JELLYFISH - "Socrates, Pathos, and Plato" Live 1993

Every once in a while I'm reminded, for no good reason, of how much I love and miss the great pop-rock collective known as Jellyfish. It's a sad fact of rock history that this band of brilliant young lads only lasted three years, during which time they released a precious two studio albums (while, on the other hand, the worthless Bon Jovi has been stinking up the place for over a quarter-century).

You'd be hard-pressed to find a more perfect collection of 1990s power pop than their swan song, the utterly sublime Beach Boys-Beatles-Queen-Supertramp-10cc mashup masterpiece Spilt Milk. If you've never heard it -- and chances are you haven't -- then by all means get on the good foot (that means buy it; I bet they could use the money). I consider "Joining a Fan Club" and "New Mistake" to be the two greatest songs of the '90s, for starters.

I'll be posting a few more tasty Jelly boots to ring in 2011, but this one is an ideal place to start. It's a beautifully recorded compilation of live tracks from November 1993, not far from the end of the line for the band, who called it quits about the same time a certain Seattle grunge icon did too.

If you, like me, were fortunate enough to have snapped up the 2002 limited-edition box set Fan Club you'd have most of these tracks plus the bonus B-sides. If not, then feel free to drop that $120-$300 on Amazon or eBay...or click below, and stay tuned.

Because, oh yes indeedy, I do think you're ready for this Jelly.

JELLYFISH
"Socrates, Pathos, and Plato"
Universal Amphitheatre and other venues - November 1993
(SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART - "Bat Chain Puller" Original Version, 1976 (R.I.P. Don Van Vliet)

I've never been a big Beefheart fan, or much of one at all to be honest. But his death last Friday -- also my 42nd birthday, as it happens -- seems as good an occasion as any to post my first (and most likely last) Beef boot.

Like the below-mentioned Roky Erickson, the crazy ol' Cap'n might have been a bit too far out for my taste. But most agree that Bat Chain Puller, even in its rejiggered 1978 official version, is one of his finest later works. A few of the tunes ("Harry Irene," the instrumentals "Flavor Bud Living" and "A Carrot is as Close...") are even rather pretty, I daresay. Then there are the slide guitar-powered classics "Floppy Boot Stomp" and the Hold Steady-inspiring "Owed T'Alex," which represent Beefheart at his flat-out rocking best.

Word from the Zappa estate, which holds the rights to this original 1976 version of the LP, is that an official release will finally be forthcoming in the next year. Until then, I present by far the best-sounding version available.

So git on yer trout mask, or a replica thereof, and freak out!

CAPTAIN BEEFHEART
"Bat Chain Puller" Original Version, 1976 (STU @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

PS -- For some rare early Beefheart, please visit my all-'60s blog, Heavy Sugar Radio.

ELVIS PRESLEY - Las Vegas, NV 1974

From one group of Black Angels to another...

Just a real quick li'l post for your weekend and mine. This is a recently unearthed, high-quality first-generation soundboard recording of a chatty, funny, loosey-goosey, pill-popping, karate-chopping '74 Elvis.

This show also features what is likely the only recorded instance of The King saying "fuck you" to an audience member. Now if that ain't worth the price of admission, what is?

As ever, thankyaver'much.

ELVIS PRESLEY
"Black Angels in Vegas"
Hilton Hotel - Las Vegas, NV - August 30, 1974 {Midnight Show}
(SBD)
DOWNLOAD

THE BLACK ANGELS - Tilburg, Netherlands 2010

Good evening, psychonauts. What can I say about The Black Angels out of Austin, TX except that they are my favorite new band in the world? I've been listening to them so obsessively that I can't even remember how I first heard about them (read about them, actually) even though it couldn't have been more than a week ago. Or maybe it was a century, or even a millennium, whoa wow whoaaa...what does it mean...?

They're even more mind-blowing than a double complete rainbow, is alls I know. While they've been perfecting their brand of spacey yet hard-rocking retro-garage psychedelia for about five years now, it's their recent third LP Phosphene Dream that's really shot them over the top, onto Letterman and the college charts, into Rolling Stone and a sold-out show at the El Rey next week which I'll sadly be missing.

