The Fat Angel Sings

Ryan Adams’ “Chris” double album recorded and released in 2022. “Chris” is the first in a series of four original studio albums released by Ryan Adams in the calendar year.

“I don’t care if artists are assholes.” I was listening to an episode of the Bret Easton Ellis podcast this morning and he and his guest were discussing Warren Zevon, the Los Angeles songwriter who died of mesothelioma in 2003. Zevon was a brilliant artist who also was a real jerk in life, especially after a few glasses of vodka. However, it was the ‘70s and Zevon’s legacy lives on. How things have changed… changed a lot.

Fallen rocker Ryan Adams has finally dropped “Chris,” the final installment of the trilogy which started with “Wednesdays” (released in 2020) and continued with “Big Colors” (released in 2021). “Chris” is available on streaming platforms in a week, but fans can already download mp3s via Adams’s Paxam shop. For Adams, things fell apart in 2019, but he is doing everything he can to recover his career, releasing albums and booking shows, despite the current hostile climate

Despite some style variation from song to song, “Chris” is a rocker, but it’s also a long album that offers a lot to digest at the first take. With 18 songs plus a bonus, Ryan Adams had definitively a lot of songs in store. The overall sound of the album is also quite different from the melancholic “Wednesdays,” the saddest of all three, and the ‘80s-inspired “Big Colors.” Some people have said that “Chris” is the closest that Adams has been from his earlier work, but this is also the most confident he has been for a long time.

With its life-affirming chorus, the opener “Take it Back” has a big rocking allure and almost sounds like a Springsteen song – or insert the name of any big rock star of the ‘90s. The Springsteen vibe sort of continues throughout the album with the more pensive “Still a Cage,” or the rhythmic guitars of “Moving Target” – which has one of the best melodic hooks of the album  – or even the optimism of  “Letting the Light In.” At these moments, Adams definitively sounds undefeated. Layered guitars supply some strong rocking muscles to “Flicker in the Fade,” and “So Helpless” succeeds in the same manner, combining remarkable shortness with efficiency.

The album seems to alternate between full rockers and more melancholic tunes like the self-titled “Chris,” with a nervous guitar rattling behind raw vocals while strings and piano lines slowly flesh out the song. Surprisingly, the song doesn’t seem to be about his brother as the album cover art would have let us think first. Since Adams sings about a “friend” and laments about his death –“Wonder where you went/Will I ever see you again” – this has led people to think that the song is probably about the Cardinal’s bass player, Chris Feinstein, who passed away in 2009. However, the fact that he and Adams’s brother share the same first name transforms the track into a moving double tribute.

There’s certainly quite of sonic diversity among the 19 songs: beautifully layered guitar and piano keys shine during the melancholic “Crooked Shake” while emotive strings swell the arrangements of “Was I Wrong.” Ryan Adams’ vocals are at their most fragile during the delicate acoustic guitar of “I Got Lost,” whereas ‘80s reverb sound is fully alive during “About Time.” “Say What You Said” has the Ryan Adams heartbreak stamp all over its reverb guitars, and a harmonica is added in the mix of the upbeat “Lookout.” The explosive guitars of “Spinning Wheel” add an alt-country flavour, but the bonus track, “Don’t Follow,” sadly gives me some Bon Jovi vibes. However,  this is one occasion for Adams to let himself go with rage and rock abandon in a blast of rock guitars.

If several tracks supposedly date from the “Prisoner” sessions, or sound “like “Prisoner” B-sides” (as some die-hard fans have said), the album is a mix of different vibes going back and forth between an acoustic feel serving Adams’s heartbreak tunes and his 2017 arena-ambition signature rockers. “Prisoner” had a theme, it was a breakup album, but “Chris” doesn’t seem to have one, it could well be his last gift to his late brother, but it sounds more like a more or less eclectic collection of songs, including some that could have been on “Big Colors,” and other ones that could be regarded as leftovers from previous sessions. In other words, Ryan Adams is not reinventing himself with this new album, but there’s no doubt he will get strong reactions from his loyal fans for the big hair rockers, the ‘80s power ballads, or the trademark heartaches.

After just one or two listens, it’s clear that “Chris” is not the work of a defeated man, some songs even resonate as triumphant, blasting a loud “I’m back” in the ears of anyone who is willing to listen. After these past rough years, this is reassuring to see that Ryan Adams’s craft is still strong. However, because of his official cancellation by all media, “Chris” will not make an impact deeper than the circles of what’s left of his fan base. The question is: would the album have made a significant impression in other circumstances?

