Laser Pace - Granfalloon (Takoma - 1974) Wow!

Laser Pace was invited to be on Takoma by John Fahey.
John and Doug Decker worked together on a lot of projects with Doug as his engineer of choice. There is a letter that I wrote to Acoustic Guitar Magazine a while back that details the revolutionary way that Doug approached recording Fahey's guitar. Anyway, they were compadres! When Doug told Fahey about our project he wanted to hear it. Fahey described it as "Running through an electronic jungle."

JC

love this record! far too few people used the Buchla in a rock / songs context. the only other band I can even think of that did was Chrome, and that was later.

some non ILMer tried to DL this from me on slsk last night. the word is out.

ILMer? DL? I think DL must be downlaod.... Translate please?

JC

that's d-o-w-n-l-o-a-d. Where's my spellcheck!
JC

Geez, ILMer= I Love Music. Pardon my geezerness!
JC

Joseph Byrd put out a record on Takoma called Yankee Transcendoodle. It's solo synthesiser classic Americana. It doesn't measure up to the rock band records, imo.

The mp3s I uploaded were from soulseek, so dmr is probably right that they're mislabeled. Sorry for any confusion!

OK, due to various confusions I've only heard five of the eight tracks, but I'm remedying that right now!

There is an awesome instrumental on here called "Scatter" that sounds like King Crimson + Can + PIL

And it reminds me of this band here:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/43549.jpg

Right, I'm still confused:

1. I assume first mp3 from http://wvvy.org is the track "Closet Casualty"?

2. I assume second mp3 from http://wvvy.org is Side 2, i.e, the following tracks: Endless / Oh Yeah? / Redemption / Scatter

3. If that is the case then the tracks on C0L1N B's upload are wrongly titled?

4. So the first four tracks are actually Side 2 and the remaining three tracks are Side 1?

5. In which case one track is missing? And that track is "Sky Fell"?

... oh and...

the first song sounds to me like an underground,progressive,more eccentric version of steely dan

OTM!

I believe that is the case.

will someone just please upload the whole thing again with all the tracks ?

...

could someone start peeling this orange for me?

OK, so this is doing some pretty good internal damage to my cortexes. Which file has "Scatter" in it? That's apparently the last track I need.

I thought it was in the side two file Skot posted but after all the confusion I doubt everything.

The Side 2 that's the length of a whole side or the Side 2 that's only one track?

The former.

The missing track is "Sky Fell"

I read about this thread on Ned's blog (which I never read). It's famous now.

As I said earlier, I told Keith of AnthologyRecordings.com about this thread, and now John Christensen says that Keith sent him a contract, which John is passing along to the other Laser Pace alumni. So maybe we'll soon have a nice download of the whole platter, served up piping hot (but meanwhile, *listen* to what Skot and C0L1n have offered and stop whining)

WTF...I don't see any whining on this thread.

It's not whining, dow, just some justifiably honest confusion! We've all heard the music at least and know that this = roxor, so no worries.

Really, like I mentioned in my blog post (thank ya Rockist), more than anything I'm just tickled pink at how neat the Net can be for this kind of thing. From barely known obscurity to prospective reissue with the involvement of the original band in under three weeks.

the whole 8 tracks are on soulseek now anyways

Been looking for a few days, no luck yet, but they'll show up eventually I'm sure.

Hi There!

I'd just like to give you all a big thanks. Scott and Dow especially. Although it's too soon to know exactly whether this deal with Anthology will pan out or not, it couldn't have happened without all of you and this thread, and the ripples going out from it. I think I said earlier that there has been a very slow re-analysis of Granfalloon over the last decade, but you ILMers just kicked it over the top. I'll be meeting with Maureen and Doug this week and hopefully you'll see this out legitimately soon. We will owe you a big debt of thanks! Please keep in touch - www.myspace.com/johnchrischristensen

John "Chris" Christensen

every time i open soulseek, a few people try to download this from me.

A nice Myspace blog post up from John C. about all this, along with links and discussion about his current work, which y'all should check out too.

this shit is AWESOME

todays diary entry : a warm fuzzy glow emits from an excellent ILM thread, this reader is rather concerned.

Yesterday I went to a transfer lab to get the 1985 masters for the "Adrenaline Drum" album by Hot Food To Go restored and digitize. Doug and Maureen were unable to go with me at the same time, but Doug is going to that facility today with the 30 ips stereo masters of Granfalloon. Moving forward!

John "Chris" Christensen

P.S. I understand that some of you may be music writers; is that true?

It is indeed! And great news to hear! :-D

Keith says that Anthology will indeed be re-releasing Granfalloon in '08, whoo-hoo! Asked for your email, Skot, figuring you might wanta write something, so I gave him the addy I had. Cheers ever'bodeh!

sweet. good work, don.

I missed the confirmation of this! Wonderful news. Thanks dow! You and Skot definitely deserve all the credit here. :-)

Couldna done with without Skot;also dig decisive action by Keith and Laser Pace alumni--no shilly-shally there, yo!

Doug Decker called over the weekend suggesting a listen-in for the three of us to the now transferred and re-mastered mixes. We actually couldn't make it happen because I was really down with some sinus infection/flu/food poisoning crappazoid shit! What a drag - but I am feeling better and I'm trying to make it happen this weekend if at all possible.

One of the amazing coincidences (of many) about this thing is that in about ten days it will be time for the NAMM show. A year ago is when we Laser Pace Alumni hooked up at NAMM and spent a very nice time talking about the slow build of interest in Granfalloon. During our chat I made the remark that if we if only had ten more fans we could do a reunion tour. Maureen said for me to go ahead and book it! I knew at the time that she was just kidding, but who knows? I'd certainly be up for it. We're all so much more seasoned now, I think we would kick ass on that material.

Of the re-mastering Doug says, "Big Bottom End, and Contemporarily Compressed." Knowing Doug the way I do I know he means it's gonna sound round and fat, and in-your-face, without sacrificing any of the dynamics of the original. I can't wait to hear the results!

Mr. D. Distorto was always disappointed in the original mastering, even though the engineer was Johnny Golden, one of LA's best. Doug said Johnny was freaking out at all the various sign waves generated by the Buchla, and it caused John to master the levels way too conservatively. This time there will be no surface noise!

Thanks again all! I'll keep you posted on the progress as it happens.

if even Johnny Golden was freaked out, imagine lesser lights--might be one big reason there weren't more *records* like this. Yeah, please tour, or at least play out enough for a righteous live album-- and don't forget SXSW!

I'd really LOVE to do Texas!

I think I'll play the entirety of side 1 during my radio show Psychedelarrythmia on Wednesday morning 9 - noon (GMT -5)
You can listen in at wvvy.org

I dunno if I have expressed this to you before, but I am very jealous of your lifestyle.

Finally found all the tracks on slsk -- sweet.

Don't be jealous - I'm pulling an all-nighter translating real estate legalese from Dutch because I'm running a radio station (for no money) and having two small children and not leaving time for paid work... po po me

Hey Maria, I'd love to check out that show, since I have never ever heard ANY of our record on the radio-internet or otherwise EVER! But if my math skills are correct, I'd have to be listening at 6 AM my time (West coast) to catch it. Yeow!

John "Chris" Christensen

P.S. There's a very cool new interview about Opus 1, Time of Your Life, and some of my other early "Garage Bands" at www.garagehangover.com

So there's an official site now:

http://laserpaceband.com/home.html

And CD Baby is the route they took with the reissue!

http://cdbaby.com/cd/laserpace

Also, plenty of photos:

http://laserpaceband.com/photos.html

huh. wonder what happened with anthology. in any case, it's out there and that's a good thing. and those pictures of maureen, be still my heart.

huh. wonder what happened with anthology.

Was wondering that myself! John, if you're still tracking the thread, let us know...

I thought I clicked on that "If you actively dislike Creedence Clearwater Revival, then I can never respect anything you have to say about anything" thread here and for one full minute, I was extremely confused. Time for bed (apparently).

John just dropped me a line indicating that an Anthology release is still on the cards. The watchword is patience, apparently!