Jonathan Richman - Live at Central Park SummerStage - 29.06.00

Well lookie here, what's this? It can't be? Can it? IT IS! A JONATHAN RICHMAN BOOTLEG FROM 2000!!! All right, bloody hell, calm down isit? Oh ok, I agree it is pretty exciting, and it's also really really great quality in both sound and content :-D

I loooooooove Jojo, I love him so much that I am getting a Jojo tattoo some time soon, I have my Silver Jews and Daniel Johnston tattoos that can be read as either happy or sad depending on whether you are happy or sad but I want a bright Richman one that just says (not literally) "don't be sad, be happy!" cause I need to stop all this 'I'm depressed' business! Yes, I'm depressed but buying black trousers to wear with my 20,000 black band t-shirts is not a good thing, I need some colour in my life. They say "once you go black, you don't go back" but I think it's about time I at least tried to go back, maybe I should go to more bakeries but they don't really cater for vegans. I have discovered that one of the bakeries in town has a fridge that is FREEZING at the back and most of the time the Diet Coke right at the back has ice in it so I usually buy my pop from there; I don't think Jonathan was talking about pop when he wrote those lyrics though. :-s

If you were to look at my last.fm page you'd see that my top two artists are The Fall and Jonathan Richman, two musical oddities that you wouldn't really put in the same camp but they have a lot in common I suppose, I'm not gonna write about it like some kind of Pitchfork type, instead just take a second to think about it yourself...

I don't half write some rubbish on this blog, it doesn't give enough insight into my mangled brain enough to achieve a book deal yet it isn't boring enough to just post the download link and be done with it. How about some questions? Throw some questions at me in the comments, that'll be a gas, ask me anything, just don't ask me about why I think Star Wars is a big pile of crap cause it just is, m'kay.

I am currently downloading some very very rare Modern Lovers live recordings from '76 and '78, I'll share them some day...

This recording has really great quality and has three (I think) unreleased songs in the form of Silent Treatment, Barcelona and I'm Not Obsessed With Her...

Intro
Her Mystery Not Of High Heels And Eye Shadow
Egyptian Reggae
Give Paris One More Chance
Silent Treatment
Pablo Picasso
Nineteen in Naples
I'm So Confused
I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
Couples Must Fight
Barcelona
I'm Not Obsessed With Her
I'm a Little Airplane
Rooming House on Venice Beach
Let Her Go Into the Darkness
True Love is Not Nice
Vampire Girl
You Can't Talk to the Dude

http://sharebee.com/8c74c781
http://rapidshare.com/files/145341844/Live_-_Central_Park_SummerStage_-_29.06.00.zip.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JYKAQIO9
http://www.badongo.com/file/11347474
http://www.zshare.net/download/18786520b36ab385/

The Magnetic Fields - Live at Cadogan Hall, London - 09.07.08 - Recording

I've seen The Magnetic Fields live a bunch of times now, Shepherd's Bush just after the last 6ths album came out, both 69 Love Songs nights at The Lyric and on the I tour at The Royal Northern College of Music. The venues are getting progressively poncey and so are the attendees which, for a council estate boy like me, is quite unfortunate really. I don't mind rich people as long as they are bonkers rich but I can't stand the middle classes, what a bunch of wankers. That's neither here no there, just thought I'd make it known that the middle classes are rubbish.

There's no winning for me really, every time I go to a gig I realise just what a raving misanthropist I am, it's horrible for me. I honestly don't understand how people can like a band like The Magnetic Fields yet dress up like a complete retard and spend and hour doing their hair before leaving the house, and that's just the dudes! What's it all about, eh? A person's life must be pretty uncomplicated if they have that amount of disposable time, I'm too busy worrying about exactly when and how I am going to die to bother styling my fucking hair. That's what I love about The Magnetic Fields, they are so bloody plain, never has a band looked so boring yet packed such a punch. Stephin is an absolute genius of the written word, Claudia is just plain amazing and Sam and John look like a couple of maths students. You could walk past any one of these people in the street and they'd be invisible to you (unless Stephin was walking his gargoyle, of course). I don't understand where wearing the wacky clothes comes into being a music fan, going to gigs these days is almost like going to a clown convention.