Ryan Adams’ “Romeo & Juliet” double album recorded and released in 2022. “Romeo & Juliet” is the second in the series of four original studio albums released by Ryan Adams in the calendar year. “Romeo & Juliet” follows the first in series – another double album titled “Chris”.

Ryan Adams must be the most prolific artist we currently have: barely a month ago, he dropped the third album of a trilogy, and he has just released a new double album, “Romeo & Juliet.” The new project is digitally available via his label PAXAM for about three weeks before getting a widespread release This will happen just in time for Adams’s return to live shows on the East Coast in mid-May, after a long absence from the stage.

So, what’s going on? Is Ryan clearing out the vaults? It seems there’s a bit of this as the album sometimes sounds like an amalgam of recordings from different sessions done throughout the years, with different levels of production. I am certainly not a Ryan Adams specialist, but it’s not a secret that the song titled “In the Meadow” is supposedly from the final Cardinals album.

It’s a beautiful and elaborated one, recorded with a full band, unfolding a memorable guitar work above a wobbling organ followed by an explosive orchestration jamming like a Grateful Dead song. Whether you are a hardcore fan or not, it’s impossible to ignore the triumphant tone of the song, which has all the trademarks of Adams’s more rootsy sound and shows a departure from the ‘80s-inspiration of “Big Colors.” But if it’s an older song, it makes complete sense.

“Doylestown Girl,” which was released in 2019 as a single since it was supposed to be included on “Big Colors” (but wasn’t), has this strummed Americana ballad vibe and a bittersweet heartbreaker for a story. The song received extremely positive press in January 2019, pre-scandal, but in 2022 Adams is fully aware he is now completely on his own: “No label. No manager. No distributor. No reviews. No press. No radio…… No problem.,” he posted at one point on his Instagram page.

“Romeo & Juliet is a summer album” he also wrote in a post on IG. “It’s maybe the first summertime album I’ve ever made, on purpose, front to back. It’s like the tall, long slightly mysterious sister to “Easy Tiger“. There’s a lot of room here and the stories all unwind like a long hot drive in the south with the windows down – sunshine blasting everything. And by the time the record ends it’s just early night – still blue notes in the dark purple patches of stars up the road hurling towards the hood of the car.” 

 There’s still a bit of that Springsteen spirit throughout the album – like during the opener “Rollercoaster” – but the album is sonically varied and overall, it is a very dynamic album, and probably more passionate than his other recent ones.

Even a track with rootsy guitars, like the bucolic “In the Blue of the Night” partially sung with a Neil Young falsetto, progresses with thunder and an interesting outlaw country riff. There’s a lot of creativity at every detour, there’s a lot of inventiveness in every song, whether you consider the bold catchy chorus of “I Can’t Remember,” or the titled track, a tragic acoustic ballad, or the wobbling keys of “Anything,” which almost delivers a retro Motown feel, or the pretty melancholic guitars of “Poor Connection,” or a few other acoustic songs such as the touching ode to Adams’s departed cat, “Theo is Dreaming.” “Something Missing” sounds unfinished or a bit odd to my ears – some may call it a demo – although it is an interesting departure from the rest, whereas “Run” reminds me of old (and beloved) Ryan Adams territory, with a chorus that everyone could sing at the top of their lungs.

Lyrically, besides the usual heartbreak songs, one of the themes of the album could be his beloved cat Theo, as three songs (“This is Your House,” “At Home With the Animals,” and “Theo Is Dreaming”) are feline-inspired tunes. Ryan Adams’s fans are probably still attached to the concept of a cohesive album, and they may struggle a bit to find it here. However, tracks count much more than albums today, and “Romeo & Juliet” is quite the collection of tracks!

I would say I will probably prefer it to “Chris.” However, this is a very long album (19 songs plus 2 bonus tracks) and there’s certainly a lot to process at once. This represents a lot of hooky choruses, a lot of lyrics, a lot of variation in style and tone, but finally a lot of memorable songs, an impression I didn’t really have when listening to “Chris.” I don’t really care about the heterogeneous aspect of the album – I am also not a recording engineer, and I am sure a lot of inconsistencies in the production noted by some people have escaped me. Sure, many of these songs should originally have appeared on other records, sure some songs sound much more modest in production than others, but there’s still an overall tone. There is a bright force at the center of “Romeo & Juliet,” it is an album that reveals itself as a spirited and fierce one, exuding an impassioned young love (like its title), and reflecting the most ardent season that inspired it:

Ryan Adams’ “FM” recorded and released in 2022. “FM” is the third in the series of four original studio albums released by Ryan Adams in this calendar year. “FM” follows the double albums “Chris” and “Romeo & Juliet” in the series follows the first in series.

