Okay. We just squeezed a full day's work into four tight and furious hours. The company granted us a half-day, so that we could all get a head-start on the holiday weekend. This, of course, is very nice. However, we started shipping the wonderful June issue just yesterday and had much work to accomplish this morning. In addition, for various reasons, we've had to accomplish that work without the help of an ad coordinator or production manager, and all while employing an entirely new pre-press system. Shipping days, as a rule, are intense. These have gone beyond intense.
It must have been at Herald Square, where I was transferring onto the B, that I realized JA had left a message on my cell. I couldn't listen to the message below the ground — no service down there — but the display let me know that the call arrived at 7:58am. Why in the world would John be calling me at 7:58 in the morning? It was now almost 8:30. Shit:
I was introduced to Scotch Tapes, “the worst hi-tech music label ever,” on December 9, by a Twitter post from Jagjaguwar. Oneida would be releasing a limited-edition cassette through Scotch Tapes. This was interesting news to me, first because I’ve been fascinated with the idea of a “cassette tape revival,” and second because Oneida is a well-established name in the world of underground rock bands. Why would Oneida release work on a format that had been all but forgotten by the music industry? Why cassettes?
I’ve listened to no album this year more than I’ve listened to Wild Beasts’ Smother. For that matter, I’ve enjoyed no album more this year than Wild Beasts’ Smother. It courses slowly and deliberately through colors and moods of pain, longing, love, and desire—all that good stuff—and it does so with such a gentle touch, a delicious smoothness, a constant, lulling pulse.
It pours from your loudspeakers and into the room.
Wild Nothing is 21-year old Virginian, Jack Tatum. Last year, he released a 7" single on Captured Tracks, another one of those labels that just knows what I like. Gemini, his full-length debut, is scheduled to be released on May 18. You can listen to a few tracks at the Wild Nothing Myspace page.
Autumn came without calling first. It snuck its way in through the cracks of my old kitchen windows and made itself at home. I've asked it to spend nights on my orange couch, but, while I sleep, it comes into my bed and hogs all the blankets. It's cold in my apartment.
Thursday, May 20, 6 to 9pm: Meridian Audio and Stereo Exchange will host an evening celebration to introduce the new Meridian Sooloos 2.1 music server system and Meridian 808.3 Signature Reference CD player. Wine and music will be served.
I spent yesterday at my mom's house, celebrating my sister's 14th birthday. Uncles and aunts and cousins are scattered around the house, laughing and eating and shouting at the television screen as if someone is just going to die if the Celtics don't win this game. See me and my sister sitting side by side, somehow apart from it all: She's absolutely engrossed in Weird N.J., Vol.1 (I'm very proud of her), and I'm similarly rapt by Acoustic Sounds' "Under the Radar" list.
Stephen Mejias
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