#13 Jefferson Airplane (+ my favorite songs of 2019)

1991 Pro Set MusiCards #13 Jefferson Airplane. 

Jefferson Airplane's second card in the set is an improvement over their first. I mean, you can actually see their faces on this one. It's a fine if unremarkable shot of the members hanging out near a building looking like they're on a smoke break.

The back picture seems to be from the same photoshoot as the front (same outfits). Minor typo in the write-up, as their Monterey Jazz Festival appearance was actually in 1966 (not 1967) according to Wikipedia. The person writing these likely mixed it up with Monterey International Pop Music Festival, which was a different concert that Jefferson Airplane also played, and that one was in '67.

When I was a young'un in the 80s, my mom had Jefferson Airplane's 1967 breakout album Surrealistic Pillow in her record collection. We'd slap it on the ol' turntable once in a blue moon. My favorites were "Somebody To Love" and "White Rabbit" (which isn't a big surprise since those were their two greatest hits), with the other songs not doing much for me.

Jefferson Airplane - "White Rabbit" (live at Woodstock)

I have a distinct early memory of asking my mom about the lyrics to "White Rabbit". I figured out the song was sort of about Alice In Wonderland-- familiar to me via the classic Disney animated film-- but I couldn't make out the closing lyrics at the end. My mom told me the line was "Think ahead". Like, oh yeah, (as the Boy Scouts advised) be prepared, and all that. Years later I realized the actual lyrics were "Feed your head"-- in line with the song's underlying drug theme. To this day I'm not sure if my mom was just softening the reality for me (as parents often do with their innocent, naive children), or if she truly misheard the words. I should try to ask her sometime if the situation ever presents itself. (My mom was always pretty straight-laced, though in recent years, she has shared with me that there've been a small number of times in her life that she smoked the wacky tobacky.)


COVER TIME

I thought I'd try having fun recording a version of "White Rabbit" of my own this morning. It's quite the catastrophe and although only 2 minutes long, I doubt anyone will be able to get to the end. But the challenge is there if you're up for it! Fiberoctopus - White Rabbit.mp3

Doing something a little different for the Custom Corner today. Since we're into mid December and year-end lists are popping up, I figured I'd identify my favorite songs of the year. I might cheat a bit and dip into songs from a year or two ago-- hey, I wasn't doing a music-centric blog until this year-- but the bottom line is these are a few "current" songs I've been digging in 2019.

As an aside, this year marked my entry into streaming music. I've been chiefly an mp3-listener since around the turn of the millenium. At home, I'd mainly listen to mp3s via iTunes. Away from home, I'd listen to mp3s on my iPod (or CDs in the car). My wife had switched over to Spotify a while back, and earlier this year I got a family-plan add-on with her. Seems like a pretty good deal. I haven't completely switched my listening habits to streaming, but I'd say I'm about 50-50 now between iTunes and Spotify, trying to embrace streaming more going forward.

Though I'm north of my 40th birthday and most of my favorite songs are what I was into as a younger dude, I still like to keep myself open to new music. I'm not into the majority of what's on the charts these days, but there's definitely still some good stuff out there. (I'll admit, though, that most of the modern stuff I dig is unabashedly harkening back to the 80s and/or 90s.)

I'm also still discovering cool music from the past that I hadn't encountered before, but I think I'll do a separate list for "Old songs I've been digging in 2019".. So expect that in the next post or the one after. But for today, I'll try to limit it to songs released in the past year or two.

Big Thief - Not
Big Thief - Paul
Big Thief - Cattails
Big Thief is an indie rock/folk band I just discovered a couple months ago. The Brooklyn-based quartet released their first album in 2016. Their latest, Two Hands, came out in October 2019. My introduction to them was a clip from when they were a musical guest on Stephen Colbert performing "Not" which I really enjoyed, and around that same time, a guy on Twitter was mentioning how great the new album was, so I checked it out and eventually gave a listen to their earlier stuff too. Of these 3 favorite songs I've linked above, I think "Paul" is actually from their first record, while "Not" and "Cattails" are from the new one. Think I'd crown these guys my "Favorite newly-discovered active band of 2019".

