Dear Friends,
I am really counting these days down with a mixture of sadness, curiosity, relief, and wonder. Like, I wonder what comes next. When you do something for over 1000 straight days, you start to rely on it.
Like breathing.
Obviously, I hope to continue breathing. I will also continue to write. Nothing, however, is guaranteed. Only one more Saturday blog left.
*****
I really am considering going the month of January without TV. I don’t know why, and I may not do it, but I feel like I need to come up with some new challenge for myself. Maybe I’ll only watch TV if I am exercising. Riding the bike, using the rowing machine, something like that. That’s a good trade off.
*****
The kids were good yesterday, and we had a good last day before the break. I even got a few “I love you’s” as they walked out the door and one of them got me the coolest box of holiday socks. I’m so stoked on them.
Over the break, I am going to work on getting a little bit ahead and ready for next quarter. Why not make my life easier.
*****
Rhondi and I had dinner last night and it was disappointing on several levels. I usually like the place we went to, but the sandwich I got was chewy and not in a good way. I’m hoping it was just an off night, but when you spend almost $100 some place for dinner for two, it should be really good. Even in this day and age.
It is strange to have to re-adjust to living together, but I guess it makes sense. Even though we have been married for 18 years, being apart as much as we have in the last few years has definitely got us into some strange patterns of miscommunication, defensiveness, and frustration. Luckily, we are both committed to always making things better.
*****
I’m looking forward to gathering with the S’s and J’s today. It’s our holiday gathering and gift exchange. I hope my offering is well received. I feel like it embodies the spirit of our ‘handmade’ gifts this year.
*****
There were times in the late 90s and early 2000s when I would go to Hillbilly practice with a new riff, share it, and then Shane would ask me, “Have you been listening to Hammerhead?”
This was more than a couple of times.
Hammerhead was a huge influence on me for about a decade back then and really still are, but I eventually stopped trying to rip them off. Eventually, I got to where I could recognize it myself when I was stealing from them. Paul Erickson’s (aka Apollo Liftoff) bass playing was hugely influential to me.
I was lucky enough to see Hammerhead several times. We never got to play with them, but we did play with Vaz, the two-piece band that Erickson and drummer Jeff Mooridian Jr. did after Hammerhead disbanded the first time. Both acts were excellent live and for me, an almost religious experience.
I like all the Hammerhead releases, but I think Into the Vortex from 1994 is my favorite. This is a band that knew how to flex its muscles without looking like they were flexing, so a record like Into the Vortex will completely sneak up on you if you are not paying close attention.
Case in point, this morning I was listening to it and fully engaged during the totally rockin’ “Swallow” and “The Starline Locomotive” but got distracted by work stuff and kind of went on autopiiot for several songs before “Double Negative” completely snapped me back into the reality of why I love Hammerhead so much.
The song is so heavy and has just the perfect fuzziness to it that when it really starts to kick in around the 2 minute mark, it’s completely captivating. It’s not the best song on the record by any stretch of the imagination, but it did remind me of the power the trio had. Paul Sanders was on guitar on this record and he was really great about knowing when to just go off and when to hang in there with Erickson and Mooridian Jr. and create the heaviest rhythm dirges.
“Empty Angel” has this type of thing going on. It holds back and holds back and then boom. You are knocked on your ass. It’s glorious.
Lord knows I love a good power trio and Hammerhead definitely was right up there with the best for me. The first time I saw them was opening for Helmet and Quicksand at the Mason Jar in 1992. I’ve written about this show a few times here at the old Erg. Mis., but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it again.
Dedicated readers will recall that I was blown away by the fact that here were three bands that were super heavy and not a long hair in sight on stage. It was all dudes with short hair (maybe one of the Quicksand guys was a hessian). I was so used to only hair farmers being in heavy bands.
“Empty Angel” and “Galaxy 66” are both so goddamn great. I’m so tempted to used “Galaxy 66” as a template for writing a couple new Hillbilly songs. I just know that Shane will see right through me. When the “Galaxy 66” gallop comes in, it’s just magic to me.
I skipped over “Zesta” without really meaning to do so. It comes after “Starline Locomotive” and has this great line that I always key on: “Live alone/die alone.” If you listen closely you can get the real reason that Hammerhead was so good. Jeff Mooridian Jr. The guy is a great drummer. He fucking rules on “Zesta.”
“All This Is Yours” is THE quintessential Hammerhead song. I’m not sure that it gets much better than this one. “I wash my hands of this dirty world/It makes whores out of pretty girls.” The dudes in the band let it all hang out on this one.
“I wash my hands of this dirty world.”
It bears repeating.
The thing about this record is that it never gets old for me. While I may not always be in the mood for Hammerhead, if they pop up randomly on some playlist I have made or I think about them, I’m always sucked right into their records. I suspect I always will be.
*****
See you tomorrow.
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