Slow Stupid and Hungry

Smoke Two Joints- Sublime

As High as wu tang get- Wu Tang Clan

Quest for Herb- Murphys Law

number 4!

So here we are at Number 4 on my countdown of the albums most influential to ME. Since I'm a rebel without a pause, er cause, I can never obey the self imposed numerical limits of my countdowns. So... this one's a twofer.

When I first really started listening to music, I was in 7th grade and I liked sublime and nirvana. I don't mean I liked those bands the best, I mean I really don't remember listening to much other music. After I got sick of the What I Got EP, I brought 40oz to Freedom home from Coconuts and my parents freaked out. That moment goes on my all time top 5. I mean, here I am, just turned 13, walking in the door with this album with a "Parental Advisory" sticker. So they previewed it. I don't know if I've ever seen them so embarrassed, angry, and uncertain of what to do. I mean, this album's title alludes to alcoholism, and the subject matter of the songs, Oh! the subject matter. We've got prostitution, genitalia, hard drugs, hard drinking, soft drugs, crime, nazis, literally everything "bad" is mentioned on this album. Oh and I think they drop the f-bomb more times than I could count. If my parents' goal was to get me to love this album, they certainly did the right thing by trying to shield me, cuz of course, that means I'll listen and I won't want the CD more. Even aside from its rebellion factor though, this is the one album that I can credit with getting me interested in varying forms of underground music. The style-hopping on this album is ridiculous. The more I fell in love with the album, the more I became open to punk rock, ska, reggae, hip hop, folk music, jam, all genres that are touched upon. In addition to the genre jumping nature of their own songs, Sublime always covered a huge range of artists. Six tracks on the album are straight covers, and other songs draw bits and pieces from other artists, like the specials quote at the end of "DJs". I read up on the album a lot, and when I found out that they took a lot of material from other artists, it inspired me to dig deeper and seek out these other artists. Thanks to 40oz to Freedom, I picked up albums by Bad Religion, Toots & the Maytals, the Specials, the Grateful Dead, Public Enemy, and maybe the most importantly the Descendents.

See, although it was 40oz that got me into the Descendents, the Descendents really pulled me into Punk Rock, my first true love. When I bought Milo Goes to College, it blew my mind that someone would let a bunch of kids into a studio to record an album. The lyrics showed the confusion and frustration of adolescence in a way no one over 17 could ever hope to capture. Even if the music wasn't technically proficient, it felt so real and so impassioned that I don't think I turned this CD off for weeks. I remember listening to this album and having my mom ask me, "what is musical about this?" and sitting there and just thinking, "Ooh! She doesn't understand at all!" I was so angsty, man, and this was the perfect album for it. My love for the album translated to curiosity, just like it had with 40oz, so I investigated other bands on the Descendents label, mainly Black Flag and Bad Brains. Then before you knew it, I was just doing everything I could to learn about and listen to everything punk rock.

40 oz to Freedom
"New Thrash" by Sublime
"Let's Go Get Stoned" by Sublime
"Waiting for my Ruca" by Sublime
"Hope" by Sublime


Milo Goes to College
"Hope" by the Descendents
"Bikeage" by the Descendents
"I'm Not A Loser" by the Descendents
"Suburban Home" by the Descendents

Knowledge Reigns Supreme

My first exposure to KRS-One came through the Sublime song, aptly titled, "KRS-One".

"KRS-One" by Sublime

Aside from the Wu, I didn't really get into Hip Hop much until I was into high school, so it was a while before I finally heard him on a track from a lyricist lounge comp called "CIA (Criminals in Action)".

"CIA (Criminals in Action)" feat. Zach de la Rocha and Last Emperor

Man, I loved that fucking song. It had Zach from Rage and Last Emperor, the former being one of the idols of my younger days and the latter just fucking astounding me with his flow. Today, I was listening to music on my laptop and I realized that I was listening to the song they sampled in "CIA".

"La Murga" by Willie Colón

It's called "La Murga" and it's by Willie Colón, tromboner, bandleader, and one of the pioneers of the so called "New York Sound" of Latin music. The strings on this song are awesome and the trombones that make up the sample have such a heavy badass sound.

punk rock love

Personally, my favorite love songs are punk rock love songs. You know the girl in the story is probably not a knockout, but she probably wears cute pink converse and has red hair and is much closer to anyone you'll meet than any of the girls in a backstreet boys song. There's a lot of earnesty to it too, punk rock has always had a tough guy image, deserved or not, and to hear these bands belt out lyrics about love and loss seems more earnest than some guy with a flowing white shirt. So here's a couple of my favorite punk rock love songs.

"Pretty Mess" by Crimpshrine
This song captures a lot of different facets of young love really well. "In love with no place to go,", "my friends would never understand,", it's all there. One of my favorite parts of the song is that he calls this girl a "pretty mess", that idea that to the average passerby this girl might seem like a trainwreck, but you think she's beautiful. This is the first of two songs on my short little list sung by Jeff Ott, although this first one was written by Crimpshrine's drummer Aaron Cometbus. Goddamn incestous East Bay Scene.

"Kiss The Bottle" by Jawbreaker
Blake Schwarzenbach's mean rasp is the perfect vehicle for this song about love turned to alcoholism. When Schwarzenbach croons, "I know I painted you a prettier picture, baby," you can't help but feel sorry for this guy. It's like he's tried his best, but things just turned out differently than he planned. Come on, who can't relate to that?

"The End of The Summer" by Fifteen
It's not like the inevitable end of the summer fling is a unique theme in music. I mean, this song is basically the punk rock version of "Summer Lovin'" from Grease. Even though I've never seen Grease (seriously, just once, in a play my cousin was in when I was 4). That's the beauty of art though, you don't neccesarily need a whole new idea, because everyone has the ability to interpret things differently. Fifteen's Jeff Ott isn't neccessarily mourning the end of the summer here, he's looking towards the future and the possibility that they can have another summer just as great as the one that's passed. Also, the cowbell here is so crucial.

"Hope" by the Descendents
So back in my heck of young times, one of the first albums I ever bought for myself was Sublime's 40 oz. to Freedom. I still credit this album with really getting me into music, since Sublime put so many cover songs on that album. Since I loved the album so much, I would go out and buy the albums by the original artists. That's how I first laid my hands on Milo Goes to College by the Descendents in 7th grade. I fell in love with that album as a whole, but the one Sublime covered stuck out in particular. Hope is a love song in that quintessential punk rock vein of "i hate your boyfriend". It's been done a million times, but rarely this well. If you can find it, there's a live version of this song from the album Liveage. Milo croons a little more live than he does on the album and it works really well on this song.

L-B-See ya

So I caught a video the other day for the titular single from Tha Dogg Pound's upcoming album "Cali is Active". I've never been the biggest fan of West Coast Hip Hop, but it's nice to be reminded they exist, especially in the midst of this Big Up New York phase. The video has a ton of cameous from various luminaries of the left coast, including Dj Quik, B Real, Xzibit, and my favorite rapper to ever appear on a home recorded Sublime album, 2 $hort. Like I said, this funky west coast shit has just never really been my style, but this track is done well.

"Cali Is Active" by Tha Dogg Pound

and since I brought it up...

"Q-Ball" by Sublime with Q Ball and 2 $hort

To move things back to my side of the country for a moment, I caught a little bit of the Busta Rhymes / Clinton Sparks mixtape "New Crack City" today and it sounds good as hell. Maybe I'm a little biased towards Busta, but it seems like he can do no wrong these days. Check out Soul-Sides for a more indepth review and a couple tracks.