What happens when you throw together urban Native American revivalism, jam band millennial hippiedom and a fistful of mushrooms? Rusted Root happens.
I could brag about following Root around while they were playing in attics, but in my wisdom I chose the Affordable Floors.
There were days when Root and the Floors both played a club called Graffiti. Then I stopped smuggling booze into Floors shows, I left town and not long after Graffiti closed. I feel somehow responsible.
Comrade Stuck
Since this is an Open Thread and a musical one, here is a Morricone number from the Score of Ripley’s Game.
AhabTRuler, V
I am currently listening to The Dream by The Orb, but its only ok.
I would instead recommend, say, this from their best album.
I have really enjoyed the remastered version. The new tracks on the extra disc aren’t bad, but the remastering brings out some subtle, background stuff.
Will Hunting
Jesus Tim, Rusted Root is beat like a rug. C’mon, next you’re going to tell us that Creed is under-appreciated.
The Other Steve
My new love this week… PANDORA!
I’m having fun typing in different names of bands and seeing what comes up as similar. And as far as internet radio goes, it’s pretty high quality.
The Other Steve
Pandora has no affordable floors.
they think Rusted root is similar to Dispatch, Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, and Buffalo Springfield.
AhabTRuler, V
This Pandora?
’cause the music is kinda interesting, but that video is painful.
I have found the Pandora of which you speak, but that video is still a trip.
The Other Steve
The Orb is similar to Future Sound of London, Aphex Twin, Leftfield, Ulrich Schnauss and Dr. Alex Paterson.
I am full of knowledge because of Pandora!
The Other Steve
That is the Pandora! The great and wonderful Oz!
AhabTRuler, V
@The Other Steve: Well, I think FSOL is a cheap knock-off, and Orb IS "Dr." Alex Patterson.
And Aphex Twin is his own thing altogether. But good.
The Other Steve
It’s 3F outside, and I’m going to go for a walk! Then off to bed.
Bye bye buddieS!
bz
wow, that brings back memories! i remember graffiti, and metropol, the beehive… and this RR album. their first big release (which contained another version of this song) was already a step back, and they just got lamer from there. but this early disc still makes me smile. thanks.
Betsy
Ha, I loved Rusted Root when I was in high school! Ah, the 90s. I must confess that I still have a soft spot in my heart for Send Me on my Way. (Ducks)
Geeno
Dude – I saw them in Rochester, NY at the Water Street Grille in 1992. I have to believe this was before anyone heard of them, because they were playing for the happy hour crowd. I saw them while grabbing a few after working late, I was PO’d and my boss and skipped a hockey to get loaded with a co-worker. I had no idea who they were, but liked them right away and have loved them ever since.
Gregory Markle
Rusted Root shows at Tussey Mountain Ski Area (near State College, PA) back in the early 90’s were always great time…I don’t think I ever failed to get laid when I went there and that certainly makes me feel a bit nostalgic!
Ash Can
When I was in grad school in DC in the early ’80s, my friends and I shelled out all of 5 bucks apiece one Friday night to see U2 (yes, that U2) and Bow Wow Wow play at an old movie theater in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of NW.
My friends and I all agreed that Bow Wow Wow was the better band.
Comrade Stuck
On Hardball tonight, one of our most lovable wingnuts, Frank Gaffney expressed his compassionate thanks for the dead US troops resulting from the Iraq invasion.
Assholes, why are they still on my teevee?
binzinerator
Thanks, Tim! Brings back some wonderful memories.
And thanks to my semi-hippie-dip west-coast wife, who introduced me to them via Cruel Sun. Back in the mid-90’s, when I met her, Cruel Sun was so her. And yes in the ways that matter, it still is. Or perhaps I should say she still is.
Jesus. Two kids and I still wouldn’t mind if I knocked her up again. : )
Damn.
AnneLaurie
Or: Once having made a statement like this on the teevee, why is Frank Gaffney not greeted with oprobrium and a fusillade of rotten tomatoes & shoes whenever he sets foot in public?
shawn214
I saw Rusted Root a cou[le of times as well; once at my home town univeristy, and the other as the opener for my only Dead show, at Three Rivers. I was not really a huge fan.
Why I am really commenting though is because I saw one of my top 10 favorite (out of ~120 so far) Disco Biscuits shows at Graffiti’s on 3/27/99. That place was really really special to me that night.
The Metropol/Rosesbud wasn’t really an adequate replacement.
Thanks for the memory jog. Seems like yesterday, and so long ago.
roza Hussein
ahhh thanks for the trip down memory lane…
I do miss Graffiti.
fkvidahl
This is probably old news, but these guys are very entertaining…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGjl6ITkFqI
…and I’m probably doing it wrong.
cleek
man, what a place. i saw many many many shows there.
i even got to play there, once. (the pics in the fieldfresh section, here, are from that show)
bago
Apple tree in my back yard.
cia
Do you mean Graffitti in Pgh that was on Baum Blvd (I think)?
onceler
ugh, among the most embarrassing parts of 90s culture, rusted root. just thinking of it hurts.
cleek
uh semme omma waaay
semme omma waaay
semme omma waaaaay
semme omma waaay
*bang*
Ed in NJ
Rutgers in the mid-80s was a great place to check out up and coming bands. Remember seeing REM and Red Hot Chili Peppers doing free shows before anyone knew who they were.
Jamey
The wife grew up in Pgh. One of the reasons she left the ‘Burgh was the shitty music scene. Clearly she was right.
What, no love for Donny Iris and Wild Cherry?!
Jamey
I was thinking the same thing …
workingmomOH
I saw Root open for Carlos Santana years ago. I remember Graffiti, too.
Hard to imagine but the dynamic percussion of Root really left a greater impression than Santana did that evening.
Thanks for the flashback!
Scutch
But, but, but..this music is absolute shit. Listen to Charles Lloyd if you want to hear the real thing.
anticontrarian
as someone who bartends in a nightclub for a living, i’d like to suggest the possibility that maybe the reason your favorite club had to close was because guys like you smuggled in your own drinks instead of buying them there.
that, or maybe they got shut down for someone like you’s liquor law violations.
pre-funk all you want, kids, but when/if you bring your own booze to the bar, you are shitting where the people that work there eat.
geg6
Graffiti was teh awesome, but the Decade was better. But then, I’m not much of a Rusted Root fan, either.
That said, Oakland hasn’t had a great live music club since the Decade was shut down.
Gawd, I miss my college days. I’m soooooooo old.
dcBill
In the Young Caucasians, I payed at the Decade, as well as the Electric Banana in Oakland. Also played at the Underground Railroad (I’m remembering that John said that the UR became Grafitti?). Great times.
As far as that movie theater in Mt. Pleasant DC, The Ontario, I saw the premiere of "Rock and Roll High School" there, along with DC legends Razz opening up, as well as the Talking Heads (with only four heads) and the East Side Story Squeeze tour. The strangest night there though, was when the bass player for the Stranglers dropped his bass, jumped off the stage, and punched out someone in the audience. Buzzkill.
True Story
I once smuggled heroin out of the Electric Banana in my arm