Recommended Listening: Halloween Hits – A 2015 Rob G Mix!

I was a teenager of the mixed tape generation, and so the whole concept of a mix – sharing music as a form of communication with other people you care about, has always been something I hold very close to my heart. While cassettes are now obsolete, nowadays, it doesn’t take much to order a spindle of CD’s, queue up a batch of tracks on your iTunes and burn a gift! And that’s exactly what I did this October.

The last time I did such a mix was for my birthday party last year. On top of a wealth of horror soundtracks in my vinyl collection, I also have a slew of the soundtracks to my favorite 80’s movies, a lot of which aren’t available in any other format. So I transferred a batch of those tracks and created my ultimate 80’s Movie Music Mix. And I just had to share it with anyone I crossed paths with. It would be a tough act to follow, but I decided I had to try to do the same for Halloween!

And so, after much deliberation, I came up with my Halloween Hits! A 2015 Rob G Mix and have been handing CD’s out to people whenever I see them at local events.

Alas, I can’t get a mix to everyone, so it’s time to divulge my track listing, and encourage you to create your own spotify playlist of these tunes to rock out to for the last week of October leading into Halloween day! Here we go!

HALLOWEEN HITS! A 2015 ROB G MIX:

1. The Crypt Jam by The Crypt Keeper (TALES FROM THE CRYPT)
2. On Our Own by Bobby Brown (GHOSTBUSTERS 2)
3. Nightmare On My Street by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince
4. Dream Warriors by Dokken (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS)
5. He’s Back (The Man Behind The Mask) by Alice Cooper (FRIDAY THE 13TH 6: JASON LIVES)
6. Living Dead Girl (Naked Exorcism Mix) by Rob Zombie (THE CROW: SALVATION)
7. Pet Sematary by The Ramones (PET SEMATARY)
8. Wolf Like Me by TV On The Radio
9. Cry, Little Sister by Gerard McMann (THE LOST BOYS)
10. Psycho Killer by Talking Heads
11. Just Another Psycho by Motley Crue
12. Everyday Is Halloween by Ministry
13. Dead Man’s Party by Oingo Boingo (BACK TO SCHOOL)
14. Thriller by Michael Jackson

OK, let’s do a quick video break down if you want to just sample a few tracks. But trust me! They work together and in this order!

THE CRYPT JAM: About a year or so ago, I picked up Mondo’s 7 inch release of the TALES FROM THE CRYPT theme by Danny Elfman, and much to my surprise, this is was on the B side. It was such a wonderful relic from the 90’s and I loved every second of it. You’ve got to admit, the Crypt Keeper’s got game!



ON OUR OWN: I could’ve gone for the original GHOSTBUSTERS theme, but I opted for the theme to Part 2. Just flows better with The Crypt Jam and the next track Nightmare On My Street. Plus, look at all these crazy cameos in the video! Christopher Reeve, Rick Moranis, Donald Trump! Come on, you all know the words to the opening/closing rap!



NIGHTMARE ON MY STREET: I’ve always been disappointed that there wasn’t an official video for this track, but from what I understand, DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince didn’t exactly get permission to do their Freddy homage. Regardless, it’s hilarious and I break out the 7 inch record every year around this time. OK, maybe I listen to it all year round. Can you blame me?



DREAM WARRIORS: Alright, we’ve gotten through the late 80’s/early 90’s rap portion of this mix. And what better way to bring on the metal than from going from Nightmare On My Street straight to Dream Warriors! The best of the NIGHTMARE sequels, and probably the best accompanying theme song. Plus both Patricia Arquette and Robert Englund pop up in the video reprising their roles!



HE’S BACK (THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK): OK, if Freddy’s getting a lot of love on this mix, we’ve got to give it up for Jason too, right? So let’s roll right into Alice Cooper’s theme song from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 6: JASON LIVES. CJ Graham makes an appearance in the video as Jason Voorhees! It’s a fun one that you have to watch.



LIVING DEAD GIRL (NAKED EXORCISM MIX): Who can possibly follow up the great Alice Cooper? Well, Rob Zombie of course! And for most Halloween themed mixes, Dragula and Living Dead Girl seem to be the go to tracks. I’m opting for the “Naked Exorcism Mix” of Living Dead Girl which appeared on the soundtrack to THE CROW: SALVATION because it’s a bad-ass remix done by Charlie Clouser, formally of Nine Inch Nails, and also responsible for all the great music in the entire SAW franchise!



