Influential Album Challenge Day 7 – Mad Verb Sincerely Your Obedient Servant

This is one of those albums that is really hard to separate the music from my life, but I’ll try. Maybe. Probably shouldn’t should I?

Mad Verb came into my life at the annual Taste of Madison in 2001, which was kind of tradition for my friends and I to go make a weekend out of it. It seemed like everyone knew all about them and I was the last to know. It was their first time playing up in these parts and I hadn’t been down to Tulsa like the rest of the gang. So there was a lot of hype and my expectations were set high. I was not disappointed. They were an amazing live band! Sincerely Your Obedient Servant was their first CD.

Mad Verb seemed to be only around for a short while before going on and pursuing different projects. They only released two CDs during that time and very little about them can be found on the internet. Just one little radio clip with their song Cream Puff. This was the song that usually closed their set, a high energy, good-time song that makes for a great mosh pit.

Their song Take Me Places is perhaps one of songs that mean the most to me. It is a slower tempo song about a new relationship. Yes, a cliche subject, but there are certain lines in the song that I repeat to myself when I’m dealing with difficult things.

The past gives us courage. The future lets us know, that today we hold the balance

There’s not much more to life than living blissfully.

And really, that right there is my truth. Don’t worry so much about the past or the future, as none of its really completely within my control. Do what makes me happy, my bliss, and really, that’s what’s going to get me through each day. Perhaps that wasn’t what they meant when they wrote the song, but it what I got out of it.

Mad Verb and this CD hold a lot of wonderful memories for me. I listen to this CD frequently still, all these years later. I listen, and I smile.

Influential Album Challenge Day 6 – Phil Marshall Dondonisi

I like it. I like it a lot.

Sometime during the (Dubya) Bush Administration my friends and I saw Phil Marshall at John’s Bar in La Crosse. We all were highly impressed with his set. There was no question of my buying the CD (Dondonisi) he had for sale at the show.

Phil is one of the artists from the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, (he hails from the UK) that I followed in the late 90s into the 2000s (I know, I know..you’re wondering how did I, a person from Minnesota get into acts from Oklahoma. Don’t worry that will be explained in the coming days). Over the years I’ve seen Phil numerous times and its always been a good time as well as a good show.

One of the things I like most about Phil’s music is his lyrics (Notice a theme here guys? I like words). In the song December Girl, Phil tells the story about a the time a friend of his was having a hard time. She wanted to go travel, see the world and had a lot of anxiety about it. Phil had a lucky half dollar he had found/received. He felt it had a lot of good juju in it as it had served him well. He gave it to his friend and with it she traveled the world and had a great experience. She returned it to him a year later. I’ve always felt a certain connection to this song as I too, have, in my case a lucky penny, given to me by a close friend. All these years later it serves me well still.

Dondonisi is full of gems like December Girl and it certainly didn’t end on this album. His follow-up album Providence? is just as good with songs like Energy and 24 Hours. If you have the time or inclination I would urge you to check out Phil Marshall’s music on his website.

Influential Album Challenge Day 5 – Blue October History for Sale

Until this very moment I wasn’t sure if I was going to pick Blue October’s Foiled or History for Sale. Both albums are superb and I suppose, since History for Sale came first, I’ll go with it. I simply can’t decide which one had a bigger impact on me. (And yes, I’m feeling a torn for not choosing Foiled…seriously, Hate Me is a masterpiece of a song).

Blue came to my notice when I my friend gave me a cd with a bunch of songs of their songs. All my friends were talking about them and I wanted to know what the deal was. It was love at first listen.

I think Blue is probably one of the most under-appreciated bands out there. I have a hard time wrapping my head around why they are played ALL THE TIME on the radio. Maybe due to the brutal honesty about mental health, suicide and addiction Justin Fustenfeld writes about? I don’t know, but whatever the reason, its shameful. Justin lyrics are often dark, but are some of the most poetic words spoken. Yet, his lyrics aren’t lofty, but like a personal conversation he’s having with the listener. The music is generally on the heavier side of rock, catchy and often cheerful, creating an interesting dynamic with the often darker lyrics.

