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Music reviews, editorials, gear reviews for the guitarist/bass player, journal entries, advice, funny crazy stuff and more. Updated roughly 2-3 times a week.
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Friday, September 30, 2005The Art & Science of Flatulence
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 12:39 PM
| 6 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Tuesday, September 27, 2005Birthday Slothfulness
I've always loved the word "sloth". Sure, it's one of the seven deadly sins, and yeah it's the name of a critter with three toes that lives in Australia, but long before I knew that it basically means 'laziness' it was the name of that oh so lovable character from the timeless classic "Goonies".
 OK, so I was really just looking for any reason I could find to post a picture of Sloth on my blog. "Sloth love Chunk" definitely ranks in my top ten for all-time movie quotes. Anyway, today is Google's 7th birthday and tomorrow is my 26th birthday. I'm not celebrating or anything. The iPod I bought myself in July was my birthday present (but check out my wishlist in my profile if you're feeling like getting me a little something). In the mean time, I found a lovely blog on the ten worst album covers of all time that I’m recommending people check out in lieu of my blog for the rest of the week. I love saying "in lieu". I always think of Ferigno and the Hulk.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 7:07 AM
| 6 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Friday, September 23, 2005Memory Lane for 25 please, Alex I’m not sure what the answer to the Jeopardy clue is, but the question is definitely, “what is bad music I thought was really cool when I was a teenager.” Today’s post is about the 25 most nostalgic albums in my collection. Not my favorites, not the “best” albums…the most nostalgic. So for you youngens there gonna be a lot of stuff from the 80’s and 90’s in here. Not all of it is “bad” music. A lot of it still holds up. But a lot of it is simply sentimentality too. So no comments about “this sucks” or “that was terrible” or “that band’s lead singer shot himself” OK? Get your own nostalgia! :) There’s a lot of Christian music on here (over half) as well as secular and there’s probably some references to a thing called “Jesus Northwest”. It was a festival I attended every year from 1992 till 1997 and had some pretty heavy impact on me as a kid in terms of music. First a little background as to why I’m posting this. See, I’ve been in an independent, but very ambitious Christian rock band for the last 2+ years. Earlier this week I quit. There’s a whole ‘nother blog post there (probably a whole ‘nother blog for that matter) so I won’t get too much into that. But one of the things you do, when you’re in a band, particularly with good friends, is you talk a lot about nostalgic musical influences. I’ve never met a musician that wasn’t quick to give a long dissertation on what influences he or she had and why. I think it stems from a basic, instinctive desire to want to be on VH1’s “Behind the Music” and sit on the comfy couch and tear up when they ask about what inspired you when you were a kid. So dim the lights, pop the popcorn, and queue the montage! Honorable Mention: “Audio Adrenaline” self-titled freshman release #25 – “Joshua Tree” by U2 U2 stormed on the scene when I was still in elementary school. What’s ironic about it is that in 1990, my mom had a pretty tight hold of what music came in to her house so my only exposure to this album was from what radio I heard when my mom wasn’t around. Like many kids in my generation I was a latchkey kid. Had I not been, I may have never developed my love for music because I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to much of it before several years later. So anyway, there were all these songs I knew I liked, “With or Without You”, “Still Have Found What I’m Looking For”, “Where the Streets Have No Name” that were being played constantly on the radio and I liked them. But the irony of it is I didn’t even know they were by the same artist, not to mention all on the same album (give me a break I was 9, OK?). So Joshua Tree gets the nod for number 25, the hardest spot to decide on in a top-25 countdown, because that’s the spot that has ten candidates and the other nine won’t make the list at all. #24 – “Nothing But the Best” (a greatest hits collection) by White Heart If you’re at all familiar with White Heart, Christian rockers of the early 80’s, 90’s and early 00’s, then you’re probably familiar with Nothing But the Best. This double-album is the greatest example I’ve ever seen of a greatest hits collection. Truly only the best songs from the band’s repertoire are represented here. There’s a “Rock Hits” CD and a “Radio Hits” CD, which is to say that the soft music (power ballads mostly) were put on their own disc. White Hearts previous record label’s have released numerous favorites, and greatest hits collections and Billy Smiley has gone on the record as saying that White Heart had nothing to do with those releases and White Heart wishes those labels would simply stop doing it. Anyway, back to the music…this collection came out in the mid-90’s and it was in my player non-stop for a very long time. I don’t know if there’s a single song on either disc that I think doesn’t deserve their spot on the album. This collection is pretty heavy on the “Brian Wooten” era White Heart (Powerhouse, Tales of Wonder, Highlands) but that was my favorite stuff too, so I was glad to hear that, as well as the best stuff from prior to Powerhouse but all the tracks are with Rick Florian’s vocals.  #23 – “Legend of Chin” by SwitchfootDespite Switchfoot’s transformation into the 800lb Christian rock gorilla recently, storming the country with their lastest release, Nothing is Sound (which I love coincidentally), Legend of Chin is the only Switchfoot album on this nostalgia list. Probably because the rest of the albums came out too recently to really feel nostalgic about them. Remember this isn’t, “my favorites” just the ones I’m most sentimental about. Dan found this CD on one of those cardboard cutout display units with cheesy broken headphones to listen to music on in the merchandise warehouse at Jesus Northwest (I want to say 1996?). He dragged me over and said I had to hear it and of course I’ve been an enormous Switchfoot fan since that day. Dan and several other friends and I went to Switchfoot’s first concert that fall after Jesus Northwest. To my recollection it was Switchfoot’s first show ever in the Portland area. They played the Expo center (it’s the kind of place that has gun shows and trading card conventions). A band called Ruby Joe opened for them. Here was this great, pretty much undiscovered band, recently signed, playing this horrible venue and to make matters worse, my friends and I were the only ones there to see them. We screamed and cheered after every song and they played their whole set and we yelled out requests. After the show they hung out with us for a good solid hour. Just me and my friends. Nothing is Sound shot to #3 on Bilboard after one week and they’ve already gone platinum with the album. My guess is I’ll never get an opportunity like that with those three (I hear it’s five now) and they’ve probably changed somewhat since then. But I have my memories and that’s good enough for me. Perhaps even more reason why this album is so darn nostalgic for me is because I listened to it everywhere I went. I went to Hungary to visit my missionary girlfriend and many times when I hear “Underwater” or “Might Have Ben Hur” I get visions of flying on a plane to Europe or being there in Budapest with my girlfriend (now my wife). Every time I drive the stretch of I-97 between Bend and the California border, I put this album on. Don’t know why, just really puts me in a great, nostalgic mood. #22 – “Evolution” by Geoff Morre & the Distance I think half the reason I was so enamored with this album is because of Mark Lowry. His intro to the first song, Evolution, as the high school science teacher I found to be pretty darn funny back in 1995. There was some good music on here though too. “Life Together” pretty much described the kind of relationship I had with my friends at that exact point in time. Lots of great ballads on this one. #21 – “Off the Deep End” by Weird Al What can I say. My friends and I were pretty enthralled with this particular Weird Al tape (yes, we listened to it on tape, not CD). I think mostly that’s because it was the only one Dan had and I spent a lot of time with Dan and his brother back then. That and it made fun of a lot of music that I was finally familiar with due to an increased exposure to mainstream music. #20 – “Nevermind” by Nirvana No, I was not one of the many people that bought this album when it was popular. I actually got into Nirvana around ’94, just before a 12 gauge got what was left of the cocaine-laiden, beer drenched grey matter that passed for a brain. Note, I did say before he shot himself, so I wasn’t a poser that only got interested from the hype, but at the same time, I was definitely a late bloomer (pun intended…get it?). Nevermind. #19 – “Squint” by Steve Taylor This is another one I can pretty much thank Dan for. We listened to this album quite a bit in high school. The lyrics were, and still are, just great. Hits like “Bannerman” and “The Lament of Desmond R.G. Underwood Frederick the IV” (yes! I can still name it!) were really good and got some attention from radio and MTV, but my favorites were the obscure songs. “Sock Heaven”, “Easy Listening” and “Cash Cow (a three part rock opera)”. #18 – “Serious Hits Live” by Phil Collins So, this is one of those albums my music aficionado friends make fun of me for liking. But this album and I go way back. Back to the 1988. I was seven or eight years old when dad decided he wanted to buy a CD player. He made the decision fairly reluctantly. Seems kind of silly now. Anyway, mom said we could each get one album so we actually had something to listen to on this CD player when we got him home. Many of my suggestions were denied, shot down, summarily dismissed. But I’d heard “Another Day in Paradise” on the radio and could convince her it was an album with a wholesome message based on that. It was my first CD. And yeah, I listened to it a lot.  #17 – “Bloom” by Audio AdrenalineAwe yeeeeah, here we go. “Never Gonna Be As Big As Jesus” baby. Was anyone ever as sick of a song as I was of that song? Dan put together no less than three full-length music videos to this song for various youth events, contests, etc and I helped with a couple. You get really sick of a song you wind up working on for that long. Lots of good stuff on this album though. I wound up covering nearly every track of this record in one band or another, or for worship material. #16 – “Jesus Freak” by dc Talk OK, this hardly even requires an explanation (except maybe why it’s so low in the list). I was there, live, where they played the world premier of the single. The first time the public ever heard it, I was standing 6 feet away from the device it was playing on. Jesus Northwest, 1995. What’s funny is Dan actually figured out what it sounded like to some degree long before it was released. Dc Talk did a little-publicized feature film called “Free at Last” that played next to nowhere. Anyway, the instrumental background to the movie trailor was this really rockin tune. He told me then he thought that was probably the music to this “Jesus Freak” single coming up soon. He was right. #15 – “Change Your World” by Michael W. Smith In the words of Han Solo to Chewie, “Laugh it up fuzzball!” Sure you’re getting a good chuckle out of this one…but you know what…back in the day pickins were slim people. And when you mom censors everything you listen to, they’re slimmer still. In all truth though, for Christian pop music, this was a great album. Still the best he’s ever done in my humble opinion. I don’t keep up with him anymore, but back in 1993 it was great stuff. My second CD ever. To this day, I’m still sick of “Friends”. #14 – “So Much for the Afterglow” by Everclear I was in high school, not junior high when this album came out. I don’t remember if my mom had loosened her grip on what I could listen to, or if I simply started going behind her back. Either way she wouldn’t have been thrilled about this one. Nearly every song on here was a hit. “Father of Mine”, “Everything to Everyone”, “Buy You a New Life”, and no less than 5 more. My friends and I listened to it on repeat for our weekly LAN gaming parties.  #13 – “The Colour and the Shape” by Foo FightersGreat album. Tons of hits. Turn on a modern rock radio station anywhere in the country during this album’s hay-day, even for an hour, and you’d hear “Monkeywrench”, “My Hero” and “Everlong”. I must’ve been driving about this time because I was listening to a lot of radio in the car by now. #12 – “Free at Last” by dc Talk Dc Talk’s third release was really my first dc Talk album. I had a copy of Nu Thang on tape but I got it the Christmas that Free at Last came out so it didn’t really get a fair shake from me. Free at Last, however, was the first album I really listened to like a mad man. Wore the print on the tape right out. Memorized the lyrics to every song. My friends and I could each take either Toby, Kevin or Michael’s part in the car, play the whole album and sing along, then switch parts and play it over again. We must’ve drove our youth leaders crazy. #11 – “Friend Like U” by Geoff Moore & the Distance Dan and I were listening to this album up in my tree house. I think one of us (or both of us) was going through a break up with a girlfriend at the time. Songs like “Good to be Alive” and “Friend Like You” really help with that kind of depression. Several songs on this album made my favorite mix tapes for a long time. #10 – “Going Public” by Newsboys This was the first album I really tried to play to when I got my first electric guitar. Huge hits on this album too. “Spirit Thing”, “Shine”, “Truth and Consequences”, “Going Public” and more. Most of this album is a stellar project. It’s still my favorite Newsboys album to this day. #9 – “Don’t Censor Me” by Audio Adrenaline You thought “Never Gonna Be as Big as Jesus” was a song worth getting tired of? “Big House” is twice as worthy. Great song, great album, great band. I don’t know what happened to Audio A after Barry Blair left to produce and manage and Bob Herdman left to run Flicker Records, but they haven’t been the same since. This album epitomizes my music tastes in the early 90’s. I went an saw Audio Adrenaline live no less than 7 times while they were still playing songs off this album. “We’re a Band” is still one of my ten favorite songs of all time. #8 – “In Utero” by Nirvana My mother threw this album out once. I burned it or cracked it in half twice at the persistence of my youth leader at the time that music like this was garbage and “garbage in, garbage out”. I lost it once too. So I’ve bought it like 4 times, giving the band way more money than ever would have happened if I’d just hung on to the first copy! “En Bloom” was pretty inspiring to me at the time. “Heart Shaped Box”, “All Apologies” and “Pennyroyal Tea” all prime examples of the grunge movement that was going on while I was listening to Geoff Moore and Mark Stewart.  #7 – the blue album by WeezerTo my knowledge, this album doesn’t actually have a name but it’s still one of my all-time favorites. Talk about timeless classics. Not a bad song on here. I was right to fall in love with this one. This is one album that was cool then, is still cool now, and will always be cool and I was part of that “movement” I suppose, as an avid listener and follower of the band. Rivers is pretty much a genius. My friends and I memorized every word and tonal inflection and air guitar riff on this album. #6 – “Unseen Power” by Petra Unseen Power had just been released in 1993 when I started getting into Christian music and current rock and roll. Little did I know at the time Petra would never put out a better album with more good songs. The soundtrack to much of my childhood that year is this album. #5 – “Go West Young Man” by Michael W. Smith OK, so you get to laugh at me again. I heard “Place in This World” on the local top 40 “Z100” station in 1991 and, to my recollection, it was the first Christian music I ever heard. This was the second Christian music album I ever bought (tape of course). Some great pop tunes on here. #4 – “Sixteen Stone” by Bush As I entered high school in 1994-1995 I started listening to more and more mainstream alternative rock radio. We had cable too at the time. I remember the first time I heard  “Comedown” on MTV. “Holy cow” I said to myself as I slouched on the couch eating my third ice cream sandwich for dinner. It was uber catchy. Then on the radio, and again, and again. And then more songs from this Bush album. “Machinehead”, “Everything Zen”, “Little Things”, and of course the stellar mega-hit that was “Glycerine”! Then I went and purchased the CD and found that “Alien” might actually be my favorite song on the disc. There was maybe two songs that weren’t my favorite at the time this album came out. I listened to it over and over and over anywhere I could that my parents wouldn’t find out. I was definitely driving around this time. I learned how to play most of them too. They became my favorite band for about a year. But they never put out another album that could even remotely hold a candle to this one. Subsequent projects had one, maybe two semi-decent songs and none of them came close to the caliber of the six I listed here.