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Album Reviews
Frank Still Lonely After All These Years
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2009  |  0 comments

One of the first “concept” albums, Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely invited listeners back in 1958 to pull up a chair and share the singer’s misery exquisitely expressed in a carefully collected set of tunes given sensitive, sumptuous backdrops by the late, great Nelson Riddle.

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Features
New Orleans Culture at a Tipping Point Part 1
Roger Hahn  |  Jun 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
On Saturday morning, April 26, 2008 an overcast and moderately humid day in New Orleans, a small group of neighborhood kids organized an impromptu 'jazz funeral' to commemorate the recent death of a loved and respected local track coach.
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Features
New Orleans Culture at a Tipping Point Part 2
Roger Hahn  |  Jun 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments

New Orleans' second-line parade culture and Mardi Gras Indian culture share a number of attributes.


Both emerged as casually formalized neighborhood practices in the post-Reconstruction decades of the late 19th-century, with Indian imagery likely influenced around that time by the popularity in the U.S. of traveling 'Wild West' shows.

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Features
New Orleans Culture at a Tipping Point Part 3
Roger Hahn  |  Jun 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
While the corruption-and-reform message that would dominate post-Katrina rebuilding was being crafted in the arena of national politics—delivered through the combined strategies of federal inaction and rabid crime enforcement—the tourism industry in New Orleans emerged as the second gatekeeper of post-Katrina message delivery, energized by a void of local political leadership.
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Features
New Orleans Culture at a Tipping point Part 4
Roger Hahn  |  Jun 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
This is part 4 of Roger Hahn's epic musical and cultural look at New Orleans, post Hurricane Katrina. Parts 1 through 3 have been on musicangle's home page since this past summer. The final and fifth part of the piece can also be found on the current home page. Parts 1-3 are available by searching the musicangle site—ed.
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Features
New Orleans Culture at a Tipping Point Part 5
Roger Hahn  |  Jun 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  2 comments

This is the 5th and final part of Roger Hahn's "New Orleans Culture at a Tipping Point." Part 4 is on the home page. You can find Parts 1-3 elsewhere here by searching the site—ed.

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News
Pixie's Collector's Set Bets Packaged Media Lives (And How!)
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 15, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  1 comments
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Turntable ReviewsTonearm Reviews
SME Model 20/12 turntable & 312S tonearm
Michael Fremer  |  May 15, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments
Much has happened in the analog world since I reviewed SME's flagship Model 30/2 turntable for the March 2003 Stereophile (footnote 1). Back then, spending $25,000 on a turntable (without tonearm) was an odd extravagance intended only for those seriously committed to the format, and who already owned large LP collections. Although new LPs were being pressed in growing numbers, the resurgence of vinyl was still spotty, and the long-term prognosis for the old medium remained in question.
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Interviews
Climbing "The Wall of Sound" With Gold Star Recording Studios Co-Founder Stan Ross
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments

Back in the 1950’s, with major labels like Capitol, RCA and Columbia owning their own Los Angeles recording complexes, small, independent recording concerns were left to pick up the scraps: voice-overs, song demos, commercial jingles and other small-time bookings.

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Interviews
Climbing "The Wall of Sound" With Gold Star Recording Studios Co-Founder Stan Ross—Part 2
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2009  |  First Published: Dec 31, 1969  |  0 comments

Part II:Building Gold Star Studios, Phil Spector and Alvin & The Chipmunks Come to Play:

FREMER: Where did you get all this (recording)stuff?

ROSS: We bought the parts. There were no recording consoles available. We had a broadcast console that was available to us. It was a stereo console because one channel was for cuing and the right was for the air. It was gorgeous. A guy had this wonderful board with the colored knobs and [it was] just what we wanted. And so we got it for a good price and I said, ah, we got the console.

FREMER: So you had to make an investment. So you had to have savings? You borrowed?

ROSS: We borrowed the difference, whatever. Hey, I wasn’t a GI so I had a problem. Anyway, we found out that this console was hot. [LAUGHTER]

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