What CD are you listening to right now?

[JonMarsh]

For those not familiar with what an Alex Lifeson Les Paul looks like,




Note the bridge assembly, compared with a "normal" Les Paul.

[JonMarsh]

OK, this is the “Geezer reconnects with favorite music of the distant past” moment. Extra points for you if you know who the Pousette-Dart band was. I just received the double album CD of their two best early albums from Amazon- a small number floating around, made in Italy. Extra points for you if you know who they are, or can name at least one song. But like most folks, you probably have “Amnesia” about these guys… whereas I can sing all the words to this song and others on the album without even thinking about it.

https://youtu.be/dm6AFag8SdY

Scary, huh? My daughter understands, but I don't think anyone else does... maybe, unless you hear it!

This is the double album CD I picked up. Enjoy the heck out of it. Very good writing and ensemble playing.

[Warlock]

Listening to the new Haiduk album Diabolica. Blackened death metal. Non stop riffs!

Haiduk - Wraithavoc:

[theSven]

I've been listening to Ghost Impera album. I don't know hos I missed this album for so long!

[JonMarsh]

Why, the "Lost Christmas Eve" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, of course!

[masterofnone]

Why, the "Lost Christmas Eve" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra, of course!

I have that same album. Perhaps I should play that later today too... It is a pretty fun album to listen to, and I'm sure it will bring up some good old memories of when I was living in in the Southern states.

[JonMarsh]

My wife loves their stuff, but then she's Russian, born in Khabarovsk in Siberia, of parents exiled from the Moscow area by the Bolsheviks.

That's what I call having history...

[r100gs]

a blast from the past, Modern English , after the snow

[theSven]

OK not a CD because I need to track one down if they have it... Found out about this group the other day from a colleague in the office, and I'm shocked I've never heard of this group! The group is called Brass Against which does covers of Tool, Perfect Circle, Rage Against the Machine, Led Zeppelin and others. Its a brass instrument group with drummer, vocals, and some strings (bass and/or guitar).

[Warlock]

Possessed by this song

[theSven]

A life goal for me that I don't know if I will ever achieve at this point is to drum like that!!!! Such discipline to keep that beat. Great share!

[technodanvan]

So I've been trying to listen to bass-heavy music this week to break in my new subwoofers. Naturally, this leads me more towards a pop / hip-hop trend than what I normally listen to (which is a much more varied blend of music).

First up, I discovered Post Malone is a bit of a bass head, especially on his first album. It gets quite deep, but it sometimes seems to get louder or quieter on a whim, with little rhyme or reason.


Of course, Post Malone is best listened to in small doses (IMO) so I've been breaking that up with a lot of Halsey, whom I quite like. Specifically her first and third albums, Badlands and Manic, respectively. The other two are fine as well, but I keep coming back to these two. The initial bass hit on 3 A.M. is something to behold.



To keep the mood light I also listened to the Popstar soundtrack by The Lonely Island. A couple of the later songs dig pretty deep. I love the Lonely Island, it's great listening just about anywhere (except the garage with an open door)...



From here I went back to hip hop and tried T.I. on for size. This is fairly variable, but his 2020 album The L.I.B.R.A. seems to take some cues from the Post Malone-era of bassheadedness.




Kud Cudi also explores the depths with several albums, most notably in the Man on the Moon, Vol. 3.

[JonMarsh]

I agree! will check some out more-
But note, for "traditionalists", try a good recording of Saint-Saëns C minor organ symphony, I'm fond of several, but the Boston Symphony with Charles Munch (remastered SACD preferred) or the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy are probably my all time favorites.
And for something that's been around and might surprise you, try Deana Carter "Did I Shave My Legs for This? 25th Anniversary Edition. Remastered and two new tracks; very clean 5 string bass that goes quite low on some cuts. And it's like a classic country album- who'd have thought?

[theSven]

I got the Popstar album now. Only listened to 2 songs, and need to get through the album when I get some time...

[technodanvan]

Hope you like it. The movie is worth a watch IMO. Some of the songs are helped by a little context.

[JonMarsh]

OK, decided I had to "bite" on this, in a sense, because there are new versions of a couple of favorites I discovered yesterday after reviewing this thread, as noted in the comment above.

