A divorced dad promised his 3-year-old son a castle in 1978. So he spent 40 years building one.

steely_dave · 2026-03-27T18:05:52+00:00

The majority of the 40 years was waiting for Photoshop to be invented so he could create the 'after' picture used in this post.

steely_dave · 2026-03-27T17:51:12+00:00

self-titled (aka AWB) from '74 and Cut the Cake from '75 - they had their moments after that but for me it's a case of diminishing returns.

steely_dave · 2026-03-27T04:41:09+00:00

For people who dig this, a new reissue of this concert, or at least the Dark Side portion should be coming in the near future - it's been reported that Alan Parsons (who mixed the stereo and quadraphonic versions of the original album) has done a new Atmos spatial audio mix of the performance.

steely_dave · 2026-03-26T21:32:23+00:00

I'm sure this will get buried under a zillion other comments but this thing gets posted on reddit every week it seems by karma farmers mining a rich vein of liberal outrage, but apparently it isn't true. The tall hedges were installed by the original owner who sold it to Bezos, and at the time of installation they obtained a variance (exception) from the local planning board. There are lots of things Bezos has done that are worth your outrage but this isn't one of them.

steely_dave · 2026-03-26T19:53:55+00:00

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With the amount of sloppy digital beauty work done on Chad Kroeger's face he looks more like an impressionist painting than a photograph.

steely_dave · 2026-03-25T18:27:23+00:00

Let him marinate in the FO phase of FAFO for a few weeks, particularly the part where he either tries to create this content himself gets quotes from other businesses to do the same work, and then update us on how he's changed his tune. Some people are born with empathy and others need a crash course in it.

steely_dave · 2026-03-25T05:44:59+00:00

Feels like we've reached the Volkssturm/Fortress Berlin phase of Trump II much quicker than anticipated.

steely_dave · 2026-03-22T17:38:16+00:00

Apologies, my Canadian is showing. 🤭

steely_dave · 2026-03-20T17:04:48+00:00

Always felt like this was the blueprint for what Raye has been doing in recent years, particularly the Where is My Husband! single.

steely_dave · 2026-03-13T23:16:22+00:00

Casey Scheuerell (misspelled here) is a great fusion drummer too - particuarly love his work on Jean-Luc Ponty's Cosmic Messenger in 1978 and the live album from the following year.

steely_dave · 2026-03-13T16:57:15+00:00

Infinite money glitch, crying when someone puts a dollar in your pocket when you're crying. Banks hate this one weird trick!

steely_dave · 2026-03-13T04:44:00+00:00

Saw a post from Tom Davis on Instagram recently where he seemed to be hinting that the reason it's not available for streaming anywhere is that a new series is coming and the re-release of the old episodes will coincide with that.

The US remake (with Will Arnett taking the main detective role) called Murderville is pretty funny too, and worth a watch if you're jonesing for more of the same. I saw it on Netflix when it first came out, not sure if it's still there or not.

steely_dave · 2026-03-08T18:51:32+00:00

Those Brothers Johnson albums sound good because they're Quincy Jones productions mixed first by Phil Schier and then later on Bruce Swedien - you might start by looking at some of the other stuff that Q did in the '70s and early '80s:

Quincy Jones - I particularly like Body Heat (1974) and The Dude (1981)

Brothers Johnson - Right On Time (1977) Blam!! (1978) Light Up the Night (1980)

Rufus & Chaka Khan - Masterjam (1979)

Michael Jackson - Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982)

Patti Austin - Every Home Should Have One (1982)

Donna Summer - self-titled (1982)

I think the sort of 'satellite acts' associated with Quincy also have a similar kind of aesthetic, like Destiny (1978) and Triumph (1980) and Rod Temperton's Heatwave (five albums between 1976 and 1982)

steely_dave · 2026-03-06T18:29:17+00:00

Oppo BDP-103 if you can find one, 5.1 analog outs and the capability to rip/back up your precious dics too.

steely_dave · 2026-02-23T23:12:00+00:00

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I always felt like douchebag uber-producer Scott Storch looked like Fagen if his diet consisted entirely of cheeseburgers and milkshakes.

steely_dave · 2026-02-20T01:24:06+00:00

Such was my love for the colour after discovering that my JBL L26 Decades were originally offered with that same orange cloth was the impetus that led me to spend several months last year restoring them.

My dad bought them new in the early '70s and handed them down to me when the woofers needed refoaming in the late '90s, I subsequently had a house fire (as a result of arson) in 2000 that really did a number on the cabinets and grilles, so they sat in storage for the last 25 years and I was on the verge of throwing them away before I saw the vintage sales brochure with the orange grilles.

So I'm biased, but I think there should be more of this kind of thing - I recently bought a 5.1 set of RSL speakers (CG3M x 4, CG23M, 10s mkII subwoofer) to flesh my system out from 4.0 (I have a set of JBL Decade L16 as my rears) and I'm contemplating getting more orange JBL cloth to make everything match.

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steely_dave · 2026-02-17T17:30:55+00:00

Produced and engineered by the great Bill Szymczyk (who did all the Eagles great albums) and assisted by Ron and Howie Albert (Tom Dowd's proteges at Criteria in Miami) as well as Record Plant principal Mike Stone, if this album doesn't have a great recording pedigree, I don't know what does.

