Doom & Gloom Dispatch #51: Pattern Recognition
Distant Correspondent, Belle and Sebastian, The Feelies, Bob Dylan, Sonic Youth
I’m usually highlighting recent-ish records for these Bandcamp Monday situations, but let’s take things back a little bit to celebrate a woefully under-celebrated record — the lone long-player from Distant Correspondent, released 10 years ago this week. There’s no expanded reissue of the album, but maybe there should be! Distant Correspondent is a classic slice of dream pop featuring the dulcet tones of Drag City superstar Edith Frost, haunting guitars worthy of The Cure’s Faith and David Obuchowski’s extraordinary skills as a songwriter and arranger.
The cherry on top is Emily Gray (formerly of Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia), who adds her poetic/melancholic reveries to the mix — I hesitate to call it “spoken word;” there’s an uncanny musicality to her vocals here, adding a drama and tension that you won’t find many other places. And we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the one-man rhythm section of Michael Lengel, whose sense of dynamics ensures that the songs have deep and shifting textures. Give this one a spin, you won’t regret it …
(And full disclosure — after Distant Correspondent was recorded, I actually joined Distant Correspondent for a little while there, touring the country! Yes, dear reader, I liked this record that much.)
And hey, here’s a video of Distant Correspondent I’d never seen before! I barely remember the song! But it’s awesome (even if they misspelled the band name).
Belle and Sebastian - ICA Gallery, London, England, November 9, 1996
My wife was playing Tigermilk recently and I thought — "Hey, great album!“ I’ll admit that I haven’t really kept up with Belle and Sebastian since the mid-00s or thereabouts, but I did really enjoy the band in their early days. It’s hard to remember, but in that long-ago era, there was an air of mystery about B&S; I don’t think I really knew what any of them looked like until like 1999. Their live shows were few and far-between, too, before they really embraced touring.
Anyway, here’s their first London show, opening for the Tindersticks, right around the time If You’re Feeling Sinister came out. Jan Knapik set the scene: "Whereas Stuart Staples and co. were distinctly professional and organized, Belle and Sebastian’s London debut didn’t begin particularly promisingly. After numerous false starts the band finally began playing, but things were rapidly brought to a halt when the singer Stuart Murdoch realised that cellist Isobel Campbell was still sitting at the bar next door. Eventually after much shouting she arrived, clambered up on the stage amid a few ironic cheers and they began.”
The shambolic, somewhat amateur nature of the band was part of the fun. Their ICA set is filled with barely-in-tune strings, fumbled piano breaks and ragged harmonies. Murdoch even elegantly sings directions to the group during “This Is Just A Modern Rock Song.” But the effect is absolutely charming. Belle and Sebastian would morph slowly into a much slicker ensemble in the years to come, but there was something special about the state they were in back in ‘96.
The Feelies - “European Son / Run Run Run / What Goes On” (Lyon 1989)
More than 45 years after they formed, The Feelies have released their very first live album. And it contains not a single Feelies song! But that’s OK. As its title tells us, Some Kinda Love: Performing The Music Of The Velvet Underground is the band’s loving tribute to the VU, recorded at White Eagle Hall in Jersey City back in 2018. It’s absolutely great … obviously!
A month or so ago, I hopped on the phone with Feelies co-founder Bill Million and chatted a bit about the challenges and opportunities of covering the Velvets, as well as The Feelies own relationship with Uncle Lou himself. You can read my little article over on Uncut’s website now (my review of Some Kinda Love is print only, baby!). At some point, maybe I’ll transcribe the entire interview since we covered a lot of ground and space was limited!
In the meantime, here’s The Feelies’ monumental VU medley, which they played regularly in the 1980s, featuring the band roaring through three songs in under five minutes. Alas, Lou (pictured above guesting with The Feelies in Los Angeles) does not appear — at least not in his physical presence. His spirit was definitely overseeing the proceedings and beaming with delight.
Bonus Tracks, Vol. 6 :: Talking Heads, Dusty Springfield, John Martyn
We’re breaking out our Case Logic compact disc wallets once again to dig out some of the best bonus tracks from days gone by. This time around, we’ve got visionary Albionic reveries, soothing soul pop and the big band version of Talking Heads burning down the house.
Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean :: Bob Dylan | Peco’s Blues (or: Lucky Luke)
James “Bob Notes” Adams is back with a new column for Aquarium Drunkard. Which is good news for everyone.
