ID: Mike 2600 of the Litterthugz Crue

TITLE: Broth
ARTIST: Broth
LABEL: Mercury 1970

There was a time last year when all I listened to for about a month straight was funky white rock and hard classic rock. Rare Earth, Deep Purple, Rustix, Iron Butterfly, Sabbath, Natural Gas. It's really something everyone should try, even if just for a week. It'll put some hair on your chest. Anyways, I picked this one up on a pure whim and it turned out to be a gem. The whole album is really heavy on the percussion tip with lots of funky little breakdowns. Their cover of "Louie Louie" is just waiting to get sampled (by me, so keep your distance) and "Ma–ana" is a great party rocker. Added bonus is the primitive "BROTH" graf painted on the band's Mystery Machine on the back cover.

Oliver Sain-related 45s

When you're in Memphis, home of Stax Records, finding actual Stax records is easy like finding an unwashed man at a record show. I live in St. Louis, home to R&B saxophone quasi-legend Oliver Sain. Oddly enough, finding his records is no easy feat. You'd think they'd hand out copies of "The Main Man" door to door, but all I seem to come up on are a few disco-ey funk 45s. That was until I found these... At a little junk shop, I came up on 33 cent copies of 13th Floor's "Leanin" and The Signs of the Times' "Hum a Song." Both were written by and/or produced by Sain and both are extraordinarily funky. "Hum a Song" is a great uptempo jammer with a Sly Stone flavor to it. Lots of "Bom b-bom b-bom" kinda chanting shit goin' on. "Leanin" sounds like straight up instrumental G-funk, 25 years before the fact. Mount up!

TITLE: Private Eyes
ARTIST: Hall and Oates
LABEL: RCA 1981

I know what you're thinking. Hahaha, there goes Mike, picking some *cRaZy* '80s record to put in his Record Check. Well guess what sucker, this album is the shit. Hall and Oates are too often overlooked as lightweight kitsch kings (with heavyweight moustaches), but give this record a listen ... and I mean a good honest listen, and you'll realize these dudes had their shit together. Every song on here is brilliant pop perfection and they had a decent amount of soul in their voices for looking as Miami Vicey as they did. I've gotten more than one dancefloor poppin' with "I Can't Go For That" and my homeboy DJ Cougar Shuttle once wowed us with his "Private Eyes" --> "Woop Woop, Pull Over, That Ass Too Fat" blend. An easy dollar bin find. Get two.

TITLE: Sound Foundation
ARTIST: Sound Foundation
LABEL: Smobro ?

Heavy. I bought this one based on a 45 of their's I'd picked up from the same LP, but had no idea what I was about to get into. Hard, funky rhythm section who flat out kill it on just about every track. Great guitar and horn work throughout the record, and these guys aren't afraid to come with the clean drums as they break it down on "Soul Foundation" at least four times. Ironically, Sound Foundation delivers one of the more jankier covers of "Get Out of My Life Woman" I've ever heard, and that song is mad hard to screw up. I absolutely love this record.

TITLE: Yars Revenge
LABEL: Kid Stuff 1982

God, why did I spend so much fucking money on this one? So I made this mixtape called "Yars' Revenge" and I thought it'd be really cool to be able to show people "Hey look, I've got this Yars' Revenge record now too! Hey hey!" but there's really not much else to it. This is a full-length 12", but if you've heard any of the Atari 7" story records, you know the drill - some cheesedick middle-aged white guy telling a poorly-written outer space story with terrible ass music in the background. There are a couple of cool little one-liners on here that could be fun to scratch, but I just haven't gotten around to that yet. Anyways, did you see my "Yars' Revenge" record?!!?

TITLE: The Newborn
ARTIST: The Newborn
LABEL: Tommorrow 1977

About 50% of the times I buy something on a whim, I'll have good luck. This is one of those times. For $2, I came home with what is now one of my favorite soul albums. Great for relax mode, every song is two chicks singing over mellow instrumentation with noggin- noddin' drums. At times it's got kind of a folk rocky feel to it, but it's far from qualifying as a "folk album." Their cover of "Up On the Roof" is just asking to be made out to. Oh what's up ladies...

TITLE: I Pioneered This
ARTIST: MC Shan
LABEL: Cold Chillin 1998

"Make your head swell so your eyes start to dialate. Yeah sucker you betta not violate!" So hot it hurts. Cold Chillin' is easily my favorite rap label and arguably the greatest label of its time period. Shan, Marley Marl, Kane, Kool G Rap, Biz, Masta Ace, you just can't go wrong. This is a lesser-known, but prime example of the kind of monster jam you can expect from the Juice Crew. Line after line after line, Shan comes correct with a non-stop verbal assault over a funky/creepy Marley beat. Sort of acapella included (they left some quiet music hovering in the background for whatever reason).

TITLE: Beautiful Beautiful
ARTIST: Ferrante & Teicher United
LABEL: United 1974

The title says it all. Just look at her. Ferrante & Teicher are one of those groups that give everyone a reason to dig in the easy listening department. The ultra jam here is "The Best is Yet to Come" which starts off with these haunting harpsichord and brass phrases that unwind into a larger-than-life, if not gaudy, cinematic love theme. The Automator owns this record.

TITLE: Music to Be Murdered By
ARTIST: The Automator
LABEL: HomeBass Records 1989

Speaking of the Automator... this one was handed to me by a friend of mine - an old school STL DJ who tells me he used to do the same kinda shit I do now (scratching "Sh-sh-shot through the heart, and y-y-y-you're to blame" on top of Tone Loc "Wild Thing," etc) but like ten years ago. I was flipping through his crate of hits and came across this. He said he had some extra copies so he hit me off. Let's see... Chicks with tight outfits and weapons? Check. Prominently featured SP-1200? Check. Automator flexin' the hockey hair and Members Only jacket? Check. The music is just what you'd expect from someone like The Automator in 1989. Two songs of the Coldcut/Double Dee & Steinski variety - back to back breakbeats with lots of vocal samples. The record also serves as a primitive break/battle record with a raw, 808-laced Funky Drummer instrumental (perfect for on-the-fly remixes or scratching over) as well as a couple of classic scratch sentences.

TITLE: Tooth Protectors
LABEL: Johnson & Johnson

Okay, okay, so it's not a record, obviously, but I figured you'd want to see it if I told you I had it. Here it is, the highly sought-after and incredibly bizarre "Tooth Protectors" video game, available only through a mail-in offer from Johnson & Johnson (I owe this one 100% to my parents). In this game, you are some kind of springboard that slides across a set of teeth and your mission is to protect the teeth from the sugar pellets that get dropped from the sugar demon at the top of the screen. The very best care will keep them there and they'll never ever move away, but if you miss too many pieces of sugar, the teeth will start flashing, in which case you push "the button" which initiates the parade of toothcare products who come out and fix your teeth up. If you run out of parades (you get three per game) and you keep missing the sugar, your teeth will disappear. There's really no other video game like it.