Freaks, Freaks

#88.2 - PIGEON JOHN - Freaks, Freaks
Uploaded by lablogotheque

Pigeon John, the lower eastside of NYC, and beatboxing. I'm guessing I don't need to explain why this one deserves to be on my blog. This is by far one of my favorites so far. What else can I say?

Who now remembers the Deftones?

Last week Emily and I sat outside on the patio of an average Portland bar cooing over Sir Ian and drinking vodka. At one point we were told by a bearded man that "God could use you". Fair enough. The bartender eventually came out and asked us if we wanted more drinks. We did. He then did two great things. First, he declared that Sir Ian has "afro paws". Yes. Second, he went inside and pressed play on the stereo...and out came "Root" by the Deftones. Thank YOU, Mr. Bartender man. As Emily began talking to her brother on the phone, I was shot back into a weird montage of highschool memories. Oh the Deftones...how I loved you so.

I'm not sure how popular the Deftones were outside of California from 1997 to 2000, but that's when I listened and saw them the most. The amazing thing about growing up in California (or maybe just the Bay Area) is that we didn't have any idea that what we were listening to was "local" music (you don't know who E-40 or Mac Mall are? Really?). Indeed, the Deftones did eventually hit it "big". World wide tours, MTV, and the works. But they lost a quality that was so important to their music. Protools, while steadily increasing it's capabilities back then, could make or break a band. It broke the Deftones.

In case you're only familiar with "White Pony" or any other album that came out after that (in which case, you've been misguided), the Deftones rode the hard rock wave of the late 90's, which eventually came crashing down (thank god) in early '03, or somewhere around there. They came out of Sacramento, when they were all about 16, with "Adrenaline" coming out in 1995 and "Around the Fur" in 1997. Kids-I burned holes in these CDs. I even sported a simple black Deftones windbreaker with "Sacto, California" and their logo on the back. My sister still remembers me teaching her the lyrics to "Bored".

The Deftones were always different than other hard rock bands from that era (like Sepultura, which I could never get in to). Maybe we could call them soulful metal. It most certainly was hard rock, with lots of yelling, lost of screeching, etc. But they included raw melody too, and pretty decent, albeit very esoteric, lyrics, which lent them a softer edge. They never became as popular as their rock-rap-metal counter parts though and I attribute that to their unrefined style...the masses didn't seem to go for that.

In the big bad cyber world, there's a lot of live footage from this band. Most, I'd say about 95 percent, is from the festival scene that seemed to explode in the early 2000s. I however, wanted to post the Deftones that I remember...and after two hours of searching, found an amazing show they did in 1996 at the Cactus Club in San Jose. They were, after all, a California band... and I fully intend on keeping it that way in this post. I first saw them on November 3rd, at the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma...and this is exactly how I remember them.