Game Theory, Loud Family and Scott Miller live and rare.

After seeing a number of posts on the LF/GT Facebook page regarding live and rare stuff and finding out that some of my old links no longer work, I've put this post together which rounds up all my stuff in one place.

It's all yours.

Some of the files are missing basic information - venues, exact dates etc. Any updates will be gratefully recieved. Some of the files will only be available for 14 days, but I'm looking for a more permanent home for them.

I scooped these recordings up from a variety of sources, but most of the live recordings can be traced back to "Photo" Robert Toren. I'm indebted to Oxy, Don Valentine, Mick, Lunchboy and numerous subscribers to Dimeadozen for the rest. A sincere thank you to you all.  

All the Game Theory albums have beenre-issued beautifully by the amazing Omnivore label

OMNIVORE RECORDINGS

Buy Loud family CDs, DVDs and Scotts' book "Music: What Happened?" here:

http://www.125records.com/

ALTERNATE LEARNING

ALTERNATE LEARNING EP:

(Rational Records, 1979)

Green card

What’s the Matter

Gumby’s in a coma

When she’s alone

ALTERNATE LEARNING EP

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PAINTED WINDOWS

(Rational Records 1981)

Another wasted afternoon

Sex war

The new you

Dark days

Occupation unknown

Dresden

Beach State rocking

Ulysses

Painted windows

Let’s not wait

PAINTED WINDOWS

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NEVER MIND THE DIGINOISE 1*

(This and volumes 2 and 3 below are assembled from the tracks that appeared monthly for a while on loudfamily.com. They come from a variety of sources - some are live, some are rarities and, in the case of "Vado Via", specially recorded for the site. Also included are tracks from tribute and sampler CDs)

Intro

(Unknown)

Look through any window

(Loud Family; Recorded for the compilation CD "Sing Hollies in Reverse")

When she’s alone

(Alternate Learning; From the Alternate Learning EP, recorded 1979)

Beach state rocking

(Scott Miller; solo acoustic performance from an Oct. 9th 1985 Game Theory show in Detroit - venue unknown)

Here it is tomorrow

(Game Theory; recorded on Nov. 3, 1988, at Max's On Broadway in Baltimore )

Chardonnay (long version)

(Game Theory; Included as CD copies only featured the edited version to keep the total album time within acceptable limits)

We love you Carol and Alison

(Game Theory; recorded on Nov. 3, 1988, at Max's On Broadway in Baltimore )

24

(The Loud Family; performed as an encore by Soott Miller. The track was recorded at the
Loud Family's Oct. 5, 1996 show at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco)
The Letter
(Game Theory; From the French only LP Dead Center 1986)
He do the police/beauty and the beast
(The Loud Family; recorded Feb. 1, 1993, at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco)
Back of a car
(The Loud Family; recorded Oct. 5, 1996, at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco)
Tearjerkin’
(The Loud Family; recorded April 16, 2000 at TT the Bear's Place in Cambridge, MA
Inverness (with Aimee Mann)
(Aimee Mann and Scott Miller; recorded June 28, 1996, at Bimbo’s 365 Club in San Francisco)

 

NEVER MIND THE DIGINOISE 2

Sexy Sadie

(The Loud Family; recorded July 9, 1998, at the Cactus Club in Milwaukee, Wl)

Cara Lee

(Scott Miller: recorded in 2008 for the 125 Records website)

Horse with no name

(The Loud Family: From the compilation 'Star Power' Pravda records 1995)

My free ride

(Game Theory; a Miller/Quercio composition from 1989))

Chicago and Miss Jovans Land-O-mat

(Loud Family; From the compilation Yellow Pills #4 Big Deal records 1997)

Vado via

(Scott Miller; recorded Fall 2001 at Scott‘s house )

Like a girl Jesus

(Game Theory;  recorded on Nov. 3, 1988, at Max's On Broadway in Baltimore )

We’re for the dark

(The Loud Family; from the Badfinger tribute album ‘Come and get it’)

You could make it all worthwhile

(Scott Miller: From the "Adolescent Embarrassment Fest" fan club tape; this song was written and recorded by Scott in 1977!)

