Friday, October 30, 2009

Moving Day Today !

I've been busy getting all my stuff ready so have had little time to post .. keep in mind that everything of mine i post has to be ripped from old cassettes and cleaned up ...
In a few days I'll have moved everything in and re-hooked up the computer.. if your wondering why i'm moving..Again! Well it's actually the same move, there was just a... glitch :)
CU soon!

Crosscut saw with a touch of lead Crunchiness!

I've cleaned up my version of Albert King's crosscut saw .. I'd welcome any comments, of corse..

Monday, October 26, 2009

Well I'm gonna find the missin' FUNK

If I'm movin to nanaimo apparently the drummer from AWB's up here so I'm gonna look him up....
I can't do shit without a good drummer ...
and i wonder what Charlie Wade is up to these days.. (Where are ya.. 'Mr. Smooth')
Here's some more of The Catch

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Why other musicians hate my guts...

is beyond me... but it's mostly been true. REAL people get along with me just fine.
In fact, non-musicians are disconcertingly nice to me... i've had a bank account where i've gone in and they've just reversed over 100$ in OD charges 'cuz i was late and said so..! several times..!
But musicians... well not ALL of 'em, but most..
The stuff i've heard said after the fact, behind my back... oooh...nasty nasty..
Why am i on this rant?
Well, i've been contacting , or trying to, several I used to know.
and, ya know, I've thought about 'the jinx' that I've had, where bad things used to happen to me for no apparent reason at all...
It occured to me that nothing happens in isolation... it has to be DONE by someone...or...in fact... NOT done..as in this case:
While I was with this woman some years ago, the big issue confronting me was my inability to seem to get any press whatsoever.
Well, after a couple years together, we seperated, and she ended up with the fella that had the local Music news, with reviews of evertyone's gigs, bios, ratings etc etc.
Do you think i ever got a mention?

So anyways, it occurred to me today that it's an idiot move to try to build any kind of bridges with the very ones who turned the knife after jabbing it in the ole back...
What d'yall think... Waste of time? Or am I better than that?

Oh incidentally, I'd like to give a heartfelt thank you to the Smiley brothers (Todd and Jeff) of 'The Bratz', who've never been anything but perfect gennlmen... It's exceptions like these that , in fact, allowed me to carry on!

Go see 'em if you're on vancouver Island... ya can't lose on that one!

(Update) Well.. I guess it wasn't an idiot move after all.. only the good ones have responded.. the assholes have stayed away!

When records used to be sold by vacuum cleaner and sewing machine companies!




These were re-recorded and not original versions, as was common in those days, to avoid having to actually PAY MONEY to the actual original artists..
so i wonder who they got as a patsy in the studio to do their dirty work..
Meaning , who is it?
I've always been curious...
Yogi...


Walk don't Run

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Objectionable Content: Requires Brown Paper Bag...

My new album's name, when it's finished... just throwing it out here now, instead of later....

Oh, and yes, it really will have a brown paper bag... :)
And ya should see the artwork ;-)

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ummm ... does this help me wanna get them?

I thought I'd go get nme some Grado or Sennheiser reference phones, seeing as I need them.. then i remembered Klipsch.... remember Klipsch speakers anyone ?... 300 frikin pounds and ya needed a room bigger than the school auditorium to make them really work..(they were monsters, certainly some of the best ever... thats true) OK wow they have a website i discover, and now they seem to specialize in Headphones??? .
So, at first im interested , cuz they're much cheaper than the grados and sennheisers... then i see this video... i suppose it's funny...

Klipsch video

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

When things go wrong (So wrong with you)...

Firstly, if anyone has any problem hearing any of these audio files PLEASE LET ME KNOW.. even though I've tested them in a half dozen different browsers, on several different OS''s, there still appear to be folks with problems.. (Oh the humanity!)

p.s. actually, I can't test it in Internet explorer cuz the MS defaults engine has hijacked it again.. and it 's reset itself to MSN as the home page.. and it wont actually open the page , it just freezes.. so I cant reset the home page.
I don't think i need to actually say anything else.. except if a third party app did this, you know what it would be called?

So.. OK my stuff again (like almost all the other posts)
First is definitely jazz (sorta:).. if it aint it's only 'cuz it makes sense and aint jarring, dystonic, or achordal (!)
DOC"S BOSS NOVA


The next is blooz.. i hardly ever post stuff that i haven't written myself, from scratch, but old standards are certainly an exception...
IT HURTS ME TOO



OOps... something happened with that last one when importing it. lemme fix it.. be right back...!
Fixed, sorta.. the transition i worked on from the mono to stereo in the first verse was butchered.. its supposed to be smooth as silk... musta lost the final mix along the way :)
Unfortunately, all my apps went crazy at the same time!
I usually work on my files at between 3000 and 12000 kbps, so as not to lose any data... when exporting they're SUPPOSED to convert to 1411.. but they decided not to cooperate!

