My Summer’s Highlight

The biggest highlight of my summer was going to a Jazz and Blues club in San Francisco called Biscuits & Blues. I was invited to join my sister for my birthday weekend. I am interested in live performances, and this was the first time I was able to see someone perform the Blues music genre live.

The performer was a nineteen year old male from Mississippi named Christone Ingram, better known by his stage name Kingfish. He is a Blues guitarist and a singer and he caught my attention on a few television shows I have been watching on Netflix over the summer. My sister informed me that he was touring this summer and was performing the weekend of my birthday so I was thrilled to see him perform live.

The night of the show, my sister and I went inside the Blues club which was filled with a lot of middle aged couples. The food was amazing and so was the service. Kingfish finally entered the stage with his pianist and drummer and the first few songs they played were his original songs which were heartwarming. I did not realize how much I enjoyed listening to live Blues music until I witnessed his performance. His voice had a mellow tone, and his lyrics were relatable. He went to the crowd to play his last written song,= and when he returned to the stage, he played the guitar with his mouth. I was very amazed with this young man.

The next few songs were from artists I knew such as BB King, James Brown, and more. The music had me reminisce about my childhood because my family would play those artists when I was younger during the holidays.

Towards the end of his show, he asked the audience what the last song should be. Someone said the belated singer Prince which made Kingfish smile. The lights on the stage were different colors, but then they all turned purple. Prince was known for the color purple because he used to wear the color often and even made a song called Purple Rain. Kingfish began to play the song with his guitar and it sent shivers in my body because I am a Prince fan.

When Kingfish’s performance was over, I left the club satisfied. I will definitely enjoy seeing him perform again. For anyone who is interested in listening to blues music, I would recommend visiting Biscuits and Blues in San Francisco. Also yes, they do serve biscuits in case you were wondering. The club has different performers every week so if you’re interested, check out their website. As for Kingfish, I plan on playing his music throughout the semester to bring a new sound to my show. Feel free to check out his music online as well.

I did not expect my birthday weekend to have such a satisfying jazz club experience. I hope all of you enjoyed your summer as much as I did and if not, enjoy this semester by attending events on campus and listening to KSSU. Make every day awesome!

Cookbooks Are Checklists

Cookbooks are relevant. Trust me.

You look at a cookbook, you browse through the pages and see tons of tempting dishes that appeal to you. You dog ear the pages that interest you with full intentions to go back and make that dish. But you don’t. Each page you dog ear is a promise you make to yourself that you almost always break. It’s a conscious thing, too. You are fully aware that you more than likely will not make the sweet potato casserole with lemon zest dumplings. It’s just not going to happen. We think to ourselves, “This looks great! I’ll have these people over and make these things. It’ll be fantastic.” But do you? More than likely not. Do we truly WANT to carryout these plans, but life gets in the way OR do we know deep, deep down that the plan will never be reality the second we make it..yet we make it anyway.

Same goes for any plans really. We make them to break them. It’s our habit, it’s our hobby, but it’s truthfully become our lifestyle.

There’s a notion that there is so much time, time to spare even. If you really stop to think about it, time seems like an old friend. You’ve experienced a lot because of it, you’ve watched your family bloom with time, maybe time has healed you in some way or another. The point is, time is always there, but you won’t be. Putting off goals and plans and dreams is just another way of cheating yourself out of a quality life. Maybe it’s the little promises that we break that equal a quality life as well as time spent wisely. Perhaps we’re breaking the very thing that’s holding us together.

Each time we let one item slip through the cracks, we do not hesitate to find something new to fill it’s gap in our schedules. We are moving on to “big”, WAY BIGGER things. Constantly chasing our tails because, well, we can…and nobody told us not to. Every second of spare time we have gets violated and reformatted to take on a new responsibility and get sucked in to the vortex of obligation. We forget about what we’re sacrificing when we make those split second commitments. We lose sight of our little commitments and brush of our initial plans. Do we truly want to carryout these plans but life gets in the way OR do we know deep, deep down that the plan will never be reality?..yet we still make plans.

Perhaps mentally making these plans, or as I like to put it “little promises,” is a way for us to satisfy our desire to enjoy ourselves without actually doing so. We entertain a notion of a false fulfillment that holds us over only momentarily until our brain passes it off along with the other whims that flash through. We think we’re being strategic with creating events/goals/dreams, but maybe we’re creating a void instead because “We’ll get back to it”. It’s like pre-heating the oven without ever putting the chicken in. You won’t be able to enjoy what you don’t put energy in to. We are enabling ourselves to be less accountable…plus you’re wasting a perfectly good chicken. Regardless of it being a meringue pie recipe or telling yourself you’ll go to the gym more, we make checklists that fall short EVERY TIME.

