Whats on your turntable tonight?

Yea, Tibbetts is great. I have all his LP's, including three copies of "Yr.'

Yr, was released on the ECM Records label, catalog number 1355 (1988), and is probably the recording you are enjoying.

However, this was originally released on Frammis Records (in 1980), some of which was recorded at Atma-Sphere. I have the original LP and my cover is the "night sky" art work. I believe it was also released with "day sky" artwork.

The day and night sky art work images are drawings by Steve Tibbetts himself. On the rear of the dust jacket is a photograph of Steve standing in his front yard. Looks to be about 8 years old at the time.

The ECM is edited from this original LP. If you really love this music, try to find the original. Not only is the ECM NOT FROM the master tape (but a copy of) one of the tracks has instruments missing.

I heard rumor that ECM could not get rights to that particular musician, so they edited him out.

Tonight -- everything I have. I just got my second table after selling my first last year.

•Chico Freeman - Kings of Mali: A late 70s India Navigation offering with Chico on reeds, Jay Hoggard on vibes, Cecil Mcbee on Bass, Famodou Don Moye on drums. Mostly free outing but less densely arranged so instrumental textures play a big role in moving the music. Moye is just too cool. His martial cadences pop up in surprising places and rock the joint.

•Green Day - American Idiot: LP kills the CD which is flat and lifeless in comparison. Negativity with a sense of humor and not too self righteous to be fun. These guys play fast, loud and well.

•Peter, Paul and Mary - Album 1700: My daughter loves their harmonies and has a real jones for Jet Plane. Recording is incredibly dated, both musically and sonically. However, Mary Travers voice was recorded with little reverb so she sounds absolutely present. Big, fat acoustic bass is very well presented too.

Peter, Paul and Mary - Album 1700: My daughter loves their harmonies and has a real jones for Jet Plane

Siliab, that alone is reason enough to listen. Sharing music with your kids is the next best thing to love.

The Madmilkman: You go guy! :-)

Siliab: "Incredibly dated, both musically and sonically" is a pretty fair description of my usual listening preferences... :-)

The Contours - Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) [Motown reissue CD, 1988, orig. 1962] This OOP disk was the only straight re-ish of their lone original album (faithful running order, reproduced front cover art), but should be avoided for the ghastly hip-hop remix treatment given the classic title tune, which the outer sleeve totally fails to warn of. (The balance of the program, including the essential Smokey Robinson composition "First I Look At The Purse", later covered by the J. Geils Band, is presented intact.) Who could ever have thought such an idiotic desecration was an improvement that would get people to buy? To this day I believe this great early Motown male group, largely written for by Berry Gordy himself, has not been comprehensively collected, which seems a shame not just because the music is so fine, but because they only ever issued about 25 tracks during their brief history, so it ought to be an easy project to do right. Are you listening Motown?!

The Hollies - Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse [Sundazed expanded reissue CD, 1997, orig. 1967] This is how you do a reissue correctly: collect all the tracks from the US Epic LP along with the rest from the British version (entitled "Butterfly"} plus the associated single B-sides, include the original cover art and liner notes, plus add contemporary commentary and an interview with group leader Allan Clarke to go along with the reverentially remastered sound.

Ellery Eskelin - The Sun Died [Soul Note CD, 1996] NYC-based tenor man teams with Marc Ribot on guitar and Kenny Wolleson on drums to present a surprising re-take on the music of a seemingly unlikely inspiration, Gene Ammons.

The Undertones - Get What You Need [Sanctuary CD, 2003] The return of one the best punk-pop groups of the late 70's and early 80's (and the best out of Ireland; their 'hit' was the pubescent lust anthem "Teenage Kicks"), minus distinctive original lead singer Feargal Sharkey, but with original songwriters/guitarists/singers the brothers John and Damian O'Neill and songwriter/bassist/singer Michael Bradley. The album is a little uneven and not up to the level of inspiration embodied by the original band, but is nevertheless a hearteningly sturdy reunion effort. The material harkens back to the first two Undertones records, rather than the artier evolutions they pursued to great effect on "Positive Touch" and swansong "The Sin Of Pride". They played only a literal handful of US reunion tour dates to promote this last year - I was fortunate enough to catch the show and they were sublimely good, playing material from across their entire songbook as if the last 25 years had never passed. Contemporary disciples like the above-mentioned Green Day bow down to these guys every morning, noon and night.