Tim's Digest 3

Jungle Room Records

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 17:04:00 +0000

Ungawa! I'm unleasing obscure oddities from 35 years of record collecting that (hopefully) have not appeared on other compilations of wild, weird Mid-century vinyl fun. Some of these tracks appeared here on M4M, but I've cleaned them up quite a bit. NINE (9) releases so far.

https://jungleroomrecords1.bandcamp.com/

The much-appreciated proceeds go to our daughter's education.

Magic at the Olivier Awards – Richard Hawley fail

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:57:42 +0000

Rock FM caller drops a C-Bomb at Breakfast

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 09:01:01 +0000

Jordan North Sheets Fail

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 10:56:30 +0000

BBC Radio 2 Matt Hancock Caller fail

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 18:55:45 +0000

Halloween Tabs and Chords

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 17:00:53 +0000

Now you’ve got your bawdy side of rancy costume ready, here are some tunes you may wish to bone up on before the big night.

Addams Family Theme Tune
Black Sabbath – Paranoid
Childish Gambino – Redbone (From Get Out)
Chopin – Funeral March
Jonathan Coulton – Re: Your Brains
The Cranberries – Zombie
Dance Macabre
The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers
The Doors – People Are Strange
The Fall – Mansion
The Gothic Archies – Freakshow
Halloween Theme
Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme
In Heaven (From Eraserhead
The Last of Us II –
Through the Valley
London Bridge Is Falling Down (From Halloween)
The Misfits – Dig Up Her Bones
The Misfits – Halloween
My Chemical Romance – Welcome to the Black Parade
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells (from The Exorcist)
Nerf Herder – Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theme
One Night Ultimate Werewolf – Fantasy Theme
Ray Parker Jr – Ghostbusters
The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
Gustavo Santaolalla – Last of Us Theme
Skrillex – Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
This is Halloween (From Nightmare Before Christmas)
Tom Waits – Whistlin’ Past the Graveyard
Twilight Zone Theme
Twin Peaks Theme
The Walking Dead Theme
Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London
The White Stripes – Little Ghost

Five Halloween riffs/intros: Thriller, Devil Went Down to Georgia, Sweet Dreams, Don’t Fear the Reaper and Jump in the Line
Five More Halloween riffs: Voodoo Child (Slight Return), All the Good Girls Go To Hell, Suspiria Theme, Werewolf Bar Mitzvah, Evil Eye.

And a tutorial to spookify your playing:

Spooky Ukulele Sounds

Otis Redding – (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay (Tabs)

Tue, 18 Oct 2022 17:00:20 +0000

Otis Redding – The Dock of the Bay (Tab)

Intro: I love the whistled outro of this song. So I simplified it and used is as the intro too.

Verse: I’ve tabbed these as repeats but there are slight differences in the timings of the notes that are pretty easy to pick out yourself. Or I’m sure no one will notice or care if you just repeat the first verse exactly each time.

Chorus: Usually, I’ll emphasise the melody of the song over other elements. But the guitar part here is so great I’ve tried to incorporate that as much as possible.

Bridge: The hardest part of the song. The melody gets a bit fiddly. Especially with it being high on the fretboard.

Outro: What a great melody to just toss out in the outro.

Links

Buy the original
More soul tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Miriam Margolyes fail on BBC Radio 4

Sat, 15 Oct 2022 11:33:17 +0000

UkeTube: Feng E, Sasha Samara, Benny Chong

Sat, 08 Oct 2022 13:33:24 +0000

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Feng E – As It Was
Jacob Bittencourt – Santa Morena via @ukeist
Sasha Samara – Problems
Benny Chong and Byron Yasui – There's A Small Hotel
SeattleUke – Groundhog Day
Ukulele Solos – I Will Follow You into the Dark
Jiggy With Viggy – Still Into You
Zoë Bestel – Oh Lori

Dido – Thank You (Tabs)

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 17:00:37 +0000

Dido – Thank You (Tabs)

Here’s my take on Dido’s very catchy but slightly annoying Thank You. Famously sampled in Eminem’s Stan.

Intro: A nice little chord arpeggio section using one finger per string picking.

Verse: From this point on, the picking is all over the place. There are a few tricky sections here. I found bars 7 and 8 required the most practice.

Chorus: Things chill out a bit in the chorus. There’s a big slide up to the 8th fret to deal with. And some alternate picking required for the fast notes at the end of bars 12 and 16.

