BFrank

FWIW, I just noticed that they seem to have added a lot of the Xanadu original cover artwork that they didn't have before. They've also added the "emusic only" tag to all the tunes.

They just added albums on the Stiff and SST labels. In fact, they're calling the SST stuff "advance" releases - before any other online music service. See Press Release below: Press Release Source: The Orchard The Orchard Announces Landmark Distribution Deal With SST Records, The Classic Independent Label at The Vanguard of Hardcore Punk and Alternative Rock - and One of The Greatest American Labels Yet to Make Its Music Available Digitally Wednesday January 11, 9:23 am ET The Orchard Will Make SST Available Exclusively on eMusic, the World's Leading Digital Retailer of Independent Music, Through January 17th, Then Will Release the Catalogue to Other Music Services and Mobile Companies - Leading Independent Artists Like Black Flag, Minutemen, Soundgarden, fIREHOSE, All, Saccharine Trust and Bad Brains Bring One of the Remaining "Crown Jewels" of U.S. Independent Music to the Digital Age - NEW YORK, Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Orchard, the world's leading distributor and marketer of independent music, today announced a landmark distribution deal with legendary SST Records. SST, which was founded by Black Flag guitarist, Greg Ginn, has been at the forefront of independent hardcore punk and alternative rock for more than two decades. Until now, its catalogue has never been available legally for sale digitally. For two weeks -- beginning today -- tracks from 94 of SST's top albums will be made available exclusively on eMusic, the world's leading digital retailer of independent music. eMusic will feature two weeks of special and extensive promotions, highlighting the SST catalogue over the course of this program. Beginning January 24th, The Orchard will then release the highly anticipated catalogue to other major music services globally, including iTunes, Napster, MSN, MusicMatch, Real/Rhapsody, and Yahoo! In addition, The Orchard will supply the catalogue through its distribution partnerships with the leading mobile companies around the world, the largest mobile network of any distributor, spanning over 200 global services Sprint, Vodafone, Zingy, 9 Squared, Securycast, Arvato Mobile and Hudson Soft. By assembling an impressive catalogue of independent artists from early hardcore punk acts like Black Flag, the Minutemen, Descendents and Saccharine Trust, to alternative rock luminaries like Soundgarden, SST brings a wealth of well-regarded artists to The Orchard. Other notable bands on the SST roster include: All, Bad Brains, Bias, Confront James, El Bad, fIREHOSE, Get Me High, Gone, HOR, H. R., The Killer Tweeker Bees, Mojack, Saint Vitus and Screw Radio. By entrusting its pioneering catalogue to The Orchard, SST joins the best independent labels in the world who rely on The Orchard as their valued distribution and marketing partner. Securing prime positioning in a digital music store leads to exponentially increased sales of a product -- just as with bricks-and-mortar retail. The Orchard has firmly established itself as the pioneering expert in digital music marketing, merchandising and promotion, and is rivaled only by the marketing departments at major labels. The Orchard leverages its marketing expertise on behalf of the thousands of independent labels and artists and labels -- spanning 73 countries and all music genres -- that it represents to more than 125 digital music stores and to over 200 mobile phone carriers globally. With more people working on marketing and promotion than any company outside of the major labels, and the most sophisticated merchandising systems in the industry, The Orchard has invested in a clear leadership position with respect to digital marketing. "SST entrusting The Orchard with arguably the most important and influential independent label that has yet to make a digital move -- and one of the most pioneering labels in American music -- affirms the strength of our platform and the depth our marketing capabilities," said Greg Scholl, chief executive of The Orchard and managing director of Dimensional Associates, the company that owns The Orchard, eMusic and Dimensional Music Publishing. Scholl added, "eMusic is the perfect place to introduce this legendary catalogue digitally, because eMusic subscribers are rabid music fans and appreciate what SST means to independent music." "More than any other company in music, The Orchard understands its markets and where aficionados buy their digital music," said David Pakman, CEO of eMusic and a managing director of Dimensional Associates. "We're delighted to have SST first. It adds immeasurably to the diversity of our catalogue, which is the richest catalogue of music outside the mainstream that's ever been assembled." About The Orchard The Orchard (www.theorchard.com) is the leading distributor and marketer of independent music in the world, representing thousands of labels spanning 73 countries and every music genre. The Orchard supplies its catalogue of more than 700,000 tracks to all of the leading legal digital music retailers and mobile operators throughout the world. The company is headquartered in New York and London, with operations in Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Toronto, Kolkata, Johannesburg, Moscow and Melbourne, and local representatives in Paris, Milan, Berlin, Barcelona, Lausanne, Ramallah and Nairobi. About eMusic eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) stands alone as the only digital music service that is 100% focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. Delivering more than 4.5 million downloads each month; eMusic is among the top digital music services, offering a diverse catalogue of 1,000,000 tracks from established and emerging artists in every genre from the world's top independent labels. eMusic was not only the first service to sell songs and albums in the popular MP3 format, it was the first company to launch a digital music subscription service. Unlike other services that severely restrict portability, eMusic allows members complete flexibility to burn CDs, transfer to MP3 devices and make multiple copies for personal use. eMusic also offers access to exclusive recordings from eMusicLive's network of premier music venues across the country. Based in New York, eMusic is wholly owned by Dimensional Associates, Inc., the private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. NOTE: eMusic is a registered trademark and eMusic.com is a trademark of eMusic.com Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. About Dimensional Associates, Inc. Dimensional Associates, Inc. is the New York-based private equity arm of JDS Capital Management, Inc. Its portfolio companies include eMusic, The Orchard and Dimensional Music Publishing (formerly DreamWorks Music Publishing).

