Outkast - Stankonia (2xLP, 2000)

I had a friend who asked me for a hip hop recommendation during the summer of 2000, and I of course suggested Aquemini to him. He dug the shit out of it, and about a month before Stankonia came out, my brother, through his record store job, hooked me up with a six-song promo sampler of the upcoming record, along with a collection of Outkast videos that was designed to be played in the store. It had "B.O.B." on it like six times, with other Outkast videos in between. We listened to the disc, watched the video, and got crazy excited for the release of the new record.

"B.O.B." is, if you had to pick one, probably Outkast's best song. Again, they came up with something that knocked everybody flat. And nobody could have seen the force that it unleashed coming. If you ever needed a single to get people revved up about your newest release, that was it. The wild snare hits, the fast-as-shit tempo, the raps from both (the newly minted) André 3000 and Big Boi that somehow sounded thrown-together and classic at the same time ("Yo quiero Taco Bell"?) - it was all too good. And the video was just as nuts.

And the whole album ended up being almost as powerful. While the duo got a little interlude-happy this time around, even that couldn't fuck up the flow of this monumental record. I was initially shocked that they didn't lead the damn thing off with "B.O.B.," but then remembered that sequencing was never their strong suit. Still, that track should have busted in after the intro. Seemed like a no-brainer to me. But, as usual, they kicked things off with the weird one. This time around it was the awesomely titled "Gasoline Dreams," which, while dope in its own regard, still feels like the lead-in to the instantly-stuck-in-your-head-forever "So Fresh, So Clean." They must have known when they wrote the hook to that song that it was going to be huge.

And they must have felt the same way about "Ms. Jackson." That was one of the songs on the sampler CD that I had before the album came out, and I was already preparing for the song to be a hit. When the video came out, I knew it was a done deal. Still a great clip. Still a great song, though I've possibly heard it a few too many times.

We played the shit out of this CD at every party during that winter and on into the summer. And everybody loved it. Or at least that's how I remember it. The singles were obvious favorites, but "I'll Call Before I Come," "We Luv Deez Hoez," and "Humble Mumble" were also favorites. The thing is, there were also a lot of tracks that didn't get played. Part of that's because they just weren't "party songs," but there was also an underlying inconsistency to this record that seemed to also reflect the current state of the group.

You'll notice that André is conspicuously absent from "Snappin' & Trappin'" and "We Luv Deez Hoez," and though he shows up on "Gangsta Shit," he manages to slip in a line about walking in the park with his guitar. Even when he says "Outkast wit a K, yeah them niggas are hard," it sounds like he's fucking with us. All three of these tracks fall under the umbrella of being a bit more ruthless (and a little less inventive) than the other cuts on the album, and you can't help but wonder if André was trying to distance himself from some of those things.

And his spaced-out shit was getting even more spacey. "Stankonia (Stank Love)" remains one of the most odd Outkast tracks out there, and it's clearly André's deal. "Toilet Tisha" is, along with the aforementioned cut, towards the end of the album, and though the concept is cool, it just doesn't quite work. It's not that this record fizzles out at the end, but it almost feels like it's going to.

Still a great record, and maybe the last true group effort we'll see from these guys. I just picked this bad boy up on orange vinyl, and it is sweet. And I love that this record will always remind me of assing out at dance parties. Precious memories.

"B.O.B."

Outkast - Aquemini (3xLP, 1998)

About a year ago, I made the bold statement that Ice Cube's Death Certificate is the best hip hop album ever. And while, if pressed, I would probably still stand by that claim, Aquemini is one of the only albums that really makes me think long and hard about it. In the end, it doesn't matter. They're both brilliant for completely different reasons, and though they're only seven years apart in release date, they're galaxies apart in both content and execution. So it's pointless to compare them. And I won't. But you get the idea: Aquemini is as close to flawless as you can get in the hip hop realm. And I have no problem standing by that claim.

This record came out in late September of 1998, right when I moved to Portland. One of my only friends up here - a real record freak - gave me this 3-LP album because it wasn't up to his standards. Not the music, mind you. The actual vinyl. He was, to put it nicely, very particular about his collection. If he sensed any flaw in the record or the cover, he didn't want it rubbing up against his other LPs. Needless to say, he was completely obsessive/compulsive, and it really was a troubling thing. However, as a fellow vinyl fanatic, he was a great guy to be friends with. I have an original copy of Radiohead's The Bends thanks to this guy. I think there might be some light fraying of the cardboard on one of the corners. Anyway.

