2013: F-U-C-K Y-O-U!! The Passing of Al Goldstein, Mandela, Lou Reed, etc.

I did not post anything with respect to the deaths of Nelson Mandela and Lou Reed, largely because of my life being totally consumed by lawyer-work obligations.  Things have freed up a bit so now I can memorialize my thoughts about Al Goldstein's passing.  (Maybe I post something about Mandela and Reed, maybe not.  I don't know).

Brother Al probably knew next to nothing about music generally and thrash even less so. Nevertheless he was a BIG aesthetic influence on both Falafel and my prog-rock band Ricky Methylene Blue.  Goldstein was uber-New York, absurd, dirty, angry and funny, with occasional brilliance, both intended and accidentally. Wearing my RMB hat, he was so fucking Lincoln.  And he was the Spinal Tap of pornographers.

There was nothing like his show Midnight Blue and the void that his show filled opened deep and wide once it went off the air.  However, I somehow thought that Goldstein would somehow emerge from the bizarre shithole he ended up in as a result of his divorce with the "Irish cleaning lady" as he called one of his ex-wives, and start up at least a YouTube version of Midnight B.  It never happened.

Al's show served up his very (proudly) New York Jew rantings, complete with ample helpings of profanity and teenage bathroom humor and used tits and ass to lure you in.  The porn stars were there just to suck you in but his show was perhaps one of the most unsexy things on TV.  But it was so fucking funny.  Somehow he was able to issue fuck you fatwas effortlessly to both Guiliani and the attendant at his parking garage in the same sentence and maintain some sense of sense (or at least interest).  Much of the content his rants could be done by the brother-in-law you avoid at family gatherings, but Al was the perfect Friday night must-see (or at least watch on Monday night) TV show for when you wanted to chill with the Falafel trifecta of a few bowls, some smokes, booze.  Unfortunately, he wasn't friendly for chick company.  (Oh well, no one is perfect, but neither is thrash).

But like most performers, he was not quiet like his TV persona.  I met Al randomly in 1994 while I was walking home from my office.  He lived on 63rd or 64th Street and I lived on 66th Street.  Dressed in my navy Armani, I was heading up Second Avenue and saw a very fat man about a block away.  Al was lovingly eyeing up a window display in the Duane-Reade of all places.  I thought to myself "that's one really fat dude...wait that's Al Goldstein."

I thought for a second or two whether to introduce myself.  I was never shy with the rich and famous (except in the case of Robert Fripp), but I know fame can be a hassle at times.  However, I figured why not and went up to him..."Mr. Goldstein/"  I extend my hand.  He sheepishly shakes it.  "I really enjoy your show.  It's great.  Please keep it coming."

He responded, with a seemingly genuine modesty, "oh...oh thank you.  Thank you."  He seemed truly touched that someone was actually watching his show and not only didn't want to spit in his face but actually liked the show. Certainly not I expected.  I wished him good evening and went on my way.

I heard from another lawyer I knew from law school that she -- a Jewish woman -- interviewed Al Goldstein for her college radio show and loved him.  She said that she was truly surprised of how kind and modest he was.  She went into the interview expecting to hate him.  "I was expecting a pig" I recall her putting it.  She said that he was not only a gentleman but very naturally sweet and earnest.

I'm gonna post a video remix of Al G to Falafel "Peep Show Man" in the coming weeks.

To Al Goldstein, a lovingly ironic, "Fuck You."

Torched Cat Promo Video: Addendum

Oh....how could I forget...thanks to the Master Cylinder for his ever priceless voicemail messages and in this case, his voice appears at the end of the clip.  Thanks Bro!!  I'm glad that I keep these.

Torched Cat Promo Video

Since the primary purpose of this blog is about music, I figured that I had to try to get some of my music up as I work on the album.  So here is a link to a short video I created featuring excerpts of two of the tracks from the San-Ship album: "My Brother Died on The Chessboard" and "Memories In My Pocket."

http://youtu.be/QEj3Z2fUBWQ

The Chessboard excerpt opens the video.  This track is one of the few tracks that I play keyboards on.  In this case, I'm using an Oberheim TV-1 analog synth for the opening.  (Many people mistake it for guitar).  I'll post additional info about the Oberheim later.  Also heard on this excerpt is the Carvin fretless bass.  I use the Les Paul for all the guitar parts on this track, though it is not heard on this excerpt.

The Memories excerpt features both the Les Paul and my Strat.  I play the Paul for the lead part which is panned hard left in the stereo field.  The Strat is panned hard right. (I was too lazy to include footage of me playing the Strat in the video, but it's on the track).  Both are played through my Line 6 Bogner tube amp. The bass is my Ibanez SR500 through the usual chain, though obviously overdriven. Drop D tuning is employed on all instruments.  My "secret weapon" on mixdown is the UAD Fatso plug-in on virtually all the tracks, including the drums and vocals.  The Fatso is particularly effective in bringing out the "growl" harmonics of the Ibanez, especially for the "death march" intro of the song.

