Aerosmith - Right Key, Wrong Hole (1987)

While on tour in 1979, Steve Tyler and Joe Perry had a heated exchange backstage at Cleveland Stadium, resulting in Perry quitting (or being fired from) Aerosmith, and in 1981 Brad Whitford also left the band during the recording of the 'Rock In A Hard Place' album. The band soldiered on with replacements Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, and although 'Rock In A Hard Place' wasn't a bad album, it's often considered one of the band's lesser releases as it didn't feature all five members of the original group. In 1984 Perry and Whitford saw Aerosmith perform at Boston's Orpheum Theater, leading to discussions to reintegrate the two into the band, and several months later the original members of Aerosmith officially reunited. In 1985 the reconstituted band released the album 'Done With Mirrors', and while it did receive some positive reviews, it didn't match the sales of their previous records, and it failed to produce a hit single or generate any widespread interest. With the much-anticipated reunion of the original Aerosmith line-up pretty much falling flat on its face, A&R guru John Kalodner capitalized on the runaway success of Run-D.M.C.'s cover of 'Walk This Way' and decided to draft in the day's top hired hands, including knob-twiddler extraordinaire Bruce Fairbairn and career-revitalizing song doctors Desmond Child and Jim Vallance. Together, they would help craft 1987's 'Permanent Vacation', the album which would reinvent Aerosmith as 80's and 90's superstars. Despite the mostly stellar songwriting, which makes it a strong effort overall, some of the album's nooks and crannies haven't aged all that well because of Fairbairn's overwrought production, featuring an exaggerated sleekness typical of most mid-80's pop-metal albums. However, radio gems like 'Rag Doll' and 'Dude (Looks Like A Lady)' remain largely unassailable from a "delivering the goods" perspective, and other tracks like the earthy voodoo blues of 'St. John' and the excellent hobo-harmonica fable of 'Hangman Jury' are Aerosmith at their best. With the inclusion of the additional songwriters, there was an abundance of material that was available to be considered for inclusion on the finished album, and when the final twelve songs were chosen, there were a number of recordings left over - enough in fact to compile a companion album to 'Permanent Vacation', so here are the best of those out-takes from the 1987 sessions. 

Track listing

01 Got To Find A Way
02 Feel The Pain
03 Right Key, Wrong Hole
04 Hollywood
05 Funky Thing
06 Once Is Never Enough
07 Sleepy Sickness
08 Samurai
09 Walking On Danger Street

Can - Finished? (1975)

After the recording of 'Future Days' in 1973, Damo Suzuki left Can in order to marry his German girlfriend, and become a Jehovah's Witness. Vocal duties were taken over by Michael Karoli and Irmin Schmidt, but after Suzuki's departure, fewer of Can's tracks featured vocals, as the band experimented with the ambient music it had begun with 'Future Days'. 'Soon Over Babaluma' from 1974 continued in the ambient style of 'Future Days', but with some of the abrasive edge of 'Tago Mago' and 'Ege Bamyasi', and in 1975 the band signed with Virgin Records in the UK and EMI/Harvest in West Germany, appearing the same year on BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test in a memorable performance of 'Vernal Equinox', in which Schmidt played one keyboard section with a series of rapid karate chops. Their next album, 'Landed', was released in 1975, and this time vocals were performed by all four members of the band, but following its release Can started looking around for a new vocalist. Brian Eno's girlfriend at the time, Japanese photographer Michiko Nakao, was suggested, and so she went into the studio with Holger Czukay and overdubbed vocals of some previously recorded tracks, two from the band's gig at Edinburgh in 1973, and also on a 44-minute version of 'Unfinished' from the 'Landed' album, which now that it had a vocal track, we can re-name 'Finished?'. In the end they decided not to employ a new vocalist, and 1976's 'Flow Motion' saw them  moving towards a somewhat more conventional style, as their recording technology improved. The disco single 'I Want More', co-written by the band's live sound engineer Peter Gilmour, became Can's only hit record outside West Germany, reaching No 26 on the UK charts in October 1976. In 1977 Can was joined by former Traffic bassist Rosko Gee and percussionist Rebop Kwaku Baah, both of whom provided vocals, and so a featured vocalist was no longer required. The two over-dubbed tracks from the Edinburgh gig have already been posted on my 'Soup' post by the band, so here is a one-track album from them, featuring Can with possible future vocalist Michiko Nakao. 

Track listing

01 Finished?

The cover uses a photo by Elena Jo Melanson.

