I had a ton of fun this weekend exploring Boston with James, as it is the first chance I have had to really explore what is available to me. Friday night we wandered around Government Center, went to some stores and just enjoyed some of the beautiful (and not-so beautiful) architecture around. We got back really late, as we kinda got a wee bit lost and had trouble locating a T stop. :)
Saturday, we met up with Jon Whitney, who runs Brainwashed, which hosts the Coil and Meat Beat Manifesto official pages. He was a really good guy, and he showed us around Harvard Square, which is a wonderful area. It turns out that one of my favorite NYC record shops, Other Music opened their second store in Harvard Square recently, which is awesome in my book.. :) I also browsed around some other record shops in the area, and discovered that CDs are simply way cheaper in this town for some reason. I picked up a few CDs used:
- All Tomorrow’s Parties 1.0 – A cool IDM comp
- Clicks & Cuts 2 – A 3 disc comp
- Cyclo. (Ryoji Ikeda & Carsten Nicolai) – Similar sound to Pan-sonic, but by far more musical (and listenable (and enjoyable))
Sunday, James and I headed back into Harvard Square and ran head first into a street festival… We had some good Barbecue on the street, and heard some street musicians and looked at the vendor’s boothes (but I really couldn’t spend much money, although I could use a pair of sunglasses sometime in the near future). We then headed back and watched Galaxy Quest and the Sopranos.. :)
Tonight is the Matmos/Autechre concert, which should be lots of fun. I will report on it tomorrow… :)
You make me homesick for Boston, Sean. I spent a lot of good time in Harvard Square, lived just 3/4 mile away. I remember the CD prices were good, but I never found a selection anywhere in Boston that could compare to Amoeba or Rasputin’s here in Berkeley. Maybe that’s changed. Still, there are a lot of small record stores, which makes up for it.
Autechre sounds really good. Will have to check them out.
You make me homesick for Boston, Sean. I spent a lot of good time in Harvard Square, lived just 3/4 mile away.
It is quite a fun place… :)
I remember the CD prices were good, but I never found a selection anywhere in Boston that could compare to Amoeba or Rasputin’s here in Berkeley. Maybe that’s changed. Still, there are a lot of small record stores, which makes up for it.
Well, Amoeba has a wonderfully huge all-around selection, but Other Music really has one of the best electronic selections I have ever seen…. And Twisted Village had a good Psychadelic and Jazz selection…
It would definately be nice to have a store like Amoeba out here; like Tower Records for non-mainstream artists. :)
Autechre sounds really good. Will have to check them out.
They aren’t for everyone, but I would recommend their album “Chiastic Slide” (probably my favorite) as an entry point. They have a new album, “Confield” coming out in a few days, but I haven’t heard much of it yet….
Next time I’m in Boston, you’re taking me for a tour of all the new haunts. K?
Deal. Let me know when you are coming out, and hopefully by then I will have enough haunts to show you. :)