Rose of Sharon

(Game Theory;  from the 1990 True Gamesters Christmas fan club tape)

A child’s Christmas saving the whales

( Game Theory; from the 1989 True Gamesters fan club recording)

Water

(Game Theory; Part 2 of the Christmas selection, taken from Game Theory’s 1989 True Gamesters fan club recording, featuring Michael Quercio)

NEVER MIND THE DIGINOISE 3

A huge thank you to Lunchboy for digging around in the dusty recesses of an abandoned hard drive and plucking these last remaining beauties from the void. As far as I know, this completes the set of files posted by Sue Trowbridge on loudfamily.com. It's Lunchboys' link to a Filefactory file. The trick is to click 'Slow download' and uncheck the box which says something like 'use Filefactory downloader'. Thanks again Lunchboy and also to Jen Grover who also raided her archives for the MP3s.

Dripping with looks

(The Loud Family; recorded on April 16th, 2000 in the studio of WFMU-FM in Jersey city, NJ)

Sword Swallower

(The Loud Family; alternate version. Recorded Aug 8th, 1998 at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco)

Together now, very minor

(The Loud Family; recorded Sep 20, 1993 in the studios of Greater London Radio, London UK )

Total mass destruction

(Loud Family; recorded 1994 at Rob Poors house in San Francisco)
Corpus Christi

(Scott Miller; cover of  an Avengers song. Recorded Dec 21, 2000 at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco )

Christmas Moog

(Scott Miller; recorded in 1977 at Scotts' parents house in Sacramento)

Crosseyed

(Scott Miller; Brendan Benson cover, recorded Dec 21, 2000 at The Bottom Of The Hill in san Francisco) 

Fairest of the seasons

(Scott Miller; Nico cover. Recorded Sept 29th, 2000 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley)

Finnegans Wake

(Scott Miller; recorded June 30, 2001 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley)

Little Daisy

(Scott Miller; Anton Barbeau cover. Recorded June 23, 2001 at The True Love Coffeehouse in Sacramento )

Revolution 9

(Scott Miller and Anton Barbeau; recorded for a 'White Album' tribute that never materialised)

Paranoid

(Scott Miller and Kenny Kessel; Black sabbath cover. Recorded June 30th, 2001 at The Starry Plough in Berkeley)

Diginoise 1

Diginoise 2

Diginoise 3

*Footnote: The compilation gets it's name from the fact that I diligently dubbed all the MP3s onto two CDs which, over time, got corrupted, with several tracks becoming unplayable. Ain't technology great?

________________________________________________

CHRISTMAS 1990 FAN CLUB CASSETTE

(Sent out to fans in the Game Theory fan club at Christmas 1990. Listen closely for tracks which were to appear on P.A.B.A.R.A.T a few months later)

Christmas 1990

________________________________________________

SACRAMENTO 1984

(Fat Fonzies) (Audience Recording)

Penny things wont

Real nighttime

Curse of the frontierland

Waltz the halls away

24

Friend of the family

Nine lives to rigel five

Aliens of our midst

I wanna get hit by a car

Shark pretty

Rayon drive

I wanna hold your hand

Fat Fonzies

________________________________________________

ATLANTA 1984

(Audience Recording)

I’ve tried subtlety

Girl with a guitar

Shark pretty

Curse of the frontierland

She’ll be a verb

24

Waltz the halls away

Rayon drive

Make any vows

Book of millionaires

Real nighttime

Never mind

Friend of the family

Like a girl Jesus

Beach state rocking

The letter

Selfish again

Atlanta 1984

________________________________________________

DETROIT 1985

(Metro Danceteria, October 4th)(Soundboard Recording)

01. ...I've Tried Subtlety  (fades in)

02. Shark Pretty

03. Curse Of The Frontierland

04. She'll Be A Verb -> ? (instrumental)

05. 24 (->)

06. Waltz The Halls Always

07. Rayon Drive

08. Never Mind

09. Make Any Vows

10. Real Nighttime

11. Couldn't I Just Tell You

12. Friend Of The Family (clipped at start)

13. Like A Girl Jesus

--encores--

14. Beach State Rocking

15. Metal & Glass Exact

16. Erica's Word

Danceteria 1985

________________________________________________

BERKELEY, 1985

(UCLA KLAX-FM 90.7 FM Radio Studios March 17th 1985 )(Radio Broadcast)

