#25 Led Zeppelin (+ AC/DC bonus)

Here's a nice action shot of Led Zeppelin to close out the Legends subset in the first series of the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards SuperStars set. We'll come to a few more of these gold Legends once we eventually hit Series 2. But at the rate I'm going that'll be years from now! LOL

The back features another cool live photo. That picture probably would have made a cool card itself, but alas, wouldn't work with the corner-killing design of the set, relegating it to no more than a back photo. Of course they could easily make it work with a little tweaking like I do with my customs sometimes, but the folks at Pro Set at the time kept things simple without much "photoshop magic" to help them out.

The write-up on the back lists the albums and gives a little dig at them not having more top-selling singles. But hey, hard rocking tunes like theirs aren't exactly easily embraced by the masses. The likes of Olivia Newton John and the Bee Gees were more palatable at the time.

According to Spotify, their most popular song is "Stairway To Heaven". Well, I already featured that in a previous post, so we'll go with the runner up...

"Immigrant Song" is a good one, though I'm a little surprised to see it ranked as their second-most popular track. Hell, it didn't even make the cut for my personal "best of" disc for them!

Even after 5 consecutive cards, Led Zeppelin still isn't done making their mark in the 1991 MusiCards set, popping up again in the Historic Concerts poster subset near the end of Series 1 (#258). Hopefully this blog (and myself!) stay alive long enough to eventually get there, though we've got a lot of early 90s pop to get through first.

Now that we're at the end of the subset, let's take a closer look at the list of Legends in the set.

1 Allman Brothers
2 Eric Clapton
3 Eric Clapton
4 Crosby, Stills & Nash
5 The Doobie Brothers
6 The Doors
7 The Doors
8 The Doors
9 The Doors
10 Jimi Hendrix
11 Jimi Hendrix
12 Jefferson Airplane
13 Jefferson Airplane
14 B.B. King
15 John Lennon
16 Bob Marley
17 Jimmy Page
18 Jimmy Page
19 The Who
20 The Who
21 Led Zeppelin
22 Led Zeppelin
23 Led Zeppelin
24 Led Zeppelin
25 Led Zeppelin

Note that it's in alphabetical order, but with one funny quirk: Led Zeppelin is sorted under Z instead of L. If those rules were consistent, Jefferson Airplane should have been card #1!


CUSTOM CORNER

As far as acts that could have taken that alphabetical top spot if they were included, well ABBA would be a strong contender, but sticking with the classic rock leanings of the Legends checklist, there's a clear favorite...

Love 'em or hate 'em, you can't deny AC/DC is one of the biggest rock & roll bands of all-time.

Per usual, I try to keep the bio tight for well-known acts, but if you'd like to spend a while learning more about the band's rich history, I'd point you to their wikipedia entry.

I can't say I'm an ACϟDC aficionado or anything, but I dig their hits. You know, like...

Back in Black
You Shook Me All Night Long
Hells Bells
Thunderstruck
Big Balls
Highway To Hell
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

...good stuff. For me, these were all "oldies" by the time I heard them, with the exception of 1990's "Thunderstruck". I can remember when that was a hot new track.


Still holds up!

You'd figured they'd be an easy choice for getting a 1991 MusiCard. That album, The Razors Edge, went multi-platinum and reached the US top ten. But I guess Pro Set couldn't secure the licensing or what have you.

As a Padres fan during the Trevor Hoffman era, I sure heard "Hells Bells" a lot. Used as his entrance music, those opening bells and guitar riff helped psych everyone up for Hoffy to nail down another save.

Where are they now? Well, AC/DC is still rocking, technically. They soldiered on after the death of Bon Scott back in the day, and the more-recent passing of Malcolm Young. Singer Brian Johnson is nearly deaf now, and was replaced by none other than Axl Rose for their live gigs in recent years. But rumors are they've got a new (farewell?) album in the can ready to be released one of these days.

I for one wish them the best and hope they never go away. One of the few remaining bands that've been around for my entire lifetime. Rock & Roll will never die. Right?

Do you have any thoughts or memories to share regarding AC/DC? Favorite songs of theirs? Let me know in the comments if you wanna.


Big sea change coming up for the blog, as we leave the classic rock of the Legends subset behind and finally dive into the pop music landscape of the late 80s / early 90s. Should be a fun trip. I'm excited for the journey! (And don't worry, still plenty of rock left in the set, too.) See you soon.