PET SEMATARY: Where do you go from Rob Zombie? Well to The Ramones of course! Probably one of the catchiest pop songs to appear in a horror movie ever, let’s sing along now. “I don’t want to be buried, in a pet sematary….”



WOLF LIKE ME: Well, from a song about the undead, let’s go to a song about werewolves, shall we? And while the mix has the studio version of this song, I wanted to share this amazing live performance of the track on the David Letterman show.



CRY, LITTLE SISTER: Well, if we’ve got a song about werewolves, let’s then turn to vampires. And to me, the theme of THE LOST BOYS is the quintessential vampire pop tune!



PSYCHO KILLER: OK, we’ve got dream demons, unstoppable killers, the undead, werewolves and vampires covered on this mix so far. How ’bout a misunderstood real life monster? My favorite of course, Norman Bates. Long thought to be written about the boy next door, here’s a live version of Psycho Killer by Talking Heads from the film STOP MAKING SENSE.



JUST ANOTHER PSYCHO: When it comes to PSYCHO, let’s do double or nothing! Here’s the Motley Crue track Just Another Psycho cut to scenes from all 4 PSYCHO movies starring Anthony Perkins!



EVERYDAY IS HALLOWEEN: Technically, this isn’t really a song about Halloween, but it’s more Ministry’s commentary on people who dress differently and get made fun of for dressing up everyday as if it’s Halloween. But what the hell? Ministry f-ing rules, so they’re on here too.



DEAD MAN’S PARTY: This is just one of my absolute favorite tracks and if you’re having a Halloween party, or just a regular party for that matter, it’s mandatory. Danny Elfman for the win!



THRILLER: Last but not least, this one meant a lot to us horror kids growing up. It still works as a great party closer. (Or starter!) And the video holds up as the greatest horror music video every made. Let’s do the thriller dance, shall we?



HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

6 Non-Soundtrack Recommendations You Have To Hear!

It’s truly a glorious time to be both a horror movie fan and a lover of soundtracks! I’ve always appreciated soundtracks to movies, in particular genre scores, because no other genre manages to ingrain itself so effortlessly with its music than “horror.”

If I say HALLOWEEN, you immediately think of John Carpenter’s theme, right? Mere mention of the word EXORCIST should evoke Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield.

And thankfully, with the vinyl revival of these last few years, amazing companies like DeathWaltz, Waxwork, One Way Static & Lunaris Records are leading the charge with releasing both modern and retro horror movie soundtracks.

But if you’re looking for some good solid background music not from any particular film, you need to check out these 6 recommendations. Because sometimes you just need a little mood music.

JOHN CARPENTER’S ‘LOST THEMES’

It goes without saying that John Carpenter is a “master” of horror. With a slew of classics under his belt like the original HALLOWEEN, THE FOG, THEY LIVE, ESCAPE FROM NY and many, many more, the one thing that most of his films share in common is just how bad-ass his musical scores are. And with the exception of only a few of his films, all of them are composed by the main man himself. Granted, he often cites lack of budget as the primary reason he resorted to using himself as a composer, but John’s being modest. He truly is an amazing musician. And so when his first “solo” album (co-penned by his son Cody and Daniel Davies) dropped in early 2015, we couldn’t be more excited. In fact, it still remains my favorite album release of the year. Apt is the album’s title as each individual track brings you into the world of what very well could be the score to an unmade John Carpenter movie. While comparisons can be drawn to instrumental Nine Inch Nails compositions or even Italian contemporaries Goblin (whom often score Dario Argento’s pictures), once you hear the first few synth notes of the opening track “Vortex,” you know there’s only one artist that sounds like this. With a remix album on the horizon, rumors of a limited tour and a follow-up second album sometime next year, we’ve got plenty more “lost themes” to look forward to!



PYE CORNER AUDIO (Death Waltz Recordings 10 inch)

Stop everything you’re doing and listen to the main track “Stars Shine Like Eyes” on the Death Waltz Recordings Soundcloud page, conveniently embedded below. After that, go buy this 10 inch off of their website, because it’s one of my favorite non-soundtrack releases of the year and warrants your attention, as well as lots of repeated spins. Reminiscent of Carpenter’s “Lost Themes,” but simultaneously doing its own thing, Pye Corner Audio has a lot of great electronic music available online, (we recommend hitting up their Bandcamp page and supporting the artist directly), but this 10 inch release from Death Waltz originals is a great place to start.



