The Adverts: Demos, 1977-1979

Steve 23rh, who scanned the cover of this Adverts (more HERE) demos collection over at The Bootleg Zone puts is succinctly when he describes it thusly, "Collection of three batches of demos from 78, 79 and 77 respectively, with an interview with TV and Gaye as a bonus - no source data for any of them. Sound is OK, though the 77 and acoustic demos are pretty thin sound. Split into chunks (read: sessions), rather than individual songs. Accept it, however, for the rarity value."  What that means is that this is a historical wonder for fans who already own the albums and want to pry into their creation.

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
these unearthed demos in the COMMENTS section!


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The Week in Video: Joey Ramone, The Dollyrots, Glen Campbell, Jay Smooth and The Green Day Meltdown!

A cleverly-edited posthumous video features New Yorkers (famous and unknown) showing off Joey Ramone's beloved hometown:





Pop-punk-rock 'girl-group', The Dollyrots, have gone from Lookout Record to Joan Jett's Blckout Records to their own, Kickstarter-funded label, and still sound and look great!





As Johnny Cash did nearing the end of his days, country legend Glen Campbell is both surveying his past and creating a final present.





And hip-hop commentator man, Jay Smooth, reminds us why all Mitt Romney's family stories all sound weird.





Finally, the Green Day video of the week is not the rather tepid new track, "Stay the Night" but Bille Joe's meltdown at the iHeart Radio Festival. As a fan, I'm a tiny bit sympathetic but, realistically, I've got to admit that temper-tantrums do not become a man of his age.





Have a view on any of these videos?
Seen some interesting new videos?
Let us know in the COMMENTS section! 

The Adverts: Top Rank, Sheffield, 1979

The Adverts (more HERE) fell apart in 1979. While I've always had a fondness for their album from that year, Cast of Thousands, it's reputation was quite bad up until this century. This '79 live show, which features just TV on inaudible guitar (Howard Pickup had just left and short-lived guitarist Paul Martinez hadn't yet joined), has circualted for some time (a version was posted over on the original Noise Addiction) and shows what a more keyboard dominated Adverts would have sounded like.





Tracklist
01. The Adverts
02. Back From The Dead
03. Male Assault
04. Fate Of Criminals
05. I Looked At The Sun
06. Television's Over
07. I Surrender
08. Bombsite Boy
09. New Church
10. Love Songs
11. Gary Gilmore's Eyes
12. No Time To Be 21
13. My Place
14. Cast Of Thousands
15. I Will Walk You Home
16. One Chord Wonders
17. The Adverts

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
this version of the band in the COMMENTS section!


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The Ads Just Write Themselves

While I won't deny my obvious bias, the Republican ad campaign this time around seems so weak that rather than pissing me off it just makes me feel sort of sorry for them. I mean, Romney tried to turn up the robo-charm to ten on this ad but the next day, the Democrats just drop a bomb on it:




Then they release a better, if not spectacularly so, version of the same thing:





The reason their campaign is winning is that Obama's ad team have at their disposal, not just money, expertise and passion but that they also have Mitt Romeny's own words, which weaken him like Kryptonite:





Hell, even the mostly ignorable MoveOn.Org facilitated a powerful  set of DIY political ads:





(see the rest of these heart-breaking series HERE)


Of course not everything is perfect, the NSFW "Wake the Fuck-Up" created by the Jewish Council for Educational Research with an assist from Samuel L. Jackson is a damn funny idea but just comes off as a little too hectoring for the audience in question.





And, finally, even all the good meme writers seem to be pro-Democrat, as this brilliant series that puts Mitt Romeny's words in the mouth of Arrested Development's Lucille Bluth:

The Adverts: Outtakes & Rehearsals, 1977-1978

The Adverts (more HERE), as befits as band who's critical stature has grown so much over the years, have been heavily bootlegged. If you readers out there can continue to fill up the COMMENTS section, I will continue to fill up your hard drive with unavailable Adverts stuff. My goal in so doing is, of course to try to convince you to  buy the available albums ( I personalty own Crossing The Red Sea, The Wonders Don't Care and Anthology and I'm going to buy Cast of Thousands again soon) and to check out the amazing solo works of Mr. TV Smith.





