Fiona Apple - Extraordinary (2003)

After completing a concert tour in support of her second album 'When the Pawn...' in 2000, Fiona Apple relocated to Los Angeles, but didn't start writing new songs for a couple of years, even considering retiring from the music business as she felt she had nothing more to say with her music. In spring 2002 Apple and Jon Brion, her longtime friend and producer, met for their weekly lunch meeting, during which Brion begged her to make another album, as he needed a distraction from the film that he was then working on, and she agreed to do it. Brion went to Apple's label, Epic Records, with strict stipulations, including having no deadline, which the label eventually agreed to, and a tentative November 2002 release date was then set. Apple started studio work on the album the following June at Ocean Way Recording, where she played five songs to Brion that she'd written for the album, including 'A New Version of Me'. By late 2002 Apple, Brion, engineer Tom Biller and percussionist Matt Chamberlain were at work in a wing of the Paramour Mansion, and with the album half complete in April 2003, Brion, Apple and Biller moved to Cello Studios, and a new release date of July 22 was announced. Brion and Apple then traveled to England to record strings and orchestration for the songs at Abbey Road Studios, and by May 2003 Brion considered the album to be completed. The release was pushed back to September 30, but the need for some finishing touches to the recordings meant that it was delayed again, this time to February 2004. Little by little, small details about the songs were revealed through newspaper and magazine articles, and the titles of 'Oh Well', 'Better', and 'Red Red Red' were mentioned, while the slow-paced track 'Extraordinary' was referred to as "a Tin Pan Alley-esque blend of Tom Waits and Vaudeville". In late June 2004 the song 'Extraordinary', now titled 'Extraordinary Machine' and promoted to the title track of the album, was leaked onto the internet, and soon after a rough mix of 'Better Version Of Me' also appeared, with both songs eliciting praise from the music press for their "tantalizing, brazenly eccentric art pop" feel. After months with no official news, Brion revealed in an article in the October 2004 issue of Entertainment Weekly that the label had shelved the album as they didn't hear any obvious singles, and despite Epic Records stating that the album was to be released in February 2005, Apple decided to re-record some of the songs to appease the label, who wanted another album in the vein of her 1996 debut 'Tidal'. Her fans organized a week-long mail campaign to flood Sony with support for the release of the album, with Epic's president Steve Barnett responding with the mealy-mouthed statement "It's our understanding that Fiona is still in the midst of recording her next album, and we at Epic Records join music lovers everywhere in eagerly anticipating her next release", when they'd had an album that she was happy with for over a year. 

In February 2005 radio DJ Andrew Harms at 107.7 The End in Seattle began playing previously unheard tracks from a bootleg copy of the album, which garnered a positive response from listeners, and before long CD-quality versions of all the tracks were released through the BitTorrent website TorrentBox. They received a positive review from The New York Times, who described the album as "an oddball gem", and Ed Bumgardner concurred, saying that it was "a work of daring and sophistication". After nearly 50,000 downloads, the RIAA contacted webmasters of sites hosting the files and asked for them to be taken down, and the files vanished from the TorrentBox website. After months of silence, Epic finally released a statement regarding the album's future in August 2005, saying that it was to be officially released on October 4, 2005, extensively overhauled by co-producers Mike Elizondo and Brian Kehew, who had reworked each song track by track, building from Apple's piano and vocals, adding live drums with the help of Abe Laboriel Jr. and Questlove, then inserting some instrumental flourishes, and once the song frameworks had been completed, Apple returned to the studio and recorded the final performances. Of the eleven tracks previously leaked, 'Extraordinary Machine' and 'Waltz' remained unchanged, but nine were completely rearranged, with one new song, 'Parting Gift', also added to the track listing. The official version of 'Extraordinary Machine' was ranked number one in the end of year top albums lists of Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times and Slant magazine, although Stylus magazine described it as "a rudderless piece of work" and "a bitterly disappointing listen", while Spin magazine stated "it's kinda been done". Despite that criticism, as of June 2012 the album had sold a million copies, and with such an intriguing back story, it's not surprising that the original recordings have recently resurfaced, and so fans can now hear the Brion versions and compare them to the more well-known takes of the songs to see which they prefer. The cover of the official release featured a photo of a Lily Of The Nile which was taken by Apple herself in her garden, and so as a homage to that sleeve I've used the same flower for the cover of this album, and it's named after the original name of that record's title track.  