“FM” is a great rock and roll album.

“Chris” was earlier this year. But what it certainly is is the best straight up, 70s-80s inspired, golden age of FM piece of work with ringing guitars, inspired Tom Petty steals, solos, soul takes, and while a completely unmistakable Adams, it is both generic and unique, nostalgic and fresh.

Anybody who has been paying attention has noted how Ryan’s divorce from Mandy Moore precipitated a “me too” moment that destroyed his career. Earlier this year he released the final two thirds off what amounts to his life during wartime trilogy, “Chris” has been one of the best albums of the year since its release and “Romeo + Juliet” is nearly as good. His sold out Carnegie Hall gig back in May (here) grounded him in greatness, and “FM” is a finishing to his own private Idaho and finds him still a king of singer songwriter confessionals and also genre busting hard rock.

The ten song, 32 minute, sound of Ryan rocking (he would need a band behind him to sell it on stage), is sublime in its simplicity, it stands alone as a beautiful, song for song, collection connected with a sound that used to take the Heartbreakers to create. It owes nothing expressly here, except the penultimate track “Do You Feel” where he gets awful close to plagiarism with “Let’s Go Crazy” riffing all the way through. The rest of them are subjective interpretation and even including the too close for comfort moments there is nothing here to be improved upon. Whether you want to hear guitar epics like “Wild And Hopeless” and “Fairweather” or the built for AM and FM radio “Fantasy File” and openers “I Want You” and “Love Me Don’t”, all topped off a tender soulfulness and his pained singing, he doesn’t let you down.

Ryan Adams’ “Devolver” recorded and released in 2022. “Devolver” is the fourth and final original studio album released by Ryan Adams in the calendar year. “Devolver” follows the double albums “Chris” and “Romeo & Juliet” and third album “FM”

Six weeks after Ryan Adam’s fourth album of 2022, “Devolver”, was given away free to fans, and now it has reached streaming services. Of the four albums, it is both pretty darn good and not as pretty darn good. With everything that has happened to Ryan over the past three years (and he is the only person in the world for whom the pandemic was lucky) and with his return to the battle with zero backing, he still feels a debt of gratitude (“Devolver” is Portuguese for to pay back) to the hoi polloi and what we get is some minor Ryan but good enough Ryan.

From the deep emotional bottoming out of “Chris” and “Romeo And Juliet” to “Devolver”, the weight of the previous two albums evolves into a mainstream Cardinals-ish set of hard rock with guitars and electric on a set of ultimately unmemorable songs. Ryan is in fine voice, the rock songs rock and the less rockier songs rock lesser, an acoustic strum like “Free Your Self” has its counterpoint on the exactly what you think it is, “Banging On My Head”.

The better moments, the amusingly irrelevant “Too Bored To Run” is Adams with a good joke that rings with atmosphere, but it is all moments here and there; I have never heard an Adams album with less hooks per square inch. By the end nothing has stuck and the net result is an album that sounds like third tier rockers that didn’t make the cut the first time round. In other words: not bad but no more than not bad.

Ryan has had a great couple years, two terrific albums, an acoustic tour, and now a third. Come home, Ryan. All is forgiven.

Montreal experimental pop trio Braids announced a new album, “Euphoric Recall”, and shared a new song from it, “Evolution,” via a music video. “Euphoric Recall” is due out April 28th via Secret City. Nima Navab directed the “Evolution” video.

Singer/guitarist Raphaelle Standell-Preston had this to say about the new single in a press release: “Evolution in and of itself is a patient act. Our pursuit of the individual self, which comprises all realms of human emotion, is sweetened with the intention and act of patience from ourselves, from those that we love and those who love us.”

The press release describes the new album in greater detail: “A freer and wholly anew effort, their fifth studio album finds the trio abandoning strategy, burning it down, and realizing their love record. Love, all of it; the unbound bliss, the budding impulses, and the messy imperfections, a supernova swirled up in a suite of bold, melodic, symphonic pop songs surrendered to the present.”