Morrissey - Back on the Chain Gang
I've been a big fan of Morrissey (and his earlier band The Smiths) since high school (early/mid 90s), though with a few exceptions, his output from the past couple decades hasn't done a whole lot for me (not to mention some of his eyebrow-raising comments that paint him as a bit of a crotchety old twat these days). But this cover of the Pretenders' classic, a bonus track on his latest release, is wonderful. Somebody on Twitter said it was even better than the original, though I'm not sure I'd go that far. (Morrissey has a real MusiCard, by the way, so we'll cover him further someday.)

FM-84 - Bend & Break (Instrumental)
FM-84 is another new band I got into a year or two ago. As the name would imply, they've got a retro 80s vibe. Chillwave or Synthwave? Vaporwave maybe?.. I'm not cool enough to know exactly what you call this type of music, but it makes for a great modern trip back to the 80s. Sounds like something you might hear in the score for Beverly Hills Cop or Knight Rider. I generally prefer their instrumental stuff, as the vocals tend to pull me out of the moment and back into the 21st century.

R. Stevie Moore / Jason Falkner - I H8 Ppl
This is a fun song about hating people in general, which I can relate to, as an introverted homebody. Turns out it's from 2017, but I only heard it recently when it appeared on a mix Spotify put together for me.

Julia Michaels - In This Place
This is an awesome, ridiculous song that plays during the end credits of the Ralph Breaks The Internet. It's almost like a parody of a modern pop song (it's about a fictional video game called Slaughter Race [in earnest] and it's chockful of over the top autotuned vocal clips), but I love it!

Susto - Last Century
El Ten Eleven - You Are Enough
A couple more recent rock songs that Spotify recommended to me. They sound like they're from the 90s, which I mean as a compliment. I've been wanting to check out more of each of these bands' stuff, though haven't gotten around to it yet.

The Glands - Atmosphere
The Glands - Save a Place For You
More songs that harken back to the 90s, but only came out recently. See, the main guy behind The Glands (an indie rock band active around the turn of the millenium) passed away from lung cancer a while back, but they scraped together a posthumous album of leftovers and rarities that came out in late 2018. "Atmosphere" is a great mid-90s sounding pop rock song, complete with vinyl scratching in the chorus. "Save a Place For You" on the other hand is a hauntingly beautiful song featuring only piano and voice. I'll have to feature The Glands more in a future Custom Corner, as they're a fantastic, relatively unknown band.

Jenny Lewis - Red Bull & Hennessy
I miss her early days in Rilo Kiley when she was less polished, though Jenny still cranks out quality album after quality album.

Lizzo - Good as Hell
It was a trip for me to see Lizzo get so popular this year. Back in 2014, I saw her open for Macaulay Culkin's band Pizza Underground in a packed small club. I hadn't heard of her at the time and thought her set was surprisingly good, but still wouldn't have predicted her to one day be up for Record of the Year and 7 other Grammys. She's also scheduled to be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live next week for Eddie Murphy's long-awaited return to the show. Should be a fun episode.

Lizzo - "Good As Hell"

I hope that if you listened to any of these tracks, you found at least a song or two you enjoyed!

How about you? What new stuff have you been listening to in 2019? Let me know in the comments and I'll check it out.

#11 Jimi Hendrix (+ Red Hot Chili Peppers bonus)

1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #11 Jimi Hendrix

As far as photography goes, this is probably the top card in the set. I mean, I know we're still early into the set, but I can't imagine another card topping this, visually-speaking. Stunning action shot of Hendrix squirting lighter fluid onto his aflamed guitar near the end of a triumphant gig. Awesome.

For funsies, here's an animated gif version I whipped up.

If you had to sum up Jimi's life into just three sentences, I suppose you could do worse than the back of this card. Looks like the back photo may be from the same show as the front photo from the previous card, judging by the angle and outfit.


