Bob Weir – Irvine, CA (05/19/89)

Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman
Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre
Irvine, CA
May 19, 1989

Jerry Garcia played a set at this show, you can see it here.

Mike Millard First-Generation Tapes via JEMS
The Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Tapes Volume 161

Recording Gear: AKG 451E Microphones (CK-1 cardioid capsules) > Nakamichi 550 Cassette Recorder

JEMS 2022 Transfer: Mike Millard First-Generation Cassette > Nakamichi Cassette Deck 1 azimuth-adjusted playback > Sound Devices USBPre2 > Audacity 3.1 capture > iZotope RX > iZotope RX9 Advanced and Ozone 9 > MBIT+ resample to 16/44.1 > Audacity > xACT 2.50 > FLAC

01 Walkin’ Blues (Son House cover)
02 Twilight Time (The Platters cover)
03 Blackbird (The Beatles cover)
04 The Winners
05 Fever (Eddie Cooley cover)
06 Victim Or The Crime
07 This Time Forever
08 Easy To Slip (Little Feat cover)
09 Wasserman Solo
10 Throwing Stones

Known Faults: cut in “Throwing Stones”

Introduction to the Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone Series

Welcome to JEMSí Lost and Found Mike the MICrophone series presenting recordings made by legendary taper Mike Millard, AKA Mike The Mike, best known for his masters of Led Zeppelin done in and around Los Angeles circa 1975-77. For the complete details on how tapes in this series came to be lost and found again, as well as JEMS’ long history with Mike Millard, please refer to the notes in Vol. One: http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=500680.

Until 2020, the Lost and Found series presented fresh transfers of previously unavailable first-generation copies made by Mike himself for friends like Stan Gutoski of JEMS, Jim R, Bill C. and Barry G. These sources were upgrades to circulating copies and in most instances marked the only time verified first generation Millard sources had been directly digitized in the torrent era.

That all changed with the discovery of many of Mike Millardís original master tapes.

Yes, you read that correctly, Mike Millardís master cassettes, long rumored to be destroyed or lost, have been found. Not all of them but many, and with them a much more complete picture has emerged of what Millard recorded between his first show in late 1973 and his last in early 1993.

The reason the rediscovery of his master tapes is such a revelation is that weíve been told for decades they were gone. Internet myths suggest Millard destroyed his master tapes before taking his own life, an imprudent detail likely concocted based on the assumption that because his master tapes never surfaced and Mikeís mental state was troubled he would do something rash WITH HIS LIFEíS WORK. Thereís also a version of the story where Mikeís family dumps the tapes after he dies. Why would they do that?

The truth is Mikeís masters remained in his bedroom for many years after his death in 1994. We know at least a few of Millardís friends and acquaintances contacted his mother Lia inquiring about the tapes at the time to no avail. But in the early 2000s, longtime Millard friend Rob S was the one she knew and trusted enough to preserve Mikeís work.

The full back story on how Mikeís master tapes were saved can be found in the notes for Vol. 18 Pink Floyd, which was the first release in our series transferred from Millardís original master tapes:

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667745&hit=1
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=667750&hit=1

Weir & Wasserman, Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, Irvine, CA, May 19, 1989

We stay in 1989 and at Irvine Meadows this week for Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman, another new addition to the Lost and Found series artist list. The duo was opening up a Jerry Garcia solo set also recorded by Mike Millard, whose Grateful Dead bonafides include previously released Grateful Dead shows from LA Coliseum June 1, 1991 (Vol. 69) and Long Beach Arena December 13, 1980 (Vol. 127).

Mike made a copy of his Weir & Wasserman recording for Rob S who was perhaps the biggest Dead fan in Millard’s circle and made some great Dead tapes of his own using Millard’s methods (more on that to come).

Ostensibly, Weir & Wasserman were on tour supporting their live album released the prior year. Live included Weir classics like “Victim or the Crime,” but the Irvine setlist showcases a good deal of other material, both from the Dead world and covers like The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”

This loose-ish acoustic set easily wins over a boisterous crowd that you’ll hear on Mike’s otherwise excellent recording, which is up close and full fidelity. Samples provided.