Bridge: A slight variation on the verse with the Am-Gm ending from the chorus.

Links

Buy the original
More pop tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

The Foggy Dew (Tabs)

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 17:00:38 +0000

The Foggy Dew (Tab)

The Foggy Dew is a traditional Irish tune that gathered lyrics in 1919. It’s usually sung slowly but my version is closer to the tempo The Dubliners play it at.

The arrangement starts of with a bit of campanella playing before beefing things up with chords. It’s also worth varying the dynamics of repeated sections so it doesn’t get same-y.

Links

More Irish tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Friday Links: Terror in the Sky

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 13:00:16 +0000

Someone decided it would be a good idea to hand out ukuleles on flight to Hawaii and give everyone a ukulele lesson leading to headlines like “Terror In the Sky!” and “Why the Hague Exists”. Although, with the amount of cheap publicity this got, the furore might have been the goal from the start.

Choan Galvez has a new set of original tabs for low-G uke: May the Low 4th.

Terry Thomas and Liberace duet.

Window Shopping
– Stroviols Soprano the uke with a horn.
– Two from Lichty: Mahogany Steel String Baritone and Archtop Tenor U177.
– Mya Moe resonator.

Patreon

A massive thanks to all Uke Hunt’s Patreon backers for keeping the site up and running this month. And double thanks go to these legendary patrons of the arts:

– Arthur Foley
– Colleen Petticrew
– Dan
– Dennis Boutsikaris
– Elizabeth Beardsley
– Ivo
– Jameson Gagnepain
– Jeff K
– Jon Kenniston
– Kelby Green
– Kie77
– Lisa Johnson
– Monika Kolodziejczyk
– Moses Kamai
– Nevylle Carroll
– Nick Parsons
– Olga deSanctis
– Pat Weikle
– Pauline LeBlanc
– Robert
– ROBERT WALKER
– T S
– Thorsten Neff

If you join Patreon at the Concert level or higher, you’ll get access to all previous exclusive tabs including September’s: Classical Gas by Mason Williams.

The Beatles – Oh! Darling (Tabs)

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 17:00:11 +0000

The Beatles – Oh! Darling (Tab)

It was a nice surprise to see Paul McCartney playing Oh! Darling live for the first time at the Taylor Hawkins memorial. It’s a nice blend of early-era R&B Beatles in the verses and the harder-edged, bluesier later Beatles in the chorus.

Links

Buy the original
More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

Petula Clark – Downtown (Tabs)

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 17:00:35 +0000

Petula Clark – Downtown (Tabs)

I was surprised to learn this song was written by Tony Hatch. Who is best known to me for writing the theme tunes to Neighbours, Emmerdale Farm and Crossroads.

I was inspired to tab this one when it cropped up in Girl, Interrupted and I immediately lost interest in the movie and started working it out. This arrangement is based on the Petula Clark version. Although the Groundskeeper Willie version is definitive.

Links

Buy the original
More 60s tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon.

What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? (Tabs)

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 17:00:54 +0000

What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor? (Tab)

I recorded the video for this ages ago and never got around to posting it. But International Talk Like a Pirate Day seems like a good occasion to get it up at last.

This arrangement of Drunken Sailor includes one of my favourite tricks: playing the same note on multiple strings. The first bar has consecutive A notes on the g, E and A strings. Followed in bar two by consecutive G notes on the g, C and E strings.

Links

More traditional tabs and chords
Uke Hunt Patreon

UkeTube: Tune-Yards, Paula Fuga, Moon Berries

Sat, 10 Sep 2022 13:00:27 +0000

Watch on YouTube

Tracklist
Tune-Yards – nowhere man
Irie Love, Paula Fuga, Mike Love & More – Your House
Moon Berries – Same Mistakes
Duo Travessia – Danca da solidão
KimaMusic – Silence Is Also An Answer
domands – Just Once
tinyumbrellas – Please Don’t Make This Weird
dodie – Hot Mess

Jordan North drops a bollock on Radio 1

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 21:30:44 +0000

Eurovision 2021

Sun, 23 May 2021 00:22:21 +0000

After one plague year off, they managed to hold Eurovision this year in Rotterdam, with social-distancing protocols in place and contestants prerecording videos and self-isolating if they didn't test negative.

