Twittering Machines

Low
Christmas

Kranky has re-issued Low’s Christmas on vinyl! Includes Low‘d old standards like “Silent Night”, “Blue Christmas”, “Little Drummer Boy” and some original holiday tunes. What better way to watch snow fall?

CigarBid.com is offering the Padilla Limited Edition Salomon Sampler 6 cigars of grand-scale and luscious flavor for Free Fall pricing until 11/23 or until they’re all snapped up. The way Free Fall works is you watch the price drop right before your eyes and click “buy” when you can’t take the tension any more.

The Padilla Oscuro Limitado version of their 1932 Signature series is one of my favorites and very hard to come by. I’ve only seen it offered as part of the Padilla 2009 boxed sampler in a robusto size and in this ginormous Salomon stogie. Think of these as the Hardys to Lancero’s Laurel.

(hint: if you’re patient you can see the Free Fall  price reset so you’ll find out how low they’re willing to go.)

The original Slinky. In the original 1945 box design. Made of oiled blue-black steel just like the original. What more could anyone possibly want?

One of the pieces I put together for Inner World Audio was this pictorial spread. The premise was as the title suggests simplicity but the more interesting component for me was pairing up audio components with what I saw as kindred spirits from the world of visual art.

The article was prefaced with this work by Robert Rauschenberg titled “Erased de Kooing Drawing” which is exactly what it is. Rauschenberg convinced de Kooning to give him one of his drawings so that Rauschenberg could erase it and exhibit it as a work of his art.

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Folk
Grafters Jacket, $265

I don’t mean to pick on Folk but when it comes to buying a lined cotton coat, why wouldn’t you just go with a classic?

Carhartt
Sandstone Blanket-Lined Chore Coat, $70ish

Yea, you could throw out that style thing and I admit they are not the same in many ways but it’s odd, isn’t it, that in Japan Carhartt is a fashionable choice?

I own the dark brown Carhartt chore coat and wear it mainly to do chores like rake leaves and smoke cigars (I’m careful but hey if they catch fire = less raking). When I wear my dark brown Carharrt chore coat out and about and someone comments in a negative way fashion-wise, I just tell them I spend a lot of time in Japan. Sumimasen!

note: I prefer the blanket-lined “micro-sanded” Carhartt over the quilted lined and/or unwashed version because the quilted liner is fatter and stiffer and the unwashed cotton is also stiffer which makes you look like a Goodyear ad. Plus layering allows for three-season use and you can’t un-layer the liner.  And that corduroy collar on the Carhartt isn’t there to make you look pretty, it’s there so when it’s really cold & windy you can turn up your collar and its all soft and warm against your face as opposed to cotton duck which can sand wood. Practical and fashion forward.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of finding a new music store/source online especially when they’re also a label. It feels like the world just got a little bigger. I stumbled into Experimedia the other day and have been exploring their releases online. Piiptsjilling sounds lovely as does French sound artist Sylvie Walder.

Piiptsjilling
Wurdskrieme

There’s also lots of great distributed music with a distinct focus and flavor that comes about when your focus isn’t income – “Experimedia (est.2000) is a independent one man operated record label and mailorder shop based in Akron/Ravenna, Ohio, United States. Strictly a labor of love and aside from my full time job.”

Check out the Sale section as there’s lots of records that are really great and really on sale like Gonjasufi’s The Caliph’s Tea Party a remix LP that’s getting lots of luv and Pocahaunted’s 7″ Threshold/Echolocation their very last record in their original form with Bethany Cosentino (now Best Coast) and Amanda Brown.

Did you have an opportunity to see Inner World Audio magazine back when it was in print**? Kari Nevalainen, whom I knew in the internet sense of the word from 6moons, put together this lovely magazine back in 2007 and it lasted for seven issues. While I was involved with some of the cover designs (like this one) as well as a few articles, one of my favorite articles wasn’t mine. It was Alex Halberstadt’s and it was titled “Shindo Tasting”.

