INCUBUS - The Greek Theater Los Angeles, Ca. 7-11-07

It was the day of the show and I wanted to go really bad, it was on my mind all day at work.

I was listening to LIGHT GRENEADES since its release in November 2006.

I had gone to see Incubus at the Los Angeles Fourm previously A Crow Left Of The Murder Tour.

I did'nt want to miss them in such and intimate venue.
I looked on Ebay and found some pit tickets for a very reasonable price somewhere around $200 for the pair so I bought them. I printed them out and we were on our way to see what was one of the greatest shows I have ever attended.

As you can see I was lucky enough to get the set-list at the end of the show.

If your an Incubus fan you can see this was an excellent set.

Amazing in fact.

This was going to be something completely different from all the other shows I had been to. Being that close and acutally watching the show. I've been to other shows in the pit and you you really cant watch with all the energy around you. But I knew there wouldnt be any moshing in fact no one ever even got close to me all night it was awesome.

We got there in plenty of time to secure a spot up against the railing on the side of the bass player Ben Kenney. I would have much rather been in front of the guitar player Mike Einzinger. The more I listen to Incubus I realize how talented he is. The way he use effects to create sounds from his guitar and plain old talent.

Brandon Boyd is in my opinion the best singer in rock music today. Pitch, tone and vocal style can not be matched by any other since Robert Plant.

All I know is that standing there so close made me feel like no other show except John Frusciante @ The Roxy but that is another story soon to come.

The sound was amazing the performance was great and the setlist near perfect since im not a big fan of there early stuff.

Kiss To Send Us Off

Love Hurts

Dig - Official Video

Bradley Nowell - Hit Me With Music

Brad, One of the great guitar players/singers of the 20th centery. We lost this one way to early. For those of you who have not heard Brad's solo and acoustic stuff I will post some of it here.

Buy some cds if you can.

I own all that I can find and never stop looking for unreleased and rare music from this artist.

Bradley Nowell is probably the only person besides Bob Marley that can perform a Marley Song and make you feel good about it.

He was really touched by music and it shows in his soulful playing smooth voice and guitar playing. Some might even want to hurt me after what Im about to say but I like Brad's acoustic version of "Zimbabwe" better than Bob's and thats only my preference(MP3 Play Count is 50 times). I'm not saying it's better. What is better? Better is subjective to the listener. Could Brad write a song that good? yes, but he didnt write that one.

Brad is the reason I got into Bob Marley. I was listening to alot of Sublime when i discovered that they covered Bob Marley songs and an even better discovery was Brad's acoustic versions of a few Marley songs. That peaked my interest. He must have listened to Marley quite alot because his covers are amazing.

I let my friend Greg (I would say he's the Marley expert) hear Brad from the Firecracker Lounge and he thought "most people in the place were not listening and just talking, only Brad cared and he was singing with a lot of sincerity, he felt the music".

Sublime covered the following Bob Marley songs.

One Cup Of Coffee/Judge Not, Trenchtown Rock, I Shot The Sheriff

Bradley played these songs. Almost as if he was paying respect to the original artist for the love of the music that influenced him.

I think thats why his acoustic covers (studio and live) of Bob Marley Songs were so amazing the passion and the love of music.

Wanting to play music and sing regardless of how it sounds. Sometimes Brad was drunk when he was performing and his playing/singing wasnt always on key but it was passionate.

Im writing about Brad because I feel the muisc that he is performing I have just listened to Zimbabwe & Marley Medley over and over for the last hour. So I will share these heart-felt recordings with anyone who might stumble upon them.

DOWNLOADS:

Bradley Nowell - Firecracker Lounge - Zimbabwe - Marley Medley (Guava Jelly, This Train and Cornerstone) also Sublime Covering I Shot The Sheriff from a live performance on a boat.
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=59f6cf975042c442d2db6fb9a8902bda

Please leave a comment if you download these tracks.

Bob Marley - I Can See Clearly Now

"It’s gonna be a bright (bright), bright (bright)Sun-Shiny day"

Bob Marley one of the greatest song writers ever right next to John Lennon.

I grew up listening to music my mom listened to AM radio in California, my sister listening to rock such as Van Halen, The Eagles, Ted Nugent and Alice Cooper, and my brother listened to oldies while ironing his clothes with the TV on and the sound off watching soul train. We all know why.

So what am i trying to get at is that I Love Music and remember hearing "I Can See Clearly Now" in the 70's not knowing who sang it, that wasnt important anyways at that age.

As I got older and started to listen to what I wanted to hear vs. what everyone else was listening to, buying albums and converting them to cassette tape so I could hear it on my walkman. Of course im talking about after all the years of carying around a big radio to listen to cassette tapes.

My independent selection of music started out with The Beatles, then progressed into what was know at the time as hard rock, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and a bunch of British Bands.

By the early 80's I was listening to various music that Eric Clapton had recorded such as Cream, Derek and The Dominoes and as a solo artisit. So at some point in time I heard Eric Clapton's verson of I Shot The Sheriff.

I didnt hear the Bob Marley Version until the 90's and when I heard it I thought he covered Eric Clapton.

So what a surprise it was to me when I found out that "I Can See Clearly Now" and "I Shot The Sheriff" was written by Bob Marley songs that i sang along with on the radio.

