King Crimson: Classic Or Dud

Will have to reread that epic article linked a few days ago up thread -- I'm sure he addresses it.

From AAJ-

Even the final show in Central Park—sourced from an audience recording because, for some reason, a soundboard recording was not made that night—sounds surprisingly good, with clarity between the instruments and the only thing giving it away being the audience noise around the taper.

From DGM-

incomplete recording Disc 20 taken from a bootleg cassette recording. Audio restored at DGM by David Singleton and Alex R Mundy. Previously available via mail order as part of King Crimson Collectors’ Club series 10 (2000)

So it sounds like there's no additional tweaking. Still an amazing document.

And worth the 10 bucks to download from DGM by far.

I think of the 21 or whatever discs on this thing, maybe only ... 4 discs worth have been totally unreleased in any form? DGM has been busy.

Central Park show on headphones is great--you hear one dude yelling for Cirkus inbetween songs, another requesting Cat Food, and part of a conversation that ends with a guy telling somebody "let me put it this way... I'll take their record over the Mahavishnu record." Cerberus is a pretty surprising improv, a lot of different directions there. And the highlights with the rest of the set are well known--the afformentioned Fracture and a totally demonic Talking Drum/LTIA II.

Also, I found this which I had never seen before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXA-j9az2NI

goddammit I am now in that K(C)-hole where nothing seems to matter but live recordings of this crimson lineup.

DGM's sharity-squashers are rly good btw, that set of links from which I gleaned the ctrl park disc was already killed when I got home from work last night. Good business on their part cuz now I want to pay to DL a bunch of shit from their site.

Finished Central Park this morning--goddamn that version of Starless is just a killer. Bruford's slow-echo cowbell in the middle section is hilarious.

I think I'll seek out the Fort Worth show next-- Tarrant County Convention Center was a hot venue in the 70s.

Just gotta note here that the extended Philly Boy Roy riff on last night's final Best Show regarding "my worst enemy...Robert Fripp" was some kinda genius. Including how Fripp ruined Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs, a reference to an actual early eighties KC show in Philadelphia, the abusive strongarm ways of Tony Levin and an unfortunate Guitar Workshop incident some years later.

"Tom, have you ever been beaten by a spanking machine made of fifty guys with Ovation acoustic guitars?...It's made me a shy lover until this day."

Can be listened to here, I want to say it starts about halfway through but I haven't checked.

http://wfmu.org/listen.m3u?show=53635&archive=93040
http://wfmu.org/flashplayer.php?version=2&show=53635&archive=93039

xpost Fort Worth and Houston were the others I was gonna try'n summon if them links weren't dead. Based on that lengthy jazz site review.

DGM's sharity-squashers are rly good btw, that set of links from which I gleaned the ctrl park disc was already killed when I got home from work last night.

I like to imagine Fripp doing this personally, or at least taking pleasure in overseeing the interns as they send takedown notices

Haha totally

I wonder if he uses some bizarre self-brewed non-QWERTY layout.

'My keyboard is tuned in straight sixths'

New Standard QWERTY.

lol wow, some of this central park 74 gig is insane. "improv>cerberus" ... holy shit!

right? RIGHT????

how much $$ is that road to red box set anyway haha

DONT SAY THAT TO ME RIGHT NOW o_O

nevermind i'm just going to get this blanket
http://cdn.nexternal.com/dgm/images/14729%209%20Album%20Blanket%20low%20res.jpg
Can't decide which album cover is your favorite? Decorate your home or office, or surprise your bed, with this full color blanket showcasing multiple King Crimson album covers. This 5' x 3.5' blanket features nine KC covers and utilizes the latest in direct to garment printing. This one-of-a-kind blanket is available special order. Please allow 2-3 weeks for this item to be shipped. Rush orders may be possible by contacting us at mailor✧✧✧@dgml✧✧✧.c✧✧.

and this cutting board too
http://cdn.nexternal.com/dgm/images/cutting%20board.jpg
You're sure to enjoy cooking more with your brand new Schizoid face cutting board. The screaming visage looking up at you, encouraging you to cut those veggies, your food is bound to taste better. Your counter will look prettier too.

This 1/8" Thick x 11 1/2" L x 7 3/4" W cutting board is made of tempered glass, and the textured top protects the full color image underneath.

realizing per that blanket that the only KC album cover I hate is Beat.

Apparently the new revised/expanded edition of USA has been pulled from the Road To Red box for separate release; from the Downtown Music Gallery newsletter:

KING CRIMSON [ROBERT FRIPP/JOHN WETTON/BILL BRUFORD/DAVID CROSS] - USA - Complete Live At The Casino Arena, Asbury Park June 28 1874: 40th Anniversary Edition [CD + DVD/DVD-A] (DGM/Inner Knot KCSP 12; EEC) For the VERY FIRST TIME - this release of the USA album IS ACTUALLY the Complete Asbury Park 6/28/74 concert, presented in a mix by Fripp with Tony Arnold (remember Arnie's Shack?) and David Singleton this year (2013). Previous CDs and LPs [less tracks] had edited versions [the improv 'Asbury Park' is 11:30 here instead of 6:50, and Easy Money/Improv is now appx 11:05 instead of 7:12] AND substituted a Schizoid Man taken from the Providence RI show two days later with the violin overdubbed by Eddie Jobson. Finally one gets to hear this concert complete and in the order it was played by the actual quartet onstage that night! (..assuming you didn't buy the $225 Road To Red box earlier this fall, in which case you have everything that is found in this package.)

