Twittering Machines

Buffalo Springfield
Again

Another hippie classic from 1967 and readily available in the $1 racks. Neil Young, ‘Steve’ Stills, Richie Furay, Dewey Martin and Bruce Palmer whip out a veritable greatest hits on this their 2nd release. They’re joined by James Burton – Dobro, guitar, Charlie Chin – banjo, David Crosby – vocals, Jim Fielder – bass, Jack Nitzsche – keyboard, electric piano, arrangements, Don Randi – piano, Bobby West – bass, and Norris Badeaux – baritone saxophone on “Good Time Boy”.

Not a throw away in the bunch. Neil’s “Mr. Soul”, “Expecting to Fly”(w/Jack Nitzsche arranged strings and all), “Broken Arrow” , Richie Furay’s “Sad Memory” a nice folky interlude, his “Good Time Boy” a funky R&B bigger-band backed horn section wonder, “A Child’s Claim to Fame” pure country, Steve Still’s jazzy “Everydays” and “Rock & Roll Woman” & “Bluebird” when his voice was young, clear and strong mixed with pre-CSN&Y harmonies and Neil’s blazing picked fuzz all add up to one great record.

Loren Connors, The Curse of Midnight Mary
Paul Flaherty, Aria Nativa (a free LP from Family Vinyard to make up for the late delivery and new/lower price of the Loren Connors – nice!)
PJ & John with bonus poster (not shown, why rub it in?)
tUnE-yArDs, BiRd-BrAiNs

The Ozark Mountain Daredevils

My favorite $1.00 record in a long time. Mis-labelled (imo) ‘southern rock’ when they released this debut LP in 1973, The Daredevils strike as much more related to the family of folk alternative country blue grass hippie stoners than Lynyrd Skynyrd-ites. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Devendra and the Fleet Foxes are fans. As far as this record goes, I love it. Definitely on the easier-listening side of things with that nice communal music-making vibe. Check out “Chicken Train” and you’ll hear what I mean. Or to save 1,000 words…

I bit the bullet and drove the 83.3 miles to The Album Hunter in scenic Maple Shade, NJ. They claim 200,000 LPs and 45s in stock and I’d estimate they had shit-loads of records. Tons of vinyl all over the place. In terms of numbers, the next most obvious item at The Album Hunter were all the plastic bins perched on top of the vinyl to catch the rain drip drip dripping in.

Stock consisted of tons of $1 – $2 selections categorized and alphabetized (which I’m not so sure is a good or bad thing). The “RARE” sections were small but nicely stocked and priced from $9 – $30 with $14 or so the average. Apparently music stopped being produced in the 1980s with a few, feeble exceptions.

(more…)

updated 11:05 p.m. EDT, Sat April 18, 2009

Evangelical Engineers and the end of the Hi-Fi Bubble
(CNN)

The AEES (Audio Evangelical Engineering Society) has formed a committee to investigate what one spokesman has called the irrational exuberance rampant in the hi-fi Industry. It has been reported that a significant number of people have been enjoying and more importantly paying for aspects of their hi-fi’s performance that some scientists claim aren’t real.

” This has simply gone too far” said AEES spokesman I Complainalot, ” most people don’t realize that in this industry people are spending their hard-earned money on things we know make no audible difference. We’re going to save them from their own ignorance by putting an end to this kind of discretionary spending once and for all. We’re calling for tougher regulations not only on manufacturer’s claims and profit, but we’re developing the first Prescription Stereo Buying Laws.”

” That’s right” Mr. Complainalot states ” You’re going to need a prescription from the AEES to buy a hi-fi someday soon. Unless you’re a member of the AEES in which case you can buy whatever you want.”

When asked for specific examples, Mr. Complainalot sites what many feel are the worst offenders, audio cables. Audio cables are used to connect components to each other and to loudspeakers in a high-end hi-fi system Mr. Complainalot explained. ” We’re talking about manufactures who claim to be breaking the laws of basic physics and electrical engineering principles that have been understood for decades.” The AEES goes on to say in a press report that some cable manufacturers take advantage of the average consumer’s ignorance and prey on their weakness through the use of something they call marketing language.

When asked about the physical effects of EMI/RFI which are recognized problems effecting cable in other industries including military and aerospace, impedance variation between components in hi-fi systems and its effect on the audio signal and even the commonly cited cable problem of skin effect, Mr. Complainalot explains ” We’re talking about a competently designed and selected hi-fi. The stuff we tell you to buy. Of course cables make a difference if you’re going to be stupid and buy what you like. But we’re going to make stupidity illegal!”

Mr. Complainalot went on to say they’re not stopping with hi-fi. ” Once we’re done cleaning up this mess, we’re going after another industry that many of our members have had problems with – male enhancement. I myself tried one of the leading products in this category. There was some real excitement within our society from one member who reported trying the new ‘sexual dynamo cocktail’ which consists of Enzyte and Tic Tacs with the claim you get an even bigger bang.” Mr. Complainalot concluded ” Of course the results of my test may have differed if I had a human partner. But I can assure you that Sally, my personal prototype, is the most advanced robotic elasto-polymer-based synthetic female available. For all scientific and testing purposes there’s no difference between her and a real woman. Except Sally is cleaner and she will have sex with me.”

busy making cross-overs in the Brooklyn Navy Yard?
(see if you can spot the 1 worker who consistently messes up yet somehow never loses her job)

What does this picture tell you about my listening session last night? (ignoring the dog hair). Any forensic audiologists out there?

