Retail Therapy: The Week in Review

[bobsticks]

The ongoing drama this week in these parts involves the renovation of my bathroom. After the last long project at work I took a few days off to get this done, with thoughts of selling the condo at the back of my mind. I used a highly recommended friend-of-a-now-former friend and things quickly spiralled into Bob Villa hell. After some low level violence and threats of more to come and legal action it was "decided" that I would bring in a different crew to recontruct my master bath. Note to self, you get what you pay for in construction.

Anyway, me being me and doing what I do, I decided to take some of the money that I'm not going to be paying this jackass and shop my anger away. This week's take and some highlights include:

The Band~Last Waltz
Sade~Stronger Than Pride Aahhh
Horace Silver~Six Pieces of Silver Good call jim
Stan Getz~Reflections 24 bit/96 kHz transfer, nice
Roger Waters~Thw Wall Double Live SACD
Pink Floyd~Obscured By Clouds
Gary Burton~Like Minds Concord Jazz SACD with Metheny and Corea
Miles Davis~Dark Magus:Live At Carnegie Hall SACD
Skrowaczewski/Minnesota Orch.~Ravel Mobile Fidelity
Putumayo Presents~Latin Jazz Machito with Cannonball Adderley, niiiice
The National~self titled
The White Stripes~Ickey Thump yeah, I jumped on board
Marvin Gaye~The Collection SACD
The Stan Getz Quartet~Pure Getz more Concord on SACD
Cat Power~The Greatest Hits
Herb Ellis/Joe Pass~Seven, Come Eleven notice a theme?
The New Pornographers~Twin Cinema Love Neko, thanks Swishy and FA
David Byrne~Live in Austin, Texas can't wait to see this & tonight's the night

A few more that have really been extravagantly good and that I can recommend to any and all are:

Jane's Addiction~Up From The Catacombs a much-needed remastering of one of the most effin' rawking bands from the late Eighties and early Nineties. "Pigs in Zen" was worth the price of admission alone.
Willard Grant Conspiracy~Let It Roll the 2007 release; a little bit of an uptempo affair with a couple of slow dirges reminiscent of "Regard The End"; production is not stellar but good enough on some solid material
Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symph~Stravinsky's "The Firebird Telarc SACD, need to say more? Incredible dynamics and presence with a fantastic crescendo to the final apex

and maybe the underdog of the group...

The Pixies~Surfer Rosa on MoFi, yeah that's right a DSD transfer from the original master tapes. Wow. Cuts like "River Euphrates" and "Toney's Theme" with that enveloping distortion...damn

Maybe I went a little overboard but I figured it was better than making bail.

Cheers

[jrhymeammo]

One question.

Do you like music or something?

Instead of remodelling your bathroom, you shoulda got yourself a top notch analog setup....Oops, wrong thread.

.....one of the most effin' rawking bands from the late Eighties and early Nineties. "Pigs in Zen" was worth the price of .....

Good call!!

Regards,

[bobsticks]

Instead of remodelling your bathroom, you shoulda got yourself a top notch analog setup....Oops, wrong thread.

Hey old sport good to hear from you. Actually that's not at all a bad idea and sort of goes in step with what I'm goin' for. The only problem with my little perch in the city is that it is indeed little. If I can get out from under this thing and get out to the burbs that means more room/s, which of course equates to more systems...

Anyway, you'd like the Stan Getz. I don't know how deeply you've explored the Concord Jazz catalog on SACD but it's well worth it. Solid stuff.

[jrhymeammo]

H
Anyway, you'd like the Stan Getz. I don't know how deeply you've explored the Concord Jazz catalog on SACD but it's well worth it. Solid stuff.

Not extensive but I do have a few on LP. None of them has yet to dissapoint me. The only way I can describe it is that they have that great MoFy'ish sound without dullness.

I will be sure to check it out, but I just spent over $80 on 2 LP from Acoustic Sounds. It will have to wait, but I'll bump it up to a top of my list.

Peace out.

[PeruvianSkies]

The ongoing drama this week in these parts involves the renovation of my bathroom. After the last long project at work I took a few days off to get this done, with thoughts of selling the condo at the back of my mind. I used a highly recommended friend-of-a-now-former friend and things quickly spiralled into Bob Villa hell. After some low level violence and threats of more to come and legal action it was "decided" that I would bring in a different crew to recontruct my master bath. Note to self, you get what you pay for in construction.

