Brandon Burke

hi folks, tweeter blew on one of my monitors last week. actually it was a couple of weeks ago by now, but i've been too busy to do anything about it. regardless, i need to get the thing fixed or simply replace it altogether. can anyone recommend a place in the Bay Area to go, preferably in San Francisco? thanks, Brandon

all, not sure if this was already posted or not - i haven't been around much - but figured it's newsworthy if for no other reason than the future of the BN catalog on disc. (to say nothing for Beatles, classical, etc). hmm.. Brandon

album of the year: 2007

hey dudes, thanks for the good word. and sorry to be so out of the loop. i made a conscious decision a year or so ago to cool it on TV and the Interweb. and i must say it's made the world a better, more tangible place. (cable especially. uugh..) not that i have minute-one to decicate to recreational reading, but such is life. anyway, busy day today. wrapping up three weeks of work in as many days. cheers all and thanks again, Brandon p.s. thanks Clifford..

to the Ron Carter point: i've never been able to tell how purposefully *off* his bowed cello was on Mal Waldron The Quest.

2005 National Recording Registry (in chronological order) 1. "Canzone del Porter" from "Martha (von Flotow)," Edouard de Reszke (1903) 2. "Listen to the Lambs," Hampton Quartette; recorded by Natalie Curtis Burlin (1917) 3. "Over There," Nora Bayes (1917) 4. "Crazy Blues," Mamie Smith (1920) 5. "My Man" and "Second Hand Rose," Fanny Brice (1921) 6. "Ory's Creole Trombone," Kid Ory (June 1922) 7. Inauguration of Calvin Coolidge (March 4, 1925) 8. "Tanec pid werbamy/Dance Under the Willows," Pawlo Huemiuk (1926) 9. "Singin' the Blues," Frankie Trumbauer and his Orchestra with Bix Beiderbecke (1927) 10. First official transatlantic telephone conversation (Jan. 7, 1927) 11. "El Manisero" ("The Peanut Vendor"), Rita Montaner, vocal with orchestra (1927); "El Manisero," Don Azpiazu and his orchestra (1930) 12. Light's Golden Jubilee Celebration (Oct. 21, 1929) 13. Beethoven's Egmont Overture, Op. 84, Modesto High School Band (1930) 14. "Show Boat," Helen Morgan, Paul Robeson, James Melton and others; Victor Young, conductor; Louis Alter, piano (1932) 15. "Wabash Cannonball," Roy Acuff (1936) 16. "One o'Clock Jump," Count Basie and his Orchestra (1937) 17. Archibald MacLeish's "Fall of the City," Orson Welles, narrator, Burgess Meredith, Paul Stewart (April 11, 1937) 18. "The Adventures of Robin Hood" radio broadcast of May 11, 1938 19. Joe Louis-Max Schmeling fight, Clem McCarthy, announcer (June 22,1938) 20. "John the Revelator," Golden Gate Quartet (1938) 21. "Adagio for Strings," Arturo Toscanini, conductor; NBC Symphony (1938) 22. "Command Performance" show No.21, Bob Hope, master of ceremonies (July 7, 1942) 23. "Straighten Up and Fly Right," Nat "King" Cole (1943) 24. Allen's Alley segment from "The Fred Allen Show"(Radio broadcast of Oct. 7, 1945) 25. "Jole Blon," Harry Choates (1946) 26. "Tubby the Tuba," Paul Tripp (words) and George Kleinsinger (music) (1946) 27. "Move on up a Little Higher," Mahalia Jackson (1948) 28. "Anthology of American Folk Music," edited by Harry Smith (1952) 29. "Schooner Bradley," performed by Pat Bonner (??1952-60) 30. "Damnation of Faust," Boston Symphony Orchestra with the Harvard Glee Club and Radcliffe Choral Society (1954) 31. "Blueberry Hill," Fats Domino (1956) 32. "Variations for Orchestra," Louisville Orchestra (1956) 33. "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," Jerry Lee Lewis (1957) 34. "That'll Be the Day," Buddy Holly (1957) 35. "Poeme Electronique," Edgard Varese (1958) 36. "Time Out," The Dave Brubeck Quartet (1959) 37. Studs Terkel interview with James Baldwin (Sept. 29, 1962) 38. William Faulkner address at West Point Military Academy (1962) 39. "Dancing in the Street," Martha and the Vandellas (1964) 40. "Live at the Regal," B.B. King (1965) 41. "Are You Experienced?" Jimi Hendrix Exerience (1967) 42. "We're Only in It for the Money," Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention (1968) 43. "Switched-On Bach," Wendy Carlos (1968) 44. "Oh Happy Day," Edwin Hawkins Singers (1969) 45. "Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers," Firesign Theatre (1970) 46. "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Gil Scott-Heron (1970) 47. "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (1972) 48. The old fog horn, Kewaunee, Wis., recorded by James A. Lipsky (1972) 49. "Songs in the Key of Life," Stevie Wonder (1976) 50. "Daydream Nation," Sonic Youth (1988) Press release to follow...here

movers? never heard of 'em... anyway, i think i have plan. first of all, the point of the soundproofing is not audio-related. it's a privacy issue between two respectful roommates and as it stands now, there's very little keeping sound from exiting/entering our otherwise conjoined rooms. for example, there's about an inch-or-so between the bottom of the sliding doors and the floor...hardword at that. so it's basically like trying to drink a glass of water out of a pasta strainer. the solution: i'm buying thin plywood to wedge inside the door frame on each side of the double doors, roughly 4'x7'. it will be painted the same color as the trim (which needs to be repainted anyway so...). along the outside border of the plywood, where it meets the door frame, i am going to adhere rubber edging so the plywood fits snuggly into the frame...tight enough to warrant wedging it in there with a rubber mallet. handles will be screwed into the plywood (on the outside) so that it (the plywood) can be removed easily. on the inside of the plywood, invisible from the outside, i am going to adhere acoustic sound-deadening foam. so there you go. Brandon

friends, i'm moving into a new place tomorrow and am going to need to soudproof the french doors reparating my bedroom from another. i need to refrain from applying any adhesive to the door itself. was thinking about buying sheets/panels of acoustical foam but want to explore all options before i throw that kind of money down. there are several kinds of foam. i'm not interested in the kind that simply keeps sound waves from bouncing around a studio, that's an altogether different thing. i'm trying to block sound from coming in and going out of these doors. just so we're clear, this is an old turn-of-the-century row house so the doors are old and far from sealed. (tried doing a google image search now for a comparable set-up but go nothing. oh well...) thanks as always, Brandon

i made a mixtape with "International Rescue" on it not 3 days ago. bummer news indeed...

clem, first of all, thanks for those vids, man. very cool/kind. Gastr: no, i guess i never saw any interviews...or none that dealt specifically with the breakup, anyway. i still like those records, actually. been buying them back up again since they seem to show up at Amoeba for cheap and i went through a phase several years ago wherein i sold all of my 90's indie records. (kept Bee Thousand, thank you very much..) O'Rourke: wondering if i shouldn't be paying more attention to his solo stuff than i am (which is not at all). recently re-bought the Bad Timing LP which i remember think was waaaaaay too Fahey at the time. turns out it's good. he stayed at our place once in like '96/'97. was touring with Cindy Dall (ex-Smog) and someone else as a Drag City package. this was when he was first getting into playing entire shows like Fahey. later, at the apt, he played my roomate's Tele all night, switiching between dramatic Crookt-like octave runs and silly shit like the Metallica songs his students ask him to teach them. all said, i found him to be a really good guy. and funny too. at breakfast the next morning he feigned bumping into the restaurant door on the way in. (the old kick-the-bottom-of-the-door trick...so it sounds like you hit your head). Grubbs: never really got into his post-Gastr stuff. too much arty, not enough farty. and whatever made him think that people want to listen to narrated dramas on LP is beyond me. (like his Red Krayola contribs, though...) Lloyd: remember when it didn't take 2-and-a-half years between each Eightball? (sigh...) Zodiac: i'll look for that. seen 'em before but never pulled the trigger. Brandon

