Vacation

WOW!!!

vacation was out of control this year. I barely had any, but made the most of it. On back to back to back weekends I went to Austin, Red Rocks and Wakarusa. So much has happened since then, I barely remember any of it because of last weekend, which was my first official weekend by the pool all day. And that was exactly what I need because my brain had been spinning OUT of control since I went to Austin to visit my friends.

Jager and Raj came down from NYC, a couple friends from Dallas made the trip down. And what a riot it was. With playoff basketball, college graduation, and a group of about 10 friends there was nothing but drunken good times to be had. There are about 'X' amount of bars on 6th street in Austin and while with jager and raj we probably went to 'X -1.' The one we left out was the gay bar, haha. Seriously though we would walk in to a bar order a shot, look around, decide there were no cute girls and leave. We repeated this move until we were so blacked out we could barely walk anymore and decided dancing was probably a better way to talk to girls.

After barely surving that wknd and having liz drive me all the way back to dallas as I slept, I knew what was in store for me 13hr road trip to Red Rocks. WHAT!?!?! you may be asking yourself. That right, my roomate Travis and I killed it!!! With a little help from a friend. Left thursday after work got in Friday morning CRASHED! woke up fri afternoon to see some beautiful landscape at Red Rocks park and get our selves situated for Sat night, which is why we did that crazy drive. BISCO INFERNO baby!!! What you know about White Chicks and Gang signs?!?! That shit was hot!!! Still gives me goose bumps. Anywho, Disco Biscuits KILLED it. They played a new song by Manger and dropped all their WHOMPS!!!

Not only was the music amazing, but they had some dancers on stage in all fluarescent clothing and was quite amazing to the eye. Music from 5pm -2:30am. Pure FIRE, pure greatness, PURA VIDA to the max!!! I'll tell you what though driving 13hours back the next day was not FIRE, haha.

On to my last trip out to Wakarusa, a measly 5hour drive. Got to see Pretty Lights drop some PHAT beats. My DJ buddy got me into them a while back, and I have not been able to stop. 'Hot Like Sauce' is simply amazing, and he just never stops with the hard hitting bass bombs. Found a new group called 'BoomBox' similar to Ghostland, and they were good fun. Unfortunately one of the groups I was really excited to see STS9 only brought the fire for one of their two sets. was sadly disspointed on their Sat night set. No bass, no fire, no love... would have rather seen just about anything else instead of them at the time. I honestly think i would have enjoyed my cousins ballet to the tune of some heavy metal or something. I dont know, I just guess they were going for a different vibe that night unfortunately for me.

Anywho, I survived 3wknds of pure craziness and now its time to get back to work, where when my sales rep goes out of town she expects me to do work on sat for her. are you serious!?!?! do I look like a monkey? F that!!!

ool time!!!!

(notice: above is not a spelling error, I try and keep my pool pee free thank you very much)

Not so Common!

So it's been a while since I felt inspired to throw down some words here, but listening to Common on the way in changed that. This Chicago rapper just came out with a new CD a month or two ago called Universal Mind Control that is a little bit more clubby than his first to CD's 'BE' and 'Finding Forever.'


In the first two CD's that he released Common seemed to really put an emphasis on making the listener want to be the best that they can be. The combination of his soulful lyrics and smooth beats just send a tingling through your body that just can't be described. You wanna just pull someone close and groove... it's the best. Maybe it is just me, that would be pretty sad, but I find that I can relate to his lyrics and the issues and struggles he brings to light because its not about guns and drugs for him, but love and the struggle within oneself to do all that you can.

His album 'Be' has a song entitled 'Be' and for lack of a better word it is powerful. Right off the bat the slow bass grooves get your head bobbing and you just wait for the slow rythmic lyrics to come. It's almost Common's proclamation that we are what we are and we should be soooo very thankful for that and everything else that we have been given because no matter how hard our lives can get there is something to be thankful for. This may come from his attitude of wanting to 'Be' a better person or maybe from wanting to live more in the present than in the past or future. Makes sense right?

How many people really do this though. So many people seem to plan for the future and set up plans for five years from now or dwell on how bad they got screwed over last week. We cannot let these thoughts consume us beacuase if we lose sight of the present we lose who we are now.

Band/Group of the week

So I recently got into a new group/band called 'Pretty Lights.' They are sweetness. Now that I think of it I can't really remember... o wait ya i do. I was jammin out at my buddy's apt, where he has a sweet DJ set up. Including a synth, a beat pad, and a sweet program he bought on his laptop (that is the same that STS9 uses). We were doing our own thing, well really he was doing all the work, I just threw down on the beat pad and synth a little. Which, was honestly some of the best chill fun i've had in a while. I really hope it works out and we can bust out his set pool side... would it not be awsome to have a live DJ poolside? i think so. :)
So we're going through some sweet music with tons of WhooOOoomMMps, i.e. Ratatat, STS9, Bassnectar, etc. and eventually he's like damn this group Pretty Lights is coming to Dallas you should peep them. O and yes he said it EXACTLY like that. So what the hell, listen.grooveshark.com has showed me the greatness of a lot of new music so there I go again. Searching for Pretty Lights, artist, play... bam! The whomps start. Dont know what it is, but i can just play it over and over again... maybe its because in a way i am tired of my 'old' music. Who knows, the human is a complicated person right? or is that just the female?
Who doesnt love some whomps in their music right? so I took him up and went to the show with him and a bunch of his buddies. I havnt been to a soley electronic/rave type show in AGES!!! but I manned up went with them and i believe starting around 10 the first DJ starting busting out the WHHHOooooooMMMMPSSS and the dance started. O not to mention I was wearing shutter shades, ya i'm that guy. 1am or 2 rolls around, who's keepin track, and the next DJ comes on with some techno that I just could not handle after dancing for 3hours straight. So what is there to do on Sat night in dallas after 1 or 2, go back to your friends apt and rage till 9AM! So thats what I did. A group of 10 of us or so went back and did everything from kitchen bowling, to watching the BAD ASS thunderstoms going on in the city and watching the sun come up. Ya i was dead sun, but whatever, not like i get anything done on sundays anyways. Well enough of my journey.