Yes. They're keeping the F6 and FM10 models.

Nikon's own press release: Reshaping Nikon's Film Camera Assortment As the film camera market shrinks and the popularity of compact digital cameras increases, demand for products that offer advanced features and extra value is growing rapidly. Additionally, the demand for high performance digital SLR cameras is also steadily increasing as customers shift from film SLRs or upgrade from compact digital cameras. With film cameras accounting for an ever smaller percentage of Nikon's total sales volume, the company has decided to concentrate its vast resources toward those business categories that continue to demonstrate the strongest growth. Consequently, as Nikon focuses more on the digital camera business, the company must adopt appropriate measures to ensure its continued success. With that, the Nikon film camera lineup will be reshaped, allowing more of Nikon's planning, engineering and manufacturing resources to be focused on the digital products that now drive our thriving industry. The measures that Nikon will adopt include discontinuing production of all large format Nikkor lenses and enlarging lenses, as well as several of our film camera bodies, manual focus Nikkor interchangeable lenses and related accessories. Sales of these products will cease as supplies are depleted. Importantly, Nikon's film camera business will continue with our flagship model F6 and with the FM10, allowing the Nikon brand to continue serving the two strongest segments of the 35mm film camera market. Both professionals and dedicated amateurs who continue to view film as their preferred format along with students in need of an economical camera to learn the fundamentals of photography will have ideal Nikon products from which to choose. Additionally, Nikon will continue to produce the manual focus 85mm f/2.8D PC Micro-Nikkor®. With the interests of its customers in mind, Nikon will offer continued post-sale service for products whose production has ceased for a period of 10 (ten) years from Nikon Inc.'s last date of sale. This shift in business strategy and in the utilization of resources will allow Nikon to further its storied history and reputation as a leader in the ever-growing digital market and continue to offer groundbreaking new products and technology for photographers of all skill levels.

I was lucky enough to sit next to him in a small club in the Mission District while enjoying the Sam Rivers Trio a few years ago. Very personable and friendly. I had seen him in clubs several times over the years, too. Nice obit here - JazzWest - as well as his last column.

Good to know. I checked yesterday and it wasn't there.

Yes.

What's the typical time that people go into the chat room? It seems to be empty 90% of the time I check.

Dexter didn't help, either.

Oh, yeah. I would even go out on a limb and say that "Baggy's" is essential listening for serious Hendrix fans.

If anyone's interested, I saw the 'complete' BN box at the SF Amoeba today for about $75. Seems like a reasonable price.

Looks like I might have to order "Hear My Music" in the near future.

Actually there was a discussion about this on the Steve Hoffman Forums message board. I could post a link here if you're interested.

Yep........."Baggy's" is great!

I have the 2 Buddhas on a 2-fer LP set called: "The Essential...Airto featuring Flora Purim".

I'll second that emotion. I'm particularly fond of Open Your Eyes You Can Fly. I LOVED Open Your Eyes You Can Fly when it first came out. I think it was her first album after spending some time in prison for a drug charge. I'm afraid to listen to it much now, as I think its production is a little dated sounding.

Just a heads up for Richard Thompson fans (Werner Herzog fans, too). There's a documentary on Sundance Channel this month called "In the Edges - The Grizzly Sessions". It's about the making of the score for Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" movie. You see Richard and other musicians in the studio with Werner discussing and creating the music. It's well done. Next showings: Saturday 01.14.06 at 09:45 AM Wednesday 01.18.06 at 10:00 AM Wednesday 01.18.06 at 04:00 PM Thursday 01.26.06 at 02:15 PM Tuesday 01.31.06 at 03:00 PM

I've read mixed reviews on the sound quality. Better than the boots, but there seems to be a speed issue.

In the 70's I was into them a lot. "Fingers" was definitely my favorite of Airto's. Another CTI album "Free" has some decent stuff on it, too. I still have 2 Opa albums but never listen to them. I guess that says something. I still like the early Flora albums. "Butterfly Dreams" definitely holds up for me. Maybe it's the Joe Henderson presence. All of the Milestone albums have some interesting things, actually. She got sidetracked when she signed with Warners and became even more commercial, although "Nothing Will Be As It Was Tomorrow" is worth checking out. What really got me into them were the first 2 "Return to Forever" albums, though - S/T and "Light as a Feather". Those still hold their interest and sound contemporary today - 30 years later.

John Fahey - Don't know why I never listened to him before. I always liked Leo Kottke. I guess I never spent the time to "get" what he was doing. Pretty amazing. Spoon - Great indie band from Austin. Good songwriting and original sound.

Nope

Anyone know the origin of the name? Any of you who were there see Charles Tolliver when he recorded those great sets?

So you bought THREE Selects, but the regular Mosaics are "way too spendy"??

Where can I pick up tickets??

I got mine today. A second "massive " from me, too. I actually like the narration. I didn't at first, but for what it is, it's kinda cool.