Geetarz

Expresso Joe (Bonamassa)

2008-10-27T03:01:00.003-04:00

Well if two Frampton shows is better than one, and two Buckingham shows is better than one ... two Bonamassa shows are in order!

Wow, what a difference a week makes! Some artists react differently to different venues, and as many times as I have seen Joe Bonamassa, I've never seen him perform at the level he did at BB King's in New York. He joined the stage (to quote one of my old trading buddies, always liked that turn of phrase) with his hair slicked back, a great pair of Ray-Bans, and an even better suit. That set the tone for the evening and we were totally off to the races:

The show was sold out and the place was *packed* - way to go Joe!

As always, there are more vids for your viewing pleasure ... enjoy!

~G

Good Things Come in ... Twos?

2008-10-20T02:41:00.001-04:00

As I suggested earlier this summer, "what's better than one Frampton show? TWO Frampton shows!", and continuing in that vein, if one Lindsey Buckingham show is good, two must be better, right?

Buckingham chose to end his tour at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Stylistically from the decor it appears to be a classic from the early part of the century, but once you walk into the theater proper (which only seats 1,650) it's clear that it's totally a 21st century venue, with custom designed acoustic tile, and an incredible PA system that has to be heard to be believed. Really, it's almost more of a TV studio than a typical venue.

The crowd stayed seated (assisted in this by the zealous security) which led to the energy level from the band being a bit more muted than in the previous gig in Atlantic City but it certainly didn't reflect on the artist. There's a common thread that draws people to that athlete that throws themselves into harm's way with reckless abandon, the writer that suffers for the craft, and it comes through in Buckingham's sincerity. He spoke again about the commercial nature of the Fleetwood Mac "machine" (as he called it) and really seemed to enjoy just playing things he really wanted to play, with no real need to "sell" to this audience.

This is totally sickening guitar playing!

As usual we "personally upgraded" our seats, being familiar with the setlist we dodged the security (complete with going out one door, turning around, and coming back in as if we were returning to our seats!) and made it right up front.

Quite often I'll be at a show and hear a performer do something extraordinary, and there's part of me thinking "I sure hope this is being recorded for posterity". Then again, being a few feet away from Lindsey as he performed the final encore of
"Time Precious Time" was totally mesmerizing, and as we left, that was my first thought ... I don't *need* a recording of that. It'll be in my mind as if it were live, for the rest of my life!

It was a great show, also check out the other clips on youtube.

~G

A Shot of Joe

2008-10-15T02:16:00.002-04:00

On Wednesday, October 15, it was time for a shot of Joe at "The National" in Richmond, Virginia. This is a cool old theatre that has been recently restored. Muchos Gracias to a buddy who hooked me up front row center (seriously, the only way for a better seat would be on stage). Joe just keeps getting better every year, but it's nice to see that in some ways he's still "the same old Joe" ... humble, and easily one of the nicest, most genuine people in show business.

Tonally, Joe has changed over the years, and if anything he's gotten even more totally in control of the instrument ... but with finesse and ultimate attention to detail, down to the "Gibbons Wrap" on the tailpiece of his signature Les Paul.

As always, Joe reminds me a bit of the late (and sorely missed) Danny Gatton in the eclectic nature of his influences, and Joe always tosses in little bits of esoterica for the fans to spot. Notably on this night, it was a few notes from Eric Clapton's soundtrack work in the BBC miniseries "Edge of Darkness". Gear-wise, Joe's got a new toy to play with, but as with all great players, the sound isn't so much in the gear, as in the fingertips, as he amply demonstrated with just an acoustic ... enjoy!

~G

(And as usual there are more photos for you to check out!

The Great Mac Attack

2008-10-14T02:01:00.000-04:00

After a weekend off for a musical break, on Saturday October 11 it was off to Atlantic City to meet up with the Dynamic (and sleep deprived) duo to see Lindsey Buckingham at the Xanadu Theater at Trump Casino.

