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Album Reviews
Elvis Peeks Under the Sheets in the "Imperial Bedroom"
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 03, 2013  |  7 comments
The song "Imperial Bedroom" does not appear on E.C.'s fourth album issued back in 1982 but it does as a bonus track on Rykodisc's twofer CD. The twofer's other album Almost Blue does not include the song "Almost Blue," which is on Imperial Bedroom. Got that?
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News
Bert Jansch Mono (?) "Heartbreak" Update
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 03, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
We recently reported the curious case of Omnivore's reissue of Bert Jansch's Heartbreak LP. The 1981 recording sounded "mono" on the LP but stereo on the MP3 download. We contacted the label and today got this reply:
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News
High End Audio: Luxury or Necessity?
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 02, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  16 comments
Is a fine audio system a luxury or a necessity?
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News
Swedish Band's Limited Edition Promo Single Made of Ice!
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 02, 2013  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  14 comments
The Swedish Band The Shout Out Louds released a limited edition of 10 copies of a promo single in a kit that requires the receiver to use a supplied latex mold to produce a record made of ice that actually plays
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Album Reviews
Neil Young's "Psychedelic Pill"—"Don't Want My MP3"
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 29, 2012  |  28 comments
"Don't want my MP3," Neil Young protests on side two's "Drifting Back (Part 2)".

Young's lifelong obsession with sound quality is well known and of course welcomed around here. He was one of the first musicians to express serious reservations about digital recording and playback. Back in 1993 he appeared on an MTV News piece along with Peter Gabriel and me too. You can watch it here. "We've lost the sound" Neil laments—and that was before the scourge of MP3.

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Phono Preamp Reviews
What's a $8500 Cartridge Doing In a Place Like This? The $399 ifi iPhono Phono Preamplifier
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 27, 2012  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  8 comments
The $399 iFi iPhono phono preamp first spotted at the 2012 Rocky Mountain Audio Festival is the result of a joint venture between ifi micro (ifi-audio.com) and U.K. based Abbington Music Research, also known as AMR. ifi micro also manufactures a fits-in-the-palm-of-your-hand 192/24 bit USB DAC, a headphone amp and a USB power supply but the phono preamp is of the greatest interest around here.
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Album Reviews
Flower By The Dry River
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 26, 2012  |  7 comments
The classically trained Cuban-born jazz pianist Elio Villafranca and his group the Jass Syncopators recorded this album Direct-to-Disk last Winter at the "Least Significant Bit Studios", which is actually a large room in the Sound-Smith.com production facility converted into a performance space/recording studio.

The double LP set is but one of many DirectGrace D2D records produced by Sound-Smith's founder Peter Ledermann to benefit a charity dedicated to helping some 215 million exploited children around the world enduring child labor, or abandoned to the streets due to the AIDS epidemic and other public health catastrophes.

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Album Reviews
Love's "Forever Changes" Finally Gets Long Deserved First Class Vinyl Reissue
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 26, 2012  |  14 comments
The late Arthur Lee exited a California prison in December of 2001, having served more than five years of a twelve year sentence for negligent discharge of a firearm. The long mandatory sentence resulted from California's ridiculous, now repealed "three strikes you're out" law.

Before being incarcerated Lee had resurrected his moribund career by teaming with a talented group called Baby Lemonade (named for a Syd Barrett song) much as had Brian Wilson with The Wondermints. Once out of prison, Lee took up where he left off, touring the world as Arthur Lee and Love.

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Book Reviews
"Forever Young, The Rock and Roll Photography of Chuck Boyd"—He Was There And Now So Are You!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 22, 2012  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  12 comments
Until the publication of this book this past fall, few people have seen this mind-boggling collection of black and white images shot by the late photographer Chuck Boyd in Los Angeles beginning in 1965. Though Boyd passed away in 1991 this set stops with a remarkable double page shot of B.B. King taken in 1978.
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Book Reviews
"Rock'n'Roll Lens": Photographer Jimmy Steinfeldt Catalogues His "Money Shots"
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 22, 2012  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  2 comments
Stage photography begins with being at the right place at the right time. Some people have a knack for it. Within a very short time back in the 1980s music fan Jimmy Steinfeldt went from standing on a-chair fan snapshots to having his photographs published in major music magazines like SPIN and Rolling Stone.
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