Let’s start with the fact that on November 19th, megaphone opened for AC/DC at the Amway Arena in Orlando.  A lot of bands will tell you that they “opened” for this or that band, and a lot of times what they mean is “well, actually, we played early in the day at a festival that Metallica headlined, and we were actually on a side stage, that was located in the parking lot, and everyone that went to the show walked right passed us, so yea, we opened for Metallica!”  Don’t get me wrong, that sounds like a pretty sweet gig, and we’ve played plenty of those too, but that’s not what I’m talking about here.  We were direct support for one of the biggest, most badass rock n’ roll bands left on the planet!  It was nothing short of a dream come true.  I saw my first (and many more after the first) concert ever in that arena, I’ve seen more Magic games than I can count in that arena, and I even ran lights for The Verve Pipe when they opened for KISS… in that arena!  To stand on that stage, look out at a crowd that numbered well into 5 digits, and play my guitar cranked up to 11 was something that I’ve dreamed about since i was 13 years old.

Of course there are naysayers.  Scott’s previous blog post says alot, and truth be told, we hadn’t even come off stage yet, and already had 2 emails waiting for us.  One from some dude that was upset about the fact that Matt used the “f” word while this guy’s kid was in the audience.  Hopefully he didn’t have a freakin’ heart attack when his young impressionable son watched the intro to the AC/DC set.  The other email was an anonymous tip that we should learn how to sing.  Sure thing dood… we’ll get right on that!

The bottom line is that we had the time of our lives.  The AC/DC crew treated us better than we ever could have hoped, the catering was incredible, we had a massage therapist in the room next to our dressing room, we rocked the fuck out, we have pictures and video to prove it, we got to watch AC/DC’s set from the BEST seats in the house, and most importantly, the crowd was amazingly kind to us.  For the last time… DREAM COME TRUE!!!

FastForward to December 2nd.  We opened for The Joe Perry Project at House of Blues in Orlando.  In case you don’t know (shame on you if you don’t) Joe Perry is the legendary lead guitarist in Aerosmith.  He is truely a living legend, and in the wake of the turmoil that Aerosmith is in the middle of right now, Joe decided to write, record, and tour with his own solo project.  I really can’t say enough about this show!  It was awesome.  After the show, I heard some fairly critical feedback about Joe’s set, and all I can say about that is that when you bought your ticket, I’m pretty sure it said “The Joe Perry Project”, not “Joe Perry plays in a band that sounds and looks just like Aerosmith”.  (Jim Abbott, I have nothing but love and respect for you, but you got this one wrong!)  Enough about him, WE WERE AWESOME.  Every megaphone show is good, but this one clicked!  Not only did this show pay some bills for us, it also made us a few new friends, and landed us some pretty sweet press, and an awesome new friend and contact over in Melbourne.  All in all, a pretty productive evening, and the icing on the cake was getting to take this pic with Joe after the show.  I actually pushed Matt out of the way so I could stand next to Mr. Perry.  Sorry about that brutha!

So that’s that.  Two incredible shows that just landed in our band’s lap at the end of 2009.  Make no mistake, 2010 is going to be sick.  New music, bigger shows, megaphone on Rock Band 2, a megaphone iPhone app…  the list goes on.  Maybe we’ll even find a record label to get behind us and send us out on the road… well now that’s just crazy talk!

This is another review the same person left. You have to click it to see the full image.

So we can deduce that this person is a Miley Cyrus fan…which makes his/her presence at an AC/DC show incredibly strange. And we can also clearly see that this person is a hypocrite because soon after leaving this incredibly insightful review of Miley’s latest effort, he/she went and left a review of an artist he/she clearly hates (us) just for the sake of letting the world know that he/she was disappointed with our performance. And based on his/her own values, this person also has a pathetic life.

So thank you, anonymous iTunes reviewer. Thank you, first of all, for letting the world know that we opened for AC/DC, and thank you secondly for giving me a good chuckle on a Monday evening.

Now this is some funny shit!  In case you didn’t know, when I’m not rockin’ out with megaphone, I pay bills as a freelance lighting director.  In that line of work, there’s really no better way to make the big bucks than to work in the corporate market, lighting everything from dinner parties to big corporate general sessions.  So here I am working a show for Lockheed Martin, with a production company that I’ve never worked for before, next to a sound engineer that I just met.  In our conversation, of course I mention that I play guitar in an unsigned band (I’m not afraid of some shameless self promotion!) called megaphone.  He says, “If you’re a guitar player, you might find this funny” and opens up his laptop to show me this picture.