Track listing 

01 Not About Love
02 Red, Red, Red
03 Get Him Back
04 Better Version Of Me
05 Oh Well
06 O' Sailor
07 Used To Love Him
08 Window
09 Waltz (Better Than Fine)
10 Extraordinary Machine
11 Please, Please, Please

A Band Of Angels - Cheat And Lie (1970)

A Band Of Angels were a mid-1960's pop group, featuring Mike d'Abo (vocals, various instruments), John Edward Baker (lead guitar), John Christian Gaydon (vocals, rhythm guitar), Andrew Charles Petre (drums), and David Robert Wilkinson (bass guitar). The members all met while at Harrow School, and the band even had their own comic strip in a UK pop music weekly Fab 208. They were signed to United Artists in the early 60's and released two singles in 1964, which were later combined into a four-track EP later that year. In 1965 they signed to Piccadilly Records and released the singles 'Leave It To Me' in 1965 and 'Invitation' in 1966, before splitting up. d'Abo later reflected on what had gone wrong for them, saying that they never really gelled as a group, and their image was already old-fashioned when they started. In July 1966, after leaving A Band of Angels, d’Abo joined Manfred Mann as a replacement for vocalist Paul Jones, who was leaving to start a solo career. His first big hit with Manfred Mann was 'Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James', which was nearly recorded with 'Mr Jones' in the title before it occurred to the group that it might be seen as an implied criticism of the recently-departed Paul Jones. While he was with the band they had many other hit singles, including 'Ha Ha Said The Clown', 'My Name Is Jack' and the Dylan-penned number one 'Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn)', before the group disbanded in 1969. In December 1968, d'Abo played the lead in the stage show Gulliver Travels (not 'Gulliver's Travels', for copyright reasons?) at the Mermaid Theatre in London, and he also featured on the 1969 'soundtrack' album on the Immediate subsidiary label Instant, which must be one of the strangest records ever released. It's basically a sound collage, with snippets of songs from The Small Faces and The Lovin' Spoonful interspersed with weird sound effects, but it did feature the d'Abo original 'See The Little People', which was also released as a single (and you can get an idea of what the album sounded like from its b-side). In 1970 he released his first real solo single 'Miss Me In The Morning', and followed that with his debut solo release 'd'Abo', which included the now classic song 'Handbags And Gladrags'. Although this started out as a retrospective of the work of A Band Of Angels, you can't really separate them from the career of Mike d'Abo as he had a hand in writing a lot of their songs, and so enjoy this trawl through the back catalogue of an undeservedly under-rated UK singer/songwriter. 

   
Track listing

01 Me (single 1964)
02 Not True As Yet (b-side of 'Me')
03 She'll Never Be You (single 1964)
04 Gonna Make A Woman Of You (b-side of 'She'll Never Ne You')
05 Hide 'n' Seek (from the film 'Just For You' 1964)
06 Leave It To Me (single 1965)
07 Too Late My Love (b-side of 'Leave It To Me')
08 Invitation (single 1966)
09 Cheat And Lie (b-side of 'Invitation')
10 See The Little People (single 1969)
11 An Anthology Of Gulliver's Travels (Part Two) (b-side of 'See The Little People')

12 In The Beginning (previously unreleased 1969)
13 Miss Me In The Morning (single 1970)
14 Cinderella Arabella (b-side of 'Miss Me In The Morning')
15 Because Of You (previously unreleased 1970)

Bruce Springsteen - Across The River (1979)

It's fairly well-documented that the recording of 'The River' was an arduous and protracted affair, and what was once was envisaged as a single album, soon became (in classic Springsteen recording style) a vast collection of songs, enough to fill 5 albums, and the selection of which tracks to use proved to be one of the most important parts of realizing Springsteen's vision. Engineer Neil Dorfman has confirmed that around 50 songs were recorded for the album, and so far we've heard about 35 of them on 'The River', the 'Tracks' collection and various b-sides, but there are also a group of songs that we know from the Telegraph Hill rehearsal sessions that push the figure towards 50. These sessions were designed to hone each song before the band entered the studio and as we know from official releases the majority of these songs were professionally recorded. We'll probably have to wait for another 'Tracks' collection to see if these rehearsals every officially see the light of day, but for now they're collected here to tide us over. The songs on this album are stunning, and burn with the intensity that Springsteen and The E Street Band were producing over this period. We're all familiar with studio masterpieces such as 'Roulette' and 'Take 'Em As They Come' and it's this intensity that can be felt throughout these songs. All of these tracks can be found on 'The Lost Masters', with the songs played again and again with false starts and endings throughout and interspersed with inter-band conversations, and while 'The Lost Masters' were of interest to the obsessive fan, they didn't really stand up to repeat listening. By picking the best recordings of each song and cutting out the false starts and endings, this collection aims to elevate these eleven tracks from the Telegraph Hill rehearsal sessions to become a true companion piece to 'The River'. Although it's likely that these songs were professionally recorded, the vocals are very low in the mix on some of the tracks, and to be honest some of them sound like wordless guide vocals, although that doesn't detract in the slightest from the power of the performances.  

Track listing

01 Out On The Run
02 The Man Who Got Away
03 Under The Gun
04 Chevrolet Deluxe
05 Night Fire
06 In The City Tonight
07 Slow Fade
08 Break My Heart
09 Find It Where You Can
10 Chain Lightning
11 I Don't Wanna Be

Feedback?

