Empire Of Dirt......

It was tuesday night when we flew in…. my road dog Paul and I…. our ship had hit a cow on the way in….the mood was very tense….If we pull over, the gestapo is going to want aboard and I'm not getting busted on alien territory with weed….again…soooo…. we decided to keep pushing forward…. when we landed, it was chaos… Reptilians everywhere, and someone kept feeding booze to these goddamn animals! Tracers shot every which way, and in the distance, all I could see was flamethrowers and the echoing sounds of "WEEEEEEE!" in the distance… I knew I was in over my head….

Around that very time, I saw sasquatch….. No fooling…the real deal…. he wasn't blurry…but he was throwing up on himself. I felt bad for the dude…. He did, however, leave an open seat for me at the bar…so I walked up with my double styrofoam cup….

I bellied up to the bar, looked the bartender straight in the eyes, and said "look here, I don't like you….", then pointed to some dude who was unconscious in the stool next to me and said "My friend here don't like you either….now gimme something that's gonna make this hurt differently or I'll chop your hand off"….. The bartender gave me a hug and informed me that I should probably go to bed, so I did… and that's when I started to hallucinate….

On a usual night I can sleep in the cockpit of the ship with no problem, right through a meteor shower, but this night was different… As I lay down, the cabin windows lit up like Las Vegas as a giant beetle shuffled by, blasting trap music so loud that license plates sang like crickets into the desert air… It sounded like bourbon street out there… I had no choice but to wonder why I was such a terrible person, and then venture out….

I made my way to a Lazer pyramid only to discover that it was just a mirage, and now I was stuck with the daunting task of walking all the way home piss drunk with my mind shattering into a thousand pieces…..

 I kept walking and walking and hallucinating harder and harder and had this realization that I don't give back enough, that I'm too harsh on others, and that I should make the best of my life in the short time that I'm here…. But most importantly, I realized that I should get to my spaceship before daylight so I don't get arrested.   I made it back….and the whole ship smelled like pizza… I thought about home, I thought about life…I thought about everything I loved…and then I fell asleep….

When I awoke, it was sunday…and everything in sight had been burnt to ashes…. I searched for all of the beautiful things I had seen but they were gone… I began to feel terrible, but then I felt relieved….and lucky to have seen them at all…

We packed up the ship the next morning and put it into hyperdrive, and I said a prayer…

"Dear god…. thank you for everything you've bestowed on my most prosperous journey… and forgive me for all the hearts I've broken, people I've wronged, and all the bikes I've stolen when I was too drunk to walk home…. thank you for letting me see another day…"

before I knew it, I was back on my home planet in the mercury mine….breaking my back, wishing I was back there in the desert losing my mind…..


this mix is dedicated to one of my most favorite places in the world… a place where I've laughed, I've cried….I've completely lost my shit…but subsequently found so much more… This is dedicated to the Black Rock desert…. Where you build something beautiful, and burn it the fuck down… Loving and letting go, just like the most precious things in life that you have to love and let go… your family, your friends… it all goes away in the end, so enjoy it to the fullest while you have it.… Come on out…….you can have it all….my empire of dirt…






tracklisting:


NyQuil    (uses "drugs" sample from denis leary)
C2c - Mack the knife (tribute to Louis Armstrong)
Skeewif- Moscow Mule
Stone temple Pilots- Interstate Love Song (jPOD remix)
John Denver- Country Roads (pretty lights remix)
Harry Mclinton- Big rock candy mountain (jPOD remix)
Nirvana- Plateau (dj laura remix)
Brazilian girls- pussy (mr jennings remix)
Fats Woller- Ain't misbehavin' (pippo remix)
Seals and Crofts- Summer breeze (barbaric merits remix)
Boards of Canada- Roygbiv (drankenstein remix)
Minnesota- Astral Projection
Kanye West- Flashing lights instrumental
Fine cut Bodies- Beaver blink (ooah remix)
Charlie Chaplin's final speech from 'The Great Dictator'
Pink Floyd- time (pretty lights remix)
Gold Panda- Marrigage (star slinger remix)
Neil Young- Old man (funk hunters remix)
Mumford and Sons- Little Lion man (hot young girls remix)
Fleetwood Mac- The Chain (funk hunters remix)

No brains, no headaches....

