True Believers - Live - Harder! Harder! Harder! promo tape (1986)

Austin's True Believers enjoyed a brief but highly lauded run, and were adored posthumously even more, despite having released just one album during their mid-80s lifespan.  Helmed by brothers Alejandro and Javier Escovedo, the Believers boasted no less than three potent six-stringers in their lineup.  Much has been made about their innovative "Americana" bent, but this quintet were rock and roll purists at heart, forward thinking ones at that.  The live cassette featured in this post was not an official release, rather a limited run promotional item that I assume was sent to magazine, radio, etc.  For the uninitiated, Harder! Harder! Harder! is bound to make for an ironic introduction, as it doesn't contain any original True Believers compositions.  The five songs within were sourced from hometown performances in 1985 and '86, via a live session on KUT FM and a gig at Liberty Lunch, respectively.  As far as covers go, the Believers tackle a familiar cache of classics, reinterpreting the Velvets, Chantays, T. Rex, Mott the Hoople and MC5 in precisely that order.  I'm making these files available in MP3 (320 kbps) and lossless FLAC below.

The band's aforementioned lone LP was reissued on CD in 1994, under the title Hard Road, buttressed by ten tracks from an unreleased second album, recorded in 1987. It's not to be missed. 

Live KUT-FM, Austin 11/10/85
01. Foggy Notion
02. Pipeline
03. 20th Century Boy

Liberty Lunch, Austin 9/5/86
04. Walking With a Mountain
05. Ramblin' Rose

MP3   FLAC