Monday morning is not going so well as I bring you more unfortunate news. A huge icon of mine and many others, Issac Hayes, has passed. Some relatives found Hayes dead yesterday next to his treadmill that was still running in his home in Memphis. He is best known for his writing and recording of the “Theme From Shaft” for the original film Shaft in 1971. The song quickly reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. Hayes is an icon of American soul music with his funk sound stemming from southern soul.

Hayes accomplished an Academy Award for Best Original Song and three Grammy awards throughout his lifetime. Hayes was also a big humanitarian and was titled an honorary king of Ghana’s Ada district. He was also the beloved voice of “Chef” on South Park until 2006. Hayes was an amazingly talented man and will be GREATLY missed. RIP Mr. Hayes.

For lunch today, Synthesis sales guru Cayle Hunter and myself headed down to a little burrito joint we frequent up the road called Amigos De Acapulco (highly recommended if you ever make it to Chico). The music they play in this restaurant is the type of OOM-PAH, keyboard driven Mexican polka, technically known as Duranguense, that they play in every burrito spot in California. Usually its pleasant enough but not really worth paying attention to. But today was different. Behind the usual heartfelt Spanish crooning and laughable synth-lines was some serious Neil Peart style drum fills. Insane snare rolls, fills that crossed the measure line, all sorts of crazy shit was going on. We asked the woman at the counter who the fuck we were listening to and she told us it was “K-Paz” in the same sort of tone that someone listening to rap would tell you they were listening to 2Pac. It turns out K-Paz de la Sierra is one of the bigger names currently making the rounds in Duranguense scene, and were even nominated for a Grammy last year, despite the murder of frontman Sergio Gomez. If you want to see a band with style, poise, and a badass drummer, check out a few of their videos on YouTube or add them on Myspace. Muy Caliente!