July 20th, 2009
Radio Paradise (internet radio station I really like) allows people to upload songs for consideration. If they get approved, they get added to the rotation. There are three steps in this process:
1 – The DJs give each submission a quick listen and decide if it’s even a possible match for their station. Most (they get hundreds a month) get a “sorry” at this step – meaning they declined the song.
2 – If the DJ approves the song, it gets added to list and played on a “listener review channel (LRC)” radio stream. Users rate the songs on this channel as either good or bad.
3 – Over a bit of time, if there are enough “good” ratings, the song gets added to rotation on the main Radio Paradise stream. Radio Paradise has a massive audience around the world.
The other day, after receiving a few compliments regarding some of my recordings, I said screw it and uploaded “Hopelessly Lost” for consideration.
Well…
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Tags: Hopelessly Lost, Radio Paradise, songwriter
Posted in Musician Stuff | 2 Comments »
April 17th, 2009
I’m a big Joe Satriani fan. In fact, most of the guitar players I know share some sort of appreciation for what he has done. Personally, “Satch” was one of the biggest influence on my playing while growing up. I spent countless hours, sitting in my bedroom, playing an old B.C. Rich over “Surfing With the Alien” and trying to make it sound like the recording. Needless to say, I’ve been playing for twenty years and still can’t do most of what he can. Joe is the man!
Anyways, being the fan that I am, I decided to pick up one of his signature-series Ibanez electric guitars a few years back. I love his tone and thought that playing that guitar would be one step closer to achieving that sound. I was not let down. The second I plugged it in, I could tell that this guitar was definitely something special.
I’ve owned many guitars. From a 70’s Gibson Flying V, to a 50’s Sears Silvertone, I’ve spent a decent amount of time paying a wide variety of instruments. The Ibanez JS100 has one of the warmest tones, and silky smooth fretboards of any guitar I have ever played. I mean it, this thing is awesome.
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Tags: Ibanez, Joe Satriani, JS100, Musician Gear
Posted in Musician Stuff, Rants & Reviews | No Comments »
April 12th, 2009
I have been a big fan of the band Ra since I first heard of them in the fall of 2000. Their first major release “From One” was a constant in my car stereo for at least a year. The guitar work is tight and heavy, and the riffs have those “hooks” that seem to get stuck in your head for a week. Some highlights off From One are “Do you call my name”, “Rectifier”, “Parole” and “Sky”. I highly recommend this record.
After From One came “Duality”. While not as fundamentally heavy as From One, Duality offered a more refined, produced sound that seemed to blend more into mainstream rock. Personally, I think Duality is outstanding and every song on that record is a hit. The guitars are not as “hooky” as From One, but the vocals make up for it. I find my self singing songs off Dually all the time. Tracks like “Take me away”, “I lost everything”, “Got me going”, “Undertaken” and “Tell me” have lyrics that I can relate to. It confuses me as to why this record was not an enormous hit, it’s clearly better than 80% of the crap out there. Needless to say, once again I highly recommend this record.
Now.. enter the latest “Black Sun”
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Tags: Band Review, Black Sun, Ra
Posted in Musician Stuff, Rants & Reviews | 5 Comments »
April 2nd, 2009
Any band can spend a week in the studio, recording take after take until they capture that perfect track. With today’s software, you can just about make anyone sound like a rock star – but give them a stage, a huge audience and a set of complex songs and you see just what sort of musicians they are – or more importantly, are not!
Anyone will tell you that some bands just need to be seen live to really get an honest impression of how good they really are. Personally I’ve seen a lot of bands live, and a few come to mind as being incredible on stage. Bands/performers like Billy Joel, Ra and Dave Matthews just need to be experienced in concert.
Of all the live concerts I’ve seen, Phish is clearly the best live band. It’s funny actually. You mention the name Phish to anyone that is not a fan and all they conjure up are images of Dead-heads and Phish-heads smoking grass and dancing around in a field. Granted that is clearly the case at most concerts, but you can’t judge the band by their fans. Phish is one of the most talented bands I have even known.
I’m a musician, and I became a Phish fan after another guitar player I know dragged me to a concert at “Great Woods” (now the Tweeter Center) in Mansfield Massachusetts. It was a free ticket, so I went because I had nothing else to do that night. I literally sat there, glossy eyed as Trey Anastasio tore the roof off that place for like three hours. I was in instant fan, for all the right reasons. Trey, Mike, Page and John are all masters of their own instruments.
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Tags: Band Review, Musician Gear, PHISH
Posted in Musician Stuff, Rants & Reviews | No Comments »
March 26th, 2009
I’ve been pondering buying a new guitar amp for a while now. I currently use this old Crate Guitar Combo Amplifier that I bought off a friend like six years ago. It’s good and all, but the clean channels crackle and the effects are only fair. I want to begin recording some tracks in my basement and the sound from the Crate just isn’t what I am looking for. I’ve had it for years, driven it hard, and it owes me nothing. I guess it’s time to move on.
Over the years I’ve developed what I consider to be a unique progressive funk-rock style of playing. When it comes to electric guitar, I primarily play my Gibson Les Paul Studio. For my sound, I like strong mid-range, a decent amount of gain, and rarely use any effects aside from reverb. I’m not sure why, but I’ve had this mental block about muddying up the guitar tone with needless effects. It’s strange, I’m a huge Joe Satriani fan and he uses a bunch of effects. I guess I’ve always thought that he just uses them with a certain level of “taste” that other guitar players, myself included, just can’t seem to be able to duplicate. For me, too much effect can ruin the sound. For example, in my opinion Steve Vai just seemed to pile up the effects layers as high as he could, like someone buying a big truck or fast car to make up for something. Needless to say, I was never a big Steve Vai fan. (Go ahead, start the hate mail… 
)
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Tags: Gibson Les Paul, guitar amp, Guitar Center, Joe Satriani, Line6 Spider Amp, Musician Gear, Schecter
Posted in Musician Stuff | No Comments »
March 26th, 2009
I’m a guitar player and have a basement full of antiquated gear. Most of the crap I play though has had beer spilled on it, been dropped, kicked, and generally abused. My guitars are beautiful, but the rest of my gear needs badly to be updated. This was brought home to me the other day when I went downstairs to play for a bit.
I don’t seem to get much time to play these days, and when I do it seems I spend most of the time trying to get a decent sound. Usually I put both guitar and vocals through a mixer (Alesis MultiMix 8 USB Analog Mixer) plugged into a guitar amp (Crate Guitar Combo Amplifier), which is in turn plugged into a four-twelve speaker cabinet. It was great for jamming with people, but not the best sound quality.
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Tags: JVC, Musician Gear, Noise Canceling Headphones
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I’ve been pondering buying a new guitar amp for a while now. I currently use this old Crate Guitar Combo Amplifier that I bought off a friend like six years ago. It’s good and all, but the clean channels crackle and the effects are only fair. I want to begin recording some tracks in my basement and the sound from the Crate just isn’t what I am looking for. I’ve had it for years, driven it hard, and it owes me nothing. I guess it’s time to move on.
I’m a guitar player and have a basement full of antiquated gear. Most of the crap I play though has had beer spilled on it, been dropped, kicked, and generally abused. My guitars are beautiful, but the rest of my gear needs badly to be updated. This was brought home to me the other day when I went downstairs to play for a bit.