Pondering the vinyl revival with my 30 dollar turntable

Do records sound better? Maybe, in some ways
Do they feel better? Often
Are they a fad? Probably
Do you care? You might, read on...

So I finally got around to buying a record player - I held out and watched all the nascent hipsters latch on to it. I knew things had become ridiculous when I heard Urban Outfitters was the nation's leading record store. --Thing is, I did have a bunch of records in plastic totes out in the garage and often, stumbling over them thought: "okay I didn't buy this one on CD or MP3 because I really loved the record so much."

Which brings us to what I am calling the "Nostalgia Lens" that lovely sepia-toned space in our memory that, as a blessing of human nature, allows us to focus on the pleasant sense-memories and suppress past pains and torments. For whatever reason, when it comes to music (and possibly life) I have tried to avoid looking backward through that lens and distorting my vision.

I always thought it was kind of sad when I would go to parties in my 40's and listen to people invariably bemoan the "sad state of music today" bitching "now -Led Zeppelin, that was music." Everyone seemed like museum pieces stuck in the past. I wanted to shake them and say: There is still great music being made - you're just stuck in your glory days because you peaked in high school". Instead, I would shrug and go get another beer...

Point being, the past has always had a place in the deep recesses of my mind/garage but I was cautious of dwelling in the past because it would prevent me from embracing the new and the present. Makes sense, right? Well it did for me for a long, long time. I was the opposite of a retro-grouch. A prog-snob maybe? Okay, I confess, I did rock out in the Garage to those Zep reissue CDs occasionally.

Which brings us back to that box of records - In some sad and trying times lately I have found myself searching for a warm fuzzy security blanket to soothe my troubled heart. Which brought me to Amazon and this:

 Price = 29 US Dollars,  Cute Factor = Priceless
I know, silly right? Here's the thing, I still hadn't decided if a turntable was investment-worthy. I had conducted previous experiments while borrowing my incredibly hip Daughter's USB turntable

to spin some Radiohead a couple years ago, I came away with the following sonic conclusions:
on the plus side +
1.The bass was more fully realized, I could actually understand bass lines that were just low-end boom before.
2. The vocals were warmer, more human sounding somehow.
3. The highs were less sibilant and piercing.
4. I think the sound staging may be better, while I can tell the music is coming from my speakers, when I am out of the room it sounds like someone is standing in there performing. (still deciding on this one, more research is needed using jazz records.)

on the minus side -
1. Much less dynamic power in the drums.
2. Brilliance and shimmer get somehow "shaved off" the frequency spectrum. (this is good/bad trade-off, smoother and less fatiguing long term listening - but less of the sensory hair-raising spine tingles we get from digital)
3. God-awful cardboard-y sounding mid-range distortion.
4. Artifacts of the medium such as scratchy noise, wow and flutter, microphonic interference (where you're actually hearing the sound of the turntable, arm and base vibrating)

I know, you audiophile elitists will tell me "that's the difference between a 100 dollar turntable and a 1500 dollar turntable mew, mew, mew"  I used to sell this shit at the Mall, I get it  - still, come on, a record is just a record.
It's like trying to convince yourself you will be faster on a more expensive mountain bike (been there, done that.) The drive train of a bicycle is the same as it was in the fricken 1800's!
Mechanically? Logistically?
Records make no sense at all, let's don't even list the reasons. We may as well compare the practicality of bicycles to cars while we're at it.

My swanky adult living room had no place for a "proper" turntable. I no longer live in a cluttered apartment where I can just throw it on top of a stack of books and sit cross-legged sipping cheap beer. (ahhh memories - hahaha)
So the Amazon unit's diminished form factor worked on my already crowded infotainment center which was burgeoning with game consoles, tv, blu-ray, cable box, speakers and lifestyle-critical antique clutter.

I read the reviews on the aforepasted cute little turntable-clampy gadget and they were surprisingly positive.(sylvania!? for crissake, don't they make lightbulbs? sheesh) I pulled the trigger knowing fully well my wife would be that much closer to leaving me if another Amazon toy showed up on the doorstop to the fanfare of three hysterically barking dogs unable to contain their centuries-ingrained hatred of dudes in delivery uniforms.

Turns out, this little plastic jobby is DAMN GOOD

What I am coming to find is that, paying less for the hardware has lowered my expectations sufficiently to be consistently surprised and delighted by my little "champ" It's like that feeling when you realize that yes, Silver Oak tastes supreme but over time, you get more satisfaction in finding your own top-secret grocery store 20 dollar wine that is surprisingly versatile and tasty. One revels in the self-consoling voice saying: "Any douche bag can spend a bunch of money and get something great, but it takes skill, research and smarts to discover gold in the tinfoil" (Possibly a heaping plate of self-deluding grandeur as well, but we'll save that for our therapists.)

