Music

This song is ridiculous. Making it even more WTF worthy is the fact that ex-VJ, Simon Rex is in the video too.

The insane drum fills towards the end are, well, insane. That Mike Portnoy really is one hell of a drummer.

Here’s what I love about this song.

• 2:45 eerie stuff
• 3:23-3:31 cool bass thing
• 3:31 rockin’ stuff w/ strange time
• 4:12 strange keyboard solo
• 4:29 cool keyboard tone kicks in. sounds like a piano but not quite
• 5:26 chills out a bit. kinda calm almost
• 6:01 rocks again
• 6:08 klutch pinch harmonic
• 6:16 drum beat changes & Mike stands which is pretty sweet
• 6:34 first of my fav drum fills
• 6:41 french horns
• 6:42 snare madness on drum
• 7:53 eerie keyboard stuff is back
• 8:42-8:58 absolutely amazing drumming
• 9:15-end take us home boys

Now image you’re in the NY orchestra and they tell you you’re gonna be backing a metal/prog. rock band. You’ll probably think there’s gonna be some wanking and non-musicianship going on. It’s totally beneath an orchestra guy to play metal. But then, they hear songs like this… or the 24 minute long Octavarium.

Dream Theater’s no joke dude. These guys are musicians. I really wish I was there and could see the orchestra guys’ faces when they first heard the music that they’re gonna have to back. I bet they were pleasantly surprised/interested.

Check it out.

On page D3 there’s a big ass picture of me Here’s the interweb version:

Unfortunately the article isn’t about how awesome I am… it’s about music startups and how the up-and-coming bands use the interwebs to get themselves out there. Actually, The Hot Toddies got front page real estate… in those little squares up at the top of the front page. Tres Cool huh?

My friends from Maldroid, The Hot Toddies and Nothington were also in the article and/or had pics up on SFGate.com.

Not a bad start to the week huh? I also picked up my P Bass from getting a setup this morning… that’s kinda like icing on the cake.

Shaking like a dog shittin’ razorblades,
waking up next to nothing after dreaming of you and me
I’m waking up all alone, waking up so relieved
while you’re taking your time with apologies,
I’m making my plans for revenge
Red eyes on orange horizons
If Columbus was wrong I’d drive straight off the edge
I’d drive straight off the edge

Taking your own life with boredom,
I’m taking my own life with wine -
it helps you to rule out the sorrow,
it helps me to empty my mind
Making the most of a bad time
I’m smoking the brains from my head
Leaving the coal calling the kettle black and orange and red
This kettle is seeing red

I’ve got a big fat fuckin’ bone to pick with you my darling
In case you haven’t heard I’m sick and tired of trying
I wish you would take my radio to bathe with you,
plugged in and ready to fall

Shaking like a dog shittin’ razorblades,
waking up next to nothing after dreaming of you and me
Waking up all alone, waking up so relieved
while you’re taking your time with apologies,
I’m planning out my revenge
Red eyes on orange horizons
If Columbus was wrong I’d drive straight off the edge
I’m seeing red

I’ve got a big fat fuckin’ bone to pick with you my darling
In case you haven’t heard I’m sick and tired of trying
I wish you would take my radio to bathe with you,
plugged in and ready to fall

Plugged in and ready to fall
Plugged in and ready to fall

Plugged in and ready to fall

Sunday

1. Finish side project’s UI and backend code
2. QA a bit and get stoked
3. Go see A Wilhelm Scream at Thee Parkside
4. Talk to Brian Robinson after the show to confirm an interview w/ the band
5. Get home

Monday

1. Can’t sleep
2. Buy new bass
3. finally pass out
4. wake up dying
5. go to Best Buy
6. bought a video camera
7. read blogs at work
8. Off to oakland to meet up with the Wilhelm guys
9. Got pulled over
10. get to the sushi sport for the interview
11. its closed
12. walk forever thru oakland and found a pizza place
13. did interview
14. off to work to kill time
15. Off to Cafe du Nord to see American Steel and Alkalien Trio
16. got to meet the Alkalien guys… they’re super nice
17. watched the end of American Steel’s set
18. watched Alkaline Kick some ass
19. went home
20. passed out

The last couple weeks I’ve been on a total Megadeth kick, I’ve have Rust in Peace playing pretty much non-stop in both my car, house and iPod at work. Good stuff

Late last week I read a few reviews on their latest (?) release United Abominations and the consensus is that it’s rad so I bought it. It finally arrived today and I gotta say it is one badass metal record. Anyone jonzin’ for a good metal album should give it a shot.

I kinda stopped buying their albums after Countdown; Youthenasia etc we’re all wussy and lame. It’s nice to hear them sack up again.

