Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! That was very nice of you all.
Here’s another tape from the Uncle Tupelo cassette archive- this one is so cool- a really nice quality studio recording of Still Feel Gone songs, done before the sessions at Fort Apache. I think I recall that this was the official studio cassette that I transferred. Man, I wish I took pictures of those tapes.
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
OK, so I guess it is time to tell the saga of DAT #251. I have already told the story of getting the Uncle Tupelo band archive tapes on one of my coffee creek posts, years back. Once I learned that the tapes were coming, I ordered a box of 10 DATs to use so I could copy them from cassette to DAT. Well, the tape supplier sent me the wrong tape- they sent me 90 meter DATs (3 hour) rather than 60 meter (2 hour). I did not have time to deal with returns and I thought “hey, it’s a free hour per tape” so I put the entire UT archive on these things (except for 1 tape). I now know that 90 meter DATs are notorious for errors and jamming up, and that’s exactly what happened with DAT #251. It seized up and broke so and I tried to splice it myself and made it worse. We recently sent the tape to a guy who specializes in fixing these… and it was too screwed up. He said it was the most damaged tape he had ever seen. He sent me a file with the salvaged files. This show is actually 90 minutes long. Only the first 60min were able to be saved, and this one cuts off before it really gets good! I will need to get one of those DAT clones (or someone transfer the 32khz file) I sent to people so we can do a proper transfer of the full show. Bummer.
Recorded by: Tony Margherita? Band archive tape digitized by Shayne Stacy Equipment used: Aiwa consumer deck and Sony DTC-690 DAT xfer by Bill Reutelhuber
Setlist (courtesy of factorybelt.net): 11/29/90 – Blue Note, Columbia, MO Life Worth Livin’/ Punch Drunk/ Watch Me Fall/ Postcard/ Gun/ Discarded/ Flatness/ Outdone/ Sauget Wind/ Train/ Wasn’t Born to Follow/ Atomic Power/ Nothing/ Before I Break/ That Year/ Country Home/ True to Life/ D.Boon/ I’ve Been Working On the Railroad/ Factory Belt/(HERE IS WHERE IT CUTS) ?/ Do Re Mi/ Freak Scene/ Whiskey Bottle/ No Depression/ No Matter What/ I Got Drunk/ Graveyard Shift/ Cortez The Killer (w/ Brian Henneman, cut)
I recall that this tape was cut up across 3 different, completely blank cassettes- no label, no side A/B, etc… so it was really hard to tell what part of the set went where. After doing some forensics with the help of factorybelt.net (comparing to setlists in that time frame), I think I got it.
Recorded by: Tony Margherita 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
I think this is the super awkward and painful interview where the interviewer did not know the band at all, and asked some of the questions in a faux twang voice, since the band was of the alt-country genre. Man, it must suck to be a musician and put up with this shit.
Atomic Power/ Whiskey Bottle/ Screen Door/ I Got Drunk (intro)/ Graveyard Shift/ Life Worth Livin’
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
Moving back over to the Uncle Tupelo archive that I digitized about 25 years ago. Here’s my story on that from a previous post:
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.
Thanks to michael Pemberton for the description/setlist below, and the flyer image from the show:
Before I Break (end)/ Graveyard Shift/ Sin City/ Wasn’t Born To Follow/ I Wanna Be Your Dog/ True To Life/ In The Street/ Song To Woody/ I Got Drunk (cut)
Partial soundboard recording.
Billed as an acoustic set, and the existing tape is all acoustic, but several attendees remember that they plugged in for much of the night. Contains the only known performance of Bob Dylan’s “Song to Woody.” Brian Henneman also played a few songs solo (no tape of his set has circulated), and it was at this show that he announced that Chicken Truck had broken up.
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
For today’s On This Date in History, I picked out this Uncle Tupelo performance. It’s rare that anything this early from UT came from anywhere but the band archive (I have shared a bunch from there already), but this one came from someone at KCOU. It’s a short interview and some songs acoustic. They talk about signing with Rockville, which in hindsight was not a great thing since I heard that they never got paid. Ugh.
Recorded by: KCOU DJ Transfer by: Shayne stacy Equipment used: Sony PCM-R500 and M-Audio Audiophile 2496 card
and here is the post intended for today. This one took some detective work- the DAT was labeled vaguely and the old WJUL call letters were taken over by a classic rock station in Georgia. This is a really good quality “live in the radio studio” session plus an interview that isn’t painful! Well done!
Tracklist courtesy of factorybelt.net late ’90(?) – WJUL, Boston, MA Postcard (beginning cut)/ Flatness/ True To Life/ D.Boon/ Graveyard Shift/ Life Worth Livin’/ That Year/ Outdone/ Whiskey Bottle/ Before I Break/ Nothing/ Factory Belt/ interview
Recorded by: Tony Margherita(?) 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
It’s late and I just got back from a business trip, but it looks like I can get today’s upload in before midnight.
Here is UT’s opening set for Firehose at Furst Rock. I saw Firehose for the first time (at Club Me) about 2 weeks after this. Great version of the Vertebrats’ “Left in the Dark” on this one.
Setlist (courtesy of the excellent factorybelt.net website):
Factory Belt/ That Year/ Left in the Dark/ So Called Friend/ Sauget Wind/ Screen Door/ Otherside/ Life Worth Livin’/ Flatness/ Cocaine Blues/ I Got Drunk/ A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall/ Graveyard Shift
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
Man, this Uncle Tupelo archive transfer project has led me down endless rabbit holes. I just wasted an hour downloading flyers. Ugh. Anyway, here is an excellent quality session from KCOU in Columbia. It sounds like a pre-FM soundboard.
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
Tracks: Screen Door/ There Was A Time/ I Got Drunk
Uncle Tupelo were from Belleville, Il, so the closest major city was St. Louis. They played many venues around town in the early days, but Cicero’s was their home base. Cicero’s was a legendary basement bar/venue below an italian restaurant. You’ll see a good chunk of classic UT shows coming from here.
Setlist (courtesy of the great factorybelt dot net website:
Otherside/ Sin City/ Graveyard Shift/ D.Boon/ Flatness/ Cocaine Blues/ Outdone/ Screen Door/ So Called Friend/ Baby, Please Don’t Go/ Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door/ Train/ Whiskey Bottle/ Fortunate Son/ Factory Belt/ Mercedes Benz/ No Matter What/ That Year/ Life Worth Livin’/ There Was A Time/ Mannish Boy (sort of)/ A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall/ Gimme, Gimme, Gimme
That’s right. Gimme Gimme Gimme by Black Flag, country style.
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
PS: I know that the DAT sleeve says 10/13/87, but the band did not have that many songs in 87, so the cassette must have been labeled with the wrong year.
