Jim Alfredson

They play a lot of organissimo, too.

Lame is losing to both Charlotte and Portland in the span of two days.

Anything with Sonny Stitt on it, foo! And of course the Shirley Scott / Stanley T one.

Really? I did not know that. The only Buick name I know of besides those you mentioned is the Rendevouz. Are they still making those?

I'm not deleting anyone for non-posting.

Doesn't Buick still have the Le Sabre?

Yeah, Pontiac would've been a better choice for the axe, too imo. But those damn Grand Ams keep selling, ugliness and all.

They can't. Its dead. They would have to get all new franchisees and that ain't gonna happen. Frankly, they should've gotten rid of Buick before Olds, imo. Then again, what would the old people who can't afford Cadillacs drive? They gotta have something to ram into your rear-end with.

I think you can still get warranty work done at any GM dealer. They discontinued the line in 2004, most new vehicles had a maximum three-year warranty on them, so they'll all be out of warranty by 2007. Funny enough, you can still go to the Oldsmobile website where "The innovation of Oldsmobile lives on through GM." Uh... yeah. Olds roolz! I think it was downright dumb to get rid of Olds. The Aleros and Intrigues (and their minivan... the Sillouhette?) were really nice cars. My wife has an Intrigue, although it was one of the first production years and has some issues. But the later ones were really nice. She had a Bravada before that, and that was a nice car, too.

Another problem with getting rid of entire brands, like Oldsmobile, is that GM had to pay Oldsmobile dealers (who are francisees) large sums of money for pulling the plug on their businesses. It actually cost GM a shitload of money (like, in the billions) to get rid of Oldsmobile. I doubt they will do it again to another brand anytime soon.

Yeah, that was lame.

Yeah, I like Poor Leno. Good video.

Which would be what? Just curious, really. Okay, I'm going to preface this with a little confession: I'm not a big one for women singers. I don't know what it is, but there are very few I can stand. Most of the ones I really enjoy are black and had their heyday 30+ years ago. There are exceptions to that rule (Bonnie Raitt and Alison Krauss are two that come immediately to mind) but if its one thing I cannot stand its a bad or even just mediocre female singer. Probably just because there are SO many of them. (Side topic which has been brought up here before by me, I'm pretty sure: Why are there so few women instrumentalists and so many female vocalists?!) Anyway, I'm not saying she's a bad singer at all. Far from it. I just feel like she's trying to be a soul singer and she's not, at least to my ears. But I could be totally missing the point or totally wrong (wouldn't be the first time). That was just the impression I got from that very cursory listen, hearing it with my above-mentioned biases.

I still like some of it... a lot of it is over-the-top junk, but the production is neat. I really like the Royksopp you posted. That is some cool stuff... thank you for that.

Hey man, I ain't surrendering my yang. I use that thing on a daily basis. I've only listened once, in the car, while trying to drive into inner-city Chicago, so forgive me if I wasn't concentrating much. But something about her voice really didn't sit well with me... she sounds like she's trying to be something she's not. Just my opinion. It doesn't mean the stufff won't "grow" on me.

I don't know about genius, but its fun!

You're assuming the original session tapes with compelte takes exist.

I think Goldfrapp's stuff must be experienced both aurally and visually. She is, after-all, a visual artist at heart. The videos on youtube are a trip, when combined with the music. Then again, I used to love shit like Tangerine Dream when I was a kid, so... hey....

I have to say, I've been listening to this stuff recently and its pretty fascinating, really. Some great harmonies that go beyond what most people probably think of in terms of "electronica" and pop. And she has a killer voice for this type of material.

Beautiful job, Mark. What was the occasion?

I hear what you're saying, Jim. Thanks for explaining.

Lots of good tunes on that record. A classic, for sure.

Well yeah, ok, but how many "movie stars", could do a kickass job in live theatre w/o a lot of prep work? Not necessarily a good analogy because most movie actors are not stage actors. They are two different breeds, two totally different approaches. That would be like asking a classical violinist to improvise over some changes. Most would fail miserably.

I don't really watch movies. Am I off the hook?

I posted this on that site as well, but to me the problem isn't necessarily "singers" not writing their own material. Good songwriting and good songwriters are rare and most good songwriters are not performers or necessarily good singers. The problem, in my opinion, lies with coporations who stiffle the creativity of songwriters and make "singers" out of people who have no talent except looking good. As he demostrated in that video, you can sing completely out of tune and Auto-tune will make your pitch like Whitney Houston's. People like Ashley Simpson, who's reality show I caught a couple of times, are a prime example. The girl had never performed live before and her first gig, which was the subject of a whole episode of her show, was in front of 15,000+ people in a huge outdoor venue. That's just ridiculous. Combine that with the fact that she is not a very good singer or performer, and all you can ask is, "Why"? Radio is a joke anyway. In a few years you'll be able to stream radio stations from the internet in your car or anywhere you want and you'll have thousands of choices. We get tons of airplay on several Live 365 stations which has led to good sales on Amazon. In this day and age, the major labels are dinosaurs, about to become extinct.