Some digs this weekend

I had some extra time this long weekend, and I had the chance to hit one of my favorite record spots.

The digging was pretty uneventful, other than I had to keep a couple of bored 4 year olds away from my portable and I also had to keep a dog away from my keeper pile. I felt that I had a pretty good afternoon. I spent some time today cleaning these up, but I have not given all of the records a spin yet.

I spent roughly 2 hours and came up with the following:

45s
Hank Ballard "Finger Poppin' Time" King
Bobby Blue Bland "Blue Moon" Duke
James Brown "Stoned To The Bone" Polydor
James Brown "Make It funky" Polydor
Solomon Burke "I'm Leaving On The Late Late Train" Chess
Chairmen of The Board "Finders Keepers" Invictus
Chi-Lites "Troubles A Comin" Brunswick
Chi-Lites "Being In Love" Brunswick
George Clinton "Atomc Dog" Capitol
General Crook "Gimme Some" Down To Earth (this seems to be more common than I thought)
Crown Heights Affair "Foxy Lady" De-Lite
King Curtis "This is Soul" Atco
King Curtis "Soul Seranade" Capitol
Detroit Emeralds "You're Getting' A Little Too Smart" Westbound
Detroit Emeralds "I Bet You Get The One (Who Loves You) Westbound
Dramatics "Thankful For Your Love" Volt
Dramatics "(Gimme Some) Good Soul Music" Volt
Dynatones The Fife Piper HBR
Esquires "Listen To Me" Bunky
Five Flights Up "Black Cat" TA
Franklin, Aretha "Don't Play That Song" Atlantic

LP

King Tubby "Dub Mix Up" Jamaican Recordings

I came across another lead for digging in the area, so I hope to make it out over the next few weeks.

Hip-Pocket Recordings

I received an interesting package in the post the other night. In the package there was roughly 20 colored envelopes that enclosed many choice sounds from the 67-68 time frame Bobby & James Purify, The Seeds, The Syndicate of Sound, etc.

The envelopes contained Hip-Pocket Records that were a product from Philco-Ford, that had a place in the market from 1967-68. Above is an image of the Hip-Pocket packaging that I borrowed from WFMU.

Here is a discography for the Hip-Pocket catalog:

Number	Artist	Title
HP-1	Tommy James & the Shondells	Mirage / I Think We're Alone Now
HP-2	Tommy James & the Shondells	Hanky Panky / Gettin' Together
HP-3	Sam The Sham	Ju Ju Hand / Wooly Bully
HP-4	Mitch Ryder	Jenny Take a Ride / Sock It To Me Baby
HP-5	Neil Diamond	Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon / Cherry Cherry
HP-6	McCoys	Fever / Hang on Sloopy
HP-7	Happenings	Go Away Little Girl / See You in September
HP-8	Sonny & Cher	I Got You Babe / The Beat Goes On
HP-9	Doors	Light My Fire / Break on Through
HP-10	Five Americans	Western Union / Sounds of Love
HP-11	Wilson Pickett	Land of 1000 Dances / Midnight Hour
HP-12	Percy Sledge	When A Man Loves A Woman / Baby Help Me
HP-13	Otis Redding	Shake / Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa
HP-14	Buckinghams	Kind of a Drag / Lawdy Miss Clawdy
HP-15	Arthur Conley	Sweet Soul Music / You Don't Have To See me
HP-16	Van Morrison	Brown-Eyed Girl / Midnight Special
HP-17	Neil Diamond	You Got To Me / Solitary Man
HP-18	Young Rascals	A Girl Like You / I've Been Lonely Too Long
HP-19	Spanky And Our Gang	Making Every Minute Count / Bird Avenue
HP-20	Keith	98.6 / Ain't Gonna Lie
HP-21	Lesley Gore	You Don't Own Me / That's the Way the Boys Are
HP-22	Jay and The Techniques	Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie / Loving For Money
HP-23	The Fallen Angels	Room At The Top / Most Children Do
HP-24	Aretha Franklin	Respect / Soul Serenade
HP-25	John Fred and his Playboy Band	Judy in Disguise / No Letter Today
HP-26	The Seeds	Pushin' Too Hard / Can't Seem To Make You Mine
HP-27	Box Tops	The Letter / Happy Times
HP-28	James and Bobby Purify	I'm Your Puppet / Goodness Gracious
HP-29	Syndicate of Sound	Little Girl / Rumors
HP-30	Shirelles	Soldier Boy / My Heart Belongs To You
HP-31	Etta James	Tell Mama / Security
HP-32	The Dells	There Is / Show Me
HP-33	Bo Diddley	I'm A Man / Song of Bo Diddley
HP-34	Chuck Berry	Maybelline / Roll Over Beetoven
HP-35	Country Joe and The Fish	Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine / Masked Marauder
HP-36	Joan Baez	There But For Fortune / Pack Up Your Sorrows
HP-37	Rooftop Singers	Walk Right In / Tom Cat
HP-38	Brenton Wood	Gimme Little Sign / Oogum Boogum
HP-39	Fantastic Johnny "C"	Boogaloo Down Broadway / Got What You Need
HP-40	Brenda and the Tabulations	Dry Your Eyes / When You're Gone
HP-41	Isley Brothers	Twist And Shout