Standell-Preston adds: “How you cultivate your heart space is extremely important to the outcome of what you are pursuing. I think that when we are operating from a place of safety and feeling loved and have intentions of loving, we can access really interesting places.”

The band wrote, recorded, self-produced, and mixed “Euphoric Recall” at Studio Toute Garnie, their Montréal studio. The band also features Austin Tufts and Taylor Smith. released April 28th, 2023

Last August, the band shared the album’s first single, “Retriever,” The band’s last album, “Shadow Offering”, came out in 2020 on Secret City 

Celebrating the 50th anniversary of this landmark record, Cherry Red Records are delighted to present this deluxe edition box set. Back in summer 1968, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown were on top of the world. Famously promoted by performances with Arthur Brown wearing a burning helmet, ‘Fire!’ was a massive worldwide hit, topping the charts in the UK and Canada and eventually reaching the Top 10 in America (No. 2), France, Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Ireland. The band’s second single on Track Records, co-produced by The Who’s Pete Townshend, it bridged the gap between London’s flourishing, colourful psychedelic underground and the mainstream pop scene.

The resulting album, “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown”, was a theatrical, ambitious concept album based around the elements (fire being just one of four, of course). Such was the huge impact of ‘Fire’ that the album sold in huge quantities, peaking at No. 2 in the UK and No. 7 in America. The Beatles were the only other British band to enjoy such unprecedented sales with such ambitious, psychedelic LPs.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this landmark record, Cherry Red are delighted to present this deluxe edition box set of “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown”. Alongside the stereo album and numerous bonus tracks, the rare Mono mix appears on CD for the first time, as well as three additional, previously unissued BBC sessions and four other radio recordings, plus a handful of pre-Track recordings by Arthur Brown before he formed Crazy World…

Millions of people discovered the delights of Arthur Brown, rock’s supreme showman, and his influence would be felt the following decade when Alice Cooper acknowledged his debt to Arthur’s genius.

Lavishly packaged within a 12” x 12” box set, and complete with a stereo vinyl replica of the original LP and a poster, “The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown” is augmented by a 12,000- word sleeve-note from Mojo magazine’s Mark Paytress (including fresh quotes from Arthur and others), alongside a wealth of illustrations and three previously unissued photos from the original front cover session.

Arthur will be promoting this landmark reissue with a raft of promotion – and watch this space for news of an exciting anniversary show!

Paisley Underground-era rockers The Dream Syndicate will release their fourth album since reuniting a decade ago this June, and you can get the first taste of the band’s new music via “Where I’ll Stand,” which is both lead single and lead-off track on the record.

Fire Records will release the 10-song “Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions” on June 10th, and the album is available now via Bandcamp and other retailers.

Bandleader Steve Wynn says of the new single, which you can hear below: “It feels like an attempt — via the lyrics and the circular chord progression — to impose some kind of order and logic on a world that was severely lacking in both respects at the time.” Wynn  put The Dream Syndicate back together in 2012, enlisting original drummer Dennis Duck, bassist Mark Walton (who came on board after 1984’s “Medicine Show”) and guitarist Jason Victor. (Keyboardist Chris Cacavas, formerly of Green on Red, is now an official member of the band, too.)

The reunited Dream Syndicate released their first album in 29 years in 2017, a record titled “How Did I Find Myself Here?“, and follow-ups “These Times” in 2019 and “The Universe Inside” in 2020.

Coming on to fifty years since they released the first ever British punk single, veterans The Damned present their twelfth studio album in 2023. ‘Darkadelic’ is the group’s first album with new drummer Will Taylor, and brings forward their latent psychedelic tendencies mainly in the shape of Captain Sensible’s guitar work but also Dave Vanian’s strongest vocal performances in years.

Punk legends The Damned return with their 12th studio album in the band’s 46-year history, a 12-song collection called “Darkadelic” that is preceded by the first single and opening track “The Invisible Man,” with its Martin Gooch-directed music video.

The Thomas Mitchener-produced “Darkadelic” will be released via earMUSIC on April 28th. It’s the band’s first album since 2018’s “Evil Spirits“.

Though the Damned performed a short run of concerts last year with the original lineup of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Brian James and Rat Scabies, they’re not all on the album. The band’s current lineup includes Vanian, Sensible, Paul Gray, Monty Oxymoron and new drummer William Granville-Taylor.

The band is set to head out on tour in the U.K. and Europe through March and April.

