NIRVANA 4/10/90 Blind Pig Ann Arbor

Jay Reatard

In honor of the expanded re-release of the soundtrack to the Jay Reatard doc Better Than Something that drops June 9th, we have a really rad live audience recording of Jay Reatard in Athens, GA and a rare live recording of The Reatards Live. There were only 500 copies pressed capturing really early raw Jay Reatard in all his angry seething glory.



Intro (00:00:00)

Jay Reatard - 12/2/09
40 Watt Club - Athens, GA

Blood Visions (00:05:52)
It's So Easy (00:07:49)
Nightmares (00:08:510
Fading All Away (00:10:46)
It Ain't Gonna Save Me (00:12:08)
My Shadow (00:14:21)
I'm Watching You (00:20:37)
Oh It's Such A Shame (00:17:42)
I Know A Place (00:23:36)
All Over Again (00:25:17)
See/Saw (00:27:30)
Hammer I Miss You (00:29:48)
Before I Was Caught (00:31:35)
Faking It (00:33:05)
There Is No Sun (00:35:25)
Waiting For Something (00:38:35)
Trapped Here (00:41:50)

The Reatards Live (2004)



Stacey (00:45:42)
I Love Livin’ (00:47:48)
When I Get Mad (00:49:24)
Outta My Head (00:52:06)
It Ain’t Me (00:53:44)
Memphis Blues (00:56:03)
Quite All Right (00:58:08)
Gotta Move On (01:00:35)
She Will Always Be With Me (01:03:16)
Bummer Bitch (01:05:04)
I Won’t Make It (01:06:56)
I’m Gonna Break Down (01:08:47)
Down In Flames (01:10:54)

There are also a couple of shows available on NYC Taper. 

Le Poisson Rouge 10-1-09

Jay Reatard 7-1-09 Stuyvesant Town Oval Music NYC

                            

                                                                             

Goner Records

Jay Reatard Official Site

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Music To Eat

Hampton Grease Band was Col. Bruce Hampton's first legendary band. They only released one album, Music To Eat, in 1971. Though the record was supposedly Columbia's second worst selling record ever, the record has since gained a cult following and is considered one of the great records of the early psychedelic rock era. The record contains dazzling guitar work, long weird compositions and meaningless lyrics read off of a spray paint can and an atlas. Music To Eat was a weird audio sculpture that had no context within the normative world other than that it was there.

Intro (00:00:00)

Halifax (00:02:53)

Maria (00:22:35)

Six (00:28:10)

Evans (00:47:42)

Lawton (01:00:11)

Hey Old Lady and Bert's Song (01:08:02)

Hendon (01:11:24)

Bonus

Live Improvisation 1970 (01:31:36)

Glenn Phillips history of the band

Recent review off of the Vinyl District

On my wishlist are the two shows that Hampton Grease Band opened at The Fillmore East on June 5th and 6th for The Mothers of Invention. Zappa was recording the white pencil front live album and also john Lennon and Yoko jumped onstage during the encore without warning, all of which is on tape. I just wonder if there is a tape of Hampton Grease Band? There's gotta be right?

Paleolithic Hunting Club

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No Ego's Underwater

In light of the recent announcement of an Aquarium Rescue unit tour, I put together a playlist highlighting the bands peak years. Tickets for the tour go on sale today.

No Ego's Underwater Playlist

Intro (00:00:00)

8-14-89 The Point Atlanta, Georgia

Arkansas (00:03:42)

Basically Frightened (00:05:45)

All Night long (00:12:24)

Cocoa Beach (00:17:40) 

Colonel Bruce Hampton (Ret) - Chazoid, Vocals
Rev. Jeff Mosier - Banjo, Vocals
Deacon Charlie Williams - Guitar
Oteil Burbridge - Bass
Apartment Q258 - Drums

12-31-90 The Point Atlanta, Georgia

No Reason to Complain (00:25:35)

