3 'n the Mornin' Part Two [MF's haunt]

Hey friendos. It's been a while. How's it going?


Lot going on in my life right now. Some good, some not so good. I'll post more about that stuff when the time comes, assuming ppl are curious.

Sooo. What's going on in the world of audio?

HiFiMan Edition 6 and Shangri-La? Sonoma Model One? New Abyss Phi worth the upgrade? Stax T8000?

Seems I've missed a lot. Or maybe not??

 

Thanks for the warm welcomes, time and again. I really do appreciate it.

Heading back from the Oncologist's today, "it doesn't really look like cancer" kept looping in my head as I listened to Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool. Playing that album is a ritual of mine. Just like wearing my Astros jersey I consider lucky for some only vaguely known reason each time. Just like popping several Ativan too many before making the trip from the passenger's side.

Eight weeks ago a "suspicious looking area" turned up on my scans. It looked like obvious mechanical damage from my upper teeth---their positions in the upper eschalon becoming somewhat crooked, influenced no doubt from the rising denta-politico pressures surrounding the open tracts of irradiated gumlands available now just bellow, for digging rights or whatever anthropomorphic teeth strive to attain nowadays. You could clearly see the indentations and chewed up tissue left behind.

Long story made longer still: some of this chewed up skin---part of the graft itself---had grown, "likely because of granulation" the plastic surgery camp suggested. That's what we're all hoping for, at any rate. Granulation. Excess scar tissue. Some kind of benign, punduculated thingamajig. Certainly not the alternative: the dread c-word's return.

I've got a whole week to obsess about that, as everyone at the oncology office is off on vacation.

 

Musically? So much great stuff came out this year and is still set to be released.

I'm hyped for the new Mogwai and GY!BE the most right now, personally.

 

Hoping and praying for the best MF.

 

i really enjoyed the new Slowdive as well.

Thus far I've been digging, off the top of my head:
Arca
Beach Fossils
the new Bing & Ruth
Boris - Dear
Broken Social Scene - Hug of Thunder
Com Truise - Iteration
Death Grips - Steroids
Floating Points - Reflections Mohave Desert
Forest Swords - Compassion
Gas - Narkopop
Girl-Pool - Powerplant
the new Grails
the new Impetuous Ritual
Intrusion - Amongst the Stars
the new Kendrick Lamar
the new King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (both!)
Laurel Halo - Dust
the new Loss
the new Mac Demarco
Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me
the new Mountain Goats
the new Night Bringer
Nite Jewel - Real High
the new Ravonettes
Toro y Moi - Boo Boo
new Ulver
new Vince Staples
Washed Out - Mister Mellow
new Wavves
new Why?


There's a buncha stuff I'm looking forward to still to come!
New Death Grips
Ufomammut
Mogwai
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Chelsea Wolfe
Sannhet
Ariel Pink
Saicobab
Arcade Fire
The National
Deerhoof
Melvins
Queens of the Stoneage
Grizzley Bear
Melvins
Four Tet
Tyler, the Creator
Hundred Waters
Arsis
Radius
Shorelights

 

I mostly use the Westone W80 when I'm on the go.

Came away from the new HiFiMan stuff thoroughly impressed. Aside from, like, the price of everything.

 

Yeah, likewise with the latest Mount Eerie. My hands shake just holding the damn thing.

Can't speak for others, but I find the majority of "post-rock" to be too formulaic and same-y from one release to the next. I do find GY!BE by contrast just have a knack for interesting compositions, while Mogwai only occasionally goes into full on post-rock cliché mode. I feel like the latter incorporates elements of shoegaze and synth pop, not to mention a cornucopia of rock styles: sludge, noise, indie, angular math riffs, etc.

Plus they still come up with some of the best song titles out there.