Tell us a little bit about yourself: My name is Jeff and I live in San Diego with my wife and dog. I teach 6th grade at a local elementary school. I started collecting records a little in high school, but the bug didn’t really bite until I finished college.  I started working at a label called Ubiquity Records and got really interested in digging. We used to host vinyl nights at local bars in Orange County and from there I haven’t stopped buying records.

 Radio is also a passion of mine. When I was 15 I would walk down to a community radio station once a week in my hometown. I would bring my carrying case of cd’s and play all my punk/pop punk/ska cd’s for anyone who turned that far left on their radio dials. In college, my radio show taste changed from punk rock to hip hop to jazz and then finally to more funk/soul. I still host a show today on community radio here in San Diego. The show is called Sip and Spin and I play mostly funk/soul and then talk about our local beer scene. For more information you can visit my instagram @sipandspinradio  

Favorite album: Gilles Peterson Digs America Vol. 1 - this is a compilation Gilles Peterson, a famous British tastemaker/DJ, put together. I have bought so many albums because they had a song featured on this album. The artwork is cool and the write-ups about the songs are first class. Without this album, my musical taste would be completely different.  

First album: Officially, my first album was probably Jock Jams or Bush’s Razerblade Suitcase. I think those were both given to me as gifts. However, the first time I went to a music store by myself was in Pacific Beach, San Diego. The music store no longer exists. I purchased NOFX’s Liberal Animation and the Descendent’s I Don’t Want to Grow Up.

Favorite Enjoy The Ride or Enjoy The Toons release: I first heard of Enjoy the Ride records when they released the Nicktoons album. Whenever I have people over, I’ll try and wax some nostalgia and put that one on. I also really enjoyed the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Doug, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles records. When I go out and play records at bars, I’ll bring my pizza slip mats and people constantly ask me about them.

Favorite album artwork:  Blank Blue – Western Water Music Vol. 2 - This is a project by DJ Nobody from Los Angeles. If I am being completely honest, I don’t really like this album. However, the artwork on the cover is amazing. I was working at Ubiquity Records and I watched our art director put it together. It was fun to watch him go from a tiny idea to a beautiful album cover.

 Did you see anything on the RSD 2019 list that you plan on picking up?

 John Cage Meets Sun Ra - John Cage Meets Sun Ra

 Francois De Roubaix - Les Levres Rouge

 The Parliaments - Baby I Owe You Something 

 Poppies: Assorted Finery From The First Psychedelic Age

 Rough Guide To Arabian Jazz

 Soul Slabs Vol 2

 Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album)

13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators 

 Goblin - Yell

 SOUL JAZZ RECORDS PRESENTS STUDIO ONE Showcase 45 Box Set

 What are your favorite local record shops, in case any readers are traveling through your town? I live in San Diego and we have a lot of great places to choose from. My favorites in town are Beat Box Records, Re-Animated Records and Folk Art Records. Each offer different types of records, but all of them have a friendly and informed staff.

What have you been listening to more frequently lately? Radiohead. When an artist puts out a new album (Thom Yorke – Suspiria), I tend to go down the rabbit hole of their previous albums. My wife and I also just signed up to run a marathon. I’ll put on a Radiohead album and get lost in it. It helps me forget how many more miles I have to run.

Have you discovered any new artists lately? (Doesn't have to be someone new on the scene, can be new to you!) ZAPP – I was reintroduced to ZAPP because of a collaboration between them and Tuxedo. ZAPP has been around forever and they are just so much fun. It’s also a great record to pull out when I’m playing vinyl for a crowd when the mood just calls for something extra funky.

 Here Lies Man – This is like if Black Sabbath and Fela Kuti had a baby. They are on a label called Easy Rider Records – who also put out amazing stoner rock compilations.  RIYL: Brownout, The Budos Band, or Anitbalas.

What are some of your favorite albums you have in your collection? Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview, Losing Streak, and Border and Boundaries. All of these albums got recent reissues and I picked all of them up. Less Than Jake was such an important band in my life growing up. I don’t listen to them as much anymore, but whenever I hear the first notes of Border and Boundaries it takes me back to high school and driving around in a boring town.

Darondo – Didn’t I (45) – Back when my wife and I were living in Oakland, I had a really difficult teaching assignment. I needed a win really bad. One day I looked out my bedroom window and saw a box of what I thought were records sitting on the curb.  I ran downstairs as fast as I could and to my delight, I was right. There had to be 200 funk/soul records just for me. Inside was the Bay Area’s own Darondo. This is definitely a “Holy Grail” album for me. If you haven’t heard of Darondo, do your homework. His life was a total trip. You might recognize his song from a Breaking Bad episode.  

Any specific albums you wish you had on vinyl? All the Cake albums. There was a record store box set that was put out a few years ago. I talked to a record store about it and they assured me that it wouldn’t sell out first thing in the morning. I took my time waking up and getting down to the record store only to find that it was the first thing that sold out. Sad…….

 Early Hank 3 – I know it’s out there and it isn’t incredibly hard to get, but I’ve never picked it up. I see his newer stuff and that isn’t particularly for me.  

What album would you like to be pressed on vinyl? DJ-Nu Mark’s Hands On. I bought this album on CD from Amoeba Music Hollywood my freshmen year of college. I was a Jurassic 5 fan and knew he was part of that group. That album truly changed my taste in music. I started to appreciate music samples and taking music and doing something completely different with it.

Presidents of the United States of America – S/T - People have talking about a vinyl print of this record for such a long time. There are so many classic 90’s jammy jams on this guy.

Scenario time! Lets say you decided to sell most of your possessions + live in a tiny house for the remainder of your years. You can only take 7 records. What are they (Here's the catch - for each person you live with, you have to make one of those choices their favorite album - the more people you live with, the less choices are yours. Yes, this includes tiny humans)?

Gilles Peterson – Digs America Vol. 1

Sharon Jones – I Learned the Hard Way  

Less Than Jake -  Hello Rockview

Cake – Fashion Nugget

DJ Nu Mark – Hands On

My dog Penny picks The Stooges – S/T (Its got the song "I Wanna Be Your Dog")

My wife Jaime picks Adele - 25