OK, so a while ago there was a track floating around these here series of tubes, which featured a solo vocal from Runnin With The Devil, the original track, just DLR, doing what he does best. Its truly fantastic, you can just feel the high kicks coming through, its amazing. On a previously mentioned note, I got a bunch of multitrack sessions a while back from classic songs. Bohemian Rhapsody, Sgt Pepper, and finally Whats Going On, by the legendary Marvin Gaye. These elements remained unrelated…until this morning
On my way into work, I got an idea. Whats going on is fairly close in tempo to Runnin With The Devil. What if someone were to combine the 2, creating an unholy union not seen since the original combination of Hall and Oates. So, I arrived at 9:30, and immediately got to work. Right away…you could feel it. I dont want to overhype it…but it was magic. Pure Fucking Magic. Its like DLR walked into Motown, did a high kick, gave everyone in the room a High Five, got in a kyak, paddled down the halway to the studio where Marvin was recording, stepped up to the mic, and fucking killed it in one take. After that, he left with 6 beautiful women on each arm, got into a stretched limo with a pool on top, and rode off into the sunset.
The remix process itself was not too difficult. Some time compression was necessary to speed up a few lines, and lots of movement of sections, but there was no pitch shifting. The songs are oddly similar in key. By far my favorite section is the Scat after the choruses. Its as if they were cosmically pre aligned to meet in the distant future.
See for yourself, please spread it round the interwebs
Last night was one of those nights, that within a few hours, simultaneously encapsulated everything I love and hate about New York. Things like that can happen in this area, with a rightful reputation as a city that moves incredibly quickly, you never know what can happen in the next minute. One second you’re eating a cheeseburger, the next you’re surrounded by douchebags riding on a Llama. If it happened, not many would be surprised. It started as a typical evening, plans for music, hopes of food and beverage, but interesting turns were taken. But i’m getting ahead of myself. Lets do this in list format, of everything I love and hate. The band we saw was called The Bad Plus, so lets start with The Bad:
1. European Tourists
My god, these fucking people. How did New Yorkers get a reputation for being rude? It was probably from dealing with these incredibly inconsiderate scummy peolpe. We were on line for The Village Vanguard, there was an obvious line forming, at a right angle along the street, clearly there was a back and a front. When all of a sudden, 20 Euro Trash people cram their smelly selves right up to the front of the line, causing utter chaos. People start pushing, yelling in unrecognizable foreign tounges, and causing trouble. While inside, we they sat us next to a group of 60 yr + women, who felt it necessary to talk to eachother the whole time. Eventually, the Golden Girls shut up, after repeated shushhing attempts from those around them. Your currency may be more valuable than ours, but that does not give you the right to be a shit head. Please go home.
2. Douche Bags
How are these peolpe so instantly recognizable? The wide striped shirt completely lacking style. The mildly spiky hair completely lacking style. The need to be incredibly loud and call attention to yourself and your generic bleach blonde girlfriend dressed like a cast member of The Hills (and she is proud of this fact.) The Douchey Posse Of Other Douches laughing in support of unfunny obnoxious jokes. These people are usually confined to loud bars and dance music related venues, high priced restaurants, Murray Hill, sporting events, and concerts at large venues. But The Village Vanguard is usually a safe haven. In the many times I have attended shows here, I have never seen one douchebag. Well, last night made up for all of those. This crew of Frat Boys comes in, 3 guys, 3 girls, they all looked exactly the same. They began unassumingly enough, talking, drinking, as was everyone else in the club. That is, until the music started.
The Village Vanguard is not Webster Fucking Hall. Making out with your gold digging slutbag is not appropriate. Especially during a ballad when those around you can hear your fucking kissing noises. You do not need to pepper the music with periodic “NICCCCCCCE”es. You do not need to give Hi Fives to your hetero lifemate dude friend when the band plays “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” you also do not need to sing it to your slutbag so she knows what song it is. After it got to be too much, I did ask the douche to quiet down, which he did for a bit, to his credit. But overall, this shit just can’t happen. You people have your clubs and bars, please stay there. At one point, I considered, probably as seriously as I ever will, throwing a drink at them. I’m not a violent person, but this would have felt so good. The process went like this:
“well, its the last song, if i pour a drink on him and his slutbag, hes probably not going to try and fight me, i’ll get kicked out, but there’s only like 2 songs left”
but in the end, I wanted to see those 2 songs more than I wanted to throw a beverage at him.
