MY BLOODY VALENTINE!!! – Now that I got your attention, I must advise that the latest news about the re-mastered re-issues of this band’s two main Long Players (call me granpa if you will, but the term is still applicable to full recordings over 40 minutes long), reveal that they remain on hold.  If ever a record (LP, CD, whathaveya) has needed a facelift, it would be MBV’s ‘Isn’t Anything’.  And with the way these cult classics are being re-packaged these days, it would be neat-o to hear some long unreleased material which might be included, or cool live stuff from the time of original release.  ‘Loveless’ has sounded just fine to me on all formats I’ve ever owned (yea, I’m a geek.  Sue me!), but many fellow fans of the band would go bananas over an even more heady, psychedelic re-master of this amazing sounding work of music.  At least they should put out some live stuff from their shows since they got back together.  It’d be great to have their set at All Tomorrow’s Party’s in Catskills, NY for posterity so I can brag about how ‘I was there, man’ to other geek’s amusement and everybody else’s indifference.

And on the subject of reissues, Nirvana’s debut ‘Bleach’ came out last November with more defined bass, cleaner highs, and just a tiny bit more separation between instruments, plus a whole live set from 1990 at a venue in Portland, which sounds like they’re rushing through the material and Kurt’s voice isn’t as focused and raw-honeyed as it would later become.  But really, it isn’t much different.  Cool pictures from early gigs, photo sessions and general tomfoolery.  I only got it cuz, again, I’m a geek, and I needed to do something with a Barnes & Noble gift certificate.  Can’t see any more ways in which the caretakers of Nirvana’s legacy could possibly bleed any more nostalgia-bucks out of us, but hey! The 1993 Live & Loud set has never seen an official release of the whole concert, right?  And the 1991 Seattle homecoming show from Halloween night could get the treatment that the 1992 Reading Festival show got, right?  And if you have a conflict of interest over where the money from these posthumous releases is going, you can always find ways to download them for free shortly after official release, right?

Then there are also ‘Best of’ compilations.  Pavement did one.  Why? I don’t know.  There is already a ‘Best of’ by Pavement and it’s called Wowee Zowee.  Really, you don’t need to hear anything other than this by a band so afraid to rock is funny.  If you need to have a band’s best output packaged conveniently in a single release, you could do worse than to go with The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion recent compilation, which you can sample through many avenues via the interwebs.  Haven’t heard it myself, but then this is a band that seldom disappoints, is always fun, and rocks like no Pavement ever could.

Carla Buzoulich will be coming to NY to play a show at the tiny jazz venue The Stone, which thrills the shit out of me, because this ain’t jazz.  First thing I heard from her was her cover of Low’s ace song ‘Pissing’, then I got her CD ‘Evangelista’, which is how her band is called now.  Haunting voice, raw and engaging musicianship, and a dark mood.  Will have a report on the show if I don’t get too fucked up.

D.V