Monday, October 30, 2023

Courtney Love (Band) - Complete Discography (1992)

 

1. Uncrushworthy
2. Sunny Day
3. Motorcycle Boy
4. 2nd Most Beautiful Girl in the World
5. Hey Antoinette!
6. Stripmine
7. My Last Night
8. Highlights
9. Shaniko
10. Disappearing Lessons
11. Spray
12. Don't Mix the Colors
13. Baseball Bat

In the mid-80s, 2 young aspiring punk rockers lived together in Portland, Oregon. Lois Maffeo and Courtney Michelle Harrison (who went by the somewhat less hippie-recalling "Michelle") used to joke about the perfect rock star name: Courtney Love. Eventually things would go sour (Harrison was not the easiest person to live with) and one of the women would escape to a quiet life of indie-rock obscurity, while the other would go on to full-blown rock stardom with every last one of the attending clichés thereof, complete with the biggest and most controversial rock-and-toll marriage since John and Yoko. Both would go on to use the name they'd created.

The Courtney Love that you haven't seen on the cover of Spin was a two-piece band consisting of Maffeo and Yoyo Recordings founder Pat Maley. The work they did is not much different than Lois' later releases under her own name. Simple, stripped down acoustic guitar and drums, with slightly clever, unpretentious lyrics drawn from Maffeo's life and relationships. The band would eventually break up after a few singles, a number of compilation appearances, and a whole host of legal threats from the woman who felt that she owned the name.

This isn't groundbreaking music, or revolutionary, but it doesn't try to be. The band formed to play at a party in Olympia in 1989 and happened to just keep it going for a couple years. I think it's pretty safe to say that within the spectrum of rock, Courtney Love (the band) and Courtney Love (the person) are about as far from one another as you can get, and I consider that a big point in the band's favor. Certainly worth checking out if you like the idea that punk doesn't mean 120 decibels and rock doesn't imply publicity agents. 

Weezer - The Black Album (2004)

 


1. Mr. Taxman
2. Listen Up
3. High Up Above
4. Saturday Night
5. Zep Jamb
6. We Go Together
7. How Long?
8. Broken Arrows
9. Don't Pick on Me
10. Your Room
11. Living Without You
12. Change the World (Edit)
13. Ain't Got Much Time
14. Serendipity
15. Porcupine 
Bonus Track - Sandwiches Time (Edit)

In 2004, Weezer were working on their fifth album which was officially released as Make Believe in 2005. I listened to a bootleg of demos from around this time called Unchained Melody and thought that there was only half an album of good material worth using. I think if Weezer did release an album this year, it should be of demos they recorded for Maladroit in 2002, similar to the Homecoming album. They recorded 31 songs but only used 13 of them, meaning there are 18 to choose from. I cut out a couple songs only cause I liked most of the material. 

They also said they were going to follow up their Green Album in 2001 with a Black Album, but instead they released Maladroit and didn't release a Black Album until 2018. The cover fits with this era of all four members being featured on the front. Living Without You was released as an international bonus track on Maladroit. I also edited out 30 seconds from the intro of Change the World and then I included Sandwiches Time as a bonus track. This is an edited version that combines the official version with falsetto vocals with the alternate version with regular vocals. For this I used the alternate vocals as a base and the falsetto vocals on the choruses. 

Operation Ivy - Complete Discography (1993)

 

1. Knowledge
2. Sound System
3. Jaded
4. Take Warning
5. The Crowd
6. Bombshell
7. Unity
8. Vulnerability
9. Bankshot
10. One of These Days
11. Gonna Find You
12. Bad Town
13. Smiling
14. Caution
15. Freeze Up
16. Artificial Life
17. Room Without a Window
18. Big City
19. Missionary
20. Junkie's Runnin' Dry
21. Here We Go Again
22. Hoboken
23. Yellin' in My Ear
24. Sleep Long
25. Officer
26. I Got No
27. Healthy Body (Uncut Version)
28. Someday
29. Plea for Peace
30. Trouble Bound
31. Uncertain
32. Hangin' Out
33. Left Behind
34. Old Friendships
35. Hedgecore
36. Steppin' Out

Operation Ivy were a short lived band that only released one album, Energy in 1989. But their music was released on two compilation albums in the 90s, Operation Ivy and Seedy. While the first is an expanded version on their first album that has since gained a following, Seedy is a compilation album that no one seems to remember. It never got reissued and I wasn't able to find a good quality version of it online. Nevertheless it made me wanna ask "Would it be possible to fit their discography onto a single CD?" And the answer surprisingly is yes! 

Seedy begins with an uncut version of Healthy Body from the Hectic E.P. If you cut out the original version, you would have just enough to fit it on a CD. However what my friend Aidan did was keep the original version and replace the uncut version with the unreleased song Face That Screams, which would also fit on a CD. I decided to not include it but I also took out the outro. 

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Radish - Discount Fireworks (1998)

 


1. What It's Like to Live in Commerce
2. Drink Me Away
3. Wasted and Ready
4. Harriet's Got a Song
5. Cally
6. Silent Scene
7. Orange Tic-Tacs
8. In Other Words
9. For Forever
10. Bill W. is My Friend
11. Girl in Between
12. 4.40 (Episode 2)
Bonus Track - Next Time 

This is my version of Radish's unreleased second album Discount Fireworks. Radish only released one album in 1997 called Restraining Bolt when the main leader Ben Kweller was 15 years old. After the album didn't get released and the band broke up, Ben Kweller started a solo career but never achieved fame since then. This version removes some of the tracks so it's about as long as the first. The bonus track is Next Time which I think would be the B-side to Drink Me Away if it was a single.

