The official Tunesday "whatcha been listening to" thread

Mostly Moonbabies for me over the last few days. The Orange Billboard. Can't quite get enough of this one yet. Some talk about it is hidden in the Microphones thread from a few days ago.

And before that it was a love affair with Dot Allison. First I had Morning Dove White by her early 90s One Dove band in the player for a couple days and then after that her own We Are Science from 2002. Might have to revisit that one again after I get over my current Moonbabies fetish and maybe pull out Afterglow too. And maybe some Death In Vegas. Hey, speaking of DIV, I've never heard Scorpion Rising, how's the Dot Allison song on that? I'm thinking I might have to make myself a Best of Dot comp one of these days cause she's spread over too many CDs.

Probably one or two others. Maybe the Twilight Singers Play Blackberry Belle was in there too. I can listen to that one over and over.

Up sometime soon will be the highly praised 2003 Motel comp from nobody. Looking forward to that one.

1) Echo & the Bunnymen - Porcupine - brand new remaster. Pretty good.

2) Echo & the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain - brand new remaster, pretty good.

3) FM - Black Noise - 's okay.

4) Queensryche - Promised Land

5) Sparks - Propaganda - got this this past weekend, man, I love this album, and on cd it's better than ever. Way overlooked stuff. Gotta get more Sparks on cd.

The echos' are only $10.99 each at BestBuy. I almost passed out seeing BestBuy having echo stuff in stock and remastered and cheap.

Dave

Still listening to new stuff from last week:
The Stills
The Shins
Sun Kil Moon

Used stuff from local B&M:
Thin Lizzy: Live & Dangerous (Remaster)
Beta Band II

Just got some CHM in mail last night:
Modest Mouse: Moon & Antarctica
Belle & Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Mountain: Climbing (Remaster)
Nilsson: Schmilsson (Only $2.99 & it was the first thing I played. Still showing my age)

I ran out last night before dinner to get Kathrine and I a movie to watch after we put the boys to bed, anyway I stopped off at Hastings on the way back and picked up a few things.......

Calexico - Feast of wire

Trail of dead - Anonymous

Social Distortion - Anonymous

Supergrass - Anonymous

Hmmmmmm, didn't notice till now that 3 of the 4 are self titled.

I'll report back how these strike me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave_G

1) Echo & the Bunnymen - Porcupine - brand new remaster. Pretty good.

2) Echo & the Bunnymen - Ocean Rain - brand new remaster, pretty good.

3) FM - Black Noise - 's okay.

4) Queensryche - Promised Land

5) Sparks - Propaganda - got this this past weekend, man, I love this album, and on cd it's better than ever. Way overlooked stuff. Gotta get more Sparks on cd.

The echos' are only $10.99 each at BestBuy. I almost passed out seeing BestBuy having echo stuff in stock and remastered and cheap.

Dave

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Talk to me Dave, as a HUGE Echo & the Bunnymen fan, is worth getting the new releases of Bunnymen material? The Discs I have were all done in the 80's.

Jefferson,

yes, you will like the new remasters a lot, they are cleaned up real good and have lots of bonus tracks, and great booklets too, but no lyrics.

Well worth 11 bucks each.

Dave

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave_G

Jefferson,

yes, you will like the new remasters a lot, they are cleaned up real good and have lots of bonus tracks, and great booklets too, but no lyrics.

Well worth 11 bucks each.

Dave

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!?! Bonus tracks !?! any of these previously unreleased material? Cause that alone would make them worth buying for me. Also where did you get yours?

Tanks Dave!

Hastings? I haven't been in a Hastings store since 1991 when I lived in New Mexico. Great place. Do they still do used books and CDs too?

Not a lot this week.

That Blue Man Group thing is cool. I'll be looking for the early album.
The Cardigans- First Band on the Moon. Nice art-pop.
801 Live. A classic.
XTC- Big Express. One of my favorite XTC releases. Stupid round paper cover. I hate it.
IZZ- I Move. I understand they have a new album in the wings.

