I haven't traveled for work in years. The only thing I miss about it is record shopping in strange cities during the minimal downtime. It's always worth it. So, when I found myself in Las Vegas for a boring-ass work thing last week, I looked at the only two hours I had available and earmarked them for some time-constrained local patronage. Turned out my coworker - also a record fan - was on the same flight home as I was, so we hatched a plan to split a taxi to the airport right after we Ubered over to
Record City, a place that was, honestly, the closest to Caesars Palace and, according to the photos on the internet, packed with LPs and every other kind of media.
The photos did not lie, and in fact, may not have done it justice. I could've spent a full day at this place. There were thousands of LaserDiscs. I had to move stuff to get to other stuff. Teetering stacks were threatening collapse at every turn. And the prices were fair! My kind of place and I could have done some serious damage given four hours but I was only afforded about 90 minutes so I did what I could.
I should have taken a photo of the LD/DVD area to the left of where I'm looking in this photo. I do have a small LaserDisc collection, but I generally don't care enough about LDs to drag any home. I did get four DVDs: Helloween High Live, C-Bo: Live and Uncut, Hittin' It, and Urban Massacre. I could have found more but I was too busy digging through the records, which were everywhere. Here's what I left with:
Criminal Nation - "The Right Crowd" 12" (1991)NW rap via Tacoma on Nastymix. Been looking for this group's albums on cassette and don't ever see them. This song has got some new jack swing to it.
B.O.X. - "Rock 'Dat A**" 12" (1991)
I admittedly am not familiar with this artist or
this song, and that's why I grabbed this. And I think it was like three bucks. "Beyond Ordinary X-Istence indeed.
C.P.O. - "This Beat is Funky" 12" (1990)From BOX to CPO. I was definitely spending time in the haphazard 12" singles sections. This is one of two singles from CPO's only LP and I should really go back and listen to it; it's been a while. Love the idea of MC Ren having his own record label but I think this was the beginning and end of that.
The Master MC Stacy G. - "Prove It" 12" (1988)
Was not familiar with this outfit either but this was a signed copy at a fair price and I would have picked it up even it wasn't signed (very sincerely to a guy named Barry).
This song is not strong.
V/A - Hit Hip Hop on Hot Vinyl (1985)Mixed by Dr. Dre when he and Yella were still with the World Class Wreckin Cru. The electro-rap revolution did not happen, and that's OK. I know there's a good reason why 2 Live Crew is on here but I can't think of it. Dr. Dre performing surgery on the humble beginnings tip.
Luke, etc. - "We Bring You Joy" 12" (1993)
Luther Campbell in sincere mode rounds up a gaggle of his label's artists to crank out a truly assy Xmas track I bought for two bucks.
Darwin Gross - Darwin's Blues (1986)
Didn't expect to find any private-press Oregon LPs while there but I guess I didn't expect not to, either. Don't recall ever seeing this one. It's
easygoing jazz out of Oak Grove, led by a guy who, turns out, was the
972nd Living ECK Master.
Let My People Come: A Sexual Musical - The Original Cast Album (1974)
Apparently I wasn't passing this up for a fiver. Looks pretty
gay.
