Like many of us, I woke up to the news that Grant Hart from Husker Du had passed away.  The first time I heard Husker Du was off the "Never Mind the Mainstream: The Best of MTV's 120 Minutes, Vol. 2". (Looking at the track listing, I'm pretty sure this album is how I first discovered other bands too, but that's a story for another time.)  I was a bit late to the party on the band, admittedly.

I read the news last night about Chris Cornell passing away, just a few minutes before I went to bed.  I’d only seen one or two links, to sites I quickly dismissed as basically click-bait.  While I didn’t write it off as hoax entirely, I didn’t dwell on it too much either.  And I went to sleep.  

Then I woke up today and saw that the news was real. Chris Cornell had passed away.  And it sunk in.

The lineup for this year’s Concert In The Park season was announced the other day.  And as usual some people have begun with the usual complaints: I’ve never heard of those acts, they can’t possibly be local, CITP isn’t promoting Sacramento artists like it should, etc.

Is that true? Or are people just complaining because they’re upset that THEY weren’t chosen to play CITP?  Is CITP supporting (mostly) local Sacramento acts? Let’s find out.

PUNK / HARDCORE / INDIE / EMO CD’S FOR SALE!

A friend of mine passed away a few months back; I’m helping his mom sell the music collection. All funds are going via GoFundMe to an elementary school in San Francisco that Michael was supporting. Deals for multiple purchases considered but please no low-ball offers; the money is all going to a very worthy cause.

If you live between Sacramento and San Francisco I'm happy to coordinate a hand-off. For far away people, there will be some sort of shipping costs involved.

Most everything is punk/indie/emo/hardcore stuff. All CD’s are used but in excellent shape unless otherwise noted. Many more CDs (and possibly vinyl) will be posted as soon as I have time to go thru and price it all. Any questions, just ask. (Prices are based on current sales from Discogs mostly.) Thanks.

Last summer my friend Michael Blair passed away. I met Michael several years ago at a show via a mutual friend; I think we were watching Far at Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco, during the Noise Pop festival.  We chatted a bit about bands and such, but nothing substantial (though it was clear we both liked a lot of the same bands).  I kept running into Michael (via the same mutual friend) at show after show. Refused at The Warfield, The Promise Ring at Fillmore, Texas Is The Reason / The Jealous Sound at Bimbo’s and on and on.

A friend asked this on her FaceBook page earlier: “How do you start listening to music each day? What device? What app? What speakers? What time? How do you choose what to play?” Here was my response:

Devin Townsend is a genius. I just learned that today; I'm behind the times a bit. A lot. Anyway...

I've never spent a ton of time listening to Devin's bands, other than some Strapping Young Lad songs here and there.  I've enjoyed everything I've heard from him, but overall it just kind of fell thru the cracks as bands do sometimes for me (too much good music, not enough time).

Fun night playing DJ at KDVS for a few hours. They keep asking me to start a regular weekly show playing local music over there; I really wish I had the time to do so.  You can catch a recording of the show here.

Here's what I played...