Mainly, I've been spending my music time in GarageBand. Here's this weeks toon:
http://www.designshed.com/toonage/Skywriting.mp3

And here's one at 128 for you dial ups. There's definitely some clipping going on.
http://www.designshed.com/toonage/Skywriting.128.mp3
LMK if this is any easier for you.

This oughta make a few people puke. But I had hella fun doing it. Except for one chord, I laid every note by hand.

Vinyl :

Marshall Crenshaw - s/t
Damn this is a good album. Some very fine song writing on this one. I was playing this the other night when my girlfriend came over. She liked it so much that she borrowed my CD version (Rhino reissue) of it, and I have a feeling the CD may stay at her place for quite some time.

CDs :

Wire - Behind the Curtain
A pretty good mix (31 songs worth) of outtakes, b-sides, etc. from the early days of Wire. Mark, if you don't have this one, let me know. It's OOP and not exactly easy to find.

The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God

The Microphones - Mount Eerie

Señor Coconut y Su Conjunto - El Baile Aleman
Kraftwerk songs done in various Carribean styles. I've had this a while and realized as I was listening to it why I don't break it out all that often. It's a lot of fun, but kind of gets tiring by the end of the album to me.

Stiff Little Fingers - Go For It

Ramones - Rocket to Russia

The Romantics - 61/49

+/- - You Are Here

Franz Ferdinand - Darts of Pleasure EP
The next "big thing" I guess, as these guys are starting to get hyped up. The new album comes out soon. I really like this stuff. Kind of like a mix between the Strokes and Gang of Four.

John Vanderslice - Cellar Door
Another great one from Mr. Vanderslice. I really like his use of various instruments, including percussion, throughout his songs.

Descendents - 'Merican (single)
Only listened once, but doesn't seem to have much intensity to me.

Stone

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Troy

Hastings? I haven't been in a Hastings store since 1991 when I lived in New Mexico. Great place. Do they still do used books and CDs too?

Not a lot this week.

That Blue Man Group thing is cool. I'll be looking for the early album.
The Cardigans- First Band on the Moon. Nice art-pop.
801 Live. A classic.
XTC- Big Express. One of my favorite XTC releases. Stupid round paper cover. I hate it.
IZZ- I Move. I understand they have a new album in the wings.

Mainly, I've been spending my music time in GarageBand. Here's this weeks toon:
http://www.designshed.com/toonage/Skywriting.mp3

And here's one at 128 for you dial ups. There's definitely some clipping going on.
http://www.designshed.com/toonage/Skywriting.128.mp3
LMK if this is any easier for you.

This oughta make a few people puke. But I had hella fun doing it. Except for one chord, I laid every note by hand.

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"Hastings", Yes they sell used stuff there still. I buy a lot of used cd's there, it's really the only music store we have here in Jefferson City. Of course I don't shop at Wal-Mart so they don't count. ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Stone

John Vanderslice - Cellar Door
Another great one from Mr. Vanderslice. I really like his use of various instruments, including percussion, throughout his songs.

Stone

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Agreed on the new Vanderslice, Stone. A lot of attention to detail in this one, and the vocals are coming up more to the front than I recall previously. Good stuff.

Concentrated listening on:

Willard Grant Conspiracy, Regard The End- Super new release by Robert Fisher and his rotating cast of characters. Gotta love his voice. Great band.

Ghost, Hypnotic Underground- this is a rocket- at times, quiet and Oriental-tinged mood music, at times, downright raucous electric blasts of prog-influenced song structures. Big Music.

Albert Cummings, The Long Way- just came in the mail last nite- fine swampy blues.

Also: Handsome Family's Singing Bones (currently the top rotator around here), Twilight Singers' Blackberry Belle (also lots of spins), Linda Thompson's Fashionably Late ( remarkable voice ), Sonny Landreth Et Al comp fromTX...

O, and that Microphones pig already discussed- it's going out in the mail today to the next victim.......

;)

Hey Stone:

Tell me what you think of +/- please. I've been hearing some cuts I like a lot and wondering how the whole CD sounds.

