The Now Spinning/Recent Purchases Thread

[Mr Bill]

It times out the same but I always felt it was a slightly different mix of the same recording. Oingo Boingo did this a couple times. "Only a Lad" from the EP and the one from the Only a Lad album are actually different recordings. The song "Private Life" from their second album (Nothing To Fear) was remixed after the first pressing, with VERY different drums -- again same recording, just a different drum mix, heavy on electronic snare.

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

I recall the Only A Lad difference, as I like the first version better. Ain't This The Life had a different guitar break in it at one point on the IRS G.H. V1 record--I'm going to compare them in a few days when I can get some prime listening time in.

I have the 4-song promo EP for the Nothing To Fear album so I have that earlier mix. I can't recall but there might be one other different mix among those four songs. Been ages since I've played that EP so I'm getting it out for a comparison.

I wanted to pick up more of those early IRS LPs but the price on some of them now is crazy. A clean copy of the Buzzcocks LP is $15-ish (although trashed copies go for less). I have a list, so those are ones I'm watching for locally, if they turn up.

 

[Rudy]

Two ECM LPs arrived on Monday. Gary Burton Passengers which features Pat Metheny and Eberhard Weber. Pat would leave Burton's group after this album and record Watercolors with Weber, Danny Gottlieb and Lyle Mays, a prototype of the Pat Metheny Group. Have only spun the first track so far. Burton and Metheny are both at this year's jazz festival, with Metheny debuting a composition he wrote as a tribute to Weber, who had a stroke a few years ago and hasn't been able to play the bass since.

The other is Eberhard Weber's Silent Feet. "Seriously Deep" is my favorite (which is all of side one).

 

[Rudy]

Moving Pictures showed up today (which for some odd reason was its "official" release day). Anxious to give it a spin, but don't want to turn on my "space heater" (power amp) mid-day and warm up the room too much.

 

[Rudy]

Thought my system was acting up yesterday--I put on Moving Pictures and...nothing. Turn it up more, nothing. Then "wham!", had to peel me off the wall! The drums and synth bass kicked in out of nowhere. Really nice pressing of this classic! I need to compare it to the original Robert Ludwig pressing, but this one will give it a run for its money, and the quiet surfaces (dead quiet) make it a winner.

Plus, spinning now before I cook the teriyaki pork tenderloin kabobs:

"Never chew a pickle with a little slap and tickle..."

Just waiting for the "tassels on her whats-its" now.

 

[Rudy]

Spinning this one:

Do It Good was KC's debut album from 1974. Very much in that South Florida percussion-heavy, horn-driven funk groove, which was TK Records' forté at the time. I found a sealed copy of this a few weeks back--can't say the quality is top notch but I've heard far worse in condition. Early hits pulled from this one are "Queen of Clubs" and "Sound Your Funky Horn." KC's sidekick Rick Finch produced.

The band was originally called KC & The Sunshine Junkanoo Band. The junkanoo is a parade that originated in The Bahamas; portions of a junkanoo are featured in the James Bond film Thunderball which was filmed in the Bahamas. Since there was a sizable population of immigrants from the Bahamas in Miami, they staged their own junkanoo parades in the summer, and the musical influence spread to groups such as KC's.

 

[Rudy]

On the wrecka playa now:

I still have a bad transfer of the VHS tape to digital, but am going to grab the DVD soon. The only drawback is that the song "Two Little Boys" by Splodgeness Abounds is not on the DVD. My LP set is still in great shape though.

 

[Rudy]

I'm all over the map today. On my ride, I had a playlist of Pat Metheny, followed by IRS Greatest Hits Vol 2 & 3 (nearly half of it).

I received a few Music On Vinyl titles today from overseas. The most stunning has to be the Depeche Mode albums Ultra and especially Songs of Faith and Devotion, which has their track "In Your Room," which sounds so right on vinyl. The sound is orchestral and expansive, and fills the room. Tito Puente's Night Beat and Herbie Hancock's Thrust also got spins tonight--there are a few ticks on the Hancock but a cleaning should take care of those. Other MOV titles in recently are Michael Jackson's trifecta Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad. So far, decent sound on those also, better in some respects than the original Epic pressings I owned. Although Thriller sounds very slightly thinner in the bass than I remember it.