Neon Hitch - Beg, Borrow & Steal (2011)

Neon Hitch was born on 25 May 1986 in Kingston upon Thames, before moving at a young age to the countryside of Nottingham, and she resented her parents for her birth name of Neon, and wanted to change it to something more conventional, but eventually decided to keep it. When their house burned down, her mother bought a caravan to live in, and they grew up in a Romani community travelling around Europe, and consequently she never attended school. By the age of four she was travelling and performing with the Archaos circus, and by the time she was in her teens she was trained as a trapeze artist, fire swinger and stilt walker, and had performed across Europe. She'd begun writing poetry when she was 10, which led to her writing lyrics, and a boyfriend noticed that she could sing and encouraged her to carry on with her singing. In 2010 she was signed to Warner Bros. Records by Kara DioGuardi, and she began recording her debut album, 'Beg, Borrow & Steal', in March with Benny Blanco. In January 2011 she released the promotional single 'Get Over U', co-written by singer Sia, for free, and then to digital retailers in February. This was followed by 'Silly Girl', 'Bad Dog' and 'Poisoned With Love', and she also released a series of covers and mash-up covers of songs by other artists, including Wiz Khalifa's 'On My Level', Waka Flocka Flame's 'No Hands' and Kreayshawn's 'Gucci Gucci'. 

During 2012 she released the official lead single of 'Beg, Borrow & Steal, 'Fuck U Betta', followed by 'Gold', co-written by singer Bruno Mars, and both songs peaked at number 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. In January 2013 she announced her next release would be the EP 'Happy Neon', which was released for free through Billboard.com on 14 January. On 12 November 2013 she was featured on campus.ie, where she revealed that she and her team had completely scrapped the 'Beg, Borrow & Steal' album because she said she "felt there was not enough of my soul in it", and she discussed the release of a mixtape called '301 To Paradise' in early 2014, saying that the mixtape was a very good preview of what was going to come out on her brand new debut album to be released later that year. The six-tracker was released on 3 January 2014, and it was produced and co-written by NYC-based hip-hop group and songwriting duo Kinetics & One Love, and features two verses from rapper Kinetics. With the demise of 'Beg, Borrow & Steal', Hitch started work on new material for her debut album, but enough tracks had either been released as singles or leaked online to piece it back together, and so here is Neon Hitch's abandoned first album 'Beg, Borrow & Steal' from 2011. 

Track listing

01 Intro (Beg, Borrow & Steal)
02 Hello 
03 Bad Dog 
04 Silly Girl 
05 Fuck U Betta 
06 Poisoned With Love 
07 Picasso
08 Gold (feat. Tyga) 
09 Get Over U 
10 My Hand
11 I'm Doing Me

12 U + Me
13 Zombie (I Just Wanna Dance)
14 Dare U 2 Love Me

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Jackson Browne (2012)

Clyde Jackson Browne was born on 9 October 1948, in Heidelberg, Germany, where his father Clyde Jack Browne, an American serviceman, was stationed for his job assignment with the Stars and Stripes newspaper. At the age of three, Browne and his family moved to his grandfather's house, Abbey San Encino, Los Angeles, and in his teens he began singing folk songs in local venues, including Ash Grove and The Troubadour Club. After graduating from high school he joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, performing at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California, where they opened for the Lovin' Spoonful. He left the Dirt Band after a few months and moved to Greenwich Village, New York, where he became a staff writer for Elektra's publishing company, Nina Music, before he was eighteen. For the remainder of 1967 and into 1968 he played in Greenwich Village, where he replaced Tim Buckley as backing musician for singer Nico of the Velvet Underground, later forming a romantic relationship with her, and he was a significant contributor to her debut album, 'Chelsea Girl', writing and playing guitar on several of the songs. In 1968, following his breakup with Nico, Browne returned to Los Angeles, where he formed a folk band with Ned Doheny and Jack Wilce, and carried on writing songs, some of which were recorded by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Tom Rush, Nico, Steve Noonan, Gregg Allman, Joan Baez, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, the Byrds, Iain Matthews, and others. In 1971, Browne signed with his manager David Geffen's Asylum Records and released his eponymous debut album in 1972 (often mistakenly referred to as 'Saturate Before Using' as this was typed at the top of the sleeve), and it included the piano-driven 'Doctor My Eyes', which entered the Top Ten in the US singles chart. 'Rock Me On The Water' also gained considerable radio airplay, while 'Jamaica Say You Will' and 'Song For Adam' helped establish his reputation as an up and coming songwriter. 'Doctor My Eyes' was picked up by The Jackson Five and garnered them a UK Top Ten hit single in 1972, and with the Byrds covering 'Jamaica Say You Will' in 1971, other songs from the album began to be recorded by a variety of artists, and by 1973 most of them had been covered. So here are the best of those covers, illustrating what a talented songwriter Browne was right from the start of his long career. 

