Stephen Mejias

At around 1pm on July 10, 1964&#151almost exactly 45 years ago&#151percussionist Sunny Murray, bassist Gary Peacock, and saxophonist Albert Ayler met at the Variety Arts Recording Studio just off of Times Square to record what would become the first jazz release for Benard Stollman's ESP-Disk. The studio was tiny and cramped and its walls were covered with Latin album covers and its doors were open so that the musicians could breathe. Can you imagine how hot it must have been?

I went to Other Music yesterday and picked up a few records:

Me, listening to old MPS songs with the V-MODA Crossfade LP headphones and the HiFiMANhttp://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/the_hifiman_hm-801_portable_m…; portable music player. Photo by intrepid Ariel Bitran.

There's a strange similarity between La Lupe and Melanie. They are both clearly passionate, to say the least. I've read that La Lupe's live shows had that certain danger to them that only the greatest rock performances can manage. On stage, her hands went wild like pigeons exploding into the summer sky: Lupe would poke at her face, tug at her clothes, and throw her shoes into the crowd.

David Lynch's The Big Dream will be released by Captured Tracks on July 16th. If Crazy Clown Time, David Lynch's successful 2011 solo debut, is any indication, we're in for a surreal and haunting treat: heavy starlit skies, empty highways, torch songs, and reverb-drenched blues. You can ask Michael Lavorgna about that.

Mogwai doesn't bother with words. These are all instrumentals. Thick, heavy instrumentals, packed with emotion and color.

Forumhttp://forum.stereophile.com/forum">Forum; member, dbowker, gave me the heads-up on this special Record Store Day LP. With This LP Crashes Hard Drives, ten of my favorite hard-core crate-digging specialist labels came together to release one hell of a deluxe, limited-edition, gatefold masterpiece&#151just one of the many reasons to raise our voices and rejoice for Record Store Day. The awesome package includes a CD sampler, zines, catalogs, stickers, and posters from all participating labels.