Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Live at Krizanke, Ljubljana 1994 - VIDEO

This is the only picture of Cave in Ljubljana in 1994 that I could find. A charming one!

I've seen Nick Cave for the first time in my life a few weeks ago, in the guise of Grinderman; I was happy to see him and the show was quite good - entertaining and energetic, but I had a problem with the SONGS. To my ears, they were mostly only good songs, with maybe two very good ones, and no great ones; and that is the feeling I get with Cave's whole post-"Murder Ballads" output, either with the Bad Seeds or otherwise. I will admit that I haven't really given those records very many chances, but then again, I never needed to give more than one chance to "Prayers on Fire" or "The Good Son". Anyway, this is a show from the tour for "Henry's Dream", while he was still fantastic, and it is a very high quality single-camera shot with excellent sound; you can see it on YouTube, but this is a higher quality version. Unfortunately it's not the complete show, but the nine songs that are included are all excellent. It's a single file but here is the track listing:

1. Your Funeral, My Trial
2. Tupelo
3. Do You Love Me?
4. Papa Won't Leave You, Henry
5. Red Right Hand
6. The Ship Song
7. Brother, My Cup Is Empty
8. The Weeping Song
9. Jack the Ripper

And here are the download links.

D.R.I. - I.M.Y.T. Compilation

D.R.I. are one of my favourite bands in at least two genres - hardcore punk and thrash metal. I've seen them twice in the last year or so, and both shows were total brain pummeling. What a wonderful band. Here I'm sharing three hard-to-find songs of theirs - "Against Me" (a demo recorded way back in 2004 - a long, long time ago, when music was much better, and even this song's namesake band didn't suck!), "Hide Your Eyes" and "Out of Mind" (cassette and LP bonus tracks from the "Definition" album, which should supposedly be re-released one fine day, and that is of course the day I take them down off the blog). In order not to have an eight minute download, I've added two so-so bootlegs from the mid-Eighties (both with unexceptional sound, one incomplete - but the other from a show with SLAYER! wooohoooo!), alongside a rather often circulated demo, bootlegged as "Dirtiest Filthiest Demos", if memory serves. The sound quality is shit but there are fun versions of "Johnny B. Goode" and "Louie Louie" at the end, plus a few songs which might be otherwise unreleased (the bootlegger didn't recognize them and neither did I, but then again, early D.R.I. isn't exactly "Sandinista!" in terms of eclecticism or song lengths - it all sounds the same, but it's an excellent same!). Hope you like it!

Track listing:

1. Against Me (2:06)
2. Hide Your Eyes (2:20)
3. Out Of Mind (3:45)
4. Nursing Home Blues (live) (4:13)
5. Violent Pacification (live) (2:48)
6. Marriage (live) (0:48)
7. Karma (live) (2:25)
8. Argument Then War (live) (3:13)
9. Evil Minds (live) (1:11)
10. God Is Broke (live) (1:00)
11. Soup Kitchen (live) (2:17)
12. The Explorer (live) (1:35)
13. Shame (live) (2:19)
14. Snap (live) (1:01)
15. Yes Ma'am (live) (1:40)
16. Reaganomics (live) (0:36)
17. Commuter Man (live) (1:13)
18. Stupid, Stupid War (live) (0:37)
19. Couch Slouch (live) (1:21)
20. Running Around (live) (1:06)
21. I'd Rather Be Sleeping (live) (1:04)
22. Give My Taxes Back (live) (1:05)
23. Mad Man (live) (0:44)
24. Who Am I? (live) (0:33)
25. Busted Again (live) (0:55)
26. Sad to Be (live) (2:18)
27. The Explorer (live) (1:35)
28. Slit My Wrist (live) (0:28)
29. Busted Again (live) (1:03)
30. Stupid, Stupid War/Counter Attack (live) (1:07)
31. I'd Rather Be Sleeping (live) (1:30)
32. Running Around/Couch Slouch/To Open Closed Doors (live) (2:55)
33. I Don't Need Society (1:14)
34. No Sense (1:11)
35. F.R.D.C. (0:24)
36. Sad to Be (1:14)
37. Plastique (0:40)
38. (unknown) (0:17)
39. Draft Me (0:18)
40. Money Stinks (0:47)
41. Yes Ma'am (0:52)
42. Equal People (0:53)
43. Capitalist Suck (0:35)
44. Human Waste (0:20)
45. Misery Loves Company (0:20)
46. (unknown) (0:49)
47. Reaganomics (0:25)
48. (unknown) (0:51)
49. Guilty (0:41)
50. War Crimes (1:24)
51. Stupid, Stupid War (0:35)
52. Slit My Wrists (0:32)
53. My Fate to Hate (0:28)
54. Who Am I? (0:38)
55. Shame (0:30)
56. Busted (0:42)
57. Closet Punk (0:31)
58. Give My Taxes Back (0:47)
59. Balance of Terror (0:33)
60. Blockhead (0:52)
61. Johnny B. Goode (1:01)
62. (unknown) (1:15)
63. Louie Louie (1:15)