Track listing

01 Jamaica Say You Will (The Byrds 1971) 
02 A Child In These Hills (Penny Nichols 2012)  
03 Song For Adam (Kiki Dee 1973) 
04 Doctor My Eyes (The Jackson 5 1972) 
05 From Silver Lake (Hedge & Donna 1968)  
06 Something Fine (Leo Sayer 1978)
07 Under The Falling Sky (Bonnie Raitt 1972)  
08 Looking Into You (The Mick Fleetwood Band 2004)  
09 Rock Me On The Water (Brewer & Shipley 1971)
10 My Opening Farewell (Michael Johnson 1973)

Cassie - Velvet Night (2012)

With the single 'King Of Hearts' appearing in February 2012, it seemed that Cassie's sophomore album had been consigned to the vaults, and following a highly praised performance of the song at BET's 106 & Park music video show, her next single, 'Balcony, was sent out to U.S. urban radio stations in September.  Also in September she featured on Nicki Minaj's single from her re-released album 'Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded – The Re-Up', titled 'The Boys', which was also sent out to urban radio stations. In July 2012 she'd announced that she had been working simultaneously on her album and a new mixtape titled 'RockaByeBaby', and this was released on 11 April 2013, being named the best mixtape of the year by Dazed & Confused. In March 2015 her boyfriend, rapper-producer Sean Combs, (a.k.a. P. Diddy), announced that he would be returning to producing, and this would include writing and recording songs for Cassie's second studio album. However, in 2016 she announced that she would be returning to acting, playing the lead role in the romantic comedy 'The Perfect Match', which was released in March 2016, although the following year she did release two singles, 'Love A Loser' and 'Don't Play It Safe'. 

In January 2019, after ending her relationship with Combs and leaving Bad Boy Records, she worked with producers Chris' n' Teeb and singer-songwriter Ro James, and released several singles via her own Ventura Music label, including 'Moments',  'Excuses', 'Hungover', 'Don't Let Go', 'Speaking Of', 'Rollercoaster', 'Teach Me' and 'Simple Things'. The series of releases was dubbed "Free Fridays", and was to serve as a teaser ahead of the release of her second album, but as we by now know, this was not to be, and here in 2024 there is still no sign of that elusive second record. The good news is that the songs have not gone to waste, and a huge number of them have leaked over the years, and enterprising fans have been compiking them into themed albums for some time, and so following the recent post of her proposed 'Electro Love' from 2009, I'll be posting the remainder of the songs in revised versions of the three themed fan-made albums, having first extracted the 'Electro Love' tracks from them. We start with 'Velvet Night', which is a collection of dark, seductive songs, and the minimalist R&B showcases Cassie's sultry, sexy vocals gliding over the music, creating a spellbinding effect.

Track listing

01 I'm Not Drunk (Intro)
02 Don't Go Too Slow
03 When Your Body Is Talking
05 All The Way Down
05 Addiction (Interlude #1)
06 Whatcha Gonna Do
07 What She Don't Know
08 Stray (feat. Brandon Hines)
09 Can't Do It Without You
10 Shades (feat. Diddy) (Interlude #2)
11 Right Time 
12 Skydiver
13 Not Love (Interlude #3)
14 Balcony (feat. Young Jeezy)
15 Let Me Go
16 Venus vs. Mars (feat. Jay-Z) (Outro)

Kula Shaker - Another Life (1999)

The origin of Kula Shaker can be traced back to 1988, when Crispian Mills (grandson of Sir John Mills and son of actress Hayley Mills and film director Roy Boulting) met Alonza Bevan at Richmond upon Thames College in South-West London. The two went on to play together in a band named Objects Of Desire, with an initial line-up of Mills on lead guitar, Bevan on bass, Richard Cave on drums, Leigh Morris on rhythm guitar, and Marcus Maclaine (then Hayley Mills' boyfriend) on lead vocals. In 1991, Paul Winterhart joined the band as replacement drummer, and during this period, MIlls and Bevan were also responsible for running the Mantra Shack, a psychedelic nightclub at the back of Richmond ice rink. The Objects Of Desire disbanded acrimoniously in early 1993, after which Mills went on a spiritual pilgrimage, backpacking around India, with the trip having a profound effect on him, fostering a deep interest in Indian culture and Hinduism. Upon returning to the UK he formed a new band named The Kays, with Bevan, Winterhart, and Mills' cousin Saul Dismont on vocals, and the band's debut live performance was at the 1993 Glastonbury Festival. Within a year, Dismont had left the band, to be replaced by organist Jay Darlington, who had previously been a member of several mod revival bands. 