Thx

Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Braid - Frame & Canvas
Southpacific - Constance
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Sparklehorse - Good Morning, Spider
Buffalo Tom - Big Red Letter Day

It's weird how Mercury Rev and the Flaming Lips have followed similar paths in the past 7 years or so. They each release an album that is a pretty major shift from what they were doing before.. (CLOUDS TASTE METALLIC and SEE YOU ON THE OTHER SIDE).. they they each take the ideas they were throwing around and perfect them on their next albums..(THE SOFT BULLETIN and DESERTER'S SONGS).. then they each release a "more of the same" album.. (YOSHIMI and ALL IS DREAM)..though most people like these last two better than the previous pair. I suppose their paths will always be somehow related to each other, since they share producers, and for a time, shared band members. Just a silly observation.

Oh, and that Buffalo Tom album rocks! I'm somewhat disappointed in myself that I didn't pay more attention to them back in the early 90's.. along with Uncle Tupelo, they were a few years ahead of their time.. though there have always been quality midwestern (a term I used before "alt-country") rock bands ever since the mid-80's..

I made this comp from a bunch of songs from my other comps..

AN ELBOW FULL OF LONELY

01 Cave In - Lost In The Air
02 Jets to Brazil - Conrad
03 Hey Mercedes - Stay Six
04 The Pursuit of Happiness - She's So Young
05 Buffalo Tom - Dry Land
06 Soul Asylum - Chains
07 fIREHOSE - Sometimes
08 Red House Painters - I Feel the Rain Fall
09 Boo Radleys - Barney and Me
10 Arcwelder - Remember to Forget
11 Folk Implosion - Free To Go
12 Sparklehorse - Maria's Little Elbows
13 The Flaming Lips - The Spiderbite Song
14 The Darling Buds - Sure Thing
15 The Promise Ring - Suffer Never
16 Sunny Day Real Estate - 47
17 Sugar - Believe What You're Saying
18 Hum - Green To Me
19 Weezer - The World has Turned and Left Me Here
20 Pale Saints - Language of Flowers
21 Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything

Jefferson,

yes, bonus tracks, some unreleased stuff and some mandatory "demo" stuff too and some 7" versions, I think.

Bought mine at a bestbuy store in Atlanta.

They had 4 or 5 titles.

Regards,

Dave

My !%!%^(&@(&!__#(_@_# PC/jukebox is dead.

: (

I don’t see much hip-hop or rap discussed here, but I’ve been listening to a couple of albums this week. Today was Outkasts “Stankonia”, excellent from start to finish. I’m almost tempted to rate it as a genre classic.

I also listened to “Keystudio” by Yes which was suggested by a few on this web-site, but the album is way too complex to give an opinion at this point.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by newtrix1

I don’t see much hip-hop or rap discussed here, but I’ve been listening to a couple of albums this week. Today was Outkasts “Stankonia”, excellent from start to finish. I’m almost tempted to rate it as a genre classic.

I also listened to “Keystudio” by Yes which was suggested by a few on this web-site, but the album is way too complex to give an opinion at this point.

---

naw, talking about rap is not taboo,

there's more than a few people here who will be more than happy to discuss with you how much they think rap sucks.

:rolleyes:

(btw, I'm not one of them)

-jar

Jefferson -- Just being a pedant, but...it's "eponymous", not "anonymous". Heh-heh. Look 'em up.

Also, just to second -- yes, the Echo & the Bunnymen CD's are great, well worth getting. I've been enjoying them on imports for a couple weeks now, they only just came out on Rhino this last week, I think. But I don't have the first ones to which to compare them.

Tentoze -- thanks for the report on Ghost, sounds like I need to give them another chance.

WRT Nobody -- didn't thrill me. I liked it, and I'm probably keeping it, but I've already listened to it a couple times and haven't been blown away. It might have been the company it's keeping (Lithops, Fax stuff).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dusty Chalk

Jefferson -- Just being a pedant, but...it's "eponymous", not "anonymous". Heh-heh. Look 'em up.