#24 Led Zeppelin (+ Steppenwolf bonus)

Number 24 in the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards set is another Led Zeppelin card. This one features a wholesome posed photo looking not too far from a Sears shoot for a family Christmas card or something like that.

No second photo on the back this time, but rather a wordmark/logo. The blurb seems to credit Zeppelin for coining the term "heavy metal" for hard rock music, though I'm not seeing anything to back that up on Wikipedia's heavy metal music entry, instead crediting producer Sandy Pearlman for using the term to describe The Byrds.

We've come to the first card that has a corresponding promo! Let's take a look at the relatively-rare early version of this card...

The front is very similar to the base card, though note the different font for "Pro Set" and "MusiCards" in the logo, plus instead of "Legends", it's marked "Hall of Famer" in the teal bubble.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983. The museum in Cleveland didn't open till 1995, which was the same year Led Zeppelin was inducted. So technically they weren't Hall of Famers at the time this card was created, which might be a reason Pro Set switched the subset name to "Legends" instead.

The easiest way to spot these promos is they are unnumbered. Some other minor differences on the back, but the basic layout isn't too far from the mass-produced finished product.

I believe these promos were available with the Pro Set Gazette magazine/catalog thing, but couldn't say for certain. There are another group of MusiCards promos with a completely different design (that are numbered), but that's for another day. Actually those would be the "first promo set", so this Zeppelin is actually part of the "second promo set". Kinda confusing.

Led Zeppelin - "Kashmir"

Since the back of the promo card mentions Physical Graffiti, here's one of the best-known tracks off that double LP.

"Kashmir" was an idea from Page and Bonham, and was first attempted as an instrumental demo in late 1973. Plant wrote the lyrics while on holiday in Morocco. Jones played Mellotron on the track, and arranged strings and brass parts that were played by session musicians. The song was one of the most critically acclaimed on the album, and was played at every gig from 1975 onwards. Page and Plant played it on their 1994 tour, and it was reworked in 1998 by Sean "Puffy" Combs for his single "Come With Me" which featured Page on guitar. [wiki]

The back of the featured card in this post mentions the origins of the term heavy metal in regards to music. So let's go with Steppenwolf, who were the first band to mention "heavy metal" in lyrics.

Steppenwolf - "Born to Be Wild"

"Born to Be Wild" was a solid hit for Steppenwolf in 1968, and the song gained even more popularity by being featured in the 1969 film Easy Rider. It's sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, and the lyric "heavy metal thunder" (describing a motorcycle) marks the first use of this term in rock music.

Steppenwolf formed in 1967 and had a nice run of success from 1968 to 1972, scoring three top 10 hits: "Born to Be Wild", "Magic Carpet Ride", and "Rock Me".

The band originally split after a farewell concert in Los Angeles on Valentine's Day in 1972, but later reunited in various forms over the years. Lead singer John Kay (now 76) is the only original member these days, and he announced last year that the band would no longer perform live.

Steppenwolf - "Magic Carpet Ride"

I don't know much about Steppenwolf other than their few hit songs, but let me know in the comments if you've got any lesser-known favorites of theirs I should check out.

Just one more Led Zeppelin Legends card up next, then we'll dive into the pop music section of Series 1. Stay tuned!

#23 Led Zeppelin (+ Hum bonus)

1991 MusiCards #23 is another Led Zeppelin card. Looks like a pretty glammed up photo, eh? The name in lights behind them calls to mind KISS (who are included in this set later, but didn't make the cut to be considered "Legends" apparently). It's not always easy to get a live shot that features every band member while still being close enough to tell who's who, so cap-tip to Pro Set on this one. Looks like this might have been taken between songs, with Robert Plant talking to the crowd and the other guys primed to start the next song. Check the roadie in the yellow shirt who seems to be helping out bassist John Paul Jones with the cord or strap of his boomstick.

The back features a dark posed photo of the four fellows. Blurb here doesn't say much beyond what the previous Zeppelin cards have said; just a broad overview of the band's run in a couple sentences.

As I was having my "musical awakening" as a teen in the early 90s, my buddy Doug got into Led Zeppelin before me, spending his allowances on their CDs at Music Trader-- our preferred local second-hand music store back then-- over the course of a few weeks. I think he ended up with pretty much all their main albums. While I knew of their biggest hits, I'd say my real introduction of them was from borrowing Doug's CDs one week and making my own compilation of my favorite tunes from them.

