30 December 2015

"Nautilus" and "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" aren't the only Bob James songs. "It's Only Me" is a jaunty little fusion disco thing after the low-key 0:25 intro. I ripped the Hands Down LP today, is how I know.

28 December 2015

I'm not one much for the holiday season, but this holiday season has been all right so far. I'll be glad when there are songs lodged in my head that are not Christmas songs. Especially this one.

Alvin and the Chipmunks, "The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don't Be Late)" slowed down

21 December 2015

Listening to Kris Kross makes me think of DJ Chris Carlin. "Alright," as this tune is [sic]keningly called, all right.



Of course, this extended mix of "Warm It Up, Kris" was always my go to...




17 December 2015

Today it's light jazz and fitness together. Good Housekeeping's Plan for Reducing LP delivers instructions in a soothing but firm tone, and might deliver a firm, toned butt, too.

The Bob Prince Quartet with Julie Conway, "Exercise 4. Little Brown Jug"



Edit: Mom asks, "Where on Earth did you find that album?"

Good question. No idea. The copy I have is this 1968 repackaging.

I just pulled it back off the shelf. The back cover of the LP is a calorie counting worksheet, and in the very bottom corner there's a number written in a hand I recognize. This was Grandma Conrad's record. I'm not keeping this one for nostalgia, but I am keeping Grandma and Grandpa's Amahl and the Night Visitors and some others.

Krainis Recorder Consort: Music for the Recorder Vol. 1 (Five Centuries of Dance Music for Recorders) LP

Menotti, Amahl and the Night Visitors LP

Nana Mouskouri, Nana LP

16 December 2015

Wintertime, and the listening's easy. Richard Hayman's Music for People Who Can't Sleep LP.

Richard Hayman and His Orchestra, "All Through the Night"

15 December 2015

Today we're thinking about poorly mastered records. I quit ripping this title halfway through. In order to fit a million songs on something like this Superstars of the '70s 4xLP, they cut the grooves really narrow (and shallow as a natural consequence, I think). So every little paper scuff seemed to be making these records skip. Ugh. K-Tel records are pressed the same way, but they've been a little more resilient in my experience. Guess Warner Special Products didn't know how to turn out quality junk. Ah well.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Superstars-Of-The-70s/release/512289

11 December 2015

Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die LP was better than I expected it to be. Fewer vocals than I imagined. Guess Steve Winwood was busy playing keys and guitar. Makes for a nice listen.

10 December 2015

Hey, this Chick Corea compilation double LP Inner Space starts off in a much livelier fashion than I expected with "Straight Up and Down." I guess Corea's LP Return to Forever had me expecting something a little more subdued and fusion-y. But that's okay. I guess I don't mind a frenetic start to my day.

9 December 2015

Put on Jethro Tull's Aqualung LP today and for the first time in my life connected that opening "ba na na na na na" guitar riff with Jethro Tull. It was familiar, but if you'd played me just those six notes, I think I would have attributed them to Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin or someone else. Anyway, heavy metal flute, as my dad once called it. Have some!

7 December 2015

"Take Five" is monumental and all, but here's a tidbit from Dave Brubeck's Wikipedia page that's more fun because it's lesser known: The main-belt asteroid 5079 Brubeck was named after Brubeck.

5 December 2015

This is probably the thing worth the most cool points that I filed today, but as music it's somewhat unlistenable—or, well, this track from a young Mr. Hawtin is a little hard on the ears, anyway. Much better as a throbbing dance-propulsion vehicle for kids on drugs in the '90s, this is definitely dark basement and strobe light music. "AC3" from Spark comes from the Silicon Ghetto EP Vol. 1.

4 December 2015

Light start again. Francesca and I saw a puppet version of this musical very soon after we started dating, so I couldn't let the record pass out of my hands without making a digital copy. We're not deep into December yet, but "Try to Remember" from The Fantasticks is a nice song nonetheless.

3 December 2015

Started light this morning and thought I'd share that mood, rather than coming through with the silly Scritti Politti or awesome Missing Persons records I transcribed after this one. Kiril Kondrashin conducts, Van Cliburn's on piano, and it's Tchaikovsky's "Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23."



Edit: Oops, first movement only. Here's Cliburn playing the same piece a few years later.

2 December 2015

I'm ripping the "Reckless" LP from Bryan Adams. Why? I don't know. Too lazy to download it, I guess. Or "vinyl sounds warmer." Or I own it in physical form, and I have the means to translate it to digital, and "Summer of '69" isn't so bad, so why not? Kids wanna rock, after all.