Let it first be said that the title track of “The Hypnogogue“, the first new album from The Church in six years, is one of the most breathtaking singles they’ve released in years, a darkly psychedelic six minutes that slowly spirals into a menacing descent. That alone is reason to keep this one on your radar; the Australian neo-psych band have been going for over 40 years, with around a half dozen classic albums and zero bad ones, yet their ability to keep evolving and uncovering new aspects to their sound and approach only serves as a reminder of how vital they remain after four decades.

Reports from the factory floor of The Church’s collective imagination indicate that “The Hypnogogue” is working just as its creator intended. With futuristic software capable of downloading music from dreams, the mythical contraption fuels the widescreen, science-fiction narrative of an ambitious and mesmerizing concept album warning of the pitfalls of a burgeoning symbiotic relationship between a fading artist and artificial intelligence. Among the dystopian casualties is an ill-fated love affair and a soul damaged beyond repair. The road to renewed relevance is fraught with peril.

While true to some extent, rumors of The Church going full-blown prog on “The Hypnogogue” the Aussie stargazers’ sublime 25^th album – are exaggerated, although its inky, shapeshifting beauty emerges from a lush gene pool. And yet, it’s still unmistakably The Church, cold as the moon and floating in immersive, celestial pop and slightly warped psychedelia. All of it poured out of the Big Dipper and carried aloft by echoing vocals, head-swimming effects and hypnotic acoustic guitar strum. Such elements grace otherworldly transmissions like “Thorn,” “Aerodrome” and a gently meandering “No Other You.”

Bathed in ghostly, amniotic reverb, “Flickering Lights” sends out an S.O.S. from a hoary, distant past via Morse code of piano falling to the murky ocean floor, while a lapping, watery “Albert Ross” washes ashore and awakens to expansive possibilities. None of them compare, however, to “Ascendance,” with its majestic gravitational pull and drifting elegance, or “C’est La Vie,” a space oddity overflowing with astral hooks, insistent beats and melodic bewilderment. Then again, the affecting and humbled “I Think I Knew” may hit closer to home for many, as it slowly unleashes a cloudburst of rich, intoxicating sound upon drought-stricken lives. It’s time to go back to The Church to find salvation.

Mike Peters singer songwriter and frontman of Welsh rockers The Alarm celebrated his medical recovery and return to music with the new single “Next” he is announcing a whole new album called “Forwards” — to be released in early June.

The 10-track album “Forwards” will be released June 2nd with the vinyl release featuring two different sleeves and coloured-vinyl pressings. A “classic green-and-white star white” pressing will be sold everywhere, while a limited-edition “unique metallic green vinyl” pressing will only be sold through independent record stores.

Mike Peters, who was initially diagnosed with leukemia in 2005, spent much of the last year in hospitals, receiving chemo treatments and battling a life-threatening pneumonia brought on by his relapse, according to The Alarm’s publicist who added that Mike is now “newly energized from a healthy prognosis.”

The frontman recorded with producer George Williams in between hospitalization periods, calling the process “life or death” for him. At times, according to the band’s publicists, Peters was barely able to speak due to the affects of his chronic illness.

Peters, in a press release announcing the album, says: “A lot of artists have to kill to make a record like “Forwards” and with the challenges that came my way in 2022. I certainly had to kill or be killed to realize the ambition in these songs. It was literally life or death making this record. I’ve already taken so much from life, that when I was in the hospital stricken with chronic illness, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be spared another opportunity to live. Fortunately for me, I was granted more time on earth and the challenge remains as ever, to make the most of every single second — forwards.”

“Forwards” is released everywhere and in all formats on June 2nd 2023.

One of the leading bands from the Paisley Underground scene in early- and mid-’80s Los Angeles, The reunited Rain Parade will release “Last Rays of a Dying Sun”, the band’s third studio album and its first collection of new songs in nearly four decades.

The album, featuring new songs written by original band members Matt Piucci and Steven Roback, will be released in May, the first title from new Colorado-based label Flatiron Recordings, co-founded by Bill Hein, who co-founded and ran Enigma Records with his brother in the 1980s.

Piucci and the late David Roback formed Rain Parade in 1981, with the two singer-guitarists drafting Roback’s brother, Steven Roback, and Will Glenn and Eddie Kalwa to fill out the band’s ranks. Rain Parade’s 1983 classic debut, “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip”, remains a high-water mark for Los Angeles’ Paisley Underground scene, which also counted The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Three O’Clock as key members.

