Doom & Gloom From The Tomb

A selection of rad bootlegs + other music. Come fly with me.

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Prairiewolf - Zone Poems

Hey hey, Prairiewolf's latest/greatest LP is out NOW. Zone Poems! You can order it on vinyl or double CD, or stream it wherever. Very proud of this one, and very grateful that Jeremy and Stefan have taken me along on this four-years-and-counting ride. It's been weird, surprising and fun — all the things a band should be!

I've already talked about Zone Poems. Here's what some other trusted heads have had to say:

“Prairiewolf have taken a wild leap forward with this mysterious new offering from a liminal space between live and studio recording, between open sky and secret bunker. Zone Poems seems to present some kind of undefended astral communion, an invitation into someone else’s dream.” - Jonathan Lethem

"Imbued with an icy air (something about the elevation maybe) the record radiates a kind of saturated, sanguine quality that pulls the listener deep into its caverns. A headphone record of the highest order, the album finds the band getting bridging the divide between improv and immersion. One of their best yet, and a ’26 year-ender for sure." - Raven Sings the Blues

"A bold new entry in their rapidly growing discography, pulsing with the unpredictable vigor of live improvisation and the surgical precision of a finely-tuned studio cut. Both free and fussed-over, the six new tracks stretching across the album’s 40-minute runtime strike a delicate balance that feels at once like new territory and familiar terrain." - The Caribou Current

"Remaining in the sonic shadows of transcendental textures and the spiritual sequences of their cosmic compositions, members Stefan Beck, Tyler Wilcox, and Jeremy Erwin connect on levels that sound off the spiritual sirens that can be heard from several states over as the sun and moon share the same tectonic template over the band’s harmonious headquarters." - Self Portrait Gospel

"Zone Poems doesn’t really feel like a live album, but then that’s understandable. While the recordings are live, the trio has mutated the tracks enough that they have an ethereal quality that feels neither live nor in the studio. More of a liminal space." - Third Eye Psych Rock

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Robyn Hitchcock - 40 Watt Club, Athen, Georgia, April 24, 2026

Robyn Hitchcock — the hardest working man in showbiz? Well, one of 'em anyway. Now well into his 70s, Hitchcock has a new memoir (Stranded in the Future) and a new album (The Confuser) out this summer, along with his usual heaps of tourdates. He's also got a well-worth-your-cash Patreon chock full of fascinating writing and unheard demos, rarities and outtakes. And that recent Globe of Frogs redux/remaster/remix? It's awesome. So yeah, it's a good time to be a Hitchcockian.

I just finished reading Stranded in the Future, and it's fantastic, revealing the prehistory and early days of the Soft Boys, leaving us on a tantalizing cliffhanger right before the glories of Underwater Moonlight. In his blurb, esteemed author Jonathan Lethem says: "Now our correspondent only has to repeat this astonishing trick ten more times to complete his imperishable twelve-volume epic A Dance to the Music of Hitchcock." A joke, perhaps, but I don't know — I'd love for Robyn to just keep on going and going, through the 1980s and 90s on to the present day.

The new memoir introduces a character who looms large in the Hitchcock saga — guitarist extraordinaire Kimberley Rew. And Kim is still looming! Just this past spring, when Jeremy Fetzer was unexpectedly unavailable, he flew to Jangletown, USA (AKA Athens, GA) to fill in on short notice. What a pal! The excellent resulting tape, also featuring Emma Swift, Eric Slick and Todd Bolden, is a total treat, spanning the Soft Boys to The Confuser, with plenty of perfect Robyn/Rew interplay. A lotta long lunar notes, if you know what I mean.

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Sinead O'Connor - Cabaret Metro, Chicago, Illinois, April 11, 1988

OK, fine, another Aadam Jacobs tape — this one taking us back to a fiery gig on Sinead O'Connor's first American tour. Sinead was just about 21 years old at this point, but she commands the stage effortlessly, whipping the Chicago crowd into a frenzy as though it's no big thing.

O'Connor kicks things off alone onstage with a proto-PJ Harvey rendition of "Jackie" before her band joins for an ecstatic "Mandinka." Oh and the rhythm section of that band is worth mentioning — it's made up of bassist Andy Rourke and drummer Mike Joyce, who had just recently wrapped up their duties in the Smiths. In tandem with guitarist Marco Pirroni (maybe best known for his work in Adam and the Ants), they provide a flexible, muscular backdrop for Sinead's laser-sharp vocals. The kind of voice that pins you to the wall!

