I should have known. Trout Mask Replica is practically bubblegum.
Also:
I haven’t listened to those guys in a long time. I do like clam dip, though.
While house cleaning the other day, I listened to this album featuring the bubblegum classic, Yummy Yummy Yummy.
Dixie McCall!
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What’s in your tummy?
I gots pintos, ham hocks, and cone bread in my belly, mister.
I don’t think that’s going to fit in the rhythm.
I reckon you just surried back from a stoned soul picnic.
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On my turntable is Roy Hargrove’s Crisol’s -" Habana"
Up thread we spoke of trumpet players. Roy is my solid unshakable favorite of anyone born after 1960.
Crisol is not really Roy’s band, it is a collective featuring the great Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sánchez along with seven other fantastic musicians. In 1998, the album won Hargrove and the band the Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Performance. It is so fucking good.
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One of the most important things in old timey audio, especially tape decks, is having a “guy”. There are very few trained technicians for this gear, and it’s important to know one. Currently, my Nakamichi Dragon, which has had an on-again, off-again transport problem for a long time, is on the way back from the Bay area. Willy is one of the last qualified Nakamichi tape deck technicians in the world. He operates a small business and has an impressive inventory of parts and donor decks. After several trips to his work bench, my Dragon finally misbehaved for him and he found all the problems (I hope). My Crown reel to reel, my favorite piece of gear, had a recent problem with the output potentiometers. In this case, my “guy” is in Florida. He said that Crown had a “bad batch” of potentiometers in the '70s . In this case, the “bad batch” only lasted forty years. Chuck has a massive inventory of Crown new, old stock parts as well as all of Crown’s tape deck archives, drawings etc. Chuck is in his 80s so I don’t know how much longer he will still work. He has the pre-amp now and will set it up for another forty years or so.
My Teac tape decks need servicing, but I will do that myself once the Crown is back and singing.
I’m hoping to get this gear in shape to last for the duration of my above ground time.
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Unfortunately, the problem is only going to get worse. There are few really good audio repair folks, and that list is getting shorter every year. Houston, for all its other advantages, is an audio wasteland. There are one or two decent hifi dealers, and exactly zero high end repair folks within 200 miles. Go to Dubuque, Iowa and there are probably four or five within a couple hours drive. It’s kind of bizarre, really. I sent my MA6100 to Audio Classics, which is universally regarded as THE place to have Mac gear serviced (outside the factory). They are located just down the road from the McIntosh factory in Binghamton, NY, and have access to all the parts and experts (McIntosh will still manufacture any part for any piece they ever made…at least until Bose finally runs them into the ground). I’m also hoping it’s good for at least another 30 years. I’ve tinkered around with repairing a few pieces, but I would not try it on a high-end piece I wanted to keep in credible working order. It may work after I get done with it; it may not.
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I’ve learned my lesson on this. I’ve done some electronic repair and assembly, but most of this gear requires special skills and equipment. There’s nothing like an expert and “a man’s got to know his limitations”.
I wish Willy and Chuck would / could take on an apprentice, but probably not. In a decade or two this type of gear will cease to “live” on in living rooms and be relegated to a few museums.
There doesn’t seem to be much of an appetite for younger folks to learn some of these old skills. I had the same experience taking a watch to a guy in Houston. He’s a little old man, who has a shop that looks exactly like you’d picture a watch shop run by a little old man in the Swiss Alps. He’s getting up there and there is no one to take his place. He told me he’s tried over the years to take on an apprentice and even tried to get some watch making/repair classes going at the local community colleges, but there just was no interest. It’s sad. When he’s gone, he’s gone.
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We have some antique clocks that made their way to us.
The last clock guy we had come tune them up said there’s no market for them and the people that can keep them running are not being replaced.
Highly recommend the debut album by Kashus Culpepper - Act 1. Good solid country soul.
Rolling Stone Interview
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Great segment with Jeff Tweedy on CBS Sunday Morning:
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All my gear is back and working perfectly. The Dragon was very sick, requiring capacitor and transistor replacement as well as transport parts from a donor deck. It wasn’t a cheap repair, but with the price Dragons are going for these days and the fact that there is no other auto-reverse deck that is it’s equal, I went for it. I’m glad because it’s working like a new deck now. The Crown pre-amp didn’t require such extensive repairs, just a couple of pots. I had all the pots replaced while there. Chuck is in his 80s…
It’s nice to fully have and appreciate the upgrades.
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I don’t recall what I was doing when you posted this but I was glad to see it this evening and watch it.
I don’t know if Wilco is my favorite band, but they are way up there.
I do know that if I had to pick one band or artist to provide the soundtrack to my life it would be Wilco.
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Interesting. I guess mine would be The Kinks, at least up to my 40’s and then Ray Davies’ solo work for the latter years.