Last week, en route to the Eccentric Soul Revue in North Carolina, we stopped by United Record Pressing in Nashville, foundry at which all Numero releases are pressed. It was a fascinating Mr. Wizard-meets-Mr. Rogers field trip, as our leisurely stroll through the plant was punctuated with lessons in chemistry and physics. We also got to see bits and pieces of our catalog at various stages of completion, which revealed—even to us—how much goes into each Numero release.
Amongst rows of metal stampers (the negative to each record’s positive) Syl Johnson peeks out from the pack. Do we know what love is? Yes! We’re at a record plant, after all.
Each record begins its life cycle as tiny pellets, which are then molded into patties like the ones above. These particular patties were destined to become colored-vinyl 7″s.
In the case of 12″s, a hockey-puck of plastics is placed between labels, which themselves are heated to assure adhesion (no glue is used). Seconds later, the whole affair is flattened in the presses. As we pan around, you see a record (one step ahead in the process) being dropped onto the spindle. As the previous platter is released, the excess vinyl is trimmed, and spindly pieces of licorice vinyl collect in barrels below.
Each Numero release must be hand collated and inserted. Austin was in a truly Zen-like state when we approached him assembling Boddie box sets. The shrink wrap machine had itself wrapped for the day, so we were unable to film boxes at high speeds, getting flung through gooey plastic. Shame.
Meanwhile…
The sticker bay had all manners of stickers, from major to minor releases in all configurations. The best in show?
Amidst the craziness of Titan, Boddie, and Yellow Pills booklet burning videos, we lapsed ever so slightly on our newest little record: Little Ed & the Soundmasters. You may remember the Soundmasters from their “It’s A Dream” track on Light: On The South Side, wherein a group of west side players enlist their eight-year-old brother to play drums and sing over a harmonica-drenched and smoke-blown slice of way-past-curfew blues-funk. It sounds like this:
When Charles Fisher, the group’s guitarist and archivist, brought over his scrap book of Soundmasters related ephemera, we knew at the very least we had to do something with the photos. That they made three killer 45s on their own Fised and Fished labels in the early ’70s made it that much easier to build a project.
Collected here for the first time is the complete Soundmasters recorded output, including their session backing noted Chicago cop and bluesman Johnny Dollar. The booklet is chock full of family photographs and shots of Little Ed Fisher on stage at Chicago’s seediest nightclubs. We’ve replicated the original labels, and clothed the records in sharp black sleeves. The whole shebang is packaged in tip-on style box, complete with printed interiors and a height buffer. Gorgeous doesn’t really begin to describe it.
We began shipping subscription copies last week, and a few stores have them as well, but if neither of those are options, you can always buy it from our 24-7 Numero store.
Filed under: Numero Vinyl
In addition to the arrival of the Boys live 10″ arriving this week, we also got in the original Titan vinyl that we’ll be distributing amongst the first 301 pre-orders. With Titan 4LP boxes set to drop into our garage on Monday, we’re making one final push to get all the pre-order goodies accounted for. There’s still room for a few of you stragglers.
Newest addition Jon Kirby brought to our attention the fact that prior to working here, he had no idea we did all this limited bonus mail order shit, and that he would have definitely bought records from our website had he known. So, if you know someone who is a Numero fan but buys at, let’s say buys through another mail order firm or shop, you might want to let him or her know what’s up.
Here’s a list of bonus items we’ve made in the past that are mail order only:
Sonny Wimberly & the Sunglows “Moe & Joe parts 1 & 2″ 45 (Available with Light: On The South Side—Sold Out)
Lizard CD (22 song bonus disc available with Local Customs: Lone Star Lowlands)
Deacons “Come On Sock It To Me” b/w the Royal Revue “Is It Because I’m Black” 45 (Available with Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology)
Mod Squad acetate LP (available with Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio 5LP)
Boddie Bonus CD (21 track CD available with Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio)
Danny Shonerd from the Boys sent us this killer photo from the night they recorded the live 10″ we’re including with the Titan 4LP pre-order, and we couldn’t think of a better time to remind you to buy now or regret later. After just a few short weeks, we’re 2/3rds of the way sold out, and we’re likely to be out of the pre-order goodies by the second week of September at this rate. The test pressings arrived last week and we’ve been scouring and devouring them since. To hear the Boys as a single LP is a pretty rad experience, and having all of Gary Charlson’s tracks isolated in one place is probably the way Gary would have liked it to begin with.
We just got all the original Titan vinyl in here last week, and we’ll be featuring some of it over the next week. For now, get thee to the pre-order page and grab your 4LP box three weeks before the October street date.