The majority of my Hip-pockets are unopened, but there are a couple that have the seals broken. I plan to give these a spin on the 1200s tonight.


The discs themselves look like mini records, but are made of a flexible, bendable material, not unlike some of the sound sheets that would appear in magazines in the 60s or 70s. They spin at 45 RPM, but they are so small in diameter that it requires the use of a non returning tone arm to play them. Above is a picture of the mini turntable that was available to play these little records.

Apparently, these records were only on offer at your local Ford Dealer or a Woolworth's outlet. The suggested retail price was $.69.

Here is the marketing speak that appears on many of the envelopes:

Buy the hits you missed

25 to 50 hip pocket records can be carried in pocket or purse

Hip pocket records can be mailed with greeting cards as a gift

They will outlast a regular 45

Drop them or sit on them...they are almost indestructible

Take them to parties or to the beach or picnic...they are the most portable form of music

Don't let the small size fool you...the sound is amazingly big

Start your collection of hip pocket records today.

I wonder if FOMOCO ever offered the player as a dealer installed option. My 66 Mustang with an under dash record playing unit would be way cool.

Fufu Stew Thanksgiving post

Please jet over to FuFu Stew for Vincent's A Fufu Stew Thanksgiving Mix,
I contributed a few tracks to the mix as did many other soul and funk aficionados.

There are three parts to the mix, to coincide with Vincent's typical Thanksgiving meal. There is literally a ton of tasty treats on offer of both the soul and funk variety so please stop by, pull up a chair and don't be shy about asking for a care package (doggie bag) before you leave.

Have a great Thanksgiving everybody!

New Mix--Street Tax

Hey all you soul and funk fans. Sorry that I have been out of pocket so much lately, but working for the man, sure has a way of taking up your time.

I have been able to do some digging a couple of times a month and have been able to find loads of dirty, affordable 45s. These lost treasures form the basis for the latest mix, which I am calling Street Tax.

The lovely picture above was contributed by a longtime cohort, The Colonel. I believe that the picture was taken somewhere in Oregon. He has this to say, "(I) can't decide if he is a cowboy airforce vet or a civil war figurine?"

The selected tracks are a bit all over the place with some more common songs butting up against more deep tracks. Toots was very helpful in assistance with digging and found some of the discs that make up this mix.

Once again, the 1200s provided the means with which I recorded the discs to my macbook. All cuts were taken from original 45s, excepting the Ike & Tina cut which was pulled from the original Come Together LP.

I hope that you dig it.

