Opal - Early Recordings/Happy Nightmare Baby

Bob Standard very OTM.

i managed to get hold of the UK pressing of fell from the sun with 'frieght train' on it. great song, if not quite at the level of the a-side.

i love opal, and my ER cd sits next to my DAW as my reference disc of what an amazing recording sounds like

has anyone heard beachouse? they capture that spooky early recordings sound pretty well. so when and what label did this volume 2 emerge? when do the recordings date from? is it post hnb?

theres no official release, just low quality mp3s. its pretty much all the demo stuff left off early recordings, and with two or three exceptions (sailing boats, what you've done, vespers maybe) i think the compilers of the official album made the right choices.

do you like the kendra smith solo stuff joni? i ain't never heard it.

i love the guild 10", but i found the songs on the 4ad album lacking, although she did a cracking version of richard & mimi farinas "bold marauder". email me your address & i'll send ya some stuff if ya want.

ta joni. what's that farinas stuff like? i haven't heard a note but i like been down so long it looks like up to me, is it straight ahead folkie fayre?

yeh pretty much straight folk with boy/girl harmony singing on first album, second album is more dylan-like with guitars & drums. its all good though! j has been hassling me to read that book for years now.

it's funny, a bit kerouac-y, you get the feeling he had better in him, i'll keep an eye out for those r & m rekkids!

Early II is a bootleg of B-sides that was put together on a music blog with handy downloadable cover art included. (I'll try to track down which it was later.) It was never released even as legitimate bootleg cd, so some "entrepreneur" is basically taking the mp3s from the music blog, making cds from them and then selling them on ebay.

Youtube comes through. Hope singing for Opal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZSt4fpJwck

You can find Early Recordings II on this website, hXXp://xholdesert.blogspot.com/, look in the March archives, Rainy Day is also there. The best tracks were indeed kept for the official release, but finding this collection of unreleased songs today makes me happy beyond words. "Sailing boat" is a beauty, and Kendra's voice on the Leonard Cohen cover "Sisters of mercy" is at its honey sweetest.

a bump to mention that a really great clay allison live show from 1984 just popped up recently on dime, as well as a 1987 opal show which i haven't listened to yet. the clay allison show makes me wish there was much more documented from them from this era. from the notes of the person who posted it, it seems there's more to come as well.

ooooooooooooooooh! thanks for the tip

if anyone's interested i just posted a 1984 opal show here: http://ow.ly/4tAZq probably the same one city worker mentions above? anyway, it's great.

grazie!

CD80 mix upthread needs more Rain Parade but no idea what i'd remove :/

i'd remove all the mazzy star (i like 'em, but..)

re-upped this with a better link -- track order was all out of wack.

weird, there's a vinyl bootleg of that 1984 clay allison gig floating around: http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Live-At-The-Electric-Banana-5221984/release/5456137
anyone got it?

I have this. My wife is a major Kendra fan so I bought this for her for her birthday last year. Sound quality a solid B, and the songs / performances sound terrific. Cool cover art, too, not very bootleg-y. Definitely worth the plunge.

yeah, i've heard the tape previously -- pretty cool performance (and fairly different from Early Recordings in some respects, if i remember correctly. some pretty heavy moments).

yep, if it's not too pricey, I'd get one... I got it as a gift and agree with Jimmywine's assessment!

I need to look and see if that was one of the shows that came up on Dime a few years back, there were a bunch. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it is pretty great.

pretty sure it's the one i posted upthread a few years ago (link is dead however)

Re that Early Recordings II bootleg, Matt Piucci found out about it earlier this year and was really pissed off as a couple of the songs are apparently not Opal songs at all but are I guess Rain Parade demos or just Matt P solo, and he was somehow under the impression that David Roback was responsible for putting it out!

weird! what an odd career roback has made for himself. still seems crazy that the opal stuff hasn't been collected/reissued properly.

agreed, just madness

numero group putting out a deeeluxe box set w/ early recordings + happy nightmare, plus live & unreleased action (hopefully not matt piucci solo demos, haha) ... i would buy it.

that is so weird about Early Recordings II, I'll have to give that a closer listen

that version of "indian summer" on ERII -- so good. though this one w/ hope is very good too...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1wnAsSB71M

so that LP is not one of the 4 shows I have, another thing to add to the list. when looking, I also found this tragically lost item with three more early songs that have never appeared anywhere afaict:

http://www.discogs.com/Clay-Allison-Clay-Allison/release/7679417

oops, they are on Early Recordings II, carry on

gahhhh compilation tracks and ephemera I was not aware of

a Syd Barrett cover!!! some song called "Ghost Highway" from a Rough Trade promo tape?!?!

https://www.discogs.com/artist/158032-Opal-2?filter_anv=0&subtype=Compilations&type=Appearances

yeah, found that barrett cover on youtube a little while ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFV4geZ-IHA
pretty good!
didn't know about "ghost highway" -- the same song that mazzy star did?

it might just be that track, yeah

OPAL - 1987, Sept.17, Live VIDEO, w. Kendra Smith singing, San Diego, SST Records Fest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd8g6AROi18

nice!

Wow!

holy shit I was at that gig!

too bad the mic was right next to Suki's foldback! What a great find.

Before this event took place, SST had scheduled a festival in the L.A. area with Sonic Youth headlining but it fell through, so instead they held this festival on the steps of the main gym at UC San Diego, with Opal headlining.

I remember this, a free, all day thing at the Santa Fe dam in Irwindale! My friend and I drove out there only to find it had been cancelled.

"Fell From the Sun" has to be one of the top ten songs in the universe.

in case anyone missed it, Kendra Smith recorded a song for the Leave No Trace soundtrack last year and it's amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnoME6cyi_U

^^^^

It looks like 'Early Recordings' is being reissued November 1 on a label called Salley Gardens. Salley Gardens Publishing is listed on every Mazzy Star release.

wow!

nice

FINALLY

Looks like a straight reissue, no bonus tracks or what have you... not even "hear the wind blow". Amazon track listing could of course just be wrong, but there's no other real info about it yet!

if the email you used to sign up is valid, I can send it to you!

basically ilxmail send a blind message (no return email) to the account you used to register

otherwise, you can click on my username link and send your email to me via ilxmail

Dynamite, got it! Am listening to it now and what a treasure this set is. I still have the vinyl from '89. Could never let it go somehow, even when I really needed the money. I would just look at the cover and go, "no, not this one." The extra tracks are stellar and the sound is vivid...the songs really have a sound and a feel out of time; could have been released 47 years ago or yesterday. Thanks and Happy New Year to you!

<3