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Tour The Archive of Contemporary Music's 3 Million Record Collection

Michael Fremer  |  Jan 3, 2020

Bob George The Archive of Contemporary Music's founder and director was scheduled to participate in a "Making Vinyl Hollywood" panel discussion I moderated last fall, so to prep for it I called Mr. George and proposed a visit to the Archive during which we'd discuss his participation. As you'll see in the video, by the time I visited last September I'd forgotten the reason for the visit!

The Archive houses more than 3 million records. It's an incredible resource and repository in lower Manhattan but rising rents are forcing it to move, plus it's heavily in debt. It's yet to find that new home. Today (January 3rd, 2020), The New York Times published an online story about The Archive that will appear in this weekend's print edition, so today seemed like the perfect day to post the video.

COMMENTS
mraudioguru's picture
Submitted by mraudioguru on Fri, 2020-01-03 17:18

...for online article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/03/nyregion/Archive-of-Contemporary-Musi...

Michael Fremer's picture
Submitted by Michael Fremer on Sat, 2020-01-04 17:24
I fickst the link....
Jim Tavegia's picture
Submitted by Jim Tavegia on Sat, 2020-01-04 09:37

Have they started one, yet?

JEB-42's picture
Submitted by JEB-42 on Sat, 2020-01-04 12:43

Here is the Set list from that show!

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-jimi-hendrix-experience/1968/cne-coli...

Zardoz's picture
Submitted by Zardoz on Mon, 2020-01-06 06:56

Great video. How in the world does Fred listen to all that music, and know if the new copy is better than the old? I have trouble doing that with my meager collection of a few thousand.
Thanks Michael, and Happy New Year,
Z

timorous's picture
Submitted by timorous on Mon, 2020-01-06 07:06

Unbelievable that someone would have this info on that concert. I could have gone to it, but as I recall, tickets were hard to come by. A couple of my friends got to go, and were of course, blown away.

The Paupers were an interesting band from Toronto. Apparently, they played the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, but due to the drug-addled bass player, they blew their chance at fame. Sad.

There's another psychedelic poster from that era that's been floating around various places. This one is for the week-long stint at Toronto's Okeefe Centre, from July 31st to Aug. 5th, 1967. The Grateful Dead were also on the bill, but were not very well known in Toronto, at the time. The poster was typical of the 'Fillmore' posters of that era, designed by James H.Gardner, as many of these were.

timorous's picture
Submitted by timorous on Tue, 2020-01-07 13:54

My last paragraph neglected to mention that Jefferson Airplane were the headline act for the 6-day stint at Okeefe Centre. The Airplane also gave a free outdoor concert at Toronto's city hall that week (without the light show, mind you).

Roy Martin's picture
Submitted by Roy Martin on Thu, 2020-01-09 06:11

I saw The Paupers at the Cafe Au Go Go in NYC and at the original Fillmore in SF opening for the Grateful Dead. They were really good. They did a percussion thing that was unique for its time. Their first album, "Magic People" is not bad. Their second album, "Ellis Island" is very bad.

RubenH's picture
Submitted by RubenH on Thu, 2020-01-09 10:35

Yes, it was that compelling. I gather I'm not the only one cringing a little at the sight of those overhead pipes and wondering just how well-maintained they are (maybe that's what Mr George meant by "we also have sprinklers")

Glotz's picture
Submitted by Glotz on Fri, 2020-01-17 15:09

No Seriously.

Great video Michael!

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