After two years of touring and recording, The Kays elected to change their name and musical direction, and so in 1995 Mills suggested that the band take the name Kula Shaker, in honour of one of the twelve Alvars (saints of south India), the ninth-century Indian emperor and holy man, King Kulashekhara. He also said that Kula Shaker's music should follow a more spiritual and mystical direction in future, in line with his own growing interest in the philosophy of Gaudiya Vaishnavism. This new emphasis on Indian mysticism and instrumentation, dovetailed with the Beatlesque, 1960's derived influences already present in the band's music, created a sound heavily indebted to 1960's psychedelia. In September 1995 Kula Shaker were joint winners of the In The City contest (along with Placebo), which quickly resulted in a record contract with Columbia Records, who were eager to sign another band that had the multi-platinum, crossover appeal of Oasis. A debut single, 'Tattva (Lucky 13 Mix)' was released on CD and limited 7" vinyl in January 1996, but it just missed the UK Top 75, peaking at number 86. This was followed quickly in April by the band's second single, 'Grateful When You're Dead', a slice of Jimi Hendrix-esque rock which was to become their debut UK Top 40 single, entering the chart at No. 35. Music press and public alike finally began to take notice of the band, and this sudden exposure propelled the re-released (and re-recorded) 'Tattva' to No. 4 in the UK Singles Chart. 

The band's upward climb continued with their third single 'Hey Dude', a more traditional rock song which was only kept off the top spot by the Spice Girls when it was released in August 1996. September saw the release of the band's debut album 'K', which became the fastest selling debut album in Britain since Elastica's debut the previous year. The fourth and final single from 'K' was 'Govinda', which reached No. 7 in the UK charts in December of that year, with the song being sung totally in Sanskrit, and mixing swirling guitars with traditional Indian music. In 1997 they carried off the BRIT Award for "British Breakthrough Act" at the ceremony in February, and to celebrate they released what would turn out to be their biggest hit, a cover of the Joe South/Deep Purple classic 'Hush'. After playing T in the Park, Glastonbury and the V Festival, the band shifted their focus to the US, where both 'Tattva' and 'Hey Dude' were receiving some radio exposure. After initial disagreements with management, Kula Shaker resurfaced with the UK-only single 'Sound Of Drums' in April 1998, peaking at number 3, but the promised album in the summer of that year failed to materialise, and the momentum generated by the single was lost as a result. 

'Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts' finally appeared in March 1999, and was preceded by the single 'Mystical Machine Gun' which failed to make as strong an impact on the charts as their previous singles, peaking at Number 14 and only remaining in the top 40 for two weeks. The album itself received mixed reviews, and only sold a mere 25,000 copies in its first week, as it crawled in at Number 9 on the album chart. In June they played the Glastonbury Festival, and headlined the Lizard Festival in Cornwall in August, to coincide with the total eclipse, but in September the band announced their split. They reformed in 2004, with their first gig back together as a 3-piece, consisting of Mills, Bevan and Winterhart, taking place at the Wheatsheaf, Leighton Buzzard, England, on 21 December 2005, and in January 2006 Kula Shaker announced that they had reformed permanently. The new incarnation has released four albums and a few singles, but it's generally accepted that their most productive and innovative period was the five years between 1995 and 1999. During this time they added many non-album tracks to the flips of their singles, and this post collects them all together, to remember a truly unique band, with a sound that was all their own.  

