Soul Station
Posted on February 6, 2008
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This 1960 session broke the usual Blue Note quintet mold, with Mobley’s tenor saxophone featured with just a rhythm section, one that happened to be the best of the era. Pianist Wynton Kelly and bassist Paul Chambers were working regularly with Mobley in Miles Davis’s band, while the explosive drummer Art Blakey had worked with him in the original, cooperative form of the Jazz Messengers, and the familiarity shows. Blue Note had a reputation for producing “meat ‘n’ potatoes” jazz, and no musician would better fit the description than Mobley, who went about the task of making music with a workmanlike focus and a consistency that didn’t attract nearly the attention it deserved. Mobley was one of the most talented saxophonists of his generation, a superbly lyrical artist who blended an inventive tunefulness with taut rhythmic attentiveness. The flowing blues of the title track is a particularly fine example of his art. And to say this session is exemplary would be an understatement. –Stuart Broomer
Atists:
Hank Mobley
Audio CD:
Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
Company: Blue Note Records
(1999-03-23)
List Price: $11.98
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Metro Station
Posted on February 6, 2008
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If one was to make a musical time capsule of 2007 a collection of sounds and lyrics reflecting the energy of our moment it might be a good idea to drop in a copy of METRO STATION’s eponymous debut record. Sure, the band is young (OK, still in fake ID territory), but Metro Station’s brazenly catchy dance hooks and yearning lyrics perfectly capture what it feels like to be a teenager in today’s culture. This is a band that was weaned on and made by the Internet, whose dedicated legion of online fans made them MySpace stars in a matter of weeks. This is a band that caught the early attention of ALTERNATIVE PRESS (earning a spot as one of the magazine’s 22 Best Underground Bands), along with URB and TEEN VOGUE magazines, months before they signed to a label. Metro Station is a band that, despite their youth, have made their way from greasy mall jobs to recording with Motion City Soundtrack in the same year. They are truly a product of their times and their generation, and they are ready to take advantage of it.
Audio CD:
Company: Red Int / Red Ink
(2007-09-18)
List Price: $12.98
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Bee Smart Baby Vocabulary Builder 1
Posted on February 6, 2008
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Our First video, Vocabulary Builder? Volume 1, was a 1999 Parents’ Choice Award Winner and recipient of an “A” rating from Parenting Magazine. Vocabulary Builder? Volume 1 was designed to boost your child’s language development and is now recommended by thousands of parents, educators and speech therapists. This video is set to a delightful selection of Mozart’s Music and is sure to entertain and educate!
DVD:
Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Company: Baby Bumblebee
(2002-02-28)
ISBN: 1929189214
List Price: $24.95
Amazon Price: $13.99
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New Favorite
Posted on February 6, 2008
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After her 1999 gold release, Forget About It, Alison Krauss has found additional success as part of the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou?–an album that’s done more to advance the cause of bluegrass since Bill Monroe first conjured the music out of the hills of western Kentucky. While Forget About It showcased the more contemporary part of Krauss’s musical equation and the O Brother soundtrack spotlighted the more traditional, New Favorite combines the approaches in balancing the softer sounds with the rougher-edged material. Krauss particularly shines on the soulful title tune of love gone cold, her vocal–softer than a cloud and more intimate than a midnight kiss–threatening to steal your breath away. However, it’s mostly the older sounds that you’ll remember from this largely somber album, one that telegraphs uncertainty, doom, and the promise of bloodshed throughout much of the repertoire. On “Momma Cried,” a song about a child-snatching that tore a family asunder, Dan Tyminski’s tenor vocals rise above a wailing Dobro, a driving banjo, and a thumping, anchoring bass to convey unspeakable pain. Too many of the pop-minded songs fall flat in comparison, but although this may not be the group’s best effort overall, no other crossover bluegrass band begins to meet their mark either musically or emotionally, as New Favorite so amply shows. –Alanna Nash
Atists:
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Audio CD:
Company: Rounder / Umgd
(2001-08-14)
List Price: $17.98
Amazon Price: $10.84
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Station to Station
Posted on February 6, 2008
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After the success of the dance hits “Fame” and “Young Americans” (both off 1975’s Young Americans), Bowie seemed to step back, ponder the future of rock, and then turn up the guitars and the art-rock sensibilities and make a completely engaging and evocative album. From the epic title track (introducing the Thin White Duke character and building into an incendiary rocker) to the irresistible “Golden Years” (another dance hit) and on to the physically wrenching and funk-drenched “Stay,” the soul of David Bowie is pretty much meshed into every track. The playful “TVC15″ takes the listener on a bumpy ride into unholy tech-love, and the gorgeous “Wild is the Wind” and “Word on a Wing” have Bowie stepping out of his rocker persona and into sensual crooner mode. Strong from beginning to end. –Lorry Fleming
Atists:
David Bowie
Audio CD:
Enhanced, Original recording reissued
Company: Virgin Records Us
(1999-09-28)
List Price: $16.98
Amazon Price: $8.84
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We All Live Together, Vol. 2
Posted on February 6, 2008
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Greg & Steve - We All Live Together, CD, Vol. 2Good Morning, The Number Rock, Months of the Year (Eng.), Months of the Year (Span.), Muffin Man, Listen and Move, The World Is a Rainbow, Popcorn, The Boogie Walk, The Freeze, She?ll Be Coming ?Round the Mountain-1, She?ll Be Coming ?Round the Mountain-2, Resting.
