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| Cuing up "That Smell" by Lynryd Skynyrd |
Related to Elements: Crate Digging, DJ, Underground
Every evening as I descended the basement stairs on my way to my nightly music-listening ritual in the man cave, I'd be forced to ask myself "What is that God-forsaken, moldy-ass smell? ...And why are the stairs squishy feeling?" I knew the answer already, but I was afraid to look and find out. I ignored it until the smell became unbearably strong and it was obvious at that point it was time to act for the health and safety of my family.
So after a little liquid bravery on a quiet Saturday morning it was time to bust out the power tools and demo some basement walls! After a little sweat and a lot of noise I found a hidden crawlspace right next to the basement steps where the smell was emulating from.
IT WAS ABSOLUTELY NASTY! As soon as I removed the paneling hiding the hell hole, the smell rushed out of there and grabbed my nose hairs. Thankfully my family was gone for the weekend and luckily I had a dust mask to help at least keep some of that death out of my lungs.
Well now I did it. I just created a huge job for myself, but it was one that couldn't be avoided any longer. I knew looking at the hole what I had to do. It was time to man up and seal this place up properly. But only AFTER dealing with the mold that came courtesy of the dumbassery of the previous owner of my house. I've watched enough Holmes on Homes on TV to know it needed to be "done right the first time or not at all!"
Don't worry, I'm not going to go through the entire child birth process, I'll skip right to the baby.
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| Removed the nasty, poured concrete, sealed with Dry Lok Paint, insulated properly! |
Long story short, after a lot of work the smell was finally gone! Now I can seal this up properly and I'll know there will be no problems with moisture or moldy insulation again.
Water Tight, Air Tight, Sealed Space = Time Capsule
Before I seal this small crawlspace up behind walls for "eternity", I knew I had one chance to leave behind a permanent message for future archeologists or pissed off home-owners. Something that I can leave behind that represents my lifestyle as a human being. After pondering a while on the dilema with a few beers it hit me, "Duhhhhhh, RECORDS!!!"
Records Last Forever! Well, they do if stored and\or played properly, and this was now the perfect sealed-off from the elements environment. But there's no way in hell I'm going to leave behind any of my cherrished records! Even some of my crappy records can still be sold for cash, so I couldn't just throw in random crap that some people would enjoy.
I had to choose the most horrible records I had. Stuff I'd have a hard time selling even if I wanted to. I had to choose records that were horrible quality pressings or massively overproduced or just terrible music. So I chose 3 records that represented all of those qualities and gifted it to the future inhabitants of my little corner of Earth.
Time Crapsule: The List! My 3 Worst Records Left Behind in No Particular Order
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| Relax! It's the Mexican Pressing |
1. Devo – Freedom Of Choice "Libertad De Eleccion" LP (Warner Bros. Records) Mexican Pressing 1981
Look, I LOVE Devo. It pained me to even THINK about dissing Devo in any way. But this pressing was not their fault and if anything it probably pissed them off more than it did me. I actually bought this record earlier this year from an online seller. It was never the best album they did but it was a Devo album I didn't yet have on wax, still sealed for only 6 dollars! What could go wrong with that deal!?! Well, I guess I didn't pay attention to the "Mexican Pressing" footnote on the product listing.
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| "I'm on a Mexican, (woah woah) Radio!" |
"What's so bad about a Mexican pressing?" you may ask. After all, they invented the world's only perfect food, the taco, so how could they possibly screw up something as simple as pressing a record? Well apparently they didn't have the speed setting right at the pressing plant that day because this record sounds like the Chipmunks doing Devo. No lie, this thing somehow plays too fast at 33 RPM.
But hey, no problem, I have a deck with pitch control, so I'll just slide it way down and then it will sound normal right? Well it helps a little, but screw that! Any time you have to use your pitch control to make ANY record sound right you are literally bending over and taking it from the record companies. Even with the pitch adjusted the entire thing sounds hollow and without any nuances. This is probably one of the worst cases of quality control I've ever seen\heard in all my years of collecting records.
So Naturally I couldn't sell this to anyone in good conscious knowing the look on their faces would be similar to the look on my face when the needle was dropped on it for the first time. I can't pass on crap to others, that's the opposite of paying it forward. Besides, Devo deserves more respect than that. So I whipped it into the hell hole! (sorry, bad pun!)
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| $12 from 720 records, this was unofficial as all hell, a DJ Shadow boot to boot |
2. DJ Shadow – March Of Death / Karmacoma 12" BOOTLEG (Mo Wax) 2005
I love DJ Shadow's music and I love Zach De La Rocha's music so the thought of hearing a collaboration between them was WAY to intriguing for me to pass up when I saw this back in 2005. I'll admit, I knew it was a boot when I bought it, but there was no other way to get that music back then, and, as it is often the case, curiosity killed the cat.
This sounds like pure ass. It sounds like it was recorded from telephone and then pressed to record. There is almost ZERO bass, it is muffled, it doesn't even begin to sound good at any point. Even with my EQ highly tweeked it was not enjoyable to play on either side.
As with all bootlegs, the artists on here didn't make a penny off this sale. Shadow himself mentioned it's existence on his website and obviously if it was legit it would have gone through quality control until it sounded great...
Like it does here...
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| The Real Deal. Buy THIS if you want to actually enjoy that song. |
Once I bought the Handmade record, there was no way I was going to keep that bootleg around, and I couldn't justify passing the buck onto a fellow Shadow fan even if he or she knew what they were buying. They deserve better and the musicians deserve better. It was clear that this boot deserves permanent dark days in the hole.
3. Natalie Imbruglia – Smoke (Remixes) 12" Promo (RCA) 1998
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| Horrendous music doesn't even begin to describe this |
I think I bought this on year one of my record collecting days, when I was an utter newb. I clearly didn't play it before I bought it or I would have left it in the store. I'm pretty sure I bought it because I liked some of Rae and Christians productions at the time. Yet even that remix, the only remix I bought it for, sounds abominable. There is literally nothing about this collection of corny, predictable-build filled, and utterly outdated sounding remixes that sounds even remotely tolerable.
I attempted to sell it a few times and I got blank stares from the record store owners I showed it to. The last guy I brought it to said "Dude, I have like 5 of those online right now for a buck, so even if you want to donate it to me, I don't want it." I swore that would be the last time I took it home feeling embarrassed and defeated, so into the hell hole it goes with the rest of the heinous archaic black discs!
A Warning for the Future
And now the message. Time to write something that will be my legacy, something awe inspiring... I could leave a written http link to this blog, but blogs are too temporary and who knows if the Intenet won't be directly responsible for Skynet in the future.
Hmmmm....
Ah hah!!!
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| Sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone |
Cuing up Taps
It's the moment of truth! Now it's time to permanently seal the horrible record time capsule.
2" pink foam was cut to size, but not too tight yet leaving room for expansion foam to cement it firmly into place.
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| Closing the coffin lid on wack records |
Lastly I sealed off the capsule forever with Great Stuff expansion foam.
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| Using expansion foam around all 4 sides for an airtight, watertight seal |
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| That's all folks! Nothing more to see here! |
And on the day I die, I can do so with a small sense of fulfillment knowing this little piece of history was left behind for future generations to hopefully enjoy hating as much as I did.
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