Here is the tracklist:


street tax- a cratedigger compilation

01 The Impressions (Baby) Turn On To Me Curtom
02 Luther Ingram I Can’t Stop Koko
03 Isley Brothers Pop That Thang T Neck
04 Fantastic Johnny C Hitch It To The Horse Phil LA
05 Willie Henderson Funky Chicken Pt 1
06 Fabulous Counts Get Down People Moira
07 Lou Courtney What Do You Want Me To Do Epic
08 Lee Dorsey Workin’ In The Coal Mine Amy
09 Ike & Tina Turner I Want To Take You Higher Liberty (LP Cut)
10 Willie Hutch Brother’s Gonna Work It Out Motown
11 Ray Charles Booty Butt Tangerine
12 James Brown Soul Power Pt 1 King
13 Bobby Blue Bland Bobby’s Blues Duke
14 Dobie Gray The In Crowd Charger




Download link

Iowahawk's latest video

Iowahawk took a trip to Mexico and you can imagine that it wasn't just a trip to Cancun for some fun in the sun.

Iowahawk was able to find Bid Daddy Roth's Orbitron "lost" car in the depths of Mexico. I actually spoke with Iowahawk via cell phone while he was in the midst of this auto archaeological expedition. I have to say, Mexico appeared to be a physically daunting mission even for the mighty Iowahawk.

Check this out:

Jimmy Smith Organ Grinder Swing

I am in Gotham for a few hours over the next day or so, and I finally made a point to go to Academy Records on 18th between 5th and 6th Ave.

While I was unhappy with their vinyl selection-- it was classical mainly, and I saw some of those boxes that you see in the midwest house sales with multiple LPs of Glen Miller or whatnot... I did find some stuff in their jazz CD section. I got out of there with only 2 CDs which seems sort of lame, in retrospect. I should try to sneak out tomorrow for "coffee" during work.

One of the gems that I picked up was Jimmy Smith Organ Grinder Swing on Verve. I have been digging on the Hammond b-3 stylings of Jimmy Smith for a while, and it is time to dig into his discog a bit more.

The title track leads it off, and it is a swinging number that runs a brief 2.12. The guitar follows the lead provided by the organ, in the left channel, a minute or so in the guitar takes a lead. During the lead Jimmy stabs the organ to punctuate the track. Some groaning moaning "vocals"can be heard in the background. I can't wait to listen to this track on the CD Reference System as opposed to a couple of wimpy laptop speaks...

According to Wikipedia, after record a stack of records for Blue Note, Jimmy Smith moved over to the Verve label in 63. This particular LP was tracked in June 1965 at Van Gelder Recording Studio in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey.

Listening to this record, you certainly get the feel that Smith could make enough noise and run enough leads and bass lines on his B-3 and Leslie speaker cabinet that the guitar by Kenny Burrell and drums (Grady Tate) are nice extras, in the left and right channels, respectively. You have to love that early stereo.

The fourth track is an unbelievable shredding of Greensleeves.

I would recommend that you go find a copy of this one immediately.

Soul Brutha Dave's new mix

Dave has done it again with a new mix for your downloading pleasure.

It is all Souls Sisters. Take a trip over there and give it a listen.

Lemont's Choice

In honor of my favorite TV show of all time, I would like to dedicate my most recent concoction to Demond Wilson, TV's Lemont on Sanford and Son.

This is the first mix, where I did all live on my 1200s. Up to this point, I was recording each 45 and then mixing digitally. The 1200s make this so much more fun! My skills are pretty minimal so cut me some slack if the cuts seem forced.

Lemont's Choice was brewed with only original 45s in varying states of decay. I have been enjoying some good digging lately.