Looks like the feedback has dried up again, with the last actual comment on the blog, other than people who can't get Soulseek to work, and thanks from e6gman and jman (thanks for making the effort) was on 19th September. I really though that I'd get some feedback on the recent Beck 'Song Reader' post, as I spent a lot of time picking just the right bands to make it flow well, and I think it turned out brilliantly, so I thought that some Beck fans might let me know what they thought, but not a single comment in six weeks. And for the first time so far a Springsteen post has been up for over a week with nothing said about it, and I know that you love your Springsteen. I'm not fishing for thanks, but I really want to know what people think of what I post here. Do you enjoy the albums, are there any b-sides compilations that you'd like to hear from a particular artist, is there an unreleased album that I don't know about, and suggestions for the '...and on guitar' series are always welcome. There were over 150 downloads last Sunday with not a single comment left, so just let me know what you think of the posts so that I know that what I'm doing is worthwhile.     

Adrian Belew - ...and on guitar (1993)

Robert Steven (Adrian) Belew was born on 23 December 1949 in Covington, Kentucky, and in his early teens he played drums with the Ludlow High School marching band, and later with the high-school covers band The Denems. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix, he took up guitar when he was bedridden for several months with mononucleosis, and at age 17 he was further inspired by a club performance of blues-rock musician Lonnie Mack, who became a lifelong personal friend. He wasn't inclined to study music formally, but taught himself by listening to records, and rapidly became a high-school guitar hero. While maturing as a player and mastering various playing styles, he became increasingly preoccupied with ways to avoid sounding like everybody else, and eventually found his own sound and style by learning how to make his guitar mimic sound effects such as car horns, animal noises, or industrial sounds and then applying those sounds to relatively standard songs. In the mid-1970's, having formally changed his first name to his preferred choice of Adrian, Belew moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to pursue a full-time career as a professional musician, and by 1977 he was playing with the regionally-popular cover band Sweetheart. While playing at a Sweetheart gig at Fanny's Bar in Nashville, he was discovered by Frank Zappa, who had been tipped off regarding the band's talents by his chauffeur. Zappa approached Belew and discussed auditioning him for an upcoming tour, although Belew did not receive an official invitation to audition for nearly a year. During this time Sweetheart split up, and so once the formal invitation came, he flew out to Los Angeles and found himself auditioning alongside more formally trained musicians, and following a more intimate second audition Zappa was impressed enough to hire Belew on a handshake deal for a year. 

He toured with the Zappa band and appeared on Zappa's 1979 album 'Sheik Yerbouti', most notably performing a Bob Dylan impersonation on the song 'Flakes', and he also appeared in Zappa's 1979 concert film 'Baby Snakes'. Although he was mostly credited as rhythm guitarist, he also played lead, melody, or noise lines, as well as singing lead on two songs. After seeing Belew at a Zappa concert in Cologne, Brian Eno recommended that David Bowie offer to hire him once the Zappa tour was finished. Belew accepted the offer, and he played on Bowie's Isolar II Tour in 1978, as well as contributing to his next studio album, 'Lodger'. In 1980 Belew formed a new band, GaGa, for which he served as the singer, guitarist, drummer, and primary songwriter, and on one of his frequent visits to New York City, he became friends with the up-and-coming band Talking Heads, who invited him to join them onstage for performances of their signature song 'Psycho Killer', where he impressed them with his wild and unorthodox guitar soloing. It was also around this time that he met Robert Fripp at a Steve Reich concert, and in July of that year GaGa was invited to open several New York-area concerts for Fripp's band the League Of Gentlemen. Following his working with Brian Eno on Bowie's 'Lodger' album, he was invited to add guitar solos to several tracks on Eno's next production job, Talking Heads' 'Remain In Light' album, and his involvement with them extended to playing on the band's spin-off projects, such as Tom Tom Club, and David Byrne's and Jerry Harrison's solo albums. Unfortunately, Belew's experience with Tom Tom Club was less harmonious than his previous work with Talking Heads, and their recording engineer, Steven Stanley, was vocal about his dislike of distorted guitar, and erased the majority of Belew's solos during the mixing sessions. By now Belew's rising profile had gained him a solo record contract with Island Records, and in the down time at the Tom Tom Club sessions, members of GaGa joined him at Compass Point and backed him on a set of parallel recordings which would result in Belew's first solo album, 1982's 'Lone Rhino'. The album provided a home for various GaGa songs and blended various elements of Belew's work over the past decade, including snappy and noisy Zappa/Byrne-influenced songs, dabblings in world music, opportunities for animal/mechanical sounds on guitar, and sonic experiments reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix. 