SCOTT SOLO

01. Pacing At The Station 

02. Say It Ain't So Joe
03. Chat
04. Girl With The Guitar
05. Chat
06. 24
07. Chat
08. Any Other Hand (partial version - Scott gives up!)
09. Chat
10. I've Tried Subtlety
11. Chat
12. Trouble
13. Chat
14. Back Of A Car
15. Chat
16. Any Other Hand
17. Chat
18. Where You Going Northern
19. Chat
20. Erica's Word
21. Chat


KLAX SCOTT MILLER SOLO

________________________________________________

WINSTON SALEM 1985

(Ziggy's, October 12th) (Soundboard? Recording)

01 Gloria

02 I’ve tried subtlety

03 Shark Pretty

04 Curse of the frontierland

05 Nevermind

06 Linus and Lucy

07 24 Waltz the halls away

08 Rayon Drive

09 Where you going northern

10 Make any vows

11 Here it is tomorrow

12 Real nigttime

13 Remake remodel

Winston Salem 1985

________________________________________________

BERKELEY 1985
Berkeley Square, Nov 6th  (Soundboard Recording)

01. ...? (last 1 1/2 minutes only)
02. Shark Pretty
03. Never Mind
04. Curse Of The Frontier Land
05. The Only Lesson Learned
06. Baker Street
07. 24
08. Waltz The Halls Always
09. Where You Going Northern? ->
10. Real Nighttime
11. Rayon Drive
12. Couldn't I Just Tell You
13. ...Friend Of The Family (starts late)
14. I've Tried Subtlety

First Encore :::
15. Beach State Rocking
16. If & When
17. Remake Remodel

Second Encore :::
18. I Turned Her Away
19. Dead Center

BERKELEY 1985

________________________________________________

MINNEAPOLIS 1986

(First Avenue, October 19th) (Soundboard Recording)

Rayon Drive

The only lesson learned

Like a girl Jesus

24

Waltz the halls away

Girl with a guitar

Look away

Where you going northern

Shark pretty

I've tried subtlety

Friend of the family

If and when it falls apart

Minneapolis 1986

________________________________________________

BERKELEY 1986

(Berkeley October 2nd) (Soundboard Recording)

Carrie Anne

Rayon Drive

24

Waltz the halls away

Girl with a guitar

Look away

Where you going norther

Shark pretty

I've tried subtlety

Friend of the family

Kung Fu fighting

Curse of the frontierland

Berkeley Square 1986

________________________________________________

CALIFORNIA 1987

(Stanford University, May 16th) (Soundboard Recording)

01 Not Because You Can

02 One More for St Michael

03 Little Ivory

04 We Love You Carol and Aliso

05 Here It Is Tomorrow

06 I've Tried Subtlety

07 Dripping With Looks

08 Slip Away

09 Nothing New

10 The Real Sheila

11 Shark Pretty

12 Like a Girl Jesus

Stanford 1987

________________________________________________

BERKELEY SQUARE  1988

(Berkeley 1988) (Soundboard Recording)

Erica’s world

Not because you can

Metal and glass exact

One more for St Michael

Real nighttime

Like a girl Jesus

Friend of the family

The real Sheila

Look away

Shark pretty

Chardonnay

Disrobing theme

Curse of the frontierland

Date with an angel

Remake remodel

White rabbit

Nine lives to Rigel five

LA woman

We love you Carol and Alison

Election

I’ve tried subtlety 1

I’ve tried subtlety 2

Berkeley 1988

________________________________________________

________________________________________________

LOUD FAMILY

NEVER MIND THE CAMERA CREW

(This was a promo cassette sent out to radio etc at the time of P.A.B.A.R.A.T)

Spot the wet setup

Back of a car

You can’t put your arms around a memory

Jimmy still comes around

Beauty and the beast

Take me down

Never mind the camera crew

________________________________________________

SAN FRANCISCO 1990

(Great American Music Hall, Jan 1st) (Audience Recording)

Sword swallower

Isaacs law

Spot the setup

Rosy overdrive

Aerodeliria

Jimmy still comes around

Some grand vision…

Idiot son

Wyoming

Remake remodel

Take me down

Last day that we’re young

Even you

Give in world

Like a girl Jesus

He do the police in different voices

San Francisco 1990

________________________________________________

KZSU STANFORD

(Radio Broadcast)