Here is the tracklist:

01 Express Yourself Charles Wright & The Watts 103 St Rhythm Band/ Warners (Promo)
02 Funky Me Timmy Thomas/ Glades
03 I Wanna Testify Parliaments/ Revilot
04 Maryjane Bobby Rush/ Galaxy
05 Taurus Dennis Coffey & The Detroit Guitar Band/ Sussex
06 Mighty Mighty Jesse Anderson/ Thomas
07 Gimme Some (Part 1) General Crook/ Down To Earth
08 Cadillac Jack Andre Williams/ Checker
09 I Wanna Know Mongo Santamaria/ Columbia
10 Love Is A Four Letter Word Jimmy Witherspoon/ Capitol
11 Everybody’s Got A Little Devil In Their Soul Tommie Young/ Soul Power
12 Hot Thang Eddy Senay/ Sussex
13 Come See About Me Junior Walker & The All Stars/ Soul



Here is a download link

Some digging this past weekend

I have found a place that seems to have some pretty good booty when it comes to cratedigging here in the Chicago area.

I dont want to share my haunt, but I will share some of the many discs that I picked up over the weekend. The turntables were certainly happy with their new styli and plenty of old wax to dig through.

Yardbirds Shapes of Things Epic
JBs Same Beat People (2 copies)
Timmy Thomas Funky Me Glades
Bobby Rush Mary Jane Galaxy (2 copies)
Jimmy Ruffin Don't Let Him Take Your Love From Me Soul
The Who Pinball Wizard Decca
War Lowrider UA (promo)
Parliaments I Wanna Testify Revillot
Wilson Pickett Don't Knock My Love Atlantic
Wilson Pickett Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You Atlantic
Martha & The Vandellas My Baby Loves Me Gordy
Cliff Nobles The Horse (Instrumental) Gold Soul
ZZ Hill Hold Back Mankind
Santana Oye Como Va Columbia
Sam & Dave Hold On I'm A Comin Stax
Muddy Waters Tiger in Your Tank Chess
Mongo Santamaria Bossa Negra Columbia
Tommie Young Do You Still Feel The Same Way Soul Power
Wilson Pickett We've Got To Have Love Atlantic
Clarence Reed I'm Working While Its Day Jewel
Andre Williams Cadillac Jack Checker
Jimmy Witherspoon Love is A Four Letter Word Capitol
The Radiants Anything You Do Is Alright Chess
Charles Wright Express Yourself Warner Promo
Jr Walker Sweet Soul Soul
Bill Withers Ain't No Sunshine Sussex
Eddy Senay Ain't No Sunshine Sussex
Willie Hutch Party Down Motown
Herbie Mann Watermelon Man Atlantic

I don't have any interesting record people sightings, except for maybe the guy that was trying to sing garage tunes, while looking at Sundazed reissues, that was sort of surreal.

I need to get together another mix...

Cratedigger goes to the movies--Poor Pretty Eddie

This is a disturbing trash film that a college friend sent over. I would consider it to be a Hicksploitation film, if I had to use a genre title.

Poor Pretty Eddie stars Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters and Slim Pickens. The real star for me is Ted Cassidy who portrays the loyal Keno character. Yes, it is Ted "Lurch" Cassidy.

Uggams portrays a popular singer that decides to take a solo road trip in her early 60s white Bentley. Not a good choice to go into the county that has Bertha, and her cast of stars that include the title character, Eddie, who fancies himself an Elvis impersonator.

Of course the Bentley overheats in Bertha's front yard. She meets Eddie in a bar, where he rents her a Batesesque cabin and plots ways to keep Uggams there at the compound so that he can violate her.

Shelley Winters is a drunken has been that surrounds herself with losers like Eddie and Keno, that give her ego a boost with their presence. Immediately she is jealous of Uggams, but does nothing when she asks for her help after being attacked by Eddie.

I like trash, but I really found nothing entertaining about this film, I mean Shanty Tramp seemd like fine cinema compared to this. It was cool to see Cassidy late in his career, but it is hard to make the stretch that he is acting. Shelley Winters seems to be playing herslf here, I wonder if she was drinking for real onset... I know I almost needed a cold beer after viewing this mess.

Good Guys Show Joliet IL 092207 part un

Iowahawk called me up yesterday am to see if I was interested in checking out the Good Guys Show at the Route 66 Raceway in Joilet. I was to drive the support vehicle (modern daily driver) behind the 2 hotrods in the 90 mile caravan to Joliet. A cohort named Wingnutz joined us in his big block powered 31 roadster done 60s drag style. That is one fast 1780 lb machine!

