John

Sales Associate 

Expertise: Breaks, Drum and Bass, Reggae, Ska, Dub, and many, many more genres

Born in 1978, I grew up exposed to music of all sorts, anything from Beethoven to The Incredible String Band, and everything in between. My parents were of the opinion that the TV was evil and would surely rot my brain. So to combat boredom we (my mother and I) would make weekly excursions to our local library branch to pick out some records and books. We would come out with me carrying a stack of “Choose your own Adventure” books on top of a pile of records (this was the early eighties when the library still carried records). I would read every novel from front to back listening to the records spin on our department store phonograph. That helped me develop a love for music and reading that I still indulge in to this day.

To be honest I did start to get lazy in my pursuit of new music until a fateful day when I heard an artist by the name of Dj Qbert on an album called Wave Twisters in the summer of 1998. I had a slight idea of what a Dj was, but only in the sense of simply playing a record, I had no idea you could manipulate the vinyl to produce entirely new music. Due to this life changing event I fell back in love with music in a way I thought had long since passed. I was so entranced by this new genre that I dedicated myself to learning how to play this style myself, and now I am a mediocre bedroom Dj, scratching and cutting till the wee hours of the night.

I soon became interested in the worlds of Breaks, Drum and Bass, Reggae, Ska, Dub, and many, many more genres. The beat became everything, if it has a rhythm you can shake your butt to, I most likely enjoy it. That’s not to say I don’t listen to much more, I am very eclectic in my tastes and strive to keep a mind so open you can fit a herd of manatees inside.

Some of my many other interests include, reading (of course), writing, movies, and collecting odd records for the sake of weirdness.

Here are a few lists of mine, in no particular order… 

Top 10 of 2007:
Blockhead – Uncle Tony’s Coloring Book
Buckethead – Dawn of the Deli Creeps
Battles – Mirrored
Deathproof Soundtrack
Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Breakestra – Hit the Floor
Smokin’ Aces Soundtrack
Oceans 13 Soundtrack
Bassnectar – Underground Communication
Madlib – Beat Konducta Vol 3-4
Yesterday’s New Quintet – Yesterday’s Universe
*Honorable Mention: No Country For Old Men Soundtrack

Movies:
Fight Club
Yojimbo and Sanjuro
Big Lebowski
Indiana Jones Trilogy
Pulp Fiction

Albums:
Wave Twisters
Dj Disk: Live @ Slim’s
Fight Club Sndtrk
any Pink Floyd
I Against I

Books:
Fight Club
The Wages of Fear
The Wheel of Time
A Song of Fire and Ice
Steal This Book