Face the Facts

Well, I made it farther than I did the last time around, but I still have to throw in the towel... sort of. This venture is just way too exhausting and time consuming to keep up, at least if I want to do more than a single line a night.

However, I am still committed to the 365 album idea, just done in  a much simpler fashion. So, from here on out I will be posting on my facebook page, a video from the band I am listening to that day. The video will be a song from the album I have been listening to that day.

Sunny day real estate- diary

Mudhoney - Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge

While Nirvana tapped into the mainstream and were being touted around the world as the kings of Grunge, the true emperors were not so quietly, but happily back in Seattle sitting upon their rightful thrones.  Their Album, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, has always been by far my favorite of the bunch. I can still remember waiting anxiously for it's release and having my friend's grandmother drive us down to Music Plus (of was it already Wherehouse, by that time?) to finally get my hands on it.

While their previous work was exceptionally good, I enjoyed this album above the rest because it began to venture a way from the fuzzy distorted sounds they helped bring about. You're actually able to listen to the band mature as musicians right in front of your stereo. This is not to say they got rid of the sound altogether, but rather refined it into a garage, blues rock sound.

If your a fan of the 90's rock explosion labeled "grunge" and haven't put this album on your rotation, well... repent! The go and make it right.

Jimi Hendrix- Axis: Bold as Love

We'll so far, along our trip (actual and musical) we have gone through some sounds of the Bay Area, Portland, and Olympia. We are now traveling through the wonder that is Seattle, Washington and in my mind there is no better place to begin than with Seattle's native son Jimi Hendrix.  

Dr. Suess once said, "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."

I guess that's the best way to describe the short lived Jimi Hendrix Experience. With only three albums under their belt before Jimi was tragically taken from our musical souls, we are left with the black hole of a question, "what could have been?" Sadly, this is too often the question encompassing The Jimi Hendrix Experience, rather than a fond embrace of the beautiful trilogy The Experience has passed down to generation after generation.

Axis: Bold as Love probably did not have the pizazz of his first effort Are You Experienced?, But Hendrix accomplished and built upon his early success his second major recording. Within the album he experiments with rock, blues, some jazz, and ventures into the arena of psychedelic with songs like if 6 was 9. My favorite song is of course, Castles made of Sand and She's So fine, but these are most peoples favorites. so I don't think I'm offering any new insight.

If you have never, or have rarely listened to The Jimi Hendrix Experience, then do yourself a favor and get this album. It's an American classic by the man who in my opinion, single handily (alright he used both hands) changed the face of Rock and Roll, became the face of the 60's, and is still by far one of the greatest, if not THE greatest guitar players in modern music.

Nirvana - Bleach

It's funny how after the fact, so many people love to criticize this band and talk about how overrated they were. Yeah, I don't know, maybe to some extent people jumped on the Grunge bandwagon, but I still remember this album and Nevermind with the fondness of youth.

I still remember the first time I heard this album, I had been trading music with a newfound friend. When one day he handed me this record to listen too, I thought this was a joke at first. Prior to this album he had given me a wide selection of Punk albums to check out and now here he was handing me a metal album. I was confused, to say the least. Nevertheless, I went home and sat on my bedroom floor and popped the tape into the stereo. I hadn't heard anything out there sounding quite like this, I mean there were some unquestionably great bands during that time (ex. Pixies, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr.- the list could go on), but this was familiar and unique at the the same time. I know some of you will point out the endless grunge bands already on the scene starting with Mudhoney and working your way down, but I didn't know about them. I lived in a small farming town just outside of LA. It didn't take long for the others to follow suit, but this was the band, the album that opened the Seattle Music door for me.

That first time I listened to "Bleach" was like listening to a deconstructed rock record. Distorted guitars, the heavy pounding drums (which I found out later was enlarge part was due to Dale Crover of the Melvins), the melodic whines and scratchy screams of Cobain, was a stripped down minimalist approach to the "rock" being peddled over the airwaves. The glaring juxtaposition between Nirvana and the Warrants, Skid Rows, and Ugly Kid Joes only helped to expose the artificial pseudo-rock that  LA radio stations like Pirate Radio were force feeding us. We were starving for something new and creative in the Rock world. Bleach was the ground work for that change.

Funny, I haven't listened to the album in so long, I forgot what an inspiring album this was to me. From their first single Love Buzz, to the pop driven About a Girl (the only song he ever wrote for his then long time girlfriend), to the frenzied Negative Creep, the album delivers unpolished rock hits.

A funny story-  A short time after hearing this album, Nirvana was touring for their upcoming Nevermind album, and were headlining a show in LA at the Palladium. By this time I was sold on the band, so with two of my friends in tow, we went to the show. After, a couple of bands played, (if I recall correctly Redd Kross and Hole... Not too sure about Redd Kross, but I really want to say so), three guys, walked out on the stage; The guitarist a dorky, short haired blond guy with holes in his the knees of his jeans; the bassist another short haired, towering giant with no shoes; and the a long haired drummer who hid his face behind the hair, slightly resembling cousin it. I was confused. I read the bill, I knew which bands were playing, and the name of this band was nowhere to be seen.  The only picture I had ever seen of the band up to this point was the one on the cover of " Bleach" so you could imagine that I was expecting big haired, jean jacket rocking rockers. Thus, I turned to my friend Jason and asked "What band is this?" He shrugged and then the music started.

Melvins - Houdini

How does one get back at a Jerk of a supervisor? How about starting a sludge metal band and naming it after your nemesis, forever ranking his place of Honor amongst world's worst bosses. Thus, cementing his name with dirtiness, like John for the commode or Peter for...well, you get the point. That's the story behind the naming of the Melvins.

Anyhow they aren't the Godfathers of Sludge for nothing. The music is slow, methodic,  and heavy with Dale Crover pounding his skins to oblivion. It's not for everyone, but there are a few of you who will dig on every riff, drum kick, and guttural stanza King Buzzo belts out.

On an interesting side note, the first bass player for the band was Lori Black, AKA "Lorax". She is the daughter of Shirley Temple.

Old Time Relijun - Catharsis In Crisis

It took me  awhile, but this band has finally started to grow on me. When I was looking at bands from the Portland area to listen to while on our road trip, OTR was one that had a lot accolades. I am pretty sure that I would have loved this band 15 years ago when I was going through my John Spencer Blues Explosion faze. But these days,  my musical appetite has changed somewhat. I  have lost my teenage angst as one friend likes to tell me. 

But as I said, it's starting to grow on me, but I don't think the song I listed is quite in line with the rest of the album... well, it might, but I don't think it actually captures there musical talent the way songs like Garden of Pomegranates does.  

The music is a abstract punk nod to Mississippi delta-blues with the only constant of the band frontman Arrington de Dionyso's bizarre, spastic and scratchy vocals.