Over the weekend, DJ Shadow treated us to a small peek into his world, as he sold off a portion of his collection in what was described as “The 1st Annual DJ Shadow Storage Sale.” The thing that I found most fascinating about the two day event, is how many records I just had never seen, and how so many other collectors and DJs who I know felt the same way. This record was one that I picked up just because of the color scheme on the front cover, which I noticed went round the back cover to say “BOOM.”
Dropping the needle on the record, there were some moderately pleasing Brazilian/Jazz/Lounge sounds for most of the record. But then I dropped the needle on “Zig Zag,” and promptly flipped out (though I should say that “flipping out” for me at a record store is more or less a series of raised eyebrows). As I brought the song back to the beginning, with it’s sorta surreal intro from the “Westlake Inn,” I noticed that the song had a writing credit for Jair Rodrigues, and figured that it must be a cover. Right around that time Oliver Wang of Soul-Sides sat down next to me and my portable and started raving about this album and “Zig Zag” in particular, something that Young Einstein of Ugly Duckling had hipped him to many years back. Oliver pushed me off the fence over getting the album, noting that it really doesn’t come up very often, is still pretty under the radar and was a steal at $35. And with that, my day was basically done (I’ll likely post a few more things this week from Shadow’s sale). I’m really not convinced that this is an actual live record, it sounds more like a record with live audience sounds piped in, to give the impression that Da Silva has an enthusiastic crowd listening to him in Westlake each week…but no matter, “Zig Zag” is undoubtedly the coolest thing (maybe the only thing?) ever recorded at the Westlake Village Inn, in Westlake, California.