LAZERHAWK ‘SKULL AND SHARK’

I had originally first heard of Lazerhawk (Austin musician Garrett Hays) on an artist profile article on Bloody-Disgusting, but shortly after that, my friend Summer recommended I check the album “Skull and Shark” out and I’m so glad I did. If you added an industrial flourish to Charles Bernstein’s infamous score for A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, you’d sort of have Lazerhawk. Catchy, dance-y hooks. Aggressive beats and just a whole lot of groove, this album makes me long for a companion futuristic cyber “slasher” film to go along with it. But instead, I’ll just crank it and bob my head while I write and do other around-the-apartment tasks. Strip away the beats & percussion and you have something along the lines of what Disasterpiece did for IT FOLLOWS. Highly recommended!



E.S. POSTHUMUS ‘UNEARTHED’

Here’s an album that dates back to the early 2000’s which I only recently discovered. OK, side-tracking from the genre for a moment to point out I’m also a huge comic-book fan. So when I heard Sam Raimi (brought it back!) was directing the first live-action SPIDER-MAN movie, I was beyond ecstatic. The trailers all used this great operatic theme that I assumed would be the theme for the actual movie, but in actuality, composer Danny Elfman went for a far more restrained traditional score. One random day, I’m watching the trailers on the Blu-Ray and hear that theme again. I pull out my iPhone and open the Shazam app thinking it can’t possibly tell me the artist with dialogue playing. It’s probably just trailer music or something. But to my surprise, E.S. Posthumus came up! And the track in those SPIDER-MAN promos was called “Pompeii.” (Which I still to this day consider the real SPIDER-MAN theme.) I purchased the entire “Unearthed” album and found similar themes in that same vibe all through-out, including “Nara” (the theme to TV’s COLD CASE) and Elba (which reminds me of a BOONDOCK SAINTS theme, even though it has nothing to do with that franchise.) Another great album I strongly recommend for background listening!



MATT FINK “MUSIC OF THE VAMPIRES”

This one dates back to the late 90’s at a time when I was assigned to work in the “world” section at Tower Records in Carle Place, New York. The great thing about that job was I got introduced to so many different genres of music based both on the people I shared work space with and where I was stationed in the store. One afternoon in the jazz room, we’re playing this album simply titled “Music Of The Vampires” with a blue-ish cover and a close-up of Bela Lugosi’s face. Although only 9 tracks long, every track shifted from beautiful orchestration to synth pop to late-night Skinimax 80’s hair metal rock. And it had bits of dialogue from the original DRACULA sprinkled through-out. I’ve always loved this album. And Matt Fink, the composer behind it, went on to do a slew of sound-alike horror themes for tons of franchises. You can find his “covers” of the PUPPET MASTER theme or the HALLOWEEN theme on iTunes. But the true jewel of his output is this album “Music Of The Vampires!” It’s only $3.99 on iTunes!



NINE INCH NAILS “GHOSTS VOL I-IV”

In today’s day and age, it’s rather common for Nine Inch Nails music to pop up in trailers, commercials and movies. Hell, David Fincher recruited front man Trent Reznor and his frequent collaborator Atticus Ross to score his features THE SOCIAL NETWORK and GONE GIRL. But if you go back a bit to 2008, that’s when Nine Inch Nails independently released this fully instrumental double-album “Ghosts Vol I-IV.” I even recall a video contest open to the public to submit their best short films using one of the tracks from ‘Ghosts’ to accompany the clip. (Among one of the stand outs is Drew Daywalt’s short film ‘Dinner Date.’) While it took a little bit to get used to upon its original release, now tracks from Ghosts are used regularly in films and promo clips. Some of the themes on this album were re-used for THE SOCIAL NETWORK. So it’s definitely a score-heavy album that’s ideal for background listening. Let these soundscapes take your imagination wherever it may lead!



Notable Mention:

CARPENTER TRIBUTE by RETRO PROMENADE

Looking for something else in that Carpenter vein? Earlier this year, a compilation album by Retro Promenade titled simply “Carpenter” surfaced on Band Camp and features artists such as (the above mentioned) Lazerhawk, Irving Force, Who Ha and many more delivering original competitions inspired by the work of John Carpenter. It’s a pretty cool tribute and worth a spin. The album itself is FREE, but if you want to contribute a few bucks to show your support, you have that option also. And a bad-ass poster of the cover artwork they commissioned is available on the same page for $9.50.

