1992: Philharmonic plays Carnival of the Animals - Katy took me to see Joshua Bell at the Ordway for my birthday this past May. In addition to the violins sounding gorgeous, Mr. Bell was (to my untrained ears) awe-inspiringly amazing. (For someone who made his Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 18, I should hope so!)
1983: Stereophile’s jubilant review of the first CD player - You see, when the compact disc came into the consumer space, it was a pretty big deal. An entire host of problems were completely eliminated:
… the sound was so opulently gorgeous it almost defied belief! It was a total incarnation of the perfectionist’s wildest dreams: rich, velvety, airy, awesome, liquid, yet incredibly detailed. There were none of the analog disc’s problems. No marginal mistracking, no subtle VTA-error distortions, no disc-resonance smearing, no feedback-induced low-end boom or mud, no ticks or pops or pressing grumbles even at the highest listening levels. And there was no analog-tape flutter or modulation noise or transient-rounding or print-through or hiss.
As we were driving home from the Twins game, John switched the radio to The Current last night (thanks for the free ticket, guys!). Anyhow, the radio played a song from the Scottish band Travis. These guys have another album out, called “The Boy With No Name.” The song I heard, and the entire album, are really surprisingly good. You guys may remember a song from three albums ago (about 7 years back) called “Why Does it Always Rain On Me.” Remember? Anyhow, Wikipedia talks about the rollercoaster of the album that song was on in 1999:
What “dynamic range” means - Take sixty quick seconds and learn what it means when the audio engineers of today are required by record companies to produce music that is lower in quality than previous generations. By “lower in quality,” I do not mean the music itself.
Ok, here we go. Since one of the purposes of this site is to preserve things in which I am interested for posterity: I will now embark on an image-powered summary of some of my interests from the past week.
Interest 1: Vega4
This music group sounds like Snow Patrol; that’s a good thing. I like ‘em … I caught them on the radio (not on the television, though I must admit that seems to be one of the best place to hear new, alternative music these days); I’ve been thinking about getting their album ever since. A quote from a PopMatters review follows:
The iTunes we all know, love, and use has a convenient music sharing feature. It allows people on a the same network to listen to one another’s music. This is particularly useful in a University setting; you can see the music of everyone in a dorm, in a common area, and in the library. Recently, when Mykala and myself were studying for finals in the library, I decided to open up iTunes and see what libraries were available from my collegiate colleagues. The list of the library names that appeared follows:
I bought a car off a couple of ladies way upstate
Took off the Greenpeace sticker and the New Hampshire plates
My friends are saying that I may have made a mistake
But I tell ‘em have a little faith now fellas, just you wait
Puttin’ in the new shocks and the anti-lock brakes
One touch ignition for convenience sake
And when I’m through it’s gonna look and run better than new
So baby don’t make a move
Because I’m coming for you
I’m coming for you
You better make way cause I’m coming through
In my late ‘92 baby blue
Subaru
There are many things that I would be proud of
If I’d only invented them such as the wheel
The washing machine and the tumble dryer
On these inventions
Surely I could retire
— Kaiser Chiefs
Fair to Midland - The local rock station (93x) has been giving a little airtime to an up and coming band (exceedingly rare, since they’re owned by the Clear Channel bastards). So, I finally got a chance to look this band up, and it seems like they’re still pretty low profile.
On Facebook, I saw Nils added “The Cinematics” to his list of favorite artists. I’ve heard two songs off of their album “A Strange Education,” and I really like what I’ve heard so far. I’ll have to give the rest of it a listen soon.
It’s from this loneliness and the fear it brings That new doors can open up and be a savior to me So I’ll open my mind Open my heart It’s the only way to breathe
It’s just a trick of the lights she said So don’t panic, now don’t panic
Those would be the power-chorded caramel-smooth perfectly processed guitars on the first track of Avril Lavigne’s album “The Best Damn Thing.”
I unashamedly acknowledge my enjoyment of this poppy sugary snack. Let the emasculation of my character commence!
From Here We Go Sublime - On Metacritic, rated the top album of 2007 so far … by a fairly large margin, too.
Plus, “From Here We Go Sublime” by The Field falls under the category “Electronic,” and the guy behind it is known for trance music, no less. I find it interesting that an electronic album with that particular pedigree could top acts like Arcade Fire and Arctic Monkeys.
Christopher O’Riley covers Nick Drake - I haven’t heard of Nick Drake, but after attending O’Riley’s Radiohead concert @ Orchestra Hall, I’m tempted to give this album a listen.
I’ve been thinking that it might be a good idea to start a favorite songs list on occasion. The material’s sitting right there in my iTunes, ready to bore anyone who reads it. I’ll try to limit the list to an arbitrary number, to encourage myself to only pick the best. You know, maybe someone could glean something off the list. Anyhow, here we go:
Hey Ya Cover - This is a great cover—and as Mykala pointed out, the acoustic version really makes you listen to the lyrics. A higher quality version of this song is available off the Obadiah Parker MySpace page.
Back from the iTunes dead, as it were, the song “The A La Menthe” has been getting heavy rotation lately. And yes, for once you can listen to a song I am raving about … along with the incredible movie sequence it accompanies. Thanks to Ryan Markoe for the original tip on this song, long ago (ok, a year or two ago).
“Near Future of Music” - The Arcade Fire, Fountains of Wayne, Rufus Wainwright … all artists who have forthcoming albums. Some other interesting ones here, too.
An infomercial jam session - “Now, let’s learn how to play, a rockanrollrhythm …” This Creative representative really knows how to sell a product. Check it out … the fastest rock drum tutorial ever.
Rodrigo Y Gabriela - Check out some of the impressive videos they have from the duo’s late show performances.
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