White on white in white, you dig.

Annnnd the hits just keep on comin.


Name: Rasputin's Stash, self-titled (Cotillion, 1971).

[Cotillion also released the Woodstock soundtrack (3 records, fold-out sleeve, I know it well; hi, Mom and Dad!) and the Velvet Underground's Loaded. I'm still not sure how I feel about Lou Reed. He seems a little too cool for school for me to really like. Those Supreme ads were pretty fresh, though.]


Is this OK? Yes. Romanov Dynasty references will always murder the game. I also like the use of possessive here and I find myself mulling it over in my head at work. I need to know what's in that precious stash.


Entered my life: '09 (?). Normally I keep track but I don't know what happened in this case. Beat Swap Meet. $16.


Produced by: Andy Pappas, mystery human who does not exist anywhere on the Internet which means he does not exist. The man appears to have made this record and then quietly gathered his things and left the city of Dodge. His name tells me he's of Greek descent, which gives him ethnic cache since in this regard he's part of the same group as John Cassavetes and, according to the mighty Wiki, Shuggie Otis!



Difficulty of finding, 1-10: 7.52 in the brick-and-mortar, dusty-fingers world, AKA my world, AKA the real world. If you are a weak and pitiful cyber-digger, it registers as only like a 2 or 3. I hope you sleep ok at night, you monster.


Breaks contained: “Mr. Cool” is, sadly, used in a song by the non-Kool-Aid-pushing, non-Peoples Temple Jim Jones, which is to say the less dope of the two Jim Joneses. I hear Cassidy used it on a mixtape and Beck looped a break from the same song too, but who cares.





Life lessons, important messages contained:

- Like every early-70s funk record, when listened with superficial ears it's about being naked, looking fresh, walking down the street, and driving big-bodied American sedans. Underneath the calm surface of funk and sexual satisfaction, though, the revolution is swelling. It was recorded in 1970, so these songs are about Kent State, My Lai, Jimi dying--all informed by Psychedelic Shack and Tangerine Dream's first record. And Iommi on “War Pigs.”

- More glide in my stride, more dip in my hip. I have both, and I use them to get boys to buy me things.

- There aren't really any handclaps, but the far more obscure high-five sound (00:59) is used to quite the joyful effect. No jive.

- “I used to fool around with the president's old lady,” “I was the first man on the moon,” blah blah. Braggy dudes don't get the girls out of their clothes. It's like you learned in English class, boys--show, don't tell.



Best YouTube comment: “Sexy as fuck.” So concise, and so devastatingly on-point.



Suitable activities while listening: ANYTHING BUT BALLLLLLIINNNNNN and doing air jump shots. “Gentlemen, stop it.” - me in '06, as well as in '07 because dudes would just not stop it.

Really, though, regarding activities--just throw on your onesie, belt it, then lounge around and wait for the premiere of Mad Men like a good girl. Clean the house. Read the paper. Today would've been an excellent day for a televised sporting event, too. SIGH. Miss you, darling NFL.


























Other notable things about today:

- The entire Portland scene was because of basements.

- Tour de France pics on The Big Picture are lush and distractily entertaining while at work. You pull ahead of the peloton and you just might get the maillot jaune, or maybe you'll just keep cruising around my neighborhood thinking about Johnny Marr and you're ok with that, but you're only a real winner if you're wearing a cute, shiny necklace. Get 'em, Francis de Greef of Belgium!

JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images

- Song-inclusion excuse 1: It's the birthday of Jim McCarty, the Yardbirds' drummer. As a white person with a heart full of soul, and as a white lady with honey in her hips, I am required by law to love the Yardbirds. “For Your Love” is a 0 on the obscurity scale, but the song thrills me with delight, and not just because of the almighty fuzzbox. OH FUZZBOX, you are almost as great as the Speakerboxxx, just not quite. Mr. McCarty starts the song sounding like he put a penny in a tin can and rattled it around, and then when the tempo change hits he just brings out the big guns, that bass drum. SWOON.


mp3.



- Song-inclusion excuse 2: It's Verdine White's birthday! The Earth Wind & Fire bassist/singer/songwriter with the hair almost as long as mine, that's who.



Earth Wind & Fire, “Power,” from Last Days and Time, which I own (!) and will soon be clutching in front of myself with my camera's self-timer in order to do an obnoxious “Ha ha I have an original pressing of this album” post. I can't really say the bass stands out here since it's competing with the mighty kalimba and various woodwinds, and I believe I hear some tambourine in there as well, but that bass is still terribly important. Plus I heard* Monch hand-picked this song on account of that break and then, brimming with inspiration, he went and wrote a song about machine guns and being good at rapping. *I did not actually hear that.



Fantasy thing(s) that happened today: I woke up and had the angelic dollface and height of Natalia, but I got to keep my own bodily proportions--most importantly, my prized waist-to-hip ratio. So I was finally pretty satisfied with what looked back at me in the mirror. Finally. Then I saw Joell on the street and I told him, “OMG, that Dave & Buster's line? HILARIOUS. It's an awful song, but I swear I don't turn it off til after your verse.”






.