This thirty volume series features artists covering Bob Dylan songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.
This here's the more Classic Rock volume of the series with all the attendant goodness and terribleness that that term carries.
01. Sign Language – Eric Clapton (11-11-76, The Coliseum, Jacksonville, FL) 02. Tough Mama – Jerry Garcia/Legion of Mary (4-19-75, Oriental Theater, Milwaukee, WI) 03. I want You – Bruce Springsteen (2-5-75, The Main Point, Bryn Mawr, PA) 04. Just Like a Woman – Van Morrison (9-05-71, Pacific High Studios, San Francisco, CA) 05. I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight – Emmylou Harris (WBAI, NYC, 1970) 06. It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry – David Bromberg (Summer 1970, The Jabberwocky, Syracuse, NY) 07. Man on the Street – Dave Van Ronk (February 1969, The Jabberwocky, Syracuse, N.Y.) 08. Tears of Rage – The Band (7-17-76, Carter Baron Ampitheatre, Washington, D.C.) 09. Open the Door, Richard – Fairport Convention (4-21-70, BBC Studios) 10. The Wicked Messenger – The Faces (11-19-70, Paris Theatre, London, England) 11. One More Cup of Coffee – Eric Burdon (4-21-76, Rockpalast, WDR Studio L, Germany) 12. Girl From the North Country – Leon Russell (11-21-70, Fillmore East, New York City) 13. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – The Byrds (1-4-70, Fillmore West, San Francisco) 14. Like a Rolling Stone – Jimi Hendrix, BB King and Paul Butterfield Blues Band (4-15-68, Generation Club, New York City) Bonus Tracks: 15. Blowin’ in the Wind/ She Belongs to Me/ Mr. Tambourine Man (Instrumental Medley) – Elton John (12-18-73, BBC Studios, London) 16. I Threw It All Away – George Harrison (1-9-69, Twickenham Studios, London) 17. Mama You Been On My Mind – George Harrison (1-9-69, Twickenham Studios, London) Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan Vol. 3 link is in the comments
One of a fifteen-volume bootleg series from the early aughts full of raw noise from the likes of: Rema Rema, Johnny and the Self-Abusers, The Bears, Blitz Boys, The Jermz, Demon Preacher, The Exile, Damned-man Brian James, Art Attacks, The Dregs, The Dole, Pseudo-Exsistors, Horrorcomic, The Cannibals and more!
(The Pre-Simple Minds, Johnny and the Self-Abusers.)
In the spirit of the age of the rapid-fire re-re-issues, here's the (also unrealized) Legacy Edition of Show Business is My Life (see here) with a bonus disc of Dr. Frank performing solo acoustic for KALX Radio in 2006. The eighteen track set-list includes lots of MTX stuff (from B-sides to album tracks to their 1986 college radio hit "Danny Partridge Busted") as well as songs from Show Business is My Life, songs from the soundtrack to his novel, King Dork, plus the unreleasble masterpiece: "Cingular Wireless, Worse Than Hitler".
Legacy Edition bonus disc link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, give us your take on "Cingular Wireless..."
P.S. The recording levels were deep in the red so play at singer-songwriter volume for best results.
Liner Notes For An Unrealized Tenth Anniversary Re-issue
While no one asked, “What is this shit?” when Dr. Frank’s solo album arrived in early 1999, some fans of his pop-punk band, The Mr. T Experience, were similarly stumped. “Where’s the Ramones-riffing and the frantic tempos?” they asked.
And it’s true that in the good Dr.’s oeuvre, Show Business is My Life was a genuine anomaly (“That’s a thing without a name”.) On first encounter, it seemed to commit all the cliché mistakes of the “solo-album-from-member-of-a-well-established-band” genre, like “celebrity guests” (members of Me First, The Hi-Fives, Crimpshrine, The Queers drop in), “one-man songs” (that sometimes sound demo-ish), “unusual instrumentation” (keyboards, horn sections etc.) plus “new stylistic tricks” (check out the falsetto!)
But it didn’t all turn out to be crazy. It was, in fact, a very deliberate break with the past. Frustrated by the “more-of-the-same” reviews of the brilliant and varied Revenge Is Sweet and So Are You in 1997, Dr. Frank threw out a lot of the tricks of pop-punk that were growing hackneyed by the fin de siècle. However, the brevity of the songs, the catchiness of the hooks, the nervousness of the energy and the deceptive use of self-deprecation - all integral to pop-punk - were still there, just given some new arrangements.
