New Releases from Jagjaguwar
Christian recommendedhttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/041607listening/">recommended…; a great new band to me: The">http://www.thebesnardlakes.com/">The Besnard Lakes. Listening to them reminds me of Brian Wilson and Pink Floyd and My Morning Jacket. There are shiny falsettos, dream sequences, and reverb-drenched solos. It's music that I want to share with my girlfriend. A Google search then led me to the band's record label, Jagjaguwarhttp://www.jagjaguwar.com/">Jagjaguwar;. There, I found a happy surprise: entire albums — freely flowing streams of music — not only from The Besnard Lakes, but also from a couple of other interesting bands, Odawashttp://www.odawastheband.com/Odawas/Main.html">Odawas; and Alex">http://www.alexdeliverymusic.com/">Alex Delivery.
New Releases from Steve Shelley’s Vampire Blues
Steve Shelley, rock-solid drummer of Sonic Youth and various other bands, has started a new record label called Vampire Blues. Releases will be available as LPs (with MP3 download cards) and as digital downloads. Will hi-res files be made available? We can hope.
New Zealand Pines
John Vanderslice's "New Zealand Pines" is the very first song I ever mentioned">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/091605where/">mentioned here. It's an interesting choice for a first, and I'm glad I made it.
News from Sonos
Uncle Isaac is building a new house. When he asked me how he might go about getting music to play throughout several different rooms of his home, the first thing that came to mind was Sonoshttp://www.stereophile.com/budgetcomponents/1006sonos/index.html">Sonos…;. (Of course, if it was my house, I'd have a">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_rega_p3-24_iin_colouri/">a different-colored turntable in each room: Colonel Mustard in the library, Professor Plum in the study, Mr. Green in the billiards room, Miss Scarlet in the kitchen (wink wink)….)
Next Generation Classical
When I realized that I knew most of WGUC's">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16741721">WGUC's Top Classical CDs of 2007, I had to stop and wonder: "What the heck is going on with me?"
Nice and Clean
Under the hood of the Tangent Audio AMP-100.
Nine Years
Me, in the old cubicle at 110 Fifth Avenue, just eight months into the new job. I was thinner then, and had more hair.
Nite Jewel: One Second of Love
The first time I heard “One Second of Love,” the title track from Nite Jewel’s new album (released earlier this week on Secretly Canadian), I didn’t think much of it. It was another pop song from another young, indie artist, recalling the late 1980s and early 1990s—enjoyable, but unimaginative.
I was crazy. My initial reaction was wrong: The more I listened, the more I enjoyed the song’s motoric drive, insistent, each cold verse followed by seductive chorus, its gentle harmonies contributed by fellow LA-based artist, Julia Holter, its insolent snarl and alluring coo. I can’t get the song out of my mind. I wake up with it, come back to it throughout the day.
No Clever Plan
Well, folks, the week's made it to a close, and my plan — Did I mention my plan to post a daily entry about some product that I'd be reporting on during CES, or were you able to discern what I meant to do without my having to say it? — failed. Yeah, that plan, like so many other 2006 plans, came to an abrupt end soon after it began. I'm beginning to think that some people just aren't made to make plans. And I might be one of those people. Though a plan can be symbolic of so many wonderful things, and I think it's those things that I'm really attracted to — the act of making a plan, to my mind, holds no special charm — the things which have brought the most joy to my life came with no clever plan. They were big, beautiful surprises.
No Lights on Valentine's Day
Though earlier in the day I had entertained ideas of soaring through the cold night, piercing hearts from here to Williamsburg and back, when it came time to make my move, I could only sit there, alone, still and quiet and entirely comfortable on my warm, orange couch.