Heavy Balloons

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

PF - 1988-08-19 - Uniondale, NY

PF - 1988-08-17 - Auburn Hills, MI

Bruce's Vinyl Vault

This probably deserves a little explanation.... I am old. Very, very old. Back in days long past, I met a chap, the legendary Bruce H, on the Echoes listserv Pink Floyd discussion group. Around the time of the release of the Artefacts From The Psychedelic Dungeon, Bruce decided to spend a few hours exploring his immense vinyl collection and put together another collection of psychedelic weirdness as a companion piece to the CD - to help expand my interest in psychedelic music and just generally be a nice guy. It remains one of my favorite collections & still gets a listen every now and again. If you're a fan of the wider genre, you should give this one a try.

Get it here. VV

A few years ago, I was given several hundred - probably over a thousand - cassette tapes of various concerts. I was told that most are masters or first gens. The owner simply wanted to be rid of them, but wanted them to go to a good home. I offered to give them a quiet, dark, cool corner & they've stayed there ever since.

I wanted to transfer the cassettes, but had a technical problem. I was only getting one channel of sound. First, I assumed that it was the tape deck. And, I kinda wanted a new one anyway, and I had the money at the time, so I bought a nice $400 professional deck. But, it didn't fix the problem. I assumed, then, that my ancient computer's sound card was the problem. I bought an external sound card, but never could get it to work properly. In a few months, I bought a new sexy HP machine. However, that, too, did not solve the problem. Then, I moved - and have only just gotten back to the project. Turns out, of course, that the issue - since the start - was a $6 cable. *sigh*

Now that things are *finally* working perfectly, I will be transferring tapes routinely. These are entirely new transfers. Some are probably otherwise unknown concerts - by lots of strange bands. So, I guess what I am saying is that HB will probably stay focused on PF & solo. But, look for new tapes on JAC in the coming weeks. Please feel free to share them widely if you think they are of value.