* Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Death In The Sea (5.5 mb) | bpb_MP3_Part2 (87.0 mb) | bpb_Flac_Part2 (257.0 mb)
From Live At Alte Feurwache : Aug 15th, 2005 : Mannheim, Germany
As promised (look here), here’s the second part of this magnificent Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy concert.
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Hope everyone had a great memorial day weekend. I definitely did. There’s nothing like grilling, drinking beer and enjoying the company of great friends.
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* Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy: Death In The Sea (5.5 mb) | bpb_MP3_Part1 (86.5 mb) | bpb_Flac_Part1 (260.5 mb)
From Live At Alte Feurwache : Aug 15th, 2005 : Mannheim, Germany
As demonstrated by the number of posts on my site about this fine fellow, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (look here, here and here), it should be fairly obvious that I’ve got nothing but love for this dude. Call it what you want, country, americana, indie, punk, etc.., I think what really draws me to his music is an incredible mix of rawness, spontaneity, and humor.
He doesn’t rehearse. … He chooses the people he’s going to play with shortly before the session, so everyone is playing by the seat of their pants, and the music is at constant risk, subject to the weaknesses of whoever’s in the room. But he gets absolutely spontaneous moments of greatness you couldn’t rehearse. (wikipedia)
At any rate, what we’ve got here is an amazing recording of an outstanding show in Germany. With a great mix of songs, both old and new, this show is a real treat.
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* Jonathan Richman: I’m Young (3.5 mb) | Jonathan_Richman_MP3 (94.0 mb) | Jonathan_Richman_Flac (306.5 mb)
From The Living Room Demos
As I wrote earlier (look here), my first introduction to this fine fellow, Jonathan Richman, was less than favorable. But, years later, I learned to love his quirky vocal stylings and his timeless songs. He started his first band, The Modern Lovers back in the early ’70’s, but decided to move to California and go solo after only a couple of years. The Modern Lovers name lived on though, and there were later incarnations of the band, with completely different people and basically functioning as a backing band for Jonathan Richman.
What we have here is a fascinating look at Jonathan Richman, post band break-up. This performance was probably in his living room, in front of a couple of his friends and has loose song sketches and snippets of a number of songs.
After the Lovers broke up Jonathan resumed playing solo. This recording brings us probably as close as we’ll get to hearing what those shows sounded like. Don’t be misled by the long list of song titles; while there are a number of great fully-formed songs, many of these are loose song sketches and snippets. The music helps fill in the gaps between 1973 Jonathan and post-1976 Jonathan; there are a number of songs (I’m Young in particular) that would’ve sounded great with the original Lovers, but the vintage cover selections and the more ambitious melodies of some of the originals help point the way to new musical adventures. On the advice of the better-informed, I’ve given up trying to guess why this recording was made. It surfaced as an acetate, which is a kind of LP produced in very small quantities. The looseness of the performances and the production lend this a wonderfully intimate atmosphere (hence the “Living Room Demos” nickname). There’s an audience of two or three friends tops, Jonathan wanders from guitar to tambourine to acapella, repeating songs, extolling the virtues of playing solo and, at one point, asking someone take a telephone message for him. (from the text file)
This is a seriously fun recording and I wish I had been there to see/hear it.
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* Ghost: IV (9.0 mb) | Ghost_MP3 (81.0 mb) | Ghost_Flac (260.0 mb)
From Live At Terrastock : Oct 11, 2002 : Boston, MA
I’ve been in love with the spiritually psychedelic sounds of this band Ghost, ever since I heard their fourth album, Lama Rabi Rabi. I couldn’t believe their incredible range of sounds, from psychedelic folk to hard rockers. I quickly tracked down every release I could find and immersed myself in their mystical sound visions.
What we have here is a pretty amazing performance at the fifth Terrastock Festival (for those interested, they’re resuming the festival and holding Terrastock 7 in Louisville, KY). A slight word of warning about this recording, the first track is from the soundboard, but the left/right balance seems a little wonky. The rest of the concert is from an audience source, with track 2 being a little rough for the first minute or so. Otherwise, an amazing concert and those little rough spots shouldn’t deter you from downloading this.
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