And hey, I happen to still have that disc. So this is the first "desert island disc" of this blog that actually exists as a real disc!

1. Over The Hills And Far Away
2. D'yer Mak'er
3. Black Dog
4. Rock And Roll
5. Misty Mountain Hop
6. When The Levee Breaks
7. Kashmir
8. Bron-Yr-Aur
9. Dazed And Confused
10. The Song Remains The Same
11. Dancing Days
12. The Rain Song
13. Going To California
14. Stairway To Heaven

Yep, this CDR got a lot of play in my cars over the past 30-ish years (happened to be one of those couple dozen discs that I felt belonged among my "car discs" selection), and is still in the rotation today. If I had to pick a favorite track, I might go with "Over the Hills and Far Away".. something about that song seems to comfort me when I'm stressed out on the road.

You may be asking "how come there's no songs from Led Zeppelin II on there?" And well that's because that was the only Zeppelin CD I owned back then, so it was excluded from my CDR.

But for the record, the II tracks I'd include would be as follows:
15. Whole Lotta Love
16. Heartbreaker
17. Ramble On

As always, please consider yourself invited to post a comment letting me know I'm an idiot for leaving off any of your favorite songs. ...I mean, don't be a dick about it, but I am always interested to hear what songs folks really like that I may have overlooked.

I was trying to decide between a couple other bands for today's Custom Corner.. But then I just found out yesterday that one of my all-time favorite bands put out a surprise new album, their first output in 22 years!

I'm talking about Hum. Maybe you haven't heard of them, or if you vaguely know them as the band who had a minor 90s alt rock hit with the "(She thinks she missed the train to Mars, She's out back counting) Stars" song. But I love 'em. Heavy alternative nerd rock with lots of guitars. Their previous album, 1998's Downward Is Heavenward would be in the discussion if I ever had to come up with a Top 10 Favorite Albums of All-Time.

The band would come out of hibernation for the occasional live show, but they've basically been on hiatus since the turn of the millenium. There was always that tiny shred of hope they'd come out with a new album someday, but I wasn't holding my breath.

So yes, it's a wonderful surprise for this Hum fan and a much needed good thing in 2020. Inlet, the new one, is actually really good! A lot of times reunion albums are terrible and the band ends up kinda pissing on their legacy a bit.. but not this time! Sounds like you want a beloved band's new album to sound.. not staying exactly the same, but progressing what you love about their music into new territory. A perfect new chapter in the book of Hum. Hopefully not the last.

Ok, sorry for all the slobbering, but again, a key role of this blog is to provide a place to ramble about music I love.

They don't have much in the way of high quality photos online, so I've had to get a little "arty" with these customs.

A quick bio on Hum-- check their wiki entry for the longer version-- is they started in Champaign, Illinois back in the late 80s and put out a two or three indie releases before signing with RCA for 1995's You'd Prefer An Astronaut, garnering some attention with the quiet/loud song "Stars". The follow-up Downward Is Heavenward was well-received by critics and fans, yet failed to see much commercial success. They toured a lot for that album, but were eventually dropped by RCA and decided to call it quits, playing their final show on New Year's Eve 2000.

Other than a handful of reunion performances over the years, they'd been quiet until Inlet popped up for sale on their Bandcamp page June 23, 2020. Physical versions of the album are are tentatively scheduled to ship at the end of August.

I suppose a tour supporting the new album is out of the question anytime soon (damn covid), but I'd love to catch them live someday. (I'm kicking myself because I just found out they played Portland back in 2015-- Had I known, I definitely would have gone.)

I think I originally got into them thanks to "Stars", though today I consider that song a bit played out and wouldn't necessarily say it's one of my favorite songs of theirs. That album is really good, don't get me wrong, but now I'm all about Downward Is Heavenward. Love to put that on and listen start-to-finish every so often, especially in the summer.