This tour has had a "set a" and a "set b", I'm not exactly sure which one I got but I've seen the setlist for the other and I would have preferred that one, it's all right though because this one had some absolute classics in the form of "When I'm Out Of Town", "Lovers From The Moon" and "Give Me Back My Dreams" as well as all the other great songs they played. The sound is pretty darned good except for some chairs creaking and some sniffling, which although I don't remember shuffling in my seat or sniffing was probably me as I'm a fidget and have a bit of a breathing problem cause some cow punched me in the nose when I was a lad. Shirley Simms was there which was a delight, her mouth reminded me of the woman that works on the reception of the gastroenterologist in the episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry has an itch in his anus which was a bonus.

01. Introduction 1
02. When I'm Out Of Town
03. California Girls
04. All My Little Words
05. Come Back From San Francisco
06. Old Fools
07. Xavier Says
08. Walking My Gargoyle
09. No River
10. Too Drunk To Dream
11. Courtesans
12. Crows
13. Water Torture
14. Introduction 2
15. Lovers From The Moon
16. I Wish I Had An Evil Twin
17. Give Me Back My Dreams
18. Grand Canyon
19. Papa Was A Rodeo
20. Drive On, Driver
21. The Nun's Litany
22. The Tiny Goat
23. Smoke And Mirrors
24. Zombie Boy
25. Three-Way

http://sharebee.com/18bd4fff
http://rapidshare.com/files/129211330/the_magnetic_fields_cadogan_hall_london_09_07_08.zip.html
http://www.zshare.net/download/15191987992d3171/
http://www.badongo.com/file/10356249
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZRB3Q7O0

Richard & Linda Thompson - Rafferty's Folly - Download

Well, I was gonna upload this but did a quick search and someone else already has it on their blog so I'll just link you to there. Richard & Linda Thompson recorded a bunch of albums together back in the olden days, my two faves are "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" and "Shoot Out The Lights", for some reason I can't really get into their other albums...

This bootleg is from the "Shoot Out..." sessions recorded by Gerry Rafferty and later discarded by the duo. It's a must have for any Thompson fans but if you aren't familiar with their work then first slap yourself in the face then get the two albums I mentioned above before downloading this.

I'm gonna be shooting photos for Pitchfork at The Green Man Festival this year, Richard is playing and I can't wait to see him, more than anyone else on the bill. Richard Thompson also did the music for the Werner Herzog Documentary called "Grizzly Man", there is an awesome doc on the DVD of the recording sessions where you get to see Thompson at work, it kicks ass.

As I said, these aren't my links, I found them here: http://time-has-told-me.blogspot.com/2007/10/by-manila-18.html so make sure to go there because he/she has a second download of more tracks :-)

1. Don't Renege on Our Love
2. Back Street Slide
3. Walking on a Wire
4. The Wrong Heartbeat
5. Shoot Out the Lights
6. For Shame of Doing Wrong
7. I'm a Dreamer
8. Modern Woman
9. Just the Motion
10. Wall of Death
11. Lucky in Life
12. How Many Times Do You Have to Fall?
13. Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman
14. Wall of Death
15. Sword Dance/Young Black Cow
16. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight

http://sharebee.com/43734514
http://www.badongo.com/file/4697557
http://www.zshare.net/download/4190510fd34a39/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=QUFW01XB
http://rapidshare.com/files/62241873/1._RLTRF.rar.html

Click on the Amazon links below to go right to Richard & Linda Thompson albums and buy, buy, buy!
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Bruce Springsteen - Cardiff 2008 - Recording

Ooooooooooooh! A Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Live at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff - 14.05.08 recording for you, aren't you the lucky one???

You have no idea how excited I was about this gig, for, like, months, 'n', shit, the day before I was bubbling like that pink slime in one of the Ghostbusters films, it was insane, I've not been so excited since that one time when. The day of the gig I was gonna catch the 13:30 train up there and queue to make sure I got near the front but instead I bought a bottle of vodka, two cartons of orange juice and a plastic picnic cup and met up with 'the boys' to make the pilgrimage to smelly Cardiff.

We got up there and the city was heaving with Boss fans, at least I think they were, it was hard to tell with the amount of light being reflected off all the old dudes heads... We headed to Wetherspoons where I polished off what was left of my vodka then battling the immense pain in my chest rushed to the toilet and sicked it all back up again. We got wind of a special "Born in the USA" cocktail at a place across town, word on the street was that it was layered red, white and blue and a must have on this special day. As you can see from the photo below it wasn't red, white and blue at all, it was pissy yellow but fortunately it tasted a little bit like heaven so not all was lost.

