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David Comes to Life

Yes!

I’ve been waiting for this, and now, as if the rock gods had heard my profane prayers, it’s here: The new album from Fucked Up, David Comes to Life, will be released on June 7th. On June 7th, immediately after work, you’ll find me at Other Music, buying the crap out of this album.

Though I declared the self-titled debut from Cliffie Swan (nee Lights) my favorite album of 2008, it’s been Fucked Up’s The Chemistry of Common Life that I’ve returned to most often, reveling in its heavy textures, deep poetry, and massive power. (I really just had a crush on Lights' sexy drummer,…

Super Duper Rescue Heads

What the world needs now:

“Super Duper Rescue Heads,” from Deerhoof’s latest album, Deerhoof vs. Evil, available now from Polyvinyl.

Montréal's Hi-Fi Show Points to the Future

Salon Son & Image, the annual open-to-the-public Montréal Hi-Fi Show sponsored by Stereophile, is almost upon us. Scheduled for March 31–April 3 in Montréal's centrally located Hilton Bonaventure Hotel—Thursday March 31 is for trade and press only—the largest consumer audio show in North America has been planned with the audiophiles of tomorrow in mind.

"We try every year to bring new people," says the show's bilingual manager, Michel Plante. "Veteran exhibitors expect a certain kind of qualified [initiated] clientele they can easily conduct business with, but you can't speak…

Listening #99

That was called "love" for the workers in song;
probably still is, for those of them left.—Leonard Cohen

It started around 1950, as postwar economies boomed and commercial radio stations multiplied like bunnies: Broadcasters needed reliable, high-quality turntables, so Garrard Engineering and Manufacturing—an offshoot of Garrard & Co., England's first Crown Jeweler—took up the challenge. They brought their considerable engineering talent to bear on a new design, invested in the personnel and facilities required to make the thing, and released the model 301 motor unit in 1953. It…

Listening #99 Page 2

If you're using my experiences more as a map than a guide, I suggest that you leave Lowe's with a few other things if you don't already have them: hole saws in 2" and 2¾" sizes, plus the mandrel required to use them in your electric drill; a ¾" Forstner bit (preferred) or wood bore; a 5/16" drill bit; a packet of 1"-diameter coarse sanding drums, plus mandrel; and one or more high-quality fine-cut jigsaw blades. I assume you already have access to a circular saw—needed only for rough-trimming the plywood sheets to size—and that you own a good electric drill and jigsaw, plus a straightedge, a…

Listening #99 Page 3

A mix of bar, spool, and cam clamps worked well around the perimeter, while a trio of very deep-throated (no jokes) C-clamps did the trick from inside the motor-unit cutout. (Of course, that no longer proved viable when I added the solid layer 7.) Round scraps of plywood created by the hole saws were useful as clamping cauls, to protect the top surface from dents. Although I used the glue sparingly, a soft rag dampened with warm water helped clean up the inevitable squeeze-out.

And then, almost as suddenly as it had begun, the construction phase of my project was over: I now…

Cherish the Light Years

I resisted at first, but Cold Cave's Love Comes Close became one of my very favorite records of 2009. The album also led me to one of New York City's darkest, spookiest, and most welcoming record shops, Hospital Productions, a fantastic source of underground noise, industrial, and experimental work on CD, LP, and, good-god-almighty, cassette.

Cold Cave's new album, Cherish the Light Years will be available in similarly fine record shops on April 5th, but Matador Records has provided a free stream, so you can listen now.

Youn Sun Nah's Same Girl

Has anyone here ever heard of Youn Sun Nah, or am I just out of it? She's a South Korean singer, 42 (though she looks 25), born to a musical family. She's spent the last decade or so in France and has built a strong reputation on the European concert tour the last couple years, but there have been no appearances or even press about her stateside, not that I know of anyway.

Well, let me get a ball rolling. Her new CD, Same Girl (on the German label ACT), is one of the most refreshing jazz vocal albums I've heard in a long while.

She has operatic range and amazing control, lacing a…

Recording of February 1989: Rameau: Works for Harpsichord

RAMEAU: Works for Harpsichord
Albert Fuller, harpsichord
Reference Recordings RR 27 (LP), RR 27-CD (CD*). J. Tamblyn Henderson, Jr., prod.; Keith O. Johnson, eng. AAA/DDD. TTs: 57:45, 63:57*

I have to admit that I gave Reference Recordings' last Baroque release somewhat short shrift: I was disappointed enough in the performance that even KOJ's usual superb recording was insufficient to redeem things. Here, however, Albert Fuller (who was also present the last time out) is in fine fettle, giving as good an account of these works as we could wish. Clearly he is more sympathetic to…

The Upward Price Spiral

On January 5, 2011, I was flying to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (footnote 1). On January 5, 1914, Henry Ford announced that he would pay a minimum of $5 to eligible employees who worked an eight-hour day. (At that time, a good wage was $2.50 for a workday of 10 hours.) Ford was not being altruistic; he wanted to motivate his employees both to become more productive and to stay loyal to their employer. And there were strings attached: A Ford employee "must show himself to be sober, saving, steady, industrious and must satisfy . . . staff that his money will not be wasted in…