They're part of the 90s alternative rock bands with 3-letter names triumvirate I love along with Paw (covered earlier) and Dig (who I'll cover at some point). I've got a couple Hum shirts in storage somewhere-- traded to me by somebody who worked with the band back in the day-- and thought of snapping pics for this post, but gave up after not finding them quickly enough (One is black with a microscope on it, the other is white with Ultraman or similar Japanese superhero on it.. both of which are just slightly too nerdy for me to wear on the regular these days). I've got a Stars 7" single on green vinyl that's kinda cool. And I think I've got copies of all their rare tracks that are circulating, plus several live recordings. Several years back, I played a role in unearthing a previously uncirculated demo tape called Its Gonna Be A Midget Xmas that I got hooked up with from a different guy-who-knew-a-guy.

So wrapping up here, yep, Hum is a favorite band of mine and a surprise new album from them out of the blue is a big highlight of my 2020 so far.

Next up on the blog is more Led Zeppelin. Still a couple more of those then we finally move on to the true base cards after that.

#22 Led Zeppelin (+ Butthole Surfers bonus)

Led Zeppelin is back at card #22 in the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards set. Looks like this copy here has a less-than-perfect top corner. Might have to poke around for an upgrade. I think I've got 2-4 copies of each Series 1 card at this point, so I've likely got a better one around somewhere. Sorting all of them is an ongoing process. If anyone is working on this set (or just looking for a favorite band's card), let me know and I should be able to help out with my dupes.

Oh, and along these lines, congrats are in order for Night Owl recently completing his 1991 MusiCards set! I appreciate the plug in that post, too!

That reminds me of another quick thing I wanted to mention. In my efforts to get more eyes on this blog, I've been trying to get it included in the Sports Card Blogroll run by James B. Anama. If you're not familiar, it's a handy list of pretty much every active blog in the cardsphere. A lot of folks browse that to find blog posts to read, so if you're a blogger, you want to be sure your blog is included there. James is usually very nice and quick to add new blogs. But the fact this is a non-sports blog throws a wrinkle and he's been reluctant to accept my add request. I feel this blog would fit right in under the "SET SPECIFIC BLOGROLL" section. Hey, the Gint-A-Cuffs blog is in there, and that's not strictly a sports card blog either. But I'd also be fine with a new little "NON-SPORT BLOGROLL" section added with this blog among the inaugural class. James might be wary of a flood of Pokemon/Magic The Gathering/Star Wars/etc blogs, but honestly I think that stuff is a whole different "cardsphere" altogether.. one that I'm not even sure exists, or if it does, I haven't stumbled upon it yet. I don't think I've gotten any commenters on this blog other than usernames I'm already familiar with from sports card blogs. I think most of us are familiar with MusiCards being everywhere in the early 90s right there with all the other "junkwax" we ripped at the local card shops back then. So I consider MusiCards closer to sports cards than other stuff that would fall under the "non-sports" umbrella. It's my belief that most card collectors are familiar with MusiCards and would appreciate the variety in blog reading with the occasional music post. And backing me up on that is a Twitter poll James did where the vast majority of respondents voted in favor of him adding the blog.

I received a request to add a ProSet SuperStars MusiCards set blog to the Sports Card Blogroll. Beyond the fact that it's not a Sports Card focused blog, should I add it to the Blogroll? Getting opinions. Please vote and leave comments if I should consider adding it to the site.

— James B. Anama (@bdj610) May 6, 2020

Last I heard from James, he was still considering adding the blog, though that poll was about a month ago now, so probably not at the forefront of his mind. If you think you can articulate reasoning for adding this blog to his blogroll beyond my pleas, please consider leaving James a friendly email or Twitter comment encouraging him to add the blog. Today is the 8-month anniversary of the 1991 MusiCards Blog, but still feels like we're having trouble getting out of the gate, and extending reach in blogrolls such as the one James maintains would be great. I'm not just looking for more page views, but more voices in the comments are very appreciated and make each post much more interesting for everyone. I'm always intrigued to hear other thoughts on the bands/songs/etc being covered.. feelings and memories readers have.. sometimes alined with my experience, other times a much different perspective. I'm not trying to boost my ego with lots of views and comments, rather I'd love to build a little online community for-- as the sidebar intro states-- "taking a trip back in time to the awesome 80s & gnarly 90s [...] talking about the music and more from the era (and beyond)."

Gah, I'm sorry for spending so much of the post on this!

But as for the card, looks like the fellas are in the middle of a seated, acoustic performance. I've watched The Song Remains The Same-- the concert film type thing recorded in '73 and released in '76-- a while back, but otherwise I haven't checked out much live Zeppelin, so I'm not sure if this was a common occurrence at their shows.