Now, lets go to the other side of the coin. The Good:
1. Badass Old New Yorkers
There is a certain class of city dwellers you do not fuck with. I hope to be one of these people one day. They’re old, they’ve seen it all, and they certainly do not have time for your shit. Lorraine Gordon, owner of The Village Vanguard, is without a doubt one of these people. Some Miami tourist pulled a “do you know who I am? why do i have to wait on this line! I made a reservation!” he literally raised hell over having to wait in line, like everyone else there. The doorman made the right move, and called the owner over. This tiny lady, who must be 80 years old, walks over and assesses the situation. The guy tells her its bullshit that he has to wait in lin. What follows is a pretty close transcript of what happened:
Who the hell are you! You’re Not Special! You gotta wait in line like everyone else in here! Now sit down and shut up! If you say another word, i’ll call the police and have you kicked out. Shut up! Where are you from (he says Miami) I know people from Miami, they’re not as rude as you! Keep your mouth shut!
She was probably the greatest old woman who has ever existed. She even threw the guy’s money back on the table and told him to get the hell out, but then let him stay on the condition that he would shut up. You dont pull a “do you know who I am” with her.
2. Music
You name me one other city in the world, where on a random tuesday night at 11:00 you can go see the Bad Plus, or any number of amazing jazz musicians. The amount of jazz in New York is just plain crazy. And despite all the douche bags and tourists, there is no other place to find this music. The Bad Plus is fucking awesome. 3 nerdy looking white guys who tear up jazz standards, weird angular fusion type tunes, and pop covers with frightening accuracy. The covers are what got them the most recognition, particularly Smells Like Teen Spirit, but even without these, they would be a stellar and progressive group. One time I got to record their piano player Ethan Iverson for a BBC interview, and he was one of the nicest musicians I’ve ever met. He thought I was british (i guess cause it was for the BBC), so he kept offering me a Gin and Tonic. I told him I was driving so I couldn’t, hes like “not even a small one? come on! thats what you people drink!” he also introduced me to the phrase “Dropping Science”. He was making Dr Who references during our level check, again, because he thought I was british and would give me a laugh, which it did anyway, but I am not familiar with the Dr Who program. Eventually he goes “where are you from?” I responded New Jersey, and he was completely thrown off. “Wait, but you’re from england! I’ve been dropping all this Dr Who science on you and you don’t even get it! what the hell!” He was seriously a great dude, very laid back, no pretention, and for that I have geat respect for him. But anyway, back to the show.
You could tell they were excited to be headlining the Vanguard. Everyone, literally everyone, who is important in the history of Jazz has played that stage. They started off a little rocky, feeling like they weren’t totally connected for about 3 minutes…then after 3 minutes, it was like something clicked, and there was no stopping them. Saying they would start and stop on a dime would be an understatement. They stopped on a penny. Maybe even a half cent piece. These guys share one brain. Odd meters, complicated solo runs, they all seemed to be together. Now, as previously stated, the group is well known for their covers. I’ve seen them twice previously, and sadly saw no pop music covers. I wasnt too disapointed, but still, it would have been fun to hear “Tom Sawyer” or something like that. Well, mid set, as previously mentioned, they performed Tears For Fears “everybody wants to rule the world” which despite the douchebag chatter, was awesome. The rest of the set included some of their own compositions, and a few standards, also an amazing drum solo by Dave King. He doesn’t play like most other jazz drummers, he has the intensity of Tony Williams, but with some obvious rock influences, and an especially heavy kick drum foot, injecting a serious groove.
If there was one redeeming quality to the douchebags in attendance, it was their refusal to let the band go home. Led by these 3 frat dudes, the crowd continued applauding, these douches screamed their heads off. So, the band came back for an encore, and played some good jams. They then left, the lights came on, and these douches just went ape shit. One was screaming “SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT!” which has probably never been yelled at the Vanguard before. These 3 dudes, just wouldnt give up, the rest of the crowd sort of just went along with them. So…the band came back! I was incredibly surprised. You rarely see a 2nd encore at a jazz show especially. So, Iverson sits at the piano, messing around in the low registers…then plays a familiar sequence of notes….by the 2nd note of the phrase, everone got it. Iron Man. by Black Sabbath. I’m going to go out on an obvious limb, and say this is the first time in the 50whatever years the Vanguard has been around, that a Black Sabbath song was played there. And as a surprise to no one, the band owned it.
So there you have it. Music and Badass Old People vs Douchebags and Tourists. Its a tough battle, one that is certainly not over. Happy New Year Bitches.
