HIDDEN TRACK IS PREDICTABLY NUMBER SIXTY NINE, DUDE

ARTIST: CRACKER
ALBUM: KEROSENE HAT
SONG: EUROTRASH GIRL
DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 1994
STATUS: ACQUIRED

One of the first CD's I ever bought was Cracker's Kerosene Hat. When I put it in the CD player it registered 99 tracks. I assumed because Cracker was a little alternative band that didn't get much air play (at that time) that their recording studio didn't have the technology to set the number of tracks properly. In retrospect this was pretty stupid, but it was the mid 90's. When it came to technology we were only one step ahead of the monkey in front of the obelisk. Then one day out of curiosity I skipped ahead to track 99 to find an outtake from their recording, and that's when I realized they did it all on purpose. Hidden tracks are so 90's.

I never listened to the tracks between between Looser and that outtake until one day I came back into the room after leaving the CD player on to hear "Eurotrash Girl" playing. I loved the song, and it kept getting better and better, especially after I spent sometime bumming around Europe.

There where two other hidden tracks on that album, "Hi-Desert Meth Lab" a sort of sound collage on track 15, and "Take Me (Back) To You" on 88.

SOUTHSIDE BRONX!

ARTIST: BOOGIE DOWN PRODUCTIONS
ALBUM: SEX AND VIOLENCE
SONG: WE IN THERE
DATE: 1992
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Biggie? 2Pac? ... Nah. No one brought it like KRS1. That's why you never hear his name unless you are talking with a true hip-hop head; no emcee wanted to tangle with KRS.

Before going solo KRS ran with Boogie Down Productions. Over five albums there sound evolved along with the rest of hip hop from the slow stepping sound of early Bronx-centric rap to a more dynamic and diverse sound that would emerge as the mature sound of 90's hip hop.

Sex and Violence was BDP's final effort and KRS brings it, flipping Hip-Hop conventions, such as homophobia, to shame emcees who strike false hardcore gangster poses to rock a party. 90's rap, even when it was intelligently assembled by someone as talented as KRS, was rarely politically correct.

ONE HIT WONDERS HAVE SECOND ALBUMS AND THIRD ALBUMS

ARTIST: HARVEY DANGER
ALBUM: KING JAMES VERSION
SONG: SAD SWEETHEART OF THE RODEO
DATE: 2000
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Harvey Danger's Flagpole Sitta was a mega hit in America. None of there following songs ever approached its lofty heights, but that's not to say that they stopped making great songs. Sweetheart of the Rodeo was the first single from their follow up album. Maybe it lacks that "it" thing that makes a great song a hit, but all the Harvey Danger strengths are on display.

THINGS DOLOMITE WOULD SAY

ARTIST: DR. DRE
ALBUM: THE CHRONIC
SONG: LET ME RIDE
DATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 1993
STATUS: ACQUIRED

Few things actually changed everything, but Dre's 1992 album the Chronic did. For years afterwards every rap album sounded like the Chronic. It sounds like gangsters, but its really about parties.

MONDAY'S ARE EPIC. GET IN THE CAR AND DRIVE LIKE YOUR COMMUTE IS MEANINGLESS AND EPIC.

ARTIST: SOUL COUGHING
ALBUM: RUBY VROOM
SONG: SCREENWRITER'S BLUES
DATE: 1995
STATUS: NOT ACQUIRED

As grunge trickled out, burned out, or was washed under by waves of "grunge" bands quirky "alternative" pop acts surged into the ears of those of us listening for the authentic. Soul Coughing: strange, epic, groovy; stared into the epic nonsense that is life anywhere, even in America, especially in Los Angles where you don't have the secure urbane illusion of living a connective narrative, and channeled it into poetics.