Vol. 2 Episode 41

Well, Great news *dripping with sarcasm*, the needle on my turntable needs to be replaced. The last set of records that I listened to did not sound quite right. I did a couple of tests including listening to a CD to see if it was my preamp or amplifiers. It was not, thank god they would be expensive to have fixed or replaced. I then figured it must be something on the turntable. I broke out my 10X magnifier to take a look at the needle. To my horror, I found that the needle was curved on one side. I thought to myself, “Oh my God, I need a new Cartridge.” With further research I found that the head of the needle could be replaced, i.e. the cantilever and the needle, for $400 bucks. Holy crap, I know. I looked a little harder and found an internet dealer that will sell the replacement part for half that cost. I am a little short on cash, still paying off another unit at the moment. I am hoping to get the replacement part maybe for Christmas. I also want to have my primary laserdisc player fixed. That is another $100 that I don’t have at the moment too. I realize that I am now just listing things that I need fixed and maybe just want too but that list is kind of long and I have been putting this stuff off so that I could continue to buy records. I have put my backup turntable in place for the moment, a Pioneer PL-12. It is a good stand by but the cantilever on the sure cartridge is so bouncy that I need to put a small weight on the head shell to keep it steady. It is a dime at the moment but I would like to find something a little lighter because even the dime is too heavy. Does anybody know of something that is about a half a gram? I would love to replace the cartridge on the hi-fi turntable with a nicer model but I would need to spend at least a grand to better the sound that I am getting from the current one already on the table. There is also the fact that I want to get a new tape deck and a good transport (CD reader) to go with my outboard DAC (digital to analog converter). I would also love to get a Bryston amplifier for the stereo so that I can use the two stereo amplifiers in the A/V setup. I think that is farther down the time line than I can see at the moment though. Anyway, on with the show.

I want to add that the company, Propellerhead, that I use to record most of my music is putting out an upgrade for the software. I am currently using record 1.5 and Reason 5. For the next month, October,  if you have both Reason and Record you can get the upgrade to Reason 6 at a pay what you want amount as low as one dollar. If you have them then be sure to go here to get that cheap upgrade!!

April March – Lessons of April March

This is a compilation album that was put out in 1998. That I am aware of, five of the twelve tracks on this album are unique to the album. The other tracks are from Chrominance Decoder and Chick Habit EP. Both are very interesting albums in their own right but those unique tracks on this particular album are very fun indeed. The first unique track to this album is called Theme From Lime Café. It has a very nice sounding verse that is slow and smooth but the break that happens is very odd for the song. It has a horses gallop feeling to me. It catches you off guard but is still very entertaining at the same time. The next track is called Olive Green Dictionary. It uses a 808 drum machine through out the song. This coupled with a clean sounding electric guitar plucked chords. It is also a very relaxing song to hear, very simple. It is kind of a late fall sounding song for me. It is a song that I would love to hear on a cold day with the sun shining to keep me warm. The next song is called Winter Cave. It has a sound that reminds me of teeth chattering in the winter during the verse parts of the song. The chorus part reminds me of late winter when it is still cold but the snow is melting. I say this because there is a violin part that is playing low long notes, low for a violin anyway, over the winterizing sounds of the verse music. The next song is called Stay Away From Robert Mitchum. This is a funny song about a girl who is in love with Robert. She visits a wax work every day because there is a wax version of Robert on display. It is a very funny story that is told through this song and I can recommend that everyone hear it to judge for themselves. The last song that is unique to this compilation is called Jesus and I Love You. This is a very slow song. The lyrics to the song can easily be misconstrued and I think that she sung them flat on purpose. I think this because if you put emphasis on the words differently each time it has completely different meaning each time. It is a very intriguing way to write lyrics to a song. That is for sure.