Tracklist
A1         One Chord Wonders        
A2         Newboys        
A3         Quick Step        
A4         We Who Wait        
A5         Bored Teenagers        
A6         Great British Mistake        
A7         Bombsite Boy        
B1         I Surrender        
B2         Love Songs        
B3         Fate Of Criminals        
B4         Male Assault        
B5         The Adverts        
B6         My Place        
B7         Television's Over 

Back sleeve states:
"Side 1 - first five tracks are the 'Basement Tape' - a very rare tape from '77 recorded in their rehearsal room when The Adverts were still developing their unique sound, this tape was shopped around to many labels in '77 to get them a record deal while tracks 6 and 7 are rough mixes from the 'Crossing The Read Sea'.
Side 2 is made up entirely from 'Cast Of Thousands' out takes which sounded more raw and punk than when the LP came out" 
 

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
these rarities in the COMMENTS section!


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The American Conservative Catches Fire!

Daniel McCarthy over at The American Conservative, a centre-right magazine fighting  ideological rigidity in the 21st century Republican Party, argues that the GOP may no longer be a national party:

 Because conservatives over-identify with the GOP, and the GOP’s identity is determined by factional and regional ideologies, the result is that conservatives take their definition of conservatism from the party and that definition is more regional- and interest-based than philosophical. This accounts for the spectacle of the GOP periodically getting worked up about “big government” while in fact expanding government — welfare state, warfare state, banning internet gambling, you name it — whenever it’s in power. The blue state/red state psychological divide is more fundamental to the party’s understanding of the world than is any consistent view of the proper extent and uses of government.

The words I bolded help me to grasp the quasi-tribal mindset that allows a group of people to have supported the spend-but-don't-tax financial madness of Bush/Cheney for EIGHT long years but then launch a mad Tea-Party the second Obama took the Oath of Office.

But maybe that's just me.


Update here's Red State man himslef Erick, Ericskon on Romney ten months ago:

    Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.
    I’ve been reading the 200 pages of single spaced opposition research from the John McCain campaign on Mitt Romney. There is no issue I can find on which Mitt Romney has not taken both sides. He is neither liberal nor conservative. He is simply unprincipled. The man has no core beliefs other than in himself.

Now here is Erickson today gamely wrestling with skull-crushing levels of cognitive dissonance:

The staggering irony is that those of us who did not want Romney are now the ones defending him to the hilt while the elitist jerks are distancing themselves from Romney as quickly as possible — both upset at what their media friends tell them is to come and upset that Mitt Romney might not actually listen to their sweet whispers as much as they originally presumed.
Mitt Romney can win. He needs to hone his message.

*

If you haven't read that same magazine's 'The Revolt of the Rich', you're missing a fascinating piece that should make a few Best-of-the -year lists.

The Adverts: Live at The Marquee, 1978

Here's a good -sounding bootleg that captures The Adverts (more HERE) in all their one-chord-wonderfulness. As the set list below indicates, this 1978 bootleg comes from an intriguing juncture in their history - right between the punkier Crossing the Red Sea and the artier Cast of Thousands. Enjoy!





The Adverts
Live at the Marquee
July 27th 1978

1. FATE OF CRIMINALS
2. GARY GILMORE'S EYES
3. DROWNING MEN
4. BOMBSITE BOYS
5. TELEVISION'S OVER
6. MALE ASSAULT
7. NEW CHURCH
8. WE WHO WAIT
9. NEW BOYS
10. ON WHEELS
11. I SURRENDER
12. BACK FROM THE DEAD
13. LOVE SONGS
14. SAFETY IN NUMBERS
15. BORED TEENAGERS
16. NO TIME TO BE 21
17. ONE CHORD WONDERS
18. THE GREAT BRITISH MISTAKE

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
this '78 live set in the COMMENTS section!