a foot note.. the second one is also from 1984's 'Doctor Boogie ' album.. sadly, it only ever got university radio play before the masters were destroyed in a fire.. but i gave (quite) a few away.. so i got a cassette copy back a few weeks ago, which is where this came from....

and this is whatever IT is...
I CANT QUIT YOU

On so-called Remasters.. mickboys, ebbets, etc

I've had a chance to have a listen to some of these needle drops over the last year, and i'm still undecided.
Don't misunderstand me. VINYL SOUNDS BETTER!
*When* its STILL on vinyl and has never been Digitized.
once you digitally rip it you lose the advantage. (more about why that is, later)
I think the only advantage in digital format of good needle drops is the possibility of getting one step closer to the master, or original mixes that have been lost by official remastering..
What do I mean?.. Well, when vinyl used to be pressed, the master was copied, and a bunch of sub masters were made for cassette. Unfortunately, more often than not, the vinyl stampers were ALSO made from the Sub-master .. mostly because they DO wear out, and need to be done again.
These sub-masters were, often, also the ones used for transfer to digital, at least in the beginning of the digital age.
A good example is 'Future Games' of Fleetwood Mac. The CD has a DROP-OUT! in it. Now I'm pretty sure the Master Tape Doesn't (at least , I hope).
Now, I think that on the first run, they in fact used the master for the first stamper...very often the case..so if you find a first pressing, mint, and do a needle drop off it, on adequate pro gear, you've got something significantly better than the current CD. But not due to any advantages in the sound of vinyl.. if it's digitized.. digital signals work on an on-off format ..where half the sound is, in fact, dead silence. your brain fills in the missing gaps. If everyone's brain worked the same I guess it wouldn't be an issue, but a digital recording is gonna sound different to everyone, in theory...not so you'd notice, tho, erxcept 'it sounds harsh, or dull', or however you'd interpret it.
So what am I saying about the unofficial 'remasters' (i.e. needle-drops) out there?
Well, first of all, Ebbett's wins the cake.. he's found the correct reason to do them (original pressings) and doesn't 'EQ' them or sweeten in any way, just uses top level gear to record them. Mickboy's also are recorded superbly, but the extra eq'ing done in an analog fashion, I don't think, helps at all, because they're all converted to digital, and if they're gonna be digitized anyways, it would be better to do it digitally, because there's control you just can't acheive with even the best analog gear. I'm glad they're out there... I just wish that original pressings of some of the less distributed artists were ripped from vinyl first- pressings (such as the aforementioned 'future games').
I did a whole slew of 'em myself, as far as preserving my collection of first pressings.. I used to be an avid record collector for extremely rare recording.. by which I mean, that if you collect EXTREMELY rare vinyl, i wouldn't be surprised if you had one of my old ones in your collection. Like, Freddy King '24 vocals and instrumentals', 'The Fireballs' canadian issue, etc..
I paid my mortgage for three years selling em all off... to a Record Dealer! (who sold em off all over the world...
Had enough writing for now... more (and some new recordings of mine ) next time.....

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Mystery Tune Contest For Y'all and WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Congrats to the Rev.Dr.Moller THC. Bar. etc...
...and what took you so long.....!

Here's a tune by one of the true MONSTERS of guitar... this one goes way back, tho, and see if anyone can guess it.. WHO IS IT?????? The winner will be the one with the correct answer.. er... duh... So what d'ya get , other than a warm fuzzy feelin' inside.. Well, lifetime free admittance to my gigs... OK that's a tough one, seeing as they're never announced ahead of time.. Normal booking practices for a band that make almost everything up on the spot for two hours straight, just don't apply... But also a Lossless copy of the stones' 'Midnight Beat' Boot "Acetates"! (yer choice of FLAC or whatever else...) (It's not out there in cyberspace!) Got yer moter runnin' NOW?

Mystery Tune

P.S. I'm not offering 'Acetates lossless' to any boot sites for at least 90 days after the contest end.. otherwise it'd trivialize it.. and what'd be the point.. but if nobody gets even close... i'm gonna help SOMEONE cheat :)

Here's another from the same LP...
HONKY TONK
if anyone still wants to hear them, links are now at the bottom of the page...

So now there's only 2 posts per page... (Update...so maybe 3...)

Your gonna have to dig in the 'older posts' link to see what's come before (Highly recommended!)
This is so as to make everything load as quickly as possible .. I hate sluggish internet, and sluggish computers...
We're still in the tech dark ages, ya know...

