Music Mondays ~ Puscifer

It’s Music Monday and today we are hanging out with this guy….

Maynard via Concertboom.com

For those that don’t know who this is – meet Maynard James Keenan (from the bands Tool, A Perfect Circle and more recently Puscifer).  I’m sure he won’t mind if you call him Maynard, as do his many fans.

Puscifer, is a side project of Maynard’s of which he is the only permanent member and considers the project to be his creative subconscious.  When you enter the website this is what greets you:

Welcome to my Island of misfit Ideas. The space where my Id, Ego, and Anima all come together to exchange cookie recipes.

and you might also see something like this:

I first heard of Puscifer and Maynard when I was introduced to the wines of Arizona Stronghold Vineyards. ASV is a collaberation between Maynard and Eric Glomski of Page Spring Cellars.  Maynard also has his own label using grapes from his vineyards called Caduceus Cellars in the old mining town of Jerome, Arizona.

The Music

I’m all about promoting this very dry and mostly beautiful desert I wither live in so here’s one of my Puscifer favorites called Mama Sed…..watch for the bottle crashing to the ground at 2:10 – pretty cool!  Yes, we do have a lot of Saguaros in Arizona, and those are barrel cactus not Peyote you see on the ground sprouting flowers….

Maynard is somewhat of a cult figure with his fans, many of them having followed him since the inception of Tool.  I can’t say I get into his earlier music as it’s a bit hardcore for me but I do find his newer creations to be more mainstream and I love the thought provoking content.  The music and videos of Puscifer cause me to reflect on the definition of creativity and how it relates to music and my perception of the world.

So to give you something a bit different to ponder, here is Man Overboard.   It reminds me a bit of Mad Max meets Stardust.  If you’ve seen the movie, Robert DeNiro plays the sky pirate flying the boat that is fueled by lightning.

Finally, here is Maynard talking about how music can help you move through issues and events in your life and how growing wine has grounded him.  See there’s the connection; he makes music, he grows grapes, he makes wine, I like him…..

I’m also adding The Humbling River, which is the song you hear in the background of the above video.  I love the lilting sound of his voice when he sings:

Nature nurture heaven and home
Sum of all and by them driven
To conquer every mountain shown
But I’ve never crossed the river

This is what’s in our glass today

2009 Arizona Stronghold Site Archive Grenache Pick 3 – lots of berry, white pepper and even strawberry – yumm!  When I hear Grenache I usually think lightweight but this is medium bodied with a smooth finish.  Too bad we were allocated to one per person otherwise, we would have a case of it.  The Site Archives are the higher quality wines from the Wilcox vineyard and are only available online or in the tasting room.  2009 is sold out so we are eagerly awaiting the 2010 release.

So, if you make it to Arizona, be sure to visit the funky towns of Jerome and Old Town Cottonwood for some wine tasting.  But don’t come in the middle of the summer….Yes, it’s a dry heat but still, it’s hot as hell!!

Enough already…..crank that music up, drink some good wine!

Until next time, Cheers to you!