Nearly everything The Bad Plus does is pretty trippy and off the map. And I say that in a really good way.

This double LP set of classic covers on For All I Care might just trigger your inner art school kid. Or you might run away screaming. One thing’s for sure… You won’t hear anything from this record at a hifi show anytime soon. (But I dare you to suggest it when the guy in the room says “Who wants to hear some female vocals?”

Bam.

But seriously, the recording quality is big, dynamic and breathy – thanks to guest vocalist Wendy Lewis. Taking on Yes, Nirvana, and Heart to name just a few, this record will engage. And Lewis’ cover of the Bee Gees’ classic “How Deep is Your Love?” is worth the entire price of this two-record set.

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Record of the Day is brought to you by Bergmann Audio, and Supreme Acoustic Systems.

The table featured here is the Modi, with their Thor linear tracking arm.
Cartridge is a modified LYRA Helikon SL, modified by Ana Mighty Sound
Phono Pre is the award winning XP-17 from Pass Labs
Cables by Cardas Audio
All on top of the Pagode Master Reference MKII, courtesy of MoFi Distribution

Do you remember when the video for “Ironic” broke on MTV?

With that clip, no one knew (then) that Morissette’s third record was headed for five Grammy’s and 17x Platinum status, but it was stunning then, as it is now.

30 years later, this record is still a masterpiece, combining sublime musicianship and 90s angst, and a fantastic recording all in one. And becoming a soundtrack of many women’s lives from that time. A recent performance on “Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2Jfe2PtaE shows her in top form, voice stronger than ever. And everyone in the audience knows the words to “Ironic.”

There are a number of different anniversary editions of this record, some with a lot of bonus tracks, but the MoFi, dual-45rpm version unlocks the power behind this iconic record better than any other. The SACD version is equally impressive, should digital discs be your physical format of choice.

FYI: Chris and I will be doing a cursory sonic comparison between both versions very soon!

Leave a comment out on our Facebook page and let us know what you think!

Record of the Day is brought to you by Bergmann Audio, and Supreme Acoustic Systems.

The table featured here is the Modi, with their Thor linear tracking arm.
Cartridge is a modified LYRA Helikon SL, modified by Ana Mighty Sound
Phono Pre is the award winning XP-17 from Pass Labs
Cables by Cardas Audio
All on top of the Pagode Master Reference MKII, courtesy of MoFi Distribution

Im still in that 60s groove…

Somehow Moby Grape and Steppenwolf always make me dig out In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Yeah, I know the new kids don’t care for this, but it’s my party and I’ll play 60s music if I want to.

When I bought my original copy of this, I mostly just listened to the title track, sometimes really loud just to annoy my parents. Ha. But over the years, the rest of the album (and for that matter the rest of the IB catalog) has grown on me. I truly like this record. So you can guess who was pretty happy when this came out on MoFi as a vinyl remaster. They did produce it as a Gold CD years ago, and it is also available on SACD from MoFi.

Mastered by Krieg Wunderlich, this rocks much better than the original, albeit slightly worn original ATCO pressing in my collection. If you need to make this journey and can grab a MoFi copy, you will not regret it!

Leave a comment out on our Facebook page and let us know what you think!

Record of the Day is brought to you by Bergmann Audio, and Supreme Acoustic Systems.

The table featured here is the Modi, with their Thor linear tracking arm.
Cartridge is a modified LYRA Helikon SL, modified by Ana Mighty Sound
Phono Pre is the award winning XP-17 from Pass Labs
Cables by Cardas Audio
All on top of the Pagode Master Reference MKII, courtesy of MoFi Distribution

Sally’s Dream is the all-female punk band I wish I’d known about when I was hanging out at punk clubs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 80s. I wish I would have seen them.

Unfortunately, it took till now to finally get the record out, but it’s just as awesome today as it was then.

Ironically, this foursome was made up of Cynthia Hammond (Bass, keyboards, guitar and vocals) Jenny Davis (Keyboards, bass, guitar, and vocals) Emily Jackson on drums, and Chrissie Dickinson on guitar and vocals.

If the name of the last band member sounds familiar – Chrissie Dickinson had written for the Chicago Tribune (as well as a number of other music outlets) for years, and was a member of the TONE staff for a few years, covering country and Americana. All the times we talked, she never mentioned the project.

Even more ironically, after a couple year hiatus, Chrissie and I had a lovely conversation one afternoon about her coming back to TONE. I made the joke that Tap’s “Sex Farm” was big in Japan and we needed to get the band back together again. She laughed and said she’d be more than interested. Two weeks later on May 19, 2022, the news of her sudden death was the first thing I saw on Facebook that morning. Later in the afternoon, I found out another friend passed the same day. Yikes.

But Chrissie’s good friend Cynthia Hammond kept the dream of this album alive with the rest of the bandmates and after all these years, have finally released it on Bandcamp as a CD or download.

The music stands up. It’s fast, thrashy, a bit irreverent and in your face – as a good punk record should be. Man, I wish I could have seen them back in the day. Photo courtesy of the band…

https://sallysdreamtheband.bandcamp.com/album/breaking-through

#askmehowiknow

TMR actually has a pair of my old speakers for sale. Not in “I had a pair of these,” but “these were actually my speakers.”

Back in 2010 these were $149,000 a pair. Only ten pair were made.

I’ll make this short and sweet. NOTHING out there for twice the price even comes close to the musicality that these speakers offer. Do not mistake this for the later Zodiac – which looks the same and while very good, does not offer the level of fidelity that the S9 does.

With three 13″ woofers and the midrange/tweeter from the S7, this is one speaker that doesn’t absolutely need a six pack of RELs to be awesome, yet it delivers imaging like a mini-monitor. If you have the room and the amplification they will put the music in your room like few others. I’m expressing a personal bias, but I would take the S9 over anything from the majors at $850k a pair – and I’ve heard all three.

This is one of the world’s finest speakers at any price and you can have em for under $20k. Whoever does get these will get a prize.