Post what you're listening to!

I have about 100 CDs uploaded to the navigation system in my car. For the most part I just let them run one right after the other. This thread caught me just as Clapton switched to Carole King. Coming up is Johnny Cash then Pink Floyd.
MULLY
 
I just got a Carole King record the other day.  I was bummed though cause it had a scratch on it right in the middle of It's Too Late.  That's what I get for 50 cents at a garage sale though. 
 
hannaugh said:
I like Piers Faccini.  :icon_thumright:
Click to expand...

Wow. You're the first person I've encountered who knows who he is. My girlfriend and I have been listening to "Two Grains of Sand" a lot at home lately. He and Adam Cohen are frequent dinner companions.  :laughing7:
 
hannaugh said:
I just got a Carole King record the other day.  I was bummed though cause it had a scratch on it right in the middle of It's Too Late.  That's what I get for 50 cents at a garage sale though. 
Click to expand...

Carole King is one of my guilty pleasures.

Buy a CD player, fer crissakes! The frequency response, dynamic range, separation, longevity, lack of flaws, form factor, on and on ad infinitum is so much better than vinyl that it's not even worth discussing. Hell, even MP3s are better than vinyl, and they're pitiful.

Actually, what you want are FLAC files, but OGG/Vorbis is good, too. FLAC files are lossless, but smaller than WAV files. OGG/Vorbis files are even smaller, but they're lossy, although it's unlikely you'd notice. MP3 files can sound good, but it's rare. Depends on how they're recorded and the reproduction equipment. The crummier it is, the better they seem to sound. Depends on what you're used to or trained to listen for.
 
But Cagey, what about the crackle? The hiss? The ambiance (AHM-bee-ahnce) of vinyl? I'm told these things are important.  :icon_biggrin:
 
I do a little over an hour 1-way to and from work each day, so my Navi is filled a lot like Mully's. Carol is #15 in the rotation!  :icon_biggrin:
Also got some SRV, Rush, Knopfler, ZZ Top, Steppenwolf and CCR. Included a little newer stuff too like Dream Theater, Hobastank, Creed and some local stuff like Hotei (Complex) and Yoshida Tamio, and then there is my slightly more obscure stuff like Montrose, Bravebelt, Wishbone Ash, Hawkwind and of course Hank Williams.  :guitaristgif: :rock-on:
There is far too much to list, but I'll sometimes rotate 1 or 2 of the old blues legends into the mix like Django Reinhardt, Tampa Red or most recently Freddy King.  :guitarplayer2:
 
Mmm... Montrose. Good ol' Ronnie. Me and a buddy of mine spent a great deal of time playing his stuff. Like Black Sabbath then and AC/DC later, it was not complex, but it was great fun and everybody enjoyed it. Good dope-smoking head-banging grunge before grunge was a category. If you were a fan, you probably already know he died last year. But, at 64 years old he outlasted a lot of artists of the era.
 
Yep, Montrose committed suicide last year. It's a pretty sad story.

From Wikipedia:

On March 3, 2012, Ronnie Montrose took his own life. The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office released a report on April 6 that confirmed the guitarist died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Montrose did not leave a suicide note.[8]

Montrose had a difficult life that led him to be very self-critical and may have contributed to his long-term alcoholism. The toxicology reported a blood-alcohol level of 0.31 % (four times the legal limit in California) at the time of death. In early 2012, the deaths of his uncle and Lola (his beloved bulldog, whose companionship helped him cope with his cancer recovery) contributed to depression.[8]

On the morning of March 3, 2012 at 11:01 A.M., a series of text messages with his wife Leighsa preceded the suicide:

"...I have the .38 in my hand and am ready to go."
"I’m so sorry. Still have the gun in my hand. I’m going on that voyage. I love you beyond measure."
At this point Leighsa called Ronnie and asked him to come to her location. He agreed. After a few minutes, Leighsa decided to not wait and go to Ronnie, but noticed another text on her phone.

"I can’t. I’ve got the gun to my head."
Leighsa rushed home with her mother, where they found Ronnie Montrose dead in his living room. He was pronounced dead at noon
 
Cagey said:
hannaugh said:
I just got a Carole King record the other day.  I was bummed though cause it had a scratch on it right in the middle of It's Too Late.  That's what I get for 50 cents at a garage sale though. 
Click to expand...

Carole King is one of my guilty pleasures.

Buy a CD player, fer crissakes! The frequency response, dynamic range, separation, longevity, lack of flaws, form factor, on and on ad infinitum is so much better than vinyl that it's not even worth discussing. Hell, even MP3s are better than vinyl, and they're pitiful.

Actually, what you want are FLAC files, but OGG/Vorbis is good, too. FLAC files are lossless, but smaller than WAV files. OGG/Vorbis files are even smaller, but they're lossy, although it's unlikely you'd notice. MP3 files can sound good, but it's rare. Depends on how they're recorded and the reproduction equipment. The crummier it is, the better they seem to sound. Depends on what you're used to or trained to listen for.
Click to expand...

This is like telling my husband that a Kindle is better than a book.  He'd fight you with fists. 