You see how the front legs of the LCW are touching, have actually been pushed right up to the edge of the carpet? This means:

a) I was home alone

b) The volume was higher than normal

c) I was singing along, and

Having a wooden chair on a wooden floor is great because you can shimmy your way right up into the mix, maybe even to the other side if the feeling moves ‘ya. And it was movin me last night.

Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
i see a darkness

The first Will Oldham record to be released as Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy. A slow, quiet, simple and beautiful record that works as a seamless whole. Also featuring Bob Arellano, Colin Gagon, Paul Oldham, and Peter Townsend. It’s a record I can (and have) listened to over and over and still want to listen to over and over more. I picked this up as a new sealed LP and think they’re easy to come by. On Palace Records from 1999.

Good and bad news here.  One of the best guitar-soli records I possess; unfortunately it’s limited to a measly 300 copies.

 This slab o’ wax is total and complete genius (I played it four times this weekend).   I know very little about this picker but you can confidently slide this LP next to Fahey, Bull, Blackshaw, Graham and Kottke; it’s that good!  He also has a slightly less limited split tour LP (350 copies this time!) with another unknown axe man Spoono (aka Jack Allet), also a worthwhile endeavour.

onna

Re-issued by Holy Mountain, onna is Manga artist/guitarist/singer Keizo Miyanish’s 1983, 7″ 33rpm psychedelic fuzz fest. Mafuyu Hiroki joins Miyanish on guitar for a quadruple-fisted 12-string 2-song lead-trading wrapped under and over forlorn dreamy vocals with the thump and pump of synthesized drummer trip. While I’ve seen this called punk, it sounds a touch softer and more controlled while retaining that dreamy heaviness that LSD March do so well. Originally (and appropriately) released on Cupid & Psyche Records.

I’m assuming the creepy androgynous vagi-penis endowed nymph cover art is the work and self-portrait of Keizo Miyanish. In any event, it’s another 7″ wonder.

How’d I miss this? And waxpoetics is based in Brooklyn! WTF! The current issue is their first dedicated to jazz but don’t let the Coltrane cover fool ya – these guys go off off center toward the funkier fusion side. Features include 9DW (a Japanese jazz-funk-fusion band), Stonephace, Melvin Sparks, Horace Tapscott and Creed Taylor (with a focus on his CTI label). There’s also a monthly feature called re:discovery where they talk about a few old LPs worth re-discovering. This month’s include Dorothy Ashby’s Afro-Harping, Al Williams Quintet Plus One’s Sandance, The Third Wave’s Here and Now, Slipstream’s Afterglow and Bruce Ditmas’ Yellow.

Includes some great photographs and layout and their focus is clearly on vinyl!

Some tasty past covers. Yum.

Lowell Davidson Trio
self titled

A HUGE record discovery (think Darwin-big). The Lowell Davidson Trio featuring Davidson on piano, Gary Peacock on bass and Milford Graves on percussion. Recorded 7/27/65 on ESP-DISK (1012). Tracks Side A – “L”, “Stately 1″, “Dunce” and Side B – “Ad Hoc”, “Strong Tears”.

This is Lowell Davidson’s only recording and what a pure and beautiful piece of music it is. Davidson studied pianoforte at age 4, composition at 8, harmony at 12, organ and then piano at 15. He graduated from Harvard (he was there on a full scholarship) with a degree in biochemistry. We can thank Ornette Coleman for this record because it came about due to his persistence with ESPs founder Bernard Stollman. I’d read about this record, forgot about it, then was reminded of it in The Wire’s Invisible Jukebox in the March issue which featured Joe Morris. Morris knew Davidson from Boston:

“He went down and played with Milford Graves and Gary Peacock for an hour and just did that record. Then he went back to Boston, where he was the church organist at his parents’ church, and played music.”

“But near the end of his life, he got increasingly psychotic. His parents had to move out of the house [they shared]. He got involved with a crazy woman who was throwing his stuff out the window. So he moved to a place near Dudley Station and was hanging out at a homeless shelter, and got TB and never got treated for it and died. And when he died, Ornette came to his funeral. But you know, he played aluminium bass, organ and piano, and he was really brilliant and kinda scary in a way, so out there that it was a little scary to be around sometimes. Not violent, but just very intense. Very brilliant.”

“He used to talk about how music was really intended to alter the biochemistry of your brain so that people would evolve. He told me once, ‘It’s about evolution‘.”

This record is full of colors, ‘formative clusters’ as a favorite teacher used to say. A monster of a trio performance that leaves me nearly breathless (literally). Davidson’s playing is not familiar in a directly referential way yet it’s melodically and harmonically rich and always generous and inviting. I’ve never heard Milford Graves sound more part of a group and Gary Peacock is equally perplexing/inviting/stunning. This is a strange, as in not familiar, amalgam of musical stuff that adds up to one unbelievably moving experience.

I am thrilled to have this record and plan to put it on repeat. See if I evolve.

This is the fourth installment in what is proving to be a pretty great little reissue series.

This time Dr. Boogie directs his attention to the short lived genre of Rockabilly.  While having little prior knowledge of the genre, I was immediately struck by energy and honesty of these twenty tunes (26 on CD should you care!).

Many of these numbers are real swell but Danny Verne’s “Red Hot Car” might be one of the coolest tunes I’ve heard all year!

Long live bikes, babes, Brylcreem and leather!