Expertise: The ROCK! Drunken Monkey Kung-Fu &…Pie.

Product of a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong, I was put in a basket and floated down the river as a child, soaking up the sounds of Van Halen, Aerosmith, Kiss, Queen & “Muskrat Love” blaring from the vans and camaros parked along the rivers banks. Upon washing up on the shores of Athens Georgia to earn a degree, like trig, never to be used again, I was thrust into a whole new world of sights and sounds. My “education” soon majored in sneaking nightly into The 40-Watt Club, Uptown Lounge, or artsy college house party to witness the likes of Black Flag, the Replacements, Jason and the Scorchers, R.E.M., Husker DU, Violent Femmes or local legends Mercyland (Maybe the best band ever at the time) ETC. Somewhere, between The Rock, panty raids, and UGA football games, a degree was earned. It was on the back of that diploma, during the “Great Paper Crisis” of 1986, that I penned the first of many rock operas; a semi-autobiographical piece about a boy who gains super-hero powers from eating too much paste. Finding the lure of music too much to deny, I rejected the advice of everyone around me “to get a real job”. Instead, I started a band…

“Real jobs” come and go in this biz we call “Music”. I’ve worked with some great people, most of whom, one day, ALSO said to themselves…”Screw it! I’m starting a band!” A marketing job with Capitol/EMI, Regional sales/marketing for I.R.S. Records (RIP), And ultimately Product Manager for Tower Records in Atlanta. Now, here at Manifest to continue to provide safe harbor for those of you who continue to love music and movies as much as WE do. And who still dream of putting that band together….

Rock’s not pretty, but someone’s gotta do it. 

William’s Top Ten of 2007 (No Particular Order):
Ike Reilly Assassination – We Belong to the Staggering Evening
Avett Brothers – Emotionalism
Rob Crow – Living Well
Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare
Matthew Good – Hospital Music
M.I.A. – Kala
Dungen – Tito Bitar
NIN – Year Zero
Bat For Lashes – Fur & Gold
Neko Case – Live From Austin TX

TOP PICKS OF 06:
I took the year off…but, The Ike Reilly Assassination (We Belong To the Staggering Evening) & Rob Crow (Living Well) certainly come to mind.

FAVORITE RECORDS OF ALL TIME:
(Come on, are you SERIOUS…it depends on the moooooood! I’ll play along.)
Replacements – Tim, Let it Be, Hootenanny, Stink, oh, what the hell…& Sorry Ma..
Cure – Head on The Door, Disintegration, Concert: Cure Live
Mercyland – No feet on the Cowling, Spillage
Clash – Clash, Give em Enough Rope, London Calling
Prince - Controversy, 1999, Purple Rain, Around the World in A Day, Sign of the Times, Black Album
Van Halen – I, II, Women & Children First, Fair Warning
Morrissey – Bona Drag, Queen is Dead, Louder than Bombs (yeah, technically Smiths)
Archers of Loaf – Icky Mettle
Chainsaw Kittens – Violent Religion, Flipped out in Singapore
Maria Mckee – Life is Sweet, self titled, & the Lone Justice records
Neko Case – Anything…including Corn Sisters, and New Pornographers
Dismemberment Plan – All of it
Metallica – Ride the Lightening, Master of Puppets
(oh, I give up…..)

BEST CONCERTS EVER SEEN:
Van F’n Halen – II, Women & Children, Fair Warning, Diver Down, 1984 Tours
Prince – 1999, Purple Rain, and various small club tours
Morrissey – First solo tour
Cure – Disintegration tour
Replacements – Tim tour (on a good night)
Dismemberment Plan – Change, Farewell tours
First Lollapalooza – Jane’s Addiction, NIN, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Tool, Rollins, & Rage Against the Machine & Ice-T all at the height of their powers
&….Many, many Mercyland, James Hall, Beat Farmers, Dresden Dolls, (Early) Soul Asylum, Faith No More, Maria Mckee, Ramones, Jane’s addiction, Sonic Youth or blah blah blah blah shows.

RIP: the mighty Miracle Whip, Spit Blue & Idiot Stick Rules! You made me what I am today!