Here’s what Rob S recalled about Weir & Wasserman at Irvine Meadows in 1989:

I saw Bob Weir & Rob Wasserman with Mike Millard at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Monday, May 15, 1989.

This was our second Grateful Dead-related concert, after I persuaded Mike to record the Dead in December of 1980 at the Long Beach Arena.

Bob Weir on acoustic guitar with Rob Wasserman on stand-up bass opened the evening for the Jerry Garcia Band, and Mike made another great recording.

#

JEMS is proud to partner with Rob, Jim R, Ed F, Barry G and many others to release Millard’s historic recordings and to help set the record straight about the man himself.

We can’t thank Rob enough for reconnecting with Jim and putting his trust in our Millard reissue campaign. He kept Mike’s precious tapes under wraps for two decades, but once Rob learned of our methods and stewardship, he agreed to contribute the Millard DATs and cassettes to the program. Our releases would not be nearly as compelling without Jim’s memories, photos and other background contributions. As many of you have noted, the stories offer an entertaining complement to Mike’s incredible audio documents.

Thanks are in order for Rob S, who provided the tape and the transfer, Professor Goody, who assessed the pitch, and mjk5510 for post production and artwork. Send your best wishes to Jim R, who underwent a successful surgery this week and is in recovery.

Finally, here’s to the late, great Mike the MICrophone. His work never ceases to impress. May he rest in peace.

BK for JEMS

Bob Weir – Berkeley, CA (07/10/88)

Bob Weir – July 10, 1988
Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA
University of California

You can see the Jerry Garcia show here.

Recording Info:
UltraMatrix SBD > Cassette Master (TDK MA-XG90)

Transfer Info:
Cassette Master (Nakamichi CR-7A) > Tascam DA-3000 (DSF 1-bit/5.6MHz) >
KORG AudioGate 4 > Samplitude Pro X3 Suite > FLAC/24
(1 Disc FLAC)

All Transfers and Mastering By Charlie Miller
charliemiller87@earthlink.net
December 3, 2017

Patch Info:
(FOB) Nakamichi 700’s > Dat (shnid=40278) supplies:
Hey Jude (complete track)
Walkin’ Blues (0:00 – 2:34)

Notes:
— Hey Jude and Blackbird with Brent Mydland
— Opened for The Jerry Garcia Band
— Thanks to Bill Reutelhuber for the patch source
— It’s a little hissy but still very good

Setlist:
01 – Hey Jude
02 – Walkin’ Blues >
03 – When I Paint My Masterpiece >
04 – This Time Forever >
05 – Shade Of Grey >
06 – KC Moan >
07 – Twilight Time >
08 – Victim Or The Crime >
09 – Throwing Stones

Encore:
10 – Encore Break
11 – Blackbird

Jethro Tull – San Luis Obispo, CA (10/04/99)

Jethro Tull
10/4/99
Christopher Cohan Center, Performing Arts Center
Cal Poly State University
San Luis Obispo, CA

7th Row Center: Neumann AK-40’s (x/y) >LC3 >KM-100’s >Beyer MV-100 >Sony TCD-D7
DAT Master transferred: Tascam DA-P1 >S/PDIF coax >HHb CDR 800 PRO
CD Master Extracted With xACT 2.24 >WAV >FLAC (Level 8), FLAC Tags Via xACT 2.53

Recorded, Transferred, FLAC, Tags, & Front-Cover Artwork By OldNeumanntapr

Disc I:

Steel Monkey
For A Thousand Mothers
Serenade To A Cuckoo
Spiral
Nothing Is Easy
Jeffrey Goes To Leicester Square
Fatman
AWOL >
A New Day Yesterday
Instrumental
Dot Com

Disc II:

Bouree
Hunting Girl
Hunt By Numbers
My God
Passion Jig >
Locomotive Breath

Encore:

Aqualung >
Living In The Past >
Cheerio

The Cal Poly Performing Arts Center is a great place to see a show. The acoustics are wonderful and the venue is not too big (1,300 capacity), so it’s very intimate. I was 7th row center for this show and the recording sounds really nice. This was my second Tull show and I thought the band was very tight. I worked the load out on this show afterwards and I never worked so hard in my life!!! It took about four of us to load a 55ft semi trailer with all of Tull’s equipment. That was the only time I ever worked at the PAC because it was back breaking work! (This was my first and last time working as a stage hand for the Performing Arts Center. I quit right after this show because I realized that all they wanted was grunt work.) I remember Tull’s road manager, in his English accent, barking out instructions like,’Flip this one end to end my pretties and stack in there on that one.’ Over and over again!! None of the crew knew that I had recorded the show and then run the gear out to my car and locked it away before joining the other ‘grunts’ and loading the truck. I still have the backstage pass, not that I was able to make use of it during the show because I was sitting like a stone in the audience!

