(from the It's better when it's freshly roasted department)
Hi everyone,
Dana, Rose & I attended the grand opening of the first Starbucks Reserve Roastery & Tasting Room. I saw the announcement that this one of a kind Roastery was opening up on Capitol Hill in Seattle today, so, with the promise of lunch, I bundled the family in the car, and we went on down.
Located in an old car dealership building, the entrance is quite impressive:
Inside, there are no green aprons to be seen. The Roastery uses a different color scheme - more like a khaki. The place was packed - so Dana, Rose & I sat down at the Tom Douglas "Serious Pie" restaurant inside, and watched the people mill about:
After we placed our order for lunch - pizza, of course! - I walked around the space and snapped a few photos. First up, the merchandise - those are custom glassybabies:
Down below is a classroom area and you can also see the large batch roaster just off to the right. The large batch roaster is the main production line for Reserve coffee. This coffee is not sold in-store, but is vacuum sealed, boxed up and shipped around the world:
There's also an upper coffee bar with pour over stations, clover machines and all sorts of other coffee makers. Note the pipes sending coffee beans from the small batch reserve area of the roastery to the coffee bar:
Coffee holding tanks for the upper, small batch roaster:
Another shot of the large roaster down below. You can just see the coffee library behind it - it's the large glass-walled room with the bags of coffee lining the walls:
The upper coffee bar, including the coffee bean pipes and the baristas with the khaki aprons:
I wandered over to get a closer look at the small batch roaster:
Here's a very quick clip of the small batch roaster in action:
And the finished product - ready to buy fresh from the roaster:
NOTE: The master roaster at the large batch roaster downstairs recommended letting the small batch roast age at least 8 days before brewing. It allows for the beans to out-gas properly and increases the flavor.
Finally - our pizza arrived. In a word - YUM!
And that was our coffee roasting/pizza eating adventure. We had a great time, and it was fun to talk coffee with everyone there.
If you're into coffee, I definitely recommend stopping by!
Now what follows is not a step by step guide - but my quick cheat notes for a Windows 7 system. Follow at your own discretion:
Navigate to your Exact Audio Copy installation directory and create a Nero folder (e.g. C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Nero)
Open the NeroAACCodec-1.5.1.zip file, and navigate to the win32 folder.
Extract the three files - neroAacDec.exe, neroAacEnc.exe & neroAacTag.exe - from the win32 folder and place them in your newly created Nero folder.
Start Exact Audio Copy - making sure that you're in advanced mode
In the resultant program window, from the EAC menu, select Compression Options...
You'll want to set the following:
Check "Use external program for compression"
Set Parameter passing scheme to "User Defined Encoder"
Set Use file extension to .mp4
Set the Program, including path, used for compression to the location of your cmd.exe (e.g. C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe)
Set the Additional command-line options to the following: /c ""c:\program files\exact audio copy\nero\neroaacenc.exe" -br %bitrate%000 -if %source% -of %dest% && "C:\program files\exact audio copy\nero\neroaactag.exe" %dest% -meta:artist="%albumartist%" -meta:album="%albumtitle%" -meta:track="%tracknr%" -meta:title="%title%" -meta:genre="%genre%" -meta:totaltracks="%numtracks%" -meta:disc="%cdnumber%" -meta:composer="%composer%" -meta:totaldiscs="%totalcds%" -meta:year="%year%" -add-cover:front:%coverfile%"
Set Bit rate to whatever you prefer - (e.g. 128 kBit/s)
Check Delete WAV after compression
Uncheck Use CRC check
Uncheck Add ID3 tag
Check Check for external programs return code
Select the High quality radio button
Click OK to close the Compression options dialog box.
So the way this works is that it ties two of the Nero programs together - the Encoder and the Tagger - by launching them from the Windows Command shell. The number of " in the additional command-line options are important - don't omit them or it won't work.
The good news is that this does fill in the album art and a fair amount of metadata. I don't like lyrics in my audio files, so I didn't implement them, although the Nero Tagger supports it. You can adjust the bit rate via the pulldown in the Compression Options... menu - the script interprets the variables correctly - but the MP4s will be Variable Bit Rate (VBR) not Constant Bit Rate (CBR), so they won't match exactly.
As I've mentioned before - I'm a huge fan of the Shoegazer movement. One of the first Shoegazer releases I ever heard was the Mad Love EP by Lush.
Lush was a relatively young band signed to the prestigious 4AD music label. Their initial mini-album - Scar - was kind of punky - but their follow-up - Mad Love - found them working with the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie who moved them firmly into Shoegaze territory with a wall of swirling guitars, buried vocals and dense layers of sound.