But not every song is dark on History for Sale. Calling You was written by Justin for his girlfriend. It a straightforward and beautiful song about finding love.

If you ever get a chance to see Blue live. Go. I saw them once at Milwaukee’s Summerfest. Justin had broken his leg and performed the entire 2 hours alternating between crutches and sitting on a stool, but nothing of the energy was missing. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen.

Influential Album Challenge Day 3 – Led Zeppelin III

Honestly, I could have chosen any one of Led Zeppelin’s albums. They are that good. I selected III because it contains some some great straightforward hard rock tunes (Immigrant Song) that Zeppelin is well known for as well as more acoustic folk-type songs (Bron-Y-Aur Stomp and Tangerine). I think this albums shows how versatile they could be.

I was an infant/young child during most of the time Led Zeppelin was making music. In fact, this album was released a few months before I was born. As a result I was not aware of the band until I developed an interest in hard rock/heavy metal music as a teenager. From my many hours reading Metal Edge and Hit Parader I gathered that pretty much every band was influenced by Led Zeppelin to some extent.

By the time I bought my first Led Zeppelin album, which I’m pretty sure was IV (you know, the one with Stairway to Heaven on it), I had heard many of their songs in the art room.In short order I had all of their albums on cassette tape and listening to them just as frequently as I did any other favorite band of mine. I loved their references to Tolkien and I didn’t think there was a soul alive that could deny that Jimmy Page was a true guitar god. John Bonham and John Paul Jones pounded out a solid, heavy beat.

For me at least, I feel that Led Zeppelin just might have been the greatest rock band to have ever graced this planet. Their music has been around for half a century and it’s yet to sound tired or dated.

Influential Albums Challenge Day 2 – Liz Phair Exile in Guyville

For today’s challenge I’m choosing Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. The album had a major impact on my life. While I’m not selecting albums in any particular order this particular LIz Phair album in all likelihood would be in my top 3.

Exile in Guyville was released in 1993 though I didn’t pick it up until a year later. Many consider it a landmark album because of the brutally honest way she sings about the real things that were on many girls minds: boys, sex, dependance and independence, being taken for granted or advantage of, friendship, breakups, and not being taken seriously. Definitely not the perfect-forever-love, puppies and butterfly crap that pop music pushed down our throats. Pardon the phrase, but Liz Phair was real. Her songs might have been raunchy and shocking (for the time), but man, was it was the freakin’ uncensored truth! The music was lo-fi, gritty and raw.

When I picked up the cd I was 24, in college again, working on another undergraduate degree. I was navigating a lot of new relationships, both romantic and purely plutonic, and I was also trying to find my way to independence. Exile in Guyville was my truth, my holy book back then.

Influential Album Challenge Day 1 – Johnny Flynn Been Listening

A few months ago I was challenged to posting my top 10 favorite/most influential albums of all time. A truly daunting task if you ask me. I posted each day without giving any substantial thought to it. Jump forward, and its still going around and other friends are participating and I got tagged again. I thought why not go full-throttle into this thing. I’ll post my pick each day and add my reasons behind my picks here on this here bloggity-blog-blog.

Today I tried to whittle down my list to 10 albums only. Couldn’t do it. So expect some honorable mentions at the end of these 10 days. Also, these albums are in no particular order, really. It was hard enough selecting only 10. To put them in some sort of meaningful order would be akin to shoving ice picks under my toenails — or something like that.

Here’s a little secret about me; I like folk music. I didn’t broadcast that back in my 20s because it just wasn’t cook to admit that you liked the twang on a banjo just as much as the scream of a guitar. With that being said, first on the list is Johnny Flynn’s Been Listening. Johnny Flynn might possibly have it all. Not only is he a very talented singer and musician (he plays guitar, violin, trumpet, mandolin, piano, banjo and God knows what else) he also is a trained Shakespearian actor who has starred in London’s West End as well as various movies and tv productions. I bet he probably paints and draws too. Yep, he’s got it all, and you almost want to hate him for it. But not quite, because he’s as humble as they come, as evident in his interviews and clips on posted on YouTube of his shows.

