When she signed my LP, I think she read my wavelengths because she almost immediately launched into an explanation of why the record cost so much. Nat says she saw the letters “W.T.F. $$ ???” floating above my head. I almost didn’t buy it because it was $35 bucks! It was nice 180 gram “virgin” vinyl, and she explained further that the run on Sunbeam is now out of print, and has appeared on eBay for $600. See, that is a lot to explain to someone out of the blue. Or, I am paranoid. After Nat snapped a photo of us, she asked me if I was an artist, then invited me to to join them next time. She was lovely. She gives off an aura of calm and clarity, like that of a Buddhist monk.

Read this recent interview with her on LA Record. See colors. See shapes. See people’s “WTF” energies.

In my first attempt, I found a forum thread where someone had recommended this bass case by Musician’s Gear. It was the full-size Precision/Jazz Fender Bass case, and someone said that it worked out fine for their Mustang Bass. The best part was that it was only $60 for a sweet-looking Tweed case ($50 for black). So i bought it. It was huge, too deep, heavy, and cheap-looking. I hated it! I sold it on Craigslist the same week.

Musician's Gear Bass Case in tweed. Too big. Smelled weird.

Sigh. I almost gave in and bought the Fender one, but one last Google effort revealed a company called Rondo Music, which has a whole line of shortscale basses (and other knockoff guitars), and look at that, a nice $50 shortscale bass case! It just came in today and I’m so happy with it. It’s small and cute, and fits the Mustang bass perfectly! The build quality was (almost) as good as a TKL case, despite being made in China. Best part is IT’S LESS THAN HALF THE PRICE OF THE FENDER CASE. Sorry, Fender, I love you, but your case prices are ridiculous. And I know they’re made in China too.

Nice! (Go Lakers)

I love this song. That’s all I really have to say about it.

To paraphrase Wikipedia, it was the first original song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Before that, they would only cover blues standards. As the myth goes, Andrew Loog Oldham locked the two in the kitchen, forcing them to write a song, telling them: “I want a song with brick walls all around it, high windows and no sex.” Amazing. Really. Imagine someone trying to say this to Prince. Anyway, the end recorded result is a folkish, rather flat song swirling in delicate, flowery strings.

The song made Marianne Faithfull’s career at age 17 in 1964 (shown above), reaching #4 on the UK charts. Her performance is rigid and uncomfortable. It is positively sexless, and in many ways, the cold opposite of the Rolling Stones. (and yes, despite being Jagger’s girlfriend at the time.)

The Stones’ own version (1965) peaked at #6 on US Billboard charts. Nancy Sinatra also covered it in 1966.

Cymbals

You want to know one secret to the huge drum sound of Led Zeppelin’s drummer, John Bonham? Finesse. He understood that the drums sound louder and bigger in a mix if the cymbals are quieter in comparison. So he played his cymbals softly and hit the drums pretty hard. This allowed the engineer to raise up the levels of the drums without having the cymbals drown everything else out. Absolutely brilliant.

Because the drums bleeding into the overhead mics is inevitable and the overhead mics are responsible for providing much of the drums’ presence in a mix, playing the cymbals softly allows you to get more of the drums in these mics. This helps the drums sound bigger.

…

I wish I had known this before I went to track drums for a record a couple years ago. I figured it out soon thereafter. I used to really pound those cymbals. This created extra problems for the producer in the studio, and the sound engineer in live situations. I bought thinner and darker cymbals and even started using lighter sticks (with nylon tip to make up for the lack of definition in the darker cymbals). Getting a loud sound from the snare was also difficult as I liked to have a thick 6 1/2″ thick snare (reissue Black Beauty), tuned way too low. Oops. Having the vocal mic there too pick up even more of those nasty high frequencies didn’t help either!

These days, I like to use my 5″ Supraphonic (1970s) for recording. In my bedroom, I use SUPER light 7as, and play quietly. Contrast this with me 2 years ago, bashing away on the ride cymbal with fat 3As. You could say I was trying to compensate, battling the stereotype that girls don’t hit hard. Okay, maybe I didn’t really hit that hard even when I tried. I’m not a gorilla!

