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Vinyl Sooner

Recent CD purchases that I need to buy all over again on vinyl, in alphabetical order (obviously):

Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
Cat Power: Jukebox
Dengue Fever: Venus On Earth
Devendra Banhart: Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon
Devotchka: A Mad and Faithful Telling
Joanna Newsom: Ys
Man Man: Rabbit Habits
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds: Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
PJ Harvey: White Chalk
Radiohead: In Rainbows
She & Him: Volume One
Sun Kil Moon: April

And some older necessary favorites:

Broken Social Scene: Broken Social…

Sending Out an SOS

I just received my $600 from President Bush. I feel suddenly rich. Who said money doesn't grow on trees? In order to do my part in stimulating this dismal economy, I've decided to purchase a few phono accessories. (Yes, I will also be buying more records. Duh.) Wee!

I had been browsing around several websites, looking for inexpensive goodies, and I finally decided to begin my shopping at Mobile Fidelity. I like the guys from MoFi. They're a lot of fun at parties and they give good advice about girls. Plus, I'm hoping that by writing this I will have reminded them (…

Fashionable Pessimism

It drives me nuts when people, some of them intelligent and not prone to idiotic statements, say things to me like a colleague did the other day: "Do you ever hear a good record anymore?"

Seriously, if you want to see me turn Mommy Dearest on yo ass, say that or something in the same realm of stupidity. My response after a nasty look and a disgusted shake of the head is, "Go spend some time in a record store or online ya lazy faaa….." There's tons of good records out there if you just look. The mess that the record business has become has not affected the amount or quality of the…

Descarga.com's Vinyl Spring Clearance Sale!

My interest in New York City salsa and Cuban son was fueled in part by Descarga.com, an impressive resource for all things Afro-Latin. The Spanish word "descarga" means to unload, but, in musical terms, is Cuban slang for a hot and riotous jam session. You'd often hear about guys getting together in the streets or on the beach for a wild, time-stopping descarga. Providing in-depth interviews with musicians and producers, well-informed think pieces, hard-hitting reviews, and tons and tons of great music, Descarga.com is a great destination for music lovers.

From the site:

…

The Ultimate Ice-Breaker

Try this:

1. Go to the record store of your choice and,
2. Buy, on vinyl, the album of your choice. Then,
3. Go to the bar of your choice, and place your vinyl purchase where it can be easily seen by others. And, finally,
4. Order the drink of your choice.

Watch what happens!

Miracle of miracles, like so many of history's greatest discoveries, from the Popsicle to Post-it Notes to penicillin, I stumbled upon this completely by accident.

I discovered it only yesterday. My choices:

1. Other Music
2. El Perro Del Mar:…

The Genius of Herman Leonard

Herman Leonard’s first New York show in 20 years got underway last week at the Morrison Hotel Gallery in SoHo. It’s open to the public every day until June 1, and anyone with a taste for classic jazz, gorgeous black-and-white photography, or both should take a look. If you don’t know Leonard’s name, you probably know him by his work. He has taken some of the most iconic shots of Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Dexter Gordon, Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk—the list goes on. There are, or…

Zapped Out

Well, ladies and gentlemen, our Zappa Plays Zappa DVD Sweepstakes is now closed. We will not accept any additional entries. I offer my sincere thanks to all those who participated, sending in colorful, encouraging, and often amusingly odd e-mails. Thank you.

Among the many entries that offered suggestions for where I might begin my own Zappa journey, Joe's Garage was the title that was mentioned most often. I'll look forward to listening. I was also impressed by all the many participants who went into great detail regarding their first or last or favorite experience at a…

His Way

Ten years ago today Frank Sinatra died. May 14, 1998.

In his absence, his legacy has grown—at least among fans—thanks in large measure to the release of the Sinatra:Vegas boxed set which collected some classic live performances, particularly the two Sands dates from 1961 and 1966. When his mouth was rolling—and he wasn't being sexist or racist—he had some comedic skills going on.

Yesterday, Reprise released, Nothing but The Best yet another collection of Sinatra hits mined from the archives of his own label, Reprise Records. The copy I received in the mail came with one of…

Doubts, Of Course

"I can't see anyone getting into analog without a record-cleaning machine."
&#151Michael Fremer, Stereophile, Vol.19 No.6, 1996

"If you listen to records, you need a record-cleaning machine. Period."
&#151Corey Greenberg, Stereophile, Vol.17 No.5, 1994

"We all know that stingy audiophiles die young, have bad astrological signs, produce children with poor SAT scores, and get rained on a lot. You must fork out enough money to buy the VPI or the Nitty Gritty to avoid these dire fates."
&#151Anthony Cordesman, Stereophile, Vol.8 No.1, 1985

…

Some Alternatives

I sent some crazed e-mails to my audiophile friends, all like: Dude, I'm at my wit's end over here. I can't make sense of any of it. I know so-and-so uses a VPI and what's-his-name uses a Nitty Gritty, but what's YOUR method? Huh, huh, huh?

Everywhere I turned, it was the VPI or the Nitty Gritty, the VPI or the Nitty Gritty, the VPI or the Nitty Gritty. And I figured that that would be the case. I suppose I was hoping for some alternative; something that would prove appealing to my particular blend of wants and needs. Meaning, what, exactly? I don't know. Maybe my record-…