Wheat from chaff

I love the Clash, but it's time to admit the horrible truth:

Sandinista is a three-disc stack of steaming poo. That is all.

-Steve

Impulse Piano Sound

I'm listening to Pharoah Sanders: Tauihid on vinyl right now. And it occurs to me that one reason (among many, I suppose) that I prefer vinyl to CDs when the album was recorded pre-80's is that there are certain things that get "fixed" when many of these recordings are re-mastered and digitized. One of these things is the piano sound on many Impulse recordings from the 60's. It's a weird sound - don't know how, exactly, they miked the piano - but it's consistant across performers so I don't think it's a performers preference. That means it was likely an aesthetic choice made by Bob Thiele.

I think my first impulse (pun intended) would be to "fix" the piano sound if I was in a position to re-master these recordings for the first time. But only if I wasn't an avid listener of these recordings when they first came out. Many of these recordings (Coltrane's 'A Love Supreme' is the obvious example) were listened to so *intensely* by their audience that anything that changes that sound would be considered a distraction at best - and sacrilege at worst.

I don't think it's a romantic attachment that leads one to be offended by these changes (at least in my case I *hope* not) - it's that I want the discovery from each subsequent listening to these recordings to be a result of the inherent mystical quality of the music - and not some executives attempt to "fix" the sound.

Since this is a bit of a slapdash post (the record just ended) I haven't done much research to support my claims that the digital versions of these recordings really changed the piano sound that much (though I remember that being a real distraction for me the first time I heard 'A Love Supreme' on CD) - I have digital versions of almost the entire Coltrane catalog, so it would be easy enough to A/B some tracks and see if there really is that much difference now that the original recordings have been remastered several times. More interesting to me, though, would be to get original Mono recordings of these albums and compare them to their Stereo sisters since most of my original Impulse recordings are in their Stereo versions... For another post, I suppose.

Thoughts?

-Steve

No Hippies Allowed!

As a follow-up to this post click on the title above. If John Fahey is, in fact, alive and well - he's probably living in Thailand.

On a totally unrelated note, for those of you experiencing confusion and delay while listening to the Carmina Burana, despair no more!

-Steve

Songs About Record Labels

This morning, while doing the dishes, I was thinking about the band Boston. Nevermind why or what. I was half-heartedly trying to remember some of the (mostly inane 70's-era typical) lyrics when the "He smoked a big cigar and drove a Cadillac car" line wafted across some synaps'. It was then I knew I needed to make a 'Top 5' list of 'Songs About Labels'.

I came up with the following right off the top of my head - but couldn't muster a 5th - suggestions?

4) Rock 'n Roll Band - Boston
3) Workin' For MCA - Lynryd Skynryd
2) EMI - Sex Pistols
1) I Wanna Be On Epitaph - Betty Blowtorch

A #5? Discuss...

-Steve

In Rainbows - On Turntable

The 'new' Radiohead sounds awesome on vinyl - just sayin'.

-Steve

Magnetic Fields: Distortion

[Hint: The title is a link]

This is my recommendation of the... day? week? month? - who knows when I'll get to another one (and thanks to HRL for the tip).

Supposedly an answer to Jesus & Mary Chain's 'Psycho Candy' album - it's a gritty mash-up of 'Pet Sound' era surf-pop, 80's shoe-gazer-pop, and Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' (well, not really). I mean it sounds that way - someone else will have to weigh in on the lyrical content. I get very immersed in the noise of this record. What's most mesmerizing about it is that all the fuzz/distortion/reverb/distortion/feedback and distortion is in service to the melodic and not just the aural. Which is to say it's inside the song - not outside, leaning against it having a smoke like, say, bad Sonic Youth.

I've read a couple of critics who take it down a peg for being another experiment of Stephin Merritt's - a 'style over substance' wank of sorts. And I actually agree. 'Cept I don't think that's a bad thing. Sure, this is a stand-alone nugget that's unlikely to spur further investigation by it's composer or would-be imitators - but what a great album to have in the mix! Imagine a Liz Phair's 'Flower' segueing into 'California Girls' - perfect.

The only complaint I can muster about this album is... Dude, if you want a cymbal to sound like a trash can lid just use... a trash can lid.

-Steve

P.S. Aural Porn bonus question: A love song written by a guy for his girl (probably?) but then sung by a chick. Hot or Not. Discuss.

Back on the horse - but for how long?

I've finished the dishes and am knee deep in the laundry (literally) - so I thought I'd take a break and revive this blog. Don't know for how long, but with short, music related entries I ought to be able to squeeze out an entry every once in a while, no? We'll see...

The real inspiration for this entry came from my much-maligned ipod [side note: I bought this device for one reason only - 160g. With that much space I can digitize a decent sized chunk of my CD/Record collection]. The 'rock' playlist was on random while I was doing the dishes and the Pixies 'Space (I Believe In)' from Trompe Le Monde came on and a lightbulb went on over my head, I seemed to levitate in space for a moment and an other-worldly voice whispered to me: "One word Steve, PRIMUS".

Every "alternative" band that made a record from 1990-1998 claimed that their greatest inspiration came from either A) the Velvet Underground or B) the Pixies. I don't know if anyone from Primus ever made this claim (in fact, I rather doubt it) - still, I've never heard one bands entire conception so totally encapsulated by another bands song than this example. Check it out for yourself (at your local independent record store) and hear what I mean!

Am I full of shit? Discuss...

-Steve

Old Email on MP3 players

[This was an email I sent to some friends of mine this summer - recent "developments" by Apple made me think of it again, so I decided to post it for posterity]

After an invigorating afternoon watching the PDX Beavers loose to the Tacoma Rainers (something they do often) - Andre, Caden, Owen, Sam and I made a pit stop at our house before ACO went home. While the chillen' were chillin' I went downstairs to see if I could find Andre' a 9-V power adapter. I failed. However I did find this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_PMP300

Andre - I was wrong. This was the *2nd* MP3 player released for mass consumption and it came out in '98 (not the first and '97 as I had said).

So all those pompous Apple eaters who love to tell you how innovative and revolutionary the iPod was/is are as ignorant as they are full of shit:

"The Rio also spawned one of the first Digital Music service providers (ASP or SaaS), RioPort. RioPort was the first to license commercial downloads, i.e, $0.99 songs from the five major record labels."

and:

"In October 1998, the American recording industry group, the Recording Industry Association of America, filed a lawsuit in the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco claiming the player violated the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act. The three judge panel ruled in favor of Diamond, paving the way for the development of the MP3 portable player market."

Oh, and then there is the click wheel interface - look familiar?

I bought one of these when they were first released and immediately dropped some ungodly amount of money on a 32M card to expand its memory to a whopping 64M.

   -Steve

BTW - on a lark I replaced the crusty AA battery that was in it and what do you know? It sparked right up! The first song was 'Dig Me Out' by Sleater-Kinney (from '97) - see how hip I used to be?

I Post

I am, I post.

We moved to Portland. There is an enormous amount to be said about that. My wife has covered some already - and I may provide flashbacks here and there, but it's clearly time to move forward.

This weekend we went up to Port Townsend to pick up the Cabrio and see some friends. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend - in spite of the 4hr.s up and the 4hr.s back. The highlights for me were seeing all the new things that had been done to the store by the new owners and a poker game held to coincide with my visit (I won $5).