Having only known Buckingham's music through the pop prism of Fleetwood Mac, I was unfamiliar with his solo material. I've observed over the years that at any "arena rock" show with 20,000 fans, there really are probably 2,500 real "fans" there, and the others are the casual fans just familiar with what they hear on the radio. During the heyday of the giant touring machine known as Dire Straits, Mark Knopfler used to refer to those masses as "the tourists", i.e. those who are really attending just to check out what the fuss is all about. Buckingham was really upfront about the conflicting needs of those groups, and spoke at length about how playing these solo shows in a more intimate venue was a necessary part of the creative process ... and for us, a fun one, too! I went in a Tourist, and walked out a Fan.

The first part of the show was a bit tame, as casio shows can be as the front section where we were was clearly a comp area for "high rollers". The preshow announcement had clearly stated "no personal seat upgrades" but that is exactly what the REAL fans did, and by midshow the front of the stage was packed and the energy level of the band really went into the stratosphere.

Of course I took some pictures for you, dear reader, but if a picture is worth a thousand words, the following video is worth a million, and as good as this is, it was about a million times better in person ... make sure you play this in "high quality" mode - enjoy!

~G

A Triple Shot

2008-09-28T00:57:00.000-04:00

Obviously double headers and two-fers were busy, but not busy enough! So on the weekend of September 26-27, we set out not for a double, but a triple!

Friday night started off at the legendary Mexicali Blues in Teaneck, NJ, with one of my favorite artists - who, coincidentally, I've never seen live - Popa Chubby. The Park Blog has all the cool details, it was a fantastic night of red hot blues-rock.

Here are more pix from the show and of course we have more video as well!

Saturday morning, we were off to MSG for a preseason game between the New Jersey Devils and the infamous New York Rangers. New York fans have unfairly gotten a bum rap for being awful audiences at music performances, and after seeing so many gigs in other venues, I have now realized, it's not New York fandom, it's that shows at the Garden are infested with asshole Rangers fans that have tainted the place. Don't believe me? Ask Kevin Smith.

Not being a sports guy, at first I thought this blanket charge about Rangers fans was a little overblown, but after experiencing it firsthand even as far out as Cape Cod, I constructed a handy little Venn Diagram as a visual aid:

So with this graphic it is much easier to see how this works: not all assholes are Rangers fans, and not all Rangers fans are assholes. BUT, if you are a Rangers fan, it's statistically very likely that you are an asshole. Glad to help clear that up!

After a nice dinner, we headed to New York's legendary Carnegie Hall to see Italian mega-rock star Zucchero. I was concerned before the show that the crowd might be too staid in such a august place, and was reassured by friends that we would be surrounded by "crazy Italians" and boy did they deliver! It was an awesome show, and the crowd was up out of their seats dancing and having a great time for the majority of the evening.

There's not a bad seat in the house, and the famed acoustics are all they are supposed to be, although for some reason that doesn't come out well in the recording from my camera. I would have taken more video but I had an irresistible urge to dance, sorry!

I've got to admit, musically, this was a hard duo to beat! Some punter in the audience once asked Pete Townshend "how do you follow that?" to which he replied "play another song!" so ... onto the next gig!

~G

Squeezing It Out

2008-09-20T00:40:00.001-04:00

On Friday, September 19 we took a trip to New York's famous Radio City Music Hall to see Squeeze. This was a little off the beaten path for me, musically. Although I have my "guilty pleasure" pop that I secretly enjoy (hey, I did get to see Colin Hay play several "Men at Work" songs with Ringo Starr earlier this summer!), I was really only familiar with the ubiquitous "Tempted".

My main surprise was that these guys can not only play, but really got into some totally deep fried southern chickin' pickin' telecaster, with a British bent of course. Having listened to the studio work - which, frankly, bores me - I can't figure out why people with this much musical talent would go out of their way to hide it when recording! They really stepped it up Nashville style with songs like "Annie Get Your Gun".

Check it out:

And, please, whatever you do ... don't mention "Black Coffee in Bed" T-Shirts!