OK, here we go. Its that time again. Top live shows of the year. Actually, I’ve never done this before, so this will be the first one. They’re not really in order, each was special in its own right, and I dont remember the exact dates, but you can be sure, they were the best ever. I see a lot of music, a lot of which is mediocre and gets forgotten quickly. When something stays with me, I love it and exploit it for all it’s worth. Here are 5:
TV ON THE RADIO- Brooklyn Masonic Temple
OK, first off. Who the fuck are TV on The Radio and where the fuck did they come from? Ok, this is not so much a mystery. But I overlooked this band, never paying attention or listening to them as the buzz was coming up. Countless local shows were missed, probably in great tiny venues, one time we even left a free prospect park show they were playing early because of rain. Anyway, my mind was blown. I went in not knowing a single song, and left needing to hear more. That to me is the true test that a band is fantastic. Also, points to the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. Great sound, great room to see a show in.
So this might sound mildly racist, but i mean it in the best way possible, white people could never make music as cool and groove oriented as TVOTR (they have one white dude in the band though). The grooves are just so natural and effortless. There may be some badass white musicians, but they usually just dont have the groove. Example? Listen to Dave Weckl, a flawless studio drummer, then listen to Dennis Chambers, another flawless studio drummer….but Chambers just has a little extra groove. Anyhoo, TV was fucking infectious. With a full horn section, extra percussion, extra singers, it was beautiful start to finish. I only wish I knew more songs at the time.
BRIAN BLADE FELLOWSHIP- The Village Vanguard
The Vanguard is probably the last classic jazz venue that still remains true to its original form. Look at pictures from shows there in the 50’s, its the same. I saw Roy Haynes there one night, he said “Same shitty curtains in this place for 50 years” But I would not have it any other way. Brian Blade is a drummer’s drummer. He plays with everyone. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, every respected jazz musician alive today. He packed the tiny stage with his large band, a sold out full house, and he just blew every person in there away. His hi hat just sounded so damn funky! it was ridiculous. This could have been any night in the 50’s or 60’s as far as jazz goes, the music was just so pure, and Blade was unstoppable behind the kit. There were several moments where everyone in the crowd was awkwardly rubbernecking the awkward angles of the vanguard to get a glimpse at Blade’s acrobatics, he was on fire. As a drummer, it made you feel instantly inferior. He plays like Elvin, and everyone there knew it.
THAO NGUYEN- Brooklyn Masonic Temple
The Temple makes another appearance! Well, its really just Thao. Any venue would have been great to see her in. Again, a slightly unexpected performance. I had heard her album, but did not know what would come of it, its pretty heavily produced. She walked out with an acoustic guitar, bass player, and drummer….thats it. Well….it could have been a disaster. But no! She tore it up. There was a supremely thunderous underlying rhythm to the whole set. Her bass player had a great melodic sense, and her singing was a little strained, but it didnt need to be perfect. Overall, you had to think of these as different songs than the album. And in that sense, they stood strong on their own. I saw her a few more times this year, but the first one, so far has still been the best.
DAVID BYRNE-Music Box Theater
This may be the #1 show of the year, decade, and all time. This man is an unparalleled force in music and art, nothing can touch him. His voice has not aged a single day, and his stage presence is fierce. He’s simply a genius. His band included 3 backup singers, 3 backup dancers, percussion, drums, bass, keys, no sound left untouched. Any person out there wishing to call themselves a “performer” Should be required to see Bryne first. He raises the bar to a standard far beyond what I could imagine. He has you smiling instantly, he’s like a friend to everyone in the room. He played several new tunes from his recent Eno collaboration, but the Talking Heads songs owned the night. His version of Crosseyed and Painless may have been one of the live perfomance highlights of my life, it had a room full of 40+ baby boomers, hipsters, slacker stoner dudes, and peolpe who were just there because they got comped by the hotel out of their seats tearing it up. He may not be a citizen and therefore cannot vote, but he has my full support.
ELVIS COSTELLO & SMOKEY ROBINSON- Apollo Theater
This one was truly special. A taping for Elvis’ TV show, featuring Smokey. This was my first time in the Apollo, and it could not have been for a better event. Smokey told stories from the Motown days kickin it at the apollo, with Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, the whole crew. Elvis did Smokey songs, they played together, told stories, asked questions, just beautiful. Also, since it was for TV, the lighting and set design were fantastic, it looked and sounded wonderful. Also, the Apollo is a lot smaller than it looks on TV.
ANYHOO, thats most of it. I left out most shows which were previously reviewed on this here blog- Wilco, Smokey Hormel, Paul Simon, Hubert Sumlin, and there were countless others, as there are sure to be more.
