Legendary record producer and engineer Phil Ramone passed away today at age 72.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Omnivore Recordings will release limited-pressing vinyl collectibles that are musts: The soundtrack to the long-awaited feature-length Big Star film documentary "Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me" will be available in a special, limited edition (4,000 worldwide) 180-gram, two-LP translucent yellow vinyl pressing ahead of its standard release configurations

Call it a convention, call it a trade exhibition, call it CES, call it "Bernie''—no matter how you laser-slice it, it's a show. And for a show to succeed, it needs an audience. For an audience to show up, it needs stars, it needs a good book, and it needs some decent tunes or compelling drama.

VPI's Harry Weisfeld demonstrated a new one piece "3D printer" version of the long-running JMW Memorial Tonearm last Saturday, March 23rd at an open house attended by member of The New York Audio Society.

Decca Records and air travel did not get along well. Imagine in a four year span losing both Buddy Holly and label mate Patsy Cline.

Legacy announced a full slate of vinyl for this April 20th's Record Store Day. Titles include newly mastered from the original tapes 180 gram versions of Aerosmith, Get Your Wings and Toys In the Attic, a double 180 gram of Cypress Hill's Black Sunday and three Miles Davis monos: Round About Midnight, Milestones and Someday My Prince Will Come.

I don't know whether it was Mrs. Nachman or Mr. Nachman, but back in the late '80s one of them took a dump on Joe Grado's head, and it wasn't pretty. But it was expected, for the Nachmans were my pet birds, and that's what birds do when they perch on shiny domes.

The Nachmans have since gone to that great birdcage in the sky, and I bet if I'd asked Joe Grado back then where he thought the cartridge business would be in 1998, he'd have said in the same general neighborhood—along with Betamax (still better, and I still use it), Elcaset, RCA Selectavision, and the rest.

But I didn't ask Joe Grado about the future back then because the present was about his $200 8MZ cartridge, which I'd reviewed and found to have a lump in the midbass. Joe came over to convince me it didn't, and that what I'd heard was due to my setup. After moving speakers and subwoofers around, and after Joe had been anointed by one of the Nachbirds, the lump remained. We called it a (messy) day.

Phil "back to mono" Spector would be happy. Not about his upcoming HBO biopic starring Al Pacino but about the mono craze sweeping the record business if not the country. True its a single bristle sweep, but it's better than no brush at all.

Record Store Day is April 20th and Rhino will be ready with its biggest limited edition release yet. Included are The Band's 3 LP set The Last Waltz, a limited to 5000 copies $49.98 edition and the rare mono edition of Van Dyke Parks' epic Song Cycle that mostly went to radio stations for some odd reason