A life in cratedigging. Kick started the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive’s in my friend Neil’s dorm room. Fall of 1986. That lit the fuse!…..

<Black Uluru in a dorm room? Instant Reggae fanatic; 20 sec.>

…I’m going through a home remodel. 40 years of record collecting crammed into my garage right now. When I ran out of shelves, I bought some big ass tupperware bins to try and make it all fit.

Between my organic collecting (used record stores, Ebay/Amazon, stock from my distributor when I sold Reggae online) and my binge buying when Record Stores started dying out in the mid 2000’s, my 1200 square foot house had reached a state of entropy.

So to make room for the demolition of two bedrooms to accommodate an actual Library (A Librarian with his own Library!), I had to move everything into my garage in a short amount of time.

Now that the project is coming to completion, I have to move everything back in!

My method?

• Get up early on Saturday. Have my spinach determining what I’m going to sort and separate  in the garage.
• Go have breakfast at Left Fork Grill with my best bredrin Leonard and his buddy John
• Drink about 8 cups of coffee
• Head back to mi casa in Sugarhouse
• Grab a stack of disks for my CD boombox to while away the time sifting wax
• Fully caffeinated: Start to organize the entropy.
  • I would separate by format: LP, 12″ disco mix, 10″ disco mix, non-Reggae vinyl
  • Then: look by title and cull albums if they fit one of my preferred set-genres
    • 420
    • Roots Dawtas
    • UFOria
    • Wailers Family Tree
    • Halloween
    • Marley Tribute songs
    • Rockers doing Reggae

I don’t know how many physical vinyl pieces I have (not even including 7″ 45s). CDs a whole separate issue.

10,000 pieces? 15,000? Somewhere in between.

It has literally taken me from early January to June to sort it all and separate for the final move into the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ive.

From when I moved to SLC from Bozeman, MT in Sept. of 1986, I have been on a vinyl crusade. And the nostalgia of where and how I acquired the lion’s share of black wax really kicks off memories of a subculture that has mostly died out: the local record store.

Many great ones are still slinging wax: Like Randy’s in Salt Lake. Ditched their CDs to make room for the vinyl resurgence: 20 sec.

But over 500 stores have gone out of business in the last decade. When the music industry killed vinyl, they didn’t anticipate that digital music sales like Itunes, Spotify etc. would make those $18.99 CDs economically irrelevant.

And even though vinyl is making an awesome comeback (full vindication for I ‘n’ I), it’s too late for many of my favorite haunts.

Last summer my local Montana chain went out of business: Hastings. I would drive through gorgeous wheat fields and flowing rivers and cratedig from Butte, Missoula, Helena, Great Falls, Bozeman and Billings.

As much as I love Montana and my parents, I’m not driving home this summer. Not much for me to do there now but watch wheat grow.

bless, robt

Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives: June 3, 2017 – All Vinyl Showcase; 34 sec.

Set 1:

• Brigadier Jerry – Everyman a Mi Bredrin; Jamaica, Jamaica (RAS) ’85 DC:
• Bullwackie’s All Stars – Nature’s Dub; Nature’s Dub (Wackies) ’80 Dub Album of the Hour
• Time Unlimited – Live Upright; Devil’s Angel (Live Wire) ’84 JA
• Mother Liza – Ten to Ten; Mother Liza Meets Pappa Tollo (Vista Sounds) ’83 UK
• Devon Russell- Homebound Train; Homebound Train (Freedom Sounds) ’83 JA
• Zap Pow – Be Cool; Irie Land (Rhino) ’80 LA
• Al Campbell – Collie Herb; 12” (Jah Life) 4:20 Cannabis Service Announcement

Set 2:

• Inner Circle – Forward Jah Jah Children; Reggae Thing (Capitol) ’76 US

<Inner Circle: Capitol’s answer to Bob Marley; 15 sec.>

• Leroy Smart – What Will I Do; Rite Sound Reggae Story (Jah Live) ’77 Fr.
• Barry Brown – Ital Rock; I’m Still Waiting (Rocktone International) ’83 Can.
• Super Chick – Roach Killer; Reggae Dancehall Classics (Sleeping Bag) ’87 NY female dj

<Roach Killer shoes: favorites in the dancehall for killing roaches and rub a dubbing; 35 sec.>

Set 3:

• Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus – I Am an Ethiopian; Movements (Dynamic Sounds) ’78 JA

<I’m not Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, Mr. White – I’m an Ethiopian; 12 sec.>

• Dennis Brown – Wake Up; Wake Up (Natty Congo) ’85 UK
• The Meditations – Running From Jamaica; Message From the Mediations (United Artists) ’76 US
• Gregory Isaacs & Christine – Rock On; Rock On (Jah Live) ’75 Fr. Combination style
• Prince Far I – Bendel Dub; Front Line Dub (Virgin Front Line) ’79 Dub Album of the Hour

<Virgin record label in Nigeria; 50 sec.>

Set 4:

• Lone Ranger – The Clock; Hi-Yo Silver, Away! (Greensleeves) ’82 UK
• The Shakers – Emergency Call; Yankee Reggae (Asylum) ’76 Boston; female vox on Judy Mowatt tune
• Eek a Mouse – Sensee Party; Skidip! (Greensleeves) ’81 UK
• Misty in Roots – Wandering Wanderer; 12” (People Unite) ’81 UK

Set 5: 420 Black Wax

• Peter Culture – Coconut Chalwah; Behold 10” LP (Top Beat) 2000 UK 

<Coconut chalice; 14 sec.>

• Clint Eastwood – Collie Weed Style; Love & Happiness (Burning Sounds) ’79 UK
• Winston Reedy – Sensimilla; Dim the Lights (Inner Light) ’83 UK
• Niney the Observer – My Spliff; Nuclear Jammin’ (Voiceprint) ’86 Chicago
• John Holt – Police in Helicopter; 12” (Holt) ‘83

<Johnny Law in your rear view? 28 sec.>

Set 6:

• The Wailers – Get Up, Stand Up; Wailers Vinyl Box Set (Island) #3484 of 10,000 vinyl box set

<Lessons in crate digging: Buy low ($70), sell high (working kidney)>

• Bobby Culture, Brimstone & Fire, Nicodemus & Louie Culture – Going Home; Tidal Wave (Unicorn) ’83 Santa Monica: R.B. Greaves pop update
• Junior Byles – I Don’t Know; Rasta No Pickpocket (Nighthawk) ’86 St. Louis
• Don Carlos & Gold – Blackout in the Ghetto; Showdown vol. 3 (Hitbound) NY
• Black Uhuru – What Is Life; 12” EP (4^th & Broadway) ’83 US picture sleeve

<Not Marley, Tosh, Cliff or UB40: Black Uluru’s Anthem made I ‘n’ I a Reggae fanatic>

• Ras Command – Education; In Dub (Red Arrow) ’95 Germ.: Mutant Dub album of the hour

Set 7:

• Blue Riddim Band – Restless Spirit; Restless Spirit (Flying Fish) ’81 St. Louis

<Livicated to our KRCL bredrin: Bad Brad Wheeler>

• Fab 5 – Shaving Cream; Jamaican Woman (Stage) ’87 JA
• Aisha – I Know a Place; 12” (Ariwa) ’90 UK

Set 8: Mutant Dub

• Black Uhuru – Boof’n’Baff’n’Biff (Fila Brazillia rmx no. 2); Dancehall Queen Soundtrack (Island Jamaica) ’97 US
• Dub Syndicate – Roots Commandment; Echomania
• New Age Steppers feat. Ari Up – Stormy Weather; Foundation Steppers (ON U Sound) ’83 UK female vox on Lena Horne classic

Words of Wisdom: