Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Live in KSET, Zagreb, 06.04.2001.

I'm not a great connoisseur of Will Oldham/Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Palace Music, but I have liked everything I have heard by him, and judging by this show, I regret not being able to catch either one of his shows in Croatia. This is an excellent soundboard recording of the whole show, two hours long, with tons of exceptional songs and funny stage banter - highly recommended.

Track listing:

Disc One:

1. At Break of Day (5:24)

2. 2/15 (4:08)
3. A King at Night (5:07)
4. May It Always Be (4:38)
5. Nomadic Revery (All Around) (4:27)
6. After I Made Love to You (4:44)
7. Lost Blues (5:53)
8. Pushkin (4:47)
9. Ease Down the Road (3:34)
10. 64 (6:17)
11. Disorder (4:54)
12. Madeleine-Mary (4:58)
13. Ohio River Boat Song (5:09)
14. I See a Darkness (5:57)
15. O Let It Be (6:09)
16. I Am a Cinematographer (2:58)

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Disc Two:

1. Southside of the World (3:20)

2. A Minor Place (4:04)
3. Sheep (3:13)
4. Just to See My Holly Home (3:52)
5. Rich Wife Full of Happiness (4:04)
6. Horses (5:55)
7. Down in the Valley (6:58)
8. Be Still and Know God (Don't Be Shy) (4:20)
9. Death to Everyone (6:40)
10. Little Boy Blue I (2:43)
11. Little Boy Blue II (3:01)

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Die Hausers - Promo Tape

Another legendary (at least in local circles) band from Osijek, Die Hausers played a very unique style of post-punk/noise rock during the Nineties; they still play live from time to time, but this tape, released by the M/F Scum label, is their only official recording. I don't own the cassette anymore so I am sharing a rip which I got from Soulseek, which originated from this blog; however their link is dead (may Rapidshare rot in hell), so here it is again, hopefully on a more permanent location.

Die Hausers in 1996.

Track listing:

1. Normalan (3:19)
2. Kontrola (3:05)
3. Nininananananunu (2:28)
4. Mozak (2:54)
5. U biti (2:03)
6. Normalan (3:13)
7. Ruke (2:51)
8. Ljudi (2:18)
9. Kontrola (2:59)
10. Slobodan (4:13)
11. Crvi (3:37)
12. Takav sam, kakav sam (2:02)
13. Imas rijec (2:05)
14. To upamti (1:18)

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David Byrne - Live at Krizanke, Ljubljana, 10.07.2009.

Photos stolen from this guy.

Here is a bootleg I am especially happy to have found, as it is of a show I attended, and had a wonderful time at. This is from the 2009 "Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno" tour, when David was promoting the then-new "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today" album, along with older material he did with Eno (early Talking Heads records, "The Catherine Wheel" solo album and the "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" collaboration), and a few songs which had nothing at all to do with Eno, but were huge hits, seemingly deserving of sacrificing the concept of the tour (similar to the Iron Maiden "Somewhere Back in Time 1980-1989" tour, where every show included "Fear of the Dark", from 1992 - ah well). It was a great show, with a strong visual element you won't be getting here, but which you can see on the new "Ride Rise Roar" DVD - I haven't seen that yet, but I'm sure it is excellent.

I was rather disappointed to arrive at Krizanke and find out that the show was a sit-down affair, even thinking I wouldn't have taken the trip had I known that before; however, when all the dancing shenanigans started, I realised that being able to walk around, go to the bar and back, etc. would just be distractions to the whole experience, and that the show required your whole attention, which you really can't give unless seated down. Towards the end of the show, David called the audience to come forward and dance, and I believe this was the first occasion that I danced sober since finishing elementary school. I'm happy that you won't get the visual of THAT!

Anyway, the show is complete and very long, the sound excellent, and I'm very grateful to whoever recorded this for enabling me to relive the experience and share it with you, the loyal reader. Enjoy!

Track listing:

Disc One:

1. (introduction) (2:13)
2. Strange Overtones (4:45)
3. I Zimbra (4:40)
4. One Fine Day (5:56)
5. Help Me Somebody (3:48)
6. Houses in Motion (6:44)
7. My Big Nurse (4:06)
8. My Big Hands (Fall through the Cracks) (3:23)
9. Heaven (3:59)
10. Air (4:01)
11. Home (5:41)
12. Life Is Long (4:31)
13. Cross-Eyed and Painless (6:37)

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Disc Two:

1. Born under Punches (The Heat Goes On) (5:18)
2. Once in a Lifetime (6:04)
3. Life During Wartime (5:50)
4. I Feel My Stuff (6:28)
5. (encore break + band introduction) (3:19)
6. Take Me to the River (6:10)
7. The Great Curve (5:54)
8. (encore break) (3:00)
9. Road to Nowhere (4:23)
10. (burning down the house introduction) (1:04)
11. Burning Down the House (3:40)
12. (encore break) (2:48)
13. Everything That Happens (4:43)

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Carcass - Live at Terasa Verudela, Pula, Croatia 05.05.1992. - VIDEO