Following that I had a "Sex and the City" (I think) before we left and I bought up another bottle of vodka, do you see what's happening here? I was so excited I was inadvertently getting absolutely hammertimed!

After hiding my recorder and vodka in my pants (I assume I did this cause they weren't in my bag when the security checked) we got to the stadium about 7ish. I bought 2 bottles of pop and left the gang to buy myself one of the awesome "Tramps like us baby we were born to run" t-shirts, split from the pack, hammered and with no idea what was going on I was now alone, this was the beginning of the end.

I don't remember Bruce and co taking to the stage or leaving the stage or much in between, I have a faint recollection of part of Thunder Road but that's it. MAN, I AM SO PISSED OFF! At some point I realised I'd lost my hat and I think that was the last straw, the other straws being the tens of thousands of pathetic middle aged losers standing around stroking their bloody chins. If The Boss has preached any message of the years it's not to sit back and rot but to get off your arse and make something of your life, being surrounded by so many so called "fans" that have neglected to heed the word of their 55 quid a ticket hero pushed me over the edge. I remember going for a piss and just looking out over all the people and just losing the will to live so I sat in one of the seats on the side and just started crying.

It's a horrible thing to be surrounded by something like 60 THOUSAND people and feeling so alone that there is nothing worth living for, I think I started texting desperately at this point (sorry to whoever got one or many!) and then just put my head in my hands and wept, I don't know how long this lasted but I'm pretty sure it was a long, long time. This depression is doing it's best to kick my ass but I have a secret weapon, and I'll be going to the doctor on Monday for a prescription. I once managed 3 months without meds and this time I've managed the massive, wait for it, ONE MONTH before losing it completely. Bruce's music has never been about rocking out to me anyway, its about sadness and misery and whether I remember any of it or not that night I was extremely sad and really fucking miserable.

That's enough about me, just check out this setlist! I'm so pissed (pardon the pun) that I don't remember it cause it's just incredible! I have put an asterisk next to all the ones I'd have killed to hear. The download links are at the end, note that it is split into 2 separate downloads due to its size so download both parts from different links to save yourself time.

01. Intro
02. From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
03. 10th Avenue Freeze-Out
04. Radio Nowhere
05. No Surrender *
06. Lonesome Day
07. Promised Land *
08. Danny Story
09. Blinded By The light *
10. Magic
11. Atlantic City *
12. The River *
13. Gypsy Biker
14. Darlington County *
15. Because The Night *
16. She's The One
17. Livin In The Future
18. Mary's Place
19. Working On The Highway *
20. Devils Arcade
21. The Rising *
22. Last To Die
23. Long Walk Home
24. Badlands *
25. Outro
26. Intro
27. Jungleland *
28. Tribute To Tim Russert
29. Thunder Road *
30. Born To Run *
31. Rosalita *
32. American land
33. Applause & Thank You

Part 1
http://sharebee.com/01d4578b

http://www.zshare.net/download/13889703b47c5000/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AI1TT030
http://www.badongo.com/file/9971429

Part 2
http://sharebee.com/4f89880e
http://www.zshare.net/download/1389630553e3f56a/
http://www.badongo.com/file/9972798
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=B04WM5CM

(I DON'T KNOW WHO RECORDED THIS, SOMETHING WENT TITS UP WITH MY RECORDER AND NOTHING WAS ON THE CARD, I FOUND THIS ON SOULSEEK, IF ITS YOURS AND YOU WANT ME TO REMOVE IT THEN CHILLAX YO)

Remember to buy stuff from Amazon using the links below cause I get a cut and I need a cut, I promise I won't spend it on vodka, my lesson has been learned!

Amazon USA Amazon UK

The Birthday Party - A Social Gathering... Bootleg

The actual name of this bootleg of a radio broadcast in 1982 is "A Social Gathering for the Celebration of the Anniversary of Someone's Birth", it's a stupid long name and it is credited to The Birthday Party AND Lydia Lunch even though all she does is yap a bit on Funhouse. Anyone that has read anything about The Birthday Party knows that they were a live band and their albums really don't live up to seeing them play, I was still listening to my mother singing from inside her belly when they first came to the UK so I, like many of you, have to rely on bootlegs and the great officially realised CD. There is also the incredible "Pleasure Heads Must Burn" video which I won't say much about cause I'm gonna try and find it online and post it some other time.