The winner this year was Italy, who had a group of grungy-looking young dudes with tattoos and slicked-back hair playing some alternative rock like it's the 90s again; the vibe was four parts dive bar to one part Jim Rose sideshow; in any case, they were in the top 5 with the juries, and catapulted to #1 by the public vote. Not my top pick, but a fair cop, and more inspiring than the runner-up, Switzerland (who won the juries, but appeared too forgettable for the public), or arguably France (who seemed sweet and earnest though not quite up to her Piaf-esque number).

My choices were Iceland, Germany, Finland and Lithuania, not necessarily in that order. Iceland's entry, a slab of jittery electrofunk with pixel-art aesthetics and a routine with semicircular keytars, came a respectable third, giving hope that we may yet see Eurovision go to Reykjavík. Germany had a chap named Jendrik, whose name suggests an Aldi version of Jedward, strumming a ukulele and singing a song titled I Don't Feel Hate, on a pastel-coloured set with a number of dancers including one costumed as a hand sticking its middle finger up. It was a bit silly, though fun and well done; unfortunately for them, the audience didn't share its sentiment, giving it 0 points on top of the 3 from the juries. Finland also did hard rock with an industrial edge, though perhaps their mistake was leaving the monster costumes at home, which let Italy's brand of rock get the charisma edge, leaving them at #5. And Lithuania did a competent minimal-house number almost industrial in places, with the clever touch of it being about dancing alone, a relatable theme in the Ronacene; they came 8th.

There were other contestants worthy of note. Belgium brought the late-90s trip-hop-adjacent chillout crew Hooverphonic out of retirement, playing an all live set, with not a breakbeat or a rompler-based epiano patch in sight. Cyprus had famously offended their local religiots with some mild Satanic themes in what was an otherwise generic piece of Gaga-lite eurodance. Israel brought some tasteful Mark Ronson-esque electrofunk, which, at a different time, might have done better. Russia brought a song railing against sexism, which was probably as rebellious as they could get away with (Dad: "We have Pussy Riot at home"). Malta did respectably well with a Shakira-meets-Gnarls-Barkley number with extra sass. Greece's visuals promised a glitch aesthetics which their sound didn't deliver (and it's not hard; we've had vaporwave for over a decade, and surely some must have filtered down to the Eurovision plane by now). Bulgaria had a rather nice song in a somewhat Phoebe Bridgers vein, Ukraine went cyber-Slavic, Azerbaijan had a Middle Eastern-styled club banger titled Mata Hari that you know will be booming out of car stereos at kebab o'clock all summer, and Norway's entry looked like the writing session was a game of Telephone which started with “let's do something like Robbie Williams' ‘Angels’”; i.e., a bit of a mess, albeit technically well executed. The Dutch entry was a bit cringeworthy, coming across like every postcolonial struggle distilled into a high-concept perfume commercial. Meanwhile, plucky little San Marino managed to get the American rapper Flo Rida to do a guest verse, though it didn't get them anywhere.

Sweden's entry was competent though unexciting, which is arguably not entirely an un-Swedish thing to be. Australia failed to make it through to the final this year, for the first time since being admitted as a participant. As for the UK, the less said the better. It wasn't their worst entry in recent years by far; it didn't look like a routine by the resident entertainment crew at a second-tier Butlins, for one, and wasn't an egregious show of contempt for Johnny Foreigner and his silly song contest, and the performer looked like an agreeable sort of chap you could have a drink or a board game with. All that was immaterial, though, as Britain, and Britain alone, got nul points from both the juries and the audiences. Presumably by now Britain's pariah status is so ingrained that they have a decade of rock-bottom results baked in no matter what they do, and so it becomes debatable whether there is any point in sending someone to 2022 to receive the annual ritual humiliation. Perhaps an independent Scottish entry will fare better (and one knows an independent Welsh one would, should this ever happen).

Anyway, it looks like it's in Rome next year.

¶ eurovision 0

Pulse 1 microphone fail

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 11:01:44 +0000

BBC Radio 5 Live voice fail

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 19:21:57 +0000

BBC Radio London Not Paying Attention fail

Sun, 22 Nov 2020 08:31:53 +0000

John Cleese @ChrisMoyles @RadioX Fuck Fail

Thu, 10 Sep 2020 08:33:39 +0000

Finding Resillience

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 10:13:20 +0000

Article by Charley Zheng, the Documentarian fellowship winner reflecting on the challenges of being on a Studio D expedition in Afghanistan. Read Finding Resilience, Confronting Limitations On An Expedition Through Afghanistan’s Big Pamir.