You can listen to my version here! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuHBVHPZSTh4KfUCP9Hs2efdOWb3p5ZMd
You can also listen to the original album here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuHBVHPZSTh7WoUQmflXg7cCYg64dqXmJ

The Kinks - Four More Respected Gentlemen (1968)

 

Side A:
1. She's Got Everything
2. Mr. Songbird
3. Polly
4. Days
5. Berkeley Mews
6. Misty Water
7. Did You See His Name?
8. Autumn Almanac

Side B:
9. Susannah's Still Alive
10. Act Nice and Gentle
11. This is Where I Belong
12. Dead End Street
13. Wonderboy
14. Mr. Pleasant
15. Big Black Smoke

Four More Respected Gentlemen was originally an album that was supposed to be released in November 1968, but about a month beforehand, the label dropped the project and released the album The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society instead. The album was submitted as a 15 track album but the label planned on releasing an 11 track version of it cutting out the last 4 tracks. Village Green Preservation Society included 5 of the songs but had 15 tracks in it. The European version of it included 2 exclusive tracks but had 12 tracks on it. Following the album's cancellation, Reprise released all of the tracks on two compilation albums, The Kink Kronikles and The Great Lost Kinks Album. 

Reprise began assembling an early version of the latter compilation in 1969 or 1970 which they planned to call Four More Respected Gentlemen. The eventual title The Great Lost Kinks Album references Gentlemen, though it's been described as misleading since there are only two songs in common between the albums. So the idea is to see if I can take the exclusive songs from the original version and combine it with other songs to make a complementary album out of it. Taking a look at the rest of the Kinks Kronikles track listing, it has 7 non-album songs to choose from but two of them are from 1969. This gives us an even 5 tracks to include. But then I also took out There's No Life Without Love and replaced it with Act Nice and Gentle which didn't get included.


The left cover is what was planned to originally be the cover. The right cover is an alternate European version of the cover to VGPS that I've seen used in some reconstructions of the album. The cover I use is one I just found on the internet. I take no credit for these covers. 

Saturday, October 28, 2023

Captain Beefheart - Bat Chain Puller (1978)

 


1. The Floppy Boot Stomp
2. Tropical Hot Dog Night
3. Brick Bats
4. Harry Irene
5. You Know You're a Man
6. Bat Chain Puller
7. When I See Mommy I Feel Like a Mummy
8. Owed t' Alex
9. Candle Mambo
10. Love Lies
11. The 1010th Day of the Human Totem Pole

This is an album that was first recorded in 1976 but got re-recorded and released in 1978. Due to legal issues, the album couldn't be released as planned and was re-recorded in 1978. Some of the unreleased songs from the original version made it onto later Beefheart albums. In 1982, his legal troubles settled and he intended on using half of the tracks from the original album on his new album Ice Cream for Crow. Unfortunately, he was only able to include two of the tracks on the album. The original version would eventually be released in 2012 with some exclusive songs. 

Regardless of album continuity, I listened to both versions and picked the songs I liked the best. I ended up taking out the instrumentals Ice Rose and Suction Prints and replaced them with Brick Bats from Doc at the Radar Station and The 1010th Day of the Human Totem Pole from Ice Cream for Crow. I also took out the last track Apes-ma for being a short spoken word recording. The album ends up being two minutes longer without it. 

Nirvana - You Know You're Right (EP) (1994)

 

1. You Know You're Right
2. Do Re Mi
3. Ivy League
4. Curmudgeon
5. Oh, the Guilt
6. Opinion

This is the 6-track EP that would've been sold at Lollapalooza in 1994. I'm making this EP 4 years after the last time I worked on this alternate universe Nirvana discography. There would've only been one posthumous fourth album cause there wouldn't be enough material to make an imaginary fifth one. The first three tracks would've definitely been on the EP cause they were the only tracks that were definitely recorded in 1994. These tracks reappear on the album "Bliss". 

The first track is a remix in the style of In Utero that I found on YouTube. The next two tracks as well as track 6 are band mockups mostly done by the YouTube channel The Beginning of Music. The next two tracks probably wouldn't have been on the EP, but they were the only pre-In Utero B-sides I hadn't used yet. Track 6 is a song that's been a mystery rarity to fans. It's only been recorded as a 1990 demo from an acoustic live radio performance, but an unsurfaced studio version from 1994 is said to exist.

Nirvana - Serve the Servants (EP) (1994)



1. Serve the Servants
2. Dumb
3. Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flowing Through the Strip (Edit)

The "Serve the Servants" single with "Dumb" would've been released as a kind of double A-side (part-"All Apologies", part-"Heart-Shaped Box") with an edited shorter version of "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip". I had to go with something from the January 1993 session cause all the non-album stuff from the February 1993 session was turned into B-sides.

Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante (1995)



1. Everyone I Went to High School With is Dead
2. Chemical Marriage
3. Carry Stress in the Jaw
4. Spy
5. Desert Search for Techno Allah 
6. Violenza Domestica
7. After School Special
8. Phlegmatics
9. Ma Meeska Mow Skwoz
10. The Bends
11. Backstrokin'
12. Platypus
13. Merry Go Bye Bye

Similar to my takes on Trout Mask Replica and the Godspeed demo, I edited the album to be less weird by taking out any interludes between songs and cutting two of the longer songs in half, but I got rid of the hidden track to make it less than an hour long. 

Monday, October 23, 2023

Melvins - Solo EP Trilogy (1992)


1. Isabella - King Buzzo
2. Porg - King Buzzo
3. Annum - King Buzzo
4. Dead Wipe - Dale Crover
5. Respite - Dale Crover
6. Hurter - Dale Crover
7. Bricklebrit - Joe Preston
8. Hands First Flower - Joe Preston

Similar to Kiss' stunt in 1978, the Melvins released a series of solo EPs in 1992. There were only three of them but similarly to how Peter Criss' album was voted the worst of the bunch, Joe Preston's EP was voted the worst.

