Miles' Notes #22
tommy guerrero, epic goats, & something better than spotify's yearly wrap up...
miles here. i’m interested in the interesting and like to curate this semi-weekly newsletter for my friends and anyone else who wants to tune in.
🎧 what i’m listening to
Tommy Guerrero. Sometimes you come across a rare artist who doesn’t seem to be able to put out an album that you don’t love. Guerrero falls into that category for me, and what’s even more epic is that he’s wildly prolific and has released dozens of albums, and each one of them is magnificently unique 🤤. Shout out to my friend Sam who introduced me to them and to Fat Freddy’s Drop once upon a time, too, which also falls into this sublime category.
So Guerrero has a sound like Khruangbin but feels like California rather than Texas & Thailand. He was born and raised in the bay area and is of Ohlone-native (Native American people of the Northern California coast), Chile, and Filipino descent. Guerrero is a guitarist and bassist and his primarily instrumental albums blend elements of rock, funk, blues, jazz, latin, soul, and hip-hop. His albums are at times mysterious and haunting like his most recent Road to Knowhere (Spotify, Youtube), which although has no lyrics “...tells many stories of the desert, late night gatherings, and hushed whispers of secrets.” His albums can also be wistful and groovy, like Soul Food Taqueria (Spotify, Youtube). Basically, whenever I put on a Tommy album, it effortlessly becomes that perfect, irrefutable VIBE.
Not only is Guerrero a mind-melding musician, he’s also a killer skateboarder and arguably more well-known in the skate world. He was a member of the legendary Bones Brigade, the premier skateboarding team of the 1980s which included Tony Hawk, Rodney Mullen, Steve Caballero, Lance Mountain, and Mike McGill and was the most dominant skateboard team in history. He co-founded Real Skateboards and has served as the art director for Krooked Skateboarding. What’s supremely cool about Guerrero, though, is that he seems supremely cool — his music are humble jams that aren’t trying to be anything but what they are.
🤯 what’s blowing my mind
This video of goats climbing a dam. Imagine the most epic David Attenborough-narrated animal scene you’ve seen. Got it? Pretty epic right? Ok, it’s that level.
😂 what’s cracking me up
Just going to leave this here...
🙏 thanks for reading. i appreciate you.
my best,
miles