Naked City, "Complete Studio Works:" any reason to buy this?

Man, those Japanese CDs were expensive. I don't think I'm ready to plop down the money again. What it boils down to for me is: re-mastered self-titled album, book, and one bonus song...for $80.

the Nonesuch debut had 8 of the short tracks
then Shimmydisc put out the Torture Garden ep which had all 42 of the short tracks
then he put out Grand Guignol which had all the short tracks that weren't on the debut... so if you have this & the debut technically you don't need the ep

but if all you really want is the concentrated micro-composed thrash & Eye of the short pieces, all you really need is Torture Garden

geek out

I downloaded a bunch of Naked City bootlegs back when I first discovered Napster, and they're a lot of fun - you get to hear Zorn lecturing the audience about who John Barry was, or running down the history of hardcore music, or making the band do second takes, or just shouting at everybody. I hear it was a stressful time.

(also I'm not positive the stuff is supposed to be like out-of-print-forever or anything, but the normal distribution channels haven't turned up any Avant titles for a while now...)

I can't picture spending that money if you already own the albums. But people who don't own the albums, or only heard the Nonesuch debut (which I'm sure way outsold the Avant imports), should get it. The only album I don't like is Heretic and even that's worth a listen.

chris, how is that live album? I skipped it because even live, they didn't deviate from the studio versions much, except for occasional drift... seeing joey baron play in person though, wow

my first encounter was the 'John Zorn Radio Hour' dj set promo... I've bought nearly everything he played on that CD since then, it was a very helpful show: http://www.bryanaaker.net/1990.html (scroll down)

Also want to vote for Absinthe as being the great underrated Naked City record. That, and the classical stuff on Grand Guignol.

I kind of had the opposite impression. The Naked City stuff I've heard seems so tightly constructed and fast moving (this is especially true of the thrash-jazz pieces obv) that it would be nearly impossible to improvise with in a live setting. A 30 second piece at 200bpm with tempo changes and stop-on-a-dime dynamics doesn't really lend itself to creative reinterpretation in the heat of the moment.

when I saw them (probably more like 91 than 89), they stretched out on their ornette coleman / roy orbison mashup. otherwise all their energy went into making sure they had the right sheet music lined up on their stands.

I remember at one point someone in the audience yelling 'HEY FRED PLAY SOME GUITAR' and Fred gave a shrug at the exact moment Baron gave the countdown, then launched in

Zorn introducing 'Speedfreaks' by sneering 'Now I'd love to see you guys even try to count the number of genres that're in this next piece...' Zorn had a two foot mullet at the time.

That's kind of the way it turned out, I guess I was hoping they'd mess around with the tunes.

I'm tempted to spring for this new box, though I already own two of the Naked City disks on Avant: Absinthe and Grand Guignol. If I upgrade to the box, should I sell the Avants or keep them for collector's value?

yeah Milton I've seen that Zorn radio thing pop up on eBay from time to time. I've always wanted to hear but it always goes for too much moolah. Do you have a copy?

Speaking of live Naked City, somewhere around this mess of an apartment I have a cassette of a live Naked City performance that I think was distributed in connection with some sort of syndicated radio show. I think. Anyway I haven't listened to it in years -- my cassettes are all a mess, not even sure I could find the thing -- but I remember being really surprised by the material, longer pieces without the frenetic genre clashes. I'm gonna have to try to find that thing.

on cassette, incomplete, and with Zorn's announcements edited out. it's not worth ebay prices, but in 1990, having those kagel > napalm death > esquivel connections made was fun.

Yeah, I was just checking Ebay to see how much those Avant disks go for (apparently not very much - they seem to be selling in the $12-15 range - probably not worth holding on to) and I noticed that the one Zorn disk that was going for a high price was the Radio Hour thingy - someone sold one which in the photo looked pretty obviously like a cheap burn for $50+.

xpost

I'll bet the Naked City box will eventually be one of their top sellers. People keep discovering this band all the time - every message board I go to has a "Where should I start with John Zorn?" or "Tell me about Naked City" thread at least once a month.

Anyway, probably the ones I've spinned the most are:

Rovo - Live at Tonic 2004
Harry Partch - 17 Lyrics of Li Po
Kletka Red - Hijacking

I listen to the live Masada discs often, and Bar Kokbha/Circle Maker. The discs in the Film Music series - the Filmworks, Steve Beresford, Peter Scherer - get some play, too, every once and a while. And the Big Gundown, of course. Oh, and Rodd Keith. Virtually nothing from the Composer series, though.

Ikue Mori - Garden
Hideki/Mori/Frith - Death Ambient

The new track with Patton is apparently a new 18 minute version of Leng T'che.

Didn't buy it, but was surprised how much I wanted to.

The individual discs are embossed with the same Naked City logo found on the back of the box, in gold. The small hardcover book is beautifully done, though it's difficult to read the text on the onionskin sheets featuring commentary from band members, friends and collaborators. There's a great photo of Frisell flipping the bird while sporting a shit-eating grin. Haven't listened to even a drop of this yet...will try to do so soon, to see if there's any noticeable difference in the sound quality.

So, it only makes sense to get the S/T CD if I were to say, have seen it used this afternoon?

can't get enough of absinthe lately. hell ambient. crawlspace core

probably the one i go back to most tbh

same here