Getting Started

Welcome to The Turntable! A blog where I'll spin some thoughts on some albums and live shows I've experienced recently.

I'm Mike, a music lover living in the suburbs of Chicago. In my professional life I'm an engineer, but in my spare time I'm always listening music, be it on the radio, whatever vinyl I've go my hands on, or checking out an artist in person.

Most of my listening is in the Alt Rock genre, but I'll give a listen to pretty much anything. I generally follow the 3 song rule - if I enjoy the 3 most popular songs, I'll give an entire album a listen. And if the entire album is worth a listen, I'll dig into the rest of an artist's catalog.

As for how I listen, it all depends on the source. With the radio, it's generally from the speakers of my 1999 Buick Century. It's not the highest quality (one of the rear speakers comes and goes and the driver's side bass is a little blown), but it has perfect acoustics for singing along on a road trip. With vinyl, I've got an audio-technica AT-LP120-USB direct drive turntable hooked up to some PreSonus Eris E4.5 Speakers. If you can't guess, I'm not an audiophile. I'm more about the music itself than the purity. As for live, it's either raw listening from the back of a venue or with some earplugs in the pit. When I check someone out live, it's not just about the artist, it's the entire experience so I'll be sure to let you know about the venue too.

I'll try to get some thoughts out at least once a week but always be on the lookout for a new post and be sure to follow on social media. Some weeks I hit multiple shows and have multiple new albums showing up. I've got a backlog of 100+ albums and some shows I've been to over the last couple of years to get us started. So let's get the needle in the groove and get listening!