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The Adverts: Live at The Electric Circus, 1977

Here's TV Smith and The Adverts (more HERE) kicking ass back in the Summer of Hate. The sound quality of this audience recording is limited by time and technology but still shows this band just spitting fire! Plus the smashing cover art was clearly created by a big fan of Ms. Advert! I've got lots of Adverts bootlegs in the Blog Ideas folder but I need to hear from YOU before I'll let loose the deluge.





The Adverts
Electric Circus, Manchester UK
26 June 1977

00 intro
01 Gary Gilmore's Eyes
02 New Boys
03 One Chord Wonders
04 On The Roof
05 New Day Dawning
06 Quickstep
07 Safety In Numbers
08 Great British Mistake
09 New Church (beginning cut due to tape flip)
10 Bombsite Boy
11 Bored Teenagers

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
this '77 live set in the COMMENTS section!


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The Adverts: The Wonders Don't Care (Complete Radio Sessions)

In his sharp, if occasionally plodding, biography of Joe Strummer, Redemption Song, Chris Salecwicz reduces The Adverts to "a punk group who had a couple of hits". Such bloody nonsense (he slams the Ruts as, "reasonably successful Clash copyists"), taints an otherwise well-written and meticulously researched piece of work. The Adverts and their leader, TV Smith, cannot be so glibly dismissed.

The Adverts' two late seventies albums, the sorta accessible one and the kinda difficult one, would be towering achievements enough. But over the course of his career, as band leader and as a solo artist, Smith has proven himself Strummer's finest peer. I mean if the Strummerian ideal is the fiery visionary spitting truth at power whilst rocking furiously then TV Smith has been what Strummer should've been in his later years.

 

Author, critic (and mega-fan) Dave Thompson argues that "Nobody would make music like The Adverts and nobody ever has. In terms of lyric, delivery, commitment and courage, they were, and they remain, the finest British group of the late 1970s". As proof, here's an out-of-print collection of their BBC recordings, which spans their brief existence.

1.One Chord Wonders 2.Bored Teenagers 3.Gary Gilmore´s Eyes 4.Newboys 5.Quickstep 6.We Who Wait 7.New Church 8.Safety In Numbers 9.Great British Mistake 10.Fate Of Criminals 11.Television´s Over 12.Love Songs 13.Back From The Dead 14.I Surrender 15.The Adverts 16.I Looked At The Sun 17.Cast Of Thousands 17.I Will Walk You Home

Tracks 1-5: Peel Session, first broadcast 29.4.77
Tracks 6-9: Peel Session, first broadcast 30.8.77
Tracks 10-14: Peel Session, first broadcast 11.9.78
Tracks 15-18: Peel Session, first broadcast 12.11.79

Hey Advert-tarians, give us a word or two on 
these BBC sessions in the COMMENTS section!


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TECH HELP for VINYL RIPS!

Look I'm terrible at fidding with computer gadgetry, I don't deny it. Here I thought I'd sussed out this amplifier-to-computer ripping business but something went wrong along the way and now I can't repeat the feat.

My request.

If I'm trying to get information from my receiver to my computer where I wish to store the files into Goldwave, what steps do I need to make?
I'm missing one (or two) steps and technical-minded peple who could help me through this muddle would be greatly appreciated!

Please contact me at musicruinedmylife@gmail.com with answers or further questions.


Specs

The Onkyo TX-850 Amp (front)

 The Onkyo TX-850 Amp (back)

The computer sound-card

The ripping program (Goldwave)

UPDATE: Thanks to my commenters, I'll try to absorb your advice and get back to you!

Every Vinyl Lover's Dream Pt. 1

"So I need to get rid of two huge boxes of records, can you help me out?"

Tell me that's a question that most of you wouldn't answer in the Hell-Yes-affirmative?

I actually bet a lot of the hold-outs among you would change you mind pretty quick if you saw what was in those boxes!