** update: I spoke to Kari and Inner World Audio the print magazine is still an ongoing concern! Look for more information in the near future.

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“The standard Cuban measurement for a lancero is 7 1/2 inches long by 38 ring gauge, but those made outside of Cuba can be a bit shorter and somewhat fatter. Most cigars with the name are finished with a signature flag cap, the pigtail that can be anything from a mere stub to a strip of leaf approaching an inch in length. When rated by Cigar Aficionado, lanceros fall under the panetela category, which comprises thin cigars. All lanceros are panetelas, but only gran (or long) panetelas are lanceros.” Thank you Cigar Aficionado

This limited edition lancero collection from Ashton unites two of my favorite Jose ‘Pepin’ Garcia smokes – La Aroma de Cuba Edicion Especial (thank you Uncle Omar) and San Cristobal. Both cigars are the traditional Cuban 7 1/2 x 38 lancero size and I must say I’m enjoying this thinner longer vitola (a favorite of Fidel’s btw and first introduced by Cohiba in the 1960s). As you’d expect, a lancero allows you to taste more of the wrapper since it makes up a significantly larger % of what you’re smoking.

In La Aroma de Cuba’s case we’re looking at a sun-grown Ecuadorian wrapper and an obviously darker, oily Nicaraguan leaf wraps the San Cristobal. Both are super-tasty, complex with spice galore and there’s something so very leisurely about looking down that long-ass’d cigar, more like a rifle barrel but I get the Renaissance fair reference, and knowing you’ve got thaaaat much cigartime left. Nice.

Lancero’s are also difficult. Difficult to blend, roll and the leaf for the wrapper must be very high quality (or else your lancero will look and taste like a twig) which typically adds up to a premium price tag. Even pricier than their wider and more popular brethren. According to Cigar Aficionado, there’s also some stigma attached to thinner ring gauges for some manly men – “does this cigar make my ass look big?” Which all adds up to why you don’t see more lancero’s around.

I bought mine from Cigars International for a special “Make Me An Offer” price or you can pay more at cigarbid.com.

Fennesz
Endless Summer

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you…I’d been wanting after Christian Fennesz’s Endless Summer for a while, seemingly…forever. In fact, it was very near the top of my “How about an LP reissue, fellas” list seeing as the original 2001 LP was a fairly limited release and pricey on the used market (there was a remastered Japan-only ‘deluxe’ CD release in 2006 but I never really cared). Lo and behold Editions Mego have gone and done it and they’ve wrapped this remastered reissue in a lovely gatefold with the original cover art by Tina Frank (yea!) and added a second LP of bonus tracks to the 2001 original single LP.

We all know the Bruce Brown movie but this LP is titled after the Beach Boys double LP compilation and comeback hit from 1974. But you won’t get any doo-wopiness or help from Rhonda here. Instead you get Fennesz’s guitar (acoustic and electric) fed to his laptop and spit out covered in muslin electronic haze. But Fennesz lets his guitar occasionally sound through and he leaves melody at times in tact. You can also hear, at least I can hear, sunrises and sunsets, waves lapping against the shore and most prominently a sense of longing that is downright beautiful.

Maybe the 1966 Bruce Brown film is what I’m hearing. The quest for the endless summer is after all a quest for wonder to never cease. For life to be the uninterpreted pursuit of happiness minus the day job and shiny suit. Or with it, if that floats your boat. I know people, people I consider friends, whose work is their dream. Imagine.

I guess this is generally considered a youth-movement, the endless summer, for empty-headed dreamers. To my way of thinking we all need a life-sized dollop of endless summer in our everyday and Fennesz scoops out a large portion and let’s you lick to your heart’s delight. Recommended for the young at heart.

The boys tore the place apart. A maelstrom of musical delights. Bravo!