The back features a live photo-- electric, this time-- and a blurb focusing on Led Zeppelin IV.

"Stairway to Heaven" is an undeniably great song, right?! Maybe if you listened to a lot of 70s and 80s rock radio, you might be sick of it at this point. But for somebody like me who was only discovering this stuff around the time these MusiCards were first on shelves, it's still exciting when you hear the song quietly starting up. You know you're in for a ride. Even though I don't really have any idea what Robert Plant is singing about, it makes for an epic narrative song that feels like a short story or film.

With a duration of 8 minutes, it's very long as far as popular songs go. That and "Hey Jude" (7 minutes) were what radio DJs would play when they needed a bathroom break. Listeners couldn't get enough. "Stairway to Heaven" was the most requested song on FM radio stations in the United States in the 1970s.

CUSTOM CORNER

Going with the first thing that pops into my head here, I figured I'd go with the Butthole Surfers for today's accompanying Custom Corner. They've got an album titled Hairway to Steven (1988), hence the connection.

Butthole Surfers are a weird rock band that formed in San Antonio back in 1981. Their albums in the 80s weren't commercial hits but were big in the underground rock scene. Kurt Cobain was a fan and met his future wife, Courtney Love of Hole, at a Butthole Surfers/L7 concert.

The band eventually signed with Capitol Records in 1992, a surprising move that some fans felt was selling out their indie roots. Capitol hooked them up with a big-time producer to helm their major label debut.. (and hey, coincidentally fits well with this post). John Paul Jones, best known as the bassist for Led Zeppelin, produced Independent Worm Saloon (1993), with the single "Who Was in My Room Last Night?" garnering decent alternative radio play, plus got the band on MTV when the video was featured in an episode Beavis & Butt-head during the show's prime.

The follow-up album Electriclarryland (1996) saw the band reach the height of their mainstream success, with the single "Pepper" topping the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and its video getting solid rotation on MTV. Record label squabbles took some wind out of their sails and they seemed to settle back into "underground" status after that record.

They haven't been very active in recent years (latest album was released way back in 2001), though they play live once in a blue moon and may finally come out of hibernation for a new album one of these years.. who knows?

"I'm a surfer!"

I can't claim to be a huge Butthole Surfers fan, though I've got several songs of theirs in my iTunes library.

DESERT ISLAND DISC

1. Who Was In My Room Last Night?
2. The Wooden Song
3. You Don't Know Me
4. Human Cannonball
5. Revolution, Pt. 2
6. Lonesome Bulldog II
7. Golden Showers
8. P.S.Y.
9. Lonesome Bulldog IV
10. Concubine
11. Eye of the Chicken
12. Dum Dum
13. Cough Syrup
14. Pepper
15. Thermador
16. Jingle Of A Dog's Collar
17. TV Star
18. I Saw an X-Ray of a Girl Passing Gas
19. Night of the Day
20. One Hundred Million People Dead

There's my personal "best of" playlist for them. Frontman Gibby Haynes has also guested on a couple other songs I like, singing lead vocals on "Jesus Built My Hotrod" by Ministry and "Fire In The Hole" by Deconstruction. The early 90s side project P (with Johnny Depp and Flea) also had a couple tunes I like ("Michael Stipe" and "The Deal").

Ha, turns out Gibby was a star on the court back in high school.

Good enough excuse to whip him up a basketball card custom. Who says this blog isn't a sports card blog?! lol

That'll do it for this post. More Led Zeppelin on deck.

Any thoughts to share on "Stairway to Heaven" or the Butthole Surfers, please feel free to sound off in the comments.

#21 Led Zeppelin

Here's probably the quirkiest photo we've seen so far, as we arrive at #21 in the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards set. John Bonham is playfully poking his smiling face above the yellow barrier, with the rest of Led Zeppelin being partially obscured. Works well with the design in a "modern art" type of way (step back and look at it.. It's pleasing, right?). If this was the Beach Boys, that'd be a big yellow surfboard, but Zeppelin don't surf, so who knows.. just a wall, I guess.

The back features a live photo.. Looks like an acoustic performance.. back before "MTV Unplugged" made that a trendy thing to do. Zep always ahead of the game!