The deal with this one was that during the intro ("Hold On, Be Strong"), the record emitted a slight pop in one spot during each revolution. Now, that track is about a minute long, has no lyrics, and while essential to the overall feel of the album, is really not one that you're going to miss if you skip by it. He couldn't deal. And, in his weird defense, the popping sound was quite audible. In fact, I taped this album and put it in my car (it's still in there, a decade and a different car later), and that's when I listened to it the most. "Hold On, Be Strong" now sounds weird to me when I hear it on CD because the pops are missing. Those damn pops.

So, yeah, this drove him batty and he wanted rid of it. I gladly took it off his hands because hey, free record that just came out. But also, I had heard Outkast here and there, and I liked what I heard. (It took this album for me to go back and get their first two.) I was ready to get in on the ground floor with this one. But man, I had no idea I was going to like it as much as I did. I immediately taped it, put it in my car (I already mentioned this), and unless I was terribly depressed and listening to Elliott Smith's XO, I was listening to this record. It blew my mind. It still does. Wu-Tang Clan changed the face of hip hop in '93. Outkast did it again in '98.

Once you get past the inexplicably incongruous "Return of the 'G,'" which is the only track on the album that even begins to falter (remember my theory about Outkast picking weird songs to lead off records?), the vocal loop from "Rosa Parks" fades in and things get completely nutso. Outkast needed a song like "Rosa Parks," and they needed a song like the one that follows it, the equally rambunctious "Skew it on the Bar-B." These were the types of beats that really allowed them to break out. These were the beats that sounded like Dré looked. And maybe Big Boi didn't realize it, but the dude must have quickly found out that he's the most bad-ass fast rapper on the planet. His verse on "Skew it on the Bar-B" will split your skull open. And he was just getting started.

Big Boi was always the more "traditional" rapper of the duo, and while his flexing continued to get stronger as Outkast progressed, it also got smarter and more focused. Happy to talk about pimpin' on the first record and working hard to find his own voice on the second (and basically getting there), he fully achieves it on the third. There's no one comparable to Big Boi, and there's no one comparable to Dré. And I don't mean that they're the best rappers in the world (though they're certainly up there), I mean that they just don't sound like anyone else. They became something new. And while Big Boi would go on to get more G'd out and André would go on to almost over-embrace the Prince/Hendrix thing, this was the album where they met the middle - where neither one of them had stretched things too far yet.

Tracks like "Slump," "Synthesizer," and "Chonkyfire" are all completely different in scope and subject, but they all make sense as a part of this record. So do both parts of "Da Art of Storytellin'." Somehow, so does the 8-minute "Liberation." (That's the track where Big Rube lets loose on this one.) In fact, almost all the songs on this thing are long as shit, and the fact that they don't feel like it just goes to show how little space is wasted on this record.

I'll admit that this record got to me at a time when I was really ready to ingest it, so maybe that has something to do with why I think it's so fantastic. But I can still listen to it, and I can still hear it. This record is straight-up unlike any other hip hop record. It's just...better. I mean, listen to "Da Art of Storytellin' (Part 2)" and tell me that's not a great, great song.

I was listening to this in my car last week. All the way through. And it still gets me.

"Rosa Parks"

Outkast - ATLiens (LP, 1996)

And here's where things start to get wonderfully weird.

It wouldn't be until their next record that Outkast would realize they needed to get almost completely unhinged for the public to take notice, but this was one more step in the right direction. Again, their penchant for slow grooves may have prevented them (initially) from grabbing the ears of the mass masses, but people who had already noticed them their first time out were ready for something more, and they got it. But it wasn't just more of the same. Though "Two Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac)" seemed determined to set the stage for Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik Part II, after that things shift gears quick. (Outkast have a knack for picking a lead-off track on their albums that has almost nothing to do with the rest of the songs. This would not be the last time.)

From Andre's verse on the title track, you can tell things aren't going to be business as usual. And if you saw the video, you knew they had either lost their minds (catacombs?) or were on some next-level shit that the rest of hip hop hadn't even begun to imagine yet. Thankfully, it was the latter. I could go on forever about how awesome it was that Dre shunned everything about traditional hip hop (especially in appearance), but I won't get off on that rant. You know what a gutsy move it was. And it would have backfired (within "popular" music, at least) if the music wouldn't have been so great that nobody could say a damn thing about it.

So, here, the rough template was set for the next phase of Outkast's career. Big Boi was the de facto hard-ass (ball cap), Andre was the still-searching philosopher (genie skully). You start the album with a one-minute ease-in - something that sounds like the beginning of a sci-fi flick. You juke 'em out with a first cut that sounds like it was left over from the last album, then you reel 'em in with an hour's worth of the dopest of the dope new shit. Somewhere near the end you let a slow, spacey groove ride for way too long and let Big Rube say a bunch of bizarre shit over the top of it.

