The Grateful Dead - American Beauty: The Angel's Share

 

Since I did this during last year's Day Of The Dead, I suppose I'll try to make this an annual thing now, and continue posting some hard-to-find Grateful Dead here on this date. 

To commemorate the day, her for your listening pleasure is American Beauty: The Angel's Share, like all of the other "Angel's Share" discs, a digital-only release of alt mixes, outtakes and demos from The Grateful Dead's classic album.  I'm a lazy man, so for a more detailed description of this release, I'm taking the liberty of utilizing the Discogs.com write-up, rather than my own words; all credit for the following goes to them and that site:

American Beauty: The Angel's Share brings together never-before-heard studio recordings compiled from dozens of recently discovered 16-track reels. It includes multiple outtakes for several album tracks along with demos for every song on the album (except “Box Of Rain”) plus one for “To Lay Me Down,” which was later included on Jerry Garcia’s first solo album, Garcia. All 10 demos are available today for streaming and digital download with the full 56-track American Beauty: The Angel's Share to be released as a digital exclusive on October 15, shortly before the 50th anniversary of the album’s original release date: November 1, 1970.

Like its predecessor, the latest incarnation of The Angel’s Share was made possible by the tireless work of engineer Brian Kehew and archivist Mike Johnson who – operating under the supervision of Grateful Dead legacy manager David Lemieux – spent countless hours compiling and piecing the reels together to create this revelatory experience.

American Beauty: The Angel's Share opens with 10 demos that were recorded in August 1970 at Pacific High Recording Studio, the same place the band recorded Workingman’s Dead just a few months earlier. While fans are accustomed to hearing songs evolve through the band’s live recordings, this installment of The Angel’s Share offers them a rare opportunity to hear songs like “Ripple” (then titled “Hand Me Down”) grow from its first demo into the final version.

The vast remainder of The Angel’s Share features a mix of partial and complete takes from these sessions including multiple takes of “Friend Of The Devil,” “Ripple” and Pigpen’s “Operator,” an alternate mix of “Truckin’” and a different version of “Candyman.” These intimate in-studio performances are interspersed with conversations that make it feel like you’re in the studio with the band (Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan and Bob Weir) along with producer Stephen Barncard and engineer Phil Sawyer.

The Angel’s Share is rounded out with an acoustic mix of “Box Of Rain” and a version of “Attics Of My Life” that spotlights Garcia alone on electric guitar, both newly mixed from the band’s recording sessions for the album later that summer at Wally Heider Recording

That's that - here you go.  Enjoy the day, have a listen, and as always, let me know what you think.  Happy November 2nd!!

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

Send Email

The Grateful Dead - Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share

 

This being the Day Of The Dead, I figured why not commemorate the day by posting some Grateful Dead?  I don't have any especial love for GD... but that hasn't stopped me from collecting hundreds of hours of their recordings over the years.  They're an essential American band, and as such deserve honor and respect - even from an obsessive music collector like myself!

Here's Workingman's Dead: The Angel's Share, a digital-only 2020 release of studio rehearsals and outtakes from The Grateful Dead's classic and celebrated 1970 album.  I don't have much else to say about it here, but Rolling Stone magazine had plenty to comment upon regarding it when this album was put out three years ago; here's their write-up, if you're interested.  

This is for all the Deadheads out there, and music fans in general.  Have a listen, and let me know what you think.  Happy November 2nd!

Please use the email link below to contact me, and I will reply with the download link(s) ASAP:

Send Email

the real ok boomer - Consume. Be Silent. Die. EP (direct link)

About six years ago, I posted a piece on Single Gun Theory, a prolific and innovative Australian electronic band which, during its fifteen-year active life (from 1986 to 2001), had some fairly popular releases, including two Top Fifty albums in Oz. But by the time I wrote about them, more than ten years after their dissolution, I noted that the group seemed to have been all but forgotten, both by its former recording label and by turn-of-the-century electronic/dance music fans... which was a pity.

So I was very happy and surprised to receive a message yesterday from Peter Rivett-Carnac, former sample master and multi-instrumentalist for Single Gun Theory. Seems that Mr. Rivett-Carnac hasn't been sitting still since his former band's demise (I'll correct myself here now, and note that the group - comprised of vocalist Jacqui Hunt, Kath Power on background vocals and synthesizer, and Rivett-Carnac - never officially broke up; it's more like the members just sort of drifted apart into other interests). Peter got married and moved to Singapore in the early 2000s, where he and his wife raised two daughters. But he remained active in music while there, writing songs and handling production duties for less-heralded electronic groups like The Gaza Strip and Joyless. And just recently, he began releasing his own music, under the nom de plume the real ok boomer.

Here's the email message I received from him:

"Hey, I noticed a nice post in your blog about Single Gun Theory from a few years ago.  I’m one of the co-founders of SGT, and I’ve just launched my first-ever solo project, so I thought you might be interested in it (yes, shameless self-promotion). :)

My attempt at a press release is below - I hope it’s helpful."

Along with his note came the attached 'presser':

Pete Carnac from Single Gun Theory has just released his first EP under the artist name "the real ok boomer”. 

It's cheerily titled Consume. Be Silent. Die., and is mostly downtempo / lo-fi / chill-hop, with female vocals, some anti-war politics and a dash of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo.

Electric Sound Of Joy calls it “an ambient, swirling, sample-laden delight”.

I hope you get a chance to listen! Please contact pete@therealokboomer.com if you’d like more information.

I had a listen to the tracks Peter put up on his Soundcloud site (located here), including "Signal" and "Com Truise - Persuasion System", and was pleased with what I heard there.  Rivett-Carnac has moved far beyond what he was laying down with SGT two decades ago, into a more ambient, mellow groove that still harkens back in some ways to the sound of his former band.  What's interesting is that in some of these tunes, like "Engage" and "Mockingbird", he couples these beats with some highly politicized sample vocals.  The combination is both hypnotic and thought-provoking... at least to me.

Here's the video for "Signal", the leadoff track from this EP and probably my favorite song so far off of it:

I am always surprised and excited when I find that an artist I post about has taken the time to read my longwinded screeds and respond in kind; it's happened a couple of times in the past, with the late Chris Sheehan (The Starlings) and members of The Veldt.  I'm glad to see that Peter also saw that there are still music fans around who enjoyed and appreciated his old band.  And in that spirit, I hope that you SGT fans out there take the opportunity to listen to what Peter has been up to recently.  I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Here's the Soundcloud link again for Consume. Be Silent. Die. EP and other non-EP tracks; go to it and feast your ears on these offerings... and as always, let Mr. Rivett-Carnac and I know what you think.

(As a bonus, here's a great interview that Peter and Jacqui gave to Chaos Control Digizine back in 2016, discussing their time in Single Gun Theory, their thoughts regarding the current state of electronic music, and then-recent projects they're both working on - good information within!)