• Nada Surf’s The Weight Is a Gift, which was a birthday present from Bryan. [Thanks, Big Time!]
  
• Sandra McCracken’s Red Balloon. It’s nice to have my physical copy.
  
• 17 Feb 1994 [Charlottesville, VA, USA] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. 1994-02-17: Trax, Charlottesville, VA, USA (disc 1) and 1994-02-17: Trax, Charlottesville, VA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 5 Mar 2006 [Chapel Hill, NC, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2006-03-05: Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA (disc 1) and 2006-03-05: Memorial Hall, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA (disc 2).
  
• 7 Oct 2006 [Cincinnati, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2006-10-07: Tall Stacks, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
  
• 17 Apr 2008 [Austin, TX, USA] concert bootleg of Son Volt. 2008-04-17: Antone's, Austin, TX, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-17: Antone's, Austin, TX, USA (disc 2).
  
• 22 May 2008 [Manchester, England] concert bootleg of Feist. 2008-05-22: Palace Theatre, Manchester, England.
  

Here’s what I did the last time around, a month ago …

• George Strait’s Strait From the Heart. I found this to be right in the wheelhouse—three stars.
  
• Nirvana’s From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. I found it a bit uneven—great in spots, meh in others. Three stars.
  
• 5 Sep 1993 [Copenhagen, Denmark] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. 1993-09-05: Cafe Rust, Copenhagen, Denmark. Somehow, I still haven’t gotten to this one. It’s been that kind of month. 5 Nov: Another one where I might as well have not bothered. Two stars.
  
• Wilco’s Summerteeth Demos. Summerteeth Demos. Three stars—the finished product is, of course, much better.
  
• 17 Dec 2005 [Cincinnati, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2005-12-17: The Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2005-12-17: The Taft Theatre, Cincinnati, OH, USA (disc 2). Still haven’t listened to this one, either. Man. 5 Nov: PASS. I gave it two stars, but I don’t think it deserved that. Omni mics + large room + lots of bass = bad. I’ve made those recordings.
  
• 17 Mar 2006 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2006-03-17: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN, USA (disc 1) and 2006-03-17: Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN, USA (disc 2). Three-and-a-half stars, and it would be better if the Ryman didn’t suck when it comes to taping.
  
• 25 Aug 2008 [Hollywood, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Radiohead. 2008-08-25: Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 1) and 2008-08-25: Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood, CA, USA (disc 2). Stop me if you’re surprised that I haven’t listened to this, either … didn’t think so. 5 Nov: Outdoor shows are hard as hell to record. Two-and-a-half stars.
  

• Feist’s Open Season.
  
• Alejandro Escovedo’s Real Animal.
  
• The Velvet Underground’s eponymous album.
  
• 15 Jun 2006 [Northampton, MA, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2006-06-15: Iron Horse Music Hall, Northampton, MA, USA.
  
• 24 Jun 2007 [Northampton, MA, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2007-06-24: Pines Theater, Northampton, MA, USA (disc 1) and 2007-06-24: Pines Theater, Northampton, MA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 29 Jun 2007 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Sandra McCracken, Derek Webb, and Bleu. 2008-06-29: 12th and Porter, Nashville, TN, USA (disc 1) and 2008-06-29: 12th and Porter, Nashville, TN, USA (disc 2).
  
• 6 Aug 2008 [Boston, MA, USA] concert bootleg of Gnarls Barkley. 2008-08-06: Wilbur Theater, Boston, MA, USA
  

Last week was uneven, but the good stuff was very good:

• Sandra McCracken’s Red Balloon. Predictably, I love it. There are a couple moments on the record that I don’t get, but all in all, I think this lives up to the hype that Derek has been giving it. Four stars.
  
• Nirvana’s In Utero. Sadly, it doesn’t have the punch that Nevermind did, probably understandable as a sophomore major-label release. That, plus a dalliance into noise rock that I didn’t enjoy, got it two-and-a-half stars from me. The goods are great! The bads are … meh.
  
• Jackopierce’s Promise of Summer. Quite, quite enjoyable. A four-star record for me, and I’ll be getting more JP records from the back catalog. [See? Giving stuff away for free works.]
  
• 3 Feb 2006 [Las Vegas, NV, USA] concert bootleg of Coldplay. So meh. A distant recording from the audience, and … eh. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 26 Oct 2007 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. Fan-fucking-tastic. Four-and-a-half stars. If you love OtR, get it. Go. Now. You. NOW.
  
• 17 Jul 2008 [London, England] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. Also kinda distant, but with a better base to start with. Three stars.
  
