LATEST ADDITIONS

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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Album Reviews
Indie Band's Major Label Debut on Double Vinyl Plus Free CD
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

Talk about throwing it back to the 1980s! These guys channel Manifestoera Roxy, Brit/Industrial (Joy Division) and even Haircut 100 on their latest double LP set (CD included for easy iTunes/iPod loading).

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Album Reviews
A Set of Standards Given Swinging Treatment
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

Annie Ross may be best know among the “boomer” generation for the lyrics she wrote for Wardell Gray’s “Twisted,” the tune Joni Mitchell memorably covered on Court and Spark.

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Album Reviews
Former Mingus Sideman Steps Out at Nola Penthouse
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2007  |  0 comments

While hard-bop tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin’s best known work was with Charles Mingus and his later Prestige albums are regarded as the hub of his solo recordings, this 1961 Candid set offers plenty of muscular grit, superb Nola Penthouse sound and the stellar backing trio of George Tucker on bass, Al Harewood on drums and one “Felix Krull” on piano, most likely a Nat Hentoff-assigned name given to Horace Parlan who was contracted to Blue Note at the time. In fact, Tucker and Harewood were part of Parlan’s quartet, as was Ervin for a spell.

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