So, it’s clearly evident from my site that I am into vinyl, but, there are some relics in my collection that are non-vinyl that I have held on to. I wanted to document a few here for posterity.
This item from the archive is “God Lives Underwater – Empty”.
Here is the actual cover of the CD if you were to purchase it.
However, my cover is different.
I bought this CD when I visited Alan in San Francisco. I was amazed by the area and made sure to get Alan to take me past a record store. Can’t remember what it was called but I got 2 influential CD’s there. I wasn’t yet back into vinyl. I picked up Green Day’s “1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” and with a bit more loose money in my pocket I flipped through a bin of CD’s with no covers, used I presume. There was a lot of drek in there, but the prices were crazy low and I decided to take a chance on one I didn’t know. “God Lives Underwater – Empty” seemed intriguing. I had no idea who the band was, had never heard any songs and it was a total blind buy. However, it turned out to be a good one.
I fired it up in my trusty CD/MP3 player that night as I was going to bed in Alan’s quaint backroom and was blown away with the smart grindy techno. I stayed awake through the whole thing and each song was a thrill. The sound was unique to me at the time. I felt like I had found a secret and played it constantly in the days and months that followed . In hindsight I hear touches of bands like Chemlab, Stabbing Westward, NIN and Lo Fidelity Allstars. It will always remind me of my trip, sleeping in, hanging out with my best friend and adventuring in a new city.
I sold or gave away my Green Day CD long ago, but “Empty” stays with me. At the time I was “into” meaning interested in rock climbing, though the closest I ever got was when Alan took me to City Rock on that same trip to San Francisco. I would buy copies of Rock and Ice and Climbing magazines and wish I was climbing somewhere instead of working in a factory driving forklift. I cut pictures out of those magazines and taped them where they could inspire me each day of drudgery. Eventually, I decided to make a cover for the empty plastic case that CD and delighted to create my own cover.
I don’t know who the climbers are, but I thought these pictures were apt for the music inside.Kind of a techno Vision Quest vibe.
I still love this album. I have listened to the others (a previous EP and 2 subsequent albums) while they are good, this one, perhaps grittier and more raw and up tempo is still my favorite.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Lives_Underwater
I’m saddened to discover that the lead singer was found dead in his sleep in 2005, but this great music remains.
The Aural Retentive 