10 Ifs One Hit: Baggs

It's been a minute since my last post so I'm going to try and make this one worth it. By worth it I mean I'm creating a new segment; "10 Ifs One Hit." You'll be able to find it on the page bar as well as the home page.

Basically it will be a short summary of a featured artist followed by ten relevant and not so relevant questions. I'm also going to put out some of their work ("one hit") some links and whatever else they give me free reigns on.

With that said, for the first 10 Ifs One Hit, I bring you Andrew "Baggs" Baggaley, controller of the zodiac and observer of the phony acts.

Straight off the boat from a study abroad trip in Hamburg, Germany (or should I say study abroad trip turned impromptu open mic tour); Baggs and I got to sit down at the local pub this past Monday to talk about Lauryn Hill, river otters and anarchist communes.

If you've never heard of Baggs, then you're in for a whirlwind of fresh thoughts. In a way he's your typical college hippie, flowing brown locks, little concern for bad vibes, and all his energy pointed towards love and unity.

Like many other '90s babies, Baggs found his passion for rapping growing up in a time where "real slim-shadys" and "thongs songs" reigned supreme. He remembers Nelly's "Ride Wit Me" defining his fourth grade experience and writing one of his first raps in 6th grade about Manchester United. 

Messing around with freestyles in the halls of his high school led to a consciousness today that's exploding with an intergalactic message of hope and achievement. As he says, "If you ain't happy with yourself then open your heart, love flows in and out and heals every scar."

Maybe the best part about Baggs is the fact that he isn't afraid to show his dark side. With honest qualms about sorrow and insecurity, you can't help but feel drawn to his lyrics, "Is the real world beating you down? Well I was in the same place; I had the same frown on a different face. Desperate, thinking dreams are two fast to chase, a fleeting feeling is the past passed away."

The fact is, Baggs is just doing it different. Instead of rapping about girls, glory and gold watches he tells the truth like it is, "A realistic world ain't no fun to be in." 

If you could share the stage with any current MC, who would it be and why?

I would say Slugg from atmosphere just cause he’s my favorite. When I first heard him rap I was like oh wow this guy can rap about different shit from another point of view. The way he always spit really hit home with me, and the fact that he made his own label and his own thing totally independent.

If you could start any type of restaurant, what would it be?

I would do a food truck and make doner kebabs. So, they hang meat from a giant slab and they take an electric shaver and slice it up real thin. They put it in this pita type bread and throw on lettuce, onion, tomato whatever you want.

If you could marry any artist?

Lauryn Hill because, Lauryn Hill. Also because she is a dope mc and her unplugged album is my shit and she got a brain and soul and is beautiful. And because, Lauryn Hill.

If you had to climb any mountain?

Somewhere in Patagonia I guess, because it looks gorgeous and everest and kilimanjaro are soooo mainstream. ha. and my bro was there and said it was dope and there are glaciers there and they're melting quickly so i guess i gotta see em while they're still around.

If you could meet any deceased writer?

I'd say Herman Hesse. I haven't really been into too many books lately but I really like what he did with Siddartha. 

If you had no choice but to get inked up this second, what would you get?

I’ve always thought about getting one but could never think of anything, until one of my last nights in Germany this past month. We were in this club at 7 in the morning and I had been thinkng a lot about death, I started having this anxious feeling of not existing and for a brief moment this sentence in German came up in my head, "Eines Tages werden wir sterben, deswegen müssen wir tanzen." Translation: One day we’ll die, because of that we must dance!

If you could be reincarnated into any animal, which would you be and why?

I would be a river otter cause they just fuckin’ have a blast. I see them at the zoo and there always just like having the most fun.

If you could be the president of any country in the world, which would it be and why?

I don’t fuck with countries, I don’t even fuck with states. I’m just not down with all the power and the boundaries. If I had to be the president of something it’d be like an anarchist commune island place where people just come and go as they pleased.

If you could be born into any Era, which would it be and why?

If I could be this age in like 1963, I’d do it just for the music. I think that whole era is over-hyped, but the music was legit and people did their thing. I love Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan’s tight, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison is my shit.

If you could live anywhere the next two weeks, where would it be?

As much as I wanna be other places, I wanna be right here right now. Just looking at what’s going on in the next few weeks of my life.

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With that last question I now leave you with full access to Bagg's first full length album: "New Day." Best of all, it's Free...FREEE!

With nine passionate tracks and some of the realest and most down to earth lyrics I've ever come across, this album lives up to its name and then some. 

Plus, there's a featured artist on the last two tracks that will make you question when a "Fine Wine" album is coming. Enjoy

You can also find Baggs on Facebook, Youtube, and Twittter.

Why I Love Phish

For my first post on the new blog I figured I’d tackle a subject I’m pretty passionate about, something that really strikes a chord in my poor heart. That subject is Phish, and since the bands reinstatement in 2009, I’ve tried to hit the road a few times each year to catch them live. 

Whether it’s at a Halloween rager in Atlantic City where everyone is dressed in their Frankenstein best, or at an outdoor pavilion when the rain is coming down faster then you can say David Bowie, the atmosphere is always lit up with dancing voices and singing feet. In this post I will try and break down what it is that keeps the insiders in and the outsiders out, why it's better to let go rather then to hold on, and above all, why I love Phish.

Anyone out there who’s not entirely familiar with Phish, they’ve been deemed arguably the greatest cult rock and roll band of the past three decades (the word “cult” might turn you off, but it’s a crucial component I’ll get to soon). I could hit you with some facts about how many shows they’ve sold out, how many international cities they’ve booked over the years and the number of quality of studio albums they’ve released, but those would all just be figures and statistics. 

