The Red Crayola, Three Songs on a Trip to the United States (CD)

Part of Drag City's amazingly ambitious Red Krayola CD reissue program of the late 90s was this 1983 EP. It was the last Red Krayola before a long hiatus, down to a trio of Thompson/Chamberlain/Ravenstine. It's not a radical departure from Black Snakes, which immediately preceded it. 3 new songs in the studio (including the excellent "Monster One", which Mayo still plays live) plus live renditions of 5 oldies. The studio recordings are one of very few things I've heard from Conny's Studio that Conny Plank didn't engineer—they don't sound special, but the CD is not particularly well-mastered, so it's hard to tell what an outside engineer did with the legendary space.