Questhate

Just copped one. That's cool that they're pressing their own vinyl now. This release ticks all of the checkboxes that makes us vinyl heads interested -- limited, colored vinyl, gatefold sleeve, heavyweight wax. Hoping to see lots more cool stuff in the future. 

Got mine in the mail today from UGHH.com. Yikes, they don't know how to properly pack a record at all! The record was bouncing around in a loose mailer. 

Playing right now, there's surface scratches from the bad packing job that is a bit noisy, but otherwise I'm happy:

Was at Urban Outfitters yesterday and saw they had a Charli XCX Urban Outfitters Exclusive. Not sure what color it is because I don't care enough to buy it, but just a heads up to anyone else who may be interested.

everything I have is alphabetical, I need to get a "now playing" stand

I posted this in the "Post Your Set-up" thread, but these work great as "now playing" stands: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10014412&N=&Ntt=plate+stand

You only need the 5" ones. Don't get the cheaper acrylic plate stands, because they are too flimsy (even the 9" ones). Stick to the Deluxe acrylic ones, which are much sturdier.

There is also bamboo ones if you prefer that: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10030812&N=&Ntt=plate+stand

I don't have a big collection (maybe... 250?), but I sorted by genre from the very beginning. Got used to doing this with my iPod since college and have been carrying on the genre sorting ever since. 

I only use big genre umbrellas though -- like jazz, rock, hip-hop, R&B, electronic. I don't get into the nitty gritty like (classic rock, indie, noise rock, shoegaze etc). 

When are you going to be here? It can help us recommend some things that may be going on in the area when you're here. Here are some San Francisco suggestions:

In & Out

For sure stop into In & Out at least once during your trip. Screw the haters, those burgers are tasty as hell -- especially for fast food. Can you get a better burger at a diner? Of course you can. You can also get much worse at a diner too. 

But don't waste a meal on In & Out while you're in LA or SF, since there are plenty of places to eat. Wait until you do the 5-hour drive between the two cities to get your In & Out fix, because there will be nothing but fast food choices along the way (other than Harris Ranch or Andersen's Pea Soup).

Another great burger place in SF is Super Duper burger. I think there are about 3 locations, and they're a slight cut above In & Out. It's fast food burger fare, so don't expect anything gourmet (there are plenty of places in SF to get a $20 burger if that's your thing) but they are great.

Biking in San Francisco

Someone earlier mentioned that SF is a great town to walk around, and I'd be inclined to agree. Much better town to bike around because you can cover more ground that way. 

The best bike ride is from Embarcadero to the Golden Gate Bridge and back. You start at the Ferry Building, go along the Embarcadero, through Fisherman's Wharf, pass along Crissy Field then across the Golden Gate Bridge and back. You'll be biking along the water the entire time, with great views of the bay. Here is a map of the ride: http://goo.gl/maps/cdVAV . It's 10 miles round trip, so it will take a good part of a day.

There are two places to rent bikes, one is across the street from the Ferry Building (fancy market with eateries. Go on Saturday for an awesome farmer's market. Also try the macaroons at Miette). There will be bike rental vendors on the street. The other is at Sports Basement at the Presidio which is halfway into that ride. From there you can choose to go west and have a scenic bike ride along Crissy Field and across the Golden Gate Bridge, or go east and have a more touristy bike ride (with shops to stop at) through Fisherman's Wharf (lots of tourist shops. Get clam chowder in a sourdough bowl at Boudin, and then a hot fudge sundae at Ghiradelli) and along the Embarcadero. 

Another bike ride would be in Golden Gate Park on Sundays. They close the park down to car traffic, so the park is filled with cyclists, roller skaters and pedestrians. Very cool, relaxed vibe. Bring along sandwiches for a picnic, or stop by San Tung right off the Lincoln Ave side of the park for some fantastic Chinese food (dried fried chicken wings are an SF staple). 

While you're in the park, check out the Academy of Sciences or the De Young Museum. They are right across from each other, so you can do both, or just see if you're in the mood for science or fine art. Both buildings were built fairly recently (within the last decade or so), so there are some cool features to each. Also, the De Young Museum has a tower that gives a pretty good view of the city (although best view of the city is from Twin Peaks. If you have a car, then take a drive up there on a clear, sunny day). Also, between the museums on Sundays is Sam's Chowder Mobile which has awesome lobster rolls. 

