Music Freaks! Here are some books to read this summer.

I haven’t done many book reviews, but just to let you know, I do read! A couple books that I’d like to recommend is “Bumping Into Geniuses: My Life Inside The Rock and Roll Business” by Danny Goldberg and  “Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles,” by Geoff Emerick.

Now both of these books are music related and very intruiging. Bumping Into Geniuses is a really great story of how a young Danny Goldberg broke into the music scene in NYC back when rock and roll music was just starting to become popular. He recounts stories of life on the road with Led Zeppelin as their PR guy as well as manager of Nirvana and Courtney Love. Not to mention, he helped jumpstart Bonnie Raitt’s career, all the while being a record executive and raising a family on his own. Whew!

Here, There and Everywhere is a story from fly on the wall perspective. That fly was Geoff Emerick, who was probably the luckiest kid in London in 1962 to land a low paying, entry level job with the Beatles. Mind you, this was before The Beatles were anything at all – in fact, he tells his stories of the first time he ever heard them and the making of their first album. You learn who was the leader in the group, who was the quietest, who was rude all the time and who hung with the roadies. The stuff that went on in the studio was quite interesting, to say the least and Geoff tells all. From the crazy parties and ridiculous requests for orchestras to Yoko Ono’s bed. And if you’re at all into recording or know something about the recording process, like me, he tells in detail how he miked each album and song – what new and forbidden mike tricks he used to get the sounds from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, and more!

i got a record player!

This past weekend, my boyfriend Andrew and I set out to buy a record player. No, we’re not DJs, we just like music and it sounds a hell of a lot better on a record player. He works at Guitar Center so we checked out a bunch of turntables. Unfortunately buying a turntable brings on the issue of having to buy a mixer to control the volume, speakers, a needle and a bunch of cables to connect everything together.

We settled for this cheap, portable record player and it definitely gets the job done. It was only $50 bucks and it comes with speakers, a volume dial and a case. Although we had some Rockit speakers and they sounds even better. I absolutely love it. Then we headed down to St. Marks and picked up a bunch of used records for like $5 each! What a great deal!! (Except Herbie Hancock – that was only $3… !)

Record Players…. are the new CDs.

Record Players are making a comeback. Ok, so maybe that’s just in my world. I have no aspiration to become a famous DJ, but I just love the sound of a good ‘ol record player. I can’t wait to start my collection. Here’s a great record player that I found…. but then again I’m still deciding if I should get the all-inclusive one or get a turn table with some badass sounding speakers from Guitar Center…. any suggestions?

This particular model is by Crosley and it goes for about $150, but it includes a USB cord so you can rip your records to your computerl…. sweet!

Record Players are my friends

I have been so fickle as to what I want for my bday. Really, there are a lot of things that I do want. But now I think I want this record player. I went to Guitar Center in Union Square the other day and I looked at a bunch of different record players. I like this one. Stanton T.60x.  The only thing is that I’d have to get speakers, cables, a mixer, etc etc and it’s going to cost a fortune. I could get the ones with built in speakers, but I want to be able to blast my records. And NOTHING beats the sound of a clear crisp record player, right???

What I’m listening to right now: Augustana

One of my favorite bands (I’ve seen them 6 times live) is Augustana. I used to work at their record label when they got signed so I’ve been a fan since there were only 4. Now that their sophomore album (Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt) is out, I had to buy it on itunes and needless to say, it’s growing on me. It showcases more vocals than the first one and it’s got a lot of piano. A good buy, I must say. So if you’re in the market for some rock music infused with soulful lyrics and catchy phrases, pick up this album.

*Listen to “Sweet and Low” and “Fire”… awesome songs.