It’s the little things that matter, and often times, it’s the little things that get shrugged off. People weren’t kidding when they said the devil is in the details because it most certainly is. Deviled eggs without paprika are just boiled eggs that have been re-purposed. The little hint of paprika that is called for in the recipe (plan) makes all the difference. Those little plans, little details, little whatevers are what we need most. They might be small, but we can’t lose sight of them.

If we keep looking ahead at the bigger picture we’ll miss what’s right in front of us. Don’t allow yourself to be left with check-less checklists of what you hoped to accomplish in your lifetime. Make your life count. Give those little things a bigger time slot, and add a little spice.

Mia Kagianas a DJ at KSSU

Super Smash Bros. For Wii U, A Smashing Good Time

I know the game has been out for a while, but I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. The older Smash Bros. fans will shout “Super Smash Bros. Melee was the best and will always be the best”, but what Nintendo did for SSB for Wii U has taken this series to another level. Enhanced graphics, new characters, different combo options, even more dangerous maps, and 8-player mode all come with the new and improved Super Smash Bros. Also, a player can still use regular Wii remotes on the Wii U, so this makes it easier for lazy people (like me) who do not wish to adapt to the new Wii U controller, which has a screen in the middle of it in case you wanted to use the bathroom without interrupting the game for everyone else.

A list of the new characters include: Mega Man, Wii Fit Trainer, Animal Crossing Villager, Rosalina & Luma, Little Mac, Greninja, Customizable Mii Fighters, Palutena, Robin, Shulk, Lucina, Pac-Man, Dark Pit, Bowser Jr. (with all other koopa kids), and the duck and dog from duck hunt. Also, Zero Suit Samus is available as a starting character as opposed to Regular Samus from SSB Brawl, where you would need to hit a “special ball” in order to become zero suit samus. As for DLC characters, there is only one: Mewtwo. Mewtwo from Melee and Lucario from Brawl had very, very similar attacks so I hope that this new Mewtwo comes with new attacks or other surprises. I personally only got to play as Palutena, Little Mac, Bowser Jr. and Shulk. Palutena you have to get used too. Little Mac is HIGHLY powerful and if you can hone in on timing his attacks, you will be unstoppable. I played as a Bowser Jr. who had a cannon and could also detach himself from his little vehicle thing to place a bomb inside it before returning, which killed my friend about eight times. Shulk is a swordsman character, but his “B” move allows you to use a sort of perk with choices of speed, power, or defense. Trust me, they really do help.

This is pretty much the extent of my knowledge because I just spent thirty minutes in a GameStop doing a trial run of the game and now I wish i wasn’t a broke student so I could purchase a Wii U just for this game. If you live a life without regrets, buy this game and you will not be disappointed.

Thanks for reading! To hear some awesome music and more shenanigans coming straight from my pie-hole, tune into my show “Shred the Gnar” Tuesdays at 8am only on http://www.kssu.com!!!

Much love,

DJGingerbeard

The Ghost Inside/ Attila/ Volumes Album Reviews.

I want to take a moment and talk about some news albums that came out recently, and by recently I mean within the last six months. The Ghost Inside, Attila, and Volumes all dropped some heavy stuff and I checked out all their new albums. Holy snap crackle and pop, they were extravagant. The Ghost Inside with some hardcore melodies, Attila with their IDGAF in-your-face attitude, ad Volumes with a melodic change for the better.

Once again, the Ghost Inside have proven themselves to be one of the leading bands in the hardcore scene. To all those who say they went “mainstream” and are not underground anymore, I say to you, screw that. If a band can make it big and get paid more so they can actually afford nice things instead of sticking to the underground and getting paid diddly squat for a run down apartment, I say go for it and get big. The first song “Avalanche” straight up pumps up the mood for everybody with a nice build up in the beginning and gang vocals to breakdown as a finisher. The debut song “Dear Youth” covers all aspects of a great song; powerful riffs, relatable lyrics, empowering breakdowns, and a harmony that is off the chain. Well done The Ghost Inside.