To give you a quick taste of what their capable of, they routinely cover songs by The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. If you can’t appreciate, or God help you, don’t recognize at least two of those names, then you have some serious discography’s to start downloading.

The question remains, what is it that magnetizes millions of fans to follow around this lesser known four-piece rock and roll band named after a misspelled animal? There’s no doubt Phish’s following is a dedicated group of live music enthusiasts, and the funny thing is it’s the same thing that keeps fans in that keeps them out. This is where the “cult status” comes into play. There’s a few reasons that drive the smartest and most sensitive music fans away from getting anywhere near Phish. Here’s the biggest one:

“Steal away before the dawn and bring us back good news, but if you've tread in primal soup please wipe it from your shoes. Just then a porthole pirate scourged the evening with his cry, and sanctuary bugs deprived a monkey of its thigh.”

Those are a few lines from the first verse of a relatively well-known song called “Cavern.” Anyone who knows what songwriter and lead guitarist Trey Anastasio was thinking when he wrote those lyrics may speak now or forever remain confused. Don’t bother googling it either, as that will take you through a maze you’ll never get out of.

My point is this, that song and those lyrics make absolutely no sense. There’s not one logical sentence or phrase that will tell you anything about anything. The last line of that song is, “Whatever you do, take care of your shoes.” So I guess if you’re in college and you pass out at a party, it’s some pretty sound advice. Otherwise, pure fucking lunacy. Any sane person would say, “Wow, I wonder what Trey was tripping on when he wrote that!” Because well, they were evidently some pretty transcendent drugs.

You definitely don’t need a raging acid trip to enjoy yourself at a Phish show, but that’s beside the point. What I’m focusing on is the pure ambiguity of almost every Phish song, and that’s what steers a lot of people away from the band; this inability to understand.

[Quick footnote: The lyrical concept behind “Phish” is actually based on a creative writing thesis by Trey during his time at Goddard College in Vermont. Essentially he created a fictional kingdom called “Gamhendge,” which features characters and storylines relating directly to the kingdom’s reliance on time. Time was created by the sky God Icculus, the recipe for which was then written down in the helping friendly book. The lizards, a race of people practically extinct from doing things smart people don’t do, depend on the helping friendly book, which gets stolen by Wilson, the evil King of Prussia. With the help of a retired Colonel, Forbin, Icculus dispatches the helping friendly mocking bird to retrieve the helping friendly book and bring it back to its rightful place in the Gamehendge Time Phactory. That's a broad overview.]

Back to all this ambiguity and why it seems like the only thing you can learn from a Phish song is a silly fantasy story. The bottom line with Phish is this, if you can’t listen to them because the lyrics aren’t deep enough for you, then you’ve already lost half the battle and Phish has inadvertently weeded you out of their fan base forever. The thing you realize about Phish is they’re all about having a good time, and their ability to spread that joy to their audience in live shows is what solidifies their epic presence.

A couple weeks ago at the Merriweather Pavilion  Trey put his guitar down and bounced around the stage for the better half of a ten-minute groove. Most lead singers won’t sacrifice that kind of ego, and most won’t even have the chance to because of the constraints they put on themselves and their music. Worrying about constraints isn’t a priority when it comes to Phish, and this is something I think they try and spread through their musical community.

Constraints, particularly mental constraints, are things we experience everyday; it’s a by-product of our largely whacked out society. We all have a hard time letting go and accepting the truth, we have obsessive thoughts and we all don’t like something about ourselves. 

Why can’t we just say enough is enough and drop all these mental burdens? That would make sense, right?  It would, but this is life and we have obligations and responsibilities and things we have to be mad about! 

"AHH! Stupid possum! I dented my car when I ran you over! I can’t believe that crazy Suzy Greenberg! What a bitch! Why doesn’t she just get checked by a neurologist!" These are things we might think are tough to get over, because well, why shouldn’t we get mad about someone or something trying to ruin our day? Phish has taught me how one can avoid this trap; that thinking too much can be a bad thing. 

When I'm listening to Phish I don’t have to question or contemplate anything in that moment. I don’t have to think about rules or constraints or paranoid thoughts; I just feel. I don’t know what I’m singing along to half the time and I love that. I love that there’s a fanatical king named Wilson who’s trying to steal the recipe for time and declares that anyone who possesses it is a crook. I love that Harry Hood can feel good, good, good about home. I especially love that Fluffhead was a man with a horrible disease.

Listening to Phish is ultimately about letting go for the sake of letting go, because above everything, no one truly knows anything, except for those genuine feelings that come from within us. Phish makes sense, because like life, it makes no sense at all when you look at it from a purely logical standpoint. 

Just like the helping friendly book holds the recipe for time, I believe Phish’s music holds the recipe for happiness. That happiness requires two things: a mind that’s willing to let go, and a body willing to express it. What's even better is this phenomena occurs with any type of music; Phish just happens to be one awesome example.

You can see below I've compiled a must listen playlist of both studio and live performances. The studio songs are linked to Youtube, and the two custom live sets are from shows I've personally attended the last four years. 

Keep in mind there are a slew of Phish songs that do have meaningful and easily understood lyrics. Most of these I've included in the studio songs. I selected the live songs based on their inherent jamtistical sound quality and just because I dig 'em. Enjoy!

Studio:                                                          

"Waste"                                                         

"Sample In a Jar"                                        

"Backwards Down the Number Line"   


"Free"                                                             

"Heavy Things"                                          

"Bug"                                                            

"The Wolfman's Brother"                          

"David Bowie"                                         

"Mango Song"                                            

"Guelah papyrus"                                                                                 

"Farmhouse"                                                  

"Reba"                                                              

"Roggae"                                                          

"Dirt" 

Live:

Live Phish Mix #1

Live Phish Mix #2