I know I haven't posted anything since late April. Life's been a little busy getting in the way. Personally, professionally, and, most importantly, musically.
The first thing that happened in the musical sphere was meeting a guy that makes custom pickups. Really REALLY good custom pickups. No, they're not for sale at this time, but talk to me in a couple of years, and we'll see where that stands. What I CAN say right now is that I've gotten to play several of the mass produced pickup manufacturers' products over the years (DiMarzio, Seymour Duncan, Rio Grande, Lindy Fralin, etc), and in my personal opinion, this guy's pickups smoke them all. Enough so that as of right now, three of my four primary guitars are loaded with various models, with plans to replace the pickups in my other one soon. There's a clarity and fullness to these things that I haven't encountered before.
That's been a lot of fun. But what good are awesome new pickups if you're not making music with them?
That's where the other happening comes in.
Over the past couple of years I've been involved in a recording project with a very good singer friend of mine. (Shameless plug) You can hear the stuff we've gotten done so far at www.reverbnations.com/theobgs
As he has played this music for various and sundry friends of his, they have asked him "Where can we come see you play?" And sadly, he's had to answer "um, nowhere, as there's no band". So he came to me and asked me if I'd be willing to possibly start working with him in a band setting.
A bit of background:
I've done bands off and on since I was 15 years old. Over the years, I've discovered that I don't work well in those circumstances. I can be a very, um, DEMANDING type of person. There just might maybe be some control freak tendencies involved. This makes me an ...interesting person to deal with. Now add that to the frequently volatile nature of other musicians. Shake vigorously. Then put it in a blender. Just for fun, whack the resulting mess with a large stick. Can you guess how that's turned out in the past? Yeah. Ugly, no?
Once I got done curling up and rocking back and forth under a table, I told him that if he could find other people to play with, I'd show up with my stuff and see what happens. So he did. And I showed up. And you know what?
Damn if I didn't have a great time.
I've spent the past 5-6 years doing nothing more than playing in various permutations of The Dungeon (my recording room), but I haven't had the opportunity to actually play with people. I'd forgotten how good it feels to take a tube amp and, oh, say, TURN IT UP. A lot. And it's interesting what happens when you work with real grown ups. You know, instead of being in your mid-20's. So as of right now, it's a work in progress, and I'm having WAY too much fun. Who knows? We may even *gasp* gig at some point in the future. At least, that's the Evil Master Plan.
All of which brings me back to those new pickups. Instead of going off for hours about the minute sonic qualities contained within their wee little magnetic hearts, I'll put it very simply:
Fuck me, they sound good.
And in the end , what more can you ask for?
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Creative Process
Sounds pretty heavy, no? See, this is where I could go on and on and on about the pseudo-mystical processes that lead to the creation of a new song, and the almost religious experience that comes with the act of tying little noises together into something coherent. But you know what? The vast majority of the music I have come up with or created has happened by accident.
That's right. It happens accidentally. Comically, sometimes.
More often than not, I'll just be sitting down noodling on one of my guitars, not even paying attention, and I'll find myself playing something that sounds almost riff-like, if you close one ear while listening and use a LOT of imagination.
But somehow, that little something grabs my attention, and if I ignore it, it picks at me. Seriously, it's like one of those kids that follows you around pulling on your pant leg going "hey mister, hey mister, hey mister". It's irritating as hell.
So I find myself having to pay attention to it, and show it some love, and start figuring out where it belongs, and what other little sounds go with it, until it has found itself with a family of like-minded sounds, and that family starts to reproduce and create other little sounds to go with it, until now it's a freaking TRIBE of little sounds, all sharing some indigenous system of beliefs and faiths. Maybe some inbred relatives, too. But by God, they're all related, and they're gonna make a sound.
And I'm the poor fool they've chosen to record this whole mess.
Makes things interesting, no?
That's right. It happens accidentally. Comically, sometimes.
More often than not, I'll just be sitting down noodling on one of my guitars, not even paying attention, and I'll find myself playing something that sounds almost riff-like, if you close one ear while listening and use a LOT of imagination.
