BruceH

Derek Ansell, eh? I wonder what kind of photos it will have...

The whole thing about most people prefering singing and lyrics to instrumental music has a lot to it, but things haven't changed much: Even in the "Swing Era" of the late 30's/early 40's most jazz bands made most of their money from vocal hits. We tend to forget this looking back, but even when jazz was at its most popular, 90% of the biggest-selling 78's had vocalists. Singing and lyrics have always been more popular than "mere" instrumental music. That's normal.

Indeed! The main thing is, can you yourself actually HEAR the difference? If so, then yeah, go for it.

Great news! (Maybe by '08 I'll have enough money saved.)

And get the Hell off my lawn!

Surprising, and sad, that he went so young. Also surprising (for me) that he lived in the same town as my mother.

The Ellington "Giants of Jazz" Time/Life box.

Nice to hear some more "thumbs-ups" for the Hall/Evans.

Disturbingly hot for this time of year.

Now here's the thread I should have consulted.

Is the William Henry Harrison just going to be a dime since he only served a month? No, they'll just issue the Harrison coin for a day.

I saw him on The Daily Show the other night. I was kind of half-asleep at the time, though.

Thanks for the summary Jack. One of the main reasons I wanted to get the set was to finally get all the material from the 60's 3-LP set.

I haven't seen them anywere yet.

Yeah, the new Fountains of Wayne isn't even out yet.

Are they at all radioactive?

The Beatles? "The Beatles" is just kind of a lame pun. But "The Police" is the polar opposite of what rock is supposedly all about. I mean, if they'd called themselves "The Hall Monitors," or "The Crossing Guards," then that would have been kind of funny. But "The Police"? I always thought they were going for a "so bad it's good" type of thing with the name. But it's still bad.

Yes. I guess to me 2004 still seems "new." The last time I looked at the Mosaic site they said the Columbia box was on backorder and would ship in mid March, although NOW it says late February. Whatever. The earlier Herman Mosaic box, the Capitol, MD6-196, has been out of print for some time, so the Columbia one is "new" in comparison. The single I got a couple months ago and love it.

I must have screwed up...I meant the new Woody Herman Mosaic box, whichever one that is.

Yeah, I kinda like that big band crap.

I AM NOT AVERY!

And are they going to issue a Grover Cleveland coin twice, since he's the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms?

Gee, can't wait for Chester Arthur.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll have to be the first to take the plunge.

This set is one of those things that I want to like, but just can't get into. A lot of people with whom I share taste in music love this, hopefully some day I will "get it". Understandable. Certainly Stephin Merritt's voice (the guy who sings most often) can be damn off-putting, and the whole project is quite irony-drenched. But I'm liking more of the songs with each listening, at least so far, so we'll see.