The Making Of 'The Great Below' Album Cover

Well, the time has finally arrived. The full length album by my reformed band 'The Great Below' is done and out in the world! As you may (or may not) recall, after a 14 year hiatus, I got back together with 2 of my childhood friends Peter McGeary and Jay Catropa back in November of 2014 and 3 weeks later, we laid down 12 tracks for what would be our long overdue debut record. It's taken the next 6 or so months to complete all the additional engineering, recording and mixing on it, but we're so, so thrilled with it and proud of the final result!

One of the most challenging aspects for completing the album was figuring out the cover. After all, how do you pick one visual image to represent all these lyrics from 12 songs, clocking in at 52 minutes worth of music? And do it justice?! A few blogs back, I was brainstorming and trying to break down what makes a good album cover. For the most part, my favorite records of all time have pretty terrible covers. So I guess it doesn't really matter too much? But then it thankfully all came together. With a little help from some friends, of course.

Several months back, I reached out to my very talented photographer friend Ama and asked if she had any stock images of sunsets or anything in that realm. When she asked why, I explained I was trying to figure out an image to sum up our album. I ended up sending along a few rough mixes of a couple of the tracks and asked her to listen to them a few times and let me know if they evoked any imagery at all. A huge chunk of time went by and I'd honestly thought she'd completely forgotten about it, when then she randomly texted me saying, "what about a puzzle?" Hmm.... A puzzle. Something about that really clicked with me. But what would the puzzle be of?

Wait... I've got it. What if we got a close up photograph of a couple holding hands. And then we turned that into a puzzle, since after all, figuring out the complexities of what happens when 2 people get together always feels like an enigma anyways. And what if there were pieces missing, signifying the puzzle (or relationship) felt incomplete OR was still in progress, waiting to be figured out? OK, that definitely fit the general lyrical content of this album. But can you even make a picture into a puzzle?! Sure enough, a quick Google search later and we uncovered that Walmart does in fact do this with any high res image for like... $15 bucks. Boom. Now time to shoot the picture within the picture.

As often happens, life got in the way, and Ama was off prepping for her debut feature film, SWEETHEARTS. So I reached out to another amazingly talented photographer, my former roommate Jake Lloyd! I pitched him the concept and he loved it. We picked one afternoon and both myself and my buddy Jessica Luhrssen became the official "hand" models. Now, the question was where the hell do we shoot this thing? While technically, shooting a close up of hands sounds fairly simple, we needed a good backdrop. So we spent an entire morning and afternoon trekking through various parts of Burbank. Alleyways, hiking trails, Brand Park (because it had a tea garden and that excited me) and Stough Park. (Which ended up being where the actual cover image is from.) The next day, I had tons of photos to choose from. And while a lot of them were good and a lot of the back drops intriguing, there was only really one image that for some reason stuck out to me. And that's the one we ended up using for the cover puzzle. Just for fun, here's 2 rejected pics to prove that we truly did try everything and also to give you an idea of where it could've gone.

So the next step was to take our selected photo and convert it into a puzzle board. Thankfully in today's day and age, all of this could easily be accomplished on Walmart's website. Downside is it would take a week, which was fine because I had an editing assignment to get to and a full day on a movie coming up (as an actor!) that required I memorize lines, so I figured I'd forget about the cover until the puzzle actually arrived. And one week later, a package was waiting for me at my door. Before even opening it I knew what it was and I excitedly texted Jake to let him know it was here! This was mid-afternoon, he said "Great!" And suggested I come by the next day around lunch time. I opened the box and as I should've guessed... I had to freakin' assemble the damned whole thing! I don't know why I thought it would come already completed, but I then poured out 252 pieces onto my kitchen table and started to freak out. I can't even remember the last time I attempted a puzzle!