I was only exposed to what is the official release called "Bob Marley Legend" in 1992 and loved those songs. But I didnt really get into it, I probably didnt listen to it again for many years.
Because I had really got into The Red Hot Chili Peppers at the time. They had just released Blood Sugar Sex Magic which is my favorite album of all time.

Then in 1996 I heard Sublime (self titled) and was blown away by this strange sound of Punk Rock, Reggae and Hip Hop style. I never heard anything like it and played it over and over and over. You get the point. Probably for 12 hours a day.

I had to know more about Sublime and this amazing singer/guitar player Bradley Nowell. I started to buy all the sublime I could find. I met a guy named Carlos Rollon who had been into Sublime for a while he was from Long Beach and had moved to Glendale. By the time I started to listen to Sublime he had moved on to other music since Sublime so was popular, He didnt care for the mainstream music. He gave me some of his original Sublime (rare) cd's Bad Fish E.P. and Sensimillia.

Then one day (around 1998) I went into this record shop on Sunset in Silverlake and found a cd called Bradley Nowell @ The Firecracker Lounge he did some Bob Marley covers. I listened to that for a long time. Amazing acoustic guitar and singing.

I met a couple of guys at work that really love music. Joe (worm) and Greg M. these two guys have an increadible amount of knowdledge about all types of music. We spent a countless amount of hours talking about music over the years.
I found out that Greg was a big Bob Marley fan and he offered me the Marley versions (I borrowed his Marley box set Songs of Freedom) and it was from that point that I was into Bob Marley.

Everyday I listen to Bob Marley and there is an unknown amount of unreleased material out there that I hope to hear a fraction of someday. We search the internet for these rare songs and occasionaly we find something we have never heard before.
Amazing songs that touch my soul and squeeze it.

If you would like to hear some of these rare and unreleased song go to..
http://marleyrarities.wordpress.com/

Look all around, there’s nothin but blue skies,
Look straight ahead, nothin but blue skies

Killer Tattoos and Killer Bass Playing

"This state is elevating, as the hurt turns into hating Anticipating all the fucked up feelings again "

Fieldy from Korn is one of my favorite bass players.

This guy has some serious art on his skin. Mostly Black and Grey alot of art work consisting of Korn album themes nicely done. In this video he is getting his arm pit tattooed "ouch".

He is bad ass: sleeves, legs, chest, back and neck tattoos.

Check out his music if your not familiar.

Korn - Untouchables

Here to Stay is an great example of that heavy 5 string bass that pounds right through you.

Fieldy's Dream - Rock and Roll Gangster

Hip-Hop, Rock Fieldy Raps about weed, women and sex, its not a serious record but I enjoyed it. Looking forward to his next solo project tentatively titled "Fieldy's Nightmare" which is supposed to be more serious and darker.

Feildy's Dream

Feildy gets tattooed

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Rivera Paradise

Stevie Ray Vaughan,

There is so much to say. What can I say that hasnt already been said.

Stevie believed that music was a gift. He also thought his gift could be taken away at any moment. So he always played as if it was his last time playing.

I havent been listening to SRV for along time. I just recently got into him but I will say since I started listening, somedays I listen to him for 12 hours or more a day.

Today alone I have listened to Rivera Paradise on repeat for the last four hours.

I will post this song from Stevie's last show August 26,1990.

Amazing guitar playing he was on one that night, alot of people would say.

Sometimes people think that it was said only because it was his last show.

Alot of times before he played this song he would say something like this:

"This goes out to everybody in the world who's suffering for any reason, that
they might find some happiness real soon if not now. "

I did a blind test with my MP3 Player i had 5 different live versions i played them one after another without knowing which show they were from and when i heard them all i went back to the one that gave me that feeling where the bending of the guitar strings cuts right through you and you feel it in your heart.

It was from stevies last show.

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?f=09f8e2d41259cfab2458b84cbf70e60f

Please leave a comment if you have anything to say.

Introduction

This Blog is about Tattoos, Music, Cars and anything else I feel like writing about.

Favorite Tattoo Artist's:

Kore Flatmo - One of the best artist out there check his website and judge for yourself.

Bob Vessells - Another very talented artist, excellent line work no one better for demon girls.

Cory Miller - Amazing portraits, Black n Grey get in with him if you can. Also see him on LA INK

Favorite Classic Cars:

1968 Chevelle

1970 Barracuda

Favorite: Music:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magic one of the greatest albums ever made. John Frusciante is pure genius feeling more in his own space. Anthony's gripping story converted into a song called Under the Bridge. Flea and Chad greatest rhythm section in modern rock.

John Frusciante - Amazing guitar playing and a vocal range that will blow you away. Check out any of his solo records you wont be disappointed.

Korn - Pure energy the hardest rocking band today. See them live if you can get in the pit and you will leave that show feeling like you have been in a car wreck.

Bob Marley - So many great songs most people will never hear. Reggae is not one of the most popular genres of music. So most people will only hear whats know as Legends. Please visit Marley Rarities to hear beautiful acoustic versions of rare and unrealesed Bob Marley songs.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Blues (Texas Blues) was something I overlooked for to many years. Again it is because it is not a popular genre. After getting into SRV I felt like i lost 20 years of my life. Because I should have been listening to him since around 1989 when In Step was released. Great Blues Rock album. Stevie Ray Vaughan made an impact on music with his incredible guitar riffs and his love for playing the guitar.

Sublime -

Bradley Nowell