search
Beautiful, beautiful! That's it right there, yes. Wait, no, don't lose that pose. Steady now. Oh, yeah. Yeah! You got it. The camera loves you, baby! Just one more now. One more. Hold it, hold it, yes!
The secret to the powerful, effortless performance of the YG Acoustics Anat Reference II Professional loudspeaker is what's inside its mighty cabinet:
Nothing!
Just kidding. There's lots of intelligent stuff inside each YG cabinet. The unit that was sent to Eric Swanson for the photo shoot, however, was essentially hollow, to save on shipping costs. Imagine all the money you could stuff into one of these empty cabinets. Probably something close to 107,000 dollar bills, I bet.
The March 2009 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. I know this because people are already complaining about the $107,000/pair loudspeaker we put on the cover.
I'm only kidding. I also have our 2009 production calendar tacked to my wall, so I know everything well in advance. I don't need no reader's complaints to tell me what's going on around here. But, seriously: Don't we know that our country is in the middle of the worst economic breakdown since the Great Depression. What the hell are we doing putting a $107,000/pair loudspeaker on the cover of our magazine?
…
This album was obviously named after me.
Richard Hayman's Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine was released in 1969 and features many persuasive favorites, including "The Look of Love" and "The Girl from Ipanema," all electronically rendered using the groundbreaking Moog synthesizer.
Inside the gloriously thick gatefold, we find Hayman's essay, "The Moog Synthesizer: An Arranger's Delight." He writes:
No other instrument known today is capable of producing so many diversified sounds that can be so completely wild and yet so completely controlled….
The…
It's a very tough call, but Darkness may be my favorite Springsteen album. See him there, looking so damn ready to prove it all night.
Have you ever wondered just whose house he's standing in?
That wallpaper and those blinds might belong to any grandmother in New Jersey. For years, in fact, I was certain that this photo was actually shot in my grandmother's house in Newark. In fact, the image was captured by photographer Frank Stefanko, in Stefanko's Haddonfield home.
I remember heading into the old Tower Records on East 4th, and picking up a copy of…
I purchased this album, simply titled Elvis, at the ARChive of Contemporary Music's winter record fair. This album immediately followed his RCA Victor debut, Elvis Presley. Both were released in 1957 and both went gold. By the end of the year, I suppose he was so successful that a single name was enough. My copy is a 50th anniversary reissue special.
Scotty Moore plays guitar; Shorty Long is on the piano; Bill Black's got the bass; DJ Fontana is behind the kit; and the Jordanaires sing backup. Highlights include "Rip It Up," "Love Me," "Long Tall Sally," and "When My Blue Moon…
There's a strange similarity between La Lupe and Melanie. They are both clearly passionate, to say the least. I've read that La Lupe's live shows had that certain danger to them that only the greatest rock performances can manage. On stage, her hands went wild like pigeons exploding into the summer sky: Lupe would poke at her face, tug at her clothes, and throw her shoes into the crowd.
Though she gained much fame in the 1960s as Tito Puente's vocalist and would become the first Latin singer to pack the house at Madison Square Garden, she would later be seen as something of a…
I also picked this one up at Boomerangs. At the time, I knew nothing about Melanie Safka. Looking at the front cover, I must have immediately thought, hmm… psychedelic hippie music, or something like that. I also noticed that it was released by Buddah Records who I was familiar with for their work with Captain Beefheart and Rodriguez. Turning to the back, I was intrigued by Melanie's liner notes, which pretty much told me that this chick is crazy.
Just my type. She begins:
On a 12x12" surface, Erich Fromm could have fit at least thirty strong excerpts from "The…
Willie Nelson's Phases and Stages was released one year prior to Wainwright's Unrequited and takes a somewhat similar artistic approach. It is clearly a concept album with two distinct, but closely related, sides.
I chanced upon this album while browsing the dusty racks at Boomerangs, the new consignment shop on Brunswick, and I was immediately moved by the cover art. On the front, we see Willie Nelson, all red-lit and intent, fretting his guitar. On the back, another shot of Willie, much less forgiving. We focus on the lines around his common eyes, the strange shape of his…
I started with Loudon Wainwright's Unrequited. Though the front cover shows Wainwright looking positively pained, a tear streaming down his forlorn face, the back cover is a completely different story: all shits and giggles, which perfectly complements the live nature of the album's second side. Who knows what Loudon was crying about? Maybe he simply preferred live performances over studio work. I share the feeling.
I purchased this album at Tunes in Hoboken, New Jersey. I was torn between it and two other Wainwright albums: I'm Alright and T Shirt. All three were in…