This is a vinyl reissue of lo-fi home recording genius and underground hero Ariel Pink. These sometimes tuneful lo-fi experiments from a decade ago are interesting and probably very influential but there's no real reason to have them on double 180 gram vinyl given the lo-tech origins of the material.

It was first issued on cassette and CD and that's probably good enough.

 Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice were a couple when they made this REM indebted pop/rock album a few years ago. For all I know they are still a couple. I sure hope so because they make exquisite folk/rock music together, with both sharing guitar and bass playing.

 Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice were a couple when they made this REM indebted pop/rock album a few years ago. For all I know they are still a couple. I sure hope so because they make exquisite folk/rock music together, with both sharing guitar and bass playing.

Henry Saint Clair Fredericks A/K/A Taj Mahal grew up in Harlem, spent time as a teenager on a Massachusetts dairy farm, attended U of M, gigged around and finally headed west and built a musical career first in Los Angeles and later in the Bay area. The life influences come through in his music: a mix of urban and country blues mixed with world music.

What possessed Amanda Palmer to cover Radiohead playing her "magic ukelele"? Who knows? Did this inspire Eddie Vedder to issue a ukelele-based record? What would Arthur Godfrey think of all of this (look him up if you're too young to know who he is)?

None of that matters really, it's just interesting speculating.

You could argue the advisability of naming a sophomore effort Everybody Digs Bill Evans but today it’s clear that everybody in fact does, or still does depending on your feelings about that second album’s title.

Evans is still revered by jazz fans generally and jazz fans who are audiophiles in particular, judging by all of the vinyl reissue action.

Trumpeter Kenny Dorham brought Joe Henderson to Blue Note and on the late tenor saxophonist's second lead album gives him strong support as the two chase each other through some zig-zag bop thickets. "Teeter Totter," the fast-paced Henderson-penned opener alone is worth the price of admission but the other tracks simmer with equal intensity.

The rhythm section of Andrew Hill on piano, Pete La Roca on drums and Eddie Khan on bass push the pacing to Charlie Parkeresque speeds with Hill sometimes assuming  an angular, Monk-like style.

In an indie-rock era saturated with smirky, slacker irony, the roots-rocker Ray La Montagne comes across as downright solemn. He and his group execute cleanly and almost reverentially, funk, blues, jazz and country, which La Montagne sings in a honey coated gruff voice that veers between Joe Cocker and Tim Hardin. The man is sincere and like Tim Hardin, he knows how to move three chord rounds. 

Recorded in glorious mono in 1956 and issued first in 1957, this set of small combo standards with Cole both singing and playing the piano remains as fresh and vital as it did when originally released. 

Cole's transition from jazz pianist to pop crooner irked some old fans so Nat went into the studio and recorded the crisply punctuated small group set with guest artists alto saxist Willie Smith, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, violinist Stuff smith and trombonist Juan Tizol.

Well this is embarrassing: I've played often and enjoyed this excellent sounding reissue featuring L.A. based anglophile singer/songwriter Emitt Rhodes in preparation for this write-up but the record has gotten lost here somewhere.

I've looked and looked but it must be have gotten caught in the center of a gatefold record, or some such thing and I can't find it.