Root Down in the Shadow

Way back in the day, I was pretty savvy with the computer and accompanying music software.  I had my stereo system complete with turntable hooked into my computer.  I could take vinyl and cassette and turn into a digital form.  Before I left college, I was lucky enough to help digitize some live music for my favorite band from college Disco Bitch and the Funk Machine .  But it was annoyance of not having a VCR after college that turned out my biggest "recording" success. I sat down with a borrowed VCR and my friend Greg's VHS copy of VH1 storytellers, Dave Matthews episode.  I laid it down into larger than necessary .wav files, and soon started the editing process.  I laid the 44 minute episode down into tracks.  Now there were only five full songs plus parts of two others mixed with stories about the songs and other various stories, but I ended up splitting it up into 16 complete tracks.  Doing it this way, I split out each song from story, eve...

Typically I prepare for my posts throughout the day. I listen to music constantly while I drive around town. It's really one of my most favorite parts of my job, the other being the puzzle of addressing how a car got damaged and how far that damage traveled. Today, however, I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed when getting ready for this post. I love... emphatically love the Blood Sugar Sex Magik album, but I've come to realize it's just not a "Desert Island Disc". Anthony Kedis ' insane lyrics of feelings, drug trips, and other adventures are outstanding, but the disc itself is too much of a roller coaster to ever be on repeat (preferably with 4-5 other albums) for a desert island eternity.  I somewhat always knew this, but at the same time I always wanted more out of this pinnacle of Red Hot Chili Pepperdom. Even after reading Scar Tissue the Kedis autobiography, and understanding more of the lyrics, especially his ever constant binge and purge wit...

Back in high school, I worked at a ski & snow board shop.  I started watching snowboard videos and was finally exposed to Punk.  Pittsburgh had limited alt radio up until that point.  So, for me, there was no exposure to early punk.  But through these 'board videos and a monthly music mag video, I had finally been awakened to Bad Religion, Offspring, Pennywise , and many other bands.  311 was the best of these new sounds.  Not only was the punk aspect heavy, but the melodies flowed, and the funk was strong.  The videos featured the second 311 major album Grassroots , which is awesome in it's own rights.  Soon I found their major label debut, Music which had taken the style to a whole other level.  Music starts out with the appropriately titled 'Welcome' introducing 311 fans to their mantra of playing music for enjoyment rather than making money.  This was rap/rock at it's finest, almost a decade before Cypress Hill and Limp Biz...