DeSeipel

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:27:00 +0000

test post.

Things are different: Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:32:00 +0000

So where was I? Oh yeah, I had just landed in Chicago and was trying desperately to get home. Steph was in the hospital and she was only 32 weeks along.

I should mention, I'm writing this 3 years later. I fully intended on writing part two, but for some reason or another, never got around to it.

Back to the story: I locate the Budget Rent a Car facility and drive out of the airport, not really knowing where the fuck I'm going, because I've never driven from Ohare to home. I usually fly from Chicago to Peoria (hey, I'm cheap. I know ...it's like a 25 min flight). So I'm driving ... and getting lost quickly. I make what seems like 54 U-turns and find the interstate that goes south. I don't recall which one, probably I-90? By this time, it's easily midnight if not later. Do you know what toll-roads are? They're the way that IL robs people by way of annoying toll booths for each interstate. I should mention, I don't carry case, let alone change when I travel. The reason? It's one more thing to manage through the X-ray machines; don't bother with change. Fuck change. So I come across the toll booth, with no change and I'm in a hurry to get to Peoria. The toll booth lady let's me pass! Feeling pretty good, I drive on....

So at around 1:45am, the exhilaration of a free pass from the toll booth has long worn off and I'm chugging coffee from random gas stations, while driving. I didn't hit any deer or racoons (racoons is another business trip to Chicago, lol. There was literally blood on the rental car, lol!). So I make it to the hospital at around 2:30am in Peoria. Steph is pretty much sleepy or sleeping and I crash on the couch-thing they have there.

Around 8 or 9 the next morning, I get up and we get briefed on the status. If I recall, Steph water hadn't exactly broke, but it was leaky. Not sure how that works, but whatever. So we wait. No labor pains, no pain at all (that I recall Steph having). I, on the other hand, was pretty ragged from the adventure of getting home. Not a lot happened for a few hours. We ate breakfast, lounged around, watched tv (coincidentally, President Obama was in Peoria on that day) and we generally did a lot of waiting. So after lunch, it was 'decided' that it was safe for me to go home, shower and let the dog out and feed him. And that's what I did. I drove the 30 minutes back to Metamora and let the dog out, fed him and took a much needed shower. I remember not being the slightest bit worried about Steph going into labor. Not a care in the world. No labor yet. And labor is something that takes hours and hours, I'd have plenty of time. Plenty. I get dressed and sort of look around the house and notice how quiet it is. Afterall, this could be the last moments of peace around the house with kids coming.soon. I drive the 30 minutes back to the hospital. I hear the news report of possible traffic being backed up on I74 due to the President leaving town. So I take an alternate route to the hospital. I get there and park, go up to the 4th or 5th floor and walk into our room.

Both Steph and her mom say, "WHERE WERE YOU?"

For a split second, there's the reaction to be sarcastic. I could say, " Oh, I stopped and decided to build a barn on the side of the road. You know, for the poor". But I don't. Instead I mutter out the obvious answer.

"I went home and fed the dog and took a shower. What's going on?"

I look down and walk over to the chair to sit, not expecting what came next.

"You missed it, I had them." said Steph.

"What are y... WHEN?" I say.

"About 20 minutes ago, it was real fast..." said Steph.

You'll have to ask Steph for the actual events as I wasn't there. Needless to say, I was in complete shock and I couldn't believe that I'd missed it. I missed it, despite the accomplishment of making it home under cancelled flights and a 3 hour drive in the middle of the night. Unbelievable. That is the story of the birth of the twins, the race to get home and how I missed their birth.

Tony Williams Fred, minus drums

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:05:00 +0000

I'm proud to announce that I've finished work on my drumless backing track! It took me about a month to complete and here it is!

Tony Williams' 'Fred' is one of those tunes you hear and it all changes. At least for me, that's how it was. The drums really make this track, as you can hear. Feel free to download, or do what ever with this. I only ask for the credit if you use the track.

