Ah music, my first love. It's been almost 10 years since my failed attempt to get my band going, but i won't get into that. I have a very broad spectrum of influences, that sometimes clash with each other, but i think that's what makes me appreciate it all. I'll start off by saying i'm a die hard Maiden fan, 80's version of course, although i now forgive them for taking the entire 90's off. My tastes though go back to The Who, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin of the late 60's and into the 70's. We're talking mostly hard rock here which continued into the late 70's and early 80's with Rush, Iron maiden, and the rest of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands.
At the same period of time you also had some of my favorite punk bands starting of course with The Ramones, The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Jam, The Damned, and The Police. The mid 80's ushered in my favorite Bay Area thrash bands such as Metallica, Exodus, Slayer, Anthrax(from NY), and Sepultura(from Brazil). During this time there were some fantastic punk bands like Bad Religion, Black Flag, The Descendents, and Husker Du. I cannot forget to Mention Operation Ivy, which only put out 1 album before they broke up, later forming half of Rancid.
It's about this time that i got my first cassette tape, which happened to be a compilation of a few bands from Sub Pop records and SST. My best friend gave it to me as he was so into a few bands i never heard of, namely Soundgarden and Nirvana. Well the rest is history as you know. Unfortunately once those bands became huge, we stopped listening to them. We were against MTV, as i still am, and we hated what they turned into. For the record, i love Bleach, and still think it's their best album.
Ahh the mid 90's and my first live show. It was 100 degrees and 100 teenagers, including yours truly, crammed into a small club in central Jersey to see a little known local band called The Bouncing Souls. They were from the same area as i was, they looked like me, and they blew me away. It's one of those weird things that some people don't understand. When you're there from the ground floor with your favorite band that you know and have spoken to, there's nothing like it and you're hooked for life. You can throw Face To Face, NOFX, And Bombshell Rocks into there also.
There are a few bands that i love or find influential from the 90's that i haven't mentioned yet. These bands are a little hard on the ears if you don't know what to listen for. Carcass brought us Heartwork and Entombed brought us Wolverine Blues. Those 2 albums influenced every band today, even to the point of flat out ripping off riffs. I should also mention Iced Earth and Blind Guardian for reviving 80's metal.
Wow long post is long. Any who here's 2 vids. Op Ivy vids are really poor quality as most were bootlegged, so a track vid will have to do.
My favorite album of 2009
New Brunswick NJ's own since 1987
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