Academic Archive Volume X: Online Archives
November 2004
Harris:
Dick Spottswood sent your [Washington] City Paper clip on Joe's Record
Paradise. I thought it very strange; a bunch of Baltimore cops go after a
few hundred dollars in bootlegs when millions of dollars in pirated CD and
DVD material is sold daily in the Baltimore area.
I am assigned to the base camp at Falluja through March. I have been back
briefly for some family business. I am relieved to know that Dick is
producing new shows and look forward to hearing them soon.
Any new Old Hat productions?
Hope you have been well.
Best
Jay
Col. Jay Bruder
Commanding Officer I MHG
Headquarters Commandant
Camp Falluja, Iraq
DSN 318-3401-700
Harris Wray, publicist for Old Hat Records, forwarded the above e-mail to me regarding
the October 22, 2004 raid of Joe Lee’s two used-record stores in Baltimore, MD. The warrant
stated that an investigator from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) had
noticed the bootlegs and then took the matter to the Baltimore city police. Of the 150,000 items
in each store, the police seized fewer than 200 bootlegs, mostly classic rock acts such as The
Beatles, Dylan, and Led Zeppelin or contemporary jam bands that allow live taping anyway.
Owner Joe Lee fears he might end up losing his 30-year old business after settling with the
RIAA, yet, “I just don’t feel I’ve hurt the Beatles or Led Zeppelin.” The RIAA’s executive vice
president for anti-piracy, Brad Buckles, says their issue is with dealers “trying to replace what’s
real hot, what’s coming out.”1 Consider the layered ironies of a Colonel stationed in Falluja
during the post-election 2004 offensive reading about a raid on bootlegged live prideful in one of
his favorite used-record stores all in the name of hurting Top 40 sales and eliminating
competition.
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In the early days of the Internet, I fondly remember when Peter Wermelinger’s Funky &
Groovy Music Lexicon was partially available for free online. I would flip through the online
pages, memorizing album covers, happily noting the ones already in my collection. A decade or
so later, his free content is gone while updated print editions continue to be sold through his web
site. The amount of other free funk music content on the Internet, though, has increased
exponentially since those early wild west days of peer to peer networking. Since the 1998 Digital
Millennium Copyright Act and subsequent Napster case, such free content has been under
increasingly persistent vigilant attack by the media conglomerates that wish to keep control of
what they believe is their content industries. Hurling accusations of piracy and theft of creative
works is not as moralistic as it might sound. When speaking about the issue of webcasters, one of
the RIAA experts let slip the real rationale of the content industries, “Well, we don’t really
model this as an industry with thousands of webcasters, we think it should be an industry with,
you know, five or seven big players who can pay a high rate and it’s a stable, predictable
market.”2 Such a market would strangely resemble the four or five major record oligopolies that
desperately wish to keep their control and dominance over the music industry. Yet, even with the
relentless pressure of the RIAA to eliminate any and all competition, there remains much free
funk content on the Internet.
I spoke with the proprietors of four online archives, Dante Carfagna of
Ohiosoulrecordsings.com, Jason Yoder of Indiana45s.com, Raj Mahal of Soulstrut.com, and
Chad/DJ High C of Rehashrecordings.com, about their individual web sites and the future of
record collecting. Other than Rehashrecordings.com, each of the sites allows viewers to submit
material, either information, scans, sound files, or even DJ mixes. In Digital Copyright (2001),
Jessica Littman succinctly explains the value of such cooperative online projects. Before the
World Wide Web, “the Internet contained a wealth of useful and entertaining material” that was
posted in Usenet news and accessible with Gopher software. Such online dialogue, Littman
continues, had “enormous value precisely because [it’s] collaborative.”3 Soulstrut.com’s thriving
forums resemble these early Usenet discussions. Building upon the concept of such participatory
discussions, these four sites are beginning to imagine the future of record collecting, one that
offers stiff competition to the RIAA’s version of the [non]history of recorded music as an
industry lorded over solely by a handful of conglomerates.
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Joe: Dante, what is your central purpose in cataloging Ohio soul recordings?