....not to mention Yoko Ono's "Mindtrain"! i was a pretty big fan of Stereolab in the mid-90's. (and i don't use the word "fan" lightly.) at the time, they seemed to come out of nowhere...musically, stylistically, politically, etc. to say nothing for how cool and collected they always appeared. over time, as i began to learn about the artists that influenced them, and magic wore away somewhat...which is fine, they're just people like everyone else. (same with Gastr del Sol, i should say, once i discovered Derek Bailey, Luc Ferrari, Morton Feldman, Gyorgy Ligeti, etc.) i bought every Stereolab record up through Emperor Tomato Ketchup, which was the first one i didn't like. too much John McEntire...someone i've never particularly liked (musically). his production/engineering style -- i call it "Steely Can" -- is just too cold and detatched for me. consequently, i found the stylistic shift from Mars Audiac Quintet (my favorite) to Emperor TK to be the source of much bummage. especially the druming, since that record seemed to magically transfrom them into a band of robots. (Dots and Loops is particularly bad in this regard. i gave up completely after that one.) nice people, though. a friend of mine from college was good pals with Mary Hansen before she passed away and had nothing but great things to say about the entire group. Brandon

i finished Fortress of Solitude about a month or so ago, enjoyed it immensely. bought his The Dissapointment Artist over the weekend. (mostly because i found out there's an essay in there on Cassavetes...)

the RMS v normalization thing makes sense. no prob there. should mention that, before i started this reply, i was capturing open reel feeds in WaveLab; so i'm no stranger to these concepts. when it comes to iTunes, however, i tend to get their proprietary (i.e made up) half-assed plug-ins confused. seems that, in an attempt to keep things "simple", iTunes designers avoided the very terminology that would have otherwise explained what those fuctions are meant to accomplish. simple indeed... anyway, i'll try messing with sound check in the burning preferences to see what happens. if that doesn't work, i'll prob just cave in and get Toast w/ Jam. (i'm possibly expecting a little too much from our friend, iTunes, anyway...) thanks, Brandon

okay, it seems i was confusing sound check with normalization. on the other hand, when you say that the sound check fucntion is "supposed to make all of the songs play at the same volume level," isn't that sorta what normalization is for..? just want to make sure i'm understanding you correctly... thanks again, Brandon

shit man, that "Rated X" jam is downright frightening. (in the good way, of course...)

yeah, the 'sound check' function is supposed to act as some kind of automatic mastering mechanism...but really only does so much. as we all know, if there's a loud pop on something (a LP burn, for example), that *pop* becomes the loudest peak on that particular file. consequently, you never get a true median level to be compared with the others in your library. that i understand. one hopes that leaving it on wouldn't bring your entire output level down wholesale though, y'know... the 'sound enhancer' fucntion is still something of a mystery to me. mostly because i never looked up what it meant. (my fault.) i'll try posting on some geeky Apple boards to see what others say. will report back here with whatever i find out... thanks guys, Brandon

just wrote Jon Mulvaney about it. i'll tell you what he says when he replies. thanks for double-checking for me, by the way. Brandon

a friend of mine told me that a mix i made her plays quieter than her other CDs. this was confirmed when another mix i made for someone went on at a party last weekend and was definitely quieter then whatever was on prior. is there a gain control for burning CDs in iTunes? i looked everywhere but couldn't find anything. thanks folks, Brandon

okay, now that i have your attention... can somebody please pop the Opening Night disc in and see of you get double-vision beginning at around 29:05. ...is this a common/known error? thanks, Brandon

no mention yet of A Choice of Weapons. mandatory reading for any American, i think... thanks for making Kansas proud, Gordon. - Brandon

thanks for the good word, guys. the interview itself seems like ages ago by now... enough so that, by the time i finally had a copy in my hands, i felt like i was reading someone else's work! anyway, seeing everything come to life after such a long wait is well worth the effort. great shots and amazing stories indeed. thanks again to brownie for his cooperation and kind spirit..! cheers, Brandon [shane, i accepted the Stanford job in autumn of '04. you're right though... i was in DC before that.]

Artist: Charles Ives / Carl Ruggles Title: Three Places In New England / Sun-treader Genre: Classical Type: LP Label: Deutsche Grammophon Catalog ID: 2530 048 Country: USA

Yikes! Bad start: my opening question was rephrased without hearing about it first. For one, you have to imagine i would never preface the term New Thing with "so-called". (Bummer...) other than that everything's pretty much 100% straight up. luckily that mistake was at my expense and not anyone else's...

Got my copies in the mail today, actually. Layout looks great! ...though it seems to me they may have attributed one too many shots to Silva's Luna Surface session. (If this is the case I need to know because no one should make assumptions like that without consulting the contributors first.) Surprising that, with so many Dusty Groove addicts here, more of you haven't hopped on the WP train yet...they seem to share the same audience. Very good publication, in my opinion...