“Having this trove of interviews was kind of a no-brainer.”

November 9, 2023 7:49 PM

Between 1980 and 2005, Boston music journalist Larry Katz recorded over one thousand twenty-four interviews with established rock stars, local favorites, and industry pioneers. This article from Atlas Obscura, "Unearthing Gems in a Massive Archive of Rock Star Interviews", gives an overview of the vast cache, which is now hosted and searchable on Northeastern University's Digital Repository Service. Giordana Mecagni, head of special collections at Northeastern: “The most important part of these tapes is that they’re just really raw . . . they are unpolished and unvarnished.” [via jessamyn]
posted by not_on_display (6 comments total)

nice.
"At a club on Manhattan's Lower East Side, Bowie introduces his new band, Tin Machine to the media with a brief private performance heard here and press conference." 1987.
posted by clavdivs at 8:14 PM on November 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

Very proud to call Giordana Mecagni a friend (and colleague). Bonus fun fact: when not doing stellar social justice projects, she gigs as part of the Boston Typewriter Orchestra! See http://www.bostontypewriterorchestra.com/
posted by mollymillions at 8:47 PM on November 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Oh wow oh wow oh wow. I love archives. This is amazing. Amazing.

Pharoah Sanders. Jason Moran. Joe Henderson (more than once). Cassandra Wilson. Pretty sure this one's supposed to be Mose Allison (not Allison Mose) (I used the feedback form to let them know). Edgar Meyer. Tony Bennett! MORE Tony Bennett! And even Mel Brooks and Dudley Moore and Bette Midler!

Man, I just want to download all 1024 of these and run 'em through Whisper for transcripts.

I also want to mail a link to this to, like, everybody on the internet.

This is SO COOL. I love stuff like this.

Thank you SO MUCH for posting this, not_on_display! I can't wait to listen to these.

Wow.

(Anyone who wants still MORE might enjoy the Joe Smith collection at the Library of Congress.)

Wow. Just ... wow.
posted by kristi at 9:47 PM on November 9, 2023 [6 favorites]

Very cool.


(Permalink, i think, for the via jessamyn in the post. If I am looking at activity correctly, that post may be hard to find in the future.)
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 12:33 PM on November 10, 2023

Between 1980 and 2005, Boston music journalist Larry Katz recorded over one thousand twenty-four interviews

tell me you're an extraterrestrial from a base-2 or similar culture without telling me you're an extraterrestrial from a base-2 or similar culture
posted by Flunkie at 3:23 PM on November 10, 2023 [1 favorite]

> tell me you're an extraterrestrial from a base-2 or similar culture without telling me you're an extraterrestrial from a base-2 or similar culture

OK... Between 11110111100 and 11111010101, Boston music journalist Larry Katz recorded over 10000000000 interviews. All your base-10 are belong to us.
posted by not_on_display at 8:38 PM on November 10, 2023