The short lived yet legendary All About Backflips. We could have been big...maybe.
After hearing about an upcoming battle of the bands, some friends and I spontaneously decided to form a band and write some original songs just days before the competition. This was our senior year in high school. It was Will, Reid, and I on the mics. Bobby on guitar, Paul on drums, Chris on sax, and Special Ed on bass. Ed and I also collaborated on the turntables. What came out was some sort of hip-hop/rock/jazz/jam thing. We practiced hard and pumped out 4 songs in probably 4 days. We rocked the battle and ended up tying for 1st place with a already well-established local rock band. For the last song we decided on a truce and played out an epic double band jam with our fellow victors. We also got the opportunity to rock our high school fashion show, and play a totally awesome and irresponsible after hours show on Santana Row at an art gallery. Then we went our separate ways- most of us went off to college. But that first winter break we got back together to record those 4 songs. We found an ex-junkie weirdo named Rick in the ghetto of East Palo Alto to record our tracks for a good price. Afterwards we realized he had no idea what he was doing. But, at least we can still live out those memories in these songs, regardless of the recording quality.
I'm glad to say that we are all still doing the music thing. Bobby graduated with a degree in guitar shredding, Will is in the music biz, Chris is still
playing sax, Ed has formed a dope hip-hop group called
NOV8RZ, Paul is the drummer for
Thriving Ivory, I'm still
making beats, and Reid is probably strummin' on his guitar at this very moment.
I look forward to future collaboration with my ex-band mates.
Peace out Fellas!
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Collect all three!
Gospel soul from '74 by the ultra rare and mysterious King James Version. I downloaded this off of a sweet blog called A Pyrex Scholar. This is one of my top discoveries of the year. Considering this band is so good, its unbelievable that I cannot seem to find ANYTHING about them on the net! Definitely check this one out, it always gets me pumped. Besides, if you want to buy an original copy it's gonna cost you around 600 bucks!
The short lived yet legendary All About Backflips. We could have been big...maybe.
Ars Nova were a classical/progressive rock band from New York that only existed for two years. Here's their second and final album, I hope you dig it.
Great sing-along folk rock. Cyrkle were a two-hit wonder back in the 60s. Both of those hits, "Red Rubber Ball" and "Turn-down Day" are on this album. Thes One of The People Under the Stairs makes great use of "Turn-Down Day" by isolating the vocals on the left channel and echoing the loop for his track "The Turndown" off The Next Step.
Not to be confused with Predident Barack Obama's Senior Advisor, David Axelrod is a living legend in the world of jazz-funk and hip-hop. Some cite him as being the originator of trip-hop decades before it was labeled a genre.
The first of my famous Happy Punches! compilation series. I put this one together back in the sunny Spring of 2004 at Chico State. At the time, my friends Nic and Manny were up visiting from So-Cal, and I remember giving them the first copy for their long car ride back. Later on they told me they had an amazing time blasting it on the open road. After that, I made a ton of copies to give out to friends and family. For me it became my theme music for the rest of that spring and through the summer. When putting together Happy Punches! I try to picture the ideal music for a ride on a blue bird day with the windows open and the wind in your face.
