A Hammer Of The Jars
“Happiness always looks small while you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and you learn at once how big and precious it is.”― Maxim Gorky
AS some readers might remember, I am putting together a reissue of rocksteady legend Derrick Morgan’s ultra-rare 1972 album Development. After looking for a clean version of the record for over two years, we had finally tracked down what we thought would be the ultimate source: Derrick Morgan’s copy found by his son Merrick. This would be the fourth copy we have come across, the others all severely scratched and battered. Merrick brought the record back to the states with him and sent it over directly to mastering guru Gary Hobish.
Gary received the record last week, and hopes were high…until he listened to it. Yes, even Derrick Morgan’s copy sounded like crap. On the bright side (barely), this does provide insight into why the record is so rare: the records the label made were pretty botched. There is a long, expected history of crappy sounding records, dating back to the beginning of the record business. Grey Gull records was infamous for the pops and cotton-in-the-ears unclarity of their product. That was back in the 1920s.
To make great records: the mastering engineer needs to always be competent, and the pressing plant needs to have high standards (and in between these bookends, the initial cutting of the record needs to be exceptional and there needs to be a good mother made of the record so it can press exceptional product). In fact, this process is so important, that whenever you are making a record, you get 5 copies from the manufacturing plant as test copies to make sure that there is a great consistency and clarity in the grooves.
There is a history of bargain labels cutting corners to get records out quickly, more cheaply, without a care for the sound. Every record collector reading this will immediately think of a favorite record that came trapped in a shitty pressing. And there are pressing plants, like Third Man in Detroit (which I got a tour of recently), that take pride in regular quality checks as they are doing a project. They might be a tad more expensive, but you can hear the higher quality.
Back in the day, if a major label had an artist whose demand exceeded the pressing threshold of a particular plant, they would use different pressing plants, and collectors started figuring out that some plants were better than others (yes, obvious) and that there were versions of the records they loved that just sounded better. Just look up your favorite record on discogs: you might see different listings for “the Monarch pressing” or “the United pressing.”
Jamaican pressings are notorious for their lack of quality. And Derrick Morgan’s Development never had a chance…it just sucked…and there are no source tapes to prevent us from having to use the vinyl as master. Lucky for me, I have great mastering engineers in my life, my go-to being Gary Hobish. Gary is a wizard from the Fantasy Studios school, who for decades now (can it really be) has taken some of the most dogged vinyl from me and made a master that sounds great. Gary will use all four of the sources we have gathered to piece together and bring to life the Development record. It will take some time, and it is a pain in the ass…but we will get there. And after, we will take one of the rarest rocksteady records that exist and bring it to the people in full technicolor sound.
And speaking of Gary Hobish….
THE JARS Finally Get A Proper Compilation, And It Kills
Back in the day when punk rock was an umbrella term that included bands like The Sex Pistols, Devo, The Flaming Groovies and The Dead Kennedys, The Jars took their signature sound of pop/punk/nu-wave to the clubs and colleges of The Bay Area, releasing their first single in 1980 on the legendary underground label Subterranean Records (also home to Flipper and Chrome). Like many of the first wave of bands at that time, it has been criminally hard to hear what the band refers to as their “Avant-Garage Psycho-Pop” until now. Just listen to the Dickies-esque Psycho to begin to understand the power of The Jars. Bass player Armin Hammer, known to many as the legendary mastering engineer Gary Hobish, has painstakingly patched together all of the known Jars studio recordings as well as some stellar in-concert recordings for this new band overview, The Jars: Make Love Not War. As you can imagine, given who is behind the engineering desk for the reissue: it sounds incredible with the band showcasing their tight punch with clear veneered sound reinstating their legacy as one of the classic early Bay Area punk-rock-era bands. It is worth watching Gary (Armin) do an unboxing of the record. I know that copies are scarce, if you want it now is the time to grab it.
He Was a Playground Bully in 1965. His Film About It Is Up for an Oscar.
My friend Jay Rosenblatt lost the Oscar last night…his short film When We Were Bullies was nominated…but with the above New York Times piece…maybe in a way he had already won. He told me about this film at one of the first cocktail functions I attended when the world started opening up. He sent me a viewing link which allowed me to see the great piece of art he created. This is a great film…worthy of a watch, especially since it is now on HBO (trailer here). You can watch the winning short film, The Queen Of Basketball, on vimeo.
“TelevisaUnivision is adapting literary Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa’s novel Captain Pantoja and the Special Service as an exclusive Spanish-language series for its premium streaming service Vix+. The series, to be produced by Patricio Wills’ W Studios, will feature a modern take on this story about a captain who leads a secret mission for the army to recruit women who use their feminine wiles to motivate the soldiers.” (Happy Birthday MVL!)
Rolling Stones’ Famed 1977 Toronto Secret Shows Set for First-Ever Release
“The Rolling Stones’ legendary two-night stand at a tiny Toronto venue in 1977 — a pair of secret shows the band performed under the name ‘The Cockroaches’ — will be released for the first time this May. Live at the El Mocambo features the entirety of the Stones’ — or the Cockroaches’ — March 5, 1977 gig at the 300-capacity Toronto club, plus three bonus tracks from the March 4 show. While a handful of the Mocambo tracks appeared on the 1977 live album Live You Live, the full set has never officially been released in its entirety.” The article contains a link to Rip This Joint from the show.
A Quiet Poem
By: Frank O’Hara
When music is far enough away
the eyelid does not often move
and objects are still as lavender
without breath or distant rejoinder.
The cloud is then so subtly dragged
away by the silver flying machine
that the thought of it alone echoes
unbelievably; the sound of the motor falls
like a coin toward the ocean's floor
and the eye does not flicker
as it does when in the loud sun a coin
rises and nicks the near air. Now,
slowly, the heart breathes to music
while the coins lie in wet yellow sand.
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***BAY AREA RECORD COLLECTORS: WATTS MUSIC IN NAVATO IS PUTTING OUT SOME RIGHTEOUS JAZZ AND BLUES FROM A MASSIVE COLLECTION THEY SOURCED. New stuff every week. I snagged an amazing Earl Hooker LP, Bill Evans and ultra-rare Doctor Ross LP…all in killer shape.