But somehow, that little something grabs my attention, and if I ignore it, it picks at me. Seriously, it's like one of those kids that follows you around pulling on your pant leg going "hey mister, hey mister, hey mister". It's irritating as hell.
So I find myself having to pay attention to it, and show it some love, and start figuring out where it belongs, and what other little sounds go with it, until it has found itself with a family of like-minded sounds, and that family starts to reproduce and create other little sounds to go with it, until now it's a freaking TRIBE of little sounds, all sharing some indigenous system of beliefs and faiths. Maybe some inbred relatives, too. But by God, they're all related, and they're gonna make a sound.
And I'm the poor fool they've chosen to record this whole mess.
Makes things interesting, no?
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Tone Part 2 - Phalanges?
So what do I think and believe about tone? It's pretty simple, really:
Tone is in your fingers.
It's an old cliche, sure, but one that I happen to believe very strongly. In all the years I've been playing and listening to guitarists, I've found that the players that I consider to be the "best", or at least the ones that influence and inspire me the most, all share the same ability to sound great on whatever gear they're playing on.
Sure, you can make the argument that guys like Satch, Vai, Ford, Metheney, etc, all get to tour with their own equipment, set up by their own highly trained guitar techs. And there's some truth to that. But there have been too many instances where I've gotten to hear some of these players on gear that is not only NOT their own, but is frequently stuff considered to be sub-standard, and they've sounded great.
As an example, about 5 years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Robben Ford play at Jazzbones here in Tacoma, WA. It's a small club. Not much of a sound system. And Ford is not a rich man. His tours are not usually large affairs with trucks of equipment travelling around with him. So for this gig, he was playing a VERY nice guitar (a '60-ish Les Paul with P90's loaned to him by Larry Carlton) through one of the most beat up looking Fender Twin Reverbs I've ever seen. He was going though his Zen Drive pedal for most of the night.
He sounded amazing.
Despite the fact that he didn't have his Dumbles with him (which he uses in the studio almost exclusively), he sounded exactly like Robben Ford.
Another example? Click on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9v5e1TTwts
Satch is playing on a Pignose guitar, through a cheap Peavey amp, and a DigiTech RP200. Not exactly the high-end gear he's used to using, no? But damned if he doesn't sound almost exactly like the album.
So what does all this go to prove?
Probably nothing. But IMO, it goes a long way to help me believe that with the great players, gear is almost irrelevant. I honestly think that if Stevie Ray, or EVH, or Jimi, or anyone picked up any guitar out there, and plugged it into just about any amp on the planet, they'd find a way to make it sound great. And this makes sense if you think about it. Most of these guys didn't exactly get to start playing guitar on great gear. I mean, have you SEEN EVH's striped guitar? It was a cheap homebrew that he mostly built himself. He plugged it into the recording studio's stock Marshall amp and added a Variac switch to it. The result? Eddie's famous "brown sound".
There are times when I think that many guitar players are willing to believe that somehow, some magical combination of ingredients will create the "perfect" tone because they don't want to believe that practice is what will ultimately do it for them. After all, why put in the 10,000 hours if you can plug your 1 piece extra light quartersawn cryogenically frozen guitar into your boutique point-to-point wired amp and sound as amazing as you've ever dreamed, right?
And maybe that's what bugs me about the tone obsession. It almost seems like an excuse for laziness. Sort of an "I don't HAVE to practice because my gear will make me sound great" mentality. Of course, the catch is that the players that have that mindset never stand out from the crowd, because they've never learned their instrument.
Again, my primary issue is with the people that will try and tell YOU that that's the way it is, and has to be. If they want to, I don't know, short change themselves that way, more power to them. But when they go on to tell everyone that will listen that THEY should also short change themselves, well, that's when the crankiness revs up for me. Go figger.
But, in the words of the once-great Dennis Miller, "that's just my opinon. I could be wrong."
Tone is in your fingers.
It's an old cliche, sure, but one that I happen to believe very strongly. In all the years I've been playing and listening to guitarists, I've found that the players that I consider to be the "best", or at least the ones that influence and inspire me the most, all share the same ability to sound great on whatever gear they're playing on.