Dante: Ohio was one of the most prolific independent soul producers throughout the 60s and
70s, but largely a subject unknown. A concentrated effort was needed to gain a greater
understanding of the larger musical picture painted there. I was born and raised in Ohio, thus it
was natural for me to choose this area to focus on.
Joe: Jason, what is your central purpose in cataloging Indiana releases on Indiana45s.com?
Jason: I started off collecting 45s by bands that my friends put out in the late 90s. In 2000 I
heard the Stones Throw release of “Funky 16 Corners” / “Poppin’ Popcorn.” I couldn’t believe
my ears!
At the time I was working at NUVO Newsweekly, an alternative newspaper with distribution of
over 50,000 units per week. I pitched a cover story on lost bands being rediscovered by young
kids. During the process of writing the article I became fascinated by the idea that such recent
history could have been lost so quickly. Most of the musicians who played in late 60s and early
70s bands are still alive. I decided it was time I documented their story before it was too late.
Originally I hoped to write a book on all the local bands. Pretty soon I realized that such a project
would take years to complete. Rather than wait that long, I decided to put together a web site.
The central purpose in cataloging Indiana release on Indiana45s.com is to build a shrine to the
small bands and record labels based out of Indiana. The web site is a virtual testimony to all the
bands that never made it. Someone else has called it “Record Collector Porn.”
Joe: Raj, what is the central purpose of Soulstrut.com?
Raj: Soul Strut focuses on the record collector or “crate digging” aspect of hip hop culture. Users
enjoy a lively message board, streaming audio DJ sets, record features and reviews that are both
informative and entertaining. The purpose is to keep the crate digging aspect of hip hop alive in a
time where sample-based music is dying in the mainstream and to give respect and new found
interest to the older artists that producers sample.
Joe: Do you envision artists, DJs, collectors, and/or researchers using your respective sites?
Why?
Dante: It was created mainly in an effort to solicit unknown information from other collectors
who I may have not been able to reach otherwise. I have received feedback from the artists
themselves, collectors, researchers and licensors.
Jason: I assumed from the very beginning that my web site would provide DJs, collectors and
researchers with valuable information about local and regional recordings. Although the
emphasis is on R&B and Garage 45s, I hope to make the discography of recordings complete,
including every small-pressing 45 issued between 1950 and 2004.
Chad: Yes. Many people have acknowledged the site for hipping them to this or that record. I've
even had people ask me not to include certain records in the Excavation section, fearing that the
exposure would drive prices up.
Joe: Chad and Raj, why do you include free sound files of DJ mixes? What are the social
benefits?
Chad: That's the beauty of the Internet. Why limit it to a label scan and silly little review when
you can give the people the music. I don't think the average visitor cares about what we have to
say about these records anyway. They just click the sound file and move on. Benefits to us? I
think this feature keeps people coming back to the site. Without it, Rehashmedia would just be a
static brochure for our record label.
Raj: The DJ mixes are posted not only for informational purposes but for publicity purposes as
well. I can’t tell you how many times DJs have gotten gigs just by posting a mix on my web site.
Joe: What other sound files have you/will you host? Why?
Raj: Soul Strut has an ISH record feature where collectors show off interesting records they have
found while digging. Usually those records are accompanied with a sound clip. If you ever visit
the message board, there is a legion of forum regulars who are also musicians who post up audio
clips of there latest work. It’s almost a support network for beatmakers.
Joe: Dante and Jason, have you considered including sound files?
Dante: This would be time and band-width consuming and not the point of the project. Though it
would be nice to have aural counterparts to some of the info, I feel there is enough info on the
site for the average person to determine what they might want to hear and pursue it from there.
Jason: Yes, I would love to include sound files if I had the server space to host them.
Joe: To what extent are you concerned about the legal ramifications of peer-to-peer file
sharing?
Raj: In this genre, artists whose MP3s are floating around can use all the publicity they can get.
These are records that were released almost 30 years ago and probably would have been
completely ignored if not for the renewed interest in the artist via hip hop and crate digging. I
have encountered a few ungrateful artists like Alphonze Mouzon and John Klemmer who have
threatened to sue the file sharers (including myself). The crate digging community’s reaction to
artists like these is not a cordial one.
