My The Pretenders prezzie

A friend from college sent me The Pretenders eponymous release box set. It has 3 discs – the original remastered, a demos and TV recordings disc, and a 1979 and 1980 concert.

Listening to the latter which, while not studio quality, has really good live sound, and amazing playing. The rhythm section is tight (Farndon is so under-rated) and Honeyman is very creative, with an effects-laden rhythm style of lead/rhythm, as well as his modulate-FX’d single lines.

Chrissie is perfect, in voice and her kinda Bo-Diddly rhythm guitar.

5/5

Some record reviews

First, lemme say if there’s a seemingly disproportionate number of 5/5’s (and they are not all), it’s because I mostly try to buy what I think I’m gonna love.

Lucinda Williams, Vol. 5 – Xmas: my new fave Xmas record
Beats out Joey Ramone, doing one of the covers he does.
5/5

Billy Idol, Happy Holidays: my new fave “conventional” Xmas record
OK, my only one. From ’06, it doesn’t rock much (but do compare his version of Run Run Rudolph) to Lucinda Williams), but BI is actually quite the melodicist.
5/5

Joy Formidable, Into The Blue: very cool pro arrangements and production, less emphasis on the guitar, great keys-work and the singing is even better
it’s no longer indie rock, not sure what it is, a little prog, a lot original
one of the most under-rated drummers around, too
5/5

Lucinda Williams, Vol 4 Funny How Time Slips Away: many of the AM radio hits of the 70’s, perfect for her, great playing and her cool, eccentric vocals
5/5

Pino Palladino & Blake Mills, Notes With Attachments: I fall into this
5/5

Lucinda Williams, Vol 4 A Night with Dylan: a worthy night
many of Dylan’s hits and some nice lesser-knowns, perfect for her, great playing and her cool, eccentric vocals
5/5

Tal Wilkenfeld, Love Remains: I do like it, but I think it’s over-produced/written/worked, and her voice is fine, but not my “type”
I came for the bass-playing, I got the songs, I’d rather more bass-playing
3/5

Rolling Stones, Tattoo You (remaster): another great re-master/box
the two-disc version, the 2nd “side” as worthy as the first, with selections from different album sessions
excellent re-mastering
5/5

Motorhead, March or Die: “commercial” Motorhead
And so what? You wanna fight, or you wanna ride?
4/5

Steely Dan, NORTHEAST CORRIDOR: Burroughs mighta liked it
… but who cares.
If you are a SD fan, this is a great-sounding set of covers by some of the people that recorded the originals, and some great hired guns (which also describes some of the people that originally recorded ’em, but these are different ones,…
5/5

VU, I’ll Be Your Mirror: VU in royal red
fascinating to hear bands they influenced do them
5/5

Low, Hey What: it’ll grow on ya
if you are already a up-to-date fan, you’ll understand. if yer just getting here, you’ll go, “HEY WHAT”, but if you listen a little more, you’ll go “HEY HEY”
5/5

The War on Drugs, I Don’t Live here Anymore: They moved in with me
… about 3 records ago, kinda a sleeper fave. they’ll never beat “Under the Pressure”, but then, I think no one could. Pretty sure there’s a lot of drum loops on here, always a surprising amount of keys, but when he guitars, when he sings – no one current is better.
5/5

Gov’t Mule, Blues Delux: I’m stubborn
I like my Mule to rock, and this often goes too trad – it’s well done, but I’ll go back to the originals if I wanna hear ’em done like they were, cool as it is for Haynes and co. to get there.
And yet, there are a cuppla very strong originals and also covers,…
3/5

Luicinda Williams, Jukebox 2 Southern Soul: the other 4 records in this series are that much better, and this is really good, just my least fave of the “genres” she’s doing – it’s a little MOR-ish.
4/5

Nebula, Live in the Mojave: Love it
I’m not sure I could ever give any stoner rock album (except by QOTSA) five stars – be definition it’s not dynamic, sophisticated, pretty, or mainstream. But man, is it cool, made for tequila with bee
4/5

Gang of Four, The Problem of Leisure: Notta Problem
This is sucha cool record that even non-Go4 fans will dig a lot of it – some really creative re-arrangements and even re-imaginings of already unique songs. And the fact that some songs are covered by more than 1 artist is actually bonus. Andy Gill will be missed,…
5/5

James McMurtry, The Horses and the Hounds: Tied for America’s best current songwriter
.. with Jason Isbell, McMurtry is a little older, a little meaner, a little more classically literate, both consistently the best around in all relevant categories of americana*.

