Translator

Translator Returns With

Beyond Today: Live at the Farm - San Francisco 1986



The final concert of the group's oriignal four-album deal for Columbia Records now becomes their first live album
Beyond Today includes a live recording of a previously unrleeased track, "Puzzles," as well as two new songs mixed by Ed Stasium
Arrives May 9 on LP, CD & download from Liberation Hall

The album is available for pre-order at Bandcamp. A digital single, "These Days to Come," is released today.

Formed in Los Angeles in 1979, Translator began as the trio of Steve Barton (vocals, guitar), Larry Dekker (bass), and Dave Scheff (drums). After playing a handful of shows, the lineup was solidified by the addition of Robert Darlington (vocals, guitar). Translator relocated to San Francisco and was quickly signed to local label, 415 Records. The timing was fortunate as Translator became one of the first groups to benefit from 415's manufacturing and distribution deal with Columbia Records. Debut album Heartbeats and Triggers arrived in 1982 and was greeted with critical praise and solid airplay for the career-defining tracks "Everywhere That I'm Not" and "Everywhere." A video for the group's anti-nuke statement, "Sleeping Snakes," received airplay on MTV.

Between 1983 and 1986, the band completed three more albums for Columbia Records. They received significant airplay for "Un-Alone," from No Time Like Now, which was their second album produced by David Kahne (The Bangles, Romeo Void, Fishbone). For their third and fourth albums -- the self-titled Translator and Evening of the Harvest -- the group worked with producer Ed Stasium. Stasium's resume at the time included engineering the Ramones' Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, as well as Talking Heads: 77; mixing Talking Heads' More Songs About Buildings and Food; and producing the Ramones' Road to Ruin and It's Alive.

Translator had always wanted to release a live album. The closest they came during their Columbia years was 1986's Evening of the Harvest. Stasium only made subtle additions to the live-in-studio recordings. Between-song ambient sounds and a few other embellishments are among the few ingredients that separate the album from an audio verité recording.

Near the end of the tour in support of Evening of the Harvest, the four members of Translator had decided to go their separate ways. Bill Kopp, author of Disturbing the Peace: 415 Records and the Rise of New Wave, writes in Beyond Today's liner notes, "Translator decided to go out with a bang, scheduling a hometown show to reward their ardent fan base. They booked a date at The Farm, a beloved environmental art and performance space at Army Street (now Cesar Chavez Street) and Potrero in San Francisco."

"We just got back from being on the road, so were quite warmed up," Darlington continued. "It was an incredibly emotional show for me. You can kind of hear it in the first few songs." The band opened with "Beyond Today" (from No Time Like Now), establishing a tone -- uncertain of the future but unbowed -- that carried the entire evening. Steve Barton added, "We tied colorful balloons to the amps to make it a sort of celebration -- but it was very bittersweet at the same time. We knew it was the end. I dressed in all white instead of my usual dark clothes...ready for a fresh canvas, I suppose."

Beyond Today: Live at the Farm -- San Francisco 1986 marks the first time this concert has been available as a physical release. For a brief time in 2020, the recording had been available to stream on the group's website, Translator-Band.com. "The Farm was our last show of the '80s and as far as we knew at the time, our last show ever," recalled Scheff. "It was recorded on a Sony cassette machine sitting on the board near our soundman Floyd Solders. It picked up talking, crowd noise, and exactly what we played in the moment... it captures all the energy we were feeling that night, and all the noise we made!"

One of the highlights of Beyond Today is "Drum Solo/Puzzles/Favorite Drug." The track begins with the first drum solo Scheff ever performed with the band (yes, it took seven years for that first solo to arrive), which leads into the previously unreleased song, "Puzzles." "Puzzles" is perhaps the most surprising song that Translator has recorded, an exhilarating and heavy detour into prog rock. The medley concludes with the tense, nervy dynamics of "Favorite Drug."

To mark the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the band's breakup, Translator delighted fans with reunion shows in 2006, including performances at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Since then, the band members have continued performing and recording, both together and separately. A fifth Translator studio album, Carriage of Days, was released by the band in 2017.

Beyond Today is rounded out by a special treat for purchasers of the CD or download. The final two tracks, "These Days to Come" and "With Your Dreams," are newly written band compositions recorded over the past two years by Translator. Both are mixed by Stasium. "It was so cool to work with Ed again," said Barton. "We have remained close friends throughout the years, and he understood immediately what we were going for with these songs." In addition to the new liner notes essay by Kopp, the package includes a wealth of photographs from The Farm concert by Trudy Fisher.

TRANSLATOR -- Beyond Today: Live at the Farm -- San Francisco 1986
(LP: LIB-2106; CD/DL: LIB-2105)

CD TRACKLIST:

Steve Barton and Dave Scheff have just finished recording a 2-sided, holiday single that will be available to stream soon, with plans to release a colored vinyl single in 2023. Steve Barton wrote both of the songs, assembled a super group to record them and Steve Berlin from Los Lobos to produce them.

In the photo, L-R: Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, Minus 5), Dave Scheff, Raymond Richards (engineer), Steve Barton, Peter Buck, Steve Berlin (Los Lobos - producer).

Steve Barton: Guitar, Vocal
Peter Buck: Guitar
Scott McCaughey: Bass, keyboard
Dave Scheff: drums

---

---