Lately I've been so mentally drained… In the past couple months, I've been across 12 states, left my hometown of 28 years, left my job of 4 years, and decided to brave the wild in the wildest of the west to try to live a better life…. It's a huge opportunity for me, but it still feels strange.  I've been having this huge mental block lately, where I don't know what to say or do, and I can't seem to figure out why. Change? stress? who knows. It's eating me up, though. I just decided that the best way to work through it was to pick fun sounds out and arrange them together in a way that's gotta be so silly that there's no way you can keep a straight face grooving to them. It was some night in some other state, playing to a huge room full of nobody, that I realized that this whole profession can be so tiring if you're not playing to have fun and making yourself smile before trying to be the cool guy.  I'm sick of people taking music so seriously, why the fuck do I wanna be locked up in a room full of dudes scratching their chins waiting to be impressed? I definitely don't. So in the name of good fun, I fired up the old recorder and whipped through some of my favorite funky tunes to groove to, and slapped out this mix. 1 take, a couple fuckups, but the message is clear: I don't give a fuuuuuck.  I'm just out here trying to get my swerve on and have a good motherfuckin' time.  Shut your mind off and tap your foot. No brains, no headaches! So here it is. Wild west intergalactic Turf Swing. I hope space aliens listen to this shit in the hills while they mine for mercury to power their intergalactic low riders, with the license plates rattling like diamondbacks. Most of all, though, I just hope to put a smile on some faces while I try to break this funk. Big ups to outer space, big ups to the desert, and big ups to oakland, for all the inspiration. Much love to you all. cheers. :)

TL:

Dorrough- IDGAF (quarry vs tyler the tastemaker remix)

Koan sound- max out

drake- the motto

Tipper- Off kilter

Koan sound- Meanwhile in the future

Bart simpson- Do the bartman

Dads on Display- Boom Bap

Wick it the instigator- Beastie mouse

matt miller- gravel pit (flume remix)

tool- 46 &2 (blunt instrument remix)

culprate- finger

Squirrel nut zippers Vs An-ten-nae- Crunk in hell

Kotch- Bucovina

dads on display- Tickle the ivories

Ratchet- Kan Krush3r <====(heat!!)

groove fellaz- struck by funk

tipper- Covered in lobsters

Ray charles- good times (opiou remix)

Ray charles- what Id say (bobby c remix)

benny goodman- Sing sing sing (nick thayer remix)

harry belafonte- Jump in line ( codes remix)

E-40 vs johnny cash- Tell me when to fire (disco tech remix)

Fatboy slim- praise you 

Relocating

I know it's been a hot minute since I've updated. After I got back home from the road, I took a minute to wind down, and ended up getting a great offer to the lovely city of Oakland, California. I've lived in Sacramento my whole life, and I'm so tired of this bullshit city that it's unreal. I will miss the tweekers harvesting copper in the evenings, and the sweltering evening temperatures that incite passion into young lusting mosquitos and gang members feverishly set tripping on each other in the musty summer nights. Most of all though, real talk, I'll miss my family, but I'm only a stone's throw away. When you spend as much time in a car as a guy like me, an hour and a half aint shit. I've done hard time in a car, trust me. Not balling out will do that to you over the years. I've been traveling back and forth between the bay for years, so this is a welcome change. In the coming weeks, you can expect a brand new mix, and I hope my new relocation provides me with plenty of time to do the things I love to do and put out some new music soon.   For the longest time, I sat out here with no real goals or plans to get out, and it just feels like my time has come. Sacramento is a great city, and I will miss it. Here's to the future though. cheers.

...and that's a wrap

                                                             photos by Paul Plescov

We left South Dakota, after a minor car fire,  with a warm goodbye from our new friends and headed back through minnesota, and then on to the cheese laden motherland of Wisconsin. I bullshitted with Paul about visiting a cheese factory for shits and giggles, so we pulled over at the first one we saw. Apparently we were 3 minutes late, and were promptly not let in. Now that's hospitality for ya!  Cheeseless and irritated, we lit up a fatty to ease the pain, and just then, a state trooper who was parked on the side of the highway, pulled out and got behind us. A million things crossed my mind…. we had overcome so much to get here… and never once was I worried…. I  saw the car catch on fire with all my music and computer inside, and I didn't stress…. but being locked up in an alien state and eating hologram meat sandwiches didn't sound like the business at all and it rattled me. 

Calmly we drove forward, and the trooper miraculously disappeared, and unlike my brothers in la banda del carro rojo, we made it into chicago with no challenges or no police shootouts. Thanks, lucky stars. In Chicago, we were greeted by our good friends at m13 graphics with dinner and a tour of the factory. It was like the scene from Scarface, where Tony Montana goes to the cocaine manufacturing plant….but with pretty little rave flyers and posters of an upcoming club night with the guy from Jersey Shore dj'ing.  Sounded like a fist pumping good time, but I think I'll pass.  

I got my first gaze of the windy city, shortly after dusk, and it looked like infinite neon stacks of casino chips  for as far as my eyes could see. It was glorious. A city teeming with life, chocked to the brim with tough guys and six million ways to destroy your arteries. I called it chi-clog-o due to every establishment serving cheese fries and italian beef. I could see how a guy could easily start a couple rackets here, setup shop, gain 300 pounds, and become quick with a tommy gun out here. So much to do and see. We took two solid days to ourselves to ride the crowded L train, see the giant mirror bean, smoke pot on the 96th floor of the hancock building, and various other acts of pure jackassery. I loved it. One day at sunset we went to the shore of lake Michigan overlooking the city, and blasted off on Deemster. While watching the sunset over the city, seeing the sun go to bed, and the city come alive with a galaxy of streetlights and neon signs, I just got the vibe that god was telling me "look what we did here, son" . man can do anything  when he applies himself. 2 nights later, we were on the road again. I love chicago, such a cool city.