After a follow-up album with Guthrie - entitled Spooky - they moved away from their signature sound and became one of the forerunners in the Britpop movement with their final two albums, Split and Lovelife.
Sadly, Lovelife was to be their last album, due to the tragic loss of one of the founding members of the band.
If you haven't heard Lush before, I think Mad Love is a perfect place to start. If you like what you hear, then dive into the rest of their catalog.
NOTE: 4AD put together an American compilation album of Lush's first three releases entitled Gala. The Gala collection includes the Sweetness & Light, Mad Love and Scar EPs/Mini-albums, plus bonus tracks. If you still collect physical media (i.e. CDs) this is the easiest way to get their initial EPs stateside. I recommend it highly.
Give this a spin and let me know what you think. Comments are always welcome.
After spending some time with Dana's mom in Winston-Salem, we headed to Sunset Beach on the coast. On the way there, we saw some amazing sunsets:
After our arrival at Sunset Beach, I found the perfect spot for my brother just a few miles away in South Carolina:
Donuts, Ice Cream, Fireworks,
and there's a Waffle House in the background
Rare shot of Dana entering a Dunkin' Donuts
David, Rena, and the cousins Alan, Amy & Eric flew in to join us. The next day, we caught a ferry and headed to the Fort Fisher Aquarium, where we were joined by Dana's brother Nick:
One of the few moments Rose stopped running around the ferry
The whole gang at the aquarium - with butterflies!
Rose gets a little crabby
After we visited the aquarium, we headed to the boardwalk at Carolina Beach, to visit one of the finest donut shops in existance: Britt's Donuts
They only make one type of donut - glazed - but it's amazing.
In an Ideal Deal Copy Blog exclusive, here's the masters at work:
Sunset on the ferry back
Dave, Rena and the cousins got to spend a few days at the beach with us. Here's the cousins interacting:
(from L to R, Eric, Rose, Amy & Alan)
Amy caught me taking pictures
Dave joins them - how did Eric's shirt change?
Rena catches up with the outside world
Next, we went to Calabash, NC to get some seafood:
Rose runs from the shrimp
Fresh from the boat!
While we were there, on July 3rd, Hurricane Arthur passed close by. We got a chance to see it:
Luckily, it was long gone by July 4th, and we had a great day grilling and visiting with Dana's friends. Finally, on July 5th, Dana, Nick, Rose and I got ice cream at the Calabash Creamery. Good stuff!
Now - there's two things you should know about my musical tastes. Number 1 - I love Shoegazing bands. Shoegazing was a musical genre that started in the 1980's or so - and hit its apex in 1991 with bands like My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Lush, and Catherine Wheel. Shoegazing was known for its dense wall of complex guitar sounds that required many foot pedal effects, forcing the guitarists to stand fairly still, and concentrate on their feet, hence the term "Shoegazing". (Wikipedia has a great entry on the genre.)
The second thing in my musical tastes is Swervedriver. Although nominally a Shoegazing band, they also had a fondness for Detroit punk (Stooges, MC5) that added an aggressiveness to their sound that most of their psychedelic brethren in the music scene lacked. Sadly - they also had one of the worst runs of luck of any major label band, so most of their work comfortably fits in Flashback Friday. I'm sure I'll be covering all of their four albums eventually, so let's start with their first release, Raise.
Originally begun as a series of EPs, the band collected them together, recorded some new material, and called the resultant album "Raise". Even though the songs were recorded at different times, it sounds remarkably uniform and works as a coherent statement from the band. Continuing with the Detroit fascination, many of the songs are about cars and driving. Highlights include Son Of Mustang Ford, Rave Down, Feels So Real, and Sandblasted. Think dense melodic guitar rock, in the vein of Dinosaur Jr. or Neil Young - but with a denser, fuzzier wall of sound - and you won't be far off the mark.
Although well regarded at the time, their run of bad luck also started right after the album's release; during a North American tour, while the band was waiting to enter Canada, the drummer left the tour bus to "get a sandwich" and never returned. When he was finally located, he would only speak to one of the band members, and stated he wanted out of the band. Their bass player quit shortly thereafter, leaving just two members to decide the band's fate. (To be continued...)
Give this a spin and see what you think. Comments always welcome.
Finally - a Flashback Friday Album that isn't quite so obscure. Chances are you may have heard some songs off this one - especially if you were a fan of the TV show The O.C.
In the season two finale, Imogen's "Hide and Seek" was used to punctuate the ending scene. This was later parodied on SNL as one of their Digital Shorts - Dear Sister - which is where I first heard the track.