My first reaction is, “yea, that’s pretty funny”, but then I quickly realize that I’m looking at a picture of MY GUITAR RIG!!!  He goes on to tell me that this picture has made it’s way around the internet in the circle of production techs that he knows as a fowarded email.  The community of production techs across the country is pretty tight knit and it’s not very hard to count the degrees of separation from one lighting guy, to another video guy, to another audio guy (crewspace.com is a good demonstration of this).  Considering that my first reaction to this photo was to think, “someone has no idea what they’re doing”, I can only imagine how many of my friends, associates, and acquaintances have seen the pic and thought the same thing.  Since it’s my gear, and I ABSOLUTELY know what I’m doing, I feel like an explanation in my defense is in order.  I never FAIL!

First thing to point out is that this picture was photoshopped.  The Sennheiser 421 was pointed at the front of the Marshall head (which contains no speakers, which is what makes the photo funny, in case you didn’t know).  The contraption holding the microphone that is pointing at the Marshall head is called a Z bar.  My mic set up for my guitar rig is two Z bars, taped together facing in opposite directions.  The top Z bar holds the 421 in the picture, and usually mics my 1964 Vox AC-30, and the bottom Z bar holds a 609 that mics the Marshall speaker cabinet below.  This bottom Z bar has been edited out of the picture, but part of it was left in as shown in figure A.  To take it a step further, in figure B you can see where the mic cable attached to the 609 on the cab has been cut out of the picture as well.

figure A

figure B

At this particular show, we had an opening act that was going to be using a Marshall 4×12 just like mine, so rather than load the stage up with a bunch of gear, making change over take a little longer and leaving the band before us with a little less room on stage, I suggested that they just use my cab.  I removed my Vox amp from the top of my cab, and he put his head in its place.  When I was asked if i could remove the 421, I explained that the Z bars are taped together and I was not down with removing the tape only to have to replace it after the band was done with their set. That was a small price to pay for not having to lug another guitar cabinet onto the stage! You’re welcome.

Now I’m all but certain that I’ll probably receive some comments from the peanut gallery about this blog post, and all I can say is that this is absolutely the truth. I have never attempted to mic up a Marshall head.  To whoever the photoshop genius is, I have two things to say:

1. Tight work!  That shit was funny.

2. Thank you for not attaching my name, or my band’s name to the picture.  As funny as it is, it would have been a drag to be associated with something like that without a proper explanation!

I realize that I probably took this a little more seriously than I should have, but being a little OCD, I felt compelled to defend myself and my gear!  I’ve owned that Marshall cab since I was 12 years old and seeing a picture of my old friend with the word FAIL! printed below it made me jump on the defensive.  Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I need to get back to filling out my application to Full Sail!

Rock Band is the new craze in video games. The most basic term to describe it is “rhythm game.” It shows you colors on the screen and you have to press those colors on your plastic instrument controller at just the right time to get points. Once you’re good enough, you can start doing wicked solos behind your head on your little fake plastic guitar, which is what I like to do after a few beers.

The game that started all this was Guitar Hero which, as you would imagine, involved guitars only. Eventually someone got smart and developed the concept into a full band game with two guitars, drums, and even a microphone for someone to sing along. The result is one of the most fun party-game experiences available. My friends and I even started our own band called Dyna and the Rhinos. It’s a long story…

One of the coolest aspects of Rock Band 2 (the most recent Rock Band game besides the Beatles Rock Band) is that it has a store similar to iTunes. You can log on, preview, and buy select songs from select artists. Songs typically sell for $2 and full albums are usually about $20. While it’s a great concept, the developers of the game quickly ran into a big problem: demand was rapidly outpacing their ability to supply. They simply couldn’t program enough songs to keep up with all the bands that wanted in.

That’s when they announced the Rock Band Network. They’re supplying the same software they use to build songs into the game to anyone who wants to give it a shot. Naturally, I wanted to give it a shot. People can program their own songs or songs from other bands (provided they have permission to do so) and then upload them to the network for review. If the songs pass the review process, they’ll end up in the Rock Band store on Xbox 360 some time in November.

