Here’s one that I filmed 25+ years ago and it didn’t turn out very good. The lighting was low and the stock audio on the camera distorted, especially later in the set. I was able to brighten it up and degrain it in Adobe Premiere Elements/Neat video, plus Kingbean synched up the not great but not distorted DAT audio that I also did. So, this is as good as it’s going to get. I put the time into it because I love the band, plus there are zero full sets from this early out there.
Recorded by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony TR-81 Camcorder, TCD-D7 DAT, Coresound Binaural Mics w/ Battery Box bass rolloff. DAT EQ in Sony Soundforge 10 Audio/Video sync by Kingbean
Here’s the last alt country “On This Day” for a bit. If you haven’t heard The Bottle Rockets, you need to check them out. Brian’s vocals are an acquired taste, but perfect for the band’s rural mid-western vibe. This is such a great set- recorded shortly after the release of their album “The Brooklyn Side”, it has all of my favorite songs. If you are a fan of good songwriting and excellent clever lyrics, this is a good place to be. Unfortunately, they hung it up a few years back. I wish I could see them play again. The tape sounds great except for some distortion early on as the person recording the set deals with recording levels. How odd is this venue, by the way? They played a Best Buy. With the radio DJ introducing the band before they start, it makes me wonder if this was a radio broadcast… but it doesn’t have that overly compressed FM sound. Fun Fact: that Best Buy closed in 2012.
Recorded by: ? (Steve Brothers maybe?) Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
Today’s On This Date in History comes from Festus, Mo’s Bottle Rockets. This is pretty cool- kinda surprising that they played the show since they were on an indie label at the time. The interviewer does a nice job despite not knowing much about the band.
Recorded by: ? Transfer by: Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
First and foremost- this is a MUST LISTEN if you are an Uncle Tupelo, WIlco, Son Volt, or classic country fan. Coffee Creek are Tweedy/Farrar/Heidorn(Uncle Tupelo), Brian Henneman(Bottle Rockets) doing classic country/rock covers! So great.
Back in the early 90s, I was friends with Tony Margherita & Bob Andrews who managed Uncle Tupelo, The Bottle Rockets and many more. I had followed UT around and filmed/audio recorded over 10 shows in the span of a couple of years, including the 2 final shows in St. Louis. Since the band was defunct (and Wilco was not the HUGE band they are today), Tony let my good friend Jim stop by and pick up “a few” cassettes in late 1994. Jim goes to the office and calls me:
J(whispering): Dude, there are like 50 tapes here. Do you have Coffee Creek?
Me: No
J: How about X(some other one)
Me: No. Just grab them all and I will sort them out.
So Jim grabs a box and shoves about 50 tapes in, and takes off. Bob and Tony were like :-O. Haha! Thanks guys.
I am shocked that these are not online yet.
Recorded by: Tony Marghertia(?)
Transferred by: Shayne Stacy
Equipment used: 1994 DAT transfer- Playback with consumer Aiwa belt drive deck (big regret)- Sony DTC690 using monster audio cables.
Equipment used: 2019 DAT to WAV transfer: Sony PCM-R500 — Audiophile 2496 card — WAV
Transfer Lineage: Band Archive Tape – My DAT (90 meter DAT in 32khz- big regret) – You
Photo courtesy of Michael Pemberton’s excellent factorybelt dot net site. Check it out!
Man, I wish I took pictures of the tapes.
Here is the first of 3 posts today. Facebook folks get a bonus 4th one as well. For today’s On This Date in History, let’s dive back into the Uncle Tupelo archives. This was one of the many tapes we got from Tony and Bob back in 1994, but then a better quality version popped up. Michael from factory belt has the details:
“FM broadcast and pre-FM studio tape, from the late Doug Morris’ KDHX radio show “High Anxiety.” The only known recorded performance of the “The Dust Bowl Club” (Brian Henneman, Jay Farrar, and Tom Parr). A number of songs played are from a demo tape that Brian recorded with members of UT during the recording of Still Feel Gone. For quite some time, the only known tape of this show was recorded off the radio, with all of the between-song conversation edited out. More recently, Doug Morris’ pre-fm cassette of the show surfaced, though unfortunately Doug recorded over the last 30 minutes of his tape, meaning that the last 5 songs only exist from the FM tape.”
So, there are 2 versions. This better quality one and the one from the band’s archive that is more complete. I believe this one has both versions put together.
Recorded by: Doug Morris Cassette to DAT Transfer by: Michael Pemberton (main part) and Shayne Stacy (last 5 songs) DAT to wav transfer by: Shayne DAT to Wav Transfer equipment (shayne): Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