We landed in duluth and played a wicked party at an old steel mill, and were treated like hawaiian kings by the lovely people of Duluth, Minnesota. Amazing people, and an amazing time. I can't wait to go back there someday.  The next morning we made our way to Fargo, North Dakota, the drunkest city Ive ever seen, and played a small get together in a basement. It was a good time and the people were super grateful. We hit the road in the morning, bittersweet about the tour ending.

After a quick stay in montana, and a night at a bar full of high proof slushy machines, the tour was over. As we speak, we're headed west to california at light speed. I'll be honest, I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss waking up to J.R. and Paul playing angry birds in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. I'm gonna miss smoking blunts and looking over the prarie, just like sitting bull once did. I'm gonna miss people not afraid to tell you about their hopes and dreams of having something to do every night like we do in california. I'm gonna miss all the high calorie, wisconsin dairy-laden food. I'm gonna miss it all.  Life on the road is great, you get to to be yourself, and learn about who other people are. You get to sleep in strange places and wake up in even stranger ones. If anything, this trip solidified my love for people, and my patriotism for this great country. I don't give a fuck about the shifty government, America is a beautiful country, chocked to the brim with good people everywhere, just like you and I, that are all just trying to survive and keep their heads up, whether or not they get to dance in front of a laser as much as they would like to. America, fuck yeah. Land of the free, home of the brave. I hope we showed some of America a little bit of California love. Cheers.

South dakota

Got into rapid city on sunday afternoon, and setup in a decent size club, but just as we were sound checking, some emo dude who looked like ryan seacrest started bitching about the promoter not paying enough to rent the venue, so they were  shutting it down before it even started.  I inquired to see what the problem was, and indeed this noob promoter didn't pay the venue enough money, and he didn't promote enough to have a lot of people coming, so we quickly assessed the situation and decided that it would be optimal to get paid and dip out, but the promoter was so sad about the financial loss that he wanted us to play at his house. Sure, no problem, I don't like taking money for nothing, but I gotta tell you, it sounded great to just cut at that point.  We decided, however, to oblige the fella and rolled all the way out to the bumfuck gambling town of Deadwood SD, the same town that wild bill hickock was shot to death and home to all types of old western folklore.  We got there, and again, were told there would be no music, for some reason, but instead smoke countless blunts and got to know a handful of people in homeboy's garage.

Again, it was the same thing; good people just like you and I, stuck in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, just looking to have a good time to no avail. I sympathized, in that place, although the black hills seem to be a much more liberal area of south dakota due to the biker influence. 

While in the garage socializing with good people, the promoter kept chiming in about a million reasons his show didn't succeed. No scene there, lack of venues, no Ins, etc. We then offered MUCH helpful advice, and even showed this guy where to find parties in his own fucking town. He just kept shrugging off the good advice like a shitty restauranteur dodging the honest advice from Gordon Ramsey. He knew the recipes. His recipes were good. He couldn't figure out why people weren't eating his food, and making up irrelevant excuses as to why there was nobody in his restaurant. Take a recipe from some chefs, motherfucker, there's a hair in your soup, and you need to stop adding salt. That's all I have to say about that.

Effortlessly hundreds of dollars heavier, we set sail in the morning for Mount Rushmore. Carl and I bullshitted about how he could bring outdoor events to south dakota that would rule (i agree, shit is untapped out there!)  and made it through a couple of white grape flavored blunts as we wound our way up through the snaking roads of the black hills. In my head,all I could see were past images of old bearded prospectors breaking their backs with pickaxes to find tiny gold nuggets that would later become the jagged horseshoe nugget rings on the chubby fingers of old men sitting at card tables across this great country.

As we wound up the back of the highest peak, we swung across  to the left and I got my first peak at one of the greatest honkey cracker monuments of freedom that this country has to offer, and I took it all in…. or maybe it was smoke, I don't know. I will say this, it's something to see. George washington gazing across the prarie, looking over his vast hemp fields, and his 3 amigos co signing his cold steel hundred mile stare. Roosevelt  bore an astonishing resemblance to Ned Flanders. I felt like a hairy american winning machine. "we're gonna kick you indians out and blast our faces onto your motherfucking mountain!" now that's freedom!