• 26 Jul 2008 [Anchorage, AK, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. No, I didn’t pick this in honor of Sarah Palin. This is the band whose debut release was titled A.M.; sadly, it sounds like it was recorded from an AM broadcast: over-compressed, tinny, and muddled. An example: when the band does their Wall of Noise trick in the opening cut, “Via Chicago”, everything is … the same sound level. Jeff is clearly heard. This … just isn’t the way it ought to be at all. Having looked at the mic used in the recording, I’m guessing that this is the sound guy’s fault, or perhaps just crappy mains. But, you know, if I lived in Anchorage, I really wouldn’t give a shit, because Wilco rocks. The good thing is that we get two new songs out of it, and new songs? Always good. The rating is two stars.
  

Nirvana’s Nevermind. Nope, never actually owned my own copy.

The Cardigans’ Life.

Over the Rhine’s Live From Nowhere, Volume Three.

16 Jul 2006 [Florence, MA, USA] concert bootleg of The Autumn Defense. 2006-07-16: Pines Theater, Florence, MA, USA

17 May 2008 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2008-05-17: The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, USA (disc 1) and 2008-05-17: The Pageant, St. Louis, MO, USA (disc 2).

23 Jun 2008 [Santa Monica, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Death Cab for Cutie. 2008-06-23: Morning Becomes Eclectic, KCRW-FM, Santa Monica, CA, USA

22 Jul 2008 [San Diego, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Feist. 2008-07-22: Humphrey's, San Diego, CA, USA (disc 1) and 2008-07-22: Humphrey's, San Diego, CA, USA (disc 2).

Last week:

• R.E.M.’s Murmur. Admittedly, I haven’t given this enough of a listen [just getting to it on Saturday], but I’m just not feeling it yet. I’ll keep trying, but right now, it’s just a three-star record on my radar.
  
• George Strait’s Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind. I don’t like a whole lot of country music, but there’s just … something about George Strait’s voice. I figure between George and Lyle Lovett, I can get all the country I ever need in my life. [And I still blame my junior-year-at-MSMS roommate, Thomas, for listening to country music in the first place. I had two choices: listen to country or kill him. I chose the former. But working in country radio right out of high school pretty well fixed me on listening to too much country.] So yeah, I’m going through Strait’s catalog some. Three stars, if you like country.
  
• The Cardigans’ Emmerdale. For a band with this much rock and roll chops—Peter Svensson and Magnus Sveningsson had been in heavy metal bands prior to The Cardigans—it’s weird to hear a pop record from them, but it’s still solid, because Nina Persson’s voice is stellar. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Apr 2008 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. The mix is just off, but I’m afraid that there’s not much to be done about it by the taper, given that it seems like everything was done that was possible with the AUD part of the mix. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 28 Apr 2008 [Los Angeles, CA, USA] concert bootleg of She & Him. Persic is one of the best tapers I know, so I lay all the fault here on the vocalists—not only Zooey [who just needs to get more stage presence, which should shock no one who's read about her on the Internet at this point], but whoever was doing the bgv’s, too. But the musicianship of the band is great … three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 16 May 2008 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. The musicianship is great. The recording is solid. It just … doesn’t really feel like I’m there, which is pretty much my standard for bootleg recordings. I guess I’m faulting Steve’s mix here, which rightly focuses on the music, but feels like it weighs a bit too heavy on the SBD patch. I’m not saying that it’s not good; I’m just saying that I guess I think it could be better. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Jul 2008 [Santa Monica, CA, USA] concert bootleg of Gnarls Barkley. It’s obvious that they still haven’t gotten comfortable with being interviewed, but man … a fun listen nonetheless. Four stars.
  

• Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy. BMG finally decided that they weren’t shipping this to me, so I bought it on Amazon. Feh.
  
• The Cardigans’ Super Extra Gravity. Part of the binge I went on lately was filling out my Cardigans discography.
  
• Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.
  
• 25 Oct 1997 [Utica, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Blues Traveler. 1997-10-25: Utica Memorial Auditorium, Utica, NY, USA (disc 1), 1997-10-25: Utica Memorial Auditorium, Utica, NY, USA (disc 2), and 1997-10-25: Utica Memorial Auditorium, Utica, NY, USA (disc 3).
  
• 1 Sep 2007 [Denver, CO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. 2007-09-01: The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO, USA (disc 1) and 2007-09-01: The Fillmore Auditorium, Denver, CO, USA (disc 2).
  
• 26 Apr 2008 [Dayton, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. 2008-04-26: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2008-04-26: Canal Street Tavern, Dayton, OH, USA (disc 2).
  
• 27 May 2008 [Milan, Italy] concert bootleg of Feist. 2008-05-27: Magazzini Generali, Milan, Italy
  

Last week:

• Radiohead’s In Rainbows. Admittedly, I’ve never really gotten into Radiohead, the way Amy’s never gotten into Wilco. But I really liked this one. Four stars.
  
• Angels & Airwaves’ I-Empire. I was fully prepared to hate it, but it was merely okay. There are some decent moments, but it feels too … processed and commercial … for my tastes. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 18 Jul 1990 [New York, NY, USA] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. A fun, fun listen from a by-gone era. Three stars.
  