The man's collection was nothing if not eclectic: soul, celtic, punk, rockabilly, classical, new wave, swing, ska, mod, garage, funk, psychedelic, Indian, Spanish, reggae, R & B, folk, pop, spirituals, hardcore, hard rock, industrial and it just keeps diversifying. Amazing really, especially as my own collection's is so comparatively narrow.

I will get a cut in one way or another, of course. My first instinct was to take a slice for myself and just pop down to the local vinyl store and be done with the rest of it. But the quality and depth of this collection make forming a plan a necessity. I mean, there are things in here that, to the best of my knowledge have never been digitized (more on that list later, I promise) and I can't let such a historical find slip by undocumented. So, I will be keeping some, ripping some and, finally, selling some in different places. I spent a a year buying people's vinyl collections, so trust me when I say that everyone's definition of 'the cream' of this crop will differ. I will be giving you updates on the blog and even if such vinyl excavations are unappealing, the rips that result from this will be very cool indeed. So please encourage this project with a word or two in the COMMENTS section.

Possible cuts for me include the above. The Subhumans Incorrect Thoughts (Friends Records version) is staying with me forever (yes, it's the same copy I wrote about HERE) as is the 999 Concrete. The MDC 7" is also surely a keeper as is the NMA Vengeance and the Nils S/T. We'll see about the rest....


Current listening:

Earlier this morning listening:

Happily this mildly momentous moment coincides with me finally connecting my stero to my computer. So, while ripping is still a time-intensive task (for me anyways) that I do  not adore, I will make sure you all share in this bounty in some way.


HEY,
ANY STORIES OF
LUCKY VINYL FINDS?
LET US KNOW IN
THE COMMENTS 
SECTION!

The Truth at Last

America, the truth is out at last; Mitt Romney hates you.

There are approximately 311,591,917 citizens in America.

146,448,201 of them are, in Romney's words, 'dependent' 'victims' '...who pay no income tax'. In case you think his point was just not 'elegantly stated', he twists the knife further by saying, "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." (See the secretly-recorded video here.)

A 'cling to their guns and religion' moment? Hardly. While that line may be the dumbest thing Obama ever said, the full context reveals a genuine empathy for a group of neglected people that is marred by condescension and inept wording. But the full context of this speech, Romney standing in front of his fellow 1%'ers saying that half of America are welfare bums who can't and won't take care of themselves makes it the most stomach-turning moment of this campaign bar none.

You, the regular American, can pretend that he couldn't possibly be talking about you.

But, in fact, the odds are good that it is you he's just damned.

In the end, however,  it is for the best that Mr. Romney's hateful divisiveness has been stripped bare for everyone, Americans and those of us in the rest of the world, to see.

The Vapors: Live in Boston, 1980 (FM)

One last Vapors (more HERE) bootleg for all my COMMENTERS - you folks keep us going! This is a great-sounding FM broadcast from the New Clear Days tour.





Last chance for a word or two on The Vapors.
We await you in the COMMENTS section!

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TV Smith: Dangerous Playground (2012)

A DMCA takedown order was issued because this post used the EP's cover. Really.

"TV Smith’s new EP Dangerous Playground, comprises four new songs specially written for the play “Der Kalte Kuss von warmem Bier” (the cold kiss of warm beer) by German playwright Dirk Laucke"





It's nifty little EP with a song in German and three acoustic rockers sure to make it into the man's fearsome live repertoire. And it marks a frenzy of recent Smith activity including the airing of  the We Who Wait documentary, the launch of "Tales of The Emergency Sandwich" The Punk Rock Tour Diaries Part 3, the release of a new collection of rarities, Lucky Us as well as a deluxe re-re-issue issue of TV Smith's Explorers and a remastering of March of the Giants (plus a visit to Jools Holland:)





 
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David Fenton (ex-Vapors): Fresh Air (1983)

Thanks to Håkan for the rip and scan of this lost treasure.

After The Vapors (more HERE) dispersed, leader David Fenton released his only solo single in 1983.