Often in the New York Metropolitan area, we take transit for granted. Its certainly the best in the country, I’m not too sure about the rest of the world. Even in my native Jersey City, the PATH train is just a wonderful thing. A while back there was something called PATHursdays at the Journal Square Station, I have no idea what it is, but Eric Tarn and myself always wanted a PATHursday t shirt. Last year while in brooklyn waiting for the A/C train, something random and wonderful happened. This big ass old train rolls through the station, painted all green, looking like it came from a long gone era, through the tunnel, and into the Hoyt Schermerhorn station. The doors never opened, it just slowed down long enough for everyone to ask “wtf is that!” then it sped off.
Since that day, its been a goal of mine to ride on this train. Imagine renting out one of the cars for a party, and just tearing it p on a 1930’s subway? If you can think of a better venue, I would like to hear about it immediately. Well….randomly one night, I saw a poster in a station along the F, for the “Nostalgia Train”, operating on sundays for a few hours in the end of November/beginning of December. THIS WAS IT!!!! They take out a vintage 1930’s train and run it for a day on t he V track! Oh man, I was so ready to tear this shit up. So, the girlfriend and I made a date, to meet on the downtown track of the V at Rockerfeller Center. Can you thinkup a better venue for a date? If so, again, I’d like to hear about it immediately.
So, I took the PATH in, got off at 14th street, transferred to the V to get to the specified station. What should arrive immediatley as I get there? Yep. The Nostalgia Train. I kind of felt like a douche, its like “OH HEY, why dont we do this cool thing? I’m gonna get there first though, and have fun before you get there, cool? thanks” But, all was well.
Seriously, it was fucking awesome. Check out some pics.
How cool is that? Each car was slightly different, most apparently from the 30’s, some a little later. They had the old school woven seats, ceiling fans, regular light bulbs in most (not this fluorescent shit currently happening) all sorts of wonderful things. The ads at the top of the car were from the era, you can see a few in the 2nd photo. I wonder if I could ever talk the MTA into renting one out. Lets somehow get this in motion. Best Channuka Party Ever?
The best thing though, was that everyone in the station who saw it, kind of looked on in amazement. The homeless dudes, the families, the really old grizzly dudes, the hipsters, the overdressed jersey looking girls, businessmen, everyone. The Subway: Uniting all the crazy people with very old trains. Yes, my career in advertising is sure to be a bright one.
Also, here’s a picture of the kids, its been a long time since a family photo, I’m not sure if the SG has been mentioned in these pages, but its a welcome new addition to the crew:
OK, Eric Tarn has once again inspired me to blog, the grand muse that he is. 2 topics today:
1. The Auto Industry
2. Guns N Roses
Lets start with Axl and co. I’ve been a fan of the GNR since I was a wee lad. I can distinctly remember going into my 4th grade classroom wearing my white Guns N Roses Use Your Illusion T shirt, thus becomming a lifelong fan. My mom wouldnt even let me buy the album, because of the “Explicit Content” sticker, fuck you very much Tipper Gore. Shortly after, the spaghetti incident was released, and shortly after, nothing happened for many a year. What was a fan to do? For one, we got on with our lives. We listened to new and exciting music, old and undiscovered jams, and many in between. What was Axl doing during this time? Fuck if i know. My point, before we get to the music is this- The process of waiting for this album was ridiculous. Ri. Dic. U. Lous. Velvet revolver made some good music and broke up in this time. I and Everyone I know entered middle school, high school, and college in this time. Children were born, who are now nearly driving cars. Its fucking stupid axl, come on. The pressure is huge.
But now lets get to the serious business, the music, which I have listened to steaming at Myspace.
Its not so bad. Its pretty good. Every review ever will say this, but its true- If we were able to remove context from this album, its pretty good. Better is a great song, it has that urgency of the better parts of Use Your Illusions. But my greatest concern lies in an obvious place- The Guitar Playing.
Buckethead….really dude…come on. Me and the TB and the DB have seen the Bucket many a time, and its always entertaining. He shreds like a fucking cuisinart on stun. But is it necessary ALL the time? no, its not. You dont need to play a billion fucking notes. Come on dude, just play at least a whole note SOMEWHERE, not everything needs to be like 128ths or something. For Cryin Out Loud.