The details: Diamonds From the Deepest Ocean is a new series exploring classic Bob Dylan bootlegs from the CD era. Before broadband internet, YouTube, and bottomless hard drives overflowing with FLACs, many Dylan fans relied on the grey market to gain entry into the world of unreleased Dylan. This series celebrates those tangible treasures and wonders: “What’s lost when you can have it all?”
This first one tackles the excellent Peco’s Blues bootleg, which expands our view of Dylan’s Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid OST. I joked a while back on Twitter that PG&BTK is Bob’s best album … and people got kind of upset with me. I was obviously trolling — OR WAS I??? I don’t know, all I know is that whenever I put on that record I feel great. What more do you want?
Maybe you want something that didn’t appear on either the official soundtrack or the unofficial boot? Sure you do. Here’s Bob playing “Billy” … a very short, very lo-fi recording apparently taped at director Sam Peckinpah’s house in Durango (perhaps with Kris Kristofferson chiming in on vocals?). It’s not much, but it’s something!
“In the best collection, old bootlegs play beside new bootlegs, and official releases,” James writes. “Together they create alternative worlds, space and options between then and now, illicit and official, curated and comprehensive. They’re additions to the story, not replacements …”
Sonic Youth - Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands, August 30, 2004
What’s my poison? I guess it’s Sonic Youth bootlegs. For perhaps the finest live representation of the band in 2004, get thee to the superb Asheville recording on Bandcamp. But this SBD/AUD matrix from a few weeks later in Amsterdam is a treat as well. The setlist includes most of Sonic Nurse, an album that may well be the peak of the O’Rourke Years. Beautifully recorded, sleek tones, sculpted feedback. As I mentioned last week, I think the only song I don't really love is “Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Cream” ... but I have to give it up for Kim Gordon’s righteous song-closing howl at the end of it on this particular evening.
The other Nurse jams are even better, from the enveloping mists of “I Love You Golden Blue” (a fantastically moody opener) to the crisp interplay of “Stones” to Lee’s showcase “Paper Cup Exit.” “It’s later than it seems,” he sings ominously. And yeah, it really is. I also dig the Jim/Lee/Thurston trade-off solos on “Unmade Bed” — a rawk move for sure, but it works. (Is that song the closest they ever got to writing an actual Tom Petty song?) The highlight is the incredible 13-minute rendition of “New Hampshire,” which rises like a big harvest moon out of “Teenage Riot.” Over rippling guitar noise, Steve Shelley kicks off a sweet motorik groove that stays remarkably steadfast and strong; Steve would go on to play with Michael Rother a couple years later — if Rother ever asked the drummer for proof of his skills, he could’ve just played this for him.
The encore is a monster, too, with “Pacific Coast Highway” crashing hellishly into the rocks (Kim breaks out the trumpet for the middle section, a rad addition) and an appropriately epic “Expressway To Yr Skull,” stretching out to about 19 minutes. Forget the famed space cake — all you would’ve needed to get supremely high in Amsterdam that night is to ride this mystery train. Stay as long as you think you should.
From the Doom & Gloom Archives
An October 31st treat from James Adams! Check out an all-Halloween Dylan mix/essay — take it away, James!
One of my first acquisitions back in the B&P trading days was a two-disc CD-R set called “All Hallows Eve and More.” It was a recording of Bob Dylan’s riveting performance at New York City’s Philharmonic Hall on 31 October 1964. The show is mesmerizing and ambitious, restless and hilarious. It was a jewel in my bootleg collection.
An earlier LP version of the bootleg was called “Halloween Mask” (or “Halloween Masque,” depending on which side of the Atlantic your copy was pressed). Dylan provided the title by making a funny comment during the show. After a heavy and emphatic version of “Gates of Eden” and a false start on the sex comedy of “If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Or Else You Got to Stay All Night)” Dylan giggles:
“Don’t let that scare you. It’s just Halloween. I have my Bob Dylan mask on. I’m masquerading.”
Indeed, it was Halloween and that slightly stoned exchange with the enthralled audience must be the most memorable moment in Dylan’s Halloween performance history. In 2004, Columbia released the concert tape officially, making it Volume 6 in Dylan’s Bootleg Series.
