Monuments in Ruin – Episode 233 Part One (music podcast)
This week we are reliving an adventure experienced in 2004 when a small group of friends spent our Thanksgiving holiday weekend driving all along the east coast watching some of our favorite bands perform. Part one first takes us to Atlanta Georgia and then a return trip toward Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for the first part of our adventure! Tune in and travel along with us on episode 233 of Monuments in Ruin!
Total Miles Driven: 1,605 / Total Hours in the Car: 25 Hrs 45 Mins.
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(00:00) Monuments in Ruin – Episode 233 Part One Intro
(00:39) Vince Guaraldi Trio - Thanksgiving Theme
(04:08) Zach Bryan - Heading South
(06:54) Mastodon - Naked Burn
(10:35) Killswitch Engage - A Bid Farewell
(14:30) Slayer - Bloodline
(24:33) Willie Nelson - On The Road Again
(27:00) Gillian Welch - Tennessee
(36:47) Def Leppard - On Through The Night
(41:53) Zeke - On Through The Night
(43:24) Clutch - Super Duper
(52:19) Dead Kennedys - Stars and Stripes of Corruption
(59:59) Monuments in Ruin – Episode 233 Part One Outro
Would you drive 1600 miles to see a band perform?
~ Yes. Some things are a once in a lifetime opportunity.
~ No. That is way to far for my driving comfort zone.
Q: Have you ever been on a multi concert adventure that lasted more than two days? Tell me!
#VinceGuaraldiTrio #ZachBryan #Mastodon #KillswitchEngage #Slayer #WillieNelson #GillianWelch #DefLeppard #Zeke #Clutch #DeadKennedys
MIR 233 part one notes
Cleveland Tn to Atlanta Ga (2-1/2 hours @ 120 miles)
Atlanta Ga to Philadelphia Pa (12-1/2 hrs @ 777 miles)
States: Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Philadelphia
Vince Guaraldi Trio 1965 – What an absolute classic. Not only musically but the cartoon is still as loved today as ever. Good ol’ Chuck, depressed at the commercialism he sees going on during the Christmas season. He’s off to find what christens is all about. Charles M. Schulz has got to be proud of where the Peanuts gang has landed in historical reference.
Zach Bryan 2019 – I’m really enjoying this tune. I had never heard Zach Bryan before and started looking around for something to describe our trip south to the concert. Really neat lyric content about loud music and heading south. That summarized exactly what I was looking for. Certainly going to dig further into Zach Bryan and see what else is out there from him.
Mastodon 2004 – This was the reason we were headed south. Earlier in the year I had booked Mastodon in my hometown a week before the Leviathan album was released. They are based out of Atlanta, Georgia , by the way. They played the Leviathan album live at that show at it blew everyone away. What a neat moment it was to hear the new material before release day. Keep in mind, the way music is shared now is nowhere near the same and Mastodon had not broken through to the mainstream circuit yet. So now it’s a few months later and the album is massive, people are referencing them alongside names like Metallica and they are on tour with Slayer. Of course, we wanted to see this tour.
Killswitch Engage 2004 – At the time I was not really interested in this but the band was solid live and I think mixing bands like Mastodon with Killswitch Engauge helped everyone. It allowed a bit of mixing among the more mainstream artists and the heavier or progressive artists. Bands like System of a Down touring with Slayer later in the years, it all had an impact and if you check out the albums from that time it’s pretty obvious that these bands share a bit of the same vibe at times. Slayer gets a little more nu-metal, my apologies but it’s trye, and the other bands get a little heavier. End result is, everyone meets in the middle.
Slayer 2001 – This tune is one of many on the record that destroys. This is truly a monster. Keep in mind, this release was not only an assault on the metal community, but it was also released on Sept 11, 2001. That is a date that every American that was alive remembers very well. Sadly, our trip to the record store that day to purchase this was overshadowed by the bigger events unfolding. Planes being grounded, confused Americans, very sad day. Slayer will forever be in the background of that thought screaming their title track. Bloodlust was featured in the Dracula 2000 soundtrack . Much like last weeks episode 232 where we spoke of bad movies, this one had a solid tune in the mix so it was my choice here. Shout ot to my first Chris who basically played this record so much I know it by heart.
Willie Nelson 1980 / Forest Gump 2001 – I chose the version of this featured on the Forest Gump soundtrack. Even though my memories are tied to this song playing on the family turntable, Forest has a solid version in the soundtrack mix and it eliminated me going down the rabbit hole of where the definitive version of this song appears in Willie’s massive catalog of currently 98 studio albums! Is that more than Frank Zappa?
So this is where we are. Back on the road again. The show was a successful adventure but out drive has only begun.
Gillian Welch 2011 - One of the most emotionally charge albums I have ever owned. Very few albums can tap into whatever makes a tear well up in someone’s eyes, but this record does it. Multiple times over. Probably my number one pick for records fitting those criteria. Such a beautiful listening experience. The songwriting, duel gender vocal harmonies from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, instrument delivery and capability, it’s damn near a perfect album, in my opinion. Fun fact, the artwork for that album was done by John Dyer Baizley of Baroness. Interestingly, the CD version is off white with black and the vinyl edition is full color. Both are breathtaking.
Def Leppard 1981 – High n Dry may be my favorite Def Leppard album. It lands directly into the safety zone of being a New Wave of British Heavy Metal album or simply being a hard rock record. The band denied the heavy metal connection, which was probably a good move for their career moving into a mainstream role, but they could have claimed it and we would have all accepted them. Great album and those chugga chugga guitar vibes and solo outro that takes us back to the main riff are heavy metal gold.
Zeke 2004 – Seeing Zeke perform live on this tour was so awesome! I knew I was digging the vibe of the album but seeing the material performed by the band took my fandom to a whole new level of respect. Even cooler, I ended up watching the next band while standing beside the vocalist Marky and chatting a bit about their set. He was extremely cool and even made a casual humorous at himself by remarking that the band had never heard of Motorhead and laughed. The bassist on that album, Jeff Matz, would later join up with High on Fire, where I believe he is still hanging solid.
Clutch 2004 – This is the sea change for Clutch , imo. First, they do not have a bad record in that batch but it feels like this is the point they became the most independent. Something was triggered here that started leading them down a specific path. Less metal driven but still very much their own mind. Clutch has always been a unique sound in the music world and the lyric delivery by Neil Fallon is unmatched, He is truly one of the great storytellers in the musical universe.
So we get to Virginia and realize our alternator is bad. Being the day after thanksgiving we have no clue who or what is open. We got extremely lucky to find and auto shop that hooked us up and we were basically fixed up and back on the way in a very short time. This is where the lack of sleep really started to hit us through. No action, waiting around, it was a stretch to get through, but we were so thankful not to be stuck on the roadside.
Virginia: We would also be entering Maryland very soon. That is where the band is from. We also got a fork and knife from the local McDonalds because we had a trunk full of leftover food from Thanksgiving.
We asked in our best sopranos accent, “I need ah fork’n’knife, pal”. That triggered the remained of the drive to be spoken in Jersey accents only from all of us.
Dead Kennedys 1985 – This was an easy pick to represent our adventure through Washington, DC. I’m not sure if we took an exit for a reason or what. It was a bit of a blur at this point and somehow, we ended up driving through Washington DC and seeing the sights. This translates to our looking for a restroom and getting a bit lost on the way. Sleep deprivation will do that to you. We stopped at this place that was so nasty and terrible, the smell was so awful and creeping out of it. This lady pulled up beside us and when she got out she looked at us with this hilarious stink face and said, “Is that my car?” and we all laughed hysterically. : Washington DC