This song found its way onto my ipod shuffle after I got out of the grocery store on my way home for work this evening. What did I buy you ask? A shopping card full of booze. That’s right, I looked like Nicholas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Ok maybe not quite that bad. On line everyone else had actual food meanwhile I had six bottles of wine and a handle of Bacardi Select. I know its a step up for me. Truth of the matter is they were out of Bacardi Gold and Select was the same price. As long as there is a handle of some type of Bacardi in the freezer here at the Palace Lisanti Land will run smoothly.
Enough about my drinking problem and back to this week’s Groovin’ High entry (this weeks, ha what a fucking joke, its more like this months. Its been so long since we had a Groovin’ High entry I cant even remember. Or maybe that is a result of all the brain cells killed by the alcohol. You can be the judge. All I will say in my defense is that some of the greatest men were drunks.) Uptown Groovin’ by Soundscape UK from their album Uptown Groove. I first was turned on to this band back in high school when their single Brand New Day was on the radio. I think I was a sophomore meaning we are talking back in 1996. A few years later they dropped this album. It was never promoted on the radio. I actually found out about it from the internet and purchased the album on the blind faith that it would be as good as the last one I got from them Surreal Thing.
This was the first song on the CD and it captivated me. Funny story I got the CD in the mail two days after this big blizzard we got hit with in NJ back in ’03, I think. I was up on the roof of my house shoveling snow off the flat roof of the solarium. We received about four feet of snow and the weight of the melt could have caved in the roof. I was sent up to take care of the situation. The whole time the thinking the weight of the melting snow and my own might just send me through the roof with it.
I had just got the CD that morning and decided to throw it in my boom box (that’s right back then they were still called Boom Boxes, heck I currently play my ipod through a circa 1980’s clock radio. The shit sounds better then any speakers I have owned.) and play it from the window while I shoveled. Uptown Groovin‘ was the first song on the album. It’s a great tune and ever since that first listen I have been captivated by it every time I hear it.
Fast forward to March of that same year, 2003. Sindia and I decided to go on a tour of California with our friend Alex who claimed he knew all the good surf spots. As it turned out he was a kook and did not know the first thing about anything. Living in California I know exactly the type of “surfer” category he fits into. Back then I just figured anyone from California who surfed must be the shit. The only good thing (or bad depending on the day, my mood and out look) that came of the whole fiasco, where by the way Continental bumped my boards to a later flight delaying me in San Francisco Air Port. The Port Authority almost arrested me for taking out my frustration on a baggage carousel, but that is a blog for another day. Let me just say this there was a time when I was not as mellow as I am now.
The only good thing that came out of the trip was that I was introduced to Santa Barbara, Jason Feist of J7 Surfboards and began my infatuation and subsequent love affair with Rincon. Now almost ten years later I live here almost directly as a result of that trip. We drove into Santa Barbara from Monterey. I was sleeping in the back of this beat up van Alex’s friend Brian owned when this song came onto my ipod. We ended up checking what I believe was Naples although my knowledge of the area at the time was less then novice. Long story short we ended up surfing twelve foot Devereux with Jesse Merle Jones and to this day is still the biggest Devereux I have ever surfed. Then again I also never surf there.
Face it these days I only really surf Rincon. Sorry I am a snob like that. Whenever I hear this song I am always brought back to both those moments. The song still amps me up. I guess that is what makes a great song. That is the amazing thing about music in general. It can stir up some of the most amazing emotions in the human soul. Below is the tune you have spent all this time reading about. I hope you enjoy it.
” The Port Authority almost arrested me for taking out my frustration on a baggage carousel, but that is a blog for another day. Let me just say this there was a time when I was not as mellow as I am now.” My UCB submission is this story.
UCB what songs regularly go through your head during certain tasks? In other words, what’s the soundtrack of your life when you’re surfing, at work, about to go to sleep, at the wildcat, etc. etc. etc.
UCB craigslist
we had a blog about craigslist, see “Guilty Pleasure”.
https://surfingruinedmylife.net/2011/06/16/a-guilty-pleasure/ that is the craigslist blog, it actually is not bad writing on either of our parts.