John Frusciante - Niandra Bonus Tracks

Discussion will continue forever on this album: junky romance or lo-fi master piece? Fact is, this has been the record that I kept on going back to for 17 years now. After having seen the ' 94 VPRO documentary about former Chili Pepper guitar player Frusciante (whom I've seen playing in Amsterdam in 1989), I bought Niandra Lades & Usually Just A T-shirt and was blown away by the mystic and creativity on this album (actually two albums). Although there are a lot of people that can't listen to this, It's one of my all time favorites (and one I have to listen to on headphones a lot). Three years later Frusciante, in need of cash to finance his heroine addiction, released a second lo-fi album, A Smile From The Streets You Hold, with a lot of tracks from the same area as the Niandra ones. A great misconception about both albums is that most people seem to think that the songs were recorded during the his addiction. This is not true. Frusciante later told in several interviews that while being an addict, he didn't record a lot of music. Only a couple of songs on both albums (I think only four in total) were from that period. The cool thing is he recorded most of the songs during the recording sessions of Chili Pepper's album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (also an all time favorite of mine).

Anyway, a cassette version of Niandra Lades featured two bonus tracks and there's some more material not officially released that I'd like to call the Niandra Bonus tracks. I included the two tracks from second solo album A Smile FromThe Streets that have River Phoenix on them, and to hear his lyrics properly I reversed the last track. Take them from here and enjoy (or be disgusted). 

1. Outside Space (Estress 7" B-side)

2. Ants (cassette version bonus track)

3. Usually Just A T-shirt (cassette version bonus track)

4. Unreleased Niandra Recording

5. Back & Forth

6. Fuck You To Jose (from VPRO docu)

7. Stuff (from short film by J. Depp & G. Haynes)

8. Height Down (from A Smile From The Streets)

9. Well, I've been (from A Smile From The Streets)

10. Well, I've been (reversed)

Omar Rodriguez - Official Touring Video's

These are all pro-shot video's from Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group's tour that's been going on for a while now. It gives a nice impression of the quality of the performances, but also in the group performing it, as you will see them back stage and playing tourist. Supposedly there's a complete DVD in the makings, so this might be just a little taster... 

Radiohead - Supercollider/The Butcher

Walked into my record store in Amsterdam around 11am, snooped around a bit, and quite nonchalantly grabbed the last of five copies.... It's a nice day today...

Supercollider/The Butcher is a special Record Store Day release by Radiohead and it features two new tracks, one recorded during The King Of Limbs sessions, and one finished after the sessions. Enjoy! (EDIT: replaced with official digital release)

EDIT: Message from Radiohead:

Thank you - Merci - Gracias - Grazie - Dankeschön - Obrigado - Gui lah hui te ha - Ashoge - Shukran - Tsikomo - M goi - Tak - Dank u - Vinaka - Aabhar - Köszönöm - Go raibh maith agaibh - Arigato - Tashakkur - Dziekuje - Gestena - Hvala - Tack - Tesekkür ederim - Spasibo - Dêkuji - Sas efharisto ......

Right, that's most of you covered, apologies to those we've missed out ... ok, so here are two tracks for your listening pleasure:

Supercollider and The Butcher. We released these as a limited edition 2 track 12inch vinyl to mark Independent Record Store Day last Saturday, April 16 ... so in case you missed out and didn't get a copy here they are. It's a thank you for being SO supportive of what we do ...

p.s. This is not part of a new loyalty points scheme, a Radiohead clubcard or even an air miles redeemable reward type thing... It is just a big old-fashioned thank you!

Hope your Spring/Autumn is good.

Ed, Colin, Jonny, Philip & Thom

x

FYI... 'The Butcher' was recorded and mixed during 'The King of Limbs' sessions, but we couldn't make it work on the album; 'Supercollider' was started during those sessions and finished off in March of this year.

Smashing Pumpkins - Gish & Siamese Dream Sessions

Now, speaking of bands that produce amazing B-sides... I've been a fan (yes a fan!) of this band since 1991's Gish album and up until they got gothic on me, and the first two albums are still really close to my heart. But they also left out so many incredible songs on those albums, it's almost scary. As I bought every fart Billy & Co released, I've build a very nice SP collection over the years, including almost everything they've released on vinyl. Some years ago I compiled two albums for my own listening pleasure: one disc with all the non-album tracks that didn't appear on Gish, but were recorded during the recording of Gish, or just before or after, and one with the same receipt, but from the Siamese Dream era.

I consider both discs as full bodied Smashing Pumpkins albums. In here, there're pure Pumpkins master pieces, like Starla, Drown, Plume, Hello Kitty Kat, Obscured and Glynis, and great covers of songs by Depeche Mode, Fleetwood Mac, Thin Lizzy and The Animals. Some songs were released on the compilation album Pisces Iscariot, others were B-sides or songs from other compilations. For customers insight, I'll add the source of the song on the track list. Download, add or burn and enjoy!

