Talking all that Saigon Noodle Bake Jazz

I decided to go ahead with the pot au pho casserole I speculated about, in the interest of working through leftovers before leaving town and allowing the them to create some kind of primitive civilization in the fridge.  I had envisaged something like a sort of aspic-y cold loaf sort of thing, maybe to serve w/ crunchy bread, almost like Bahn Mi's mutant stepchild. It was not to be. Unlike pork and duck, beef fat is gritty and nasty when it is cold, so I heated it, which meant that the reduction was too hot to remain gelled. So it was basically diced brisket from the pot au pho, some basil, and rice noodles that had soaked up a ton of the compound braising liquid from the pot au pho. It was decent, and a good way to use up leftovers, but not the conceptual breakthrough I had hoped for. To make up for it, how about a track from Stetsasonic that is longer than 10 seconds? "Stet Troop '88" is a reminder of a time before hiphop had been appropriated as a global marketing juggernaut and devolved into a synonym for conspicuous consumption, and violence. Easy to sound hard when you are rapping about gats and rims, harder to do so when you are rapping about drinking lowfat milk and riding in an Aerostar, as the boys in the band do here.  For any grasshoppers out there in Codland, Stetsasonic were playing instruments when The Roots were just a gleam in Huey Freeman's eye, and the Prince Paul who appears on this track is the very same who rose to greater prominence as the mastermind of Three Feet High and Rising, and Dan the Automator's partner in Handsome Boy Modeling School, and also has released a solo album or two. I'd love to know what happened to the rest of the band.
Stetsasonic: "Stet Troop '88!" In Full Gear, Tommy Boy, 1988
Why not push your chair back, go to your local independently-owned record store, flirt with that cute clerk, and have them order you In Full Gear? Pick up the CD of Three Feet High and Rising while you are there, too-- your casette is doubtless thrashed by now, and the bonus disc is actually good. Failing that, you could buy them here.

Comments

[the punisher]

I was at dinner last week with a bunch of old psychoanalysts and one of them said, "Did you know that there is a rap song about psychoanalysis? It's by Prince Paul."