Record Stores

Your best shot is Amoeba in SF. It's huge, and it's in a neighborhood that you'd want to explore anyway. Have your folks drop you off as they make their way down the shops on Haight Street. Rasputin Records is about 2 blocks away, but this SF location isn't that great (the Berkeley location is amazeballs though). Then about 4 blocks past that is Recycled Records, which stocks only used records. 

Aquarius Records in the Mission is another good one, and it's in a pretty hip neighborhood (The Mission). It's very small, and you can get through it in about 20 minutes. But there are lots great restaurants in the area, and a nice walkable neighborhood in general. Actually, you should try a legit burrito while you're in California since you don't have many on the East Coast. My personal favorite burrito joint is Taqueria Cancun on Mission Street, or El Farolito if you can't make it there for some reason. Also there are some great ice cream shops in this vicinity (short drive) -- Bi-Rite Creamery is fancy artisan ice cream, Humphrey Slocombe specializes in odd flavors like Whiskey+Cornflakes or Jesus Juice, and then Mitchell's which has been around forever and is fantastic as well. 

Other ones to check out are Rasputin Records at Union Square (if you're touristing, you'll no doubt stop around Union Square at some point if only to check out the cable cars), or Streetlight Records on Market which is across from the Castro district (the gay district of SF). 

Other random sights:

-Twin Peaks -- Best view of SF. Make sure you go on a clear day.

-Bay Bridge -- They just installed a light exhibition on the Bay Bridge, so find a place along the Embarcadero to get a good view of the bridge. Maybe grab dinner at the Ferry Building beforehand.

-Exploratorium -- Science/Tech museum that just re-opened along the pier. It was my favorite place to go on field trips as a kid.

-Alcatraz -- As popularized by Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery movies, check out Alcatraz. Best part is that you have to take ferry over, so you'll get some nice views looking of SF.

-Stern Grove -- In the summer on Sundays, they have free concerts here. It's a really cool vibe, bring some picnic stuff (or better yet head a few miles to Little Lucca's in South San Francisco and grab sandwiches as someone suggested). They just had Deltron 3030 perform two weekends ago with an orchestra. Look at the schedule here: http://www.sterngrove.org/home/2013-season/

As far as food goes, way too many to recommend. Other than getting a Californian burrito, I'd for sure get a Vietnamese sandwich while you're here, and the best place is Saigon Sandwiches. Alexander's Steakhouse is probably the best steak in the city. House of Prime Rib is an old school style prime rib joint that's awesome as well. Wayfare Tavern is probably my favorite restaurant in the city. Brenda's Soul Kitchen is my favorite brunch joint. Foreign Cinema is a really cool spot in the Mission that projects old or foreign movies on a huge screen in the patio area. Burma Superstar is a Burmese joint that's one of my favorites as well. Honestly, there's way too many to name.

Anyway, I gotta run, but I'll add more recommendations later. 

Couple more suggestions:

 

You might want to buy your 7 day CTA pass before you leave the airport, because you can't buy them at every L station. If your hotel is close to one of these stations (http://www.transitchicago.com/travel_information/fares/vendingmachines.aspx#pass), then you're ok. Otherwise, you'll have to hoof it to one of them to buy the pass. To be on the safe side, bring exact change. The machines don't give change, and credit card functionality occasionally goes down. Also, you don't need Pace bus access. Those only run out on the edges of the city.

 

If you don't have reservations at G&tG, you can forget about it. There's a bunch of tasty places nearby; (Little Goat, BellyQ, Au Cheval), but make sure you can get a reservation first.

 

Hancock has the Signature Lounge bar, but the Sears Tower doesn't have a similar bar. If you want to grab a drink and admire the view, Hancock's your spot.

 

Greektown is pretty much all restaurants. Not a whole lot to see, other than the Hellenic Museum.

 

"Walk/shop near South neighborhoods" is pretty vague. There's Chinatown, but not much else to walk/shop around there.

 

You're obviously staying downtown, so you can save some money by axing all those late night taxis. The Blue line (24 hrs) will get you to/from O'Hare, and back downtown from Bucktown/Wicker Park. The Green and Pink lines (until 1a) run right by the Pitchfork Fest location, and the Red line (24 hrs) will get you back from Lincoln Hall. Use that money to buy more records!

Fuck YES. Thanks for the tips. Very helpful to get some good info from a local. 

