Unholy Modal Rounders
July 4th Weekend 1975
Inman Square Men's Bar
Boston
Master Soundboard Reel
Peter Stampfel (Violin, Banjo, Vocals), Paul Presti (Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals), Kirby Pines (bass), anyone else? I don't remember.
The taper's Notes:
I first saw the UMR in May of 1975 at CBGBs. I asked Peter if I could tape, he said sure. When I heard that they were playing in Boston for July 4th I packed my reel and headed up from NYC to join them. It was a fairly eventful weekend. During the drive through Connecticut I heard on the radio that NRBQ would be playing at Powder Ridge that Sunday so I stopped off on the way home and taped it off the soundboard and will post that sooner or later. That's another story. Copies of that are around anyway.
After the first night's gig of the UMRs, Michael Hurley showed up at the house that we were staying at and since he brought along a bunch of demo tapes that he had, well, I copied those also. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. I don't think that I can post those but I'll ask him the next time that I see him. Could be 10 years the way things are going.
The UMR tapes have sat on a shelf for just about thirty years now and the statute of limitations must have expired. The mix is a bit strange. The vocals are mostly in one channel and the instruments are split among both channels. Usually I did a blind mix of my two mikes into the soundboard feed, adjusting the volume until I saw the levels change. Taping in small places requires something like that since much of the music is not piped through the board. There was likely only a single mono board feed going into one channel and it sounds like I miked Peter's amp into the other channel, then mixed another mike with Paul and Kirby's amps into the board channel. Maybe.
This is also pretty early UMR. Charlie Messing hadn't joined the band yet and he added quite a bit to the lineup. Jeff Berman played drums later but I guess he hadn't joined yet either. I seem to hear a guitar that I can't identify on these tapes and it might be Kirby.
A caveat: I understand that there will be an official UMR album released sooner or later. Those guys did not make a whole lot of money and I don't want to be responsible for costing them any sales. If you like this music, please support Peter and the others by buying a copy or two. They will make swell gifts for all of your friends. Besides, you'll likely get the full band on that one. And if you don't have Have Moicy in your collection, buy that now. You won't be sorry.
Paul Presti died a few years after this recording, and recently a relative posted a message to the Have Moicy list asking for remembrances of Paul. I really liked Paul and I thought that his voice was a perfect counter to Peter. So I dug the tapes out and spent some time preparing a CD to send. Without meaning to sound hokey I think that Paul still lives through the music; certainly he does for me. And once a CD is out there in the real world, well, it might as well spread around. So this is dedicated to Paul.
Usually when I prepare a show for posting I just run it off as is. This time I ran through four separate burns before I was reasonably happy with it. I didn't have a whole lot of money, or tape, back in 1975. I cut out some between song stuff just to make sure that I got all the music. So I spent some time making the transitions as even as I could, and evened out some of the volume swings and a few assorted pops, crackles, and clicks. The CD is basically the first two (of three) sets from July 5th and since I had some time left over, I picked a few tracks from July 4th and stuck them at the end.
Enjoy.
dgk, March 2005
First Set July 5th 1976:
Low Down Dog
Please Don't Bury Me
Hesitation Blues (Paul on Shotglass slide)
Don't Monkey With The Widow
Happy Scrapple Daddy
Grandpa
Endless Highway
If You Wanna Be A Bird > Wild Blue Yonder
Second Set July 5th:
Black Jack Davy
Old Kentucky Home
Goofus (broken string noise)
Melinda
Patriotic Songs
Goofus
Midnight In Paris
Haul The Woodpile Down
Flop Eared Drink
July 4th bonus tracks:
Chittlen Cookin' Time In Cheatham County
Happy Time
Griselda
Old Man Mose Is Dead
Year of Jubaloo
Hoodoo Bash
The Splendors - Naked - The Splendors
Colin Blunstone - Smoky Day - One Year (Columbia)
Heaven 17 - Fascist Groove Thang - Penthouse & Pavement (Virgin)
Steinski-Radio Advertising Bureau - Theatre of the Mind - private recording
The Flock - Crabfoot - Dinosaur Swamps (One Way)
Elvans Road - Summer Free Fo' All - Super Fly Soul (Union Square)
Cookin' Bag - This Is Me - Wheedle's Groove (Light In The Attic)
Soul Coughing - Screenwriter's Blues - Billboard magazine promo disc (Warner Bros)
Coldcut - Walk A Mile In My Shoes - Sound Mirrors (Ninja Tune)
DJ Qbert - Invasion of the Octopus People = Wave Twisters (Galactic Butt Hair)
Be Bop Deluxe - Blazing Apostles - Sunburst Finish (Harvest)
Death By Chocolate - Who Needs Wings to Fly - Death By Chocolate (Jetset)
Puerto Muerto - With a Little Help from my Friends - MOJO presents Sgt Pepper (MOJO)
R. Stevie Moore - Alicia - Contact Risk (rsteviemoore dot com)
The Unlovables - Bein' In Love - Crush Boyfriend Heartbreak (Whoa Oh)
The Velvet Underground - The Gift - White Light White Heat (Polydor)
Tori Amos - A Case of You - Spew U (Atlantic Records promo CD)
Michael Viner's Incredible Bongo Band - Apache - Bongo Rock (Mr Bongo)
Simon & Garfunkel - Fakin' It - The Best of S&G (Columbia)
Frank Zappa - Carolina Hardcore Ecstasy - FZ-OZ (zappa dot com)
Flaming Groovies - Slow Death - Punk Legends (Jungle Freud)
Fit & Limo - Terra (September Gurls Records)
The Generic Band (from Ithaca!) - The Dr Ruth Rap (7-inch) (Generic)