I stumbled upon Johnny Flynn on a movie (Song One) I put on one night I couldn’t sleep. The songs weren’t his, but the performance was. The next day I was checking his music out online and I was pretty much hooked immediately. Here’s a little secret about me. I’ve always liked folksy, old-timey, music and that’s what Johnny Flynn plays, but with a modern twist. His lyrics are downright spiritual, deep and very personal. Currently, his lyrics speak to me at the place I am right now in my life. I could have chosen his Country Mile album just as well as Been Listening but there is just something about this album in particular. There are traces of the Blues on Howl that mix perfectly with his modern folk sound. There is also a duet with Laura Marling (Holy Cats she is amazing) on The Water. Beautiful harmony and some thoughtful lyrics. Barnacled Warship is currently my favorite song.

While Johnny Flynn is a fairly new discovery to me, he’s been around for quite some time. I know that I will be listening to his music for years to come. I’ll leave you with a link to a video of he and his band playing in Germany. I dig the energy in this song.https://youtu.be/o7LjABo2CcE

A Funny Thing Happened in February 1992

Have you ever had a weird run in with someone you admire? Someone famous? Since I shared my Chris Cornell painting yesterday I thought it might be fun to share with you the time I could have met Chris Cornell.

I was just a senior in high school when Louder than Love came out. The first time I saw Hands all Over on Headbanger’s Ball I thought the message in the lyrics was daring for that time and “genre” and just how different their sound was from anything else I had heard. I bought the cassette (I am that old) and listened to it frequently. I got chills everytime that moment came in Loud Love when Chris Cornell’s voice melted perfectly into Kim Thayll’s guitar, when you couldn’t quite tell where one started and the other ended. Badmotorfinger came out when I was in college and I thought it was just brilliant. I wore that stupid cassette out.

I was only lucky enough to see Soundgarden play once. I was It seems so long time ago so I can’t remember the specifics anymore of how and why I decided to go decided to go. I was a Junior in college in a Minnesota college town, too small to host concerts. If you wanted to see anything good it generally involved a road trip to the Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul). I guess I had been talking with some of my old high school friends and they told me about a Skid Row concert that had Soundgarden opening. I thought Skid Row was alright for the kind of band they were but I was really hyped to see Soundgarden. (Louder than Love was highest on my “What I listen to when I paint” playlist. Yeah, I had one before they were even a thing). I convinced two college friends to go. Shelly was my best college bud and Audrey, well, she had the car.

I remember it being an obnoxiously cold and gray day in February, even for Minnesota. I left my leather coat in the car because I didn’t want to take it in the arena and have it smell like “concert”. Admittingly not a very smart move on my part but I was young and had questionable judgment sometimes. Crystal and Linda, my friends from High School, had arranged to meet us near a parking garage that just happened to be at the rear of the arena. The girls had a tall, blond “rock star” looking guy tagging along with them. I guess he was from a local band that they knew and they had run into each other on the way to meet us. He was a talker, quite animated and very pleasant to look at. The girls gathered around him, like bees to honey. I having foolishly left my coat behind and was rapidly turning into an icicle, could have cared less. I was daydreaming of fire and hot chocolate and anything else to keep my mind off the fact I might be dying of frostbite that very moment.

Lost in my thoughts I don’t remember if the bus pulled up or if it was already there. The door opens and I recognized Kim Thayll, lead guitarist of Soundgarden. He briefly looked over at our group and continued walking. Mr. Rock Star and my friends kept chattering away, ignoring each one of the Soundgarden band members as they got off the bus. Chris Cornell, the lead singer, was the last off.

Chris stepped down off the bus and he gave my friends, who were salivating all over the big blond guy, a glance. I was standing off to the side slightly, obviously part of the group, but not involved. (I may or may not have been turning blue at this point) Chris then made eye contact with me. We maintained eye contact long past what was considered normal for a person walking away, as he was. Even as he and the rest of the band walked towards the arena we continued staring at each other like we were gunslingers on opposite sides of the OK Corral shootout. It was oddly tense. Finally he turned and and entered the building. My friend Shelly shoved my shoulder afterwards and whispered “What was the fuck was that?”

