For the last month, I drove from the tip of Northern California’s wine country all the way down to San Diego and the Mexican border, east to the Grand Canyon and snow in the mountains of Arizona, the sandstorms of New Mexico, the saddening cattle meat packing farms of Texas, into the wild tornadoes of Oklahoma, the eerie bible belt of Missouri and Illinois, the changing leaves of Indiana, the darkness of Ohio, through the hills of New Jersey into the skyline of the best city in this world, New York City, and all to circle back once again to the deserts of California.

Driving over 9000 miles allows the mind too much time to wander through your own fears of the unknown. Most of us travel to discover a new reality however, those we share our real stories with may never understand the extremities of what we experience.

With each new state it was exciting to see the physicality of America, but inside internally heartbreaking and somehow inspiring to feel alone with no home and no direction on the road.

“Wherever you go there you are.”

The past haunted with tantalizing ghosts motioning the road towards crashing over canyons, snow peaks, and valleys. So blinding but impossible to forget what the imagination of pain, death, and cascading into a million little pieces feels like.

Crossing through lines of so many dark moments, my eyes opened to numerous sunrises and sunsets congratulating my completion of this test, and for making it across all of these scattered paths safely.

Throughout that journey, some of the songs I listened to over and over again are now remembered as the words and music that saved me. A few artists are secrets from my favorite songs of 2011, and the rest are old timeless songs that will always be cherished.

~*~

Please enjoy!

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds : If I Had A Gun… (Self Titled, 2011)

Maynard James Keenan has one of the most cerebral yet earth-shattering vocals in Alternative Rock music. Rockstars and fans alike still hold high regard for anything that Maynard works on, and today marvel at how one possesses such demonic melodies, angelic harmonies and near perfected screams. Whether it be the leader of Tool, the side projects of A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer, or collaborations with Deftones, Rage Against the Machine, or even Tori Amos, Maynard turns creativity into masterpieces.

While Maynard’s currently on tour with A Perfect Circle, his project Puscifer has an upcoming album “Conditions of My Parole”, expected to be released on October 18, 2011. Enjoy the new single “Man Overboard” in the video stream below!

Listen: Puscifer – Momma Sed [Tandimonium Remix]
(from the album V Is For Viagra: The Remixes, 2008)

the dark cell
the pit of my soul
the last one out of the box
the one who broke this spell

listen: radiohead – little by little (caribou remix)

(as part of radiohead’s king of limbs remix series, the gentle quality of caribou’s remix takes a modern approach of intensity that starts off simple, and becomes stronger, and more intricate with each listen.)

image: music is art – palm springs, ca

Created as a mad fun-house and disaster zone by UK beloved artists, the Unfairgrounds entranced those looking to escape from the chaos of the Glastonbury Festival this past weekend and buy a ticket to enjoy themselves in a plane and car crash, zombie-filled carnival.

Thom York and Nigel Of Radiohead joined in on the fun, and played a surprise guest DJ set to the limited amount of people that decided to cross over to the dark side. Below is a personal message from Thom, and a mixtape of what was heard during those 4 hours of their DJ set. Please enjoy!

~*~

mmm you know away from the celebrity media circus on the other side of the valley, the OTHER glastonbury happened.
the one you aren’t reading much about, the one they couldn’t hang.
the fun, chilled out and insane one.
the one that couldn’t give a flying toss who you are really. the one we went for.
the one around the stone circle, and under the flags. in the rabbit hole. in the darkest depths of shangri-la.
around the van de graff lightning generator crackling through in soaking sky,
and in a crashed aeroplane fuselage where we and our friends were.. nigel and i Djing.. until dawn
here’s a selection of what we played.

(Note: Track 08 will be coming soon
when the Lone remix of Radiohead’s Feral
has been officially released. Thank you~)