Maureen Tucker - Life in Exile After Abdication (1989)

Rock & roll is supposed to be a populist medium that provides a musical voice for anyone with the wherewithal to pick up an electric guitar and learn three chords. So how come the majority of its practitioners are physically and/or emotionally adolescent males who can't think of anything better do to than complain about girls? Maureen Tucker blazed many trails in the 1960s as the drummer with the Velvet Underground, but by the 1980s she was a single mother in her mid-forties, raising a family in Georgia and supporting herself with a day job at Wal-Mart. That hardly sounds like the bio of a typical alternative rock musician, but it also means she had a lot more to say about life and where it can take you than most people who pop up on the CMJ charts, and in 1989 she poured a bunch of her life experiences into the album Life in Exile After Abdication. While a number of Tucker's better-known friends stopped by to help her out on these sessions -- including Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, Jad Fair, and Daniel Johnston -- this album bears the unmistakable stamp of Moe's personality from start to finish, with songs about the joys of payday, the agonies and responsibilities of work, the loss of old friends, and the liberating power of stripped-down rock & roll. Tucker's songs are smart without the slightest hint of pretension, and discuss the realities of working-class life in a way you usually have to turn to country music to hear on record (punk rock may have made it fashionable to sing about the inequities of capitalism, but no one wrote about the misery of working for Sam Walton like Tucker did on "Spam Again"). And while her plain, homey voice makes her sometimes sound like the lady down the street, she can also shout with authority and enthusiasm, and she can still beat a drum kit like no one else (she's pretty good with a guitar, too). If you ask yourself, "What does a middle-aged woman know about rock & roll?" Life in Exile After Abdication answers, "In Maureen Tucker's case, more than most 20-year-old boys will ever know." It's an album that proves just how much rock & roll can say about life as a grown-up in the real world. (Mark Deming, All Music Guide).

Tracklist
1 Hey Mersh!
2 Spam Again
3 Goodnight Irene
4 Chase
5 Andy
6 Work
7 Pale Blue Eyes
8 Bo Diddley
9 Talk So Mean
10Do It Right
11Guess I'm Falling In Love
12Baby What You Want Me To Do (2:40)
13Why Don't You Smile Now (2:21)
14Hey, Mr. Rain (4:01)

Ripped at 320 kbps
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The Leaving Trains - Well Down Blue Highway LP (1984) Vynil-rip

An indie-rock subversive who has been known to perform in dresses almost as much as his ex-wife Courtney Love, Falling James (Moreland) has led the Leaving Trains with a revolving lineup since the group formed in 1980. Originally in a Los Angeles punk band named the Mongrels during 1978-79, Falling James formed the Downers in 1980 (with David Roback, later of Mazzy Star, and John Hoffs, the brother of the Bangles sisters) and then the Leaving Trains later that year, with guitarist Manfred Hofer, bassist Tom Hofer, keyboard player Sylvia Juncosa and drummer Hillary Laddin. The band gigged around the area during the next three years, but included only the Hofer brothers by the time Leaving Trains debuted on vinyl with 1984's Well Down Blue Highway, on Bemisbrain/Enigma Records. (From Allmusic.com)
Great and rare to find album.

Tracklist
a1 Bringing Down the House
a2 Leaving Train
a3 All My Friends
a4 Always Between Wars
a5 You Can't See
a6 I Am in a World Crash With You
a7 March 7th
b1 Hometown Blues
b2 She Knows the Rain
b3 Creeping coastline of lights
b4 Virginia city
b5 Going Down to Town

Ripped from vynil at 320kbps

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El Guapo - Untitled 7" (1997) Vynil-Rip

First untitled 7" by Washington DC Band El Guapo, known as Supersystem since the mid 2000s and now defunct. Released on Red Skies at Night (RED001). Vinyl rip at 320, still quite clicky and scratchy but this seems quite hard to find in better condition. Math Rock Post-Hardcore?
(This release on discogs, the band on wikipedia)

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John Doe - Forever Hasn't Happened Yet (2005)

Tracklist
1. THE LOSING KIND
2. HEARTLESS
3. MAMA DON'T
4. TWIN BROTHER
5. HWY 5
6. WORRIED BROW
7. YOUR PARADE
8. THERE'S A BLACK HORSE
9. READY
10.SHE'S NOT
11.REPEAT PERFORMANCE

Maggiori info qui

Ripped at 256kbps
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John Doe - For the Rest of Us

Originally an EP called For the Rest of Us (1998, Kill Rock Stars), Yep Roc's new version is a full-length, now entitled For the Best of Us. This new, expanded version includes five previously unreleased songs recorded during the same sessions as the EP. "I want to put it out again because we can and because it sounds cool," says Doe. And he's right, it does sound cool. It sounds great. Ever since the landmark discography of the punk rock band X, Doe has been a vital, poetic and important figure in the world's musical landscape. For the Best of Us represents some of his most exciting work and marks the beginning of his fruitful collaboration with producer Dave Way (Macy Gray, Sheryl Crow) that has since yielded four albums, including 2005's Forever Hasn't Happened Yet, which was hailed by a long list of critics as one of the top ten albums of 2005. There's an all star band on For the Best of Us featuring Smokey Hormel (Johnny Cash, Tom Waits, Beck) on guitar, Joey Waronker (REM, Beck) on drums, and Tony Marsico (Matthew Sweet) and Steve McDonald (Redd Kross) sharing duties on bass. And because there was no record company or specific release in mind when recording the album, the sense of adventure and freedom is audible. "We recorded it in '96 and '97, a time when things were still pretty open as far as interpreting rock and roll music," Doe says. "So, we certainly felt that - a sense of adventure - when recording it."

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