My New Old Hobby!

When I was a teen and in to my 20's I collected vinyl. I'd go to the funky record stores -- not the one in the mall -- and buy imports and colored vinyl and picture vinyl and rarities and even bootlegs. Every time I visited NYC, I'd go down to The Village and spend hours pouring through the racks of those ratty record shops. By the time I was 25 I had quite a collection. We're talkin' thousands of records, many of them collectibles. Like I had Hendrix's Electric Ladyland with the original banned cover depicting a bevy of bareskinned beauties. I had the Beatles White Album on white vinyl. I had the famous Lynyrd Skynyrd "Flame" cover of Street Survivors. My Stones collection was breathtaking--rare imports boots and picture-sleeve singles.

Sadly, over time and more than a few financial hiccups, I sold most of my beloved records, usually for far less than they were worth. For instance, I had a special audiophile pressing of Heart's debut, Dreamboat Annie, made by Nautilus. It was half-speed mastered on quiet virgin vinyl. Sold that at a yard sale. I checked on-line recently and found one place that had it for sale...$125.00. Crap.

So, now I'm rediscovering the joys of vinyl. I have a pretty good semi-vintage system: Marantz 2230 for phono-preamping, McIntosh 2105 power-amp and Tannoy SRM10B speakers. The weak link so far is the turntable. It's a Gemini DJ table I've had for years. Good turntables cost a fortune, so this will have to do for now. I'll buy a nice Shure cartridge for it in the meantime.

I've found that there's a big revival in vinyl, especially audiophile pressings. Go on-line and you'll find many sites. And it's not just old stuff. New releases are coming out, along with reissues of great albums of the past. For instance, U2 has just released the 20th anniversary The Joshua Tree on 200 Gram hi-grade vinyl, remastered from the original studio masters. Tom Petty continues to put his records out on vinyl. Universal Japan is remastering and re-releasing many great LPs in a limited run, again on 200 gram virgin vinyl. From that lot I just bought the Stones Let It Bleed. Sounds great...so clear..so big...so wide...so detailed...so, well, analog. It's amazing to hear an all-analog signal path again. Think of it: Analog master tape, mastered to analog record, played back by an analog record-player. When was the last time YOU listened to an all-analog reproduction of recorded music? (That's what I thought!)
Let me tell you it's a warm bath for your ears!

I plan to buy and album or two a month, play them only a couple times and record them on to my professional reel-to-reel tape machine.

The downside is my new old hobby will cost me far more than it did the first time around. These disks start at $30 a pop, and the sky's the limit. An unopened original Beatles record can go for $500. As a kid, the most expensive record I ever bought was $20. But that was a lot, seeing as LP records were three to five bucks.

Tacos El Charro, El Magnifico!

At long last a new blog post. It's on my other blog, Drew-Who.com

Happy new year, dammit!

I hope '08 is an improvement upon '07.

It better be! Other than my son's birth, 2007 was a total stinker. Worst year ever!

Fathom This, Baby!

I CD I poured my heart and soul in to engineering/mixing and co-producing was recently released. "Fathom This!" is the first release in nearly a decade by Boston's Daddies of Surf Instro music, The Fathoms. I had worked with them back in '95 or '96; then we started this in '05 -- 10 years later. It took a while to get it done and even longer for the label -- Cali's MuSick Records -- to release it. But it's out and I hope everybody likes it as much as I do. I listen to it in my car regularly. It's great driving music. Twang guitar God Frankie Blandino and company have created much more than a Surf LP. "Fathom This" ranges from Surf, Spy Jazz, Western film and TV themes to, I guess you'd call it '60's Brit-influenced Beat music. There's even a "Bike-Sploitation" track, ala Davie Allan and the 60's drive-in biker-bash vibe. Sax-master Dave Scholl and Mariachi Trumpeter Tom Halter make wonderful cameo appearances.
We recorded it at my Altitude Studios and then mixed it at my house in the Flying Scotsman room.
Go to Amazon, order "Fathom This!" and ride a reverb-splashed wave!

Wake Up, It's The Arcade Fire!

Photo: FLAME ON! Arcade Fire in-concert.

Another new musical discovery! From Montreal come the wonderful Arcade Fire, an eight piece amalgamation of talent led by Win Butler and wife Regine Chassagne. They play anthemic, lush and dramatic pop. It's flowery and often dark at the same time, creating a sound reminiscent of The Cure and Dream Academy. Yes, 80's influenced to be sure. But instead of synths, these guys (and gals) use accordion, mandolins, hurdy gurdy, pipe organ, violins and percussion. They've realeased two full length LP's, 2004's "Funeral" and the newly issued "Neon Bible". Highlight songs are "Wake Up" and "Tunnels" from the first CD, and "Black Mirror" from the second, a tune that conjures Bowie's "Heroes" era. And if the cathedral organ chords at the beginning of Neon Bible's "Intervention" don't raise the hair on the back of your neck, I'd question whether you actually have a soul.

