Review: 'Steve Jobs'

Where do I start? 

Steve Jobs was a royal ass. And not just an ass but evil on many levels.  

You've heard about Jobs' prickly personality over the years, but after reading Walter Isaacson's magnificent biography of the Apple genius, I was shocked to the degree with which a person can be so removed from the rest of the human race.

This was a man off on his own. Here's just a sampling:

• His refusal to put license plates on his pricey Mercedes.

Click to read more ...

The stories behind the songs

Passing along a couple of cool music-production podcasts that caught my fancy:

• A "Record Producers" overview of Tony Visconti, the famed producer behind hits from David Bowie, T Rex, Thin Lizzy, Morrissey and Paul McCartney.  "The Record Producers" was a British series that profiled famous producers, but this Visconti installment is the only one I can find (I'm open to any help in finding others, or even the original series). The podcast goes by quickly but is loads of fun, including a bit on Visconti hiring him to do an orchestral score but refusing to let him know any other details about the song (turned out to be "Band on the Run"). 
• NPR is following Neko Case as she pieces together her new album. Based on the first installment, this could be a long process because we learn Case doesn't come to the studio with ideas in hand. Instead, she patches things together over time, stitching with her mood. And based on where her head is at now, this may be an enlightening look into one of alternative music's most engaging artists. 

'78 Project' takes musicians back in time

If you thought vinyl LPs were going retro, that's nothing. Adventurous musicians are going back into the dark ages of recording through "The 78 Project," which uses an old Presto machine to record 78 rpm songs direct to vinyl, with the finished product ready for listen minutes later. 

"Soundcheck" captured this in a recent episode and it's a fascinating trip down memory lane, and gives you an idea of the processes music historians like Alan Lomax took in the first half of the 20th century to record old blues, country and calypso in remote locations in North America. 

The videos below capture the magic the musicians experience, but the audio stream of the "Soundcheck" show is illuminating in that you can compare analog vs. digital audio. 

Click to read more ...