Just put together my new Weber charcoal grill out in the hot summer sun, while drinking lots of homemade iced tea and with Bob Marley's "Legend" blasting from the house. Having some friends over tomorrow for drinks and BBQ. Summers finally here
Herbie Hancock, Man-Child, Stones High Tides and Green Grass on vinyl, GD interlude (see other thread) and then the new Blur, Magic Whip. Liking the Blur more second time around. Wish they would do a real US tour or at least hit mor than 2 cities.
Everyone's gone. Great evening! Lots of dead on the playlist. Anyway, "Smoke break" and beer on the balcony
For 40 bucks, I got the Yes complete 1969-1987 studio albums box set, only album I've never heard out of all these is Big Generator. I had the rest on store-bought cassettes (ugh) that I got when I was 13-14, and haven't heard any of these albums in 20+ years, in most cases closer to 30. Broke into this one with Fragile. Not my favorite because it's a bit inconsistent (I'd rate Close to the Edge, the Yes Album, Relayer and possibly Going for the One higher), but the good stuff is great. Heart of the Sunrise especially. My wife's reaction was that the only time she had probably heard any of it before was walking past shop class. To each their own. Moved on to give Neil's new one a first spin. Been working so haven't been able to focus much on the lyrics, which are pretty didactic, but my first reaction is that at least this is much better musically than most of his other albums in this vein (Fork In the Road, Living with War, and -- although a closer call because I like the first 2/3 of it a lot -- Greendale). Way better than I expected musically, especially after Storytone (a dud) and A Letter Home (fine, for what it was, but slight). Setlist from the opening show of Neil's tour looked great (Don't Be Denied!) - wish he would play a headlining show here in the Bay Area other than the Bridge, or better yet, one of the last minute small local shows that he used to do -- was lucky to catch some of those at Old Princeton Landing (Neil & Crazy Horse billed in the "Echoes" in a bar near Half Moon Bay that fit 150-200 people), the Trocadero, the Catalyst, and Warfield over the years, but nothing of that sort since 2000 or so. Probably harder to pull off in these days of social media where word of mouth is near-instant.
Wow. Those jams from 96 OPL are my favorite with NY&CH. 22min+ Cortez the killer. I can't really imagine seeing them at the top of their powers in a so small a place. The closest I came was seeing Dylan in a rock club with about 700 others, front row
The problem with that box is that (except in the case of Tales of Topographic Oceans) the mastering is bad (way too bright, compressed, and too loud). That's why I bought the Steven Wilson mixes of Close to the Edge and Relayer, which sound great. I should have bought The Yes Album too, but the announcement of a giant box from certain band I have a deep love for came up, so I had to cut off the superfluous spendings.
I was very lucky to have a friend who had a friend, etc., and got tipped off to those shows. I caught 4 out of 16 shows, plus one at the Catalyst in the same time period. Neil & Crazy Horse in that place were loud as hell, although at times the crowd got pretty chatty as you can hear on the version of Baby What You Want Me to Do on Broken Arrow. To get tickets to one show at OPL, unless the first of the run, you had to go down the evening before, so I also got to hear a few other shows from outside the venue window while waiting to get tickets for the next night - sound was not that great outside the venue, but could at least hear what they were playing and it was fun getting to know the regulars who were hitting multiple shows. I believe the This Note's For You video was shot in OPL. I got front row one night but the made the mistake of going to get a beer halfway through the show and could not get back through the packed crowd to where I was, which was a bummer at the time especially because I'd been hitting it off with a very attractive woman up there, as we both had gone in early and staked out great spots. My other even bigger regret from those shows is that a friend had managed to get one of Neil's guitar picks one of the nights and gave it to me. Not knowing quite what to do with it, I kept it in my spare change compartment in my car for a few weeks. The car got broken into and all they got was my spare change (less than a dollar, and Neil's pick, which of course they would not have known. Damn.)
Mostly Dead for me these days as I'm trying to keep the GD50 spirit alive for a few more days. I'm re-listening to all 5 shows in order this week. That Hell in a Bucket from 6/28/15 was hot, hot, hot!
Yeah, I knew they wouldn't be the best masterings, but I probably won't listen to them all that often and the price was right. I wanted the original mixes, and based on listening to Fragile last night the mastering isn't all that bad, although I'm sure it could be bettered. Down the line maybe I'll spring for a better mastering of a few particular favorites.
I love "No Not Now" and "Drowning Witch" (the latter never fails to amaze me), "Valley Girl" is fun, and the rest of the album is ok, but not the best Zappa could offer.
I just got the 2cd import of The Definitive Wilson Pickett. Fantastic sound, almost done with disc 1. All of the songs are from 1963-72.
New Sticky Fingers deluxe. CD 2 is killer stuff. Also dusting off a few Stones boots i haven't blasted in a while.
I'm listening to 2/17 right now on Apple Music. This show really smokes through "Timber", I'm in "Billy Breathes" currently.
Wait till you get to the post-Carini jam. If you haven't seen the thread on that release, I posted some photos I took from the front row and a couple shots of the venue there. [Edit: photos are in post #25 here: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/phish-amsterdam-1997-release.433587/]
Jackie Wilson at the moment. Before that Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy, Juluka, Universal Men, and Mark Knopfler, Cal Soundtrack
Giving Kamasi Washingon's The Epic another spin as I plow through some reading for work. Really enjoying this one.
Notorious Byrd Brothers. Gotta give it another spin or several before the August 6 Notorious Wilco Brothers show here in SF, which I was lucky enough to score tickets for.
