MY STRANGE COSMIC CONNECTION TO ALBUM BIRTHDAYS
“FORTUNATELY, I’M ADHERING TO A PRETTY STRICT DRUG REGIMEN TO KEEP MY MIND LIMBER.”
My birthday was in August [I’m a Virgo, in case you’re wondering] and that got me thinking about Album Birthdays. You’re probably not quite like me, with your own calendar of the actual birthdays of each of the records in your collection, but I’m sure you can appreciate the idea of celebrating something on the proper anniversary of its debut to the world.
I’ve been on this sonic wax-filled journey for a couple hundred days now and it’s been noticeably weird how often I’ve randomly picked an album only to find out that I exhumed it from my collection within days or weeks of its original debut. The following list is just from August alone:
Say Anything, … Was A Real Boy: August 29 (listened) vs August 3 (released)
Almost Famous Box Set: August 25 (listened) vs August 21 (released)
Rancid, … And Out Come The Wolves: August 3 (listened) vs August 22 (released)
Black Sabbath, Master of Reality: August 1 (listened) vs August 6 (released)
Do I perhaps possess some sort of “cosmic awareness of sound” that lets me tap into the Akashic Record of the universe? Is that what allows me this unique and strange opportunity? Well, probably not. There’s likely some sort of boring math that someone (most definitely not me) could do that would explain the probability of such occurrences. But… isn’t math just the language of the universe?
Now, I didn’t list everything there, but it’s been damn near once a week that it has happened for most weeks out of 2024. I find that rather… interesting. I’m not a math-wiz so I have no idea what the probability of any of this is. Maybe one of you out there can help me with that.
Unrelated to my chronic sonic journey, but very much related to “things debuting to the world,” I have other news for all of you. On August 26th I debuted my podcast, The Hesh Files, for which I interview other musicians about anything strange and unusual they’ve encountered out on the road. So if you like music [and I’m assuming you have at least a peripheral interest in it, given you’re reading this] and strange tales about tour life, then The Hesh Files is the podcast for you.
So anyway, here’s August.
“AUGUST BURNS HESH”
AUGUST 1 - BLACK SABBATH - MASTER OF REALITY, “SWEET LEAF”
AUGUST 2 - ORNETTE COLEMAN - THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME, “FOCUS ON SANITY”
AUGUST 3 - RANCID - … AND OUT COME THE WOLVES, “MAXWELL MURDER”
AUGUST 4 - WITCH - LIVE AT THIRD MAN RECORDS DETROIT, “WAILE”
AUGUST 5 - STILLWATER - S/T, “FEVER DOG”
AUGUST 6 - ROB ZOMBIE - THE LUNAR INJECTION KOOL AID ECLIPSE CONSPIRACY, “18TH CENTURY CANNIBALS, EXCITABLE MORLOCKS AND A ONE-WAY TICKET ON THE GHOST TRAIN”
AUGUST 7 - VAN HALEN - 5150, “WHY CAN’T THIS BE LOVE?”
AUGUST 8 - SLAYER - HELL AWAITS, “AT DAWN THEY SLEEP”
AUGUST 9 - THE ROLLING STONES - EXILE ON MAIN ST., “VENTILATOR BLUES”
AUGUST 10 - PEDRO GARCÍA AND HIS DEL PRADO ORCHESTRA - CHA CHA CHA, “SENORITA CATALINA” [NOT ON SPOTIFY]
AUGUST 11 - ELVENKING - READER OF THE RUNES: RAPTURE, “TO THE NORTH”
AUGUST 12 - TAKING BACK SUNDAY - WHERE YOU WANT TO BE, “A DECADE UNDER THE INFLUENCE”
AUGUST 13 - HIM - RAZORBLADE ROMANCE, “RIGHT HERE IN MY ARMS”
AUGUST 14 - NORMAN GREENBAUM - GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: AWESOME MIX VOL. 1, “SPIRIT IN THE SKY”
AUGUST 15 - BLACK FLAG - LAST SHOW (LIVE IN DETROIT). “DRINKING AND DRIVING”
AUGUST 16 - MASTODON - BILL AND TED FACE THE MUSIC: O/S/T, “RUFUS LIVES”
AUGUST 17 - MOLLY HATCHET - FLIRTIN’ WITH DISASTER , “FLIRTIN’ WITH DISASTER”
AUGUST 18 - BAD RELIGION - ALL AGES, “I WANT TO CONQUER THE WORLD”
AUGUST 19 - PERRY COMO - RELAXING WITH PERRY COMO, “FAR AWAY PLACES”
AUGUST 20 - LINKIN PARK - HYBRID THEORY, “FORGOTTEN”
AUGUST 21 - ALICE COOPER - GOES TO HELL, “GO TO HELL”
AUGUST 22 - PJ HARVEY - UH HUH HER, “THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR. BADMOUTH”
AUGUST 23 - DOLLY PARTON - BACKWOODS BARBIE, “DRIVES ME CRAZY”
AUGUST 24 - THE PIXIES - DOGGEREL, “HAUNTED HOUSE”
AUGUST 25 - ELTON JOHN - ALMOST FAMOUS O/S/T, “TINY DANCER”
AUGUST 26 - SINGLE MOTHERS - NEGATIVE QUALITIES, “HALF-LIT”
AUGUST 27 - DICK DALE & HIS DEL-TONES - PULP FICTION O/S/T, “MISIRLOU”
AUGUST 28 - THE ROLLING STONES - BEGGARS BANQUET, “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL”
AUGUST 29 - SAY ANYTHING - … IS A REAL BOY, “ALIVE WITH THE GLORY OF LOVE”
AUGUST 30 - JEFFERSON AIRPLANE - SURREALISTIC PILLOW, “SOMEBODY TO LOVE”
AUGUST 31 - BO BURNHAM - INSIDE (THE SONGS), “ALL EYES ON ME”
You know the drill by now. I’ll surface again sometime next month with yet another rambling and playlist. As promised, here’s that playlist of savory savvy selects from this months albums. Enjoy blasphemously.
Don’t forget to check out The Hesh Files.
[Exclusively on Spotify, for now]
Skål, scalawags.
In Hesh we trust,
S. Jones