It's arguably the most fascinating set of songs the man ever released. The albums whips back and forth between hilarious peaks and suicidal lows like one of those evil roller coasters created by The Joker. The variety here, which echoes dozens of strains of mid-sixties American rock, country and pop, initially threw people for the loop but it’s actually the source of the album’s enduring strength.
While it’s no concept album, the wealth of detail on depression, madness, alcoholism and marital breakdown Dr. Frank employs to show the interdependence of comedy and tragedy in our lives makes it such a complete work that you might stay in your seat and wait for the credits to roll after track thirteen ends.
*
1. She Turned Out To Be Crazy A blast of guest-star powered garage-rock snarl kicks the album off and provides some of the best punch lines on an album drunk with them.
2. I Made You and I Can Break You Dr. Frank, alone with his guitars, offers up the album’s first high, lonesome ballad, one that makes fine use of that clever recasting of clichés so beloved of the great sixties Nashvillians like Bill Anderson.
3. Knock Knock (Please Let Me In) Here’s where the girl group vocals and knock-knock jokes show up – and the result is a Goofy Greats-style novelty tune, which at 2:23 just ends too damn soon!
4. Suicide Watch Sure, as the title telegraphs, this is a sad, affecting slow one but keep your ear on Dr. Frank, who still manages to throw a sly Dr. Kevorkian allusion into the fray.
5. Bitter Homes and Gardens Leading a little band of lesser-knowns, Dr. Frank keeps the mood dark for this sad but clever tune, which Glen Campbell oughta cover.
6. She Alright Channeling the sheer drive of Roger Miller' amphetminabilly, Dr. Frank strums his acoustic to the breaking point for this one.
7. Ask Beth Back to the garage, for this organ-driven rocker that might call to mind Blonde on Blonde era Dylan with less pharmaceuticals and more distortion.
8. Population Us Another in a long line of “Let’s do it!" songs that abound in the Dr.’s catalog, this one’s got energy and a fantastically busy rhyme scheme though it does really sound like a solo electric demo for an MTX song.
9. Thinking of You One of the solo album clichés that Dr. Frank assiduously avoids here is the tendency to stretch the songs out. After all, once free from the shackles of band-dictated democracy the first thing many artists do is lay down that long-suppressed harmonica extravaganza or a free verse be-bop piece. But brevity is the watchword on Show Business is My Life as shown by “Thinking of You”, which, like John Prine’s unforgettable “Yes I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You”, doesn’t even have a full chorus, just a tag line at the end of every verse.
10. I’m In Love With What’s-Her-Name The final member of the power trio of garage-rockers on the album (too bad former MTX member Jon Von couldn’t have dropped by!), this one is powered by the irrepressible Hi-Fives.
11. Two Martinis From Now A hummable, bit of alcoholic word-play that, geo-musically speaking, lies somewhere between Frank Sinatra’s Las Vegas and Merle Haggard’s Bakersville.
12. Sad, Sad Shadow When Dr. Frank chooses to use the word sad twice in the title, it might imply he’s fallen under the cloud of Leonard Cohen but don’t worry the echo-ey guitar work here offers a silver lining.
13. This Isn’t About You Anymore Those dizzying heights and depth-plumbing lows that mark this album are all present and accounted for on this mini-epic, which crams endless ideas – percussive sound effects, disorienting keyboards, falsetto verses, internal rhymes, a sing-along chorus and a spoken word bridge into an extended metaphor that ends with the killer kiss-off line,
Now you’re a footnote, to somebody else’s footnote In a book no one ever wrote
*
Show Business is My Life remains little-known and until the Future People of Tomorrow start adding it to the canon of “Neglected Works of Genius” lists, until cool-kid bands start covering these tautly-written songs, until Will Ferrell’s production company options the rights to adapt the album for a full length feature film to premiere at the Slamdance Film Festival later this century, it’s up to you to spread this anomaly around.
Show Business is My Life works its twisted magic best as an entire album. So, for once, I will put up an album that is actually IN-PRINT but with these cavets, since Monsieur Portman didn't exactly relish the idea of his work being given away here:
1. Post will be up for only 48 hours and then removed permanently.
2. A cheerful reminder to buy the album, ifyou like it, has been placed in the tags - please consider doing so as nothing would honour this blogger as much as even a tiny bump in sales!