#3 – “Greatest Hits” by Air Supply So here’s the second of two “great hits” collections that made my most nostalgic list. But for this one, I have to take you way back to memory lane. This was one of the albums my mom let my dad keep after they had me. He had it on tape. Most of these songs are from the 70’s to be sure. Before my time. It’s nostalgic because my dad mostly listened to talk radio in the car. But on a few select, lazy Saturdays and on long trips, he’d bring tapes because my mom hated him pounding on the dash in some sort of violent attempt to keep the reception of political propaganda as he drove out of state. He always brought two tapes, and this was one of them. Most of the time we took long trips, we were moving. And that was usually cross-country. I catch a lot of flack for liking these guys form my band mates and other rocker types. I can’t help it. It’s part of my early childhood, man. #2 – “Innocent Man” by Billy Joel Remember how I said brought two tapes with him in the car? This is the other one. Still really great music even today though. The best stuff BJ ever did is on this album. Every song is good. #1 – “Beyond Belief” by Petra Well this came as no surprise to anybody that knows me. We seemed to have instinctively known when Petra was taking, or had taken the stage. Dusk had developed into full blown darkness as we made the 1/8th mile, mostly uphill trek to the crest of the amphitheater. After we showed the gatekeepers the blurry ink stains from that morning’s initial , we turned to the right and walked slowly up the small hill lined and scattered with folding chairs, families and couples on blankets, many standing and peering through the chain link fence. The crowd beyond the small hill I could not see but it began to be clear to me the entire populace of the festival had gathered there. No one was missing this concert. The stage lights glittered and danced on stage. They changed colors from soft blues to soft yellows, greens and reds as a palm muted clean electric guitar riff bounced up and down the scale accompanying John Schlitt’s tenor vocals. My saunter turned to a jog as my intrigue was sparked, and then I reached the pinnacle of the amphitheater’s bowled outer edge and looked down on what I later learned was tens of thousands of people. In a matter of seconds from my reaching the top and ascending on the scene about 80 yards as the crow flies from the front corner of stage right, Louie Weaver’s stick crashed upon the head of the snare drum and the light picking of the clean guitar riff turned into a roaring thunderous overdriven chord strum. The flood lights beamed in perfect rhythm with the drum hits and chord strums and illuminated the entire dust bowl showing off the crowd of thousands, all fist-pumping in unison and screaming out the same two words in magnanimous vernacular, “Beyond Belief, Beyond Belief!” The blood rushed from all over my body to my head, my eyes locked in gaze at the entire scene, my ears straining to catch every little nuance as the distorted guitar rolled through the post-chorus mantra and the bass thumped in time with the kick drum in a pulsating pattern of pure perfection.  The entire display was like watching the gears of a well-oiled antique clock methodically tick along. Seeing the crowd react to the music, the musicians, and seeing those on stage react in kind to the emotional overtones that flowed from the grandstands, from those in the woodchip-covered pit down below and those closest to the stage reaching out. It was more than surreal. It was euphoric. Better than any drug I’ve ever had to this day. I finally discovered a music that touched my soul deep down in a place no art had ever penetrated before. I had not only discovered one of the greatest friendships that I would carry through junior high, high school, college and into my adult life that day; not only discovered the joy of belonging to a group of fellow believers from my own church were my own age and lifestyle, but I discovered rock and roll as it stylistically manifested in the late 80’s and early 90’s for the first time and immediately fell in love not only with the music, the genre, the band and the song, but the very art of creating it struck me at that very moment as an endeavor I wanted to cultivate and be a part of. But beyond this, gazing at the thousands, I learned that I was not alone. There were Christians here, that were proud of what they were and who they were. And as they chanted “Beyond Belief” at 117dB it was a moment of serenity and peace that my heart had never experienced. These were kids. Kids my age. Loving rock and roll and able to take it home to their church-going parents and not have them burn it in effigy.Something inside me stirred that night. I sat in awe for the next couple of songs until I snapped out of my comatose-like state and ran down the amphitheater’s bowled edges, into the barkdust-covered, mostly fenced off dirt pit that engulfed the most fanatical 5% of the throng and proceeded to work my way up to the front of the stage or as close as I could get to it. I dismissed both the remarks and dirty looks I got from people scared I would try to somehow “cut in front” of them, block their view or obstruct their kids’ line of sight from the demigods on stage. Dan and I later joked that at one point it seemed a drop of sweat or spit from John Schlitt had landed upon my forehead and justified my lack of showering for the weekend. Truth be told the shower waters were about 34 degrees Fahrenheit and even in the heat of a nearly-100 degree day my body convulsed at the idea of sharing my frozen edification with dozens of burly, hairy, male thrill seekers. That night after the Petra concert and their encore, I ran (literally ran) to the mobile covered Christian book-tent containing hundreds of CD’s from Christian artists of every genre. I had never really taken a close look at the selection before this point, and for the life of me, I can’t quite ascertain why. Dan and I stood in a rather long line as I waited to purchase my first cassette tape copy of Petra’s “Beyond Belief” album.I stayed up all night long memorizing the words with a walkman and a flashlight.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 10:56 AM
| 5 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Thursday, September 15, 2005Creswell In Studio - Days 4 & 5 (this one admittedly is for the musicians and the recording fanatics in the room) After waiting 24 hours to acquire the Fender Hot Rod DeVille that was so aggressively recommended to me and so gloriously played back to me from previous projects in the studio, we got it (212 combo) in the live room only to discover that it had a blown speaker, and there was no mitigating the effect said blown speaker was having on the sound coming out of it. They were scrambling to call the owner back immediately to inform him of the situation and to immediately notify him that “we got it that way” lest he attempt to get them to pay for it. I wasn’t sure if I’d get the amp today or not, so just in case, I did a little bit of research myself. If you’ve read the first few days worth of recording blogs, then you know I own a Peavey 50 Classic. It’s a tweed amp that looks suspiciously like a Fender Bassman. Four EL84’s in the power amp with a 12AX7 driver, two 12AX7’s in the preamp, four Blue Marvel 10” speakers, 50 watts, 2 channels, 3-band EQ, bright switch, master volume. Later versions came with an effects loop, but mine doesn’t have one. I started looking up both the DeVille and my 50 classic. Both amps come in a 212 and a 410. A few reviews I read said the 410 sounded a little brighter than the 212, which makes sense. And then I found a review from a guy that did a side-by-side comparison of the two and basically came away from the experience with the opinion they sounded very similar, with the Fender being a little louder, at 60 watts (two 6L6 power tubes and three 12AX7 preamp tubes). So now faced with finally obtaining the exact amp we were looking for and it having a problem with such delaying consequence that waiting was not an option, I started to feel an air of panic fill the room. Before anyone offered up any solutions, I spoke up. “Look I know how you guys feel about Peavey brand stuff, but before we start calling stores all over the area, I think you should know that I did some research today and I found a few things that said the Peavey 50 Classic was a very similar amp to the DeVille. I think between settings tweaking and mic preamp tweaking (see pic below), etc that we can obtain the essence of what we’re looking for through my amp.
