Today’s On This Date in History comes from an old friend who passed away over 11 years ago now. Chris Constance was a friend of Uncle Tupelo and helped to contribute quite a few early videos of the band, and at least 1 of the pre-Uncle Tupelo band, then Primatives.
He was able to video Jay Farrar and Son Volt a few times in the mid-2000’s, and this is one of those shows. A full set of Jat and (thee) Mark Spencer at Mississippi Nights. This show happened right at the time that it was announced that Son Volt was reforming and releasing a new album (which became Okemah and the Melody of Riot).
Recorded by: Chris Constance Extract from DVD & prep for upload by Shayne
Breaking up the streak of DAT audio recordings with a video- here is the St. Louis based Bunnygrunt doing a halloween set many years back. Good band, from the collection of Jim Utz. He also has some nice soundboards of the band that he might be posting soon!
Recorded by: ? Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: JVC HRS9911 and Canopus ADVC300
Believe it or not, I am STILL pulling out new stuff from Neil Werries’ tapes, even though I digitized them and sent them back about 3 years ago. This one just said “Elsah Way Out Stlmo”, but after some digging, I am pretty sure that this is the right date. According to newspapers dot com, this was the only time they played the venue.
Recorded by: Neil Werries Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony DCR-TRV340 firewire into dell workstation
I learned something new today- I had no idea that The Picketts were from Seattle (they were called “grange rock”- get it?) AND Scott Mcaughey was in the band. I had no idea- cool!
Here is the allmusic bio: The Picketts were Seattle’s only “grange rock” combo. Led by vocalist Christy McWilson, the band also included drummer “Blackie” Sleep, McWilson’s guitarist-husband Scott McCaughey, and rhythm guitarist Jim Sangster. McWilson and McCaughey had met at San Francisco State. They moved to Seattle in 1980, where McWilson started a ’60s retro/new wave band called the Dynette Set, and McCaughey fell in with the ragged pop combo Young Fresh Fellows. Raised in Northern California, McWilson had grown up on the Bakersfield sound and the cosmic country of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. But Seattle was pretty much devoid of that sound, and what little did exist didn’t have the greatest reputation. Nevertheless, after McWilson noticed Sleep’s distinctive standup drumming style during a gig his rockabilly band played opening for the Dynette Set, she asked him about collaborating, and the earliest form of the Picketts was born.
This is toward the end of their run- Scott was busy with R.E.M. so that might have contributed. This no depression tour was legendary with Old 97s/Whiskeytown along with Picketts and Hazeldine.
Recorded by: Neil Werries Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony EV-S2000- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub Enhanced (brightness/degrain) in Adobe Premiere Elements and Neat Video
This is probably one of Neil Werries’ most popular videos on the internets. Good ol’ Ryan and Co., right before the release of Strangers Almanac. This one is a big upgrade vs. what was posted before. Thanks to Neil once again for sending the tapes my way!!
Recorded by: Neil Werries Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony EV-S2000- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub Enhanced (degrain) in Adobe Premiere Elements and Neat Video
This is one of my favorite videos of the Old 97s. I didn’t see this No Drepession Tour (even though I had a ticket) because I was brand new at my job and I didn’t want to screw up. I am still at that employer, so I guess it turned out ok. It was awesome to see a full set from that tour in nice quality. I had posted a 2nd gen VHS of the show years ago, but Neil sent me his masters a while back, so here it is in all of its lossless enhanced glory. If only the audio was a little better… it’s clear they were LOUD.
Recorded by: Neil Werries Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony EV-S2000- Datavideo TBC1000 – Tevion USB Adapter — Virtualdub Enhanced (Degrain) in Adobe Premiere Elements/Neat Video
Here is the other show from that Old 97s VHS tape- this one RIPS. Man, I love this era of the band and I am so thankful to have seen them so much back then… but this may be my favorite 97s video from the ’90s. The lighting on stage is uneven so I just denoised the pic and left the lighting as is. Oh, one other thing about the Stubb’s show from yesterday- I mentioned that Ken made mistakes at the beginning of the set. He let us know that he had a new guitar tech- first time out- and they totally screwed up the tuning the guitar. Haha, that must be a nightmare. I experienced that once in person- Girlschool in 2014.
Recorded by: ? Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: JVC HRS9800 w/tbc and Canopus ADVC300 Enhanced (denoise) in Adobe Premiere, Neat Video
Here is a band I totally missed when they were touring all the time, but have since become a band I really loved. Thankfully, my friend Jim Utz taped their opening set for Presidents of the USA back in 1996 with his DAT machine. Thanks Jim! I was actually listening to my first rebalance job on this and didn’t like it. The vocals were buried and KJ’s vocals need to be up front… so I worked it a second time. I boosted the vocals, cranked the bass, and bumped up the guitar a little. I am happy with it.
Recorded by: Jim Utz Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card Rebalance in Izotope RX7: Vocals +5db, Bass +5db, Guitar +2.5db.
I could have sworn that this show was up on YT already. I searched for it about 10 different ways and I can’t find it, so here you go. This is a good way to pre-game for Belly’s tour that starts this week! Lots of songs from KING on here, and they are playing that album in its entirety on this go round. Can’t wait, I have been a huge fan of that one since 1995. The audio on this one is not great, unfortunately. It sounds like a raw board mix which was light on guitar plus whatever the crew could pull from the audience mics. Still enjoyable. I appreciated Double Helix so much- they were pioneers in doing stuff like this.
From Jim Utz’ collection
Recorded by: Double Helix Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: JVC HR-S (9800/9911U)- canopus ADVC300
