Starz

Here's a band I forgot about. They never really hit the big time that I know of. I only remember seeing a picture of their drummer with his '70s really big concert tom and lots of cymbals drum set, sorta like if Peter Criss' and Neil Peart's drums got married and had a kid. I really don't remember any of their songs. Which is too bad, because they recorded some pretty cool stuff. A neat mix of Thin Lizzy, Foghat, and Sweet, then throw in some British pop Badfingerish hooks. I was intrigued enough to buy their Brightest Starz anthology on iTunes. iTunes suggested it to me in the Just for You thingy.

I was there buying Peter Tosh's Wanted Dread & Alive album, which has a beautiful song called Fools Die. I originally recorded it off the record that I borrowed from that guy Mike (?) with dreadlocks that lived down the hall in Burge back in '82/'83. Wasn't he a DJ at KRUI? I digitized it off my tape about 5 years ago because iTunes didn't have it and I could never find the CD in the stores when I thought about looking. I've been living with the horrible tape hiss from the standard quality "low noise" tape it was on (again, somebody must've given me a pack for xmas), which is very noticeable in that song, because there's so much space. But now I have a pristine copy, and the rest of the album is great too.

Update: Holy crapparoni. Starz still sounded really good in 2004. And the soundman that mixed the feed for the video deserves not just a cookie, but a whole box of 'em. This is one of the best captures of a live mix I've heard for such a relatively small band without the big bucks.

History of Dumb Hats

Here's some interesting "research" on the origin of Jughead's and Goober Pyle's hats.

Practice

The band practiced tonight to make sure we knew The Beatles' Birthday. Andy had never played it before, but had it worked out in no time, including the little guitar/bass break. Later on we were asking him if he had any songs he wanted to add to our db. He usually doesn't remember the name of a song, so he'll go, "how about that…" and then just start playing it to finish his sentence. He did that with Rock This Town, with all the little Setzer fills that really make the song. And then Sultans of Swing, again with all the stuff. What a fun addition to the band he is. And he drives something big enough to haul crap around in. Score.

Cutlass

Here's a really cool short film about one's desire to own the thing they need, whether it's a vintage guitar or a not–so–old (and really not–so–cool) car. It stars Virginia Madsen, Dakota Fanning (always cute as can be), Kristen Stewart (oh my god is she hot), Kurt Russell (who plays the hell outa his role), and small parts by Chevy Chase and Nathan Supree.

Orgoblo

What every man needs.

Short Gig, but Long

We're playing a benefit tomorrow evening, but we need to set up at noon. I've always liked gigs where you can set up way beforehand. You're not as rushed, and I hate being rushed. We play after a dinner and auction and maybe other goings ons. It's not really a crowd that should have a rock band, but some of the people on the committee are friends of John. They want us to play one long 1.5 hour set, because they're afraid if we take a break, people will leave. Oh well, at least we'll be done by 10:30 I think.

Get 'em While They're Young

This poor baby has already been brainwashed by the nutjobs. Just think, give the kid a few months to form words and learn to speak and we could hear important messages like, "thank you, jesus! Poopy poopy poopy! Jesus poop!" Then again, that's nothing new.

I never knew Pee–Chee folders came in any color other than, well, peach, which was really more of a orange–yellow. This blue one looks like the seller inadvertently inverted the image—it just looks wrong, as do all the other colors.

I had one that I got on a trade with some other stuff from Jamie Bermel in 4th grade. It didn't take long for all the people on it to gain mustaches, zits, glasses, funny speech balloons, etc. It's probably still around somewhere.

And while you're over at eBay, Leo, you'll need this Star Trek beach towel that features Spock blasting a 3–headed snake. Now that's just mean!

Rush: RFunny

See what I did there? That's a play on the title of Rush's 30th anniversary concert/album/DVD, R30. But the funny part is pretty much their whole road crew. I've been watching backstage videos over on their site (in the multimedia section). The pyro guy is always entertaining, as is Howard Ungerleider their lighting director.

Shake It Up

Looks like hard drive–based video cameras are susceptible to heavy levels of vibration or shock, which parks the heads and send the following message to the camera: "The loud noises make me a–sceert!" Pussy. Can't take a little vibration. Jesus, it's always something with new technology, ain't it? Well, c'mon you companies, let's keep getting solid state memory denser and cheaper, toot sweet! Mechanical storage devices are sooo 1960.

There's a chance that the head–parking shocks came from somebody in the booth next to the table the tripod was on. And since it was Delano, the shock was probably their head hitting the table after slamming their 17th Long Island ice tea, or whatever the hillbilly equivalent of a big ass 100% alcohol drink is these days.

Marrs Attacks #1 Fan!

Ya gotta love the interweb. Here's a comment posted on the band's blog:

I think your bands is awful and I could not leave Doc Hollywood's fast enough once you started playing. Please save everyone and never ever play again!

No, we didn't go back in time and appear in Michael J. Fox's movie (no, not the one where he went back in time). We played at Doc Holiday's in Delano. And that more than adequately explains the mental superiority of the commenter. America has the Deep South; Minnesota has Delano. You can't please everyone. There's no accounting for taste. Reminds me of the note from many years ago I posted a while back.