Also, just to second -- yes, the Echo & the Bunnymen CD's are great, well worth getting. I've been enjoying them on imports for a couple weeks now, they only just came out on Rhino this last week, I think. But I don't have the first ones to which to compare them.

Tentoze -- thanks for the report on Ghost, sounds like I need to give them another chance.

WRT Nobody -- didn't thrill me. I liked it, and I'm probably keeping it, but I've already listened to it a couple times and haven't been blown away. It might have been the company it's keeping (Lithops, Fax stuff).

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Doh! :D

Some "new to me" stuff over the past week:

Bright Eyes-Lifted, or, The Story Is In The Soil Keep Your Ear To The Ground. Now that's a title. Really cool in parts, really not so cool in parts.

Idlewild-The Remote Part Haven't used the enhanced CD to "unlock" any of the b-sides or exclusive downloads, but I will. I really like this album a lot more than I anticipated. Isn't Idlewild a Davey band or has he moved along.

New Pornographers-Electric Version. I'm guessing about a grand total of 3 great songs. The rest aren't moving me anywhere 'cept perhaps to the remote control.

XXX-Music from and inspired by the motion picture. Not sure what I was thinking. 2 discs, one track that I really like and a couple of passable. At least the price was right-free.

and of course various albums recycled from posts of yore.

jc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Clark

Idlewild-The Remote Part Haven't used the enhanced CD to "unlock" any of the b-sides or exclusive downloads, but I will. I really like this album a lot more than I anticipated. Isn't Idlewild a Davey band or has he moved along.

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Yeah, that is a favorite. In fact, I just recently mentioned it in that Jefferson thread about BSP type stuff at http://forums.audioreview.com/showth...2038#post12038

Haven't heard anything else on your list, though. Did really like the first New Pornographers CD and you probably already know that I keep a picture of Neko Case under my pillow, right? Uh oh, was that too much info?

This is what's tickled my fancy this week.

Primal Scream..................................Evil Heat
REM............................................... .Monster
Grateful Dead...................................Anthem of the Sun(Remaster)
Mike Oldfield....................................Tubula r Bells III
Jefferson Airplane.............................After Bathing at Baxter's
Dexys Midnight Runners...................Let's make this Precious(Best of)
A3................................................ ...Power in the Blood
British Sea Power.............................The Decline of
Jimmy Cliff.......................................1st album(remaster)

Soul Galore.....................................2,3 and 4. I know I made them, but there still superb.
Thanks for the kind words David(Nobody)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jasn

Hey Stone:

Tell me what you think of +/- please. I've been hearing some cuts I like a lot and wondering how the whole CD sounds.

Thx

---

I've only spun it once and it was a distracted listen. I'll try and report more about it when I spend more time with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Davey

Did really like the first New Pornographers CD and you probably already know that I keep a picture of Neko Case under my pillow, right? Uh oh, was that too much info?

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Never got the previous N Porn CD, just heard a great track that was comp'd by someone and had some reasonably high hopes for this Cd. A couple of tracks are killer but they rest get on my nerves. There's a LOT of very rough transitioning in and out of an obnoxious falsetto that really rubs me the wrong way. The best songs feature Neko which kind of surprises me given that I just didn't like Blacklisted at all. I've only listened to it twice so I may find I like it better after a while.


And as for your nocturnal habits, well I guess I'd like to remain as uninformed as possible!

jc

Quote:

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Originally Posted by skewiff

This is what's tickled my fancy this week.

Primal Scream..................................Evil Heat
REM............................................... .Monster
Grateful Dead...................................Anthem of the Sun(Remaster)
Mike Oldfield....................................Tubula r Bells III
Jefferson Airplane.............................After Bathing at Baxter's
Dexys Midnight Runners...................Let's make this Precious(Best of)
A3................................................ ...Power in the Blood
British Sea Power.............................The Decline of
Jimmy Cliff.......................................1st album(remaster)

Soul Galore.....................................2,3 and 4. I know I made them, but there still superb.
Thanks for the kind words David(Nobody)

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....but shouldn't you mix in some variety there? Lot of that might just bleed together. :D

Seriously though, that's a good looking list.