My lead singer, Will, and I headed outside to talk while they worked. Kyle's neighbor, let's call him "Randy", chuckled as he swaggered over to us. “You fellers make any money doing this [stuff]?” he cajoled in a booming voice. I humored him for conversation’s sake since I had nothing better to do, as I leaned against my SUV parked on the curb. Randy had the kind of accent that you hear people up North use to make fun of Southern drawl while chewing tobacco threw their tooths. Very exaggerated and over-the-top, except Randy's was for real. Right out of “King of the Hill”. Randy's tight white, single pocket, stained tee shirt did not cover his beer-filled gut. His graying blond hair was greased in a most peculiar fashion and, as it turned out, Randy gives free band management advice. See Randy's son is somewhat of a celebrity Vegas. He’s one of the Elvis imitators that are actually quite good at what they do and are frequently featured. Randy seemed quite proud at the number of ladies his son takes back to his room each night and free beer he can get when he goes to see his son at the shows. Will quickly made an excuse to break away, briefly went downstairs, and returned stating they were ready for me. I watched "Randy" setup a metal folding table right on the sidewalk and bring out several armfuls of swords, knives, and other ancient cutlery and weapons with a paper signed taped to the front that said “for sale”. I overheard a comment from him about “Lord of the Rings nerds” and “needing to make some beer money” as I strolled down to the basement door. Before I plugged in Sophia in the control room to the patch panel I took a gander at the settings on the amp. The “Pre” (like a gain knob) was cranked to about 80%, and set the “Post” to about 50% and the “Master” to about 50% too. The treble was set to somewhere between 60 and 75%, the bass to about 75% and the mids right around 30-40%. The presence was only brought up about a quarter turn from 0. Sophia’s tone knobs were completely rolled off to 0, which struck me as weird, but what I was hearing was sounding great so we must have been compensating for the lack of presence either with the amp and/or with the mic preamps. I wasn’t sure how close to what we were targeting I would be able to get after it was mic’d and everything else. Much to everyone’s pleasant surprise, we nailed it. Maybe even better than what they were getting with the DeVille, because of the way we set up the mics. Apparently a mixer they used said he had some problems with phasing with a previous mic strategy. This time we went with a single Audix i5 at a slight angle on the bottom left speaker. It was gorgeous. The tone flowed like butter to the mic, and out the control room speakers. We all smiled. It was working. Slowly more and more comments came from the producers about how they would have to make some exceptions to their Peavey ban. Zig mentioned he’d heard some really good things about the 5150 as well and, after this experience, would be more willing to experiment with the brand. We had to have tracked the rhythm guitar part no less than 8 times for the entire song from start to finish. It’s my understanding that they will probably be cut up in Pro Tools, but that when we’re finished we’ll have one guitar part panned all the way to the left, another all the way to the right, and at least one panned center (maybe two). After a couple hours of tracking rhythm guitars, Kyle gave a quick smirk, looked at me and said, “Let’s hear them.” He layered several and did some quick panning stuff and played them back with everything. I was moved nearly to tears by how powerful, present, crunchy, tonally ideal what I was hearing come out of those control room speakers was. It’s everything previous recordings weren’t. Previous producers had been so interested in their own agenda for creating something so socially different and desiring to steer so far away from the “mainstream” or “typical” guitar arrangement implementation that I had never been satisfied with what we had. We finally had the crunchy “wall of guitar” tone I also thought we needed for the chorus. We went on to give the next song similar treatment where necessary. Hours later we did finish with the rhythm parts. There were some clean and some overdriven lead parts they wanted to do, but it was time to call it a night. I was coming down with a cold and really feeling the effects for the first time that evening as we finished up. I wasn’t sure what their opinion of my playing was at this point. I’d given up trying to impress though. They’d been around the block more times than I had, they’d seen some players that I wouldn’t compare to and I was OK with that. I’d done my part, and I was feeling the emotion and passion in our music like when we’d first written it again. That was coming through in my playing I think to some extent too, so I had no complaints about the process. Kyle & Zig had worked hard for me/us tonight and been flexible enough to try something that was against their better judgment and learned something too, as had I. I hadn’t used my amp’s dirty channel in a long time. I’d been strictly pedal-driven overdrive and distortion tones through her clean channel. I was even pleasantly surprised at what she’s capable of to the degree that I’d made up my mind to try modifying my setup when I get back to use the dirty channel over my Line 6 DM4 pedal. All I may need is something to boost the signal for solos. It was about 9pm when I got home, tired, in need of some Tylenol, and ready to veg in front of the bube tube for a couple hours until I went to bed. I went to bed trying not to think too much about the day’s progress and what was left to do tomorrow. It was a Saturday so I had to be there at 10am. I woke up approximately a half-hour before I needed to be there. It was a quick shower and throwing on whatever was at the top in the dresser drawers before I rushed out the door. A package of cold Pop Tarts was in my jeans pocket, and a leftover slice of pizza that I snagged from the dining room table hung from my mouth as I fiddled for my keys to the door to my car. Tom Petty seemed to be playing on every station as I sped my way over to the studio in the morning fog. I got there late. I hate being late and was ready to apologize when I realized I was in the basement before anyone had come down from upstairs. I waited for about 15 minutes reading a Fender catalog they had their from their Sophia purchase several days ago before Kyle came down to start. We tweaked some lead parts that weren’t solos, but just colorful riffs for the choruses of one song, and tracked me through the Mesa for variety, playing the root “A” chord several octaves higher than the rhythm guitars as they changed chords, just for a little extra punch and activity in the last few measures of the song. Then we tracked some clean, heavy reverberated melodic single-note stuff on the other song during the verses. I was only there maybe two and a half hours before we were done. As I was leaving Kyle asked me if there was any way he could borrow my amp for a little while. Having a backup solution I said that wouldn’t be a problem. I think this is going to work out just fine, I remember thinking. I still think so. It’s a completely different experience than my previous studio endeavors. I think this was more representative of what it would be like if a label was paying for the process, frankly, except maybe without the blown speaker. We’re going to do a full-fledged radio promo campaign with at least one, maybe both of these songs. We’ll see how it goes. I have high hopes, and that’s saying a lot for me, because I’m generally a cynic. It’s certainly an experience I’ll take with me and won’t ever forget. And I look forward to posting the finished product here for your listening pleasure and posting frequent updates as to how the new songs help us with booking and how they progress with radio.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 12:45 PM
