Exclusive!

I’ve noticed that I am pretty susceptible to the cold. I went to an outdoor thing with a ton of people in Golden Gate Park recently, and I was shivering and doing these little tourettes’ style body jerks while people wearing shorts and t-shirts were chilling out in my vicinity unfazed. For the record I was wearing a beanie, a jacket, pants and a long-sleeve shirt. I was also stoned and drinking cold beer which makes me very susceptible to the cold (especially wind). It’s a sad excuse, as everyone else was also stoned and drunk; I guess it just depends on how your individual neurons fire. My neurons obviously fire some pussy-ass signals, as I am frequently reminded by my brain to be cold, doubtful, anxious and sleepy.

So let’s talk about music for a second. This blog was intended (at least in its initial stages) to be a music blog, and not a raging, sarcastic, look at life in doubt. I sort of got on that level with the last post, so I’m going attempt to continue the trend at least for a moment.

I really dig that dude Dam Funk on the Stones Throw label. I’ve seen him play and dj a couple times now, and I really feel his vibe. When he djs, he name drops every track he plays, lets you know the year it came out and the label. At this point with blogs, bit torrent, and that program Shazam on the Iphone, it’s pretty fucking easy to find at least a shitty copy of the song that you heard at the club in some format and for free. A lot of djs used to be into the exclusivity mentality by guarding their prized finds and often covering the labels of their records so that trainspotters (like me) wouldn’t figure out whats playing. I’ve actually politely asked a couple djs about tracks, right after a mix (so technically they shouldn’t be too busy at that exact second) and been told, “sorry, I can’t tell you”, or “I don’t know” in that asshole, dismissive tone. You know what the fuck you are playing dude, and if you didn’t you’d be like “actually, I don’t know, it’s this German import white label that I found when I was in London, etc, etc, etc”. In my opinion, a lot of blogs do that too: while they may be a bit holier than the asshole dj, as they do give you access to the song, often times the quality (bit-rate or recording) of the track is so god awful, it’s like being handed a premium sandwich made with moldy bread. The meat and veggies are quite appetizing, and that shit’s got prosciutto so you know it’s gonna be the jam, but the bread is so moldy and foul, that there is no way that you are gonna put it in your mouth. Crap, I got off topic slightly. Anyway, as opposed to being a prick about his record selection, Dam Funk goes the extra step to just let everyone know exactly what he is playing. That shit is fair game now, go find it and enjoy it (which is how music should be to a certain extent. I’m all for artists getting paid for their wares, but I don’t see why any tracks should be exclusive to certain people or djs just because they are privileged enough to have stumbled upon it). He also sings along to his records and tracks live, G-Funk style, which I am very fond of (if done properly). You have to be a certain type of person, with a certain type of voice and a certain type of look to really pull that shit off (luckily, he looks and acts like Pootie-Tang). That being said, a couple tracks available in this post are by the group Loose Ends. If you were to take the vocals out of these tracks, they could easily be mistaken for the new Dam Funk 12s”, and this shit came out in 1985. I know that the retro deal is his deal, but I’m just sayin.
Loose Ends - Hangin On A String (Contemplating)
Loose Ends - Let's Rock
Loose Ends - Dial 999
Midnight Star -Night Rider