Here’s another one from Eric Mcintire’s amazing collection of early SF tapes. Eric taped this one himself from the mixing board. I am going to try to enhance these old soundboard tapes with an application called Izotope. I hope to get time this weekend sometime.
Recorded by: Eric Mcintire
Equipment used: Mab house cassette deck
This one also comes from Tour Manager Doug’s tapes and I can’t tell if he taped this one. I think he did, it sounds similar to other recordings… but it is on the B-side of that Exodus 1/5/85 show I posted on Monday. How could this be recorded on a tape, after a show that took place a week after? It’s a mystery.
Anyway, Control were one of the more popular bands back in the early days of the underground metal scene in SF. This show appears to be the final show of the “mach II” version of the band. Guitarist Chip Wagner quit the band the very next day.
They had a demo out that was well-received and I can’t find it on YT. Maybe I will post that one soon.
Recorded by: ? (Update- Doug did not tape this or Exodus 1/5/85)
Equipment used: Sony Walkman WM-R2
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Sound Forge
Finally, a Tour Manager Doug post this week. As you could probably tell from the midnight posts, life has been a little chaotic lately.
This one sounds pretty good- you get most of BBB and some of the old songs that never made it out. Hell’s Breath & Death Row back to back rip!
Recorded by: Tour Manager Doug
Equipment used: Sony Walkman WM-R2
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Sound Forge
It’s Tour Manager Doug Tuesday! I still have a bunch of Aftershock videos to post, but none are ready yet. I met up with Doug last week and gave his big box of tapes back- huge thanks to Doug for letting me hold on to them for so long. What a fun project. I think that we have enough Doug posts to keep Tuesdays going for the rest of the year.
Anyway, a Youtube commenter asked for Exodus, so here you go. It’s been a while since the last early Exodus post. Man, I love these pre-BBB shows. Killer sets.
Recorded by: Tour Manager Doug
Equipment used: Sony Walkman WM-R2
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Sound Forge
I am pretty excited about this project. Tour Manager Doug- the source of MANY (most?) of the early bay area thrash metal audio recordings sent me a box of about 80 tapes last week. There are so many of his early metal recordings in there that have never circulated, it’s mind-blowing. Historic box of tapes.
I have digitized the first 10 tapes so far. You can expect a couple of these and a couple KALX tapes in the upcoming weekdays. Wayne V’s stuff will make a comeback in a bit- thanks Wayne! Wayne introduced us and helped get this project started. Thanks to Doug for trusting me with this goldmine of stuff.
I figured that I would post the tape that I enjoyed the most so far. A secret show by the band Kill ‘Em All, which was code for Metallica. Killer drunken show, complete with Ness Aquino yelling at the crowd to get off the speakers! The image for this recording also came from Doug’s collection- he has the original sign that was on the Mab’s door that night.
I EQ’d the hell out of this one to drop some of the highs and boost bass. The extreme bass boost caused some low end noise- I might try to Izotope that out. Sounds good enough for me.
Recorded by: Tour Manager Doug
Equipment used: Sony Walkman WM-R2
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Sound Forge (EQ settings in fb comments)
More obscurity for you today, but this time it comes from Tour Manager Doug. Control was one of the the early bands in the trash scene. The band had Thaen Rasmussen(Anvil Chorus, Heathen) and Doug Piercy(Anvil Chorus, Heathen, Blind Illusion) on guitars, with Michael Thinger, Joe Bennett, and Ed Bull. They put out 3 demos but never any full length releases.
This is their opening set for the legendary Metallica Mab 1984 show.
Recorded by: Tour Manager Doug
Equipment used: Sony Walkman WM-R2
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Sound Forge
Here is another amazing artifact from Barry Ward’s cassette collection. This is the earliest RKL show I have ever heard, and apparently it is the earliest show on the internet as well. They talk about their upcoming 7″ release of It’s a Beautiful Feeling!
This one was pretty raw but clean enough for me to remix it a bit. It was light on guitar and very harsh with the high end so I did what I could to fix that up. Thanks Barry!
Recorded by: Barry Ward
Equipment used: Sony Walkman recorder
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
Rebalance in Izotope RX8: Bass +1, Guitar +4
EQ in Sony Soundforge: Boost lows and drop the highs by about 2db each
Nice Recreation Artwork of the Mab sign by Eric Yee
Here are some more amazing audiotapes from Eric McIntire’s collection. He is a huge Crucifix fan. I thought that I had every old crucifix audiotape that there was to be had, but he gave me 5 or more in this box. I think these may have come from the band.
First one here is a 16 track soundboard recording of the band from a show at the mab in 1981. The flyer is just an example of a 1981 show- this show is an unspecified date.
Recorded by: ?
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon & M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
When I have time, I usually check the tape list on the night before posting an on This Date in History. I saw this one and realized I had not posted anything to the Mab FB group in a while. I go to look at the tape number… and it is tape #1 out of about 4,000 cassettes! THAT was a pain in the ass to pull out, let me tell you..
I figured that this was going to be a kinda typical awful quality tape, like most early punk shows were. But no, this one isn’t bad. Clearly taped by someone who had decent gear. I was able to EQ out a lot of the midrange noise and distortion to make it actually listenable!
I don’t know who recorded it- please let me know if you have any idea. I am pretty sure it wasn’t Terry hammer as he usually did board tapes.
Recorded by: ?
Transfer by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: Nakamichi Dragon and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
EQ in Sony Soundforge 10
For today’s “On This Day in History”, I figured that I would post something that I didn’t transfer, but it is a transfer right off of the master tape. I am super thankful to Terry Hammer and the rest of the bay area tapers who recorded this stuff during the first wave of punk in SF. I just wish we had more early Sacramento stuff- more shows from Club Minimal and ANYTHING from China Wagon. I was 11 years old when all that started.
I am pretty sure that Jimmy Wilsey played bass for the band at this show. I am in the middle of reading his biography- “wicked game” and it is really well written and has a bunch of new info about the early SF punk scene. Highly Recommended. It ain’t a cheap book, but totally worth it. It’s not a happy story.
Recorded by: ?
Transfer by: also ?
Extract from CD and normalize by Shayne
Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to the Sacramento Music Archive, a 501(c)3 organization