Stephen Mejias

Julianna Barwick’s Sanguine Needs Our Help

Stephen Mejias Oct 11, 2010

One of my favorite albums of the year comes from Brooklyn-based artist <a href="http://www.myspace.com/juliannabarwick">Julianna Barwick</a>. The album is called Florine. Michael Lavorgna <a href="http://www.twitteringmachines.com/2010/03/julianna-barwick/">told me about it</a>. It was months ago and I remember leaving work that day and rushing over to <a href="http://www.othermusic.com/">Other Music</a> to buy the album. I got one of the first 200, pressed on white vinyl. <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/last_night_in_other_music/">K…; congratulated me and told me that I’d be very happy with the music.

Stephen Mejias

Responses to “Why Music Matters Most”

Stephen Mejias Oct 11, 2010

Michael Lavorgna’s October issue “As We See It” generated many more responses than we had space for in our December issue “Letters” section (a great bunch!), so we’ve appended all of the letters to the Web reprint, which you can find <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/asweseeit/why_music_matters_most/index.html"… here</a>.

Stephen Mejias

An Innovative Evening

Stephen Mejias Oct 08, 2010

Photos courtesy Peter McGrath.

Stephen Mejias

Stereophile on Facebook and Twitter

Stephen Mejias Oct 05, 2010

Me, listening to old MPS songs with the V-MODA Crossfade LP headphones and the <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_hifiman_hm-801_portable_m…; portable music player. Photo by intrepid Ariel Bitran.

Stephen Mejias

I Want the World to Stop

Stephen Mejias Oct 05, 2010

Belle and Sebastian’s new album, Write About Love, is due in stores on October 12. I spied an advance copy in the office of our music editor, Robert Baird. He’s hogging it up for himself, though. Something about having to “write a review.” Whatever. Fortunately, from now until the 12th, NPR will be <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130212728">streami… the entire album</a>, so we can get a cheap fix until we buy the real thing.

Stephen Mejias

Oneohtrix Point Never: Returnal

Stephen Mejias Sep 28, 2010

Returnal (Editions Mego EMEGO 104), the fourth full-length release from Oneohtrix Point Never, explodes into the listening room (or out from the speakers or out from the headphones) with real violence and penetrating force. We are thrust into a heavy storm, a maelstrom; we find ourselves standing beneath an ocean of falling glass, falling sky, falling electronic haze. If instruments could scream, their screams might sound like this, like the opening few moments of Returnal, moments that don’t seem like an opening at all, but someplace else, some other time that escaped us, that started without us, before we were ready. I don’t mean scream in the way that guitars and saxophones and other instruments can and do scream. I mean that if instruments could be dealt such pain that they were brought to life, given sentience, to wail with wonderful suffering, it might sound like this, like the opening few moments of “Nil Admirari.”

Stephen Mejias

Stian Westerhus: Pitch Black Star Spangled

Stephen Mejias Sep 27, 2010

<a href="http://www.stianwesterhus.com/">Stian Westerhus</a> plays guitar in a band called Puma. Having enjoyed Puma’s latest album, <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/puma_half_nelson_courtship/">… Nelson Courtship</a>, a powerful assault on the senses, I was anxious to hear Westerhus’s solo work. I expected something brutal&#151even something frightening, something perhaps verging on the unlistenable&#151but Westerhus’s second solo LP, Pitch Black Star Spangled (<a href="http://www.runegrammofon.com/">Rune Grammofon</a> RCD 2099/RLP 3099), is something else, something more.

Stephen Mejias

Someday We’ll Look Back

Stephen Mejias Sep 23, 2010

Hi! Sorry, sorry. What’s going on?

Stephen Mejias

Me and Elements Down By the Schoolyard

Stephen Mejias Sep 16, 2010

Today, “Elements of Our Enthusiasm” turns five years old, which, in blog years, is older than the universe. I thank you, dear readers, for sticking around and making this blog one of the most visited pages on our entire website. “Elements” is more popular than Justin Bieber.

Stephen Mejias

Now On Newsstands: Stereophile, Vol.33 No.10

Stephen Mejias Sep 15, 2010

The October 2010 issue of Stereophile is now on newsstands. On the cover, you’ll see a pretty much life-sized image of Logitech’s Squeezebox Touch, a real dandy of a hi-fi product that costs just $300 and seems to captivate everyone who comes into contact with it. The normally unflappable Kal Rubinson ends his review (page 118) by advising, “Get a Squeezebox Touch right now. You’ll never look back.” Even our cover photographer, Eric Swanson, fell in love with the little thing. He bought his sample. We chose the Mobile Fidelity version of Beck’s Sea Change for the cover art because it connects with Robert Baird’s feature piece on outstanding reissues (page 111), and because the colors are pretty. The colors featured on the Squeezebox Touch’s display dictated those used by our graphic designer, Natalie Baca, in her cover treatment.