I love music. The greatest Christmas gift my parents gave me was a record player and a collection of 1970’s LP’s that ranged from Sesame Street Disco to Spider-Man adventure records. Sadly, I no longer have those records, but I have bought and been given a lot of music since then.
I started DJ’ing in 1990 when I spun records and tapes for WCRD at Ball State University. The only way you could hear the station was by having it piped into your room’s radio through a power outlet. There was no antenna.
I later became a volunteer DJ for WSND at the University of Notre Dame and have been spinning there for over a decade. I soon started writing about music and was the punk / alternative / psychedelic rock editor for Outlaw Music Magazine and its sister site Kick Ass Music Women for many years.
Two of my greatest joys are discovering new bands and turning people onto new music. This blog aims to do that each week.
7th Level was the name of the punk rock club where my friends and I hung out every Sunday in Fort Wayne, Indiana. I saw the Flaming Lips there when they were still unknown Oklahoma City acid freaks. I saw Naked Raygun there when they were promoting their second record. I got my first mosh pit injury (a sprained finger) there. It is a place I remember with nothing but fondness, and I wanted to pay tribute to it by naming this blog after it.
It also refers to the 7th chakra – the highest one that is opened upon enlightenment. I don’t claim this blog or even a great band will strip you of your illusions, but if a whack from a Zen master’s cane can cause enlightenment for some, why can’t a guitar chord or reverb vocals?
As the late, great Mark Sandman once said, “Let’s take a trip together, headlong into the irresistible orbit.”