Listening all these years later, it feels like you could comfortably place O'Connor amidst some of the classic idiosyncratic 1980s singers — I'm thinking Michael Stipe, Kristin Hersh, etc. An unusual quality that hadn't quite existed before in rock music, capable of wild, feral moves but still in complete control; not afraid of anthemic moments, but totally personalized and weird. Real alternatives!

Ironically, Rourke and Joyce take a break as Sinead breaks out her cover of their old band's "The Hand That Rocks The Cradle." She makes the lyric her own over Pirroni's simple, steady backing. Morrissey sounds fairly creepy in this song, but as always, you believe every devotional word O'Connor sings. "Please don't cry / For the ghost and the storm outside / There never need be longing in your eyes / As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine."

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Golden Brown / Silverness / Melodies Never Lie - The Let It Be Stage, Denver, Colorado, June 12, 2026

We've been digging into the Aadam Jacobs Collection for over a year now ... but of course, Jacobs is just one (extremely prolific) taper. Another extremely prolific taper? Lance Stack, who has been been bolstering his Archive.org offerings in recent months, uploading hours upon hours of his recordings stretching back more than two decades.

A lot of the artists featured aren't exactly household names; many of them were short-lived Colorado bands that may not have ever even made a record (where's that Magic Mice tape, Lance?!). But that makes Stack's stash all the more valuable. If the taper's mission / compulsion is to preserve the ephemeral, to capture moments that are all-too-often lost in time ... well, Lance is doing the work!

And he's still at it. A couple weeks ago, he hauled his rig to a Mile High City rooftop to record Golden Brown, Silverness and Melodies Never Lie. I couldn't make it down for this show in person, so I'm grateful to be able to hear it. Sweet sounds to complement a starry late-spring night on Cap Hill.

And hey, speaking of Golden Brown! That band I can't stop talking about — Prairiewolf — is 1/3 Golden Brown. And we're playing this Saturday, July 18, at one of our favorite spots in Boulder County ... the Electric Room! This gig will double as our Zone Poems album release show ... that's right, our third LP is out this Friday. Please preorder! PLEASE.

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Resavoir - Themes for Dreams

This one slipped out with little fanfare (at least as far as I could tell!) earlier this spring, but don't let it slip on by. I've loved all of Will Miller's Resavoir LPs; Themes for Dreams might be my favorite so far. As its title suggests, dreamy sounds abound, heading into a kind of undiscovered soul/chamber jazz territory, intimate and intricate, mixing warm keys with ravishing strings, modular synths with pedal steel. Even though Miller calls Themes "a sleepytime record," he hasn't gone into ambient soundscapes or anything. In spite of a lack of rhythm section, there's plenty of sharper edges that balance out the more pastel elements. At the heart of it all is melody — Miller has a knack for sweet tunes that feel like you've known them your whole life. Gorgeous.

Also gorgeous — Miller's recent Lagniappe Session with guitarist Matt Gold (who also appears on Themes for Dreams), featuring covers of MPB icons Mario Adnet and Caetano Veloso.

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Lou Reed: "Coney Island Baby" - St. Mark's Church, New York City, January 1, 1976

It's been far too long — almost two months! — since we took a trip into the Louniverse. And anyway, we've somehow yet to really celebrate the 50th anniversary of Coney Island Baby, Lou Reed's semi-mellow late 1975 masterpiece. But then again, I'll celebrate this LP any day of the week; sometimes, it's my favorite Lou solo album. I'm having a very vague memory of my infamous brother buying it on an early 1990s family trip that for some reason took us through Sacramento? Maybe he bought New Sensations, too??? Maybe I'm making all of this up. But we were weird kids, that's for sure.

Whenever/however I first heard Coney Island Baby, I've been in love ever since, something about it just always sounds good to me — those creamy guitars, doo-wop backing vocals and laid-back Lou. The title track itself is a towering piece of work, one of Reed's most vulnerable moments. The lyrics go way back, maybe even to the 1960s? But it was first published as a poem called "The Coach and Glory of Love" in the Harvard Advocate in 1971. An interesting verse that would later be dropped: "When you watch Indiana speedways just for crackups / And the movies you all see are rated X / The games that you like are filled with violence / Then you know that you've drifted off the track."

He recited at least part of it at a 1971 poetry reading, but it'd take another few years for Lou to perform "Coney Island Baby" as we know it now, debuting the song during his 1975 tour with Doug Yule. And then there's this — a New Year's Day 1976 solo performance at St. Mark's Church, on a bill with Meredith Monk, Allen Ginsberg and Kathy Acker. Just softly strummed electric guitar and voice, telling us about the glory of love. Lo-fi, incomplete, essential.

