A sound engineering shift in the digital age
Like Harold Camping on the subject of Judgement Day, audiophiles are notorious for predicting the death of high quality audio at the hands of the digital music revolution. We certainly think today’s emphasis on MP3s has put a dent in the quest for high fidelity, but initiatives like Apple’s Mastered for iTunes series do give [...]
Show Tunes
Box of Vision is a company that still remembers the days when showing off your music collection didn’t involve a scroll wheel and being a true fan meant owning every album, instead of the five best singles. Subsequently, their archive products are designed to act as a showcase for displaying the complete works of legends [...]
Sound Advice
There used to be a time, when America’s greatest sonic ambassadors performed under their real names — save the occasional outlier like Muddy Waters — and literally invented new genres of sound known today as Jazz and Blues. It’s easy to forget that today, under the constant aural bludgeoning of Will.I.Am, Lady Gaga, and LMFAO. [...]
Leading a New Wave
We don’t cover a lot of music on this site, largely because we understand how personal and polarizing it can be. In the case of Within and Without by Washed Out, though, it’s worth making an exception — and no, it’s not about the racy cover art. Available starting July 12th (though you can listen [...]
InAudible Melodies
This one isn’t just for the audiophiles. Remastered by Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes with high-end tube gear, Jack Johnson’s debut album (and still one of our all time favorites) is now available in uncompressed 16bit/48kHz high-resolution download formats, or 180 gram AAA vinyl, which also includes a download card for all the [...]
Side? More Like Lunar Eclipse.
The Dark Side of the Moon album triggers countless feelings (or a lack there of) for plenty of music fans. This soon to be released Dark Side of the Moon Immersion Box Set ($130) is a true collectors item, though, aimed at those who just can’t get enough of Roger and Co. Besides the lavish [...]
Pick your pick
The Pickmaster Plectrum Punch ($39) is the perfect accessory for guitar players, and we’re not talking about the colored button-pressing variety. It’s essentially a rock-inspired hole puncher designed to turn old gift cards, ids, and credit cards into personalized strummers. So kiss those worries about your pick clashing with your mullet and sequins goodbye. Buy [...]
A Lesson on Improvisation
Miles Davis and John Coltrane are those guys with the Blue albums. Cannoball Adderly — now wasn’t he a famous dare devil? If this sounds like your internal monologue on the subject of Jazz, then we strongly suggest reading Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology ($100). Like the college course you should have picked over econ, minus [...]
It's All About The Paper
Balloon and confetti-themed patterns are both safe bets for those obligatory gifts in life (re: the family friend/neighbor’s punk kid’s graduation.) Rapping paper ($5) is perfect, however, for your best bud’s birthday or that upcoming docket of bachelor parties. Featuring the lyrics of classic hip-hop singles from the likes of the Sugar Hill Gang and [...]
Music was his religion.
Elaborate box sets for many rock and roll legends boil down to repackaging the same music you already own. West Coast Seattle Boy ($55) doesn’t suffer from the same shortcomings, since it isn’t a collection of existing albums at all. Instead, fans of Jimi will discover 45 previously unreleased live studio recordings that include demo [...]
Newsworthy Radiohead
After revitalizing the way we acquire music with their digital “pay-as-you-please” Fall 2007 release, In Rainbows, we were left wondering how Radiohead could ever transcend expectations. Nearly four years later they are sticking to their upscale packaging with the world’s first “newspaper album” comprised of vinyl, CD, digital download, artwork galore and nothing left to [...]
The ultimate 80's action movie mix tape you've been missing
The Blood Bros. are, for lack of a better description, an awesome DJ duo with an awesome goal: creating mix tapes compiled from the best 80′s action movie songs. A quick listen to the first few minutes of each track (after the jump) on their two mixes will have you running in gym sweats or [...]
Star Guitar
John Lennon and his musical legacy requires no introduction. What you may not know though is that in 1962, a rising Lennon wanted to buy a quality American acoustic but was too broke to afford it. Luckily, band manager Brian Epstein was kind enough to co-sign for a brand new “electro-acoustic” Gibson J-160E and even [...]
Free from "Freebird"
Don’t get us wrong, we love classic rock as much as the next guy, but hearing “Welcome to the Jungle” for the tenth time in a day can make anyone go ape. Enter New Normal Music. This site has been streaming music since July 2nd and boasts a non-stop 50,000 song playlist. It might not [...]
If Pandora Helped You Discover Music...
The best way we can describe thesixtyone (American music culture of Highway 61, get it?) is a collaborative new-artist Pandora meets VH1′s pop-up video. Their focus is the burgeoning music ecosystem where record labels and their life-sucking $0-2 per album deals are a thing of the past (thesixtyone featured musicians make $7+ per album). Thesixtyone [...]
