So I’m driving along on this fine 4th of July weekend and I come across one of those vehicles with 500 bumper stickers on the back with things like “War is Not the Answer”, “Stop Blackwater Now”, “Endless war”, and so on. A bit ironic to see on this Independence Day weekend when we celebrate a day when America won it’s freedom through, um, like, war. There are a lot of those cars here in this hippie type part of San Diego so I come across them a fair amount. Most of the time I could care less, but every once in awhile I am so amazed at the smattering of thoughtless slogans plastered on someone’s car I cannot resist the urge to race up next to them and see what manner of human feels compelled to broadcast their… ‘views’ to the world in such a fashion.
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A few weeks ago I was finishing up the last drum tracks for The Tall Ships latest recording. I thought I would give it a shot and see how my iPhone handled recording my drums. Surprisingly, it makes for some funky, distorted, break beat kind of dittys that beg to be made into ringtones. So here’s how you do it-
1. Buy some drums.
2. Learn how to play them.
3. Learn how to tune them.
4. Record some beats with your iPhone. Here’s some tips- [continue reading…]
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Not sure if anyone is aware of this but…Michael Jackson died.
What? Oh, you heard?
Yeah, that’s right you heard. Everybody heard. On the planet.
I never bought or owned a Michael Jackson record, but growing up on planet Earth it has been virtually impossible to ignore him or his music. From the bright and shiny (outwardly, anyway) days of the Jackson 5 to the megastardom of ‘Thriller’ to the descent in to all forms of disfigurement in the last 15 or so years.
Like or him or not, the Michael Jackson phenomenon was impossible to escape. Impossible to disregard. So although I never personally got swept up in fanclub Michael, I felt strangely affected and saddened by his death. In fact, I felt a little ill. Like, it was just wrong. And sad. And tragic. You have to be made of stone to not feel some emotion when you watch an old clip of the Jackson 5 in the 70’s and little Michael, with big talent, just shines. But as we now know, all forms of craziness were going on behind the scenes. [continue reading…]
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I’m not sure about you but when I think of Rod Stewart the first word that comes to mind is definitely not ‘cool’. What comes to mind is a giant slice of cheese topped with a huge heap of schmaltz. From the leopard panted disco swagger of ‘Do Ya think I’m Sexy?’ to his recent ‘Great American Schmaltz Song Book’ series, it’s hard not to associate him with baby boomers gone (not that) wild.
Yes I know, ‘Maggie May’ is a classic. But it’s a folksy feel good classic. And it definitely doesn’t make you want to break anything.
But believe it or not, Rod Stewart used to ROCK. And rock with a killin’ blues voice that was saturated with power to make people want to break things. He once OWNED the hard, gritty, late sixties blues wave. [continue reading…]
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A few years ago I was in a band that was auditioning bass players in Los Angeles. We were working out a developmental deal arrangement with Tony Ferguson (No Doubt, Bush, Interscope records co-founder), needed a bass player and got the b-list from Barry Squire –who is the go-to guy in L.A. for musician hook ups. We were going through bass player after bass player (it’s amazing how hard it is to find a good bass player –even in L.A.) and having little luck. After a full day of auditions-which is terribly exhausting- in walks this young girl -a kid- maybe 17ish.
Of course I thought, “Oh man, this will be rough…” We already had a couple female players and well, it was rough.
This girl looked like a normal kid – no tattoos, no piercings, no attitude, no L.A. vibe AT ALL. She proceeded to quitely introduce herself, plug in and LAY IT DOWN. I mean solid. The songs were simple riff rock tunes but she played them with authority and great tone (something most bass players don’t understand). We were all like, “Whooaaa!!! Whaaat??!!” [continue reading…]
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Well in one aspect it does. In a big way.
Although I have said Pandora and Lala are the coolest must-have music applications, I have been growing increasingly frustrated with Pandora. The problem I’m finding is even if I don’t give a ‘thumbs up’ on a song (which I found is song suicide as you can guarantee it will play that song EVERY time you play the station) it still plays the same songs ALL THE TIME. On occasion it will introduce something obscure -for better or for worse- but I can usually count on hearing the same things I heard the day before. So I began thinking -yelling in fact -why isn’t there some control over whether I want obscure stuff versus the hits, and why isn’t there some degree setting over how often it plays the same stuff? Yell no longer -hello Slacker.com. [continue reading…]
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Here is my Memorial Day Top Ten list of War movies. I make no bones about it – this is a personal list. I am not arguing these are objectively the ten best war films of all time; if I were making that case I would be reaching farther back in history for some of the classics that inspired many of these later films. But I must admit I prefer the more recent films simply for their brutal realism.
Those of us who have never seen actual combat do well to appreciate what soldiers go through and the special effects these days are pretty ridiculous in their depiction of the horrors of war. What I find fascinating about war films and war in general is in the midst of the worst aspects of humanity, the greatest elements of humanity -namely sacrifice, courage and honor show themselves in the purest of form. The ultimate in dichotomies.
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I’ve wanted to write this post for some time, but I kept putting it off because I could not remember some of the details. But it fits nicely in a Memorial Day type theme so, oh well…
Way back when in the ’08 presidential race, I was perusing talk radio and I came across Dennis Prager interviewing a former Vietnam POW who was in the Hanoi Hilton Prison camp the same time John McCain was. I cannot remember his name and it drives me crazy. And Google couldn’t help me either.
But this veteran was a POW for seven years! Ouch. That’s a long time to be beaten on a daily basis. Of those seven years he was in solitary confinement for two of them. TWO YEARS!!! That’s insane!
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I’ve already listed the Top 5 Artists you should never dis in public or you will sound like a fool. Now, here are the Top 5 Artists that I believe one has a perfect right to dis in public because there are very, very good reasons for doing so.
These are in particular order… [continue reading…]
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Simple answer? You can’t. So don’t bother trying. Ok I’m being harsh… But you can aim for other things that are more important than ‘originality’. And in doing so, maybe hit on something that could be considered ‘original’.
In a recent interview, rock legend Roger Daltrey had a few things to say that shed some light on the issue as it relates to artists and performers today.
The interviewer first comments on the fact that much (if not most) of what musicians (bands in particular) attempt today are largely based on the foundations laid by iconic bands such as the Who. He then asks Daltrey if he thinks music has stagnated. His reply was surprisingly humble and candid-
“Well, I don’t really like to comment on things like that. I think in our day, it was easy to be original because nothing had been done. There was us, a few others and the Beatles. It was still a big empty canvas, but now so much of the canvas has been filled. That isn’t to say that some other bugger won’t come along and paint a completely different picture.” [continue reading…]
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