Sacramento was the capital of my world in my teenage and college years. Most (if not all) of the bands that got me into the music I loved, came from Sac. Obviously, the Deftones seemed to lead the way, but they were hardly the only band there that made a huge impact on my life.

Far, Simon Says, Tinfed, Quitter, Leisure, Anguish Unsaid, Silence Broken, and others, were bands I spent a considerable amount of time going to see and listening to. However, the one band that has really stuck with me through the years was Will Haven.  Will Haven was different on a fundamental level. They were friends with nearly every other band in Sac (and the scene), super well respected by everyone they toured with and tuned WAY the hell down.  Led by Grady on vocals and Jeff (Guitar) and Mike (Bass), Will Haven was like a mix of Bloodlet meets Crue’. When they were slow, they were heavier than everyone else and when they were fast they shredded. Grady sounded like a demon and was by far and away the guy who embodied being a lead singer. He didn’t talk much, he seemed aloof most of the time, and he never was one to mince words. But when he hit the stage, he exploded and for those 25-45 minutes, he was like the sun, just beaming with light.

They never got the recognition they deserved. A bit off in terms of timing for popularity, I think they could have been huge. But who cares, they always produced solid records (even now) that were awesome and still get a ton of listens by me. In particular, Carpe Diem was a record that just crushes on every level, in particular, the namesake of the album.  Even 17 years later, the song just crushes.  See if you can catch the cameos of Chino and Jaworksi.

Criminally underrated is a term that gets thrown around a lot. Usually, it comes out when discussing various artists.   It always made me wonder what makes something underrated. When I think of the term, I have a ton of records flood into my mind and to me, they were all underrated/underappreciated in different ways.  So I am going to take a moment to start a series, of artists or albums I find to be underrated.  I am not sure how long this series will go, but I am sure its going to take me some time.

So with that, I’ll start with Esthero, who made one of my all-time favorite records in “Breath from Another“. At a time when everyone was trying to convince each other that they were into Portishead and Sade before it was cool, Esthero put out this record with little fanfare and hardly any push from her label. I am not entirely sure how I came across the album. I think she had a song on a mix CD of new artists that were being handed out at Tower Records for free. I remember cycling through the songs and stopping on her song “Heaven Sent”. It was a trip, this eerie haunting songstress vocals, with dub-beats. I wasn’t terribly into this type of music at the point in my life, but it came crashing down on me like a burst of light.  Here I am, nearly 20 years later still listening to this record and it hasn’t lost any of vibrancy or authenticity that made it stand out, all those years ago.