As I may or may not be the first to opine, the Angels' trippy sound basically comprises Austin psych legends the 13th Floor Elevators with better songwriting, melodies, vocals, playing and production. Sue me, but I happen to dig Roky Erickson and the Elevators more for what they symbolize than for what they managed to record. What the Angels represent to me is what those pioneering Elevators attempted 45 (!) years ago brought to fruition, to perfection. And it's because of heavy outfits like the Black Angels that the '60s will truly live on forever. (The less said about comparisons to the dreaded Jesus and Mary Chain, possibly the most overrated band of the '80s, the better.)

Since Phosphene Dream is far and away my favorite album of 2010, I wanted to post a recent show, as opposed to one from four or five years back, of which there seems to be an abundance out there. It wasn't easy to find, but find it I did, and here it is.

Hope y'all dig them crazy Angels as much as I do!

THE BLACK ANGELS
013 - Tilburg, Netherlands - January 26, 2010 (SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

PS -- The poster shown above is not from this show, but it is pretty damn cool, no?

13th ANNUAL BRIDGE SCHOOL BENEFIT CONCERT - Mountain View, CA 1999

Hey all. To make up for (yet another) long delay in posting, I'm favoring you with a complete recording one of the best concert experiences of my life, and to my ears one of the best Bridge School Benefit Concerts ever.

As a matter of special interest, the second show is the only Bridge School concert that's ever taken place on Halloween night; yes, costumes were worn by the artists, with Sheryl Crow looking especially cute in a pink tutu and halo.

But more importantly, these shows marked the return of the great Brian Wilson -- no, not the beardy Giants pitcher, although I gather he has a few fans in the Bay Area as well -- to live performing after almost 35 years of god-only-knows-what. Who knew that these concerts would be remembered as just the beginning of an incredibly fertile period of almost nonstop touring, recording, and award-collecting that has lasted to this day? (Listen especially closely to the joyous "Surfin' U.S.A.," which featured backup vocals by Neil Young, Roger Daltrey, Eddie Vedder and Sheryl Crow. Not too bad.)

Due to family obligations I missed this year's Buffalo Springfield-powered blowout; better luck next year for the 25th anniversary. In 1999, however, I was still relatively young and carefree. I went to both shows and I will never forget them.

13th ANNUAL BRIDGE SCHOOL BENEFIT CONCERT
Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA - October 30 and 31, 1999
(SBD @320 kbps -- 6 CDs in one link)
DOWNLOAD

Big big big thanks to So Many Roads.

ALICE COOPER - Saginaw, MI 1978

Aaaaand I'm back!

Yes, my lovely son Luke got himself born on September the 4th, and all is well! Thanks to everyone who visited in the interim. Life is grand...well, except for one thing:

As of today's preposterous nominations announcement, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has offically lost all credibility. Forever. As in, permanently jumped the shark, never to recover.

By nominating the poodle-maned clowns in Bon Jovi before ever having nominated Rush (not once; not to mention Randy Newman, The Zombies, Yes, Todd Rundgren, Deep Purple, The Smiths and countless others left waiting in the wings), the Hall of Lame has committed a serious crime against music and must no longer be taken seriously again. Joel Peresman, Jon Landau, Jann Wenner, and every last member of the feckless nominating committee should all go kill themselves at once.

I can only imagine what kind of sleazy, schmoozy music industry political bullshit led to such a calamitous decision, since it certainly wasn’t based on artistic merit; in Bon Jovi’s case, there simply is none. Even if one were to argue -- as I’m sure some nameless, highly-paid idiot did -- that giving Bon Jovi the nod is based purely on their (mystifyingly) enduring popularity, then bands from Kiss to Chicago to (if the slot had to go to an '80s hair-metal group) Def Leppard or Motley Crue would be more qualified than the vapid and personality-free Bon Jovi. At least Kiss has the makeup, costumes and pyro to make them distinctive.

