Two more recent OKP reviews to bring us up to date.

Jern Eye - Authentic Vintage

Super System - A Million Microphones

Yeah, so this would be the ultimate goal. I don't even need a kitchen or anything, just give me this room, a stereo, and a matress.

A personal tour of Questlove's infamous 'Record Room'

 

Vinyl is a fairly new obsession, but I spent the better part of college in used record store basements digging up obscurities and imports. This looks like the beginning of something promising until you see Questlove in his library. Note the ever expanding Miles Davis section second shelf top left. He's the only artist who gets his own category in the filing system. My most exciting find lately was a pair of James Blood Ulmer albums from early 80's New York loft scene albums.

These went out of print in the mid 90's and will run anywhere from $25 to $60 on Ebay or Gemm. I picked them up separately used at Waterloo Records for $9 apiece. Still missing 'Tales of Captain Black' though, that's the record that got me started digging for these.

My most recent acquisition, a Fender Custom Shop '63 Relic Tele. You can hear the '60's rosewood tele's in action with Phelps Collins' stabbing contribution to James Brown's "Sex Machine," everything Steve Cropper played on at Stax, Robbie Robertson's lead playing off Dylan's '66 European tour bootlegs, and Jimmy Page's defining solo on "Stairway to Heaven." I found this one on consignment at Guitar Rez after having spent about 3 months playing every tele I could get my hands on. It has a midrange spank and bottom guttural bark that would send the faint hearted clamoring for their Eagles records.

A long overdue posting of all my previous Okayplayer record reviews. I can highly recommend Aloe Blacc's "Shine Through," which is a fantastic album and I raved about it so much that Aloe actually wrote me personally to say thanks.

Aloe Blacc - Shine Through

Myself - Protest in Disguise

Quantic - An Announcement to Answer

Dabrye - Two/Three

V/A - Kings of Diggin

Rebel and tha Peacemaka - Return Uv Tha Essence: The Antidote

Shabba Ranks - Shabba at Showdown: Reggae Showdown Vol. 4 (DVD)

Wu Tang Clan - Legend of the Wu Tang: The Videos (DVD)

X Dash - Workaholik

Balance - Young and Restless

Bronze Nazareth - The Great Migration

Vernon Reid and Masque - Other True Self

Santero - Arawaks and Maroons

V/A - Inside Scandinavia Vol. 2

It is easy to place limitations on ourselves. Bruce Lee lived his life by the motto, "Using no way as way, having no limitation as limitation." I hope to remain open enough to do the same.