Chad: In regard to my site, I'll start worrying the day someone complains. I don't think our lo-fi
Real Audio files are getting anybody too bent out of shape.
Joe: Chad, why are you cataloging your personal collection?
Chad: I wouldn't call it cataloging but spotlighting a handful of pieces every once and a while. I
am constantly buying and have already amassed so much crap it would be impossible to catalog
it all. But every so often I'll find a really exciting piece and I'll want to share it.
Joe: Have you cataloged your personal collection?
Dante: The site is largely an extension of my personal collection, just arranged in a geographical
fashion. I plan in the future to create Chicago and Missouri sites of the same type. I have been
working on a comprehensive annotated discography of all US funk 45s from 1965-1976 and it is
natural that smaller, more specific discographies could be made from such a massive catalog of
45s.
Jason: I have not cataloged my personal collection. I amass records so quickly that cataloging
them isn’t really practical. However, I have managed to catalog most of the Indiana45s and LPs
in my collection. The web site is a virtual catalog. However, the web site includes some
45s I don’t actually have myself. There are still some boxes of Indiana45s I haven’t gone through
yet.
Joe: Do you know any collectors who have cataloged their entire collection?
Jason: Honestly, I don’t know active collectors who catalog their collections. Most active
collectors are buying and selling on a regular basis, so that makes it impossible to really develop
a reliable catalog.
Dante: Plenty of collectors have catalogs of their personal collections, but so few of them allow
access in any fashion.
Joe: Why should such catalogs be shared with other collectors?
Dante: Like the great Dick Spottswood once said, "The best form of preservation is
dissemination."
Joe: What role will online sound archives play in the future of crate digging culture?
Raj: Oh man . . . it’s already blown up a lot of spots in the 4 years I’ve been a part of Soul Strut.
So many people are getting the information out there of what records are hot, what records are
not, what albums have drum breaks, etc. that it’s become a cake walk for new collectors. Ten
years ago it was all word of mouth and who you knew. So, yeah, I envision sound archives
drastically effecting what records are becoming more scarce because so many people (including
dealers) are up on them. I’m experiencing a lot of that now. You know, having to go to greater
extremes to buy records because the competition is so fierce.
Chad: As time goes on there will be fewer and fewer unknowns. Even today, you can search and
find at least some mention of a record to confirm its existence. There are definitely gaps, but in
time they will close.
Joe: Have you thought about what will happen to our individual record collections well after our
lifetimes - let's say 100 years from now?
Raj: Absolutely. I’m trying to be as impressionable on my daughter and nephews as much as
possible so that I can bequeath my collection. I’m hoping that it will be of sentimental value as it
was when my Uncle, who had a big influence on me with vinyl, was when he forked over his
collection. But if my kids get the collection and they choose to sell it, so be it. Financial security
is nice for them too!
Chad: Not really. I just hope my collection stays in the family. They should be the ones to
benefit from this investment.
Dante: The fact that many records are worth large sums of money usually prohibits collections
from remaining intact after the original owner/collator has passed. It would be a perfect world
where every focused collection was preserved in a non-circulating reference library somewhere,
but the simple commodification of these objects really betrays that idea. Collection disposal is
something no collector wants to think of, but unfortunately we humans (unlike vinyl records)
don't last for a hundred years. How many times have you heard of a disengaged widow dumping
stellar and massive collections for the simple reason of "not enough space?" Hopefully poignant
collectors will either create an accessible database of their collections or make specific
instructions to proper disposal/preservation of their life's accumulations.
Jason: I contemplate this occasionally. I hope one day the collection will go to a resource such
as the Indiana Historical Society.
1. Qtd. In Mike DeBonis. “Bootlegged Out.” Washington City Paper 23 Nov. 2004: 12.
2. Qtd. In Lawrence Lessig. Free Culture. New York: Penguin, 2004. p. 199.
3. Digital Copyright. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2001. p. 102-3.