NYT article on private press reissues
Mongo_Slade
999 Posts
Anybody see this?
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/arts/music/08wein.html?ref=musicOctober 8, 2006MusicYou Couldn???t Give ???Em AwayBy MARC WEINGARTENFOR music geeks and completists, it???s sad but true: the archives are running dry. But collectors are insatiable, and they have to keep searching for fresh material. Now that a large percentage of previously released mainstream music is already out there, some obsessives are hunting down recordings that were overlooked by the labels to begin with.This is music that was largely self-released in the 1960???s and early 70???s in runs of a few hundred copies and in many cases far less, then handed out to family and friends, or peddled on street corners. Many of these records are so scarce that the artists themselves don???t have copies.Of course there???s more obscure music available now than ever before, as bedroom Becks by the score upload countless homemade tracks onto Web sites like MySpace. But for music fans who celebrate obscurantist work, a rare gem is only worthwhile when it???s properly aged, like a fine Bordeaux.That???s why private-press CD reissues are such hot commodities among the Great Unfulfilled. In the private-press cosmos (the records are also known as vanity recordings), middle-aged cult folkies like Gary Higgins and Perry Leopold are stars, and nostalgia is reserved for music that only a few heard the first time around.Much of the demand is being driven by the alternative music scene known as freak folk. An entirely new genus of fan ??? drawn to a very specific brand of pastoral, loopy acoustic music ??? has coalesced around this movement, which is spearheaded by young singer-songwriters like Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom.There are a handful of labels specializing in private-press records, some of them illegal bootleggers, others legitimate operations that pay royalties to the artists.The above-board labels include the Numero Group, run by two former record distribution veterans, which has released a few fine anthologies culled from records found in Goodwill stores and suburban basements. Gear Fab is one of the most ambitious labels, with more than 100 full-length private-press albums in its catalog. And Drag City, an indie label that records more established artists like Will Oldham and Smog, last year reissued Gary Higgins???s 1973 album ???Red Hash,??? one of the biggest-selling private-press recordings, with nearly 10,000 copies sold to date.It???s a small but fervent niche market; only a handful of reissues have ever sold more than 1,000 copies. But private-press music is wending its way into indie rock. Last year, for example, Ben Chasny, who records under the name Six Organs of Admittance, covered Mr. Higgins???s song ???Thicker Than a Smokey??? on his album ???School of the Flower.???The origins of the private-press phenomenon can be traced to eBay, where collectors have been creating demand for decades-old vinyl albums from virtually unknown Birkenstock troubadours. Granted, many of these records deserve to be marginalized. But the occasional gems are being snatched up for hundreds and occasionally thousands of dollars.???Many of these records have been around for a while, at record fairs and so on,??? said Byron Coley, a music writer who has been collecting private-press records since the early 80???s. ???Lots of collectors initially bought the private-press records strictly for their covers. They were fetish objects in a way. Then people started to listen to them, and realized, hey, there???s some great songs on these records. What???s happened is that younger listeners have picked up on it, and that has created renewed interest in the CD reissues.???Ken Shipley, co-owner of Chicago-based Numero Group, said: ??? ???Red Hash??? was the apex record. Labels had done that kind of thing with obscure soul and funk, with all that rare groove stuff, but no one had attacked the folk side of it before.???Mr. Higgins, a Connecticut native, was a coffee house performer and part-time drug dealer when he was arrested for trying to sell nearly 10 pounds of marijuana in October 1972. He was found guilty, and just before he was to serve a 13-month prison sentence, he recorded ???Red Hash,??? a gorgeous, meditative collection of finger-picked hippie reveries, for a tiny local label, Nufusmoon, that was financed by his family.The album promptly came and went, but collectors rediscovered it in the 90???s, and shrink-wrapped copies sold for more than $200 on eBay. In 2003 Zach Cowie, an employee at Drag City, heard a recording of ???Red Hash??? and tracked down Mr. Higgins to get his consent for a CD reissue.On their Numero Group label, Mr. Shipley, 29, and his partner, Rob Sevier, 27, have released an