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My Musical History
Current mood:  adventurous
In my house growin up, there was always music playing. Family gatherings essentially could have been considered mini blugrass/blues/country/rock concerts. Since everyone in my family played. I mean EVERYBODY. Its just what we did.
When that wasnt going on, Music was still playing. My dad had an immense record and CD collection back in the ultra early 80's. There were parties at our house on an almost weekly basis. At these parties you would hear everything from Al Green to Prince to Neil Young to Rod Stewart.
When that wasnt going on, the stereo still was. Dad listened to a heavy rotation of Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Steppenwolf, The Beatles and all kinds of other 60s and 70s rockers and folk / Protest singers.
My mom was always listening to Rod Stewart, Al Green, Emmy lou Harris and Patsy Cline.
My Dad was a Protest Rocker, My Mom was R&B and Country (Mostly) but they crossed back and forth constantly. The only thing my dad didn't listen to was Opera and Disco. (And I still don't blame him for that)
My dad always made me tapes of Neil Young to listen to. I seem to remember always listening to Neil Young. Its practically ingrained in me as a person now. My dads music taught me to appreciate music with a message as well as songwriting. Unique songwriting. Real songwriting. Which to this day is a must if I'm going to enjoy music.
Moms music made me appreciate facets of pop music. Im sure it would have been more effective than it was, but quite honestly my Dad usually was in control of the music.
Around 8 or 9 (1988-9)I started listening to San Francisco's Modern Rock Station, LIVE 105.3 .
This was way before it was bought out by the corporation that runs it now. This is back when Alex Bennett, Mark Hamilton and Steve Masters were running the show. Now you cant turn on the station without hearing shock jocks and Godsmack and Marilyn Manson.
but way back then You got to hear a lot of real off the wall stuff. And it was great. It opened up a whole new world of music for me.
Also around that time, I went to the Dublin library and got a copy of Depeche Mode's Black Celebration. I loved that CD and copied it to cassette and took it with me everywhere.
My Dads best friend was into Ministry. And he gave me my first job. Painting apartments with him. I made my first hundred bucks with that guy and He Introduced me to Ministry. which I still love to this day.
My family friend was a DJ who was really into the alternative scene, and one day at a garage sale he had a bunch of old mix tapes that he made for his gigs and he let me have. Those tapes introduced me to the Two Tone Ska Bands. The Specials, Madness, Lets Go Bowling etc etc.
I wasnt entirely immune to the stuff all the kids at school were listening to however... I somehow did manage to own a copy of Kriss Kross's debut cassette as well as C+C Music Factory and if my memory serves me, Young MC. That period didn't last too long. as by the time I was in 6th grade I had discovered Primus.
Primus was noise to me at first. My cousin loved them, and introduced them to me. And the more he played them, the more I loved them. It was unique. and Humorous. which is what I thrived on. Everything had to be funny to me. I wanted to be a comedian at that age. so you do the math.
This is the same cousin who introduced me to Nine Inch Nails one summer. at the time I had heard Head Like A Hole, and thought it was neat. But never really paid much attention to it. My cousin went to a Broken era show, and recorded it on his little Walkman recorder. The sound quality was horrid. and It didnt leave a good impression on me about the band. I forgot about them for a moment. The next year back in school, my friend showed me a copy of his new cassette of The Downward Spiral. I thought it looked awesome. Asked if I could borrow it... he said no. So I Figured out a way to get a copy of it.
That record scared me at that age. It blew my mind, but I wasn't used to so much profanity and dark subject matter.
It wasn't until around 1994, when my parents moved our family out of the bay area down to Paso Robles to the country house. 20 minutes from town by car. And even further by bike. I hated it there. I had been taken out of the bay area that I was really starting to love and understand as a mega music hub. They moved me to a town where everyone either listened to Dr Dre or Alan Jackson. Anything I played confused everyone. and was abruptly changed...
Then I met my friend Aaron. He was into "Crazy weird music" like me. And was a few years older. He was really into NIN and showed me a lot of their catalog. and informed me that Nine Inch Nails was pretty much a one man band that Did everything with the help of computers. This fascinated me, since I had been on computers at a very young age and loved them and anything electronic with a passion.
From that point on both of us together really got into the Industrial music scene. between the both of us combined, I'm pretty sure we owned the entire wax trax back catalog. I really clung to Front 242 and Ministry. And Nine Inch Nails became a staple in everyday listening. I still loved Primus. So much that by the time I was finished my Freshman year at Paso Robles High School, everybody knew me as "Mud". mostly because I was always singing that song.
Then NIN released Dead Souls on the Crow Soundtrack. This caused me to discover the Entity now known as Joy Division. That opened up a whole world of post punk and goth rock that I had only dabbled in breifly before with bands like The Cure and Bauhaus.
Also in 94 I learned that Depeche Mode had released "Songs of Faith and Devotion" which quickly became my favorite record of all time. and still is to this day.
Around this time, everyone on the Central Coast started listening to Ska. This wasn't the Ska that I was so in love with that I had been introduced to a few years earlier... this was pure crap nonsense that all sounded the same. I quickly rebelled against it. and refused to play any Ska at all with any of the bands that I was playing in. I refused to join the "I'm different just like you" crowd.
Around this time, I was playing in various incarnations of what was essentially the same band. We played a lot of wierd stuff. Noisy stuff... because quite frankly the other stuff bored me to death. But we dabbled in doing covers of artists like Tool and The Violent Femmes. But mostly we made a lot of noise. and it was great. although I was always frustrated because No one that I played with ever really got what I wanted to get across... It was also around this time that I became the DJ for whatever party was going on around the central coast within my group of friends.