Rain Parade followed up that debut with the “Explosions in the Glass Palace” EP in 1984 and a final, major-label full-length, “Crashing Dream”, in 1986, before disbanding for the first time.

David Roback, died in 2020 of cancer, left Rain Parade following the release of the band’s debut and later formed Opal with Kendra Smith of The Dream Syndicate and Mazzy Star with Hope Sandoval.

In 2012, Piucci and Steven Roback reunited as Rain Parade for a benefit concert and, in 2018, joined The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles and The Three O’Clock to record the “3×4” album, a celebration of the Paisley Underground that featured the four bands each covering one song by each of the other three bands.

Rain Parade has recorded “Last Rays of a Dying Sun”, with Picucci and Roback joined by guitarist John Thoman, who’s been in the band since 1984, as well as drummer Stephan Junca and guitarist/keyboardist Derek See. The new record also features Debbi and Vicki Peterson from The Bangles on background vocals.

Rain Parade are currently in the midst of a U.K. tour supporting The Dream Syndicate.

A 2xLP set of rare, early Hüsker Dü live recordings, featuring original flyers and artwork Drawn from the historical Hüsker Dü recording archives compiled by Terry Katzman, this double disc live set is an essential companion piece to the band’s “Savage Young Du” Box Set. Recorded more than a year before Grant Hart, Bob Mould and Greg Norton released their first Hüsker Dü single .While the SYD release principally featured studio demos, the 28 tracks presented on “Tonite Longhorn” are the time machine that vividly thrusts the listener straight back to Hüsker Dü’s embryonic unsheathing on stage.

Side A dates to July 1979. Side B gives us a full year’s evolution to July 1980, while Sides C and D land the listener in September 1980. Perhaps 120 people in total saw these three Longhorn performances; until now, a handful at most have heard the playbacks. So, rare and fresh, it’s all here: the songs, the driven performances, the small club intimacy of being in front of select friends, fans, and peers, with one fair shot at getting it right. These four sides compellingly document that you can’t doubt that they did.

“Tonite Longhorn” features recordings taken from across four different shows that took place between July 1979 and September 1980 at Jay’s Longhorn Bar in Minneapolis. The collection will be officially released in August on their own Reflex Records, though a limited-edition 2xLP vinyl release will be available much sooner: on this year’s Record Store Day, which takes place on April 22. “Tonite Longhorn” features 28 live recordings in all, and the 2xLP edition has original artwork by Grant Hart and liner notes from Thurston Moore.

“Most artists begin their careers by looking to their heroes for inspiration. “Tonite Longhorn” is a comprehensive overview of three teenagers paying homage, experimenting with different genres, and — most importantly — building a foundation for things to come,” Bob Mould shared in a statement. “We knew what we had: good chemistry, great melodies and harmonies, and an overabundance of young (and sometimes dumb) enthusiasm. We knew we were different, and we knew we were on to something different.”

Norton added: The audition. Bob was done with his freshman year and we didn’t have any gigs lined up,” says Grant Hart. “He was considering going home to Malone for the summer. Grant shows up all frantic and tells us we need to load the gear and get to the Longhorn, we had an audition. We arrived during their lunch service, load in and start playing. The manager comes storming out of his office and stops us. What the hell do you guys want? He asks. Grant says, we want to play here. He replies, fine, you can play the opening set Friday night, just stop playing and get out of here.

The set features new liner notes from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, who writes: “Hüsker Dü could play hardcore to death but they were not hardcore through and through – they were something else. And that’s what I fully related to and what I’m hearing in these live recordings unearthed from those days which made such magnanimous impressions it’s as if they are the batteries of our lives as we continue to tick off the years.”

The set also includes reproductions of original flyers and artwork, That set is here, July 13th, 1979. We passed the “audition” and the rest is history.

Tracks: Insects Rule The World / I’m Not Interested / Sex Dolls / Can’t See You Anymore / Sexual Economics / Do You Remember? / Nuclear Nightmare / All Tensed Up / Strange Week / Don’t Try To Call / Industrial Grocery Store / Do The Bee / Do You Remember? / Ode To Bode / Don’t Have A Life / All I’ve Got To Lose / Don’t Try It / Writer’s Cramp / Gilligan’s Island / What Went Wrong? / Uncle Ron / MTC / Drug Party / Chinese Rock / Termination / Call On Me / Gravity / Statues