To this day I can’t explain exactly what that was. In retrospect I wish I had said something to them, or to Chris. I have heard that Chris Cornell was always very gracious and kind to his fans, perhaps reserved, but never a dick.

Audrey, Shelly and I had seats in the very back of the arena, like the very last row. Roy Wilkins Auditorium is a pretty small arena compared to the newer Xcel Energy Center that is just down the street now. Soundgarden’s set was incredible, but way too short. The set list was a good mixture of older stuff with the majority of the songs from Badmotorfinger. The crowd was very receptive and to be expected, the roar was deafening when Chris sang one of his greatest lyrics, you know the one “I’m looking California but feeling Minnesota”. It really was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen. I was hoarse before the end of their set. Afterwards, we loaded ourselves up back into the car and drove home. We got back to Winona at some ungodly hour.

I wish I could have seen them again but I never really kept track of tour dates very well, so unless a band had a show within a short drive from where I was living, I didn’t know about it. Plus, arena shows started getting too expensive and I hated spending that kind of money. I enjoyed clubs where it was smaller and I could enjoy the show more. Unfortunately I never heard of of Soundgarden, Audioslave or any of Chris’ solo shows coming around where I lived until last year. Soundgarden was playing in Somerset, WI. I really wanted to go, but things just weren’t going to work out. Being a grown up sometimes stinks. So I didn’t go. They played there 3 days before Chris died. I can’t even tell you how much I regret not figuring something out and just going.

No One Sings Like You Anymore

[Note: Originally posted on December 2, 2018 on Facebook]

I’ve been sitting on this for a few weeks now and I think it’s finished. It is a deeply personal painting for me, at least the journey in creating it was. This is my little tribute to Chris Cornell. It’s hard for me to explain how important a musician I’d never met was to me (staring contests don’t count, right?) From the first time I saw the video Hands All Over on Headbanger’s Ball in Cathy’s parent’s basement Chris Cornell and his various projects (Audioslave, Soundgarden, soundtracks and his solo career) have made an enormous impact on my life. He was an absolutely brilliant lyricist and made music that was profound that spoke to me and many others. (Do yourself a favor and listen to Just Like Suicide and dig up the story behind it). Yes, he was The Voice of a Generation, a leader of the Grunge Movement out of Seattle, but for those of us who’ve followed his career know just what a versatile artist he was.

And oh, the memories. I can hear a certain song and it brings back friends long gone, or just a moment of my life. His music has even helped me through some tough times in my life. Chris was a captivating frontman as well. I only got to see Soundgarden once, but that show still beats out almost all other bands I’ve seen.

I woke up early on May 18th to my friend Shelly’s text about his passing. It was a gut punch that I just couldn’t deal with at the time. (Some of you know that we’ve been going through some very difficult times, and continue to cope with. I will tell you I was in a pretty dark place last Spring). I was crying and breaking down over, well, everything. I’m sure if I even heard Big Dumb Sex I’d be sobbing.

It’s taken me awhile, but earlier this fall at a workday at school I decided that I actually wanted to listen to some Soundgarden. I put on this mix on YouTube and proceeded to clean out all those old books and magazines left in my art room from the previous teacher. I was actually bopping around, singing and overall enjoying myself, until one of Chris’ solo songs came on. It was When I’m Down, recorded live at the Troubadour, and just Chris and a piano. I just sat there and listened and lost it. It must have been quite the sight, me sitting on the floor surrounded by garbage, sobbing. I cried for Chris, for his kids, all the people who must have loved him. I cried for my family and most of all I cried for me. It was after that that this idea came to me, that I would do something.

Since starting this painting I’ve begun sketching again, for myself. (Sadly most of the art I have been doing the past few years has all been school related). It’s like the floodgates have been opened. I’ve got ideas for half a dozen paintings now. I’ve also been listening to music I enjoy, not just the the Pop music my daughter wants. I’ve even gone looking for new music. Needless to say this painting has brought on a healing process for me. Thank you Chris.