(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 68: Mini Humbuckers

I honestly meant to get a review up this week (it was going to be either the self-titled debut from Starcastle or Miles Davis’s Agharta), but the fates intervened and I instead became completely obsessed with my latest acquisition: a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe 70s with a gold top finish. This beautiful beast. I’ve always wanted a gold top, but never thought I deserved one. Trying to think better of myself, and I have to say, it’s the most buttery smooth playing experience I’ve ever had. I waffled between this and a 50s Standard with P90s, but in the end I love the chime and clarity the mini humbuckers bring. Anyway, that was my week. Let’s get on to the playlist.

ChrisSeptember 20, 2025Leave a comment

Miscellany, Playlists

52 Reasons Why

Wanted to do something different today. It’s my birthday, and I already built a playlist last week celebrating a bunch of great music that came out during the year of my birth. But the music of 1973 isn’t what made me into who I am now – that’s an ever-growing, ever-evolving store of musical moments and memories. And so I wanted to make another playlist, of the songs that inspired me, moved, me, marked significant moments of my life.

ChrisJune 4, 2025June 4, 20252 Comments

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 47: Sick, Again

And like clockwork, three days after I got home I came down with a wicked respiratory infection that pretty much laid me out the whole week. Not the best week to listen to nothing but Les Rallizes Dénudés for my pounding head, but damn that band just gets larger and larger in my brain space. Next week I’ll get out some odds and ends live music before jumping into May which is going to essentially be a catch-up month of all the new music that’s come in. Consider this playlist then my respite from the searing leads of Mizutani and a brief preview of some of the music getting reviewed next month.

ChrisApril 26, 2025Leave a comment

Led Zeppelin: Inner City Blues (1973)

Legend has it Led Zeppelin had recorded a number of concerts from late 1972 to early 1973 in anticipation of a live album. The band made a stop in Southampton, and after a lackluster first night amped it up for their second show, with was recorded for local radio. So think of Inner City Blues captured in the Old Refectory on 1/22/73 as a could have been, a contender for what was eventually released as The Song Remains The Same, and one of the best sounding bootlegs I’ve ever heard. The song selection is superb, the improvisational takes are inspired, and everyone is in fifth gear, these songs so completely embedded in their DNA. Even the flubs make it inspired, and this is one where the immersion is large and firmly in place.

ChrisApril 8, 2025April 8, 2025Leave a comment

Playlists

(Un)Focused Definition Ep. 23: Cold Comfort

Find the light where you can. Lead with compassion, with empathy.

That’s what I’ve been having to tell people all week; not just because of the US election, but it was also the week of massive and hurtful layoffs where I work. I’m still here, a lot of people aren’t. And for some of them, I had to be the one in the room, on the phone, or on the video conference. Never did that before. Didn’t have much choice. I console myself by saying not matter how much I’m hurting, others are hurting much, much worse. So I try, I try to remember that, and to push back hate and anger because at the moment righteous fury feels like a lie.

The music helps, a little.

ChrisNovember 9, 2024November 9, 2024Leave a comment

a picture of the records, CDs, and cassettes I either bought or came in over Labor Day weekend, 2024

Cassette, CD, Miscellany, Vinyl

It Was A Good Haul (Labor Day Edition)

I’m starting to think through what comes next after wrapping up my Flower Kings series (should be done this week), and make sure it doesn’t interfere with the other big series I have coming up – that’s the 11th annual Hooptober marathon over on Letterboxd, where an ever-increasing amount of folks band together over the course of late September into October watching way too many horror films based on a set of strict rules. My list is here, and I expect to summarize my reviews here to make up for the lack of consistent content until the marathon wraps up on Halloween. And so I looked over at my carefully arranged futon at all the vinyl records, cassettes, and CDs that came in and, uh…yeah. I’m pretty well sorted for the next month or so.

ChrisSeptember 3, 2024September 10, 2024Leave a comment

Consuming the Tangible

We are what we consume

Tag: led zeppelin