I love these 60-songs-per-CD track lists so much. I mean, really, how pretentious is it to think FORTY WHOLE SECONDS aren't enough to convey an idea???

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Bitch Magnet - Live in OKS, Osijek, 1990

Picture stolen from this blog. Get another BM live recording there.

This here recording means A LOT to me. It is a recording of a show by an important, influential and well-known American band - held in the little student's club of my hometown, the place where I spent much of my early youth, and even played with two of my crappy bands. I was only nine at the time when foreign bands actually visited Osijek (the same year Cows and God Bullies played the same venue), and the war that started in 1991 killed all "alternative" momentum that was building up throughout the Eighties. When I came of age and started going to shows roundabouts 1996/1997, OKS was still a place punk bands could play, but the roster went down a few levels - out-of-town acts were limited to Croatian demo or DIY-tape-level punk bands, while the local ones went from excellent, yet forever underground bands like Cog, to high school punk-as-fuck excuses for getting drunk, all the way down to guys from nearby villages in their thirties playing rock standards, local pop underachievers, and a vomit-inducing Hare Krishna-type hippie bullshit called Tattva (these last three types of bands tried their best to ruin my childhood and I hate them all for this). After a few years, at the beginning of the 21st century, the place managed to go even lower, and is now a mecca for local "Golden Youth", a term which I can't even begin to describe without wasting tons of precious black ink on my monitor, so here are a few pictures which might give you an idea of how a Bitch Magnet show in OKS in 2011 would look:

The owner, a local mogul and martial arts enthusiast.

Some kind of tit-fest, I guess a beauty pageant.

Bosnian folk singer Mile Kitic (roughly translated as "Lovable Little Cock"), being a bitch magnet.

Anyway, let's get back to the topic, that is, this Bitch Magnet show. This is a soundboard recording, meaning that aside from some clipping due to a too high volume setting, it's pretty excellent-sounding. It was obviously recorded on a 60 min tape, and therefore features most of the show, sans the better part of "Valmead", and I'd say about half of the Mission of Burma cover "Dirt", after tape sides ran out (which is sad because this is the only recording of this cover I know of). Instead of that, you get a three-and-a-half minute bass string replacement, including a pointless drum solo, a failed Albini-style Q&A-session, and lots of nerdy voices (check out the most inappropriate "Born to rock!" ever). A fun detail is how Sooyoung keeps making remarks about the audience being incredibly quiet - well, if he'd come to play Osijek these days, there'd be fifteen people in the venue, with another hundred outside, complaining at the shocking door price of roughly three beers. But I digress - all in all, this is a really nice piece of local history for my friends from Osijek, and a quite good live document for any Bitch Magnet fan, to get you through the waiting for their reunion later this year (confirming my long-time prediction that we are nearing the moment when every band that ever existed, will reunite and play shows. Can't wait for that Robert Johnson gig at Pitchfork Festival 2036!)

