Saturday, November 15, 2014

Crocodile - Echo and the Bunnymen tribute w/ Spiral Stairs of Pavement and Kelley Stoltz - live 10/25/03, NYC.

Well here's something you don't see everyday.  An Echo and the Bunnymen tribute band, taking on not merely a mish-mash of Ian and Will's greatest hits, but more specifically the group's lauded debut, Crocodiles from beginning to end.  Crocodile (the band) was ostensibly a one-off affair featuring Spiral Stairs (Scott Kannberg) of Pavement and Preston School of Industry renown on guitars and singer/songwriter Kelley Stoltz on the mic.  Rounded out with future Fresh and Onlys bass slinger Shayde Sartin and Mother Hips drummer Jon Hofer, Crocodile faithfully execute said album on a late night performance at Arlene's Grocery in New York during the 2003 CMJ festival.
      Stoltz slips into McCulloch mode from second one, adopting a Manchester accent that's most evident via the inter-song banter, while Kannberg does a wholly capable Will Sergeant impersonation.  Crocodile bear a slightly strummy lilt, a la the Feelies, but otherwise this gig was much akin to witnessing the genuine article, with a stage set, from what I understand, that entailed generous plumes of dry ice and such.  I should note that it wouldn't be until 2010 that the long-running reformed E&TBM lineup were playing Crocodiles in it's entirety for themselves.  Funny that a hip, Yank pick-up band beat them to it, no?  You can hear the results for yourself in lossless FLAC or MP3. 

1. intro
2. Going Up
3. Stars Are Stars
4. Pride
5. Monkeys
6. Crocodiles
7. Rescue
8. Villiers Terrace
9. Read it in Books
10. Pictures on My Wall
11. All That Jazz
12. Happy Death Men
encore:
13. Do It Clean

MP3  or  FLAC

6 comments:

eric said...

Thanks, I'm downloading it right now and anxious to check it out. By coincidence, I came across my copies of Porcupine and Songs To Learn And Sing last night while shuffling through some stacks of CDs and put them both aside to be played soon. It made me recall buying STLAS when it came out on vinyl and how much of an impression it made on me at the time, having only heard EATB's appearance in Urrgh! A Music War before that. This looks like it could be interesting. Thanks for the Flac option.

xopher.tm said...

Fun. Thanks for this!

-Xtm

kelley said...

hi ive tried to download flac and mp3 both wont work on my mac... hmm i get some not supported or damged file notice. I wanna hear it - its been 11 years!
kelley

spavid said...

Glad you're enjoying this. A rare treat indeed.

I'm on a PC kelley, and am currently not experiencing the same issues. Are you able to download other links from the site?

kelley said...

cool i got it had to get unrarx

thanks!

Niall said...

Oh! Dear..... "McCulloch mode from second one, adopting a Manchester accent" ......what would the head Bunny Scoucer think of that...Manchester / Liverpool cultures apart !!