Jimi Hendrix - "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)"

It'd be tough for me to crown a personal favorite Hendrix song, but I might have to go with "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". Such a ballsy song. If you ever need to psych yourself up with a blast of confidence, this is a good musical selection.

I'm standing next to a mountain
Chop it down with the edge of my hand

And the second verse has the beautifully existential line:

If I don't meet you no more in this world
Then I'll meet you in the next one


COVER TIME

I kinda forgot that I wanted to try recording quick covers for these posts. Not that anyone really cares much, but it's a good exercise for me. I used to play and record music a lot more often in the 90s and 00s, but have fallen way off in the past decade. Here's a little acoustic version recorded just for this post: Fiberoctopus-Voodoo_Child.mp3 It's a pretty rough rendition, won't deny, but hey.. for fun.

How about other Jimi Hendrix cards? Well, he's got decent cardboard representation besides his MusiCards (see his TCDB list), most recently popping up in a couple "News Flashbacks" inserts from Topps Heritage. And Topps honored Jimi with card #100 in their popular 2011 American Pie set. The back write-up focuses on his Woodstock performance (which strangely wasn't mentioned at all on his two main MusiCards [though he also has a promo MusiCard that does mention the iconic festival.]).

It doesn't count, but my best "Hendricks" card is an autograph of the lovely Christina Hendricks.


CUSTOM CORNER (special request)

Terry Kath - 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were custom

JediJeff has owed me a Carlos Correa relic card FOR OVER TWO YEARS NOW but despite that, he's still a homeboy of mine, so when he suggested a Terry Kath custom in the previous post, I couldn't say no. (Not the most flattering photo of Terry, but went with this one for the Blackhawks jersey.)

Terry Kath (Chicago) - "Free Form Guitar" (1969)

Jimi Hendrix apparently once mentioned Terry Kath as a favorite guitarist of his based on the seminal Chicago Transit Authority (1969) album, quite the "Praise from Caesar" moment, and the two players both appeared to be influenced by each other. While Chicago would go on to be best remembered for their horns and 80s ballads, back in their early days they were known for "fusing brass and jazz with a soulful rock and roll feel" [1], with Kath's cutting guitar playing being key to their sound. Unfortunately, Kath was a bit of a gun nut, and accidentally shot himself dead at age 31 in 1978. The band ultimately decided to carry on, had a very prosperous run in the 80s, and are still active today. I plan to eventually cover Chicago further in a future post (They didn't get a real MusiCard).


(other) CUSTOM CORNER

Deep breath, guys. ... Today's main featured band in the Custom Corner is perhaps the most divisive band in rock history: The Red Hot Chili Peppers. They've been around a long time and had a lot of hits. Pretty much everybody has an opinion on them.. either you love 'em or you hate 'em, with not many people being indifferent to the band. My wife and the cardsphere's own Night Owl are among the many people who would enthusiastically be in favor of never hearing another RHCP song for the rest of their lives.

But me? I love 'em. In fact, for this post, I'm just going to focus on their early days of the 1980s. In the future, I plan to do another Custom Corner installment for the 90s portion of their career, eventually followed by an installment for the post-2000 years. (But don't worry, haters; those likely won't rear their heads for several months, perhaps years, with the rate I'm currently churning out posts here.)

The Chili Peppers could have easily been included in the 1991 MusiCards set. Although their mainstream breakout album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, wasn't released until the cards were already on shelves (September 1991), they still had made a name for themselves by that time, with hits like "Higher Ground" and "Knock Me Down" seeing decent rotation on MTV in 1989 and 1990.

But alas, they received no MusiCard, so here's a custom. Note the Jimi cameo.



  Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Castles Made of Sand" (live)

As disciples of Jimi Hendrix, I figured they'd be a good choice to pair with this post. The Peppers have covered several Hendrix songs over the years, including "Fire", "Castles Made of Sand", and "Crosstown Traffic", among others. Their hit "Dani California" makes an allusion to "Purple Haze" in the guitar solo. They wear their devotion to Jimi on their sleeve. In fact, Flea literally has a tattoo of Hendrix on his shoulder, which he got as a teenager.

bonus custom - 1992 Score "Dream Team" card

Back in the day, my best friend Doug's favorite band was RHCP, so because of that they were always on my radar. Luckily for me, I liked them. ..not as much as Doug, but I was still a big fan. I remember many afternoons in the early 90s hanging out with him and listening to the Chili Peppers and occasionally watching VHS tapes Funky Monks (behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Blood Sugar Sex Magik) or Positive Mental Octopus (compilation of their 80s music videos). My first big rock concert was RHCP in 1996, but I suppose that's a story for another day.

For now we're talking about 80s RHCP. Their first album came out in 1984 (self-titled), followed by Freaky Styley (1985), the Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) and Mother's Milk (1989).


 Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Behind The Sun"

My first introduction to the band came circa 1988 when Doug's cousin Sasha (male in his early 20s) visited Doug's family for a couple weeks from Germany. Sasha brought with him a cassette of Freaky Styley that he loved to listen to and talk to people about. Doug and I made fun of him about it behind his back, of the opinion that he was a crazy foreign guy into weird music. But I suppose Sasha had the last laugh, as both Doug and I started to come around to the Peppers by 1989's Mother's Milk. Then when the fall of 1991 rolled around, we both became big fans of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, though Doug dove deeper than me, and RHCP was undeniably his favorite band for 8th grade and all of high school. His allowance would often go towards buying rare import CDs of the band, magazines featuring interviews with band members, RHCP shirts, etc. He had a paperback unauthorized biography on the band that was like his bible, reading and re-reading it, frequently sharing factoids he picked up from its pages.

1980s-era RHCP - Desert Island Disc

1. Get Up and Jump
2. Green Heaven
3. Nevermind
4. Freaky Styley
5. Me and My Friends
6. Backwoods
7. Behind the Sun
8. Special Secret Song Inside
9. Love Trilogy
10. Good Time Boys
11. Higher Ground
12. Subway to Venus
13. Magic Johnson
14. Nobody Weird Like Me
15. Knock Me Down
16. Taste The Pain
17. Pretty Little Ditty
18. Punk Rock Classic
19. Sexy Mexican Maid
20. Castles Made of Sand (live '89)

Was able to whittle this down to a tight 20 tracks. The first half consists of highlights from the first 3 records, then the second half is the majority of Mother's Milk.

The original guitarist Hillel Slovak died in 1988 of a heroin overdose. Both he and replacement John Frusciante were big Hendrix junkies, no surprise. I'm a big fan of Frusciante's solo stuff, and will likely feature him in a future Custom Corner. 

Original drummer Jack Irons left the band after Hillel's death-- the four original bandmates were all good friends and remaining guys were all very shaken up by the event, as you can imagine-- but eventually, he had a stint with Pearl Jam in the mid 90s (and in fact, Jack was responsible for originally putting Eddie Vedder in touch with Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard in 1990). Jack's got some cool solo stuff, too, with my favorite songs of his being "Come Running", "Sonic Tonic", and "Doubloons".

Jack Irons - "Come Running"

And that'll do it for this post. Any thoughts on the early output of RHCP, let me know in the comments. When we'll continue with the Chili Peppers story, I'm not sure.. but eventually. As for Jimi, he's scheduled to make a reappearance on the blog once we get into the Historic Concerts subset at card #249.

But up next, on the runway preparing for takeoff is Jefferson Airplane.

#4 Crosby, Stills & Nash (+ Neil Young bonus)

1991 Pro Set SuperStars MusiCards #4 Crosby, Stills & Nash

The fourth card in the set is Crosby, Stills & Nash. This monochromatic shot seems to be a contemporary photo. It's their only card in the set (though related band The Byrds have a Historic Concerts card at #256).

I think Crosby, Stills & Nash were one of the first "supergroups" in rock, made up of singer-songwriters David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash. These guys are all twice-inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, both for their earlier bands (mentioned on the back of the card) and as members of CSN.