~G

Another Two-Fer

2008-09-13T00:20:00.000-04:00

Talk about a two-fer / double header (even the headers come in twos!).

First was Robert Randolph and the Family Band on the "Music Builds" tour at the Virginia Beach Ampitheater. I was so excited to snap up 3rd row center tickets at the presale that I didn't notice that RRFB were on a bill with a bunch of other artists that ... I'd hate. Well, not hate, just be bored to tears by! Robert's set was a bit constrained by time and he did his best to get people up and out of their seats, but it was an uphill battle and I can't wait to see Robert again in a solo gig like I did back in June.

I thought Robert was the total high energy guy, and after a long train ride I was totally unprepared for how much I'd love Dana Fuchs and her great band. Totally blown away, and ladies and gentlemen, do not walk, RUN to grab tickets the next time this gal is in your neighborhood. As usual, the Park Blog contains all the salient details better than I can, so check it out!

~G

A Double Header!

2008-08-30T00:05:00.000-04:00

This week, we head to yet another landmark and attend one of the final games to be held at Yankee Stadium. It's amazing to me that something with this much history can be just torn down and turned into a parking lot!

One of the tricks in life is, at times, knowing when not to push back against fate too much, and learning that sometimes things aren't meant to happen. This was the case back when Jerry Lee Lewis canceled his show at BB King's in Manhattan - we couldn't even head to the bar to get the drinks we wanted, and clearly we were not meant to be there!

So on the 30th, the opposite was true and as our other plans fell through, it was totally obvious that we were *meant* to be at BB's to see the reincarnation of The Motels.

Martha is sounding better than ever, and has put a lot of work into reinventing her earlier material. A fine time was had by all including Martha who was really moved by the response of the crowd, saying "Stop it, you're gonna make me f-in cry!"

As always, the photos here as well as video clips by my trusty camera.

Enjoy!
~G

Amusements of a Different Kind

2008-08-22T23:55:00.001-04:00

This week, Park took a break from music for a trip to the REAL Nathan's Famous on the boardwalk at New York's Coney Island. With the summer season winding down, this was possibly our last chance to visit this famous landmark before the seas of change swept it away for good.

As always, here are the pictures, as well as the Official Park Review. Enjoy!

Next Week ... the Grim Reapers of Tourism visit another landmark slated to fade into history ...

~G

Do You Feel (Like We Do?)

2008-08-17T22:42:00.000-04:00

What's better than being right in front of the stage and seeing Peter Frampton on a beautiful summer night?

Seeing Peter Frampton on TWO beautiful summer nights!

On August 16 and 17, Frampton closed out his summer tour with two back-to-back shows at Williamsburg, Virginia's Busch Gardens. Having recently inducted the "Funk Brothers" into the songwriter's Hall of Fame, Frampton opened the set with "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" and "Shotgun / The Jerk", and then veered into both classics and some newer songs and instrumentals. One of the more interesting songs of the evening for me was Frampton's take on Chris Cornell's (Soundgarden) "Black Hole Sun" which he really made his own.

Always a tone hound, Frampton played a variety of guitars, including a Frampton signature issue Les Paul, a Goldtop, a '59 (60?) Reissue LP, and best of all, a sweet sounding cherry red ES-335. Peter's golden locks may have gone gray, but his fingers are fast as ever, and the tone still fat and sassy! One interesting change from years past is that "Show Me The Way" is played with a fat, Gibson sound rather than the crisp Fender-y sound of the past ... it works!

With many classic artists, the scariest seven words they can say are "here's a song from my new album" but Frampton never disappoints. The close on both nights was a sweet version of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

Here's the setlist:

Shotgun / The Jerk
Signed, Sealed, Delivered
Lines On My Face
Show Me the Way
By Your Side
Float
Boot it Up
Black Hole Sun
Baby, I Love Your Way
(I'll Give You) Money
Do You Feel Like We Do?
Off the Hook >
While My Guitar Gently Weeps

You can see my photos from the shows here.