Track listing:

1. Dragoon (12:02)
2. Punch and Judy (2:40)
3. Big Pining (5:23)
4. Motor (4:17)
5. Lookin' at the Devil (4:14)
6. Valmead (cut) (1:13)
7. Ducks and Drakes (5:50)
8. Mesentery (3:34)
9. Goat-Legged Country God (3:07)
10. Drum Improvisation (3:31)
11. Americruiser (7:56)
12. Sea of Pearls (4:05)
13. Dirt (Mission of Burma - cut) (2:42)

Download

Concrete Worms - Punk Rock Crew + Live at Garage Fire 13.06.2009.

Pictures stolen from here.

Concrete Worms are my favourite currently active punk rock band from the ex-Yugoslavian region. They've got it all - excellent male-female vocals by the husband and wife duo of Dragan and Dragana (hah!), a wonderful unhinged energy provided by the excellent drummer Ilija, and an incredible range of covers which shows a true love of all things punk rock (New Bomb Turks! Johnny Thunders! Poison Idea! The Humpers! Misfits! The Exploited! And most incredibly, "Jackson", made famous by Johnny and June Carter Cash - you know Johnny Cash, he's that guy who - according to all the other bands' cover choices - performed only two songs in his whole career). I saw them live at least 10 times, and every show was incredible, making me look forward to each one like it's the only time I'll ever be able to see them. I have uploaded an old demo of theirs, which is not available for sale as far as I know, and which is good, but not as great as they now are; and an excellent, but sadly short live recording from two years ago, which is as great as anything you've ever heard. They have released two better CD's after this one, called "Just Gamblin'..." and "Cities of Death", but you can buy those from the band for some ridiculous price - so do that.

Track listing:

1. S-Bombs (1:25)
2. Bad Feelin' (2:14)
3. Gambler (2:08)
4. Reason (2:13)
5. Here Today (2:41)
6. Friend (1:53)
7. You're Killin' Me (2:10)
8. Lies (1:50)
9. Drunk as a Skunk (1:37)
10. Mr. Policeman (2:34)
11. Don't Get Me Wrong (2:02)
12. Refuse to Lose (2:58)
13. Hooligans on the Streets (live) (3:22)
14. Need to See You (live) (2:35)
15. Union Job (live) (2:40)
16. Never Blue (live) (4:00)
17. You Can Go Now (live) (2:03)
18. Jackson (live) (3:16)

Download

The Pogues - Live in Cologne 11.07.1991. (with Joe Strummer)

Photos are from a Paris show, same year, same tour.

This is more of an "important" bootleg than a "good" one - the sound quality leaves much to be desired, and while it's not as bad as most audience recordings from before the digital age, you probably won't be starting each new day with listening to this. Still, it's one of the better-sounding recordings of Joe Strummer's tenure as a Pogue, when he replaced the dysfunctional drunken poet Shane MacGowan (who is still dysfunctional and drunk, but now is again a member of the reformed Pogues - I guess it's easier to work with a guy like him in a cash-grab nostalgia act*, than in an active band which produces new music). Who would've thought in 1991 that twenty years later (and I'll see the Pogues on 14.07.2011. - twenty years almost to the day!) Joe would be dead, while Shane would still be gigging? I guess even the Devil himself is scared of having to face Shane MacGowan's hangover after fifty years of drinking.