And it all works.

"Jazzy Belle"

Outkast - Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (CD, 1994)

This record was released when the dudes in Outkast were 19, so they probably recorded it when they were 18. Look at those young-ass dudes. Getting shit done.

And getting it done right. While this will probably always be remembered as "The Outkast album that was recorded before Dre started dressing like a weirdo," it shouldn't be written off as not worthy of their catalog. Yeah, it's probably my least favorite album of theirs, but that's mostly because their other ones are so damn incredible. The fact that it only took Outkast one album to get tired of talking about pimpin' and gangsta shit and move on to bigger and better things is a testament to how smart these guys are. Sure, some of that stuff would get play in their later albums, but it seemed like it was just there to maintain a little cred (or maybe to appease the always-harder Big Boi). Maybe that's just my interpretation.

Either way, this is definitely the most un-Outkast of all the Outkast albums, but it also plants the seeds for what's to come. The beats slump in parts, but they maintain a consistency throughout the album. That ends up being both a good and a bad thing. If you're in the mood for Southern smoothness that thumps, you'll be good to go. If you're looking for them to mix it up a little more, you may get lulled into submission by the similarity of some of the tracks. Initially, at least. Once you spend some serious time with this record, the songs start to spread themselves apart. I'll admit, it took me a while to really get down with this whole thing.

A lot of the tracks are over five minutes long, so you've got to be ready to hang with 'em. "Git Up, Git Out" is a sweet song (with a surprising message), but at over seven minutes, it gets long. The tendency to hammer the hooks home is there, and it can get to be a bit much. "Funky Ride" is downright taxing. But, the raps are so dope that it usually doesn't matter. "D.E.E.P.," one of the last cuts on the record, foreshadows what's to come on the next record, and features Dre getting all abstract. It's cool shit, and it's one of the first signs of the group getting inside their own heads and seeing what comes out. It would serve them well in the future. You know that.

"Player's Ball"

I Went to a Show: Eddie Spaghetti at Dantes (April 28, 2010)

I just can't let go. I've been following him for too long. So when Supersuckers front dude Eddie Spaghetti comes to town, I go see him. And I always enjoy myself. I pretty much know what to expect from an Eddie Spaghetti solo show at this point, and while he covered the usual bases at this one, he also threw in some oddballs. And really, that's all you can ask for.

He was in good spirits, and unlike the last time I saw him, he was all by himself this time around. Eddie fancies himself a showman, so there's always plenty of banter with the crowd. But I've seen his show enough times now to know that a lot of it's made to look off-the-cuff, when it's really just part of the act. He has a bit where he "forgets the words" to "Cocaine Blues," which I didn't realize was a bit until I saw him do it for the second time last night. He also has his standard "Awesomeology" rant, which is usually reserved for Supersuckers shows, but he whipped it out at this one, though it was a shorter version than usual.

There's been an element of predictability in both Eddie's shows and Supersuckers shows for some time now, and it's clearly not going away. The 'Suckers mixed it up a little bit the last time I saw them, and that was nice, but before that they had been playing roughly the same set for years. Anyway, I'm not going to get off on that tangent. The show on Wednesday had some of that predictability, like I said, but there were some nice surprises.

Not sure that I had ever heard Eddie do "Bubblegum & Beer" by himself, which was pretty cool. A couple of meatheads stumbled in towards the end of the set and yelled, "Rock & Roll Records!," and as I scoffed, Eddie started it up and did the entire song - even some of the solo-y stuff. That was sweet. He also did a random cover of "Sammy Hagar Weekend" by Thelonious Monster, which I had never heard him do before. Other than that, it was the standard tunes. But he still delivers 'em like he cares, which is impressive.

And maybe I'm getting older and don't mind knowing what I'm going to get when I go to a show. But man, I felt like a chump surrounded by people who are only there to hear him do "Killer Weed" and "Non-Addictive Marijuana." Grim bunch.

How to Remove Price Tag Residue From Your LPs.

For me, my favorite part of my record collection is the actual music that's on the LPs. For the most part, I enjoy the songs that are on every piece of vinyl I own. Within that framework, I do get slightly obsessive when it comes to collecting the artists I like. I'd prefer an early pressing to a later one. If there's a rarer version of a certain LP, I'd like to have that one. And once I've purchased two albums by a band/artist, I'll feel the need to get all the full-lenths they ever released. It's the completist in me.

