Mark Mothersbaugh: “Muzik for Insomniaks” (1988)

“Please play at a low volume. Muzik for Insomniaks is designed to interface with your world.” - Mark Mothersbaugh  

For some reason, this wonderful, two-volume album of Mark Mothersbaugh’s Fairlight and Roland compositions has fallen off the map. I see no evidence of re-releases after 1988, and it doesn’t seem to be available for purchase or streaming anywhere official. 

This music has been a regular companion to my days, and my daughter (now 21) has been a fan of “XP137” for nearly her whole life. 

It was recorded during the period when Mothersbaugh was writing music for “Pee Wee’s Playhouse,” and not long before he started scoring “Rugrats.” His big-time movie career, including extensive work with Wes Anderson, followed. 

Cover art is by Mothersbaugh - a detail scanned from one of the posters that came with the CD edition.

28 songs, 2 hours 21 minutes

zipped up mp3 download here

Sample: XP137

DEVO: Beautiful Mutants (1974-1978)

DEVO put the future on tape long before they were signed and made records with Brian Eno. Before and after Eno, they were a research laboratory for the 1970s’ break with the past and the leap into the 1980s. They were also one of the best live bands of the punk/post-punk era. 

This mix offers a curation of early, unreleased material that supports the case for DEVO’s eminence. It divides into a double LP - studio and live. 

mp3 mix zipped up here

LP 1: Studio (1974-1978)

The first LP is a studio concept album that sequences primordial, weird, intense, and astounding early items into a devolved Sgt. Pepper with no commercial potential - same length, most tracks segued. It’s heavily overproduced and sonically-overdriven by the randomness of primitive recording technology and the ravages of time. Bob Dobbs/White Heat.

  • Because (from The Truth About De-Volution)
  • The Death of Booji Boy
  • The Smart Patrol (version 1)
  • Fraulein (live 1974, Akron, OH)
  • Shrivel Up (demo)
  • Hey Hey My My (long version)
  • How Many Ropes
  • Secret Agent Man (Mark M. vocals)
  • Lost At Home (Tater Tot)
  • U Got Me Bugged (instrumental version)

LP 2: Live (1977)

Booji and the Stooges. The selections come from February 1977 in Akron, augmented with some of the tracks the band excluded from their release of a May 1977 Cleveland show (“Miracle Witness Hour”). The tapes sit well together, and I only included really good stuff.

  • Nutty Buddy
  • Secret Agent Man
  • Shrivel Up
  • Too Much Paranoias
  • Space Junk
  • Blockhead
  • Gut Feeling/Slap Your Mammy
  • Sloppy
  • The Words Get Stuck in My Throat
  • Social Fools

Early DEVO:

The band had at least three or four albums of material by the time they were signed, some of which would be re-recorded for early singles and their first two albums (Q/A, Duty Now). The songs and the band’s attack changed a lot between 1974 and 1978, so the early versions are always fascinating.

Gang of Four: Live Entertainment 1979 (Spotify Playlist)

In 2020, Gang of Four made a large number of 1979-1995 live recordings available to stream on Spotify and purchase on Amazon.com.

This Spotify playlist curates the 1979 recordings - one version each of the 20 songs represented on that year’s tapes. It’s the bootleg I’d have chewed my leg off (paid $20) for back around 1979.

The first 12 tracks are the complete 2/24/79 Nashville Ballrooms, London set, which is the earliest, best sounding, and most amazing of the tapes. It documents the band four months after the release of their initial single and ahead of the recording of their first album. 

Eight songs that weren’t in the February London set are picked up from two other dates. 

Stream on Spotify here

2/24/79 Nashville Ballroom, London (full set)

  • I Found that Essence Rare
  • 5:45
  • Anthrax
  • Elevator
  • Hold Up My Weekend
  • Armalite Rifle
  • It’s Her Factory
  • Glass
  • Damaged Goods
  • Ether
  • At Home He’s a Tourist 
  • Return the Gift

8/25/79 Toronto - The Edge

  • Contract (early show)
  • Not Great Men (early show)
  • Guns Before Butter (late show)
  • Rosanne (late show)
  • Can’t Stand My Baby (late show)

11/22/79 Bournemouth Town Hall

  • Blood Free
  • Natural’s Not In It
  • Information

Charlie Christian: Extended Solo Edits (1940-1941)

This mix creates long electric guitar solo edits from multiple takes of Charlie Christian’s performances in the Benny Goodman Sextet. Twenty-five solos are combined within six songs, lasting half an hour.

Charlie Christian, “the genius of electric guitar,” died at age 25 in 1942. He arrived and left just in time to be an extraordinary pioneer in the early 1940s small group scene, which replaced big band jazz with nimbler units, who discovered the way forward.

