Bargain Bin Saraceno

Yesterday's post over at metalsucks gave me fond memories of a summer long gone. I can't remember the year exactly, but I think it was back in 2001. 2001 was fun times. Will we ever see their like again?

Back then I used to comb the bargain bins at music stores looking for bargains. Bargains! I found a few gems, including a Venom box set from way back when Black Metal was out of print and you couldn't even buy it through some mail order distro let alone Amazon. I rolled the dice on a few discs, including two by a guitarist named Blues Saraceno.

I bought the albums Never Look Back and Plaid for a buck a piece. I remember them as being a bit like Satriani, but not quite as enchanting. This is back when Ozzy had replaced Zak Wylde - a student of Randy Rhodes - with Joe Holmes. Another student of Randy Rhodes. So my friends joked that in the future Ozzy would run out of Rhodes students and end up with students of Blues Saraceno playing guitar in his band.



Not sure what "Frazin'" is, but the classic Ibanez through a shitty solid state in the 1980s tone is great.



Jitterblast is like the poor man's Eruption. Bask in the glory.





Weather channel smooth jazz and frizzy hair like Kenny G? Was this a virus that infected 80s shred guitarist? That would make Blues Saraceno it's second victim.

Not sure what the audience was for Plaid. Post glam shred must have been a very sad time for Blues. Is that irony? It is kind of funny that he replaced that guy that replaced CC Deville in Poison. That's worse than being the replacement Dick on Bewitched.

That was a good summer, by the way. I didn't own a car and I biked everywhere and while some people think that makes you a loser I was a lot happier biking than I am now driving everywhere in my car. I biked to the mall that day that I bought Blues Saraceno at the music store that is probably empty now. The mall itself is probably gone too. It is a shame really and I wish I could have those days back. That's why I am so old.

Let the litigation flow

In college I met a guy named Alfie a few times. He was an engineering student. He was a fan of Pantera. Being that this was a million years ago and a lot of web design was still in the hands of engineers, Alfie started the website pantera.com. It was a fan website with everything that modern band pages have: message board, pictures, biography, tour dates, etc.

Several years ago I read that the remainder of the band were suing Alfie for control of Pantera.com. He counter sued in preparation for the litigation that was to ensue. His goal wasn't to win, but to simply cost Pantera large sums of money in legal fees (per diem baby!) while they attempted to wrest control of the domain. One in which he maintained for free all those years.

I wondered what happened to that? You can see the original docket here. Phil's middle name is "Hanson"! It transferred to a new venue in October of '07. If you read this docket you can see that they sued him to remove all the band logos and any affiliation to the band from the website. I think they were also trying to pry the domain name from him via cybersquatting laws. Looks like they also tried to shake 100,000 dollars in statutory damages out of the guy. I would turn Pantera.com into a website about Pantera Negra Brandy. A Brandy de Jerez. That's one copyright infringement lawsuit I don't fear.



Hooo boy that stuff is ghastly.

I haven't been able to locate the court ruling from the googles. Maybe you have a link? I sure hope he didn't have to fork over 100k, but I'm sure he isn't running Pantera.com anymore.

Summertime Nostalgia

I remember being young and, one summer, drinking SoCo with my buddy Howard in A2. I remember listening to this song:



He was into that symphonic stuff, like Arcturus and Dimmu Borgir long before the kids got their grubby hands on it and ran it into the ground. Man I'm old...

Anyways, those were good times. I don't know if I'll drink SoCo again. I'm not saying its bad. I dunno, it feels like Greasy Kid's Stuff, you know?