Spring 2014 - Those of you not living in the Northeast, you have no idea how much we welcome spring this year. It has been a long and bitter winter. What better way to celebrate the arrival of not-freezing weather than with a pair of historic NYC proto-punk/no wave remasters: never before heard studio and rehearsal recordings from late-70s band Jack Ruby. (I had to break open and rehouse the only existing cassette of the rehearsal recordings - fun!) And a remaster of NYC no wave band Live Skull's 1987 release Dusted, with bonus tracks from a cassette of a live performance at CBGB. Lots of cassettes this spring, including one more that I am unbelievably thrilled to be working on today, but gotta keep that one quiet until its official release. I also mastered EPs for multi-instrumentalists, vocal harmonizers and high schoolers Moe & Tom (I'm jealous of their talent!) and composer Jack Budd's project Battle Flags, which includes a ripping cover of "Don't Fear The Reaper."

I get to leave my beloved basement mastering studio this spring to present at two conferences. On April 25, I will be on a panel about The Geography of Music Archiving at Experience Music Project's Pop Con with fellow panelists Kevin Strait of the Smithsonian, Holly George-Warren, author most recently of the new Alex Chilton bio, and Seattle-based journalist and author of a forthcoming book on Kurt Cobain, Charlie Cross.

Later in May, I will join Caffe Lena History Project's Director Jocelyn Arem to present on the Caffe Lena Archive and my role in shaping the sound of 60 years of recordings from the historic venue for the Caffe Lena box set (Tompkins Square Records) at the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections) Conference in Chapel Hill, NC.

Let me know if you'll be at either of these conferences!

Once, in my very early days of mastering, I edited for 8 hours straight, on a weekend, probably a sunny one. It was a massive project that needed a lot of detail work, and, as the assistant, that was my job. When I left work, I couldn't focus my eyes because I'd been staring at Sonic Solutions for so long. I had a moment of panic: this is it, I've half-blinded myself. My eyes recovered in a few hours, and I haven't run any editing marathons like that since. I wised up and learned to take breaks. This morning, somewhat randomly, I listened to a song from that album (which shall remain anonymous). And you know what? It sounded great!

And you know what else? I still love editing.

I've been cheating on Court Street Grocers with Treats Truck Stop. Turns out they have a play area for kids and a plexiglass window for watching the bakers, so on days too cold for playing outside, I've been taking my daughter there and letting her run around while I drink coffee and resist buying lemon bars and frosting cookies. Court Street Grocers has better food and better music, but Treats Truck Stop is not too shabby when it comes to treats and tunes. The other day, I was sitting there enjoying a muffin, and a song came on over their system... so familiar... but I couldn't place it. The chord changes were unmistakable though. I knew it had to be the work of Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. I took a workshop on singing the harmonies of the Everly Brothers at Jalopy, and that F# to C# back to F# to B, then, wham! to the A#7 and D#m. It kills me! But this recording was contemporary, a female duo; it wasn't the Everlys performing.

I didn't have Shazaam, but I did have Google:

Sleepless Nights by The Chapin Sisters.

Also recorded by the Everly Brothers on their 1960 album It's Everly Time!

And covered by Beck and Norah Jones (who, with Billie Joe Armstrong, recorded a whole album of Everly Brother's songs right upstairs from my room at the Magic Shop), Eddie Vedder, Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons...

How had I never heard this song? I literally have pictures of Don and Phil on my studio wall. I took a whole class on how to sing like them. I own their records. I build Spotify playlists around them. I sing their songs to my kids. But I had never heard this song, and it knocked me out.

So good to be knocked out by a brand new 50 year old song.