One of the things we common 70's kids missed out on the first time around with our crappy 45's was the other parts of the signal-chain being much better.


Those surround-sound receivers and subwoofers we bought while building out our home theaters in a valiant effort to escape loud-talkers, sticky floors and bad smells? --Turns out they make for some pretty bad-ass musical jams coming from the 'ol vinyl.
I'm talking dance-around-your-living-room-in-your-underwear-singing-along-to-earth-wind-and-fire- full-blast-lyric-sleeve-in-hand-while-the-dogs-stare-at-you-JAMS        #embarassingTMI

That last paragraph if you dare call it one, leads us to also consider these further ponderisms:
Is it possible only our old records sound better?
If enjoying music is a personal, magical experience should we throw all that scientific audiophile BS out the window, singing and dancing?
Does the former sentiment amount to records actually sounding better in the final observation?
Maybe the new records that hearken back to the soulfulness and spirit of the 70's might also be more enjoyable on vinyl? (I can attest to Amy Winehouse, Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes working very well in that idiom)
When we force the new music through the nostalgia lens might it enhance a musician's ability to connect with us?

I hope that's why more stuff is coming out on vinyl - I fear on the crass-side of my coin that it's because those hipster kids at Urban-Outfitters are snapping them up like hotcakes.
I probably shouldn't begrudge UO's motivations because record sales are a more concrete source of income for musicians vs stolen MP3's -
or maybe you kids are still giving away USB ripped copies to friends like we used to with cassettes.
or maybe you record companies are still stealing profits from starving musians?

* digress kevin, digress, HURRY

So, ladies and gentlemen, if you love music but you're on the fence about going full-record-player and lugging those records out of the attic - This broke music nerd glowingly recommends dropping the 30 bucks and giving it a try. Your going to have a lot of fun listening through the "nostalgia lens" filter, you might accept the scratchy-warpy limitations of the medium, forgiven as nostalgic signposts akin to the holes in your favorite jeans or grass-stains on your baseball cap.

You may find yourself having a good time rummaging through record bins again, You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile, or in your swanky living room grabbing another beverage between sides and, if you're lucky, maybe even sitting cross-legged on your floor basking in the warm glow of your rediscovered heart and soul through music.

*sip*  *sob*   *skip, skip, skip, skip, skip...*





Please give me your thoughts if you are so compelled, I'm very curious how you peeps are experiencing this revival, and we may find human comfort in our shared nostalgia.
Long live the Fossils!

The Era of the Choirboy Part 2

Part 2

I really enjoyed the first part of choir season, plenty of challenge as our first piece was entirely foreign to me both musically and lyrically.

Der liebeslieder waltzes - Johannes Brahms

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liebeslieder_Walzer_(Brahms_Opus_52)&oldid=580446369

It forced me to restore my sight reading in a big hurry, and learn German phonetically.

I bookmarked a YouTube quartet version 

http://youtu.be/nnk78xvil14

as it was easier to pick out the tenor parts vs the choral version I got on iTunes, which seemed to be soprano-dominated.

As I drove around listening to it and absorbed it in repeated iPod-headphone sessions the gorgeous melodic structure unfolded in my mind in a very satisfying way.

A layman's observation: classical music is less rooted in repetition, melodic simplicity or metric reliability than pop and rock. This made it much less easy to "latch onto." The rote memorization techniques I relied upon my whole life that allowed me to hear a song once or twice and know it by heart were useless. 

It is a suite of love songs with some (reputedly) slightly scandalous inspirations behind it.

Each movement is based on a poem, with the melodies strongly portraying the lyrical narrative. Brahms was impressionistically painting with sound while also flaunting and toying with some very masterful composition techniques he'd absorbed from his influencers.

As I said, very satisfying both for the mind and the heart.

Getting know this piece took a considerable investment of listening, learning and attention.

Then there was the matter of attempting to reproduce it in a way that did it justice...

I recorded myself singing through it quietly at the dinner table - HORRIBLE

Listening back to that completely crushed my confidence in my singing ability and I almost gave up the whole endeavor.

More practice, strict, formal rehearsal sessions applying the techniques I had been taught in vocal exercises and it started to get better. One thing I noticed was that running through the piece with the iTunes choral version required a full-blast commitment because singing the high head voice passages in light falsetto sounded like Mickey Mouse and made for bad pitch all around. It takes a constant application of breath to stay on key, even more so in the quiet passages. Exhausting.

Fast forward to debut night at a lovely church in Oakland, I felt ready, I was invisible in the back so no one would notice if I flubbed a word or two. You've got to really have stuff memorized because even though you are holding your music book, you really need to watch the conductor and project toward the audience, surprising how much you forget once nerves intercept.

I sang pretty good but my voice surprised me and cracked in some spots, it never, ever did that in practice. My guess is your trying harder, pushing a little more and probably drying out the 'old vocal cords as a result.