3. While this album is available on many file-sharing sites, I'd still like to request that you not share this evaluation version elsewhere.
Show Business is My Life link is in the commentsNO LONGER WORKS - go HERE for some live Dr. Frank.
Speaking of comments, give us your take on this album.
In celebration of Don't Ask Me Questions, the documentary about Graham Parker by Michael Gramaglia (who made the Ramones doc, End of the Century) getting its basic funding settled, here's a blistering, clear-as-hell sounding live show from one of the man's many peaks:
KISW Intro Discovering Japan Local Girls Soul On Ice Don't Get Excited Back To School Days Howling Wind Heat Treatment Stick To Me Mercury Poisoning You Can't Be Too Strong Passion Is No Ordinary Word Clear Head (Hey Lord) Don't Ask Me Questions Protection Saturday Night Is Dead Nobody Hurts You Soul Shoes Encore Applause E: I Want You Back E: Pouring It All Out Many thanks to Bill B. for the great recording.
Seattle, 1979 Link in in the comments
Speaking of comments, let us know what you think of the Graham Parker of 1979.
So, since July of last year, instead of showing up for work every morning, I've been helping out my family, pursuing my education and, of course, hawking used entertainment.
With that workload, the scraps of time I use to weave this blog, were more plentiful. Now with the end of my "Regenerative Leave" (I've actually been neck-deep in finishing my degree this month already) looming, those scraps of time will soon be smaller, scarcer and slightly rattier. Those who read the words will see less of them, those who just skim by in their feed reader may see fewer updates but, fear not, there is too much Life yet to Ruined...
This thirty volume series features artists covering Bob Dylan songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.
01. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You – Gillian Welch and David Rawlings (7-29-04, Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, England) 02. One Too Many Mornings – David Gray (3-13-06, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, CO) 03. Girl From the North Country – Robert Plant (10-24-02, Octagon Centre, Sheffield, England) 04. Tomorrow is a Long Time – Ben Harper (2-9-01, Jorgenson Auditorium, Storrs, CT) 05. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Matt Nathanson (2-22-05, Chris Knutzen Hall, University Center, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma WA) 06. I Thew it All Away – Lloyd Cole (12-27-01, Joe’s Pub, New York City) 07. Buckets of Rain – Beth Orton and M Ward (9-30-03, Cafe Largo, Los Angeles) 08. I’ll Keep it With Mine – Yo La Tengo w/ David Mansfield (12-30-05, Maxwell’s, Hoboken NJ 09. Gates of Eden – Robyn Hitchcock (3-26-05, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ) 10. License to Kill – Cowboy Junkies (8-16-05, Mountain Winery, Saratoga, CA) 11. It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – Roger McGuinn (10-05-06, S?borghus, S?borg, Denmark) 12. Isis – The White Stripes (6-27-03, Coca-Cola Bricktown Event Center, Oklahoma City, OK) 13. It Takes a Lot to Laugh – Joe Ely (12-31-05, La Zona Rosa, Austin, TX) 14. Knockin on Heaven’s Door – Tom Petty (8-27-05, Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA) 15. Like a Rolling Stone – Phil and Trey (10-29-06, Vegoose, Las Vegas, NV) 16. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Echo and the Bunnymen (12-5-85, SFX Hall, Dublin, Ireland) 17. Farewell Angelina – Jeff Buckley (4-5-92, Roulette Club, New York City)
NSDLD 2 link is in the comments
If you'd like to hear more sometime (I still swear to NOT post all thirty even consecutively) leave us a comment on volume 2.
Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these and obatik for the images.
And regular readers should not lose hope that the follow-up to the series of Fastbacks entries is coming...
A fifteen-volume bootleg series from the early aughts full of raw noise from the likes of: The Sods, The Art Attacks, Radio Stars, Pschik Volts, The Killjoys, The Spitfire Boys, China Street, Neon Hearts and The Rings, The Cybermen and The Vice Creems.
Spunkstains 1 link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, if you'd like to hear more (maybe alternating with our Nobody Sings Dylan Like Dylan series) leave us some words about this entry.