Semi-related, you definitely want to watch this entertaining interview with Coney Island Baby producer Godfrey Diamond, which reveals a few choice secrets behind the LP.

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Leonard Cohen - Kalvøyafestivalen, Bærum, Norway, June 30, 1985

Nothing says summer like Leonard Cohen serenading a field full of Norwegians back in June of 1985. Right?? This very charming half-hour performance is well-worth a watch — is it the middle of the afternoon or the middle of the night? Who knows, but the sun is shining brightly as Lenny and his band shine even brighter, playing such faves as "Memories," "The Story of Isaac" and "I Tried To Leave You." You know, the songs of the summer! Towards the end, someone crowns Cohen as the King of Norway (or something) with a wreath of beautiful wildflowers, which delights him to no end.

While you watch, mix up Leonard's signature seasonal cocktail — tequila, cranberry juice and lemon stirred and served over ice. Delicious.

Leonard Says: Well, I don't think anybody beats the rap in this world. You know, I mean, there are people far more powerful, far more successful than me, and you know that as a human being living the life on the front line of your own life as everybody lives their life, there's no free ride. Everybody understands that. Everybody understands that every single thing you get you pay for, especially the things like love, especially the things like artistic success. There's nobody who beats the rap in this game.

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Stereolab - October 1993

At this rate, we could probably just turn Doom & Gloom into an Aadam Jacobs Collection appreciation blog. The goods just keep on coming (and coming). To wit! The volunteers behind this heroic tape preservation project just rolled out a bunch of early Stereolab tapes, allowing us to follow the Groop across the Midwest in the fall of 1993. What a gift!

From the Reptile House in Grand Rapids to a blazing in-store at Reckless Records in Chicago, from the 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis to Northern Lights in St. Paul — these recordings are pure primal 'lab, loud and blown out, motorifik and marvelous. Chew some John Cage Bubblegum and get into it.

Tim Gane: We’re pretty derivative actually, it’s just that the groups we rip off are too obscure. We just like certain sounds which we couldn’t get around if we tried. We’re trapped by pop music pretensions.

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Uncle Tupelo - French Village Drive-in, East St. Louis, Missouri, July 1987 / Lincoln Theater, Belleville, Illinois, 1988

Paying your dues as an up-and-coming midwestern rock band sometimes means playing an East St. Louis drive-in in between screenings of Innerspace and Adventures in Babysitting. At least that's what Uncle Tupelo had to do in the summer of 1987. And somehow, we can time travel back to catch a glimpse of the barely-out-of-their-teens trio tearing it up above a poorly rendered Bugs Bunny mural. This shaky/blurry camcorder footage (uploaded in improved quality by the terrific 3 Cameras and a Microphone channel) is priceless stuff, Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy and Mike Heidorn rowing fearlessly down Pickle River.

About a year later, Uncle Tupelo had upgraded their environs somewhat, playing a hometown show in Belleville — and 3 Cameras has more shaky/blurry footage for our enjoyment. A rowdy crowd, likely made up mostly of friends of the band. But even though their debut LP was still a couple years away, UT is starting to find its feet, getting more ambitious with their original songs and getting into some unique interplay. They also haven't lost their sense of humor, blowing off steam with very loose Replacements-style covers of Neil Young, Skynyrd, CCR and KISS. "Fun" isn't necessarily the word that comes to mind immediately when it comes to Uncle Tupelo, but everyone's having a blast in Belleville on this particular evening.

Tweedy Says: We probably have more influences than we know what to do with. We have two main styles that have been influences. For instance, we like Black Flag as much as early Bob Dylan and Dinosaur Jr. as much as Hank Williams. To us, hardcore punk is also folk music. We draw a close parallel between the two. We'll play both in the same set if we get a chance. We don't have any biases as far as music is concerned. We have just as much fun playing acoustic guitars with a whole bunch of people singing along, as we do playing a noisy instrumental.

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mssv - See You Through

Some bands go on tour. Other bands really go on tour. mssv falls in the latter category. In 2025, their 69-date trip was crammed into about that many days, as the trio traveled tirelessly from state to state, from continent to continent. But maybe that kind of work ethic is to be expected when you've got the legendary Mike Watt in the ranks. Somehow, in between all that jamming econo, mssv (which also features ace guitarist Mike Baggetta and veteran drummer Stephen Hodges) found time to record their fourth LP at Chris Schlarb's BIG EGO studio in Long Beach, CA. See You Through might be my favorite mssv LP yet; it's lean and mean, scratchy and catchy, sounding at times like the Minutemen attempting a righteous cover of Neil Young's Zuma. As you might expect from a band that tours so hard, the interplay is downright telepathic, changing moods and grooves at will, locking in and wilding out.

