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Prologue I've had the Magneplanar LRS loudspeakers in my daily-listening system for over two years now; every time I swap them out for something else, they invariably seem to find their way back in. And that's despite being devilishly difficult loudspeakers to drive; their 2.8 ohm impedance (almost constant across the entire audio spectrum) presents... Read More »

Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was, if nothing else, a Texas original. As founder of Austin's Thirteenth Floor Elevators, he was on the cutting edge of the first wave of psychedelia when the band's most noteworthy song, "You're Gonna Miss Me" ascended from a regional hit to crack the national charts in early 1966. One month... Read More »

I wasn't raised from birth to be a jazz-hound; that came about as a happy accident of Reaganomics, where I suddenly found myself out of a job, and ended up working again in 1990 in the commercial print industry. Where I spent the next seven years in a 1940's era bunker of a building that... Read More »

Arlester "Dyke" Christian—along with James Brown—was almost singularly responsible for the infusion of Sixties funk and soul into rap music in the late 1980s. Yet ask the average man on the street about Dyke & the Blazers, and you'll generally be greeted with a blank stare in response. One of Dyke's biggest hits, "Let a... Read More »

Record Store Day 2021 has two summer dates this year, June 12 and July 17, and Craft Recordings has no fewer than twelve RSD exclusive releases to offer this go around. Last year's RSD was the craziest ever, what with the pandemic and everything, but 2021 seems to be bringing new hope for some kind... Read More »

Violent Femmes: Add It Up (1981-1993). Two 120 gram, black vinyl LPs: $29.99 MSRP. Also available as two 120 gram, blister-marbled red vinyl LPs: $32.99 MSRP. Available from Craft Recordings. My first experience with the Violent Femmes came not too long after their eponymous debut album had been released in 1983. I'd just gone to... Read More »

Sarah Jarosz: Build Me Up From Bones. 120 gram, black vinyl LP: $21.99 MSRP. Also available as a 120 gram, opaque red vinyl LP; no website or pricing information was available at the time of the review. Available from Craft Recordings. Sarah Jarosz is a multi-instrumentalist and singer / songwriter who grew up in Wimberley, Texas, a... Read More »

Anna Marie Wooldridge was born on August 6, 1930, in Chicago, Illinois, although she was raised from childhood in Michigan. Alternating between her desires to be an actress and a singer, she started performing while still in high school, and soon relocated to the west coast in the early Fifties, where she performed mostly in... Read More »

Travis, Good Feeling. 120 gram, black vinyl LP: $21.99 MSRP. Available from Craft Recordings. It's been said that everyone who listened to the Velvet Underground's first album started a band. The same can almost be said for Travis' first album, Good Feeling, which was massively influential on an entire generation of UK bands, especially the likes... Read More »

At the peak of his career, Chesney "Chet" Baker represented the epitome of jazz cool, and along with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan, and Stan Getz was one of the principal figures of the "West Coast Jazz" movement centered between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Baker relished living the fast life,... Read More »

Light In The Attic Records (LITA) is a record label based in Seattle that has a certain knack for the unconventional, and has specialized over the last couple of decades in reissuing obscure, underrepresented, and sometimes virtually unknown artists. With the intent of bringing that unknown gem of an album, or perhaps a lesser-known artists'... Read More »

Craft Recordings completes their 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of Creedence Clearwater Revival with new LP reissues of the band's final two albums, Pendulum and Mardi Gras. 1970's Pendulum—which was CCR's second album release that year (Cosmo's Factory streeted only months earlier in July)—was recorded in a month in November, and was released only... Read More »

I've talked here at intervals over the last couple of years about a variety of system enhancements I've employed at my home with the goal of improving system performance, reducing noise, and increasing my ability to see through more clearly to the music I enjoy. It's really shocking how seemingly simple fixes like vibration reduction... Read More »

I was a total rock radio hound from the seventies through the eighties; I really stood up and noticed George Thorogood and The Destroyers when "Bad To The Bone" first hit the airwaves—especially his over-the-top guitar playing. The song (and George Thorogood) became a point of frequent discussion between my friends and me, who mostly... Read More »

Record Store Day—or RSD as it's commonly known among aficionados—typically takes place twice a year, generally around April and October. RSD piques the interest of every vinyl hound in the US—and worldwide, for that matter—and generally brings a slate of releases that are widely varied in approach from record label to record label. Some labels... Read More »

The first Peanuts comic strips from cartoonist Charles Schulz appeared in newspapers in October, 1950, and Craft Recordings is celebrating 70 years of Peanuts and Charlie Brown this year with a limited edition series of LP releases. Next up: the original soundtrack from 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas television special; the soundtrack album has sold... Read More »

Nickel Creek formed in 1989, at a point when all three members were under the age of thirteen. They actually went by the moniker "The Nickel Creek Band" for a few years before eventually deciding to drop "The Band" to present themselves with a more modern and concise identity. Consisting of mandolin player and vocalist... Read More »

Craft Recordings continues their 50th anniversary celebration of the founding of Creedence Clearwater Revival with this new LP reissue of their seminal album, Cosmo's Factory. Starting in July 1970, Cosmo's Factory quickly rose to the top of the US Billboard album charts and was propelled to quadruple platinum status in the US alone on the... Read More »

2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the formation of progressive / hardcore / metalcore band Between the Buried and Me, and Craft Recordings continues to celebrate this watershed moment with remix / remasters of the band's entire catalog. Now up: BTBAM's third studio album, 2005's milestone release Alaska, which gives us the band featuring their... Read More »