Brandon Burke

I much prefer the Memphis sound over Motown. So I'm behind this all the way....

I discovered at the SXSW film festival last week that Criterion is going to issue both Slacker and Dazed and Confused within the next year. They're going back and cleaning up Slacker as we speak, which is kind of funny considering that clarity wasn't necessarily the point in the first place. As I understand it, they're really only doing both titles so that they can issue Dazed and Confused which will understandbaly make them a decent amount of money (considering it's strong cult fanbase). Not that i isn't a great film, mind you. In fact, I think it would benefit from Criterion status because, as it stands now, many people only understand it to be a late-night dormroom party film instead of the surprisingly accurate retelling of the American high school experience that it actualy is.

That's pretty much what I'm saying, yes.

Can't speak for what they are willing to pay but god knows they need people in there who understand that jazz didn't stop altogether in 1960.

Though they do their best to hide it, I think this is the case in general.

I don't know why I'm thinking about this so much...... For whatever reason, I go from liking their 60's material to basically skipping over thier heroin days and finally re-appreciating them in the late-70's/early-80's. Don't ask me why because I typically hate that kind of stuff. However, guilty pleasures though they are, I do like their quasi-disco hits like "Emotional Rescue" and "Miss You".

I definately prefer the 60's over the 70's Stones. Anything with Brain Jones on it (once they started writing their own songs) is golden in my book. I could care less about hearing them cover Willie Dixon but that Ed Sillivan performance of "The Last Time" is one of my favorite live TV rock preformances of all time. And that was pretty much the beginning of their originl material. From there, I especially like "Backstreet Girl" from the otherwise so-so Between the Buttons and the entirely of Aftermath. As for the classic ABKCO records...you won't find me badmouthing them but.......that said......I think I've heard them too many times to really get anything out of them anymore. I feel the same way about Bowie, Marvin Gaye, and the entire Beatles catalog. If you grew up in the 80's, like I did, that stuff was crammed down your throat as "the best music ever made". So in junior high I was mowing lawns to the White Album, What's Going On, and Hunky Dory. As such, I burned myself out on 'em at a young age; leading to my seeking out lesser-known yet comparable material.

I'm sure that's case, Lon. Take Moncur, for example. (I'm sure you're thinking, "No seriously....take him." ) Still....that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I never said anyone had to agree with me.

Exile has always sounded silly to me. I doesn't sound as much like a the rock classic to these ears as it does to others. I'm not at all impressed by drunk and strung out rock music.

Mee too, though I don't see our Jayhawks going very far at all. I see them losing to Providence (if not sooner). Who knew I'd be more confident about my Royals than I am the Jayhawks..... Well, we didn't have to play Providence and now we aren't playing Kentucky. This is crazy. Heavy favorites are falling down in front of us and making a nice smooth path along the way. All eyes will be on our KU v. UAB this Friday......

Me too......so I chose Satanic.

I believe you're right. Steve Albini opens the show by introducing them as 'Richard Kern & the Kings of Cough Syrup'.

Close.....it's an SX-780.

Here goes......

I have heard quite a bit about Lightning Bolt but I kinda have a probelm with ironic music. It's difficult to say, without having heard them, exactly where they fall in this camp. So I can't say until I see them (and I understand that seeing them live is the prefered method of ingestion). My understanding is that they fall somewhere between The Ruins, (good) Melvins, and ironic indie rock; the latter of which I can do without. Speaking of bands who tend to open up for Sonic Youth.....allow me to recommend the Black Dice. My friend Hisham plays drums for them and they have an amazing Big Black-meets-psychedelic Beach Boys thing going on that's (perhaps understandably) pretty damned unique.

Well....I'm back. It was good in ways that I didn't expect. I'm no longer the kind of show-goer that smokes grass before or during a show so loud guitars and such don't blow me away anymore. Been there. Done that. Besides, this was a more mellow affair either way. They did have their freakout moments but they were nothing I hadn't seen on film before. Instead, I was blown away by things I didn't expect--which was nice. For one, it was really refreshing to see them still doing "the same thing" after all these years. That might bug other people but it was instant nostalgia for me. I felt 23 all over again and, more importantly, I felt like THEY thought THEY were 23 all over again because they were going at it with a life affirming fervor. That said, there's a very refreshing idealism to Sonic Youth that I had forgotten all about. (They still write songs with titles like "Peace Attack", for example.) And another one of the new songs is apparently titled "Mariah Carey and the Arthur Doyle Hand Creme". B) Back to the point, they have this 'anything is possible' vibe about them that was great to revist. Makes me wonder why I've been such a stick-in-the-mud all these years since I left that frame of mind. I instantly felt like I was at some college party--the good kind, mind you--and made me sad that I'll never be able to play in my old free improv band again, since we all live in other parts of the country and that same sense of naive idelaism has surely escaped everyone else too. This is not meant to be a bummer. These were all bittersweet feelings that made the experience well worth the money (and lack of sleep). Jim O'Rourke I found to be a great addition as well. I have been a fan of his since before Gastr Del Sol and they let him have his space. He really 'drove' a few key moments here and there and provided an amazing bass line to a song that I'm assuming is new (though I probaly wouldn't know the difference either way). Anyways, it was very 'dubwise', in the King Tubby sense, and took that jam into a zone of deepness I wasn't expecting. Bill Callahan (Smog) was in line in front of me at the beer stand. All said......a great evening.

So I'm going out to see Sonic Youth tonight at Stubbs. I haven't bought one of their records since 1992 but feel somehow obliged to see them before they call it a day, seeing as I never got the oportunity to do so while living in Kansas. They played a really important role in my high school years--and early undergrad, I suppose--so I guess I'm making up for lost time. Or perhaps I'm reliving my own youth. Either way, this should be fun because I haven't sat down and listened to them in ages. I'm interested in seeing if the average age of those in attendance is closer to 20.....or 40. Could go either way...... B)

Last week, I wrote a cascading piano line in 9/8 that rides over the end of a song in which everyone else is in 4. It serves as an outro part that I 'fade in' with about a minute or two to go. It must sound smooth because nobody noticed..... This is in a rock setting, mind you. EDIT: ...and played on the piano immediately to your left. B)

Interesting choice of Ives tunes....

I'll go on record as saying that the first Bob Seger System LP has some good moments. There's some--if nothing else--interesting psychedelic material on there.

I am familiar with this scenario.

I see where you're coming from but I prefer my initial raw captures to be the right level in the first place. One should use as little Pro Tools/Peak/etc tweaking as possible when digitizing, assuming you want to the capture of the incoming feed as "true" as possible. ("True" is in quotes, of course.)

I've been giving this some thought..... Why would you want to go directly into your computer? If the signal coming from the LP (or from the turntable) is low then you'd have no analog recourse. Ideally, in these situations you'd want to have a pre-amp so you could boost the sound before it makes it into your computer. As a general rule, boosting the incoming signal with a software application, rather than an external pre-amp, is something to avoid.

Mee too, though I don't see our Jayhawks going very far at all. I see them losing to Providence (if not sooner). Who knew I'd be more confident about my Royals than I am the Jayhawks.....

"With a Girl Like You" is one of my favorite songs in any genre. Everything about it is absolutely prefect....