In 1981 Belew was invited to join Robert Fripp's new band Discipline, with Bill Bruford and Tony Levin, and during initial touring the members discussed the possibility of renaming themselves King Crimson. This had not been the original intention for the band, but all members generally agreed that this would be both appropriate and useful, and so his time with King Crimson began in 1981 and he stayed with them until 2009, one of the longest tenures in the band by anyone other than founder Robert Fripp. As part of the agreement to his joining, he insisted that he would be allowed time to continue and develop his new solo career, to which Fripp agreed. The renamed band released the well-received 'Discipline' album in 1981, followed by the equally fine 'Beat' in 1982, and 'Three Of A Perfect Pair' in 1984. Following King Crimson's breakup and hiatus in 1984, Belew formed the pop band The Bears with fellow guitarist and singer Rob Fetters, drummer Chris Arduser, and bass guitarist Bob Nyswonger, releasing two albums on I.R.S. Records subsidiary Primitive Man Recording Company, with 1987's 'The Bears' and 1988's 'Rise And Shine'. After three years of constant recording, promotion, and touring, the band broke up in 1989 following the collapse of PMRC, although Belew has continued to tour and record, either solo or with new bands that he had formed. He was at his most busy as a session player during the 80's, and during this period he contributed to Ryuichi Sakamoto's 'Left-handed Dream', Joan Armatrading's 'The Key', Peter Wolf's 'Lights Out' and Jean Michel Jarre's 'Zoolook', as well as playing on Cyndi Lauper's 'True Colors' and Paul Simon's 'Graceland'. This collection of his session work includes songs from all those albums, plus many more tracks, and on every one you can hear his inimitable guitar tones, adding something a little bit special to the songs. 

Track listing

Disc One

01 Red Money (from 'Lodger' by David Bowie 1979)
02 Jones Crusher (from 'Sheik Yerbouti' by Frank Zappa 1979)
03 The Great Curve (from 'Remain In Light' by Talking Heads 1980)
04 Eggs In A Briar Patch (from 'The Catherine Wheel' by David Byrne 1981)
05 Things Fall Apart (from 'The Red And The Black' by Jerry Harrison 1981)  
06 The Twilight Clone (from 'Magic Windows' by Herbie Hancock 1981)  
07 L'Elphant (from 'Tom Tom Club' by Tom Tom Club 1981)
08 Relache (from 'Left-Handed Dream' by Ryuichi Sakamoto 1981) 

Disc Two

01 Sweet Little Woman (from 'Sheffield Steel' by Joe Cocker 1982)
02 (I Love It When You) Call Me Names (from 'The Key' by Joan Armatrading 1983)
03 Blah Blah Cafe (from 'Zoolook' by Jean Michel Jarre 1984)
04 Billy Bigtime (from 'Lights Out' by Peter Wolf 1984)
05 Sharkey's Day (from 'Mister Heartbreak' by Laurie Anderson 1984)
06 What's Going On (from 'True Colors' by Cyndi Lauper 1986)
07 Boy In The Bubble (from 'Graceland' by Paul Simon 1986)
08 God Shuffled His Feet (from 'God Shuffled His Feet' by Crash Test Dummies 1993)

Skrillex - Voltage (2012)

In 2011 Skrillex was recording tracks for his new album, when the laptop containing most of the recordings was stolen from his hotel room, leaving a whole album's worth of music lost. None of the tracks have ever surfaced online, so it's likely that the thieves just wiped the hard drive to sell the laptop on, not realising that they probably had something in their hands worth much more than they eventually got for it. Some tracks that were to be featured on the album were later released on other projects, such as the 'Bangarang EP', which came out in 2012, and featured some songs that Skrillex still had in his possession, such as 'Right In', 'Kyoto' & 'Summit', which were alternative names & mixes of the original recordings of 'Right Here', 'Dimbow' & 'Breathe'. 'Make it Bum Dem' was released as a single in 2012 and 'Try It Out' had three alternative mixes with Alvin Risk in 2013. A few other reworked tracks have leaked over the years, including 'Amplifire', 'True Gangsters' and the proposed title track 'Voltage', and although there is no official track listing, as Skrillex never got as far as putting one together, by taking all the tracks that we know were probably on the stolen laptop we can approximate what the album might have sounded like, and here it is, along with the title track to the 'Bangarang' EP as a bonus, as that was linked to the release of three of these lost tracks in 2012, and it makes the album a concise 34 minutes. I know Skrillex can polarise opinion, with some music fans hating his work, but I quite like some of it, so I think this is worth posting. 

Track listing

01 Voltage  
02 True Gangsters  
03 Dimbow  
04 Turmoil   
05 Breathe (ft. Krewella)  
06 Amplifire  
07 Right Here  
08 Try It Out (Original Mix)  
09 Make It Bum Dem (ft. Damian Marley)

10 Bangarang  

Nirvana - In Utero (Steve Albini Mix) (1993)

