In spite of my assertion that remasters don't give me a music boner, much, here's one that makes me eat me woids and tent me shorts - something you don't want to witness unless you're into Japanese tentacle puke porn. This year's remaster of one of rock's shining Himalayan peaks slipped out without a word and is stupidly hard to find. As is usual with Spirit re-issues, it comes with an entire CD of file-and-forget live material, driftwood backing tracks and demos, but this here is the album as released, perfect as is, and more is less. It's also at Elon Musk's approved bitrate of @320, just for youse bums what fall into a girlish swoon at the thought of anything less baroque.
An astonishing piece of work, on the cusp of the zeitgeist between the sixties and the seventies and taking the best from both decades, Sardonicus is the full deck, the real deal. This brilliant, revelatory new remaster is the best it's ever sounded - how did it take so long? In the almost impossibly unlikely event of your not having heard the album yet - keep it to yerself, less you suffer our withering scorn and brutal contumely. For the rest of us it's like meeting an old friend - for the first time.
This post made plausible thru Tremolo - high four or five!
Favorite band names? Spirit would be up there for me. The Sex Pistols. Pink Floyd. The Who.It's A Beautiful Day.
ReplyDeleteI was in Pelvis Bordello and the Stunning Cunts
DeleteOne of my all-time favorite albums since hearing it on my brothers' turntable when I was a mere tad of 11 or 12. I still remember one o' the brothers coming home earlier than expected and catching me playing it and me thinking I'd get in trouble for 1)messing with his record 2)messing with the brothers' turntable, which I'd learned to work when they weren't paying attention. My bro smiled his approval.
ReplyDeleteMrs Useo asked me for this record last year, & It's da bomb!
ReplyDeleteFavorite band names? King Gizzard & The LIzard Wizard. Tropical Fuck Storm. Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Honolulu Mountain Daffodils. Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs.
As you (Mr. Useo) may know, King Gizzard & The LIzard Wizard recently collaborated with Tropical Fuck Storm! But why didn't they call their unholy alliance something devilishly clever and rude, like Tropicalizzard & The Fuck Wizards?
Delete"Tropicalizzards & The Fuck Wizard" is my vote for the best band name ever, even though it doesn't exist (many lizards but one wizard though!).
DeleteIf there is a Fuck Wizard, he/she/it is/was/will be friends with Cheech Wizard.
DeleteOne of my ten perfect albums for years.
ReplyDeleteStill one of the all time great records.
John
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Noice.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCamper Van Beethoven spelt rite this time.
ReplyDeleteBig in Japan.
ReplyDelete...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead.
Phillip Goodhand-Tait and the Stormsville Shakers.
The Phil Upchurch Combo.
...And The Native Hipsters.
But I would probably have gone for Camper Van Beethoven if geriatrix hadn't got there first.
For those of you who can't read the piece - THIS IS THE REMASTER. Thenk yew!
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/L2ATcuq5zy6
This album has long been one of the 4,681 albums in my personal top ten
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have this remaster, you need it.
DeleteI do now. Bought the vinyl
Delete*applause*
DeleteAlways wondered about this group...thank you ! Fav' Band Name is "Mott the Hoople"
ReplyDeleteThere was a summer when all I listened to was:
ReplyDeleteSpirit - Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Spider John Koerner & Willie Murphy - Running Jumping Standing Still
The Incredible String band - Wee Tam & The Big Huge
Ritchie Havens - Stonehenge
Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn/A Beard of Stars
Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde
Tim Hardin - 3 Live in Concert
And I still love each of those albums...
Similar, but for year, and it was almost exclusively this plus Todd Rundgren's works up to and including "Initiation". LSD was often involved. Great times.
DeleteMatching Mole
ReplyDeleteBad Brains
The Goddam Whores
Ian Dury & The Blockheads
ReplyDeleteDon't you see a drop-down option to the right of "Comment as"? It gives me three options, my FT3 ID, "anonymous", and "Name/url". If you still have difficulty post comments as "anonymous" but add your name at the end.
ReplyDeleteThe name/url is the one I use. It used to remember your "name", so all I had to type was "a" and the rest of my ridiculous soubriquet would pop up like magic. Now it doesn't and you have to type it out in full each time. Hence my adoption of a shorter name. Also it seems to default to anonymous now, so you have to remember to change it to the name/url.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who just recently wrote that outtakes, etc are a waste of time, I'd love to have the complete remaster package, please!
ReplyDeleteI no gots on account which I trashed. The live set, in common with very nearly all Spirit live recordings, isn't up to much - I have better bootlegs. The extra tracks have already - for the most part - been previously released. The original album remastered is spectacular and all I need, but I'm sure some kind soul will answer your prayer, or you can try here: newalbumreleases(dot)net/175029/spirit-live-at-the-fillmore-west-2022/
DeleteOh, the trials of being a completist!