Do NOT Convert To MP3.
Enjoy! Share freely, don’t sell, play nice, don’t run with scissors, etc. 😉

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003)

ju on the grudge 2 poster

The Criterion Channel is featuring a plethora of horror movies this month. They have at least three different horror themes going on, one of which is Japanese Horror. Naturally, I’ve seen almost all of them, but I’d never watched this sequel. I try to watch the originals again before I watch the sequel which is why you were treated to my thoughts on Ju-On: The Grudge yesterday.

This sequel is basically the same film with different characters. Once again it acts like a series of vignettes in which a bunch of people are haunted, terrified, and murdered by some evil spirits. The same evil spirits that haunted the house in the first movie (er, the third movie as there were two films before Ju-On: The Grudge). There is the creepy kid and the freaky girl who can twist her body in extreme ways.

This one does have more of a semblance of a plot and there is a bit of a through line, but it still jumbles up the chronology. It, more or less, follows horror film actress “Horror Queen” Kyoko Harase (Noriko Sakai) who is given a role in a paranormal television show. They “investigate” haunted houses and the like. For this episode, they visit the house from the last film.

Naturally, things do not go well. Nearly everyone involved in the shoot is haunted by the curse and killed. The kills remain quite effective and creepy. I might even give the ones in this film a slight edge over the last one.

There is an excellent sequence in which a woman keeps hearing a banging on her apartment wall at a certain time at night. The reasons behind it are quite clever and scary.

The way this film moves back and forth in time is much more effective than the previous one. I was often confused during the previous film, but here they will show a snippet of the same scene, albeit from a different character’s point of view, before moving on to something we haven’t seen before. Those connecting points allowed me to understand what was happening at all times. That worked for me much better than in the previous film.

But really, much like the other film, the plot in this one is just an excuse to move us from one creepy scene to another. And again this worked completely for me.

Noirvember: All the Films

Several years ago film critic Marya E. Gates created the hashtag #noirvember. That stands for film Noir + November. I’ve played along for the last four or five years and two years ago I started blogging about it.

Here’s the list of films I’ve covered so far.

Berlin Express (1948)
Beware My Lovely (1952)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956)
The Big Clock (1948)
Black Angel (1946), Second Review
The Black Glove (1954)
Blackout (1957)
The Blue Gardenia (1953)
Blueprint for Murder (1953)
Brighton Rock (1948)
The Dark Corner (1946)
Dark Mirror (1946)
Dear Murderer (1947)
The House on Telegraph Hill (1951)
Human Desire (1954)
The Face Behind the Mask (1941)
Fallen Angel (1944)
The First Power (1990)
Guilty Bystander (1950)
Johnny Allegro (1949)
The Killer is Loose (1956)
Man on the Run (1949)
Night and the City (1950)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
No Way Out (1950)
Odd Man Out (1947)
Pitfall (1948)
Reign of Terror (1949)
Rusty Knife (1958)
So Long at the Fair (1950)
Targets (1968)
This Gun For Hire (1942)
Woman on the Run (1950)

31 Days of Horror: Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)

ju on the grudge poster

A title card tells us that a Ju-On is a curse that is born when a person dies in a deep and powerful rage. The film will then spend the next 90 minutes showing us exactly what it means.

Ju-On: The Grudge was part of a cycle of Japanese horror films (collectively known as J-Horror) that came out in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Unlike their American counterparts (which were mostly self-aware slashers and other schlocky, gore-inflicted films) J-Horror tended to focus more on mood, and the psychology of fear, with plots that revolved around Japanese folklore. The violence was usually off-screen and not very graphic (though there were exceptions – I’m looking at you, Takashi Miike).

