[srb]

I’ll go ahead and ask, was the description on EBAY 100% accurate?

I've compared the songs to how they sound to the earliest bootlegs I have, and I can definitely say these songs pre-date Up To Here, but it's hard to say if they pre-date the EP, since there's nothing from the EP on the tape, and the earliest version of a non-album track from the demo, I have on a 1988 bootleg. Comparing Times Are Passing Us By to the 1988-03-03 London, ON show, they sound quite similar, so this is possibly a 1987/8 demo tape. I don't know.

For the songs that end up on Up To Here, a couple sound like they had taken shape, but a few also sound completely different than the released versions. (New Orleans is quite similar, except for an unsteady opening riff, and it includes the extra verse -- check Museum After Dark for the additional verse lyrics)

Quality wise, it's definitely studio, but a fair amount of tape-hiss is prevalent. When I transferred from cassette to the Mac, I applied a light hiss-reduction filter, and cut a little from the high-end frequencies to try and reduce the hiss, but not "muddle" the music. After the recording is released on the tracker, I'll do a higher-end transfer of the cassette for anybody who wants to take a stab at remastering it (already had one offer).

Here's an mp3 sample from the tape.

Times Are Passing Us By