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Three years ago when we unleashed the 2CD of Titan: It’s All Pop! onto the throngs of power pop weirdos across the globe, we had no idea how many would be clamoring for it on wax. As 95% of the compilation’s 40 tracks were previously issued on vinyl, Titanistas Tom Sorrells and Mark Prellberg had always envisioned it as a CD box set, and as we were already in the midst of making a 4LP edition of Twinight’s Lunar Rotation, we were a bit cash-strapped. Over the years we’ve discussed making a box of 45s as a way to pay ultimate tribute to the much-maligned genre, but the thought of an empty catalog number at “24″ on our LP shelves was giving us personal grief. No, the only way to do Titan on vinyl was to go whole-hog, and we’ve done that in spades.
The original 40-song double disc was sequenced as a kick-ass mix tape. For the 48-song, quadruple LP we dissected the tracks into their own unique sides, giving the Boys their own LP, letting Gary Scharlson and the Secrets* split an album, giving Arlis! and Gems their own sides, and creating Teen Titans, a sort of prequel to Just Another Pop Album, by putting Millionaire At Midnight, J.P. McClain & the Intruders, Scott McCarl, and Bobby Sky onto the fourth album. Knowing we left a ton of nuggets on the cutting room floor, we went back to the original 1/4″ tapes and added the following bonus tracks to each artist’s platter:
The Boys “I’m Not Satisfied”
The Boys “When They See You Smile”
The Boys “She’s My Girl”
The Boys “You Make Me Shake”
The Secrets* “Love For The Money”
Arlis! “Up Down Up”
Arlis! “Because Of You”
Gems “Limitation”
Bobby Sky “What’s The Name Of That Song”
The booklet got a make over too, not only was it expanded to 12″x12″, but we added a few new photos, corrected a handful of errors, and tacked a new epilogue by Tom Sorrells onto page 27. True to Titan’s limited budget, we’ve printed the entire thing in gorgeous two-color spot. All four of the album jackets feature your favorite Titan stars in all their full size glory, also printed in glorious duotone. The whole package is housed in sturdy slipcase, and the dog of course still graces the cover.
To commemorate this revisiting of the Titan catalog, we’re doing a special pre-order at our website, and the Titan guys have chipped in to make it truly worth your while (and hard earned dollars). The first 301 pre-orders will get ONE of the following bonus items:
195 original Gems 45s autographed by J.P. McClain
40 original Just Another Pop LPs
20 original Gary Charlson “Shark b/w Brown Eyes” 45
15 original Arlis! “No Way Baby b/w I Can’t Take It” 45
10 original Gary Charlson “Real Life Saver b/w Not The Way It Seems” 45
10 original autographed Scott McCarl CDs
5 original Gems white label promos 45s autographed by J.P. McClain
5 original Real Live Gary 12″ EPs
1 McCarl super package including an autographed CD, “In Love Without A Girl” 45, Raspberries VHS, and an original Yellow Hair 45
100 randomly selected pre-orders will get an original Titan business card.
But wait, there’s more! Not to be outdone by Tom and Mark, we’ve recreated the scrapped live Boys 10″, originally slated for release by Titan in 1980! Cut from the original 1/4″ tape, the set includes “Out Of Touch,” “Night Time,” “You’re Bad Too,” and “Yesterday’s Circles.” Housed in a tip-on jacket and given the prestigious 024.5 catalog number, this limited-to-1000 10″ is yours free when you pre-order the 4LP Titan: It’s All Pop! Once they’re gone, they’re gone for good.
Question from the peanut gallery: If I’m already a Part 2 Numero LP Subscriber, do I need to pre-order to get all the goodies? Answer: Your subscription guarantees you a spot in the first 301.
Not a subscriber? Follow this link to savings.
Eccentric Soul: The Bandit Label was only our third release and, until now, it was only available on CD. True to it’s name, Bandit Records was a quasi-criminal enterprise run with an iron fist by Arrow Brown, a Chicago man who ran an entertainment empire from a ghetto commune he shared with a harem of lovers whose welfare checks funded his showbiz aspirations. He controlled the musicians, wrote and produced the songs, and named the groups after himself. The story runs the gamut, from child labor and polygamy to the kidnapping of CBS newsman Dan Rather.
Equally odd was Bandit’s roster: a collection of friends and family like his seven-year-old son Altyrone Deno Brown, or the Majestic Arrows featuring his daughter Tridia. Despite this less-than-conventional environment, Bandit managed a string of unique singles between 1969 and 1981 with lush, layered production that could be as gorgeous as it was over the top—even by that era’s grandiose standards.
Over the years, a clutch of new tracks and photos have surfaced, as well as previous unknown dimensions to the label’s story. With all this new material, we’d decided to finally unleash our ultimate version of the Bandit tale, a triple LP collection with an estimated 20,000-word booklet. Featuring the Majestic Arrows’ complete 1975 LP with replica hand-drawn cover as well as the collected works of the Arrows, Altyrone Deno Brown, Linda Balentine, Sandy Cleveland, the Wind, the Michigan Avenue Sound Orchestra, Johnny Davis, and the Chosen Few—even lo-fi practice tapes!—this release will be the definitive take on the Bandit saga. Look for it in 2012.