Sting's Wild Wild Sea

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:38:00 +0000

Not sure when I first heard this song, but I think I had rented Sting Unplugged from Hollywood Video while I was living on Forrest Hill in Peoria, IL. After watching it, I wasnt in a hurry to return it because it's that good. The song 'Wild Wild Sea' tells the story of a man who see's a ghost ship in the darkening sky. The man sleep walks into the sea, following the north star and the moon. He swims all night and finds himself on deck of a ship. Everything is silent around him. He then sleeps for what seems an eternity. When he awakens, he's in white linen and the sky is turning grey. Through the oncoming storm, he sees a sailor. When he gets close enough, he discovers it's his father. 'Lost in the wild, wild, sea refers to the ocean of emotions that he felt after his father died. The song, in my opinion is perfectly crafted around this story. And what personal story to tell. Perhaps thats why I like it so much.

John Bonham's Last Zeppelin show

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 03:58:00 +0000

John Bonham's Last Zeppelin Show I haven't downloaded this yet. And I don't remember hearing about John Bonham's death in 1980, I was only 4 years old. I never really got into Zeppelin until I was about 14. And I don't even remember why I got into it in the way I did. I remember it being a big deal to hear 'Stairway to Heaven' on the radio. The first Zeppelin album we had was probably Led Zeppelin II or the first album. It was on cassette. This was back in the days of no Internet. The days of having to order or look for 'Hammer of the Gods' in book form. There used to be bootlegs on sale at CoOp Records in Peoria, IL. Or you could look in the back of some magazines and find ads for live concerts for sale. Not from that show, but close

Looking

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:22:00 +0000

Looking at sequencers, samplers and stuff...

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:27:00 +0000

Thank you for using Picture and Video Messaging by U.S. Cellular. See www.uscellular.com for info.

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:56:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 05:59:00 +0000

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2011/10/henry_rollins_the_column_coppi.php

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:26:00 +0000

test post from Blogger.

Brubeck tune via Ligon

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:19:00 +0000

that tune is great for learning to hear 9/8. Here are the accents:

123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789

or something like that. You can do a similar thing when learning to feel 7/8, 5/8 and on and on. File this under rhythm, the power of accents can make a song seem more complex than what it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx4V4M3rnoY&feature=player_embedded

--
Dan

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noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 01:36:00 +0000

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noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:34:00 +0000

so I was lucky enough to be one of the first folks to get a google plus account. I dumped facebook about a year ago.

Gretsch Catalina Birch 2010 Review

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 02:21:00 +0000

Over the past year or so, I’ve wanted to buy a drum kit that would be my main ‘gigging’ kit. I own a very nice Gretsch USA Custom kit, that I purchased in 2002(?). I love that kit, but I didn’t want to take it out to bars or clubs and run the risk of something happening to it. I was pretty sure that I wanted another Gretsch kit, but I also checked out Yamaha and building a custom kit myself. I looked at used kits on ebay, checked the specs for new kits and did the math on having a kit built, custom. My budget was around $1000. All the used kits that I looked at had some detail that I didn’t care for. The custom kits, while extremely nice, would’ve been too much for my budget. I kept ending up back at Gretsch kits.
At first, I looked at the Catalina Maple series. They weren’t too expensive and were maple, which is always great. This sounds silly, but I wasn’t too hip on the color selection that they had to offer. That’s when I came across the Birch series. What I found was that the Birch series were unique in that they utilized the 35 degree Gretsch bearing edge and also came stock with 7 ply. This meant that they should project more volume and have a lower fundamental tone. Not a lower pitch, but more of a lower end quality. I play mostly modern rock, so this suited me well.
I chose the Euro shell pack, which basically consists of a 22” bass drum, 10” & 12” toms, 16” floor tom and a standard 14” snare drum. Around a week later the order arrived at my local shop. The only assembly required was to put the bass drum & floor tom heads on. The snare and BD-mounted toms were pre-packaged and tuned (sort of).

From Birch

Set up was easy: insert double tom holder, attach toms, extend floor tom legs, attach BD pedal and use existing SD stand. I will say one thing about the GTS system on this kit: Gretsch only attaches to two lugs (vs 4 on my USA custom kit) and there’s a funky sort of rubber stopper that keeps the tom from hitting metal.