I have it all on cd and mp3 in addition to my records.  Records are more fun to me, and I like the sound.  It's not perfect, and that's part of it.  It's like a ritual.  I put the record player on when I'm working in the studio.  I have to hear the whole side before I leave the room for some reason, I just have to.  It's something I remember doing with my mom's records as a kid.  I listened to CCR's Willy & the Poor Boys like 50 million times when I was 8 or 9 and I still have the record.  Plus I love album art, and it's a lot bigger on a record sleeve. 

And nowadays if you buy a cd, it loses most of it's value the minute you open the plastic.  If you buy a new record, however, most of them come with a free mp3 download, and if you decide you want to sell the record, it will still be worth close to what you paid for it if it is in good shape.  And you get to keep your download.  Win-win, it's just a better investment, as long as you take good care of it. 
 
hannaugh said:
This is like telling my husband that a Kindle is better than a book.  He'd fight you with fists. 
Click to expand...

Hehe! No doubt. There are definitely still some people left out there who think vinyl albums sound better than CDs, and are quite vehement about it. They'll even spend many thousands of dollars on the gear to play them. That's fine. I've been there, and so am sympathetic. But, as long as I don't have to deal with vinyl today, I don't care what anybody else does. If somebody prefers dogfood to cheesecake, who am I to argue? It's all food.

I do agree about the "ritual" of the whole thing, though. I remember that myself. Getting out the album, making sure it's clean and clear, setting it up, cueing it up and sitting back to listen to it while you absorbed the album art yet again. You don't get any of that any more. There's no anticipation or satisfaction in proper equipment operation.
 
The advent of the CD spelled the death warrant for meaningful album cover art.  Plus liner notes.  A medium was crippled.


With the arrival of digital delivery methods, even the half-assed job CD's managed to do of it is shot to shite.


Now, THAT is the true tragedy as far as I'm concerned.
 
I remember early on they tried to carry on the cover art/liner notes thing, using multi-panel foldouts in the jewel case. But, that went by the wayside pretty fast. I do miss all that. For instance, who does stuff like Frank Zappa's Overnite Sensation anymore?

Frank-Zappa_Overnite-Sensation_Sm.jpg
 
When CDs were in their infancy, before those 100 disc changers, and before those few months when people only had CD players in homes and not cars, and you recorded CDs onto blank tapes, some of that ritual existed.  My first CD player I still have.  It's a Kenwood from the 80s and was a component piece that played through the tuner like the record player.  It was even on the shelf next to it.  You picked out the jewel case, put in the CD, took out the liner, looked at artwork, saw which band member wrote which song.  Some bands with 2 lead players even went so far as to credit who did which lead and you would rewind to listen to each one and pick a favorite style.  It's why I like Frank Hannon more than Tommy Skeoch.
 
I had a Technics component unit back in the '80s that I loved. Best feature was a loop function. You'd nail the loop button at some start point, then hit it again at some end point, and it would repeat the section during that elapsed time until you told it to stop or continue past the end point. It was great for learning how to play guitar parts, or having a rhythm loop to play a part against until you got it right. Outside of a computer, I've never seen that feature on a player since.
 
John St. Jelly said:
Interesting argument. I've never heard anyone refer to a vinyl LP as an investment before.
Click to expand...

I bought a limited edition vinyl set about 4 months ago.  It has gone up in value by $40-$80 since I got it, according to ebay sales.  Vinyl is a really hot collector's item right now.  I know a guy who has a mint unopened first pressing of Led Zeppelin II.  It's worth around $900.  Or say you bought Townes Van Zandt's records when they first came out and kept them in good shape.  They're worth between $50 and $150 per record. 

But yeah it really is all about the nostalgia and the ritual of listening to an entire album start to finish, getting the player ready, looking at the cover and the notes.  You just don't get that with any other medium, not like it is with records.  I love when you get a new record and play it for the first time, especially if it's an album you've heard a million times on cd or mp3.  It's almost like hearing it for the first time again because it sounds so different, but also because you really feel like you should pay attention and listen to the whole thing because it's spinning on the turntable.  And then there are the weird little 45s they sell at shows.  I love those.  My favorite thing to listen to is a 45 single I got for $4 at a show.  I'm pretty sure that was the only way you could get the songs on it.

The thing that makes me really sad about the mp3 revolution is that people don't focus on whole albums anymore.  They buy one or two songs, or they shuffle some songs into a big playlist.  All my favorite bands have at least one or two albums where the whole thing is good because of how the songs fit together - that is an art in itself.  Most of my students at the high school never listen to music with that in mind. 
 
I was never a record collector but I did buy albums because I like music. I've got a few that are worth a little now. I have the original Appetite for Destruction rape scene cover. I saw one of those going for over a thousand dollars at a shop here. I also have, sit down.....Hearing Aid "Stars". I'm pretty sure I have a Quiet Riot with Randy Rhodes album up there somewhere and I have the first 2 Metallica albums on MegaForce records. I think Motley's Leathur release is in there somewhere too. All of these are in total Mint condition as I am super anal on taking care of stuff. Possible the albums could have warped, haven't looked at them in decades.
MULLY
 
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