N.I.C.E. Vinyl #3: Steinki and Mass Media

When Steinski put out his excellent career retrospective, What Does It All Mean?, a few years ago, one of the first things everyone asked is why We'll Be Right Back and Let's Play It Cool, two singles he recorded for 4th & Broadway in the mid to late eighties, weren't included. He later said that he couldn't clear those records and knew there would be issues if he tried to include them on the comp. For a record on illegal art with the infamous History Lesson mixes, tracks which have never been cleared for legal release prior but are available on that comp for the first time outside of a promotional issue, that seems a little odd, but who knows what the true issues at hand were. Steinski has always remained friendly with the Tommy Boy and Ninja Tune people, but does 4th & Broadway even still exist? Anyway, I've had original US twelve inches of both of those singles for a while and I wanted to share them so here they are.

We'll Be Right Back is Steinski's ode to advertising and commercials, the field he works primarily in, and features tons of samples from varying sources, although I remember hearing some if not all of them may have been recorded specifically for the record. Let's Play It Cool is more of a streamlined version of the History Lessons with an emphasis on dance floor mastery. I remember hearing We'll Be Right Back on Open House Party and some other mix shows, but I'd never heard Let's Play It Cool before getting the record. It's fun but a bit dated, definitely not on par with Steinski's other releases. We'll Be Right Back, on the other hand, definitely sounds dated if not a little cheesy but it's got a charm to it that makes it irresistible. If the samples were indeed re-recorded for the release, I'd love to hear the tapes as I bet they're a ton of fun.

If you haven't gotten What Does It All Mean? yet, it's still available for download and purchase at illegal art's website. Like all of their releases, you can get it as 320kbps MP3s for free, FLAC or MP3s with liner notes for $5 dollars (!) and the double CD is $13 dollars with an immediate download. It's well worth your time, especially if you love the History Lessons or the other projects Steinski has been involved with, and the liner notes are very detailed and well written. I'd suggest the $5 dollar version myself, but that free 320kbps MP3 is there if you need convincing first. But make sure you grab the downloads here too. Steinski would have included them if he could have and they are just as important to his career as anything else he has released. Enjoy!


Steinski & Mass Media - We'll Be Right Back

FLAC

V0 MP3

01 We'll Be Right Back (Club Edit)
02 We'll Be Right Back (Radio Edit)
03 We'll Be Right Back (Dub Version)
04 We'll Be Right Back (Bonus Beats)


Steinski & Mass Media - Let's Play It Cool

FLAC

V0 MP3

01 Let's Play It Cool (Club Edit)
02 Let's Play It Cool (Instrumental)
03 Let's Play It Cool (Hippieboy's Jungle Mix)
04 Let's Play It Cool (Acapella)


PS - It's worth noting that DJ "Sugar" Kane gets a featured credit on Let's Play It Cool but there is practically no scratching on that record. He does share the production credit on the song but Steinski gets the full writing credit.

PS2 - Wicker furniture FTW!!!