—

Um, while Image Googling a gorilla playing drums, I found this article: Wonderbra recreates Cadbury gorilla advert for YouTube. Too bad the YouTube video was removed!

I like to make these for my buds in my free time. Since these are used for posting on the internet, Myspace, etc, the objective is to have large text that is readable in thumbnail form. They are often supplemental to more specific information, like links to tickets and show times.

These two are for my very talented friend Luke Top. He’s opening for Cat Power tonight at the Avalon! Amazing!

Not so sure himself, either.

My good friend Ryan nearly shat his panties when he heard the demo version of The Beatles’ Good Morning Good Morning, from the Anthology 2 (presumably, disc 2?). He just really liked it, even preferring it over the actual album version. It’s got less stuff. It’s just the band being awesome.

I’m not a crazy, rabid Beatles fan, and I can only tell you as much as I’ve learned from recently watching Anthology. I had never known Ringo to use two kick drums, so even still I’m unsure whether or not he actually uses one on this track. I could easily imagine Ringo at least toying around with two kicks, right? It surprises me especially because I often cite Ringo as my hero and foil to double-kick/30-cymbal flurries.

Listen for yourself, especially at 2:04. Ryan says it could be the sound from the bass, but if you listen the phrasing, there’s no way that the bass could pluck at 16th note speed at the same time. I think there is both muted bass plucking and double kick in the intro to further add to the confusion.

Good Mornin Good Mornin Demo Version (mp3)

Let me know what you think!

—

UPDATE! March 2, 2009: After much scrutiny, I decided that it WAS Paul’s picking sound which made a thumpy sound comparable to Ringo’s kick. However, there are couple of small parts in the song where it really really does sound like a double kick. Too bad Ringo doesn’t accept fanmail anymore, otherwise, I’d try to email him. Haha!

Happy Holidays everyone!

bis colored my teen years. with fluorescent markers and punky colour hair dye. they were punk rock but bright, poppy, and cute. anti-authority and pro-candy. anti-mean pretty people, pro-drew barrymore. I had a sweet tooth for sugary pop and kids yelling pro-kid epithets. 2 guitars, 1 keyboard, drum machine, while all 3 sang. i dyed my hair and wore bright colors (i was also playing drums in a punk band at the time). i even made my own bis patch. wow. it mostly gave everyone around me a toothache. once, me and my good friend Dave snuck into KUCI (in the late 90s) to watch them perform live. i wish i could find those photos again. i had a major crush on John Disco.

Now Manda Rin is back at it again! Pitchfork reports the release of her new solo album. It is more in line with “later bis,” the bis that had alienated earlier fans. I don’t blame them for moving on, I thought Eurodisco was a good track. They lost me after that, unfortunately.

In this new interview with Manda, she talks about the success of new electro bands like CSS and the Tings Tings, and how bis were out of step with what would have hit years later. (They weren’t completely at a lost, as they were the first unsigned band to play Top of the Pops!) Also, she mentions meeting Lovefoxxx of CSS, and how big of a fan she is–I knew it!

Here’s the video for the first single, followed by other fine bis memories. Indulge me as I take a trip to my past.

2008: Manda Rin, DNA (This is Fake DIY Records)

2001: bis, Return to Central (SpinART) (–did anyone buy this?)

1999: bis, Eurodisco, Social Dancing (Grand Royal Records)

1997: bis, Tell it to the Kids, New Transistor Heroes (Grand Royal Records)

1996: bis, Kandy Pop, The Secret Vampire Soundtrack (Chemikal Underground)

…and let’s not forget when the stars aligned and bis did the theme for Powerpuff Girls (end credits):

From art student Kris of Krisatomic.

I have scaled back on the jogging lately and so every week it feels like i’m starting over again. The City of Angels Half-Marathon is coming up again this year, and i really want to do it again, pending my knee. i would like to up training to 4x a week, as opposed to the lax 2x i’m doing now. Zzzz…

I still want this instructional DVD:

Fun fact from his Wikipedia:

Armisen has both Venezuelan and Japanese ancestry,^[4] making him both the second Asian-American and second Latin-American Saturday Night Live castmember, after Rob Schneider (who is part Filipino) and Horatio Sanz (who is Chilean), respectively.