THE CONVERSION PROJECT #2

Hey, last time around I got a record player, so I could finally play records. This time, I spent 35 bucks on an old tape deck, so I could listen to tapes without them sounding like utter poop. Pretty decent one, too. It's almost as old as I am, but it's in good shape, as far as I can tell. It's an old Technics deck from all the way in 81 or so, back before dual cassette, and when tape decks had two microphone inputs and you could hear squealy crap when you rewound or fast-forwarded a certain way. It's not like a zillion-dollar Nakamichi or anything, but hey, it cost someone 200 bucks when I was a year old.
Anywho, I got this one tape a while back from Bobby, one of my old internet homeys who promotes shows down in the New Orleans area, in addition to being master and commander of the good ol' fashioned paper (and in the internet age, that means something) 'zine Paranoize. Anyway, the main things on this particular mixed tape were the albums Innocents by Only Living Witness and Watch it Burn by Cast Iron Hike, and there were also a few songs on the end of side two by some other band I had never heard of. And while the stuff by the other band was pretty awesome, the other stuff on there (particularly Innocents) was like totally awesome, and the extra stuff tacked on at the end kind of got lost in the shuffle as I wore out the tape with what are now two of my favorite records of all time on it while piddling around in my mom's 1993 Ford Tempo. But now, fast-forward to a few days ago. I had decided to pick up a copy of Mastodon's 2005 The Workhorse Chronicles DVD, since they're pretty much my favorite band on Earth at the moment and I had some weird Jones going for anything Mastodon-based. But anyway, Troy Sanders is all talking about the stuff they did before they were Mastodon, and damned if he doesn't mention that he and Brent Hinds had been in Four Hour Fogger. Holy crap, they were the kind of awesome band that I had forgotten about, because Only Living Witness was so totally awesome. I HAVE THEM ON TAPE. So now, here we are, with three and a half songs of theirs. I have no idea when these were recorded or where they came from. They might be demos, there might have been a Cd made, there could have been some vinyl pressed. I just don't know. Aside from the fact that Mastodon's bass and guitar players/dual frontmen were in the band, there seems to be absolutely no information about them on the internet anywhere, and I'm too lazy to go hunt Bobby down and ask. All I do know is that this stuff rocks, except for the fourth song, which would have rocked if the tape hadn't run out. Here you go. (And since this is only a few minutes of stuff, the Jerry Clower album I converted a little while back is still available for download)
POSSIBLY RANDOM FOUR HOUR FOGGER STUFF:
1. Triracial Isolates
2. Victim Eyes
3. Test of Toast
4. (some of) Pita Bread

THE CONVERSION PROJECT #1

Since I had the money, I bought a record player today. Actually, I bought one twice. Went to Best Buy, and they had one that was like 15 bucks off for being an open item, (red flag) so I got it. Then, I got it home, hooked it up, and realized that there was a reason it had been opened and returned, and the damn thing didn't play at the right speed. Instead of 33 RPM, it was more like 28 or so. So I took it back with the intention of trading it in for the unopened, full-priced one, and just paying the difference, only to discover that the unopened one also had the 15 bucks taken off for no apparent reason. So I wasted a bunch of time by going for the cheaper one in the first place. But anyway, yeah, I have a record player now. And I don't have many records, maybe ten or so, but a few of them aren't available on CD. So now, I've got the turntable hooked up to the computer, and I'm converting the things to a more modern format, and eventually, I'm going to get around to doing the same with a few cassettes I have.
First up is something I picked up on Ebay for like five bucks earlier this year, that really seemed as though it should have cost more than that. It's the 1971 first album by legendary Southern comedian and Grand Ole Opry star Jerry Clower, entitled Jerry Clower From Yazoo City - Mississippi Talkin.' It was never released on CD, but a few of the tracks, most famously his signature bit, "A Coon Huntin' Story," (You know, the one where he goes, "knock him out, John!") are on a few compilations that have come out over the years. I figure this should make for a nice cleansing of the palate before I convert stuff like that Sacred Reich live bootleg or those Turbonegro 7"s.
Track Listing:
1. Introduction (0:20)
2. A Coon Huntin' Story (7:24)
3. Bully Has Done Flung a Cravin' On Me (2:31)
4. Baby Goes to College (7:08)
5. Homecomin' Steaks! (1:52)
6. The Graduate Returns (8:00)
7. Marcel's Talkin' Chainsaw (3:49)
8. The Chauffeur and the Professor (4:59)
9. Good Citizenship (3:48)

It's all on nine 192 Kb/s mp3 files, all crammed into one 56 megabyte (so don't even bother if you're on dialup) ZIP file.. DOWNLOAD IT HERE. And just remember that whenever I convert something else, this file gets deleted, so if you want it, you better get it now.