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Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments
I wrote this article, originally published in Music Connection magazine, back in 1985 after becoming increasingly disgusted with and alarmed by the deteriorating sonic quality of new releases from familiar artists. Little did I realize then that 1985 was a 'golden age' of good sound compared to what most pop and rock recordings sound like in 2008! I remain grateful to editor Bud Scoppa for giving me the platform to spout a then unpopular view in a magazine read by Los Angeles engineers, artists and music business executives.

When The Absolute Sound's Harry Pearson announced he was looking for a new popular music editor, I applied for the job by sending him this article. He liked it enough to give me the job. That gave me an ideal platform from which to advocate saving the vinyl record and extolling its unique set of virtues, sonic and otherwise.

Watching the LP section at the huge Tower Records on Sunset shrink by the week, never did I imagine that in 2008 the LP would be back and Tower would be gone. —Michael Fremer, 1/15/08

Michael Fremer  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments

How bad were the original Beatles CDs issued back in 1987? So bad that even the clueless conditioned to believe that CDs represented an automatic sonic step up from vinyl noticed something was terribly wrong.

Amusing to some observers was the nature of the complaints: “they sound tinny,” “they sound flat,” “they sound thin and bright,” “they’re harsh and edgy,” “where’s the warmth?” etc.

Robin Platts  |  Dec 31, 2010  |  0 comments

August 22, 1983. A packed concert at the newly constructed BC Place stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are halfway through a set on the last leg of their North American tour, billed as “A Summer Night with Simon and Garfunkel.

Keith Benson  |  Jul 31, 2010  |  0 comments

Cleveland’s newest, and so far only vinyl pressing plant is open for business. Gotta Groove Records seeks to inject more life into two supposedly dormant entities: vinyl records and the city of Cleveland. While the latter has certainly had its troubles, the LP market continues to grow as young buyers discover its superiority over other formats.

Gotta Groove’s owner, Vince Slusarz, had always been into plastics (though it’s unclear how much of a role “The Graduate” played in his career).

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments
All that's left of the original Hayes-Middlesex EMI record manufacturing facility is the landmark smokestack shown in the top photo.The current PortalSpace pressing plant resides in the buildings shown on the left of the second photo.The third photo shows the busy PortalSpaceRecords loading dock.

Once inside, you come upon the packing department, where on the day of my visit, I found workers placing George Harrison's Living In The Material World LPs into jackets. The finished package is then shrinkwrapped and boxed for worldwide shipment.

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  1 comments
The long awaited faux lizard skin clad, seven 180g LP The Doors box set has finally arrived, two years late, at a higher than originally announced cost, and for now (May, 2008), in very short supply.
Matthew Greenwald  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

MG: Jumping back into some old groups that you recorded, Brazil 66....

BB: I really loved that time. That was for Herb Alpert, who was the producer. I prefer Brazil 66, the first album, over Equinox, sonically, because that was another case where it was done on four-track, tube all the way. Also the fact that it was all new to us and it was a big sound, I really liked it.

MG: Was that done at Gold Star Studios?

Roger Hahn  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

Our Man in New Orleans, Roger Hahn reports from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2009. You'll think you went!

Roger Hahn  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments

Our Man in New Orleans Roger Hahn concludes his report from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival 2009 and meditates on its future. You'll think you went!-ed.

New marketing trends had begun to establish an exploitable connection between highly educated consumers with gobs of disposable income and their fascination for the aura of “authenticity” naturally connected to the “roots” music world.

Corporate leaders began to understand this, too. In 1996, one of the world’s largest software vendors, Computer Associates, began holding its annual trade show in New Orleans and by 1998, had specifically connected attendance at the trade show with a Jazz Fest hospitality tent on festival grounds, spawning an unlikely influx of logo-bearing, polo-shirted Computer Associates employees.

Michael Fremer  |  Apr 30, 2010  |  0 comments
(Note: over time since this was first posted, we've gotten complaints from some readers about glaring omissions in the Mog "catalog." No Kinks, among others.

We probably should have made clear that we were saying "every record every made" with tongue firmly in cheek. No doubt there are holes, some gaping, in the Mog catalog that hopefully will be filled over time by licensing deals.)—MF

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2009  |  0 comments
Ed. note: In light of Bob Dylan's recent Rolling Stone interview in which he championed vinyl and complained both about CDs and modern recorded sound, we thought it appropriate to bring this to the home page yet again:

Back in 1994, ten years into the "digital revolution," the editor of Tower Records's "Pulse" magazine, bravely commissioned me to write an article expressing my feelings about digital sound, ten years after the introduction of the compact disc. It was published in "Pulse!" much to my delight. I thought you might find it interesting in 2005--MF

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2009  |  0 comments

An anxiety-reducing DVD that takes the mystery out of vinyl playback

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2009  |  1 comments

Can DVD number 2 match the first? Video being shot at RTI last August

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 30, 2009  |  0 comments
Back in 1980 or so, in Los Angeles, I had a disastrous try-out to be one of the original MTV VJs. I had no idea what the content was going to be, but having been on the radio and having done stand-up, I figured why not try out? By the time I wrote the article below, which appeared in Los Angeles music magazine "Music Connection" the week of April 12th-25th 1984 (25 years ago!), MTV had gone from pretty bad to much worse. So I wrote this arbor of sour grapes that I thought you might find amusing now that MTV is no longer about music.-Ed.
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 30, 2009  |  1 comments

By Armegeddon (however the Evangelical wet-dream is spelled) this article will be TOTALLY updated!


157 In-Print LPs You Should Own! Soon to be Updated.....Yea, sure. That's what you've been saying for more than a year....(sorry but soon, really!)


Okay, that's a ridiculous headline. It's the kind of cynical ploy you see on magazine covers to attract attention. These are really 157 LPs I do own, some of which you probably will enjoy and should own, and some of which you will probably hate. No doubt you already own some.

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