(I just noticed you commented earlier in the quotes in blue, so thanks for that too). 

We were thinking of doing the Planetarium as well, depending on how we feel so maybe I'll be popping in to say hi afterall. 

And yep, we're staying at the Palmer House right by Millenium Park, and it looks like all the bus lines stop within a couple blocks from our hotel. 

Much appreciated once again! 

Reasonable Doubt, Blueprint? I'm just assuming you don't listen to a lot of hip-hop.

 

That, or you just don't appreciate it like others do, and that's ok. 

THIS. 

I find his names pretty lame myself, but dude has at least two classics under his belt. 

Done and done here too. I set up an alarm to remind me to click again every day. Hope you win dude.

I use records, they work perfectly. Whenever I need something to hold my records upright, I go and buy enough records to hold my records.

WIN.

The Aviators are actually really decent headphones, especially considering its Skullcandy. 

But they retail for $150 (and can be had for much less). So basically $150 for a 7-inch single? Yikes. 

I know last year Pitchfork did a record fair at the festival. Tons of labels as well as some local stores.

Oh, nice. I didn't even notice that. Will definitely keep an eye out for that at the fest. I'm hoping to snag a locker to store everything in...

That's a huge list of stuff. How long are you in town for, and are you planning to do all those things? I'm hoping you've already mapped out locations, so you can group restaurants and attractions that are close by, to minimize your time spent traveling around the city.

Yerp. We're there from Wednesday to Wednesday, so 8 days/7 nights.

My girlfriend did the planning, and I think she mapped everything out. Here is the schedule of what we have planned so far: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1YQmjLbucGZlvWobu9BGQeAyh1X_zx7pfy7UKfYicybaiDKY6rzmxLt037M7v/edit?usp=sharing

Agreed with everyone's sentiment about MCHG being a huge letdown. This is coming from a big Jay fan too. It's near the bottom of his catalog along with Kingdom Come and Blueprint 2 for me. It seems like he doesn't even try anymore, and has been like that for the last three albums or so. Then again, his lyrics have been on a steady decline since the first Blueprint album (Black Album and American Gangster being perhaps exceptions). He used to make up for it with charisma, but all style and no substance wears thin fast.

And I liked Watch The Throne as a whole too, which has a similar over-produced maximalism vibe to it too. It's not substantive at all, but the record worked as a pure display of extreme opulence. That sorta thing works better as a collab album, which excuses it from have much substance (much like the Run The Jewels collab is all style too).

Surprised to see people aren't feeling Yeezus on a whole though. I thought the first four songs stack up to almost anything else in his catalog. It just sucks that the middle part of that album is so blah. It doesn't stack up to MBDTF or College Dropout, but I'd personally rank it above Late Registration and Graduation (808's is dead to me). 

But yeah, I wish I was more excited about this vinyl release, but I'm definitely passing on this one.

At least the Run The Jewels vinyl is being shipped soon for my hip-hop fix. 

I'll be in Chicago for the week of this festival as well.

As far as the lineup goes, Belle & Sebastian alone is worth the $99 I paid for my three-day pass considering they barely tour the US. Foxygen, Mikal Cronin, El-P+Killer Mike (as Run the Jewels) all put out top 10 albums this year so far (IMO of course). Add Savages, Andy Stott, Phosphorescent, and Autre Ne Veut's solid albums. Then throw in bands that had great albums last year: Swans, METZ, Mac Demarco, Julia Holter, and Toro y Moi. Then round it out with established acts like The Breeders, Low, Wire, and Yo La Tengo. Sounds like a good weekend to me.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I'm personally pretty stoked. Music festival lineups have been getting increasingly stale and recycle the same artists, it's somewhat refreshing to see them do something a bit different this year.

Any good recommendations on things to do from the locals? 

Here are the restaurants we're going to try: 

Girl and the Goat

Chicago Q

Ruxbin

Blackbird

Lou Minalti's

Wiener Circle

Giordano

Al's Beef

The Publican

David Burke's Prime House

Wildberry Cafe (breakfast)

Bongo Room (breakfast)

Nana (breakfast)

Tweet (breakfast)

Longman and Eagle (breakfast)

Someone recommended King Wah BBQ for roast duck, but we weren't able to fit it on the itinerary. Any of these other places worth skipping for King Wah?