| 4 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Wednesday, September 14, 2005Unofficial Men’s Room Etiquette Policy 1. If you are the first man in the bathroom, please choose a urinal at a far end of the row, not one in the middle. This is particularly critical if there are only three urinals, as is often the case in eating establishments and government buildings. 2. If a man is already standing at a urinal, and there are multiple urinals available, do not stand directly beside him to do your business if you do not have to. Avoid standing between two occupied urinals. Exceptions to rules 1 and 2 include crowded stadiums with a line to get into the bathroom. 3. If you do have to assume the position at a urinal adjacent to an occupied urinal, never under any circumstances “sneak a peak”. That’s gay. 4. If you catch a man “sneaking a peak” at you, you are within your rights to pummel him sufficiently. 5. The lowered urinals are for kids and midgets. Do not use them if you do not have to. 6. If you have a favorite urinal that is in use, do not wait for the man to finish. This is an opportune time to pick a second favorite. 7. There is no need to try to make conversation while urinating, especially if you are unacquainted with the other bathroom user. Just look straight ahead at the wall and mind your own business. 8. Toilet stalls are for those that need to sit down on a toilet. They are not for recreational purposes. Please do not take up the limited number of stalls to read the newspaper, etc. Nothing’s more frustrating when you’ve got to go than waiting for some guy to finish reading the want ads. 9. If a poor fellow is reaching his hand out from under the stall door and crying out “Can you hand me some paper?” you have the right to crack jokes, take pictures, and make general fun of the situation he is in, but you are required to hand him some TP from another stall when the fun is over. 10. The little white cakes in the urinals are not large mints. Do not under any circumstances attempt to eat them. 11. If there are only three urinals, and an impolite patron has occupied the center urinal, it is acceptable to select an unoccupied stall instead of standing directly next to him. This is especially true if the patron smell funny, looks dangerous, or appears to be waiting for someone to utilize an adjacent urinal. Other options would include standing in front of the mirror and pretending to fix your hair, tie, blowing your nose, etc. 12. Flushing after sitting down at a toilet is mandatory. Flushing after standing at a urinal is optional. 13. If you have a male child you are assisting using the bathroom, please perform this awkward process within the confines of a closed stall. No one wants to see your kid’s pants around his ankles as he does his business. 14. Please don’t make fun of the father in the stall with his kid. You were that young once too.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 2:43 PM
| 6 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Tuesday, September 13, 2005My Dream Blog Design So, if I could do it without too much trouble I would redesign my blog site. At the top for the banner I’d want a black & white picture of Kip Dynamite in the top left corner, Fez from That 70’s Show just to the right of that, and the members of the band Slipknot to the right of Fez, all superimposed over the Texas flag with little comic book dialog bubbles. Kip’s says “Your mom goes to college.” Fez says “Where is my toast you idiots!” and Slipknot are all simultaneously saying “Bazooka-Joe is the only blog we read!* ” And then there’s some small print at the bottom of the banner that says, “* Slipknot™ are not affiliated with Bazooka-Joe’s blog, but the surgeon general concurs, they’d be much happier people if they were.” And then on either side of the postings I’d have an infinitely repeating vertical conga line of the high-carb Hostess cartoon caricatures just like in those commercials in the 80’s. You heard me. Twinkie Cowboys, Ho-Ho’s, Zippers, Captain Cupcakes, the whole gang. If I could animate them doing the Macarena now that obviously would be the real goal, but I don’t want the blog to take too long to open for users on 56k dial-up (keep in mind the percentage of my readership that will be Texans & Kentuckians as it grows in popularity). Then for the side bar where the Links and profile are, it would be cool to have an elongated fuzzy old close-up of Norman Bates as the background even if people couldn’t tell what it was. In fact, it might be cooler if they couldn’t. Each subtitle would be a picture of the word written and randomly misspelled in sharpie on a torn out piece of napkin and each link would be bulleted with an animated GIF of one of those Elvis hip-swinging wall-hanging clocks. That would be just about the sweetest blog design ever. Oh to dream.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 12:33 PM
| 1 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Monday, September 12, 2005My Bottom 10 OK, so if you want to take a gander at what I want for my birthday, then do check out the ol’ wishlist. But this post is a break in the monotony of Studio updates for those of you whose yawning has given way to nodding off entirely. So, without further adue…my Bottom 10! The ten most suck-worthy things. Honorable mention goes to Taco Bell's new Fajita Quesadillas. Truly inedible. 10. Non-standard Size Business Cards They simply don’t fit in my holder. They stick out one way or another and throw off the whole mojo I got going on at my cubical here at work. 9. People that use their fingers to create quotation marks when they talk. I think this one pretty much speaks for itself, don’t you? Is there anything more irritating? 8. Moderately liberal celebrities that go on the air to tell people how much they’re contributing their time and/or millions to hurricane Katrina victims. Get over yourselves already. And fire your publicist. Nobody’s falling for your particular variety of bull. As if the reporter bringing it up actually makes you blush and wasn’t on either of your cue cards. 7. Bono & Live 8 6. The fully automated “smart” bathroom Here at work we have faucets that don’t turn on until you put your hands under them. At least that’s how they’re supposed to work. On occasion they actually do turn on. When washing your hands most people get their hands wet before applying soap. The water always keeps running long after my hands have left the water and reach for the soap dispenser, which is also motion sensitive. By the time I get soap on my hands the water’s still running for about a second or two. Then I have to go through the effort of trying to get the faucet running again to rinse the soap off. I’m usually done rinsing long before the faucet kicks off again. I’m really glad they’re conserving water with these devices. The towel dispenser is, of course, also motion activated and rarely works. But if you flail your hands back and forth in front of it long enough trying to get it to work, you’ll usually get your hands air-dried right about the time a paper towel square spits out. 5. Emails with more than one “Fwd” or “Re” in the subject line. 4. There was this one time I had to “moon the moon”. Dano was there, weren’t you Dano? Yeah, I wound up cutting my foot wide open on a tent stake. Long story. Had to be there. 3. Bands that use Na na na’s in place of writing actual words to their songs. Thank you Strongbad. What are we paying you for anyway?!?! 2. That guy who screams “Goooooooaaaaaal!” for 30 seconds at soccer games (and the people that use that sound clip). 1. Olestra Chips The warning on the bag actually says, “Warning: may cause underwear staining associated with anal leakage”. Kudos to Proctor & Gamble, who apparently really can sell anything. I’d like to see them force fed their own products.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 2:37 PM
| 9 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Creswell in Studio - Days 2 & 3 If you haven’t read day 1, I’d highly recommend starting at the beginning. Everything will make more sense. :) So if my memory serves me right then Wednesday, day 2, was the day of the computer crash. It’s my understanding that shortly after tracking the remainder of drums on Immigrant, the second single, they had a problem with a USB drive. I didn’t go to the studio that day but instead met the band at Lee’s house (a stone’s throw from the studio). We hung out for awhile, Lee and I went to the bank and a pawn shop after discovering that my 94 Ford Ranger wouldn’t start. Three days and $185 later I’ll discover there was a problem with a relay in the fuel line. I did eventually make it home and spent the day with the ‘fam. Time well spent. Kyle and Zig did eventually manage to resolve the issues with the USB drive and Will, Lee & Adam did eventually head back to the studio and make some progress from what was left of the evening before retiring for the day. I believe they got most of the bass part tracked for one of the songs. The next day was Thursday and I was looking forward to tracking some guitars in the studio having completely put my sub-par performance on scratch tracks behind me. My car was in the shop now so Lee came and picked me up about 2pm or so from work. As I enter the studio some of the conversations we had on day one begin to revisit my memory. There were several ways a producer can approach working with a band. They can approach it from the rather “hands-off” method which allows the band member’s creativity to more or less run the direction we go with the project, or they can very much hold the reigns. Cut, paste, modify, add and remove as they feel is necessary. And there are of course varying degrees between the two extremes. There was mixed emotions amongst at least one of the members, but in general, we agreed to let Kyle and Zig have full control. It was, after all, their creative input we were paying for in part, and we wanted to take full advantage of how Creswell could sound on record in the hands of capable producers doing what they do best in an uninhibited fashion. So I quickly disabled whatever preconceived notions I had about how I would be playing these parts. Zig in particular was quite certain that Lee’s 5-string Soundgear