I’ve heard some crazy ass stories about this record. The drummer Brain gave an interview with a recording magazine, talking about the recording process. Axl originally hired Josh Freese, a serious studio drummer, flawless, innovative, all around kickass. But in the process, he recorded all the songs with Freese, then changed his mind, hiring Brain (most well known for his work with Primus). So brain gets to the studio, the producer is Roy Thomas Baker (look up that guy, Night At The Opera Anyone?), and they say “i want you to play what josh played, but with your feel” so brain gets to it, and they stop him and say “no, play EXACTLY what josh played” This is not easy on any instrument, but for nuance, it might be most difficult on drums because strictly by listening, its not the easiest to separate the individual elements. So he takes the music to the Sony Classical division to transcribe, and practices for weeks in the studio (probably costing 2,000$ a day). Well, thats the kind of excess that went into this shit.
Also, the use of autotune is a little silly. Its no secret Axl uses that shit live, somewhere there is a video comparison of “Night Train” from the Use Your Illusion Tour and his most recent fake GNR tour, and on the recent version, its like an octave higher. Listen to “Street Of Dreams” the use of Autotune is just silly man, that sustain is just completely unnatural. When you think about it, this entire album was conceived and started, long before autotune even existed. Its gone through format shifts in recording technology so drastic, I cant even imagine the through process. It started on the earliest version of Hard Disk recording, and now you can easily alter the pitch and time of anything.
So in conclusion, I will buy the album, but I may not be happy about it.
OK, back to topic 1- The Auto Industry
I work closer with the automotive industry than I would prefer. I deal with these jackasses every day, from most manufacturers, making terrible commercials. Let me summarize TB’s point, then respond: The American auto industry is stupid as hell, the most innovative product they have is a hummer, and they spend millions on advertising to support a government bailout, rather than make new cars. I agree. Really, its a lose lose situation for everyone. These people are fucking stupid, they want to sell cars based on Patriotism, yet the cars suck. I’m not going to break down on the side of the highway going to work because I fucking love America, ok? My dad has been a Ford Explorer guy since i can remember, and last year, the transmission just went. Randomly, for no reason, and was not under warranty.
Really, do you know anyone who drives an American car? Only a jackass would buy a ford or some shit.
Now, allow me to get patriotic. This is fucking America. We’re the fucking best. America, Fuck Yea. We have a kick ass black dude for president, what more could you ask for? And we’re the worlds WORST auto maker? really???? We fucking invented the car and we’re the WORST at making it? WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT? Can’t we give them a provisional bailout that says they can only have it if they stop making cars that run on gasoline? and if they come out with another Hummer, lets just take a collective shit on them.
WHEW. Well, that was a long marathon session of non blogging. Not blogging really tires you out.
ANYHOO. I’m here to discuss a very important topic to all of us on this day, November 4th 2008. And that is Digital Recording Technology.
Lets go back in time if you care to join me, to a time circa 1960-1979. We have some music to record, so we go into a studio. We prepare in advance, we write some songs, discuss sounds with an engineer. We purchase some Tape, which is kind of expensive, we get sounds, we record, we rewind the tape, do some punch ins (brief sections of recording within a master take), we do minimal edits, we mix, we’re done. Most of the day is spent playing music, arranging parts, rehearsing, getting the perfect take. Now, lets take out time machine and transfer this exact scenario to modern times.
There is one main variable thats different. The Tape. Its now a hard drive. Lets look at positives vs negatives.
Positives:
the hard drive can hold hundreds of hours of audio.
Negatives:
At any point, the hard drive can unpredictably die, losing all data with no warning, present odd errors when trying to open files, freeze up and crash, god knows how many other things.
This is my argument. While tape has its limitations (which some find to be advantages) It wont randomly disappear. It wont give you errors when starting up. It won’t refuse to load in a tape machine. It will be compatible with other tape machines. Some even say it sounds better.
The hours spent in a creative burst are precious, and sometimes rare. Anything can kill this creative spark. NOTHING kills that like having to wait for a session to transfer, or to troubleshoot file errors, or most importantly to lose an important take because of a drive failure. Maybe thats whats killing music. There’s less time to actually create. There’s less focus on the music itself, and more focus on the technical mishaps and advantages. there it is.
ON WE GO.
So its been a very long time since I’ve contributed any sort of music oriented review in this space, and there have been so many in recent months its impossible to recall them all, but last night I did see a particularly interesting event.
