You know it's time to catalog your records when...

1) You are listening to a mix and hear this absolutely sick track

2) You note the track and then spend the better part of 45 minutes trying to find it online

3) You're looking through your collection for totally unrelated stuff and realize you already have the track!

That's when you know it's time to catalog your record collection.

The track, you ask?  "Cocktail Lounge" by Brother to Brother (Paul Johnson & Gant Garrard) - Dusttraxx, 1999

Chicago Record Stores: Mr. Peabody's

I know I'm sounding like a broken record (bad pun *not* intended.. but there you go) but Chicago is an absolutely awesome city for record stores.

This was reinforced by my visit to Mr. Peabody's out on the South Side, or "South Siiiiiide!" as we native sons say :-) First, I must tell you that I thought Mr. Peabody's had taken over operations from Beverly Records, a south side institution that opened in the 60s. I figured that we were at least treading water in keeping record stores around in the city...Beverly Records gone, Mr. Peabody's arrives, and so goes the circle of life.

Imagine my surprise to learn that Beverly Records was still around and going strong (it'd been forever since I'd been over that way, so I conflated the addresses)
A twofer, sweet... I'll write about Beverly Records in a separate post

Back to Mr. Peabody's... I loved the interior! Decorative records all over the walls... a huge autograph wall on one side of the store.... and the records, oh my.

I was in there for maybe 30 seconds when one of the proprietors drops this wicked mix of Dee-Lite's Good Beat (House heads might think it sounds familiar, the remix is by Pal Joey who did certified-classic Hot Music) Anyways, I snagged the dee lite right away.

I also picked up a couple of other things:

Gonna take a miracle, by Laura Nyro and Labelle
Outline, by Gino Socio

Had a nice chat with Mark Grusane, one of the owners. He helped me ID a track I'd been looking for forever (Sylvester's "I Need You")

A great store holding things down on the far south side!

Mr. Peabody's Records: http://www.mrpeabodyrecords.com/

Humbled (and inspired!) by the Immigrant Work Ethic

( this is why it's good to go through your archived files every so often... I stumbled across this note I wrote to myself back in 2007... posting it here mostly so I don't lose it again. )

So, I'm having lunch today at Noodles & Co. and I see this guy who looks familiar.  Hispanic guy.  He's having lunch too and it looks like he works at the restaurant. He might be a cook (they appear to have different color baseball caps than the "front of house" staff )

I look a little more closely and recognize where I know him from.  I see him four days a week because he *also* works nights cleaning up the offices at the client site where I'm working.  I'm pretty sure he's an immigrant, based on his english in the various exchanges I've had with him, which consist mostly of smiling and nodding...

As I look at this man eating his lunch, all my reasons (read: excuses) for why *my* life goals aren't farther along ring especially hollow.  I can take care of my family with *one* job, so what is my excuse for not being farther along that I'd like to be in terms of life goals?

I'll spare you the torture of reading more of my introspection, but I was humbled... and I am inspired.  I'm inspired because of a self-image that *knows* that I'm cut from the same cloth as this man.  I've always known this, I've been watching my Grandparents and Parents striving and working their asses off for all of my life.  But I guess sometimes you just need to see it with a degree of separation to be reminded...  So they next time I thank this guy for getting my wastebasket at 6:30pm, I'll be thanking him for much more than that.

I'm not assuming this dude is undocumented... and I'm ambivalent about many aspects of the immigration debate here in the States, but we are *so* in-trouble down the road if we make it any harder for people like this to come here (from wherever!)

Chicago Record Stores: Dave's Records

This installment in the Chicago Record Stores series will focus on Dave's records.

Definitely one of my favorite record stores in the city, Dave's is *truly* a "record" store. That is, it's all vinyl, no cds!

Now, I'm not hatin' on CDs, whatever carries the good tunes works for me, but there is much to be admired in the purity of Dave's approach.

While you might assume that because of the "vinyl purist" approach, the shop would be snooty, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The proprietor Dave has been in the music business for 25+ years and is a wealth of knowledge. Whenever I'm there, he always has great suggestions for me (and dammit, I always leave spending more than I'd planned!)

There was a period in my collecting where I was easily there once a week. I've become a less frequent visitor since, but my recent trip has reminded my of the place's awesomeness. Although Dave's focus is music, it is a strong case for why independent retail should not perish from the earth, to paraphrase Abe Lincoln (right about now, Dave would be finding some Abe Lincoln themed spoken word album to blow my mind with.... word!)

The Dance Music Space-Time Continuum

It's always been an interesting feature of Dance Music that trends and what's hot/not move very quickly. Although downloads now make this a feature of just about every genre, this was the case with Dance/Electronica when Vinyl/CD were the main formats.

I think that this trend has only accelerated for Dance music now that digital files are so prevalent and many (but certainly not all) DJs are playing out with digital rigs such as Serato, etc.

By way of example, up until yesterday I thought I was somewhat up on the latest tunes, until Beatport and Resident Advisor whacked me upside the head with how behind the curve I am. Of the 50 Tunes in their July Chart, I recognized about 7 artists (15% if you're keeping score at home). That really should be between 90-100%... gotta get my weight up!

Oh, the space-time continuum thing? Seeing how rapidly I got "out of date" made me think of Einstein's description of how time slows down as one approaches the speed of light, something about growing old very slowly... I'm down with that, don't close the spaceship door!

On a slightly different tangent, here's some interesting industry analysis from New Music Strategies

Record Stores in the Movies

It's Record Store Day Eve, I'm *so* excited :-)

Here's a quick list of some of my favorite record store moments from the Silver Screen






High Fidelity: Jack Black as a snarky record store clerk... John Cusack as the store owner... more great lines than I have time to recount. I still need to read the book by Nick Hornsby. The Cusack character is who I aspire to be (minus the relationship issues)




Empire Records: Plot isn't this film's strong suit, but the main setting is the coolest imaginary record store ever! Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger don't hurt either.




- - - Honorable mentions - - -


Love Jones: Dr. Wax from Hyde Park is name-checked, although the record store scene occurs in some other store. As an aside, if you want to see some sexy black folks (of either gender) this is good choice.. Nia Long & Lawrenz Tate star... it's a pretty good love story. The soundtrack is killer, highly recommended.

Mo Betta Blues: The scene where Wesley Snipes' character tries to kick-it to Cynda Williams' character is cool. I'd cut my record shopping short if Cynda Williams was waiting on me.

I am Legend: Huh? You heard me... This movie proves that like cockroaches, record stores will still be around even in a post-apocalyptic nightmare vision of NYC.

All Time Top 5 Albums (for now)

Record Store Day is this saturday, and I like to celebrate it kwanzaa-style, lighting a candle of record-love for a few days before the big event.

So... my all-time top 5 albums (in no particular order)

- Songs in the Key of Life, Stevie Wonder
- A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
- Remedy, Basement Jaxx
- Fear of a Black Planet, Public Enemy
- Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Now, if I were stranded on a desert island, I'd probably wish for a solar powered iPod... but if I only had a solar powered record player and 5 records, these would be the ones.

Caveats: Top 5 lists are ridiculous... Limiting to only 5 forces me to ignore vast swaths of the musical landscape... no Rock? No classical? No "world" music? ridiculous.

I engage in the top 5 ritual in honor of Record Store Day (and the film High Fidelity) ...and Comic Book Guy.