Track listing

Disc I - 1995-1997
01 Tattva (Lucky 13 Mix) (single 1995)
02 Another Life (b-side of 'Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There' 1996)
03 Under The Hammer (b-side of 'Grateful When You're Dead/Jerry Was There' 1996)
04 Tattva On St. George's Day (b-side of 'Tattva' 1996)
05 Dance In Your Shadow (b-side of 'Tattva' 1996)
06 Moonshine (b-side of 'Tattva' 1996)
07 Troubled Mind (b-side of 'Hey Dude' 1996)
08 Drop In The Sea (b-side of 'Hey Dude' 1996)
09 Gokula (b-side of 'Govinda' 1996)
10 The Leek (b-side of 'Govinda' 1996)
11 Govinda '97, Hari & St. George (from the 'Summer Sun' EP 1997)
12 Raagy One (Waiting For Tomorrow) (from the 'Summer Sun' EP 1997)

Disc II - 1997-1999
01 Hush (single 1997)
02 Hurry On Sundown (Hari On Sundown) (b-side of 'Sound Of Drums' 1998)
03 Reflections Of Love (b-side of 'Sound Of Drums' 1998)
04 Fairyland (b-side of 'Sound Of Drums' 1998)
05 The One That Got Away (b-side of 'Sound Of Drums' 1998)
06 Smile (b-side of 'Sound Of Drums' 1998)
07 Avalonia (b-side of 'Mystical Machine Gun' 1999)
08 Prancing Bride (b-side of 'Mystical Machine Gun' 1999)
09 Holy River (b-side of 'Mystical Machine Gun' 1999)
10 Guitar Man (b-side of 'Mystical Machine Gun' 1999)
11 Goodbye Tin Terriers (b-side of 'Shower Your Love' 1999)
12 The Dancing Flea (b-side of 'Shower Your Love' 1999)
13 Light Of The Day (b-side of 'Shower Your Love' 1999)
14 Ballad Of A Thin Man (from abandoned Bob Dylan tribute album 1999)

Tracks 3 and 6 on Disc II are from the short film 'Reflections Of Love'.

Mike Solof - Off The Beatle Track - Episode 55 (2019)

Time for another episode of Mike's radio showing exploring all things Beatles, and on this one he looks at how the blues influenced the band. 
The Beatles were not primarily known for their blues music, as they were more famous for their pop and rock songs, however, they did incorporate elements of blues into some of their tracks. 'Yer Blues' is one of the most blues-influenced tracks by the band, featuring raw vocals and a heavy blues-rock sound. While 'Why Don't We Do It in the Road?' is not a traditional blues song, it has a bluesy vibe with its simple structure and raw vocals, whereas 'For You Blue' is a more traditional blues track with a slide guitar and a 12-bar blues structure. These are all later tracks from the band's catalogue, but they weren't averse to covering old blues songs on their early records, such as 'Kansas City' or 'Honey Don't', and so on this episode Mike shows how what the guys learned in the band carried on when they embarked on their solo careers, with examples of how the blues broke through every so often in their later work. 

Track listing

01 Episode 55 - Beatles Blues

Cornershop - Straight Aces (2012)

Tjinder Singh formed General Havoc in 1987, while he was a student at Lancashire Polytechnic in Preston, and when he relocated to Leicester, where his brother and sister lived, he formed Cornershop in 1991 along with his brother Avtar on bass, David Chambers on drums and Ben Ayres on guitar, keyboards and tamboura. They first came to the public's attention in the early 90's, when singer Morrissey was being vilified by the UK music press after accusations of racism, and the band were invited to comment, with Melody Maker running a story featuring the band burning a picture of the singer outside the offices of EMI. Their debut release, the 'In The Days Of Ford Cortina' EP, was pressed on "curry-coloured vinyl", and contained a blend of Indian-tinged noise pop, but by the time they released their debut album, 'Hold On It Hurts', in 1994, their sound had mellowed somewhat, and Trouser Press described it as "a politically charged popfest, ten tracks of noisy delights that meld incisive social commentary with a firm hold on British post-punk." The album impressed David Byrne sufficiently for him to sign the band to his Luaka Bop label, but David Chambers left the band after the release of the album, and was replaced by Nick Simms. 

The band re-emerged in 1995 with the '6 a.m. Jullandar Shere' single, and a new album titled 'Woman's Gotta Have It', and they embarked on a tour of the United States, including some dates on the Lollapalooza tour. The critically acclaimed album 'When I Was Born For The 7th Time' came out in September 1997, and featured collaborations with Allen Ginsberg, Paula Frazer, Justin Warfield and a Yoko Ono/Paul McCartney-approved cover of 'Norwegian Wood', recorded in the Punjabi language. Rolling Stone called it one of the essential recordings of the 1990's, and it was ranked No. 1 on Spin's list of 'Top 20 Albums of the Year'. The track 'Brimful Of Asha' was released as a single, and it topped the Festive 50 rundown of John Peel's tracks of the year in 1997, leading to Norman Cook (a.k.a. Fatboy Slim) offering to remix the track, whereupon it became a worldwide phenomenon. In 2000, Ayres and Singh released a disco inspired album, 'Disco And The Halfway To Discontent', as part of their side-project, Clinton, and this album inspired the launch of the London-based clubnight called Buttoned Down Disco, which took its name from the third track on the album. Their next official Cornershop release was the 2002 album, 'Handcream For A Generation', which featured Noel Gallagher on guitar, but it was two years before they released any new music, when 'Topknot', featuring the vocals of Bubbley Kaur, appeared on Rough Trade Records. 

