Coffeechug CD Mixtape Challenge: Song #1

Over my spring break last week I was working on cleaning up the Nerd Cave and one of the things that I am still working through is my music. I did organize all official cd's I have purchased over the years(although I cannot think of the last one I bought!).

I easily have over 700 cd's. I came up with a challenge where I asked friends on Facebook to randomly select 20 numbers and from those numbers I would find that album and then choose one song from that album.

You can read about the challenge here: http://coffeeforthebrain.blogspot.com/2013/03/coffee-for-brain-mixtape-challenge.html

For the sake of simplicity I counted each album as one despite the number of discs it contained. For example my box set of Nirvana counts as one as does my 9 cd concert box of Dave Matthews Band from a weekend of shows they performed. 

I finally received the 20 random numbers. I thought about sequencing them in a fancy order, but after much thought decided to just go in the order they were selected. And I also decided to share one song at a time or a few clustered together depending on how I feel. I will give a reason for the song choice, perhaps a memory from that time period of the music and why I purchased the album(if I can remember which for almost all of these I do remember), and any interesting information about the band or artist that I feel like sharing.

So.........

The first number selected is a beautiful number. The number #34 was selected which if you know of my love for Dave Matthews Band and seeing them close to 20 times in concert and a useless database of knowledge about the band then you would know that #34 is one of songs performed by Dave. A song in which you hope to get in concert or hear a great rendition of on a bootleg. It is not a super popular song unless you are a super fan and live for the little nuisances of a band.

As I counted my cd's the #34 album was none other than perhaps one of the finest live albums of all time(yes, I do feel this way).

This live performance was from Luther College here in the state of Iowa from 2.6.96.  It was not released until three years later. I would have been a senior in high school. I believe that I fell in love with this album more in college, but in high school I was quickly becoming a fan. My friends from the other high school in my city really were awesome people who opened my eyes to a new world of music and listening styles. They really opened my eyes to a new genre of music. By this point I was loving R&B and rap along with exploring guitar riffs like you wouldn't believe. However, I fell in love with a song by DMB called "Lie In Our Graves", mastered it on the guitar and a Dave fan was born. However, it did die off a bit as continued to try and find myself in high school(I was all over the map in high school not really sure what or who I wanted to become). Later in college my buddy Tommy(still one of the best and greatest people ever in my life!) completely sucked me in to Dave when I saw them live at Alpine Valley. The rest is history and continues to write itself with stories that could go on for miles.

Who would have thought that listening to this album in high school was an omen to where I would end up in life? Here in Iowa!

To be honest I had to listen to this album all over again. I never listen to this album. I am sold on listening to every show they perform. I follow every show online in the summer, find a recording of the bootleg, listen and analyze the changes each night, and repeat. It has been years since I have listened to this album.

What strikes me about this album the most is that people are introduced to "Davespeak" in which Dave just talks nonsense and stories between songs. You never know what you will get. This album brings the general public to the awareness of how cool it is to see them play live.

Listening to the album, it was hard to decide on a song. After careful consideration and listening to the album two times I have to go with the legendary song "Warehouse"(thank goodness for a three hour drive to my training). Although not my favorite song on this double disc I have chosen this song for the very reason that this song showcases the talents of Dave Matthews Band. The song has a great opener just creating a tension where the listener is feeling the build up of the song, then the shifts into the verse and of course the chorus changes the whole feel to the song. A great little acoustic guitar solo mixed in and you have none other than a roller coaster of a ride on the Dave Matthews train! So, there you have it. Track one. However, please take time to listen to the whole concert as it is a great one.


Here is the playlist for this challenge



Here is the playlist of all complete albums selected in case you want to explore more from the artists.