While a CD with thirteen bonus tracks of 1998's Win Lose or Both is in-print, I needed to post the four-song version because it contains my favourite Fastbacks cover (alongside their version of "Midnight Confessions"). The song in question is "Book of Revelation" by Dr. Frank from his band, The Mr T Experience's career defining album, Milk, Milk Lemonade. There's sometimes an admirable humility in an older song-writer, especially a master one, taking on a song by a comparatively newer writer. A cover that sounds fantastic and underscores the brilliance of the original.
Book Of Revelation
My foundation ever unshaken nothing but life and devastation being so together it seemed whatever till I read your book of revelation probably I'd be much better off not knowing but you were so sloppy now your slip is showing dangerous and jaded self-perpetuated cute but over-rated you'd do everything just to look distracted never unattractive but overacted it didn't fall apart till I put it together then just a paragraph changed my life forever when you know the ending open wide and read it how you made your bed and now you have to eat it now I get to keep it all I ever needed so why do I still feel cheated I can't believe my eyes what I saw last night what I know today book of revelation so now you finally got to say that you really felt that way and it hit me pretty hard and though we've carried it so far I know that's the way things are today that's the way they are I can't make up my mind what I must decide what I have to say book of revelation
Dr. Frank
Win, Lose or Both link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, give us your take on this Dr. Frank cover.
This thirty volume series features artists covering Bob Dylan songs. All of the tracks are recordings of independent origin (ROIO) and hence officially unreleased.
This first volume contains some MRML's all-time faves (Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello), some highly-regarded ones (Neil Young, Soft Boys, Warren Zevon, X, Alejandro Escovedo) as well as some artists that would otherwise never appear here (World Party, Mick Taylor, Phish!). As with many compilations, these are likely best cherry-picked and added to your own mix.
1. Everything is Broken – Neil Young (10-28-89, Shoreline Amp., Mtn View, CA) 2. Dark Eyes – Alejandro Escovedo (10-1-04, Texas Union Hall, Austin, TX)* 3. When the Ship Comes In – Billy Bragg (9-26-05, Talking Bob Dylan Blues The Barbican Theatre, London)* 4. Hard Rain – Big Country w/Eddi Reader (5-31-99, Glasgow SECC, Glasgow, Scotland)* 5. Ring them Bells – Warren Zevon (10-13-96, The Bluebird, Denver, CO) 6. The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Alter – Steve Wynn (7-27-05, Molly Malone’s Irish Pub, Los Angeles)* 7. When I Paint My Masterpiece – Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch (10-6-06, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, Golden Gate Gate Park, San Francisco, CA) 8. Girl From the North Country – The Eels (5-9-05, Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW – Santa Monica, CA)* 9. Love Minus Zero – Ron Sexsmith (10-24-97, The Milky Way, Amsterdam)* 10. Highway 61 Revisted – World Party (7-12-93, Summer Stage, Central Park, New York) 11. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again – Soft Boys (October 27, 2002 ,The Mercury Lounge, New York City) 12. Fourth Time Around – Calexico (7-9-03 Zeltival am Tollhaus, Karlsruhe, Germany)* 13. Positively Fourth Street – X (8-2-86, The Ritz, New York City)* 14. Queen Jane Approximately – Mojave 3 (4-17-96, Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW – Santa Monica, CA)* 15. Hurricane – Phish (11/19/85 Memorial Aduitorium, Burlington VT)* 16. Blind Willie McTell – Mick Taylor (9-16-00, Jack Legg’s, Nashville, TN)*
NSDLD 1 link is in the comments
If you'd like to hear more sometime (I swear to NOT post all thirty even remotely consecutively) leave us a comment on these proceedings.
Thanks to Jeffs98119 for compiling these and obatik for the images.
And regular readers should not lose hope the last Fastbacks entry is coming...
The UK's Peachfuzz, who sound like a smart, sharp, sing-along Teenage Replacements Fanclub, don't go in for the usual hyperbolic propaganda in their bio:
Peachfuzz is a rock'n'roll band.
Adam, Lewis and Jon fucked around in various garage bands of dubious pedigree for a number of years before forming Peachfuzz in March 2007.United by a common love of Big Star, Badfinger and Bandonwagonesque-era Teenage Fanclub as well as the sloppy majesty of The Replacements and Crazy Horse, it seemed to them that nobody was writing those sorts of songs anymore... So they started trying to write their own.