Led Zeppelin has a total of 7 MusiCards by my count. This one kicks off 5 consecutive Legends cards, then they've got a Historic Concerts card later on in the set (#258), plus a promo card. Like with the previous band in the checklist, The Who, funny that these legendary Brit rockers don't have a card in the UK edition of the set. Gotta wonder what was going on in the Pro Set meetings when they were deciding which bands to feature. Licensing red tape played a part, I'm sure, but we're left with some head-scratching questions.

Oh, and Jimmy Page has already had a pair of solo cards, too! That brings the Led camp count up to 9 MusiCards. That might seem like a lot until you realize Madonna has a whopping 15 MusiCards. Geesh!

Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick (live drum solo)

Since John Bonham is the star of the featured card, I figure I'll spotlight him for this particular post.

I'm not going to go too deep here in these days of Wikipedia (Bonham's wiki), but the short version is John Henry Bonham was born May 31, 1948 in England. He never had a formal drum lesson, but started pounding away at an early age and along the way befriended Robert Plant, eventually joining him in the young band Led Zeppelin. 

Bonham used big-ass drum sticks ("trees", he called them), and his heavy hitting is apparent on several of Zep's hits. I'll save listing off my favorite Zeppelin songs for one of the many future posts they've got in the pipeline, but there are plenty of good ones.

Led Zeppelin - "When The Levee Breaks"

As far as heavy-hitting hits of theirs, figured I'd go with "When The Levee Breaks". John really lays it down hard on that one. (And if you already started playing the Moby Dick clip above, that's fine.. just play this one on top of it.. it will add a unique touch to the rock!)

Unfortunately, John liked to not only hit the drums hard, but also party hard. And one fateful night in September of 1980 he partied a little too hard and passed away. The rest of the band were devastated by the loss and Led Zeppelin was no more after that (not counting a few half-hearted partial reunions over the years.. such as Live Aid in 1985, with both Phil Collins and Tony Thompson filling in on drums).

John left behind his wife Pat and their two children, Zoë and Jason. I was thinking I'd feature Jason Bonham, a distinguished drummer in his own right, in the Custom Corner section of this post.. but hold on, his 90s band Bonham does have a real MusiCard coming up at #153. LOL, oh well, looks like I've got to find another band for the custom.

CUSTOM CORNER

Yeah, I don't think I'll pick another band for this post, but instead here are a few John Bonham customs for ya!

Full disclosure: John Bonham never really played second base for the Padres.

Up next: More Zeppelin.

#17 Jimmy Page (+ ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead)

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page graces card #17 in the 1991 Pro Set MusiCards set. This is obviously from a promo photoshoot based on the backdrop. Kind of an awkward pose. Can almost picture him singing the "I'm a Little Teapot" song.

Buckle up, because we're entering The Zeppelin Zone with this set. Jimmy has another card up next at #18. And shortly following that (after a couple cards for The Who), his band Led Zeppelin has a DiMaggian run of five consecutive cards. Plus we'll later hit a Historic Concerts card for them and then later a promo card (I plan to hit the promos at the end, giving me ample time to scoop them up-- I'm still working on building a "master set" of MusiCards). But yeah, that's a whole lotta Led.

Led Zeppelin - "Whole Lotta Love"

Yep, we've hit another variation. As with most variations in this set, the Super Stars logo travels from the upper left down to the lower right. The photo shifts to the left (revealing the head of the guitar) and the teal "Legends" banner shrinks a little and jumps to the top.

For easy comparison, here's a gif of the two cards.

Of course I'm familiar with Led Zeppelin, but gotta admit I've never heard of the Jimmy Page Band. Seems like his career has been relatively quiet since Zeppelin broke up way back in 1980. I know he's popped up once in a while here and there over the years, but seems he hasn't really done anything big in the past 40 years, which is kinda surprising for a guitarist of his stature.

Well hey, we've still got a whopping 8 cards in the pipeline to cover Page and his main band's work, so I'm just going to put a pin in it for now and jump right into the Custom Corner.

CUSTOM CORNER

Today's bonus band was likely influenced somewhat by Zeppelin, with many sprawling rockers in their catalog, but mainly I'm choosing them to feature now because I saw these guys live just the other day and wanted to post about it here.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead (often shortened to Trail of Dead) might have a long, scary name, but they're a band of good dudes who rock out. They're not super well-known, but they make my short list of bands I would enthusiastically recommend to anyone into rock music.