I don't care how many "units" they've shifted, or how many "sheds" they somehow keep filling with their philistine fans: Bon Jovi is as musically worthless a group as has ever existed. They are mediocrity incarnate, corporate rock at its most generic, the perfect example of everything that went wrong with mainstream rock in the benighted age of Reagan. They embody everything that Nirvana came along to wipe out. Bon Jovi has not recorded or performed a single line of lyric or note of music that is not a complete cliché. Possessing not an iota of imagination, intelligence, wit, artistry, originality, or genuine emotion, with no musical value whatsoever, these insipid cheese merchants are the sonic equivalent of McDonald's.

Now, lots of people eat at McDonald's -- but no one gives McDonald's an award, because McDonald's food doesn't deserve awards and everyone is smart enough to know this, including McDonald's.

Apparently the Schlock Hall is not this smart. Lest we forget that Black Sabbath and The Stooges -- monumentally influential bands that were instrumental in creating entire genres of rock music -- had to wait 10 years and 16 years, respectively, to be inducted. But not the geniuses of Bon Jovi. In only their second year of eligibility, it's "Step right up, boys!" (And don't even get me started on TV actor/fitness pitchman LL Cool J, another utterly unworthy nominee, who is not now and never was a musician.)

Following the debased precedent now set by the Schlock Hall, I eagerly await the awarding of next year's Best Picture Academy Award to The Last Airbender.

Anyway, congrats are due to 2011 nominee Alice Cooper. He plays actual rock music, and thus is vastly more worthy of induction to this pitiful institution than almost all of this year's other nominees.

ALICE COOPER
Wendler Arena - Saginaw, MI - October 5, 1978 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD

(With thanks to Viva Les Bootlegs.)

BRIAN WILSON - New York City, 2004

This is a very special one, for a number of reasons:

First, my son missed his birthday yesterday -- I mean his actual birth day. He's officially a day overdue now, which gives us one more weekend to prepare his room...so we got that going for us, which is nice. He's most welcome to get born any day now.

Second, my main man Mr. Wilson has just released an exquisite new album you may have heard about -- it was even #1 on Amazon for a minute this week.

Third, I've been looking for this live boot for ages, and suddenly it popped up today without even trying! It's a perfectly recorded -- by Brian's own engineer, Mark Linett -- NPR FM broadcast of the Carnegie Hall show from Brian's magnificent 2004-'05 "SMiLE" Tour, still one of the peak concert experiences of my life (two times: at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl).

All in all, a happy time. So smile, y'all...!

BRIAN WILSON
"Practice, Man, Practice!"
Carnegie Hall - New York, NY - October 12-13, 2004
(FMB @256 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

ELVIS PRESLEY - Memphis, TN 1974

Thirty-three years on, thirty-three years gone...

Pay your respects by checkin' out this excellent live boot, which documents Elvis' very first concert performance in his adopted hometown since 1961.

Here at Green Alien Chick we always give it up for The King!

ELVIS PRESLEY
"Hello Memphis"
Mid-South Coliseum - Memphis, TN - March 16, 1974
(SBD @ 256 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

RUSH - Largo, MD 1984

Rush's long-awaited (by me) Time Machine Tour show tonight at the hallowed Gibson Amphitheatre will be, if all goes according to plan, my last concert before the birth of my first child, two weeks from now. Fitting that it's a show by one of my all-time favorite bands -- one I try to see every time they come through L.A. -- at one of my all-time favorite venues.

As Geddy might exclaim in his faux-Scottish burr: "Ah cannat weet!"

So here's one of the great live Rush boots to mark the occasion, a soundboard show taped at (as any regular reader will know) my hometown rawk venue, the late, unlamented Cap Centre.

Enjoy, and please...wish us luck!

RUSH
"Cool Under Fire"
Captial Centre - Largo, MD - September 27, 1984 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD

DEVO - Boston, MA 1981

Following last week's primo Petty post, here's another cracking live show from 30 years ago, and another FM broadcast as well, this one from ye olde King Biscuit. I'm digging on the Devo lately, not sure why, but I'm on a bit of a kick; their nifty new album (after 20 years!) doesn't hurt. I know they're touring now as well, so I do hope to catch them...