bass (Ibanez, essentially) was not going to sound all that great and made a veto attempt early in the process. I thought it a little premature since he hadn’t even heard the thing, but he said he used to own one and wasn’t pleased at all how it sounded. Lee had two, and loves them above all other basses. I wasn’t there when they tracked the bass parts so I don’t know how that discussion went down when it came time to track it, but Lee did wind up using one of his Soundgears and his Ashdown amp, which he’s also quite attached to (neither Zig nor Lee seemed very impressed with the already-racked bass Pod). I’m a pretty big fan of MusicMan Stingray basses myself, and Zig must’ve been too because there were 2 or 3 hanging around the live room as well as a sweet looking older Fender Jazz. Had I been a bass player myself I wouldn’t have even bothered bringing my gear to the studio in favor of Zig’s collection. I thought it primo and was almost a little disheartened to hear they were decided against for the recording, but that all went away when I heard it. It sounded just fine. Lee’s bass gear was not the only thing that received vetoes. Both my Peavey 50 Classic and Lee’s solid state Crate GX1200H and matching 412 cabinet which I’m currently borrowing for live shows. My Peavey was summarily rejected on the grounds of a “No Peaveys allowed” in-house rule. My Gibson Nighthawk did not receive a veto, so much as it was just never even considered in the shadow of “Sophia”, the brand new SRV strat that even I was excited to play and hear. I didn’t mind so much. But I did expect more from the Mesa amp that was there and was very optimistic about those possibilities. Kyle, Zig and I all sat down and plugged Sophia into the Mesa amp setup racked in the control room with a Mesa 212 in the “live room” with several microphones snugged up to it at several angles and distances, going to a VXP and monitored through the control room speakers. We fiddled with the knobs and buttons, tried all the channels and every combination of settings we could, but unfortunately, we just weren’t getting the sound that we wanted. We wanted a sharper, crisper, crunchier kind of distortion. After hearing some clips from other bands who utilized a studio guitarist that sometimes does work at The Verb, I decided that what I really wanted was that layered Fender Hot Rod DeVille sound. Man, it was beautiful. Exactly what I hear in my head and exactly what I want for the album. So we called the guy that occasionally does guitar work there to see if we could borrow it for a day or two. Or at least try it out. When we finally got a hold of him though he apparently had it with him doing a show or something out of Medford and he would not get back in to town until 7 or 8pm that night, and Zig or somebody would probably have to meet in Salem. So there was no way we’d get anything done that evening even if we could get it that night. We started calling stores all over asking if they rented out amps, and many do. Ape Over Music, Beacocks Music, River City Music, Showcase Music, Apple Music, and of course Guitar Center, who does not “rent” them but does have a 30-day money back return policy. Zig and I climbed in his car and went to Ape Over Music because it was just down the street a ways. I called many of the other places from my cell phone. Nobody had any Fender DeVilles. Showcase had four that had just been loaded up in a truck and left for a festival in Sisters, OR just 15 minutes before I called. It became clear that we were not going to get the amp that we wanted today, so as we approached the five o’clock hour we called Will, who was running some errands with Adam around town, and told him we were going to jump ahead to tracking vocals. Will started with Immigrant and it seemed like he was struggling a little bit, which wasn’t an enormous surprise considering the conditions under which he had to work. There’s a mental game that goes on with a vocalist I think and preparation is typically a key ingredient to playing that game effectively. To call him up an hour before he’s about to track vocals was a bit of a blindside I think. Plus the songs were a little different. Small parts had been cut from Immigrant that we were now realizing completely changed how the lyrics of the chorus flowed and how the melody resolves. Add to that he was singing to crummy scratch guitars with mistakes and all instead of a pristine powerful wall of guitars like he’s used to and like he expected. Oh, and there’s one other thing that I have to mention. Zig and Kyle setup several mic stands surrounding the stand that actually held the microphone for Will. They used those stands to drape a canopy of blankets around where Will would be standing. This did a couple of things. It created an additional sound dampener that made for a good effect, but it also made that already stifling hot room (due to the lighting primarily), that much hotter for Will who had to stand within this blanket cave. As he sang and did more and more takes of the vocals it started sounding better and better with each take, probably as his comfort level came up. It was sounding pretty darn good by about 6pm when I decided to head home. Again tired, drained, exhausted, and feeling like I hadn’t contributed much of anything as of yet, Adam drove me home and I was more or less on auto-pilot. I crashed when I got home with one fleeting thought in my head: just how different is the Fender DeVille from my 50 Classic? I would soon plead a case for my amp, prove myself and my ability to identify good tone, as well as abolish a carte blanc prejudicial rule about Peaveys.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 12:58 PM
| 0 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Sunday, September 11, 2005Creswell In Studio - Day 1 This is as unbiased as I can make it. These several pieces of literature on my experiences in the studio will not be an “all good” nor will they have an “all bad” slant. But they will be as honest and as fair as I can make them. Creswell’s lead singer and band leader was contacted back in late Spring of this year (2005) via email (I want to say Myspace) by Kyle Mitchell and Kyle (“Zig”) Zeigler, both ex-members of the Christian rock band Kutless. It seems shortly after leaving the band, they started up a studio and were offering a great introductory rate for production, engineering and many other services at their studio, The Verb. They were contacting independent bands and signed bands alike notifying them of the services they can provide and, at the introductory rate, it was quite literally “a steal”. Prior to getting their email we were considering our options, at there at the top of the pile for consideration was Barry Blair, ex-guitarist and a founding member of Audio Adrenaline, as producer. We’d met with him during GMA week in Nashville after our showcase performance at The Muse. At any rate, we were and still are very excited about the possibility of working with Barry in the future, on this very album in I hope, but the offer from ex-Kutless bassist and drummer was too good to pass up since they were a little less expensive, they were local, and uber flexible because they lived so close. One of the outstanding benefits to this was that we did not have to leave our families for days or weeks and I did not even have to take a single day off of work (just a couple hours here and there). The studio itself resides in the basement of Kyle Mitchell’s home in the Rosemere section of Vancouver, WA. As you walk down the concrete exterior steps to the door, you feel the energy and artistic vibe that radiates from the underbelly of this fantastic early 20th century home. A black and white cat greets you with a cry and an eager brush against your feet and ankles. And while Zig and Mitchell continue to feed her, she’s not affiliated with the studio. The neighbor (let's call him "Randy"), ‘works’ in his yard next door. He’s holding some variety of long-handled gardening tool and probably not using it quite the way it was intended. He gives a glance, maybe a smile and a nod as we head down. Something about his demeanor tells me he finds the whole idea of a recording studio in the basement of his neighbor’s house just a little comical. Or maybe he just finds me a little comical. Seeing bands go before where we dared to trod was obviously a common occurrence and it was probably becoming pretty obvious from the typical wardrobe, hairstyles, accessories, etc who was here for business and who was here for pleasure (the line between the two in this business is blurred more often than not though). Something about "Randy" reminds me of the neighborly dynamic of Mr. & Mrs. Morgan with dc Talk. I reach the bottom of the staircase, give a brief knock, and let myself in. I’m the last to arrive at 2pm after having worked a full day. I walk in, say hi, and try to settle in to the comfort level of the others who have been present already for awhile, though just how long I’m not sure. I’ve scanned the gear in the studio before when we came down to talk to them a few weeks prior. They’ve got a computer, a