I first got into Nick Cave when I was 18, I remember the first time I tried playing "From Her To Eternity" I had to turn it off cause it was just noisy noise, it didn't take long for me to get a grip on myself and love it like it should be loved (A Box For Black Paul!!!). I got a shit load more Nick Cave albums before I got The Birthday Party stuff. I had "Junkyard" as my alarm clock CD for about a year, fuck knows what Hasan and Wendy upstairs thought every morning! I used to hear them getting jiggy up there, he was all "ahh, ahh, ahh, ahh" and she was all like "ooh, ohh, ohh" so I reckon they got off lightly, he could barely speak a word of English, I remember hearing her trying to explain Spiderman to him once and he had no idea what she was on about, two 40 year olds, married with no obvious form of communication, making Spiderman noises outside my door, welcome to Swansea...

Anyway, this bootleg was released in 1987 and is from a German radio broadcast in 1982, the gig was in Bremen. The sound quality is good and the content kicks ass, the setlist is pretty short but sweet as a nut:

Big-Jesus-Trash-Can
Dead Joe
The Friend Catcher
A Dead Song
Six-Inch Gold Blade
Junkyard
Hamlet (Pow, Pow, Pow)
Pleasureheads Must Burn
Funhouse (with Lydia Lunch).

Download from any of these links...

http://sharebee.com/027f042d
http://www.badongo.com/file/8832733
http://rapidshare.com/files/107413302/the-birthday-party-a-social-gathering.zip.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WUQ3XNGB
http://www.zshare.net/download/10526227c83c9725/

I would suggest that when you click on any of the download links you shout "BLAST OFF! BLAST OFF!!!" at the top of your lungs, it will enhance your enjoyment of the recording tenfold.

There's a load of cool info on The Birthday Party here: http://www.fromthearchives.com/ if you are bored in work.

Ch-ch-check this out too:

Buy The Birthday Party albums on Amazon, the Boxing Duck! gets a percentage of whatever you spend so get your hands in your pockets!

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The Magnetic Fields - live download

In celebration of the release of the new album by The Magnetic Fields called Distortion today I have a present for you. For free you can download a full gig they played in Manchester a few years back.

I was gonna write a bit of a thing about how my life completely changed during "All the Umbrellas in London" but I'm way to flucking depressed today to make the effort. Earlier I was thinking how I've kind of talked about being all depressed 'n' shit on this blog along with posting cool music and I thought that its a good thing and I'd use this as a sort of 'dear diary, i hate myself, check out the song' kind of thing, but I'm too depressed to do it today, typical.

For you I have the 30.10.04 show from The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. They were on for 1hr45mins and I cried for 1hr15mins and my life was changed forever during that time as I said.

Here's the tracklisting:
I Was Born
I Don't Believe In The Sun
A Chicken With It's Head Cut Off
I Looked All Over Town
Come Back From San Francisco
I Don't Really Love You Anymore
All The Umbrellas In London
If You Don't Cry
Born On A Train
I Wish I Had An Evil Twin
I Don't Believe You
Suddenly There Is A Tidal Wave
All My Little Words
Strange Powers
I Thought You My Boyfriend
A Pretty Girl Is Like...
Swinging London
Smoke And Mirrors
The Book Of Love
Reno Dakota
If There's Such A Thing As Love
Papa Was A Rodeo
All I Want To Know
It's Only Time
Yeah! Oh Yeah!
I Die

I warn you that you can hear the MD recorder spinning for a second a few times and that I've chopped it down to just the songs cause they talk for ages between songs and it was too quiet to hear on the recording.

http://sharebee.com/d7e83c7f
http://www.zshare.net/download/6474720946d9a7/
http://rapidshare.com/files/83527783/magnetic-fields-live-manchester.zip.html
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=5RT2JVI4
http://www.badongo.com/file/7295759

I also have another recording from when the 2nd 6ths album came out which has some guest singers on and the two night full run through of 69 Love Songs at The Lyric. If you wan't me to upload them leave a comment.

