Stephen Mejias

The quiet evenings leading up to a DeVore Fidelity Monkeyhaus event are passed by searching through your record collection for the perfect LPs. Every attendee will offer their own ideas of interesting and exciting music, and you will not be outdone by some other audiophile. You decide to bring one of your 2009 R2D4 selections, Lo Dice Todo by Grupo Folklorico y Experimental Nuevayorquino; Richard Hayman's Genuine Electric Latin Love Machine, not only for the persuasive content but also for the outstanding album art; and El Guincho's Alagranza! because you're pretty certain it'll shock and impress the crowd.

If you visit our <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/">News Desk</a>, you'll find my announcement of Michael Fremer's latest DVD, <i><a href="http://www.stereophile.com/news/itsa_vinyl_world_after_alli/">It's A Vinyl World, After All</a></i>. While Michael offers an entertaining look into the world of vinyl manufacturing and provides tons of valuable information on record collecting, handling, cleaning, and storage, I did have one minor criticism:

During a recent e-mail exchange with <a href="http://www.musicdirect.com">Music Direct</a>'s Josh Bizar, the topic turned to record cleaning. Josh shared with me his "Secret Record Cleaning Method."

<B><I>It's a Vinyl World, After All: Michael Fremer's Guide to Record Cleaning, Storage, Handling, Collecting, & Manufacturing in the 21st Century</I></B><BR>
MF Productions mxangle3 (DVD). 2008. Michael Fremer, prod.; Joe Shelesky, Andre Kruger, Jeff Wilerth, dirs.; Joe Shelesky, editor. $30; available from <I>Stereophile</I>'s <A HREF="http://ssl.blueearth.net/primedia/home.php">secure e-commerce page</A>.

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.

Willie Nelson's <i>Phases and Stages</i> was released one year prior to Wainwright's <i>Unrequited</i> and takes a somewhat similar artistic approach. It is clearly a concept album with two distinct, but closely related, sides.

I also picked this one up at Boomerangs. At the time, I knew nothing about Melanie Safka. Looking at the front cover, I must have immediately thought, <i>hmm… psychedelic hippie music</i>, or something like that. I also noticed that it was released by Buddah Records who I <i>was</i> familiar with for their work with Captain Beefheart and Rodriguez. Turning to the back, I was intrigued by Melanie's liner notes, which pretty much told me that this chick is crazy.