Well now they gave us Juicy Lucy and we did the Watusi

Some big changes have taken place at the Canadian Music Archive.

First off, unless you're at a mole convention being stalked by the Crocs, you will have noticed that the Canadian Music Archive logo has made it's debut! Designed by my lovely and talented girlfriend, the CMA logo will serve as the marker for the Canadian Music Archive on the web.

Thus far, it is proudly marking it place as the header on the Facebook fan page as well as serving as a place holder, and a beacon of things to come at CanadianMusicArchive.ca. Hopefully these two recent moves by us here at the CMA will help spread the word of our mission. As of today at approximately 12:40PM, none of the pages show up in the first dozen or so pages returned from a google search with the keywords "canadian music archive."

However, as I delve deeper and deeper into this project and the Canadian Music Archive seems more like an actual entity rather than some grandiose delusion on my part, I cannot help but wonder what exactly am I doing that is different? Is this project so different than what is being done at the National Archives that it needs to proceed? Somewhere in my mind, I know that this is different enough that it needs to proceed, I just do not know how it is different yet. Am I contemplating something along the lines of the AV Trust? Or even, am I over lapping in my mandate with them? Do I have a mandate? Do I need a mandate? Should I think about incorporating the Canadian Music Archive into a non-profit charity? If I do that will I loose control over the project? Conversely, will the project become too much? Will it consume my life? Will it become my career? Would it be so bad if it did become my career? Could I make it my career?

Sorry for that, that semi-coherent stream of consciousness is what it is like being inside my head most of the time. There are a lot of questions there, questions that need to be answered to be sure. Questions I would love input on.

What would you do, if I sang out of tune?

I've harped on this before, and it has finally come to a head -- my Crossley isn't going to cut it. Two recent events have convinced me of this.

1.) A thread over at RecordCollectorsGuild.org talks about the Crossley just eating vinyl and

2.) The sound quality I'm getting.

I was listening to a .wav of Dunrobins Gone by Bravebelt after I had done the requisite cleaning of the track in Audition (i.e. removing 60 cycle hum, removing the sound of the stylus on the record, and removing any clicks, pops and hiss) and the track sounded lifeless. The 12 string guitar had no bottom end and no top end. In fact, it sounded little more than mid-range mush, and I use mush in the most literal sense of the word. The guitars sounded soft and doughy, with no punch and no real presence.

I do have another turntable in the house, a Kenwood P-100. This is an upgrade, as the platter (that is the spinning bit the record er, spins on) is not plastic as in the Crossley, but rather metal. I plan on giving it a bit of a try this week now that I know how to overcome the limitations I was experiencing before. Hopefully, everything will work out rather peachy, and I can mostly retire the Crossley and save you all from hearing me go on and on about it.

The latest additions to the archive, gleaned over the past several months:

Feist - Let it Die
Five Man Electrical Band - Coming of Age
Goddo - Pretty Bad Boys
Guess Who, The - Canned Wheat
Helix - Walkin' the Razor's Edge
Mother Truckers Yellow Duck - Starting a new day.
Northern Pikes, The - Big Blue Sky
Rush - Moving Pictures
S.C.U.M. - Born too Soon...
Tyson, Ian and Sylvia - Ian & Sylvia
Ugly Ducklings, The - Off The Wall
Various Artists- The History of Vancouver Rock and Roll vols 1 & 2. (An excellent compendium of Greater Vancouver rock and roll including the likes of Little Daddy and the Bachelors, The Shockers and The Canadian V.I.P.S)
Wives, The - Cigarettes (the band formerly, and futurely known as The Battered Wives)