You may be thinking “Wow! So you’re going to program every single megaphone song ever in the next week right?!” No. Here’s why…this is a screen shot of what the drum track for “My Favorite New Disaster” looks like (click it for the full view):

Yes, every single little colored block is one note that has to be put in. You have to program 4 difficulties for 3 instruments, plus the vocal track, camera cues, lighting cues, character animations, crowd noise, etc. Granted, some of it is just copying and pasting, but this process is incredibly time-consuming. Plus we have to pay to get back into the studio to get the proper audio tracks we need so don’t expect to see EVERY megaphone song in there.

I can tell you that “Not Your Enemy” will be next, followed by “Gravitate.” The review network is still in closed beta so I’m not able to upload anything yet, but they’re supposed to open it up some time before the end of October so we’re waiting very (im)patiently. If all things go well, you’ll be able to rock out with your friends to some megaphone tunes some time in November. We’ll keep you updated!

The kick pedal is what a drummer uses to hit the kick, or bass, drum. The one in the picture is the same kind that I use. In fact, I’ve used the same one for about 8 years. So what’s the deal with “being single?” Let me show you what some people use.

This is a double kick pedal. It works the same way as a single except you use both feet to rapidly hit the kick drum in succession. There are a lot of good uses for this device that are most prominently found in metal songs. Lars Ulrich of Metallica is famous for his double-kick work. They aren’t restricted to metal either, as Carter Beauford of the Dave Matthews Band uses them to great effect.

Why do I dislike these things? There are a few reasons. First (and least) of all, they’re awkward. Transporting and setting them up is not easy. I’ve dealt with them in the past so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Second, they require an entirely unique kit setup because you have to make room for the second pedal. It obviously can be done and people get comfortable with it, so that’s a small complaint. The real reason I don’t like these things is as follows.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m no expert when it comes to different drumming styles. I come from the John Bonham (Led Zeppelin) school of drumming which is simple, driving, and loud. That said, I see and hear a lot of drummers use these double kick pedals in a way that I can best describe as cheating.

Here’s an example. If you have our new album, listen to the first track, “Write it Down” (or check out our Myspace). At 39 seconds in, there’s a little drum fill that sounds like three fast kick hits. Some drummers would use their double kick pedal to hit the kick drum three times in a row. Sure, that would sound just about the same. But I create the same effect using one kick pedal and a floor tom (here’s a photo of a floor tom in case you’re drumming-impaired). The fill is simply two fast kick hits on the single pedal followed by one tom hit. Three quick hits in succession. It takes practice, but once your foot is fast enough, you can do just about anything on a single pedal that most people do on a double.

Here’s another example from our album. In “Bad to Good,” at 2:31 there’s a big drum fill. It’s a pretty standard fill consisting of double hits. Two kick, two snare, two kick, two tom, two kick, two tom, etc. Again, some people would use a double kick pedal to get those fast double kick hits. But why bother when you can achieve the exact same thing with a single?

Ok one more…this one is way more simple. In “What If…” in the second and last choruses (1:58 and 2:51) I throw in a couple of fast kick hits. This is something that I hear KoRn’s drummer do all the time, except he uses two kick pedals to do it. That, my friends, is lame.

I don’t think I’m the cat’s pajamas or anything. I’m just proud of my foot’s ability to hit the kick pedal pretty quickly. The point of this post, I suppose, is to inspire veteran and potential drummers. If you use or are thinking of using a double kick pedal, make sure you’re putting it to good use. Come up with intricate fills that couldn’t be replicated on a single pedal. Or if you’re already using a double kick pedal to do fills like the ones I described, try ditching your second pedal and figuring out how to do it all on one. Your foot will thank you.

***DISCLAIMER*** I do not claim to be a professional writer, or music critic.  I also do not think that I am too cool to like music that has the ability to appeal to the mainstream.  If I did, I would probably have a job as a professional writer and music critic.

August 1st, 2009 - 101.1 WJRR’s Native Noise Presents megaphone’s CD release party @ House of Blues with guests Vega Under Fire, The Shoreline, Shut Up & Dance, and Crisis in Hollywood.

Before I get into any details about what happened on stage, I’d like to give you an important statistic.  This show set a new record for attendence at an Orlando Rocks show at the House of Blues.  They had 1,936 people come through the door.  That’s less than 200 away from a sell out, and more people than that venue has ever seen for a local band show.  Big thanks to all the bands on the bill for working their asses off to promote this show and make it such a huge success.  Another huge thanks to every single person who came out to see this show.  I have a new found faith in the state of the local music scene in Orlando, and for that I am more grateful than I can express with words.  On with the show!

