I came across the East Bay Grease record by Tower Of Power about 10 years ago. I only heard small clips of it at the time, but I made a mental note to look into Tower Of Power in the future, intrigued by even the little bit that I had heard. Some time passed and, …
I was wrapping up at work one Friday afternoon and got a call from my boss. “Hey, we have an issue with some test pressings for an upcoming Chili Peppers release, and I might have to send you to Germany to take care of it. Can you do it?” he said. “Uh, yeah, yeah, I …
When I first started at my current job, we had a studio manager named Kevin. Though we only chatted briefly when we’d cross paths in the hallways, I always got a good vibe from him and enjoyed having him as part of our team. One day early on in my career, I was doing some …
I’ve been fortunate enough to work with James Taylor’s early albums a lot through my job. When I was looking at the track sheets for his In The Pocket album, I remember seeing a track labeled “voice organ.” The labeling seemed oddly specific, and I had absolutely no idea what that was. When I played …
Radiohead did a tour in 2008 in support of their album, In Rainbows, that had come out the year prior. They were scheduled to play the Hollywood Bowl, and I was all-in on trying to get tickets. At that point, they were at the top of my list of bands that I had never seen …
A friend and I got field level tickets to see Metallica at the Rose Bowl in 2017. About a month before the show, my friend ended up spraining her ankle and had to be on crutches. She was a trooper about it, however, and still wanted to go to the show. We tailgated in the …
For many years when I was younger, my mom would go play bingo every Monday night. In the ’80s, my grandparents would usually watch me because my dad worked afternoon or evening shift at a local machine shop. In the ’90’s, my dad worked more morning shifts, so he would typically be the one to …
When I started my current job 14 years ago, I had a mentor named Dennis, and he taught me many of the skills that still use in my work everyday. We discussed music quite a bit as we got to know each other through the years, and I remember him asking me if I had …
For the longest time, I really didn’t know any songs by Tom Waits. I had maybe heard one in passing, but it was something he had done after his voice changed, and his vocal timbre just wasn’t something that appealed to me. Through work, however, I happened to stumble upon his first album, Closing Time. …
The second time I was sent to London for work was the first time I had ever been there by myself. Actually, now that I think about it, it was the first time I had ever traveled outside the US by myself at all. I was there for a little over a week, and it …