4 out of 5

Label: Radiopaque Recordings

Produced by: Dave Marsh

4 songs each by 2 classic artists, cut live for a radio show for charity.  Fan-only release?  Certainly.  However, as a fan of only one of these artists – Girls Against Boys – the cuts on here do make me appreciate a golden age of indie, where a rep could be built by word of mouth based on, say, seeing an act live; that is, despite not being big on Guided By Voices, I appreciate the energy that they deliver on these tracks (more so than I have on proper albums), and can see how, if I caught them during a show way back when, I could’ve been a convert.

The production is crisp, though the general levels are a little low, which I’d say is an acceptable exception for live recordings, and with your volume bumped up a few notches it sounds pretty great.  As seasoned performers, these guys also know how to deliver: having seen GVSB, they add some familiar bits to their tracks, but it’s in the name of a good performance and it works.  …Which is where my only minus comes from: With four tracks, it should be easy to narrow down to all winners.  GVSB’s contributions meet this; one of GBVs, though – My Valuable Hunting Knife – is a bit too mundane for this purpose, and creates the briefest of snags in the EPs momentum.