In 2003, the UK division of Universal Records released a limited edition, vinyl only reissue of Nirvana's 1993 album 'In Utero', to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the release of the album. These vinyl copies were pressed in Germany, and when they hit the stores people who were familiar with the original release were surprised to hear a distinct difference in the overall sound of the album, most noticeable on 'Heart Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies', the two big singles from the album. It has been widely known for some time that Steve Albini was the first choice as producer for the album, but when he submitted his mix to the record company, they had serious issues with it, complaining that the vocals were too low in the mix, there was too much 'effect' on the drums, and some of the guitar parts were either too loud or were overly distorted. While most of the observations are quite accurate, those same qualities were (and still are) what Albini is known and loved for, and Kurt Cobain himself had specifically requested that Albini record 'In Utero', based on his production on 'Surfer Rosa' by the Pixies, which was one of Cobain's all-time favorite records, and the complaints regarding the sound were in fact what Cobain wanted so much in the first place. While the band was initially quite insistent on the album being released as recorded by Albini, they eventually came to agree with the criticism and decided to remix some of the songs, and possibly add some guitar overdubs where needed. When Albini was informed about all of this, he was not happy, as he is well known for his strong-willed nature and highly opinionated approach to recording an album, and the mechanics of the recording/entertainment industry in general. At first he refused to allow his mix of the album to be changed in any way, as before the recording sessions had started he had made an agreement with the band to ensure that his final mix would not be altered or remixed, although unfortunately for him, this agreement was not in writing. He later agreed to let the two proposed singles from the album, 'Heart Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies', be remixed by someone else, but made it clear that he didn't think anybody could improve on his versions. Geffen hired Scott Litt to remix both tracks and to add a few overdubs to 'Heart Shaped Box', after which the whole album was sent to a mastering studio which, Albini claims, screwed up the sound even more by narrowing the stereo separation, boosting the mids, and generally softening the sharp-edged overall sound. The album, containing the Scott Litt remixes, was officially released on September 21, 1993 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200. Ten years later, it seems that Universal UK made a significant mistake when pulling the 1/2" master tapes for their 2003 vinyl reissue, and they accidentally used Albini's original, unmastered mix instead of the final masters, and this album is ripped directly from one of these 2003 vinyl copies, making it a huge improvement on some poor quality bootlegs that are circulating online at the moment, some of which appear to have been recorded at the wrong speed, and we can now hear what Cobain originally wanted the album to sound like.  

Track listing

01 Serve The Servants
02 Scentless Apprentice
03 Heart-Shaped Box
04 Rape Me
05 Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
06 Dumb
07 Very Ape
08 Milk It
09 Pennyroyal Tea
10 Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
11 tourette's
12 All Apologies

Here's Johnny - Merry Hell (1986)

As mentioned in the previous post on Liverpool bands of the early 80's, Here's Johnny did actually record an album, but as so often happens, the record company didn't have enough faith in the band to issue and promote it, instead putting their money behind Fairground Attraction, which, it has to be admitted, did work. However, Here's Johnny's album would have appealed to an entirely different market and I can see no reason why it wouldn't have been a success. No doubt it would have been played on the John Peel show, as he would always champion anything from his hometown, and I would certainly have bought it, but we'll never know as it was cancelled soon after recording, never to be heard until now. The album was obtained by dominik500 from band members Colin McKay and David Knowles themselves (who incidentally are working together again, writing and making music with John Wilkinson in a band called The Swan Chorus), and they even gave permission for it to be shared. All four of their singles were to be included, although two of the tracks from their Peel session would remain exclusive to that recording session. The album was planned to be released in mid 1986, and came so close that it was even given a catalog number (PL 71016), but at the last minute the release was cancelled. I've added the b-sides to some of their singles as bonus tracks at the end, so enjoy this effort by yet another band who fell foul of the vagaries of the record industry, and had all their hard work come to nothing. 

Track listing

01 Hellzapoppin'
02 Absense Of Malice
03 Torture Garden
04 Your Room
05 Love You To Death
06 Idlewild
07 Open Minded
08 Reckless
09 How Do You Sleep
10 I Fall Apart
11 Belief
12 All You Ever Talk About
13 Turn On The Charm

Various Artists - The Peel Sessions - Liverpool 1981 - 1983 (1983)

After dominating the UK music scene for most of the 60's, Liverpool experienced a resurgence of young bands in the late 70's and early 80's, with groups forming on an almost daily basis. Some went on to achieve considerable success, such as Black, A Flock Of Seagulls, and The Icicle Works, while other burned brightly for a while before fading away. For every Echo And The Bunnymen there was a Blonde Streak, and for every Frankie Goes To Hollywood, a Lawnmower. Some managed to release a few singles, with the lucky ones even getting an album out, and a number of them, like Big In Japan, Modern Eon, 3D (A Fish In C), OMD, Wah! Heat, Come In Tokio, It's Immaterial, Cook Da Books, The Teardrops Explodes, and China Crisis have already had posts on the blog collecting their hard to find recorded output. Then there were those bands who were only heard by the general public on the John Peel show, where they were invited by that champion of all things Indie to record a Peel session, and this post collects five of them, who probably would have faded into obscurity if their music hadn't been preserved for posterity by the great Peel himself. Jass Babies, Blue Poland and Rebel Da Fe never even released a single, while Box Of Toys managed two, and Here's Johnny released a couple and also recorded an aborted album, before they all disbanded.   