Iowahawk took the Coupe of Justice out for the day. The Alexander Bros. would have been proud.


Some shots above of Pete & Jakes' former 29 shop truck, done in a cool 70s style.
Above are two cool A roadsters, the one on the left is a flathead-powered 29 done in a 48 style and the one on the left is pure 60s survivor with a choice Buick Nailhead for motivation.
Shot here includes Wingnuts 60s style drag machine (11 sec time slip, claimed 135 top speed so far!!!)
This shot includes the Coupe of Justice on the left. What a day, time to go count my pennies...

Good Guys Show Joliet IL 092207 part deux

This was a tremendous 32 5 window coupe. It looked pretty much untouched by the hands of time. It had a 59 Pontiac motor in it, and basically everything else that Henry put in it in 1932. The owner scored it this summer in Nebraska. Iowahawk and I thought it was the best car at the show.

This was a cool 63 Rivi. The fade away paint was pretty trick. My crappy camera does not do it justice.

The Revolution Will Not Be Motorized

This mix explores two of my favorite things, soul / funk music and bikes. It is not all about cars and guitars…

Dear reader, from my vantage point, it is also about gears (3 speed Raleigh!), beers (Red Stripe, yo), and funky tunes played loudly.

One of the best moments of this past summer was trekking with a 1000 other cyclists through the Southwest Side of our fair city aka tha hood, and listening to Curtis Mayfield’s live double album on a 800 watt bicycle trailer-drawn sound system.

This set of tracks was thoughtfully crafted for your listening pleasure with that thought and vibe in mind.

Special thanks to cover model, a. toots for assistance in digging a couple of the sides out of the bottom of some musty crates.

Hope you dig it.


The revolution will not be motorized- a cratedigger mix

01 Gil Scott Heron Intro / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
02 Soul Searchers Blow Your Whistle Sussex
03 Curley Moore Shelleys’ Rubber Band House of The Fox
04 Gunga Din Crabcakes Crypt Comp
05 Lavell Hardy Women of The World Rojac
06 Mandrill Fencewalk (LP Version) Polydor
07 Ripple See The Light GRC
08 James Brown Just Enough Room Polydor (LP cut)
09 Eddie Floyd Woodman Stax
10 Wylie & Simtec Do It Like Mommy Shama
11 100 Proof I’d Rather Fight Than Switch Hot Wax
12 Rufus Thomas The Push and Pull Pt 1 Stax
13 Bloodstone Peter’s Jones London
14 Johnnie Nash Stir It Up Epic

Download here:

Something new at Cratedigger Labs

I have been looking on and off for a while to obtain a pair of the mighty 1200s. As usual, I had a budget number and a condition level in mind as I looked for a pair of Technics 1200s.

At the end of yesterday afternoon, I saw a promising ad on craigslist and came up with the decks above. I had to borrow a truck and head into the West Loop, Greektown area to pick them up.

I am stoked. Oh, and DJ QBert signed these...

Live from cratedigger labs...

As you can see in the pic above, sound has been undergoing some testing chez cd. A while back, I hit a garage sale and picked up the 1990 Cerwin Vega 2 way speakers that you see in the foreground on the floor. They are extremely clean, but the surround foam on both cabinets was toast. From my preliminary tests, the tweets seemed perfect. They were $10.00.

I found some dudes that said they could hook me up with new foam. I called them and the conversation convinced me that they were worthy of the job.

I received the rebuilt woofers yesterday via UPS, and hooked up the 8 inch woofers in the ported cabinets. The positive side is clearly marked on the clips, and obviously the wires are color coded accordingly.

Tonight, I commenced testing.

I installed the speaker lines on the Speaker B selection on the Pioneer receiver that I have been using, leaving the ARs hooked up to Speaker A.