*defined as , it ain’t just country, folk, rock or story-tellin’ or jams -…
5/5

Billy Gibbons, Hardware: So much better
… than his other solo work. He not only makes me boogie, he makes me laugh along with him.
5/5

Michael Shrieve, Two Doors: Esoteric
Best with a brandy, late at night …
4/5

Screaming Females, All At Once: Not even gradually
… can I get into this, which is disappointing. They are good players, I think it’s the writing that fails. And she’s so good on that cover with Garbage …
3/5

Lucinda Williams, Jukebox 1 Runnin’ Down a Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty: Best of the 4, sofar?
mmmmmmm, tied with the Dylan; I eagerly await the Stones record.
5/5

Dinosaur, Jr., Without a Sound: Actually, the sound
… of my second yout’. But then, I’m a Mascis fan for years now, even have his jazzmaster.
5/5

Dinosaur, Jr., Sweep It Into Space: Always 5 stars
Yes, I’m a fanboy, but this is really good, and incrementally they keep changing, and Lou always hits one into orbit per record, as J. hits, 4? 5? into outer space.
5/5

Beth Hart, Live at Paradiso: Blooze power
She’s really something to watch and hear, and the band keeps up.
I can’t wait to play this for a new girlfriend, almost any new girlfriend, to really tick her off.
5/5

Creedence Clearwater Revival, Live at Woodstock: Why just now?
This is fantastic, a real expansion of their AM songs – Fogerty was and is a treasure
5/5

Jenny Beth, To Love is to Live: 8675309 does not apply
This is not my style – techno, dance – but man is it done well, and I love Savages and Jenny is savage.
5/5

The Nels Cline 4, Currents, Constellations: Two sides
.. of this band, the, and you could call one currents and the other constellations but good lucking finding the separation between the guitarists, the avant, the melodic, the rhythms, the leads. Cosmic and brainy and not not-rock jazz.
5/5

Chris Cornmell, No One Sings Like You: No one
… shoulda released this like this – such a waste, and I usually like O’Brien’s work (check out Shaver’s live “Bar” record for him on great guitar, also) but this feels like … product, despite the occasional brilliant vocal moments.
2/5

Jason Isbel and the 400 Unit, Live from Alabama: Love ‘im live
Play it with his latest live record, it’s close onto a concert. When’s one o’ them comin’?
5/5

Tommy Bolin, Whips and Roses:

Tommy
Bolin.
Says it all.
5/5

Cheap Trick, Another World: Fun
It’s fun Trick, one of the only bands whose material seems to improve as it gets older, this is on the pop side, mebbe?
3/5

Bruce Spingsteen, The River: Nostalgia
take me to the river, wash me down
this is like the soundtrack to my only marriage
5/5

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Way Down in the Rust Bucket: Why did we hafta wait?
This should have come out years ago, my new fave live Neil. Try it in headphones …
5/5

Grifters, Eureka: what you’d like
… if yer a Grifters fan, and I am. 3/5

Review: Smith / Kotzen

Listening thru headphones vs. on the room stereo is quite a difference.
Good in the cans.
But, great production played on my 300w. system (Klipsch Heresy’s with two 50w. Yama subs, 100/ch Yama integratedreceiver).

It’s really interesting, the aesthetic. Yes, strong 70’s, but other stuff, 80’s hair-metal, swing-drums, consistently slick but not flashy production, 90’s/early 00’s vocal treatment make a pretty novel approach.
Speaking of what, it’s cool how they change up the vocal reverbs, from big plate to intimate room, mebbe sometimes in the mix and other times with the sensitivity, gates, etc.

Ya’s may recall Rubin’s then novel technique of like little or 0 reverb on the voc – Danzig, Cash; Drakoulias engineered and used that to a lesser degree on Black Crowes.

But then ya had Visconti doin’ Bowie’s “Heroes” 10(?) yrs. earlier where he used a long real room, put a mic close to Bowie and one mebbe like 10′ and 20′ and/or  30′ out, etc., and used gain and gates to control which mic came onto the track – the louder Bowie sang the more distant the mic was activated (point of fact: nowadays track count is not limited by the tape, so you just record 3-5 tracks and edit them together for the same result – but back then …)
Here, it’s either a wonderful room or a expensive artificial set of verbs (racks? plugins?)

Note that the band are the producers!
Matter of fact, the band is the two named guys, with both playing guitars and bass, and Kotzen playing half the drums (notably the first 5 songs in a row – they are correctly confident) – the other drums by studio guys.
Really, really good, clear, pretty, compressed production.