Following an appearance by Imogen live on David Letterman, I decided to get a couple of her albums. Her work is very good - but this record is really special.
Written, produced, arranged, and funded by Imogen herself, it was the first record where she really explored the sonic textures and songwriting that would become her hallmark.
Musically the album ranges from the spare vocalizer sonics of "Hide And Seek", to the full-on guitar rock of "Daylight Robbery". In-between, Imogen detours into quiet strength with the song "Have You Got It In You?", gets Jeff Beck to contribute a solo to the upbeat "Goodnight and Go", and finishes with the jaw-droppingly stunning "The Moment I Said It".
Her other albums, like Ellipse, her latest solo release; or Details, recorded with Guy Sigsworth under the moniker Frou Frou; are also worthy of investigation. But Speak For Yourself is a great place to start.
Give it a listen and let me know what you think below.
In 1983, in my senior year in high school, my super hip musical friend started raving about an album he had purchased by a band from Athens, Georgia. We looked at the cover and tried to figure it out - but it was impenetrable, covered in kudzu - much like the music inside. The vocalist was mixed deep into the backing track, at the same volume as the rest of the instruments - plus he mumbled with no lyric sheets. We listened to the record over and over again - marveling at the chiming guitars, the atypical for the 80's thin drum sounds (remember "In The Air Tonight"?) and the overall unique production of the record. The band was R.E.M., and the album was Murmur.
We discovered that there were many more bands in the Athens, Georgia area and the surrounding college towns that we liked. In fact, they had given a name to this musical movement: "The New South". New South bands included Pylon, Guadalcanal Diary, The B-52s, Oh-OK, The dBs, and Fetchin Bones. Many of these artists recorded at a converted car garage in Winston-Salem, NC - Drive-In Studios - and were engineered and produced by the garage's owner, Mitch Easter.
Mitch was also the leader of a band called Let's Active. A power-pop trio, their first EP Afoot, and their first LP Cypress are considered landmarks in the New South genre (and are sadly out of print). However, lack of national success and interpersonal squabbles derailed them, and they disbanded, leaving Mitch the solo member. Working mostly by himself, with the help of a few close friends, he recorded Big Plans For Everybody.
This is an amazing album - especially if you're into guitar sounds. The lyrics are a little twisted - and nobody quite knows what all of them are, since Mitch hated the whole "Stevie Nicks" vibe of printing lyrics in records. I think there's a lot in there about the band breakup and his own difficulties in handling the situation.
NOTE: This album was sequenced for vinyl - there's a natural break that occurs between track 6 & 7. In addition, this version contains two worthy bonus tracks - 12 & 13.
Mitch would go on to make one more Let's Active album - Every Dog Has His Day - before giving up and moving on to concentrate on album production. His later work with the California band Game Theory is considered to be some of the finest in rock - but that's a story for another time.
So calibrate your music dials to "power pop with a slight jangle" and give this a listen. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Also if you want to find out more about other bands from that time period, the documentary Athens GA: Inside/Out covers the whole scene pretty well.
In 1998, one of the strangest Animes ever produced was released: "Serial Experiments Lain". A description of this anime is beyond the scope of this flashback, so I'll just point you at the Wikipedia page if you're interested: Serial Experiments Lain.
Anyone who saw an episode of the show was immediately struck by the haunting opening theme "Duvet" by a band called Bôa.
It turns out that Bôa was actually a British band, formed by Steve & Jasmine Rodgers - the son and daughter of legendary rock singer Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, The Firm, etc.). The song Duvet was from their debut album "The Race Of A Thousand Camels", released on the small Japanese label Polystar.
Due to the popularity of the anime, Bôa was subsequently signed to Pioneer, and re-released their debut album under the name Twilight. It was about this time that I struck up a friendship with them on their on-line message board. Eventually, I traveled to England to meet them, and catch one of their shows. (Yeah - I know - I was young with a surplus of disposable income).
Live - they were amazing. They played selections from Twilight and a bunch of new songs. Sadly, they were dropped from their label, but - they did eventually record the new songs and released the album themselves. This is the record "Get There". You can hear it here: Get There by Bôa (Xbox Music)
Considering the relative youth of the band members, this is a very mature record. Highlights include Courage, Daylight, America & (especially) Passport.
Sadly - this was to be their last record. Luckily, both Steve & Jasmine have started solo careers and their work is excellent. Check out their work on Amazon/iTunes/Xbox Music.
So - give this a spin, and let me know what you think. P.S. Don't laugh - but here's a photograph of me at the show. That's me in the center. From left to right: Lee Sullivan, Jasmine Rodgers, me, Steve Rodgers, Alex Caird. This was taken around 2000 or so.