It should be noted that these speakers are sitting on my padded carpeting and are not my preferred 12-18 inches from the wall. Still, the bass is thumping...

I first listened to some Godfather and then moved over to Return of The DJ v. 2. So far so good, now moving over to the AIF version of The Colonels' Little Unique Mix.

Just another reason to find a bigger and better amp.

Cratedigger Record Cleaner

I had a very successful digging expedition yesterday. I found a couple of new veins of funky and soulful 45s to mine. Since these spots were what I would consider "real" digging, some of the very cost effective discs were pretty dirty.

I figured that if there weren't warped, too scratched or cracked, I could clean them at home. Well, that seemed like a good idea at the time...

One of the 45s, a cover of Mighty Mighty, looked like a listener had spilled milk (White Russian?!?) all over it before it was laid to rest in the basement of a bar, or someplace that is equally damp.

In the past, I have been using a damp piece of flannel to wipe some of the more dirty records down, and that has worked pretty well up to this point. But this method wasn't doing it for Mighty Mighty.

I did some quick research, in the dark recesses of my mind as well as on the internet, and I came up with the idea of using some alcohol and some water to clean the record.

I found an old Tilex bottle, and rinsed it out a few times to get out any remaining product. Then I grabbed a shot glass and filled it with some isopropyl alcohol (70%) and dumped it into the Tilex bottle.

Then, I started some water to boil in my kettle. My thought was that distilled water should be cleaner than tap water on the dirty records, no need to add more minerals and gunk to an already soiled record.

Once the water boiled, I added three shots of my distilled water to the Tilex bottle.

I tried out the spray on the Mighty Mighty side, and then wiped with a clean piece of flannel from an old pair of pajamas. The grunge lifted right off the grooves and resulted in a noticeably more listenable 45.

So here it is, take one part isopropyl alcohol, three parts distilled water and wipe with a clean piece of flannel.

This is my no buck (0$) response to the old DiscWasher from back in the 80s.

Guest Post Vincent from Fufu Stew- C is for Cratedigger

Any reader of this little blog will be familiar with both Vincent and his blog fufu stew. Vincent has put together a two part Holiday weekend mix where one part is posted on cratedigger and the other is posted on his blog.

Here is a link to the part of the mix on Fufu Stew:

Warmed over leftovers

I am very honored to have the chance to share the fruits of Vincent's cratedigging efforts. I will let Vincent take over from here.

Stay cool with the soul and funky sounds of DJ SOUL Chef!!!

Hello, kiddies.

Here I am in in your backyard, armed with a massive stack of 45 rpm goodness. I've never been to Chicago, but if I do get the chance, I know where to go first. Thank you Rich for having me aboard. If you Cratedigger fans had a chance to pick up on what I put down over at Souled On Music, then you know where my head is right now. This is the second in a series of mixes where I will attempt to use all six keys of the scale on a standard keyboard. For reasons that should be rather apparent, this one focuses on the key of "C". It's a gentle blend of sweet Northern and Southern soul, plus plenty of funky heat. After having blasted it on my iPod for the past couple of days, I decided that it was done just right and ready to serve, so without further ado, here we go...