And they wrote it all – lotsa cleverish one liners: “not you, but you know who”, etc.; mebbe a little heavy-handed, like the well-sung vox are cock-rock exaggerated.
Tight doubles and chorus vox, also.

I like how they can be slightly off, (no reverb cover) and they miss a note once in a while on a lead voc, also.

Not my playing/writing style at all – I would never play guitar like this (altho’ I would the bass, even if I don’t much, and I too, like pull-offs, but not tapping except as a walk-up or walk-down) is mostly played, but it’s well-done, often melodic, thankfully nearly whammy-bar negative (I’m more about rhythm and speed and noise) – great sounds.
I didn’t read any reviews but I just looked up “making of” and found this:

Smith/Kotzen: putting two guitarists together in a studio can be dangerous …it says the drums were originally just guides.

Little production touches are cool, too, like the cymbal bell in “You Don’t Know Me” the varying vocal reverbs and guitar delays and processing/doubling, the gated snare sounds, the emo cymbal-washes.
And they avoid Sabbath and GnR and punk and funk – it’s hard rock/metal, man. But there’s lotsa Dio, Purple Foghat, Zep, Soundgarden (without the BS), and EVH.

4.5 olives (docked a half olive for re-instating cock rock as viable)

Xmas records

Yep, too late for this year, but hey, I only started listening.

I reco:

Lucinda Williams

Joey Ramone (the e.p.)

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

Then, in no order of preference:

Cheap Trick

Billy Idol

Bob Dylan

I mean, if ya gotta, these are all somewhat rockin’ or otherwise cool. Lucinda’s is particularly good as a record, not just a Xmas record.

Vlayman: *ffmf (a e.p.)*

1. FFMF 03:40
2. Leave That Thing Alone 03:58
3. What I Already Know 03:52
4. Make Some 04:01
5. That Bad 04:28

released December 21, 2021

writrecordedmixtmasturdseqenced at Fetacentralrecording DDL by vlayman in Dec. ’21.

All noises by yo except Snarl on drums, except nettage drums on #2 and Sdrums with Tomcoe on guitar on #4.

Fartwerk: Jose Jones

all rights reservedbandcamp;
blog.
I mix with olive juice

Babbling about influences

I just responded inna email inna discussion where a friend said,

“I am not into the industrial music metal or otherwise.   My top ten bands are the Beatles, Led Zep, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Jimi Hendrix, the Stones, The Who, Santana, Robin Trower, Metallica.  Old School for the most part. “

That you mention all of those older – even if some are still contemporary – bands, and Metallica, is a function of age!
I’d at least add Bowie and Zep.
I have a hard time naming fave bands, finding it easier to do so within genres, and eras.
Example: I love Merle Haggard and say, Johnny Cash – not everything they did (I am not big on the religious stuff) but they are seminal to my appreciation of country-that-became-americana.  Later, I like Waylon and Shaver, then Chris Knight and Lucinda, now Isbell and Shire and Sturgill, as well as the others still around. Jack White’s Loretta Lynn album is genius, BTW.
Re eras, I’ll say one thing: Stones.
Re industrial, I used to see Stabbing Westward quite a bit at Avalon (where I didn’t pay cover), and I think Reznor and friends are genius. Most of the rest of it are shite, altho’ Kidney Thieves and especially Curve are good.
Re genres in general, I’m also a huge punk fan, and a power-pop fan and grunge fan – let’s not even get into jazz.
And or course, I’m a musician, which totally effects everything else.
For a long time I played like Zappa, Keef, Ralphs, Berry, Jimi and Jimmy and Neil. As time went on I picked up SRV, Guy, Rush, Vernon Reid, Ulmer, Sco, Haynes, Thayil, and my current absolute fave is Mascis. I think Mike Campbell, too, altho’ he is so subtle in everything … A lot of that is ‘tude and approach, not so much stealing licks.
On acoustic I like Keef, Townshend, McMurtry, Isbell, Earle …
But I also play bass, and started out with Andy Fraser and Larry Graham and Bootsie and JPJ, Wyman and Townshend (he wrote the Ox’s best lines, IMO, as Keef did on some songs), Simonon, and even, dare I say, Jaco …  I try Pino but he’s as tough as Jaco.
Lately I been adding going “backwards” to Lemmy and Lou Barlow (basically a rhythm guitar style on bass).
Re your list then, I agree, except much of the Beatles bore me, Purple and Sabbath can be somewhat spotty …
Re my list, that is off the cuff.

