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Great Snapshot of Jim White's Solo Shows

wm | ...onward....thru the fog! | 12/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

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After Jim White released "Transnormal Skiperoo", he toured in support of the album with a two, three, and sometimes four piece band, including himself.



For mysterious reasons known only to the infinitely wise sages of "the record industry" (read that term several times...I put it in quotes as a joke due to its ongoing implosion), "Transnormal" wasn't released in the US till about 6 months after its European release in late 2007. Once the CD was released in the US in the spring of 2008, White did some solo gigs, mostly in independent record stores, before doing a second leg with the band.



The songs on this live EP came from the solo gigs. If you haven't seen Jim White live, this gives a great snapshot of what a Jim White show is like. He's quite the raconteur, and often tells strange stories between songs. When he tours solo, he uses a small array of electronic and old school gadgets (including a kid's toy keyboard), records samples of himself on the fly, then loops them and layers the loops. By the time the song is done, it often sounds like there are more than just one musician on the stage.



Too bad only a smattering of songs was selected for this EP. I'm guessing the idea was to capture the feel of the indy record store appearances themselves, during which he usually only played around 10 songs.



When I wrote this, the CD showed "currently out of stock" or something like that. You may be able to purchase the CD from jimwhite dot net."