The Surge CD!?

Welcome to your FEED THE RUSH edition of WMW's!!  I'm your host with the most (love for Surge that is!) and we're here to talk about a weird twist to my highschool graduation celebration! Memories last a life time, and sometimes strange coincidences lead to fun discoveries!!

It was spring of 1997, I somehow managed to graduate on time with the rest of my class, even with falling behind terribly my freshman and sophomore years. The big day came, all the robes and tassels, the long speeches, the angst and fear of what was to come in the next chapter. I didn't have a plan moving into adulthood. I had a summer job lined up, but really wasn't ready to go to College. Matter of fact, my parents had suggested that as long as I was going to take classes in the fall I would be able to live at home (rent-free) for a few years.  So, of course, I invested in a 16 week wrestling course, and got to continue 'living the dream' of being a pro-wrestler!  Our group of friends bought a wrestling ring, we started running a business and putting on wrasslin' shows!  It was slowly growing over the years, but then I experienced burn out, I got injured and then.... Oh wait... I just went off a bit, hold up.

Oh right! GRADUATION NIGHT! During the practice for graduation, we heard about some weird trucks outside of the fieldhouse. This Surge truck was sitting out in the parking lot with a couple of dudes hanging out outside holding stacks of what looked like green envelopes. As we were heading out to grab some food before the grad ceremony, they approached every kid walking outside and handed us one.   

They contained music CDs!  One to listen to, and one to share!  I don't remember exactly who I gave my disc 2 to, but I STILL have my original. The included a demo of some fairly well-known bands and some underground groups. Nothing super radio heavy, at least not for us in central Wisconsin. I was stoked, I'm always about discovering new music!!

So, how were the tunes?  Honestly, not bad!  A great variety of songs and efforts that somewhat encapsulates what the mid-to-late 90s were like.  Nothing overly mainstream, and that was a good thing!

'Another Sunday' by I, Mother Earth

Holy lawd, just listen to that track! Seriously, if you asked AI to create a 90s song that included virtually all of the collective sounds that a typical 90s song would need, 'Another Sunday' would be that track. It is so crazy familiar to that post-punk/90s 'tude alternative sound yet, I'm fairly sure nobody heard that song before or after its release.

Five for Fighting's 'Bellas Birthday Cake' was initially my favorite coming out of this CD. It's a very fun track that packs an added bit of emotion for some strange reason. BUT!  54F is a really talented band and shouldn't be missed if you haven't had a chance to check out their discography.

Between these two tracks you definitely get the vibe of the rest of the CD. 'Vitamins' by Supernova is hilarious. We used to blast this as loud as possible while cruising Grand Ave. IYKYK ;)  It's super amped up and fun, just like it should be dammit!! 

Another fun fact: If you put the CD in a Windows NT PC it would bring up it's own media player with silly dials/scales that allowed for altering the music in various ways. I never played around with it too much, but its a fun feature that adds a little bit more to this crazy crack head freebie!

Pretty wild right?