Next week ... Park goes to Coney Island!

~G

Riding (to see) The King

2008-08-12T07:36:00.003-04:00

On Saturday, August 9, we went to see B.B. King at the Ferguson Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News, Va.

At 82, he doesn't play much - but when he does, he's still got "the tone" and can hit "the note". That incredible vibrato is always there, and the voice ... oh, my.

Click Here For Photos

In other news, with help of The Organized One, I finally got started on cabinets to house the music collection (Ikea HOPEN, not in the catalog) and the sorting process has begun!

So perhaps for the first time in years ... I'll actually be able to FIND STUFF??

~G

Setlist acquisition ...

2008-08-08T07:09:00.002-04:00

Setlist from the Trucks / Tedeschi "Soul Stew" show at the "Melody Tent", Hyannis, Cape Cod, 2 August 2008.

~G

Updates From the Road

2008-08-07T06:41:00.002-04:00

Weekend last was Mark Knopfler at NJPAC in Newark, NJ. Beautiful venue, and perhaps the best sound I've ever encountered. I did pull the gig (2nd row, 2nd balcony) with a new set of Church Audio cards / Church 9100+ preamp. Haven't had time to work on it yet, this may be stellar. Next night, out to Oyster Bay on Long Island for Rick Springfield, who is the most well preserved 59 year old man I have ever seen. This goes beyond even Dick Clark standards. Puts on a good, fun show. Plus he picked on me. I'll be forever scarred by the words "Sir ... you DON'T want to do that".

This past weekend we packed up and headed to Hampton Beach, NH and Hyannis, Cape Cod, for 2 back to back Trucks / Tedeschi Soul Stew shows. Pai summed them up well:

http://whereinthefnworldispark.blogspot.com/2008/08/stewing-in-our-juices.html

I did not pull either show but the Hampton Beach show is up on archive.org for easy downloading:

http://www.archive.org/details/dtb2008-08-01.earthworks.flac16f

I got the camera unloaded fully today (it hasn't been getting along with my PC), and the photos from the trip are up, from the 2nd show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent:

http://picasaweb.google.com/AlmightyGeetarz/2008_08_02

It's a cool (well not cool, actually a little warm inside) venue with a slowly rotating stage, so every seat is fantastic. One has to wonder ... if they built the same thing in the southern hemisphere, would it rotate in the other direction? Enquiring minds and all that.

There are also selected clips from the Hyannis show up on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sLI0aB1kpQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1PM72DH9jc

Not sure what is going on with my camera, this is the 2nd time I have shot video and it's "disappeared" in the days between when it was shot and when I got home. Last time I had been fidding with the camera, this time I didn't touch it! Going to try and format the card, but there were several videos on there that have disappeared into the aether.

Last but not least, be sure to check out more of the Soul Stew shows, they are no where near as fun as they are in person but still a blast:

http://bt.etree.org/index.php?cat=60

This weekend: 3rd row for B.B. King @ the Ferguson Center in Newport News, Tuesday is Robert Randolph and the Family Band (and a bunch of bands I know nothing about), and next weekend, 2 back to back Peter Frampton shows at Busch Gardens.

See y'all on the road!

~G

P.S. Check out the new SUPERCOOL SUNGLASSES we picked up at a flea market in Cape Cod for Cody Husky .... stylin!!!!

The Incredible Disappearing Blog

2008-08-06T08:20:00.001-04:00

During some site maintenance, the Geetarz blog was mistakenly disappeared from the server. Unfortunately, past posts have gone into the electronic ether, but now ... we begin again!

~G

Today in EC History ...

2006-12-06T10:24:00.000-05:00

On this day in EC History ...

George Harrison - along with EC and his regular touring band - continued a tour of Japan.

A listen to recordings of this performance will make one wonder what the Suits at the label were thinking when they chose the recordings to be used for the official live CD from this tour, as the tracks used for that project have always struck some of us as some of the weaker performances from those shows.

