With more-than-welcome new jams from Tortoise hitting this month, it’s a good time to dig back into the band’s extensive live collection on Archive.org. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, you can’t go wrong with this 1996 gig at Bimbo’s in San Francisco. The David Pajo-era lineup of Tortoise starts out soaring with a gorgeous “Gamera” and pretty much stays at a beautiful elevation for the rest of the show.
Category: Live Upload Series
Television :: CBGB, Early 1975
A hack Hollywood filmmaker would likely use cliched/corny smash cuts to convey the kinetic energy of NYC’s burgeoning mid-seventies punk scene. The tapes tell a different story, with history unspooling at a leisurely pace. These audience recordings of Television at CBGB during a long winter residency at the club — dangerously lo-fi, utterly priceless — are full of awkward tuning breaks, persistent amplifier hum, muttered introductions, cacophonous false starts, muted applause. Something’s happening here, but no one is quite sure what it is.
Patti Smith Group / John Cale / Television :: The Palladium, New York City, December 31, 1976
As mentioned in a recent Aquarium Drunkard Book Club, some of the most entertaining parts of Thurston Moore’s Sonic Life memoir come during his teenage years, way before Sonic Youth was even a twinkle in his eye. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Fan? From the suburbs of Connecticut, Moore made countless trips into NYC to soak in the punk/CBGB/Max’s Kansas City worlds, catching shows by The Ramones, Suicide, the Dead Boys, Sid Vicious … and Patti Smith, of course. Thurston paints an evocative portrait of this New Year’s Eve blowout, which doubled as Patti’s raucous 30th birthday party. He was dangerously high on mescaline.
Hear it for yourself …
Yo La Tengo :: Idiot’s Delight with Vince Scelsa, WNEW, December 28, 1997
Yo La Tengo are one of our greatest bands — but they’re particularly great on the radio. Who else would be able to expertly accompany Daniel Johnston via a telephone call-in? Or take off-the-cuff requests from listeners every year during WFMU’s pledge drive? This vintage WNEW broadcast is terrific, too, coming at the end of 1997, when YLT were winning hearts worldwide with I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One.
Neil Young & The Stray Gators :: Scope Arena, Norfolk, Virginia, January 29, 1973
As a followup to the Time Fades Away (Again) collection we shared earlier this year, break out the Jose Cuervo and get into one of the best audience tapes from Neil Young’s somewhat ill-fated early 1973 North American tour.
“Neil was pretty strange on his big tour,” former road manager Leo Makota told Rolling Stone. “[He] was trying to get a certain sound out of the band that he apparently could never find. The band would jam at soundchecks in the afternoon and sound great. Then they’d come in and do the show at night and never make it.”
John Cale :: Rond Point, Marseilles, France, April 12, 1975
The mighty John Cale has re-emerged — he’s touring Europe as we speak and has a new LP coming out early next year (You can check out the Weyes Blood-assisted “Story of Blood” now). In the meantime, let’s go back to the mid-1970s when John was just getting going as a touring act. He’d obviously played live plenty before, but following the release of 1975’s Slow Dazzle, he really leaned into being a traveling musician.
Move Right In: The Velvet Underground At The Boston Tea Party, 1968-1969
Dig into a homemade comp of choice Velvet Underground performances at the Boston Tea Party, the club that served as the band’s home away from home in the late 1960s. These so-called “Professor Tapes” have circulated for years, but the master reels were made available a while back, and – though they’re still far from an audiophile experience – they’re much more listenable now. And the music here more than makes up for the 50+ year old tape hiss.
Jon Hassell w/ David Rosenboom: Music Gallery, Toronto, Canada, October 9, 1976
RIP to Jon Hassell, “Fourth World” composer, who passed away a few days ago. Hassell’s music always sounds so fresh and imaginative, as he explores the endless dreamscape of our collective consciousness.
Jon is gone, but the Fourth World lives on.
R.E.M. :: Viceroy Park, Charlotte, NC, November 7, 1981
We’re rapidly approaching the 40th anniversary of R.E.M.’s debut single, the epochal “Radio Free Europe,” released on July 8, 1981. The band has a few things in the works to celebrate, but in the meantime, let’s dip into the band’s live archive.
Steely Dan :: Radio, Sessions & Live
Drive west on Sunset to the sea . . . Those familiar with the psychic topography of Los Angeles are keenly aware of the undercurrent Donald Fagen’s vocal inflects as […]
James Booker :: Montreux Jazz Festival, July 1978
Ancient AD. We originally featured the following 1978 live recording (captured at the Montreux Jazz Festival) back in October of 2005. We’ve collected a number of live documents from this New Orleans piano master — Live at Montreux is by far the most spirited. Pearls on black velvet, the set is essential listening for Booker acolytes and New Orleans piano disciples alike. Ten tracks, all very raw arrangements with Booker backed by a loose, electric pick-up band that full-on swings.
The Meters :: Live At The Bottom Line / Live At Showboat Lounge (Fat City) 1977
From the same dusty Case Logic binder that recently brought you Bob Marley & The Wailers @ The Record Plant, here are two shows of curve-flattening funk from 1977.
Arthur Russell :: Roulette, Brooklyn, New York, March 2, 1985
As last year’s astonishing Iowa Dream showed, the posthumous Arthur Russell well is far from dry. The man lived and breathed music for his short time on the planet, and we’re extremely fortunate to be able to explore his beautiful/beguiling imagination. Compared to his studio work, there are relatively few documents of Russell as a live performer — which is why this 35-year-old tape is so precious.
Wynton Kelly + Wes Montgomery :: The Half Note, NYC 1965
The first half of this smokin’ mid-60s radio broadcast features the Wynton Kelly Trio breezing through some bop standards. Not particularly adventurous or boundary-breaking stuff, but that’s no diss – these guys could swing like no one else…
JJ Cale: Pacific High Recorders, San Francisco, California, December 12, 1971
Breeze along to one of the earliest live recordings of JJ Cale out there. This Pacific High Recorders gig (broadcast on the Bay Area’s KSAN-FM) features JJ and band playing a deliciously laid back set a few months prior to the release of the singer-songwriter-guitarist’s classic debut LP, Naturally.