Stephen Mejias

My heart is not broken. It is collapsed like the sun into the frozen Meadowlands. Sometimes, alone in bed at night, I get this awful, screaming pain in the side of my bony chest, in that empty space where I imagine you to be. It's not often that I do this, sit here. Listen to the same sad songs over and over again, sing along, cry, think of how these words were written for us. It's probably not a good habit to be getting into, but it seems I just can't stop. It's been more than two weeks now, and it isn't wearing off. Twelve songs, 40 minutes, over and over again. I can't stop. Remember when you said that no one else could ever love me like you loved me? I don't know if that was a gift or a curse, but I believe it is true.

You can walk by 21 First Avenue on any given day to see some of our city's most beautiful and talented DJs spinning rare and wonderful vinyl. It's true! It's East">http://www.eastvillageradio.com/">East Village Radio. There's a big glass window. Look in and you might see Queen Majesty or Melody Nelson or Mark Ronson or a few of the colorfully dressed peeps from The Fader, those taste-makers. In fact, East Village Radio provides more than 70 unique, and often excellent, two-hour shows, covering musical genres from rock and electronic to jazz and folk to roots and reggae. Lots of good stuff.

Marantz America is supporting the launch of their attractive KI">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/marantz_ki_pearls/">KI Pearl components with a decidedly august hardcover book and matching dual-layer SACD. Like the KI Pearls themselves, both the book and SACD celebrate audio designer Ken Ishiwata's 30-year relationship with Marantz and offer insights into his life and work.

The elegant, languorous video for Wild Beasts’ “Albatross,” the first single from the band’s upcoming album, Smother, is filled with images that are like Wild Beasts’ music: surreal, delicate, physical, painful, and, at times, painfully lovely.

With its gentle dance rhythms, memorable melodies, and heavy, overcast skies, Wild Beasts’ 2009 album, Two Dancers, which was nominated for 2010’s prestigious Mercury Prize, continues to find a place near the front of my vinyl stacks. The girls like it, too.

Smother promises to fall even closer to my heart. From the press release:

...All configurations that have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again.

— Heinrich">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Heine">Heinrich Heine

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">http://www.brooklynbowl.com/">Brooklyn Bowl this Sunday.