"Happy New Year, Steve! Welcome back."
"I never left."
The company gave us last Thursday and Friday off, but I came in anyhow because that's the kind of person I am, the kind of person I've always been—a bit obsessed, very dedicated, and always with the nagging feeling that I haven't done enough, that I'm forgetting something. What am I forgetting?
Last night, I crashed over Isaac and Anne-Marie's…
I don't know why I never wrote about it. Probably because I couldn't. But Robert Baird wrote about it in our September 2008 issue, so you should read that. Robert filed it under "jazz," but it's not so much jazz as it is pretty straightforward New York City No Wave. I mean, as straightforward as No Wave can be, blending punk, funk, jazz, noise, and avant garde art, or whatever you want to call it.
Robert wrote:
About as close to jazz as anything…
He shares his thoughts on pop music. All of it, from 50 Cent to Lykke Li to Weezer. For instance, this bit on Vampire Weekend:
Latest NYC export occasions as much animosity as the Strokes did, and for the same reason: they're a frat-rock band for wealthy postgraduates who believe themselves above frat-rock.Or this on Elvis Costello:
Cool beans: Steve Nieve has brought the Vox Continental out of mothballs. Homie can play anything with keys, of course, but it's always nice to dance with…
First up is the PerfectWave Transport Memory Player, likely to run $2,999 when it hits the streets in March. The TMP is essentially an optical disc player that can play any resolution WAV file (including Reference Recordings' new high definition HRX format DVDs) and FLAC files. MP3 decoding may be added to the mix in the future, but SACD won't be possible, since…
On the back is a slot for the $500 "Bridge" which would enable the DAC/pre to interface with a NAS drive and iPhone/Touch controller and become a full-fledged music server. McGowan promises several future products to fillup the HDMI ports on the back.
Leave it to Muse's Kevin Halverson and Classic Records' Mike Hobson to flip the idea on its head and bring audiophiledom to the masses. They've formed a new venture called High Resolution Technologies to market products that don't quite fit in line with their own company's offerings.
First up are two USB to analog converters called the Music Streamer ($89) and Music Streamer Plus ($249). Both products hook up…
Next they've developed a tabletop touchscreen called the Control 20 which features a 15" screen (the Control 10 screen is still 17") and along with the 10, an interface on the back allowing it to be directly connected to Meridian's powered speakers and Comm S network.
The Control 20 will retail for $3,500 and is expected to be available in a couple months…
Driving Halverson's Avalon Indras, the 200 had plenty of moxy playing Workingman's Dead. The sound was compelling and I complained that he was making my job harder—I wanted to tarry a while and listen, but needs…