In April of 2005 they appeared on the cover of Time Magazine's Canadian edition, with the headline "Canada's Most Intriguing Band."

Saw them on Austin City Limits over the weekend and both I and the wife were blown away. These kids, all multi-instrumentalists, put on an energetic show, with Butler the very charismatic front-man. No big histrionics on his part, but no shoe-staring either. Very solid, and a huge cut above the average emo-alt pablum of this generation.

Get ignited with The Arcade Fire!

Dwight Sings Buck!

Every once in a while a record comes along that reminds you why you love an artist or genre. It revives the feeling that started you on a musical path, as a listener and even as a player. Dwight Yoakam's new album, "Dwight Sings Buck", is one of those records for me.



I grew up as a rock kid, but even then I liked the Eagles, Linda Rondstadt and Jackson Browne -- that Cali-Country rock thing. I liked Southern Rock like the Allmans and Lynyrd Skynyrd. By the time I was in my early 20's, even rootsier American music caught my attention. A friend turned me on to Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons. Hippie Country.

I've been a Dwight Yoakam fan since day one. In 1988, right after I bought my first CD player (a Denon for $750 that I still have and still works great), one of the very first CDs I bought was "Hillbilly Deluxe". I have performed one of the songs from that LP, "Johnson's Love" for years. I have many of Dwight's CDs: "This Time"; "Guitars and Cadillacs"; "Gone", as well as many CDs that he guests on. "Partners" by Flaco Jimenez stands out. On it, Dwight's version of "Carmelita" may be my favorite rendition of the Warren Zevon classic. Speaking of Zevon, his bittersweet final LP, "The Wind", features some great backup singing by Dwight.

But of all the great work he's done, and Dwight Yoakam's contribution to American Music is significant,"Dwight Sings Buck" may be his best ever. Obviously Dwight owes his career to Buck Owens and the Bakersfield Sound. But to his credit, he did not make clones or direct soundalikes of Buck's best. Instead, he lovingly crafted each song to have it's own fresh personality. The tracks have one boot in Owens, and one in Yoakam.

Here's a message I sent to Dwight:

We all love Buck, and I really appreciate how you did fresh interpretations of his classics. I have been playing it non-stop in my car--love the lean production and so many great tunes. "Corner of Love" and "Under Your Spell Again" are awesome. But I think the last five songs are my favorites of all. What a groovy new version on "Close Up The Honky Tonks" -- love the latin percussion and the B-3 solo. "Tender Loving Care" is priceless, with the weeping steel, low-twang Tele and the '60's Nashville reverb. But man, you saved the best for last. Of the many versions of "Together Again" that have ever been made, I think you topped them all (except the original, of course). The twinkly piano alone is worth the price of admission. Floyd would be proud.

Heck, Buck must be proud!

The Worst of the Worst!

Blender 'Zine's 50 worst songs ever.

They missed a couple.

Years ago Bernadette and I came up with The Elephant Gun Awards. Songs that were so annoying that the only way to put us and everybody out of our misery was to blast the song with an Elephant gun. And I ain't talkin' tranquilizer dart here. It's a song that more than irritates; it infuriates.

The runner up for the all-time EG award is Natalie Merchant for her insipid rendition of the great Springsteen-penned Patty Smith hit, "Because the Night". Whereas the original was stirring, fiery and soulful; indeed one of the great singles of its era, Merchant's remake was as limp and lifeless as a washed-up Cape Cod flounder. And as smelly. Some records are so great as to be untouchable, and that's one of them. Merchant brought nothing to the table on the remake. Except, as I said, a stinky dead fish.

KABOOM!

And to think I liked the early 10,000 Maniacs. The gum on Patty Smith's shoe has more soul...

The number one hall-of-fame EG award goes to Supertramp. Not rock. Not even a local call from Rock. I don't even know the name of the song because I've never tolerated it long enough to hear it. It starts, "Take a look at my girlfriend, she's the only one I got...KABOOOOOOM!!!!

The Wonderful Sony C37A

A while back, I had a Sony C37A mic. It sounded great, especially on my voice. Along around 2000, I sold it for like, $1200. This is one of my biggest gear regrets (of many). In the last few years they have become increasingly rare, sought-after, and pricey. A good one goes for three grand now.



Investigating the mic in recent months, I'm seeing that it really became an industry standard in the early and mid 1960's, especially in LA studios. In my recent interview with legendary LA producer Bones Howe (to be published in Tape Op at some time in the future), he mentions the C37A a couple of times. When micing drums, he used one or two for overheads, and a Telefunken U47 out front of the kick. It was a favorite vocal condenser in studios like United Western, Radio Recorders, Wally Heider, and others. Apparently even Frank Sinatra preferred it to the U47.

I'm convinced the reason the C37A is now so scarce and desirable is Daniel Lanois' religious dedication to the mic. He uses it on every singer he works with .. Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Bono, Willie Nelson...I have a video of him producing Emmylou, and that mic is everywhere. She has guest singers coming in like Neil Young and Steve Earl and yep, same mic goes up on eveybody; the Sony C37A.