DeleteI suspect that the lack of fanfare for this release just shows the lack of interest in the band - not that they aren't worthy of it. I think we just have to be grateful that someone, somewhere releases what are now historical artifacts so that they can endure for future generations.
ReplyDeleteAs I commented a few months ago, books are being lost in an alarming manner when they're out of print and haven't been digitised. This isn't going to happen anywhere near so often with music, fortunately.
Then again, even if there wasn't much fanfare, Spirit still gets new (old) stuff released and there's still a fan base for all of this stuff. I mean, Randy California pretty much recorded music all the time and for the hardcore fans all this stuff is being made available, unlike some other acts were we're still waiting (and will until we die) for a single outtake to be officially released (Cough cough *GiveemupHenleyyouevilbastard* cough). So, fanfare or not, as a fan of a band you're probably really happy...while as a completist, you'll need a lot of space to put your Spirit collection.
DeletePS: Some progress: Blogger is now at least giving me the Google Account option right here, we'll see if it lasts...
It's great that this material is coming out, but Spirit is pretty niche - compared with the Doors or the Dead. It must be fairly easy to put into production.
DeleteNot sure what you mean by "easy ito production". You mean getting rights from the estate?
DeleteI'm pretty sure it's not that hard to get Dead material going, considering serious Deadheads will pretty much buy anything...
Easy in several ways.
DeleteNo recording costs with remixing, mastering and general spiffing up able to be done largely digitally these days by one bloke with a computer.
There's a good chance that writers' and performers' royalties aren't high - if they exist at all after crappy deals, contracts and sales of rights.
Easy to publicise with the internet - especially with the right algorithms on social media and browser advertising.
Then it can all go on Spotify, etc and the artist can end up with a fraction of a penny, if he still has the rights left.
Oh, okay. Yeah, sure.
DeleteThough in the case of Spirit, I don't think their fans are necessarily Spotify-members. These guys are old school record/CD buyers. And, I mean, Randy California more or less self-released every Spirit album after 1984 or so. So there's not much haggling that needs to be done, a friend of Randy's (Mick Skidmore) compiles all this archive, non-major label stuff. But since that gets bought, I imagine the major labels see some money in remastering/repackaging albums like Sardonicus.
It's great that Randy's legacy is being supported and sustained by a "cottage industry" approach, and that his estate is benefiting from it. It's worked for other people as well.
DeleteA small operation can often be more profitable with fewer overheads and less people in the "chain" wanting their cut. I've only ever recorded one album, but we handled all the business ourselves and ended up with a not inconsiderable sum of money.
However, for those artists who haven't got someone "batting" for them, it's a case of seeing many of them ripped off and their families and dependents getting nothing back.
My reference to Spotify was a swipe at the current method of listening to music - streaming - which accounts for most music sales. It's pitifully badly paid no matter where you stream from, even if you're a "name", although your popularity will increase your streaming revenue.
Yeah, no question that streaming is a huge rip-off, no wonder artists now only make money of live shows. I read an anecdote, where a name artist - not a superstar, but a known dude (I just forgot who he and his band were) was asked about streaming. He held up the box of Pringles he was eating and said that 250.000 streams of their best known hit would buy him this single box of Pringles. Or you know, maybe it was 500.000. The point was, he - as every other artist - was getting ridiculous sums (something like 0.002 cents per song streamed) that can in no way make you live off your music.
DeleteWhat's more, it's a totally legal rip-off. It's amazing that it ever got to this stage.
DeleteArtists would make more money from playing shows if the venues were less greedy. In the UK some venues regularly take 25% of the money taken in merchandising. Seeing as bands will only make approx 10% profit from vinyl sales, if they sell vinyl at these venues they are loosing money. I didn't know about this new 'Industry Standard Practice' until I read the interesting write-up below.
Deletehttps://thequietus.com/articles/31411-merch-venues-touring-bands
We'd sell our albums at gigs and get the full price, but if it was a festival we'd have to take a box to the record tent. They'd then keep £2 (that was pretty common, but sometimes £2.50) of the £10 we were selling the album for from each sale. I used to like meeting the people who bought our music - hard to do when the CDs were in a tent on the other side of the festival site.
DeleteWow, that's some grade A Bullshit with capital B right there. I didn't know about this, very interesting article, thanks.
DeleteThe article reminds me of the time I saw Centro-Matic in concert and the band must've been crestfallen when they saw that there were only about 15 paying customers there. I mean, it was a small venue, but still...15. I got to talking with the merch guy who no doubt was also the driver/tour manager/what have you who so so desperately tried to get me to get something from the merch table. Which I would have, but I literally only had the tran fare back home in my pocket. Ah, the life of a poor student. I felt reall bad for that dude and the band though, that must've sucked and they no doubt lost money on that adventure...
