Third Man Records Opens Vinyl Pressing Plant
Third Man Records has announced the official opening of its state-of-the-art vinyl production facility in the heart of Detroit’s historic Cass Corridor neighborhood on February 25. Third Man Pressing is an investment in Third Man Records’ hometown, a neighborhood within a city both rich with musical history, creating a space that is as inspiring as it is prolific.
As the first label to operate a fleet of brand new, environmentally efficient pressing machinery within a purpose-built manufacturing infrastructure, Third Man Pressing minimises water waste by using recycled water from the record curing process in the air conditioning system, thus creating the only fully climate-controlled pressing plant work environment in the world.
Each pressing station is outfitted with a digital touch screen control for temperature, hydraulic compression, and extruder speed, equaling increased control for the highly trained staff as well as a superior product. The plant was engineered to not only be environmentally sustainable, but also community sensitive with its innovative noise reduction construction techniques.
Third Man Pressing brings upwards of 50 new living wage jobs with benefits into Detroit (on top of the 20 jobs already created by the Willy’s building Third Man Records location at large), and, in complement with Shinola’s recent start of production of high-end turntables, marks the triumphant return of the once-thought-lost record industry to one of the country’s great industrial AND musical cities.
The manufacturing facility will not only press vinyl records for Third Man Records’ label releases (which will also continue to be produced at Nashville’s United Record Pressing), but will also fulfill orders from outside labels. The resurgence in popularity of vinyl records has left many small imprints, “bedroom” labels, and independent artists without the ability to press small runs of records in reasonable amounts of time. Third Man Pressing aims to dedicate a percentage of its capacity each month to pressing records for clients of this ilk, alleviating the bottlenecking of the production caused by major label orders, and bringing more niche, regionally-interesting pressings from inspired individuals onto record shelves worldwide.
First releases to be pressed:
The White Stripes — The White Stripes
The Detroit duo’s first release (originally recorded in the Cass Corridor), pressed on red vinyl with on-site screen printed jackets.
The White Stripes — De Stijl
The second album from The White Stripes, pressed on red vinyl with on-site screen printed jackets
The Black Hole LP
Destroy All Monsters / Xanadu split 12” on black vinyl. Both records were originally released in limited numbers on Black Hole Records in 1979, and this is the first reissue for any of the material from either band.
Detroit Gospel Reissue Project
Our first third-party pressing and the first of a seven-record series featuring incredibly vital and largely forgotten music from dozens of Detroit artists, reissued proudly by noted archivist Mike McGonigal. A subscriber version (with handmade silkscreened jackets) and regular version of JOHNSON FAMILY SINGERS Don’t Let the Devil Ride