The Nightcrawlers - The Little Black Egg LP
- Thread starter massb
- Start date
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
I don't know who owns the Kapp Records catalog and master tapes, but there are seemingly few,
if any, tape-sourced reissues of any kind from this label on the market today. I'll ask Alec Palao what
he knows, since he did produce the old Ace/Big Beat Nightcrawlers CD (although that might have
come via the Lee Hazen estate). Somebody needs to do a definitive Chuck Conlon/Nightcrawlers
project pretty soon though.
howlin' hoosier
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere in the middle ...
Kapp is a MCA/Universal label - it seems like the MCA family of labels hasn't had a very good track record of garage reissues (did the Decca/Kapp/Dot /ABC/Paramount/Uni and other MCA affiliated owned labels dive very far into the 60s garage scene)? The hits like Little Black Egg and Incense and Peppermints are easy to find, but is there a treasure trove of 1 or 2 no-hit wonders in those vaults that were produced, licensed or bought as masters from indie labels or producers (let's ignore the horrendous Universal vault fire which destroyed a huge chunk of back catalog that was most likely never going to be licensed/leased for reissue because of asinine licensing and legal requirements)?
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Location
- The shores of southern CT
The masters were probably lost in the warehouse fire
howlin' hoosier
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere in the middle ...
Odds are really good they're toast; pre-fire, what sort of garage catalog had MCA/Universal managed to pull together? Given their rockabilly holdings, which were extensive, did they have a trove of garage tunes that were waiting for someone to cough up the money to license them? Ace would seem like the likely company to have mined the MCA vaults, Sundazed was also going through vaults as well yet I can't think of comps with Decca label garage tunes.
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
The Sons of Adam Decca masters were definitely lost (including unreleased material) in that fire. The recent comp would have been even stronger had the tapes survived. If the Dot Records 45 masters from '65-66 were in there too, they would have sourced one HELL of a classy garage comp project (Little Phil, The Syndicate, The Briks, The Sherlocks, Karen Verros, The Rondels, The Soul Survivors, Thee Sixpence etc.).
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Location
- The shores of southern CT
Bob (when he ran Sundazed) asked me to compile a list of Mercury / Smash / Phillips 60s garage tracks for a label retrospective. As I have the master books, I picked out a number of unreleased tunes along with the usual suspects. We had enough for a 4CD set. Alas, the big-wigs at Universal rejected the request to license the project ,requiring a guarantee of at least 10,000 units sold, then charging a sold copy percentage on top of the licensing deal. Obviously that was rejected by Sundazed.
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
Universal is a textbook case-study on how NOT to run a music-related business. Niche-marketing is the only prudent way to sell physical media
(records and CDs) in this decade of this Century. Taylor Swift is an outlier...retail people I've talked to say that most customers that are buying Taylor Swift's expensive vinyl releases don't even own turntables! (lol) It's more like a 'cult' for kids who are already streaming her catalog.
Heitkotter77
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2011
- Location
- the Woods of Briar
When Parallel World wanted to do a reissue of the Morgen album, we had to deal with the new Universal Music Group.
Steve Morgen contacted them and asked them if he (as the artist) could get a tape of his record. They found the master tape was still in the MCA vault (this was pre-fire) & proceeded to offer him 5,000 cassettes for $10,000.
Needless to say, we never even got to discussing licensing.
howlin' hoosier
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere in the middle ...
MCA/Universal always seemed ro be the hardest of the big labels to get anything done in the US as far as garage reissues are concerned. I imagine the vault fire (aside from Universal getting a hefty insurance check) also found a great new way to avoid licensing material: “Sorry, those songs/tapes were all destroyed in the fire.”
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
I wish I could say that would be beneath them, but...
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Location
- The shores of southern CT
Doubt they got a " hefty" insurance check - many bigtime artists lost their masters and sued them. Cases are still pending.
howlin' hoosier
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere in the middle ...
Universal will do just fine, they no longer have to warehouse that mountain of audio tapes, film and video elements - the vault was over-insured and it appears they received $350 million (sourced this info from the Both Sides Now site where one of the moderators is an industry insider who got the intel from a Universal exec). They'll weasel around the loss of analog masters by saying all their important material was digitized with perfect copies (harrrumph to that), make some payments to big shots, quietly move on and count the stacks and piles of gelt.
Heitkotter77
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2011
- Location
- the Woods of Briar
Sure, it was, all those decades of MCA's mob connections notwithstanding.
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
- Location
- The shores of southern CT
Universal digitized maybe 10 percent at MOST, despite what "insiders" say. This is from someone I know who used to contract and perform archival work there.Universal will do just fine, they no longer have to warehouse that mountain of audio tapes, film and video elements - the vault was over-insured and it appears they received $350 million (sourced this info from the Both Sides Now site where one of the moderators is an industry insider who got the intel from a Universal exec). They'll weasel around the loss of analog masters by saying all their important material was digitized with perfect copies (harrrumph to that), make some payments to big shots, quietly move on and count the stacks and piles of gelt.
That $350 million you say they got will evaporate quickly based on the pending lawsuits. Universal is trying to delay and stall via funding of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. Of course, you won't find this info "on-line" anywhere, as Universal will prevent broadcasting or electronic transmission toward public knowledge and information detrimental to their side. Just like modern day politics!
howlin' hoosier
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2011
- Location
- Somewhere in the middle ...
That 10% would be the heavy sellers/bulk generators to the bottom line and they would have been the first things digitized (a flawed storage format long term, nothing beats good old analog tape for longevity, who knows what Sony 1610 digital dubs will do in the long term) - there's also foreign vaults where dubs and masters reside. You can bet Universal has a bunch of lawyers on retainer that will drag sh*t out, find loopholes and generally protect Universal from shelling out too much to artists. No matter how you look at it, it sucks that their vault wasn't treated with greater care than it was - in terms of what could have been this is like the Atlantic Records vault fire in the 70s where almost all their multitracks and unreleased material went up in smoke (singles and albums were luckily stored n another location).
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
ALL politics. Look up the Boston Smallpox epidemic of the 18th Century.
Benjamin Franklin actually invented 'fake news' and 'catfishing' then (lol).
chas_kit
G45 Legend
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2011
- Location
- Hudson Valley, NY
Would tape or vinyl be best for longevity? Tape seems to have many aging problems depending on brand and materials, even with proper storage. Well-stored vinyl would probably last 500 years. I joked to archivists that to preserve audio, they should press it to vinyl. They didn't find it funny, as they're so wedded to cheap digital media.
Dave Baldwin
Tennalaga Class
- Joined
- May 5, 2011
- Location
- Deep Texas
'Techno-heathens'...the lot.
massb
Ikon Class
- Joined
- Apr 20, 2011
The new Keb Darge’s collection contains a track by the Nighrcrawlers.
Maybe Ace has still a licensing deal.....
Keb Darge Presents The Best Of Ace Sixties Garage Punk
by Various Artists (Keb Darge) on Ace Records
www.acerecords.co.uk
Maybe Ace has still a licensing deal.....