Some screen shots from the video of the Ibanez and the Paul:

Summer's Over -- FUCK YA'

I've been hating summer for a while...the swampy heat outside and the blast furnace heat on the subway platforms; the random street stench; the Con Ed bills, etc. etc.

But this summer R-E-A-L-L-Y sucked.  We lost Jeff Hanneman and James Gandolfini, the GOP totally lost its mind and I was super busy in my legal practice.  I started work on another track called "Buttered Flowers" in April but haven't gotten back to it.  Plus I had DAW problems which I've only recently solved.

I'm still in a shit storm of law practice deadlines and projects.  Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm gonna post some snippets of music soon.

Later -- be happy summer's fuckin' over...

Steamy summer night on East 23rd Street -- Remember Big Fun?
Can't you smell the summer puke.  So Lincoln.

Jeff Hannemann: R.I.P. oh great one

What can I say...Jeff passed away yesterday.  The thrash-metal community lost one of its first inventors.  Death sucks for the living. We're going to miss you Jeff but your kick-ass riffs remain.

I Been Dirt....

A few years back, Master Cylinder and I were having some rounds chit-chatting about whatever and somehow the topic of must have, deserted island albums came up.  Two records that I remember we both mentioned were Zappa's "The Best Band You Never Heard of In Your Life" and The Stooges "Fun House."

From time-to-time, I will walk from my office late night to my apartment.  I do this on clear and reasonably nights.  It's a good way to get some physical exercise and mental relaxation for me.  Usually I listen to some music, particularly stuff not in my current regular rotation.  I decided to listen to, first S.O.D.'s "Speak English or Die" and then Fun House.  Perhaps I'll get into it another time the business of doing a full discussion of why that is such a fucking brilliant record, but I'm just going to focus on one of the best rock tracks of all time on that record -- "Dirt."

I thought of doing a cover of Dirt for this solo album.  But given that I'm so pressed for time working on this fucking thing, and knowing the effort (and $$) involved in music licensing -- I'm not only a lawyer but a copyright lawyer -- I decided to take a pass.

Dirt is a very personal song for me.  That song can move me to tears.  Iggy captured those primal, existential sadness dips that you first get in your 20's -- fear of the future and the gradual loss of those fond memories of fun irresponsibility.  He captured the BLUES for me.  Yes, I'm part black by phenotype (and a lot of other things --  I recently discovered that my South Asian/Central Asian haplogroup, R2 dominates my genetics, but I digress).  However, culturally, I'm a working-class white ethnic kid who went on to college and law school and who would be a literal alien in down-home Georgia (my black roots such as they are, reside in  Jamaica) as well as Goa.  I didn't live in an apartment until college.  I first played spin the bottle with a bunch of Irish and Italian girls, while listening to Sabbath's We Sold Our Souls For Rock N Roll.  My blues was whether my parents would make me go to an all-boys Catholic high school.  What did I know about the blues.

The wah-guitar and Iggy's speed-crashed vocals capture that dark cloud in the most passionate way.  Psychedelic, but street.  Sad and dark, but not wimpy.  It's a temper tantrum of indifference.  It's a romantic power ballad to oneself.  Iggy's howl before the guitar solo and the whatever the fuck he's mumbling coming out of it, is poetry.

I remember one time early in a romantic relationship, my gal at the time wanting to get to know "me," asked if there were any songs that made me cry, since my taste were eclectic, usually on the underground side, and decidedly free of ballads or love songs.  My record collection would have Karlheim Stockhousen, Slayer and Ravi Shanker, but certainly no Lionel Richie, Journey or anything that would break the Top 40.

Dirt was the song I told her.

Link to Dirt on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/zxYXV2RrwIs

Guitar Amplification, Part 1

I'll start with an amp that has only been used once so far for the new record.  It's the Fender Bronco - a small little practice amp that I picked up in the late 1990's as an alternative to using the Roland JC-120 which, while a great amp, it's a pain in the ass to mic in the studio. The Bronco is capable of a decent gritty sound -- think Buddy Guy, but sort of falls off in either a heavy sound -- gets too buzzy and it's not all that handsome at being warm & clean either.  I used it, with nice results, on a cover of "House of the Rising Sun" that I did with a solo artist years ago but beyond that, I nevertheless returned to lugging the JC-120 to set up to mic in the iso booth.  Does wonders for the back.

In any case, I used the Bronco on this album to re-amp the Les Paul guitar part on "Stumbling," which were recorded through the Rolls mic pre.  But after that I used the Line 6 tube amp for everything else.  I'll get into the Line 6 next time and explain why the Line 6 is one of my favorite pieces of music gear EVER.