Did you ever wonder what the inside of a Fi looks like? Between the sheets, so to speak? I’m not talking about capacitor types and signal path lengths, I’m talking about seeing past the parts into the heart and soul of the beast to have a look at what makes it tick. I had the good fortune along with Stephen Mejias, John DeVore and Nori Komuro to be invited over to Don Garber’s place to hear a new amplifier he’s working on and have a look in and around the place called Fi.

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Various
I’m Gonna Live Anyhow Until I Die
Field Recordings from Alan Lomax’s “Southern Journey” 1959-1960

“This was 1959 and I finally had German mikes and a Cadillac of a recorder [Ampex 602-2 "Suitcase Model"] and was doing stereo–the first stereo field recordings made in the South. You should hear the recordings–for me, a life’s dream realized.” Alan Lomax, 1993

This is the fifth of five records recently released by Mississippi Records from Alan Lomax’s “Southern Journey”. I picked this one out at random the other day in Other Music to bring to Don Garber’s place for a listening party (more on that soon). My guess is I didn’t pick well, rather my guess is all of these records are equally mind-blowingly beautiful. As Mr. Lomax says “You should hear the recordings.” You should.

Each record in this series contains a booklet with pictures and stories about the musicians.

Alan Lomax’s “Southern Journey” was originally released on Atlantic Records in a 7 LP set titled Southern Folk Heritage Series. Lomax had music left over and recorded more during a trip to Virginia with his daughter in 1960 and all of this was released by Prestige as Southern Journey. You can bet I’m searching for those as well. I also understand that New World and Rounder Records re-released this music but all of these versions including the originals are out of print. So I have to say it again, thank you Mississippi Records.

This record contains some better and lessor known musicians but I don’t want to focus on either because its really every single track listened to one after the other that puts a spell on you. We listened to this record mostly in silence with big grins and occasional head-shaking-in-near-disbelief laughter at the wonder of it all.

There’s really nothing like listening to great music with friends and sharing in the discovery and delight.

After Lomax heard Fred McDowell sing and play for the first time, the only entry in his field log was “Perfect.”

You want this record, I want all of these records and if you can’t get them locally, I’d suggest buying them from Adam at 50 Miles of Elbow Room. Visit his site and you’ll see why.

Henryk Górecki
(December 6, 1933 – November 12, 2010)

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that those three words, bring some CDs, fill me with dread. But when a listening invitation came my way with those three words attached, I have to admit my mind scrambled. Like a runny egg. The last CD I purchased was Noveller’s Desert Fires which I love, and there’s the Bill Dixon 17 Musicians In Search Of A Sound: Darfur and Kan Mikami’s Jazz. Which pretty much covers my last few years-worth of CD-buying (there are more, I just can’t remember which, I can’t find them and don’t have the heart to flip through all of the other clattery carcasses).

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Jah Wobble
Get Carter

Bob Brookmeyer
And Friends

Recently I’ve been the recipient of very kind and cool generosity in the form of musical gifts; Jah Wobble’s Get Carter from Milo and Simon sent Bob Brookmeyer & Friends as well as this wonderful record that includes Bill Dixon. I’d have to say I would not have come across these first two records on my own in my expected near-term future but seeing as I just did that just goes to show that the future can be full of surprises when it arrives.

Jah Wobble is a fascinating character begining with his stint as bad-ass bass player in Public Image Limited and morphing into his current spiritual worldy musical persona (and book reviewer). Get Carter a riff on the Rod Budd soundtrack to the excellent 1971 film staring Michael Cain (forget about Stallone),  is all dub funky eastern-tinged sprightly and cool. Brookmeyer & Friends is the kind of record my father loved, which included nearly anything featuring Stan Getz, but this 1965 release adds an edgy backing band of upstarts; Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Gary Burton and Elvin Jones. Cool jazz that simmers.

Needless to say, I’ve been enjoying these records very much as much for the music as for what they represent. Which pretty much goes for most of the music I listen to, actually to most things, as I enjoy the story, where the interconnections that create context and inform meaning outweigh the ever-shifting vagaries of taste and opinion.