Mr. Soul

Going back to some classic rock for today's posting. Buffalo Springfield were one of the bands I remember growing up and hearing a lot of in the house. The timeless 'For What It's Worth' still conveys the same message it did some 30 yrs ago. The combo of musicians and voices made that band huge. Stills and Young of course would cross paths later down the road. Uploading 'Retrospective' which is the best of collection. Great best of album that captures everything this band was about.

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Sabbath

Heading back to where Metal began for most, Black Sabbath. The original lineup of Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill to this day stands the test of time. First half dozen records from the are all classics. For today's selection I'm going with 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'. This album is one of their finest I think. Start to finish it's a monster. Great first side of the LP, flip it over and it's still great. Make sure you play this one at 11.

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Wasted

The other half of the punk post is Black Flag. Probably one of the most well known influential punk bands to come out of the scene. Known for launching Henry Rollins into a punk icon as well as Keith Morris too. The band started in the late 70's and steamrolled through the mid 80's before the wheels came off. 2 of my favorite records from this band are actually EP's. So I've decided to combine the two. 'Nervous Breakdown' and 'Jealous Again'. The former featuring Keith Morris on vocals and the later featuring Ron Reyes. Both straight forward in your face punk/hardcore. Along with the Bad Brains first LP, a must own for any punk fan.

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The Fat Elvis

Once again falling behind here and once again a double shot today. More like a triple shot of punk. First up is the Austin TX based punk/hardcore band The Big Boys. Along with The Dicks, The Big Boys were pioneers in the early punk scene down in TX. The band developed a different style of punk, in fact almost developing funkcore with the addition of a horn section. A great live band whose shows often involved food fights. The band abruptly split in 84 with members of the bands forming various other bands. 'The Fat Elvis' in the companion to the earlier compilation album 'The Skinny Elvis'. Wide mix of material on this album, but by far check out the cover of Kool & The Gangs 'Hollywood Swinging'. Great listen for the punk fans.

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Blow By Riff

Second posting focuses on some guitar wizardry. Jeff Beck is one of the best guitarists ever. Sadly doesn't get mentioned often enough in the same breathe as say Clapton, Page, Hendrix, Van Halen, etc. Of course he has played in a group that featured two of those above mentioned groups, that group was The Yardbirds. Along with the first LP from The Jeff Beck Group this album is prolly the most recognized and the best. 'Blow By Blow' is just that, 9 tracks of amazing guitar work. Doesn't help to have Stevie Wonder guest on the album either. Time to crank this one to 11.

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Surfs Up

Few days off with work and being sick, gonna double post here. Read that as work and drinking by the way. Going for some older stuff here. Mainly some surf rock if you will. The Beach Boys when I was younger were one of my favorite groups. Still are too. Something so simple about singing about catching the perfect wave or showing up the fellows with that sweet little ride of yours. Maybe it's cause I was born and raised in California and that surf culture somehow is instilled in me. So for the first post here I'm posting 'The Sights And Sounds Of Summer', the album is a newer best of collection. The album features mono/stereo mixes of the classics and spans the groups career. Perfect cruisin' music.

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The Thrill Is Still There

I'm going back and updating this post a bit in honor of the passing of BB King this past week. BB was a legend, the King of Blues influenced so many Guitarist and brought the sound of the Delta Blues into so many homes over the years. Not only could he play, he wasn't above of appearing in movies or spreading the news about Diabetes in TV ads. And no matter where he went, his trusty friend Lucille was there in tow. I had the chance to see BB play a couple years back at my job. Sometimes it pays to work in an entertainment venue. Leading up to the show I had read the reviews and heard the stories about BB only playing three songs and rambling on for an hour. I shrugged it off and said, dammit the man can still play, I'm like a five year old on Christmas. Day of show I got to talk to a lot of people before hand who had fond memories of seeing him in years past and who were like me excited to see him play. The sad reality of it was, the reviews were right. I saw a broken old man, who was barley able to hold a guitar and who's best years were well behind him. It was almost an hour before I heard the unmistakable guitar tone that was the legend. I watched the inevitable train wreck that was happening. Seeing people walk out in confusion and disgust was hard. It's always hard to watch someone try to continue on when you know the end was a while back. The end of the show marked him playing, which trailed into ramblings and a bunch of people going up to the stage as he signed albums.  The next day the press had a field day with the show. In fact it was still getting brought up the week of his passing. We were one of the last show he played. A co worker reminded me of that as we sat around talking about it the next day. That's pretty sobering to say you saw of one BB King's final shows ever. While it was the show I had wanted to see as a fan, it was cool to say you saw one of the greats on the Blues Mt. Rushmore. I found a clip of BB play with SRV, Albert King and Paul Butterfield. It's linked below. It's an amazing jam session and if you aren't familiar with any of those people, might I suggest checking out some of their works, so you can appreciate what music is.

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