OK, start with the edges, that's what they always say. I then realized that the image I picked happened to have large spots of pure black, pure white, pure green, etc. I nervously started to piece together a few scattered pieces but was convinced this was going to take forever to figure out. Then my current roommate Dave Foy walked in and asked "whatcha doing, man?" He saw me struggle for an hour with very little momentum and offered to take over for a bit. And so this is how it went on for about... the next 12 hours or so? I'd take a crack at it for an hour, then Dave would come over and look at it with fresh eyes and fill in some more of it. Then me, him again, so on and so forth. I will admit, the coolest part was no matter how incomplete the puzzle remained, every bit of progress looked awesome. We started when the package arrived and finished the next day literally a half hour before I was due at Jake's place. Then I realized "wait a minute. How the hell am I going to get this thing over there without it falling apart again?!" It was 11 x 17, so I couldn't just place it between 2 books. Dave looked over by the garbage and noticed a box for a vinyl record I had yet to throw out. Bless him, he saved me for those 2 days and hence earned a "special thanks" in our album credits. Here's photographic evidence of that 12 hour gap:

Now the final part. Actually shooting what would become our album cover. Ya know what I love? Collaborating with really creative and talented people. Like I said, Jake's an amazing photographer (also, great musician and filmmaker in his own right). But it was fun figuring out different ways we could light and shoot the puzzle. Being in the era of digital cameras, you can literally take a hundred photos if you wanted to. So we experimented with tons of ideas. Taking a few pieces away, taking large chunks. I hand wrote "The Great Below" underneath missing pieces and also on separate paper just in case we needed to superimpose it in later to our liking. Hell, I even got in a very uncomfortable position belly first, just so we got a version where my hand was in frame putting in a puzzle piece. We tried everything! And it was a blast. In other words, I just like making art with friends.

After feeling comfortable that we "got" it, we wrapped for the afternoon and I eagerly awaited seeing the results. It wasn't long as the very next day, Jake sent me a bunch of options. The first few cover options were exactly how I asked them to be. Various versions with chunks of the puzzle missing, the handwritten lettering underneath. And while I liked them, they didn't exactly work for me. I couldn't figure out why. In theory, this is exactly what I had envisioned the cover to be. Why wasn't it knocking my socks off?

At that point I was giving it the Instagram test. What I mean by that is, does it look cool when you draft a photo in Instagram, because they give you a perfect square which is what a cover would be. And if not, why? I was texting back and forth with my drummer Jay and we were discussing our options. What would get him excited? After sharing the above mock-ups, I remembered... wait... did we shoot any shots of the puzzle complete? The original image is so great, I think part of me was mourning the fact that we didn't get to see the whole thing. Quick email over to Jake, and YES. We did shoot the complete puzzle. So I had a version of that sent over, with The Great Below written by hand at the bottom. This looked right! This looked like it was it. But, the whole point of the original idea was to have the pieces missing. What does a completed puzzle signify? "You know what would be great? What if one single piece was missing?" And boom. THAT WAS IT. A few minutes later, we had our final cover and the second I saw it, I was in love.

Quite a process! But again, a fun and rewarding one. And at the end of the day, I'm so thankful that I had so many great friends around me that truly cared about what me, Pete and Jay did and wanted to help us cross the finish line properly. I'm so, so proud of this record. As I've mentioned in previous blog posts before, I never thought I'd return to music in any fashion again. I was fairly convinced that that part of my life was completely over. So it amazes me that this album even exists and it's a true testament to how great Jay and Pete are. To me, my songs feel like a bunch of decent OK demos until those 2 get their hands on them and make them something truly special.

That said, our initial release plan is in place. You will be able to find the self titled 'The Great Below' album on iTunes, Amazon, Pandora, and every other digital outlet you can think of, but for now, it's up exclusively on our Band Camp page. We have total control of it. Any money that goes to the Band Camp goes straight to the artist, so by buying it there, you're supporting us directly!

And here's the thing.

Money doesn't matter to us. We just want you all to hear it! That's why we capped the price at $4.99. Rather then buy me a beer the next time I see you, just buy my record for 5 bucks instead. And if you don't have $5 bucks, because I sure as hell don't right now, you can stream it for FREE on Band Camp. Again, just want it to be heard. And if you like what you hear? Please help us spread it. Pure sincerity, heart and soul are all over this thing from all 3 of us.

Lastly, if you do support us by buying it, like I said, the money part doesn't matter, but I plan on using any profits we make to fund another trip back to New York later this year, because... well, we'd like to make album number 2. Here's hoping we can make that happen too. If this project proved anything to me?

...

It's that anything is possible!

"10000 Reasons" - A Blind Date In Pasadena

OK. Confession time.