The Philharmonic show wins the prize for best costume, but there are many Dylan Halloween highlights. A year prior, he spent two hours in Columbia’s Studio A during “The Times They Are A-Changin’” sessions and left with the fantastic album version of “Restless Farewell.” In 1971, he spent time at Allen Ginsberg’s apartment, jamming with Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, and David Amram and improvising music to accompany William Blake poems. Gregory Corso was there to hang and you can listen to the tape at the Stanford University Library. In 1998, Dylan had a studio session with Joan Osborne and together they recorded an upbeat version of “Chimes of Freedom,” for a television miniseries about the ‘60s. In 1987, Dylan spent Halloween at Barry White’s house. Maybe they discussed whether candy corn is delicious or disgusting?
Most of Dylan’s Halloween highlights occurred on the road and that’s what this mix aims to capture. Collected here is a chronological mix of live* Dylan performances recorded on October 31st – Halloween. It begins with the 1975 iteration of Rolling Thunder (a night when Dylan wore an actual mask onstage) and stretches all the way to 2013. (Dylan’s last Halloween show occurred in 2018 but there are no known recordings of that Knoxville, TN performance).
I picked what I consider the most interesting performances from each night but the content and sound quality varies widely. Occasionally the performances are scary. They’re always interesting. I avoided selecting duplicate song titles. I included the rare occasions when Dylan acknowledged Halloween from the stage and preserved that “Bob Talk.” There’s even a cheesy Halloween-themed joke!
My favorite Bob Dylan Halloween moment occurred in 1977. Dylan again spent the day with Allen Ginsberg and the two passed hours discussing Dylan’s film “Renaldo & Clara.” The result is a riveting and insightful interview where Dylan uncharacteristically shares deep insights into the meaning and complexities of his art. (“This movie stops time in a way that no American movie ever has and I don’t think will. What we’ve done is hold on to something which seemed to be escapable, and we captured it and made it real.”)
That evening, Dylan, Ginsberg, and Dylan’s partner in filmmaking Howard Alk donned masks and grabbed guitars. Together they roamed the streets of Malibu as undercover troubadour ghosts, presumably blending with nervous trick-or-treaters and impatient parents and offering impromptu performances on dark sidewalks and street corners. Can you imagine?! The idea is stunning.
Dylan isn’t playing a Halloween show this year. He is on the road, though, somewhere between Chicago and South Bend. If you live near there keep your eyes wide while roaming the streets after dark. You might just catch a glimpse of someone wearing a Bob Dylan mask before they slip away into the shadows again.
/
* There is one exception to this rule. Track number 4 is a studio recording from 1985, though the performance is clearly recorded live to tape. I’m not certain it was recorded on 31 October but that date is plausible and proposed elsewhere. Given the quality of the recording and the performance—but especially the title and subject of the song—there was no choice but to include it here.
//
Track List:
1. Isis – 1975 – Plymouth, MA – War Memorial Auditorium
2. Where Are You Tonight? (Journey Through Dark Heat) – 1978 – St. Paul, MN – Civic Center
3. Masters of War – 1981 – Kitchener, Ontario – Kitchener Arena
4. Baby Coming Back from the Dead – 1985 – Los Angeles, CA – Cherokee Studios
5. Ballad of Hollis Brown – 1989 – Chicago, IL – Arie Crown Theater
6. Wiggle Wiggle – 1990 – Charlotte, NC – Ovens Auditorium
7. Gotta Serve Somebody – 1991 – Wichita, KS – Civic Center
8. Man in the Long Black Coat – 1994 – Washington, DC – Warner Theatre
9. Blind Willie McTell – 1997 – Tuscaloosa, AL – Coleman Coliseum
10. Love Sick – 1999 – Chicago, IL – University of Illinois Conference Center Pavilion
11. Country Pie – 2000 – Evanston, IL – Welsh Ryan McGaw Hall
12. Mississippi – 2001 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center
13. Positively 4th Street – 2004 – DeKalb, IL – Convocation Center
14. Band Introduction – 2004 – DeKalb, IL – Convocation Center
15. Thunder on the Mountain – 2006 – Madison, WI – Kohl Center
16. Gonna Change My Way of Thinking – 2009 – Chicago, IL – Aragon Ballroom
17. Queen Jane Approximately – 2010 – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
18. Forgetful Heart – 2011 – Hamburg, German – Boxen Arena
19. Beyond Here Lies Nothing – 2013 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Heineken Music Hall
Currently Reading: Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s by Sean Howe