Cheap Trick Heaven Tonight. A bit compressed, certainly no audiophile pressing, but it rocks and is lots of fun. And Surrender has a prominent place in the soundtrack of my life.

Trey

Sunny Day Real Estate, by recommendation from SM. really some glorious music. original and interesting songs.

to have Stephen recommending good music. Well, I am lucky! I still listen to the Vivian Girls pretty often and they came to me from him. I will check out Sunny Day Real Estate.

Jeff Beck Emotion Commotion , Doobie Brothers World Gone Crazy , Mark Knoppler Get Lucky , And a big diss on Peter Gabriels Scratch My Back, Sorry to say but I gave it 5 times in my deck and I dont get it, Gave it my rating as Granny Puke.

The Experience Hendrix 2010 tribute tour.

Musicians on this tour played various Jimi tunes.

Some of the musicians are as follows:

Eric Johnson
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Jonny Lang
Steve Vai
Ernie Isley
Mitch Mitchell (Jimi's original drummer) last project for
Mitch before his death. R.I.P.

Billy Cox (Jimi's bassist during the Band of Gypsys time)
Chris Layton ( Stevie Ray Vaughan's drummer)
Living Colour
Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and Cesar Rosas

Mark Evans

Dire Straits . On Every Street .
Lots of good music posted above too .

The Strawbs-Halcyon Days, Paul McCarthy-RAM, Fleetwood Mac-Future Games, Yes-Big Generator, Roxy Music-Flesh and Blood.

Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra - Songs for the night sea journey.
Absolutely incredible.

Vangelis - Voices

Stunning

Big Star and Modest Mouse

Bonnaroo Superjam from 2004 Bonnaroo Music Festival. Through horrible speakers attached to my computer, but at least I have music at work.

sorry, just had to. 2 great weekends i have spent at that festival.

I have the first two records on a sacd, so they are all mixed up in my mind! Interestingly, I really enjoy the latest Big Star release, In Space released in 05 or so. OK, it is really an Alex Chilton plus record, but I love his stuff too, so no prob.

Another interesting place to get some Alex Chilton is on his Cliche's album. Just Alex and a guitar, and he sings without a trace of irony in his voice. His version of The Christmas Song is worth the price of admission to me.

Trey

I'm listening to #1 Record and Radio City. India Song and Thirteen have been a couple of my favorites so far. I enjoy the ballads the most.

are not my forte! But I like the ballads on those records! You might LOVE Cliches by Alex Chilton. Give it a listen and see if it is your cup of tea.

Trey

Listening to Allen Dale, "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee".

The Peter Gabriel disc Passion.

A mix of unusual instruments, good moody soundscapes, and no vocals to distract you while tring to concentrate on posting here :)
Oops. I mean 'trying' to concentrate.

just the song as I went to sleep last night. I have an iPod with the line out going into an Ear Max tubed headphone amplifier pushing some Sennheiser in ear phone. It sounds great.

But what so caught my attention last night was the cymbal and drum work on Aja. It sounds like it is a constructed drum track, I do not think anyone has enough hands to be doing what I heard all at once. But man, the cymbals are really used effectivly for time keeping and musical comment. And the tom work on the outtro is so cool! I had always been listening to the sax. The track was so good I listened to it twice in a row.

Trey

Hey Trey, what's Aja?

Steely Dan! They have an album and a song by the same name. It is really quite clear and an audiophile recording for that type of music. Some people see their work as a bit sterile and too perfect, I can understand the criticism without those aspects bothering me.

What really caught my attention was how music the percussion was. Steve Gadd played the skins on that track, and for me it was revelatory. I get the rhythmic aspects of drums, but this was really the first time I heard drums playing melodically and commenting on the vocals and other instruments. I am sure this has been going on for years, but it was last night that I noticed it. Give it a listen!

Trey

*See Keith Moon and Neil Peart.

"...double helix in the sky tonight..throw out the hardware..let's do it right.." :-)

Mark

Trey: I don't know why I never got into Steely Dan, especially if the drumming is good. I love drums, grew up playing drums. The stuff I listened to for the drumming was Rush and King Crimson. Then later the Grateful Dead's 2 drummers. Anyway, I'll have to give Aja a listen. Thanks for the tip.

Ariel: Agree about Neil Peart. As for Keith Moon, I never got into the Who too much, but I've got a great Zep show with Moon appearing on part of it. Pretty good.