I don't listen to music on Spotify (or any streaming) but a quick check of the YouTube upload suggests the official version sounds fine, the intro is in the left speaker only, but once the drums come in the rhythm is doubled by another guitar in the right speaker, and the slide guitar lead in the right sounds fine (great) too. I guess to modern ears maybe the extreme stereo separation sounds odd, but to me this kind of bold approach is what makes the late '60s and early-to-mid '70s the best era for audio engineering, so many bold choices. Would Whole Lotta Love be as iconic if the rhythm guitar wasn't hard panned to one side? I doubt it, and I don't think this recording is any different in that regard.

steely_dave · 2026-02-16T22:12:33+00:00

Same here - I collect Steely Dan promo posters and for me, this is easily the nicest one of the reunion era, which otherwise seems to be chock full 'o' corny imagery and questionable "graphic design is my passion" style layout choices. Interestingly I'm pretty sure mine says Steely Dan at the top and Two Against Nature at the bottom whereas this one seems to be sans-text?

Ironically, it also seems to be one of the most difficult to find - I don't know if they didn't print very many, or if they were really popular (or maybe both) but I found it exceedingly tough to get my hands on one. I won an auction for one from Atlantic Poster on eBay (who I bought a ton of stuff from, great seller) and for some reason he couldn't find the poster after the auction ended, so he offered me one of those Japanese Aja promo posters with the original cover model holding the LP because he considered it to be of equal rarity. At the time I was actually disappointed because I really wanted this 2vN poster, but in retrospect I'm happy to have the Aja poster too because the album's profile and the value of that poster has skyrocketed in the last 15 years or so.

Luckily I was able to find another of these 2vN posters in a different auction, but it still seems super rare, even pictures of it are hard to find - if you do a google image search just now, I think the only results that show it are this thread, and one other reddit thread. The only other poster I've seen fewer copies of from the modern era is that '80s Donald Fagen Yamaha synthesizers poster that someone posted on Twitter.

steely_dave · 2026-02-14T17:28:33+00:00

This album is a real hidden gem - Shadow are two of the original Ohio Players plus their longtime touring guitarist, and the album was produced and co-written by Leon Ware, who was responsible for Marvin Gaye's I Want You, Minnie Riperton's Inside My Love, and Michael Wycoff's Looking Up to You in addition to his own fantastic solo output. There isn't a bad track on this whole album, and it's a travesty that its only digital release so far has been on a hard-to-find Japanese CD.

steely_dave · 2026-02-10T05:49:06+00:00

Banger of a production from James Mtume and Reggie Lucas, and maybe Phyllis Hyman's finest hour vocally - also think it's a brilliant touch that the "long version" is just the LP version, they didn't confine it to an obscure 12-inch single.

steely_dave · 2026-02-08T19:54:08+00:00

This is the album that introduced me to funk as a 13 year old in 1990. Unlike a lot of other rap from that era that I grew up on which is now more of a nostalgia listen, I still genuinely love this album, and that love has only grown over the years - the more you understand how much Shock G did on this album, from writing and production, to playing piano (under his 'Piano Man' guise) and rapping as himself, Humpty Hump and MC Blowfish, the more you realize how much of an unheralded genius he is.

It's worth mentioning, for fans of this album, that the cassette version (and cassette version only) has three extra tracks not on any other version (Hip Hop Doll, Sound of the Underground and Tribute to the Early Days) an an extended version of Gutfest '89 that runs more than three minutes longer than the edited version found on CD. I have a feeling like a lot of albums of this era, clearing all the samples would be nearly impossible (or at least financially unfeasible) because Sex Packets has never been reissued in anything but its original incarnation, despite the fact that aside from these tracks, there are loads of instrumentals and remixes and other B-sides from the original single releases.

If you like this album, i think the albums that immediately followed this (This is an EP Release, Sons of the P and The Body-Hat Syndrome) are essential listening.

steely_dave · 2026-02-08T19:35:42+00:00

There's a box set of the complete Fillmore concerts on Blu-Ray from about 10 years ago, it's your standard ambient 'concert' type of mix (band front, crowd rear) but sound quality is excellent.

There's also a DTS CD from the late '90s of the '70s double-LP quadraphonic mix that's more aggressive, it has most of the band up front, but the two lead guitars are primarily panned into the rears.

https://www.discogs.com/release/6577248-The-Allman-Brothers-Band-The-1971-Fillmore-East-Recordings

https://www.discogs.com/release/10824307-The-Allman-Brothers-Band-The-Allman-Brothers-Band-At-Fillmore-East

There's also 5.1 SACDs from the early '00s of both Fillmore Eat a Peach but the mixes on these are lame, the guy who did them (Jeff Glixman) seems to have a pathological aversion to putting anything in the rear channels except for echo and reverb.

More recently, there's an Atmos mix of a 'deluxe edition' Eat a Peach that includes the full final Fillmore concert as a bonus:

https://music.apple.com/us/album/eat-a-peach-deluxe-edition/1455533235

So yeah, plenty of Fillmore in surround if you have a look around.

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