Here’s a wee ‘lil Youtube preview for ya:

American Steel & Alkaline Trio will be playing a “Fuzz Presents” show at Cafe Du Nord on April 7th. You can’t buy tickets. The only place to get secure yourself a spot for this show is over on Fuzz.com.

Any of you catch the Metallica Icon thing on MTV a few years ago? I remember watching and being pretty bored. The performances from Avril, Korn and Limp Bizkit all sucked… but Sum 41 really kicked some ass with their tribute/mashup. Here’s the clip if you haven’t seen in yet:

Well, no, I’m lying. It’s not really a Les Paul Junior. Here’s the story:

I went by the San Francisco Guitar Center on President’s Day to check out the sale with a buddy from work. He was amp shopping and I figured I’d tag along to see if I could find one of those amazing deals I keep reading about. Nope - I didn’t see any of the $400 USA Jazz Basses that I read about, nor did I run accross any screaming, $600 deals on Music Man Bongo’s. What I did spot was this little, piece of shit, Epiphone, Les Paul Junior for $80. I played the little guy for a few minutes and figured $80 was a no-brainer.

I don’t know if I even bothered plugging the guitar in. Obviously, I was going to mod the thing so no use wasting time hunting down a sales guy to grab me a cable. What I did do was swing by the accessories department and pick up a Duncan JB humbucker. My goal: get this guy playing decent and have it put some good punk rock tones like what Green Day’s Billie Joe got on Basket Case.

Back in the Dookie days Billie played a Fernandez, Strat clone that he called Blue. Blue was modded with a Duncan JB in the bridge so that’s how I decided to let go of my DiMarizo kick and go with the JB.

Alright - so, I got the JB but there were a few more things to take care of:

1. An Epiphone isn’t cool.
2. The tuners are crap.
3. I assumed the bridge was crap.
4. The black pickguard was boring.
5. The creme pickup rings looked stupid.
6. I didn’t like the black knobs.
7. The guitar was just too clean. It had no soul - well, it didn’t look like it did. I had to give him a soul.

So, what do we do? The knobs, pickup ring and pickguard were no brainers. They had to go and replacements are easy to come by. A couple mouse clicks later those details were all taken care of.

Now, the bridge. I order a Wilkinson Adjustable bridge from Stew Mac. The description said that this bridge is like the ones used on PRS McCartys. I had one of those once and I figured it would be a nice addition to the guitar. Actually - turns out it sucked. LOL. The stock, shitty, bridge that came with it sounded better to me. The Wilkinson had this magical ability to suck the life out of the guitar. The tone got warmer and lost the top end zing. Some people are into that but that’s not the goal for this project so the stock bridge went back on.

The rest of the cosmetic changes required a few basic tools: A screwdriver, a drill, a lighter, a Dremel, sandpaper and a hammer. Yup, I was going to beat this shit out of this guitar and make it look like it was an old road dog. I couldn’t imagine having a clean and shiny Epiphone. There’s just no character to that look. I mean - it would look like an $80 guitar with new pickups. Fuck that! So, I beat the bastard senseless to give it a relic look.

The last piece of the puzzle was the tuners. I’m a fan of the Schaller Mini Locking Tuners but there’s a couple problems with those:

1. I’d have to order them and wait a whole week.
2. I was worried they wouldn’t fit the holes in the Epiphone’s peghead.
3. They wouldn’t fit the relic look I was going for.

So, out went the Schallers and in came some Gibson Historic Tuners. These tuners look just right. Quick tangent: These “to historic spec” Gibson parts are made in Japan… Ya, I’m sure that’s where they made ‘em in 1952. Fucking, stupid Gibson. Anyways - I got the tuners today and they didn’t fit either. Out came the Dremel and a hammer and 15 minutes later, voila, they fit just fine

So, what’s the little fucker look like now?

Not too shabby huh? Personally, I’m into it.

set:72157604017995522

Some of you may recognize the look. It pretty much looks like the Billie Joe Armstrong Signature Les Paul Junior.

Was this on purpose? Not really, but, sure, kindof. I’m a pretty big Green Day fan and I have wanted Billie’s signature guitar. I’ve always wanted an LP Junior and figured BJ’s signature would be a good one to get. So, ya, I’ve admired his signature but I didn’t set out to copy it’s look. If I ever do get his signature I’d actually opt for the white one. Right off the bat I knew I wanted a tort pickguard for this project and pretty quickly after that it clicked that I was cloning the sig. model. I figured “fuck it” and went for it and I’m pretty stoked.

The main lesson I learned here was pretty big: The bridge has a huge impact on a guitar’s tone. I was shocked at how different the guitar sounded with the 2 different bridges.

Anyways, there’s the long and short of this little project. All in all it wasn’t much work at all and I’m very happy with how it turned out. I got the guitar playing great and it definitely cops that tone I was going for.

I chalk this one up as a win