Fate Music

Category: Rock Bottom

  • The December ’85 Garcia Band Shows

    LN jg1985-12-14.jgb.all.aud-CC.137723.flac1644 LN jg1985-12-15.jgb.all-1.aud-CC.137724.flac1644 LN jg1985-12-21.jgb.all.aud-gale.14980.shn2flac LN jg1985-12-22.jgb.all.aud-gale.14981.shn2flac seealso: LN jg1985-10-14.jgb.all.aud.138028.flac1644 Earlier this year I posted listening notes on four JGB shows from August 1985, and here I do the same for December of the same year. It’s relatively feasible to do this for Rock Bottom shows because they are fun sized, with sets regularly clocking…

  • Wabbit Hunting with Garcia and Kahn in Oakland and Guerneville, August 17-18, 1985

    I shouldn’t be mean. But posterity might not recall that many characterized Jerry’s vocal sound in 1985 as resembling Elmer Fudd, so I am doing it for future generations. You can thank me later. Not much to report. While the Dunsmuir House and Gardens maybe have been a cool place to see Jerry on an…

  • The August ’85 Electric Shows

    LN jg1985-08-04.jgb.all.aud-connor.11041.shn2flac LN jg1985-08-05.jgb.all.aud-connor.11121.shn2flacLN jg1985-08-09.jgb.all.aud-connor.11131.shn2flacLN jg1985-08-10.jgb.all.aud-connor.11145.shn2flac Waaayyyy back when, in the early lossless era, when shn ruled the roost and files could best be had by FTP (though some grabbed binaries from usenet groups), Charlie Connor’s August 1985 Jerry Band tapes were pretty special. They still are, in the sense that they sound nice (patched…

  • In Case of Emergency, Break Glass: JGB at Keystone, March 22, 1984

      LN jg1984-03-22.jgb.all.aud-corley.22191.shn2flac Over the years, I thought that maybe February ’82 was my least favorite JGB month, supplying a “warmish-dampish-Motel-6-towel feeling, without the hygiene”, the drugs starting to really take their toll, not so much terrible as just vaguely gross. Well, it has come to my attention that March 1984 is pretty bad, too. I…

  • Alice Kahn Fall 1984 interview annotations

    These are for my purposes, no pretense to completeness. I find his comments about Joe Garcia to be quite revealing. There are a few other good nuggets in here. Man, even in the depths of his Rock Bottom period, he sounds engaged and articulate. What a mind! ~~~~~~~~~~~ Fall 1984 interview by Alice Kahn. Date…

  • The Shortest Two-Set Electric Show? JGB at the Stone, Sunday, September 16, 1984

    LN jg1984-09-16.jgb.all.aud-jjoops.97573.flac1644 A little dive into the Rock Bottom period yields this pearl of an electric JGB show – two four-tune sets clocking in around a half-hour of music each. I don’t really note anything much about the performance, other than its brevity and Garcia’s unsurprising vocal limitations. I don’t want to be mean. I am…

  • Santa Cruz Blues

    LN jg1985-10-16.jgjk.all.sbd-Miller.139756.flac1644 One of the most widely bootlegged Garcia performances, alongside the ’82 Oregon State Penitentiary gig, is another Garcia-Kahn acoustic duet performance from the Catalyst in Santa Cruz on October 16, 1985. As with other beautiful recordings from this venue, an enterprising insider made a 4-channel tape combining stereo sbd feed and stereo ambient…

  • Acoustic Sing-Along at the Stone: Garcia and Kahn, September 27, 1985

    I don’t have a ton to say about this – it’s about what you’d expect. Two sets below the 45-minute Minnelli Line, voice bad to start and shot by the end. But, besides the fact that this was taped by the lovely Don Dearth, who was my third grade teacher, the best part about this…

  • Above Ground, But Below the Minelli Line: JGB, The Stone, August 9, 1985

    A decade before the final fall, Garcia played another Friday night at the Stone. I still think of this as the Rock Bottom period, even though he is clearly recovering. Two sets below the Minelli Line (45 minutes), the whole gig fits snugly on a single Maxell, with room for filler on the B-side. Nothing…

  • I stand corrected: it is that bad

    The pithy title I gave to a set of 8/24/84 listening notes (s1 only) was “It’s not that bad, given how much Persian he was doing.” I stand corrected. Yes, yes it is. It is *that bad*. Here are notes on the three consecutive tracks of s2: ! P: s2t01 HTC … these vocals are…