Yield not to Temptation (00:37:19) 

Sittin' on Top of the World (00:41:24) 

2-5-91 The Nick Birmingham, Alabama

Jam/Time is Free/blues (00:44:58) 

The Donkey/Space Is The Place (01:01:47)

3-31-92 KD Churchill's Burlington, Vermont

Space Is The Place (01:22:26)

Davy Crockett (01:33:21)

Layin Back in Georgia (01:40:08) 

7-7-92 KD Churchill's Burlington, Vermont (W/ Fishman, Page, Dave Grippo)

Shoeless Joe (01:44:52)

Workin' on a Building (W/Trey) (01:49:50)

I Can't Quit You Babe (01:56:29)

Elevator to the Moon (02:05:36) 

Swing (02:12:03)

10-17-92 Variety Playhouse Atlanta, Georgia

Salty Dog (02:16:03)

Too Many Guitars (02:18:44)

5-28-93 Lounge Ax Chicago, Illinois 

Time Flack (02:22:32) 

New River Train (02:27:34)

Dead Presidents (02:31:06) 

It's Not The Same Old Thing (02:34:04)

Lost Mule In Texas (W/Derek Trucks) (02:38:41) 

10-8-93 Blind Pig Ann Arbor, Michigan

No Ego's Underwater (02:43:35) 

A Love Supreme (02:48:03)

11-20-93 The Wetlands New York City (W/ Warren Haynes)

Zambi>Space is the Place (03:03:20)

ARU on the Archive

Below are a couple of excerpts of the recent documentary Basically Frightened about Col. Bruce Hampton.

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DeadCast: Fare Thee Well 50th Anniversary Preview

In anticipation of the big 50th anniversary Grateful Dead shows this summer, we talk shop about the crazy mailorder snafu, how Alex got tickets, and about Big Red sitting in for Jerry...As well as the typical Dada meandering nonsense.

And this is just funny, all of the tuning edited together for the year of 1977.


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ESP Sun Ra Radio Tribute

I'm a little late to this party but who cares because it's so rad it doesn't matter. The official Sun Ra archivist Michael D. Anderson (aka the good doctor) did this wonderful 14 hour retrospective of Sun Ra's career for something he called the ESP Sun Ra Radio tribute. This is in anticipation of last years release of 21 newly remastered albums for the Sun Ra centennial.

The fantastic blog Adventure-Equation generously uploaded and made this radio series available.

Part 1 (Notes/Download)

Part 2 (Notes/Download)

Part 3 (Notes/Download)

Part 4 (Notes/Download)

Part 5 (Notes/Download)

Part 6 (Notes/Download)

Note: I don't think the above download links are valid anymore. Here is the download link off of the ESP website.
Jay 1-20-16

WNYC Sun Ra Tribute joined by Michael D Anderson and Irwin Chusid



Another rare performance from 1972 at Slug's Saloon in NYC has just been released featuring Sun Ra and June Tyson. The quality is amazing,

Trey's Arkestra

Back in April of 1996 coming off the heels of the legendary Madison Square Garden New Years run, Trey Anastasio dove deep into the world of improv enlisting a who’s who of jamband musicians as well as members of Sun Ra’s Arkestra. The project was called Surrender to the Air. The group only played two shows on April 1 and April 2 at The Academy of Music in New York City. All of the music was improvised and allowed to go anywhere. Trey describes the project:

It was very loose. Everybody was just set up in the room, and you’d just come and go as you please. Sometimes it broke down to just two people. Most of the session was spent doing free stuff. [But, he adds,] The sound I wanted was free form and the structure I wanted was structure. It was basically a matter of figuring how to get both of those things. The problem that I don’t like about most free-form things is that it meanders. And to my ear, this doesn’t meander; it has direction all the time. It keeps going down a course.

