Girls on Jimmy Fallon
Girls begin their US tour tonight in Atlanta in support of their sophomore release, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, available now from True Panther.
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LATEST ADDITIONS
The Venerable Koss Porta Pro
This story originally appeared at InnerFidelity.com
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Long before I became professionally involved with headphones, the Koss Porta Pro was a great little portable headphone. In fact, it was one of the first headphones designed particularly for portable applications. It has remained relatively unchanged to this day ...
... thank goodness. If it ain't broke ...
Girls Across America: Live From Nashville
To celebrate today’s release of Girls’ sophomore record, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, the band will make an in-store performance at Grimey’s in Nashville, Tennessee, at 5pm on Friday, September 16. You won’t want to miss this. If you can’t make it to Grimey’s, you can still enjoy the show because this will be the very first nationwide in-store: The performance will be streamed live, one time only, across the websites of our most cherished, influential, and important independent record stores.
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Video: Beirut’s “Santa Fe”
Fred Mills reviews Beirut’s new record, The Rip Tide, in the November issue of Stereophile, due to hit newsstands on October 18th. The album, released by Zach Condon's Pompeii Records, is in stores now. Here's Sunset Television’s video for the lead track, “Santa Fe.”
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(The album sounds great on the hi-fi, too.)
New Music: Comet Gain’s “Clang of the Concrete Swans”
I’ve been enjoying Comet Gain’s upcoming album, Howl of the Lonely Crowd, 13 songs and 42 minutes of intelligent, heartfelt, poetic rock and soul—timeless, honest, and inspiring.
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The album’s opening track, “Clang of the Concrete Swans,” is like something from Springsteen’s Born to Run, as it urges:
Find the forever in what you’re thinking
Find the forever in who you’re kissing
Escape, escape, escape into your dream
Escape, escape, escape right out of here
Howl of the Lonely Crowd will be available on October 4th from What’s Your Rupture.
Wardell Quezergue
They’re invisible. The person you never see onstage. The essential unseen force that even hardcore music fans have never heard of. In all music, arrangers are the secret weapon who never get the credit they deserve
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New Music: Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sleep Dealer”
Photo: Replica.
Yes! The first track from Oneohtrix Point Never’s upcoming Mexican Summer release, Replica, is now available for our listening pleasure. Simultaneously playful and sensual, the track is called “Sleep Dealer” and showcases Daniel Lopatin’s knack for combining electronic and human sounds in distinct and curious fashion.
I love it! If “Sleep Dealer” is any indication of what Replica has to offer—and I think it is—we are in for a treat.
Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer by Mexican Summer
Remember what the press release said:
Replica is an electronic song cycle based around lo-fi audio procured from television advertisement compilations. These sample-based meditations are as lyrical as they are ecological, featuring repurposed “ghost vocals” which serve as narration for Lopatin’s signature amorphous, ambient passages.
Sounds about right. Replica will be released on November 8.
Kuzma 4Point tonearm
No one has ever accused Franc Kuzma of designing glamorous audio jewelry. His turntables and tonearms are industrial-strength examples of engineering know-how and machining excellence. But to those who appreciate such things, his products are truly beautiful, even if they're not adorned with chrome, wood, and sleekly polished surfaces. And if looking at the 4Point tonearm ($6500) in pebbly Darth Vader black doesn't get your analog juices flowing, perhaps its innovative design will. But first, this message:
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New Music: Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Sleep Dealer”
Photo: Replica.
Yes! The first track from Oneohtrix Point Never’s upcoming Mexican Summer release, Replica, is now available for our listening pleasure. Simultaneously playful and sensual, the track is called “Sleep Dealer” and showcases Daniel Lopatin’s knack for combining electronic and human sounds in distinct and curious fashion. I love it! If “Sleep Dealer” is any indication of what Replica has to offer—and I believe it is—we are in for a treat.
Oneohtrix Point Never - Sleep Dealer by Mexican Summer
Remember what the press release said:
Replica is an electronic song cycle based around lo-fi audio procured from television advertisement compilations. These sample-based meditations are as lyrical as they are ecological, featuring repurposed “ghost vocals” which serve as narration for Lopatin’s signature amorphous, ambient passages.
Sounds about right. Replica will be released on November 8.
Pioneer SP-BS41-LR loudspeaker
The buzz was all over the audiophile 'net. "Pioneer has a new bookshelf speaker that's killer for the money!"
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Hmm, I thought. Pioneer. Speakers?
To be fair, I've had the Pioneer brand on my mind for well over 30 years. The company was my brand of choice for car-stereo electronics in the 1970s, for Dolby S cassette decks in the '80s, for DVD players in the '90s, and for plasma TVs in the '00s and '10s. I felt a bit guilty that I hadn't focused on the fact that Andrew Jones, the very same design guru who came up with Pioneer's TAD Reference One loudspeaker ($70,000/pair), had had a hand in designing a few two-channel speaker models starting at $99.99/pair. The audio gossip was all about the second model from the bottom of Pioneer's speaker line, the SP-BS41-LR ($149.99/pair). I thought I'd better get a pair and review them.