🎧 Downbeat.fm Vol. 3 Track 3

Sadly, I’m starting this newsletter on a down note… The music world lost Taylor Hawkins this past week - a huge loss for rock and roll.

You should know the Rastiellos are huge Foo Fighters fans - especially Ali. There have been many tributes from the music community like Paul McCartney, Perry Farrell, Elton John, and many others. I’ve seen the Foo Fighters five times - the first time was in 1997 when Taylor had just joined the band.

I’ve read dozens of interviews and tributes from so many people that Taylor touched, he was a caring, and loving friend, and my heart goes out to his family and friends everywhere.

Here’s Foo Fighters performing on Letterman in 2011 with Taylor singing his song Cold Day in the Sun:

Here’s another video of an epic drum solo from 2006:

March’s Playlist

This month’s playlist features Rocketship, ††† (Crosses), Sonic Youth, Leith Ross, and more.

Listen to this month’s playlist on

Quick Listening and Other Links

Alvin in the Chipmunks was a popular cartoon when I was a kid, and now it’s a bunch of mixed animation and live-action movies. If you’ve ever heard them singing, it’s basically just people singing, but sped up. One person found that if you slowed an Alvin and the Chipmunks record to 16 RPM (instead of the usual 33 1/3 RPM) they sound like a post-hardcore/punk goth band.

If you came up in the early/mid-90s as I did you may have heard of Pearl Jam’s legal battle with Ticketmaster, a company no one likes but is forced to use if you want to see live music. John Oliver recently did a segment on Last Week Tonight all about Ticketmaster and the shady deeds they still do.