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.