Stephen Mejias

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.

Beautiful plus beautiful equals more beautiful. Phoenix pairs Grizzly Bear’s “Foreground” with Brian Eno’s “Discreet Music” and offers instructions for mixing in some chance operations. Click herehttp://wearephoenix.com/grizzly_bear_remix/">here; and make magic.

Last night, on Later with Jools Holland, Joanna Newsom performed “81,” the lead single from her ambitious and inspired triple-LP, Have">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/bewitching_rewarding/">Have One On Me.

My love for the Vivian Girls only grows and grows: I love them more today than I did yesterday, but not as much as I’ll love them tomorrow. Their 2009 album, Everything Goes Wrong, continues to sound fresh and exciting with each play on my turntable. And they’ve got a new 7-inch single available from their own Wild">http://www.freewebs.com/viviangirls/wildworld.htm">Wild World Records. Perfect for a sunny Cinco de Mayo like this one, the A-side has Cassie confessing, “I can hardly wait until the summer comes,” while Katy and Ali echo the feeling with handclaps and angelic backing vocals. The B-side is a cover of the Chantels’ “He’s Gone,” which I had the great and unforgettable pleasure of hearing performed live, a cappella, at">http://forum.stereophile.com/photopost/showphoto.php/photo/2149/passwor… Bamboo Beach in">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/what_happened_in_puerto_rico/… Puerto Rico.

Photo: Sebastian Mlynarski

I was directed to this video via the Stereophilehttp://twitter.com/stereophilemag">Stereophile; Twitter page, in a tweet from Bowers">http://blog.bowers-wilkins.com/sound/formats/to-have-and-to-hold-vinyl-… & Wilkins, who’d seen it first at Audiophiliahttp://www.audiophilia.com/wp/?p=4383">Audiophilia;. Moments after I’d watched the video, Stereophile contributor Jim Austin also sent me the link.

Exactly six months after we’d seen them perform in Puerto Rico, at that strange island bar, Bamboo Beach (see “Records to Die For,” February 2010, pages 71-72), the Vivian">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/when_im_gone/">Vivian Girls performed on Saturday night, this time so much closer to home, at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I bought tickets for the whole crew&#151Rizzo, Fritzy, Papi Chulo, Fuzzy, and Tigga&#151so that, together again for the first time since that memorable trip, we could relive">http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/what_happened_in_puerto_rico/… the magic. We ate well, drank too much, laughed, danced, and sang along as the Vivian Girls burned through their energetic set.