July 27, 2006
WATCH ME JUMPSTART
me, explained:
"The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To him... a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create -- so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, his very breath is cut off from him. He must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating."
- Pearl S. Buck
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July 26, 2006
DIVIDE AND CONQUER
Hey Mr. Paul Williams, que pasa? You know, it seems that every day the world just inches closer and closer to a self-inflicted Armageddon. And given mankind’s history of perpetual war, is there any hope?
You are the song that the world should be singing. Voices could rise and fill the air. You are the happiness we all might end up bringing if we could only learn to share.
In Lebanon, Hezbollah was the aggressor by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, and now it is Israel which is reaping all the criticism for striking back so violently. Humanitarian aid is beginning to stream in from various sources to alleviate the suffering by the civilians in harm’s way, but the killing of four UN personnel hasn’t helped diffuse the violence whatsoever. Despite all this, Sonic Youth just released their best album in years. Have you heard “Rather Ripped?” What do you think?
Kick ass.
Christie Brinkley’s husband got caught bonking the babysitter, and George Michael was caught doing that sex-in-the-park thing again, with reports saying that his planned fab-fab wedding is now off. Is there any hope for monogamy in this world? Aren’t we just kidding ourselves with this everlasting love crap?
Life is a living lesson. Love is how it's taught. Mastering the art of give and take. Doing and undoing someone else's rights and wrongs, sometimes sleeping in a bed we didn't make.
Saddam Hussein wants a firing squad, not hanging, when he is executed. That is, in case they find him guilty, he’s already stated his preference on method of execution. Here at avast! ye evildoers, we’re officially endorsing the “death by anal rape” method, should Saddam be found guilty, and a death sentence is warranted. Tell me Paul Williams, what do you think about when you are faced with difficult decisions?
Would you like to run away? Where the grass is tall and summer's in the air? Just let me take you there. We can try to find a hideaway where the rain is warm and happiness is free, if you will go with me.
Lance Bass just came out of the closet and admitted that he’s gay to the mainstream media. Surprised?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions, and rainbows have nothing to hide.
Ladies and Gentlemen, a warm round of applause for Mr. Paul Williams…
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July 21, 2006
I Can't Wait To Get Off Work (And See My Baby On Montgomery Avenue)
...when all else fails, there's always Slim Whitman...
this week's speed rack:
Drive-By Truckers: “Decoration Day”
just broke the seal...too new...check back with me next week...
The Black Keys: “Chulahoma”
fee-fi-fiddly-i-o-o-o-o...
Ride: “Nowhere” & “Going Blank Again”
reissues of records I was passingly interested in a decade or so ago...shoegazing with pretty boy vocals...fierce drumming..."vapour trail" still one of my favorite songs...
Thom Yorke: “The Eraser”
tom tom lazy eye, why art thou so gloomy? because the radiohead guitars are absent from the roomy...
TV on the Radio: "Return to Cookie Mountain”
if "speakerboxxx/the love below" was stevie wonder on acid (is it?), this is prince on acid...interesting at first, but I got rather bored with the low voice/falsetto unison harmonizing schtick on every single song...
Rory Gallagher: “Pistol Slapper Boogie” (live bootleg)
If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all...
The Little Willies: “Little Willies”
norah jones with a crack little outfit (the band, I mean, but hubba hubba anyway), featuring jim campilongo on lead tele strangling...much as I've tried, I can't seem to bring myself to remove this from my everyday list...a great album if you're looking for that pg-rated record for the whole familia...and they had the estimable taste to cover an eddie spaghetti tune, so I'm inclined to love them...
Everclear: “Sparkle & Fade”
a classic. what a great rock record should sound like. improves with volume. unfortunately, it became a template, rather than springboard, for future releases, and art a. never came remotely close to returning to its pinnacle ever again...the title was, unfortunately, prescient...
Led Zeppelin: “BBC Sessions”
love jimmy page's tone on this one. lots of pre-sunburst LP telecaster playing, one can safely assume. bonham, still skinny & pissed, is murderous; plant, pre-rock god, in lieu of self-penned lyrics, quoting liberally from his entire record collection--muddy, robert johnson, often within the same song...as usual, the mistakes are fun too...
Frank Sinatra: “Sinatra at the Sands”
one of the great live recordings. though not in 100% perfect voice, frank is clearly enjoying himself, with basie's band in top form, playing "his" room...beats the crap out of any sinatra best of/greatest hits collections I've ever heard, and it goes without saying that the basie swing is a galactic hipshake compared to the twee politesse of Nelson Riddle...