Myself and Ross The Sauce Krentzman, revived our lifelong tradition of seeing The Black Crowes. This was a somewhat special event though, they were performing an all acoustic set at Town Hall in New York. (the same venue used in A Mighty Wind!) The last time i heard of the Crowes doing an all acoustic performance, it was circa 1996. The album Amorica had just come out, I was 14. There was a secret taping of VH1’s Story Tellers at The Bottom Line, a now defunct classic West Village cabaret type venue. I was lucky enough to see many shows there in my adolescent lifetime, mostly older blues and folk type musicians. The only way to get in was through local radio stations- answering trivia questions on the air. And oh man, I called in hundreds of times. I knew the drinks were made by Johnny Wong’s in the liner notes to Southern Harmony. I knew Brendan Bud Obrian played organ on Shake Your Moneymaker, I was all over that shit. But alas, it was not to be, and I did not get it. Years later, I did get a bootleg video of an unedited camera perspective from the taping, and it was fucking fantastic.
Anyhoo, I had hoped last night would be an enhancement on the video watching experience. The band took the stage promptly at 8, all seated, 9 piece lineup, extra percussion, 2 backup singers, a very full stage. The sound was beautiful, we were all very happy to be there, you could feel a wonderful excitement as they opened with Under A Mountain, off the often neglected Three Snakes and One Charm, a brilliant, if somewhat depressing record. But oh man, was it wonderful. It felt great, I was transported to being 14 again, and rocking out to the mildly psychedelic sounds of this southern rock institution. Just as I thought it could not get any better, they went into Nonfiction off Amorica, the hands down best Crowes record. This is my favorite song, and I was floating. Never before had i heard an arrangement so close to the original recording, Luther Dickenson playing lap steel, Rich Robinson on a beautiful 12 string , could this get any better? No, the answer is definitely no, because it got worse. A Lot Worse.
He entered unassumingly enough, a guy in a neatly ironed white dress shirt, and a wide shiny tie that seemed to say “i sit at a desk making phonecalls all day, brokering high powered somethingorother without exuding enough energy to wrinkle my nicely pressed $300 shirt.” and oh my, did he look like a meathead. With the voice and girlfriend to match. Now, I’m going to try to imitate his voice with the following text, so imagine if you will the voice several octaves below my own and several decibels above:
WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO YEAAAAAH, SEE HONEY, THATS CHRIIIIS, THE GUY NEXT TO HIM IS HIS BROTHER RICH! YEAAAAAAH! LOOOK AT HIM WORK THOSE ELBOOOOWS!! (side note: he literally said this, and i have no fucking idea what he meant, everyone in the band was seated and barely moving) I JUST WANNA YELL OUT- I THREW CRAPS WITH YOU IN VEGAS!!!!! WOOOO!!!! MOST PEOPLE DONT KNOW I DID THAT, BUT I DID! SEE THOSE PEOPLE BEHIND THEM? THOSE ARE BACKUP SINGERS!!!
Well, this was not good. I wanted to tell him that the Jets game was on next door, they would be doing a play by play there if he’d like to go watch. Fucking frat guys. They really have no place in modern society. They fucked up our economy with their banking system snafus, they have ruined our cultural centers with their douche-baggy ways. Eventually we could not take any more of this shit, we asked him to quiet down, and for the most part, he did, at times bringing his voice back up giving his slut bag arm accessory the play by play, and also yelling SKOOOT! at the top of his lungs, which neither of us understood. I’m guessing it was some type of mating call to attract the Long Hairs on stage, which he might have confused for hippy chicks.
Besides that, the band performed well, some classic jams, some newer tunes, some oddly electric tunes for an acoustic performance, good sounds overall.
Wow, its been a long time Señor Blog, where did we leave off? I’m not even going to explain my absence. I was spelunking in Altimira, cliff diving in East Orange, spear hunting in Bolivia, oh how the list goes on. But on this rare occasion, I swoop in, back to the land of the blog to discuss an important topic, one near and dear to all of our hearts: COMPLAINING. Now, obviously, I’m as guilty as anyone. Who among us has not complained recently? But I feel there are some cases where it gets excessive. Case in point: the workplace. Now, it has been discussed several times my never ending dream of working in a corporate mail room, delivering correspondence to corporate higherups with such ease and determination that those bigwigs will have no chance but to say ” That Weiss is a real go-getter!” But alas, it is not to be. I work in a small environment, in a profession which I enjoy, having nothing to do with mail. But on occasion, and that occasion recently seems to be the coming of each new day, certain people at the office complain incessantly. Here’s a hint, I work in a 2 person studio including myself, one person pays me. Now, this has taught me many a valuable life lesson. The most important being, consider those you are complaining to before you let loose the tides of Kveching.
Lets assume something about most employees; they get stressed. When someone else is telling you what to do, it’s gonna stress you out at times. I’m not going to go through the hardships I experience at my job, because do you want to hear it? Probably not, you got yo own problems. So incessantly, on top of the everyday work stress, I get complained to, and really homes, this shit has gotta stop, I can only handle so much. Involved in this complaining is a production this person is working on, and has been for a long time, it has the potential to be big and popular,and it just might….now it migggght…be going to this persons head.