I also love this early moment of the '80s, my 6th/7th grade year. It was post-John Lennon assassination and Ronald "Rambo" Reagan election (adieu, 1960s!), but pre-Big '80s obnoxious patriotic yuppie neon moussed pompadoured cokehead/greedhead acid-washed awfulness. And Devo was one of those transitional post-punk, pre-new wave bands (like Blondie and Talking Heads) that looked '80s but still sounded kinda '70s.

Anyway, this is one punchy half-hour show, nine songs flat, but four of those are "Whip It," "Girl U Want," "Through Being Cool" and "Working in a Coal Mine," their final hit before most Americans threw away their energy domes and stopped giving a shit.

DEVO
Orpheum Theatre - Boston, MA - November 5, 1981 (FMB @320)
DOWNLOAD

Password: http://dexondaz.blogspot.com/

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS - London, England 1980

I know I promised (a month ago!) to post more often, but what the hell...life keeps getting in the way.

Well, instead of apologizing, I'll simply post a perfect live boot from TP and the Heartbreakers. And I mean perfect, in every way: audio quality, set list (21 songs), even the between-song-banter -- everything is 100% FM broadcast, top bitrate, official-CD-release brilliance.

I love the brand-new TP album, Mojo, but this show has him and the band riding high on Damn the Torpedoes, so "explosive" is the word here, boys!

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
Hammersmith Odeon - London, England - March 6, 1980
(FMB @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

IRON MAIDEN - Perth, Australia 2008

Whilst enjoying the legendary Irons live last Saturday night out in good old San Berdoo, it struck me that I haven't posted here in over a month! Well, sue my ass: I've been dealing with hideous computer issues, moving for the second time in four months, and oh yeah: getting married (a wedding which my now-wife and I planned ourselves). So phew!

But this post means the start of my return journey to Bootland, and it's good to be heading back at last...

It's always a privilege to see Maiden live in the U.S., given that they never seem to play more than ten dates at a stretch here. I haven't yet found a good boot from the current Final Frontier World Tour, but I have such fond memories of seeing them twice on the last one -- the massive greatest hits-geared Somewhere Back in Time World Tour -- that I thought I'd post one of those shows.

This boot is from only the second night of that epic 14-month tour, but the performance is tight and strong, in a decent-sounding audience recording, perhaps not up to our usual sonic standards but certainly worth the download. Hey -- I might be a little rusty, but I'm back!

IRON MAIDEN
Burswood Dome - Perth, Australia - February 4, 2008 (AUD)
DOWNLOAD

MUSE - "Neutron Star Collision" NEW SONG!!!

Surprise! Lo and behold, we have a hot new Muse tune, just released yesterday.

Upside: it's Muse, it's sweeping and swooning, and let's just say the Queen influence hasn't exactly diminished lately.

Downside? It's from the soundtrack of one of them boring-ass virgin vampire movies -- there must be new one coming out, I guess. Hell, I'm 41 years old, what do I know...?

I do know that I well and truly love me some Muse!

MUSE
"Neutron Star Collision (Love is Forever)" (@320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

THE HOLD STEADY - Philadelphia, PA 2010

Love The Hold Steady, love their new record, love this recent WXPN/NPR broadcast.

Positively love your weekend!

THE HOLD STEADY
World Cafe Live - Philadelphia, PA - April 30, 2010 (FMB)
DOWNLOAD

QUEEN - Boston, MA 1976

Been awhile, and man I been busy. Planning a wedding, don'tcha know. But every so often, booty duty calls...

Simply stated: if you love Queen, you'll love this. A royal, regal Top Ten live show, if ever I heard it. Better yet? It's a full-length recording by legendary New England taper Dan Lampinski, the sneakiest and most mad-skilled sonofabitch ever to wield a Sony ECM-99 stereo mic.

Trust me, all of Dan the Man's audience tapes sound fuller, richer and ballsier than most soundboards, and this is one of the absolute best. Worship it, my darlings!

