tunequest

I was digging through a box of cassette tapes here at the tunequest compound and happened upon a handful of bootlegs from my tape trading days back in the 90s. Shows by "alternative" artists like Beck and Weezer early in their careers. Somewhat surprisingly, most of the shows have informative tape jackets, complete with show dates, venues and setlists. But there is one which has no jacket ...

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Growing up, my parents had (and still have actually) an old Victrola record player. It was completely machine operated; no electronics whatsoever. To use it, you had to wind a handle, which tightened a spring. Flipping a switch unwound the spring and started the disc spinning. A needle, of course, translated the record into sounds. Volume was controlled by opening and closing two doors on the ...

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From the archives: I wrote the original version of this article for a newspaper column about 5 years ago. So it reads more like a newspaper column and not so much like a the informal blogginess that's usually found around here. It's from the Records that time forgot series that I hope to revive in 2007. This version corrects a couple awkward sentences and updates the ...

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As promised, I dug up the column I once wrote about the legendary Martin Denny's infamous (and highly collectable) Exotic Moog record (1969). It wasn't until after I wrote this that I learned that Denny didn't actually play any of the music on the record. In a 1997 interview with Cool and Strange Music Magazine, he revealed that Liberty, his record label, took control of the project ...

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At times, i really resent owning a car. Yeah they're convenient necessary for getting around, but with the fueling and maintenance and cleaning and well, effort that goes into having one, there are times when I'd just as soon not have one. (Oh, for a more vibrant public transportation system in metro Atlanta.) Don't get me wrong. I've got a '99 saturn sc2 (aka "the cherry bomb"–it's ...

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Forbidden Planet is a fantastic film and is available on iTunes. So I recently listened to Louis and Bebe Barron's avant garde and experimental score to the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. This soundtrack was one of the handful of Records That Time Forgot columns that I wrote in a previous life. I reprint it here for your reading enjoyment. In 1956, science fiction as we know it ...

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Hum's Downward is Heavenward is a lost gem among rock records in general and 90s rock records especially. Those of you with particularly acute memories might recall that Hum scored a minor US hit in 1995 with the single Stars which is actually one of the weaker songs imho from You'd Prefer an Astronaut. Even so, I really enjoyed that album and, during that year, Hum became ...

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