Here is the complete video of the first foreign band playing in Croatia since its declaration of independence and the beginning of the war, which was still raging when Carcass came to Pula. You can grab the audio of the show, along with the set list and a few pictures, here - it's a great blog ran by the guy who had recorded this show almost twenty years ago. Also check out a nice amateurish interview done by Croatian television here. Oh yeah, the opening acts were bands called HATRÖSS and CENOTAPH - I wonder what they sounded like? :)

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Paraf - Demo

Woohoo, finally!!! I have a five-song demo recording by PARAF, one of the most important Yugoslavian/Croatian punk bands ever! This is only a small part of their demo legacy - there are lots of songs which were never released in any form, and which I have yet to hear - but these five songs, mostly later re-recorded for their debut single and LP, are still a thing to behold. The sound quality is wonderful, the lyrics less polite than on the officially released versions (the exception being "Narodna pjesma", which was released on the "Novi punk val" compilation LP in this same version), and this studio recording of the song "Goli otok" is the only one I am aware of, so what are you doing still reading this?!

Track listing:

1. Rijeka (2:11)
2. Narodna pjesma (1:52)
3. Moj zivot je novi val (1:48)
4. Zivjela Jugoslavija (2:21)
5. Goli otok (2:15)

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Rangoraks/Narcisi - Nula bodova! + Astro-Core

Another old band from Osijek, Rangoraks were playing fun melodic punk rock for several years before slowly fading away at the turn of the century. They had one "official" release, a split tape with Narcisi from Nasice released by the "M/F Scum" label, and a short CD EP, released after they stopped playing, if memory serves. During their time as an active band, we considered them to be equals with Debeli precjednik/Fat Prezident; however DP/FP are still playing, releasing records and are probably the most popular "underground" punk rock band in Croatia, while Rangoraks has fallen into obscurity. Here's a small reminder then - and if anyone has the M/F Scum tape, you probably know me and know how to reach me, so send a copy my way...  updated with their side of the split tape thanks to Ćoske.

Track listing:

1. Mysterious Letter (1:15)
2. Homeless (2:41)
3. Final Fight (2:32)
4. No Fun (1:53)
5. Sve svejedno je (2:17)
6. You (2:19)
7. Fighting for the Truth (2:22)
8. Electricity (2:09)
9. Everybody (Drugboy) (2:40)
10. Resist (2:46)
11. Can't Believe It (2:16)
12. Big Difference (2:49)
13. Cocaine (2:10)

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Narcisi track listing:

1. Betmen (1:16)
2. Daj mi da zivim (1:25)
3. Novi svijet (1:35)
4. Prica (1:19)
5. Skupo pivo (obrada) (1:27)
6. Proslo je (1:46)
7. Epidemija (2:38)
8. Sve sto imam ja (1:40)
9. Koliko (2:06)
10. Grad (1:56)
11. On nju voli, a ona njega ne (2:46)
12. Blame (1:22)
13. Lagana (2:25)

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forgetters & Jawbreaker - Radio Sessions

Picture taken by dperitch at the Ljubljana show.

forgetters are a new-ish band featuring Blake Schwarzenbach on guitar and vocals, which is why I have coupled their recent session for the WBEZ Radio with two archive ones by Jawbreaker. I was lucky to be able to catch them on two shows of their European tour, in Ljubljana and Zagreb, and although I do tend to be somewhat too forgiving to people from bands I like (I have actually bought the last Clash LP!), I think forgetters really are an excellent band. Their recorded legacy so far consists only of one double 7" release, which you really should buy; however, they have plenty of songs that still wait to be officially released, and five of them (one being a Human League cover) were played at this session. If you clicked on the WBEZ link above, you might have seen an mp3 file available for download there - I only made separate files for each song and added ID3 tags, to make listening easier.

The Zagreb show; Darko Vaupotic.

As for the Jawbreaker part of the archive, it's a pair of ancient recordings from 1990 (read: before they have gotten REALLY good), and with rather poor sound quality, too. However, it does include two otherwise unreleased tracks, and makes a nice contrast with the main thing. Hope someone enjoys it.

WOW.

Track listing:

WBEZ November 10th 2010
1. forgetters - I'm Not Immune (4:38)
2. forgetters - Interview 1 (6:48)
3. forgetters - Hart Crane Pike (6:22)
4. forgetters - Interview 2 (4:29)
5. forgetters - Seconds (The Human League) (3:55)
6. forgetters - Interview 3 (3:31)
7. forgetters - Death Trip (4:48)
8. forgetters - Interview 4 (0:57)
9. forgetters - Stupid Libations (3:52)

WFMU June 28th 1990
10. Jawbreaker - Welcome to Our Band (2:48)
11. Jawbreaker - Softcore (3:35)
12. Jawbreaker - Seethruskin (2:28)
13. Jawbreaker - Tour Song (4:03)
14. Jawbreaker - Eye-5 (5:54)
15. Jawbreaker - You're Right (4:28)
16. Jawbreaker - Big (5:12)
17. Jawbreaker - Lawn (3:31)
18. Jawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders) (2:54)

WNYU March 29th 1990
19. Jawbreaker - Gutless (2:54)
20. Jawbreaker - Want (3:20)
21. Jawbreaker - Fine Day (4:05)
22. Jawbreaker - Seethruskin (2:25)
23. Jawbreaker - Driven (3:37)
24. Jawbreaker - Equalized (2:56)
25. Jawbreaker - Shield Your Eyes (3:29)

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