Post your Head-fi Holiday CD Exchange swaps here! - Page 4

i got Broken Social Scene's self titled album from DanG in the mail today... great indie rock stuff! it's lush, atmospheric, noisy, with everything else thrown inbetween. it's one of those albums that begs for repeated listens.

DanG, hope you liked that David Hasselhoff CD i sent you... nothing tops the Hoff!

Kind of late in, but I think the Zanth'er was a little slow getting to the mailbox! He came through in style though with a couple of nice selections for me:

Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise, which I've now listened to twice and have quite enjoyed. It's definitely new and different for me, and quite pleasant. I'll be keeping an eye out for what he might come up with in the future because I get the sense that he's got a very bright future indeed!

The other one, and this is very odd and akward, but I've managed to lose it already! I'm not sure what happened but it didn't make it back from Florida with me. It's possible that I left it at my place there, but I'm pretty sure it got ripped off on my return flight. Essentially, what happened that I was going to listen to it on the flight, and I'm pretty sure that I had it out and placed it on the seat as I was settling in to seat 18D. Then along comes another guy as I'm putting my bags in the overhead compartment, claiming that he's in 18D, which he was. I was in 19D and had just made a mistake, but I hadn't sat down yet. So by the time I got settled in and had my portable rig ready to go, there is no CD! The plane is now full and we're in the air, and when I asked the 3 guys in the row in front of me about a CD, none of them even bothered to respond.

The wierd thing is that I didn't even catch the name of this disc, so I can't even thank Jason except to say thanks for the thought and I feel pretty bad about it. It may still show up somewhere, perhaps in the car in Florida, but I'm pretty sure it was the missing disc on the plane. Let me know what it was and I'll get myself a copy. PLEASE, PLEASE, don't even THINK about sending me another copy. But I do want to give it a try because if it's anything like Illinoise, I know I'll love it.

Heh, this is funny. Here I am a total loser for getting gifts out for the very event I organize...the only excuse I can give for not getting it out pre-Christmas is the whole computer blowup/finding out number 2 is on his way (oh yeah, it seems that this one is going to be a boy too). Sadly by the time I did get it out, Wayne wasn't coming back to Florida until the meet! Still, I was a loser. 00940 only got his about the same time Wayne did (maybe 2 weeks earlier when I sent them?) anyhow, if I didn't publically thank Wayne for the kick ass discs I received, they were Monk with Coltrane from Jazzland, a REMARKABLE disc and one that I listen to often. The other was Patricia Barber Live From Paris. My wife was more thrilled than I was at that pick!

As for me, I sent Wayne Sufjan Steven's latest and apparently best work to date - Illinoise as well as the second best indie album of 2005 (in my opinion and I think many others as well as many mags etc agree) Arcade Fire's Funeral. Wayne, if you can't find it, let me know, I actually have an extra one here that I had bought for a friend but found out later he owned it, so...its sitting neatly in its packaging

I'm glad you appreciate Sufjan Steven's talent. He plays all the instruments on the album I think, is definitely and up and comer.

Thanks, Jason. I'll let you know if it turns up. But here's the deal: if you do end up sending it to me, I'm going to send you another disc too! Fair is fair. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that I tossed it on the seat before trying to put my bag in the overhead compartment. It was still in the original wrapping, so maybe that had "gift" written all over it to the guys that were sitting there. They were young guys, maybe between 18-25 and my guess is that they recognized it and thought, "Score!" But I'll check with my friends in Florida to make sure I didn't leave it at the house or in a car.

 

I haven't had any time to listen to the CD's barleyguy sent on my headphone system but I've been listening in the car on the way to work. 

 

Moenie and Kitchi's CD Gregory & the Hawk is a very interesting album.  If you told me I'd like a female vocalist accompanied by a harp I would have had serious doubts but her off kilter singing and dark moodiness really work with the arrangements.  This will sound great on my K701's.  Their music kind of reminds me of XTC.

 

The other CD Harley sent was Joe Bonamassa The Ballad of John Henry.  I can't believe I haven't heard Joe Bonamassa before.  I thought I'd heard of all the Post Modern Blues guys.  I guess this is Post Modern Blues with a ballad twist.  I'm originally from Texas and am a big Stevie Ray Vaughn fan so this was a great choice.  It's a very cool album recorded nicely.

 

After hearing his musical preferences (especially Evanescence and Regina Spektor) I thought barleyguy would like Still from NIN.  It was originally released as part of a deluxe set and I don't think it was sold solo so it's hard to find.  Trent singing acoustic versions of NIN songs makes this a special album.  I also have a weird tie-in to this album.  Many years ago a law firm hired me to go up to Monterey to video tape and document the condition of an amazing cliffside beach house that was being rented out to Trent's label.  They mentioned that they wanted him to be quiet and still and write another album.  The result of this was Still which is funny because he really just covered his past material.

 

I'm really glad that I participated this year and plan on doing it again.  I don't think I would have found either of these albums on my own.