Damn.
Musical Drivel
bakamomo
#548
On that note, I am doing some digging into HQ studio-ish recordings from the Cardinals era. Last week (better late than ever) I realized how superior the updated version of BBC 2007 on the archive is (St Luke’s Church 2007-06-06, added 2017). The show is stellar in itself, but the sound quality is now incredible – it could easily serve as an official release and would then qualify as one of Ryan’s best ones, if you ask me. There must be a backstory to this? Was sound engineers from the BBC involved? (I guess that I am asking in the ideal forum.)
bakamomo
#550
Yeah, and the tv show is excellent. What I cannot wrap my head around is exactly why the sound on the BBC4 is such a standout? It basically blows most recordings on the archive out of the water and also has an edge on other blue cave recordings with stellar sound, including Gem Theater, Paramount Theater, Das Haus (okay, that is a bit of an in-between case), etc. BBC4 is basically as good as an A+ in-studio recording – I have a bunch of official live albums by other artists in my collection that are not close to the same sound quality. Ryan’s vocals are nothing less than perfect and the same could be said for the other instruments, not least Jon’s to-die-for slide playing. But the same highly competent people and equivalent setups (3 onstage mikes, soundboard matrix, etc) seems to have been involved, as in many other recordings in the archive (at least according to the info in the post). I guess that what I am asking is in what ways the BBC people contributed – did they do the miking, mixing, etc – and were one of them named Bob Clearmountain or something?
thebalvenie
#551
wasn’t that recorded at st lukes cathedral??? surely that has have something to do with it…eh?
bakamomo
#552
Good point. At the same time there are a bunch of other live performances that were recorded in great concert halls that have much weaker sound … Perhaps it is a combination of different factors, the locale being an important one. I would guess that at least one highly skilled sound engineer was also involved (but that is just speculation on my part). Both the performances and the recording is a work of art.
DougoBlue
#553
Massey Hall and Kalamazoo were both great recordings from theaters with good acoustics from September of that same year.
bakamomo
#554
Yeah, love them to pieces. Yet, BBC4 arguably has the edge over them in sound quality. Hell, if one could remove the audience noise, the upload of 2007-06-06 from 2017 on the archive could pass for a studio recording. (I am not exaggerating.)
thebalvenie
#555
have you ever watched or listened to the AVO Sessions? one of his best live performances ever…imo.
bakamomo
#556
No, that one had gone under my radar, though I have been a hardcore fan ever since WT days! I guess that I have been so wrapped up in The Cardinals the last decade that that one somehow passed me by. Muchas gracias for pointing it out, Balv – it is spectacular. And I Iove that some people in the audience have this wonderful “is this for real” expression on their faces.
DougoBlue
#557
This is an interesting story. I hadn’t realized Owsley has so much left in his vault. Quite a character, surprised nobody has made a film about him (or maybe they have).
DougoBlue
#558
I got the chance to go to a concert. A friend said he had an extra ticket to see Nada Surf Tuesday, so I thought it would be worth it… maybe?
highlife
#559
I think it’s worth a go! Little known fact, Guided by Voices guitarist Doug Gillard is a touring guitarist with those guys.
saf
#560
So we have the suggested music turned on on our Amazon Music app and it’ll play random music if your playlist is over. I hear this absolute banger of a song and immediately add it to my music and want to come over here and post it for you guys, but first I pull up the guys Wikipedia page to find out that he’s an anti-vaxxer with an anti-vax single and an LA Times article about how he torpedoed his 30 year career.
Anyway, here’s Wonderwall.
thebalvenie
#562
my eldest has been jamming to phoebe a lot these days…she’s on a light rotation…i forget how great she is until she comes on…