We said our prayers, ate our vitamins, pumped iron in front of all 4 presidents, and bid farewell to mount rushmore, headed for the badlands of South Dakota. In my town, badlands is a buff australian firefighter themed gay bar, so I was wary, but when we arrived, I was absolutely blown away. It looked like mordor and the grand canyon combined. An ocean floor from 4 million years ago that sprawled for as far as the eye can see. I felt like I was among sacred geometry. 

Immediately, we climbed to the highest point we could find and blasted off on DMT. I peered down over 30 miles of jagged valley as the earth showed me its creation and how it formed, and showed me sacred symbols, and told me a story in patterns. I felt the mighty wind on my back, heard the birds singing their song across the empty valley, and then sobered up and realized that my fatass was standing on a motherfucking cliff a thousand feet up and 2 feet from certain death. It was epic, I felt compelled to stay silent, and it was the most alive Ive felt in ages. I will never forget that moment for as long as I live. Easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever set my own two eyes on. and now…. we're out. Thank you, south dakota, you are beautiful and I hope to be back again one day.

people are strange

Minneapolis was a fucking riot. 2,000 people, 30 foot wall of sound with Tipper playing, unreal! As awesome of a time and a city that it was, we had to keep on truckin' and made our way toward sioux falls, South Dakota. The whole ride there was flat and unremarkable, and when we finally got to sioux falls, it hardly stood out as a city at all. It seemed as if we'd arrived somewhere alien in 1988. It was sparse, full of tractor dealerships, and places to wet your whistle. We arrived at our rendezvous point, at the residence of the coolest motherfucking ice cream man of all time; who on a whim setup a little show for us. It was epic, playing at the south dakota  country music hall of fame. Of course, to an empty room, while the country band in the next room kicked out roadhouse anthem after roadhouse anthem, and people stared at me like some kind of hippie fag when I sauntered in to take a piss. It was gritty, and you know what? I get off on that shit. The 25 people that came through our doors that night who chose to forego the country band on their home turf are some fucking savages. The one thing I realized about being out here is that the people are a lot nicer, and a lot less egotistical, and when you meet people at a party; they're just like you. They don't give a rats ass, they just wanna listen to music and bug out, and it's the same everywhere, and I'm proud to know that. We made it through the show blitzed on bud light and sour diesel, stayed the night with the ice cream man and bullshitted on the late night, and had some of the best goddamned home made baked beans Ive ever had, and a taste of hospitality that I've rarely ever been shown on the west coast. Unreal.

Up next, we're headed to Rapid City, South Dakota on a 5 hour ride through majestic plains where the lakota indians used to hold court, and the open prarie where "Dances With Wolves" was filmed. There's absolutely nothing out here, and that's the beauty in my opinion, the wide open space. You could go your whole life out here only seeing a handful of people if you wanted to. That's not an option where I live. I hope rapid city goes well, but who gives a rats ass if it's a road house with chicken wire in front of the stage to prevent the at-will bombardment of budweiser bottles when the musical selections turn to their opinion of south. I just came here to have fun, not make a million dollars or play to a million people, and I can have fun anywhere. All I know is that whether or not I kill it tonight or get booed off the decks, I'm smoking a blunt at mount rushmore and I'm doing it for the indian chiefs who aren't around anymore to keep watch over their beloved south dakota.

Minnesota...

We arrived in minneapolis early and got some well needed rest before the show. When we arrived to the venue, we were greeted by one of the most beastly sound systems I've ever seen indoors. After being thoroughly intimidated, we went back to our hotel to get ready and chill for a few hours.

A few hours came and went, and I walked from my hotel down to the venue. It was early, and the line was around the block. After getting settled and having a beer, it was time to do do our thing, and nervously I made my way to the dj booth. I've played on some pretty big sound systems before, but this one took the cake. Slowly, people trickled in from all over the midwest and filled the room, and before I knew it, the hour was over and that was that. I didn't expect as much crowd response as we got, and all night I was getting sporadic high fives from strangers and girls grabbing my hair and pointing at my skin like I was some kind of blonde toddler in a japanese fishing village. It was strange.

Minnesota himself graced the decks and ripped the place apart. This man is easily my favorite stateside dubstep producer and he pretty much burned the motherfucker down last night. That guy is gonna do big things!

Up next, my good friend Carl "moon juice" warner was asked to open for the one and only Tipper. Nervously he warmed up a room full of a thousand people to some epic sing along jams and set the tone for the don himself.

Tipper hit the sound system with a motherfucking fury that words cannot explain. Ive seen Tipper and heard many live sets but none like this. At this point in the night I had the most god awful headache and I didn't even care, I sat right in front of the subs and had my chest cavity rattled by the most alien bass sounds this side of Orion's belt.  Epic. I've never heard bass like that before. If you looked at the crowd all you could see was a sea of wholesome midwestern folk absolutely losing their shit. What a time!

All in all, minneapolis was a huge success, and I wish more parties were like this. Minnesota goes hard, holy shit.