Wow And Flutter

Long and short pieces on music you should listen to; audio gear; and pop culture.

Category: General news

Strange Days

March 28, 2020 /

Hi, everyone.  I know, I know.  It’s been too long between blog posts.  Between gearing up for the spring record shows, the WFMU Record Fair in Brooklyn, picking up (and listening to) new vinyl – and you, know, working – it’s been tough to squeeze in some good writing.

You know what comes next.

The COVID-19 pandemic – aside from cutting a wide swath of human and financial destruction that is at the time of this writing, sadly only beginning* – wiped out all of my spring vinyl plans, one by one.  The record stores are closed, social distancing is preventing even meeting up to look at potential collections to buy, and the late spring and early summer does not look promising, either.

We’ve got to all do our part to stop this pandemic, and so I’m at home 24/7, working remotely, cooking, sleeping, writing, and listening of course.  The weather has been more favorable than a couple of weeks ago, so it has been less claustrophobic, and I’m able to get out, run and take the dog on walks.  Many, many walks.  And we have (re)discovered our wonderful neighbors and friends, albeit six feet or more away from each other, and found kindness in the most unexpected places.

One bright, shining, silver lining to this new, hopefully temporary life has been in discovering new music and rediscovering treasured recordings.  I have not bought a new piece of physical media in over a month (shocking, I know!) but thanks to the wonders of TIDAL and HDTracks, have been able to voraciously tear through a slew of new or underexposed music.  I’ll be writing about that in the coming days and weeks. 

Until then, stay safe, stay home, stay six feet away, and wash your hands! See you soon.

*mind you, this is not a minor aside.  I do not wish to minimize or make light of what is happening to our world; I am positively horrified at what is happening right now, and hope that all of you are doing well, or at least as well as can be expected.

Wow And Flutter LIVE! at Mill No. 5 in Lowell, MA, October 12th, 2019

August 27, 2019 /

So, you’re probably wondering where I’ve been? Well, getting ready for my first record show! Make your way to Mill No. 5 in Lowell, MA on October 12th, 2019 from noon to 4PM for Wow And Flutter LIVE! I’ll have my table there as part of A Little Bazaar‘s That Hole Thing record show.

Stop by for all your essential vinyl needs as well as some tasty doughnuts from the locals. I’ll have a good selection of clean, vintage vinyl and hot music takes. (The takes are free, the vinyl costs $.) You may not get what you want, but you’ll get what you NEED.

PS I’m always buying vinyl – hit me up at the contact link if you want me to check out your goods for a fair price.

Stop what you’re doing and go to the New York Times website. Now.

June 12, 2019 /

This article on the 2008 Universal fire will be the most important article you will read this week. It chronicles a staggering cultural loss as well as a (yet another) example of how little the major labels GAF about their responsibilities as keepers of this art.

Photo Illustration by Sean Freeman & Eve Steben for The New York Times. Source Photograph: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

I don’t usually do a direct link to content on other sites (I would of course always love to have your eyeballs here reading my stuff), but the diligent and deep reporting that has been done by The Times, including some of the most coherent explanation I’ve ever seen as to precisely WHY the 2008 Universal fire was such an incalculable loss to our culture, merits my recommendation that you just go read this. Just go. Now.

Summer of Stereolab

May 30, 2019 /

Before they called it quits/went on hiatus in 2009, Stereolab were one of the towering giants of Post-Rock, releasing an incredible volume of innovative singles and non-album work – enough to fill four compilation CDs worth – in addition to their ten studio albums. The inclusion of Lo Boob Oscillator as a pickup line in (and on the soundtrack of) High Fidelity should be enough for you to check them out.

[image credit: Stereolab]

But last year, the core of the band (Tim Gane and Lætitia Sadier) and their longtime manager Martin Pike, announced plans to reissue their classic run of albums from their Duophonic label, from 1993’s Transient Random-Noise Bursts with Announcements to 2004’s Margerine Eclipse in remastered (triple) vinyl, digital and CD versions, including tons of unreleased bonus material. The first two discs, Transient… and Mars Audiac Quartet (the latter including the song whose title that inspired this blog) came out a couple of weeks ago, and people let me tell you, they’re worth every dollar. The vinyl pressings are fantastically quiet and lovingly remastered, the price includes FLAC/WAV/MP3 downloads of everything, the packaging is top quality, and each disc includes a pull out poster sized lyric sheet and extensive liner notes from Tim Gane.

Best of all, the band is mounting a huge tour this fall! Dates will include a run of the big festivals (Primavera, Pitchfork) and club dates INCLUDING BOSTON THAT I MANAGED TO GET TICKETS FOR! Watch this space over the summer for more ruminations on one of my favorite bands of the past fifteen years.

Record Store Day 2019 Review: Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M.), Live at the Borderline 1991

April 25, 2019 /

One of the more anticipated releases from this year’s rich Record Store Day trove was a widely-bootlegged March 1991 almost impromptu live set from R.E.M., playing under the hilarious pseudonym Bingo Hand Job.  There are a couple of reasons I was stoked to get a copy: 1) the fairly limited number of copies pressed (3000 in the US); 2) R.E.M. was a band I sadly never got to see live, and 3) at the time, the band was not quite the biggest band in the world, though they were sure on their way.  So the chance to hear them in a really loose, mostly acoustic setting (they cover Love Is All Around, for crying out loud) was too good to miss.

[Craft Recordings]

The Borderline is a pretty legendary London club – holding only about 300 people, it’s pretty intimate.  You can get a sense of the room from the acoustic space generated from this recording.  For a bootleg recording, it’s not too bad.  I honestly don’t think they’ve cleaned it up at all, but it doesn’t matter: muddy sonics didn’t hurt Murmur, after all.

R.E.M. in 1990 (JA Barratt/Photoshot/Getty Images)

This is still the early R.E.M. I love so much – the songs on this two-disc set span their entire catalog up to that time.  The band is clearly loose and having a great time (as is the well-lubricated crowd), and the fun extended to the band members’ pseudonyms (Michael Stipe =“Stinky,” Peter Buck =“Raoul,” Mike Mills = “Ophelia”, Bill Berry = “The Doc,” as well as guests Spanish Charlie (Peter Holsapple of the dBs), Conrad (Billy Bragg) and Violet (Robyn Hitchcock).  As Mike Mills said recently, “” too concerned about being a professional band.”  Thank god for that.  If you can track down a copy of this at a not-insane price, (copies are going on eBay right now for about $75(!)) get it. 

Tracklist:

Side A

1. “World Leader Pretend”

2. “Half A World Away”

3. “Fretless”

4. “The One I Love”

Side B

1. “Jackson”/”Dallas”

2. “Disturbance At The Heron House”

3. “Belong”

4. “Low”

Side C

1. “Love Is All Around”

2. “You Are The Everything”

3. “Swan Swan H”

4. “Radio Song”

5. “Perfect Circle”

Side D

1. “Endgame”

2. “Pop Song 89”

3. “Losing My Religion”

4. “Get Up”

5. “Moon River”

“Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is.”  – Miles Davis

 

Shoutouts and Credits

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