Buy The Magnetic Fields albums on Amazon, the Boxing Duck! gets a percentage of whatever you spend so get your hands in your pockets!

Amazon USA Amazon UK

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Live recording

When I was in school I was a bit of a 'wigga', I was all over the latest Biggie Smalls album like a big fat rash, maaaaan that was a good summer listening to The Pharcyde and reading The Hobbit at the same time. When I was 17 I started listening to more respectable music and by 18 it's safe to say that my days were spent listening to Joy Division and Nick Cave and my nights were spent listening to Joy Division and Nick Cave. I got to see Nick live in Liverpool on one of his solo tours, it was pretty flipping cool, if only I'd heard The Birthday Party before then I would have appreciated piano versions of Wild World and Dead Joe a lot more. In 2001 And No More Shall We Part came out, I thought it was pretty sucky, but seeing as I now loved The Birthday Party and every other album by 'ol Nick I went to see him three times in a single week, pretty obsessive behavior, I booked my tickets, one for Manchester and two for Brixton Academy.

The first London gig was good, the second was even better but neither was as awesome as Manchester a few days before. Although I was now twenty Joy Division was still high on my list of fave bands so when in Manchester I went to visit Ian Curtis' grave, it was pretty special. I got to The Academy and there was no queue so decided to hang out round the back by the tour buses, I got a glimpse of Blixa getting into a taxi and nearly had a heart attack, then spotted Warren Ellis, he looked like a tramp. Ages later Thomas Wydler came out of the bus, he looked in the reflective glass and combed his hair, he was meticulous, he then turned to walk, took a massive sniff and gobbed all over the pavement, it was soooo cool! Me and a few other obsessives went over and asked him if Nick was in the bus, in his strong German accent he said "vait and you vill see". A bit later the door opened and he came out, Jesus Christ walked out of the navy coloured tour bus and I jumped to my feet and practically ran at him (smoooooth!). It was a weird experience, he signed a piece of paper for me then even posed for a picture, I put my arm on his shoulder pad and felt a little bit gay for a moment. I couldn't believe how small he seemed, I was convinced he was the same height and build as me, not the imposing beast I'd read about for years. When I got the photos back it was obvious that I'd clearly lost my mind as his head is as big a small car and I look like a six year old next to him. I look disgusting, all smiley and vile, and no that is not a bloody tie, its a reflector on my coat!

The day couldn't really get much better but if you've ever seen Nick live you'd know that it did get better, the gig that night is probably the best gig I've ever been to. He was on top venomous form, he flew about the stage like a bat, towered over the crowd like a spindly, dead tree and he even pointed at me (at least I'm going to believe it was me). The set was a healthy mix of old stuff and tracks off the new album, I actually left that night loving the new songs, I can't believe I ever doubted And No More Shall We Part cause its great; I will never feel the same way about anything after Nocturama though cause that stuff is just wack. I recorded the show that night, it's no soundboard quality but it really captures energy and essence of the night, The Mercy Seat was just out of this world, building up to a crescendo (is that the word?) that had me thinking my ears would explode in two fountains of hot blood. The other standouts for me were Oh My Lord, Red Right Hand, John Finn's Wife and The Curse of Millhaven.

Check out the setlist then have a listen to a sample track or just go ahead and download the whole bootleg in a zip file. (Please note that I took this off the minidisc years ago and have cut out the chat and clapping between songs cause I wasn't interested in that shit back then)

Manchester Academy, Manchester, 02/05/2001
As I Sat Sadly By Her Side
Oh My Lord (MP3)
The Boatman Calls
Red Right Hand
We Came Along This Road
Henry Lee
Do You Love Me?
God Is In The House
Hallelujah
Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow
John Finn's Wife
The Weeping Song
The Mercy Seat
And No More Shall We Part
The Ship Song
The Curse Of Millhaven

Download all songs: Zip (no need to sign up for free membership!)

p.s Back in 2001 I set up a trade for this recording with someone on a Nick Cave forum, you sent me my tapes but I never sent yours, this was due to depression taking my life, job and internet connection for the first time, I still have your tapes if you want them :-p

(Update: adding DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! download in words only to come up in searches, pretty sneaky! If you are actually looking to download the 2008 album you'll have to look elsewhere).

Buy Nick Cave albums on Amazon, the Boxing Duck! gets a percentage of whatever you spend so get your hands in your pockets!

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