Not a MOV title, but a promo copy of the self-titled Skafish album is spinning now. :bigeyes: My copy doesn't have the ringwear like this one.

Interesting: "Work Song" is even more appropriate today than it was in the late 70s when Skafish wrote it.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I just splurged on two box sets: The Doobie Brothers and America's Warner Bros. Years collections.

I've never owned the first Doobies album on CD, and the other ones I have are the "original" CD releases of those. Plus I've never had any of the ones after Takin' It To The Streets (one of my favorite albums of all time) on CD either, so it was a good buy for me.

With America, the same thing: I've long had their first 3 albums plus Hearts, but not the rest, so this will fill in my collection.

The real hook for both of these, though, was the mini-LP covers. I hope they are better looking than the crappy covers in the Alan Parsons Project mini-LP box set from a few months back. That set had each cover surrounded with a white border about 1/8" thick. They look ridiculous.

I'm kind of surprised Shout Factory hasn't put out a Tijuana Brass complete-catalog mini-LP box set. That'd be a nice way to fill in the missing-on-CD albums.

 

[Rudy]

I don't think a tjb box would sell. Most have already bought the reissues who want them, and for the most part, people usually want either Whipped Cream or a compilation anyway.

Sony Legacy has had some great complete box sets also. Bill Withers, Herbie Hancock, Earth Wind & Fire, Miles Davis (70 CDs), Dave Brubeck, and quite a few others. It almost seems like a last gasp for the format.

 

[Harry]

I'm kind of surprised Shout Factory hasn't put out a Tijuana Brass complete-catalog mini-LP box set.

Well there was THIS:

It was only three albums, but arguably the three best of the Tijuana Brass years, WHIPPED CREAM, GOING PLACES, and WHAT NOW MY LOVE.

Harry

 

[Rudy]

Complete A&M Years for tjb and solo, together, would be another option. Many sets are priced $3-$4 per disc so it wouldn't really cost that much. Getting someone to buy it outside the collectors, though, would be a tough sell.

 

[DeeInKY]

I could appreciate the box set. I went thru a period after college when I was broke so there wasn't much music being purchased then. Then during the last recession I (and a bunch of my coworkers) got a 13% pay cut. At least we weren't laid off. But it took until now to crawl back out of that hole.

On another topic -- been tooling around this morning blasting the soundtrack from "The Big Chill" in the car. Good movie and a terrific soundtrack. You can't not sing along - no matter how you sound.

 

[Rudy]

Those box sets are great for "catching up" with an artist. Ideally I'd love to see these "complete" box sets for a lot of major artists, including numerous who were on A&M, but the reality is that they can be hard to sell if there aren't enough buyers, and there are manufacturing, licensing and inventory costs to deal with. I only paid about $27, plus shipping, for my Bill Withers set and it includes nine discs, I think. How could I not buy something that has all of his recordings for less than what two new average CDs would cost? I paid more than that for one of his CDs as an import, several years ago!

I would be happy enough with downloads, but only if they were lossless (CD quality or higher) and affordably priced. I'm not paying $15, or even $10, for a catalog release.

 

[Mr Bill]

Lately: Orchestral Manouevres In The Dark's Junk Culture.

They were one of TWO A&M acts with the initials OMD.

I've also been playing my church band's CD (even though I'm usually low in the mix -- probably because of my marimba playing skills, LoL) or Jazz 88.3 (here in San Diego) or good old talk radio (so I can know what to be mad about, LoL)

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

I avoid talk radio since lately I think everyone is wrong, or whacked. Maybe I'll find some Canadian talk radio--moose, beer, hockey...what's not to love? I just can't be bothered with anyone else's ill-formed opinions on things. Maybe that's why I've pretty much shut myself off from social media also. I'm sick of the negativity. Life's too short for all this hate on the Internet, and in media in general.