Arcade Fire – Arcade FireEP

This was the groups’ first release. It was released in 2003 originally then remastered in 2005 and re-released. It has seven tracks on the disc. The whole album has a nice acoustic sound to it. As a matter fact the song No Cars Go first appears on this EP with a sound that is very minimalistic. It is a fresh take on the song. The first time that I heard this song was from their second full length album called Neon Bible. This version has a full bodied sound with an orchestra backing the song. The production on the Neon Bible version is so much bigger. To hear a version of this song without the big orchestra behind the song is really a beautiful way to hear the song. I know, I know, the version on the EP was released first. Well, that is not the order that I heard them in. Maybe I can appreciate the two versions better because I heart the two versions in reverse order or maybe someone else who has heard them in the proper release order would have a better appreciation than I would. I will never know since I don’t know anyone who is actually interested in music and what I am specifically interested in too. The other song that I really like from this EP is a song called I'm Sleeping In A Submarine. The female vocals in this track remind me of Bjork. I have no idea what they are singing about but the vocals from the female singer are mind blowing. Just the tones that come from her mouth sound amazing to me. The EP as a whole sounds really good. It is a new look at the original sound from Arcade Fire. I recommend this to anybody who has an interest in this group.

Daft Punk – Homework

This is the first album from Daft Punk. It was released in 1997. I did not find out about them until their second album, Discovery, in 2001. There are five singles that were released from this album. The first is called Alive. The track was originally called The New Wave. It evolved into the track Alive by way of remixes and ended up on the album with the title Alive. It is a very basic sounding techno song progression. The next single released is called Da Funk. This was a big hit in the club scene. It is a great house style song that the band intended to have a hip-hop feel. To me, and to most people that know the song, it has in no way a hip-hop feel. This does not make it any less of a great song though. There are no lyrics to the track either. The third single released from this album is called Around The World. This was the biggest hit from this album and reached number one in the dance charts. The song is easy to listen to with the catchy bass line and the repetitive chorus of the title of the song. There is a cool synth sound that is run through a vocoder to give a unique sound to it. The song is a little bit long though, sitting at just over seven minutes. The next single is called Burnin’. This is another instrumental dance track from the duo. The song got a good remix treatment and was released as a CD and a five track 12” too. This one gets old for me real fast and about half way I skip to the next track. The saving grace for this track is the bass line. It is a very funky bass line. The last single released from this album is called Revolution 909. It is said to be about the French stance on raves and techno music. I pulled this from Wikipedia about the French stance on raves and electronic music, “When asked on the motivations of the stance, Bangalter said: I don't think it's the music they're after, it's the parties... I don't know. They pretend it's drugs, but I don't think it's the only thing. There's drugs everywhere, but they probably wouldn't have a problem if the same thing was going on at a rock concert, because that's what they understand. They don't understand this music which is really violent and repetitive, which is house; they consider it dumb and stupid.””

LCD Soundsystem – LondonSessions

This is said to be the last release from LCD Soundsystem. It was released in 2010. There are nine tracks included in this album all recorded live in a John Peel like session of recording. The album contains mostly tracks from the last album with a few from the previous two albums. It includes the songs Daft Punk Is Playing At My House and Yr City’s A Sucker from his first album. Daft Punk Is Playing At My House was his biggest hit from the first album. In the chorus he declares exactly that and proceeds to invite you over for the big party that is going to happen. The later track is percussion based interesting track with lyrics that portray greed between cities. The tracks from the second album are Us V Them, Get Innocuous! and All My Friends. Get Innocuous! gets an nice electric acoustic sound that is just enough different from the original track to keep it original to this album. The thing that is the biggest change is what the bass track sounds like. The bottom end is dropped off of is to it gets a paper thin sound to it. I really like the sound of this part of the song. This goes the same for the track called All My Friends but for the piano part. It doesn’t sound as full as the studio version of the song. This is not a bad thing though. I think that these minor changes in instrumentation and tone are interesting. The tracks from the third album are as follows: All I Want, Drunk Girls, Pow Pow and I Can Change. All I Want is my favorite track from the third studio album, This Is Happening. This version is actually a little flat for me with the paper thin piano sound. It may be that the guitar just doesn’t sit as full as the original studio version that I love so much too. I still like this version but it doesn’t satisfy me as well. The track Pow Pow, in this live version, doesn’t seem as cluttered as the original studio version. The instrumentation is easier to follow. I think that I actually like this version better really. The last track that I think is important to talk about from this album, I Can Change, doesn’t come off as flat sounding like most of the other tracks on this album. I think that this may be in part due to the vocals that have a nice sounding echo behind them. The distorted sound on the bass synth part probably helps this track out a lot too.

 That is all for now...