15 Musical Landmarks In My Life

Rockzone Records in Chandler has six pieces now: Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Michael Stipe, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, and KISS. I've got pics in my online gallery. Jerry and Otis are for Primitive Kool. I realized I haven't really talked about what music has been important to me over the years. Here, then, are some of the bands and musicians that were pivotal in shaping my musical taste and have become part of my musical culture:


The Beatles - my dad introduced me to Revolver, on vinyl of course
Genesis w/ Peter Gabriel - lead me into prog rock, thank you MTV and "Big Time"
Pink Floyd - prog rock/psychedelia crossover
Jefferson Airplane - full-blown psychedelia
Jimi Hendrix - psychedelia/blues rock connection
The Doors - added in more keyboards and hammond organ
Led Zeppelin - blues rock/heavy metal transition
Black Sabbath w/ Ozzy - "Paranoid" was my first heavy metal CD
Nirvana - grunge diversion, I was a teen in the 90s
NIN - moving into industrial, helped with teen angst too
Autechre - headlong from industrial into electronica, got a little intellectual around then
Acetone - hometown band that combined grunge, heavy metal, and interesting vocals
Lou Donaldson - got a little funky on the horn as electronica lead me into sampling
Stereophonics - a move to Phoenix and it became more about the vocals in front of the rock
Blind Melon - and passionate, pure, raw beauty

This is by *no* means near complete, but it does give a bit of an outline of my journey, musical landmarks if you will. While in college, I spent a LOT of time in used record stores listening to anything I hadn't heard before, so my interests got very diverse, and quite weird at times. Maybe someday I'll actually catalog my CDs and post a list or something. For now, here's mister Otis Redding:

Tell me about your musical journey!

The Clothes Make The Man

I needed to inspire myself this morning, so I started thinking about what has influenced me. My culture has been formed by music, art, books, movies, television, clothes, and other creative media. In one of my favorite movies, Joe Vs. The Volcano, Ossie Davis tells Tom Hanks that to ask someone what kind of clothes they should wear is like asking them to tell you who you are. I'll get to other movies in later posts, but today I want to address my dress.

It is fitting that my style has been primarily influenced by 3 musicians in bands that my wife and I are crazy about. They are the most passionate and seemingly pure creative people I've seen perform in a long time. In no particular order, they are Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, Shannon Hoon of Blind Melon, and Jack White of the White Stripes. Their attitudes toward life and music are so inspirational and contemporary. It's great to see individuals contributing positively to popular culture by just being who they are and doing what they do. And of course, they look so cool doing it!

I don't want to over-analyze these influences, so I'll list'em and keep the rambling to a minimum. I just want to share with you who and what has made me what I am today. I hope you'll be interested enough to see what it all has led to and:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Wearing a black cowboy shirt with white piping, a black necklace, and narrow black-striped slacks, I wish you a good day!