As far as things to do, going to:

Shedd Aquarium

Millenium Park

Architectural boat cruise

Jazz at The Green Mill

Navy Pier fireworks

Willis Tower/John Hancock

Lincoln Park Zoo

North Avenue Beach

Also planning to go record shopping at Wicker Park (Dusty Groove and Reckless Records). And I need to find an Intelligentsia somewhere since I'm a coffee nerd and we don't have any of those here.

Any other suggestions you think would be worth checking out??

Thanks!

So, I recently got all of the Miles Davis mono reissues that came out in the last year (Miles Ahead, Sketches of Spain, One Day My Prince Will Come, Milestones, Round About Midnight). They were originally released as RSD releases, then got a general release. Mastered by Kevin Gray. They were all $15.99 at my local Fry's.

Hardcore guys may scoff at the fact that the source files are digital, but the end result sounds so damn good. Kevin Gray does fantastic work as far as I'm concerned. 

Anyone compared these to the MoFi releases that just came out yet? 

It doesn't hurt to ask. Dan's prices are very reasonable. All of the items that I inquired about were priced very fairly (ie. none were so expensive that I declined). 

Holy shit, why have I never clicked on this thread. This is all sorts of awesome. 

Just an update -- got in touch with Dan. He's been working like crazy, and the last time he had a day off (July 4th), the post office was closed. His next day off is Friday, so he'll send updates at that point. He's been away from his computer though, which is why he's not responding to PM's. 

There we go -- 184.99 price is the Beatles mono set on CD for the afternoon two-fer. 

Seriously. Pisses me off every time I go to the record store and I see copies of TWFM sitting there waiting to be enjoyed, while mine is collecting dust in the factory.

I would still like to get my hands on this. Good to know the EU pressing is a bit better than the US. I had no idea of the issues until I started reading the reviews on Amazon.ca. Tempting!

Yeah -- some folks out there are on their 3rd and 4th sets trying to get a good US-pressed set. I think the recent pressings have been good, but the initial release of this boxset was such a catastrophe from a QC standpoint. 

My EU box only had one annoying scratch on Help!, but otherwise in great condition. I'm just going to buy that one individually, rather than shipping back the whole box and risk getting a box in worse condition. 

As far as these 2009 Remasters, I think most of them sound damn good. I know there was big fuss about these being sourced from 24-bit, 44khz digital files, but I'm not going to complain if the end result sounds good. These sound better than the CD's of the same remasters, and MUCH better than the original Beatles CD's from the 80's. I don't have any original vinyl pressings, or the analog blue box to compare them to (all the Beatles I have are $5 ones you find in the used bins), but this is the best way to get their catalog on  vinyl without paying ridiculous amounts of money. 

Also, the book that comes with the boxset is glorious.

Same here. Deal is coming out to 316.99 for me too.

I got this set at amazon.ca a month ago for $199, and they shipped me the European-pressed copies (which are supposedly a lot higher quality than the US-pressed ones at Rainbo). 

It's at $249 now, and I've seen it regularly dip down to $229. Just something to look for if anything is interested in this box. 

Good eye -- those are 1.6's. And thanks.

I guess I should've listed my gear while I'm at it. I just got into vinyl in April (decided to dust off the 1200's and go in to get some RSD stuff -- been hooked ever since). I've been only into digital listening through headphones before that. 

Turntable: Technics 1200mk2

Cart: Shure M97xe

Pre-Amp: Emotiva USP-1

Power amp: Emotiva XPA-2

Headphone amp: Eddie Current Super 7

DAC: Matrix X-Sabre

Speakers: Magnepan 1.6QR

Headphones: Sennheiser HD800, Audeze LCD-2, Ultimate Ears Reference Monitors

I think next up for me is a cart upgrade and maybe tonearm (or new turntable altogether). I don't really have any complaints about the set up right now though, and have been gladly pouring my money into vinyl. 

Just moved to a new apartment, so here is my set-up. 

Speakers: 

Gear: 

Just hung up these posters:

A bit more record storage under the TV:

I LOVE how versatile these Expedits are. Still need to hang some fabric on the back of the TV stand Expedit to hide the wires better. Also need to hang pictures on the wall behind the TV, but other than that the living room is starting to feel like home. 

If you have a Container Store near you, these 5" deluxe acrylic plate stands work great as Now Playing stands: http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10014412&N=&Ntt=plate+stand