In 2003 New Order started recording what would turn out to
be their final album: Waiting For The Siren's Call.It took over a year to record and at least
£700,000 in production costs.
During these torturous recording sessions, they started
recording new material during off moments.They completed 7 songs, which they were going to hold for the next
record.However - long simmering
tensions built up and the band split apart in 2007.
It took 9 years, but the 7 new tracks plus a remix of one of
the original songs were released as the album Lost Sirens in 2013.
This album is well worth the wait.While many of the tracks on Waiting For The
Siren's Call seem overly fussed over, the relative spontaneity of these tracks
make them seem fresh and memorable.Plus
- the stripped down remix of "I Told You So" brings the song out from
underneath the gloss of the original mix, and fits in nicely with the other
tracks.
In the meantime, New Order have reformed without "lead
bass" player/founding member Peter Hook and are touring the US this
summer.Peter is also touring - with his
son - playing New Order and Joy Division classics.
Give Lost Sirens a spin, and let me know what you think in
the comments below.
Also - if you want to compare/contrast, the parent album is
also available on Xbox Music.
In 1974 or so, Kate Bush, a shy, retiring 16 year old schoolgirl, managed to get a demo tape to David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. He was stunned that there were over 50 songs of exceptionally high quality on her demo. Paying for a proper studio recording of three of the songs out of his own pocket, he got her signed to EMI records.
A few years later, after she turned 19, she entered the studio to record her first album. She had spent the intervening years studying movement and dance, while continuing to write and perform idiosyncratic songs. At this point, she had over 200 compositions to choose from. Her debut album, “The Kick Inside”, featuring the single “Wuthering Heights” was released to general acclaim and success, but a large part of her career – mostly record production – was out of her control.
In 1982, after a couple of modestly successful follow-up albums, she finally gained control of the producer’s chair and released an album that was her vision from start to finish: The Dreaming.
Fair warning: This is a “difficult” album, but you can get your head around it if you spin it a few times. Kate had become intrigued with the compositional possibilities of the Fairlight CMI sampler and built most of the album around it. Also – she had moved beyond the singer/songwriter style of the time and was exploring more dramatic cinematic storytelling with her songs. Topics on this album include failed bank robbery attempts, driving in the Australian outback, the life of Harry Houdini, and the paranoia of the suburban homeowner, among other things. She also was experimenting with alternative vocalizations – shrieks, groans, backward vocals – all processed through the Fairlight. This can be off-putting to the first time listener, but patience is rewarding, since there’s nothing quite like it in modern music. The album is roughly divided into two movements, split right where the vinyl album break would be.
After this record, Kate moved back to a more general pop direction, and released Hounds of Love, which became the biggest selling record of her career. However, Hounds of Love’s cinematic sweep would not have been possible without The Dreaming, which most people still haven’t heard, due to its reputation. So – give it a spin and see what you think.
So - it's 1971 or so. The Yardbirds, which featured three of the finest guitarists in rock - Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page - have broken up. Jimmy Page is regrouping as the New Yardbirds with John Paul Jones, and a pair of unknowns - Robert Plant and John Bonham. Jeff Beck has formed his own version of the Yardbirds with an unknown Rod Stewart and Ron Wood. While Jimmy Page's group would go on to become Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck's group would record two amazing albums - Truth and Beck-ola - and disband.
Meanwhile, one of England's beloved psychedelic bands - The Small Faces - were having issues of their own. They had just disbanded after losing their founding guitarist/vocalist and were trying to figure out what to do. Somehow they hooked up with the remnants of the failed Jeff Beck group and became the Faces. (Possibly over a shared love of alcohol - Faces live performances were notorious for including a real bartender on-stage!)
Although their first couple of albums were tentative, their live shows were anything but. It wasn't until their 3rd album - A Nod Is As Good As A Wink... To A Blind Horse - that they really captured their live sound on vinyl. If you only know Rod Stewart from his 80's mega hits, you'll be pleasantly surprised here. Rod wasn't the only vocalist - Ronnie Lane provides a nice counterpoint to Rod's vocals. This album is pretty much a winner from start to finish - a "ragged but right" album. You can hear echos of this record in many of the bands influenced by the Faces: The Replacements, Guns N' Roses, The Black Crowes, and Pearl Jam.
Sadly, the increasing popularity of Rod Stewart's concurrent solo albums - especially a song called "Maggie May", which featured members of the Faces - overshadowed the rest of the band, and they fell apart soon after this album was released, bowing out with one final album "Ooh la la".
So - grab a beverage, give this a spin, and let me know what you think in the comments below.