Photo by Charley.

Working in larger teams

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 10:09:31 +0000

Article by Sarah Fathallah one of the Studio D team in Myanmar earlier this year, reflecting on larger team dynamics. The ‘open sesame’ to working on a foundational design research project with a ten-person team.

The Panj Drift

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 10:02:14 +0000

Essay by Patrick Pittman, Studio D travel grant winner. Read The Panj Drift.

Hamidashimono—How to make Izakaya Grade chopsticks

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 09:59:15 +0000

I’ve been working on a side project with fellow Japan-based designers James Gibson and Eko Hayashi. It all started with a visit to a chopstick factory in Yoshino, Nara.

See more at hamidashimono.com.

When It Rains, It Pours

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 09:55:26 +0000

Pleased to announce a new research publication, a foundational research project on the sesame ecosystem in Myanmar—When It Rains, It Pours, commissioned by our friends at Proximity Designs.

Studio D End Of Year Report, 2018

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 09:14:54 +0000

What we do, why, and what’s on the horizon.

Untitled Strange Sounds

Sun, 15 Sep 2019 04:21:30 +0000

Here are some recordings I made using Soma Ether, SDRSharp, VSTHOST and free VST plugins.
VSTHost server appears to be down as of this post.
https://somasynths.com/ether/
https://airspy.com/download/
http://www.hermannseib.com/english/vsthost.htm
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=free+VST+plugins

direct mp3 download or play

Direct mp3 download or play

——————————————————————————————————

Here is an unprocessed recording of the Ether box. I connected it to my iPhone through an inexpensive analog-to-digital converter. A wav file was made using a recording application. The waveform looks quite unusual, as well.

Direct mp3 download or play

Image of the waveform in Audacity audio editor

Old Radio Spots – Handy Andy

Sun, 08 Sep 2019 01:42:52 +0000

Handy Andy Closeout Sale spot #1

Handy Andy Closeout Sale spot # 2

“Just north of the Sunvalley Shopping Center on Contra Costa Boulevard.”

Summer Rain on My Bamboo

Sun, 11 Aug 2019 19:39:39 +0000

Direct mp3 download or play

Direct high quality FLAC download or play

I made this using only my iPhone and Shure MV88 stereo microphone.

The bamboo behind my house in Seattle

Shure MV88 stereo condenser microphone with Lightning plug

Background Music From Hell

Mon, 22 Jul 2019 22:20:08 +0000

Direct mp3 download or play

Eight songs (will remain nameless) from an internet radio station that specializes in vintage background music being played through SDRSharp, software defined radio. The software radio tuner was set to capture directly from the computer sound card. Another bit of software known as a “virtual cable” was used to direct the sound from a media player or browser to the input of SDRSharp. The software tuner was set to upper sideband and de-tuned up slightly to create the dissonant effect.

SDRSharp receiving audio from internet radio

Fats Waller Booper MIDI

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 20:29:00 +0000

!8th Street Strut by Fats Waller, Goofy MIDI Booper sound playback

Direct mp3 download or play

4th of July Ambience 2019

Sat, 06 Jul 2019 00:04:12 +0000

Direct mp3 download or play

This is my recording of the 4th of July for 2019, done similarly to 2018. Microphones are inexpensive electret capsules encased in facial tissue. I used phantom power to electret plug-in power adapters from Naiant Studio to connect the electret condenser microphones to balanced XLR inputs.

This is a wide stereo recording. One microphone was placed outside a window facing west in my living room and the other outside a sliding door on the east side of the living room. The metal window frame of the living room window has a wire running from it to my Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 audio interface to reduce hum pick-up. The audio was captured with VSTHost and a little light processing performed with Audacity audio editor. All of that was done on an inexpensive laptop computer running Windows 10.

VSTHost plugins for recording fireworks

Needle Time

Wed, 08 May 2019 08:06:00 +0000

Posts on this blog are now closed. If you haven't already found it, you now need to head over to Needle Time for my latest muses, meanderings and rippings. See you there!

The History of Wallpaper

Fri, 19 Apr 2019 21:43:30 +0000

Direct mp3 download or play

Here is a recording made by a deceased member of Negativland, Richard Lyons, years before there was any thought of a performing group or band. It was during the time I first became friends with Richard, possibly in the mid-1970s. Richard told me later he made this using his Craig model 212 (two-twelve) portable tape recorder. Richard was even able to make a crude echo effect on this machine. Along with several “takes,” we hear Richard experimenting with recording bits from top 40 radio station KFRC in San Francisco.

Old Radio Spot Silvera Home Improvement Center

Thu, 28 Mar 2019 03:45:39 +0000

https://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Silviera-Lumber_Fixed-1.mp3

Direct mp3 download or play

Here is another radio commercial from my original collection of tapes I found at a radio station transmitter site in the late 1970s. The original box and the tape are missing at this time and the name “Silvera” has been spelled “Silviera” as the digital audio file name. There are several websites indicating the company “Silvera Lumber” in Antioch, California has been “dissolved.”

Another Strange Sound From Seattle 2019

Wed, 13 Mar 2019 03:12:21 +0000

https://www.negativland.com/dumb/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/darkdrone.mp3

Direct mp3 download or play

Lately, I’ve been having dreams where I can hear similar sounds. I made this entirely in my computer using VST plug-ins.

https://www.negativland.com/dumb/video/darkdrone_remux.mp4

Direct mp4 download or play

I made the video using a Winamp visualization that is a little like an old analog television having very bad reception problems.

Product Tags & Brochures My Parents Saved

Sat, 09 Mar 2019 04:43:18 +0000

These are in no particular order and more may be added in the future. Click or tap pictures for higher resolution images.

WFMU's SHEENA'S JUNGLE ROOM internet radio

Fri, 26 Oct 2018 16:46:00 +0000

Now screaming, er, streaming via the world's greatest radio station:

https://wfmujungleroom.blogspot.com/

or via WFMU's home page (under "Listen"): https://wfmu.org/

All lowbrow all the time...uncensored audio entertainment and enlightenment for an uptight world! Featuring plenty of stuff from this here blog, including plenty of rarities recorded from vinyl (and video) - coolness not digitally available.

Thanks to all the contributors over the years - your gifts to this blog now have a semi-permanent home beaming out to the world.

So now you know what's I've been doing with myself lately. See y'all at the Room!

Studio D 2017 End of Year Report

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 09:10:06 +0000

If you’re curious what we got up to with our little experiment of a studio, read the Studio D 2017 End of Year Report.

Ada Lovelace Day 2017!

Tue, 10 Oct 2017 07:06:33 +0000

Gooood morning, it’s Ada Lovelace Day! This comic started on Ada Lovelace Day 2009 so every year I celebrate/mourn/as myself “what happened there?” with.. gifs! Feel free to share! In a couple of gif sizes for all your gif needs!

(Good job I’m not looking for 2d animation work for lo these many years…)

Previous years-

Share away, know yourselves out. (“Knock yourself out” means, go right ahead, go crazy in fact; something I should clarify as someone emailed to ask if they could use Lovelace: The Origin in a slideshow and I told them to “knock themselves out” and they were sad.)

Lovelace: The Origin is creative commons so you can feel free to use that too..)

The Anatomy of a Kickstarter

Sun, 17 Sep 2017 21:58:31 +0000

In May this year we raised $337k on Kickstarter for the launch of the Handbook. It seemed like a healthy sum.

But what does it take to prepare a campaign on Kickstarter? What are the pros and cons of using the platform to launch a passion project? How much of the money raised do you actually see? How does one transition from a successful Kickstarter to a successful product launch?

I’ve written an essay, that covers preparation, mistakes, where we got lucky, to what we would do differently next time. It’s for anyone looking to bring their passion project to life—The Anatomy of a Kickstarter.

Sexy! Lovelace and Babbage Coming to your screens-

Sun, 03 Sep 2017 11:22:54 +0000

This entry is part 12 of 12 in the series Meanwhile..

This is an emergency broadcast from 2dGoggles- Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage (the historical ones, or at least a different interpretation of the historical ones) apparently will make a appearance in the tv show Victoria TONIGHT on ITV in the UK- available also online.

Synopsis:

Having resumed her royal duties, Victoria is disconcerted when Albert appears to be drawn to erudite female mathematician, Ada Lovelace, who is working with the acclaimed Charles Babbage. Victoria arranges a cultural evening to meet the pair, but starts to fear that she is losing her husband’s attention.

I take it this is not exactly a documentary as to the best of my knowledge Ada Lovelace never made out with Prince Albert? This would seem to be another, SEXIER, pocket universe! The mind possibly boggles with possibilities, or at least mine did.

