The 2-String Bass Project
I went down a weird Presidents of the United States trip, discovered their unique guitar set-up, and thought, “I can do that.” In a nutshell, their two guitars are hybrids. One is a three-string “guitbass,” and the other is a two-string “basitar.”
And since I now own two electric guitars, with one relegated to the garage and basically ignored and deed “less than,” I thought I would try my hand at hacking it up.
I followed the instructions from this site and did the following:
- Removed the strings on my guitar
- Filed the nuts in the third and fourth position*
- Re-strung with two heavier-for-me guitar strings. A .060 gauge for the “low,” and a .036 gauge as the “high.”
- These were tuned to C# and A#, respectively. That way, as the site says, you barre them both on the same fret, and it makes a chord.
- And that’s it.
I realize I’m not the first person to mess around with the make-up of his guitar, or to make it this two-string model, but it’s kind of empowering. I may take it a step further to add ANOTHER low string, tuned to C# as well, just to see if I can boost the power. But it sounds pretty good as it is.
Anyway. . . that’s that.
*I may have messed this up. I was positive that’s where they would go, so that the strings could tune at the highest, farthest point. But a lot of the images I saw after the fact look like the two strings are spread more apart. If I did get it wrong, it hasn’t stopped my sound quality or playing.
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The album, I mean. Or do I? We shall see.
As I mentioned in a previous post, many of my all time favorite Stones songs appear on 1969’s “Let It Bleed” album, while not necessarily being cuts off of that album. So I got to thinking what the ultimate mega-mix of “Let It Bleed” would be, giving me the best versions (known to me) of each song.
Here’s how that list goes down, and I’ll note the version next to it. Continue reading ‘The Best Version of “Let It Bleed”’
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Welcome to the five billionth web post on modern comic book movies. Enjoy my gripes!
The Marvel Movies are boring because they never end, so things never really change, except when they do change due to real-life situations (casting decisions) in which case change is awful. When you get down to it, what are the thrills offered by the Marvel Movies.
Spectacle, to be sure.
Funny dialog, yes.
Characters we care about… debatable. I think the movies have been very, very, VERY well cast.
Characters doing things we love to see them do, yes.
Well made movies… also debatable, but I’ll allow it. No one could say these movies are bad PRODUCTIONS at all. We’ll get into my equally unpopular opinion on this topic in a moment.
All of these things are serviceable movie product, and good for them. However with all of these qualities, one thing we do not get from these movies is closure. Granted, that’s not a reason to go to a movie necessarily. At least not a conscious reason. But there is a certain Hollywood Magic that comes from the Hollywood Ending. Good defeats Evil, Boy gets Girl, Little Boy Saves the Town, all that stuff.
Those things don’t exactly happen with the Marvel Movies. They just SORT OF happen. They wrap up the story at hand, but (as we are constantly reminded a zillion times per movie) there’s a bigger story building* in the background, and we won’t see the resolution to that in another 5+ movies.
And when that resolution finally does come… how do I put this… Look, the good guys are gonna win, OK? They just are. Sure, some of them might die (for a movie or two, as they sort out more contracts), and there might be some sort of bitter sweet moments here and there, but all in all, I’m betting that “Avengers 6: Thanos Time” doesn’t end with Thanos killing all the Avengers, enslaving humanity and then camping down on Earth for a while. Somehow, someway, our heroes will muster up the courage to team up and defeat this guy and drive him off. That’s what they do. They’re superheroes. It’s the thing that they do all the time.
I’m sure I sound like a bitter old man, and I am fine with my lot, but I cannot get over this resolution thing. And this may make me sound like not only a bitter old man but a CRAZY bitter old man, but I think it’s all a symptom of Binge Culture. We have come to expect and settle for content, not entertainment. There’s less discerning taste if the show we’re watching doesn’t stop. Netflix added an auto play feature so if you’re watching (what you think is) your favorite show, and you get a dud episode, don’t worry — another one is on the way. Same with Marvel Movies. “Didn’t like ‘Thor: Dark World?’ Don’t worry, another one is coming real soon. Please don’t watch anything else. We love you so much mwah mwah mwah!”
Yes, it’s hard to make good movies. Yes, it’s hard to KEEP making good movies. But it’s also hard to make a good finale, even harder to make a great one. So far, this is a story only heading for more story.
*And really, the Thanos stuff don’t feel like “story building” in that there’s no craft to it. It’s more like how stories happen on soap operas: little bits happen here and there until you’ve accumulated enough data to constitute what legally qualifies as a “story.” There’s no structure, so there’s very little tension. What did we, as an audience, gain by seeing Thanos in “Guardians of the Galaxy” that we couldn’t have gained storywise with that same scene in any of the other Marvel Movies? Why did it have to happen then? Knowing why things had to happen when they had to happen is what makes a storyteller good. It’s why Luke couldn’t know Vader was his father in the first “Star Wars” movie. It’s why Fredo had to be a little bit of a screwup in the first “Godfather.”