Blue Poland – Chris Larsen (bass) (later Lawnmower, Beach Bastards), Mel Deeprose (vocals), Neil Morgan (vocals), Nigel Robinson (guitar), and Steve Thomas (drums). They were featured on the BBC2 music vehicle 'Something Else' in the early 80’s and shortly after did a John Peel session. Their career was cut short by the illness and tragic early death of Neil Morgan. Nigel's brother Nick Robinson played in Boat Party

Box of Toys – Brian Atherton (vocals, keyboards) (later The Light), Roy Campbell (bass, vocals), Phil Martin (saxophone, keyboards, vocals) (later Come in Tokio), and Andy Redhead (drums, guitar) (ex Select Committee, later 3D). Not much more information about this band.

Here’s Johnny – Roy Corkhill (bass) (ex Black, Third Man, later Icicle Works), Dave Whittaker (bass) (ex Visual Aids, Jass Babies, Herr Lune), Andy Zsigmund (guitar), who was replaced by Mike Bulger in 1985, David Knowles (keyboards) (ex Achilles, Virgin Dance), Steve Brown (drums) (ex Jazz Babies, Afraid of Mice), and Colin McKay (vocals, guitar) (ex Achilles), who was the main force behind the band, writing most or all of the material. Had a track on 'Son Of Jobs For The Boys' compilation LP in 1985 and released four singles on RCA between 1985-86. Although the band were tipped for stardom, RCA decided to put their money on Fairground Attraction and Here’s Johnny faded away.

Jass Babies – Peter Coyle (later No Trace, Tin Ethics, Living Legends, Lotus Eaters), Rob Boardman (guitar) (ex Visual Aids, later Personal Column), Dave Whittaker (bass) (ex Visual Aids, later Here’s Johnny, Herr Lune), and Steve Brown (drums) (ex Visual Aids, AOM, Here’s Johnny). R'n'Bluesy minimalist band, who apparently released one single on Open Eye Records, although I can find no trace of it. 

Rebél Da Fé – Tomo (vocals) (ex Ponderosa Glee Boys, later President Beate Route), Gary Williams (bass) (ex Psycamesh, later SOL), Mark Robson (drums) (ex Psycamesh,later President Beate Route, 501 Amsterdam, Bush Telegraph, Catalogue, High Five, Rain, Salvadore), Steve Hadden (guitar), JJ Whitehead (ex It’s Immaterial), and Karen Halewood (keyboards) (ex Ex Post Facto, Royal Family & The Poor). Tomo left just before they recorded their John Peel session in 1982, after which Mark Robson and Gary Williams relocated to Amsterdam till 1985/86.

You can see by the bands that these musicians had been in or were to join later just what a close-knit community it was in Liverpool at that time, and so to make sure that these groups aren't forgotten here are their Peel sessions all collected together on one post, which celebrates some of the many forgotten and unrecognised bands that played around Liverpool between 1981 and 1983.   

Track listing

Blue Poland - 1982
01 Find Out
02 Household God
03 Puppet Nation
04 Time And Motion

Box Of Toys - 1983
01 When The Daylight's Over (Sunset)
02 Time Takes Me Back
03 Precious Is The Pearl
04 I'm Thinking Of You Now

Here's Johnny - 1983
01 Hellzapoppin'
02 World In Action
03 Every Mirror I See
04 Your Room

Jass Babies - 1981
01 Let Me Soak It Up
02 My Love Make You Melt
03 Parable
04 Talk In Tongues

Rebel Da Fe - 1983
01 Yangtse Kiang
02 Hideaway
03 Ascension
04 Alter And Connect 

Steve Morse - ...and on guitar (1997)

Steve J. Morse was born on 28 July 1954 in Hamilton, Ohio, after which his family moved to Tennessee, then Ypsilanti, Michigan, where Morse spent his childhood. Although familiar with piano and clarinet, he ultimately became interested in guitar, and played briefly with his older brother Dave in a band called The Plague. In the late 1960's he played in the band Three with his older brother and a junior high schoolmate, William Gerald (Jerry) Wooten on keyboards, performing at a local psychedelic youth club, the Glass Onion, and at Legion Halls and church functions. While enrolled in the Academy of Richmond County, Morse met bassist Andy West and together they formed the Dixie Grit, adding keyboardist Johnny Carr and guitarist and vocalist Frank Brittingham, with Dave Morse drumming. This short-lived group covered bands such as Led Zeppelin and Cream, before West and Morse left to continue to play as a duet billed as the Dixie Dregs, until Morse's expulsion from school in the 10th grade. He enrolled at the University of Miami School of Music, where he reunited with Andy West, and with the addition of drummer Bart Yarnold, keyboardist Frank Josephs and violinist Allen Sloan, they collaborated in a lab project entitled Rock Ensemble II. In 1975, the group compiled a recording of the project, releasing it on vinyl in 1976, and again on CD in 1997 as 'The Great Spectacular'. When he graduated in 1975, he and West officially named their group Dixie Dregs, adding Rod Morgenstein on drums, and began performing regularly, eventually gaining the attention of Capricorn Records, who signed the band in late 1976. Their first effort for Capricorn, the Morse-composed 'Free Fall', established him as an important newcomer to the fusion genre, being recognized for both his compositional skills and his musicianship, but despite receiving positive reviews as a pivotal jazz fusion album, it sold poorly. 'What If' followed in 1978, but with the writing credits being more collaborative, the band's sound had matured from what was considered fusion at the time, including Southern rock, classical, folk and country elements. 