anthology of 70???s private-press recordings by some Joni Mitchell clones titled ???Wayfaring Strangers: Ladies From the Canyon.??? Mr. Shipley said he became interested in private-press records after a friend sent him a mixtape that included an acoustic track by someone named Becky Severson.???Becky just blew me away,??? said Mr. Shipley. ???And it piqued my interest. I wanted to know if there were other records like this around.???He began scouring Salvation Army outlets and thrift stores within a 100-mile radius of Chicago, looking for strange records with eccentric handmade covers or pictures of grizzled folkies, hoping to find a decent track or two. Months of detective work yielded a handful of interesting discoveries. So Mr. Shipley and Mr. Sevier began searching for Ms. Severson and the other artists in the hopes of putting together the compilation that would become ???Wayfaring Strangers.???It took a lot of patience and fortitude, but Mr. Shipley and Mr. Sevier finally found Ms. Severson through Ken Scott, a specialist on private-press Christian folk music who had put together a mammoth self-published discography called ???The Archivist.??? It was Mr. Scott who tracked down Ms. Severson in her hometown, St. Cloud, Minn.The label owners began calling every Severson in Minnesota phone books, and on the 24th try, Mr. Shipley said, ???I asked the man on the other line if he knew of a Becky Severson, and he said, ???I???m her father.??? ???Ms. Severson???s story is typical of many private-press artists. In 1971, when she was 19, she recorded a sweet folk song called ???A Special Path,??? based on a passage from the Bible. Her brother-in-law financed the pressing of 1,000 copies, which were given to family members and fellow parishioners at her church. And that was that. Or so she thought.???Becky and her family were completely blown away by our interest,??? Mr. Shipley said. ???Her father still had 200 copies of her record in the attic.???If Mr. Shipley and Mr. Sevier are the young upstarts of the private-press industry, Roger Maglio may be its Clive Davis. A manager of procurement and contracts for Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Fla., Mr. Maglio started the Gear Fab label in 1997 out of his home.Using as his primary source Vernon Joynson???s ???Fuzz, Acid and Flowers,??? a 1,300-page catalog of virtually every professional and amateur psychedelic, folk and garage rock artist who recorded between 1964 and 1975, Mr. Maglio has dug up a large cache ??? 120 albums to date ??? of endearingly warped private-press records.Gear Fab???s backlist reads like a roll call of acid-fried Syd Barrett acolytes. Among its recordings are a 1967 collection of abstract drones called ???A Cid Symphony???; songs by someone named Sigmund Snopek; and ???Gandalf the Grey,??? the Tolkien-inspired pseudonym of a Long Island singer-songwriter, Chris Wilson.But the label???s Honus Wagner baseball card is Perry Leopold???s ???Experiment in Metaphysics,??? an album that sells for more than $3,000 on eBay in its original, shrink-wrapped vinyl iteration. Only 200 copies were pressed by Leopold, most of which were given
away on a Philadelphia street corner one August afternoon in 1970.???Perry was stoned out of his gourd when he recorded ???Experiment in Metaphysics,??? ??? Mr. Maglio said. ???He was on pot and acid and everything else. The whole experience is a blur to him. He???s grateful that people are discovering the record now, but he doesn???t think it???s as good as people think it is.???Therein lies the rub: are private-press records special because they???re great or because they???re rare? ???I???m not so certain that just because something isn???t reissued, it should be,??? Mr. Shipley acknowledged. Meanwhile Mr. Maglio is making plans for Gear Fab???s next release: a collection of songs by 1960???s psychedelic bands from Arkansas.
Comments
Not only has it been seen, a number of dudes have already gotten ass-hurt over the NYT not respecting the private press game.
I wouldn't have believed it myself had I not seen it with my own eyes.
Your slippin' up, counselor. Been hanging with Guzzo too much? Get familiar.
Please be serious, there was just one dude offended.
Correction: only one dude was brave enough to speak up.
How dare you suggest that Crink is anything less than the voice of thousands of little dudes silently struggling with their ass-hurt?
What can I say? The blogosphere has made their choice.
Anyone who has a problem with it can meet me in the trades forum for a battle rap showdown. I'm 1 and 0.
One thing I've noted is that the number of album-MP3 blogs has increased exponentially in the last six months. Shit is really, really, really crazy out there especially around a lot of rare/obscure titles. I'm not surprised by this but it's still stunning to see.