If you ever bothered to look at my profile on last.fm, you would easily determine that I am indeed a Therapy? fan. I've loved everything they've done ever since the first time I heard Troublegum.

If you're not familiar with this band, you should check them out. There's plenty of their videos and such on youtube. If you live in the US, well, you may have a hard time finding their stuff.

A few months ago it was announced that all the stuff they had done for BBC radio would be released and available as a download only release. Me not being an Itunes user, I quickly started bugging friends for a way to get this stuff. Unfortunately due to archaic distribution channels that labels insist on clinging to, this release was (and is still) not available in the US.

What's a fan to do? For a music industry that's hell bent on protecting their content from illegal copying they sure as hell don't seem to want to make it available legally either. This is not the bands fault by the way, I'm sure they have just as much influence on the stuffed suits as I do. I was unable to get a legal download of this in the US...period.

Finally around last month or so, someone decided they might as well release a proper CD of this but still not in the US. Well fortunately for me Amazon UK, has no problem accepting my credit card and charging Euros. So I was finally able to get a hold of this thing. Note: to the suits. It would have cost you less money per unit just to release it to Itunes US.

So I got it. Was it worth it? HELL YES!!!!!!!

The first disc is definitely better than the second one, but they are both stellar. It is a blast to hear the songs from the first 2 albums played by a band just starting out. Some of the songs are a little rough, on Meat Abstract it sounds like Fyfe is having a hard time either keeping up or he can't hear what everyone else is doing. Still the defect provides some charm. Some of my fondest memories of when I played in a band is the fuck ups, and how we all managed to get through them without a major train wreck.

The songs from Nurse(Nausea/TeethGrinder etc....), are a bit more aggressive, and I probably prefer them to the album versions. The album versions are good, but overall they sound a little too reserved like they are being a little careful. But the live versions, have more energy. There's a few versions of TeethGrinder, one is an excellent illustration of the spontaneous ideas they are capable of.The version from the evening session 1992 starts off at a blistering fast pace with the occasional sound of the dentist drill, perhaps it's an ode to "Can God Fill Teeth" by Lard?.

What's really amazing is how tight they apparently got between Nurse and Troublegum(92-94). It almost doesn't sound like the same band. But the sets from 93-94 document a band at their prime performance wise. I wonder what it would be like in the studio during Auto Surgery from the Peel Sessions. The entire 3 piece punches like a sledgehammer on beats 3+4, I imagine the windows in the control room were in danger of shattering from the sonic blasts.

There are perhaps too many versions of Totally Random Man. I imagine they had just barely enough material for 2 discs if it weren't for putting all those versions on maybe. Still I'd rather have it all than have them holding back some material for whatever reason.

In conclusion, for those of us who are not fortunate enough to live in Europe and catch a show every 3 months, and swap bootlegs of TV/radio performances, this CD is a wonderful document of how they were at the various stages of their career. I only wish it would have been easier to get for those of us on this side of the pond. But again, not the bands fault, those stupid labels take all the fun out of everything.