The Ramones - "It's Alive - Audio Fidelity Limited Edition" (Warner Bros, 2009)

Yay! This is the morning (OK, noon...) of a great night out with my old pals. Not much time for all of us even though we are living in the same city. Blame the fuckin' situation down here for that... Anyway. Our day jobs kept us me and JP as well very busy all past week. Probably this will happen and the one is starting over tomorrow. Keep an eye in here cause more things are about come from the WAX side of this site. You know what is the thing with the place is called Greece the last thousands years? SUN! Right this moment I'm sitting in my balcony having my one son of the two putting out of his mothers plants all the mold (the other one's a lazy dog, sleeping with no worries in the big fat shade!) and yours truly is trying to write something for the next post. Which is in much relation with the sun, and the summer. What really amazes me the most about Jean Philippe it's the almost unrealistic timing we share! I was about to post something by da brudders and found this on my mailbox this morning by my pal:

"Off-topic: audiophile punk-rock, what the fuck?

I already confessed my deadly sin: no Ramones records in my collection until recently. But I think I'm forgiven: since I purchased "It's Alive", I gave it so many spins it's almost like I played it once every week for 2 decades. And you know (you must know) what I did next: try & finding a better sounding copy. I don't buy so-called audiophile records. They just sound baaaad to my ears, with virtually no high frequencies. I usually stick to original copies or old reissues. Recent remastered crap isn't my cup of tea either (makes my ears bleed). And I usually stay away from records with "180g" sticker, and yet I bought the one shown below. It was mastered by audiophile guru Steve Hoffman. I usually care more about who's actually playing than who's touching knobs in the studio, but all the Hoffman-mastered records I have (Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Doors) sound really good (better than originals), I mean exactly like I enjoy rock music: bold but not harsh, sweet but not dry, blablabla (and all the audiophile shit talk you can think of). Anyway, his version of "It's Alive" is really good. I'm listening to "Teenage Lobotomy" now: it feels like my head is actually IN the drums. Kick-ass sound, really! My neighbor will hate me. The CD version sounds like what you can hear when you play music directly trough a mobile phone. OK, enough audiophile shit, 1,2,3,4"

I told you before mate, you REALLY have it, haha! So, this is the official twin bro of another Ramones goodie i posted some time ago. I'm not 100% on what my my good friend wrote (a Japanese vinyl pressing i own just kills!) but as always he has a good point here! Don't know who this Steve Hoffman mister is, but for sure he did an exceptional job to one of the best LIVE albums ever pressed. The kicking-ass masterpiece of the Ramones, recorded on New Year's eve 1977 with the 28 already classics by the three milestone first Ramones LPs ("Ramones", "Leave Home", "Rocket To Russia"), with no pause and hyper-speed delivery!

Have a nice week all!