"Flavors" Volume II (Reprint - originally published August, 2002)

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***Glassjaw - "Worship and Tribute" (2002 Warner Bros.)
I found some demos from them on the net back about a year ago while searching for info on deftones... Not quite as heavy as deftones, although it has its moments, but it is very listenable and, b'gosh, even enjoyable... The CD has THREE videos on it (yes I said THREE) and they have a pretty incredible website, too - have Flash before you go there or you're S.O.L. - glassjaw.com PICK TRACKS - 1.) "Tip Your Bartender," 3.) "Cosmopolitan Bloodloss," 4.) "Ape Dos Mil" (KILLER track), and 5.) "Pink Roses"

***TRUSTcompany - "The Lonely Position of Neutral" (July 2002, Geffen)
That same search for deftones info also gave me a name of another band... They were called "41 Down." A little further digging led to the revelation that they were friends of Chino (deftones) and Maynard (TooL). Turns out they helped this band do some demo work (possibly when Maynard was helping deftones with their White Pony CD?). Well, lo and behold, a few months later the band changes their name to TRUSTcompany and get a HUGE break by having their single "Downfall" featured as the "theme song" for WWE's "Vengeance" pay-per-view - BEFORE the CD was even released... must be nice to get that kind of a push, huh? Also worthy of note is a bonus MP3 remix of "Hover" featuring Paz Lechantin (A Perfect Circle) and Ana Lechantin, mixed at A Perfect Circle Studios... 41down.com PICK TRACKS - 1.) "Downfall," 2.) "Falling Apart," 3.) "Hover" (the retooling of the demo that Maynard and Chino did with them)...

***The Apex Theory - "Topsy Turvy" (2002, Dreamworks)
If you like Incubus, well, then you stand to like The Apex Theory better... period... (I think this is one of those Dreamworks CDs that WON'T play in a Macintosh computer, in some whacked-out effort to try to stop piracy...) PICK TRACKS: 2.) "Mucus Shifters," 4.) "Shhh... (Hope Diggy)," and 6.) "Bullshed." theapextheory.com

***The Police - "Message in a Box" Boxed Set (1993, A&M Records)
Okay. I've owned all the Police studio stuff on vinyl, cassette, and CD over the years... still have my "Roxanne" 45 in my closet, even... A friend gave me the boxed set over the weekend, which was... umm... hella cool of them (heheh)... The 4CDs cover everything the Police ever released, albums, b-sides, leftovers, movie pieces, and otherwise... A great piece of nostalgia from three crazy-good musicians and friends that liked each other so much, the wanted to pound the crud out of each other daily (oddly enough, I'm being totally serious). Sting hasn't done anything that's touched the Police stuff, since (yeah yeah yeah... "Ten Summoner's Tales" was a pretty good CD, but c'mon... the guy needs to have doorways widened nowadays so he can fit his swollen head through)... PICK TRACKS: well, there's about... seventy-eight of them...I really like the old stuff for totally different reasons than I like the later stuff.

***Todd Rundgren - "Initiation" (1975, Bearsville/Warner)
At least at one point in time, it held the Guiness Book... record as the longest single-vinyl album (67:38), including a second side that is considered all one 36 minute song... really cool stuff from a really cool guy from Philly... PICK TRACKS: 4.) "Eastern Intrigue," 5.) "Initiation," 6.) "Fair Warning," and 7.) "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire" (the aforementioned 36 minute bit).

***Pete Townshend
"coolwalkingsmoothtalkingstraightsmokingfirestoking (the very best of...)" (1996, Atlantic)
Pete's had a pretty lucrative solo career outside his journey with the Who... This CD pretty much covers the creme de la creme... PICK TRACKS - 1.) Rough Boys," 4.) "Give Blood" (featuring David Gilmour (guitar), Pino Palladino (bass) and Simon Phillips (drums)), 10.) "Slit Skirts," and 13,) "Face the Face."