Awkward city. I dig how Martin Hannett explains the technical bits his way with no regard for a befuddled Tony Wilson or Granada TV-watching hoi polloi.
My 2 cents: 24 tracks give a guy more than enough rope to hang himself. And the emergence of digital effectors (especially reverb) points to trouble ahead. However… Martin “Zero” Hannett did do the Buzzcocks’ Spiral Scratch. Nuff Said.
XTC were notoriously furious with Todd Rundgren’s excellent production. I’ve never known the details, and always been curious. I mean, the mind reels at the potential for bad ideas Todd could be capable of embracing unreservedly, but this doesn’t sound like any of those. – Scott Miller on “Earn Enough For Us” by XTC (1986)
I just happened upon Game Theory/Loud Family leader Scott Miller’s collection of erudite capsule reviews of his favourite songs from 1957 to 2006. I found tonnes to disagree with here taste-wise (natch) but, taken as a whole, it was a really fun and illuminating read. Read the whole collection here.
If you don’t know Game Theory, here’s a song:
Interesting tidbit: both Michael Quercio of The Three O’Clock
and Mitch Easter (of Let’s Active) produced and played on Game Theory records.
Someone kindly uploaded a well-recorded 1967 Stax Revue TV Special from Norway to Youtube.
The late Al Jackson Jr’s drumming steals the show (natch). They tell us he was murdered, but one can’t help but wonder if he was, in truth, smitten by a jealous god.
Check out 3:48 in clip # 5: some kid is out cold (I suspect the kid was overwhelmed by Mr. Jackson’s drumming–not Otis Redding’s pedestrian reading of “My Girl”).
Walter Sear, the great tubist, recording engineer, adviser to Robert Moog, brass instrument maker, studio owner and fiery analogue partisan, passed away today.
Mr Sear was on my very short list of fascinating people that I always wanted to interview. And his supremely well appointed Manhattan studio has long been the place where I’ve most wanted to make a record.
Further reading:
Stereophile Interview with Walter Sear from 2005.
Mix magazine article on Mr Sear and his studio from 2003.
Some great rants and editorials by Mr Sear can be found at the bottom of this page.
Jared and Johanna, of the estimable rock n roll combo The Nymphets, just created a cool magazine. Read it here.
In other news, a lifelong veil of confusion was just lifted when I learned that Mick was singing about sealing wax. I guess those are the kind of girls you meet when you go to the LSE.
|