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Tags: avengers, bad movies, Batman, boring movies, captain america, comic book movies, dark world, evans captain america, iron man, marvel movies, marvel studios, rdj iron man, superhero movies, thor, ultron
Catalog Run: Weezer
Every now and then, I’ll run through the entire catalog for an artist or band. And today, it’s Weezer, a band with which the world has (apparently) had a weird relationship. *PLEASE NOTE: This was written BEFORE hearing “The Black Album.” Which makes some of my statements questionable.
It’s always the same with Weezer — “They haven’t been good since ‘Pinkerton.’” Since that album and their debut Blue Album have created a kind of gravity well around their entire body of work, I tried a kind of “Post-Gravity” run, going through every album EXCEPT for those two. It’s an effort to keep my mind clear on them, to see if anything truly is worth hearing, or to avoid entirely. Continue reading ‘Catalog Run: Weezer’
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Tags: black album, blue album, catalog, green, Maladroit, pinkerton, weezer, Weezer Black Album, weezer blue, weezer green, weezer white
The Deep Britpop Dive
Spurred by my previous post, I’m currently listening to Oasis’ live album “Familiar To Millions.” It’s my fourth or fifth time trying to complete this listen as A) it’s pretty long, a double album, and B) the swearing limits my playing around my kid. I was encouraged to dive deeper into their catalog, as well as the albums of Blur (a band I’ve held in the weird non-opinion status). So I did. Here are some thoughts. Continue reading ‘The Deep Britpop Dive’
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Tags: 1990s, Alt Rock, blur, British Rock, Britpop, Champagne Supernova, Lyrics, Music, Oasis, Park Life, rock, Wonderwal
Requiem for Oasis
I’m not sure what the universe/Big Brother algorithm had in store for me, but it put this band in front of me recently and it has arrested my brain. I watched the documentary “Supersonic,” which was executive produced by both Gallagher brothers*. This along with a recent video on Brit Pop and a discovery of the band’s discography available online has sent them into my ears like it was 1995 again. I’ve realized that I largely ignored their later period, and have barely heard any of Noel Gallagher’s solo work. This re-think basically boils down to a major question:
Was Oasis great?
This is a fundamental question to ask, since the very idea of being great, “the greatest,” or anything in between seems to be at the very core of the band’s existence. Continue reading ‘Requiem for Oasis’
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Getting a Dog = Music Dog Puns
My son has been asking for a dog for years, and this year we finally pulled the trigger. We adopted Bodhi, a former rescue, who is a mix of Basenji and Mini-Pinscher. He’s pretty well trained and very nice.
None of that matters. What matters is what music puns I can get out of this dog’s name.
The first was Kool Bodhi, like “Kool Moe Dee.” This one has stayed pretty steady, though my ignorance of Kool Moe Dee’s catalog limits my range.
Next we came up with Depeche Bode, which I’m very proud of. He’s a quiet dog, so he does, in fact “enjoy the silence” and finds “words are very unnecessary.”
Bodhi’s been in our lives for almost a month, and it’s only recently that I’ve finally come up with the greatest names. It took me all this time that I’m almost angry at myself.
The names are:
Bodhi Ramone and David Bodhi.
These are goldmines.
First the Bowie/Bodhi relationship allows for some easy bits, given the fact that titles like “Diamond Dogs” and “Queen Bitch”are already in the catalog. Songs like “Moonage Daydream” give me a chance to sing “I’m a mini-pinscher/I’m a little Basenji for you-u-u.” You can go crazy coming up with alter-egos and concept albums such as “The Rise and Fall of Scooby Stardust and the Spaniels From Mars.” It’s only limited by rhyming abilities.
But with the Ramones catalog so dear to my heart, I went nuts. Here now is the set-list Bodhi Ramone would play if he did, in fact, sing in a seminal dog punk band:
- Rockaway Leash
- Teenage You-Gotta-Pee
- Shitzu-Kreig Bop
- Gimme Gimme Some Treats Man
- Beat on the Cat
- Judy is a Pug
- I Wanna Walk Your Boyfriend
- Rachel is a Dog-Walker (my wife’s name subbed in for Sheena)
- Bodhi Goes to Bite-burg
- Walk-n-Roll Dog School
- Highest Tails Above
- I Wanna Lick
- Wart Dog
- Too Ruff To Die
- Barking At the Moon (Sha-La-La-La)
- The KKK Took my Rabies Away
- I Don’t Wanna NOT Walk Around With You
- Today Your Love, Tomorrow Your Love
- Penhead (with refrain “Gabba-Gabba STAY!”)
Encore:
- Now I Wanna Sniff Some Poo
- Pet Semetary
I’m sure I missed some. I just need to pick the right dog jackets.
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