In any case—damn those…
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On Saturday night, in New York City, upstairs in Manhattan’s 54th Street Yamaha piano studios, which by the way is very close to that other keyboard shrine, Steinway Hall, Stereophile’s own contributing editor Bob Reina and his group, Attention Screen recorded their third live album for Stereophile Records, a label owned and run by editor in chief/sound engineer John Atkinson, our fearless leader. Just so there is no confusion, I mean that last term as an endearing salute rather than in the sense of Rocky & Bullwinkle’s Germanesque dictator of Pottsylvania.
Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski
Did I tell you I’ve been in love with this stupid song? Remember the girl I told you about? The one I feel like such a fool about? Phosphorescent is one of her favorite bands. In this song, which I discovered earlier this week, the singer sets the story at the Mermaid Parade, an especially important event in my personal history. (Can I have a personal history? Have I lived long enough?) I can remember, clearly, being out there on the sand, watching the sun come down, watching the naked women dancing, watching the people scatter about like birds as…
Whenever I’m at Tunes in Hoboken, getting my fingers all dirty on the vinyl LPs, I stop and stare at this one album, John Prine’s Sweet Revenge, and I wonder what it’s all about. Prine looks pretty bad-ass there in his convertible, decked out in so much blue denim, dark aviators over his eyes, a cigarette at his lips, the wind in his hair, legs crossed and flung out over the passenger side window like he’s seriously satisfied, like he really doesn’t care.
Don’t ask me why, but, despite all of that, my interest is never so high that I take the chance and spend the five dollars…
Last night, on Later with Jools Holland, Joanna Newsom performed “81,” the lead single from her ambitious and inspired triple-LP, Have One On Me.
(Via Prefix)
I’ve been making my way, slowly and delightedly, through the album. This thing takes time. It takes time because there is so much going on in Joanna Newsom’s music, and because what is going on is all so refreshingly other.
I read somewhere something like, “Once the music leaves your mind, it’s already been compromised.” I understand that idea and, most often, agree. I go walking around with songs in my…
Jon Iverson is going to love this.
On their new album, Relayted, GAYNGS, the 10cc-inspired, 25-member juggernaut comprising musicians from Solid Gold, Megafaun, The Rosebuds, Bon Iver, and more, cover Godley & Creme’s “Cry.”
The video for the song apes the original, features Kevin Godley, and reminds us, again, that people are weird, weird creatures.
You don’t know how to ease my pain. You don’t know.
For more info on GAYNGS, visit Jagjaguwar.
My love for the Vivian Girls only grows and grows: I love them more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as I’ll love them tomorrow. Their 2009 album, Everything Goes Wrong, continues to sound fresh and exciting with each play on my turntable. And they’ve got a new 7-inch single available from their own Wild World Records. Perfect for a sunny Cinco de Mayo like this one, the A-side has Cassie confessing, “I can hardly wait until the summer comes,” while Katy and Ali echo the feeling with handclaps and angelic backing vocals. The B-side is a cover of the Chantels’ “He’s Gone…
When asked how to create a good recording, John Atkinson will tell you to use good musicians in a good room. The people behind Benchmark Media Systems, makers of some of today’s most highly regarded digital audio converters, headphone amps, and mic preamps, agree.
Listening to music from the legendary catalogs of Decca, Atlantic, Stax, Sun, Parlophone, etc, it’s hard to believe that several of those immortal recordings were made in a single session. How could any of those revered recordings have been made in one day? Simple... They had a killer studio, great gear, an…
Beautiful plus beautiful equals more beautiful. Phoenix pairs Grizzly Bear’s “Foreground” with Brian Eno’s “Discreet Music” and offers instructions for mixing in some chance operations. Click here and make magic.
Some risky business is going on at the Blue Note, the posh jazz club on West 3rd Street in Manhattan.
The gig is called “Further Explorations of Bill Evans” and features a trio of Chick Corea on piano, Eddie Gomez on bass, and Paul Motian on drums. The title is a play on Evans’ 1959 album Explorations, which also featured Motian on drums (as did his much-celebrated Village Vanguard sessions, recorded two years later). Gomez was Evans’ bassist from the mid-1960s through mid-‘70s. Corea’s a wilder card, capable of fusing or altering some of Evans’ lyricism with a Latin edge and a free-jazz…
I…uh, I…I just don’t know what to say, but I’m definitely making this my new theme song.
I am the Audiophile Vagabond.