01 Here Comes The Judge-Shorty Long (Soul)
02 Hunk Of Funk-Gene Dozier & The Brotherhood (Minit)
03 (I Wanna) Testify-The Parliaments (Revilot)
04 Bingo-G.T.+4 (The Groovy Label)
05 Do It To It-Bird Rollins Featuring The New Jersey Burners (Calla)
06 Cool Broadway-The Fantastic Johnny C (Phil L.A. Of Soul)
07 Hogwash-Earnest Jackson (Stone)
08 Hot Butter N All-Lou Courtney (Hurdy Gurdy)
09 Damph F'aint-The Herb Johnson Settlement (Toxsan)
10 I Can't Get Next To You-Mongo Santamaria (Atlantic)
11 If I Had A Hammer-Ace Cannon (Hi)
12 I Likes To Do It-The Peoples Choice (Phil L.A. Of Soul)
13 Leroy Is In The Army-Jimmy Castor (Smash)
14 Nothing You Can Do-Wilson Pickett (Atlantic)
15 Saturday Night Fish Fry-The Coasters (Atco)
16 Tip Toe-Robert Parker (NOLA)
17 Everyting's Hunky Dory-Billy Harner (V-Tone)
18 You Ain't Too Cool-Cash McCall (Thomas)
19 Gettin' Away-Cliff Nobles & Co. (Phil L.A. Of Soul)
20 Here Comes The Meter Man-The Meters (Josie)
21 Serve 'Em-Madhouse (Today)
22 Get Down People-The Fabulous Counts (Moira)
23 Crazy Legs-Donald Austin (Eastbound)
24 Swim Pts. 1&2-Bobby Freeman (Autumn)
25 Wild Little Tiger-The Isley Brothers (Atlantic)
26 One Eye Open-Maskman & The Agents (Dynamo)
27 Alvin's Bag-Alvin Cash (Toddlin' Town)
28 Let's Go Get Stoned-James Brown (Smash)

I can't stress enough how much of a pleasure it is to be able to join in with all of these great blogs and share my love for the timely sport of crate digging. I have learned so much in such a short amount of time, not to mention the practice I've been getting in making these mixes with the mighty Cakewalk Pyro software. I'll be back at it again real soon. I hope you will all join me for the ride. Have a great weekend, have fun and as always, be safe.

Peace and blessings.

Please download and enjoy "C Is For Cratedigger", an .mp3 file, 69 MB.

Party in Pilsen 82507

My buddy Sloth, invited me to go to a party with him in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. I have enjoyed what limited exposure that I have had with that neighborhood. so I agreed.

This was a house party with a professional PA, 1200s, the works. Also it was a late night, as the shindig was due to start at 11PM. There were a number of DJs scheduled to perform, including Alexander, Slow Children and Ed DMX from the UK was to headline.

The house had a killer pro PA system, it was loud as hell and very clear. There were also a couple of projectors illuminating the space with various video and images mixed on a macbook. Note the figure shadowed above, bathed in cool blue hues... Here is Ed DMX a banging away on his Roland and other contraptions.

In the background you can see the video/image mixer at the macbook projection deck...

All in all a cool evening. The music itself was pretty far from funky. I couldn't venture to say what sort of stuff they were spinning.

I did enjoy a gent named Chris who was very proficient on the decks, and used some old school rap to do fast cuts from whatever other music was spinning on the other platter.

I think that I would like to spin a set next time and get the kids moving to some music that is more my flavor.

Thanks for the good times.

Another Guest mix: DJ Blueprint from this is tomorrow

If you are down with the soul and funk blogosphere, then surely you are aware of this is tomorrow, which happens to be one of my faves.

DJ Blueprint, the proprietor of this is tomorrow put together a tight 30 minute funk work out set for cratedigger.

I am pleased to present:

30 min funk workout 4
tracklist:
1. incomparable seven - funky grand paw part 1 (top hit)
2. landlord & tennants - sagittarius part 1 (coach)
3. soul patrol - don't knock the cop (zuma)
4. communicators & black experience band - is it funky enough?
(duplex)
5. the marlboro men - (ride on) iron horse (nite beat)
6. sammy gordon & the hiphuggers - upstairs on boston road part 1
(archives)
7. house guests - my mind set me free part 1 (house guests)
8. tommy bass - (i can't help it baby) this is my thing (soulful)
9. city council ltd. - when you git through wit it put it back (gt
graytom)
10. mary davis - danger! (playboy at work) (conclave)
11. con-funk-shun - clique (fretone)

Please download 30 min workout 4.

Enjoy.

SOULMAN 2001 SPACED ODDITIES PT. 2

Phill over at thatrealschitt has posted the second half of his 2001 Spaced Oddities.

I dug the first half and my trip out of NYC yesterday was put to a most excellent groove to the recently posted second half.

Go check it out.

Link