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MBAR and the Black Boys

By now, I'm sure you've already committed the name to memory: Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson.

Miles Anthony Benjamin Robinson. Wait. Miles Robinson Anthony Benjamin. Huh? Miles Robinson Benjamin Anthony!

You'll have to make an acronym out of it to keep it straight. MBAR.

Sure as heck has a lot of names, don't he? And multi-syllabled ones at that. I read somewhere that it has something to do with being honest with himself, being pure, showing his true colors. And I'm thinking: Dude, if you want to be simple and all, why not just go with Miles Robinson?…

Pa Kontrarie'm

The oppressive heat shook hands with the violent rain, and I couldn't summon the drive to do much of anything at all. Rather than wilt, I decided to visit Tunes and dirty my fingertips with some old vinyl. Outside, the day danced furiously back and forth, the rain so hard at times that drops fell from cracks in the ceiling to land among the album stacks. I waited it out.

I bought only five albums. One was PJ Harvey's White Chalk which I've owned on CD for some time, but have desperately wanted on vinyl ever since. The other four albums were completely foreign to me, but each…

Um Cavaquinho em Hi-Fi

I don't have to tell you that LP covers are cool. Right? You're already very much aware of all the bold colors and furious fonts and completely outrageous concepts. Photo editors back in the day must have had mad freedom. Alright, cats, here's the plan: We're going to start with a gorilla. He's dressed in a tux. Give the gorilla a gigantic banana. But it's not really a banana. The gorilla will peel the banana to reveal an extremely voluptuous bartender. In one hand, she'll have a tray of martinis, while, with her other hand, she'll be lighting the gorilla's giant cigar. Dig…

Toys

Ariel's two new favorite toys&#151one found in the garbage, and one bought with his hard-earned cash: The Sony CFM-10 Radio Cassette-Corder and the Bellari VP129, one-tube wonder.

Pride

The Bellari's bold packaging induces pride of ownership. And patriotism.
Plus: The ladies like it.

A Change of Plans

"I have a package for you," our mailman Art excitedly told me.

I did a vicious spin in my chair, "For me?"

It came so quickly. I wasn't expecting it today. I planned on going straight from work to a very special open mic night at the Sidewalk Cafe on Avenue A, but my new Bellari VP129 sent me home first.

At the bus stop, I ran into Herb Scher, a regular at the Sidewalk. He wrote an amazing song called "Tower Records is Gone," which, unfortunately, is not listed on his Myspace, but other greats like "Live in the Hills" and "New Beatles" are. Herb had to get to the…

Needles and Pins

It's not nearly as sexy as the Bellari VP129, but I was still happy to receive it. The Exposure 2010S's phono card ($219) arrived on Thursday afternoon, secured in bubble wrap and covered by Styrofoam peanuts. There were no instructions.

Who needs instructions anyway?

Up until now, I had been listening to my vinyl through the Tangent AMP-50's onboard phono section. For only $259, you get fine styling, 50 watts of power, detailed sound, and the ability to listen to vinyl. Budget-strapped music lovers looking to build a system should definitely consider the Tangent,…

My Name is Brian, I Live on the 6th Floor

My favorite part about compiling the Buyer's Guide is sending emails. Well not the actual sending of the emails but the communication. When staring at spreadsheets and spam blog comments all day, it is nice to have some real communication.

There are some people in the industry who now know my name or at least know of me. Urs Wagner from Ensemble always chats me up. I should give him a ring. Hart Huschens from Audio Advancements is another sweet soul who treats me with respect. And I have spent a good amount of time talking to Creston Funk from Concert Sound.

Alas, there…

A Certain Feeling

For the last few days, in the midst of shipping the gorgeous September issue, I have been thoroughly enjoying the new release from Secretly Canadian's Bodies of Water, A Certain Feeling.

Jon Iverson says it borders on prog. More prog than anything. Ariel agrees. I wouldn't know, but I suppose they're right. Am I really enjoying something that can be described as prog?

First fusion, now this. What is going on with me?

Perhaps it's better to ask: What is going on with music? Good things are happening, and I expect better things to come.

For now,…

Dedicated to Vinyl

At some point, I hope to post a long list of links (A Long List of Links) to sites that specialize in vinyl LPs. This will be for you, dear readers. But also for me! I have been collecting the web addresses and adding them to a Favorites folder. If you know of some sites that offer great selections of LPs (new or used) and you want to help me go deeper into debt (just kidding, Clifton), please do share! Together we will build a database of all the World Wide Web's most alluring online stores. (Not those kinds of stores! LP stores, you naughty naughties.)

Today I made a…