First off a couple of comps, 2003 versions by Slosh and nobody (2003 motel?). I'm sure there was another one but it's evading me at the moment. Anyways... ya done good guys, lots of fascinating stuff on both. Merci beaucoup.

I was kind of thinking of doing a comp along the lines of Davey's twilight or alt country sampler. So I've been listening to...

Nick Cave & PJ Harvey - Henry Lee EP. I love that Henry Lee tune so that would probably on it.
Whiskeytown - Strangers Almanac
Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness, Master and Everyone
Papa M - Live From A Shark Cage (Drunken Spree's going to make it onto a comp at some stage). Whatever Mortal.
Black Heart Procession - 3
Songs:Ohia - Magnolia Electric.
Low - Things We Lost In The Fire
Nina Nastasia - The Blackened Air. I luuurve this album. Oredered her 2003 release Run To Ruin the other day along with Prefuse 73's - Extinguished Outtakes and his other incarnation as Savath & Savalas - Apropa't
Smog - Red Apple Falls
Lambchop - Is A Woman
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

Manitoba - Up In Flames
Neu! - Neu!
Boards Of Canada - Peel Session
Pole - Pole 3

Troy - Skywriting. I have my PC set up to autoplay mp3's when they've finished downloading. This one starts out full on and loud, damn near gave me a heart attack! It was clipping but it's easy to normalise it to more speaker friendly levels. Despite the prog alerts I actually like this one the most of the tunes so far. The "relatively" quiet section starting at 1:40 has the beginnings of a melody that even a none proghead like me could hum along to. For my taste you might develop that more. Instead of repeating it four times and having that rising scale resolving it every time (which is kind of like a full stop each time) Develop it more slowly and resolve it once? Then let it twine around the rhytmic outro? If you get some tasty little melodic licks out of it use them to ornament the intro? Just some thoughts.

Still great sound and instrument voices and definite craft progress.

Chris.

Lemme see...

Outward Bound - Sonny Landreth
Blues Deluxe - Joe Bonamassa
The Essentials - Average White Band
The Mean Eighteen - Monti Amundson
Long Time Coming - Jonny Lang
Hittin' the Note - The Allman Brothers
Knockin' on the Devil's Door - Paul Oscher
Los Lonely Boys - Los Lonely Boys
Funk Essentials - Various Artists

On deck: Mr. Nasty's Sonny Landreth comp (thanks, David!) and sundry other stuff.

Lots of goodies in the past week. Sorry I don't post more often, but since the site got banned at work, not a lot of time to keep up with the gang.

CDs:
Lost Highway Lost & Found Vol. 1 - 15 rarities, b-sides, unreleased and studio cuts from the Lost Highway family of labels. Includes tunes from Ryan Adams, Marc Broussard, Lucinda Williams, Jayhawks, Tift Merritt, Willie Nelson & Ray Price, Joe Ely, Kathleen Edwards, Bright Eyes, Whiskeytown, Unamerican, and Johnny Cash. This disc is a definite keeper.

Lucinda Williams Essence and Sweet Old World

Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales

Neko Case & her Boyfriends Furnace Room Lullaby

Mark Knopfler Sailing To Philadelphia

Ian Moore Modernday Folklore

The Pogues Waiting For Herb

Clash London Calling

Billy Idol Whiplash Smile

Lyle Lovett My Baby Don't Tolerate

Comps:
Davey's Season's Greetings 2003

Yechy's Das Boots Los Lobos comp

Chip's Blues Deluxe 2 - thanks for the replacement Chip

My own Judybats comp.

