ID: Egon

_WHERE: Los Angeles (Recently Nashville and NYC)
_COLLECTING SINCE: Hip hop since 1991 (7th grade) and funk since 1995 (Jr. year of High School)
_FAVORITE DIGGING CITY: New Orleans, Louisiana. Above and beyond the fact that some of the best records ever were recorded in N'awlins, most of the musicians that recorded them are still living there! So buy all day, and hang out with Eddie Bo at night.
_COLLECTION SIZE: Large, but I throw out records every May.
_FAVORITE LABELS: Stones Throw/Kilmarnock Records.
_FAVORITE BREAK: Boo Boo McAfee and McAfee's Breeze "Prophecy III" (See below).
_DOLLAR BIN MIRACLE:Roosevelt Matthews with Billy Ball and The Upsetters "Tighten Up Tighter" (actually five bucks, but what a score!)
_MAGS OF CHOICE: Black Tail. No, seriously "Big Daddy" and "URB".
_FAVORITE RECORD COVERS: Douglass High School Black Out & New Sounds of 1970, David Axelrod "Songs of Innocence"
_TRACK TO MAKE LOVE TO: Galt MacDermot Coffee Cold. I haven't told him yet though!

TITLE: Poppin Pop Corn
ARTIST: The Highlighterss
LABEL: Rojam

The best 45 ever to come out of Indianapolis, and there were many contenders. Huge drum break (the engineer increases the level too!), but also just a killer song. Not many copies of this floating around, so Peanut Butter Wolf and I are (legitimately) reissuing it - along with the other Highlighters gem "Funky 16 Corners" on the flip.

TITLE: The Dap Walk
ARTIST: Ernie and the Top Notes
LABEL: Fordom

This song makes any one feel good. The feel good record of the year 2000, and it was recorded in 1971. I got this from Ernie himself, he got it from his sister. I cried when it came in the mail.

TITLE: Family Man
ARTIST: Gene Faith
LABEL: Virtue

So it's not out of New Orleans. It sounds like it though. One of Philly's best records, and you can find this bad boy for $10. Believe it. Cash Money recorded "Scratching To The Funk" with Frank Virtue, the man that owned (duh!) the Virtue label.

TITLE: Little Boy Blue
ARTIST: Little Buck
LABEL: Seven B

Ok, this is Wolf's discovery. God damn it, what a find! This is actually a dry (no reverb) MALE VOCAL version of Eddie Bo's "Lover and a Friend." I can only believe that this is same Little Buck from "Monkey In A Sack" fame. This actually came out of a warehouse that I excavated, unfortunately about two months after Wolf had gotten this, in a strange turn of events, from the owner. New Orleans is incredible.

TITLE: Take Me
ARTIST: Fabulous Souls
LABEL: Fabulous Soul

So you know the LA issue of this, this is better. True stereo and it pumps loud. What a cut!

TITLE: S/T
ARTIST: Boo Boo McAfee and McAfee's Breeze
LABEL: American Percussion

Jon Doe, my partner in crime when I was in Nashville, TN, discovered this record in a thrift store. He called me up and in 20 minutes I'd located Boo Boo. A week later, we convinced him to round up as many originals as he could. He found 8. He'd pressed a couple hundred and sold them in drum shops. So we convinced him to reissue it. Though the four-minute drum break "Prophecy III" is on the reissue, the second break "Steppin' Out" isn't. You have to find an original for that. Good luck. Dante Carfagna found one in Memphis, but he sent it to DJ Shadow before I could cop it off him.

TITLE: Ananda Shankar And His Music
ARTIST: Ananda Shankar
LABEL: EMI

The best sitar funk record ever, by the late visionary. Makes me proud to be Indian (well, at least half Indian).

TITLE: Out of Gas (But Still Burning)
ARTIST: Kashmere Stage Band
LABEL: KRAM

The world's finest stage band's finest album. Great funk cuts, including the five mintue gem "Kash Register," which was split into two parts and released on a 45. But check "Getting It Outta My System." I love playing that in a club. You love the fact that when you were in high school, you had 1/1000th the soul these guys did.

TITLE: Better Days
ARTIST: Joe Pass
LABEL: Gwyn

The best soul jazz record ever. Fuck what anyone else says. This man could play bop with the best of him, and he was a true virtuoso. And Carol Kaye convinced him to do a funk record. Too bad this never really came out, it woulda been a monster.

TITLE: Up from the Basement
ARTIST: Galt MacDermot
LABEL: Kilmarnock

OK, so I work for Galt. Who cares, he's a genius. These are all tracks that I found on acetate or reel in his Staten Island home. All funk. Never released. Check for this one, I promise it's huge.