The most interesting musician in these sessions is the incredible Marshall Allen. He is now the leader of Sun Ra’s Arkestra and has been in the band since 1958. Trumpeter Michael Ray and vibraphonist Damon Choice are also featured prominently in these sessions. The Arkestra of course are absolute masters of their craft performing art for art’s sake. Trey modeled this project after the Arkestra. Around this time Trey said of Sun Ra: “I think he was the pinnacle, he was as good as it got. His values remained pure for his entire life, and there's something to be said for that.”

This occasion wasn’t the first collaboration between Arkestra members. On December 2 1994 at UC Davis Michael Ray sat in amongst the Giant Country horns for the better part of the 2^nd set. Gumbo, from A Live One is from this show. Marshall Allen sat in with Trey on August 2, 2001 on the tune Push On Til the Day. Caravan from the UC Davis show and Allen’s portion from the Trey show are enclosed on this podcast.

Also featured on this show is Phish’s only ever Sun Ra cover of Carefree from Purple Dragon studios in Atlanta on April 26, 1994. I also put a really weird Sun Ra version of Carefree. The Arkestra was always good at randomly playing weird versions of songs, which in the true jamband spirit makes the shows that circulate truly interesting.

The rest of the audience recordings are excerpts from the two nights. Don’t think Trey jams enough anymore? Check this out, it’s all they do. But of course there’s no ego and no one person dominating the improv, it is truly group improv and goes off in some really cool places. Listen for the space chords where it goes to group chaos and then on to the next idea. That was a common Arkestra tool.

0:00:00 Intro

0:06:42 Caravan 12-2-94 UC Davis CA Phish

0:13:25 Carefree 4-26-94 Purple Dragon Studios Phish

0:23:47 Nuclear War>Carefree 7-2-83 Knittelfeld Austria Sun Ra Omniverse Arkestra

0:34:45 Push on Till the Day 8-2-01 Mann Center Philadelphia Trey Anastasio Band

0:40:43 Surrender to the Air 4-2-96 Academy of Music NYC

1:26:43 Surrender to the Air 4-1-96 Academy of Music NYC

Surrender to the Air musicians: 

Trey Anastasio - guitar 

Jon Fishman - drums 

Bob Gullotti - drums 

Oteil Burbridge - bass 

John Medeski - organ 

Michael Ray - trumpet 

Marshall Allen - saxophone 

Marc Ribot - guitar 

Damon Choice - vibraphone/keyboards 

James Harvey - trombone 

Kofi Burbridge - flute 

The 2^nd set of the 2^nd night has Page McConnell on keys.

 

Check out this episode!

Review: The Execution of Sun Ra

Thomas Stanley’s book, The Execution of Sun Ra: The Mysterious Tale of a Dark Body Sent to Earth to Usher in an Unprecedented Era of Cosmic Regeneration and Happiness Volume II, delves deep into the complicated theories and pronouncements Sun Ra was famous for. This is by no means an introduction to Sun Ra and his work or a biography. The best part of the book is Stanley’s first hand account of hanging out and being a fan of the Arkestra. He offers a unique perspective and knows the Sun Ra mythos well offering fresh engaging analysis of Sun Ra’s music and ideas.

The way that Stanley imagines Sun Ra’s musical legacy is of particular interest. The Arkestra rehearsed and recorded tunes that have never been released or performed publicly. Stanley claims that he’s:

Seen Marshall Allen, a pair of spectacles hanging from his nose, pull cassettes from a large plastic bag full of similar, hastily labeled, recordings made, I presume, during the hundreds (thousands?) of hours of rehearsals in the Philly rowhouse. There is more than one large bag like this.

The artifacts are all there. Stanley compares Sun Ra’s musical legacy as being different from Hendrix and Marley since there is still new Sun Ra music that you can hear the Arkestra play due to all of the sheet music and rehearsal tapes left behind that were never played live. Arkestra member Michael Ray confirms the so-called secret music of Sun Ra:

We always had new music to play all the time. We really never played the real music in concert—Sun Ra had so much stuff that we would rehearse but didn’t even play live, because he’d say, ‘I’m just putting this out for people to steal stuff from,’ and he’d keep a lot of it from even being played in public at all. Suitcases full.

