Trailblazing Off the Beaten Tracks

We've had a lot of people ask where our podcast/blog ideas came from?  Okay, maybe only two or three people have asked...but I'm sure someone will actually want to know our story when we become famous.

I wish I could say we both came from mildly successful bands that faded into obscurity over time and were soon forgotten by the masses that remember when MTV actually played music videos...and not just between 1am and 5am.  Yup...that'd be awesome...but not true.

Nope, we're just a couple guys that would rather sit around talking about music than working.  If I could find a job where I got to listen to music all day and talk about it, give suggestions to make it different (and hopefully better) and people would actually want to know my opinion, I'd be very happy.  However, said position does not exist in my life, so here I am hitting the keys on this keyboard in hopes that you'll keep reading further down the page.

Steve can at least play the drums and guitar.  Me?  I play a great record player.  I don't really like the radio any more...too much over the top "popular" music set on repeat every time a new DJ comes on the air.  I'm pretty sure these guys love their jobs after a few days of a new single being released and having to play it 40 billion times...right.

What I completely lack in all musical talent, I make up for with love and passion for music.  And not just one particular flavor of music.  Life would be boring with just red, yellow and blue crayons...so Crayola came along and gave us shades.  Baskin Robbins probably makes a fortune off of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry ice cream...but they blew up the market with 31 flavors...not three.  There's so much music to listen out there in the world...why would you want to limit yourself all the time to just one type?

I bet your type of music has more than one flavor to it anyway...you just never looked at it that way.  It's how I look at music all the time...like an emotion.  Since my emotions change every day, my musical taste does as well.  If I'm really happy, I'm not about to drop the needle on some dark death metal band screaming about how their puppy loves them and how flowers are pretty...or whatever it is they scream about...who can understand that anyway?  If I'm upset, I'm either going to choose a band or album that keeps me in that mood or takes me away from that mood.

This isn't any different than the people you hang out with.  If you're in for crazy fun, you'll call Bill.  If you're in a sit at the bar staring at a glass mood, you'll call Jerry.  You don't spend time with Fred if you're in a happy mood because he'll just complain about how he's overweight and his girlfriend left him...like eight years ago...don't bring me down, dude!

You get the idea...

Listening to records for me is like hanging out with my friends.  Only it's people I've never met that are insanely rich and famous and who will never talk to me.  But they've shared their feelings with all of us and opened their lives and thoughts and dreams to us.  Not that all songs make a lick of sense or have any ounce of reality and honesty in them, but again...you know what I mean.

I love music a ton.  It plays in the background of my life.  It's how I remember moments in my story...how I remember certain events or people.  Most people in my life are associated with at least one song.  When I hear that song, I think of that person.  Sometimes it's one song or maybe a band.  Other times it's a number of songs that remind me of several memories about a person.  One song triggers one memory and then my mind floats around and things back to lots of other small events...sometimes connected and sometimes not.

Steve and I found, after a short time of knowing each other, that we have a lot in common.  One of those commonalities was music interests.  We listen to a lot of different things, but oddly enough, we were familiar with a lot of what the other guy was listening to.  And not just "hey, I've heard that song."  I'm talking "hey, I've heard that song...own the album...read a book or article about them...know all their albums...they sound like this...etc,etc."

Yes, we're music nerds.  I'm fine with that.  Anyway...as we talk about music or bands or some random song we heard, we started to realize we were having amazing conversations...at least in our minds.  Too bad we can't remember everything we've ever said...oh wait, you can record yourselves now.

So how did that end up being Off the Beaten Tracks?  Some of the music we really love is not exactly well known...not on the radio...and sometimes not even remembered as being recorded by a band.  Who remembers what Zepplin recorded after Houses of the Holy?  Did you know Black Sabbath existed after Dio?  I mean, I know Tony Iommi wishes it hadn't...but I've got the album to prove it was around.  Anyone remember Monster Magnet?  Have you heard of Spirit?  You will soon enough...

Some great music was created and recorded by big and small bands that have fallen off the listening queue for most people.  I blame the radio/media that always jumps to the next newest, biggest thing and for the ever changing world we live in.  You have to be huge...like Beatles, Stones, or even Aerosmith...to be remembered for a very long time.  Count on your hand...not hands...how many Blue Oyster Cult songs you know.  Everyone has a fever for more cowbell....but do you know why?

This is what we wanted to do for people...introduce the obscure, but great to people.  And not just obscure to be obscure...not just one hit wonders obscure.  Sometimes life events happened to bands and they changed and people stopped paying attention.  Sometimes the music world changed and someone no longer got airplay.  That doesn't mean album was terrible...just forgotten.  Happens all the time...and we're going to try our best to bring those albums into the light.

So dust off your record players...take a look through your old collection...see if you have what we've got in ours and join us for a journey Off the Beaten Tracks!

Welcome to Off The Beaten Tracks

We've all heard the mainstream albums out there.  You know the ones that dominate the radio and what used to be "M"TV.  Those are the albums that get played to death and ruined.  Everyone has heard them, even if they don't know who they are listening to.

This blog is going to look outside of that.  We may talk about popular bands, but we'll focus on an underappreciated recording if we do.  More likely, we'll look at fringe artists who had a small taste of popularity and the music they made.

But it's more than just the music.  We'll talk about who influenced these bands and who they influenced.  We'll talk about what was happening in the world at the time of the recordings and how they fit into the world.

As good as it would be to write this all down, and we will from time to time, this will be even better in podcast form.  Links will be coming once we get something recorded.  We aim to be at least monthly in our discussions, hopefully more frequently once we get rolling.

This will be pretty free form.  Just a group of people who love music talking about something they love.  We hope you enjoy the ride