Even more importantly, "what were they smoking" is the question at hand, when one considers that EC's solo set was also cut from the finished product. There are as many (or more) legends and rumors about the reasons why as there are about the non-release of "Nothing But the Blues". EC's management said no. The label said no. Harrison's ego said no. The boys were fighting by the end of the tour. Who knows?

Perhaps the real reason was that GH and EC realized some of the irony of EC performing not only "Wonderful Tonight" but also "Old Love" - two songs written about/for Patti Boyd HARRISON - in his set. Not to mention Harrison also performing "Something" - GH claimed he didn't write it for Patti, but we all *know* that he did. Perhaps they should have been called., the "Patti" concerts.

In order to help right this wrong, here we present to you one of the finest EC performances not only of that tour, but of that entire decade, and perhaps beyond, this one from the recording "Live in Peace" on the FrontPage label:

http://www.geetarz.org/reviews/clapton/live-in-peace.htm

http://www.geetarz.org/tunez/12-06-live-in-peace-pretending.m4a

Enjoy!

Friday Free For All

2006-11-17T17:19:00.000-05:00

It's not often that you ever hear anyone complain that "there just aren't enough commercials on television!".

Well, if the commercials were more interesting and enjoyable, perhaps we'd all feel differently.

To that end, let's wrap up the week with some fun Clapto-Commercials from the Geetarz Archive ... enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_POtwPbJug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okcDhsxC_LY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEhruaf60xc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHvaCGaYJVI

And for those of you who don't like TV commercials no matter the content, here are some Cream clips to start your weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-te8uVMcHMA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzDbNJ4kjQU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOBDndINf9M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrU6W3yrMJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrib1z4tCxQ

Cheers,
AG

2006-11-16T22:12:00.000-05:00

In May 1968, the Cream went to CBS Studios to record a couple songs for the TV show, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour". They performed "Sunshine of Your Love" live in the studio, but the highlight of the evening - from an entertainment point of view - had to be an incredibly *annoyed* Eric Clapton feeling somewhat foolish as he was forced to lip-synch along with the Cream classic "Anyone For Tennis".

Did someone forget their Happy Pills ??

;)

Essential Firefox Extensions

2006-10-12T10:37:00.000-04:00

If you're NOT using Firefox as your browser - why NOT?

It's small, it's fast, it's tight performs well. Better still, it's easy to upgrade and I've found the following extensions to be essential and useful:

1) I installed the "Abe Vigoda status" Firefox plugin on my machine mainly because the Bea Arthur plugin, in the unfortunate event that such a thing was available, would in all probability cause me to develop some sort of psychosis.

Being able to see Abe's friendly visage peering at me when online, and knowing that he is alive also creates a warm fuzzy feeling of well being. Sort of like an irish coffee. Without the alcohol. Or the coffee. Or the sugar. Or the whipped cream. Sort of.

But basically it simply appeals to my sense of whimsy.

On the other hand, I feel compelled to point out that whereas I previously had no firmly held opinions about the health status - or, more to the point, alive-ness - of Abe Vigoda, I am now compelled to check his health status every few minutes.

http://www.vesterman.com/FirefoxExtensions/AbeVigodaStatus

2) I would also recommend the Bork!Bork! plugin, which works in both FireFox and Thunderbird. Trust me, there are some sites/emails which are so much more tolerable in faux Swedish. Spam is more entertaining this way ;)

3) Forecastfox:

http://forecastfox.mozdev.org/

4) Linky:

http://gemal.dk/mozilla/linky.html

This is one of those things that, once you are used to it, you can't imagine surfing without!

5) Nuke Anything Enhanced:

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=951

(useful content blocking)

6) Adblock

(is there anyone who DOESN'T have this installed?)

7) And last but certainly not least, the newest version of BugMeNot:

http://www.bugmenot.com/

The newest version of the plugin now even fills in form data automagically. As a news junkie who begins every day about 5:30am by news sites, bypassing compulsory registration certainly comes in handy as it saves me from having to remember if what age/gender/race/etc. I have given them when I'm half asleep. Someday I'd love to get a look at the internal data collected by those types of forms ... the bell curve must look a little uneven because *no one* actually gives out accurate data ... do they?