The band were invited to perform at Montreux Jazz Festival on July 23, 1978, and the recorded performance was released the following year as 'Night Of The Living Dregs'. Capricorn went bankrupt in late 1979, and the Dixie Dregs were left without a label, but were quickly signed to Arista Records, and released three albums for the label. Around this time Morse started to add his guitar to records by other artists, and featured on an album by Liza Minelli in 1977, and with the Rob Cassels Band in 1979. Arista became increasingly concerned about Dixie Dregs' album sales and pressured the band to change their name to simply The Dregs, in an attempt to increase the band's visibility in the public eye. 'Unsung Heroes' included eight new Morse compositions in early 1981, but the name change did little to address Arista's worries, and the Dregs felt compelled by label management to add lyrics to their next release, appropriately titled 'Industry Standard'. Readers of Guitar Player magazine voted Morse 'Best Overall Guitarist' in their 1982 annual poll, an honour that he would hold for five consecutive years, but the band weren't happy with the constant touring , and after fulfilling their commitment to Arista, the Dregs disbanded in early 1983. Before they broke up they backed Fiona Flanagan on demos of some songs that she'd written, and after the 1983 breakup  Morse then formed the Steve Morse Band, a trio with bassist Jerry Peek and drummer Doug Morgan, who was replaced by Rod Morgenstein after Morgan left to fulfill previous commitments. The group toured Germany in early 1984 and was signed by Elektra Records, who released 'The Introduction' album mid-year. 

A second German tour began in December 1984 and 'Stand Up' was released in 1985, including guest vocalists and guitarists (Eric Johnson, Alex Ligertwood, Peter Frampton, Albert Lee, and  Van Temple), and violinist Mark O'Connor. In 1986 Morse joined Kansas, playing on their albums 'Power' and 'In The Spirit Of Things', but he left after the 'In The Spirit Of Things' tour to resume the Steve Morse Band with new personnel, bassist Dave LaRue and drummer Van Romaine, releasing several more albums for MCA Records.  In 1994 he was offered the chance to join Deep Purple, replacing Ritchie Blackmore, and played on all their studio albums from 1996's 'Purpendicular' onwards. In addition to playing with Deep Purple, in 2003 Morse formed the band Living Loud with Jimmy Barnes, Bob Daisley, Lee Kerslake and Don Airey, releasing one studio album and a live DVD in 2004/2005. In 2007 he began a collaboration with singer Sarah Spencer entitled Angelfire, and an album appeared in August 2010, after which he formed Flying Colors in 2011, which was an American supergroup composed of Mike Portnoy, Dave LaRue, Casey McPherson and Neal Morse, with their debut eponymous album being released in March 2012, followed by 'Second Nature' in 2014. Morse continued to act as a session player for a wide variety of artists while still a member of all these bands, playing on over 40 albums after the timeframe of this compilation, but here we concentrate on the emergent talent at the beginning of his career.   

Track listing

Disc One

01 The Battle's Won (from 'Evening Pastoral' by Rob Cassels Band 1979)
02 When It Comes Down To It (from 'Tropical Nights' by Liza Minnelli 1977)
03 Wait Until Tomorrow (from 'Schemer-Dreamer' by Steve Walsh 1980) 
04 Call In Love (unreleased demo with Dixie Dregs by Fiona Flanagan 1982)
05 Art In America (from 'Art In America' by Art in America 1983)
06 Sparkle Plenty (from 'Storytime' by T Lavitz 1986)
07 Opus 32: Swept Away By Tides (from 'Stone From Which The Arch Was Made' by 

                                                                                                                Mark O'Connor 1987)
08 Headed For Nowhere (from 'Surveillance' by Triumph 1987)

Disc Two
01 Don't Misunderstand Me (from 'Love Your Man' by The Rossington Band 1988)
02 Goodbye Blue Sky (Song For Dominique) (from 'Nashville Rendez-Vous' by Marcel Dadi 1990)
03 Morning Rush Hour (from 'Guitar Speak' by Various Artists 1991)
04 Talking Hands (from 'Lone Ranger' by Jeff Watson 1992)
05 Minute Mouse (from 'Coven, Pitrelli, O'Reilly' by CPR 1993)
06 You Offered Only Parabolas (from 'Thonk' by Michael Manring 1994)
07 4 Miles High (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)
08 Eagle (from 'Storm' by Torden & Lyn 1997)

Devo - Clockout (1977)

Devo gained some fame in 1976 when Chuck Statler's the short film 'The Truth About De-Evolution' won a prize at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, and this attracted the attention of David Bowie, who began work to get the band a recording contract with Warner Music Group. In 1977, Devo were asked by Neil Young to participate in the making of his film 'Human Highway' playing "nuclear garbagemen", and the band members were asked to write their own parts, with Mark Mothersbaugh scoring and recording much of the soundtrack. In March 1977 Devo released their first single 'Mongoloid' backed with 'Jocko Homo', taken from the soundtrack to 'The Truth About De-Evolution', and this was followed by a cover of the Rolling Stones' '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction', and then the 'B Stiff EP' the next year. This third post of  basement demos from the band includes early versions of some of those singles, alongside a handful of previously unheard tracks from the inimitable Devo.   