Early last summer, I signed up for an online dating site. It was short lived and only managed to generate a total of 2 lunch/coffee dates before I wisely abandoned that fool-hearted idea within the span of a couple of short months. There's nothing wrong with dating sites. A lot of people use them these days to meet people, but for me specifically, it was the wrong time to go down that particular path. I was just so anxious to meet someone outside of my regular circle of friends (or outside of the horror "scene") that I jumped the gun when I obviously had more pressing (personal) matters at hand. And so I gave that up quickly. Went to NY in November. Made a record. Got re-inspired.  And put my head back on straight. But alas, I was recently reminded of that first blind date from that online dating experience, and one specific detail that to this day continues to stand out for me.

And yes, of course it involves a mixtape. (Or a mix CD in this case!)

I had been introduced to this joint called Pie 'N Burger by my buddy AJ. As the name would imply, their burgers and pies are top notch and it's a fun semi-secret place that's located in Pasadena, one of my favorite cities in Los Angeles. I mean, just look at these delicious pies!

I had exchanged several messages and emails with a potential match through most of August and early September of 2014 and finally, we agreed to meet. (This was late September 2014 now.) Since she was located in Pasadena, I thought I'd make it as easy and convenient for her as possible and pick out a quality place close by to her. So I went with good ol' Pie 'N Burger.

Naturally, this was technically a "first date," a blind one at that in the sense that we never even talked on the phone beforehand, so I arrived nice and early. Ya never know with LA traffic. Then again, it was on a Sunday morning, so the roads and streets were fairly quiet and empty. I parked a few blocks away and as I walked over to the restaurant, something caught my eye. A few stores down, sitting right on the bench outside a bar/pub/restaurant was what appeared to be a mix CD. I can't confirm that for sure, but when I see a CD in a little white envelope like that, it's the first thing that pops in my head. It had written in marker across it "10,000 Reasons." I looked around and there was literally not a soul in sight. Did someone just leave it? Forget it? Was it given as a gift and then abandoned by the recipient? My mind raced with a dozen scenarios. And then of course, I started thinking, well.... what's on it? Is it even a music mix? What does "10,000 Reasons" even mean? Is it reflective of the contents within? An inside joke or story for the person this was intended for?

Well, with no one around and complete disregard that I might be late to my lunch date, I took a picture of it and immediately texted it to my fellow mix making enthusiast Joe Maddrey. "Dude, take it!" he encouraged. But a mix to me is sacred. You don't just take one if it wasn't intended or made for you. So... I just left it there and made my way to my date.

Thankfully, I was early and when she arrived, we took my usual table in the back over by the divider for the restrooms and skipped lunch opting instead to go right to the pie! Now, here's the thing. It was a great date. I thought she was extremely lovely and smart and beautiful and sweet. I got the sense that she thought the same of me. But here's the rub. We didn't have a single thing in common. And when I say not a single thing, I literally mean not a single thing! No similar movies that we both loved, no similar tastes in music. I ordered coffee. She ordered tea. She didn't like horror movies at all and was unimpressed when I told her my friend Mike just texted me from the set of the movie he was making and that if she really wanted, we could go meet Steve Guttenberg that afternoon. OK, so what was the reason this silly dating site paired us up? Because we both liked "food." But in retrospect, that's like saying, "Hey, I really like air. Isn't breathing awesome?" But regardless of all this? We had a really great conversation that lasted 3 hours. We spent the first 2 hours nursing our hot beverages and talking about our families, our backgrounds, schooling, our in progress careers, exchanging jokes, ambitions, dreams. Every thing. Then we spend a bit of time walking around the streets of Pasadena and checking out a Halloween shop much to her dismay.

Despite being on the complete opposite spectrum's in terms of tastes and in just about every capacity, I rather enjoyed her company and would've gladly entertained the notion of getting together again. I mean, do you really have to have the same things in common with your partner? Isn't it more about supporting each others passions and goals? I was ready to do that. I myself have a lot of crazy, far fetched ideas of things I'd like to accomplish. But a few days later, she sent me an email saying that although I was a good guy and she too had a lovely afternoon, we probably weren't the right match and shouldn't get together again. She was right. Probably for the best. At least we had one really great date, which I guess is all that you can really hope for!

A few days ago, I went back for lunch to Pie 'N Burger for the first time since that date. It's funny, with the exception of this story above, I have nothing else to truly remember that afternoon with. She took a picture of her pie right before we dug in. Part of me wishes I had asked her to text it to me, so that at least I could have that same picture to remember that day with. But instead, all I have is that above photo of that "10,000 Reasons" mix CD.

