Interviews

Michael Fremer
is a
Master Filmer

My collection rivals Mr. Fremer's. However, I have tweeked my digital (CD digital) sound equipment to mimic analog (LPs) in fulfilling my music loving requirements. Not as expensive as his system but high end. Some nights I spend 2 hours listening to LPs, other nights to CDs. I hated CD sound back in the 1980s and 1990s. Only in 2006 did I find CD playback starting to sound as good as LPs. Now I have both sounding great. Sometimes the ability to extract sufficient data from CDs can equal sound from LPs. Percentagewise, I have a greater percentage of outstanding sounding CDs than LPs (out of 7,000 CDs versus 28,500 LPs). I listen to many not so hot sounding LPs for their performances whereas I dump bad sounding CDs (except for my acoustic and electric 78 reissues by Marston, Obert-Thorn, Meyer, et.al). That's my learned opinion as well as some friends who are well known remastering engineers.

Cant CD's and Lp's get along ?

And yes, leaving out what made what he’s talking about in the book is a shame.

Not speaking about Larry now, there are so many relatively clueless influencers (wouldn’t call them critics) talking online about vinyl and especially audiophile reissues. Even some of those in their 50s don’t seem to know the relevant history and sound of originals OOP reissues, playing a role in how they talk about new rereleases. They partly also musically have no overview about what would make a worthwhile reissue, because they probably just followed what was published from the start of their channels and so just know what different companies reissued repeatedly. Anyway their contributions are welcome. It’s just, the older we get, the harder it is to tolerate so-called new “experts”. Waiting for your book ;-)

I used to get bummed out when a favorite 'secret' band of mine got 'big' or went to the major labels. No legit reason for this, just a little human nature.

I feel like that about Record Store Day. Now, we are expected to wait in line to get into a store and then hope that that store got a copy of any of the records I would like. (Sorry for the plural/singular tense change.)

Some stores hold back stock and simply sell on Ebay, which is fine. I will pay the tariff to get the discs I would have traveled for, spent time looking for, and hoping a store might deign to sell me a copy. I figure I'm simply paying a service fee.

There was definitely a jump over the ol' shark tank that occurred several years ago. I still buy, but it's changed, man. I just wanna buy records, not jump through hoops.

I admit this is likely just a me thing, so I will now go yell at more clouds while Malachi sets me straight! ;-D

Loved your intro Michael, I nearly cried when you showed your magazine The Tracking Angle (I never managed to get my hands on that Jimi Hendrix cover Tracking Angle).

Just to add to your overall comments at the start of the video... Michael there are thousands of unknown people who kept the vinyl presses during those dark days. Who weren't convinced by the CD craze and never parted with their collections. Unfortunately a lot of us are getting disillusioned because we are being squeezed out of the market because of the prices. To the older (not so wealthy) vinyl lovers it is becoming practically impossible to buy vinyl at 'reasonably' normal prices and I am not talking about the audiophile market. By the time a US pressing arrives in Ireland you can add about 25% to an already expensive LP.

James, Dublin, Ireland

Michael,

Check out the book published in 2009 called "Record Store Days".
It was co-written by perhaps my favorite ex-DJ at KCRW i.e. Gary Calamar (forward by Peter Buck). Gary is not only a super orator and selector of music, on his original Sunday evening radio shows, he is an exceptional writer. While the book suffers the same grips you have with Larry's book, Gary's is a much more in-depth look at Vinyl history over a broader spectrum of years.

That said, I think this video begs for a third book on record Store day! Addressing this topic from the Audiophile perspective.... written/co-written by Michael Fremer perhaps!

Regards, Kevin L Westerbeck (The guy who owned a Saab Turbo-X for 8 years. Loved that car!...with 290ft-lbs of torque and cornering like a Porsche. Wish I still had her)

But I did not catch mention of another important vinyl revival pioneer: David Chesky. As I recall, their early ca. 1987 Living Presence/Readers Digest reissues (complete with license-limited cover art) were among the first. Cheeky subsequently made many fine digital recordings, but seems to have lost interest in analog and vinyl. Why this is the case would be an interesting story.

..that Jaffee did not mention all those people. Including Mike of course. Wonder what his problem is? Does not appear to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

as much as I can, but feel alienated by the exclusivity of RSD. I'd love to have the Art Pepper mono, but apparently I'd need to start queueing up at 6am in hopes of getting in on the "1-2 copies" my local place thinks they're getting. Is this how a store wants to compete for my business, a Hunger Games for vinyl?

Anyway, thanks for all you do Michael.

I haven't read it but the book seems to be more about the whole creation of RSD, the phenomenon, and not about the resurgence of vinyl itself - even though it's obviously part of the vinyl resurgence story. He mentions in the video that RSD co-founder Kurtz commissioned him to write the book and that's likely why it's more focused on the RSD players and leaves out the many people like Kassem, Hobson, Fremer, MFSL & others who were working hard to up vinyl's game. I could be mistaken but those people, other than Michael with his overall promotion of vinyl, really don't seem to be involved in RSD.

Michael, one thing puzzles me: why didn't you ask him during your video talk why you were not interviewed. You must have got a feeling you were left out of his story.

Looking forward to checking out the interview and gaining a more complete perspective on this fascinating comeback story! | finish room

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