Flashback Friday: Numb by Hammerbox

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd try something. Every Friday, give or take a few, I'll do a quick write-up on an album from a band that was overlooked and is worthy of reinvestigation. Also - I'll try to pick albums that are available for free streaming over Xbox Music.

For my inaugural piece, I thought I'd discuss the album Numb by the band Hammerbox.

You can listen to it here:
Numb by Hammerbox (Xbox Music)

Hammerbox were part of the Seattle grunge revolution of the 90's, but - unlike Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam - they had more to do with the punk rock crowd that included The Gits, Nirvana and Mudhoney.

Their first album - the self-titled Hammerbox - came out on C/Z records and established their lead singer, Carrie Akre, as a force to be reckoned with. This album attracted the attention of A&M records who teamed them with Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn for their sophomore album Numb (1992). The pairing didn't quite work as well as it should have, but it's still a strong album, and worthy of a revisit.

Sadly - even with A&M's increased market presence - the album only sold to the Seattle faithful, and the band disbanded shortly thereafter.

The album leans more towards the metallic side of punk, but it's not metal. Call it fast moving rock, tightly played, with a melodic edge. Couple that with Carrie's expressive vocals (to borrow a phrase from AllMusic's review), and that'll give you a sense of what you're in for.

Give it a spin, and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Merry Christmas from Santa and Rose (part 7)

(from the Seems like there's more than just Rose and Santa in this picture department)

Hi everyone,

Yes - it's that time of year again.  Here's our family Santa photo:

Once again - Rose was a little shy at first, so Santa volunteered his chair for us.  But - Rose warmed up to Santa pretty quickly - even though she really wasn't sure what to ask him for!  He suggested that she send her wish to him in a letter, and that seemed to be okay with her.

Afterwards, we stopped by Fran's Chocolates for some high-class hot chocolate (yum!) and finished off the evening with a nice dinner at Piatti's.  A good time was had by all!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from the Pietromonaco family!

Cheers,
Paul

Rose @ Pacific Northwest Ballet's The Nutcracker - Sunday, December 8th, 2013

(from the Endless Twirl department)

Hi everyone,

We attended a performance of the Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker at McCaw Hall on Sunday, December 8th, 2013.  Rose was pretty as a ballerina.  She insisted on getting a flower headpiece, so I insisted on a photo:

 

Generally, I don't like photos in portait-orientation, but this does capture her full outfit:

 

Then, she twirled away:

A good time was had at the ballet by all!

Cheers,
Paul

P.S.  I recently found this pic of all of us, courtesy of Radio Disney:

We look great!!!

Rose turns 6 and has a birthday sundae - Red Robin, November 13th, 2013

(from the It's better with sprinkles department)

Hi everyone,

Rose turned six years old on November 13, 2013.  When we asked her where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate, she answered - without hesitation - "RED ROBIN!!".

So - to the Northgate Red Robin, we went.  We all got burgers and ate fries - very yummy!

After dinner, she got the Red Robin birthday song from the wait staff, and a free sundae:

She was eating the sundae so fast, I had to turn on the flash to capture it:

And - yes - she finished the whole thing.  Happy birthday, Rose!

Cheers,
Paul

Halloween Portrait 2013 - Rose and Paul

(from the It's better in Black & White department)

Hi everyone,

We toured the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Visitor's Center yesterday for Halloween.  They have a high-tech photo booth, so Rose & I sat down, and took a self-portrait:

 When you take the photo, it puts it up on a big wall:

 Neat, huh?  Oh yeah - Rose is a "Kitty Witch".  Of course she is!

Cheers,

Paul



Sad news about Scott Miller - leader of Game Theory/The Loud Family

Hi everyone,

As someone who was a young adult in the 1980s, part of my musical soundtrack was provided by a Californian band called Game Theory, led by Scott Miller. Sadly, he passed away in April at the age of 53. I only found out about this recently, when I went to his website to see what he was up to.

The complete statement is available on the official website:
http://www.loudfamily.com/index.html

It's too bad that Game Theory's albums never hit the same level of success as their peers R.E.M. or Let's Active. Still - they're considered one of the most hyper-literate power-pop bands ever, and their "difficult" double-album masterpiece "Lolita Nation" is still a sought after collector's piece.  (Apparently, I'm one of the few people who own an original copy of this on CD.)

As a thank you to the fans, all of Game Theory's albums - including Lolita Nation - are on the above listed website for free downloading.

According to the webmaster: "My main goal is to prevent people from trying to capitalize by selling these long out of print albums for lots of money. I want everybody who would like to hear these albums to be able to do so without paying outrageous prices".

If you're not sure where to begin, I'd strongly urge downloading "Tinkers To Evers To Chance", which was a "greatest non-hits" personally selected by Scott himself. It's a great introduction to his band and it does contain selections from Lolita Nation.

His next band, The Loud Family, is also worth investigating.  However - they tend to be a little more abstract than Game Theory. I'd start with their first album, "Plants and Birds and Rocks and Things", and see if that's your cup of tea. (The Loud Family albums are available on Spotify, I believe)

Cheers,
Paul

It's Alive - My Original CompuServe Homepage

(from the Mists of History department)

Hi everyone,

A long time ago, CompuServe provided a homepage service for their members - "Ourworld", they called it.  I used the whopping 5M of space to create a homepage, with all of my interests, my writing samples, my band's page, etc.  It was my little oasis on the web.

Then, in 2009, CompuServe discontinued the service, and deleted all the sites.

Unfortunately, I didn't find out about that until after the fact, when my site was long gone.

For years, I had assumed my old homepage was lost, but poking around the Internet Archive last night, I found it!

Well - most of it, anyway.  There's some missing art, and of course, most of the links are broken.  But - all of the text is there.  And - I might be able to find the missing pieces.  I do have backups of this... somewhere.

So - without further ado, Sherman, set the Wayback Machine for 2001-ish, and let's explore:

Paul Pietromonaco's Home Page

Cheers,
Paul

P.S.  There's a good tip for getting your pages back here:  How can I view a page without the Wayback code in it?