I spend a lot of my time shopping for records, thinking about records, and playing my records. So, it should come as no surprise that I want my records to look as nice as possible. It's all part of it for me. Even though they spend most of their time filed on a shelf, I want to be able to pull any LP out and know that it's going to look as sharp as can be. Bends in the cover or dinged corners aren't something I can do anything about. I bought the ticket, I knew what I was getting into. But I hate leaving the price tags on things. Because there is something I can do about that. And I do it.

I was thinking about this while I was going through the records I bought on my trip to L.A. (see my previous post), putting them in sleeves while generally examining their contents and playing some of them. Amoeba is one of those stores that puts price tags on both the cover and the actual record, so you've got twice the amount of work to do to get rid of them. They also use some of the gummiest stickers ever, so there's no clean peeling.

The process I use is still time-consuming, but it works, and it'll let you sleep at night, knowing there's not some tacky sticker clinging to your recent purchases. Basically, you just need to get yourself a bottle of this stuff:
Goo Gone. I use the one pictured here, the spray gel formula. If you've ever pulled the old trick of using WD-40 to remove sticker gunk, this stuff works in the exact same way (really well), but instead of smelling like fuel, it smells like oranges. It gets rid of the gunk, quickly evaporates, and even the orange scent disappears pretty quickly too.

I usually peel the sticker off by hand - slowly and carefully - making sure I don't take any of the paper from the LP with it. If it comes off clean, sweet. If not, get as much as you can off with your fingernails, and then spray a tiny bit of the Goo Gone on a paper towel and rub that shit on the gunky area. Seriously - you hardly need to use any of the spray. If it's just a tiny bit of gunk, it'll come off easily. If you've still got paper from the sticker on there, that'll come off, too, but you'll have to use more of the spray gel. For a tough one, I'll rub the gunk with the most spray-saturated part of the towel, and thin flip the towel over and rub it with the dry side. For whatever reason, this not only dries the area, but it also seems to lift some of the chunks off.

This stuff works best on record covers with a glossy finish. It'll work on ones with a matte finish (and even straight-up cardboard - I'm looking at you, indie 7"s), but be careful: I've seen it take some of the ink with it. I've never come close to ruining a record cover, but I've slightly faded some deep black before.

Everyone's got their own methods for how to do this stuff; this is mine. It was on the brain. Thought I'd put it out there. Obviously, this stuff works way quicker on plastic. If you've got CD or DVD covers with gunk on 'em, you don't even have to worry about how much to use. Take the paper covers out of the case and just go nuts.

Word. I'm open to other suggestions.

I Go Record Shopping at Amoeba Music in L.A.

Sometimes everything just lines up perfectly.

Through some web post (or maybe a tweet) having to do with Music Millennium, I got linked to a recent Paste article that listed the 17 Coolest Record Stores in America. Music Millennium was on the list, somewhere in the middle. At the top was Amoeba Music in L.A. Now, I've been to the Amoeba in San Francisco a few times, and it was always an incredible experience. So I didn't doubt that the L.A. location was just as good, but probably bigger and with way more stuff.

As I was reading the article, I couldn't help but remember that I was going to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks for work. The idea of hitting Amoeba while I was there instantly crossed my mind, but since I have no idea where anything is down there (specifically the record store and the hotel where the conference was that I'd be attending), and because the city is so goddamned big, I figured there was no chance that it would work out. But I decided to give it a look-see. I Google Mapped the shit out of the hotel and Amoeba, and was elated to find out that they were only a mile apart. I later got my itinerary for my trip, and found that I was staying in a hotel right next to the other hotel. Boom. I was going to make it happen.

I got into L.A. on a Wednesday night (this was last week), and didn't make it back to my hotel until almost 11. I had Friday dinner plans with some friends who live down there and I was leaving right after the conference ended on Saturday, so Thursday was going to have to be the night. After I finished up at the conference that night, I asked the front-desk girl to call me a cab, and I headed to Amoeba around 6. After a ten-dollar cab ride and a quick Baja Fresh stop for a burrito, I strolled into Amoeba Music on Sunset Blvd. and immediately had to conceal my boner.

I didn't do a great job of taking photos of the inside, so this will have to do. (Here's a better one that's not mine.) The place, my friends, is huge. Everything is meticulously organized, there is solid signage hanging from the ceilings to let you know where to go to find what you're looking for, and they just have an insane amount of music. Apparently they have a huge DVD section upstairs, too, but I didn't even make it up there. I was looking for vinyl, and I also had to consider that I had to carry this shit back with me on the plane. Still, it didn't stop me from going a little bit nuts, walking out - almost four hours after I got there - with two bags of records.

Here's what will be a lengthy breakdown of what I got, starting with 12"s:

Sir Mix-A-Lot - "I Got Game" 12": I'm really getting into these Swass/Seminar-era Mix-A-Lot singles. They're always cheap, and most of 'em feature unreleased tracks. This one has a song called "Flow Show" that I definitely hadn't heard before.