In only 20 years .. the concept of 'waiting for a page to load' will seem ludicrous.. as will the concept of computer errors .. but this will require the obsolete silicon chip to go the way of the dinosaur .. light storage and tachyon based circuitry will finally solve the problem..
and as far as dinosaurs... i wont even get into the PR hassle caused by the succesful cloning of Tyrannosaurus REX :)..
p.s. if ya got an old IBM 5100, pack it carefully away and keep it safe... someone's coming back for it (has a useful tech advantage nonexistent in the 2060s)
... just a sideways spin for y'all while i wait for the moving van to get everything into my new digs...

If Becker and Fagan's stuff can be called Jazz.....

.....Then This Must Be Too. ;-)
Endless Quest eons ants heard


========
This next one was recorded in front of a bunch of friends with just a strat plugged into a marshall, and a wah pedal and volume pedal both at the same time, as well as a delay of some sort... better call Owsley for this one.. tho. I was showing em what i used to do every New Year's at Midnite, when I'd open the door and point the marshall outside.. did it for decades , too...



========
Will Ya Pleeez Hurry It Up In There??

These are all from my old Malaspina Jazz Studies Course days ... but that don't make 'em Jazz...
But , as I said , if Becker and Fagan are, then the first one must be too..


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A degree in linguistics gives one a peculiar form of licence to savage the english language, such as I do...
... so lets get to savagin' , y'all... :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

I'm Gonna Learn Y'all Some Truth here .. in the Blooz

Yup... lesson number 1 git out yer notebooks an yer shot glasses now..
pour a stiff one an take notes..
... Got ICE in yer stiff one? No? Really? Well....
Here's Some ICE for y'all!!

Albert Collins shows y'all How it's done..
ICEMAN


====================
So now yer all learnin here...
This lesson aint just Albert (although he's the undisputable star of this gig..)
But i want ya yto listen to the rythm section... to hear how it's done when it's done RIGHT..
First .. The Bass.. as a former bassist I can tell ya that he's NAILED it.. the tone is right, with just the right amount of pre-amp buffer, for a little bite.
His timing is glued to the drums, in particular the kick...
He has all the triplets in exactly the right places, and i think he may even have a dropped D for that extra low punch (or maybe a 5 sting with a low B, if anyone knows help me out here!)
The drums are pretty obvious what he's doin.. just enough an no more!
The hammond (sounds like a B3) has nice fat chords, filling but not fattening!
And the horns coulda been on any stax record (and Stax is an advanced education all of it's own!)
... Nuff said!
------------
... i have only one thing to say about the new Beatles remasters...
..wuz the past remaster 'Past Masters' remastered, or wuz the Past Masters remaster a Master remaster?

Friday, October 9, 2009

A last post before the End!

I'm moving, so am gonna leave y'all with a couple kickers...
More about these when i get internet back...
But they were recorded under physically 'adverse' conditions, to say the least!


AMPLIFIER FRYER


DOC'S BOOGIE

Monday, October 5, 2009

DOH!

I coulda been using a simple embed for those nusic files instead of the google player or yahoo player.. let yer plugins do the job instead.. then your native OS player will play it..aint that the best way?
Lemme know if it works ok for y'all...
Doc

Sunday, October 4, 2009

My Two Foghat Demos

In an attempt to throw my hat into the ring for a possibility of getting a gig with Foghat i made a couple demos.. sent them into what i thought was the only Foghat.. i had no idea that there was gonna be TWO Foghats after the dust settled (but not for long, either).. so i don't know if they even got this... But here they are.. I did post em much earlier, but they're remixed and cleaned up..keep in mind they're 20 years old , and on ferric tapes (it's all i had left)..

Hiway (Killin' Me)



Ripple Rock Boogie



P.S. For best results have a good stiff drink and crank it LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Freddy King Gets Funky (doing James Brown)

Here's another one of Freddy's that's workin.. Ya can tell by when he's smilin!.. (aint that always the way tho...)

On the nature of friends, aquaintances, and mythologies...

I recently sent a note to someone to join a pro site (it's not important who, at this point).. and it was forcing me to rethink my past, and the mythologies we all build up over a lifetime... It was, in the note, 'an old friend of so-sos, who i got drunk with a couple of times... Well, first of all, getting drunk with someone doesn't make a friend... i know that :) so, maybe, poor choice of words... But I've had run-ins when I was young, maybe 30 or so years ago, with several 'famous' folks.. some of whom i know for sure were who they said they were, and some, who, perhaps , were not! At any rate... i, at the time, was young and impressionable, and so believed it, when they said who they were.. eventually, one goes through a lifetime building up this mythology based on the flimsiest of evidence... Anyways...this particular fella... (lets call him David, for now) insisted he had a band that i admired... but moaned about it breaking up... then didn't talk about music the rest of the night... just girls girls an more girls... After puttin myself on the line.. i realized i had no reason at all to believe it was him at all...but i'd spent a lifetime cherishing the memory of it as though it really was him... I think we have to be careful that the mythologies we build up over a lifetime are , in fact, based on truth... Just some random thoughts here..... Next post... Music Again!!!