And now – a band most of you have probably never heard of. But first – a quick detour into history courtesy of the Beastie Boys.
In 1992, at the height of their popularity, the Beastie Boys set up a vanity record label called Grand Royal. Grand Royal had an eclectic roster of artists, including Sean Lennon, Luscious Jackson, Money Mark, At The Drive-In, Bran Van 3000 and many more.
One of my favorite releases of theirs was 1998’s “New Rock” by a Japanese band called Buffalo Daughter. This group consisted of a guitar player/vocalist (suGar), a bass player/keyboardist (Yumiko) and a turntablist/graphic designer (MoOog), augmented by a drummer and other musicians.
According to Wikipedia: Buffalo Daughter [are] considered to be the linchpin of the so-called “cut-and-paste” rock Shibuya-kei movement from Japan. Other Shibuya-kei bands include Pizzicato Five and Cibo Matto. (I was initially going to write about Cibo Matto, since they have a new album out, but my favorite release of theirs isn’t available for streaming. I’ll pick another one of their records soon, possibly the new one if I can get my head wrapped around it.)
That’s a good starting point for this record – cut and paste. Sometimes this record sounds like a ‘60s lounge album, sometimes it sounds like a broken sampler, and other times, it sounds like a lost German progressive Krautrock album. It’s these progressive songs – where they downplay the sampling and stretch out a little – that really make the record for me. Check out my favorite song “Sky High” – track 12 – to see what I mean. Other highlights for me include the long workouts “Super Blooper” and “Autobacs”.
Anyway – travel back to the New York music scene in 1998, give this record a spin and see what you think.
We took a family trip to the San Juans last weekend. Dana got a great deal at a place called the Outlook Inn in Eastsound, WA located on Orcas Island. I have been to San Juan Island (and the city of Friday Harbor) many times, but I've never been to Orcas Island.
Orcas Island is interesting. It's the largest of the San Juans, but it has no cities. There are towns, but they're "unincorporated communities", if you will. Eastsound is relatively large for a town - there are grocery stores, cafes, restaurants, gift shops, etc. - but there are no streetlights. When the sun goes down - it gets DARK!
We arrived in Eastsound on a Friday afternoon, and were rewarded by the scenery:
(Note: The island you see just offshore is apparently called Indian Island)
Very nice indeed. We checked into our hotel:
and got this view from the balcony:
(This was taken Saturday morning - too dark on Friday. No streetlights, remember?)
The next morning - Saturday - we set off on an Orcas Island adventure. Orcas Island is basically shaped like a lowercase "n". Eastsound is at the apex, so we traveled down the right leg towards Rosario resort, Moran State Park, Mt. Constitution and Doe Bay. We had lunch at Doe Bay - it was wonderful. Here's a few photos of the cafe and Rose enjoying "The Best Hot Chocolate Ever!!!":
(Hot chocolate - locally sourced!)
Outside, there was a cool statue overlooking the fog enshrouded water:
As we headed back to Eastsound, we took a detour to the town of Olga. This is it:
There was a third building, but it burned down:
Coming back through Moran State Park, it started to snow:
Sadly - the road to Mt. Constitution was closed. Probably a good thing too, with all the snowfall. But it was clear by the time we reached Rosario Resort:
We had a great tour inside Rosario Resort and Spa - we got to see the museum, and hear the pipe organ. Then we headed back to our hotel in Eastsound, dodging a snow flurry or two, unware of the surpise awiting us tomorrow morning:
Yes - that's right. Snow on Sunday. It totally transformed the landscape. We were planning on heading back, but based on the cars we saw slipping around, we decided to stay another night and head back on Monday. So - we ventured out into the snow to explore Eastsound:
(Get ready for snowballs. Rose threw them at us non-stop)
It was pretty miserable out there:
But - luckily - Darvill's bookstore was open and they had hot chocolate! We warmed ourselves up at the bookstore, then headed back to our hotel room to watch movies, do puzzles and enjoy the fireplace, while the snow fell silently outside.
Still - it was a lot of fun having a "snow day". The weather reports were saying that the snow would start melting around 4:00 AM, so we figured that tomorrow morning there wouldn't be much snow left. Instead:
Yeah - there was more snow. The weather service updated the alert to 4:00 PM and mentioned more snow was expected. Dana & I figured that we better try to catch the noon ferry. The roads had been freshly plowed, the air wasn't nearly as foggy and there was better traction with the fresh snow.
It was kinda white knuckle driving - Dana is an awesome driver - but we made it to the ferry terminal in Orcas Village. And - yup - no snow:
All in all, a great family adventure! Here are some parting thoughts:
