Between 1997 and 2003, the show was held every other year in Silverdale,…
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The 2008 Vacuum State of the Art Conference & Show will take place on May 24-26 at the Hilton in lovely Vancouver, Washington. VSAC was started in 1997 by Dan and Eileen Schmalle of the Bottlehead Corporation, designers of some sexy vacuum tube kit amps and preamps. While the Schmalles are no longer involved in managing the conference, they will be on hand as exhibitors, along with many others offering some similarly sexy, tubey goodness (like Experience Music's The Chase amplifier in the pic above).
Maude Maggart finishes out a six-week stay at the Algonquin Hotel’s Oak Room near Times Square this Saturday. She’s an appealing throwback, including in her repertoire; her best album, I think, is a collection of old Irving Berlin tunes. Her voice is sultry yet sweet, laced with vibrato, pure in tone, mischievous in intonation. Her current show, called “Speaking of Dreams,” which I saw last night, is ripe with naturally passionate slow ballads. Her few shifts uptempo (Sondheim’s “On the Steps of the Castle” and a Jobim tune with acid-trip Marshall Barer lyrics called “Lost in Wonderland”)…
I am a lucky guy. The Stereophile team is always looking out for me. Today I received this e-mail from Bob Deutsch.
Hi Stephen,
If you ever find yourself in the unfortunate position of suffering a romantic disappointment, fear not, for help is at hand. I spotted this in a store in Pacific Mall, an Asian mall in Toronto that is said to be the largest such mall in North America. "Warm music never have heart break"—sounds good, doesn't it? "Make you feel relax" is pretty good, too. I'm telling you, it's tempting.
Bob
Warm music never have…
On Saturday, I accompanied my 14-year old sister and her friend to the Bamboozle Festival, held at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Saturday was cold, windy, wet, and gray—not the best circumstances for an all-day outdoor festival. On top of that, I had a shocking hangover—a gift from the previous night spent with my 26-year old sister and her husband. I wasn't in the mood.
The last large, outdoor music festival I attended was Perry Farrell's Lollapalooza, back in 1995. It was a good year for the event. I saw many exciting artists…
A powerhouse trio is playing at the Village Vanguard through Sunday—Ethan Iverson on piano, Charlie Haden on bass, Paul Motian on drums. I saw them last night, and if you’re a jazz fan who lives in the Tri-State area, you need to go see them, too. Haden, who made his mark 50 years ago in Ornette Coleman’s original quartet, remains one of the supplest and most instinctively musical bassists around. He knows just when to hit the fundamental of a chord, when to spell out the arpeggio, when to walk the scale, or when simply to evoke the mood of a song. The last time I saw him, playing duets at…
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…
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 (…
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…
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:
…
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:…