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IN THE ZONE: Exploring the cosmos with Prairiewolf

The Zone Poems media blitz rolls on! Prairiewolf — that band I'm in — is on the cover of the Caribou Current this month, glaring at you semi-menacingly. Managing Editor Jezy Gray's feature turned out great, and photographer Tyler Hickman got some sweet pics of us up in Nederland. Go read the whole thing at cariboucurrent.com or grab a physical copy anywhere and everywhere around Boulder County.

The Caribou Current rose triumphantly from the ashes of the Boulder Weekly in 2026. A heartening development! The Weekly was a great alt-weekly that was only held back by a true dork of a publisher. I should know! I spent a few years in the trenches there as a staff writer, a dream job that became something of a nightmare eventually. But the Caribou is taking what was good at the Weekly and leaving behind the bad vibes.

Probably preaching to the choir here, but this kind of locally minded independent arts & culture journalism is crucial. Growing up in the 1990s, alt-weeklies were a necessary pipeline into other, better dimensions. Venture capitalism has all but decimated the landscape over the past several decades, but I genuinely believe that these publications are what people really want, need and deserve. Wherever you may be, seek 'em out and give 'em your support!

Anyway, Prairiewolf! You can preorder Zone Poems, our third LP, NOW. You can hear a tune from the album on Bandcamp (and even another one on WFMU!). And you can check us out live in a couple of weeks at the Electric Room, one of the best/grooviest spots in all of Colorado. An album release event! July 18, 2026! The Zone awaits!

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David Berman - Composition, Horseshit, Magic

David Berman may be gone, but it's always good to hear his voice. And that's pretty much all you'll hear on Composition, Horseshit, Magic. This new-to-me unofficial cassette popped up in my feed recently — and now it's popping up in your feed. Hello!

What we've got here is an audience tape of a rare poetry reading DCB gave at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on September 28, 2002. As James Tate notes in his intro, Berman had graduated from U-Mass with a master's in poetry a few years back. For his triumphant return, the Silver Jew reads several new poems (he claims to have written them just weeks prior) that are filled with all the stuff we love: surreal childhood remembrances, strikingly detailed imagery, hilarious/sad punchlines. Composition, horseshit, magic? Maybe.

You can find some of these poems floating around on the 'net, but it makes me wonder why there hasn't yet been a big volume that collects the complete writings of David Cloud Berman. Library of America, I'm looking in your direction.

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Galaxie 500 - Cabaret Metro, Chicago, Illinois, March 29, 1989 / The Lounge Ax, Chicago, Illinois, October 12, 1990

It's not quite the Fourth of July, but hey, let's listen to "Fourth of July" by Galaxie 500. If there was ever an Independence Day to stay at home and pull the curtains so you don't have to see the sky, well, this is it! 🇺🇸

That classic G-500 tune kicks off a truly majestic Lounge Ax set from 1990 — yet another treasure from the extraordinary Aadam Jacobs tape stash. Dean, Damon and Naomi were headed for a big breakup by this point, only lasting into the spring of '91. But however fractured their relationship was, their strength as a musical unit was reaching some kind of peak. Aadam's recording perfectly captures the sheer immensity of the trio's sound; Krukowski's drums in particular are HUGE here. Super powerful, blue thunder all the way.

You can also check out another Aadam tape of Galaxie 500 in Chicago from a little over a year earlier — happier times, maybe! On Fire wasn't in stores yet, but the band plays a whole bunch of that masterpiece, along with choice selections from the debut. The highlight is the roaring rendition of Jonathan Richman's "Don't Let Our Youth Go To Waste," with everyone bleeding in sympathy.

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Television - CBGB, New York City, June 30, 1976

A half-century ago this evening, Television were doing that thing they'd been doing for more than two years — playing CBGB! Since helping jumpstart the Bowery scene in '74, they'd delivered dozens upon dozens of sets at the tiny club, sometimes soaring into the heavens, occasionally crashing down to earth.

