Regarding the report of last month’s planned sale of a majority portion of Musictoday to Live Nation, a spin-off of radio Goliath Clear Channel Communications, I spoke with Music-today’s COO Del Wood, who put a very positive face on the transaction. “It is an affirmation or a validation that we do what we do very well, because they are absolute leaders in the industry.” Wood described Musictoday’s current position as a growth period, and he said that the sale is healthy for both the company and its employees. Although he added that the deal is not yet closed, Wood emphasized that Musictoday’s home is here in town, and that they are adding staff now and in the future.
In the good publicity department, Robert Jospé’s Inner Rhythm just got a rave review of their latest CD in this month’s issue of Jazz Times magazine. The reviewer describes Jos’ drumming as “erudite and relentless” and the band’s playing as full of “life affirming energy” and “jubilant.” For interested listeners, call up and request it on WTJU or WVTF, or run out to your local record store and purchase a copy. Also this month, Las Gitanas debut CD was chosen as one of the Top 10 picks of new CDs by English traditional and ethnic music magazine fRoots. Las G’s play in September at Fellini’s #9, and you can get the disc from the chicks.
Patrick Reed, who DJs in town as often as he can, works at Ethereum Records in the East Village, NYC. He says that both his shop and Other Music are doing well, but he has concerns about Tower Records, specifically their security system. On vacation this month in Santa Cruz, California, Reed was rummaging through a record bin and came upon a “pristine” copy of Skip Castro’s LP You’re Killing Me. He picked it up for a cheap price, and since he has a copy already, he would like to offer it to anyone in Charlottesville who needs a copy. You can contact Patrick through this column.
When Bodo’s sold, you knew the bagels would stay quality. The big question for me was, what was going to happen to the music, which was always crucial to the Bodo’s experience? What other restaurant was playing The Velvet Underground’s “Run Run Run” on a Saturday morning? It was always clear that the Bodo’s mix tapes were independently made by someone with a deep love of music, and a big record collection. Well, the mixmaster was owner Brian Fox, who, in the early days, transferred tunes from LP to 1/4" Revox tape to Beta tapes (believe it or not, the video loser could hold three hours of audio). Later, those mixes were transferred to 111 CDs that ran about an hour each, always classical on Sundays.
One of Bodo’s new owners, Scott Smith, says that because of the dynamics of classical music and the less than ideal listening environment, he convinced Fox to switch to jazz on Sundays. Then, due to the CD players always crapping out, the restaurants switched to iPods. And although you are still hearing some of Fox’s original Beta mixes, Smith has been picking a lot more tunes lately. He has cut some of the slower things from the jazz mix, because they were sounding “a little dirgy”. “And,” he adds, “not everything that sounds good in the front sounds good in the back of the store.” Staff opinion weighs in, but Smith and co-owner/bass player John Kokola will sometimes keep hated tunes in rotation. For example, two Laurie Anderson tunes were generally “loathed” by the staff, but Smith himself was attached to “O Superman” and decided to keep it. He estimates that, in total, he has axed 20 tracks out of 1,700.
Smith says that his musical taste is very close to Fox’s, and that there is a “ghost effect,” i.e., tunes added that Fox had been planning to add anyway. The new Bodo’s owners bought Fox an iPod when he left so he could keep the original mixes.
I asked Smith about some of his recent favorites: “A lot of tunes are from Paul and Matt Curreri. John brought in the last two Flaming Lips CDs and I definitely enjoy hearing them in the store. I am going to try to check them out at the Pavilion. And Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy. An amazing CD. I took every single track off that CD for the restaurant.”