board, and a couple of racks mostly full of some great gizmos. For this recording at The Verb, we’re going to utilizing the pleasantries of Pro Tools LE, a software utility our last producer was not thrilled about. I also see a pair of Presonus VXP mic preamps, a Digi 002 board, Audix i5 instrument microphones among others, a Mesa Recording Preamp, a Mesa Rectifier Stereo 2:One Hundred power amp, a rackmount Line 6 Bass Pod (not XT), and a beautiful brand new Fender SRV Stratocaster purchased just a couple days before at Guitar Center of Hillsboro. Zig and Kyle have already appropriately named her, “Sophia Rosa Verb”. I’ve brought my Gibson Nighthawk, my Yamaha Pacifica 112 and my Yamaha acoustic from the late 70’s all with me, but I won’t actually wind up using any of them. I did not bring my Peavey 50 Classic because I was already pretty sure I would not be using it. The first thing we do is sit down and have a little discussion about what we sound like, and what we’d like to sound like. It’s hard to quantify such a broad concept like that in to terms, so we went around the room sharing what bands and albums influence us that we’d like to capture the essence of within for elements of our own album. Or in this case, the two singles we’re recording this week. I wanted to say Jet, but I couldn’t think of it at the time. A lot of stuff was thrown out as we went around the room. We came away from the discussion with some of the more recent Green Day work meets Weezer’s blue album kind of a feel. All agreeing that, given our make up and the style we tend to write and arrange in, that Weezer-esque kinds of sounds just might be an achievable attribute. Except maybe for Lee whom I’m not really sure if he knows Weezer and only sited Geddy Lee as his own influence. It’s a hard question to answer, and one that, frankly, I hate answering. It’s one that producers unfamiliar with your work will almost always ask though. It’s like the question, “who do you sound like”. Well, we sound like us. Like Creswell. Which of course is of no help to the person asking because they’ve obviously never heard you or they wouldn’t be asking. The phone at The Verb studio rings incessantly. It rarely stops. And it’s never trivial either, it’s always something rather important that needs to be addressed concurrently. It didn’t really bother me though for some reason. Probably because there was always two of them there and while one was on the phone the other was usually helping progress the process. They played us some clips of the kinds of material that had left their studio or was about to. They’d specifically site each for the drums, vocals, bass or guitar work that could be accomplished. It was a most impressive collection, but I remember somebody telling me that “everything sounds good on studio control room speakers”. But it game me a sense of real excitement as what I was hearing was very good indeed (not the least of which, I should add, was a clip or two from Falling Up’s new album that they were working on). We went through each of the songs for them with me just playing an acoustic with really poor action and Will singing. As we went from song to song, it became clear that I was not giving a very good representation of the songs themselves. Verses particularly, I’m not just shrang-ing out chords when we play these songs live, but instead I’m adding texture, feel, nuance to the verse while the rhythm section drives it. Playing the subtle nuances don’t help the producers though, who need to know how the song sounds, and in several cases I didn’t even know all the chords (stands to reason, since I don’t play them). So I kind of feel that some of the songs that might have been better candidates than the two that we picked, kind of got short changed because I wasn’t prepared to give a good representation on acoustic guitar. Kyle and Zig picked Ananias and Immigrant. So that pretty much set the mood for me. I was irritated and displeased with my ability to play them on acoustic, which I’d never tried, was slightly out of tune, I was using an acoustic that was somewhat hard to play on, especially barre chords around the 9th fret, etc and I felt that the producers had probably already made up their minds about the quality of guitarist I was and might even be considering the possibility of needing to play the parts themselves. I put it behind me. We immediately started scratch tracks. The brought out the highly acclaimed Sophia, plugged her into the Mesa preamp amp on a clean channel, and used the control room speakers as monitors and for me to hear the click track. They decided to not track the vocals for scratches, which may or may not have been a mistake. Because of this I would lose my place several times while tracking them. My nervousness increased. The decision was made by the producers to change Immigrant’s chorus. The problem with making a change like that without the vocals is that you don’t really know how it will impact the flow of the lyrics, which turned out to be a bit of an issue for Will later on. I finished the scratches eventually, with the usual occasional flaw in them as is typical for scratches. The drum kit we would use for the singles was Kyle’s when he played with Kutless. I’m not sure of the brand but it was custom made by a company out of L.A. It was already setup but we needed to spend some time tuning the heads, micing everything, and adjusting for optimal tonal qualities, etc so we got just the sound we wanted from every piece. What we lacked in snare tone we were sure we’d make up for when it was sent to the mixer, as they apparently have the ability to further EQ and bring out some of the better tonal qualities in the mix. We mic’d both the bottom and the top of the snare, which apparently is a trick of the trade commonly used in our style of rock music. One which I wish we’d known about for our last album. Mentally, as we proceed, I’m taking notes of everything they do different from our last trip to a different studio with a different producer. I’m impressed. What I’m hearing is sounding great. As they day turns to evening, Adam begins to track drums against the scratches playing both in his headphones and in the control room monitors. Adam’s become a really great drummer. He was slightly fill-happy, but it was always good stuff. He played flawlessly to the click track and Kyle, a drummer himself for a pro-caliber band, noted several times to me that it was nice to have a drummer that can really sync up with the click. Adam was banging away on Immigrant and was pretty much finished with it when it hit about 10pm. I was pretty tired and welcomed sleep as I drove home uncertain of what was to come next. I would not be needed for another day or two I knew which gave me some time to think about what I wanted to hear from my guitars and from the singles as a whole.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 1:19 PM
| 2 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Thursday, September 08, 2005Dude, you gonna eat that? As if my blog wasn't random enough. Here's a recipe for a cake my wife made me not that long ago, and a healthy reason to go to the liquor store. BLACK "FORREST" CAKE 2 cups sifted cake flour 2 cups sugar 3/4 cup cocoa 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 3/4 cup teaspoon salt 1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup sour cream, divided 1/2 cup milk 1/3 cup kirsch or cherry flavor brandy 2 large eggs 2 egg yolks 4 cups whipping cream 1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar 2 tablespoons kirsch or cherry brandy 2 (21-oz) cans cherry pie filling Grease 2 (9 inch) cake pans; line bottoms with wax paper. Grease wax paper and sides of pans and dust with flour or cocoa. Combine first 6 ingredients and add shortening and 1/4 cup sour cream. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds or until well moistened. Add rest of sour cream, milk and first measurement kirsch. Beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add eggs and egg yolks, beating after each addition for 20 seconds. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake at 350F for 30 to 35 minutes until center tests done. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pans; remove wax paper and cool completely on wire racks. Split cake layers in half by marking with toothpicks and sawing in two with dental floss. Place knife blade in food processor. Break 1 cake layer into pieces and pulse in processor or blender until it resembles fine crumbs. Set aside. Beat whipping cream until foamy; gradually add powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Add 2 tablespoons kirsch, beating until stiff peaks form. Reserve 1 1/2 cups whipped cream as garnish. Place 1 cake layer on plate; spread with 1 cup whip cream and top with 1 cup cherry pie filling. Repeat procedure and top with last cake layer. Frost top and side of cake with whipped cream. Pat Cake crumbs around sides of cake. Pipe or dollop remaining 1 1/2 cups whipped cream around top exterior edges of cake; spoon 1 cup pie filling in center. Cover and chill 8 hours. Scrum-dilly-umptious neighbor!
