Wikipedia says he’s 82.
Amyl and the Sniffers is a great band name.
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They’re a great Aussie garage punk band.
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Ahmad Jamal, who’s a generation ahead of Hancock, is still performing in his 90s. I saw him two years ago when he was 91 and still near perfection.
Neither of these guys got caught in the jazz drug/alcohol scene of the 50s and 60s.
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I managed to see Stephane Grappelli and Lionel Hampton (not together) when both were either in their 80s or close to it. So it’s possible. Though hanging out with Miles Davis tended to shorten one’s lifespan.
Miles was the quintessential “functioning addict”.
There’s a record store in the Seattle airport.
I’m liking Tremblers and Goggles by Rank, the new Guided by Voices release.
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You’re the 2nd person who has recommended that recently. Definitely need to check it out.
Since @chuck is a fellow Black Keys fan, thought I’d post this fun video off of their new album. Reminds me of something Spike Jonze would have done back in the day.
Well, see, I don’t know how I got the reputation as a Black Keys fan. I said I was befuddled by the fact that they play in large arenas. I saw them play last night in a large arena, and, well, I remain befuddled.
I went to see the opener, Band of Horses, a group I love and had never seen before. Their bass player came down with Covid so they presented a sort of stripped down version of the live show, which was not ideal, but par for the course around here.
As for the Black Keys, they can play, Dan can sing, I wish they would turn some of their riffs into songs, and I don’t understand where all these fans come from. The video they played right before the band took the stage was a similarly humorous faux mockumentary featuring a concerned representative of Dads Interested in Choosing Our Kids Songs. I’m sure it’ll pop up on youtube at some point in the near future.
I’m confused (naturally). I know you seem to have been and lived everywhere. But you currently split your time between Vegas and Panama? Or just visiting LV at the moment?
We live in LV now. For now.
Panama > Vegas.
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Not for the reason he is in LV.
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Both true.
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I was playing some old albums from my collection to break in my new Grado cartridge. I’ve had some issues with the cart, but they’ve been overcome and the smaller needle will play many scuffed albums cleaner than the Dynavector it replaced.
I was playing my slightly scuffed pressing of Elvis Presley’s Golden Hits and liking the sound when I sat to look over the liner notes. There’s a name scrawled in fading blue ballpoint ink. I guess I had always assumed it was the name of the original owner, which is common on older albums; but, no! It was the autograph of the King himself. At least I think it is. There’s no dedication and it looks hurriedly written but the letter forms and the basic look of the signature seem authentic when compared to internet examples.
It would only be worth a couple of hundred bucks if authenticated, so no reason to update the insurance policy, but it’s kind of cool since I probably pulled the album out of the “Dollar Bin” at the record store. I got a Dave Brubeck autograph the same way.
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That’s pretty sweet! Not in the same galaxy of stardom, but I got an autographed copy of David Johansen’s first solo album the same damn way. The good old “Dollar Bin”.
Which cartridge did you get? Your turntable is much higher end than mine, but I’ve had my eye on some new gear.
I got the Grado Timbre Master low output (1 mA).
I should have done more research, though. The Grado design in the higher end carts is susceptible to EMF. The higher output carts don’t seem to have the same problem. It’s like a ground hum, but it comes from the AC synchronous turntable motor. After going nuts trying to trace a ground hum that wasn’t there, I noticed the hum was worse at the end of the record than at the beginning. Eventually I figured out that distance from the motor was the driver of the hum. My turntable has a motor and motor housing that is separate from the rest of the turntable to prevent vibration from traveling to the record or anything else. I could pick up the motor and move it back and forth toward the cart and modulate the hum. If I had perused the vinyl enthusiast forums, I would have found that this is an ongoing issue with some Grados, particularly with my generation of VPI motor.
There is insufficient shielding on the motor or cart depending on who you blame. I found that I only needed about 3.75 inches of additional distance between the motor and turntable to eliminate the hum. I made up some new, longer belts and after some experimenting I’ve got it dialed in. I’m making a larger platform for the turntable to accommodate.
I should have returned the cart or exchanged it for the high output (4 mA) version, but it really sounded good otherwise and I just took it as an engineering challenge.
There are less expensive wood bodied carts, but I wanted the boron cantilever at this level and I’m glad for it. Superb detail. Significantly better that the Dynavector DV20x2 it replaced. The chonky body made it easy to set up, but doesn’t work with the record clamp. So, I switched to a mat and a weight. Unfortunately, the spindle is extra long to accommodate the clamp and too long for the hole in the weight. I drilled the hole deeper, re-tweaked everything and now the sound is superb. Finally.