I love Keith Moon, but I am usually too busy playing air drums when his music is on to really listen! I need to discipline myself! It reminds me of an article by Michael Gindi (sp?) where he played some Marley for some reggae loving friends. They had not heard the music on a killer system, and when it started they were visibly shocked for a second, then they got up to dance! What non-audiophile behavior!!!!!!!

As for Neil Peart, I cannot get past the so called singing on Rush records. Same thing with GunsNRoses, can't listen to Axl either.

But Keith, him I can work on!

Trey

Jesus Crysler ! I bought this cd on Fri replaced my lp years ago , Wish I could have got it on xrcd but no luck , Great sound although some tracks seem better produced than others not sure why but yeah Steely Dan rocks , Try the dvd Two Against Nature very well done.

but I have not listened to it much. So much of my music time is fixing up the music on the server or ripping lps onto the server that I forget about my sacd and dvda music. I will try to correct that with Two Against Nature tonight.

Trey

Just got Herbie Hancocks Possibilties , Great sonics , Track 3 with Christina Aguilera A Song For You is just fantastic as well as John Mayers Stitched Up . Lots of other guests on this cd not to mention Herbies wonderfull keyboard goes without saying .

Just got Best Of Roxy Music , What a great mix , Crank up the amp for the 1st track Avalon very nice . Also Frank Zappas Cheap Thrills by special order only This is a wonderfull cd with a mix of live and studio recordings , It is interesting the first track you hear the Beatles telling him how to get ahead in this bizzness. Funny at the tyme and although it was proly just a gag for this cd, one can hear the truth in what they were saying. At any rate well worth a listen. Whilst on the topic of Frank anyone know where to buy his cds ? Not a fan of downloading music I want the cd in my hand. This cd I have is produced by RYKO and has cdrom content in it a big plus for us fans not to mention drop dead album artwork by Cal Schenkel. Ok off to get my Mudshark fishing lic.

Roxy Music, in my opinion, is a band not sufficiently served by a "Best Of", tho you can't lose w/ that if you just have one. The first 5 Roxy albums are superb and revelatory. Yep, they're even better than Avalon. Get them and dig them.

Franke & the Knockouts: Below the Belt

are these Franke & the Knockouts? Spill on them Jeff.

Thanks!

Trey

Dr. Trey:

They were a band out of New Jersey in the early 80's (81 or 82).
They did a couple of songs that were in the movie Dirty Dancing.
They did the original version of Hungry Eyes (Eric Carmen)
They did a great song: Without You - not another lonely night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5NTd363Svc

Let me know what you think.

Jeff

Dr. Trey:

They also did the original song, "I've had the time of my life".

Jeff

Yes: Yes Songs

A fairly decent 3 LP live set. Released in 1973.

Jeff

is more my speed, and I really enjoy the stuff they did in their first decade or so. Honestly I need to listen to their stuff after that. But the first three albums I listened to a lot. We had two main camps when I was in college. We had a "beach music" crowd who liked oldies and a "new wave" crowd who liked harder sounding stuff. I was one of two guys who liked Yes. I used to sit up with my friend Tandy listening to Yes and Foghat and other rocking records that were fairly well produced. He had a wonderful Marantz tube preamp, the 7 I think, and tunes sure sounded good in his room.

Trey

Trey, 1973 was also the year that Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon. Still one of my all time favorites ... but back to Yes. The summer of 1974 I was traveling with a band that played the Holiday Inn circuit. We were in Birmingham, AL. for the month of June and the drummer had a real nice audio system in his room. One night, after the band had finished, we gathered in the drummers room, smoked massive amounts of "special" tobacco product ... and I heard the LP's for the 1st time. We listened to all 6 sides with the album cover spread open before us trying to fit the music to the album cover art ... Creative Interpretation, you could say. One of those Kodak moments. After our "tunes" session we all walked over to the Krystal Hamburger joint down the street and made their weekly sales goal in one visit.

Jeff

My version of that story is remarkably similar except it was Dark Side of the Moon on the Mofi pressing and I think Hectors in Chapel Hill, NC. My pal had a Lynn and I could feel my pants leg move with the bass notes. I wonder if they really did? Your band sounds marginally better than mine, we had an Elvis impersonater (great voice, no costume) and a Neil Diamond impersonater (OK voice, had the costume down to the shades!) So that was special!