Another two year wait resulted in the February 2006 release of the single 'Wop The Groove', featuring guest vocals from Happy Mondays backing singer Rowetta, and in something of a pattern, their 'Candyman' was featured in the Nike advertisement for the LeBron James VI shoe, called the Six "Chalk", in 2008. Cornershop finally released the follow-up to 'Handcream...' in July 2009, with 'Judy Sucks A Lemon For Breakfast' finally appearing seven years after its predecessor, and both the album and it's lead single 'The Roll-Off Characteristics (Of History In The Making)' appearing on their own record label Ample Play. An album in collaboration with Punjabi folk singer Bubbley Kaur, of the 'Topknot' single, was issued in March 2011, with 'Cornershop And The Double 'O' Groove Of' receiving much critical acclaim in the UK. The band also set up the Singhles Club Club, a subscription service featuring a series of musically diverse collaborations and exclusive digital artwork. During the early part of their career the band treated their fans to a number of rare tracks on one-off singles, rare EP's and b-sides, but by the time the band's eighth album 'Urban Turban' was released in May 2012, and was followed in February 2015 by 'Hold On It's Easy', this had ceased to be a regular occurrence, and so this collection of those rare and hard to find non-album songs has to stop in 2012, with a reverential Beatles' cover from a 2012 b-side. It also includes a call-back to the hidden track from the 'Lock Stock & Double Barrel' EP, with their own take on the country tune 'Houston Hash', a discussion about Dixon's D90 cassette tapes, and a pretty straight version of the 50's skiffle classic 'The Battle of New Orleans', proving that they were a much weirder band than I ever gave them credit for!

Track listing

Disc I - 1993-1994

01 Waterlogged (from the 'In The Days Of Ford Cortina' EP 1993)
02 Moonshine (from the 'In The Days Of Ford Cortina' EP 1993)
03 Kawasaki (More Heat Than Chapati) (from the 'In The Days Of Ford Cortina' EP 1993)
04 Hanif Kureishi Scene (from the 'In The Days Of Ford Cortina' EP 1993)
05 England's Dreaming (from the 'Lock Stock & Double-Barrel' EP 1993)
06 Trip Easy (from the 'Lock Stock & Double-Barrel' EP 1993)
07 Summer Fun In A Beat Up Datsun (from the 'Lock Stock & Double-Barrel' EP 1993)
08 Breaking Every Rule Language English (from the 'Lock Stock & Double-Barrel' EP 1993)

09 Naii Zindagi Naya Jeevan (NME/Peel Sessions Singles Club 7" single 1993)
10 Inside Rani (Short Version) (b-side of 'Reader's Wives' 1994)
11 Tandoori Chicken (b-side of 'Reader's Wives' 1994)
12 The Safety Of Objects (b-side of 'Born Disco; Died Heavy Metal' 1994)
13 Rehoused (b-side of 'Born Disco; Died Heavy Metal' 1994)
14 Seetar Man (Clawfist Singles Club split single 1994)

Disc II - 1997-2012
01 Easy Winners (Part 1) (b-side of 'Brimful Of Asha 1997)>
02 Easy Winners (Part 2) (b-side of 'Brimful Of Asha 1997)
03 U47's (b-side of 'Brimful Of Asha 1997)
04 Returning From The Wreckage (b-side of 'Lessons Learned From Rocky I To Rocky III' 2002)
05 Green P's (b-side of 'Staging' 2002)
06 Straight Aces (b-side of 'Staging' 2002)
07 Wop The Groove (single 2006)
08 The Dixons D90 Series (b-side of 'Wop The Groove')
09 Houston Hash (from the 'Battle Of New Orleans' EP 2010)
10 The Battle Of New Orleans (from the 'Battle Of New Orleans' EP 2010)
11 Lynndie England (from the 'Battle Of New Orleans' EP 2010)
12 Love You To (b-side of 'Something Makes You Feel Like' 2012)