Been playing Eberhard Weber a bit lately: Silent Feet and Fluid Rustle, and later in the evening, I gave Later That Evening a spin. The Rush Moving Pictures vinyl sounds great, and I'm awaiting the last three Led Zeps, coming in from the UK: Presence, In Through The Out Door, and Coda. That will complete the set for me. Rush's Signals has been pushed back from August to mid September, and I don't know how the remaining albums will play out--Power Windows, Grace Under Pressure and Hold Your Fire are the remaining three I'm after. (No interest in the live albums.)

 

[Rudy]

Presence arrived from the UK today. Very nice sounding version of this Zep classic. More natural, more real sounding. I have a couple of tracks on the Mothership vinyl set and there is no comparison. The latter sounds bright and edgy, with vague bass. This new remastering is more full-bodied, and I am hearing a lot more detail in the instruments. Even Page's guitar has more texture to it. Very nice job by Page on the remasters overall. And happy to say the vinyl is very flat, and like the others, dead quiet. (I've purchased all EU pressings for Zep.)

 

[AM Matt]

I got the complete Led Zeppelin reissues!! I also got Quarterflash "Love Is A Road" (from 2013) & Rindy Ross still has it along with her husband Marv. Matt Clark Sanford, MI

 

[Rudy]

In Through The Out Door and CODA arrived today. The former has a bit of noise at the beginning of "In The Evening" but it looks like it may just need a cleaning. The only preorders I have left now are the remaining Rush remasters. Plus, I may go back on their catalog and get a few of the albums pre-Permanent Waves. (And I should probably grab Clockwork Angels before it goes out of print.)

Going to be spinning primarily ECM Records titles this evening, as I have a couple to catch up on from recent arrivals.

 

[Captain Bacardi]

Just picked up a posthumous album by Jimi Hendrix called People, Hell and Angels.

These were studio tracks recorded in 1968 & 1969 as Hendrix was ending the Hendrix Experience period. Most of these tracks are pretty much blues jams. His guitar playing is solid, though not outrageous as he had been doing. The great thing about this album is the sound. It's clean. I always found that Hendrix's studio albums were rather muddy sounding. This is pristine sounding. It sounds as if he was just having some fun on these tracks. I like it a lot.



Capt. Bacardi

 

[Mr Bill]

Now Playing:
http://www.amcorner.com/images/aotw/sp4863.jpg

--Mr Bill

 

[Mr Bill]

Now Playing:

--Mr Bill

 

[Mr Bill]

Rudy,

Skafish recently re-acquired the rights to his IRS debut LP. He plans to re-release it on CD later this year (hopefully with the single-only b-side "Sink or Swim")

--Mr Bill

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I gave a listen to the complete Sergio Mendes Primal Roots album today. First time I've listened to it in full in quite a while.

Listening to it always transports me back in time to when I first heard it -- I had bought the 8-track tape in Sheridan, WY at a Woolworth's store. My family was on vacation at our lake cabin, which has no electricity, so the only way I had to listen to it was on 8-track in the car. I talked Mom into letting me play it after we got back to the cabin. So I sat in the car and played the whole thing....and was very confused at this new direction from Sergio! I didn't reallly like the album all that much at first, but over the years it has grown on me and now I love the whole thing.

When listening to that album, it's sometimes fun to imagine the conversation that took place when the A&M promotional people first heard it. I wish somebody would interview Sergio about it sometime. (Paging Chris May or Bill Cantos!)

 

[Rudy]

Rudy,

Skafish recently re-acquired the rights to his IRS debut LP. He plans to re-release it on CD later this year (hopefully with the single-only b-side "Sink or Swim")

I did see mention of "news" about the first LP, but didn't follow up on his blog. That would be neat if he could release it again. IRS certainly wouldn't do anything further with it, for certain.