Wow And Flutter

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

Category: Music (Page 1 of 2)

Ain’t no supply chain issues here! Come buy some vinyl on December 18th!

November 27, 2021 /

Boy, what a roller coaster of a year, huh? Ups, downs, some sideways, but we’ve made it. And the holidays are upon us, just like that! Bet you need some gift ideas, right?

Well, the staff of thousands at Wow and Flutter have the solution for you – come see us on December 18th from 12-4PM at Mill No. 5 at 250 Jackson Street in historic Lowell, MA for our final show of the year! We’ll be chock full of a constellation of LP and 45 goodness, and we’ve restocked the World-Famous $2 Fun Bins™ with some funky stuff for you to dig. After (or, before) you check us out, you can take in the amazing Mill No. 5 shops and get in your last-minute holiday shopping! Let’s goooooooooooooooooo!

Record Store Day Part 1 releases, part 2

June 18, 2021 /

Happy Friday, everyone.  I hope you’ve had a happy and healthy week.  Here in Massachusetts, we’re in a very good place for the time being (and hopefully much longer than that), but other parts of the country (never mind the world) are not as fortunate.  So think of them; and if you can do something about it, do something about it.   

Let’s listen to some more finds from the first 2021 RSD: 

Al Green – Give Me More Love: The Orchestral Greatest Hits (Hi/Fat Possum) 

(Hi/Fat Possum) 

Winner of the first annual Wow And Flutter “Least Essential RSD Release.”  Al Green’s Hi recordings are legendary and essential American music, equal in stature to any of the great American vocalists.  Now, I’m not one to say a recording can NEVER be improved – look at what Giles Martin has been able to do with the Beatles remasters.  But taking Willie Mitchell’s perfect production, overlaying strings over it AND de-emphasizing the original instrumental work subverts one of the great beauties of the original recordings, which is the SPACE, or ‘holes’ that exists in those arrangements, that let Reverend Al’s delivery breathe.  To boot, a crappy paper inner sleeve is included.  It’s on pink vinyl, if you find that important.  Give Me Less. 

Donny Hathaway – Live (Atco/Rhino) 

(Atco/Rhino) 

This is a storied live album that regularly makes its way into lists of “best live albums.”  I don’t know if it makes my top 5, but it’s a wonderful, soulful set.  Hathaway, who was taken from us too soon at age 33, shows his estimable skills and beautiful voice in this VERY live set recorded at the Troubadour in Hollywood, and the Bitter End in the Village.  It sounds almost like a very, very good audience taper recorded it – you can almost smell the smoke and whiskey.  (This is not a complaint.)  Made up of mostly – well-chosen – covers and originals like his classic The Ghetto, the rapturous audience has every right to be rapturous.  John Lennon’s Jealous Guy is a highlight.  And the band COOKS, notably on the closer Voices Inside (Everything is Everything.)  Another carefully made Rhino reissue – wonderful gatefold jacket and a proper poly-lined inner sleeve.  

Toots and the Maytals – Funky Kingston (Island) 

(Island) 

Another classic, the definitive reggae album.  Yes, more than anything by any of the Wailers, or The Harder They Come.  Aside from the fancy white/blue split vinyl pressing, nothing fancy here packaging-wise (and yet another shitty paper sleeve!)  This is not remastered, but it’s a decent pressing, though nothing special.  At the end of the day though, it’s just fabulous and uplifting reggae.  If you don’t own this yet, please fix that immediately. 

We’re back! Come buy music!

October 14, 2020 /

Wow And Flutter LIVE! is back! We’ll be selling our carefully curated vinyl at Mill No. 5 in Lowell on October 31 (Halloweeeeen) and November 1st from 10-4. Look for us in the Hi-Hat area next to Vinyl Destination.


Come get some great records for the Spooky Season and/or get a jump on your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa shopping. Special surprises for anyone showing up in costume (gotta wear a mask, tho)!


Check out the Mill No. 5 and Vinyl Destination pages on Facebook in the coming days for more cool stuff!!

Working From Home, day 1,345

April 7, 2020 /
the jon madsen movie commentary podcast: Episode 12: Sixteen ...

Well, no. Not that long.  It’s only been four weeks now that I’d been sent away from my office to work from home (WFH), and thankfully I’m still working.  Zoom is my absolute lifeline to the outside world, along with Roon+TIDAL.  If you haven’t heard of Roon yet, you will (mainly because I’m going to write about it in an upcoming post.)  But with all of my traditional, brick-and-mortar, touchy-feely record places shut tight for the foreseeable future, TIDAL is my musical lifeline.

