Pro Sound Blog

New Year’s Eve gig tonight…. If there is nothing to report I’d be shocked.

mediaguru Gigs

You’re having a drink at the local establishment. Next thing you know you’ve been thrown out on the street because you happen to be the only Yoko Ono fan in the world. It happened.

My band was playing the best live music club in town with a pretty large crowd on hand. Our singer is quite good at “working” an audience with some comments and humor between tunes. One of the things he often says before we play a Beatles song is “why would anyone shoot John Lennon when they had a clear shot at Yoko Ono?” (a valid question I must say)

Upon his delivery of this question someone in the audience yells out “F**K YOU.” Our singer, not to be outdone yells “F**K YOU TOO.” This goes back and forth and our singer says “Jesus Christ, we have the only Yoko Ono fan in the world in our audience…I remember what it was like when I had my first beer too.”

Yoko Ono fan: “F**K YOU”
Singer: “Why are you messing with me? Do I go to your job and rock the slurpee machine?” (audience laughs).
Yoko Ono fan: “F**K YOU”
Singer: “Come up here buddy, let’s make up.”
Yoko Ono fan comes up to the stage…
Singer: “I had a guy like you last night only he had a human head!”
Yoko Ono fan takes a drunken swing at our singer and finds himself being tossed out of the bar by the bouncers.

That’s what you get for being the only Yoko Ono fan in the world.

mediaguru Boneheads, Gigs

My back yard 2, originally uploaded by mediaguru.

Do you have a nice view in your back yard?

This is what my back yard looks like this Christmas Eve…

mediaguru Random

Tonights gig was at a new club for me. The other two guys in the band had played there before when I had a sub though.

The club was a pretty cool place and it was packed. I was happy to see an awesome crowd. One of the worst things to have to do as a musician is play in front of no crowd. Our poor bass player has been suffering from pneumonia and he did a great job.

An old pal of mine Jason dropped in to the show tonight from Scottsdale, AZ. Jason is the marketing manager for Fender Audio. Jason is also a crazy guy who had a really cool punk surf band a while back. I let him know about the happenings with this blog and the forum section and he said he would try to link from Fender’s site and he’d post some news in the forums! He also jumped up on stage and sang a song with us tonight (see pic).

There is a stereotype of rock & roll musicians that we always get hot chicks. That’s nice but sometimes there are some “other” types of chicks that are into the band as well. Tonight was a prime example.

There was this obnoxious chick who was drunk as hell. She had the hots for our bass player and stood in front of him almost all night. Finally her mullet ridden boyfriend came up and grabbed her and dragged her away from the stage. I managed (while still playing the drums) to snap this pic (below) right when he grabbed her around her head. They both bit the dust by the side of the stage and couldn’t get up for quite some time…

mediaguru Boneheads, Gigs, Musicians

I’m multitasking right now. Playing chess with my daughter, posting here and watching “modern marvels.” Modern Marvels is one of seemingly very few TV programs worth watching these days.

I’ve been on a news posting frenzy over in the Pro Sound Blog FORUMS. If you haven’t yet, please visit the FORUMS and join in.

Tomorrow night is a gig at a new club I haven’t played at before. I wonder if there will be a decent crowd. A report will follow.

I’ve got to hit the local drum shop tomorrow because I broke my snare head at the last gig. I was going to post a link to my pal’s drum shop, but they apparently don’t have a web site. Perhaps I need to talk to them…

mediaguru Random

Every so often a band or album comes out that is simply beyond anything else out there. On the jazz end of things THE BAD PLUS is that band.

THE BAD PLUS is a 3 piece (piano, acoustic bass & drums). They play a combination of jazz/latin/x. “X” is a measurement of an unknown factor. Really, I am at a loss of words to describe what these guys are like and how they play but if you are a musician, these guys will blow you away.

I saw THE BAD PLUS live this summer from the FRONT row. Let me tell you the drummer is INSANE and insanely good. The piano player must have two brains because his right hand can be playing one tune/tempo/key, while his left plays another. The bass player is solid, dynamic and strangely looks just like the bass player in my band. And dynamics? No band has more.

Their second album “Give” was recorded in October of 2003 at Real World Studios in Wiltshire, England. Does that studio sound familiar? It should. It is the studio owned by Peter Gabriel.

“Give” is The Bad Plus’ second collaboration with Tchad Blake, maestro of binaural recording. Binaural recording is interesting and a whole other subject matter for another day. In short they record with a “head” that has microphones in the ears. This captures a 3D aural image just like the human ears do.

You can download The Bad Plus’ music on iTunes if you want to get it quick after reading this article. Do it, it will change your musical life.

mediaguru Musicians

Ordered 1200 Ritek CD-Rs from these guys. The order was placed on the 7th. I just got the discs today, 13 days later. Ok, that’s bad but that isn’t why I’m posting this.

Just look at these pictures:

Look at the dirt, dust & scratches on the discs above.

The obove disc has a freaking TIRE TRACK on it.

Scratches, pieces of plastic stuck to the discs above, and even chunks out of the plastic.

This disc above is great, isn’t it? I’m sure a client will be happy when I burn his project on this eh?

STAY AWAY FROM AWEDEALS.COM

mediaguru Rants

I listen to my iPod when I mow the lawn. With this new feature I may never finish the lawn..

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Click here for more info.

mediaguru Gear, Random

BMW Repair, originally uploaded by mediaguru.

Killing time at the gig. Tonight it is a corporate christmas party. We had to have our gear setup by 6pm but we don’t play until 8:30 (if all their little “presentations” don’t go too long). These corporate gigs are almost all carbon copies of each other. On the breaks they had two CDs they wanted us to play: Kenny G’s Christmas and Mannheim Steamroller Christmas…..Pardon me while I puke.

About the only thing of interest at tonight’s gig is what I noticed about our singer’s car (see picture). I’m wondering if this was done by a certified BMW repair center?

mediaguru Boneheads, Gigs, Random

The story you are about to read is fiction.

Some fans of my band had a problem with a jerk of a club owner one night. The club was a dive and was about ready to go out of business. These fans were so mad they wanted to get back and the owner for being such an ahole.

So they decided that they were going to “acquire” the club’s PA. The PA had a pair of high speakers with 15″ cones and horns. The subs were 18″. These were of a brand to be unnamed at this time but I understand they were from Lansing. There were also a few wedge monitors, cables and more.

Ok their plan is in place except for one problem: They are too drunk to drive. So they call a cab. When the cab arrives they inform the cabbie that they’re stealing the PA from this club. The cabbie then volunteers to help them because he too has been wronged by the ahole club owner. The cabbie even helps them load the speakers out of the club.

Only about 1/2 of the PA fits into the cab. So they actually load the first half, take it home and return for the other half!

mediaguru Gear, Gigs, Random