Sugar: “Beaster” & “File Under: Easy Listening”
for me, the songs hold up more than the production does. that piezo guitar sound always irritated me. still, a gas to crank up and head-bob to...and a reminder of the former greatness of bob mould, who now clearly prefers bob-head to the head-bob (musically, anyway)...his last few have put me off permanently...suffice to say--when I feel like dancing with my shirt off in a room full of sweaty muscle fairies, he'll be the first place I go...until then, mould world is now officially memory lane....
the handsome blue devils reunite this weekend at the undisclosed location, synkroniq studio. home-made fender slabs will be the go-to ingredient...
have a nice weekend & pleasant dreams....
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July 20, 2006
PAINT IT BLACK
...something to do with junior kimbrough...
maybe it's because I almost missed my train, loading their latest onto my iPod this morning (note to Apple: would it be possible to make iTunes any slower or clunkier? hard to imagine...), or maybe it's because I've been listening to a lot of blues lately, or maybe it's because I just built my own gnarly sounding telecaster, or maybe it's because it's been a long time since I've heard my own guitar accompanied by an electric bass (they too conform to the regrettable guitar/drum/no bass band fad), or maybe, just maybe, it's because these cats just mainly kick total ass and throw down like a scorned southern church lady who's hit bottom and started in on the corn liquor...
I dig 'em.
their latest, chulahoma, is a collection of junior kimbrough covers.
there is another band, with somewhat similar genre influences, with the word "white" in their name, who could take a lesson from these guys. jack & meg, pay attention. this is how it's done. a-haw-haw-haw...
also, at the early stages of investigations into the drive-by truckers...came across some "bonus" tracks recently...as boundary islands go, they were certainly pleasant enough for me to want to venture across the lagoon and visit the mainland...
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July 17, 2006
NOTHING FROM NOTHING
...the next big thing?...
Where have I been? Away away away…hosting birthday parties with little kids…visiting the planetarium...floating serenely across the tumultuous splatter of the community pool, pausing briefly to descant upon the wallowing bluehairs sunning their bellies…not playing music as much as I’d like to…keeping an eye on teams of roofers and painters as they transform my home exterior and bank account…applying the tweaking steps previously referred to here…readying for round two—sanding/polishing the butterscotch blonde body, awaiting a long-delayed neck order from Warmoth, who have totally shit the bed on this order, to the point that I’m pretty well convinced that I’ll only be doing business with USA Custom in the future…the order was placed in April or May, it’s now mid/late July…unacceptable…I’ve also reached the point in my summer which is typically referred to as doldrums...work has been a bit slow, and I'm overdue for some vacation time...a little playtime...I'm thinking about new york city, and how seldom I get a chance to hang out there, maybe do some things that used to be regular enjoyments...treat my hometown like the vacation destination so many others pay through the nose to do...
pictured: the redwalls ... accidentally bumped into them performing on a tv show saturday night...struck me as quite wonderful...their influences resemble my high school record collection (late 60s/early 70s british muttonchop section--some digging around informed me that the song is called "easy come and go"--not yet commercially available--harrumph)...and unlike my previous powerpop enthusiasm of the past year, they are american, from chicago...I'll be keeping an eye (and ear) on them for sure...
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(hat tip to Jesus' General...)
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July 12, 2006
THE MADCAP LAUGHS
...shine on you crazy diamond...
the man who...single-handedly, invented psychedelic rock, then immediately abandoned it to explore his mum's backyard garden and the voices that live there, eventually becoming the lyrical subject matter for his bandmates' future multi-platinum forays into sleep-inducement, arena paralysis, and FM radio uberdrone...syd barrett is dead...
long live syd barrett...
...often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams 'til tomorrow...
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July 10, 2006
MEAN TOWN BLUES
...still alive and well...
going to see johnny winter tonight. when I was a kid, my friend Joe had older brothers who were into music and guitars. I'd hang around their basement and pick up on things. one of their records that caught my ear and completely captivated me was johnny winter "live and," a live recording which also included a young rick derringer on 2nd lead guitar. I still listen to that record, it totally smokes. you might go find your favorite clapton fan and play it for them. it will wake them from their deep dreamless sleep.
johnny hasn't had the same luck as other would-be guitar heroes. he's 62 years old and has never seen the inside of a rehab facility, as far as I can tell. so, the ravages of his appetities have had their way, and he now performs seated. but when I go see him tonight (for the first time), I'm going to try and look beyond that, wait and hope for that thrill I first got when I heard him strap on a gibson firebird and play the fiercest blues guitar I'd ever heard.
tonight at bb king's, 8pm, times square, nyc....