The bummer part? The Oakland chorus performs it once and then never goes back to it again until maybe in another season. I'm used to continually cultivating and improving a repertoire, not here!

So, that really chapped my hide.

To be continued, maybe.

Part 1

Some folks have asked me - Why would I join a choir?

I've long been fascinated by classical singing technique, opera and musical theater.
In Seattle I studied under the Maestro Dave Kyle for a year and it improved my singing by leaps and bounds.

I decided to put some renewed focus on strengthening my "academic" singing.
So I took back up with an excellent voice instructor in my area - Victoria Rapanan
A few months ago.

Initially with a goal to sing the role of Jean Valjean from Les Miserables
What can I say? I saw the movie and got fired up - it was the first musical I saw on Broadway and made a big impression on me.
(another secret - not anymore -goal of mine, to get into a local production of that musical)
Jean Valjean is pretty high on the tenor scale - but I can do a pretty good Javert, so I worked on the song "stars"

Fast forward a couple months, I was looking for choirs to get into because it's great practice. I was working on my lesson stuff, but you kinda need a weekly workout to build stamina.
San Francisco had pretty stringent sight-reading requirements and I'm a LOUSY music reader, my ear always dominates the internal processing.
So I found the Oakland Symphonic Chorus, went to an audition, did my Les Mis song and passed the audition!

I think this will be an interesting change from all the Rock and Acoustic stuff I've done lately.
I will update this blog with calendar and observations as I embark on this new journey.

My EP "Nocturne" is still pending, I just need to make time to master the songs and put them on itunes. Heck it's only been 8 years since the last CD!

peace, love and music,
Kevin

Blanketfort Studio Journal: DIY Recording for fun and, uh... fun?

I'm doing some bare-bones acoustic recordings of my songs to get rich and famous, I was looking around at my setup laughing and thought maybe others might find this funny and/or useful


8:00 am PST


Step1 build giant blanket fort in living room, assure wife it will just be for a few days and make sure nobody is coming over.

Step 2 Make sure Audrey Hepburn can see inside to provide spiritual guidance and retro-mojo

 Step 3 Re-confiscate the macbook from kids and spend the usual countless hours hooking stuff up and trying to remember how to make Pro-Tools work.
--attn gear geeks top to bottom: RNC 1773 compressor, digi 003 rack, lexicon MX400 reverb, vintech x73i mic preamp (neve clone), empirical labs EL8 distressor, AT 8441 condenser mic, CAD pencil condenser mic

Step 4 a couple of mics on the guitar and a comfy pillow because your gonna be there awhile. Notebook of all the lyrics you forgot.

Step 5 run a feed out to the entryway and through a 65 fender champ, it's important to counter all that sterile sounding digital recording equipment with some good-old fashioned tubes and noise.

--attn gear geeks top to bottom: 65' fender champ hot-rodded by amp guru Mike Lull in Seattle. Shure SM57, art tube MP mic preamp and fender "65 reverb deluxe" stompbox for reverb and tremelo. 

Step 6 remove collar from dog and pray for no cats/mailmen/solicitors

Step 7 Overhead room mic to capture that glorious, wood-floored, vaulted-ceiling entryway sound. Open adjacent bathroom door to capture a little porcelain resonance.

Step 8 Blanket that noisy thermostat that keeps buzzing in a non-musical way (now if it was a tube-driven thermo we might have some lo-fi magic there!)

1 pm PST Congratulations, you are now ready to make musical history! Better do it in 1 take though, the kids will be home in 2 hours.

  

I'll follow up this post with a link to the resultant recording which hopefully should come out simultaneously crystal clear and warm/fuzzy.

Say Hello to my Ghost.m4v

The Grail of the Sultan

Now that I've got a couple of solo acoustic shows behind me I'm setting sights on:
1. Memorizing some covers for my PlanB gig this weekend
2. getting ready for the Eagertones reunion
3. Recording some base tracks for some new acoustic demos

The covers I find are a great way to just stay practiced on guitar-manship and vocals.
Many of the songs I will interpret the solos in my own way.
But some of them I am trying to reproduce note-for-note as a kind of academic exercise.
And I'm learning a lot from doing "brown-eyed girl" "allright now" and cake's "I will survive" by the book.
The holy grail though, is Dire Straits "sultans of swing"
This song is a bit like a video game where the first few verses are easy, by the time you get to the 4th verse,  you've unlocked the next level (first solo)
and it just gets harder right up until the second solo (boss level)

Justin Vandercoe's youtube tutorials have been immensely helpful as I have little patience for sheet music and tabs.

Another challenge with trying to do it perfectly is all the little mini riffs and how they respond to what's going on in the lyrics, and the tricky arrangement with it's shortened verses and stuff.

