Keep On, Just Keep On Pressin' On

Here is my new toy:

It is called a "TTUSB Turntable with USB" & it plugs right into my laptop. I just hit "play" on the player & "record" in the audio software program & presto wow! magic happens & the music is on my computer. The only real bitches so far are the absences of a cueing lever & a dust cover. Also, I should probably give it some hot new stylus action because the one it came with is kinda chintzy. (I'm currently lusting after the Numark CS-1 Carl Cox Signature Model Stylus.) But it does have some anti-skate & pitch control goodness, & with a bit o' wrangling you can digitize 78s too. It's also got a 1/8" stereo mini-jack connector which you can use to transfer cassette tapes. Sweet! It does what I expected it to at the price I could afford & I love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE. It is so easy to use. Vastly superior to the other uber-complicated way I know how to make vinyl into digital thingamabobs. I haven't fucked much with all the settings & effects & whatnots, so I don't know what I can do with the sound yet besides normalize it & execute some light noise removal, but I'm pleased. Particularly since I can now easily make CDs out of my 12-inches, which is very convenient. These, then, are the first tracks with which I meddled (& yes, they are in the exact order in which I magicked them to my computer, so forgive any lack of, uh, smooth transitions):

download 'em here. you'll be sorry if you don't.

01. "Double Dutch Bus" - Frankie Smith
I've got my funky bus fare. HO!
02. "Give Your Body Up To The Music (Larry Levan Mix)" - Billy Nichols
Sadness. I didn't know that Mel Cheren (the West End Records & Paradise Garage big cheese) passed away in December 2007.
03. "Right There In The Socket" - Shalamar
Feel that e-lec-tricity.
04. "Need Somebody New (Larry Levan Mix)" - Jamaica Girls
A promo 12" with Larry Levan mixes on Arthur Russell's Sleeping Bag label. I experience fierce nerd paroxysms every time I touch this.
05. "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll (Pt. 1)" - Vaughan Mason & Crew
"Roller skaters one in front & one behind/Bounce left, bounce right/It's disco time" INDEED.
06. "New York Movin'" - Ahzz
Gotta love Peter Brown. And this song.
07. "These Memories" - Oh Romeo
Produced by the legendary & legend-in-his-own-mind Bobby O. My mind thinks it's funny to replace "memories" with "mammaries" for some bizarre reason. Yeah.
08. "Dolce Vita (Radio Mix)" - Donnie Grillo
Very nearly ungoogleable. 'Cause I rock it all obscure-like.
09. "Keep On (Francois Kevorkian & Hubert Eaves III Mix)" - "D" Train
Four minutes & thirty six seconds into this, try to imagine that you're in a room above a Ukrainian restaurant in NYC's Lower East Side where 200 people of literally all ages, colors, shapes, etc. have come together for seven hours of sheer unadulterated dancing bliss with balloons, food & the man who was instrumental in forging the paths of both dance music & the modern DJ, starting back in 1970 with the very first Love Saves the Day party in his loft. I could write ten thousand million words & never even begin to properly convey it. The two times I was able to attend number amongst the most spiritually transcendent & ecstatic experiences of my life. (No jest or hyperbole, for reals.) "Reach, reach, reach/You're almost there." This is disco.