Sword swallower

Isaacs law

Spot the setup

Rosy overdrive

Aerodeliria

Chardonnay

Idiot son

Little ivory

Remake remodel

Take me down

And your bird can sing

Even you

KZSU Stanford

________________________________________________

LIVE 1996

Flood waters…

Spot the setup

Such little nonbelievers

Aerodeleria

Don’t respond, she can tell

Sword swallower

Uncle Lucky

Debaser

Inverness

Sodium laureth sulphate

Top dollar survivalist hardware

Baby hard to be around

Go ahead, you’re dying to

Asleep and awake…

Curse of the frontierland

We love you Carol and Alison

Jimmy still comes around

Like a girl Jesus

Couldn’t I just tell you

Live 1996

________________________________________________

SAN FRANCISCO 1998

(Terrastock Festival)

Mozart sonatas

Not expecting both contempo and classique

Crypto sicko

Good, there are no lions in the street

Where they walk over St Therese/Sodium Laureth Sulphate

Rise of the chokehold princess

I'm not really a spring

Slit my wrists

Execution day

Way too helpful

Such little nonbelievers

Asleep and awake on the mans freeway

Terrastock 1998 CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE

________________________________________________

NEW YORK CITY 2000

(Knitting Factory, April 17th)

01 Intro

02 Nice When I Want Something

03 Idiot Son

04 Backwards Century

05 Years 0f Wrong Impressions

0 Motion Of Ariel

07 The Waist And The Knees

08 Cortex The Killer

09 Don’t Respond She Can Tell

10 The Story In Your Eyes

11 Asleep And Awake On The Mans Freeway

12 Just Gone

13 720 Times Happier Than The Unjust Man

14 Sister Sleep

15 Encore Break

16 Where They Walk Over St Therese

11 Rosie Overdrive

18 Encore Break

19 Like A Girl Jesus

20 My Sharona

21 Dripping With Looks

New York 2000

 

 

Didn't we know we had it all? Scott Miller 1960-2013

I first heard the music of Scott Miller in the less than salubrious environment of the stock processing department of Virgin Records in Birmingham, UK. It was 1987. I can’t remember if it was the Mitch Easter production credit or the mentions in Bucketful Of Brains that alerted me to the existence of ‘Lolita Nation’, but when I found myself checking in a box of import LPs and it appeared (probably alongside a Japanese Jazz release and something by Modern Talking), I put it straight on the overworked record player. Fighting to be heard over the roar of three shrink-wrap machines came the sound of one of the greatest, most diverse, most ambitious, most cinematic, most confusing albums I have ever, or will ever hear. Razor sharp Pop songs rubbed up against edgy, synth-lead tunes via almost hard rock rifferama. Was that a vacuum cleaner? What did he just sing?

I was in love.

I consumed the back catalogue. Even when the records sounded like they were made in somebody’s bedroom (and they sometimes were) the songs were outstanding. From the “Alternate Learning” LP to “What If It Works?” Miller produced one of the finest bodies of American Popular Music ever.

And now he’s gone. At just 53 years of age.

The internet is now bristling with plaudits and quite right too. Sadly it’s all too late for Scott to reap the rewards of his prodigious talent, but I’m heartened by the fact that maybe a new generation will hear his music and have their horizons expanded like mine were. I’ve always thought that at some time in the future, Scott would be the subject of a career re-appraisal and critics from all over the world would fall over themselves to shower Scott with superlatives. I always figured he’d be alive to see it. It breaks my heart to know I was wrong.

(Side note… whilst on Honeymoon in the US in 2000, I found myself in Amoeba records in SF. Almost delirious with joy, I ran over to my new, superhumanly tolerant wife and exclaimed “They’ve got a Loud Family AND a Game Theory section!” She smiled and rolled her eyes. Not for the last time).

I don’t know what else to write without gushing. Scott (along with REM, The Church and a bunch of other fellow travellers) changed the way I listened to music forever and gave me a road map to some of the greatest songs I will ever hear. For about 10 years, every mix tape I ever made had “We Love You, Carol and Alison” somewhere on it. And trust me, I made a lot of mix tapes.

