LH Labs Verb Review

LH Labs recently sent me a pair of the new Verb earbuds that are currently being offered through their Geek Wave campaign (On Indiegogo) for review.  LH Labs actually has two versions of their earbuds coming to market.  The first version, known as Geek IEM on the campaign (Verb), is the version I was sent –which is unbalanced.  The second version is fully balanced and is called Geek IEM-X ($69 perk price).  Those earbuds should be coming out a few weeks after the Verb starts shipping here shortly.

The Verb is more of a “mainstream” set of buds, meaning the tuning is more U shaped.  If you sniff around on the various audiophile websites and forums, you’ll see that a lot of people that consider themselves audiophiles prefer a flat tuning.  In fact, I’ve seen the U / V shape tuning referred to as “Kiddie Tuning”.  

If you’re a “mainstream” listener and don’t know what all of that means – don’t worry about it.  All you need to know is that these earbuds will perform like the ones that came with your phone…on steroids.  If on the other hand, you are an audiophile and prefer a flat tuning - these earbuds are not for you.  Not to worry though, the Geek IEM-X will be fully balanced and have that “Big Boy” flat tuning which you desire. 

Jellyfish Remasters By Omnivore Recordings - Hit...OR A Miss?

Many People remember the day The Beatles appeared on Sullivan for the first time, or when Lennon died, or…fill in the blank.  I remember the day when April gave me a tape of Bellybutton and Spilt Milk.  It was probably about 1994 or ’95 and I was working at Disc Jockey, a record store in the local mall.  Everyone there knew I was a huge Beatle nut.  For whatever reason, the topic came up and I believe Tom (The manager and fellow Beatle freak) was the one who asked if I had ever heard of Jellyfish.  “Who are they?” I said.  “OH MAN! You have to hear these guys.”  

A few days later at the end of my shift April finally handed me a tape that would change my musical life.  I still remember where we were in the store – right in front of the check out island.  I walked to my car and popped in the tape and HOLY S#@T what was this?!?!  Like everyone else that hears "The Man I Used To Be" for the first time, I was floored.  I devoured the tape so many times, I'm surprised I didn't wear the tape out.   I finally called my uncle/musical mentor and said, “Have you ever heard of Jellyfish?”  He said, “Yeah, I could have seen them in Detroit for 6 bucks with World Party and skipped the show – biggest mistake I’ve ever made!”

The point of the story is to disclose that yes, I’m an Uber Fan.  I don’t have as much Jellyfish stuff as Pablo Melons (Actually, I don’t think anyone does), but I’ve definitely bought a few things off of eBay in my day.  I'm also the type of fan that buys all of the offspring work (Sextus, Imperial Drag, Moog Cookbook, Umajets, Falkner, Grays, Manning, Etc.) as well. 

In fact I still buy CDs like Bent Van Looy just because Jason produced it or CDs where Roger just played Keyboards...just to hear him play.  I nearly bought Alanis Morissette tickets just to see Imperial Drag (Thank God I didn’t) and almost drove 4 hours to see Coward in hopes that Roger might be playing with them, I’ve driven 4 hours to see the Drag, this past summer I drove 3 hours by myself just to see Roger play with Beck (and was pleasantly surprised to see Jason as well).  And the worst bonehead move I made?  Yeah, that was probably when I met a keyboard player named Phil Bennett who plays with Starship.  They came into Disc Jockey killing time one day and then a few of us ended up hanging out with Phil after we closed.  All I could do was ask him if he knew who Roger Manning was and was he into Jellyfish...yeah you get the picture.  Not my proudest moment - I think it might be a right of passage to act like an idiot when you meet your first "rockstar"...and that was mine.  The things you do when you're 16!

Now that we have our disclosure that I'm a huge Jellyfish fan out of the way, let's get into the review.

How To Get Famous Artists To Play On Your Album: The Toxic Melons Interview

As a follow up to my review of Bus Therapy by Toxic Melons, I was able to get Paul Fairbairn of Toxic Melons to sit down with me and talk about the album.

I'm really excited about this interview.  I really wanted to explore how Paul made this album with all of the different artists that he was able to pull in to play on it.  I think other artists can really benefit from listening to this interview and it will point them in the right direction if they ever had aspirations of working with their heroes on their own albums.

Toxic Melons Interview

The Soli lama YouTube Channel (You can subscribe HERE)

Also - don't forget to join The Soli Lama mailing list so you can be notified when new posts are up on the blog!  Click HERE to join!



Thanks for watching!