My buddy Carlos was the one who turned me on to The Herbaliser or, more specifically, The Herbaliser Band. I really dug the album he sent me, which basically consisted of cuts from previous releases by The Herbaliser but done with live musicians. This led to me exploring the original albums these songs came from, …
Today was another day of musical education for me. Not listening to very much Gorillaz music on my own and really only being familiar with some of the stuff I’ve heard on the radio, I didn’t realize that Del Tha Funkeé Homosapien was involved with their first album until I was looking up the info …
There’s been a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers activity in Los Angeles over the last couple of weeks with the run up to and subsequent release of their latest album. First I saw that they were getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which surprised me because I assumed they probably already …
As I chatted with my sister about Johnny Rivers yesterday, telling her I was planning on adding the song “Mountain Of Love” to this list, she mentioned that one of her favorites by him is “Summer Rain.” The title didn’t ring a bell initially, but when I looked it up and played it, I definitely …
I’ve been back in Michigan the last few days, attending to some family business. In doing so, I had to drive to the western part of the state, about a two and a half to three hour trip one way. Those kinds of drives always afford an opportunity for some quality listening sessions, and this …
Well, it’s finally here, songs number 501 and 502. I told myself when I started this list that I would hold off on adding additional songs by an artist I’ve already used until I hit 500 songs in total. In thinking about which artists to have as the first with multiple songs, I kept coming …
My buddy Rene recently gave me a book to read called The Cubans by Anthony DePalma. It follows two families in Cuba during the reign of Batista in the 1940s and ’50s, the subsequent take over by Castro after the Cuban Revolution, up through the collapse of the Soviet Union. While reading this book, I …
I have to thank my job for introducing me to the artist Mose Allison. Though I had played and enjoyed jazz for many years before I was in my current position, he never hit my radar. In addition to being one hell of a piano player, his lyrics often gave me a good laugh as …
Once I got my footing and really established myself in Los Angeles, I was fortunate enough to befriended some people that were either born here or had lived here most of their life. With L.A. being the town it is, it didn’t take long to start hearing stories about the famous people my friends used …
While I was in college, I had the opportunity to see Grandmaster Flash speak and perform a brief set on campus. He was part of a panel discussion at an event that was dedicated to the history of the turntable and its use in hip-hop and electronic music. It was so interesting to hear him …