Rainn Wilson Cracks Me Up

We watched The Rocker today while we laid around. From the reviews, I thought it was going to have a couple funny scenes and the rest would blow. This, people, is why reviewers are idiots and I don't know why I bother even skimming over them when reading Entertainment Weekly. I liked the movie a lot, and it had lots of very funny people in it. Rainn did a pretty OK job of fake drumming, but an excellent job of being a creepy, gross metal drummer. The guy who was the guitarist should've learned how one sings into a microphone at a live show. Arg, I hate it when directors let bad mic technique into the movie, or any instrument for that matter. It makes it look so Disney. I also hate it when the foley artist or found fx guy uses a mic feedback sound when somebody is supposedly producing feedback through a guitar, or just overuses feedback in general.

The ever cute, adorable, and sassy Emma Stone played bass. She was in Superbad and The House Bunny and good in everything. I like her.

What a Difference

What a difference a single band member can make. I haven't had that much fun playing a gig since I joined this band. Andy hadn't played live in about 15 years I think, but you'd never know it. He played his ass off, looked like he was enjoying himself on stage, and interacted with the rest of us—all things that are completely unlike a certain previous Turnstyle guitarist. Oh yeah, and his amp was never too loud. Can you believe that? In fact, I actually had a hard time hearing it sometimes, and it was right next to my drums! Unheard of!

Annoyingly, John's video camera kept shutting off at some point through the 2nd and 3rd sets. It had plenty of battery and hard drive space. Don't know what that's all about, but it sucks.

Guitar Zero

Blarg. Kim doesn't dig shooters or racing or any good games. So she bought Guitar Hero. Yes, even though she is already a very good bass player. Oh well. I see it as the same sort of thing as Tempest, Defender, or any number of arcade style games where it's all about timing and hand/eye coordination. With music, half of which is gay or stupid. But I suppose I'll give it a try. After all, the Xbox should be used for good, never for evil, and if we aren't having fun, then… I dunno. But she's going to see Heart tonight with Emily, so I get it all to myself.

Some People Shouldn't Have Tech Jobs

I've been helping a customer write an AppleScript to do something with Creator. He's one of those people who's probably all jacked up on coffee and speed reads through email and scripts, skipping over things and looking only at the end result, not taking the time to comprehend what I've told him to do or even trying to learn it. It's no wonder that he gets an error after every change he makes, posts the problem, and then I reply something like, "I said to do this, not that." Grr. I really do wonder why he has the job he has. I think he'd do better as the announcer for some X games or writing Vin Diesel movies.

Real World Tool Definitions

I'm sure this has been around for a while, but it's always good to revisit it in case you forgot and tried doing something stupid like using a screwdriver to successfully remove a screw or something like that.

Equipment Upgrades

Now that Kim is finally singing a few backups, and Andy is using an acoustic on a few songs, and Emily wants to start playing guitar on a few songs, we outgrew our little MixWizard 16:2. So John bought us a ZED–428 instead. I thought that looked like the best upgrade path for us, and still leaves us with plenty of extra channels for future–proofing us, or if we do a multi–band show we won't have to redo as many channels between bands. It's one big ass board, but I think it's still smaller overall (maybe wider—yeah, it's three feet wide) than that big fuckin' Peavey we had in The Dial Tones. OK, maybe not smaller, but lighter? 40lbs. And I dunno why, but they didn't put light sockets on the ZEDs. Dumb. John bought a nice little LED gooseneck that velcros onto the back.

He also bought a laser. Yes, a frickin' laser. Sure, it looks cool, but I think it's kind of a waste of money, setup time, and storage space for something that I personally wouldn't use more than maybe twice a set.

Brain, Meet Haunting Chorus

About 4 years ago (Really? Has it been that long already?) one of the iTunes freebies was a video by Eisley, a band made up of 4 siblings (3 of which are darned cute girls) and a cousin. I liked the sort of mod yet contemporary look of the video, mixed with a bit of imagery from 2001: A Space Odyssey, so I grabbed it. Since then, the song has grown on me, as have their voices. In fact, the chorus has been invading my brain throughout the past few days and keeping me awake at night. Those are some beautiful and haunting harmonies.

iTunes no longer has the video. I see 2 versions on YouTube. Both have the wrong aspect ratio (idiots—in fact, one is even cropped down from the correct really–wide screen size) and the other has been sped up so the song sounds like shit (idiot again).

Cuff Links

If I had these cuff links, not only would I buy a new dress shirt that isn't 15 years old, but I might even dress up every goddamn day. The ass end of the '59 Impala is my favorite ass end ever. Yes, even more than Natalie Portman's or Shawn Johnson's Nastia Liukin's (there we go—I like her's much better than Shawn's, not that I've been thinking about it all this time:).

Eva Longoria Is Funny

How old is this? Must be sorta newish. I dunno, but it's funny. The Eva Longoria Sex Tape. Warning: there is no sex or exposed body parts.