Stephen Mejias

Right about now, I suppose John Atkinson and Wes Phillips are pulling into a rest stop, somewhere off the New York State Thruway. The sky is Sinatra blue and the air whispers secrets of spring. The doors to the Land Cruiser shut with a gentle thud, and the guys stroll into a 7-11 for some black peppered beef jerky, Nacho Cheesier Doritos, and a couple of tall Mountain Dews.

This sexy album cover, making glorious the embrace of sanctity and lust, belongs to Rene Hell’s Porcelain Opera. Rene Hell is the latest guise of noise artist Jeff Witscher, whose overwhelming mass of work, under names including Impregnable, Deep Jew, and Marble Sky, has been documented mostly to cassettehttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/why_cassettes/">cassette;, while utilizing high-quality production. The curious might take a chance on his latest Night">http://www.raccoo-oo-oon.org/np/">Night People release.

The replacement midrange drive-units for the Vivid G1Giyas arrived in this well-packed and clearly labeled box.

Michael Lavorgna’s October issue “As We See It” generated many more responses than we had space for in our December issue “Letters” section (a great bunch!), so we’ve appended all of the letters to the Web reprint, which you can find right">http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/why_music_matters_most/index.html"… here.

Photo: Melissa Horn

Here's a video for the Rye">http://www.ryecoalition.com/index3.html">Rye Coalition track "Young Yellers," off their new album Curses.