For a few years, J-horror became quite popular in America and several of them were remade by Hollywood. Someday I may do a theme where I review the Japanese horror films alongside their American remakes, but for now, we’re just talking about this one.

Ju-On: The Grudge was actually the third film in the Ju-On franchise (the previous two were straight-to-video releases) but it was the first one most of us watched (I’ve only seen this one and the first American remake).

The film is really a series of vignettes, each focusing on a different character, most of which are set in the same house located in Nerima, Tokyo.

I’ll be honest here, I just watched the film but if you paid me $1,000 to explain who each character was and what their relationship to each other is, I’d still be broke. Each vignette is so short, and each character is given so little to distinguish each other from each other I’m at a loss to tell you who is who.

They all do seem to be related to one another either by family or friendship or work. It begins with Rika (Megumi Okina) a social worker volunteer being tasked by her boss to visit an old lady at the cursed house (though neither of them realizes it is cursed at this point.) She enters to find the old lady in a daze, lying in bed. She picks her up to find that she has soiled herself.

After cleaning her up and doing a little housekeeping she hears a noise upstairs. In the bedroom, she finds a closet that has been taped over and she hears a cat meowing inside. Opening it she sees the cat and then a small, pale boy. She goes downstairs to call her boss and witnesses a black fog kill the old lady. Rika then passes out.

Others come to the house and most find themselves infected by the curse. They’ll become haunted by the boy, the cat, and the boy’s parents. Sometimes they’ll be killed inside the house, other times they’ll take the curse with them infecting their homes.

The film jumps around in time, making it a bit disorienting.

We will learn more about the boy and his family, and why they are haunting this house, but it really doesn’t matter. The plot isn’t really the point. Scaring the bejeebus out of us is the point and this film does that really well.

There are jump scares aplenty, and all sorts of creepy noises and visuals. These evil spirits appear out of nowhere – sometimes they attack, sometimes they just scare the characters, and sometimes they aren’t even seen by the character but by the audience giving us a jolt of fear. This happens so often that you’ll find yourself tensing up in anticipation, looking in corners and backgrounds half-expecting to see a ghost.

Quite a few of these sequences have become iconic for horror fans. The girl walking on all fours, contorting herself in unusual ways, the hand in the shower, the girl under the covers, etc. have all become part of our communal horror fabric.

I can’t say that Ju-On: The Grudge is a great film in any sort of artistic, cinematic sense, but it is a great one to put on late at night when you are all alone and scare yourself silly.

31 Days of Horror: All the Movies

frankenstein

I’ve watched horror movies in October for as long as I can remember. In 2022 I started blogging about them under the title 31 Days of Horror. Here’s the complete list of all the movies I’ve written about for that theme.

Black Christmas (2006)
The Blob (1988)
The Blood Spattered Bride (1972)
Body Snatcher (1993)
Castle of Blood (1964)
Cursed (2005)
Day of the Dead (1985)
The Descent (2005)
Doctor X (1932)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
Fascination (1979)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
The Final Girls (2015)
The Fog (1980)
The Forever Purge (2021)
Frankenstein (1931)
The Girl in Room 2A (1974)
Gremlins (1984)
The Grudge (2004)
Halloween (1978)
Halloween (2007)
Halloween II (2009)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982)
Halloween IV: The Return of Michael Myers (1984)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Halloween Ends (2022)
Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
The Haunted Palace (1963)
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)
The Hidden (1987)
Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
House of the Long Shadows (1983)
In the Folds of the Flesh (1971)
The Invasion (2007)
The Invisible Man Returns (1940)
The Invisible Woman (1940)
Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
Jeepers Creepers (2001)
Ju-On: The Grudge (2002)
Ju-On: The Grudge 2 (2003)
The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974)
Lady Morgan’s Vengeance (1965)
Macabre (1980)
Mark of the Vampire (1935)
Messiah of Evil (1974)
Mimic (1997)
The Mummy (1959)
The Mummy’s Hand (1940)
Murder Rock: Dancing Death (1984)
Murders in the Zoo (1931)
Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
Near Dark (1987)
The Night Stalker (1972)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 7-Film Set
Nothing Underneath (1985)
Perfect Blue (1997)
The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Ready or Not (2019)
The Return of Dr. X (1939)
The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)
Salem’s Lot (2024)
The Secret of the Blue Room (1933)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll And Miss Osbourne (1981)
Talk to Me (2022)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
Thirteen Women (1932)
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Torso (1973)
Totally Killer (2023)
Trick ‘r Treat (2007)
Urban Legend (1998)
The Velvet Vampire (1971)
Waxwork (1988)
Werewolf by Night (2022)
What Have They Done To Your Daughters? (1974)
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Who Saw Her Die? (1972)

