Wednesday, June 10, 2009

‘Break Loose' by The Reg Mundy Band (1983)

Before I moved from SF to LA, I got a call from an old friend who said he had just emptied out a storage unit that belonged to a man I once knew named Michael Garrett. Michael was the resident DJ at the I-Beam Disco on Haight and Shrader from its opening in 1978 to its closing in 1992, as well as the owner of the Castro district's most loved dance music outlet, the CD and Record Rack.
If anyone was lucky enough to have ever been to the CD and Record Rack you'd know going to this place was like going to disco heaven, only you got to come out alive. We used to spend hours in their garage across the street blazing through records and getting real stoked on the ones we found but knowing too well we were passing on some serious gems as we were just learning about disco back then (this was the mid-nineties).
I always wondered what happened to those records after the store closed in 2000 (I think), so when I got the call from this friend, I almost didn't believe it. I went straight to his house and it was confirmed on arrival that these records were in fact the last remaining stock of the CD and Record Rack (the rest got sold off in an auction after the untimely passing of Michael in 2004). The news about his death seriously bummed me out because I was not aware that he was gone.
This is one of the records I picked up that day. I had never seen it before and I have never seen it since. It is one seriously heavy, spaced-out disco funk jam rumored to only have had a pressing of 100 copies. This one goes out to Michael Garrett.. every time I play it.
-Travis "TK" Disko

4 comments:

DJ Stef said...

Thanks so much for this!! I miss the I-Beam and I spent many hours of my life at the Record Rack.

the saucer people said...

"rumored to only have had a pressing of 100 copies"

you are a freakin' star!

(even if you Americans insist on dropping the 'u' in rumour!)

You know the only thing negative about this track is the length..less than four minutes...should have been 14 at least!

roland the realest said...

massive! thank you so much for this.

essay best said...

Thanks so much for this! man the good old days were really good indeed! will be busting this on for the weekend! Thanks once again