But fear not, the previous 30th Anniversary iteration is included on the DVD Disc (audio-only) as one of THREE OTHER previous iterations of the USA album, alongside a transfer of the Island pressing of the LP from 1975, AND a mix by Ronan Chris Murphy done in 2005 but not formally released until now, AND a LPCM stereo mix of the new 2013 version!

OCD me hates that the blanket is not chronological, and the 80s covers are kinda perfunctory, but otherwise that's pretty cool.

xpost hmm price?

(LOL the only KCCC discs I own were bought at downtown music gallery due to some adept salesmanship by crimhead dude)

starless and bible black is one of those great album covers that was really diminished by the CD

following up that central park show w/ the new Earthless record, which I think works well.

Another great bit of banter @ the Central Park show--after Fracture, the guy who's been pontificating the whole time says "see, they're really starting to smoke now"

he keeps talking through the show and I'm thinking hey guy, this is the last time you or anyone else is going to get this or anything like it.

haha yeah. i like how into it the crowd sounds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFAENQ2uVzs

Merry Christmas all

Just bought the CD/DVD 40th Anniversary Edition of USA. Here are the differences between the CD and the previous CD, track by track:

1. Walk On...No Pussyfooting - was 0:35, is now 1:40
2. Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part II - unchanged, still 6:24
3. Lament - unchanged, still 4:22
4. Exiles - unchanged, still 7:25
5. Asbury Park - was 6:54, is now 11:44
6. Easy Money - was 7:12, is now broken into two tracks as follows - Easy Money 2:25/Improv 8:41
7. 21st Century Schizoid Man - was 8:11, is now 9:01; also, has been moved to track 10 on the new CD
8. Fracture - was 11:20, is now 11:02
9. Starless - was 14:55, is now 15:51

Original running time: 1:07:11
New running time: 1:18:31

From what I can tell (I've just started listening), the mix is slightly toned down relative to the previous version I have (the 30th Anniversary CD); less harsh, slightly fuller, granting everyone more or less equal space in the mix. The drums in particular are less harsh and cracking than they once were.

If you're a KC nerd, but not enough of one to buy the Road to Red box (which contains all this stuff), worth getting I think.

I had a $100 gift certificate to Newbury Comics and almost sprung for The Road to Red. Almost.

So, Fripp's tweets today then...

Real or hoax?

Fake, per DGM News.

Yeah that was never going to happen.

And they said what exactly?

Ok, this:

April Fool seems to have come a little early this year. A twitter account bearing the name of Robert Fripp has announced KC69 are reforming for a one-off concert. Obviously there NO truth to this tweet and we are taking steps to have the account closed down.

Hmm, this is probably old news, but I had no idea the new line-up is intended to be live only, with no studio work planned and no new material (yet), just performing "reconfigured" versions of existing material. I suppose that's intriguing.

OK, so I recently bought the 40th Anniversary CD/DVD edition of USA, as detailed above; now I want to get the other albums by that lineup. The CD/DVD versions of Larks and Starless are obvious picks, but there seem to be two competing versions of Red - there's the 40th Anniversary edition, which is a CD/DVD like the aforementioned, but there's also a newer 2CD version with an alternate mix by Steven Wilson. WHICH DO I BUY???

I love those albums but I'm in the same boat, I'm just not buying any more of these

Hmm, this is probably old news, but I had no idea the new line-up is intended to be live only, with no studio work planned and no new material (yet), just performing "reconfigured" versions of existing material. I suppose that's intriguing.

Where'd you gather this from?

http://www.uncut.co.uk/king-crimson-unveil-new-line-up-and-2014-tour-plans-news

Agh, I thought that was a new article...

http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/06/king-crimson-set-2014-reunion-tour-dates/

king crimson at the best buy theater is a strange sentence

2000 seats, sounds good.

More dates posted at DGM this morning.

Tue 9 Sep          Albany, NY                The Egg
Wed 10 Sep       Albany, NY                The Egg
Fri 12 Sep         Philadelphia, PA            Verizon Hall
Sat 13 Sep        Philadelphia, PA            Verizon Hall
Mon 15 Sep      Boston, MA                  Colonial Theatre 
Tue 16 Sep       Boston, MA                  Colonial Theatre
Thu 18 Sep       New York, NY               Best Buy
Fri 19 Sep         New York, NY               Best Buy
Sat 20 Sep        New York, NY               Best Buy
Tue 23 Sep       Madison, WI                  Barrymore Theatre
Thu 25 Sep       Chicago, IL                   The Vic Theatre
Fri 26 Sep         Chicago, IL                   The Vic Theatre
Tue 30 Sep       Los Angeles, CA           Orpheum Theatre
Wed 01 Oct       Los Angeles, CA           Orpheum Theatre
Fri 03 Oct          San Francisco, CA        The Warfield
Sat 04 Oct        San Francisco, CA        The Warfield
Mon 06 Oct       Seattle, WA                   Moore Theater

are we getting a studio album?

I don't think so.

I'm not holding my breath for European shows either.

YES, SF!

how random that they're actually playing madison. i guess i should go??