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A Father's Love

“What does it mean to love your father?” the therapist asked.

I had no idea. I wondered if it might be better to hate him.

My uncles tell me that my parents had an old-fashioned sort of love. Childhood sweethearts, my mother and father were equally quiet, shy, and sensitive, and were only truly at ease when they were together. So you can imagine the heartache, fear, and pain felt when my father’s parents separated the young couple, moving the family from the housing projects of Newark back to the green hills of Puerto Rico.

My uncles tell me that this is when…

Advertisement for Myself: The paperback edition

As I’ve mused before (though only twice), what’s the point of having a blog if you can’t indulge in a little self-promotion?

So let me announce that my book, 1959: The Year Everything Changed, is now out in paperback from Wiley & Sons.

As the subtitle suggests, the book covers everything about the era’s transformations—in politics, society, culture, science, and sex. But readers of this space may be especially interested in the chapters on music: the origins of Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, the rise of Ornette Coleman, the globalization of Dave Brubeck, the roots of Motown.

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My One and Only Prayer

I did not find what I was looking for at the Jersey City Record Riot, but I did find two reasonably priced Tom Waits albums (Blue Valentine and Rain Dogs) and Peter Lang’s debut, The Thing at the Nursery Room Window, on John Fahey’s Takoma label. I had forced myself to be extremely selective, and, though the many kind and interesting vendors were making it difficult for me to hold back from buying more, I did in fact hold back.

But just as we were on our way out, I caught a glimpse of this collection of hits by Conway Twitty. I pulled the record from its bright red sleeve and:…

The First Annual Collect-i-Bowl Record Show

At this moment in time, there’s honestly no way I can justify spending more money on sweet, wonderful, soul-stirring vinyl records. I just can’t do it. I have bills to pay. I have records at home that I haven’t listened to yet. I have laundry to do and groceries to buy. But, damn, am I tempted to go to the First Annual Collect-i-Bowl Record Show at Brooklyn Bowl this Sunday.

Beer, bowling, and records&#151all in one place?! And I’m sure there will be plenty of interesting and beautiful people to meet. And have you looked at that menu? Wow! Brooklyn Brewery beers and…

From the Archives: Buy Cheap Speakers, Have Fun!

Back in October 1989, former publisher Larry Archibald told us to just have fun and buy cheap speakers.

Readers could do much worse than set up the best front end and electronics they can afford and just drop into this welcoming nest whatever small, cheap speaker is all the rage.

Read the complete article here.

A few suggestions:
Audioengine 2 ($199/pair)
PSB Alpha B1 ($279/pair)
Polk RTi A1 ($339/pair)

Browse our Budget Components for more fun.

New Jazz Arrivals at PREX

Good news for jazz and vinyl lovers: The world’s greatest record store (at least in New Jersey), the Princeton Record Exchange, just received a collection of over 2000 carefully maintained jazz titles, and they are now on sale, most priced between $1 and $4.99.

The previous owner had worked for a jazz institute, and the collection reflects his eclectic taste, with Dixie, swing, bop, and traditional styles all well represented.

Whoa, I am dizzy. Go get them.

Underwood: Stories In Sound

Underwood, the new vinyl-only record label, which takes its name from the typewriter invented by Frank Wagner in 1896, was founded by writer Nathan Dunne. Dunne’s goal is to publish short stories on vinyl records. Underwood urges us to slow down, focus, listen, and enjoy.

The Underwood discs, scheduled to appear twice a year, represent part of the growing resistance to the dematerialisation of art. By emphasising tactility, scarcity (each issue is limited to 1,000 copies), and physical beauty, it offers something that can’t be digitally replicated.

I like it. To learn…

Stan Getz & Kenny Barron

A trend of sorts has taken hold the past few years: albums (in most cases, multi-disc boxed sets) capturing not just the highlights of a jazz concert but the whole concert—or a whole week’s worth of concerts, the entire run of a gig at a nightclub—every note of it.

High points in this trend include the Gillespie-Parker Quintet’s June 1945 concert at Town Hall, Monk and Coltrane’s ’57 concert at Carnegie Hall, Mingus’ ’64 concert at Cornell, Bill Evans’ final 1980 sets at the Keystone Korner, Miles Davis’ mid-‘60s quintet at the Plugged Nickel (to say nothing of the gargantuan 20-disc…

A Scotch Summer Mixtape

I’ve told you a bit about my favorite cassette label, Al Bjornaa’s Scotch Tapes, out of Batchawana Bay, Ontario, Canada. In this Impose article, Al goes into more detail, explaining how he built the label, and revealing some of his big plans for the remainder of the year, which include 60-70 new tapes, 4-5 vinyl releases, approximately 20 lathe cuts, a dozen zines, a couple of 8-tracks, and a monster summer compilation. (You can also download a Scotch sampler.)

Al don’t sleep.

The summer comp, Fuck Winter: A Scotch Summer Mixtape, including tracks from some of my…

A Child That's Grown Old

I’m on the N train heading to Manhattan from Bay Ridge and there’s a fat Mexican baby in a dull red stroller. She is screaming her heart out. I’m trying to read an article in New York magazine recommended to me by a co-worker, but I don’t think I’ll make it to the end. I’ve read enough about addiction to know how ugly it can be; I don’t want to live through it again.

In any case, my own thoughts are fighting against the words on the page. A few days ago I wrote, “Children need to love their parents in order to better love themselves.” Today, I wonder if it works another way.…