I was extremely touched by the message on the Loud Family website, beautifully curated by Sue Trowbridge:

“If listening to Scott's own music is too painful for you right now, as it is for me, I can tell you that he absolutely loved David Bowie's new album, The Next Day. He found Bowie's late-career resurgence to be hugely inspirational”.

That strikes me as being very “Scott”…”My music’s OK, but this guy’s stuff is REALLY good!” He apologised for his music a lot. There was no need. No need at all.

He was going to start work this summer on the first Game Theory LP since 1988. What an amazing record that would have been.

My sincere condolences go to his young family. They can take some comfort in the fact that Scott Miller was respected and admired by many, many people.

But I wish to God he was still here.   

I was a post-teenage coverband Bassist

This man's bottom is the wrong way round

It’s a time honoured scenario, played out in grey community centres almost every week. Down a dingy corridor, the walls painted hospital blue, stands a room. There is a tattered, handwritten sign Blutacked to the door which just hints at what lies within. Inside is the usual collection of debris – metal backed chairs stacked clumsily in a corner, an upended table tennis table with distressed nets and boxes of filthy costumes once used for a pantomime a lifetime ago. As well as this flotsam and jetsam are some human detritus - a dozen men sit in a ragged circle in the middle of the room. All are dressed in various shades of grey or black. None are clean shaven. The main thing they have in common is the haunted look they have in their eyes. These men are pariahs. Outcasts. The dispossessed. Some nurse plastic cups of foul tasting coffee, whilst others stare at their shoes. No one talks. No one has to. Occasionally, one will look at the wall, with its sad collection of posters for Village Fetes which were inevitably rained off or self-help groups which closed due to lack of interest. The pendulous silence is broken only by the ceaseless rain on the fly-blown windows and the buzzing of the strip lighting which casts a sickly yellow glow over everything.   I feel strangely comfortable here. These are my people and we have shared much without ever having met. Few would be willing to live how we do. After what seems like an hour, the door creaks open and another grey man enters – younger this time and carrying a brown cardboard clipboard, bristling with curling A4 paper. He talks for a while. No-one listens. The words he speaks are as familiar to these people as The Lord’s Prayer…or The Last Rites. Eventually he stops and gestures to me. Although I have never been here before, I know exactly what I must do. Unsteadily, I climb to my feet, feeling strangely calm in spite of the dryness of my mouth and the clamminess of my palms. I start to talk – my voice sounding eerily distant as the words come forth…

“Hi, my name’s Ian and I play Bass in a tribute band….”

Nowadays, it seems that  (to some musicians at least) if you play in a covers, functions or tribute band you are up there with Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot and should be shipped off to some offshore correctional facility and made to play ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ until you chew your own ears off. But to those musicians, the people that write their own material are bungling, deluded amateurs who just get in the way of the real talent and make them look bad.

Erm, aren’t we all on the same side?

This can't be the real Kiss...no one is wearing a wig.

If I see one more post along the lines of ‘it’s all tribute and cover bands round here and no-one else can get a gig’ I may cry. Speaking as a humble Bassist who’s done both the covers thing and fought in the trenches playing original music, I think I have a good idea of how it works. Guys (that’s the non-gender-specific use of the word) in covers and tribute  bands have an advantage in the early stages of their career as Joe Public kinda knows what to expect. If you see Nearvana or Byron Adams or one of the other imaginatively named combos on the scene advertised on a poster or the Interweb, you know how your evening’s entertainment will pan out. Whether they are any good or not is another thing entirely. With a band that writes their own material, you get people to gigs by sweet talking, emotional blackmail and low level bullying initially. And then you graft. And often it’s the quality of grafting and the tenacity and persistence of the band that are the deciding factors in the success of the group – more than the quality of the material. I can name a dozen great songwriters and amazing musicians who have bowed out of the musical rat race because they lack the stomach for the real hustle. And who can blame them?