And now, I regret more than anything not taking it! What was on that blasted CD? Would it have made my day any different? Any more memorable or special had I taken it and discovered some new music intended for someone else? Or was that just the way it was meant to be?

I guess I do have something to remind me of that lovely afternoon. It's that picture of someone else's mix CD and the wonder of "what if?"

"There Is No Favorite Beatle!" - The Black Album Mix

"Who is your favorite Beatle?"

Inevitably if you're engaging in any kind of music related conversation with anyone, this is bound to come up. Most people like The Beatles. Hell, I fucking love The Beatles. And if you don't, that's totally fine. I just don't understand how that's possible. That's like saying you don't like Nirvana, which would be weird considering they were both the greatest rock bands of all time! (This is fact! Not opinion!)

In all seriousness, it's cool if you don't like The Beatles. But you might want to skip this entire blog entry then.

When I get asked the above question, I have a 2 part answer. Well, Paul McCartney is my favorite Beatle. But so is John Lennon. Err... OK. Let me rephrase. Paul was my favorite during The Beatles run. John is my favorite post-Beatles. My all time favorite Beatles songs are ones fronted by Paul. Hey Jude, Let It Be, Hello Goodbye, Here There and Everywhere, Yesterday and so on and so forth. But when I analyze their solo careers, John had the best solo songs. Instant Karma, Mind Games, Jealous Guy, freakin' Imagine! But maybe I was looking at it the wrong way.

A few days back, I borrowed the movie BOYHOOD from my buddy Sean Keller, and along with the DVD, he handed me a mix CD he'd made for me called "The Black Album." Now, I'd heard vaguely about this and how it plays into the movie because my friends know that I'm embarking on a project revolving around mix tapes and here's a new movie that talks about mixes! So of course, I've heard a dozen times, "have you seen BOYHOOD yet? There's a scene about a mix in there!" It wasn't until after I watched the film that I saw it in context and understood Sean's argument for his version of The Black Album that he handed me. Here... let's watch Ethan Hawke break it down in what is easily my favorite scene of the whole movie.


 "There is no favorite Beatle! It's in the balance!"

And he's totally right! While I appreciate all the post-Beatle solo albums out there, I never got into that stuff nearly as much as I did the original Beatles records. And Sean made the very valid point that we won't all agree on our version of The Black Album. For him, seeing a 3-disc version in the movie is overkill. He told me you can accomplish greatness in the span of one solid disc. And also, the track listing for the movie version very equally separates the tracks as one song by Lennon, one by McCartney, one by George, one by Ringo. But Sean again reminded me that Beatles albums all had a few Lennon and McCartney songs and then snuck in one or two tracks from George and usually only one from Ringo. Again, it's all about the balance!

Point being, there is no wrong version of The Black Album. It's just all personal preference. I just never looked at the idea of combining some of the best of the solo material as "putting the band back together!" And since I'm not well versed enough in their post-Beatles discography, I've listened to Sean's mix several times now and can totally imagine it as a new Beatles album.

Here's Sean Keller's version of The Black Album. Feel free to create a Spotify playlist or something.

1. Band On The Run (Paul McCartney & Wings)
2. My Sweet Lord (George Harrison)
3. Instant Karma! (We All Shine On) (John Lennon)
4. Photograph (Ringo Starr)
5. Mind Games (John Lennon)
6. Silly Love Songs (Wings)
7. Woman (John Lennon)
8. What Is Life (George Harrison)
9. Live And Let Die (Wings)
10. It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr)
11. Jealous Guy (John Lennon)
12. Jet (Paul McCartney & Wings)
13. Watching The Wheels (John Lennon)
14. Beware Of Darkness (George Harrison)
15. You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful and You're Mine) (Ringo Starr)
16. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) (John Lennon)
17. Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney)
18. Imagine (John Lennon)

Pretty darned spot on if ya ask me.

The only glaring omissions I find in The Black Album playlists I've seen online are that none of them include both "Free As A Bird" or "Real Love;" 2 long lost Lennon songs that the band finished as Beatles songs for the Anthology documentary and multi-disc collections. Hell, "Real Love" (the song and the video) is probably my favorite thing from The Beatles. I shall leave you with that.



Oh and you should definitely check out BOYHOOD. I love Richard Linklater's stuff and it's a beautiful, moving experience more than just your traditional "movie." Really a marvel to sit through. And check out BEFORE SUNSET too, my favorite of his films!

"No need to be afraid..."