Track listing

01 Soo Bawls
02 Golden Energy
03 Midget

04 Goo Goo Itch
05 Uglatto
06 Stop Look And Listen
07 Dogs Of Democracy

08 Satisfaction

09 Clockout
10 Bottled Up

11 Mongoloid
12 Booji Boy's Funeral
13 Working In A Coalmine
14 Fountain Of Filth
15 Let's Go

Shirley Manson - Noir (2018)

When Garbage were on hiatus in the second half of the 2000's, Shirley Manson set about working on a solo album, which reportedly featured a collaboration with Rivers Cuomo, but when she brought the material to her then-label Geffen, she was told it was 'too dark', as they had envisioned Manson having international radio hits and becoming the 'Annie Lennox of her generation'. She and Geffen subsequently parted ways and she continued working on solo material, and also considered leaving the music industry behind entirely, but then Garbage reunited and released albums in the 2010's, and the solo album was put on the back burner. Some of the songs have since appeared online, with 'In The Snow' and 'Pretty Horses' surfacing in 2009, followed by 'Lighten Up' the next year, and Manson posted 'Dark Hearts And Heart Beats' on her Facebook page in 2015, but investigation has discovered that it was copyrighted in 2010, and was therefore part of the solo album recordings. Manson also collaborated with other artists, and provided songs for TV and film soundtracks throughout the decade, and so there are actually enough songs out there to make up a 'solo' album for her. I've done a bit of work on 'Brass Muscles', which was a 54-second piece that appeared on the soundtrack to the TV series 'Wet Hot American Summer', and by repeating the verse and chorus and then adding a coda to fade out I've expanded it to sound like an actual song of almost two minutes. Even on the collaborations Manson takes most of the lead vocals, and so by mixing her own demos with the duets we end up with a very creditable solo album from her, and as she used to refer to it as her 'noir record', that's what I've called it. 

Track listing

01 In The Snow (demo 2009)
02 Samson And Delilah (from the 'Terminator' TV series 2008)
03 The Hunger (single from 'Prometheus Bound' rock musical 2011) 
04 Lighten Up (demo 2010)
05 Meet The Foetus / Oh The Joy (duet with Brody Dalle from 'Diplod Love' 2017)
06 Dark Hearts And Heart Beats (recorded 2010, uploaded 2015) 
07 Queen Of The Bored (with Brian Reitzell from 'American Gods' TV series 2017)
08 Pretty Horses (demo 2010)
09 Brass Muscles (with Craig Wedren from 'Wet Hot American Summer' soundtrack 2015)
10 Shame, You're All I've Got (from 'Cry Is For The Flies' with Le Butcherettes 2014)
11 The Sun (single with Pondus 2018)

Kraftwerk - Pop Und Avantgarde (1974)

In early 1974 Kraftwerk were on the cusp of international recognition with the imminent release of their 'Autobahn' album, when they were asked to perform at the large broadcasting hall of the Hessischer Rundfunk HR1 as part of a festival of music. The theme was to be various minimalist musical concepts under the title "Between Pop And Avantgarde", with Kraftwerk performing their set on the 25 January 1974, and with some of the performances being recorded and broadcast on German radio. At this point the band had released three albums of minimalist electronic music, one under the name Ralf & Florian, and two as Kraftwerk, and for this performance the core trio of Ralf Hutter, Florian Schneider and Wolfgang Flur were joined by Klaus Röder on electro-violin and guitar, making a unique line-up for this one concert. The band played pieces from their three albums, as well as one from the forthcoming 'Autobahn' record, and as it was recorded for radio broadcast the sound quality is excellent. There were some very long announcements in German throughout the broadcast which I've removed or edited out, so that we can enjoy the music uninterrupted, and although I don't usually post live albums, this is of such historical importance that it deserves to be heard, as it features a line-up of the band which never made it to a recording studio. 

Track listing

01 Klingklang
02 Ruckzuck
03 Atem
04 Tongebirge
05 Tanzmusik
06 Kohoutek/Kometenmelodie I & II

Personnel
Ralf Hutter: minimoog, farfisa professional piano, mixer
Klaus Röder: electronic violin & guitar
Wolfgang Flur: electronic percussion
Florian Schneider: Arp Odyssey, EMS Synthi AKS, amplfied flute, mixer