Nirvana - Bliss (1995)

 

Side A:
1. You Know You're Right
2. Talk to Me
3. The Yodel Song
4. What More Can I Say?
5. Alone + Easy Target
6. Butterflies

Side B:
7. Ivy League
8. Desire
9. Burn My Britches
10. Exhausted
11. Poison's Gone
12. Do Re Mi
Bonus Track - Chemicals Write My Death Certificate

What would have been on Nirvana's next album? Just like The Beatles but not as much, this is a question that has rocked the music side of the internet for years. However, there are four things that people need to realize:

1. Of course they would've released something in 1994! But not an album, because they only released albums on odd-numbered years. They probably still would've released MTV's Unplugged in New York, the cancelled "Pennyroyal Tea" single, the Lollapalooza EP, etc. They only released 1 thing period in 1990, the "Sliver" single, but they were gonna release their second album Sheep before it got turned into Nevermind.
2. No "In Utero"-era B-side would've ended up on the album. Just because it wasn't released on an album doesn't mean it wasn't released to the public. So that means no "Moist Vagina", no "I Hate Myself and Want to Die", and no "Marigold".
3. Kurt probably would've still been writing songs, so the some of the songs that would've ended up on their next album might not have even been written during his lifetime.
4. Dave Grohl had been writing his own music since 1990, and starting with "Marigold", the B-side to "Heart-Shaped Box", there would've been some Dave Grohl songs on the next album.

And as there are things people don't realize, there are things that could've been on the album: 

1. "You Know You're Right", "Do Re Mi", and "Ivy League" are the only songs we know were recorded in 1994. No full-band studio version of the last two songs are known to exist. Cobain did other basement demos in 1994 that haven't surfaced so we don't know what else is on them.
2. "Clean Up Before She Comes" from WTLO and "Talk to Me" from the DVD were supposedly re-recorded in 1994, but it hasn't been confirmed.
3. A full-band studio version of "Opinion" apparently exists, but it hasn't surfaced so we don't even know what year it's from. I've heard a cover which sounded very Nevermind-era.
4. Eight of the twelve songs from the Foo Fighters' debut album are from Dave's Nirvana days, so that is a lot! And there is also Dave's "Pocketwatch" cassette tape from 1992, whose songs were recorded in 1990 and 1991.
5. There are also all the other old songs that never wound up on an album that could've been re-recorded, such as "Nobody Knows I'm New Wave", which was only played once in 1992, or all the other Fecal Matter stuff like "Bambi Slaughter" or "Punk Rocker".
6. And all of the songs exclusive to WTLO that could've been rerecorded: "Anorexorcist", "Vendetagainst", "Beans", and "Don't Want It All".
7. As well as the songs which we know nothing about, including what year they're from, like the ones Courtney mentioned in interviews like "The Son".

So we have more than enough songs from an album. What else would've happened in 1994?

1. There was a whole slew of concerts that had to be cancelled because of reasons surrounding Cobain's ill health and ultimate death, as late as September 1994 with Nirvana headlining Lollapalooza. Maybe they would've played some "In Utero"-era B-sides for the first time ever.
2. There would've been an EP that coincided with the Lollapalooza concert. Their next album would've likely been something like MTV Unplugged in New York, like acoustic versions of old songs live in the studio instead of in front of an audience, but for now I'm just gathering whatever unreleased material I still have, and I'll probably only make one posthumous album, although Nirvana apparently had a 7 album deal with DGC.
3. The "Pennyroyal Tea" and "Rape Me" music videos probably would've been made, since "In Utero" had more singles than music videos. And Nevermind had more singles than In Utero.
4. The "Serve the Servants" single with "Dumb" would've been released as a kind of double A-side (part-"All Apologies", part-"Heart-Shaped Box") with an edited shorter version of "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip" (had to go with something from the January 1993 session cause all the non-album stuff from the February 1993 session were turned into B-sides).

I'm surprised there's never been any official posthumous Nirvana albums since a lot of other artists have had official posthumous albums. Like Michael Jackson's "Michael", Jimi Hendrix's "The Cry of Love", or John Lennon's "Milk and Honey". Do they not have enough material to work with or is it a legal issue? I originally thought that the way "You Know You're Right" was created was like "Free as a Bird", where they just took an old demo and made the band play over it. But no, it was just the last real song with vocals to be played in a studio. The reason why no one's done that to any Nirvana songs is because they haven't released any posthumous albums, just the WTLO box set. But the "Montage of Heck" documentary soundtrack kind of fills in that void. And there's this dude on YouTube that's been making band mockups of songs from that album.

This is my idea of the fourth Nirvana album, which would've been released in 1995. It's based on the fan album by Johnny Schizoid instead of Soniclovenoize like usual. I'm making this album 4 years after the last time I worked on this alternate universe Nirvana discography. I wouldn't have been able to make this till 4 months ago when the "Desire" and "Ivy League" band mockups got released to YouTube. And since the last time I worked on it, a channel called The Beginning of Music had been uploading fan-made band mockups of the solo Kurt Cobain recordings from the Montage of Heck album. There would've only been one posthumous album cause there wouldn't be enough material to make an imaginary fifth one. The only material I have left are fan-made covers of obscure Nirvana songs like "Nobody Knows I'm New Wave" and a few Dave songs until The Beginning of Music uploads more band mockups. 

The only tracks that were definitely recorded in 1994 are "You Know You're Right", "Do Re Mi", and "Ivy League", although the last two tracks appear as band mockups, the first one being done by The Beginning of Music and the last one being done by Rarest Nirvana. The Beginning of Music also did band mockups for "The Yodel Song", "What More Can I Say?", "Desire", "Burn My Britches", and "Poison's Gone", all appearing as acoustic demos on the Montage of Heck album from 2015. Also appearing for the first time are 3 tracks by Dave: "Alone + Easy Target", "Exhausted", & "Butterflies". These tracks were originally demoed with Nirvana in 1994 but the first two tracks would later be released on the first Foo Fighters album. And lastly "Talk to Me" is a cover done by a guy named Angel Sander and "Chemicals Write My Death Certificate" is just "The Other Improv" from With the Lights Out.