One of the absolute killer features of Roon is its music discovery capabilities (think a much more sophisticated Pandora) that suggest music based on what’s in your library AND what you’ve listened to.  It misses some times, but when it hits, it’s creepy how good the suggestions are.  So, having set up a more permanent office in Wow and Flutter HQ (i.e., my old music room), I connected my Roon server to my vintage Harman/Kardon Citation Receiver and spend the first 5-10 minutes of my work day setting up an 8-10 hour queue of music for the day.  Here are some new-to-me discs I’ve played over the past couple of days. Check ’em out:

[enoshop.uk]

Mixing Colours, Roger Eno and Brian Eno
Of COURSE I’m going to start with an Eno disc.  This was just released as I was starting to settle in to my forced solitude, and it arrived at exactly the right time.  The Brothers Eno have uncorked yet another beautiful collection of ambient music, this one having music Roger created as long as 15 years back, to which Brian added his sonic treatments. 

[Superior Viaduct]

Prati Bagnati Del Monte Analogo, Raul Lovisoni/Francesco Messina
This one came out of left field (actually, from one of a bunch of artist lists in a Pitchfork piece.  This is a 1979 bit of “occult esoterica” from two Italian ambient music pioneers.  Although it gets ever-so-close to ‘aromatherapy music’, it never goes over the line into Windham Hill territory.  Recommended.

Future Nostalgia, Dua Lipa
OK, I listened to this at the END of the day.  This entire disc is a JAM, full of smart, danceable pop.  This is her second studio album, and was planned to be released as part of a huge rollout, with a spot on the Glastonbury roster, and a big tour (all of which were, obviously, scrapped.)  So, they took a chance and put it out.  I think their gamble paid off. Highly recommended.

Social Distancing Saturday Night, week 2

March 29, 2020 /

Our current reality for Saturday night fun: having some good Italian takeout from local favorite Orzo (support your local businesses that remain open!) and watching one of the many movies we missed from their original theater run (tonight: 1917. Well done all around.)

David Bowie - Blackstar - Vinyl LP - 2016 - US - Original | HHV

Tonight’s post-cinema disc: the fingers landed on David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar. His parting gift to us all, and his final piece of art. He recorded the damn thing in secret in NYC while he was sick with liver cancer with old friend Tony Visconti producing, and jazz saxophonist Donny McCaslin’s quartet backing him. It was released on his 69th birthday, and two days later he was dead. The album package is reputedly full of Easter eggs, but the most important thing here is the music.

Talk about a sprint to the finish line: while 2013’s (also) out-of-the-blue The Next Day was a welcome return to form, it wasn’t as start-to-finish strong as this disc. The band puts plenty of swing into these tracks, but they all rock. Bowie’s lyrics here are more evocative/cryptic than ever. They paint a gray mood at the beginning of the disc, growing darker towards the beginning of side two, then the light dawns on the last two tracks. It’s on “Dollar Days” and “I Can’t Give Everything Away” that he appears to come to terms with his end. You come to realize in gifting this work to us that he loved this world as much as the world loved him back.

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.

A Holiday Surprise from Courtney Barnett!

December 8, 2019 /

Hi everyone! It’s been a while between posts – the usual holiday rush has been compounded by record acquisition for Wow And Flutter Live! (my table-and-mortar vintage vinyl venture.) Sorry! I’m making a pre-New Year’s resolution to get back on the blog more often. Starting. Right. Now.

Every week I scan the new releases on Tidal on Fridays, and one which came out of left field (at least to me) was a live disc from the amazing Courtney Barnett – not just a live disc, but an MTV Unplugged set that was recorded in October with her band in Brunswick, Melbourne. I had no idea that Unplugged was even a thing anymore! Much less, anything this fantastic!

Image result for courtney barnett mtv unplugged
[http://www.courtneybarnett.com.au/]

True to form, Barnett’s set is wide-ranging, interesting and certainly not ‘pedestrian at best.’ There are a couple of performances which can be slotted into the typical laid-back Unplugged sound (complete with cello and subdued band execution), like the rearranged Depreston and Avant Gardener, but the song selection doesn’t shy away from her edgier (but always honest) work, like Nameless Faceless from her last studio album Tell Me How You Really Feel. Which is really, let’s say it, is not your typical crowd-pleaser; but it’s not supposed to be. In that sense, the artistry here is at the same level as Nirvana’s classic MTV Unplugged In New York, (the undisputed champion in the series.)

One of the things I love about Courtney Barnett is that she’s pretty fearless and true to herself. Her interesting song selection here is made richer by the guest artists/friends she generously shares the stage with here – Paul Kelly, Evelyn Ida Morris, Marlon Williams – who are not as well-known on these shores as Courtney is, but whose performances enrich the proceedings immensely. And, there’s a Leonard Cohen song! And a previously unreleased Barnett song!

My weekly Friday listens on Tidal are a great way to “try before I buy.” I’m a firm believer in buying music I’m really invested in, because folks, artists make their money from selling discs (and touring of course) – nobody’s getting rich from streaming revenues. I’m definitely buying this one once it’s released in physical form. Very highly recommended.

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.

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