3 comments about Live.

1. What makes a great live album? A faithful reproduction or superior reinterpretation of a studio classic? Audience rapport? Great guitar solos? Fantastic new songs? All of the above?
   
   Have I got the album for you.
   
   For post-Beserkley Chartbusters Jonathan fans, this is THE album to have. It kicks off with I'm a Little Airplane, which is available nowhere else. Until the applause kicks in at the end of the song, it is as tight as Jonathan's best studio recordings from the era. It's goofy lyrics (yes, he really is a little airplane), joined with fun riffs and a guitar solo so good that Jonathan requested a second one, result in a thoroughly enjoyable two minutes. The song immediately segues into audience banter where a heckler accuses Jonathan of wearing the same shirt for two consecutive nights. Of course, Jonathan objects! Fortunately, he is not thrown off form and counts into a version of "Hey There Little Insect" that is superior in every way to the studio version. If you don't know the song, it's everything its title promises. From there, the band moves on to their biggest hit, the instrumental "Egyptian Reggae." Doesn't this album sound fun already?
   
   And I haven't even gotten to the marathon rendition of "Ice Cream Man" that closes side one of the old album. This is a far superior version to the studio recording that brings out all of the song's promise of waiting for the ice cream man on a hot summer's day when you were six years old. The fake endings of the song as the audience begs for more is the high point of the album and guaranteed to bring a dumb smile to your face.
   
   Side two has a hard time living up to side one, but that's like saying side one of Abbey Road doesn't hold up to side two. Not much to complain about here. A guided tour to the land of dinosaurs, New England, South America, and Kookenhakens is more than most of us deserve. The final song, "The Morning of Our Lives," is so sweet-natured and kind; do the cynic inside of you a favor and give this song a listen. It will make you wish you never grew up.
   
   All in all, this is my favorite live album by any artist. Jonathan's hero, Lou Reed, did well with "Rock 'n Roll Animal," but this is better.
   
   Buy it and have a great time!



2. It must have been more than 25 years ago I listened to this album for the first time. It's one of these you must have in your collection. Songs like "I'm a little airplane" and "Icecream man" still lingered in my mind and over the years I trapped myself regularly I was humming or singing these songs when I was in a good mood. Now I can make every mood good! I put on this CD and the sun is shining again!



3. After "Rock & Roll With...", this is my favorite post Jerry Harrison Modern Lovers album (just ahead of "M.L.s 88"). A few weeks before this new Castle edition was released the Amazon listing for it mentioned something like 33 bonus tracks that were to be included on a two disc set. Apparantly they couldn't clear that extra material in time (hopefully bootlegs will start appearing now of those shows). What is here is the same great album you probably already have, but with rare photos & newsclippings that are actually rare as well as remastering. The best live albums for me are the ones with great new songs to make them worth buying. The four new songs are classics. "I'm a Little Dinosaur", "My Little Kookenhaken" & "I'm a Little Airplane" (which has been featured on "Sesame Street") are his best kiddie songs & "Morning of Our Lives" his best anthem about optimism & self esteem. "Hey There Little Insect" is the only old one they improve on, but the rest are just as infectious as the originals. Jonathan's good natured confrontations with the audience are priceless & even the umpteenth false stop of "Ice Cream Man" has a certain charm. Anyway, it depends how important artwork & remastering are to you. & if you could never find this cd before (or want to pay the collectible price), here it is for you to discover (excavate?).

5 comments about King Biscuit Flower Hour: New York 1982 (In Concert).

1. ... I liked the 1983 NYC Ritz concert better I recorded off FM. A little looser, with more bite to the performances. Not sure if it's in print.



2. I ordered this CD reluctantly because I already had some live recordings of The Fixx, but, boy, was I surprised at how good it is. This album has some deeper cuts that aren't available on most albums, too. Also, because of the early date of this live recording, you can tell that there is no staleness to intepretations of old tunes like One Thing Leads to Another, Liner, Cameras in Paris, etc.. In fact, Reach the Beach hadn't even come out at the time of this recording. This is one of the very best live recordings I own. Well worth the price of admission!



3. The Fixx is a innovative band since 80s but this CD is a excellent live recording. Great and buy it



4. Many early favorites on a great live recording, with a couple of rare songs. Lousy cover though. Cheers.



5. This King Biscuit Flower Hour event was recorded when the band was riding high on the coat-tails of Shuttered Room, and they had just recorded Reach the Beach (but before it was released). Simply put, the sound and performance of this concert is so close to studio quality it's spooky - the band is in top form here, with fantastic material from their first two albums. Even casual fans will enjoy this cd.

