Monday Morning Shuffle

Hope everyone had a good long holiday weekend and is now out of their Tryptophan induced coma. My family got me sick, which is wonderful. There’s nothing like being on your feet for 8-10 hours a day with a vicious cold that clogs your sinuses so much that your teeth hurt. Wonderful. On to the shuffle.

1. Anything, Anything – Grey Daze, off of No Sun Today
This is a fun story. This is originally a Dramarama song from the 70s. I had heard it a time or two and liked it, but never really knew who it was or where to find it (this was in middle school before words like downloading, Napster, burning or internet were real popular. Hell, CD was relatively new.) So anyway, the Edge (back on 106.3) had some kind of show on Sunday nights after SkaPunk, I can’t remember what it was called, but they played music from local bands and maybe 6 people listened to it. Well I was one of those 6, mainly because I liked that Chronic Future song, Scottsdale Brat, and that was the only place to hear it. Well, I was also an aspiring Bass guitarist at the time and so I was constantly listening for songs with good bass lines in them. One of those songs was by a band called Grey Daze and it was called B12, it had this funky slap bass lick that really drove the whole song. Fast forward a few weeks to the old Warehouse music store in PV mall and I found the CD in the local bands rack and bought it. The album cover was this dark background with a girl in pigtails and overalls walking through the grass. It kind of reminded me of the black hole sun video and I was into pigtails and overalls at the time, so it worked. Anyway, fast forward 4 years and I’m a senior in high school. I was kind of out of things to do so I tried out for show choir. To my surprise, I made it and during the first semester we had a retreat to get to know each other and work on some stuff. Anyway, I’m sitting at the fire the first night and I’m talking to this girl Jessica Rose -- this younger, tall drink of water with long brown hair and a million things to say about life and music and movies and everything else. And she starts talking about how her dad managed and produced all these local bands and asks if I had ever heard of the band Grey Daze…and I don’t need to tell you what my answer was. But it turns out that she was the girl from the cover, whom I had noticed in 7th grade but didn’t meet until late in high school. Small, weird world.
My random story aside, this song is awesome. In any form.

2. I Knew You Before – Dustin Kensrue, off of Please Come Home
Thanks to Chris Perry for hooking me up with this solo stuff from the singer of Thrice. More and more I’m getting to like sounds like this. It really reminds me of the Matt Costa stuff I was talking about a few weeks ago. Lots of good acoustic guitar, some blues and country sounds, harmonica and, of course, some very strong vocals. And since Chris is the man, here is the link to where it is uploaded. It takes a bit to download but it’s worth it. Enjoy, and many thanks to CP.

3. Would? – Alice in Chains, off of Alice in Chains Unplugged
It seems as though we’re getting an unplugged album on here each week. This is one of my favorite ones and Alice In Chains is certainly one of those bands deserving of what used to be the honor of being “Unplugged.” The funny thing about this CD is that some of the members of Metallica were sitting in the front row at this show. And you have to remember that this was pretty much at the absolute height of Metallica’s popularity. Jerry Cantrell and the members of Alice in Chains can’t help but make fun of them while they’re sitting there complete with a joke about LL Cool J and then playing the beginning of Enter Sandman. If you listen close to the album you can hear Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield laughing and saying stuff to the band. High comedy.

4. A Camera Lens and Careful Days – Lydia, off of This December; It’s One More and I’m Free
Lydia is a great local band, although they’re kinda missing a crucial member right now. Mindy’s voice is pretty amazing/haunting/goose-bump inducing and now it’s gone, but you can still enjoy it on This December… This is a pretty mellow track but it fits in the vein of the whole CD and is one of the more beautiful tracks as well. A lot of these local bands are going after it Ramones style, just jamming as hard as possible and screaming and being so emo it hurts but Lydia actually takes some time to make some art and we’re all the better for it. They put more thought into their music than most of the acts I’ve been into lately and I guess that catches me by surprise sometimes…which is weird.

5. No Sleep Til Brooklyn – Beastie Boys, off of Licensed To Ill
What can you say? Great track on one of the greatest/most influential/most unique albums ever created. Nothing else I can say.

Anyway, that’s enough for today. I’m glad I posted this baby early today because now I get to serve Italian food to stuck-up Scottsdale bitches and blue haired snowbirds from Minnesota, and lord knows I didn’t want this hanging over my head.