Kiss - Best of Solo Albums (1978)


1. Tonight You Belong to Me - Paul Stanley
2. Rip It Out - Ace Frehley
3. See You in Your Dreams - Gene Simmons
4. Wiped Out - Ace Frehley
5. Love in Chains - Paul Stanley
6. Radioactive - Gene Simmons
7. New York Groove - Ace Frehley
8. Wouldn't You Like to Know Me? - Paul Stanley
9. Speedin' Back to My Baby - Ace Frehley
10. It's Alright - Paul Stanley

In 1978, Kiss made rock history when every band member released their own solo album on the same day. A best of album was put out at the time, but after listening to the solo albums, I decided I liked Paul's and Ace's albums the most and Gene's and Peter's albums the least. So my version of it has mostly Paul and Ace songs.

Sunday, October 22, 2023

Nirvana - Incesticide (1992)


Side A:
1. Token Eastern Song
2. Even in His Youth
3. Been a Son
4. (New Wave) Polly
5. Aneurysm
6. Return of the Rat (Wipers Cover)
7. D-7 (Wipers Cover)

Side B:
8. Molly's Lips (The Vaselines Cover)
9. Son of a Gun (The Vaselines Cover)
10. Turn Around (Devo Cover)
11. Do You Love Me? (Kiss Cover)
12. They Hung Him on a Cross (Lead Belly Cover)
13. Grey Goose (Lead Belly Cover)
14. Ain't It a Shame? (Lead Belly Cover)
15. Where Did You Sleep Last Night? (Lead Belly Cover)

An internet blogger known for reconstructing famously unreleased albums once did a project where he did "a reconstruction of the unreleased 1990 Nirvana album Sheep, which is essentially the precursor to what would eventually be released as Nevermind in 1991." It made me wonder what it would have been like if Nirvana had still released it in 1992 but without material included on Sheep and Ashamed to Be Human. 

I knew for a fact it'll include "D-7" (the only song from the Japanese and Australia-release only Hormoaning EP that wasn't rereleased on Incesticide besides "Even in His Youth"; that song was released on my version of Nevermind, along with "Aneurysm", which was released on Incesticide but in a version exclusive to the album and thus different than the version released on my version of Nevermind) and "Do You Love Me?" (from the 1992 album, Hard to Believe: Kiss Covers Compilation; it was recorded in 1989 and totally sounds like it should've been on Incesticide since it was full of covers anyway.) 

But don't think that all the songs that were on the original Incesticide won't be on the new version. There are some songs that Sheep and Ashamed to Be Human haven't taken yet: the covers and the alternate versions of already existing songs exclusive to Incesticide like "Aneurysm". In fact, it'll probably include a lot more covers, these ones being from With the Lights Out, and a lot more other stuff from With the Lights Out. "Ain't It a Shame?", "Grey Goose", & "They Hung Him on a Cross" came from a band called The Jury, which was a side project by Nirvana and another band called Screaming Trees which did four Lead Belly covers in two days of recording sessions in August 1989. The fourth song that they also did was "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", but while officially released, wasn't included on WTLO. I didn't mean to put all the covers together. There were just so many damn covers.

"Stain" was originally featured on Incesticide but is now on Sheep. But there are other songs from that session that we can put on here, like "Token Eastern Song" and the demo to "Even in His Youth", which interestingly was gonna be put on the "Blew" EP, but was unfinished at the time and missed the deadline, so it was put on the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single as a B-side instead, along with Aneurysm. Also from these sessions were versions of "Been a Son" and "Polly", but other versions of it were already on Incesticide. Kurt once had an idea for an album called "Nirvana Sings Songs of Devo, Wipers, Vaselines, and Nirvana". This is basically that except for the addition of Lead Belly and Kiss.  

Less than a minute less than the original Incesticide? The length makes it feel like it's more of a real album now! I'm on a roll today! But doesn't seem like I have anything else to do. With The Lights On is kind of like an alternate universe version of With the Lights Out, and if you take away all the tracks from WTLO that were used to make Ashamed to Be Human, Sheep, Nevermind, and this, they only amount to a disc and a half. I can't do anything with half a disc. And even less from With The Lights On was used. So what I did was take the exclusives from the two With the Lights On best-ofs and used those to make alternate discs 1 and 2 of With the Lights Out. Now With the Lights On has no more best-ofs. 

Godspeed You Black Emperor! – All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling (1994)



Side A:
1. Shot Thru Tubes
2. Three Three Three
3. When All the Furnaces Exploded
4. Beep
5. Hush
6. Son of a Diplomat, Daughter of a Politician
7. $13.13
8. Random Luvly Moncton Blues
9. Dadmomdaddy

Side B:
10. 333 Frames Per Second
11. Revisionist Alternatif Wounds to the Haircut Hit Head
12. Buried Ton
13. Hoarding
14. All Angels Gone
15. Deterior 17
16. Deterior Three
17. Dress Like Shit

This is my attempt at a single cassette release of Godspeed's first demo from before their first album. I also got rid of any noisy or spoken word interludes that were in between the songs. Like I did with Trout Mask Replica, condensing it down to such lengths meant that I had to get rid of a couple of tracks that I liked. But I think the end result is enough to capture the sound of the band.

Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica (1969)

 

Side A:
1. Dachau Blues
2. Ella Guru
3. Moonlight on Vermont
4. Pachuco Cadaver
5. Sweet Sweet Bulbs
6. Neon Meate Dream of a Octofish
7. My Human Gets Me Blues

Side B:
8. Hair Pie: Bake Two
9. Fallin' Ditch
10. Sugar 'n' Spikes
11. Ant Man Bee
12. Wild Life
13. Steal Softly Thru Blues
14. Veteran's Day Poppy

This is my proposed single LP version of Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart. I also tried making the album less weird by getting rid of the studio banter between the songs. To condense it down to a single LP, I had to get rid of most of the shorter tracks which was disappointing cause I liked most of them. This led to Dachau Blues being the opener which might not have gone well. 

µ-Ziq – Somerset Avenue Tracks (1992-1995) (2013)

 

1. Jewel Tea (1993)
2. Vinxel (1993)
3. Trail Quest (1994)
4. Spooky Tooth (1994)
5. Str06 (1995)
6. Diala (1992)
7. Airto (1995)
8. Green Lanes (1992)
9. Toss (1993)
10. Preero (1993)
11. Billy Bellsium (1992)
12. Boilig (1994)
13. Melodion (1994)

This is a single album version of a 2 CD compilation album of archival techno material by µ-Ziq. Most of the highlights are on the first CD but I tried mixing together songs from both CDs. I would even go on to say that "Victor's March" from disc 2 is terrible and the song after it is almost as bad. The songs at the end of disc 2 aren't as bad but I didn't have room to include them. 

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Bob Dylan - Basement Tapes (1975)



Side A:
1. Odds and Ends
2. Million Dollar Bash
3. Lo and Behold!
4. Clothes Line Saga
5. Apple Suckling Tree
6. Please, Mrs. Henry
7. Tears of Rage

Side B:
8. Too Much of Nothing
9. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread
10. Quinn the Eskimo
11. Tiny Montgomery
12. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
13. Open the Door, Homer
14. This Wheel's on Fire

This is based on the 1975 album Basement Tapes by Bob Dylan and The Band. When the tapes were recorded in 1967, they became legendary. Some songs from the tape became part of the first rock bootleg Great White Wonder in 1969. So there had been a demand for an official release of the tapes for years, but when it was released in 1975, the fans were unhappy. Many criticized the songs which only featured The Band as unnecessary, but the tracks were recorded around the same time and were officially unreleased up to that point. Many others criticized the use of overdubbing with new parts recorded for the album by The Band, as well as the fact that the Dylan material represented wasn't among his best. 

Excluded tracks included I Shall Be Released and Quinn the Eskimo. In total, there were 16 songs with Bob Dylan and 8 songs with The Band. Because of this, an official release of the tapes came out in 2014 as part of Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series Vol. 11. There were 139 tracks across 6 CDs. But I feel like if you took out the tracks by The Band and two more of the lengthy tracks from the original album, it's pretty easy to turn a 2 LP set into a 1 LP album. The only real change I made is that I replaced Crash on the Levee with Quinn the Eskimo. 

Nirvana - Nevermind (1991)

 

Side A:
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit
2. Even in His Youth
3. Come As You Are
4. Aneurysm
5. Verse Chorus Verse

Side B:
6. Territorial Pissings
7. Drain You
8. Lounge Act
9. On a Plain
10. Something in the Way
11. Old Age
Bonus Track - Endless, Nameless

An internet blogger known for reconstructing famously unreleased albums once did a project where he did "a reconstruction of the unreleased 1990 Nirvana album Sheep, which is essentially the precursor to what would eventually be released as Nevermind in 1991." It made me wonder what it would have been like if Nirvana still released Nevermind in 1991. For this we'll need With the Lights Out again, but not Incesticide. The Sheep album only took out five songs, using the Smart Studios session demos from April 1990 instead: "In Bloom", "Breed", calling it by its original working title: "Imodium", "Lithium", "Polly" (whose album version originated from these sessions anyway), and the original version of "Stay Away", "Pay to Play". The rest mostly came from either Incesticide or With the Lights Out. This means we have five spots and have to pick what to use.

"Verse Chorus Verse" and "Token Eastern Song" were originally going to be on the Nevermind album, according to some track listing prototypes from Kurt Cobain's Journals. The version of Token Eastern Song from With the Lights Out came from 1989 but an unreleased demo came from January 1991 whereas all the songs from Nevermind came from May 1991. The unreleased demo is instrumental and thus unfinished, but we can use other songs from the same session. "Verse Chorus Verse" and "Old Age" were the only songs from the Sound City Studios sessions that didn't end up on the album, so we're gonna need more songs anyway. I tacked the drumless intro from the demo of Old Age onto the Sound City Studios session version. "Dumb" was also included in the track listing prototypes, and "Radio-Friendly Unit Shifter" and "All Apologies" were also from the same January 1991 sessions, but they were the only songs from In Utero that were gonna be on Nevermind, so it would be unnecessary for me to have to make a new In Utero too. The 1991 demo of "Radio-Friendly Unit Shifter" was also instrumental anyway. 

Also from the January 1991 sessions were demos for "On a Plain", the versions of "Aneurysm" and "Even in His Youth" from the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single, and a song from With the Lights Out, "Oh, the Guilt". But the version of "Oh, the Guilt" from With the Lights Out is from 1992, so we won't include it. "Aneurysm" and "Even in His Youth" were the best Nevermind era B-sides anyways and the B-side to the first and most famous song on the band's most famous album (which is also the most famous song by the band), so we'll include that. The only other Nevermind era B-side was "Curmudgeon", but that was from 1992 too, so we won't include that.