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July 09, 2006
IN THE SWEET BYE AND BYE
...don't tread on me...
something great about America: these folks (a Memphis TN megachurch) have the right to express themselves by distorting and defiling one of our most beloved national symbols, and I have the right to call them out as superstitious, insensate rubes who have caused offense to those of us who value our nation's great secular tradition.
I do pause, however, and wonder how these theocracy types feel about the recent legislative vote regarding flag-burning. because you can't have it both ways--first of all, to use the word "desecration" is to imply that the object being offended had some sort of "sacred" nature to begin with, a characteristic I would not glom onto either the flag or lady liberty, but if you wish to criminalize free speech in the burning of a flag, then you must also condemn this act of forcing a christianist cross into the hand that previously held the torch of liberty. one is just as devilish a symbolic rape as the other.
happy sunday....
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July 07, 2006
INSTRUMENT
...I have a bird that whistles, I have a bird that sings...
tweaking a new build:
file & level nut slots
adjust pickup height(s)
adjust truss rod
adjust height, angle & distance of bridge saddles
tune, re-tune (always tighten locking tuners before assessing string tension)
change band-aid on "paper" cut caused by copper shielding tape
plug in, assess feel and tone via amp and effects rig
repeat
(getting one's finger sliced open on copper tape hurts like a motherf$%^&ker...)
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... When the instruments linger in the band room,
snare leaning into itself,
tuba beached against green cinderblock,
do they riff where a fault opens,
make a crazy line in space, does brass
lie in bronze alloy, does longing
breathe in acoustic energy? Notes hang
to the skirt of the bell
like a city of light for a moment.
A tire spooks the gravel, you hear talk
about the weather, the leaning toward
and then away. Pierce the blind
to better hear the music, the fall
of each sound and pause between...
--Ralph Burns, from "Ghost Notes"
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happy birthday to mrs. stratcat....
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July 05, 2006
FIESTA
...3.5 lb. swamp ash body; fiesta red nitro lacquer finish; harmonic design super 90 in the bridge; seymour duncan antiquity in the neck slot; 60s vintage-style mint green pickguard; control plate reverse orientation for better access to volume/tone pots...
...notice any imperfections? me neither...
...fiesta red with a few coats of vintage yellow tint = clamato = bloody caesar!
...the headstock reads: "lisa marie"...
...wood = tone...
once thudstaff's butterscotch '52 clone is finished, I'm done building guitars for a while...time to play...
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NEW ROSE
...born on the fourth of july (almost)...
...oh what a nice long (short) holiday weekend...the weather was great (humid and rainy with thunderstorms), the family time was swell (everyone was cranky and the children ran wild), the fireworks were awesome (uninspired, predictable and short), and the food was delicious (the burgers were charred beyond recognition and the buns were soaked by rain)...
...well, whether or not your 4th of july weekend was golden or molden, mine was ok...with a nice new telecaster to show for it...sanding/polishing is now out of the way, for the most part, and I'm 90% done with assembly. just need to attach the pickup leads and screw in the pickguard...
...more pics once it's got some strings on it...
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"We thought that perhaps our species thrives best and most creatively in a state of semi-anarchy, governed by loose rules and half-practiced mores. To this we add the premise that over-integration in human groups might parallel the law in paleontology that over-armor and over-ornamentation are symptoms of decay and disappearance. Indeed, we thought, over-integration might be the symptom of human decay. We thought: there is no creative unit in the human save the individual working alone. In pure creativeness, in art, in music, in mathematics...the creative principle is a lonely and individual matter. Groups can correlate, investigate, and build, but we could not think of any group that has ever created or invented anything. Indeed, the first impulse of the group seems to be to destroy the creation and the creator...
"Consider, we would say, the Third Reich or the Politburo-controlled Soviet. The sudden removal of twenty-five key men from either system could cripple it so thoroughly that it would take a long time to recover, if it ever could. To preserve itself in safety such a system must destroy or remove all opposition as a danger to itself. But opposition is creative and restriction is non-creative. The force that feeds growth is therefore cut off...thought and art must be forced to disappear and a weighty traditionalism take its place...A too greatly integrated system or society is in danger of destruction since the removal of one unit may cripple the whole.
"Consider the blundering anarchic system of the United States, the stupidity of some of its lawmakers, the violent reaction, the slowness of its ability to change. Twenty-five key men destroyed could make the Soviet Union stagger, but we could lose our congress, our president and our general staff and nothing much would have happened. We would go right on. In fact we might be better for it..."
--John Steinbeck, The Log From the Sea of Cortez
(...and who now is behaving like a secretive, protective, any-means-necessary politburo?...)
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today would have been ronnie buckley's 100th birthday. she was the sweetest angel I ever knew. happy birthday granny...
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