JD

Been busy as all hell, but I got a few new cds this week:
The Wrens The Meadowlands: heard about this from several on this forum and a few other places and finally found it at a Borders halfway across town. I'd have to say that I love this cd and now I'm thinking about ordering Secaucus even though I hate buying over the internet.
The Shins Chutes Too Narrow: liked a few songs initially and now its starting to grow on me with repeated listenings.
My Morning Jacket It Still Moves: Didn't think too much of this initially. It got somewhat rave reviews from several sources I read but although it's growing on me a bit, I don't think it's great. I figured I would like it, being a southern boy and it's kind of southern rocklike. It sounds like Lynard Skynard and The Band if they played together in an massive airplane hangar and were recorded on a tape recorder. The vocals sound far off and some of the songs go on for days:the whole cd is rather long. I will say there are a couple of decent songs and maybe if I hadn't had preconceived notions I would have enjoyed it more initially.
Hope everyone has a good one

Scooter

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scooter329

I'd have to say that I love this cd and now I'm thinking about ordering Secaucus even though I hate buying over the internet.

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Are you talking about buying a used one or something on half.com or ebay? Because outside of doing that, I don't think you're going to find a copy of Secaucus. It's been OOP for a while, and even though Absolutely Kosher had some for sale for a while, I'm pretty sure they sold all they had.

BTW, Secaucus is a great record, but it's not as poppy as The Meadowlands, and had more of an edge to it. It has much more of a Pixies and Archers of Loaf sound than the new one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chrisnz

Troy - Skywriting. I have my PC set up to autoplay mp3's when they've finished downloading. This one starts out full on and loud, damn near gave me a heart attack! It was clipping but it's easy to normalise it to more speaker friendly levels. Despite the prog alerts I actually like this one the most of the tunes so far. The "relatively" quiet section starting at 1:40 has the beginnings of a melody that even a none proghead like me could hum along to. For my taste you might develop that more. Instead of repeating it four times and having that rising scale resolving it every time (which is kind of like a full stop each time) Develop it more slowly and resolve it once? Then let it twine around the rhytmic outro? If you get some tasty little melodic licks out of it use them to ornament the intro? Just some thoughts.

Still great sound and instrument voices and definite craft progress.

Chris.

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Those are all good ideas. I'll keep chipping away at it. I think I bit off more than I could chew with this one. If that section repeating is so obvious I'll have to change it. Too bad because I was happy with that melody and didn't want to screw it up. I don't really mind the abrupt beginning because it's that kind of song , but maybe I can run it up on a a bass line or a couple of piano chords . . .

Thanks for thge inpoot!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chrisnz

I was kind of thinking of doing a comp along the lines of Davey's twilight or alt country sampler. So I've been listening to...

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Wow, that sounds like a neato idea Chris! You know I'll be in line. That Twilight is one of my favorite comps, even though it is my own. Be really cool to hear an update on the idea. I kind of made a trilogy out of it with the Decade of Alt-Country/Twilight/Down The Road but that one was probably the best in the group. Hey, that new Nina Nastasia is very good, but really quiet and pretty short. There's one song on there that is a real knockout called Superstar and reminds me of Mazzy Star, in a very good way. That's probably my favorite. Really nice on a dark and quiet evening.

The real trouble with this software format is that a whole bunch of people will now have to check to see if I was replying to something they said. Sorry everybody. Blame AR, not me! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Davey

Wow, that sounds like a neato idea Chris! You know I'll be in line. That Twilight is one of my favorite comps, even though it is my own. Be really cool to hear an update on the idea. I kind of made a trilogy out of it with the Decade of Alt-Country/Twilight/Down The Road but that one was probably the best in the group. Hey, that new Nina Nastasia is very good, but really quiet and pretty short. There's one song on there that is a real knockout called Superstar and reminds me of Mazzy Star, in a very good way. That's probably my favorite. Really nice on a dark and quiet evening.

The real trouble with this software format is that a whole bunch of people will now have to check to see if I was replying to something they said. Sorry everybody. Blame AR, not me! :)

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Good to hear that Nina's latest is worthwhile. Still hasn't arrived. Maybe I'll just dash into the CRSv9 thread and nominate Superstar right now and beat you to the punch ;-)

I'm still accumulating tracks for the comp and haven't really tried putting anything together but I'm curious how it'll work.

Chris.