Can - Cannibalisms (1971)

It's well-known that Can used to set the recorder going every time they decided to play together, and previously unheard tapes have been surfacing for years, so here is an album of early recordings, two from the Malcolm Mooney era and one from Damo Suzuki's time with the band. 'Upduff's Birth' is very much as the title suggests, and is the full instrumental take of what was pared down to become 'Mother Upduff' for inclusion on the 1974 compilation 'Limited Edition', and this is followed by an alternate take of 'Man Named Joe' with Mooney on vocals, which later appeared in 1981 on 'Delay 68'. As the title suggests, 'Delay '68' was a belated issue of Can's very first album, then called 'Prepared To Meet Thy Pnoom', which no record company was prepared to release to the world at the time. Lastly, we have 'Tagothrowaway', which is exactly what it says on the tin - an out-take from the 'Tago Mago' sessions which was discarded when the final track listing was being put together. There might only be three tracks, but it's 55-minutes of classic Can, which any fan of the band needs to hear.     

Track listing

01 Upduff's Birth (studio 1968)
02 Man Named Joe (alternate take 1968)
03 Tagothrowaway ('Tago Mago' out-take 1971)

Team Sleep - Appolonia (2003)

Team Sleep started when Chino Moreno and his friend Todd Wilkinson bought a cassette tape Portastudio-type four-track recorder in 1994, and the two of them jammed and recorded the odd song while Moreno's main band The Deftones recorded and released their first two albums. DJ Crook, a long-time friend and roommate of Deftones turntablist/keyboardist Frank Delgado, added beats and turntables to 'Teenager', a song featuring glitch and trip hop influences, and although it was originally intended as a Team Sleep song, it eventually appeared on The Deftones' third album 'White Pony' in 2000. Team Sleep performed a number of live shows on the West Coast of the United States in late 2001 and early 2002, with Moreno, Wilkinson, DJ Crook, Verrett (of Tinfed), Zach Hill, Dan Elkan, Sonny Mayugba, and Joel Tidwell handling instrumentation. A full album's worth of material was finished in 2002–03, with singers Mike Patton of Faith No More and Melissa Auf der Maur of Hole being involved in the recording sessions, although their contributions were not included on the final album, being replaced by vocalists Rob Crow and Mary Timony, singing alongside Moreno. The debut album was supposed to be released in 2003 but was scrapped due to the premature leakage of demos onto the internet, following which the band split for a brief period, before getting back together and recording new material for the album. The new record was scheduled for release in November 2004, but Maverick Records were reportedly so impressed by it that they postponed the release until mid-2005 to allow for promotion. 'Team Sleep' was finally released on 10 May 2005, to mostly positive reviews, although only five of the original recordings appeared on it, with three of those being heavily re-recorded. Notably absent from the completed debut album were 'Mercedes', 'Appolonia', 'Iceache', 'Death By Plane', 'Solid Gold', 'Acoustic One' and 'Kool-Aid Party' (with vocals by Mike Patton), while a demo of 'Cambodia' was revamped and appeared on the album as 'Ever (Foreign Flag)', and 'Natalie Portman' was revised into 'Live From The Stage'. Following the album's release, the band toured and began posting various demos on their MySpace page, and by adding a few of those to the recordings which were omitted from that first official release, we can hear what could have been the band's real debut album, released some time in 2003. With their 2005 record just now receiving a deluxe re-issue, it's the perfect time to give their earlier efforts a try.  

Track listing

01 Natalie Portman

02 Solid Gold 
03 Boulevard Nights 

04 Cambodia
05 King Diamond 
06 Death By Plane 
07 Appolonia 
08 Iceache 
09 Mercedes 
10 Acoustic One 
11 Interlude 
12 Kool-Aid Party 

UPDATES 3

As usual I took a number of these albums on holiday with me, and on listening to them on headphones I heard a couple of things that I hadn't noticed before. 

For the Elvis Costello post 'The Imposter', I'd segued the two sides of 'A Town Called Big Nothing' into one track, but listening to it again I felt that I could do much better, so I've completely redone the mix.

The opening track on The Rutles 'Yellow Submarine Sandwich' was obviously sourced from a scratchy 7" vinyl single, and so I've found a CD quality copy to replace that. 

jman mentioned that there was a track that I could have included on my Family Cat post, as they recorded an otherwise unavailable number called 'Fearless' for John Peel in 1990, so that's now included on Disc I. 

