Copper

In Search of Meaning, Where There Is None

First off, don’t look at the title and image above and think, “oh, great, Leebs is off on his midlife crisis—finally.” For starters, “midlife” applied to me would mean I...

A Conversation

Well, conversation might not be the word. I was going to write a bit about my bedroom system. But on Sunday I had an encounter so bizarre that I have to write...

The Ondine All-Stars

For the classical record industry, it’s gotten hard to tell whether these are the best of times or the worst of times. The CD revolution of the mid-1980s brought a...

Marianne Faithfull

In the 1960s, British storyteller-in-song Marianne Faithfull fascinated fans as much for her affair with Mick Jagger as for rather mystical voice and persona. As she heads toward her 72nd birthday, she can...

Toys 'R' Us Is Dead

Back in Copper #56, Industry News featured a Jeremiad of sorts, “Debt Is Death (Sometimes)”. One of the poster children for crippling debt mentioned in that piece was Toys ‘R’ Us.  While perhaps not a great...

Concerts

Unsurprisingly, music has played a central role in my life. Music can be emotional, erotic, transcendent, hypnotic and, in some cases, downright terrible. One. Many years ago while visiting Glasgow...

So You Wanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star

But first: No, I didn’t forget about Tommy Emmanuel. It just doesn’t warrant a full analysis except to say that, in the here and now, if I could play like...

So a Drummer Walks Into a Bar....

A little light summer diversion: -What is the difference between a drummer and a pepperoni pizza? A pepperoni pizza can feed a family of four.   -What do throw a...

Gut Punches and Heavenly Strains

A few years ago, my old Spica TC-50s finally came to the end of the line. John Bau’s brilliantly constructed wedges from New Mexico could have lasted a bit longer, but the tweeters were...

C.P.E. Bach Sonatas

Clavier-Sonaten für Kenner und Liebhaber (Keyboard Sonatas for Experts and Amateurs) is one of the most significant titles of any music book in history. This collection by J.S. Bach’s second surviving...

Salisbury Cathedral

Go Your Own Way

Feb 4th 1977 was the day that saw, amongst a BUNCH of other stuff I’m SURE, the release of Fleetwood Mac‘s 11th studio album Rumours. Little did anyone know that it was going...

Obsessed With Stereo

I think about my system too much. I mean, really too much. As I’ve written many times, it was stable for more than 20 years. That’s a really long while in anybody’s...

Bird Brains

Acclaimed British biographer Jenny Uglow has published a new study of Edward Lear, that eccentric Victorian whose playful verse has always delighted children, and the child in all of us. Lear was...

Part Deux

[Or: Another Mess O’ Messiaen—-Ed.] This column usually follows a fairly predictable path: first a few words about some music, then a brief clip illustrating the point. Today, let’s switch that...

Guitar Influences, Part 6: Jerry Garcia (an uni...

I was going to write about my new fave guitarist Tommy Emmanuel but, in light of the comments made by several readers (both pro & con) regarding Jerry Garcia in...

Queen, After the '70s

When they officially formed as Queen in 1973, the four skilled musicians in the band – Freddie Mercury (vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar), John Deacon (bass), and Roger Taylor (drums)...

Goodnight, Irene

I do enjoy a Single Malt scotch … the good stuff.  I mean the really good stuff.  The stuff that’s eye-wateringly expensive.  Consequently, even though I do have a selection of perhaps...

Command and Control

I have just read what is without hesitation the most … what is the correct expression here? … profoundly unsettling work of non-fiction that has ever passed through my hands.  It is...

RootMasterSound

By now, it’s no secret that THE Show a few weeks ago was a mild bust. Too many events scheduled for the same place at the same time, etc. I...

AT&T Cleared to Take Over Time Warner; Mixed Ne...

While things are momentarily quiet in the audio biz itself, one monumental deal will likely change the landscape of media (including music) and business, forever. Federal District Judge Richard Leon cleared...

Our Annual Summer Edition

Sweet summer! Calendar-wise, it’s not quite here, but musically it’s already available, via new recordings of two seasonal favorites. Also on tap: a masterpiece for all seasons, freshened through the...

Hotel Tales

St James Club. I had come to LA on a sales trip. I was new to the business and still trundling door to door with my Revolver Turntable. Los Angeles...

Belmont Park

She was a head taller than everyone else, and moved like a real thoroughbred. If anyone truly belonged at Belmont, it was she. I once owned a racehorse. To be...

Escape

“Line up against that wall” said the Captain to my uncle Fred. “Platoon. Get ready, take aim…” Act One. On one of the numerous attempts to escape Germany in the...

Guitar Influences, Part 5: Mick Ronson

So now you are saying….”So how do you go from all these blues masters to Glam hero Mick Ronson?” Fair enough. As much as the Beatles were the “Big Bang”...

What's a Speaker? And What's a Driver?

You know how annoying it is when you’re surrounded by a group of surgeons or securities traders or physicists or whatEVer and you realize that their conversation is filled with...

Queen in the '70s

Now that the first trailers have been released for Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about Freddie Mercury and the band Queen, the extraordinary song that the movie was named after is back to selling like...

Hollywood Nights

[And now for something completely different: at the heart of each and every one of Christian’s columns will be audio from his radio show in which he dissects and analyzes...

Counting Butterflies

I used to be a moderator of a now-defunct Indian bicycling forum called Bikeszone. BZ, as it was called, was the epicenter of the burgeoning recreational cycling movement in India....

You May See Me Tonight With an Illegal Tweak

As I threatened to do in my last column , I wrote a long review on power conditioners and power cords. What I left out of that story though, because I ran out of...

The More Things Change....

Oh, you think you’re so smart, Mr. 21st Century Hi-Tech Man. You know all there is to know about your fancy-schmancy stereo gear, you’re an expert at marketing it on...

Structure Needs a Firm Foundation

I’ve had a BHK Signature preamp for about a week-and-a-half, so it’s on the way towards  breaking in. The first big change came just short of a day. This isn’t...

Guitar Influences, Part 4: Albert King

I woke up a couple of weeks ago and realized that I dreamed that Albert King called me to tell me he was coming over to jam. As Albert died...