Sun Ra’s musical legacy offers not only new music for listeners but lessons in composition from transcribing the cassettes and understanding the sheet music left behind. Of course, Stanley describes it more poetically: “A pharaoh’s ransom of potential future releases hidden in the miles and miles of tape that Sun wrapped around our planet like copper wire in an electric pickup.”

Stanley confronts Sun Ra’s declarations denouncing death and his lifelong asexuality while attempting to contextualize Sun Ra’s reasoning. He also defines certain Sun Ra isms such as Sun Ra’s vision of Alter Destiny, his: “construct for a posthuman future that excels beyond either our present condition or our skewed vision of progress.” If Alter Destiny was the broader term that Sun Ra applied to his unique vision, the method he used to develop this vision was Myth Science. From a discussion with Jac Jacson Stanley describes myth as: “anything that could not be proven true or false and as such, in this bizarrely suspended state of quantum epistemology, myths necessarily have a potent effect on the more definite facts of social history:”

The myth is the seemingly false and the seemingly impossible. The borders of the rim of myth are vast and nonexistent because there are no limits to the imaginated realm ideas of myth. It is a challenging frontier. (Sun Ra)

A lot of theoretical ruminating and ideas are presented in the book including sound as matter and the idea that God was hijacked from nature in a spiritual “God-jail” at Gobekli Tepe. Thomas makes the inversion that, “Early worship creates the necessity for agriculture. NOT the other way around.” This leads to the Sun Ra tie-in, “if liberation atheism seeks to free man from God, Sun Ra’s Myth Science conceals a timely plot to free God from man.” Stanley riffs a lot like this in the same way that Sun Ra would. Sometimes he meanders too far when describing things like the obscure deathless “jellyfish-like” Turritopsis nutricula. It always gets back on point with grand summations like:

“Rather than a lifestyle, Sun Ra was modeling a mode of existence that deftly renegotiated the pressures of normative society in such a way that, against all odds, something novel, even miraculous, certainly something legendary, if not entirely mythic, was able to take place.”

Or:

Sun Ra’s life, his myth-science, his dream media, encompassed and was greater than his music, his writing, his teaching, his circus; it was shared with us as a seed-crystal for (re)creation of order, another large play of human intelligence, creativity, and love worked out through a reshuffling, refreshing, reimagining of the possibilities inherent in human bodies in time and a place (space) to act. We have excelled at the building, rearrangement and destruction (but not disposal) of things, and the vanguard medium of Myth Science is sound. This sound is real, vibrational, psychocymatic force, the individual and collective result of which may well be such radical departures in human economy, politics, identity, and communication that if we envision such large changes in what we do (agenda) as being acted out by the current version of what we are, we’ll retard our transformation.

The Execution of Sun Ra is an overall highly entertaining book for the knowledgeable Sun Ra fan. Some of the best parts of the book are stories from Arkestra members like saxophonist Danny Ray Thompson's account of the Arkestra’s visit to an underground Egyptian tomb where everything went black, or the claim of Sun Ra having a live beetle with a string leash attached to its neck crawling around Sun Ra’s chest as some sort of scarab. Imagining exploring an Egyptian tomb with Sun Ra is incredibly appealing to any Sun Ra fan as is the couple of UFO stories thrown in there as well. There is also an extensive sources listed section, an “Immeasurable Mix Tape,” and a transcribed interview that Stanley did with Sun Ra in 1990. This book is a definite must read for any Sun Ra fan. 

Stanley, Thomas. The Execution of Sun Ra. Shelbyville: Wasteland, 2014. Print.

This Spotify track is one of three of a random rehearsal. I'm pretty sure an excerpt of this is from the 1980 Joyful Noise documentary.