As for track listing restructure, the only new song that I definitely wanted to be on the B-side was "Old Age" because Kurt was so dissatisfied with the song that he gave to his wife Courtney so she can use it for her band Hole, so it probably wouldn't have gotten its own single. "Old Age" ended up being the closer, after "Something in the Way", the album's original closer. All the other new songs were put on side A to make up for the fact that most of the songs taken out were from side A. All the songs that had their own non-promotional single were on side A. The only other change to side B besides "Old Age" being the new closer was that "Stay Away" was taken out, but that was the only way the songs weren't changed around because they sounded so good together already, maybe even better with "Stay Away" taken out. Might I note that Nevermind received positive criticism for its coincidentally natural flow since Cobain nervously rattled off the final track listing from the top of his head! 

A song and minute shorter than the real Nevermind, but I think we're good to go! Man was that easy! I'll have to find something else to do now. Next, I'll work on a new Incesticide, because Sheep and Ashamed to Be Human took so much from Incesticide. What will remain and what new stuff should we add?

Deporitaz - Clown Circa 2000! (2014)

 

1. Oh So Macho Intro
2. How Many Times?
3. The Adventures Of
4. Missionary: Impossible
5. Faze 1 and a Half
6. Sneakling
7. Wooden Shack
8. Satan's Suitcase
9. No Respect for Pumas
10. Loophy
11. Heh
12. How to Survive the First Night of Being Alone
13. No, Regis, No!
14. Crashsite
15. The Cryogenic Freezing Process
16. Of Course Not
17. Jazzy Christmas
18. Chop My Head Off For Me

The closest to an album being self-assembled, this album collects some MIDIs that Neil Cicierega of Lemon Demon posted in 2014 that he made as a kid. It also collects outtakes from the Microwave This CD album along with two tracks made under the name MEGO vs. SPAGO. 

Friday, October 20, 2023

Nirvana - Bleach (1989)

 

Side A:
1. Blew
2. Swap Meet
3. About a Girl
4. School
5. Love Buzz (Shocking Blue Cover)
6. Big Long Now

Side B:
7. Negative Creep
8. Scoff
9. Big Cheese
10. Sifting
11. Mr. Moustache

Here's my alternate universe version of Nirvana's first album Bleach. It's since been upgraded but there were only minor changes. "Floyd the Barber" and "Paper Cuts" got moved to Ashamed to Be Human to replace "Big Cheese" which got moved here, along with "Big Long Now", which got moved from Incesticide to here, and "Beans" from With the Lights Out, which just got deleted. "Big Cheese" was just a bonus track, along with "Downer", which also got moved to Ashamed to Be Human but got moved from Incesticide instead of Bleach. 

The only other album that I haven't done yet is "In Utero", which I want to do but can't. There was stuff from the In Utero sessions that ended up as B-sides instead of being on the album, but nothing got moved from In Utero to Nevermind so I would have no room. The only stuff that got moved to Nevermind was from With the Lights Out. 

Weezer - The Black Room (2000)




1. I Want You
2. Doorbell
3. Sunshine
4. Somebody Tell Me Why
5. Greyhound
6. The Black Rider
7. Socialite
8. Girl's Soccer
9. Phlegm Man
10. Average Town

These songs were recorded in 1998 and 1999 when Rivers Cuomo went through a period of introversion where he locked himself in his bedroom with his guitars and recording equipment, closed his windows, disconnected his phone, and painted the walls black. It was also around this time that he wrote the Encyclopedia of Pop, where he analyzed songs by Nirvana, Green Day, and Oasis to become the ultimate songwriter. 

Devo - Pioneers Who Got Scalped (2000)


1. We're All Devo! (1977)
2. Supercop* (1996)
3. Are You Ready?* (1995)
4. One Dumb Thing (1999)
5. Theme From Doctor Detroit (Dance Mix) (1983)
6. Luv-Luv* (1983)
7. Theme From Doctor Detroit* (1983)
8. I Wouldn't Do That to You (1987)
9. Bread and Butter (1986)
10. Let's Talk (1985)
11. Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka-Dot Bikini (1987)
12. It Takes a Worried Man (1982)
13. Turn Around* (1980)
14. Working in a Coal Mine (1981)
15. Mecha Mania Boy* (1982)
16. Nu-Tra Speaks (New Traditionalist Man) (1981)
17. Growing Pains* (1984)
18. Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails Cover) (1996) 
19. Thanks to You (1997)
20. Communication Break-Up (1997)
21. Witch Doctor* (1998)
22. The Words Get Stuck in My Throat (2000)
23. Go Monkey Go* (2000) 

My take on a compilation album that came out alongside another compilation album in 2000 called Recombo DNA. The tracks in asterisks were tracks I added to the compilation. The album was one I put together a couple years ago but I recently added the last track after I remembered it existed. In fact the album version was a minute longer than the music video version I remembered hearing as a kid. 

The Avalanches - When I Met You (EP) (1999)

 


1. Undersea Community (taken from Undersea Community EP, 1999)
2. Thank You Caroline (taken from Undersea Community EP, 1999)
3. Yamaha Superstar (taken from Undersea Community EP, 1999)
4. Slow Walking (taken from Undersea Community EP, 1999)
5. Information (taken from Electricity EP, 1999)
6. Let's Cheer (taken from Electricity EP, 1999)
7. I'm Taken (taken from Electricity EP, 1999)

This is just a collection of two EPs that The Avalanches put out in 1999. A nice album to go in between the El Producto EP and their first album Since I Left You. 

Thursday, October 19, 2023

Nirvana - Ashamed to Be Human (1988)

 

Side A:
1. Downer
2. Mexican Seafood
3. Pen Cap Chew
4. Beeswax
5. Hairspray Queen
6. Floyd the Barber
7. New Union

Side B:
8. Blandest
9. Spank Thru
10. Aero Zeppelin
11. If You Want
12. Paper Cuts

This is my theoretical Nirvana album from 1988, Ashamed to Be Human. An internet blogger known for reconstructing famously unreleased albums once did a project where he did "a reconstruction of the unreleased 1990 Nirvana album Sheep, which is essentially the precursor to what would eventually be released as Nevermind in 1991." Well, I wondered what it would be like if Nirvana had released an album in 1988, before 1989 when Bleach came out. The reason why I wonder this is because on page 84 of Kurt Cobain's Journals, there are drawings of a hypothetical album that had a couple of working titles, Humans Are Dumb, All Humans Are Stupid, and Ashamed to Be a Human. The last one I liked, chose, and modified, because it was a name that combined the similarly-named original working title for Bleach, Too Many Humans, with a lyric from "Floyd the Barber". 

