The Prayer Chain “Shawl” Vinyl/Concert Fundraiser/The “Eric Campuzano Attic Tape” Bootleg

KICKSTARTER: SHAWL DOUBLE VINYL & LIVE CONCERT

The Prayer Chain is fundraising on Kickstarter to release their album, Shawl, on double vinyl, and to provide a concert experience for fans (i.e. for me!). As of this writing, they’re almost 75% funded, but they need your help!

So go here and fork over your hard-earned dead presidents, folks. 

Then reward yourselves by downloading the free, exclusive bootleg below!

ORIGIN OF THE BOOTLEG

When I was a freshman in college at Southwest Missouri State University—now Missouri State University—I received the cassette below in the mail from Prayer Chain bassist Eric Campuzano. As I mentioned in my other post about the Prayer Chain (read it here), I was in the habit of writing the band out of sheer obsessive fandom.

Apparently, I wrote the band often enough that Eric thought of me when he came upon a cache of cassettes in his house. I prefer to say he found them in his attic. It makes it sound more like this cassette is a found artifact, I think. Sort of like The Basement Tapes—but we will leave the basement to Bob Dylan.

I took it upon myself to rip this cassette to MP3 and assemble it as a proper bootleg (if it can ever truly be said that a bootleg is “proper”). Keep in mind the analog source, and know that I did the best I could to exercise quality control with my limited audio abilities.

Note: Eric refers to a song called “Pray Naked” in the letter below, but it was not featured on the cassette. He also refers to “Super the Verve/Sky High.” Apparently, “Sky High” is cobbled together from at least two songs, and I can only assume these were the working titles of the songs that were combined to create one of Mercury‘s most memorable songs. In the letter, Eric also mentions songs that later appeared on the “So Close … Yet So Far” official band release. I did not include those songs here because he included them there. The rest of this material is not available anywhere else.

The band members bestowed their blessings upon this bootleg on October 1, 2012. Click the link below to download, and enjoy what Eric Campuzano was gracious enough to send me.

TRACKLISTING FOR THE “ERIC CAMPUZANO ATTIC TAPE”:

1. Mercy (Live, 1991)

2. Turtledoves (Live, 1991)

3. Grin (Live, 1991)—Apparently, the working title of this song at the time was “Love.”

4. Kill Me (From the Inside)  (Live, 1991)

5. Like I Was (Live, 1991)

6. Shine (Live, 1991))

7. Psycho Flange (Live, 1991)

8. I Believe (Live, 1991)

9. Some Love (Live, 1991)

10. Take It Away (Lifetones Version)

11. Pop Song (Demo)

12. Worm (Demo)

13. Wrounde (Demo)—Note how Tim Taber sings “no funky clowns to amuse me” instead of “no funny clowns to amuse me.”

14. Chatterbox (Demo)

15. The Hollow (Demo)

16. Friend of Foe (Demo)

17. Sky High (Demo)

DOWNLOAD LINK:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2daggxpf5ck6s5g/Eric%20Campuzano%20Attic%20Tape.zip?dl=0

The writing on the cassette sleeve below is Tim Taber’s.

“Chad Thomas Johnston is an author, sonuva’ preacha’ man, PhD-dropout, singer/songwriter, music producer/sonic reducer, daydreaming doodler, gorilla/guerilla publicist, cinemaddict, & pop-culture obsessive. He is represented by Seattle, WA-based literary agent Jenée Arthur, who is currently shopping his debut manuscript to major publishing houses. Follow Him on Twitter: @Saint_Upid