A Mad Undertaking

an undefinitive guide to the Aadam Jacobs Collection

Tag: AJC

  • Checking In: One Year Into the Aadam Jacobs Collection Project

    How This Journey Began

    A year ago this month, the Aadam Jacobs Collection Project team began converting Aadam Jacobs’ audio recordings to digital formats and preparing them for public access. But the story actually started in 2019, shortly after WBEZ Chicago ran a feature and podcast on Aadam – the “Chicago taper guy.”

    As audio archivists for the Live Music Archive on the Internet Archive (now 280,000 shows and growing), we immediately understood the value of a collection like Aadam’s. His recordings span more than three decades and capture everything from first-and-only performances by local bands to early sets from now (and then)-international acts like Nirvana, Hüsker Dü, Liz Phair, Phish, and many more. It was clear these tapes deserved preservation – and that they should be heard, not hidden away in a warehouse.

    We reached out. So did others. Aadam took time to sort through the possibilities and weigh what he wanted for his collection. Every six months or so, we would check in to see where things stood. Finally, in fall 2024, I visited Aadam at his home in Chicago and left with the first 120 tapes.

    The Challenge of 10,000+ Recordings

    Once we had tapes in hand, the path ahead looked deceptively simple: convert the tapes, lightly master the audio, split it into tracks, and upload it for public listening.

    Straightforward – if you’re dealing with a couple dozen tapes. But we were staring at more than 10,000, some with two or three or more separate sets on them.

    Scaling the work became the central challenge. We did the math early: at 10 shows per day, this would be a 10-year project. We were committed, but we also knew sustaining a volunteer team for a decade wasn’t realistic. To finish within a more reasonable two- to three-year window, we’d need to process 25 – 30 shows per day – roughly 200 per week.

    That meant building the equivalent of a production train… while it was already moving.

    Building a Workflow That Could Scale

    The process has evolved continuously. Today, no one person is responsible for taking a tape from raw format all the way to the Live Music Archive. Instead, we’ve structured the work into stages, each handled by different team members:

    1. Cataloging
      Each tape is entered into our database and routed to the transfer team.
    2. Transfer
      Transfer specialists convert tapes to raw digital audio.
    3. Prep & Metadata
      Another group handles naming, dating, venue identification, transfer-equipment info, and splitting multi-show tapes.
    4. Editing & Mastering
      Editors select shows to master, track, and prepare for upload.
    5. Final Review & Upload
      A final reviewer checks everything and uploads the show to the Aadam Jacobs Collection on the Live Music Archive.

    Then we do it again – 30,000 times.

    The First Recordings Shared – Scruffy the Cat

    The first box of DATs Aadam handed over was a true grab-bag of recordings. When he asked whether I wanted anything specific, I asked about Scruffy the Cat. As it turned out, he had sorted his entire collection alphabetically during the early pandemic, so he knew exactly where to find them.

    I flew home to Massachusetts with 115 DATs and five Scruffy the Cat cassettes in my carry-on.

    We started with Scruffy the Cat because I had a working cassette deck, but no DAT deck. Most of the team had never heard of Scruffy the Cat – a rockabilly-punk / cow-punk / roots-punk hybrid. Think Jason and the Scorchers, if they leaned more punk. The band started in Iowa, moved to Boston in the early ’80s, added banjo and keys, signed a record deal, and released four albums before breaking up in 1990.

    One teammate messaged:
    “Man, loving these guys! Never heard of them before… How did I not know about this band?”

    Link to Scruffy the Cat recordings in the Aadam Jacobs Collection at the Live Music Archive.

    That’s been a theme: the sheer joy of stumbling into something you didn’t know you needed.

    For me, the Scruffy tapes triggered a rush of Boston-era memories – late-night shows, dark rooms, cheap beer underfoot, a band playing in the corner rather than on a stage. Even though the recordings were Chicago-based, the vibe came right back.

    Follow Along: More Gems Ahead

    You can follow the project on Facebook and Bluesky (Bluesky feed of new uploads here), where automated feeds announce each new upload. You’ll never miss when we upload that The Cure show from 1984 of their first visit to Chicago. And yes – the 1984 Cure show is coming soon.

    The Cure - cassette image

    Aadam shared this memory from that night:

    “I won tickets on WNUR, but they were so late with the guest list that, if there was an opening band, I have no memory of seeing them. I found a spot on the terribly crowded floor slightly closer to the left stacks, maybe the equivalent of 12 rows back…

    “The better story is missing their 1985 show because I was seeing Philip Glass, but I had to be at The Cure when it ended to flyer for a late 10,000 Maniacs show at the Vic. Natalie Merchant helped. I reminded her of this about 20 years ago after a Wilco show.”

    What We’ve Achieved So Far

    Before we uploaded even a single file, we knew these recordings would spark memories, conversations, and connections. And they have.

    In the project’s first year, we’ve:

    • Uploaded 1,500+ shows
    • Seen 133,000+ streams or downloads

    Yes, at that pace it would take 15–20 years to finish. But the team is finding its rhythm, and the coming year should be even more productive.