I found another theoretical 1988 Nirvana album on the internet, and this guy was inspired to also do album reconstructions from the other guy. His description starts off with, "In one of the many YouTube interviews with Kurt Cobain from the early '90s, he mentioned quite notably that there should have been an album before Bleach," which I did not know about but is probably true.   

The track listing on the back cover says Floyd the Barber/Mexican Seafood/Paper Cuts/Spank Thru/Downer/Pen Cap Chew/Aero Zeppelin. At 7 tracks, it's obviously not enough, so we need more. Like Sheep and really Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero too, this album is centered around one recording session/demo tape, these tracks having come from the band's first studio session, which was on January 23, 1988 at Reciprocal Recording Studios in Seattle. Other tracks from that session were "Beeswax" and "Hairspray Queen" from Incesticide and "If You Must" from Disc 1 of the With the Lights Out box set. This is not to be confused with the concert that same day.

It's still not enough tracks though. We need things from With the Lights Out. "Blandest" was from later that year and "Mrs. Butterworth" from 1987 would increase the album's length. I renamed "Mrs. Butterworth" "'New Union", since it was only given that name just so it could have a name just so that it could be officially released, and "If You Must" "'If You Want'", since that's what Kurt sings and that's what the lyrics say. Interestingly, a lot of these song titles are not sung in the lyrics of their song, so I don't know where these titles came from or why they are what they are. Although I did find this on Wikipedia. In one of his first interviews, Cobain told journalist John Robb, "When I write a song, the lyrics are the least important thing. I can go through two or three different subjects in a song and the title can mean absolutely nothing at all."

This is also coming from the liner notes of WTLO: "'Blandest' didn't come out very well and they opted to re-record it at a later time because the song was just not ready yet. They instructed me to record over this version which we did. I never even kept a cassette of it myself so the bootleg copies of it that exist must have come from band members' rough mix cassettes, perhaps stolen ones. When they were planning Incesticide, Krist called me up and wanted to know if I remembered "Blandest" and if there was a tape of it anywhere; I told him no, you guys told me to erase it! Imagine how spooked I was when I later heard it on a bootleg... tenth-generation cassette tape hiss, horrible fried 3 A.M. rough mix and all..." So then the version we have is the only version that exists, in case you wanted a better one. The fact that it WAS gonna be on Incesticide is only more reason why we should include it here.

Now for the track listing. Incesticide goes Beeswax/Downer/Mexican Seafood/Hairspray Queen/Aero Zeppelin. I could put those together, but I wonder which track would be the best opener. "Downer" begins with not only bass, but a countoff on the sticks before it too. "Aero Zeppelin" also has a stick countoff intro, and I think it's weird to have more than one when only the one would be necessary, so that intro, as well as the one for "Spank Thru", is gonna be edited and cut shorter. "Downer" ends on a note, "Mexican Seafood" ends on a stick click, and "Pen Cap Chew" begins with a stick countoff with some guitar in it (forcing the intro to be uneditable) and ends on a fade out, but only kind of, creating an almost end to the medley but still going into "Beeswax", which ends on a bass note and continues "Hairspray Queen"'s melody and then finally fades out, making them coincidentally transition well into a smooth, flowing medley. From there, the medley just kinda ends, but the side doesn't, so we need some other songs: "Floyd the Barber" and "New Union". A better sound quality version of "Mrs. Butterworth" has been released since January 2015, but it's longer than the WTLO version, and considering the fact that side 2 is already longer than side 1, I would rather not include it.

The first sound you hear on "Blandest" sounds like a switch being flipped, like this side of the album, which you had to flip to listen to, is being turned on. The ending note gets combined with "Spank Thru", whose ending note gets combined with "Aero Zeppelin", whose ending notes gets combined with "If You Want", From there, the medley just kinda ends, but the side doesn't, so we need another song: "Paper Cuts". It's a shorter medley but still as unintentional. The cover art was based on the "Love Buzz" single from 1988, although Chad Channing is on the cover when Dale Crover played on the demo. 

If Bleach was recorded from December 1988 to January 1989 but released in June, and this was recorded from January to September 1988, then I would say that this would've been released the same time Nirvana was recording Bleach, or maybe even after! It wouldn't chart high much though; "Mrs. Butterworth" was obviously never played live, "Blandest" was only played live once, and only one song out of these tracks has been played more than 100 times live: "Spank Thru". Hell, only "Spank Thru" and "Mexican Seafood" have been played more than 10 times, and "Mexican Seafood" was only played 11 times. In comparison, "Polly", "Breed", and "About a Girl" have all been played over 200 times. But maybe the only reason why these songs weren't played live that often was because they were unreleased. This isn't saying that releasing these songs would increase their popularity though. Or maybe it's because by the time Bleach came out, they dropped most of these songs from their repertoire. "Blandest" had its only appearance a month after Bleach came out though. If "Spank Thru" WAS released as a single, I think "Clean Up Before She Comes" from 1987 would have been a good B-side. Definitely a better song than "Don't Want it All". Maybe even "Bambi Slaughter", also originating from 1985. "Downer" actually originated from 1985 too. All three songs have also never been played live. Only three real songs seem to have never been played live: "Big Long Now" from Incesticide and two In Utero-era B-sides: "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" and "Moist Vagina" (if you don't count the 2014 reunion concert performance). 