QUEEN
Boston Music Hall - Boston, MA - January 30, 1976 (AUD)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2

ALICE IN CHAINS - Seattle, WA 1992

I'm back! And all is well Stateside...well, not really, but hey. Happy Tax Day! We're still alive, and I'm gonna be a daddy in four months' time. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Real busy at work here, catching up after being away for almost a month. Thanks for all the kind (and not-so-kind) comments during my absence. I even got my first DMCA warning from Blogger -- somebody out there likes me!

For something a little different, how about the best-ever AIC boot (one of the very few, actually, and by far the finest). It's a hometown gig, promoting their just-released masterpiece, the harrowing heroin diary Dirt, one of the greatest works of art about hopeless drug addiction ever created in any medium. The late Layne Staley's gritted-teeth intro to "Love, Hate, Love" says it best: "This is a song about pain."

Good times!

ALICE IN CHAINS
"We Die Young"
Seattle Center Arena - Seattle, WA - December 20, 1992
(SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2

THE ROLLING STONES - Toronto, Canada 1989

Headed outta the country for three weeks (including a visit to the Emerald Isle), so I thought I'd leave you with another top-tier live Stones boot.

This one is from their huge Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour, on the back of the so-so Steel Wheels platter. Aside from some painfully Big '80s!!! synth-horn squiggles, it's a stone groover.

Happy (what's left of) St. Patty's Day!

THE ROLLING STONES
"Sweet Toronto"
CNE Stadium - Toronto, Ontario, Canada - September 3, 1989
(SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

PS -- for some classic '60s live Stones, go here!

THE ROLLING STONES - "Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones" Soundtrack, 1972

Hey now, next week is Rolling Stones week on "American Idol," and two months from now this baby comes out! What better time to make with some classic '72 live Stones?

This is the unreleased soundtrack to their long-lost concert doc of the same title, so the sound quality is phenomenal. 16 tracks of 320 kbps smack and whack for the weekend -- c'mon! Lick it!

THE ROLLING STONES
Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones Soundtrack
Various venues - Fort Worth and Houston, TX - June 24 and 25, 1972 (SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

RUSH - Poughkeepsie, NY 1980

I've spent the last ten days moving, so my ass is beat.

Since it feels like eons since I posted any Rush, a quick live boot is all I can manage at the moment. By "quick" I mean short -- this one doesn't have the whole setlist, and contains a medley broken up into very brief individual tracks (hey, I can't lie -- I'm too tired!)

However, it's worth a DL because the 320 sound is terrific, especially on the Neil solo. Both that and the climactic "La Villa Strangiato" go nuts with the stereo panning effects, certainly rare for any bootleg.

'Nuff said? "Okay, Poughkeepsie!"

RUSH
"National Sound"
Mid-Hudson Civic Center - Poughkeepsie, NY - January 26, 1980 (SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

GENESIS - Liverpool, England 1975

Working on getting into these guys, the Gabriel era that is. Never been a big fan. It's a process.

I still maintain that Yes, the quintessential (pompous, pretentious etc.) prog band, should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame first -- '80s hit singles, record sales and solo careers be damned.

But it's awfully hard not to groove on The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel's swan song with the group and by most reckonings their finest effort. For your enjoyment, courtesy of our good friends at Viva Les Bootlegs, here's the most acclaimed bootleg from the epic 1975 Lamb tour.

GENESIS
Empire Theater - Liverpool, England - April 19, 1975 (SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2 / DOWNLOAD 3

THE KNACK - Long Island, NY 1981 (R.I.P. Doug Fieger)

It's a shame that the late Doug Fieger and his band The Knack are today remembered, if at all, more for the rock-snob backlash that greeted their instant success than for their music. They've been permanently tagged as one-hit-wonders thanks to the staggering success of their debut single, the legendary you-know-who:

(See? You don't even need to see her name.)

Now, I haven't listened to a note of any of their albums after the debut, Get the Knack, and I'm making no grand claims of eternal genius here. But one listen to that fantastic debut LP tells you this was no one-hit-wonder act. Ignore the infamous Beatle-baiting cover photos and marvel at how it's packed with snappy, witty, tightly played, catchy-as-hell tunes. (I count "Oh Tara" as a particular favorite. I mean, how was that not a #1 single?) The thing just kills from beginning to end, sounding as fresh today as it did to my virgin ears in the summer of '79.