AG

MIXing it Up ...

2006-09-28T07:40:00.000-04:00

It's always interesting to compare different versions of the same performance. Quite often an audience recording and a soundboard, for example, will reveal different nuance that might otherwise have been missed.

Even more interesting are the examples where the same performance has been mixed in different ways. We all have our preferences ... some folks prefer "pure boards" where the only audience noise comes from bleed-thru into the audience mics. Others prefer what I like to call the "live concert mix" where the recording engineer mixes together the pure soundboard and audience mics to create a mix of differing proportions. And then of course there is the audience recording, which can vary wildly from a perfect rendition of what the crowd heard to something less entertaining than a Yoko Ono performance!

So ClaptoManiacs, for your auditory pleasure we present not one, not two, but THREE different versions of the same recording, all taken from EC's January 24, 1990 performance at the Royal Albert Hall:

1) The Radio Mix, this from the boot "Touring Forever", and sourced from the syndicated radio show. This one is mostly pure soundboard, with just enough audience mixed in to open things up a bit:

http://www.geetarz.org/tunez/touring-forever-pretending-radio.m4a

2) A more open mix, this from the boot release "Quartet", and taken from a working edit video recorded for the '24 Nights' project. This one is perhaps 60% board / 40% audience mix. It's not as up front and "in your face" but at the same time has the benefit of catching some of the resonance of hall and providing a nice thump - far more effective on a nice big set of speakers cranked to concert volumes!

http://www.geetarz.org/tunez/quartet-pretending.m4a

3) An even more open mix, this from the MTV-Oz broadcast entitled "Four Faces of Eric Clapton" ... to me this one sounds like 60% aud/40% board:

http://www.geetarz.org/tunez/four-faces-oz-pretending.m4a

These should all load up fine not only in most media players but in iTunes as well ... complete with artwork and ID tags - please let me know if this works well for those with iTunes - and enjoy!

Cheers,
AG

The Power of Perception

2006-09-19T08:09:00.000-04:00

Public Relations exists for one reason only: to establish a perception in the minds of consumers. And too often, this perception becomes reality for many people. It's always interesting to see how ingrained this bias can become into the fabric of our lives.

Of course all fields of human experience have their own perceptions ... business, politics, religion ... even entertainment, in this case music.

The online CD Database services are an interesting study in group dynamics. These services accept user submissions of CD track information, and publish them for others to use.

As an example, Eric Clapton has played and performed many music in many different genres ... blues, rock, pop, adult contemporary, classical, and even a few techno tracks. But the Perception in most people's minds is that:

Eric Clapton = Blues

Take a stroll through the online CD database files and you will find that almost all Clapton related material - no matter what genre it really is in - has been tagged as "Blues" by the average user.

Perception ... or Reality?

2006-09-14T00:43:00.000-04:00

"Judge Not, Lest ye Be Judged"

As someone who is very judgmental about other's taste in music (remember, kids, the 'c' in 'rap' is silent!) this study provided some food for thought.

Okay, I'll come clean... in amongst the classics, I have a few guilty pleasures.

Men at Work.

Mister Mister.

I do dig "Every Body Have Fun Tonight", even though I have no freakin' idea what a WANG CHUNG is.

And then of course ... The Bay City Rollers.

Oh ... the shame!

AG

2006-09-12T16:42:00.000-04:00

Is Eric Clapton's career truly in the toilet?

Some audience recordings are so awful that I've often wondered if they were recorded in someone's shoe, or in the case of particularly distant sounding recordings, from the parking lot.

It never occured to me that one could actually be recorded from the loo!

AG

If You Like Fat Women ...

2006-09-10T22:17:00.000-04:00

"MADRID (AFP) - Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported."

Perhaps future fashion events could be held not in Madrid, but in Pine Bluff, Arkansas?