I’m a tolerant person, I really am, but I am reaching my breaking point. Lets devise a little dialog, as an example. UP2 will be unidentified person 2.
Steve (walks in): Hello
UP2: (makes whiny noise) I got 2 hrs of sleep last night
Steve: Up Late watching The Hills?
UP2: this big project has me so stressed out. I only have 3 interns and an assistant to help me do a job most people do on their own. meeeeeehhhhhhhhh (this noise may or may not have actually occurred)
Steve: Well, that must be really tough, you know, working on creative projects and all, putting in extra hours, I don’t at all know what that’s like
UP2: I’m telling you Steve, working on a project of this stature, which let me tell you, is SO IMPORTANT, is really bad for your health. If you want to stay healthy, don’t work on THE MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT EVER FOR WHICH I AM SOLELY RESPONSIBLE
Steve: ok, I’ll make note of that, do you want to get lunch soon?
UP2: Well, considering I had 2 HOURS OF SLEEP LAST NIGHT, in addition to the fact that I’m working on THE MOST IMPORTANT PROJECT EVER….then yes, I would like to get lunch.
Steve: deli?
UP2: Well, at this deli, do they serve extremely elaborate dishes not listed on their menu with substitutions for every ingredient possible?
Steve: you’ll have to call and check
UP2: Well, in that case, i’ll have the 2 HRS OF SLEEP with a side of I’M WORKING ON AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT PRODUCTION THE LIKES OF WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE
Steve: Dude, I don’t think that’s an actual dish.
UP2: MAKE IT SO!
Steve: Want a turkey sandwich?
UP2: I guess that will have to do.
This is really not that far off from the truth. Completely unrelated emails come in about invoices or something and he responds with “sorry about the late payment I HAVE HAD 2 HRS OF SLEEP AND AM WORKING ON THIS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT PROJECT THE LIKES OF WHICH WILL BLOW YOU AWAAAAAAAYYYY” and the response is “so do you think you could submit payment?”
Now, granted, this thing he’s working on has great potential, but do you have to constantly complain in that way where you’re only complaining to let others know how important you are? I think that makes sense. Like when someone goes “OH MAN, I’M WORKING SO HARD, ITS NOT EVEN WORTH THE MILLIONS I’M MAKING” you know? and you just want to put something foul in their drink?
In my life, I’ve been fortunate to meet and work with some people who I have greatly admired. These are people who could shit on the collective work of myself and everyone I know creatively. Yet you don’t get that vibe from them, they’re extremely professional. I was in Pat Metheny’s studio once and was floored by it, this place was beyond beautiful, which i told him, and he responded “yeah man, you know, its just like, the result of playing 30 years of one nighters, no big thing, just stick to it.” Then we had an awesome talk. there was no “OH GOD I WORKED SO HARD LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT IT” I’m sure he got no sleep for many of those nights.
If you choose a creative profession, you’re going to have to work your ass off no matter what it is. In fact, in a non creative profession you’re going to have to work your ass off to be successful. It seems you have to work as hard as possible for just a CHANCE at success. So, from the collective me, to the collective you, please, stop bitching. No one cares how hard you work if they’re working hard themselves. We all do it. so please, shush.
Safety First, thats what I always say. I emailed Michael Swart (maker of the amp) just to give an email Hi Five, and he responded right away, seems like a good guy. I don’t think Marshall or Fender would send me a personal email, so I like him already. TB and I had a small guitar session at the house, breaking out the various axes and turning it up in the living room, positive results all around. The battery on my fulltone distortion pedal died mid rock out, thats always disappointing. I need some more effects. Maybe an Octave pedal?
I ordered a Stylophone a few days back, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stylophone I’m very much looking forward to it. Sometimes new instruments bring new ideas, and I think the recent acquisitions are proving this to be correct. I’m in the process of some new recordings, wonderful sounds all around.
Also, can I say that Ryan Adam’s blog is far superior to mine in both content and craziness? He makes entire metal band videos just for the blog, writes impromptu songs, completely whacked out poetry, its really just genius. He even chronicles himself dying his hair blonde. He is pretty much my idol in every aspect of life…except that whole Speedball Ingesting thing, and most of those albums post heartbreaker, and those moon boots he wears sometimes. But everything else, I love it. So I’m going to try to adapt his style a bit…here we go
When things get busy, one constant source of entertainment for me is LOL Cats.