As a bassist in a covers/tribute band, I have effectively capped my earnings. With the exception of The Bootleg Beatles, The Australian Pink Floyd and Oasis (KIDDING!), bands like mine never rise above the 200-300 venue ceiling. If your career takes off in an original band – “Hello Wembley”… The other gripe is that ‘Every local venue just puts on tributes’…well, that as we say in Halesowen, is BullPlop. There are a handful of local venues round these parts which specialise in cover/tribute bands, but by the same token, there are WAY more that may turn their noses up at By Jovy or MaltLoaf etc. And if you really are stuck in a venueless void, find a pub, community centre, leisure centre etc, hire/buy a vocal PA and put your own damn gig on. Guerrilla gigs are so 21^st century right now.

The prejudice works both ways, with rather superior trib musos looking down their noses at the ‘wannabees’ who write their own material. To them I say that hopefully one of those ‘wannabees’ will hire your band to play at the celebration party for their quadruple platinum album. Right now, that band playing original material may not have ‘the chops’ but they may have something way more useful – potential.

What we sometimes forget is that we’re all in the entertainment industry. Some people like to be entertained by something familiar. Some people like to seek out The Next Big Thing. These people pay our wages and they deserve something which doesn’t insult them. Rather than wasting time bitching, I suggest we go back to the rehearsal room, the kitchen table or wherever the muse may strike and get better at what we do.

Just sayin’…  

From Vegas to....Stourbridge...?

"Hey! Who's that with Jerry Scheff?"

Funny old world innit? One minute you’re on stage in Hawaii, backing quite possibly the most famous man in the world and the next you’re in a bar in the West Midlands playing with a Doors tribute band. Welcome to the world of Jerry Scheff.

Who’s Jerry Scheff? It’s a good question as long as you’re not a Bassist. If you are a Bassist and you don’t know who he is then put all your gear on Ebay and take up knitting. We’ll all wait while you do that…

Jerry is one of the ‘old school’ of session musicians, a la Carol Kaye, Bob Babbitt, Lee Sklar etc. Versatile and reliable – monster technique and perfectly willing to wear a red or white skintight sequinned jumpsuit as the need arises. Which it did a lot in the early-mid 70’s, when Jerry was Presley’s first call Bassman.

‘Yeah, all this is fascinating stuff Rushbo, you big nerd, but why are you banging on about this now?’ Well you cheeky scamp, Jerry played in a bar in Stourbridge last night, approximately four miles away from where I’m typing this. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found that out…the Rock History bore and the Bass playing geeks within me were positively vibrating with joy. So I went. And it was pretty good.

Jerry has a book out – ‘Way Down’ which chronicles his career and this gig was a plug for that as well as a bit of fun for him. He did a quick meet and greet to a motley collection of Doors fans, Presley obsessives and Bassnerds. He was happy to answer banal questions he’d heard a million times (although ‘heard’ might be the wrong word as rather alarmingly for a musician, he’s as deaf as a post…) and posed for some happy snaps. He then tottered a little unsteadily on stage to join a local cabaret/function band called Mondo Carne to run through some choice Presley tunes. He also whipped out a bunch of others including ‘Forever Young’ (he was in ol’ Bobby D’s band for years) and, rather surprisingly, ‘What’s so funny about peace, love and understanding?” He was also joined by some guys from a band called ‘The Strange Doors’ with whom he played   ‘Riders on the storm’ and ‘LA Woman’…both tracks he’d recorded with the Doors back in the 60’s.

The whole thing was just about the right side of chicken-in-a-basketness. Although Jerry looks a little bit frail (as well he might – he’s 72), I was amazed and delighted by his playing – beautifully fluent and surprisingly aggressive. I had to play ‘LA Woman’ whilst depping on Bass for a friends’ band recently and that is one tasty Bassline, boys and girls.  I can only hope that when I reach his age (hopefully!) I can still beat on the Bass with that degree of aplomb. He also seemed delighted to be playing in front of a three hundred people in a bar, considering that this is a man who has played some of the biggest venues in the world. But to be fair, there are some really great Balti houses just outside of Stourbridge – the same cannot be said for Madison Square Garden, I believe.  Good on yer, Jerry.

So, for your delectation (and as a bit of filler while I figure out what my next ‘downloadable’ post will be) here’s Mr Scheff in all his pomp, redefining perpetual motion behind Mr. E.A. Presley on ‘Suspicious Minds’. Check out the Bassline from about two minutes in. Oh my days….