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 8:33 AM
| 3 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Tuesday, September 06, 2005iPod Playlist: Sleepy Time Periodically I will post a playlist I've composed, particularly if I've published it as an iMix on iTunes, as I have with this one. The point of the "Sleepy Time" playlist is pretty much what it sounds like. This is a collection of some great tunes to fall asleep to, if you're like me and can fall asleep to music, or have a touch of tinitis and from time to time have to fall asleep to some kind of noise or music to drown out the rining. It's quite simple, set your iPod's "sleep timer" to 90 or 120 minutes (or less if it takes less for you), tell your iPod to shuffle songs within a playlist if you don't already have it set to do so, pop in the earbuds and sweet dreams! You'll notice this particular playlist is heavy on the Michael W. Smith and Roger Whittaker. I don't know why, I just find the voices easy to fall asleep to I guess. :) Alan Jackson - Remember When U2 - One Howie Day - Collide The Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin Billy Joel - Always a Woman Evanescence - My Immortal Geoff Moore & the Distance - Heart to God, Hand to Man Geoff Moore & the Distance - When All is Said and Done Dido - White Flag Eagles - Desperado dc Talk - The Hardway John Parr - St. Elmo's Fire Enya - Carribean Blue White Heart - Silhouette Michael W. Smith - I Hear Leesha Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over the Rainbow Switchfoot - Home Bryan Adams - Everything I do Michael W. Smith - Somebody Love Me Audio Adrenaline - My World View Lifehouse - You and Me Michael W. Smith - Friends BJ Thomas - Raindrops Are Falling on my Head Roger Whittaker - The Last Farewell Dixie Chicks - You Were Mine Audio Adrenaline - Tremble Billy Joel - She's Got a Way Marc Cohn - One Safe Place Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight Mr. Mister - Broken Wings Roger Whittaker - I Don't Believe in "If" Anymore Joe Satriani - Always With You, Always With Me Newsboys - Rain Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling in Love dc Talk - What if I Stumble Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting Roger Whittaker - New World in the Morning Michael W. Smith - I Miss the Way John Denver - Take Me Home Country Roads Michael W. Smith - Kentucky Rose Jars of Clay - Worlds Apart Enya - Only Time Michael W. Smith - Pray for Me Switchfoot - Twenty-four Alphaville - Forever Young White Heart - How Many Times Phil Collins - Another Day in Paradise (live) Geoff Moore & the Distance - If You Could See What I See Michael W. Smith - Somewhere Somehow Madonna - This Used to be my Playground Willie Nelson - My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys Switchfoot - You Elton John - I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues Police - Every Breath Audio Adrenaline - Rest Easy Chris De Burgh - Lady in Red Amy Grant - How Can We See That Far Christopher Cross - Best That You Can Do White Heart - Desert Rose Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven Blink 182 - I Miss You Newsboys - When You Called My Name Dido - Thank You Roger Whittaker - Sailing Amy Grant - Hopes Set High Michael W. Smith - Do You Dream of Me Beatles - Yesterday Amy Grant - I Will Remember You Roger Whittaker - Dirty Old Town Larry Norman - Wish We'd All Been Ready Roger Whittaker - Streets of London James Taylor - Carolina In My Mind Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight Don Henley - End of the Innocence Garth Brooks - To Make You Feel my Love Brad Paisley - Whiskey Lullabye Oasis - Stop Crying Your Heart Out DeGarmo & Key - Addey Michael W. Smith - Straight to the Heart
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 6:54 AM
| 11 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
Thursday, September 01, 2005Gear Review: Line 6 MM4 You can find my gear reviews frequently on Harmony Central, or in the newsgroups (alt.guitar & child groups, and rec.music.makers.guitar). These ratings are an "out of 10" scale just like Harmony Central. Price Paid: US $150 used Ease of Use: 7 I didn't find it difficult to use. However, I traded in my Line 6 PODxt for it and a few other pedals so I had pedal programming on the brain and their methods figured out by then already. I suppose there's easier pedals to use, but I didn't really find it all that difficult. If you can program your car stereo's presets, you can figure out this stompbox. Though I still haven't quite figured out what the "Tweak" and "Tweeze" dials do. Seems to have different effect on different models. Sound Quality: 9 Well, I won't compare this unit to those it supposedly models. I have not actually tried an MXR Phase 90 or many of the others. So I'll simply judge it on its own merits, not how well it models. It generates great chorus, flanger, univibe, phaser, tremolo and they're VERY customizeable. More options than most of the original pedals it emulates I would wager. There's two or three options for every effect it offers. Two choruses, three phasers, two trems, etc. There's almost one for every effect that does exactly what I want. So I'd say their seemingly overkill versatility really paid off in the end because I was able to find what I wanted with very little trouble. Super, super picky people who are trying to compare the models to the originals may be disappointed. I have found there's two types of people generally. Those who love Line 6 products and those who love to hate them. The prejudice seems to run pretty deep for some reason too. I didn't care for POD myself. They over complexified it and the amp models conflicted with my preamp so when push came to shove the POD had to go. But emulating modulation stomp boxes is ALOT easier to do than emulating entire amplfiers, spkr cabinets, virtual mic placement, room%, EQ, etc..... They did a really good job with the MM4. And for that matter, the DM4 too. Reliability: 10 Pretty reliable. Metal chassis, heavey duty metal plunge switches, hard plastic dial knobs that don't stick out and won't change positions on you too easily. Good strong LED visability. I've heard of some power supply issues with these stompboxes from some newsgroup posters, etc but until I experience a problem, it will get a high rating from me. Customer Support: 9 I had to call Line 6 about a power issue. If you use a multiple power supply for a pedalboard, you HAVE to use the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2. No other multi-supply will work. These Line 6 stomp boxes do not use conventional 9V power plugs. However, you can make your own cables for the VDLPP2 for these devices too. Get a 5.5x2.1mm connector for the supply connection and a 5.2x2.5mm connector for the DM4 or MM4 (or DL4/AM4/FM4 I'd presume). Otherwise, I've had nothing but good luck with the support people at Line 6. Very helpful and intelligent. Overall Rating: 9 I love this box. It saves me from buying separate trem, flange, phase, chorus, and univibe pedals. Having any 4 presets I want at the stomp of a foot is super handy. I hope mine never ever breaks or is stolen. I'd be pretty upset.
Bazooka-Joe made it so at 9:45 AM
| 0 class clowns in the back of the class were bored from throwing pencils in the ceiling and paused long enough to comment on this post
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