Spring time. Allergies. Apocalypse.
I just had a conversation with my 5 year old homegirl, it was the first conversation we’ve ever had, i’ve known her for 2 years.
The orange juice I drank with lunch was like drinking a King Crimson album.
There are certain times when your goals and opinions change. I’m speaking of course musically, you think I would discuss career or relationship ambition on the blog? Seriously man, seriously. For the last year I’ve been obsessed with a new amp for recording purposes. Like any other instrument, when you’re young you get a small practice amp to start, its not enough so you buy a 100 watt monster, then you realize somewhere along the line that its too loud for most practical applications other than live performance, so the quest continues. Its a big myth that louder bigger amps sound better. I hear you saying “I still don’t believe you Steve, can you give me 3 pertinent examples?” why yes dear reader, I never thought you’d ask…
1. Layla, Derrick and the Dominoes, one of Eric Clapton’s most important albums, recorded solely on a Fender Champ.
2. The Rolling Stones. A secret weapon of Keith Richards is a 5 watt 8 inch speaker early Fender Champ. He now uses a Victoria champ replica, but its the same thing mannn.
3. Led Zeppelin. That early stuff was recorded not on a giant ass Marshall stack… but a small Supro combo amp.
Serious stuff? Why yes. So the thing is, you see the Champ is popular, but the one these guys used is a 1950’s tweed thing, in short supply, incredibly expensive, and incredibly fragile. I just don’t have that kind of dedication anymore. Amp repair is expensive, so are old parts. So then a while ago I heard of the Swart amp co, after seeing the one and only Jeffrey of Tweedy playing one. The sound was serious, as you could imagine. check it yo:
Thats it on the left. Its a modified champ thing, in a weird 1940’s looking cabinet, love at first sight. So it took a long time to find one. There were no dealers anywhere near me. Theres always mail order, but when spending a large amount, and making a serious commitment, you want to test drive, ya know? So last night I came home and randomly checked the Swart web site. Well….Ludlow guitars is the first NYC dealer. As they say…it was on.
So I went to work in the morning, pre passover, and gave a call. They did have it in stock, the tension was building. As quickly as I could, with the MTA on my side, I made it from midtown to the lower east side in record time. Even the infamous F train was there right as I needed it. Once at the destination, it was perched on top of a few other amps….a shining beacon of awesomeness. As I walked up to the counter to ask to plug that mofo in, another guy walks in, guitar strapped to his back. I inquire about the Swart, the dude behind me goes “oh I’m actually here to try it too, I brought my own guitar to test it” yep, those were fighting words. Luckily as the rules of the house go, I was there first. So he hovers over me the whole time as I’m trying it out. I can’t really blame him, I might have felt the same way, but I wouldn’t have gotten all up on his shit about it. He was moving the amp as I was playing, annoying stuff. So after like 2 minutes, it was decided, this amp is fucking awesome. Its beautiful, sounds perfect and everything. So i wave to my homey behind the counter, typical rocker dude named JJ, tattoos, long hair, I say “so, I know this guy wants to try it and all, thats cool, but I’ll take it” and the other dude kind of give a “Oh shit” look, yeah, take that! The store dude (and he most certainly was a dude) was on my side, hes like “as soon as you want that guy off the amp, just let me know, I’ll gently nudge him out” So the guy gave me minimal attitude, and I was on my way.
In a cab, a few blocks walk, on the PATH, then home through JC, it was not too much of a burden. Tonight being passover, I did travel back to the Hillsdale, a good excuse to bring the amp and crank it up at the house. Well…
This thing is the Secret weapon. Think the Stones “Sticky Fingers” album. Its just pure and wonderful. Extremely detailed, your guitar volume knob does most of the work, as there are only 2 controls on the back:
Yeah, they do go to 11. The low end on this thing is just plain silly. Its 1- 8″ speaker! how does that happen! Its gotta be this cabinet design, its a little taller than the Champ’s I’ve seen, and its supposedly some badass finger jointed pine thing, hand made by one dude, so extra love is a key component. Mine is serial # 236, still made by the one dude, Michael Swart, so I’m hoping he goes into mass production, so I can claim to have one of the originals. But all that stuff aside, this thing is beautiful. It sounds like a monster in a tiny package. And also, what other American products are still the best on earth? Think about it. Technology? umm, no Cars? haha, yeah, umm, ok. Clothing? Luxury goods? Anything? Guitars and Amplifiers. You come up with a better example, I’ll buy you a cheesesteak. God Bless America.