This better-than-average audience tape is almost 100% celestial, letting us listen in on a band on the cusp of greatness. Dizzying / dazzling versions of "Elevation," "Venus" and "Foxhole" show Verlaine, Lloyd, Ficca and Smith in pure go-for-broke mode, confident enough in these songs to bend them to various breaking points, tighter than a tight toy night. The closing, 12-minute "Marquee Moon" is unreal, Verlaine's imagination running riot on the fretboard during the long instrumental section, the rest of the players responding to every beautifully twisted note.

The crowd at CBs knows something is happening ... and they might even know what it is. There are multiple hollered song requests for songs that hadn't yet made it to wax — and even someone making up (?) a title. "Toxic Infatuation"? Well, it sounds like something Richard Hell might've written. The audience is clearly enjoying the privilege of being in the coolest place in the world, seeing the coolest band in the world. And we can enjoy a little bit of that, too, 50 years later. The tape is a sweet you-are-there document, with a waitress floating from one side of the stereo spectrum to the other, asking if we need anything. Maybe a Jack and Coke?

Oh and hey, anyone score anything good from Tom Verlaine's record collection?

📸 Bob Gruen

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Hypnolovewheel - Parallel Universe

Reintroducing Hypnolovewheel! This excellent band made several albums worth of impeccable indie pop from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, sharing stages and labels with that era's cream of the crop, from Galaxie 500 to Superchunk to Yo La Tengo. And it's that latter band's James McNew who has helpfully compiled Parallel Universe, a best-of that's packed with sweet melodies, crunchy guitars and lyrics that walk a fine line between heart-on-the-sleeve and witheringly sarcastic. Hypnolovewheel didn't break through like some of their peers, but this collection (the kickoff of a full reissue program) gives them their due and then some.

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Alice Coltrane - WBCN-FM, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2, 1972

Always read the footnotes, people! You never know what sweet tidbits are lurking in the back of the book. Case in point, Andy Beta's recent/recommended Alice Coltrane bio Cosmic Music features this enticing info about an unheard Boston radio broadcast from 1972:

“Alice’s group that night features Frank Lowe on saxophone, John Blair on violin and leading a string section from the New England Conservatory, and a tabla player/percussionist. No bassist or drummer. Without a true rhythm section, the set has a curious floating, unmoored pacing, led by Alice’s otherworldly bass tones on the Wurlitzer. The set draws from World Galaxy and features rare performances of ‘Galaxy in Turiya’ and an expansive read of 'Galaxy in Satchidananda.’”

Holy Lord of Lords, Batman! This whole recording has yet to surface, but Andy was kind enough to play that "Galaxy in Satchinananda" — all 25 minutes of it — on a recent appearance on WFMU's Observations of Deviance program. And it's amazing! Astonishing! Hopefully, more of it gets out there at some point. In the meantime, you can enjoy the rest of the Observations, which features an interview with Andy, plus his selection of rare / cool Alice music.

Alice Says: I do get very deeply engaged spiritually in the music. Because it’s a spiritual language for me, it’s not a musical language. Music is a spiritual language for me, today. Throughout the years you go through academia with chords, and how to voice that and things like that. Today, music is a spiritual language and I’m expressing, articulating deep feeling and deep experience in life, in spiritual life, in God.

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Jeff Parker ETA IVtet - Happy Today (album-length concert film)

Since we talked about SML yesterday, let's talk about that other band that saxophonist Josh Johnson and bassist Anna Butterss play in — the unbelievable ETA IVtet, led by guitarist extraordinaire Jeff Parker and rounded out beautifully by drummer Jay Bellerose. Ever since that first recording appeared on Eremite Records a few years back, I've been captivated by the IVtet's radical grooves; the latest release, Happy Today, only deepens the spell.

And you can watch how Happy Today all went down via a perfectly shot/edited film from Charlie Weinmann, captured at the Lodge Room in Los Angeles last summer. It's great to see the band as well as hear them, as they build up the songs in real time, following the melodies and rhythms into ecstatic territory.

Earlier this year, I spent what felt like weeks walking around listening to a promo of Happy Today, and the word that kept coming to mind was "utopian." Maybe this multigenerational / multiracial / nonbinary improv jazz group could ... save the world? Or maybe that's too much to put on four musicians, haha. But something about the communicative and communal elements of this music gives me a hopeful feeling, that rarest of commodities these days.

And that feeling isn't only generated by the band. It comes from the audience as well. In a lot of live recordings, crowd noise is a distraction at best, annoying at worst. Here, whenever you hear a little whoop of offstage joy, it reminds you of the now-ness of moment, the reality of the room. It tells you that this shit is happening.