Crosby, Stills & Nash - "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"

Check their Wikipedia entry for more of the band's history, but the short version is the three heavy-hitters teamed up in 1968 and became a major force on the folk-rock scene with their self-titled debut album in 1969. It spawned two Top 40 hits ("Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" [#21] and "Marrakesh Express" [#28]). Other great songs followed on subsequent records, including "Teach Your Children", "Our House", "Just a Song Before I Go", "Long Time Gone", and "Southern Cross".

I like all these hits of theirs, with "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" probably being my favorite of the bunch. It makes you wait for it, but when that satisfying last part kicks in ("do do do-do do"), it can't help but put a big smile on your face. That's another instance of where I was familiar with a short clip as a kid thanks to it being used in a TV commercial (either for a Time-Life Music collection [Freedom Rock, perhaps?] or maybe a spot advertising a radio station). It was an epiphany when I eventually heard the full song finally years later. The ending part kicked in and I was like, "Oh hey, it's that one song from TV!"

Crosby, Stills & Nash has been on-again/off-again as an active band for over 50 years now. They've released two studio albums since this card came out: After the Storm (1994) and Looking Forward (1999). As of 2019, all 3 members of CSN are still kicking in their 70s (Who would've thought David Crosby would make it this far?!). They've performed together as recently as 2015, though some bad blood between members may make further reunions unlikely.

Neil Young was/is an occasional member of the band over the years (transforming them into Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when he's in tow.) On November 3, 1991, CSNY reunited to play the Bill Graham memorial concert at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. But as reflected on the '91 MusiCard, Young wasn't a regular member of the group at the time.

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Not only is Neil Young not featured on the CSN card, he doesn't have his own card in the set (nor is there a card for his bands Buffalo Springfield or Crazy Horse). So he's the obvious choice for this post's custom card creation.

Neil Young - 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were custom

That would have been a cool card to pull from a pack!

I like CSN fine, but I really like Neil Young. Growing up, my mom owned After the Gold Rush (1970) on vinyl, though I don't remember us listening to it very often. Then as a teenager in the mid 90s, my buddy Doug bought a used cd of the hits/rarities compilation Decade, though it was only the second disc of a 2-cd set. Back then, I was somewhat familiar with Neil Young, but mostly because his songs had been covered by some of my favorite bands at the time, such as the Pixies recording "Winterlong" and "I've Been Waiting For You" as b-sides, and Pearl Jam often performing "Rockin' in the Free World" in their live sets around that era. But I also dug that badass "This Note's For You" video that MTV or VH1 played once in a blue moon. Oh, and my mom owned the Philadelphia soundtrack cd that included Young's title track.. I liked that tune ok.

But yeah, that Decade (disc 2) was really what turned me onto Neil Young. I burned myself a copy of Doug's cd.. it was one of the first burnt cdrs in my music collection and it got a lot of play from me. I'd often listen to it while falling asleep, since it has a lot of good mellow songs-- though inevitably I'd be shaken awake when "Like a Hurricane" started blaring. LOL. I might have to go with "Cortez the Killer" as my favorite cut.

I eventually got my hands on more of his stuff, including Harvest (1972) and On the Beach (1974), later diving deeper to his discography.

Neil Young - "Downtown"

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I like a ton of Neil Young songs, and so trying to narrow down my favorites to 20 tracks is gonna be tough. Here we go...

Neil Young - "best of" playlist
1. Downtown
2. Ohio
3. Old Man
4. A Man Needs a Maid
5. Harvest Moon
6. Heart of Gold
7. This Note's For You
8. The Needle and the Damage Done
9. Tonight's the Night (Pt. 1)
10. Tired Eyes
11. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
12. Down by the River
13. Winterlong
14. Cinnamon Girl
15. Sugar Mountain
16. Like a Hurricane
17. Cortez the Killer
18. Campaigner
19. Long May You Run
20. Motion Pictures

This is sort of "disc 2 of Decade on steroids", as over half these songs are from that cd. It wouldn't be too hard for me to do another disc coming up with 20 more of his songs I like a lot, but we'll call it good with this.