Christian was spotted by the golden-eared John Hammond in Oklahoma City in 1939, who recommended him to Benny Goodman. Though limited mostly to 15-to-45-second solos in his recordings with the Goodman Sextet, Christian played in all kinds of directions – toward bop, west coast jazz, and Chuck Berry’s blartney-blartney. He’s credited as one of the originators of modern guitar solos.

The document of record is the four-disc, “Charlie Christian: The Genius of Electric Guitar.” It’s great both for Christian and for the Goodman Sextet. The Goodman and Artie Shaw small groups were the  disruptive, post-punk, insect-rock of the early 1940s. Also pop superstars who got their clothes torn off by screaming fans. Elvis and The Beatles didn’t invent that stuff.

My selections for edits are based entirely on there being sufficient takes, and sufficient Christian soloing, to make an edit a worthwhile value-add. Jerry Garcia and Steely Dan listened to Charlie Christian. The history of jazz since 1940 listened to Charlie Christian. You should, too. I’ve made it easy with edits that present him as the featured rock star of the album.

28-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

  • Wholly Cats (6 solos)
  • Breakfast Feud (9 solos)
  • I Surrender Dear (2 solos)
  • Good Enough to Keep (3 solos)
  • Solo Flight (2 solos - the whole song)
  • I Can’t Give You Anything But Love (3 solos)


Shriekback: Clink Jam ’83 (Save Your Face Edit)

This post presents a continuous, 17-minute edit made up of pieces of Shriekback’s archival release, “Clink Jam” – a recently-discovered 1983 rehearsal tape. You can buy the full release on the Shriekback store.

Specifically, this edit is made up of edits of half-a-dozen “Clink Jam” tracks, which were then segued together into one track. It was an informal jam session, with slack and finding-the-next-move moments, and I just took those out, so corners get turned as frequently as your ear wants them to be turned. I am posting the edit at the request of the band.

(b-side below the page break)

Shriekback is an active band, releasing frequent new albums lately, which feature three-fourths of the original lineup heard on “Clink Jam.” I’m a big fan. In 2018, my brother and I flew from the U.S. to Amsterdam specifically to see Shriekback mount a rare, large-band live show at the Paradiso. 

So, whether you know Shriekback or have never heard of them… what is documented on the “Clink Jam” tape?

  • Dave Allen: bass (following his departure from Gang of Four)
  • Martyn Barker: drums (Dave Allen’s new Hugo Burnham, but funkier)
  • Barry Andrews: keyboards (following his time in XTC and Fripp’s League of Gentlemen)
  • Carl Marsh: guitar (following his time in the great, obscure Out on Blue Six)

Andrews and Marsh are also the band's lyricists and singers, though that’s not really a factor on the “Clink Jam” tape. I’m reasonably sure all four of them made all sorts of sounds on the studio recordings. 

Miles Davis: Three from Brazil (1974)

This 45-minute mix compiles three beautiful, surprisingly chill and slinky performances from the Miles Davis band’s concerts in Brazil, in late May and early June of 1974.

At the time, the band’s lineup was a seasoned funk machine that played its songs in startlingly different ways on different nights. Much of the time, they were super-intense, loud, fast, and angular.

These three tracks find the band playing at the other end of the dynamic spectrum – exploring quieter, slower, opener spaces, painting detail on top of grooves that never let you go. The soloists stretch out into sustained, thoughtful, melodic exploration. The rhythm section makes small moves that have a large impact. And when the giant funk hits, it’s a genuine climax. 

45-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

  • For Dave (5/25/74, Rio) (14:34)
  • Unknown Original 740419 (6/2/74, São Paulo) (15:04)
  • Ife (5/28/74, São Paulo) (15:25)

Miles Davis: Tokyo ’73 Compressed

This mix presents an edited version of the Miles Davis band’s fantastic performance in Tokyo, on June 19th, 1973. The mix (for an FM broadcast) is possibly the best from 1973.

Though not officially released, the recording is widely available in bootleg form – which is one reason I decided to edit its 91 minutes down 25% to a more album-like experience, lasting 70 minutes. If you need the whole show, it’s out there. If you have never, or have not recently, melted your face with 1973 Miles, then this mix is the blowtorch you need.

Overall, I sought momentum, and a balance of tension and release, with every minute being a thrill. In pursuit of those things, I sequenced the edits in a different order than the set list. (However, if you loop the mix, the last song segues into the first one.) If you want to know more about the aesthetic considerations, see the notes below the tracklist.

Every composition played is included (except for a passing glance at “Right Off”), but all of them have been shortened in some way(s), with the exception of “Ife.” 

