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Saxophone Colossus on OJC

Hot Stamper Pressings of Jazz Recordings Featuring the Saxophone Available Now

The copies of the 80s OJC we’ve played over the years have been thin, hard, tizzy up top and devoid of Tubey Magic. 

I think I used to like it a long time ago, in the same way I used to like a lot of questionable pressings a long time ago, back when I had a darker and less revealing system. It’s limitations covered up for the weaknesses of this OJC and plenty of others.

By the way, our Shootout Winning Gold Label Mono pressing went for big bucks, 1000 of them in fact. A clean original goes for many times that, which is one reason you have never seen such a record on our site. How much would we have to charge for a Hot Stamper pressing of an album we paid many thousands of dollars for? Far more than our customers would be willing to pay us, that’s for sure.

How About the DCC?

If you don’t want to pay the big bucks we charge for good pressings of this music, try the DCC pressing from 1995.

The DCC Heavy Vinyl pressing is probably a nice record. I haven’t played one in many years, but I remember liking it back in the day. The 2011 OJC pressing is made from the same metalwork as the DCC vinyl. Maybe that one sounds good. I doubt we will ever find out as we have been done with these kinds of records for a very long time.

However, on a decidedly contrarian note, I would be surprised if the DCC Gold CD isn’t even better sounding than their vinyl pressing.

They usually are.

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Marshall Crenshaw / Mary Jean & 9 Others – A Desert Island Disc

Hot Stamper Pressings of Roots Rock LPs

This is my favorite roots rock record of all time. I love the album and have played it many, many hundreds of times. It starts off with the driving This Is Easy and never lets up until the very last song, a beautiful ballad, They Never Will Know.

The All Music Guide had this to say about MC’s first 3 albums: “…an irresistible combination of masterful pop and vibrant, timeless rock & roll.” They weren’t that impressed with this album, but I cannot for the life of me understand why.

I think this is the album where Marshall got it all together: his best songs, his best production, his most tightly knit band, his best guitar solos — the best the guy had to offer is right here.

How does somebody play the same record 100s of times? I have it on tape in my car, backed with one of my favorite Bonnie Raitt albums, Nine Lives. I can sing along with every song and know every guitar lick by heart. This music may sound simple on the surface, but it has the essence of great popular music. The songs are both heartfelt and catchy, with the kinds of hooks that remind me of the early Beatles.

If you like Buddy Holly, or any of the people that have been influenced by him to produce straight ahead rock and roll, you should like this.

If you have the kind of “delicate” stereo that can’t play loud, hasn’t got much bass, or can’t move much air, this is not the record for you. This record is supposed to ROCK. If you don’t have a big system that can do that, you’re wasting your time trying to get this record to do what it wants to do.

It’s not a particularly good sounding record, which is why you have never seen a Hot Stamper pressing of it on our site. But the music is so good we think you can get past the sound and just enjoy the songs for what they are: great.