Gish Sessions

1. Slunk (Rhinoceros EP)
2. La Dolly Vita (Sub Pop Tristessa 7")
3. Blue (Rhinoceros EP)
4. Drown (Singles Soundtrack)
5. Bye June (Rhinoceros EP)
6. Not Worth Asking (pre-Gish 7")
7. Honey Spider (pre-Gish 7")
8. Girl Named Sandoz (The Animals, Siva CD single, Peel Session)
9. Terrapin (I Am One 10")
10. Smiley (Siva single, Peel Session)
11. Starla (I Am One CD single)
12. Plume (I Am One CD single)
13. Bullet Train To Osaka (I Am One 10")
14. Obscured (Today CD single)
15. Why Am I So Tired (Vieuphoria soundtrack)

Siamese Dream Sessions

1. Spaced (Pisces Iscariot)
2. Frail And Bedazzled (Pisces Iscariot)
3. Never Let Me Down Again (Depeche Mode, Rocket 7")
4. Pulsezcar (Vieuphoria soundtrack)
5. Pissant (Cherub Rock CD single)
6. Apathy's Last Kiss (Today 7")
7. Landslide (Fleetwood Mac, Disarm CD single)
8. Blew Away (Disarm CD single)
9. Sinfony (Vieuphoria soundtrack)
10. Hello Kitty Kat (Today CD single)
11. Whir (Pisces Iscariot)
12. Glynis (No Alternative compilation)
13. Siamese Dream (Disarm 7")
14. Dancing In The Moonlight (Thin Lizzy, Disarm CD single)
15. Purr Snickety (Cherub Rock 7")
16. Bugg Superstar (Vieuphoria soundtrack)
17. Flight Of Candor (Starchildren 7")
18. Soothe (Disarm CD single)
19. French Movie Theme (Cherub Rock CD single)

Arcade Fire - Smell That B-Sides

For a band that's been around for more than seven years now, the amount of B-sides is rather poor. And the quality of the songs is all right, but not unusually good, like good B-side bands like Smashing Pumpkins (for example). I love The Suburbs album and, listening to the record today, I thought it'd be a nice idea to collect all the B-sides of all the singles of all three albums. I found a lot of demo's on the net, live versions, DVD-rip (Mirroir Noir) and a christmas album, but only six proper B-sides (6!). Well, without further ado, I present to you the complete collected B-side history of Arcade Fire!

1. Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son (Serge Gainsbourg cover)

2. Broken Window

3. Aquarela do Brasil

4. Cold Wind

5. Surf City Eastern Block

6. My Buddy (Alvino Rey Orchestra)

John Frusciante - Shadows Collide (Acoustic)

In 2004 John Frusciante, whom I'd been following since his obscure 1994 solo debut Niandra Lades & Usually Just A T-Shirt, began a very prolific year with the release of his, first major label, properly produced, album Shadows Collide With People. Later that year he would release six more solo albums, as well as a soundtrack recording (The Brown Bunny). Every month or so, he found the time to perform in small venues almost every time with a new collection of songs, which, most of them, remain unreleased until this day.  Exciting times I might add... 

Also, merely weeks after the release of Shadows, he recorded acoustic versions of every song on Shadows (apart from the "soundscape" tracks and the Japanese bonus track 'Of Before') and made them available through his website. The same story goes for demo recordings of nine tracks from the album. Those demo's will be posted on this blog in the future, but now I present to you, for those of you who don't have them, and can't find them anywhere else, the acoustic versions: John and Josh Klinghoffer, his partner in art at the time, now the new guitar player for the Chili Peppers, on some tracks. Only acoustic guitar and vocals and, judging from the recording, recorded in his living room. Enjoy!

1. Carvel
2. Omission
3. Regret
4. Ricky
5. Second Walk
6. Every Person
7. Wednesday's Song
8. This Cold
9. Time Goes Back
10. In Relief
11. Water
12. Cut-Out
13. Chances
14. The Slaughter

Tom Waits - In The Neighborhood

I remember watching this video some time in the eighties and I hadn't seen it since then. While watching Treme, the new HBO series by the makers of The Wire, I thought about this video having the same atmosphere as the funeral march in the pilot of Treme. Thank god for You Tube so I could track it down. Terrible quality but the perfect Tom Waits video in catching the precise vibe of his brilliant mid-eighties albums. Oh, and by the way, I'm watching episode three of Treme now and it's great...

Matthew's Celebrity Pixies Tribute

I stumbled on Matthew's website somewhere around 2006. Being a massive Pixies adapt myself, I was struck by the musical capacities of this guy, as he took songs by cult heroes The Pixies, and covered them the way famous other artists would. Like Jimi Hendrix take on Surfer Rosa's "Vamos" (including Black Francis' "You Fucking Die"-spoof, and Simpsons-solo) and The Beach Boys extremely funny interpretation of Levitate me (if you've ever heard the Pet Sounds Sessions, the intro of the song is hilarious). I downloaded the songs again today from Matthew's website, but sadly enough the bit rate is pretty crappy (56-192). I think this was better back in 2006, but anyhow, the songs remain very good and funny. For those of you that don't know The Pixies that well, I enclosed the original versions of the songs covered by Matthew. Have fun!

1. Hey! (Prince)

2. Wave Of Mutilation (Bee Gees)

3. Vamos (Jimi Hendrix)

4. No. 13 Baby (Elvis Presley)

5. River Euphrates (Tina Turner)

6. Monkey Gone To Heaven (Frank Sinatra)

7. Levitate Me (Beach Boys)

8. Mr. Grieves (Bob Marley)

+ all originals by The Pixies

Visit Matthew's website: http://pottymouth.org/mcpt/