Someone on twitter asked for a variant so here: PRESTIGE TELEVISION

Aaaaand in the grand tradition of pantomime smut (these are suuuper rough but yeah I’m not cleaning these up. I apologise in advance.

I’ll return after it airs with a thorough post-mortem! (This will air in the US sometime in 2018 so spoilers I guess).

ps- Vast comics drought from me due to climate change and also I took a vfx gig to avoid writing and it was really effective at that.

New Order - Chicago Metro 1983 addendum

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 03:17:00 +0000

Coupla things.

Ex-blog partner 50 Pound Note provided some excellent and apropos artwork for this set.

Free iCookie to anyone who can translate the code. Pick it up from your neighbor and tell them I sent you.

I have done the Ferris Bueller thing with this Seurat painting many times in person, at least until the point the security starts giving you the staredown for getting too close...

Readers will recall I ended the original post with the entreaty that folks carry on the set's availability by uploading it themselves to wetransfer.com and posting the download URL in the comments. I've had several folks contact me looking for a reupload. Now's your time to shine.

NEW ORDER 30 June 1983 Cabaret Metro, Chicago

Sun, 06 Aug 2017 01:52:00 +0000

(peeks out from under the covers, sees a world still there, spews out a blog post, and crawls back in...)

I was in Chicago two weekends ago and had one of the most wonderful weekends I've had in many years. I saw 12 hours of excellent music, including two sets each from Poster Children and Tar, made many new friends, met up in person with some existing friends for the first time ever, and just had a blast. Having dinner with Tar two nights in a row was only some of the fun to be had.

But this post has nothing to do with aluminum guitars, noisy punk rock, etc.

Several months ago, I had gotten into a discussion via a Facebook comment thread with a Chicago person who claimed to have a tape of New Order's debut Chicago gig June 30, 1983 at the legendary Cabaret Metro. For background, there are two New Order sets which have long been held up as the Holy Grails of New Order tapes - this show, and their debut Beach Club performance from 1980. For 34 years, no known tape of this Chicago set had been known to exist and all discussion was essentially conjecture and long-diminished memories from club owners and punters who attended. As I had already made arrangements to be in Chicago for the weekend described up top, I made separate arrangements to meet up with this person and pick up a copy of this set. If I'm to be honest, I didn't expect it to be much of anything. So, that Saturday two weeks ago, I did. Turns out to have been with a lovely fellow who had several entertaining stories to share about gigs and particularly this recording.

The minute I put the CD-R into the rental car's CD player, I knew it was special.

I put this on Dime, but decided to also put it up here. The WeTransfer link expires in 7 days - I would ask that any requests after 7 days be met by folks who downloaded it, by re-upping it to WeTransfer and putting the fresh link in the comments. Pay it forward, etc.

So onward.

NEW ORDER
June 30, 1983
Cabaret Metro, Chicago IL USA

Equipment/lineage: who the hell knows -> space aliens -> A. -> CD-R -> Analog Loyalist mastering -> you

It’s not often something like this sort of falls in your lap.

June 30, 1983 was the hottest day of the year to date in Chicago. The now-legendary venue Metro - then known as Cabaret Metro - had been open for roughly a year. While I was just an 11 year old kid cavorting on a beach across Lake Michigan from Chicago that day - or most likely asleep in the summer cottage, considering the time - New Order finally made their debut appearance in Chicago. Attendees say it was unbearably hot inside the Metro that night. And allegedly even hotter on the stage. That day, the high temperature reached near 100° F in Chicago and it had barely cooled as the evening went on. Making matters worse, the band took nearly two hours to get on stage after the opening act, which made an uncomfortable and stinky audience even more strident.

The set starts out as your typical New Order set of the era would. Things seem OK, maybe a bit rowdier crowd than normal, until late in the fourth song “Truth” when the sequencer starts to act up. They launch straight into “Leave Me Alone” which ends uneventfully. Then, the power goes out (as you’d have it). A restless crowd begins complaining amongst itself, with audible complaints about sweat dripping into eyes, another mentioning rubbing ice all over their face, and vocalized thankfulness that they brought paper towels in. Random sequencer bleats punctuate the rumbling crowd, as the roadies and venue staff try to get the power sorted. Hooky mentions needing a shower. Eventually, “Your Silent Face” starts. It devolves into a unique and fascinating exposition on what a sequencer-using band does when the sequencers are failing mid song - Steve Morris jumps behind the drum kit far earlier than usual, and essentially drives the song to its skittering end as the sequencers never recover. I think this take is spectacular and I think you’ll agree.