• 4 Aug 1997 [Atlanta, GA, USA] concert bootleg of Counting Crows. I’m always tempted to give old recordings a break when I review them, but at the end of the day, well, if I rate them too highly, then I’ll have to listen to them too often in iTunes. [I listen to iTunes nearly exclusively in Party Shuffle mode.] This sounds like a bad FM radio broadcast from just slightly out of the coverage area—treble-heavy, static-y, and generally plain bad. One-and-a-half stars, but only because it’s Adam Duritz in his good years.
  
• 6 Jul 2002 [Bushnell, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. I’m impressed that a six-year-old bootleg sounds this good. This is exactly how an AUD should sound, to my ears—a faithful representation of how the room sounded. Given that this took place under a tent at Cornerstone, it’s all the more impressive. Jeff, if you did record this, you deserve kudos, sir. Four stars.
  
• 16 Oct 2007 [Montréal, QC, Canada] concert bootleg of Spoon. Sadly, the recording is distant and indistinct. Two stars.
  
• 2 Mar 2008 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. Freakin’ Ryman and their no-recording rules. No wonder this recording stinks. One-and-a-half stars. [Seriously, I hate the Ryman for that. It's all stealth rigs. Nazis.]
  

Also, I’m going to start putting links in to MusicBrainz URLs for releases. I spend time putting those in for the bootlegs, so I should show the work, eh?

• Nick Drake’s Pink Moon.
  
• Sigur Rós’s Takk.
  
• 2 Sep 2002 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. MusicBrainz URLs: 2002-09-02: Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, USA (disc 1) and 2002-09-02: Bumbershoot, Seattle, WA, USA (disc 2).
  
• 24 May 2003 [Akron, OH, USA] concert bootleg of Over the Rhine. MusicBrainz URLs: 2003-05-24: Lime Spider, Akron, OH, USA (disc 1) and 2003-05-24: Lime Spider, Akron, OH, USA (disc 2).
• 30 Jul 2006 [Council Bluffs, IA, USA] concert bootleg of 311. MusicBrainz URL: 2006-07-30: River Riot '06, Westfair Amphitheatre, Council Bluffs, IA, USA.
• 4 May 2007 [Seattle, WA, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. MusicBrainz URL: 2007-05-04: The Paramount Theater, Seattle, WA, USA.
  
• 18 Jul 2007 [Phoenix, AZ, USA] concert bootleg of Snow Patrol. MusicBrainz URL: 2007-07-18: Dodge Theater, Phoenix, AZ, USA.
  

Last week was average:

• My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me the Workhorse. Admittedly, My Brightest Diamond is not the most accessible thing. When I first saw her open for Sufjan Stevens in 2006, I spent the first fifteen to twenty minutes of her set going, “The heck?” Then, something clicked. Not sure what, but … something did. “Golden Star” is a favorite of mine. The control that Shara Worden has over her voice is largely unseen in popular music, but belies her operatic background. Three-and-a-half stars.
  
• 25 Aug 1989 [St. Louis, MO, USA] concert bootleg of Uncle Tupelo. It’s an old, fuzzy recording, but you can just smell the raw talent of the band. As I listened to this, I thought once again about how I always liked Jay Farrar’s voice better for what UT was doing, but after the split, I’m definitely a Tweedy guy. Can’t imagine the disappointment I’d feel if I’d followed UT back in the day, hoping that Son Volt would be a fully worthy successor to the band. Two-and-a-half stars.
• 4 Sep 1998 [Rockford, IL, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. A decent era of the band, but unsatisfying for me: I didn’t like the background vocalists, and most of the sets had a lot of the Mermaid Avenue stuff, which I like, but I’d rather hear original Wilco tunes. Two-and-a-half stars.
  
• 5 Apr 2007 [Nashville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of The Decemberists. The annotation that came with the bootleg termed it a “[g]reat audience recording (some crowd chatter on first few songs)”. That’s … charitable. That said, live taping is often hard in Nashville’s more popular venues [City Hall, the Ryman] because security’s really harsh on it, regardless of the artist’s taping policy. This definitely feels like a stealth recording, and it’s … passable. Two-and-a-half stars.
• 2 Sep 2007 [Denver, CO, USA] concert bootleg of Wilco. I had read high praise for this recording, and that praise is well-deserved. Four stars, even with my general apathy towards the Sky Blue Sky material.
  
• 14 Sep 2007 [Grantham, PA, USA] concert bootleg of Feist. As much as I have bagged on Feist recordings over the past few weeks, I have to praise this one. Whoever taped it knew what the heck they were doing! Four stars.
  
• 14 Sep 2007 [Goodlettsville, TN, USA] concert bootleg of Andrew Osenga. Andy forgot the condensers he was going to let me borrow, and the omnis really weren’t up to the task. Three stars, all due to the band. Taper sucked that night.