Last Sunday night, at B.B. Kings in New York City’s answer to Hades and Hiroshima, Times Square, Stereophile contributing editor David Sokol, his lifelong friend David Simons and a cast of thousands including a horn section of very talented teenagers, staged a very wonderful musical tribute to the Kinks album, Muswell Hillbillies. The intrepid Mr. Sokol proudly wore his Stereophile cap throughout the set as he sat behind his kit…
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It’s a truism that writers naturally do not want to swallow, but dammit it’s true: a picture like the one above can be worth more than a thousand words.
On Tuesday, September 14th—two days before my 33rd birthday—Anti- Records will release Grinderman 2, the second studio album from Nick Cave’s heathen child, Grinderman. And we are in for a treat. The review will appear in our October issue, but I’ll just let you know now: The album is violent, powerful, horrifying, and hilarious.
I’m almost afraid of bringing it into my home.
You wouldn’t just bring some sort of a hungry, horny dingo/bear/wolf/dog into your home, would you? I feel like I have to Grinderman-proof the apartment first. Put up…
I have an article in the Arts & Leisure section of this past Sunday’s New York Times about vinyl reissues of Blue Note jazz albums mastered at 45 rpm.
Yes, you read that right: an article about such audiophile labels as Music Matters Jazz, Analogue Productions, and Classic Records was featured in the paper of record, and quite prominently so: 1,500 words, spread out on two pages, with four photos, including one of a Blue Note 45 spinning on my own VPI Classic.
Is it a sign that the MSM are beginning to take all this seriously—or just an editor who agrees that a narrative…
Today is my 10th anniversary with Stereophile. Hmm…on the way home today, maybe I’ll buy myself a nice beer. Or a record…
Or maybe I’ll go crazy and buy myself a beer and a record. Woo!
And look who’s back: It’s Ariel Bitran! Ariel worked as our part-time editorial intern, enabling us to complete the 2008, 2009, and 2010 editions of the Stereophile Buyer’s Guide, before departing for a full-time gig with Mini-Circuits.
Ariel and I kept in touch, and, one winter day, prior to an Open End show at the Iron Monkey in Paulus Hook, during which I was crazily infatuated with a beautiful, vinyl-loving girl (another story altogether), Ariel mentioned that he’d be interested in a full-time position with Stereophile. I was happy to hear this, and I told Ariel to hold…
Well, I just got off the phone with Steve Daniels of The Sound Organisation, US importer for Rega, and while I don’t have a ton of information on Rega’s new RP-1 turntable, I do have some good news:
The RP-1 is scheduled to be available by the end of September and will not be considerably more expensive than the P1. The company hasn’t set a final US retail price, but they’re targeting somewhere around $445, or just $50 (or so) more expensive than the old version. Which I think is great. My eyes tell me the cosmetic upgrades alone are worth that much.
Rega says the RP-1…
Sort of like a drunk wandering around the East Village in search of companionship or something, I stumbled upon this outstanding article by Stereophile’s former senior contributing editor, Jonathan Scull. The piece, “All Sales Are Vinyl,” which appeared in the December 1997 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, takes the reader on a brisk tour of Greenwich Village record shops. Though many of the shops mentioned are long gone, others such as A-1, the Jazz Record Center, Academy Records, and Other Music are still going strong, and Jonathan’s writing is at its best. Not only does he capture…
The October issue of Stereophile shipped to press yesterday afternoon. (Hallelujah.) We are already deep into the November issue, while our new editorial assistant, Ariel Bitran, is tackling the 2011 Buyer’s Guide. In addition to all of that, and on top of the regular stuff, the entire office is in the process of moving onto the 6th floor of our 261 Madison Avenue location. Construction crews are tearing down walls and building new cubicles, painters are turning white and gray into blue and cream, movers are carrying tables and desks up flights of stairs. My office is cramped with…
Just like me, Belle and Sebastian write about love. The band’s new album is due out here in the States on October 12. It will be mine. You can listen to a clip on the Matablog. The song, “I Want the World to Stop,” sounds just as dark and groovy and infectious as you might imagine. I’ve listened to it about 69 times already.