Here are a few views of the Bronco:

Johnny's Bass Amplification Chain

During most of my Falafel time, I did not own a bass amp.  My amplification was typically provided for as part of the "backline."  I used whatever was available.  Not the best situation for a consistent sound.  As time went on, I borrowed a GK amp owned by Ricky Methylene Blue's bassist, Chris "Hand of Doom" Smith.  It was a powerful little combo, but to really project through the cacophony, it needed to drive a separate cabinet which neither Chris nor I had.  So I usually plugged into the board through a DI or used whatever backline amp was there.  Sometimes even borrowed the amp of the band appearing before us, depending on the gig.

For my present solo album, I've been using the magic combination of a Rolls tube mic pre and a dbx 160A compressor before hitting tape...er.. disk.  Then I will sometimes re-amp the recorded signal and blend that with the original.  Every once in a blue moon, I will throw in an original Sans Amp stomp pedal.  I think I used that on "My Brother Died on The Chessboard," but not entirely sure.

Anyway, the Rolls/dbx combo works great for studio work, but when that Falafel reunion tour starts, I'm going to have to get a bass amp.  I may get one sooner though.

No, the Panasonic 3700 DAT recorder is not part of the bass recording chain.
Just an innocent by-stander collecting dust and cigarette ash.

Vintage Flashback: Gig at Coney Island High

Heavy Duty who was responsible for Falafel's promos for most of the band's existence, never placed the year of the gig on any of it.  I believe that this was from 1995.  June 30th that year was a Friday.  This was one of Falafel's last gigs before Duty bottomed out and ended up driving a bus in Prague.  Or so they say...

Somewhat New Bass Squeeze

Summer of 2011, I picked up an Ibanez SR500 bass from this dude in the far reaches of Queens.  Simply an inspiring instrument.  First introduced in 1987, this bass has been a favorite among metal bassists.  I first became aware of this bass in or about 1990 at a gig somewhere Downtown -- maybe The Pyramid.  There was this dude in a Primus-like power trio playing one.  I was impressed by the dude's playing as well as his sound.  While one's "sound" or "feel" comes foremost from the player, the instrument is the physical conduit for the player's musical ideas and is the sound in space-time...er...reality.

Anyway, fast-forward to 2011.  I discovered this dude in Queens advertising the sale of the SR500 at a nice price.  Called him up and made the purchase.

Here's a picture.....

Torch's Ibanez  SR500

Besides having a killer & versatile sound, it's one handsome bass 

I still have my Carvin fretless bass, which has a wonderful vibe, sound and feel as well.  However, being fretless, it is harder to bash out that oily growl necessary for thrash-hardcore.  Frets somehow allow aggression to the max.  Additionally, the SR500 has active pickups with 3-band +/- EQ.  I do not know the frequency of the bands, but I'd like to do some research and find out.  If not, I could do some spectrum tests, but I'm lazy and have so little time with a bunch of more important tasks to attend to.

Bass wise, I feel complete with my present instruments.  I may decide to explore 6 string basses at the appropriate when I start doing prog rock again, but until at least the completion of the present album, I am very satisfied with my present instruments.  Rather ironic because I never had a bass while I was active in Falafel that I was particularly married to.  I had everything from a Sam Ash Dean bass that I bought new for $200 in 1988, to a vintage Rickenbacker which I occasionally borrowed from my old roommate at the time.

I'll get into my amplification chain another time.

Torch and Heavy Duty making some noise at The Ritz with GWAR on some July 4th Show.
Note that I'm sporting my roommate's Rick.  I liked its feel and neck, but the sound for me lacked low end balls and grind.  Punchy mids and highs, yes.  I know a lot of Heavy players favor them like Lemmy and Geddy, I prefer the Ibanez.

Ambrosia: My "First Child" according to some.

Photo taken just before getting ready to take her 

to the tech for a setup and minor tweaking.

Life Gets In The Way

It's hard trying to get music done much less "blog."  However, got a nice update.  Just finished mixing yet another track for the upcoming JHT solo album, present working title, San-Ship.  Yes, most of you are thinking, "Huh?  Oh well, same old Johnny."

Anyway, the latest track recorded is called "Memories in My Pocket" -- dark, angry, sarcastic and fast.  As with the last few tunes I've recorded, I've been using an Ibanez SR500 -- an amazing bass.  Will be posting pictures of this and other instruments used on the album before the end of the month.

Guitars have been exclusively "Ambrosia," my 1975 Gibson Les Paul Custom and my '92 Fender Strat.  Couple of songs have been exclusively the Strat or the Paul, but usually some mixture of the two.

Later...