Rock on Jeff.

Trey

Allman Brothers: Eat a Peach

Sade: Diamond Life

Pink Floyd: Final Cut

Jeff

LOL!

We have alot in common. I relish the many evenings that consisted of 'special tobacco', good friends, imported mexican beer, and fine audio.

That got my mouth to watering....HEY! anyone got a paper?

Great story Jeff :-) Enjoyed the read.

Listening to: Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver - 1980

Mark Evans

Mark:

Somewhere the disciples' of Pavlov are all smiles.

I used to have a neighbor from the country of Lebanon. He and his wife regulary smoked shisha in his Hooka. I used to bring over a bottle of wine to share and we would have great conversations and I would even take a puff or two from the Hooka even though I gave up tobacco years ago. He used this double apple shisha that was fairly tasty. We became good friends. When he and his wife moved back to Lebanon he gave me my own Hooka as a way to remember our friendship. It is the most ornate thing you've ever seen. It has it's own suitcase and when assembled the thing stands right at 4 feet tall. It has been years since I've had it out of its case BUT at one point I just had to see how it would handle "special tobacco". The first and only issue was that it took a weeks wages to fill the bowl but damn if I didn't have to give it a go. I would share the final results of my experiment with you if only I could remember :)

Jeff

Thanks for sharing that Jeff. You know, there is nothing more enjoyable than meeting new people with similar interests.

Your friends sound like super people. You just can't put a price tag on friends like this :-)

I have seen some very beautifully made Hooka's, actually art when you really get down to it. I would love to have one adorn my listening room. Would make for a good conversation piece to say the least.

Best,
Mark

But I had a friend with a gozah (wrong but phonetic spelling.) You would make a patty of honey and pipe tobacco, and place the other on top of that. It was a long stemmed, clay water pipe that fit over a mason jar full of ice water. He swore it was from Egypt.

You would use it in front of a couch because as it hit you, you needed to sit down. I enjoy tobacco on occasions, and I enjoy the other when I have the chance, but I do not enjoy mixing the two.

I would make a rotten brit.

Trey

Oh My , Two gems now in my collection Stevie Wonders Innervisions by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Incredible sound , I dont know all about this 16 to 20 bit remap but they have done it so well remarkable is an understatement , The second is Franks One Size Fits All by RYKO AU20 also Gold k edt. This mix has an interesting feel about it not over done so it does not sound like it was but now enhanced with just the right amount of stereo separation, vocals nice clear and crisp, but not so defined as the mix from MFSL I supose they each have there own way of doing this magic. Hard to find and not cheap but the reward is worth every penny. Yes Jeff000 Eat A Peach one of my fav , Like to find Marshall Tuckers Carolina Dreams on this format , Hooked on Super Bit.

We no where this post is going when we start talking about those left handed cigarettes .

Mark, I couldn't have said it better. I feel like I've made great new friends right here on the Stereophile forum. My God, my life seems to just get better and better.
Let me share another saga or two with you ... My first trip to Amsterdam ... The first coffeeshop I visited was called "Smokey's". You could tell who the American tourist were because everytime the door to the place made a squeak the Americans would jerk their heads around like the FBI just raided the place. It was comical to say the least. The neat thing about Smokey's was that each gram of "special smoke" you purchased there was a little sticker in the bag and when you collected six stickers the next gram was free. Have I mentioned that I just love Captialism? The other Kodak moment was ... I was standing outside of a coffeeshop called The Dampkring and a guy came out sporting what had to be a 6 inch spliff. The thing was hanging out his mouth as he was searching his pockets for a light and a cop passed by on his bicycle, stopped, pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit the spliff for the guy. I almost soiled myself right there. God, I love Amsterdam!

Jeff

Jeff,

That is the coolest story I have read in a long time.  And from one lover of Capitalism to another.. Thanks!

Listening to:

 Neal Schon - Electric World - 1997

Jackson Browne- solo acoustic vol. 1 and 2

A nice live recording, of some fine music.

of Jackson Browne. It made me want to get more of his band stuff.

Trey

Yes, I might have to do the same, and get into more of his studio recordings!

It's nice to hear all of the interaction with the audience as well.

the stories were fun and added to the experience. Not too many artists pull that off, Bruce, Frank Zappa, Barenaked Ladies, not too many.

Trey