Calling All Electric Guitar Owners...

So I decided a while back (maybe a month or so ago) that I'd like to once again own an electric guitar and amp. I just bought the amp on ebay but I haven't ordered the guitar yet. Since it's an ebay purchase, I'd like to make sure it works correctly as soon as possible but because I don't have a guitar to test it with, that's going to be a little hard.

Soo... if anybody has/knows somebody that has an electric guitar I could barrow for a day or two next week (when I expect my amp to arrive) - that would be awesome! Please let me know. Thanks.

Blue, Red & Grey

Inspired by the VH1 Rock Honors The Who tribute concert the other night I've been listening to the Who nearly nonstop for the past few days. So this past Saturday I recorded my attempt at a cover of "Blue, Red & Grey" off of "The Who By Numbers". It's a great song and only one of like 3 songs I know on the uke.

It's a little above my vocal range but I think it's good enough. Also, I actually recorded the uke and vocals on separate tracks this time. Maybe I'll play with it later and add some crazy effects to one or both of the tracks just for the hell of it.

The Who kick ass!



[Update: Apparently the blogamp thing doesn't show up in google reader - so most of my recording posts don't make much sense unless you actually visit the blog]

Rambo: First Blood

Watched Rambo tonight - I think for the first time but I can't be sure. When I was a kid I watched a lot of random action movies with my dad on HBO - so I'm never quite sure - but it was essentially the first time - because nothing seemed familiar...

At any rate - it was a surprisingly good movie. Rambo has become such an easily parodied idea that all I can think of when I hear/see the word "Rambo" is Charlie Sheen in Hot Shots Part Deux - so as you can imagine, I was expecting to enjoy it from a exploitation bad-is-good kind of perspective. But, it was a good film - surprisingly good musical score - lots of suspense to hold your attention well - and a decent story with somewhat of a "war is hell" anti-war/ptsd political message.

By the way - speaking of story - did you know Rambo: First Blood takes place after Vietnam entirely in the US? I didn't - for some reason I assumed all Rambo films generally consisted of Rambo killing "charlie" in the jungles of Southeast Asia. Not sure where I got that impression... maybe that's how all the sequels are?

Anyway, the acting is a little rough in places - Stallone is almost completely unintelligible at times (the end mainly) but thankfully he almost never speaks. The Colonel guy is a pretty bad actor - but his lines are mostly just there to tell us about how much of a badass Rambo is - and those lines are really only good if delivered badly.

So yeah - good stuff - very entertaining. I'll have to add a few of the sequels to my queue to see when it starts to go downhill toward inevitable self-parody.

The Favre-Rodgers Situation

Wow, I can't believe this news. It's crazy. What are the Packers thinking?

I understand that they want to see if Rodgers is any good before his contract expires in a few years but that doesn't mean you screw over the greatest football player in team history... maybe league history... to do it.

And it's not like Favre had bad year - on the contrary - he had one of his best seasons. We were a few plays away from the Super Bowl. I understand they are thinking about what's better for the long term but with Favre this team could compete this year!

You don't throw away a shot at a Super Bowl run for the promise of maybe making a Super Bowl run in 2 or 3 years. The Packers are one of the youngest teams in the league so we should be good for a while but a lot can happen in that time... the window to win a championship can be very small.

And it seems this whole situation only puts more pressure on Rodgers - can you imagine what's going to happen to him if he has a bad year and Favre is out there playing for somebody else and having an even half-way decent season. Favre's shoes were hard enough to fill - now this - wow.

If Favre wants to come back, bring him back regardless of what it does to Rodgers. We don't even know what we have in Rodgers yet. NFL QB is one of the hardest positions to play in all of sports - and the chances that he's going to be good are not that great. And if we lose Rodgers it's not like we don't have other options for the future - We just drafted two QB's in the highly regarded Brian Brohm (rated by many as one of best QB's in this year's draft) and Matt Flynn (QB of the national champion LSU Tigers).

This is ridiculous! Ted Thompson has been doing a good job rebuilding the Packers the last few years but this kind of thing is going to get him run out of town. And right now - despite the job he's done - I can't say I'd be against that.

Broken Yolk In Western Sky

Another attempt at recording. I really should get a better setup - right now I'm just using the mic built into my old iSight - it's supposed to be better than my Powerbook's built-in mic (which I've also used in the past) but neither are really that good. I find that on most recordings I really don't like the way my voice sounds - it's far more nasal sounding than I want it - makes me paranoid that I sound like that in real life but Hannah assures me I don't.

Also, my version of recording generally consists of hitting the record button and bashing away. I know I can get better sound if I record the guitar and vocals on separate tracks but that adds a lot of work. Garageband has some pretty cool effects you can put on the recordings - but you can't take advantage of it without using tracks. I'm just lazy I guess.

So here's "Broken Yolk In Western Sky" - a cover of Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie). Not sure if it's his song or not - don't think it's on any Death Cab albums and I don't know if he has solo stuff released or not. I heard it on Burn To Shine 5 in Seattle. Great DVD - a lot of really great music - highly recommended.

Wish I could get the guitar a little louder. I moved the mic farther away from me to try to get my voice to sound better - which it did a little - but now the guitar is really quiet and kinda muddy.

Tom Waits!

We saw Tom Waits in Jacksonville yesterday and he was great! His voice is so powerful and his band sounds really tight - don't think there was a single note out of place all night. One guy in his band is like a one man orchestra... we saw him play at various times a guitar, harmonica, three types of sax and possibly a clarinet/oboe. At one point I'm fairly certain he was playing two sax's at once. I didn't even know that was possible. At any rate... below is the set list followed by some videos for those of you not familiar with Tom Waits.

1. Lucinda/Ain't Goin Down to the Well
2. Way Down In The Hole
3. Falling Down
4. All The World Is Green
5. Chocolate Jesus
6. Cemetery Polka
7. Get Behind The Mule
8. 16 Shells From A Thirty-Ought Six
9. Hang Down Your Head
10. Trampled Rose
11. Dirt In The Ground
12. Black Market Baby
13. Rain Dogs/Russian Dance
14. On The Nickel
15. I Can't Wait To Get Off Work
16. Invitation To The Blues
17. Lost In The Harbour
18. Circus
19. Hoist That Rag
20. Lie To Me
21. Anywhere I Lay My Head
22. Singapore
23. Cold, Cold Ground
24. Make It Rain
25. House Where Nobody Lives
    

For the videos, first up is Tom Traubert's Blues off of "Small Change." This one is pretty old but it's great. Gives you a feel for his softer piano-based side. Songs 14-17 of our show are of a similar style.



Next is a version of Chocolate Jesus off of "Mule Variations." This video is from the David Letterman show. Lyrics are hilarious.



Next we've got Make It Rain off of "Real Gone" from another Letterman show. This is one of my favorite Tom Waits songs and it was probably my favorite from the show.



And finally a video from this tour of Lucinda/Ain't Going Down The Well (both off of Orphans - which I'm a huge fan of). This is exactly what we saw last night. Amazing...