1 comments about Live: No Time for Tuning.

1. Having been a Sloppy Seconds fan for 3 years, I was thrilled to learn they were recording a live alblum in 'our' hometown of Indianapolis. If you have not had the chance to see them in person, this alblum gives you the chance to feel the raw energy that Sloppy delivers by the bucket full, night in/ night out. Too bad there wasn't a home video for this alblum. To see the crowd eating out of B.A.'s hand during 'Candyman" is too much. Sloppy Seconds are the ambassadors of punk, and this live recording serves as proof.

1 comments about Across the Broad Atlantic: Live on Paddy's Day-New.

1. This CD is Shane being Shane and the Popes sound great! Even his mother sounds cathartic! This is a must have if you ever even thought that Shane may be the least bit interesting! The closest you can get to seeing them in concert and almost as exciting!

5 comments about WGRD - Bootleg '98.

1. I'm not overstating it when I say that I don't own CDs. I haven't since, oh, about 1998-ish. MP3s are just much more convenient for me and CDs don't tend to have a long life expectancy around me. In the last 10 years, I have moved at least 5 times: once across town, once to the other side of the world (and back again!), once across the country, and a few times semi-locally. This CD is still sitting on my dresser. I can't locate my birth certificate right now. I'm missing one of my favorite dress shoes and I can promise that finding anything else that's reasonably important would be a daunting task at best in my shoe-box sized bedroom, yet I know *exactly* where this CD is.
   
   ... That said, I don't currently own a CD player!
   
   My point is that this was such a staple for me that I've managed to hold on to it if for no other reason than nostalgia. I love all of the songs on it and just today, I toddled over to YouTube to listen to these tracks - not all of which were there, naturally.
   
   It's definitely a worthwhile CD to own, but I'd probably recommend a downloadable version. CDs are *so* 1998. ;)



2. A fabulous collection of live, unplugged, unique versions of solid alternative rock hits from the mid nineties, recorded right here in West Michigan.

   I wish more music was like this. Having grown up during this period, recently listening to it brought back a load of fresh memories and nostalgia from a long-gong era of intense musical development in rock. Many tunes I haven't heard in years, and most notably never in such a form as this.

   Bootleg '98 is musically creative and not "overproduced"; something hard to come by these days. If you like "real" music, check it out and I promise you won't be disappointed.




3. I'll start out by saying that I'm from Grand Rapids, Mich., where the WGRD studio is located. This cd has sold many, many copies, and for those of you who don't know, Grand Rapids is a hotbed for alternative rock music. Bootleg '98 features unplugged versions of many rock hits. You'll probably recognize the bulk of them. They are all unplugged and most of them creative. I fully believe that every fan of unplugged music must own a copy of this cd. You have my guarantee that if you purcahse it, you'll give it 5 stars, too. My personal favorites off the album are "Raining on the Sky" by Naked and a very creative version of "If I Run" performed by Semisonic.



4. HEY, I bought this album because of SEMISONIC, it's a great album.. It's so unique from all the other albums because it's LIVE, Really shows the artists talents!



5. I bought this album for the two live Better Than Ezra songs, but this CD is so much more than just those BTE tunes ... Marcy Playground and Jewel are dominant with their live recordings as well. Even the songs that I hadn't heard of before ["Wait" & "Raining On The Sky"] were surprisingly solid. If you love live music with great quality, then by all means buy this CD

3 comments about Real Time.

1. Although the lyrics are adolescent at times and Lloyd's voice a bit rough, he performs each song with an energy and conviction that matches his exciting, LOUD and adventurous guitar playing. The drumming is solid but somewhat repetitive from track to track but this is a minor flaw.
   I first discovered 'Real Time' in the local library 10 years ago on cassette and contemplated telling the librarian that I 'lost' the tape as I was unable to find it anywhere. Finally the CD was released containing 2 additional tracks with of course better sound quality.



2. This is one of my favorite records. I simply adore it!! No one plays guitar like Richard Lloyd. A true genius!!



3. Richard Lloyd's 'Real Time', a live album featuring songs from his first two albums and a few others, is a melodic Rock album, filled with neat guitar riffs and lengthy but never excessive solos.

   Lloyd is well known as the second guitarist of Television, one of the most unique art-rock bands in the world. As a solo Artist, he moves away from the
   experimental poetry and mad guitars of Television, towards a 60s influenced guitar based songs. Although hardly ground-breaking, the result is nonetheless immensely listenable.

