Nevermind

~ Robin Bannks ~ Leave a comment

Wisco and the MadCity have a soft spot in their collective hearts for “Nevermind.”  The album was produced by Butch Vig and the band traveled out to Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, recording from April 2 to 6, 1990.

On April 6, the band played a local show in Madison with fellow Seattle band Tad. Vig began to mix the recordings while the band hung out in Madison, giving an interview to Madison’s community radio station WORT on April 7.

Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991 and was responsible in part for bringing both alternative rock and grunge music to a mainstream audience.  It’s #17 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time and in 2005, the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry, which collects “culturally, historically or aesthetically important” sound recordings from the 20th century.

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Stream Ty Segall’s New EP of Harry Nilsson Covers – Segall Smeagol

~ Robin Bannks ~ Leave a comment

 

Segall Smeagol is a play on Nilsson’s 1971 album Nilsson Schmilsson. That full-length includes three of Nilsson’s biggest hits — “Without You”, “Coconut”, and “Jump Into the Fire”, the latter two of which Segall covers on the EP — and is responsible for helping him break into the mainstream back in his heyday. Some listeners may already know that Segall is a fan of Nilsson’s work, as he covered his single “Gotta Get Up” a few years ago.

Source: Stream Ty Segall’s New EP of Harry Nilsson Covers – Segall Smeagol | Consequence of Sound

Muscle Shoals Sound Studio

~ Robin Bannks ~ Leave a comment

After playing on hits for the likes of Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, four session musicians start Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where they record The Staple Singers, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones.

The original building at 3614 Jackson Highway is bought by Noel Webster in 1999, who along with the purchase gets the name “Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.” The place is abandoned when he buys it, but he eventually restores some functionality – enough for The Black Keys to record their Brothers album there in 2009.

Solitude Standing 

~ Robin Bannks ~ Leave a comment

The Mother of the MP3 releases her most successful and critically acclaimed album on April 1, 1987 …

… the vocal track from the original a cappella version of “Tom’s Diner” was so admired for its simplicity and clarity that it became the test track used by German scientists to perfect the mp3. According to an article Ms.Vega stumbled upon in 2000 in the (now defunct) magazine Business 2.0, lead scientist Karl-Heinz Brandenburg (“who looks like a mad scientist”) heard the tune being played down the hall form his research lab and thought the natural warmth of Ms.Vega’s voice would be the perfect template around which to improve his mp3 algorithm. If Brandenburg could figure out a way to compress such a delicate track without diminishing its glow, he could work with anything.

John S.W. MacDonald, The Observer