While in instrumentation these two tracks ( "Fresh Air" b/w "Buried in Snow") are closer to the synth-pop of their time, the songs are thoughtful, melodic and vocal-heavy, which makes for a far more human final product than so much of what filled the racks of this time.

So, whats your take on Mr. Fenton's solo stand?
We await your word in the COMMENTS section!

Support Mr. Fenton!

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The Vapors: Live in Guldford, 1981

Here's where the injustice of The Vapors' career hits its cruelest moment. Every time I listen to their fantastically unappreciated sophomore (and final!) album, Magnets I get that feeling you get when reading that part in the historical novel (say Dr. Zhivago or Cold Mountain) where our protagonists have finally found a portion of safety and even fully knowing the doom that awaits them, we hope that the mad tide of history will be stemmed by the sheer force of our will. 

Sure this album is slower, sadder and more paranoid then New Clear Days but that doesn't lessen its impact at all. The fact that the jump-out-at-you single, `Jimmie Jones` does not tower over the album like ``Turning Japanese` did with their debut gives this album a greater cohesion, even if it is a terribly claustrophobic cohesion.  The album`s new-wave-psychedelic-reggae-pop sound just shines, whether it`s the  driving rockers like 'Live at the Marquee`, and `Lenina` or the tense ballads like `Civic Hall`and `Silver Machines`, there`s not a weak second here.

The Vapors
Live at The Civic Hall
Guildford, Surrey 11.2.81
Source : FM Broadcast

Tracklisting :
01 News At Ten
02 Johnny's In Love Again
03 Sixty Second Interval
04 Jimmie Jones
05 Turning Japanese
06 Daylight Titans
07 Magnets
08 Isolated Case
09 Letter From Hiro
10 Trains
11 Live At The Marquee
12 Prisoners
13 Civic Hall
14 Bunkers

So, where do you stand on Magnets?
We await your word in the COMMENTS section!

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"Let the American People Judge That"

Mitt Romney leaves podium after speaking about U.S. consulate killings in Benghazi, Libya via AP

With even Republicans condemning his reckless, inaccurate reaction to the attack on the American embassy in Libya (the substantial and growing tally is here and here), it seems that Governor Romney's willingness to play etch-a-sketch with the truth has finally created a measure of bi-partsianshipness in America. As Obama sagely said when asked if Romney's statement was irresposible, "...Let the American people judge that". And I believe they will, I truly believe they will.

What Did You Buy This Week? (09/12/12)

The Sack Get Wrecked CD (more HERE), the Kurt Baker Want You Around 7" (more HERE), the Devo Tribute 7" (see below) and all the buttons all came from Jolly Ronnie Records - thanks for great order, Ryan.

The Graham Parker Live at Rockpalast 1978, 1980 (more HERE), which captures GP and the Rumour at two peaks and Bob Dylan's Tempest (more HERE), which is reviving my lagging faith in the man's late-career resurgence. The last two were bought brand new ($15.99 a piece) from The Winnipeg Folk Festival Music Store - thanks, Andy!





So, please tell us what music you've bought recently in the COMMENTS section (and fell free to leave a link, if you're so inclined).

The Vapors: Live in D.C. (1980)

The Vapors first album, New Clear Days was new-wave-mod-punk-power-pop perfection. Hit-after-mother-fucking-hit but only one, `Turning Japanese` blew up.`News at Ten`, `Waiting for the Weekend`and `Sixty Second Interval`all belong on a list of Vapors classics.  Of course you may have your own favourite off New Clear Days...





A great set with two tracks `Secret Noise`and `Here Comes the Judge` which were never recorded in the studio (TTBOMK).

01. Somehow
02. Prisoners
03. Bunkers
04. Johnny's In Love Again
05. News At Ten
06. Cold War
07. Letter from Hiro
08. Galleries For Guns
09. Waiting for the Weekend
10. Turning Japanese
11. Trains
12. America
13. Secret Noise
14. Here Comes the Judge





So, whats your favourite track from New Clear Days?
We await your word in the COMMENTS section!

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