Track listing:

1. Intro (0:59)
2. If I Should Fall from Grace with God (2:27)
3. Sayonara (2:54)
4. Cotton Fields (3:02)
5. Young Ned of the Hill (4:48)
6. Rain Street (3:54)
7. Repeal of the Licensing Laws (2:36)
8. Tombstone (3:04)
9. Turkish Song of the Damned (3:41)
10. Gartloney Rats (2:42)
11. London Calling (3:32)
12. Metropolis (2:55)
13. Thousands Are Sailing (4:42)
14. The Sunnyside of the Street (2:47)
15. Straight to Hell (6:36)
16. Medley (3:56)
17. Dirty Old Town (3:51)
18. The Sick Bed of Cuchulainn (3:40)
19. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah (5:03)
20. Star of the County Down (3:08)
21. I Fought the Law (2:43)
22. Brand New Cadillac (2:03)
23. The Parting Glass (4:41)

Download

______________
* If this sounded bitter, it isn't - I don't have much against nostalgia cash-grabs, especially now in the Internet age, when you can easily find out who's in the band, what songs they're playing, and how they're playing them, before you decide to buy a ticket. I'm giddy with excitement for seeing them.

Napalm Death - Live at Earthdom, Tokyo, 11.09.2010.

I guess this show was added to the tour later?

In my opinion today's Napalm Death is the best Napalm Death ever, and this show is as great as any one I've heard or been to. The sound quality is, let's say medium, with a bit of a booming low end and a little too much crowd noise, but otherwise rather clear and noise-free. The recording is a bit short at 52 minutes - I wonder whether it was a short set, or if it's incomplete - there's no "Greed Killing" here, which they played every time I saw them. I'd also love to have the opening set by "Napalm Truth", Venomous Concept (Shane Embury and Danny Herrera + Kevin Sharp and Dan Lilker) - if I ever find it, I'll add it to the post.

Track listing:

1. Intro/Strong Arm (4:09)
2. Unchallenged Hate (2:56)
3. Suffer the Children (4:05)
4. Silence Is Deafening (6:03)
5. Life and Limb (3:10)
6. Diktat (3:38)
7. When All Is Said and Done (2:53)
8. It's a M.A.N.S. World! (0:55)
9. From Enslavement to Obliteration (3:19)
10. On the Brink of Extinction (4:22)
11. Scum (2:59)
12. Life? (0:38)
13. The Kill (0:26)
14. Deceiver (0:37)
15. You Suffer (1:05)
16. Mass Appeal Madness (4:08)
17. Nazi Punks Fuck Off! (3:48)
18. Siege of Power (3:27)

Download

Debeli precjednik - Demos, Comps, EPs 1996-2001

Bubi didn't jump. Poseur.

Debeli precjednik/Fat Prezident is probably the biggest and most popular punk rock band in Croatia to willingly stay firmly in the underground - a highly respectful band composed of highly disrespectful individuals, so to say. Here's a compilation of their early material which you can mostly find in other places online, but not all together in a single file - so that's my contribution to the Scene. It contains their first and second demo tapes, two live songs from this compilation, two more songs from a compilation I'll put up some other time (thanks to Istva for the rip), the "Tribute to Zli Farmeri" EP, and a live cover from a show in KSET. "Pobuna" from the first demo is my favourite song of theirs, as it has only three short parts, but every one of them could have easily been a whole great song in its own right - shoving them all together in just two minutes makes a totally over-the-top melodic punk hit for the ages. The rest of their career is shit but what can you do? :)

Track listing:

1. Ne (2:09)
2. Pobuna (2:13)
3. Zajedno (1:36)
4. Superstar - Another Day (2:20)
5. San manje (2:45)
6. Bez mozga (1:10)
7. Subforce (2:02)
8. I'll Never Fall in Love (1:32)
9. Neca (0:28)
10. Remember (2:03)
11. Secrets (1:11)
12. Inside (1:50)
13. Let Her Go (2:01)
14. When the Sun Comes Down (1:46)
15. Blown Away (2:11)
16. Subforce (live) (1:54)
17. 4 O (live) (3:30)
18. Old Days (2:19)
19. Always (2:33)
20. Farmersko srce (2:05)
21. Farmersko srce (alt. version) (2:05)
22. I've Turned into a Pastir (1:24)
23. Bon Jovi Straight Outta Mental Care Institution (0:30)
24. Anal Boys (live - Why stakla) (2:17)

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Here's me having fun at a DP/FP show in Sisak (nikada nece biti Cucak).