Barney then makes reference on stage to equipment and power problems, mentions the band’s just going to jam, and Steve then pounds out the drum riff for “Denial”. Instead of jamming, the band then finishes the set with four straight sequencer-free tracks, ending on the majestic “In A Lonely Place” well into the wee hours of the morning.

There is no jamming, no acoustic “Blue Monday” despite the venue owner’s misremembered statements made over the years since. It’s possible of course at some point these did exist and were edited out from this tape upstream, but I doubt it and all other recollections of this gig fail to mention any acoustic “Blue Monday” performances.

For the past 34 years, this set has been legendary in the New Order community due to the circumstances which befell it. And a tape was never known to exist, nor a setlist for that matter. With the 1980 Beach Club set, it was part of the Holy Grail pair of lost New Order sets. That changes today. The story of how this tape ultimately came to me is nearly as good as the story behind the gig, but to protect privacy I shall simply thank A. for this. I believe this is from a 1st generation dub of the master, and whomever the actual taper is remains a complete mystery.

Setlist:

Confusion
Chosen Time
The Village
Truth
Leave Me Alone
Your Silent Face
Denial
Age Of Consent
Ceremony
In A Lonely Place

WeTransfer link - expires in 7 days. FLACs.

The Field Study Handbook, Launched

Mon, 22 May 2017 08:31:11 +0000

Decided to launch TFSH as a Kickstarter.

Seven days to go.

There are unusual rewards.

Buy it here.

Big Funk

Sun, 23 Apr 2017 14:21:00 +0000

Die Warzau - Funkopolis

Ripped from a promotional double 12" vinyl single released on Fiction Records (FICSX 40) in 1991 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio. From the penguinflight archives - I am not too sure we really need all seven interpretations of Funkopolis, however Die Warzau find a worthy groove with some close comparisons to Drinking Gasoline era Cabaret Voltaire which will no doubt appeal to many out there.

A1 Funkopolis
A2 Funkaphobia
B1 Le Funk
B2 To Le Funk
C1 Funk To Be Had
C2 Le Blanc Funk
D1 Funked Up
D2 Shock Box

Kult Fiction

Sat, 22 Apr 2017 12:48:00 +0000

My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions Of A Knife...

Ripped from a vinyl album released on Wax Trax! Records (WAX 089) in 1990 to high resolution 24-bit lossless flac audio. There was a time when Nile Rodgers legal writs flew around the music business like confetti at a windy wedding. The Thrill Kills got away with it, likely because their album sales were few & far between and few noticed. Their debut long player ...Good Spirits disappointed me as it lacked imagination amongst a sea of like-minded acts, Confessions.. on the other hand ramps things up into a sample riddled funky post-industrial dance-floor frenzy. It kinda fits into the void between good Ministry and Sheffield's fine Screaming Trees. We like that sort of thing around here, don't we? I'll leave it to you to find what Nile's lawyers missed.

A1 A Daisy Chain 4 Satan (Acid And Flowers Mix)
A2 The Days Of Swine And Roses
A3 Hand In Hand
A4 Waiting For Mommie
A5 Confessions Of A Knife (Theme Part I)
B1 Ride The Mindway
B2 Rivers Of Blood, Years Of Darkness
B3 Kooler Than Jesus (Electric Messiah Mix)
B4 Burning Dirt
B5 Confessions Of A Knife (Theme Part II)

Last Rites

Thu, 20 Apr 2017 17:34:00 +0000

Kopyright Liberation Front - Waiting For The Rights Of Mu

Ripped from a compact disc album released on Echo Beach Records (EB 014) in 1997 to high quality lossless flac audio. Now this is the last of my KLF ....I promise. In theory it was also their final release proper which snuck out when everybody had given up paying attention to the work of Cauty and Drummond. Supposedly a movie soundtrack, though more over the antidote to Chill Out. Martin Sheen narrates... To quote blog contributor penguinflight.... Martin Sheen Joins The Jams. Aye, sod Whitney! If I don't hear Hueys dusting off in the background I'll know Marlon didn't make it...

1 Waiting
2 The Rites Of Mu