So they didn't become the next Cheap Trick. So sue 'em! Get the Knack remains a flat-out great album; the fact that it portended no further greatness doesn't diminish its own inherent greatness one bit. Maybe poor Mr. Fieger took some comfort in witnessing similarly steep quality/popularity dropoffs suffered in later years by The Strokes, the Hives, the Arctic Monkeys and a thousand other anointed power-pop "saviors."

Anyway, this zippy WLIR-FM soundboard show -- by far the best-quality Knack bootleg -- captures them promoting their third album, by which time the rock press and most listeners had long written them off as has-beens. Listen and judge for yourself. But remember: one listen to rock radio in 2010 should remind you that writing a great power-pop song, not to mention a whole album's worth, is no piece of cake.

THE KNACK
Venue unknown - Long Island, NY - December 10, 1981 (FMB)
DOWNLOAD

CRISIS OF CONFORMITY - "Fistfight in the Parking Lot" (SNL)

Y'all know I hardly ever post vids on this blog, but I couldn't resist...

This spot-on skit was on last weekend's Saturday Night Live -- in the dead-last slot, naturally -- and it's my fave in ages. (Probably since this one, and that's saying something.)

If you happen to have grown up in '80s "harDCore" D.C. like I did, you'll get it and dig it.

"Ya hear that, Alexander Haig?!?"

(PS -- In case the above link goes dead, here's the skit on Fred Armisen's SNL Blog.)

THE WHO - Largo, MD 1973

Rumor has it that The 'Oo is playing a quick-cash, smash 'n' grab gig at some football game this weekend. I wouldn't know anything about that, being a Packer Backer myself.

This Quadrophenia Tour concert was recorded for ye olde King Biscuit Flower Hour FM radio show at my hometown arena (or near enough to D.C., anyway). Yeah, too bad about them 'Skins...

Oh, well: go Saints!

THE WHO
Capital Centre - Largo, MD - December 6, 1973 (FMB @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2

PS -- more classic live Who here.

LED ZEPPELIN - Cleveland, OH 1977

My good buddy "RC" left such a kind comment on my previous Zeppelin boot post (see below) that, well, hell, I just couldn't resist posting another. You wanted '77 Presence Tour Zep, you got it!

This was the band's hugest and lastest tour ever, the one with the immortal T-shirt design still proudly worn by 15-year-old stoners to this day (of course I found it in green):

Word is that this live soundboard recording is the best-quality boot of that entire legendary tour. However, I must admit I don't think it quite matches the '75 show posted last week. The performance is certainly on par, but the audio is a bit trebly and the stereo separation not as wide. At any rate, it's still goddamn good, and I did find it in the highest bitrate available.

So I hereby post it for your rocking pleasure...and yes, it must now be said: Hello Cleveland!

LED ZEPPELIN
"Destroyer"
Richfield Coliseum - Cleveland, OH - April 27, 1977 (SBD @256 kbps)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2 / DOWNLOAD 3 / DOWNLOAD 4

MUSE - Berlin, Germany 2009

This one's a winner, great sound, trust me, download it, have a good weekend, okay bye.

MUSE
O2 World - Berlin, Germany - October 29, 2009 (AUD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

LED ZEPPELIN - Baton Rouge, LA 1975 (HOT NEW LINX!)

Greetings from once-sunny Los Angeles, where the rain continues to come down with such torrential, apocalyptic force that it appears Blade Runner's long-ago vision of the soaked city may finally be coming to pass...nine years early, in fact.

And what better soundtrack for such an epic time than the mighty levee-breakers of Led Zep?

This live boot is particularly exciting because it's brand-new, and according to my bros at BigO:

"The soundboard version of this show has just surfaced -- previous versions were audience recordings...

For those who need a bit of refreshing, Led Zep’s 1975 tour took place about two years since the group last toured and, as the Wiki pointed out, 'as a result, some critics have suggested that the band seemed sluggish and rusty upon their return to the stage, with the group lacking dynamics and giving rather ''heavy'' performances.'

