I think I finally have my year-end mix together. It's better than 'eh', less than 'scintillating', just like 2004 itself. If you want a copy, email me at the profile addy. Tell me whether you want a standard audio (plays anywhere!) or mp3 (less typing!) CD. Also tell me whether you would like me to include, at random, a book from the towering stack of inappropriate review copies, surplus galleys, and dupes cluttering up my offices ...

I managed to get U2 tickets for the second Seattle show (added because the first show sold out in about 5 minutes). They're painfully expensive, but it was all that was available, and I'm going.

Time to start working some overtime to pay for them...

Tina, if you want, I can burn off a copy and send it on to Angus.

DX, that would be so great if you could. I would appreciate it. I have *two* CD burners that don't work right now and I'm not sure when that is going to change.

Or tina, if you want to hang out sometime, I could bring along my iBook and copy some CDs for you.

Also good. We should hang - a trip to an area comic book shop and some music stores with any other Chicago-istas who felt up for such things would be a fun thing to do...as soon as my money situation is just a little more stable. Which actually might not be too long from now.

There is a Midwest Buffista mailing list. When I got a sec I'll dig up the URL where you can sign up for it.

Again, I appreciate it.

Send an addy my way and I'll send you my year-end mix.

Woo-hoo! Insent in just a sec, hayden. Thanks - for the mix and well wishes!!

If you want a copy, email me at the profile addy. Tell me whether you want a standard audio (plays anywhere!) or mp3 (less typing!) CD. Also tell me whether you would like me to include, at random, a book from the towering stack of inappropriate review copies, surplus galleys, and dupes cluttering up my offices ...

Again - woo!! Again, insent.

I have no year-end mix to offer. But as soon as the ol CD burner is back up and running I am going to begin going through my roommate's collection of rare stuff and bootlegs, etc. and there will be mixes..oh yes, there will be mixes.

eta: Did anybody else catch the Pixies on ACL last night? It was great to see them that close after seeing them live. Yes, it was almost the exact same songs done the same exact way as the live show I saw - but my Pixies love has been at new levels since I saw them so I was happy to catch them on the teevee.

Did anybody else catch the Pixies on ACL last night?

Yes! It was on here a few nights ago. It was really good. Much better than I expected.

I might be going to U2!!!

Arrgh. I'm having email problems. Anyone who emailed me about a mix CD, could you do so again?

Was the Pixies show on ACL from the ACL fest? 'Cause the sound was shit for those of us who were there.

No idea, but the sound was really good on the TeeVee.

My friend Jeremy saw the Pixies thing on television and was telling me about it last night; he was raving about how great they sounded and how nice it was to be able to see it from the comfort of his own living room, without being surrounded by a bunch of kids in some dank little club. I think he realized about half-way through his shpiel that he sounded like an old fart, and the look on his face was priceless.

Any Low fans in the room? I'm curious about your reactions to the new album, because I'm mystified by some of the reviews I've read. Critics and reviewers praised the album before this most recent one (Trust) but were quick to say that it was more of the same and that they were getting close to exhausting their creative options within the confines they'd created.

The newest album (The Great Destroyer) is definitely a step in a new direction but it still sounds like Low to me. They have a very distinctive thing going on, and nothing on this new album seems unrecognizable.

The reviews that I've read have panned it, and while some of their criticisms are legitimate (even to my untrained ear, some of the tracks sound overproduced), mostly the reviews focus on how different it is and how they've turned their backs on the slowcore thing. So apparently last time they weren't different enough and this time they're supposedly too different. Very few reviews have taken the album on its own and reviewed it for its strengths or weaknesses.

I think The Great Destroyer is brilliant, though I'll admit that it took me three listens to appreciate it fully. And their show at the Somerville Theater on Saturday night was fantastic. I definitely recommend getting the CD and seeing them live if the opportunity presents itself.

I am awash in Buffista Mixes. I have received Teppy's package of mixes from Alicia K, Kate P, and Anne W (two of them, even), and am ripping them as we speak.

I've also solved the mystery of the mysterious extra CD that we were discussing last week.

msbelle: Steph, any idea what disks those are?

Lyra Jane: If they're the same ones I sent Gandalfe, they'd be Anne, meara, Kate P., and Alicia.

Gandalfe: I remember that there were 4 discs, but the handwriting on two of them was very, very similar. Also, I think I lost the liner notes to one of those two - at least, I couldn't find any when I went to ship them off. And, no, I don't remember whose.

Steph L.: Having checked what CDs Gandalfe sent me, I *do* have 4 CDs -- from Kate P., Alicia, and what looks like *2* from Anne W. However, nothing from meara.

Gandalfe, is that right? And if so, where is meara's CD? (That last question isn't addressed specifically to Gandalfe, just to the swap group at large.)

And Jon B.'s list of links to liner notes has the link for *1* of Anne W.'s CDs -- any chance of liner notes for the other?

Kate P.: Steph, I think Anne only had one CD--chances are that one of the ones you have labeled "Anne W." is actually meara's.

Steph L.: Well, I considered that, but 2 things led me to think that there really are 2 CDs from Anne:

(1) the handwriting on the labels of both CDs is identical;

(2) neither of the CDs' track listings match meara's track listing.

Steph is correct. They're both Anne's, and they're both the same mix. I figured it out when I listened to a couple of tracks from the original disk, the one with Anne's handwriting on it, and the volume varied wildly from track to track. Then I remembered that Jon had had to normalize the volume on one of the CDs early on, and sure enough, the handwriting on the other disk is Jon's. It was easy enough to find the post.

Jon B. "Buffista Music II: Wrath of Chaka Khan" Mar 16, 2004 4:38:51 am PST

Jon B.: Anne W's CD was definitely defective, but I was able to extract the audio and re-burn it and now it's fine. I also normalized the song levels while I was at it (some were a lot louder than others). Kate - I sent you an email for your address so that I can send the new copy back to you.

Elementary, really...

Now there's another mystery. What happened to Jon's CD? Because I should've gotten that before I got any of these mixes. Also, do we know where meara's mix is?