How 'bout you? I'd be interested to hear what your favorite CSN/CSNY/NY songs are in the comments.

COVER TIME

Pixies - "Winterlong"

Love this cover of "Winterlong" with Kim Deal on lead vocals.

And speaking of Neil Young tunes sung by women, here's a bonus cover: Fiberoctopus-Harvest_Moon.mp3 - This is a recording of "Harvest Moon" I made back in 2010 with my friend Karie on lead vocals. My guitar work is a bit sloppy as usual, but overall I'm pretty happy with how the track turned out.

Next up are the Doobies.

And last call for the contest I'm running. If you haven't entered yet, now's the time!

#1 Allman Brothers (+ Paw bonus)

And we're officially underway! Card number 1, here we go.

While the SuperStars set is mainly comprised of pop acts of '91, it kicks off with a 25-card subset of Legends (some who were still active at the time, and some not), heavy on classic rock.

As we'll see on the blog going forward, many acts have multiple MusiCards. I'll do my best to let you know if that's the case in each post, as well as mentioning if the card has any variations I'm aware of.

But this is the only Allman Brothers card. Features a nice outdoor shot of the band hanging out in front of a gate. Looks like it was a contemporary photo, rather than one from their 70s heyday.

They get the honor of being card #1 in the set, though that has more to do with them coming first alphabetically rather than Pro Set saluting the band. The set is more or less comprised of subsets, with the acts in each subset being in alphabetical order.. but we'll take a closer look at the checklist's quirks another time.

The Allman Brothers are beloved today by old-timers, though I don't know if young people are discovering them very often these days. I think my father-in-law would call them his all-time favorite band. One year for Christmas, I bought him The Allman Brothers Band: Live at Beacon Theatre on DVD. Another year, for a stocking stuffer, I downloaded and burned for him a bootleg live DVD of some various Allman Brothers performances. I watched it to make sure the quality was good enough, and I enjoyed it, and if you asked me if I like them, I'd say yes. But honestly I've never gotten all that into them. The only Allman Brothers Band song I can name off the top of my head is "Ramblin' Man". I realize that's similar to somebody saying they like Nirvana but can only name "Smells Like Teen Spirit", and true ABB fans would roll their eyes at me.

As for a condensed bio of the band: they formed in 1969 out of Jacksonville, Florida. The brothers at the heart of the band were Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting). Their 1971 live release, At Fillmore East, was their breakout album. Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident later that year, but the band continued on, on-again/off-again for many years. As the back of the card alludes to, they had recently reformed in 1989 after several years on hiatus, and in fact would continue as an active band from then all the way till playing their final concert on October 28, 2014. Gregg Allman passed away from cancer in 2017 at the age of 69. Check their Wikipedia entry for a more in depth write-up.

Ok, so I kinda also know another Allman Brothers song, "Whipping Post", which I was thinking was maybe Skynyrd, I'm embarrassed to admit. I would imagine they get mentioned in the same breath with Lynyrd Skynyrd a lot, both being southern rock legends of the 70s that lost key members early into their run. (We'll cover Skynyrd when we eventually get to card #263, in the Legends subset of Series 2.)

Let me know your favorite Allman Brothers songs in the comments and I'll check them out.

But for now I'm gonna just take the easy way and stick with "Ramblin' Man" as the featured song here...

Allman Brothers - "Ramblin' Man"

Sure it might be overplayed at this point, a staple of classic rock radio, but gotta admit it's a hell of a song. The ending seems to go on forever but still you never want it to stop. Such a nice riff. I have a memory of sitting alone in my car in the early '00s listening to this song on a hot summer afternoon between classes at SDSU, and while I had heard it many times before, the stars aligned and it struck a special chord with me in that peaceful moment. Sometimes when I hear the song now, it takes me back to that warm, easy-going day in the sparsely populated parking lot.

