Spring 2014

Spring 2014 - Those of you not living in the Northeast, you have no idea how much we welcome spring this year. It has been a long and bitter winter. What better way to celebrate the arrival of not-freezing weather than with a pair of historic NYC proto-punk/no wave remasters: never before heard studio and rehearsal recordings from late-70s band Jack Ruby. (I had to break open and rehouse the only existing cassette of the rehearsal recordings - fun!) And a remaster of NYC no wave band Live Skull's 1987 release Dusted, with bonus tracks from a cassette of a live performance at CBGB. Lots of cassettes this spring, including one more that I am unbelievably thrilled to be working on today, but gotta keep that one quiet until its official release. I also mastered EPs for multi-instrumentalists, vocal harmonizers and high schoolers Moe & Tom (I'm jealous of their talent!) and composer Jack Budd's project Battle Flags, which includes a ripping cover of "Don't Fear The Reaper."

I get to leave my beloved basement mastering studio this spring to present at two conferences. On April 25, I will be on a panel about The Geography of Music Archiving at Experience Music Project's Pop Con with fellow panelists Kevin Strait of the Smithsonian, Holly George-Warren, author most recently of the new Alex Chilton bio, and Seattle-based journalist and author of a forthcoming book on Kurt Cobain, Charlie Cross.

Later in May, I will join Caffe Lena History Project's Director Jocelyn Arem to present on the Caffe Lena Archive and my role in shaping the sound of 60 years of recordings from the historic venue for the Caffe Lena box set (Tompkins Square Records) at the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Conference in Chapel Hill, NC.

Let me know if you'll be at either of these conferences!