Marantz America is supporting the launch of their attractive <a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/marantz_ki_pearls/">KI Pearl components</a> with a decidedly august hardcover book and matching dual-layer SACD. Like the KI Pearls themselves, both the book and SACD celebrate audio designer Ken Ishiwata's 30-year relationship with Marantz and offer insights into his life and work.
<i>Me, in the old cubicle at 110 Fifth Avenue, just eight months into the new job. I was thinner then, and had more hair.</i>
I think it's time to talk about Floods' <i>Transmission</i>, as the album is now almost a year old. It was released on August 8, 2008. I know this album very well because I'm one of Floods' two band members. I played a lot of guitar for <i>Transmission</i> and even sang a little bit, while my good friend, Brother Todd, handled the synths, programming, and editing. We shared arrangement duties and we never fought about anything, I swear.
I woke up this morning with the sun in my face and Heather Duby's "<a href="http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/031908heatherduby/">Places Shape Lives</a>" churning through my mind. I heard the old moan of cello and the aching melody, the hypnotic precision of the just-tuned drums, the constant trembling of the strangled guitar, and I knew it would be a good day.
Wye Oak is a sort of American folk duo. Andy Stack plays drums and keys (at the same time), while Jenn Wasner sings and absolutely wails on the guitar. This is a video for their song, "Please Concrete," from their 2008 debut <i>If Children</i>.
Hey everybody! As we like to say around here in the office, it's "Happy Friday!" For alliterative purposes, let's call it "Fiery Furnaces Friday." <a href="http://www.thefieryfurnaces.com/site/">The Fiery Furnaces</a> have something up their sleeve, and I don't know what it's all about, but I'm betting that's it's good. I bet there are a lot of words involved. But, perhaps, no sound. A lot of alliteration, too. The Fiery Furnaces are good at that.
Norway's Hegel Music Systems has made its way to the US market. I met Hegel and the company's charming founder, Bent Holter, at the <a href=" http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2007/010907set/">2007 Consumer Electronics Show</a> and then again in Las Vegas during <a href=" http://blog.stereophile.com/ces2008/011208top/">the following year</a>. On both occasions, I had a lot of fun listening to music and learning about Holter's designs. As I wrote last year, I was instantly attracted to the designer's combination of tech-talk and passion for music. The guy is at once serious and totally wacky.
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We're always asking the big questions: Are we really alive? Will we ever find true happiness? How can we be better human beings? What's love, but a secondhand emotion? Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken? How can the high end audio industry reach a wider audience?
On the train this morning, a pretty girl sitting directly in front of me, with a large purse in her lap, and connected to it, an iPod. Earbuds to her pretty, little ears letting loose the music, the most appalling of all songs ever to hit the Top 40: The Beach Boys' "Kokomo."