Anyway, me being me and doing what I do, I decided to take some of the money that I'm not going to be paying this jackass and shop my anger away. This week's take and some highlights include:

The Band~Last Waltz
Sade~Stronger Than Pride Aahhh
Horace Silver~Six Pieces of Silver Good call jim
Stan Getz~Reflections 24 bit/96 kHz transfer, nice
Roger Waters~Thw Wall Double Live SACD
Pink Floyd~Obscured By Clouds
Gary Burton~Like Minds Concord Jazz SACD with Metheny and Corea
Miles Davis~Dark Magus:Live At Carnegie Hall SACD
Skrowaczewski/Minnesota Orch.~Ravel Mobile Fidelity
Putumayo Presents~Latin Jazz Machito with Cannonball Adderley, niiiice
The National~self titled
The White Stripes~Ickey Thump yeah, I jumped on board
Marvin Gaye~The Collection SACD
The Stan Getz Quartet~Pure Getz more Concord on SACD
Cat Power~The Greatest Hits
Herb Ellis/Joe Pass~Seven, Come Eleven notice a theme?
The New Pornographers~Twin Cinema Love Neko, thanks Swishy and FA
David Byrne~Live in Austin, Texas can't wait to see this & tonight's the night

A few more that have really been extravagantly good and that I can recommend to any and all are:

Jane's Addiction~Up From The Catacombs a much-needed remastering of one of the most effin' rawking bands from the late Eighties and early Nineties. "Pigs in Zen" was worth the price of admission alone.
Willard Grant Conspiracy~Let It Roll the 2007 release; a little bit of an uptempo affair with a couple of slow dirges reminiscent of "Regard The End"; production is not stellar but good enough on some solid material
Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symph~Stravinsky's "The Firebird Telarc SACD, need to say more? Incredible dynamics and presence with a fantastic crescendo to the final apex

and maybe the underdog of the group...

The Pixies~Surfer Rosa on MoFi, yeah that's right a DSD transfer from the original master tapes. Wow. Cuts like "River Euphrates" and "Toney's Theme" with that enveloping distortion...damn

Maybe I went a little overboard but I figured it was better than making bail.

Cheers

Let me know how you feel about the SACD of the Wall Live, I have mixed feelings about it in particular.

[jim goulding]

Bob- I never tire of "Senor Blues". Never have. I like Cat Power too. "Nude As The News" is a favorite, These are two artists that jumped off the page for me. Plus, I've been told to check out Putamayo's catalog.

[bobsticks]

Let me know how you feel about the SACD of the Wall Live, I have mixed feelings about it in particular.

Well, I had a cursory listen through the first disc and I was moving about at the time so it hardly counts as "critical listening", but my first impression is that it was a solid performance marred by either poor mic placement or improper mixdown. Subsequent listens will surely lead to further conjecture.

[ForeverAutumn]

Hey Stix you're welcome on the New Porno's rec. Let me know what you think.

Your post made me laugh. That's exactly how I would have handled the situation. Only I would have included a couple pairs of shoes in my shopping spree.

[kexodusc]

Robert Shaw/Atlanta Symph~Stravinsky's "The Firebird"
Miles Davis~Dark Magus:Live At Carnegie Hall SACD
Gary Burton~Like Minds Concord Jazz SACD with Metheny and Corea.

Wow, small world - I was eyeballin' these the other day - If you had to settle for just 2 of the 3, which ones would ya get?

[bobsticks]

Hey Kex,

Without reservation I can say you gotta buy the Stravinsky. It is truly fantastic on several levels.

Now for the other choice it comes down to your particular criteria of the day. The "Dark Magus" disc is a good and righteous and, indeed, legendary recording. Recorded directly preceeding one of his many transitions in life and style, "Magus" is a testament to concentration and effort. The sheer length of the material (especially on the first disc) and the interplay between band members tells a well-defined story of musical reaching. That said it sounds like a live recording done in 1974 and engineered by Sony. It lacks sonically.

"Like Minds" is considered significant as well, albeit by a smaller number of folks. The sonics are trademark Concord, which is to say extremely good. I also happen to like the vibraphone and with the inclusion of Metheney and Corea this marks a distinct divergence from a lot of the Lionel Hampton-esque stuff that I frequently spin.

Apples and oranges and all that, but I would choose the Gary Burton. YMMV.

Have fun.

[bobsticks]

Hey Stix you're welcome on the New Porno's rec. Let me know what you think.

I make it a habit to give things a few casual listens before really jumping in with the critique and with this amount of material it may take a few days to get down to it. My initial observation is positive. I like some good power pop occasionally and this kinda like a Neko-tease. I ended the record and considered putting on "Fox Confessor..." for another hit.