By this time I had a huge speaker system and about 300 cds. So I was naturally the one that got to play the music.
Then I discovered MP3 websites. I remember downloading a copy of The Perfect Drug and thinking... this is amazing.. this is the future of music. right here. that MP3 took a couple hours to download on my 56K modem. Before that I had been sent samples of songs VIA BBS boards. and while I thought it was cool... I didnt really think it would replace records or cds.
Thats pretty much how things were up until 98 or so, when I turned 18. and Decided that I had had enough of the Central Coast. I moved back to Pleasanton where I grew up, pretty much without saying goodbye to anyone. I bought a synthesizer and a computer and started making my own music. With that computer I also had unlimited Internet access. which I pretty much had on all the time. That opened up a whole new world of music that I wasnt aware of. Or that I had heard of but couldnt get my hands on back on the Central Coast. All I had was two record stores in San Luis Obispo. Cheap Thrills (Which was AWESOME then, but not so much now) and BooBoos records.
Back in Pleasanton, everyone was getting into Incubus and Linkin Park and No Doubt. They also were really into Rage against the Machine. I never really took to any of those bands. It just didnt really strike a chord with me. I continued to listen to my Industrial music and everyone thought i was a wierdo for it. I worked on my own music more and more.
Around that time, I showed one of my old bandmates some of my demos... and his reaction was "Dave, this sounds exactly like what you were trying to get us to do when we all played together. but we didnt get it. This is great"
That made my day.
Also around this time, Napster was starting to happen. Then my computer was really running at full capacity.
Throughout the early 2000s I listened to a Lot of Industrial and New rock acts like APC and the Deftones. Just before i moved to san diego in 2003 I heard Fischerspooner. This band was marvelous. and I had to show it to everyone. The problem was... in San Diego... only a couple people cared. The rest only seemed to listen to whatever thier friends were listening to. And that happened to be EMO. which I detested. This caused my roomate and I not to see eye to eye. And he took it personal because I didnt care for acts like bright eyes and pinback.
The one act he did seem to really like that I introduced him to was The Postal Service. and then that was all I heard for the next 6 months. The Postal Service. bleck.
Then there was about a year where I followed a couple acts around, like Interpol with my then girlfriend. That period of life is kinda blurry because I was in a pretty miserable situation.
around 2005 I moved to the Fresno area where I started DJing A LOT. I started my own club night with a buddy. Clup Popsmear. Fresnos Indie Dance Solution. we had some good numbers out there. But I had to contend with the goth crowd. Because lets face it... In Fresno theres not much of alternative anything. So the Goth crowd descended upon us. Needless to say... The Goth crowd and I had a love hate relationship. I played a mixture of music. Goth/Indie/Classic Rock/Pop/Industrial. and they just wanted to hear Goth and New Wave. They didnt even want to hear the Oldschool Industrial that I loved. I refused to play the New Industrial mainly because I think that New Industrial blows. But thats not what this novel is about. So I wont get started on that.
From Popsmear, I went to promoting live shows. I figured if no one was gonna bring the hottest indie acts to the central valley, a perfect stop between LA and SF. Then I would.
I brought all kinds of awesome acts from not only all over the US, but All over the world. I quickly gained notoriety for being on the cutting edge of Fresnos music scene. Joymodes Productions and Club Popsmear were two forces to be reckoned with. We put on two Nine Inch Nails afterparties, one combined with Fresno Goth and the other on our own. A She Wants Revenge Album release party and a few tour kick off parties for a various bands.
Around this time I was playing a lot of Justice, Digitalism, Metric, MSTRKRFT, The Editors and anything else that was exciting me at the time.
With the demise of the despicable organization known as Fresno Goth, our crew decided that Fresno needed an underground organization. A website that was all things alternative for the Central Valley. We built the now defunct WWW.THEFRESNOUNDERGOUND.COM We asked members of any alternative movement to join us as members and partners. Our goal was to make Fresno a known music scene in California. It worked for a while, but inner turmoil amongst members and partners tore the Organization apart. and the site was closed only about a year after it was made public.
Somewhere along this period of time, I started photographing bands, and served for a brief period (just over a year) as Visual Director and Manager for the Industrial rock act known as INSECT. in early 2007 we parted ways. and I moved back to the bay area. For most of 2007 I didnt do much in the music world other than occasionaly add to my MP3 Blog at WWW.MODMODMOD.TV . Then in late 2007 I got back together with who would soon become my wife that I had dated off and on for the last 8 years.
I moved to LA. Got Married. and Then started a media company that focuses ..ing bands and Independant labels with visual propaganda for thier artists. such as filming in High Definition and HD Audio recordings, as well as album cover design and logos.
Now im in mid 2008. Starting a media company. working with a few bands on a few different levels. Pimping out new music to people wherever and whenever I can. Trying to find the time to work on my own music.
Some of the recent acts ive been working with are, Division Day, Wallpaper, Great Northern, The Telepathic and I was working on the new Insect album artwork but thats recently been shelved because of some inner issues between the band and I. Im supposed to be filming Ashes Divide when they come back to California, but well see how that all pans out. Pretty quickly I need to fly up to San Francisco to shoot some film for a really great up and coming band called The Telepathic.
So thats the long story.
You want the short story?
Neil Young
Rod Stewart
Depeche Mode
Ministry
Nine Inch Nails
Joy Division
The Cure
A Perfect Circle
Fischerspooner
Digitalism
Justice
Ladytron
Great Northern
Wallpaper
A Place to Bury Strangers
9:43 AM
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