Before the doors even opened at 7:00, there was a line wrapping around the building of people waiting to get in.  All of the bands on the bill were completely stoked, and couldn’t wait to get on that stage.  Big thanks to Supa Dave from the Native Noise show on WJRR for coming out and hosting the show. Supa got on stage at 8:00 to get things started.  First up was Vega Under Fire.  I had never seen these guys live before, but had checked them out on myspace.  I knew the tunes were cool, but it’s always a pleasure to see a band get on stage and be as tight live as they sound on studio recordings.  These guys put on a killer show, and from the first down beat, they had the crowd eating out of their hands.  Next up was The Shoreline.  These guys were fresh off of an appearance at the Van’s Warped Tour in Orlando, and it’s clear how they got that slot.  They are a pretty straight forward, four piece band that rocks.  They had great stage presence, killer tunes (some of which are still stuck in my head), and the crowd ate it up!

The Shoreline’s set cleared the way for us to finally do what we had been preparing for the better part of a year and a half.  To say that  the anticipation was intense is the ultimate understatement.  I’ve played a lot of shows in my life, and I don’t think any of them made me feel the way I did when I was standing backstage waiting to play (if you know me and some of the shows that I’ve played, you know that’s a pretty bold statement!).  Supa Dave said some really nice things about us when he introduced us and I’d like to say thanks to him!  From the first note, everything felt right.  We were on a mission to tear the fucking roof off of that place, and we did (with a little help from our friends!).  About halfway through our fourth song (Bad to Good) we broke it down, and Matt came in with a verse of The Beatles’ Hey Jude.  When we got to the “NA NA NA NANANANAAAAA”s, all the other bands (along with Supa) joined us on stage.  It was sick, and the moment was something I may never forget!  Another highlight for me was during our last song (Uncelebrated).  Matt handed his guitar off to David (big thanks to our stage manager David!  Yes, he knows Paul Smith) and went back to rock the shit out of the drums.  That wasn’t even the biggest surprise! As the song starts, here comes my bro Scott rocking on a Les Paul!!!  Hell yea he did.  The pride I felt at that moment was only trumped by how proud I am of the new record, and of being in this band!  Our set was awesome!  Yes I said it.  We killed it!  Am I sorry for saying that?  Nope.

Next up was Shut Up & Dance.  This is one of my new favorite bands.  If you don’t have their EP, go to iTunes and buy it.  I have to admit, by the time they took the stage I was waist deep in selling and signing CDs, T-shirts, ticket stubs, and what ever else was given to me, so I can’t say that I payed as close attention to their set as I would have liked.  What I can say is that they sounded great, and they had an awesome moment when Greg, Shauna, and Chad sat on the front of the stage and played an acoustic version of “I Got The Call” (please forgive me if I’m not correct about the song title, I think I’m right though).  The highlight of their set is clearly “Let This Be A Lesson”.  I had to leave the merch table to go backstage and watch them play that song.  It is a hit, there are no two ways about it.  That’s all I have to say about that.

Finally, after an acoustic & drunken rendition of “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Supa, Crisis in Hollywood took the stage.  Those guys are bad ass.  Great songs with huge hooks.  They made the most of their late slot and rocked the joint like we knew they would.  If you’re into killer pop/punk with hooks that you’ll be singing for days, you must check these guys out.

This really was one of the best shows that megaphone has ever been involved with.  I’d like to say thank you to each and every person that came out to the show.  We met so many new people, saw sooooo many old friends, and got to share the stage with four of the best bands that our home town has to offer.  We will be looking forward to playing more shows with all of those guys, and seeing a bunch of new friends at those shows!  Thank you Orlando for giving us a night we’ll never forget!

Paul

megaphone

1. Write it Down
2. Gravitate
3. The Sin
4. My Favorite New Disaster
5. Bad to Good
6. What If…
7. Whisper
8. Uncelebrated
9. We Were Young
10. Making Sense
11. The Horse You Rode In On
12. The Last One

Some of the titles should be very familiar to you while some will be brand new. We debuted “The Sin” at The Social last weekend so if you missed that show, that will be a brand new one for you. We haven’t even played “What If…” live yet so there’s another. You can check out “Write it Down” and “Gravitate” on our Myspace page right now and if you sign up on our email list, you’ll get an mp3 of “Write it Down” (and “Not Your Enemy” from our first album).