So I came up with a color-coded cheat sheet to accompany Jusin's videos and tabs that may be of some use to those of you also trying to nail "The Grail of the Sultan" (see below)

If you really want to hear something that will make you want to throw your guitar away listen to the live version of "sultans"    Knopfler is ridiculous!!!!

sultans cheat sheet:

bos blues riff? bos = Don Henley "Boys of summer"  learn that one for this basic form.

 

intro - 2x double str slide + bos blues + flamenco arpeggio up/down

VERSE ONE - south of the river (outside)

get a shiver in the dark

get your rainin in the part but meantime

*single bend*

south of the river you stop and you hold everything

*6th single double stop*

a band is blowin dixie double four time 

*riff one*

You feel alright when you hear the music ring

*bos blues riff* *riff two*

*bos blues slide up sub*  - abbreviated verse lead in

VERSE TWO -  faces (inside)

and now you step inside but you don't see too many faces

* 6th double stop descending*

comin' in out of the rain you hear the jazz go down

*descending arpeggio variation 1*

competition in other places

*riff one*

but the horns, they blowin' that sound

*high two string variation*

*riff two*

way on down south

* riff two*

way on down south, london town

*riff one* *high answer* *riff one* *blues out*

VERSE THREE - meet george

check out guitar george, he knows all the chords

*slide up rockabilly jazz chords*

but it's strictly rhythym he doesn't wanna make it cry or sing

*tricky bend*

they say an all guitar is all he can afford

*sad spaniard*

when he gets up under the lights to play his thing

*high single string variation 2*

*riff two* *bos blues sub* - abbreviated verse again

VERSE FOUR - meet harry

and harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene

*train bend*

he's got a day time job he's doin alright

*arpeggio variation 2 medium-high*

he can play the honky tonk like anything

*riff one*

savin it up for friday night

*bos blues descending trail*

*riff 2*

with the sultans 

*riff  2*

with the sultans of swing

*riff 1* *high answer* *riff 1* *blues out*

VERSE FIVE - the boys in the corner

then a crowd of young boys their foolin around in the corner

*weeping bend*

drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles

*arpeggio variation 3 highest* *train bend*

they don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band

*sad spaniard*

it ain't what they call rock and roll

*bos blues variation 3*

*riff 2*

then the sultans

*riff 2*

then the sultans play creole

*riff 1*  *high answer*  creole baby *riff 1* *blues out*

solo 1 (easier)

VERSE SIX - closing time

*riff 1* *high answer* *riff 1* *blues out*

then the man he steps right up to the microphone

*6th double stop ascending*

says at last he says the time bell ring

*alarm riff*

goodnight now it's time to go home

*sad spaniard*

then they say fast just one more thing

*bos blues variation 4*

*riff 2*

we are the sultans

*riff 2*

we are the sultans of swing

*riff one* *high answer* *riff one* *blues out*

solo 2 (super hard)

out

An afternoon with SF Photo Legend Pat Johnson

I recently had an opportunity to do a photo shot with Notable Bay Area Photographer Pat Johnson, I approached him just based on a couple of photos I saw on the Gibson Guitars SF facebook page. I had no idea he had photographed nearly every music legend you can name and other stars of sports, stage and screen.
Pat is really a remarkable person, professionally he was very understanding and creative regarding getting my "sound" across in the shoot. Aside from that though he is deep down a very warm-hearted human being with an all-consuming love for music. I would highly recommend him for any photo project and suggest allowing extra time and patience to absorb some of his colorful life stories. We can all learn a lot from people like Pat in all walks of life. He even turned me on to some amazing music I had never heard before. For instance, if you like Zeppelin and/or Jeff Buckley, check out Terry Reid. Terry actually turned down Led Zep back in the day, his 70's album "superlungs" is jaw-droppingly awesome.
peace, love and guitars,
kevin

eagertones reunion

Spoke with Phil last night, sounds like the show is coming together, it might actually be a big deal and we might actually work hard to make sure we sound good. I like that it's going to be a cancer research benefit show.
I like that it's all ages so maybe my kiddos can come see the old man and his band. Funny thing is, I'm looking forward to the rehearsals more than the actual show. I miss these guys and many big chunks of my life were spent practicing, traveling, recording, hanging out with them. The actual gigs were a small, small part when you add up hours.
Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked that there are people out there who actually remember and/or care about a big-haired, matching-suit-wearing, ramones-worshipping garage-rock-alterna-cowpunk band from the 80-90's. But the actual reunion show concept to me was always kinda lame.
I'd rather we re-banded, recorded some new songs, put out a download on itunes and then played supporting that and save the oldies for the encore. I guess I'll never come to terms with being an over-40 irrelevant musician. Part of me still clings to the optimism and romance of unwrittten songs, new emotional connections with listeners and new towns/venues to explore and infiltrate.
Still, Dudes, I can't wait to rock out with ya'll again.
k