When you change around your stereo/home entertainment system or upgrade or rewire or whatever, what do you use for soundcheck?

For years I've used Loreena McKennitt, The Mask and the Mirror

Perfectly produced.

Sound Checks, hell, I cant do sound anymore...
between playing rock n roll and standing 10 feet from towers of amplifiers at the biggest shows of the 70's, my ears are gone, pretty much...

while back went to Seattle to visit the kids and saw Roger Waters, between my ears and overdoing the xanax for airplane ride (white knuckler), I dont recall much...dammit


I lived rock n roll my entire life from the time I bought my first Beatles album "Meet The Beatles" whatever year that came out, till the point where I could no longer listen.

Heard some Cream live stuff recently, recent performance, wow...

I like Loreena. I got turned onto her in the early 90's from KVMR. I have a 30-year-old set of Bose 901's I finally am able to hang from my vigas. So I use Quicksilver's version of Mona from Happy Trails. It has sentimental value for me as I attended the concert and it has John Cippolina's guitar actually moving across the room from the left speaker to the right and back. He is the only guitarist I've ever seen that ever did that. I'm listening to this live clip that still raises goose bumps on me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P59kjcSkVQQ

Marillion - "Brave"

Loud and with the Lights off.

Naturally, I like her. You just reminded me to come back to her, actually. As to sound check, I just wouldn't know.

She's just exceptional and smart and contextual, and there is a reason and a history embedded in the music.

E.S. Posthumus do this. I suppose Enigma does too.

Oh anything by Marillion is great.

The New World Symphony by Prokofiev

and.

The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway by Genesis.

Twohigh String Band's Insofarasmuch. Nothing better to check out how well everything is working than some jammin' bluegrass. Especially with Vasser Clements guesting on fiddle. If you can hear every note then the system is fine.

Dvorak. He worked with HT Burleigh, who influenced a lot of the guys who went to classic Hollywood to orchestrate and arrange music used as "spirituals" in Black movies.



Oh boy, nothing beats Genesis from that period.

Geniuses.

Yeah, and I can tell if it doesn't sound right.

Abbey Road, the Solti recording of Le Nozze di Figaro and/or the OBC of Sunday in the Park with George, for their dynamic extremes.

If the system can take those, then it usually can handle Blur and Melissa Etheridge and Ragtime and the Callas Tosca and the Rolling Stones and Louis Prima and Keely Smith and Songs in the Key of Life and the von Karajan/Leontyne Carmen and Earth Wind and Fire, ad infinitum.

Or, if feeling particularly perverse, the OBC of Gypsy or Sing Along With Jonathan and Darlene.

Yeah, baby! That one usually goes in second or third. I have eclectic tastes

Vive la Eclectica!

There's a marvelous stage show about Louis and Keely currently premiering in Lost Angles. Neither of 'em try to imitate, but evoke, and end up being hugely convincing. Live 7-man orchestra, teeny-tiny space, 90 minutes that fly by with a tear and a sizzle.

Sacred Fools Theater Company

Elsewhere, certainly do love La McKennitt.
Lately, Corrinne Bailey Rae has been grabbing my attention. Also Rufus.

And for a really thunderous soundcheck, the Sweeney Todd soundtrack has it all, highs, lows, any way the wind blows, any way the wind blows....oh, wait, that's Please Don't Eat The Daisies. Never mind.

The North by Northwest remixed soundtrack is also good for dynamic testing. Don't get me started on ELO or Pink Floyd....

The latest David Gilmour in the studio.

http://www.davidgilmour.com/

Try being smashed up against a wall of speakers for a Crystal Method / Orbital show. That hurt. But it was awesome.

Been there, done that. With Black Sabbath at Winterland Nov. 1971 and more recently with Blue Oyster Cult at this show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRjkANBX-WE

when Randi appeared in SF and all the brouhaha started.

Oh man, how I love me some BOC. "Don't Fear the Reaper" always makes my top 3 rock and roll songs, ever, going all the way back to Louis Jordan.

Those guys knew how to write songs.

Well, that certainly would be an equipment tester.

You're lucky to have your hearing.

Brouhaha? I feel a Firesign Theatre flashback coming on...

D'accord.


My misspent young adulthood just raced before my eyes. Must go listen to the Cure, or the B-52s, or just live dangerously and crank up the Clash.

Or Bernstein's Mahler....

Growing up being subjected to Mario Lanza records gave me an ear for operatic tenors. Here's the sina qua non. Pavarotti singing Vesti La Giubba from I Pagliacci:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky271W94VHA

I was also fortunate enough to see Andres Segovia live in Norfolk in 1976. Here's his Asturias by Albanez:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efHwnFAkuA



Here's my two fave BOC songs, Stairway to the Stars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2y4eQyL5ls

Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl96MPmoXWU

Thanks.

I worked on a musical called Dvorak in America a few years ago; book set to Dvorak's music. Powerful and wonderful. Dvorak was deeply inspired by Native Americans and African Americans. This musical was a decent pop intro to a complex man.

Answer to question: I just moved and reset my stereo using EWF Fantasy.

carmen - did you check out U.K. U.K. yet?

You will like the personnel.

ELO and the Tube completion Backwards Principle.