<B>Willie Nile: <I>House of a Thousand Guitars</I></B>
Circle P/River House RHR9904 (CD). 2009. Willie Nile, Brad Albetta, Frankie Lee, Andy York, prods.; Stewart Lerman, Rich Pagano, prods., engs.; Rich Lamb, eng. AAD? TT: 52:36
Performance ****½
Sonics ***½
Tribute records are only as good as the person being feted. Their success or failure is also directly linked to how much energy the performers put into the project. Most tributes operate via telephone and UPS, meaning everyone uses the telephone to figure out what song they want to cover, and then UPS (or if you’re really sexy and rich, Fedex) delivers the finished tape. Actually, in some really impersonal cases, the music might be sent via email. Gee, ain’t this `ol digital world great?
<i>Pain: I guess it's a matter of sensation</i>
The June 2009 issue of <i>Stereophile</i> is now on newsstands. At first, I was against the green border and font for the front cover, favoring <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/in_shades_of_orange/">a red and orange motif</a> instead, but I now think the green treatment looks excellent. It is appropriate for spring, and the Klipsch Palladium P-39F loudspeaker seems to leap right from the page. Like a (really freaking) gigantic squirrel leaping from the branch of a blossoming tree.
This was my initial choice of cover motif for our June 2009 issue. We were concerned that these colors, however, would appear too similar to those used for <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/now_on_newsstands_stereophile… May issue</a>. One goal in designing a cover is to make it look as different as possible from the cover preceding it. So that buyers don't get confused, or something, I guess. While I understand the point, I must say that the Klipsch Palladium P-39F loudspeaker looks nothing like <a href="http://www.stereophile.com/turntables/sme_model_2012_turntable_312s_ton… SME 20/12 turntable</a>.
Despite the recent affirmation by <I>Stereophile</I>'s Kalman Rubinson that the Super Audio Compact Disc remains "the best available all-around physical medium for music" (May 2009, p.47), audiophiles in the US continue to declare it a dead format. Regardless, independent record producers such as Jared Sacks, founder and managing director of Holland's Channel Classics Records, continue to champion and promote SACD.
Koetsu USA, the US distributor for the $15,000 Koetsu Coralstone Platinum Mono reviewed by Michael Fremer in our May 2009 issue, has announced that several of its products will be demonstrated during a special "Audio Round-Up," hosted by Audio Limits in Colorado Springs. This free, two-day event takes place on Saturday and Sunday, May 16 and 17, and is open to the public.
"Tax proposed to fund Public TV, radio," read the newspaper headline. The Working Group for Public Broadcasting, described as a "private study group," was proposing to free public broadcasting "from improper political and commercial influences" by replacing its $228 million in congressional appropriations and $70 million or so in corporate funding with $600 million to be raised from a new sales tax on electronic equipment. The article went on to say that the proposal was being sent to the congressional panels concerned with communications (<I>ie</I>, the commerce committees), where it could become the basis for a new Public Broadcasting Act.
I'm telling you: Matador's <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/buy_early_get_now_sonic_youth… Early Get Now</a> plan is the gift that keeps on giving. First of all, I've been streaming <i>The Eternal</i> every day for the last couple of weeks. It's great. Then, with the pre-sale ticket offer, I scooped up four seats (Orchestra, Row C) for Sonic Youth's July 3 performance at the United Palace Theater in Manhattan. Now, I'm freaking out to this shredding, blazing train wreck of "Silver Rocket" from last year's Fourth of July River to River Festival held at Battery Park. I wasn't there.
While putting together yesterday's entry, I stumbled upon this video of Mike Bones performing a version of Grinderman's excellent "No Pussy Blues." This was back in the summer of 2007, during a music festival in New York City's East River Park. I wasn't there.