Stephen Mejias

In May, I exchanged a few e-mails with Wojciech Pacula, editor of the Polish online magazine, High Fidelity.

We discussed publishing, music, hi-fi, and life. (I can’t believe I didn’t mention Natalie, Nicole, the Mets, or beer.) You can read the interview here. There are also lots of pictures of my listening room and gear, which you might find interesting.

Pacula did a great job with the images and the translation. I don’t look or sound too painfully ridiculous. Whew!

I can’t wait for this one to be released on a physical format, preferably orange vinyl (please, Island Def Jam?), but we can stream Frank Ocean’s prog/R&B/soul/funk/quiet storm epic, Channel Orange, right now via his tumblr.

From time to time, I’ve written about my interest in cassettes. While I still haven’t purchased a Nakamichi cassette deck—the decks are out there, I’m just waiting for the right time and the right deck—I’ve nevertheless kept an eye on cassette trends. For a long while, I saw very specific, very underground labels releasing tapes; and, though new cassette-only labels seemed to pop up regularly, those, too, were extremely underground and extremely independent.

With New York City temperatures rising into the high 90s this afternoon, there’s no doubt that summer has officially arrived. And summer means great live music. Ask Stereophile’s editorial assistant, Ariel Bitran, who returned to the office all bronze-skinned and bleary-eyed after attending the recent Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. (He’s been wearing sandals ever since.) And, while I can understand and appreciate the desire to get away from the City during these summer months, I’m happy to know that New York will be home to another major outdoor music fest: The first Catalpa Festival will be held this July 28th and 29th, from 1 to 11pm, on Randall’s Island.

This makes me happy. What more can we ask from a simple pop song?

The Cherry Thing, the surprising album from vocalist Neneh Cherry and free-jazz trio The Thing (Mats Gustafsson on saxophones, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, Paal Nilssen-Love on drums) will be released by Smalltown Supersound on June 19th.

We listened to “Dream Baby Dream” and watched the video for “Accordion,” and now, thanks to NPR’s First Listen series, we can stream The Cherry Thing in its entirety.

Now, thanks to AnalogPlanet and Music Direct, you have a chance to win a Rega RP1. All you have to do is go over to AnalogPlanet and register. The winner will also receive Rega’s cool, new Fono Mini A2D phono preamp ($175). Combined with the RP1, the Fono Mini A2D will allow you to play your LPs and transfer them into your computer.

Go for it. Good luck!