And while you’re waiting, check out this striking likeness of Arrow Brown done by Columbus, OH artist Rob Jones.
Filed under: Newsworthy, Numero Vinyl, Wee | Tags: Cleveland, Jazzman Gerald, Wee
Ohio is ever-sprawling…!
“Jazzman Gerald” was kind enough to send us (2) 20 count boxes of the WEE 45s he had pressed up for his “SOUL 7″ series [licensed from NG].
The catalog numbers SOUL7-020 contain the mellow groovers “I Luv You” b/w “I Want To Show You” and SOUL7-021 has album edits of “Try Me” c/w “You Can Fly On My Aeroplane.”
They may be procured here for $5 a pop.
Get ‘em while they last, cheap!
Filed under: Boddie, Ebirac, Newsworthy, Numero Vinyl, Subscription, Willie Wright | Tags: Numero Subscription
After an 11th hour A&R meeting that lasted a whopping 163 minutes, your Numero Group has emerged more ready than ever to announce the contents of our 2011 CD and LP subscription. Though most of you are still living out the dregs of 2010, we’ve been facing up to and plotting for 2011 ever since we sent the Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology box set to press in mid-June. For those of you wondering where your final 2010 items are, we’ll explain it all in the coming paragraphs (Just know, for the moment, that you’ll have them shortly).
Numero’s 2010 was all about quality over quantity (adding only three records to our main line during the calendar year). For 2011, we’re shifting philosophies, to bring you a quantity of quality, delivering a multitude of small, focused projects, all of an extremely high grade. We’ve got so many LPs lining up for ’11 completion that we’ve had to break the vinyl subscription into two parts. And, with CD orders continuing to slack off on the front stoop and smoke cigarettes, we’re retooling most of our CD subscriber packages to include bonus content unavailable with the retail CD editions. Finally, we’re adding a few items that’ll be ownable via subscription only, upping the ante considerably from last year. Oh, and we’re gonna charge you less, too.
2011 Vinyl Subscription Part 1: $100
038 Willie Wright: Telling The Truth LP+45
011 Eccentric Soul: Mighty Mike Lenaburg 2LP
ESBOX002 Soundsmasters 3×45
036 Cult Cargo: Salsa De Boricua Chicago 2LP
037.5 Fathers Children LP
In addition to the 6 LPs and 4 singles listed above, you’ll get any bonus materials we make (discs, autographed ephemera, etc.), a die-cast pin, and an exclusive 7″ from the Numero vault. As this entire subscription will be filled by June, we’ll be offering a booster pack for a reduced price.
037.5 Fathers Children CD
037 Eccentric Soul: RJW 2CD
039 Eccentric Soul: Nickel & Penny Labels CD
035 Boddie Recording Company: Cleveland, Ohio 3CD
In addition to 7 CDs listed above, you’ll also get any bonus materials we make (discs, autographed ephemera, etc), a die-cast pin, and an exclusive 7″ from our vault.
2010 CD subscribers, if you’re looking for your copies of Willie Wright and Salsa De Boricua Chicago, don’t fret! They’re being manufactured now and will ship right around the first of the year.
About that die-cast pin:
Welcome to the Winter Olympics of Numero tchotchkes. In addition to being Numero logo-shaped, the color of pin you get reflects your years as a subscriber. If you’ve been with us since the beginning, get ready to affix a gold pin to your lapel. For those who’ve only been with us for 2-4 years or 1 year look out for silver and bronze (respectively). Wear this pin to get a 15% discount at any Numero event or table where we sell our wares.
Here a sip of next year’s juice if you’re not already convinced:
For awhile now fine independent record stores all over the country like Grimey’s in Nashville and Permanent Records in Brookyln have been meticulously crafting their own Numero displays and bin sections to stock our stuff. Well, we’ve caught on and decided to create our own bin card featuring a collage of Numero related artist sketches by Chicago’s Steve Krawkow aka Plastic Crimewave for both retailers and consumers alike. Independent record store retailers that purchase direct with us (Syl Box Sets are shipping out this week), will receive a complementary bin card to use in their stores. For customers that have been frustrated trying to find a perfect place to file and distinguish their Numero releases from the rest of their collection, we will be selling them on our website for $7.
Limited to 300 pieces of glorious polystyrene, this bin card will elevate your collector status immediately! Once they’re gone, you’ll have to man-up and pilf one from your favorite local record retailer. And if by chance your shop doesn’t have a Numero section, ride them hard and tell them they have no fucking excuse.