Barely four days earlier, Led Zep released the Physical Graffiti album and songs from the album which were played for the first time on this tour included 'Sick Again', 'In My Time of Dying', 'Kashmir' and 'Trampled Under Foot'."

So Zeppelin giving a "heavy" performance is a bad thing? Okay...well, whatever Wiki says about early 1975 Zep, this performance sounds absolutely top-flight to me. The sound quality is just phenomenal; after a slight bit of distortion early on it smooths out into slashing, shattering, staggering, offical-release-quality blood and thunder. It's at 320 kbps here, and it's one of the killerest Zep boots I've ever heard, so git it!

LED ZEPPELIN
"Rampaging Cajun"
LSU Assembly Center - Baton Rouge, LA - February 28, 1975 (SBD @320 kbps)
DOWNLOAD 1 / DOWNLOAD 2 / DOWNLOAD 3 / DOWNLOAD 4

Cheers as always to T.U.B.E. Mach 3.

THE STOOGES - New Orleans, LA 2003

Regarding the news of this year's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, the main thing is this: congrats to Iggy and the Dum Dum Boys. After seven years of nomination sans induction -- a shameful slight outdone only by Black Sabbath's preposterous 10-year wait -- ya finally made it, punks!

Of course, Sir Ig is probably also deserving of induction for his spotty but amazingly long-lived and occasionally brilliant (at least on his first three LPs, The Idiot, Lust for Life and New Values) solo career, so he's got that goin' for him. Which is nice.

Too bad poor old Ron Asheton didn’t make it -- missed out by a year. But hey, that’s the Stooges' luck for ya. If they didn't have bad luck, they'd have no kind at all. (Speaking of which, the MC5 probably deserve a shot as well, but I won’t hold my breath.)

So here, behold the freshly reunited Stooges tearing it up in NOLA. I wanna be your dog...two times!

THE STOOGES
"The Battle of New Orleans"
Voodoo Music Experience
City Park - New Orleans, LA - November 1, 2003 (SBD @256 kbps)
DOWNLOAD

ELVIS PRESLEY - Richmond, VA 1972 (HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY TO THE KING!)

Hey, hey, what can I say? Elvis would have been 75 today.

Far be it from li'l ol' me not to celebrate that stunning fact the best way I know how -- with a live boot fit for a King. This one was recorded by MGM cameras for the MIA-on-DVD 1972 doc Elvis on Tour, so the performance, setlist and audio quality all rule.

Elvis, ya left the building for the last time a helluva long time ago, but damn if we don't still miss the hell outta ya...

Happy 75th to The King!

ELVIS PRESLEY
"Red-Hot in Richmond"
Richmond Coliseum - Richmond, VA - April 10, 1972 (SBD)
DOWNLOAD

VAMPIRE WEEKEND - Santa Monica, CA 2008

First post of 2010!

This band also happens to be playing my first concert of this year, next week at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theatre, tickets to which were bought by darling Rochelle, my then-girlfriend and now fiancée. Bless ya, luv!

I must confess that Vampire Weekend is usually just the sort of Pitchfork-approved, cooler-than-thou band of indie-hipster twits that drives me up the wall...hey, I'm over 40 now, what can I say?

But these particular kids are unique. A posse of L.A.-obsessed Columbia grads -- the love children of Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé and a whole big-ass bunch of philosophy professors -- they make music that is just so smart, so clever and sophisticated and fresh and witty and elegant and strange and inventive and sublimely melodic, it's impossible not to dig 'em. So clean-cut and well dressed, too! (Man, I must be over 40.)

If you're a VW fan like me, and psyched for the release of their delightful sophomore effort, Contra (out next Tuesday the 12th, streaming until the 18th on KCRW.com; I've already spun it five or six times), then snag this show. It's a 320 kbps FM broadcast -- complete with interview segment -- from Valentine's Day two years ago, just after the release of their magnificent debut album.

Happy New Year, and Up the Vamps!

VAMPIRE WEEKEND
"Morning Becomes Eclectic"
KCRW Studios, Santa Monica College
Santa Monica, CA - February 14, 2008 (FMB @320 kbps)
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