   Starting with a rendition of Rocy Erikson's Fire Engine (a song also performed by Television), this CD offers 13 tracks with an astounding sound quality and wonderful performances - some people complain about Lloyd's vocals, but to me they are solid through and through, and show a competent and confident frontman.

   The songs themselves are almost uniformly Pop-Rock. 'Misty Eyes' is probably the best of the bunch as a far as beautiful melodies go, but 'Spider Walk' 'Alchemy' and 'Black to White' are almost as seductive. 'Soldier Blue' is not quite a Punk song, but hearing Lloyd shouting the title with Hendrix-esque guitar work is quite nice. On 'Losing Anna' Lloyd channels the Stones in a cool Hard Rocker. 'The Only Feeling' is a rewrite of Sweet Jane, and probably the weakest track here.

   For those who miss the adventurous guitars of Television, 'Fields of Fire' and 'Pleading' have their moments. The former, especially, has an epic sound (although the lyrics are a little silly), and the letter has agression and energy that reminds you, once again, how vital a part of Television Lloyd was.

5 comments about 23/5/00 - Estadio Do Restelo, Lisbon, Portugal.

1. When I first discovered that Pearl Jam decided to release every show of their Binaural tour in 2000 I was initially skeptical of their intentions. I thought it was just another way for them to attarct attention in order to raise their diminished public profile and dwindiling record sales. While the cardboard sleeves these albums are packaged in are not exactly glamourous and actually cause damage to the discs after a while the musical contents of these bootlegs can be a potent reminder of why Pearl Jam, even on an off night, is one of the most thrilling and mercurial live bands of the last twenty years. This paticular show is their first of the tour and of the series and while you can definitely find more musically proficent ones it is a still a good introduction to their no overdubs, warts and all approach to live albubs. A good example of this is found in Faithful when, in the middle of the song, Matt Cameron's drums fall to the ground (the band continues and finishes the song, believe it or not.) Moments such as these are one reason for fans of the band to look into these albums as much as listening to the band tear into Animal and Red Mosquito. After the "technical difficulties" of the drums are sorted out during Last Kiss the show flows pretty well until Immortality when Ed forgets the words to Immortality (get used to this, he does this almost everytime this song is played during the tour.) Also, the band struggle to find their feet on Alive (another difficult song for them on this leg of the tour.) The band finish on a high note with their perennial closer, Yellow Ledbetter. All and all, a good introduction to what will prove to be a stellar series of shows to come.



2. I finally bought this show from Lisbon, overall it is a superb show! The audience is having a good time as well as the band. The setlist is nice with Eddie doing a solo version of Last Kiss, and great takes on Red Mosquito and Black. There are some minor errors in this show but it doesn't effect the bands good spirits and the audience sure is estatic, if you looking for a PJ show that is high in energy and everyone is having a great time, this is it. This show is one of my favorites, it only falls behind Milan and Prauge.



3. Yes, Eddy flubs lines in Wishlist and Immortality.

   Yes, the drums break in the middle of Faithful.

   But get this cd just for the crowd. That's right, the audience is the star of this concert. I have a few of these bootlegs and nothing matches this Lisbon crowd. Wish I was there.




4. I'm Portuguese, i was there! It rocked so hard, you wouldn't believe! The portuguese crowd is definetly one of the best in the world, and it's refered by many bands as so. This show was scheduled for the atlantic pavillion, which has a capacity of 15.000, but the tickets sold out in a week, so it was re-scheduled to a rather big stadium nearby.
   Almost every song was sanged along with the band, as it is in almost every concert played in portugal!

   Scorpions recorded their "unplugged" album and dvd here too.

   We are proud of the reviews, thanks for the recognition!

   Pearl Jam Rocks!




5. I just recently started collecting the pj bootleg series, and this one is the worst one I got so far. First, the sound quality is much worse than some of the other ones I have (seattle2, boston2), the audience noise is very grainy sounding. Also, the crowd is pretty annoying, they do these weird chants (sounds like "alive") throughout the concert between songs. The performances in general sound very lack luster. On the other hand, this is the only one of the series that has all four big pj songs from the first album: alive, even flow, black, and jeremy.

3 comments about Your Choice Live Series.