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This is the part of the post where we pivot from the subject of the card onto an act that doesn't have a card in the set, and I whip up a custom MusiCard for them. Sometimes it will be a band from that era that didn't get a card for whatever reason, and sometimes it will be a more recent favorite band of mine that wasn't even around in 1991.

Paw custom 1991 MusiCards-That-Never-Were

When I think of the Allman Brothers Band, one of the first things I think of is the song by the band Paw called "Remora" that includes a clip from an ABB live album near the end.

Paw - "Remora"

Paw is a rock band from Lawrence, Kansas who formed in 1990. So technically they could have been included in the 1991 MusiCards set, though it would have been a stretch as they were still a garage band at the time. They didn't gain popularity until their 1993 alt-rock hit "Jessie" about a kid who runs away and his dog that follows him. The style of music could probably be described as southern grunge. I love how they mix chunky guitar riffs with soft acoustic sections in some of their songs. Really keeps the tunes interesting. The lyrics are sometimes furiously yelled, and other times it's like gentle bedtime storytelling.

Like I said, they formed in 1990 and put out a couple early 7" singles. Then when Nirvana got huge, record labels were looking for new bands with a similar sound, and Paw signed to A&M Records, releasing their first album Dragline in 1993. Singles "Jessie", "Couldn't Know", and "Sleeping Bag" got moderate play on alternative radio and MTV. The band toured with Tool and got some of their songs used in the popular Road Rash video game.

Paw - "Jessie"

Their sophomore album, Death To Traitors, came out in 1995. Sales were down and the band was dropped by their label. In '98, they self-released a rarities CD entitled Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself. They rallied for a solid mini-album (longer than an EP, but not quite a full album) called Home Is A Strange Place in 2000 before parting ways. They've done a half-assed reunion stint once or twice since, but that's it.

Frontman Mark Hennessy has been in other bands post-Paw which are pretty good too, but not quite on the same level as Paw. He's recently started calling one of these new bands "Paw" even though he's the only original member. Us fans'll be curious to see what this Paw version 2.0 ends up doing. New album? Touring?

AS FOR ME...

I fell in love with the band after hearing "Jessie" on 91X (San Diego's alternative station at the time) a couple times in mid '93. My friend Chris got the Dragline CD from the BMG music club (you know.. buy 1 cd and get 5 for free or whatever semi-scam they peddled) and let me borrow it. I loved it and eventually traded him for it (though I can't remember what for.. possibly some baseball cards or a couple cans of soda). The same friend scored an advance promo copy of the next album a couple years later and hooked me up with it. Gotta say I thought Death to Traitors was a massive disappointment at the time, though I've since come to regard it as a solid album, even if not on the same level as the debut. Whereas the first album blended hard and soft elements into the same song, the second album was more straightforward with those dynamics.. so there were rocking songs, and there were mellow acoustic songs, but no songs that were hybrids, so to speak. And that was a bummer for me.

In '98 or so, I bought the rarities album Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself from the band's website. While I would have rather gotten a completely new album, it did have a few great previously unreleased tracks on it, so I was happy about that. Made in limited quantities, KTLBFY is somewhat of a collector's item these days, rarely popping up for sale, and commanding a high price when it does.

Then one day in 2000, I was in Lou's Records in Encinitas, CA perusing the sections for my favorite bands, mainly looking for import CD singles that might have rare b-sides I needed to hear. It was a huge shock when I found a brand new Paw CD among their older albums. I hadn't heard anything about it before then, so it was an extremely pleasant surprise. And when I popped in Home Is A Strange Place for a listen, I thought it was a terrific return to form. (Yes, the "hybrid" songs were back!) At only 7 tracks long, it leaves you wanting more, but that would turn out to be the band's swansong.

In 2002, I created a Paw fansite-- it's moved once or twice over the years, but it's currently located at defgav.com/paw. Back in the '00s, making and maintaining fansites for bands I liked was one of my favorite pastimes. (I wasn't collecting cards at the time, and my lovelife was nonexistent and I spent most of the decade lonely and unemployed, so I had plenty of free time for shit like that.) The site was basically an exercise for me to research the band's discography (including stuff like rare singles and known live recordings) and put all my findings in one place. I don't do anything with the site these days, but it's still up as a resource for Paw fans. I was a little surprised to find that they've still got a strong, active following on their Facebook page these days.