Atists:
Greg & Steve
Audio CD:
Company: Young Heart Music
(2000-04-05)
List Price: $14.99
Amazon Price: $10.35
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So Long So Wrong
Posted on February 6, 2008
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Many bluegrass musicians have incorporated contemporary elements into their work, Jim & Jesse, the Osborne Brothers, and Mac Wiseman among them., but Krauss’s contemporary bluegrass contains particularly heavy doses of pop, folk, and modern country. Whatever style she chooses, her flawless voice and her crack Union Station cohorts usually maintain a high standard. The instrumental “Little Liza Jane” and the traditional “I’ll Remember You, Love, In My Prayers” prove their instrumental chops, and songs like “No Place to Hide,” with an impressive fiddle turn from Krauss herself, effectively mold modern elements into the bluegrass idiom. However, others such as “It Doesn’t Matter” and “Deeper Than Crying” have very little to do with bluegrass at all. A mostly solid contemporary-bluegrass album, except when the contemporary drowns out the bluegrass. –Marc Greilsamer
Atists:
Alison Krauss & Union Station
Audio CD:
Company: Rounder / Umgd
(1997-03-25)
List Price: $17.98
Amazon Price: $11.94
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Alison Krauss & Union Station Live
Posted on February 6, 2008
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If you love concert DVDs that offer first-rate music, excellent sound and picture, a beautiful setting, and substantial bonus features, then Alison Krauss and Union Station Live is destined to become your new favorite. It’s not just for bluegrass fans either, as proven by Krauss’s crossover success on the smash soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou? as well as her pop-oriented hits such as “Now That I’ve Found You.” That song plus “The Lucky One,” “When You Say Nothing at All,” and others are the perfect showcase for Krauss’s meltingly gorgeous voice, and admirers of the concert’s two-CD set will also find out how funny she is in her between-songs banter. AKUS has never been all about Krauss, however, so there are also instrumental jams plus featured spots for other members, including Dan Tyminski on O Brother’s rousing “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.”
The second DVD offers 50 minutes of interviews in which all five members plus drummer Larry Atamanuik discuss their influences, their instruments, and their favorite songs. There’s also backstage and road footage, baby pictures, and more. Perhaps the only disappointment is that two songs from the CDs are not included in the concert: “Down to the River to Pray,” which is heard over the end credits but not shown on stage–presumably because the CD version was not taken from this 2002 Louisville show–and “There Is a Reason.” –David Horiuchi
DVD:
Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Live, Special Edition, Widescreen, DTS Surround Sound, Surround Sound, NTSC
Company: Rounder Records
(2003-07-15)
List Price: $24.98
Amazon Price: $15.48
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Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (Red Kivar Binding with Jacket)
Posted on February 6, 2008
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A new edition of America’s best-selling dictionary! A red Kivar bound, plain-edged version featuring more than 225,000 clear and precise definitions, 700 illustrations, and more than 10,000 new words and meanings. Special sections include a Handbook of Style.
Author: Merriam-Webster
Hardcover:
1664 pages
Company: Merriam-Webster
(2003-07)
ISBN: 0877798087
List Price: $23.95
Amazon Price: $15.46
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The Giver
Posted on February 6, 2008
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When Jonas turns 12, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver–who alone holds memories of pain and pleasure in life. Now there can be no turning back from the truth. Paperback.
Author: Lois Lowry
Mass Market Paperback:
192 pages
Company: Laurel Leaf
(2002-09-10)
(2002-09-10)
ISBN: 0440237688
List Price: $6.50
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