BTW

If you see lotsa typos, then it was writ in real time, likely buzzed.

Jes’ sayin’.

Plant/Krauss: *Raise the Roof*

Really good – awesome production (T-bone) and cuppla of my fave guitarists (Buddy Miller and Marc Ribot), a cover of a Lucinda fave and Lucinda herself on BV’s on a song.
What voices, what musos – atmospheric as hell.

Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals & More -Studio Concert Series No. 2

Lucinda Williams: Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals & More – In Studio Concert Series No. 2

Song 3 is “Ode to Billy Joe”, and whatta ode it is. Man, there is other songs (not ion here) what give shivers like “The Torture Never Stops” to “Black Betty Bam-a-lam” to “Brown Sugar” to “Last Kiss” but the kindsa shivers “Ode to BJ” gives is they own thing, and ya cain’t help but think if only they’d stopped with BJ’s.

“I Can’t Stand the Rain” – look out Tina; it auin’t better but it’s right there.

There’s more, too, “You’ll Lose a Good Thing” to “Take Me to the River” to “Rainy Night in Georgia” – the whole band is great and I’m lovin’ the understated, tasty guitar, but also that MS-type rhythm section.

It grooves.

I wrote about some from her Studio Concert Series before, even mentioned this one: this, friends, is so loose and so pro at the same time that – if it’s not her best (and there’s so many great original records – her, latest before this, say) it’s certainly among the best covers records I know, next to her others.

And Motorheads’s.

Some pedals reviewed

Carl Martin is great stuff – recently got the envelope filter and it’s pretty unique in sound, approach, and appearance. But CM is also somewhat rare and tends to be over US$100/ a pedal, what is my cap.

The Marshall delay I have is a fave, one of two on my main live board (and I do have other choices).

I was recently reading about something else based on the Guv’nor, can’t quite recall which …

A Dr. Green bass reverb pedal 9sounds great but can be a little noisy at high settings)

The MXR Timmy and MXR Sugar Drive.

The former is a nice solid boost-2-OD pedal with a little distortion available – awesome nano size.

The latter is also nano, said to be a Klon Klone, it moves nicely between OD and distortion-not-quite-fuzz, with a switchable buffer (that seems to brighten when engaged, no matter what the chain is). They stack well, also.

Then I ran into a really good deal on the Roger Mayer bass drive pedal, really nice and not really like much else, altho’ the DOD Bi-Fet is kinda close (but brighter) …

I feel like I have so many great dirt options!

The Dry Martini pedal from Tone City (Fuxx Fuzz was mentioned above). <US$50 bucks, it’s a decent distortion but a really good OD.

S’posed to be a OCD clone but seems heavier to me, a little less top.

Some used pedals:

1-Spot Voltage Doubler: because 18v. gives more headroom, which can improve some pedals, is necessary for others.
Fulltone, Fat Drive: pretty cool on bass, 9v. is good, currently on the PF50t where it creates a natural drive sound at low volume.
Fulltone, Fulldrive3: excellent on guitar, especially at 18v. I’m tryna choose between this, the Timmy and the Meat,Jr. for an OD/boost to front my guitar board.
Orange, Fur Coat: I bought it drunk, thought it was a envelope octave. It’s an octave fuzz, OK, not great on bass, and kinda big. I really like the 2-Stroke from this line, and am still looking to get the OD cheap.
A curly cord: because curly cord.

Xotic SL: very nice MIAB – I like it better than the DLS Mk II.

The Tech 21 version is great for DI – I don’t use those on the board. The Joyo is close … (the cab sim is not defeatable, which I think it is on the T21).

But I was looking for one on the board I’m building for Fender amps (my Ampeg, T21 and Vox amps having “Marshall” channels).

This S/L could be it.

1st world guitar-nut problems .

Xotic Soul Driver pedal: I think this one is a pretty recent design. Very cool all chrome box, two DIP’s innit that allow you to boost 2, 3 or 6 db at 125Hz, a tone control, mid control, gain and volume. With the gain down it’s a very nice EQ-able boost; the gain allows OD to dirty OD to distortion. And it’s loud. This is my second Xotic pedal (after the S/L above) and it’s really solid – it just might make my board.

Rowin Frenzy: a fuzz pedal with a switchable “push 1” and “push 2) that the latter seems a little hotter and brighter. Under US$30 this thing is remarkable for how it cleans up with the guitars volume control – very impressive, and makes for a nice almost-Muff fuzz. And, it’s like 1″ x 2”, about 1/4 the size of a standard noise-box.