Copper


Summer's End

Issue 39Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #39! For many of us, it's almost time for the kids to head back to school. For those of us who've passed those years, it's almost time to curse...

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The California Audio Show Part 1

Issue 39FEATURED

The Ninth California Audio Show took place July 26-28 at the Hilton Oakland Airport, which has been the hosting venue for the last few years. Our reports on the 2017 CAS can...

Nilsson Sings Newman

Issue 39SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

Harry Nilsson Album: Nilsson Sings Newman LP, 8-track, Cassette Original Release: RCA Victor Records, February, 1970 I don’t know about you, but considering something that happened forty-seven years ago, and which I remember...

Neil Young—Yet Again!

Issue 39INDUSTRY NEWS

Neil Young may be dedicated to communicating with his fan community, but the fragmented, hit-and-miss way in which he does it makes it difficult to assemble a coherent narrative of...

Spiking Your Speakers: What’s the Point?

Issue 39FEATURED

Before we get started, a big IMO should go in front of the next sentence.… Spikes are NOT loudspeaker isolation devices.  They are tuning devices. They will always “lean out” the sound.  True isolation devices will...

Syd Barrett: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Issue 39MUSIC TO MY EARS

Yer not! Am too! But we just stopped. Yeah, that was good for you then wernit? But I didn’t have ter go then. Plus that tab is kickin in. So...

Sunflower Bean

Issue 39AND INDIE FOR ALL

Fat Possum Records, the small label that the band Sunflower Bean records for, refers to the threesome as “veterans of the Brooklyn DIY scene.” DIY. That’s Brooklynese for indie. Cute. (Full disclosure:...

Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be

Issue 39VINTAGE WHINE

I’ve previously mentioned audio icon Henry Kloss’ time at AR (Vintage Whine, way back in Copper #5). The time will come for me to do a comprehensive review of Kloss’ post-AR serial...

The Great Wall

Issue 39MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In the early 70s, the Grateful Dead were the most interesting organization in rock music. To the world outside of San Francisco, they may have seemed a “Warner Brothers act”...

Whack-a-Mole

Issue 39QUIBBLES AND BITS

As 1936 dawned in Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin had already been in power for over ten years, and the first great purge was already well under way.  It was a dangerous time...

Dennis Ferrante

Issue 39THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[This is a little different from previous Copper interviews as its subject passed away in 2015. John Seetoo interviewed Dennis Ferrante some time ago, and this is the first publication of their chat. John has also...

Everything Matters; Nothing Matters

Issue 39THE AUDIO CYNIC

Audio is art and science. It is art. It is science. It is both. It can be neither. After spending most of my life in this biz, it is evident...

Dog Day

Issue 39MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Give this to the taxi driver when you leave the hotel.” The note read, in Chinese and English:  Dog Meat Street! A few years ago I visited China to attend...

My Stereo Is Broken

Issue 39HOBGOBLIN

It’s not the buzzing of a ground loop or the scratching of a bad stylus. It’s silent. Merely silent, staring at me with reproach, speaking not a sound. Okay, I’m...