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"Planting Seeds" Debut January 20, 2025 Early reaction from our Test Audience Me - "I've always believed that music transcends artificial genres. It's about what resonates with you, what moves you, what makes you feel. In a world saturated with choices, 'Planting Seeds' will be a sanctuary for those who appreciate music on its own terms, free from the constraints of marketing and the pursuit of the lowest common denominator."  Above sits a 22 minute and 45 second collage sample demo. Intended to display the range and vibe of what the intention of this series is about. Using audio to tell a story. It's vital to understand that although snippets of the pieces are used, regular episodes will employ the full selection 99.6 % of the time. A trick I have used throughout the years when a reboot is needed works more than it doesn't and is a perfect way to explain what I mean. Select a movie that you love and a decent audio system, cue it up and turn off the screen. Use only your ears to experience it. You will "see" it in an entirely new way and most likely will discover plot and story of the art previously hidden to you. The file above is a 16 Bit mp3 making it completely portable. Click the link for free download and a 24Bit file of the same, still portable these days.
Makes me laugh to think back to 1998 when Lars Murray and I at Rykodisc were convinced that in the not too distant future, the computer would be the primary delivery mechanism for music. Lars was far more technically agile at time. I handled the music end, but was far from a luddite with a PC. Conversely, Lars plays guitar, writes songs and his band was gigging around the clubs of Boston, so his musical acumen was way above the norm, and I started drumming at 12 and played my first bar gig at 14. At a decade younger, his Ivy League education was a perfect off-set to my 12 years at Catholic School under the gentle hand (and ruler) of The Sisters of Mercy. Between these two Ferns we already possessed the necessary skillset. At any other place of employment we would have been laughed out of the building and never had the opportunity to give it a shot, But our boss was a man by the name of Don Rose. As the license plates on his VW Bug proclaimed --"007" Don Rose. He felt in his bones we were on to something and agreed with our hypothesis. A company called MP3.com had just opened for business, and these tiny devices called Rio player started sprouting up, light as a feather, containing 100+ songs that you could hold in your palm or clip to your clothes and go with you anywhere. Even though most of us were more than a bit snobby regarding sound quality once we gamed it out, especially when we learned that you could rip any CD into a 128k mp3 file and have a playlist of hundreds of tunes literally in your pocket. Change them as many times as you like, trade with other CD/Rio owners and put together an extensive library with very little or no money. Computer memory at the time was very bulky, needed an arsenals' worth of controllers, connectors and cable, and very costly. 100 MB went for about $500 (I remember celebrating when picking up a 350MB hard drive for only $300!). Wow, I'll never fill that. It was unfathomable that it was less than a dollar a megabyte. But what the general public didn't realize was that every 6 months or less, the size, weight and capacity of storage and processing power were multiplying at astonishing rate. We were all pretty picky in regard to sound quality, but most of the public were not. To be fair, the soundstage of a car is no place for critical listening with the level of ambient noise inherent to the environment. Engineers had been using "math" trickery like Compression and EQ in combination with carpentry, physics and even architecture to literally fool your brain. Bose was a master at it. No disrespect intended as I still have a pair of real wood Series IV with the tiny Bose EQ box that were workhorses and virtually indestructible. I did hundreds of gigs with them feeding upwards of 500 watts of analog power into their very hungry input chain. Even now as I sell off a lifetime of equipment and media that I'll likely never again use, I'm reluctant to part with them. It's as if I owe them for years of reliable service. And I bought them used in 1982! I'll wager a rare Zappa pressing that after reading this more than a few will get in touch trying to pry them from my clutch. At the time of this experiment the best audio quality for digital regarding delivery scale was 128kb VBR but we would have to settle for 64kb, although it was stereo-ish. We gave birth to Radio Ryko, the first streaming record company radio station. Again, it was the complementary skill set we had, and just as essential, we were true believers when it came to taste. Having outgrown the notion that what you like is good, but everything else sucks. Music is subjective (all art is) and just because one person likes something and the other doesn't shouldn't cause friction or turmoil. There are only two kinds of music, stuff you like and stuff you don't. Nothing is right or wrong. Music is all good and listening to music I believe, is still the only activity that utilizes every area of the brain. Having different taste is good... very good. It wasn't correct or incorrect, simply the way it should be. We would laugh if one of us quipped something like, "Dude, how can you listen to that record from The Al Dente Ginger Patrol, what the fuck am I missing?" FYI - There is and has never been a band called The Al Dente Ginger Patrol to the best of my knowledge, it's a place holder used for description purposes, and the first fictional band name that popped into my head. There is much more to the story of the project and serendipitous occurrences such as Lars having a great contact at Microsoft. They were actively testing streaming audio delivery and how to do effectively. They offered to do all our transcoding and hosting gratis if we were game for the experiment. We never could have got the budget if it wasn't for their involvement. In the end we did it, and rather quickly. I'll give you more detail when this first episode of "Planting Seeds" arrives on January 20. And I'll reach out to Lars and see if he would like to jump in. I feel the December Doldrums finally abating and am ready to return to the living. My plan is wrapping this up at 70 years old. Then... who knows. Much love to all.