The SACD version of the Charles Munch version of the C Minor symphony... ordered:




While I do have a couple of SACD players, what I need to do is install the Vanity 93 output board in my Oppo player, set up the conversion configuration for DSD to PCM, and fire up my oldest Mac Pro which is setup with software to capture the PCM stream from an RME Fireface 800 and store it on disk. I was last doing this with an older AudioPraise product that had to be hardwired into a Pioneer multi format player- this is a lot better, as it just swaps in for the original output board.

Why do I think that will take most of a morning or afternoon to get working right....

Of course, this is another one of those deferred gratification projects, as was the Oppo player I bought just for this activity.


Much simpler will be ripping and listening to the 25th Anniversary of Deana Carters 1996 album...




This is for the "country music lover" that wants to hear what an excellent recording job can do with fairly classic tunes, (originals) and with deeper range of a 5 string bass tossed into the mix (not a typical country music approach, in my limited experience!

[JonMarsh]

I'm so busy with various design and construction projects and stuff going on around the house that going and seeking out new music isn't something that I think about....

But sometimes new music is brought to me, courtesy of my personal "Apple Music Channel" which streams music based on the favorite artists from my existing collection that that are synced in iTunes- and very similar artists that they suggest and play. This has happened in a variety of musical genres, to my delight and pleasure.


A few days ago it was some classic blues playing in a relatively recent album, by someone I haven't followed in years- Walter Trout. He has literally been to hell and back, a personal story a lot like David Crosby, including the liver transplant. Makes me feel like I've lived a sheltered life, though we were born the same year. But unlike Crosby, he's still around, recording and touring.




Curiously, Trout had a lot more impact and success in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, something of a cult following I'd say, than in the US. This album doesn't break any new ground, but will bring you back to the roots of some popular music in the 60's, 70's, and 80s- he was playing with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers in the late 80s, in fact.

If you need a good fix of traditional electric blues, you might want to check this out!

[JonMarsh]

This is one I've been meaning to get to in this topic for a long, long time, but slow work and distractions always seem to get in the way. . Not this Sunday, though I have plenty of both today!


This is a special release version of the 2010 Eric Johnson album "Up Close"-

Special edition of the guitar virtuosos acclaimed 2010 UP CLOSE album revised & remixed & featuring guest appearances by Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan, Johnny Lang & Sonny Landreth.




And if you haven't heard the album, you have no idea of the impact of those additions...

I'm going to just focus on one cut, the least likely to get attention in all likelihood, based on how one might imagine it fits... Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughn and Eric collaborating on the old blues chestnut "Texas".

With this video you won't have to wonder what I'm talking about. I've known about Steve Miller since I was in high school, but never gravitated enough to his style to buy any of his albums- but his vocals on this are just perfect.


If you're a guitarist and guitar nerd like I am, then this video about Eric Johnson's playing setup in the studio for that album done for Musician's Friend should be of interest...

However, if you're one of those in the know, you may be aware that he ditched the Fuzzface and Strat for "Texas" and went hard core with a Les Paul plugged plugged direct into a 100W DSL Marshall stack, cranked up to high heaven... (and if you have ever been "experienced", there's no mistaking that sound...)

[JonMarsh]

I should comment a bit further...

1) It's the opening guitar work that he's using the "non-standard" setup for lead
2) This video about equipment is sponsored by Musician's Friend so let's just say there's a bit of a focus on stuff they sell- like the large conventional Marshall setup and the big Fender cabinet with Twin Reverb top.
3) Eric Johnson is known for using Dumble amplifiers for his high output lead setup with the Fuzzface, and Princeton Reverbs for the relatively clean and echoey rhythm or lead stuff. Who is/was Alexander Howard Dumble? Imagine if Jim Marshall didn't have a big company producing amplifiers in volume, but just built one offs for those that could afford them... and I mean AFFORD! If you had to ask how much, well, it was too much.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumble_Amplifiers

4) Interestingly, there is a small boutique manufacturer outside Boston MA (Amplified Nation) that seems to have "captured" a lot of the "sprit" and characteristics of Dumble amplifiers, at not "inexpensive" prices (a good head unit in the range of $3500 to $4,000) but much less than what a good used Dumble amp will go for. Trying on of those is on my bucket list some day... if the mild arthritis I have right now does't become a problem for playing. There are a number of YouTube demo's that are quite "interesting" sonically.