From Birch

Honestly, it does it’s job just fine. The toms were tuned quite high for my tastes and the 10” sounded almost like a toy drum. I quickly tuned it down and it sounds better. I had some trouble getting the floor tom to sound the way I want, but I’ve always had some issues with floor toms. They sound higher when you’re right next to them, but farther away they sound fine.
Right off the bat, the best feature is the Bass drum (isn’t it always this way?). Worst feature: snare drum. WHY, Gretsch, WHY don’t you put a snare bed on this porn-star-of-a-drum-set?

From Birch

I’m half tempted to buy a router and do it myself. I wonder if there’s a reason they don’t though. After some tuning and experimentation, the snare drum became acceptable-sounding, but it still lacks the tonality of a pro snare drum. There’s just no beef to it. I have a Gretsch Maple snare drum and it sounds loads better than this one. It will do fine for bar gigs though. I don’t expect to find any drum snobs anywhere near where I’ll be playing. The snare does have a nice sensitivity to it though. Which reminds me, the hoops on the drums are only 1.75mm single flanged. Again, WHY? I’m sure it has to do with cost containment or something. I’ll bet if these bad boys had die cast, they’d sing a different tune all-together. Sigh, another day my friend.
The color of the kit is beautiful though. I ordered cobalt blue, very blue indeed:

From Birch

Overall, I’m very happy with the kit. I haven’t gigged yet (this Sunday will be the first) so I may post a follow up. My initial impressions are that the kit sounds pretty good. I’d love to change all the batter heads and do an A/B against the USA Customs, but that is another story. And I have yet to hear it in an environment where I can discern the Birch from Maple (I demo’d it in my basement, which is like playing in a glass amplifier), but I’m hoping to really get a sense of what Birch can do for you! So, for now, I’m a little skeptical on the real difference between Birch & Maple, but time will tell.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
Pros: Cost, Color, Quality, Tonality (pending)
Cons: snare drum, single flanged hoops

Here’s another pic, sorry I’m too lazy to crop some of these:

From Birch

12/16/2010 Update: Ok, so I've gigged quite a bit with these drums now and I owe this post an update. The Birch thing? Yeah, the tone is lower and has more presence. It's a good thing. The snare drum? I don't use it. But this kit has become my main gigging kit, it's great.

YouTube - Sting - Soul Cages (Live 1991)

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 05:37:00 +0000

Vinnie rockin' it with Sting:

Apple in talks to improve sound quality of music downloads - CNN.com

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 15:19:00 +0000

Not only will it sound great, but you'll look great while listening to it! Today's music distribution can be summed up as cheap.easy.shit.

Apple in talks to improve sound quality of music downloads - CNN.com

Very Hip Groove

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 06:32:00 +0000

This is a very hip groove from Gary Chaffee. I haven’t figured out the exact sticking, but stay tuned!

Cell Phone Contracts are killing innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:49:00 +0000

I give up: Corporate GREED.

Verizon Ends New Every Two and Early Upgrades - WSJ.com

Top 10 TV Theme Songs 1980-2011 | Billboard.com

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:02:00 +0000

Top 10 TV Theme Songs 1980-2011 | Billboard.com

Mark Twain Controversy - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/11/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Mark Twain Controversy - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 01/11/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central

Pitch & Rhythm

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:37:00 +0000

Pitch & Rhythm

US Cellular Offers Froyo Update Plans For Their Android Smartphones [US Cellular Details Samsung Acclaim, Samsung Mesmerize, HTC Desire & LG Apex Android 2.2 Froyo Update Schedule] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:37:00 +0000

US Cellular Offers Froyo Update Plans For Their Android Smartphones [US Cellular Details Samsung Acclaim, Samsung Mesmerize, HTC Desire & LG Apex Android 2.2 Froyo Update Schedule] » TFTS – Technology, Gadgets & Curiosities

Summary: end of January.

Sanford Double Beat

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 02:12:00 +0000

This is an excellent article/exercise from SnareScience.com. At higher tempos (or not), this can really isolate your weaknesses.

http://www.snarescience.com/exercises/sanford.pdf

Jojo Mayer / Nerve

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 18:14:00 +0000

Jojo Mayer / Nerve

How to store music from "grooveshark" on your computer

noreply@blogger.com (Dan Seipel) — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:21:00 +0000

How to store music from "grooveshark" on your computer: "http.content_type == 'audio/mpeg'"