Owsley - Vintage Vinyl Records, Fords, NJ, 4-3-2004

A couple of weeks ago, I posted two albums by the Semantics, the band Owsley was a part of in the early 1990s. Now I'm going to start posting some of Owsley's solo material. A good start is this concert, which features him in solo acoustic format.

In short, Owsley put out two solo albums, one in 1999 and the other in 2004. But neither got the attention they deserved, and his troubles mounted, culminating in his suicide in 2010. This concert took place shortly after the release of his second album, "The Hard Way," so it contains versions of the best songs from both of his albums. 

If you've been following this blog, you'll know I'm a particular fan of acoustic versions of songs. This is a good case in point. I enjoy the full band versions in all their power pop glory. But it's nice to see them radically reinvented in a stripped back format, and still show themselves as quality songs.

It seems this concert was recorded by the venue it took place in. You can still see the video of the entire concert on YouTube, along with many other concerts by others at that same venue. So that probably accounts for the excellent sound quality. There are only a handful of Oswley bootlegs (and no official live albums), and this at least ties for best sound.

Unfortunately, because his career never took off, you can hear that the crowd is quite small. But for a concert recording, it creates a very intimate atmosphere, with him taking requests for most of the songs. The only cover is a version of "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles, thanks to what sounds like a little kid, who requested it. 

This album is 47 minutes long.

01 talk (Owsley)
02 Good Ol' Days (Owsley)
03 talk (Owsley)
04 Coming Up Roses (Owsley)
05 talk (Owsley)
06 The Hard Way (Owsley)
07 She's the One (Owsley)
08 talk (Owsley)
09 Oh No the Radio (Owsley)
10 talk (Owsley)
11 Zavelow House (Owsley)
12 Rainy Day People (Owsley)
13 talk (Owsley)
14 Uncle John's Farm (Owsley)
15 talk (Owsley)
16 Rise (Owsley)
17 talk (Owsley)
18 Be with You (Owsley)
19 talk (Owsley)
20 A Hard Day's Night (Owsley)
21 talk (Owsley)
22 Sonny Boy - Undone (Owsley)
23 talk (Owsley)
24 The Sky Is Falling (Owsley)
25 talk (Owsley)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15328387/Owsly_2004b_VintageVinylRcordsFrdsNJ__4-3-2004_atse.zip.html

Often when making the cover art, I have to choose between photo quality and relevance. This time, I went for relevance. I took a screenshot from the YouTube video of this exact concert. The downside is that it's rather low-res.

The Semantics - Standing Still (1992)

I just posted "Powerbill," the one and only studio album by the short-lived power pop band the Semantics. This band competed the album in 1993, and broke up shortly thereafter when they were unable to get it released on any label. It eventually came out in 1996 in Japan, for a short time only, but that wasn't enough for the band to get back together.

Because of that unfortunate history, I don't think there's any music by the band other than that album, and this. If the band played any concerts, which is uncertain, there are no known live bootlegs. But there is this, which are unreleased demos of songs considered for their album "Powerbill." Luckily, there are enough songs for a 38-minute long album. That's actually a little longer than "Powerbill" is. 

Calling these "demos" undersells them. They sound fully fleshed out to me. Maybe it's better to call them outtakes. Overall, this album isn't as strong as "Powerbill." But I still think it's very good overall. Most power pop bands would be delighted to come up with an album this strong.

The two main singers and songwriters of the band were Owsley and Millard Powers. I'm particularly fond of Owsley, due to his later solo career. Powers, by contrast, joined the popular band the Counting Crows and has been their bassist ever since, so we haven't heard much more from him. Their voices and styles are very similar, but I understand a majority of the songs here are by Powers.

If you're into the power pop genre, I suggest you check out the "Powerbill" album first. Then, if you like that, give this album a try. 

Note that the bootleg I got this from was simply called "Unreleased Demos." I came up with the name "Standing Still" after one of the songs. It also seems fitting, since their music career stood still despite all their musical talents.

01 Avalon (Semantics)
02 Baby It's You (Semantics)
03 This One's for Me (Semantics)
04 Facts of Life (Semantics)
05 Hippy Woman (Semantics)
06 Lonely Girl (Semantics)
07 Standing Still (Semantics)
08 Merry Go Round (Semantics)
09 Wildflower (Semantics)
10 Victim for Somebody Else (Semantics)
11 Maria (Semantics)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271768/TSmantcs1992_StndingStill_atse.zip.html

The Semantics are such an obscure band that I had a hard time finding any photo of them at all. This photo I've used for the cover came with the "Unreleased Demos" bootleg. It was upside down for some reason, so I flipped it. Then I added the text. It's very low-res, but it's better than nothing.

The Semantics - Powerbill (1993)

I'm a fan of the "power pop" genre, but I haven't posted much of that type of music because it seems there's a ton of music blogs specializing in power pop already. That said, I'm a particularly big fan of the singer-songwriter (Will) Owsley, and I want to post some of his material here. So it makes sense to start with his earliest stuff, when he was a member of the band the Semantics.

You may never have heard of the Semantics, because they weren't around long, and only released one album, which barely got any exposure at all. This is it. Normally, I don't post studio albums that I haven't changed in any way. But I'm posting this because it's way too obscure, and deserves a lot more exposure. It was finished and ready to be released in 1993, but their record company refused to put it out, since it was swimming against the tide of grunge music dominating rock music at the time. It did officially get released three years later, but only in Japan, and to very little notice there. It went out of print even there two years later.

So who were the Semantics? You can read more about them at their Wikipedia entry, here:

The Semantics - Wikipedia

Here's my summary. There were three members of the band at the time this album was released: Owsley, Millard Powers, and Zak Starkey. Starkey, a drummer, is the son of none other than Ringo Starr of the Beatles. His music career was just starting at this time, but he would go on to drum for the Who, Oasis, and many other bands. Owsley and Powers were both talented singers and songwriters. Some of the songs here are written and sung by one of them and others by the other one, but I don't know which is which.

If you like catchy power pop in the style of Jellyfish or the Posies (and I definitely do - both bands will be featured on this blog eventually), then you really need to check out this album. I think it's a lost classic.

Note that one song here, "Coming Up Roses," would later appear in a different version on Owsley's first solo album in 1999.

This album is 36 minutes long.

01 Sticks and Stones (Semantics)
02 Future for You (Semantics)
03 Coming Up Roses (Semantics)
04 Jenny Won't Play Fair (Semantics)
05 Average American (Semantics)
06 Don't Say Goodbye (Semantics)
07 The Sky Is Falling (Semantics)
08 Black and Blue (Semantics)
09 Johnny Come Lately (Semantics)
10 Life Goes On (Semantics)
11 Glasses and Braces (Semantics)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15271766/TSmantcs_1993_Powrbill_atse.zip.html

The cover is just the official cover. However, I had a hard time reading the band name in the middle, because the letters were purple and surrounded by more purple. I darkened the purple around the letters to make them more legible.