Gomez is a fantabulous band for listening to on headphones, which is pretty much the primary method I use for listening to music these days.

Speaking of headphone albums, do you have Mercury Rev's Deserter Songs?

Four albums in and Mercury Rev remain as surprising and daring as ever -- exchanging the volcanic noise and twisted sensibilities of earlier releases for ornate arrangements and ethereal strings, Deserter's Songs unlocks the beauty always hidden just below the band's surface, its lush harmonics and soothing textures bathing in an almost unearthly light. Standouts including the exquisitely waltz-like "Tonite It Shows" and the celestial "Endlessly" are like lullabies, their music-box melodies gentle and narcotic; even the most pop-oriented moments like "Opus 40" and "Hudson Line" share a symphonic, candy-colored majesty far removed from conventional rock idioms. Complete with its fractured instrumental interludes and odd effects, Deserter's Songs sounds like no other album -- for that matter, it doesn't even sound like Mercury Rev, yet there's no mistaking the record's brilliance for anyone else. - AMG review

No! Curse you, wee Hecubus! Our budget just got put on a tight leash!

Website about binaural recording. I'm surprised that their hasn't been more of a binaural renaissance in this age of headphones. Short version of the difference between stereo and binaural: binaural relies on two totally separated channels (like you get with headphones); stereo depends on a certain amount of crosstalk, i.e., to get stereo imaging both ears need to hear both channels. The left channel is stronger to the left ear but it still hears the right & vice versa. If your speakers aren't set up right & you aren't sitting in the sweet spot (the optimal spot for the crossing over - L to R & R to L - of audio channels) then you don't get the stereo imaging.

The description sounds kind of arcane, but if you listen to a good stereo recording on a good playback system properly set up you can tell immediately. It's directly analogous to looking at a stereoscope: when you get it in the right spot & the image becomes 3-D you can't miss it. Stereo & binaural are just two different ways of trying to recreate how we hear sounds with two ears, the slight differences in time & volume & overtones registered by each ear tell us where the sound emanated.

Binaural enjoyed a brief vogue in the late seventies (IIRC my copy of Lou Reed's Street Hassle is binaural) when headphones were popular.

The Firesign Theatre's albums are in stereo, not binaural, but they're totally made for headphone listening. Aside from being really funny the production is astonishing, and all the more so for being totally organic to the albums. A lot of late sixties/early seventies production is kids playing with new toys--much as I love Hendrix even his panning all the way to the right and then whooshing back to the left gets old real fast--but Firesign makes those audio tricks integral to what they're doing. Voices come from a distance or are filtered in a certain way because it comes from the plot. And a lot of it is nearly impossible to hear without headphones, including one of my favorite bits:

Prosecutor/auctioneer (loud foreground): How much do I hear?

Guy from the back of the courtroom (barely audible): That's metaphysically absurd, man! How can I know what you hear?

Best. Misheard. Lyrics. Ever.

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The Firesign Theatre's albums are in stereo, not binaural, but they're totally made for headphone listening. Aside from being really funny the production is astonishing, and all the more so for being totally organic to the albums.

True that. Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers is not only one of the most screamingly funny records ever made, it's one of the most soncially amazing records period.

Best. Misheard. Lyrics. Ever.

That is genius. Who knew the Dutch were so filthy?

Just a little followup from a while ago...

You Can't Buy a Gun When You're Crying (the new album by Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs) is my current obsession album.

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It'd be the album most often in my CD player these days, if I had gotten it on CD and if I used a CD player....

I'm a big fan of Holly Golightly's album Truly She Is None Other which contains the song "There is An End" (featured at the beginning of Jarmusch's Broken Flowers).

I'm a big fan of Holly Golightly's album Truly She Is None Other

That album also has really grown on me....

Holly Golightly tours the states constantly, it seems. She's definitely worth a night out.