?

anyhow if ya didn't see 'em at comfest last year and no-one has told you, there isn't anyone of any persuasion who doesn't fucking fall in in deep lust with this band right whenever they hear 'em - nick being like th' ferris bueller of redhot soul except he ain't lip synchin' an' it ain't the god-damn beatles it's sam cooke - so why they aren't like all over them late nite shows and euroweenie festivals i dunno but DAMN are they REAL REAL GOOD at being REAL REAL GOOD.

download

Ohio Penitentiary 511 Jazz Ensemble

name of this record is 'hard luck soul' (don't doubt it) - my housemate procured a rip from an acquaintance of his and suggested it go on here. already posted elsewhere on th' webs but mebbe this is better quality, i dunno, sounds REAL NICE. all killer no filler souljazz, lotsa good reverb. never heard th' full story about this project or record specifically or i'd tell ya more.

download

THE BLUE VOTZ

i had an idea that this guy mitch i knew from softball should sing in a band tho' i had no evidence that this was in any way a good idea an' lazor i guess wanted to play guitar but her finger was fucked up with this splint on it so we tuned it to drop d and i hadn't played drums in a long time but whatever, we never played out just in a coupla garages next to mitch's fucked-up dodge (soundboard was in the trunk when this was recorded). we had a buncha songs but all i can find is these two which were done on a tape machine with such dirty heads that you can still hear vocal tracks we redid and actually it sounds pretty great i think.

download

The Stapler 'Very Clean'

i dunno what you do when bands are punkish and poppy - pop-punk is th' worst thing to call anyone ever and power pop is way too specifick - & ya actually wanna describe them rather than just say they're good. the stapler's got these great clanging hihats an' a lot more hüsker dü than there was in say 84 nash, & lotsa lou barlow bass under th' guitar scrape that ya wouldn't expect from like the cusacks or somebody - an' while this doesn't have a bonafide H-I-T onnit "gin and phonics" will make you wanna get wherever yr driving at least three times faster than you are getting there presently so go ahead, get more shit done.

(also in like top three reunion type shows i've ever seen: w/carter on drums that one time w/dolby fuckers at bobo.)

download

El Jesus de Magico s/t

word is the new el jesus record is some seriously next-level shiz but i don't have it yet and this is th' one thing you can't totally steal from th' free music archive so hey here it is.

download

THE LINDSAY 'Dragged Out'

the lindsay had a big show last nite celebrating th' release of their second LP so it's HIGH TIME we got the first one up here. top ten col's elpees of alltimes, folks, an' that's no lie.

download

HELP IS ON DA WAY

evidently everyone's favorite rhyming panhandler has recorded two discs but this is the only one he's ever sold. i salute you if you can even make it thru th' intro. here's to wishing this had been made 15 years earlier, at least.

download

BEAR #50

i found this little canvas (maybe 4"x4") months ago against a building on high street, somewhere south of the udf at first. little slip of paper says 'you found me! you can post comments to foundbear.blogspot.com' but of course you can't, whoever made it didn't even make one post, so there's nowhere to comment. but still, i like this bear.