Walking along the spring streets of this crowded city, a place where you’re literally always in everyone else's business whether you like it or not, I'm often struck by the amount of serious, pounding through the songlists iPod listening that’s going on. People are eyeballing their little screens as much as they're listening.
I've come to the conclusion that birthdays really aren't a whole lotta fun. I mean what's to like? You're another year older, fatter, dumber; in short, whatever detriment is plaguing you at the time is magnified by yet another año.
Having heard from the good folks at Ralston Purina—sorry, "good folks" seems to be a trigger for 60's TV commercial flashbacks for puppy chow or something. Lemme try again...When I heard from the good folks at the burgeoning mini–mega empire that Concord/Fantasy Telarc has become that a new series called <I>Stax Profiles</I> was about to begin, I anxiously tore open a Concord box that arrived in the office yesterday.
Starting this blog has made me feel almost the same way I did when Frank Sinatra died and I wrote in the pages of <I>Stereophile</I> that when I became a music writer, lo those many dark-haired days ago, I knew that someday I'd have to write a Francis Albert obit. When the blog craze first began to gallop, I knew intuitively that someday, I too would be sucked into the immediacy maw and be lured into venting my opinions, valuable or not, in the blogosphere.
<I><B>Hammersmith Odeon, London `75</B></I><BR>
Columbia
<I><B>3121</B></I><BR>
Universal
<I><B>Lotta Love Concert</B></I><BR>
Rhino
<B>NEKO CASE: <I>Fox Confessor Brings the Flood</I></B><BR>
Anti 86777 (CD). 2006. Neko Case, Darryl Neudorf, prods.; Craig Schumacher, Chris Schultz, engs. AAD. TT: 34:55<BR>
Performance ****½<BR>
Sonics ****
Geffen B0005345-02 (CD). 2005. Sigur Rós, prods.; Birgir Jon Birgisson, Kenneth Vaughan Thomas, engs. AAD. TT: 65:34<BR>
Performance <B>****½</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: <I>Electric Blue Watermelon</I><BR>
ATO (According To Our) Records 0026 (CD). 2005. Jim Dickinson, prod.; Roland Janes, Pete Matthews, Kevin Houston, engs. AAD? TT: 49:23<BR>
Performance <B>****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>