Musical Chairs, December 2010
Posted on December 5, 2010 – 2:00 AM | by OldManFoster
Jonathan Mendick went to band camp in high school. He played saxophone for seven years because he thought it fit his personality better than piano, which he also played for five years. In college he picked up guitar to, well, attract the ladies. He also picked up a degree in journalism before beginning his young career writing album reviews for The Mannerist (a DIY zine in Irvine). Since he moved to Sac he’s been reporting for Sacramento Press, contributing photos to MidMo and freelancing for the Sacramento News and Review.
Unfortunately, my world just got really quiet. The silence started about a year ago, when my record player broke while playing The Beatles (generally known as The White Album). The pitch sounded flat, so I tried tightening the motor with a screwdriver. It suddenly stopped spinning. A similar thing happened to a hard drive containing my entire iTunes library: the drive stopped spinning. Luckily I still have one pair of spinning wheels – my Honda Civic. Here are five albums – all with a local connection – that I wish I had burned from my iTunes library onto a CD to play in my car.
Cake, Comfort Eagle
Though it didn’t go platinum like the two releases preceding it, Cake’s Comfort Eagle is the band’s most ambitious album. For one, it’s got the Sacramento band’s definitive song, “Short Skirt, Long Jacket.” It also has gems like “Shadow Stabbing”, “Comfort Eagle” and “Love you Madly”, which were all used in film and television. Singer John McCrea breaks conventions by using monotonous vocals and copious amounts of vibraslap.
Jackie Greene, Gone Wanderin’
Gone Wanderin’ was written and recorded when Jackie Greene still lived in Sacramento. It was released on local label Dig Music. It won the California Music Award for Best Blues/Roots Album in 2003. But more importantly, it contains witty lyrics like the brilliant opening line from “By the Side of the Road, Dressed to Kill”: “You just can’t trust them pretty girls/ they’re only there to wreck your world/ and make sure you never get to sleep at night.”
.
Matt Costa, Unfamiliar Faces
Matt Costa is a singer-songwriter from Huntington Beach who released his debut album Songs We Sing in 2005. For his next album, Costa moved to Sacramento “for a girl,” but recorded most of Unfamiliar Faces somewhere in town as well. He packed his favorite possessions into his room in Sacramento and stared at them for inspiration. The resulting album is his breakout record, a wonderful mix of folk rock, blues and acoustic pop. His voice is part Paul Simon, part Nick Drake.
The Mighty Underdogs, Droppin’ Science Fiction
Before becoming part of supergroup Mighty Underdogs, lyricist Gift of Gab formed the acclaimed hip-hop duo Blackalicious with DJ Chief XCel. The two met while attending John F. Kennedy High School in Sacramento, and they both attended UC Davis in the early ‘90s. There they formed Solesides, an underground hip-hop label that is now called Quannum Projects and located in San Francisco. The Mighty Underdogs are Lateef the Truthspeaker, Gift of Gab and producer Headnotic of Crown City Rockers. Add in guests like MF Doom and Julian and Damian Marley, and the result is Droppin’ Science Fiction, a hip-hop party on record.
Beastie Boys, Hello Nasty
Before becoming the Beastie Boys’ DJ, Mix Master Mike ran away from his home in San Francisco to Sacramento. Here he discovered DJing and began entering battles. Years later, he won three consecutive Disco Mix Club DJ World Championships and became part of the Beastie Boys. Hello Nasty contains the first of his work with the group, and he helped give the Beastie Boys its most eclectic sound ever.
Want to be our guest Music Reviewer? Write us: music@midtownmonthly.net
Tags: Jonathan Mendick
1 Trackback(s)