hey Hey HEY! Remember that Manitoba guy that made a splash a few years ago around here with Up In Flames? Love that album. My bud chrisnz turned me on, and then we in turn tried to spread the word. Guess not too successfully, and I haven't seen Chris around these parts for ages, but wow, this is still a modern classic in my little world. Solid 9.0 on Uncle Davey's Mix-O-Meter. And it does sound kind of like a fun mix tape. Got it all, inventive rhythms, sing-a-long melodies, and eclectic sound effects, all tossed in the blender and set to someplace in the middle of the dial, maybe 'Blend'. Very cool production too. Nice sounding CD. Not all pumped to the max like most modern stuff. I remember istening to some of the last Caribou album (after he was forced to change his name because of legal threats from Richard "The Dick" Manitoba) at the listening station and thinking it sounded much the same, so passed it by, but now I'm thinking there's nothing wrong with that when it's this good. Any opinions on Caribou?

And the Rave Recs success stories keep coming. After finishing off the Manitoba CD, I pulled out another favorite that my bud Jar turned me on to, Hex by Bark Psychosis. On a Memorex CD-R dated 4-6-01. Wow, I think I even remember the trade, Pram's The Museum of Imaginary Animals, a very eclectic English band with similarities to early Too Pure labelmates, Stereolab. Think maybe I came out ahead on that deal. Hex is really an amazing listen. At least a 9.0, probably higher. Might even be called seminal since it was the seed for the term post-rock, a phrase coined by critic Simon Reynolds to describe Hex for, "using rock instrumentation for non-rock purposes, using guitars as facilitators of timbres and textures rather than riffs and power chords."

Samuel Adams is starting to flow and lots of memories are coming back. What a stack of great music I've gotten from my friends here. Thanks all!