Pretty Lights
My favorite song right now is 'Hot Like Sauce' tons of whomps! get in there guys!!

Are you Amazed?!?

MMJ!!! No it's not a typo for Michael Jordan, although ya the Bulls are playing out of this world... I hope they pull of the upset. However, back to the point My Morning Jacket (aka MMJ) was recently in Rolling Stones for best album (I believe it was in the top 10) and also best song, I'm Amazed (I believe was 1st), and I thought to myself how many people really know about them.

I for one had no idea who MMJ was until I was about two months or so away from going to bonarroo last year in 2008. My real good friend, and roommate now, Matt told me they put on an awsome show, and hey I had nothing better to do. But, I prepared myself, I listened to their music before hand and was knocked back by their most recent album 'Evil Urges.' It is simply amazing. From beginning to end you can listen to every song and not one of them sounds remotely similar to the other and you could almost swear its a different lead singer from song to song, but no Jim James is the man!!!

Hailing from Tennesee I believe, they fit somewhere in between the country and rock genre. Songs like 'Highly Suspicious' and 'Aluminum Park' almost make you think they could be a strictly rock n roll band, but then they have songs like 'I'm Amazed' and 'Librarian,' which are just so different i'm at a loss of words. The music they produce is just wonderful. Never getting to up tempo in their rock songs, but never too slow in their ballads as they captivate you with more than just music but wonderful lyrics.

One of my favorite lines from any song out their right now comes from the song 'Librarian.' Jim James sings about the typical fantasy of wanting to hookup with the librarian and throws out the idea that 'when god made mirrors he had no idea,' as he is combing his hair in the mirror. How awsome is that? It's so true, how much time do we all stand in front of the mirror just because we care so much of what other's think? I'm guilty we all are, as i mentioned in my post about being Vain.

Either way, today when you are wondering what you need to listen to to get you in the mood, go to listen.grooveshark.com type in 'Evil Urges,' hit play and enjoy the ride... the songs will take you on a trip, and if you can catch them live I highly recommend it as Jim James brings so much soul into his performances... I for one can feel his soul through the speakers, but that may be because i've seen them live a couple times and cant get enough.

Please give them a listen and enjoy as they make your day that much better :)

peace, love and happiness

Lazy Monday

Today it started to thunder and rain in the morning and from that moment I just new I wasn't going to get anything done. So as I sit at work, jammin out to some WSP it dawned on me that this is the perfect music for today. WideSpread Panic is probably some of the closest stuff I listen too that resembles country, which so many of my good friends listen too. JB, the lead singer, always seems to be taking his time going through his lines and the rest of the band follows his lead just chillin and jammin with him. With the rain pitter pattering outside I threw on 'Airplane' and it just helps soothe you, well me technically.

If you enjoy southern rock, country, or just awsome groovin melodies I suggest you look into WSP. Some great songs by them include, Tall Boy, Protein Drink, Airplane, Can't Get High, Wonderin'.

Unfortunately it is tough to find were to find places to download WSP, but you can stream it from their very own site.... http://panicstream.com/

they provide all or atleast most of their live shows to listen to in its entirety and its just awsome to hear them jam from one song to the next in their slow rolling way.

Also, a little bit of a side note, never have I ever seen so many wookies (aka hippies) and frat boys in the same location than at a WSP concert... so weird its almost like they could coexist for those 3hours.

enjoy!! let me know if u need help finding music, im here to help.

Music Experience

So I have totally diverted away from my original intention of what my blog was supposed to be about. Not that it is a bad thing, but there is just so much good music out there that not enough people know about, myself included, and the best way for people to find out about new bands is NOT the radio, but word of mouth. So I will try every couple days to put up mini posts of a band/group/entertainer that I really like and write a tid bit about why, along with recommend some songs to start with.

Hopefully you guys will enjoy and will share your wealth of knowledge as well.

To start I think it is only just that I go with the Disco Biscuits, as they have been rocking my world for a couple years now and I can just never seem to get enough... but that just goes for music in general too.

About the Disco Biscuits: they fall into the 'jam band' category somewhat, but at the same time not at all. They bring thick bass lines, and some wicked fast guitar riffs. If you have ever seen a real DJ perform, not some lame ass Disc Jockey that only mixes songs, you understand the concept of peaking during shows and coming down. This is what Disco does, but with a FULL band. There music sounds electronic because of the intensity they bring to it, but just like that they know how to mellow out and give the crowd a breather. Listening to these guys is tough if you have never seen them live, or do not enjoy dance parties because thats what it is.

I suggest http://www.archive.org/details/db2009-02-08.at4041 you can copy paste the link and you can listen by streaming or downloading. This is a show I saw @ HoB Dallas, there are plenty of other awsome shows too on archive.org, just have to look around a bit.

Some killer songs by them: Caterpillar, Highwire, Rock Candy, etc. I could go on for ever about them. I also suggest youtubing them as they have amazing light shows, and it is just awsome to see the crowd going nuts, and Marc Brownstein (the bassist) has the most incredible power stance ever... he can THROW the funk down on the bass and for that THANK YOU MARC!!!

How bout you?

So what were your early musical influences taking you through middle school, high school, and college? Did you feel yourself evolve as a person with the music you listened to, and as the music changed in different parts of your life?

If you would like please share, but also it is a nice reflection exercise... as I believe it can really help one align their life path, ideals, and morals