Sir Mix-A-Lot - "Beepers" 12": This one has a song called "Players" on it. Never heard it before. And the sleeve is awesome.

Steel Pole Bath Tub - Scars From Falling Down: Sealed, blue vinyl, ten bucks. Wanted to replace my CD copy, and I did so supremely. And the cover is different from the CD version, which is also awesome.

50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct: Was waiting to find this for under ten bucks. I did.

Eminem - Relapse: Same deal with this one.

Eminem - The Eminem Show: This record has somehow become a little bit tough to find on vinyl. I wanted to replace my CD copy, so I snatched it up. They didn't have it priced like it was rare, and that helped.

The Afros - Kickin' Afrolistics: I had convinced myself that this record was extremely rare, because I've been half-assedly looking for it for years and never found it. I finally did, and I was excited. Then I got it home and realized the record is slightly warped. (They had it taped shut in the store so I couldn't look at it.) I didn't pay a whole lot for it, so it's not the end of the world, but I'm a little annoyed. Then I looked at the completed listings on eBay, and realized it's not as in demand as I thought. Meh.

My record collection is constantly lacking many things, but one thing I've always been short on - especially in comparison to my collection of 12"s - is 7" records. My Supersuckers collection of 45s is second to none (somewhere around 50), but as far as my general stash goes, it's pretty small. Amoeba has an incredible amount of 7"s, and they're all organized by decade/genre, not to mention the huge bins of bargain records. After hitting the 12" sections, I spent a bunch of time flipping through the 7"s, and came out with more little records than I've ever bought in one trip, easily. Here's the long-ass list:

BOAT - "Topps": I bought this one based solely on the cover, which is something I rarely do these days. But it felt right, and the music ended up being pretty damn sweet. The hand-numbered 7" also came with a stick of gum. Nice touch.

Mudhoney - "Night of the Hunted": From that weird period when Mudhoney were releasing CDs on a major, but releasing the vinyl on their own Super Electro label. Signed by three members of the band and in sweet shape.

Mudhoney - "Into Your Shtik": Another Super Electro release. Both the b-sides from these two 7"s ("Brand New Face" and "You Give Me the Creeps" would end up on the March to Fuzz comp.

Best Kissers in the World - "Sweet Pea": I was specifically looking for this record, because it was the only Best Kissers 7" that I didn't own. Spent a long time going through all the 7"s, looking in spots where it might be, with no luck. As I was about to walk away, I decided to flip through one of the bargain bins that was on a bottom shelf. This one was four records back in the first row I tried, and it was a buck. Sometimes you can just will things to happen.

Frank Black - "Hang on to Your Ego": Already have this 12", but for two bucks, I couldn't resist. Mint condition. The record still had those little cardboard flecks on it.

Unwound - "Negated"/"Said Serial": After years of my brother pushing them on me, I'm really bulking up my Unwound collection in a big way. Amoeba had a bunch of nicely priced singles from them.

Unwound - "You Bite My Tongue": White cover with the typewriter etching on the back of the vinyl. Think this might be the second pressing.

Unwound - "Corpse Pose": In great shape, and I had already picked up two other ones, so what the hey.

Unwound - "Kandy Korn Rituals": They just kept coming.

Steel Pole Bath Tub - Tragedy Ecstasy Doom and So On: Gatefold double-7" EP from the Scars from Falling Down era. A tad bit beat up, but who cares.

Steel Pole Bath Tub - "Arizona Garbage Truck": Yellow vinyl and the b-side is "Voodoo Chile." I'll take it.

Steel Pole Bath Tub - "Venus in Furs"/"European Son": I have yet to listen to this, but I'm intrigued by Steel Pole doing Velvet Underground classics.

Built to Spill/Marine Research - "By the Way"/"Sick and Wrong": Split 7" that I see sometimes and decided I should probably just buy it.

Sprinkler - "Peerless": It's a shame that I can buy this band's singles for a dollar, but it doesn't mean I won't do it.

Tumor Circus - "Swine Flu": Steel Pole Bath Tub, Jello Biafra, one dollar. I'm in.

J Church - "Ivy League College": I know very little about this band, but my brother always liked 'em, and this was cheap.

J Church - She Said She Wouldn't Sacrifice: Three-song 7" with its own title. Listened to this one last night and liked it quite a bit.

Rein Sanction - "Creel": Sub Pop, 1991, fifty cents. Not sure I really like it.

How's that for a long blog post? I'm set to get back to regular posting, because I've basically taken a month off. Get ready for it.