Trail of Dead - "Baudelaire"

I was first introduced to their music in the late 90s by my friend David DeVere who was a big fan of theirs. Dave wasn't at all shy online, so I'm sure he wouldn't have a problem with me using his full name here. We were online buddies for a few years and shared a lot of cool music with each other, but eventually we lost touch. I tried to reconnect a while back, but his email address had gone bad, and attempts to find him on social media have been a dead end. Davy, if you're out there, drop me a line and let's catch up!

As 2019 was winding down, I came to the grim realization that I hadn't been to a concert all year. And yep, 2019 ended up being the first year since 1994 that I went a full calendar year without going to at least one live music show. (I went to 3 stand-up comedy shows during the year, for what it's worth, but it's not the same thing.) Man, the younger version of myself would be sickened by this! I love live music, damn it! Feeling the need to end my dry spell, I secured a ticket to Trail of Dead for January and I'm glad I did.

It was such a great show. Sold-out crowd. I got lucky with a front-row spot and had a great time up in the thick of it. They were loud as fuck so I'm glad I brought ear plugs to protect my hearing (sorry; old fart alert). But man, having the drums/bass thumping away in your chest during a badass jam is such a great feeling. The band rocked to perfection, and it was cool how the guitarists all took turns on drums (3 of them).. impressive versatility. I had to wake up early the next day for a work thing, but no regrets.

Silly gif using a few photos I took.

What's really cool is I get to use my own photos for the custom(s). Sure there are countless better photos of the band to be found online, but it's awesome to be able to make it a fully in-house project. I've made hundreds of custom cards at this point in my life, yet I think these are the first made using photos I took myself. Pretty neat.

I even snagged a setlist from the stage immediately after the show. I've got a decent little setlist collection (highlighted by Weezer, Mercury Rev, and Rocket From The Crypt), but I don't think I've added to it in the past several years (not since I moved to Portland in 2009?).

Trail of Dead - "Into the Godless Void"

As far as a rundown of the band's history, well here's the first paragraph of their Wikipedia entry:
...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (often abbreviated as Trail of Dead) are an American alternative rock band from Austin, Texas, formed in 1994. The chief members of the band are Jason Reece and Conrad Keely. The two alternate between drumming, guitar and lead vocals, both on recordings and live shows. The band is known for their wild, energetic concerts. Their tenth studio album, X: The Godless Void and Other Stories, was released on January 17, 2020.

Now I'll try to narrow my favorite songs of theirs down to an album's worth.

Desert Island Disc - Trail of Dead

1. Summer 91
2. And the Rest Will Follow
3. Caterwaul
4. Classic Art Showcase
5. Let It Dive
6. Ebb Away
7. Half of What
8. When We Begin To Steal...
9. Isis Unveiled
10. Bells of Creation
11. Inland Sea
12. Ascending
13. Eight Day Hell
14. Witch's Web
15. Into the Godless Void
16. Don't Look Down
17. It Was There That I Saw You
18. Another Morning Stoner
19. Baudelaire
20. How Near How Far
21. Relative Ways
22. Source Tags and Codes

Ok, there's a solid "best of" collection right there, but man.. every album is a banger. Engaging music, thoughtful lyrics, a few "out of left field" sounding songs to shake things up.. just great stuff. Again, I can't recommend them enough if you're into alternative rock at all. Terrific band.

 Trail of Dead - "Summer '91"

If I ever end up doing a podcast/youtube version of this blog (which I probably won't, but never say never), "Summer '91" would be a perfect theme song to use. Its cautiously nostalgic head-nod to 1991 fits right in with our look back at the 1991 MusiCards set... plus it rocks. So yeah, I could totally see that being used as intro and/or outro music in a podcast-type situation.

Looking back at '91
Reflecting on those things we could have
Said and done
The dancing lights across a crowd
Remind us of another town
That's dead and gone
It's just dead and gone

That's going to wrap up this post. Sorry if I layed on my love for Trail of Dead a little thick! Over the past few years, they've really risen up the rankings of my all-time favorite bands, so I hope I've at least convinced someone reading to give them a curious listen, and maybe even find themselves being a new fan.

As always, please comment away below if you have any comments to comment. Otherwise, see you soon with card #18 which is Jimmy Page again.