Neapolitan Metropolitan 3 x 7" Box SIMPLE MACHINES Dave Grohl Foo Fighters RARE

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36

RARE 7" Box Set that includes the single "There's That Song" by Late! (a pseudonym for Dave Grohl of Nirvana & Foo Fighters) before the Nirvana days.   Neapolitan Metropolitan      

Sometime in 1991 Jenny was in the Adams Morgan section of DC and stopped by Ben & Jerry's for some ice cream. While she was there she noticed an interesting policy: bring your own spoon and you get a free scoop. Ben & Jerry's was using ice cream as a reward for those customers who didn't use a disposable plastic spoon! Jenny soon got in touch with Ben & Jerry's headquarters and requested an annual report, which was full of stories about innovative, community-based efforts that the company had woven into their business framework.

Since one of our own mission statement goals was to use our packaging to "educate, not just decorate", we turned this interest in community development efforts into a 7" project. Neapolitan Metropolitan combined great music from bands from three regional cities, which we pressed on ice-creamy vinyl, with inforamtion about community-based organizations. The enclosed booklet talked about Ben & Jerry's, as well as DC's Sasha Bruce House and the Arlandria Tenant's Rights Association of Alexandria, VA.

SMR 10
Neo Metro triple 7" box set with white, pink and green vinyl
1992
out of print

Richmond: Breadwinner / Coral / Burma Jam / Fudge
Baltimore: Tear Jerks / Candy Machine / Slack / False Face Society
Washington: Bratmobile / Late / Lilys / Whorl

ABOUT Late!

Pocketwatch is a cassette album by Dave Grohl, under the pseudonym Late!, released in 1992 on the now defunct indie label, Simple Machines, as part of their Tool Cassette Series. 

In the summer of 1991, Dave Grohl went into WGNS Studios and recorded four songs, playing all the instruments himself. The recording was combined with six songs from a previous Upland Studios session recorded in late 1990. Although both sessions occurred after joining Nirvana, Grohl unobtrusively acknowledged their existence. A tape of the songs, given to Simple Machines co-founder Jenny Toomey by Grohl, immediately became a candidate for the labels Tool Cassette Series.[1] The 1990 sessions emerged as Grohl, then the drummer of Scream, requested his producer friend Barrett Jones to record songs in his home 8-track tape recorder. Upon accepting Simple Machines' request for a demo tape, Grohl decided to hide his identity under the pseudonym Late!, "because I’m an idiot and I thought it would be funny to say to everybody, 'Sorry, we’re Late!’".[2]

The Tool Cassette Series started around 1991 as an experiment, and as a way of keeping music "in print" on an as-needed basis without having to finance vinyl or CD pressings, since Simple Machines dubbed the cassettes as the orders came in.[1] With multiple cassette decks and a lot of volunteer help, this was a manageable project for the label. Shortly after Nirvana released Nevermind in the fall of 1991, its unexpected success was large enough that Pocketwatch eventually became noticed. It gained more attention when the Foo Fighters' early material was released in 1995. Some of the songs appeared on subsequent releases, creating even higher demand for the cassette. Suddenly, Pocketwatch was being mentioned frequently in interviews, and the label became flooded with orders.[1] Grohl claimed that the big number of requests led Toomey to "literally dub them on a double cassette deck in her bedroom."[2]

With minimal help and deteriorating master cassettes, Simple Machines got in touch with Grohl about releasing the Late! album as a CD, to keep up with demand. However, Grohl preferred to keep it as a cassette only release, which the label honored.[1] The musician explained later that he refused to do a CD release because "it was never intended to be a big thing", but Grohl also joked, regarding Pocketwatch's current status as a highly sought collectible, that he "wanted to drive up the price of cassettes to $3,000".[2] When the two master cassettes for Pocketwatch came to the end of their useful lives, and with some of the other artists masters in the same condition, Simple Machines decided to discontinue the Tool Cassette Series from their mailorder, putting the over half-decade experiment to an end

Songs from the Late! album made appearances on official releases as well. Prior to the Pocketwatch offering, "Petrol CB" was included on the Neapolitan Metropolitan 7" vinyl box set compilation released by Simple Machines in 1992, under the title "There's That Song" and also featured tracks fromBreadwinner, Burma Jam, Bratmobile, and Lilys, among others.[3] The only song officially released on CD was a remixed version of "Just Another Story About Skeeter Thompson", included on Buzz Osborne's 1992 solo EP King Buzzo, retitled "Skeeter".