Weezer - Homecoming (2003)

 

1. Private Message 
2. Superstar 
3. Misstep
4. Booby Trap 
5. Lethe 
6. Running Man 
7. Mansion of Cardboard 
8. Mad Kow 
9. Modern Dukes 
10. Queen of Earth 

This is my attempt to make the ultimate Weezer unreleased album. I just wanted to focus on the album 5 demos from 2002 which was about 20 songs so I just had to choose half of them. When I realized that not all the songs were heavy, I stopped trying to choose songs I liked and started to choose songs that were similar. Some of the demos later went on to form other songs and some of the songs had multiple takes to choose from, so I hope that my track choice is the most original and concise of the demos. Some of the songs are better quality than others even though they use the best takes. The cover has bassist Matt Sharp on the cover even though Scott Shriner was the bassist at the time. It was based on a bootleg of a concert from 2000 in Germany. 

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (2 LP) (1994)



Side A:
1. Hardcore UFOs
2. Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
3. Tractor Rape Chain
4. The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
5. Hot Freaks
6. Smothered in Hugs
7. Yours to Keep
8. Echos Myron

Side B:
9. Gold Star for Robot Boy
10. Awful Bliss
11. Mincer Ray (samples Way to a Man's Heart)
12. A Big Fan of the Pigpen (samples 2nd Moves to Twin)
13. Queen of Cans and Jars
14. Her Psychology Today
15. Kicker of Elves
16. Ester's Day (samples At Odds With Dr. Genesis)
17. Demons Are Real
18. I Am a Scientist
19. Peep-Hole
20. You're Not an Airplane

Side C:
21. Crunch Pillow
22. Indian Was an Angel
23. Bite
24. Revolution Boy
25. Deathtrot and Warlock Riding a Rooster
26. 2nd Moves to Twin (full version)
27. Please Freeze Me
28. Scissors
29. Postal Blowfish

Side D:
30. Good For a Few Laughs
31. What Are We Coming Up To?
32. I'll Buy You a Bird
33. Twig
34. Curse of the Black Ass Buffalo
35. Do the Earth
36. Planet's Own Brand
37. Taco, Buffalo, Birddog, and Jesus
38. Supermarket the Moon

This is my answer to the question: What if Guided by Voices had released Bee Thousand as a double album like they intended? The Director's Cut was mostly based on an earlier version of it that was gonna have two LPs, but if we're really gonna imagine it as a double album, then the first two sides would be the two sides of Bee Thousand, the third side would be based on the second side of King Shit and the Golden Boys, and the fourth side mops up the rest of the best from the Director's Cut and the first Suitcase as well as the "I Am a Scientist" EP. 

For the second LP, I tried to stay away from songs that would later end up on an album, like "Don't Stop Now" on Under the Bushes, Under the Trees and "Crocker's Favorite Song" on Class Clown Spots a UFO. Though its track listing at 38 is the same as the abridged version of the Director's Cut. Just for reference, there were 64 songs that were at one point gonna be on Bee Thousand. Officially there were 65 but I couldn't find the last one. Some songs had multiple names though and one song (Scissors and the Blue Ox) was listed incorrectly.

Mr. Bungle - Early Bungle Demos (2 CD) (1990)



Disc 1:
1. Quote Unquote (taken from the 1990 rough mix)
2. Slowly Growing Deaf (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
3. Squeeze Me Macaroni (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
4. Carousel (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
5. Egg (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
6. Stubb (A Dub) (taken from the 1990 rough mix)
7. My Ass is On Fire (taken from the 1990 rough mix)
8. The Girls of Porn (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
9. Love is a Fist (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
10. Thunderball (taken from the 1990 rough mix)

Disc 2:
11. OU818 (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
12. Bloody Mary (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
13. Nicotina (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
14. Evil Satan (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
15. ( ) (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
16. Goosebumps (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
17. Jumping (Part One) (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
18. Freight Train (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
19. Definition of Shapes (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
20. Waltz For Grandma's Sake (taken from the 1988 demo Goddammit I Love America!)
21. No Strings Attached (taken from the 1987 demo Bowel of Chiley)
22. Mr. Nice Guy (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)
23. Nothing (taken from the 1989 demo OU818)

Before Mr. Bungle recorded their first album in 1991, they had released 4 demo tapes by then. Their first demo from 1986 called The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny was re-recorded as their fourth album in 2020. The next one after that was the Bowel of Chiley demo from 1987 which had lower quality but more material. Their next demos, Goddammit I Love America! in 1988 and OU818 in 1989, were higher quality and sounded closer to the band's first album. Then they recorded some rough mixes for it in 1990 which included a song that wouldn't be released until their second album in 1995. In fact, I think every demo starting with their first includes a song that would be recorded at least twice. 

Evil Satan from their first demo was re-recorded on Bowel of Chiley but not on the re-recorded version of the demo. Carousel was recorded on Bowel of Chiley and then re-recorded on Goddammit I Love America! and then re-recorded again on their first album. Definitions of Shapes and Incoherence were also recorded on Bowel of Chiley and then Goddammit I Love America! Egg was also recorded on Goddammit I Love America! and then re-recorded on their first album. 5 songs from the OU818 demo were re-recorded for the first album but Mr. Nice Guy didn't make the cut. Platypus was recorded for the first album and got re-recorded for Disco Volante in 1995 and Thunderbird was recorded for the first album but was left unreleased. I think it's the theme song to the James Bond movie of the same name that inspired the name of Disco Volante. It had their own series of demos but I chose to not include them. The only song that didn't get a demo was Dead Goon. 

The Hollies - Listen to Us (1968)

  Side A: 1. Open Up Your Eyes 2. Do the Best You Can 3. Relax 4. Tomorrow When It Comes 5. Man With No Expression 6. Like Every Time Before...