31 Days of Horror: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

texas chainsaw massacre dark sky selects

One of the fun things about being a physical media collector is getting to display your stuff. Digital collections are great, but all you have to show for it is a hard drive (yes I know it is the actual art – the music, the films, the writing – that truly matters not the physical objects, but still…).

I love Steelbooks, collector’s editions, and Blu-rays with fun artwork. Sometimes the releases come with collectibles. Sometimes they come with really cool collectibles. The new Dark Sky 4K UHD edition of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre has a lifesized plastic chainsaw! How cool is that?

The movie is great, too. An all-time horror classic.

You can read my full film review and the set over at Cinema Sentries.

Bring Out the Perverts: In The Folds of the Flesh (1970)

in the folds of the flesh poster

This is the only film in the collection which I had not previously watched. It also happens to be the worst of the bunch, and I’d hardly call it a Giallo at all.

I’ve talked before about how most Gialli don’t make all that much logical sense. They often have plot inconsistencies and characters will behave in a nonsensical manner. But In the Folds of the Flesh is on a whole new level of nonsense. Honestly, I’m not sure I could describe everything that goes on in this film, or how any of it fits into the plot.

But I’ll try.

A convict escapes from a mental hospital. He comes across a woman who has just killed her husband and is burying him in her yard. But before he can do anything he is captured by the police. Many years later a long-lost cousin shows up to the house and is promptly murdered. Then an old friend comes to the house and he gets his head sliced off. Then the convict finds his way back to the house, tries to blackmail the family, and finds himself in an acid bath.

I think there is a police investigation and there are definitely flashbacks to a Nazi concentration camp, and probably a bunch of other stuff too. I really can’t remember. It all happens so haphazardly it was difficult to keep up. Or to care.

It is shot with psychedelic glee. There are a lot of flash zooms and kaleidoscope-y split screens. The kills (which feature quite a few decapitations) are pretty fun. And goofy.

It is overwrought and trashy. And a little bit of fun. But not enough to make me recommend it.

31 Days of Horror: The Blob (1988)

the blob poster

As I wrote in this week’s Pick of the Week, I love 1950s-era science fiction/horror films. They are oh-so-very cheesy, but often they are made by good craftsmen and they can be quite enjoyable to watch.

The 1980s saw a string of those old movies being remade. John Carpenter turned The Thing From Another World (1951), an actually pretty great Cold War metaphor into his masterpiece, The Thing (1982). David Cronenberg turned the wonderfully silly The Fly (1958) into one of the all-time great body horror films. (We could also mention Phillip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but that would bring us back to 1978 and I want to stick to the 1980s.)

In 1988 Chuck Russell got into the game and remade the goofy The Blob into a goopy, gnarly little horror film. It is my least favorite of these films, but it is still pretty great.

One of my favorite things about the film is that it introduces several characters in the beginning, people who give off Main Character Energy whom you figure will make it to the end of the film, and then it brutally murders them within the first half hour. It gives the movie that Game of Thrones feeling where nobody is really safe.

A meteorite lands just outside of a small town in California. Inside it is some gelatinous goo that feeds on human flesh and grows bigger every time it does.

The film takes time with its characters. It gives us some nice beats letting us understand them a little bit, even when it kills them soon after. This gives the movie the feeling of something more than just a big glob of goo murdering everyone.

Those kills are pretty sweet though. The special effects crew do a great job of making the blob look, well not realistic in any way, but effectively cool. The kills are varied and violent and bloody.

The plot gets pretty silly – there is a whole thing about a government agency swooping in to keep the blob safe in order to use it as a biological weapon (or did they invent it in the first place?), and the acting (led by Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith) is less than stellar. But mostly it is a lot of fun.