"If You Like Fat Women"
Written and Performed by CeDell Davis

I say, if you like fat women
Come on down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
I say, if you like fat women
Come on down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
You know, [there's] more fat women down there
Than any place I ever saw

You know what, I--was messin’ [with a] woman
I had to have help
She fell across me
She liked to [have] mash[ed] me to death, now
If you like fat women
Come on down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
You know there’s more fat women down there
Than any place I ever saw

She said now, lookie here, baby, you know I love you so
I grabbed my cap, you know I headed for the front door
If you like fat women, come on down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
You know there’s more fat women down there
Than any place I ever saw

I met that woman
She weighed about 200 pounds
I said, the only way you’d get me, baby
You sho’ [sure] gotta run me down
If you like fat women, come on down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas
You know there’s more fat women down there
Than any place I ever saw

Dreary Dreaded Downloaders?

2006-09-09T17:17:00.000-04:00

In life we all seem to appreciate more what we have worked the hardest to obtain.

More importantly, people are oftentimes better judged by their actions than their words or intentions. It's one thing to say "I am really going to try hard to get up early every day and work out" ... and it's another thing to hit the jogging patch at the buttcrack of dawn in the rain.

There is a bit of a culture gap between longtime tapers and traders and the newer ... "downloaders" for lack of a better word. Are this newer breed as dedicated to quality in collecting, or is the easy availability of downloaded music creating a generation of apathetic listeners?

Interesting bit of research in this article ... hopefully over the long haul these fears will be overstated.

One flaw in this article is that the authors didn't really work to distinguish the "mp3 dweebies" from serious users of sites like Bittorrent. From my experience ... it's a different type of user altogether.

Funny, tho, Pete Townshend warning about hearing loss from mp3 players ... an iPod doesn't hold much of a chance matched up versus a few HiWatt stacks ...

AG

Hello Old Friends ... (And New)

2006-09-07T21:18:00.000-04:00

Hello Friends ... back online after a long sabbatical !

I remember where I was when I first noticed the problem. It was a beautiful spring day in 1999, and I had the top down, stereo cranked in the car, racing to a jam session with a '58 strat and old Fender Brown Deluxe strapped into the seat beside me.

I also had a big cardboard box holding a couple hundred CDs in paper sleeves ... you see, I had started to get behind in my listening. Pressure was building. "Have you listened to that yet??", friends would write and ask.

Tape trading began with ... well, tape. And only the lowest of the low, the unwashed, the uncouth, would even consider high speed dubbing or worse, using what the folks in Spinal Tap called "Dubly". Copying a tape for a friend was always a welcome reason to crank the old Dynaco stereo, let the tubes glow and do their thing, and enjoy a performance all over again.

CD burners first came out and these were like spaceships from another planet. Cool digital goodness, and yikes ... everyone gets perfect digital clones. And things in some ways, were much the same as in the tape days. Put a show on, synchronize the player and recorder, kick back and listen.

Then ... well, then came 2x recorders. I'm convinced that this is a fundamental male trait, and it doesn't matter if it's a manly man like John Wayne or a flaming queen like Elton John ... faster is *always* better. Instructions on a frozen pizza will read "Cook for 10 minutes at 400 degrees" and a guy will always have that little voice in his head saying "HEY! Cook it for ONE minute at four THOUSAND degrees!". Not to mention the amazing goodness of the jet powered beer cooler.

The next thing you know, listening was always outpaced by copying by that ratio of 2:1. And it got worse. Then it was 4x. Then 8x. SIXTEEN speed drives. Pretty soon there were those wild urban legends about just how fast a burner could spin before the laws of physics took over, turning one's friendly PC into a macabre desktop IED.

Pretty soon, we were all swimming in discs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing of course. (Ted) Sturgeon's Law is as true as ever, and holds basically that "90% of everything is crud". Well, in the case of live concert recordings, let's modify that to be more like 99% at times. But that 1% ... that magic 1% ... it's one of those things, either you get it or you don't. I feel a twinge of pity for those who don't.

