Sometimes you get lazy. Today was one of those days. The post was late because I actually needed some rest from being up too late too many nights in a row and I crashed hard and got up late. It’s Saturday so that’s to be expected. Today’s featured single is likely not gonna be easily found in record stores, but I could be wrong. They may still have it in stores. Why do I have a band called Protein in my collection?
A couple of years back I was hanging with a friend from music school. His name is Mark Jackson. Mark is phenomenal guitar player. I remember him from school – he was the anti-image of everything that was going on at the time we went. He had short hair, he played a more punk style and most people were they for metal. Mark had a sweet taste of being slightly funky with his rhythm. I actually admired his ability to fly in the face of popular. Then the interesting thing that happened is what he was doing became the norm. He was on the front edge of it. I respected that about him.
Time passes and we both were back in Los Angeles doing the music thing. At one point Mark took a job working at Columbia music under the Sony banner. Every so often Mark would have me come down to hang and or grab something to eat. He’d play me things once in a while of new stuff the label was signing. It was interesting to hear what they’d pump money into and then shelve.
One night I was at the House of Blues to see King’s X. Yes, I said it the dreaded ‘K’ word again. I saw Mark there and we started chatting and he was telling me about one of the opening bands, Protein. He was telling me how sick the guitar player was and how cool the music was. At first I found it kinda hard to believe. The reason behind my thinking was this, I was at the soundcheck of the show because of my buddies Numira. Yup, John Stack gets another mention. I happened to catch Protein’s soundcheck and I wasn’t impressed at all. At the time I didn’t realize that maybe they weren’t having a good afternoon, or just goofed off during soundcheck or what. So I decided if Mark is saying this, I’ll have to pay some attention.
Curtain time for Protein and BAM! I’m walluped by this complete 180 of a band. This so didn’t seem like the band of ragamuffin types I saw earlier in the afternoon. The lead singer/guitar player was insane. He was playing this pounding rhythm and throwing in these crazy licks while jumping around the stage like a mexican jumping bean, then singing on top of it all. It was amazing. What made it even more nuts is the exacting precision he had in his playing while doing this. I changed my mind and was floored with the prowess this band had. Mark was right. I got the CD the next day.
First thing to note, Protein is no longer together. While I think the music was fantastic and the playing is superb, I think it wasn’t a commercial success because the tongue-in-cheek nature of the lyrics and the hill-billy flavoring spice in the tunes was a bit more than the average consumer could take. I don’t know. I do know that it just rocks. Despite lyrics that are for the most part silly. There’s even a Jazz intermission song on the disc. This guy is an amazing musician. I have to wonder if he’s still playing music.
Get yourself a healty dose of Protein and their disc Songs For Cowgirls, it does a body good. It is on iTunes so you can at least buy it if you can’t find the disc in stores.
(** Disclaimer: If Sony decides to inject me with some hormones to increase their profit, I’ll be chewing down some mad cow grass to remove that audio from the post. The text will remain to reflect that. **)
‘Tis alright with the late post. I too was trying to sleep in. But Nicky decided that he was hungry (feed them early and slept in late. over 12 since they ate) and woke me by playing with my feet all morning. I kept screaming and hitting him, but he wouldn’t stop. I have now decided that I need a good fly swatter. 😀