litmus's posterous

frippertronics 1979-07-24

(download)

i read a story in a recent rolling stone about the remastering and re-release of the king crimson catalog. as a long-time fan of robert fripp, KC's founding father, i started thinking back on a 'frippertronics' performance i saw while at berkeley. just fripp, his guitar, and his reel-to-reel deck with assorted pedals. mesmerizing. here's a clip of fripp doing his thing in 1979 at a tower records store in san diego. i've boosted the volume on the spoken parts so you can hear fripp explain how 'frippertronics' works; the music starts about halfway in. cool stuff.

galactic - live at bonnaroo - 2009-06-12

(download)

crank up those speakers and give a listen to this gem from the galactic set at bonnaroo this past summer. joining the new orleans jazzfunksters were horn magicians boe money and corey henry. this almost-15-minute workout consists of james brown's 'give it up or turn it loose' sandwiched in between slices of galactic's own tune, 'crazyhorse mongoose.' recorded by yours truly.

twangin' with the old 97's

(download)

(note: i'm going to be testing out the posterous-to-wordpress integration over the next few posts in an effort to jumpstart my rather dormant blogging efforts.)

posterous (www.posterous.com) is a pretty interesting proposition: post just about anything anywhere via email. now, wordpress is incredibly easy to use as is, but sometimes adding media files gets a bit cumbersome. posterous allows you to link your various social media accounts (e.g. facebook, flickr, tumblr, etc.)—as well as your blog—via their APIs, and then upload posts and files just by sending an email. cool stuff. so here's the inaugural test from big microscope. i'm dipping back into my audio archives to a show i recorded in 2001.

old 97's
2001-05-11
slim's
san francisco, ca

i was right in the middle of a very dense, very drunk, very loud crowd. not ideal for recording, but hey, it was an old 97's show. i should have been a human bobblehead, bouncing and careening to the overdriven twang lickfest. the old 97's are always great, but this was a great period for a great band. "satellite rides" was going to be the big breakthrough after the crossover success of "Fight Songs," but somehow greater exposure/recognition never happened. rhett's solo career also began around this time, so perhaps that contributed to the relative stall in the 97's rise in popularity.

i've seen the old 97's probably 10 times over the years and this stands out in my memory (and upon listening back) as one of the better performances. great set list too. here's a sample track, "Big Brown Eyes." the full show can be downloaded over at DIME if you have an account: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=259565

ps. yes, it bothers me that the old 97's insist on using the apostrophe in their name. no, i'm not that much of a grammar cop to copy edit the name of a band, no matter how much it galls me to type it that way. i guess i can justify it mentally by thinking to myself "well, the band is 'possessive' about their incorrect spelling, so i'm going to let this one pass."


<<old97s2001-05-11.FWIS-042.flac16.micro.t22.mp3>>

wilco - company in my back - 2009-06-13

(download)

 

testing out the posterous-to-facebook connection. here's a track from the wilco set at bonnaroo this year. i recorded this with my new CA-11 mics…tiny suckas but man do they sound nice. tell me what you think.