I recently headed home to Sacramento after a week-long work trip to Phoenix. This is listed by the airlines as roughly a two hour flight, though the time spent in the air is around 1 hour 40 minutes. I guess the rest of the time is gate-to-gate, including the ever-important taxiing activity. It turns out that two recent albums that I love are exactly long enough to provide the perfect in-flight soundtrack!
As we started speeding up on the runway to take off out of Phoenix, I pressed play on the new Star Collector album, “Attack, Sustain, Decay…Repeat”. The powerful opening riffs of leadoff track “Feel It Comin’ On” perfectly matched our 150+ miles per hour speeds as we went airborne. Inspiring! The perfect acceleration song. The rest of the album, the hard rockers and the slower, more thoughtful parts, all synced up nicely with the flight. ASD…R, in my opinion, is their finest effort to date. Vic Wayne and the boys really have this Star Collector thing down to an art and a science!
So now, we’re midway through the flight. I needed something to sustain the buzz, and bring me on home to Northern California. And who better than Spygenius? I saw this amazing Croydon, UK band play here in the California city of Fresno last summer, and the whole joint (Fulton 55) erupted into a swinging dance party when they hit the stage. And yep, as I started up their album “Jobbernowl” (out on Big Stir Records), the song “I Dig Your New Robes, Pierre” turned this flight into a major shindig at 36,000 feet.
As Jobbernowl played out, the rollicking sounds of Ruth Rogers, Peter Watts and company kept me happier than one should be on a plane. Was that turbulence, or the band rockin’ out? We’ll never know, but this album, both intellectual and fun, truly took me home to Sacramento. The silly but smart closing song, “Foucault Swings Like A Pendulum Do”, played as we landed and slowely taxiied to the terminal.
Big thanks to Star Collector and Spygenius for keeping me company on my most recent flight. You guys need to get both of these albums. They’re amazing, and will keep you flying too.
WOODY RADIO BLOG 