Pretty soon all sorts of ugly problems began to pop up as well ... not merely because of cheap hardware, poorly written software, and junk media, but worst of all ... because we were all inundated with discs. Using the finest, most error-proof technology that guarantees perfection, every time, is of no use if you haven't checked the source material, and Human Ear v. 1.0 still works exclusively at 1x and no further modification is even considered.

Meanwhile, the stacks keep getting larger and larger. "Catching Up" slips from a goal, to a hope, to a dream, to a crumbling despair.

I'll never forget the first CD-R copy I ever received. I was considering taking the plunge into the digital age, but was leery ... would copies *really* sound as good as the original? So a trading buddy overseas surprised me and one day in the post - there it was. I popped it in a CD player, put on headphones, and was SOLD. I literally picked up the phone and ordered by first burner before the first song finished playing. (Trivia note: That first CD was the Imperial release MSG).

I bring this up because a couple years later it was the same buddy who posed a very interesting question: "When was the last time you went back and relistened to any of this stuff? Have you thought about how long it would take you if you started with the first disc, and listened all the way through to the end?"

It's a good question, and bears asking. When was the last time you got off the treadmill of "new", escaped the tyranny of the onslaught of releases, and revisited some old favorites? Is the purpose of collecting to simply find more, more, more, becoming a self fulfilling vicious cycle, or is it about enjoying the work for what it is? I know that for some "collectors" (I use that term derisively) it is about the size of the collection, but I know that for most of my friends it isn't ... yet at the same time it can be almost impossible to jump off the moving train once it's gathered a bunch of inertia.

In short ... for me, I finally realized one day that trading had stopped being FUN. Even more amazing was the realization that, in fact, it hadn't been fun for quite some time - it was that I was just so busy trying to "catch up" that I hadn't noticed how much I disliked it. And the least part of the dislike was that it seemed that 99% of my interaction with friends was saying "no" constantly. Each person can't understand why you can't help out, just a little trade, but then again we all view life through our own narrow perspectives ... and when it's fifty, or five hundred people who are just asking for a favor - it's impossible.

And then there's what some have begun to refer to as the tyranny of email. Try to contact a head of state or the president of a Fortune 500 company and you won't expect results ... but those folks have huge staffs to help out. For the rest of us ... it's ten fingers, trying to stem the tide, feeling like the Little Dutch Boy. It's easy to dismiss what you don't want to respond to ... and much harder when time constraints won't allow you to respond to the people that you really want to talk with.

This came to me as I contemplated a massive equipment failure that cost me hundreds (nay, thousands) of hours of lost work. And from a perspective of being perpetually six weeks or six months or six years behind ... what do you do then?

The answer was easy: Cold Turkey.

It's an imperfect analogy, but Cold Turkey works well for those with chemical addictions and/or habits. It also means that when you quit cold turkey, you don't go hang out in bars where people drink and party. Nightclubs and dance halls are out.
I decided to take a break from my CD addiction ... Cold Turkey!

More importantly, when it came to music, I went back and started over. Started over with CDs I hadn't listened to ... really listened to in 20 years. It was liberating. And strangest of all, I began to catch up on my listening. That box in my car in 1999 had over the years become a couple of packed shelving units, wood shelves bowing in the middle from weight. Slowly - I waded through the good and the bad (remember: Sturgeon's Law).

So where are we now? Well, music is fun again. The shelves still have some unauditioned goodies, and there's an evil cardboard box in the closet with dozens of packages that are still unopened, some dating back almost 4 years! So I'll keep listening, and cautiously - with all the care of a recovering Audio Addict - stick my toe back into the waters.

So where does this leave you, dear reader? Are you stuck on that treadmill? When was the last time you went and pulled some old favorites off the shelf for a listen? Do you find yourself hating having to say "no" far more than you say "yes"? And what do we do about that, what is the answer?

I don't know the answer ... but I'll keep searching!

AG