DeleteFor their 20 or 25%, the festival record tents put a pile of your CDs on the table with an "Artists appearing" sign by it. That was it. We could have upped the price, but then that might have put people off buying. Better 80% of something than 100% of nothing.
DeleteThe Chesterfield Kings
ReplyDeleteI'm not "anonymous." I'm Lopez.
DeleteTrader Horne
ReplyDeleteDidn't we already do this? If memory serves, and it rarely does, I think I voted for The Meat Puppets last time. Throbbing Gristle is pretty good too and appropo for their thing. And The Brian Jonestown Massacre is another good mashup like Camper Van Beethoven.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this re-master in glorious floppy-disk busting 320kpbs (at that rate I'm going to need almost 13 floppy disks per minute?!?! who can afford such extravagance?!)
Oh wait, bits not bytes so only about one floppy disk per minute -- cheap!!
DeleteI think we did it already awready, but th' 4/5g© are a shifting bunch of internet bums, so a different set of answers. The "talk about" thing is only a ruse to get people tapping their keyboards rather than just swooping by. Doesn't matter much what the subject is as long as the Unwritten Rule ain't broke.
DeleteBest band name is a tribute band:- It Ain't Half Man Mum, a tribute to Half Man Half Biscuit, but I think the tribute name is best. It's been a long day, sorry.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I've ever heard a Spirit album, so look forward to investigating.
I love HMHB, although I doubt the lyrics travel well outside the UK.
Delete"I'm not sure if I've ever heard a Spirit album ..."
DeleteHmm. You may as well start with this although I suspect the later, gentler albums when it was basically Randy California may be more your cup of meat. They're all good, though avoid the Stahely Brohers fake-up. From the NY Times:
"The West Coast rock group Spirit has undergone some changes since the last time it was in New York. In its Carnegie Hall concert Saturday night two new players, Al Staehely on bass and his brother, Christian Staehely, on guitar, were the dominant factors in the group's revamped sound.
In its earliest days, Spirit used the gifted drumming of Ed Cassidy as the basis of a style that often was closer to jazz than it was to rock. With the addition of the Staehely brothers the group has developed a peculiarly schizophrenic character.
Al Staehely, the bassist, takes most of the vocals and prances around the stage like a sun‐tanned surfer version of Rod Stewart; unfortunately, however, he does not have a voice to back up the mimickry.
When the Staehelys are dominating the proceedings, rock ‘n’ roll—West Coast style —is the order of the evening. But when Spirit dips back into its older material, a vastly more interesting quality begins to break through, abetted by Cassidy's remarkable — if sometimes too showboaty — drumming.
All in all, then, the new version of Spirit is a gifted, if identifyless rock group. I can't help wonder whether the metamorphosis hasn't left something valuable behind."
The album (Feedback) is genuinely third rate, and don't let Allmusic tell you any different.
I'd suggest Son Of Spirit - https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/12/spirit-of-sunday-dept.html
I used to have some Randy California tapes, BBC Live at Reading Festival from 1982 comes to mind.
DeleteGoing to listen to Sardonicus today, thanks.
Band name - Lothar and the Hand People
ReplyDeleteYess! Dull albums, though but.
DeleteDundee punk combo The Scrotum Poles
ReplyDeleteHowdy Shug - I see from my files you are sadly remiss in the screed department!
DeleteLotsa great band names...here's one: The Federal Duck. (Humorist Dave Barry was a member during his college years, but was gone by the time the band recorded their only LP.)
ReplyDeleteAnother one:
ReplyDeleteThe Swimming Pool Qs
Another half dozen to throw into the pot from those golden years of the late seventies when calling yourself something short and snappy like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark was just not good enough.
ReplyDeleteAlberto y Lost Trios Paranoias
Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds
Those Naughty Lumps
Wah! Heat
Clive Pig and the Hopeful Chinamen
Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop
The Beatles. Always a sucker for a well thought-out pun. Oh, and Thick Pigeon.
ReplyDeleteWell, this isn't a real band as we never played a gig, just a lot of beer n' cigarettes rehearsals in a Berkeley garage. But I always thought it was a good name. Anyway, 1977, since anyone could start a band, we did. I'd read that Lou Reed named the Velvet Underground after an S&M novel, and rather than go into THAT sort of store, I used the movie section of the San Francisco Chronicle. It had regular movies on one page and the XXX stuff at the back of the section. I picked off of a double bill, and we were yclept The Chinese Torture Girls. We thought it was great because we weren't Chinese and weren't girls. The other name on the bill was "HOT NAZIS" which was given serious consideration but rejected because...well....Nazis. There was apparently some sort of line we weren't will to cross.
ReplyDeleteYour sensitivity and restraint do you enormous credit.
DeleteMy favorite band name is...Te Band
ReplyDeleteSorry...THE Band
ReplyDeleteThere should be a tribute band called Teh Band.
DeleteHard to beat Els Masturbadors Mongolics from Barcelona
ReplyDeleteDiego