And finally, not exactly an audio fix, but I noticed that the Tom Jones album was tagged as Tom Jnes, so if you can't fix that yourself then you can download the corrected file of that, and the other three, from Soulseek or Mega.  

pj

Various Artists - The Hitmakers Sing Albert Hammond (1974)

Albert Louis Hammond was born on 18 May 1944 in London, after his family had been evacuated from Gibraltar during World War II, and shortly after the war ended they returned to Gibraltar where he grew up. In 1960 he joined Gibraltarian band The Diamond Boys, which had no real commercial success, but played a part in Spain's introduction to pop and rock music. In 1966 he co-founded the British vocal band the Family Dogg, reaching number 6 on the UK Singles Chart in 1969 with 'A Way Of Life', taken from the album of the same name. He also wrote songs for other artists with frequent collaborator Mike Hazlewood, including 'Little Arrows' for Leapy Lee, 'Make Me an Island' and 'You're Such A Good Looking Woman' for Joe Dolan, 'Gimme Dat Ding' for the Pipkins, 'Good Morning Freedom' for Blue Mink, 'Freedom Come, Freedom Go' for the Fortunes, and 'The Air That I Breathe' for the Hollies. In 1970, at age 26, he moved to the United States, continuing his professional career as a musician, although his greatest commercial success was in mainland Europe, with successful singles on Columbia subsidiary Mums Records, including 'Down By The River', 'It Never Rains In Southern California', 'The Free Electric Band' (his only single to chart in the UK), 'Half A Million Miles From Home', and '99 Miles From L.A.'. In 1971, he also sang on Michael Chapman's fourth album 'Wrecked Again', and he worked briefly with the Magic Lanterns on recordings of his and Hazlewood's songs. In 1972 he released his first solo album, 'It Never Rains In Southern California', following the success of the single of the same name, and with his reputation as a successful songwriter already established, other artists soon wanted to cover the songs on it. A couple of them seemed a bit too idiosyncratic to be attempted, and so as there were two that have yet to be covered, I've added some of the afore-mentioned hits from 1971 to replace them.  

Track listing

01 Listen To The World (The Undivided 1973)  
02 If You Gotta Break Another Heart (Cass Elliott 1972) 
03 Brand New Day (Cindy Kent 1973)
04 It Never Rains In Southern California (Sonny And Cher 1973) 
05 Anyone Here In The Audience (Agnes Chan 1973)
06 Names, Tags, Numbers & Labels (The Association 1973)
07 Down By The River (The New Seekers 1972)
08 The Air That I Breathe (The Hollies 1974)
09 Freedom Come, Freedom Go (The Fortunes 1971)
10 Good Morning Freedom (Blue Mink 1971)
11 Mama Sure Could Swing A Deal (The Magic Lanterns 1971)

Low Roar - Low Roar (2011)

Low Roar was a project from singer/songwriter Ryan Karazija, who was originally the singer for San Francisco band Audrye Sessions, who were signed to the Sony BMG sub-label, Black Seal. They had attempts at EP's and albums, but they received mixed reviews at best, and so he re-assessed his life and made the brave decision to up sticks and move to Reykjavik, Iceland, where he thought that his music would have a better fit. Now recording as Low Roar, he released his self-titled debut album on Tonequake Records in November 2011, eliciting comparisons to artists such as Bright Eyes. Like fellow Icelanders, Sigur Ros, he matched timelessness with the cinematic, beauty and uplift with pain and harrowing melody, and there is a distinct Radiohead feel to some of the music. Recruiting drummer Logi Guðmundsson, the two toured Europe extensively, including early appearances at Iceland Airwaves & ATP Festival in 2014, and with the addition of Leifur Björnsson on keyboards, the band released their second record '0' in 2014. However, before the 'Low Roar' album came out in 2011, Karazija had recorded another set of songs which were intended to be the first release from his new band. When 'Low Roar' was released by Tonequake Records, this other collection was abandoned, but they are too good to be forgotten, so here is the record that Karazija wanted to be the first that the general public heard of his new project. 

Track listing

01 Aspirin 
02 The Gardener 
03 Big Parade  
04 Oh My God  
05 Voru2 
06 Son Of Mine 
07 Bergthorugata 
08 Build Up? Build Down? 
09 Not Where My Heart Is  
10 Samples 
11 Let Me Know When You Get There  
12 Butterflies 
13 Conscious, Not Really 
14 Idiot