Sadly, I never saw the band live, as their days of gigging outside their local area were done by the time I was actively going to concerts. I've got a couple dozen live recordings of varying quality, so although I haven't actually seen them live, I've got a pretty good idea what their shows were like. They seemed pretty fun.. like often passing around a bottle of whiskey for the audience to share. And Mark would sometimes rif cover song lyrics while the band jammed ("Gold Dust Woman" by Fleetwood Mac was a common one).

One highlight of my fandom was when Grant, Paw's guitarist, emailed me through my fansite with details regarding one of their brief reunions; I think it was back in 2008. Another little claim to fame for me in the Paw community is that I played a big part in uncovering rare demos the band recorded prior to the second album. They weren't circulating amongst fans, but I heard a rumor about a guy who had it via digital audio tape (a relatively obscure format), managed to track down the guy, and was persistent in my friendly pestering him to convert the DAT, which he eventually did and together we shared the songs (many of which were unreleased and never heard by fans up to that point) to many happy Paw fans. Oh, and then I was contacted by the guy who played bass on the recording and he gave me some more details about it, so that was pretty cool.

Paw -  "Year of the Locust"

This is probably my favorite of those unearthed tracks.

As far as collectable Paw stuff in my collection, I've got the aforementioned Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself cd, plus their two early 7" singles-- on sweet-ass colored vinyl! Think I've still got the advance promo cd of Death To Traitors, too.

****  ****

Here's a segment where I put myself in a hypothetical conundrum of imminently being stranded on a desert island and I'm only allowed a self-curated "best of" playlist of the band to bring with me, trying to limit it to 20 or so songs.

Paw - desert island disc
1. Gasoline
2. Sleeping Bag
3. Jessie
4. The Bridge
5. Couldn't Know
6. Pansy
7. Lolita
8. Dragline
9. Veronica
10. One More Bottle
11. Sugarcane
12. Hard Pig
13. No Such Luck
14. Max The Silent
15. One Handed in the Red Room
16. Blow Wind
17. Home Is a Strange Place
18. Remora
19. Kid Cotton
20. Street Justice (Twisted Sister cover)
21. 30 Days
22. Year of the Locust
23. Goodbye Dress

(1-12) Dragline in its entirety. My least favorite song here is "Pansy" but only because I think it should have been titled "Jack Knife" instead.
(13-14) My two favorite songs from Death To Traitors.
(15-17) Highlights from Home Is A Strange Place. Ideally I'd include all 7 tracks if I had room.
(18-21) Some choice non-LP tracks from Keep The Last Bullet For Yourself.
(22-23) A pair of unreleased songs from the DTT Demos. (Attn: baseball fans, "Goodbye Dress" mentions Willie Mays.)

Tried to keep it to 20 songs, but had to squeeze on a couple more (and "Kid Cotton" was a last minute addition I couldn't in good conscious leave off). Yeah, I could give this compilation a lot of plays and not get sick of it. Honorable mention to their Cheap Trick cover of "Surrender" that was released on the S.F.W. soundtrack (never saw it) and their "School" Nirvana cover that often closed their live shows (to remind themselves that being a rock star is supposed to be fun).

COVER TIME
Here's a half-assed acoustic cover of "Jessie" I just recorded for this post: Fiberoctopus-Jessie.mp3
I think this is the only Paw song I know how to play somewhat. I taught myself a bastardization of it back in the early 90s and have continued to rock it out from time to time when messing around on guitar.

Ok, that'll do it for now. Don't expect all posts on this blog to be so long, but I guess I just had a lot to say about the Allman Brothers and Paw.

Coming up next is someone who was a bandmate of Duane Allman in the short-lived band Derek and the Dominos: none other than Eric Clapton.