Musicians:

  • Miles Davis - trumpet, organ
  • Dave Liebman - tenor and soprano saxophones
  • Pete Cosey - guitar, percussion
  • Reggie Lucas - guitar
  • Michael Henderson - electric bass guitar
  • James "Mtume" Heath - congas, rhythm box, table percussion
  • Al Foster - drums

70-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

  • Aghartha Prelude (5:48)
  • Zimbabwe (9:37)
  • Funk (7:17)
  • Unknown (5:57)
  • Turnaround Phrase (10:43)
  • Tune in 5 (8:38)
  • Ife (22:01)

Editing notes:

My edits were mainly motivated by the too-much-of-a-good-thing principle; less is theoretically more, from a repeat listening POV – or a one-time, stoned-out-of-your-mind encounter. 

In several cases, I omitted the conclusions of performances, which tended to be collective rave-ups on the theme that didn’t add much new information. Some of fusion jazz’s assumptions about a “rock” audience were incorrect. If you’ve explored the crap out a riff, you don’t have to come back and beat it to death before turning a corner. Be more like the Grateful Dead. (One "Sunshine Daydream" event per show is enough.)

I also reduced the number of times the music went down to a minimalist percussive hush. That kind of dramatic move isn’t needed more than once or twice during a listening arc. (Might have been fantastic, while watching the band live.)

And I made a few more surgical cuts, eliminating dull solo stretches that took away from the more incendiary parts of the performances. These edits are few. Mostly I shortened, rather than plastic surgerying. But I assure you that you prefer in advance this Aghartha edit that has the guitar solo jumping in right away. 

Cover based on a photograph by Christian Rose.

Miles Davis: Turnaround Phrase (11/19/73 violin mutation edit)

Imagine the frontline of the 1973 Miles Davis band as several violinists playing a frantic bop homage to Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. 

Then listen to this pitch-and-tempo shifted, re-EQ’ed performance of “Turnaround Phrase” from London on 11/19/73.

The balance on this show’s soundboard is really off, which I think is what allowed me to achieve this weird effect.

Miles Davis: Antibes Festival ’73 Edits

The Miles Davis band’s July 20, 1973 performance at the Antibes Jazz Festival in in Juan-les-Pins, France, is off the charts.

Unfortunately, the sound board recording of the show leaves Miles’ trumpet almost entirely out of the mix. He's extremely quiet compared to all the other players. You can successfully lock your ears on him and enjoy the whole show - on headphones, paying attention - but the mix doesn’t work for general listening enjoyment. 

What this Save Your Face mix does is edit several performances down to shorter tracks that are dominated by fantastic solos by Dave Liebman (sax, flute) and guitarists Pete Cosey and Reggie Lucas. 

Cosey’s soloing is berserk and amazing – think Fred Frith or Snakefinger. This short edit of “Turnaround Phrase” is probably the most punk rock Miles I've heard. 

27-minute mp3 file zipped up here

  • Turnaround Phrase (edit, 4:29)
  • Unknown (edit, 5:28)
  • Ife (edit, 16:42)

Musicians: Miles Davis (tp, org); Dave Liebman (ss, ts, fl); Pete Cosey (g, pc); Reggie Lucas (g); Michael Henderson (el-b); Al Foster (d); James Mtume Forman (cga, pc)

The Rolling Stones: Respectable (1989-2012)

Last month (April 2020), The Rolling Stones dropped an excellent new song, “Living in a Ghost Town.” It has been 15 years since the band’s last album of originals, with new compositions released only occasionally on greatest hits compilations.

The mix presented here is a studio highlights reel curated by someone who has no significant history with 1989-present Stones. It pays no attention to any criteria but satisfying my personal desires as a 1968-1981 Stones super-fan. It’s full of b-sides and deep cuts, and it ignores a number of supposedly big songs from the era. My goals were authenticity and an avoidance of redundancy. (A few cool tracks got cut because they just didn’t fit.)

If you’re a Stones fan who has forgotten or never heard most of these songs, this mix is for you. You’ll find tracks that hit every historical Stones mode, from blues to ballads to bombast. And Keith songs.

96-minute mp3 mix zipped up here

LP 1:

  • Doom & Gloom
  • Let Me Down Slow
  • Saint of Me
  • How Can I Stop
  • Biggest Mistake
  • Break the Spell
  • Jump on Top of Me
  • Anybody Seen My Baby
  • Thief in the Night
  • Laugh, I Nearly Died
  • Always Suffering

LP 2:

  • I Go Wild
  • I’m Gonna Drive
  • Keys to Your Love
  • Any Way You Look at It
  • New Faces
  • The Worst
  • Thru and Thru
  • Lowdown
  • Fancyman Blues
  • Almost Hear You Sigh
  • Don’t Stop

Cover art by Martin Whatson, used without permission.