1. Recorded live January 23, 1991 at Oberhaus in Alzey, Germany. Here is the track listing:
   
   1. Heater Moves And Eyes
   2. At A Crawl
   3. Anaconda
   4. Eye Flys
   5. Koolegged
   6. Tanked
   7. Let God Be Your Gardener
   8. Revulsion



2. If you can find it at a reasonable price, this is a high-quality recording of the Melvins in Germany, 1/23/91: just months before their album Bullhead was released. You get one song from Bullhead ("Anaconda"), four from Ozma ("At a Crawl," "Kool Legged," "Let God Be Your Gardener," "Revulsion"), two from Gluey Porch Treatments ("Heater Moves and Eyes," "Eye Flys"), and a 44-second noodling from Buzzo and pals ("Tanked"). The LP/CD was part of the Your Choice Live series which donated part of the proceeds of each release to an organization fighting the fur trade.
   
   The line-up here was King Buzzo, Dale and Lori (Lorax) on bass. All the heavy rumbling power you would expect from early Melvins. Please expose people new to the Melvins to the sluggish, slow-as-molasses, is-it-ever-going-to-start intro to "Eye Flys" and watch them flee the room in abject terror. Meanwhile, those of us who enjoy the Melvins will sit blissfully with evil grins on our faces.



3. This excellent live album from Germany showcases very fine renditions of some of their bestm early material. This is my favorite collection of Melvins 80s output.

5 comments about Germicide: Live at the Whisky, 1977.

1. This is only the second Germs release I've ever heard. How many 'actual' albums did they put out? Was very impressed with the sincerity of the Germs. They're a true-to-the-roots all out American punk band. They're dirty, rude, mean, offensive and have a totally violent additude. Perfect! Tracks I found myself looking forward to on this CD were "Sex Boy", "Sweet Dream", the slamming "Suicide Machine" and "Teenage Clone". Line-up: Darby Crash (R.I.P.)-vocals, Pat Smear-guitar, Lorna Doom-bass and Belinda Carlisle (Go-Go's) believe or not on drums. Should draw in old school followers of Dead Kennedys, Social Distortion, Black Flag and Circle Jerks to name just a few. A should have.



2. Okay, the reviews are either 1 or 5. I give it a four because I bought it, ignored it on my iPod for almost a year, and have listened to it three times all the way through in the last 24 hours.
   
   It is loud, sloppy, bratty and at times great. It is the definition of the whole DIY punk thing, like The Mekons first album (different for sure but with the same attitude). You can hear bits of pieces of trashy metal, Bowie, etc. Suicide Machine is my favorite track, but the insults, hurled bottles and trash are all there as well.



3. OK, let`s get one thing straight. The Germs are one of my favorite punk bands ever, and I really like their music, as they recorded some of the best stuff the L.A -scene had to offer. But really, can anyone say that they like listening to this album? Admit it, the Germs were pretty disasterous as a live group. I`m not saying this about the band, in their last active years (circa 1979-80) the band was a tight gang, and everyone knew how to play their instruments. But even in their "heyday" (can you say that about the Germs anyway?) their live shows were a complete mess. For God`s sake, Darby had to consume a crapload of drugs to perform! And if Darby was the reason that their live shows were a train wreck in their best days, this one, this album was recorded in 1977. That was when the Germs couldn`t even play. Add to that the wasted performance by Darby (in the time of this album, Bobby Pyn) and you`ve got yourself a very, very bad live album.
   
   If you`re a fanatic Germs -fan, then I assume you already have this, but really. For a band this self-destructive and short-lived, all you need is the essential (MIA) The Complete Anthology. It has almost everything they recorded, plus a couple live tracks.



4. ...five for pure atmosphere. This is not the band that would later record "Germs(GI)"; this is four kids screwing around, having fun. There are hints of talent in songs like 'Forming' and 'Let's Pretend', but most of the set is a mess. Still, the importance of the moment that "Germicide" documents--the infancy of America's most influential punk scene--cannot be diminished. For a frightening contrast(and I'm not using "frightening" in a hyperbolic way), listen to this CD and then watch the documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization" in which the late-period Germs appear. It will give you an idea of the dark depths plumbed on the L.A. punk scene in the space of two and a half years.



5. As one reviewer noted, this album about sums up the punk 'philosophy' that anyone can put together a band. And indeed, this sounds like anyone did put together a band and got booked at the Whiskey.
   
   The value here is basically historical--early Germs, early punk, lots of attitude, absolutely unlistenable at times, etc. The band is not, er, polished, and the audience is rowdy. The result is an album you won't be popping in regularly.
   
   As a punk 'document', it's of mild interest. The MIA collection is the set to get for this brief band, whose singer had the misfortune of dying right before John Lennon, thus losing all chances of 'fame'.

No comments about From Here to Eternity: Live.