    Want to Help? Here’s How

    If you’re a taper – or simply someone with experience or interest in:

    • transferring 2-channel live recordings (either DAT or Cassette)
    • editing or mastering 2-channel live recordings
    • helping with setlists, metadata, or database work

    …we’d love to hear from you.

    Email us at aadam.jacobs.project@gmail.com.

    Transfers currently take place in Chicago, Cleveland, Palo Alto, Charleston (SC), and Wilmington (NC). Editors span Vancouver, the UK, the Netherlands, and dozens of U.S. cities.

    Our goals for next year:
    Reach 8,000 uploaded shows and one million visitors.

    With help, we’ll get there.

  • Phinding Phish

    It started pretty innocently. A simple conversation about the Aadam Jacobs Collection in a private discord channel.

    So it began….

    I brought this info to the AJC team.  Everyone acknowledged that it would be a cool find, but we were in the very early stages of this project; we’re still in the very early stages of this project, and searching for 1 tape in a collection that’s measured in the tens of thousands seemed like a fool’s errand. Nonetheless, our fearless leader, Vanark, reached out to Aadam to see if he recalled taping Alex Chilton at Lounge Ax in November of 1990 and if he happened to record Phish’s opening set.  In short order, we got the response:

    “Yes” 

    So then we waited.

    The team working on this project is spread across North America and Europe. We all have families and jobs that occupy our time. Many of us actively tape and share recordings of our own. Additionally, only one of us has actually met or spoken directly to Aadam. 

    That is to say, what we are doing, and the way we are doing it, is not normal. Aadam’s home isn’t a lending library that we stroll into, paw through his collection, and take what seems interesting.  We get batches of music, and whatever it is, we work through it. All or nothing. No Tape Left Behind.  For context, I’ve mixed 55 shows for the effort. Of that 55, I hadn’t heard of about 25 of the bands before working on them. For all of us, the idea of this massive tranche of music from one of the great music cities in the world not being preserved was an impossibility.

    The project started with a giant trove of CD-Rs Aadam had made by a friend.  As we worked our way through these, logistics were being hammered out for the rest of the physical media. We have several people with professional-level equipment in various parts of the country prepared to do tape and DAT transfers. But how are we getting them there? Who’s paying for shipping? Does the USPS even have funding and exist as a Government agency anymore?

    Enough about us, you’re probably just here for the Phish.

    Here it is. The master cassette of a Phish show no one had heard in 12,623 days.

    So here is the chain of events that led to you listening to this right now: Vanark flew from Boston to Chicago and went to Aadam’s home. He gathered up as many cassettes and DATs as he could fit in his carry-on and flew home. Then, he cataloged everything, packaged them up for transport, and shipped them off to RyanJ in South Carolina and JohnB in Philly for transfer. 

    Ryan is the archivist behind the unbelievably comprehensive NinLive archive. Alongside his passion for Nine Inch Nails, he has a passion for archiving in general, and he has assembled an incredible collection of equipment for transferring physical media to digital formats. Ryan transferred Aadam’s master cassette via a Nakamichi CR-7A > NI Komplete Audio 6 >Adobe Audition > WAV. 

    The WAV was sent back to Vanark, who eventually passed it to me for mastering.  We noticed something interesting as soon as we took a listen; it seemed that each channel of the stereo recording was an individual source.  The left channel, we guessed, was a PZM mic, which Aadam used often.  The other channel was clean enough that we wondered if it was a board feed. Aadam confirmed that the source was two mics and no board feed; the PZM we had assumed and a TEAC ME-120. The TEAC, as mentioned, sounded excellent but lacked ambiance and was a touch light on bass, and was a bit forward in the mix.  The PZM had excellent bass and room presence but was a bit blown out.

    The edict of this project has been to master with as light a touch as possible. Considering that, I very nearly released the recording exactly as Aadam captured it, but the nerd in me couldn’t resist playing just a little…

    I split the stereo recording into two mono files. I placed a version of the TEAC source on each channel with a bit of EQ and compression, then blended the PZM source in at a significantly lower volume to give it some low end and room vibe.  I then took that file and used a plug-in that helps manipulate the soundstage to get it centered and add some width.

    So, how does it sound?

    Honestly, it sounds amazing, particularly with headphones. I am continually shocked at how good many of Aadam’s recordings are. Considering we started with a 35-year-old cassette, I did not have high hopes, but seconds into the start of “Suzy Greenberg” you can hear the vitality and excitement that makes early Phish shows so intoxicating.

    I’ll leave the deep analysis to the phish.net folks, but on a purely sonic level, “The Landylady” from this show is, in my opinion, superior to the recordings from 11/8 and 11/10. It offers more punch, life, and energy. “Possum,” as with most early 90s versions, sees Trey doing his best Hank Scorpio with a flame thrower impersonation. “The Lizards,” always a joy to hear, features a particularly beautiful rendition of the ending instrumental section with the resonance the Languedoc is known for on full display. 

    So here we are: a plane trip halfway across the country, two rounds of USPS, and considerable hemming and hawing on how to master this, and, finally, a missing piece of one of music’s most well-documented bands has been recovered. History is written, and we can all finally hear another example of Trey screwing up the lyrics to The Lizards.

    Enjoy!