Jack White Opens Third Man Pressing Plant

Start the presses! Jack White’s Third Man empire continues to flourish, and it’s soon to extend to the vinyl-manufacturing market as well. Headquartered in Detroit’s Cass Corridor district, which boasts a vivid musical history, Third Man Pressing houses state-of-the-art digital machinery in a green setting. Billed as “the only fully climate-controlled pressing plant work environment in the world,” it has the capacity to produce 5,000 albums every eight hours. Predictably, the bulk of its output will consist of Third Man releases, but the factory will also accept orders from artists and imprints outside the organization.

Third Man Pressing’s Feb. 25 opening fete is sure to be a vinyl aficionado’s wet dream: Knowledgeable staff will conduct tours of the sound factory and guide participants through its inner workings. The Mummies, the Oblivians and the Craig Brown Band are scheduled to perform and, of course, there’ll be plenty of acetate for the taking, namely freshly-pressed LPs by the White Stripes, the Stooges and the MC5, and new 7-inches from Carl Craig and Derrick May.

With existing record manufacturers overwhelmed by massive demand, Third Man Pressing will no doubt help satiate the listening public’s ravenous appetite for wax while creating living-wage jobs in a city that desperately needs them. Besides, you can’t hug an mp3.

Jack White photo by Susan Moll.