Anyways, we’re all extremely excited to get this album into your cars, iPods, brains, etc. Look for an official announcement about the album release party very very soon!

They’re even offering free tickets on their Myspace. Without one of those tickets, it’s $5 at the door so I’d recommend you get some free ones. Also on the bill is Transmit Now, Fall of Envy and Afterglow Radio. In short, get your asses to Downtown Disney and support some of the best rock bands in town!

The cool part about this to me is that these guys obviously still believe in their old material enough to embrace it…unlike some bands I know who act like it’s a chore to have to play the songs that made them big. No names…but if you know me then you probably know who I’m talking about.

Anyways, I highly recommend getting this album. It’s only $8.99 at jimmyeatworld.com. You get 15 tracks, a digital booklet, digital poster, photos, and you can choose from high-quality mp3, Apple Lossless, FLAC, or two different WAVs (I got the mp3’s). Go buy it!

I’m about to rant a little.  Please consider yourself warned that this blog is about to get a little negative, and I’m sorry for that.  The thing is, this really needs to be said, and i think by saying it before April 9th (the date of our next battle of the bands), I may be able to avoid looking either like a pretentious prick, or a sore loser, so here we go.

What is with all of the unsigned band competitions?  I feel like every other day, we’re receiving another invitation to take part in some competition to prove that our collective wiener is bigger than all the other local bands wieners.  I guess it’s not the worst thing in the world.  Some of these events provide much needed and appreciated exposure for the bands participating, and at the very least they motivate these bands to get off the couch and promote their cause with more passion than maybe they would otherwise.  My problem is not so much the competition aspect (although I am not very comfortable with the idea of my “art” being judged against someone else’s) but rather with the way that the “winner” is selected in the vast majority of these contests.  These things amount to nothing more than a competition in people wrangling.  Here’s the rules: get as many people as you can to vote for you.  That’s it. Sounds easy right?  WHAT THE FUCK?!?!  Here’s the problem.  What does your ability to get the most people to vote for you have to do with writing a good song, or playing in a good band?  Let me tell you about a few of these contests and some insider info that you’re not supposed to know about.  The names of those involved have been omitted, because this is about the principle of the matter, not calling out the questionable behavior that these contests end up promoting. 

In one contest, you had to have the largest number of online votes.  You could vote once a day, per email address, for several weeks.  One of the bands that we were competing against made it a “band rule” that everyone in the band (5 piece) had to log into hot mail and create 100 email addresses each, and then vote from each email address every day.

In another contest that we were involved in, there was a band of very young kids competing.  Clearly these guys have a ton of friends at school, and probably had parents with large networks of people willing to get online and cast a vote for their friend’s kid’s band.  The scary part was that these guys hardly knew how to play their instruments.  They were TERRIBLE!!!!  Yet somehow they managed to do very well in the competition.  Imagine that!

I could go on and on with examples of digital ballot box stuffing, or other unfair practices  but I think the point is quite clear.  I don’t understand the point of a battle of the bands, or a best band competition where the winner is decided by how many friends they have.  IT”S A FUCKING POPULARITY CONTEST!!!  IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH GOOD MUSIC!!!  For Christ’s sake, why don’t we go ahead and add a swimsuit segment.  At least then we could all get a good laugh out of seeing James in a speedo!  

Here’s why I’m bringing this up now.  megaphone is competing in WJRR’s Last Band Standing battle this Thursday night April 9th at the AKA Lounge.  Everyone through the door will be handed a ballot, and which ever band has the most ballots in the box at the end of the night wins a slot on the Earthday Birthday Local Band Stage.  This is a great opportunity for whoever wins, and we certainly plan on winning.  The thing that kills me is that we will be judged by how many people we could get to come out on a Thursday night and write our name on a piece of paper.  The quality of song, musicianship, showmanship, or show in general has NOTHING to do with it, and that kills me.  We could just as easily get up on stage and ride around on unicycles playing accordians (maybe two of us will play accordians, and the other two will play tubas!) and as long as we have more friends show up, WE WIN!!!  There is something wrong with that, and i really don’t think i speak for myself when I say that.  

All of that said, we will show up on Thursday night ready to KILL it!  We will bring the rock just like we always do.  We will promote the show just like we always do, and we will intend on winning the contest, just like we always do.  I hope you’ll come out and support the local musicians that bring their craft to the stage.  I hope you’ll cast your vote for the best band.  I hope you’ll be moved by a band that you hear, and I hope that that band will be megaphone.