First off, Attila is not a band meant to be taken as “meaningful” or important to your life goals. They are a party hard, DGAF kind of band with a new album called “Guilty Pleasure”. With a mix between brutal exhales and rapping, Fronz (vocalist) has multiple virtuoso moments throughout the song. Some tracks make me shake my head and say “what the heck is this” but tracks like “Guilty Pleasure” and “Horse Pig” get me throwing chairs and flipping tables. Again, they are not very deep and philosophical, but they kill it live. I speak from past experiences when i say they put on a fantastic show with lights, and 8O8 drops. This new album will take their concerts to the next level. I saw an Instagram video of a huge wall of death to one of their new songs and that is enough to convince me that this new album is worth purchasing.

Last but certainly not least, Volumes. Volumes is a Djent band well-known for their breakdowns, but their album “No Sleep” was not what fans expected this album had a lot of lighter, more melodic tracks on it. Don’t get me wrong, the tracks are amazing and I am happy to hear that Volume’s use of music theory and desire to do less heavy music in their future, but Volumes received a lot of fire. In their song “The Mixture”, the lyrics say “you can have metal back” and in an interview, the vocalists said they are dropping from their label to pursue music on their own path. The album “No Sleep” is the first step in Volumes new style and wave of music, and I love every bit of it.

Thanks for reading, I am DJGingerbeard and to hear music from The Ghost Inside and Volumes (Attila is too vulgar) tune into my show “Shred the Gnar” every Thursday at 9am on http://www.kssu.com.

Zombie Patrol: The True Story

Some of my earliest memories have involved listening to the radio, and I never really stopped. So when the opportunity to become a DJ at Sac State presented itself I jumped at the opportunity, and now I have my own radio show, “Zombie Patrol,” which airs every Friday at 1pm on kssu.com UTC -8 (the UTC bit stands for our time zone, in case you’re trying to figure out what time my show would air in your region).

Jake Abbott: The Carpenter’s Son EP

Jake Abbott and his production team have just come out with a new EP, The Carpenter’s Son. Bluesy, gentle-on-the-ears guitar, and violin with easy, creamy vocals make this EP something you should definitely look into. There are times when the lyrics leave something to be desired, with repetition taking up the largest section of some songs, but the overall style is absolutely lovely. While it is an obscure reference, this EP reminds me a lot of Troy Baker’s band: easy listening with a hint of twang and well deserved conceit.

Tedeschi Trucks Band Rolls into Stockton

Tedeschi Trucks Band continues their nationwide tour this Saturday, December 7th at the Bob Hope Theatre in Stockton, CA with the London Souls opening for them. Three years ago, husband and wife duo Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi gave up their very popular solo acts and joined together to form a new bluesy rock band.  With Derek Trucks’ unquestioned talent on guitar (Rolling Stone ranks Derek Truck as the 16th greatest guitarist of all-time), Susan Tedeschi’s soulful voice, and the combination of both band’s members it can now be said that this experiment has been a great success.

The Diva Kings Rock Sacramento State

Sacramento State welcomed The Diva Kings and their embellishing rock rhythm to the Redwood Room inside the University Union Wednesday October 30.

The show was presented by UNIQUE Programs as part of the ongoing Wednesday Nooner series. Students handed out free popcorn to guests during the hour long free show.

Officially together for three years as a band, Christopher Twomey (vocals/guitar), Lucas Thompson (drums), Nathan Bisig (guitar) and Daniel Rau (vocals/guitar) have all been playing individually longer than some people have had a license to drive.

Go With The Fro

Hello, this is new member and DJ to the KSSU family. My name is Briana and I’ll be your the latest addition to your musical repertoire.

I know it’s late, but I wanted to formally introduce myself anyway.

Music Review: Norah Jones “Little Broken Hearts”

Music Review: Norah Jones “Little Broken Hearts”
By: Josue “Josh” Alvarez Mapp (a.k.a. DJ Mappquest)

So it has been a long time since I have sat down and listened to Norah Jones.  I kind of got disconnected from her music as I focused on music for parties instead of balancing music for myself too.  The last time I had her her was in 2004 when she releasedFeels Like Home, which was her sophomore solo album.

Seriously, my iPod collection of Norah Jones contained just a few old songs from her like “In The Morning,” “Be Here to Love Me,” and “The Prettiest Thing.”  Of course I also had stuff off her freshman album Come Away With Me, which came in 2002.  Of course you have to have “Don’t Know Why,” “Come Away With Me,” “Turn Me On,” and “Nightingale.”  And actually, “Don’t Know Why” popped up on shuffle the last few weeks and it made me wonder if she had any new music since last I heard.