Their first record, So Here We Are Tonight, saw the light of day in April 2008 on the now sadly defunct Rat Patrol Records. It was recorded for £300 over two days and featured harmonies and choruses. It did okay, attracting some respectable reviews, shifting a few copies and gaining a fair bit of radio play. Some shows were played.
In August 2008 the band recorded a live session for Adam Walton's BBC radio show. It was engineered by Carl Bevan of 60ft Dolls infamy. A bunch more shows followed, mostly with punk bands. Some of them really good ones. As a result, the band got a bit tighter and a bit grittier but the harmonies and choruses stayed. Good times were had. While all this was going on there were divorces and marriages and children and a new record got written.
Which brings us to Everything Takes Forever which was completed in November 2009, to be released by Bombed Out Records in July 2010. It cost £350 to record. That's inflation, though.
The truly wonderful thing about the internet age, is that despite our differences in geography, culture and language we can all enjoy a good feud.
In one corner there's MRML, Canadian champions of excellent bands across the decades and in the other is The Lanskies Facebook page which has labeled yours truly, "A British Chronic". They even have a contest about our little post where you can win an L.P. and a ticket to one of their shows. (Can I win a contest that might have been started against me?)
Now language barriers prevent me from knowing a) what the hell the term "British Chronic - damn Babel Fish - means and b) if the Lanskies truly misunderstood my good faith. My question was, and remains, can the British papers recognize an excellent band even if the lead singer isn't as stereotypically photogenic as their more typical media darlings from Curtis to Cobain to Casablancas to whoever the hell was on the cover of NME last week? I hope the answer is 'yes' but if I were betting man I might just take a piece of that "shallowness of the British press" action.
So while I stand by my point, if I've offended, Sont des mots qui vont très bien ensemble:
In 1993 former Fastbacks' drummer Duff McKEgan's then-current band (Guns N' Roses) did a UK Subs obscurity ("Down on the Farm") on their covers album ("The Spaghetti Incident"). So to prove who knew their UK punk better, The Fastbacks absolutely ripped-through a deep album track and two B-sides ("Rat Race", "I Live in a Car"and "Telephone Numbers") on this 1995 split with Australia's The Meices.
The Fastbacks - I Live in A Car
Fastbacks/Meices link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, give us your review of these Subs covers
While I'd argue that 1987's ...And His Orchestra is The Fastbacks finest moment, a good case could be made for 1994's Answer the Phone Dummy which which features some of Bloch's finest songs, like "Waste of Time (unembeddable video here). This 1994 single contains three excellent outtakes from that album (including the title track!)
All in Order link is in the comments:
Speaking of comments, What's your favourite Fastbacks song?
Almost twenty years ago, August 19th 1991*, I saw The Fastbacks hand Fugazi their ass. The Fastbacks showed the lords of Dischord, who, in all fairness did spend the night in riot control mode, how fresh, alive and thrilling a long-standing punk band could sound. There, in the stultifying confines of a North Vancouver rec center, they outshined the headliners (who'd earned their legend as a locomotive live act with sweat, blood and phlegm) by reeling off one unheard hit after another. After that, I tried to cram their entire history (12"'s, 7"'s, CD re-issues etc.) into one, rainy fall and winter. Never regretted a note of it.
Just to get you started here's the FBX (Kurt Bloch, Kim Warnick, Lulu Gargiulo* plus a drummer, any drummer***) playing live. This show from 1988, lays out the twin-female-vocal pop onslaught backed by BIG ROCK guitars sound ("The Runaways join Cheap Trick and cover Buzzcocks songs" kinda approximates it) that the band would perfect over the next twenty years while ignoring the fashions of each day.
Bike, Toy, Gift, Clock link is in the comments
Speaking of comments, give us you take on the Fastbacks and let us know if you wanna hear more because there is a LOT of out-of-print material floating around!!
Listen to The Lanskies and you'll swear these boys, who sound like a frenetic cross between early Cure and any-period Futureheads, were 100% British but one look at them and you'd know something was unusual (i.e. they're from France*) since the UK media rarely celebrates groups in which the lead singer isn't the most photogenic member of the band. Pity:
*While based in France, their singer, Lewis Evans, is from Liverpool (but of course I'm translating the exclusively French press materials).
