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Album Reviews
The Best Quadrophenia Ever From Classic Records
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2008  |  0 comments

Pete Townshend’s sprawling second rock opera, issued in the fall of 1973, uses the troubled teenaged character Jimmy to elucidate adolescent coming of age issues generally and those of post WWII English kids (like the four members of The Who) specifically.

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Album Reviews
First Blue Note 45rpm Reissue From Music Matters Doesn't Disappoint!
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2008  |  0 comments

There’s nothing groundbreaking on this 1960 Parlan-lead session, but that’s okay. The lure here isn’t the musical construction, since it covers familiar grooves and doesn’t move jazz forward. In fact, you’ll hear familiar gestures, some gleaned from Miles’ modal Kind of Blue issued a few years earlier, others from common blues.

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Interviews
Bonnie "Prince" Billy Grants a Rare Interview--Pt. 1
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2007  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments

With a new album "The Letting Go" just out (Drag City DC420 LP/CD) and a co-starring role in "Old Joy," a film Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwartzbaum (happens to be a second cousin of mine!) called "The Best of The (Sundance) Festival," and The New York Times's Manohla Dargis wrote was "A Must See..." and "One of the most persuasive portraits of generational malaise-a tentative hope-to come from an American director (Richard Reichardt)in recent memory," Will Oldham (a/k/a Bonnie "Prince" Billy") is on an impressive roll.

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Interviews
Bonnie "Prince" Billy Grants a Rare Interview--Pt. 3
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2007  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments

MF: So when are you touring again? When is the next time?

WO: We go to Japan for the first time in March (of 2003).

MF: When in March?

WO: March 10th.

MF: Oh. I’m going to be there until the 8th. Where are you going to play?

WO: We’re playing all over. It’s like ten or 11 days where the show is maybe five or six cities, which is pretty exciting.

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Interviews
Bonnie "Prince" Billy Grants a Rare Interview--Pt. 2
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2007  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
Part Two picks up with a discussion of the disappearance of commercial recording studios, the recording of Sings Greatest Palace Music, and the life and times of an \"indie\" recording artist--MF

WO: Yes. I mean even in Nashville when Mark and I did tours of studios for this new record thinking where we were going to record, the studios were dead because everybody has their home studios now.

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Turntable ReviewsTonearm Reviews
Simon Yorke Designs Series 9 turntable & tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 23, 2007  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  1 comments
Simon Yorke is an artist, a machinist, an electronics wiz, and a political idealist. He's also an analog enthusiast who melds aesthetic and technical considerations into eye-catching, densely packed, compact record-playing devices that are ruggedly built and functionally elegant. His turntables' smooth, matte-gray, metallic finishes and efficient lines make them among the most visually pleasing ever made.
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Cartridge Reviews
AudioQuest 7000 Fe5 MC phono cartridge
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 02, 2007  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
You know what's the first thing they teach you in dental school? Don't ever say "Oops!" Even if you stick one of those hooked teeth scrapers through the patient's cheek, you don't say "Oops!" "Don't move!"? Yes. "Oops!"? No. That's the big day-one lesson—and given the cost of medical malpractice insurance today, a damn good one.
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Album Reviews
200 Gram AAA Japanese Pressings Arrive!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

They are expensive ($40.00), they are 200 grams thick, the titles are mostly inspired and as you might expect, the pressing and jacket quality are absolutely spectacular.

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Album Reviews
Operatic "Dream Team" Releases Love Duets
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

I am an not even remotely aware of the contemporary opera world. Until handed this disc, I was unaware of either 26 Russian-born soprano Anna Netrebko or 35 year old Mexican tenor Rolando Villazón. The foxy-looking Ms. Netrebko has been called “Audrey Hepburn with a voice,” while Mr. Villazón has not.

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Album Reviews
Black and Blue Catalog Winner Will Amaze You!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

If you buy only one LP this year on faith because of what you read on this website, please make it this one that comes from so far out in left field, it’s in the bleachers.

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