Stephen Mejias

In a way, I started writing that">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_dresses_the_shoes_and_the… Ryan Adams piece at the moment I dropped the needle on the record&#151around two, or maybe closer to three weeks ago now. Words, however, weren't typed onto this computer screen until last Monday. Normally, I don't spend so much time on a blog entry. For better or worse, these entries usually end on the day they begin, but other things&#151work, Thanksgiving, life&#151kept getting in the way of my completion of the Cardinology piece. I think I could have finished it all in one day had I had the opportunity, and I also think it could have been a better piece if I had, but I am nevertheless happy with it.

Beck's Morning Phase is available now. I don't own it yet, but I have added it to my ever-growing list of Records to Buy. (Other Music is already sold out. Otherwise, I'd indulge my preferred method of consuming music: I'd go there immediately and buy it from a kind person.)

My ears had been bothering me. First my right, then the left. A low-level high-pitched ringing, followed by a congested feeling and a popping like what you get when flying or taking an elevator way up to the 29th floor. Then, one morning in Las Vegas while attending the Consumer">http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/">Consumer Electronics Show, my left ear went whooooooooosh. And my hearing was momentarily dulled&#151not completely gone, just dulled. Outside sounds were farther away, my own voice sounded distant and muffled. It freaked me out.

Even though my own band has recorded and released a handful of CDs and EPs, the act of making music remains mysterious and awesome. I love it. I’ll never get tired of watching musicians create.

Here, we get a behind-the-scenes look into the making of Dawn McCarthy and Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s upcoming album, What the Brothers Sang, inspired by the music of the Everly Brothers.

Each month, we send one or two lucky components to our photographer, Eric Swanson, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to be shot for our cover. Because the YG Anat Reference is so dang heavy (440 lbs per channel) and expensive ($107,000/pair), I asked Dick Diamond, YG's director of sales and marketing, if he'd personally deliver the speaker to Eric.

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">http://www.matadorrecords.com/matablog/2010/08/16/belle-sebastian-write… 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.

When asked how to create a good recording, John Atkinson will tell you to use good musicians in a good room. The people behind Benchmark">http://www.benchmarkmedia.com/">Benchmark Media Systems, makers of some of today’s most highly regarded digital audio converters, headphone amps, and mic preamps, agree.