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It’s as if December, a personal lowlight of the calendar, creeps up quicker with each passing year. Isolation time. Reflection, introspection, evaluation and hibernation is the norm, trying to make sense of what the past year has wrought and wondering what lies ahead. “At least I accept the changes better than I used to do.” Joni Mitchell wrote that. It’s been proven accurate as the years pile up, but is that the experience time brings or resignation to the inevitable? I can’t call it. But I am working on it, best I can. This episode is a reflection of the thoughts, hopes and dreams of where we seem to be as a culture, as well as what lies ahead, through my observations. But as I’m fond of saying, “What the fuck do I know?”
Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington is a towering figure in the music world, every bit as important as Mozart and Louis Armstrong. He begins the proceedings with “Misfit Blues” and by the time we get to the end, Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones, David’s Crosby and Bowie, A Tribe Called Quest, Talking Heads, The Tubes and many more have made contributions, but the one that hits the hardest is David Sylvian and Ryuichi Sakamoto’s devastating “World Citizen.” Look for Set 2 within a few days and thanks to everyone taking the time to support the program through donations (here) and listening with an open mind… and ears. Love to all.
The Playlist is Here
Hope that everyone made it back to home in one piece and that drama was kept to a minimum if you gathered with extended family. Those days are kind of over for us and I suspect many of my demographic also experience a twinge of regret around this Season. I belonged to a fairly large family, one side 100% off the boat Italian, the other mostly Swedish, with a dollop of German mixed in. The Italian side eventually fessed up that my Grandmother Vinjencina (isn’t that a beautiful name?) had a bit of Albanian in her mixture. That tidbit was helpful in understanding perhaps why the only two times I was at an event also attended by John Belushi, he headed straight for me. Offering a joint at an early Bottom Line performance of Warren Zevon, and breaking up our circle of vipers at The Animal House Village Gate party to partake after the New York premiere. Too bad he couldn’t have stayed with weed. As real as it gets and not even a whiff of star entitlement. He was generally interested in our opinion of the film, knowing we were a bunch of music nerds from the retail record business that lucked into an invite.
This opening set of FTB #263 begins with brand new stuff from the lovely Isobel Campbell and interesting new to my ears artist, Cincinnati's Jack Kays. Also pop rockin Joy Buzzer return with their tender love ballad, “Try Not To Be An Asshole (For A Little While)”... anyone have a tissue, I’m getting a bit misty! There is also a batch of newly digitized 12 inch vinyl singles that I discovered in a long sealed box which contained my old DJ gig bag, chock full of classic Alt Dance mixes. Thanks for checking the show out and I’ll never be able to properly thank those of you that actually dig in your pocket with financial support for this true labor of love. Loose change? Deposit right HERE.
The Playlist is HERE
From The Basement episode #263 Set TWO 12/4/24
Billy Conway gets the honors batting lead-off to what starts off as the second set, runs through a few stop signs and yellow lights, winding up as the third set too. I learned long ago that these things happen, and it’s best to go with the flow. I urge you to check out the Billy Conway Artist Fund (click), one of the finest humans I have encountered in this business, and a hell of a musician. This is a Billy demo version of one of his songs, never released. Speaking of, the new release bin is responsible for live My Morning Jacket, new albums from Joan Armatrading, Jazz Sabbath, Andrew Weiss and Friends and the decades in the making collaboration of The Last Poets and Tony Allen. In addition a wonderful 50th Anniversary Edition of Al Stewart’s seminal “Past, Present and Future” album, live Father John Misty and a jam-packed recording of last year’s Crossroads Guitar Festival.
The twists, turns and tales are plentiful before wrapping with a send off to King Crimson lyricist and co-founder Peter Sinfield, and in their announcement of his passing they tagged on “original roadie, lights operator and live sound engineer.” He wrote the lyrics for their first four albums. Also “I Believe In Father Christmas” with Greg Lake and in later years everyone from Bucks Fizz to Celine Dion. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your generous contributions to keeping this project alive, our tip jar will be visible through the end of the year. DL24Bit
The Playlist is HERE
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Mike MarroneDad, Husband, DJ
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