"The Valencia Street Rehearsals" by Tuxedomoon Now Available!

Around 1978 Tuxedomoon shared a rehearsal space at Valencia Street, not far from the Deaf Club. The place would see the birth of many classics in their early form, but would also produce a wealth of jams and compositions that would never see the light of day…

… until now, that is. Thanks to the diligence of Peter Principle, some of these loose rehearsals were recorded on tape, duly digitised around 2015.

Blaine: “I would put this in the basement at 16th and Valencia. Our shared space with Noh Mercy and home of our manager Adrian Craig and Esmerelda Kay of Noh Mercy and angels of light. [Only the Strong Survive] only ever got played at Mark Shause’s Halloween party. The head of surgery at USF hospital who later performed surgery on me on the floor of our apartment to remove a calcified growth from my arm. I still bear the scar. [...This version of Crash includes] the line that [Michael Belfer] played forwards. In the sessions it wasn’t working so we turned the tape over and I played forward keyboards with the backwards track. Then we added the drums. This gave us the backwards guitar on the Half Mute version”

The band agrees it’s a magical piece of sound, evocative and nostalgic, fresh and hardly ever boring. You can hear the excitement of exploring “strange new toys”, as well as the mutual acquaintance between the musicians’ individual ideas and styles, gradually becoming something larger than the sum of its parts…

... in other words, gradually becoming Tuxedomoon.

Heitor Alvelos, September 2018

	1.	Only The Strong Survive 03:52
	2.	Victims Of Hope 05:31
	3.	Impressionist Flesh 07:09
	4.	Keep Me Hangin' On 02:08
	5.	Crash 03:43
	6.	No Tears (blues) 17:56
	7.	Miracle Throne 01:48
	8.	Only The Strong Survive (reprise) 04:30

Recorded at Valencia Street basement rehearsal rooms, San Francisco, circa 1978

Performers:

Michael Belfer

Steven Brown

Peter Principle

Blaine L. Reininger

Transferred from analogue tapes by Peter Principle, 2015

Edited and sequenced by Heitor Alvelos, 2018

Mastered by Anselmo Canha, 2018

Cover photo by Richard Alden Peterson

Cover design based on original “No Tears” layout by Winston Tong

Project management and design by Heitor Alvelos

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