Sure, you can make the argument that guys like Satch, Vai, Ford, Metheney, etc, all get to tour with their own equipment, set up by their own highly trained guitar techs. And there's some truth to that. But there have been too many instances where I've gotten to hear some of these players on gear that is not only NOT their own, but is frequently stuff considered to be sub-standard, and they've sounded great.
As an example, about 5 years ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Robben Ford play at Jazzbones here in Tacoma, WA. It's a small club. Not much of a sound system. And Ford is not a rich man. His tours are not usually large affairs with trucks of equipment travelling around with him. So for this gig, he was playing a VERY nice guitar (a '60-ish Les Paul with P90's loaned to him by Larry Carlton) through one of the most beat up looking Fender Twin Reverbs I've ever seen. He was going though his Zen Drive pedal for most of the night.
He sounded amazing.
Despite the fact that he didn't have his Dumbles with him (which he uses in the studio almost exclusively), he sounded exactly like Robben Ford.
Another example? Click on the following link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9v5e1TTwts
Satch is playing on a Pignose guitar, through a cheap Peavey amp, and a DigiTech RP200. Not exactly the high-end gear he's used to using, no? But damned if he doesn't sound almost exactly like the album.
So what does all this go to prove?
Probably nothing. But IMO, it goes a long way to help me believe that with the great players, gear is almost irrelevant. I honestly think that if Stevie Ray, or EVH, or Jimi, or anyone picked up any guitar out there, and plugged it into just about any amp on the planet, they'd find a way to make it sound great. And this makes sense if you think about it. Most of these guys didn't exactly get to start playing guitar on great gear. I mean, have you SEEN EVH's striped guitar? It was a cheap homebrew that he mostly built himself. He plugged it into the recording studio's stock Marshall amp and added a Variac switch to it. The result? Eddie's famous "brown sound".
There are times when I think that many guitar players are willing to believe that somehow, some magical combination of ingredients will create the "perfect" tone because they don't want to believe that practice is what will ultimately do it for them. After all, why put in the 10,000 hours if you can plug your 1 piece extra light quartersawn cryogenically frozen guitar into your boutique point-to-point wired amp and sound as amazing as you've ever dreamed, right?
And maybe that's what bugs me about the tone obsession. It almost seems like an excuse for laziness. Sort of an "I don't HAVE to practice because my gear will make me sound great" mentality. Of course, the catch is that the players that have that mindset never stand out from the crowd, because they've never learned their instrument.
Again, my primary issue is with the people that will try and tell YOU that that's the way it is, and has to be. If they want to, I don't know, short change themselves that way, more power to them. But when they go on to tell everyone that will listen that THEY should also short change themselves, well, that's when the crankiness revs up for me. Go figger.
But, in the words of the once-great Dennis Miller, "that's just my opinon. I could be wrong."
Monday, April 1, 2013
Tone Part 1 - The Journey Begins
Is there really any more personal and divisive part of the guitar playing experience than tone? From people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on the highest end boutique gear, to the guys that deliberately look for the cheapest pieces of crap they can find, tone is the subjective holy grail that all guitar players find themselves searching for. Since everyone and their mother have their opinions on this Topic of Epicness, I figured I'd throw my own two cents into the fray.
Once upon a time, during a discussion I was having with another guitarist, he opined that he couldn't understand why so many guitar players spent so much time and money looking for tone because "it's a science".
This left me feeling a bit on the stunned side.
Sound waves are a science. Frequency and response are sciences. The engineering of guitars, amps, pedals, speakers, etc, are sciences.
Tone? I've always felt tone is more of an art. Tone is about as subjective a thing as exists in the world. What one person strives for and finds to be the greatest sound in the world, another finds to be nothing more than ear-splitting noise. As an example, let's take Eric Johnson's tone on "Cliffs of Dover". Now, the vast majority of guitar players I know find that sound to be unspeakably beautiful - rich, full, bell-like, overdriven without being muddy, with a ring to it that send shivers up and down one's spine. However, one of my co-workers once expressed a burning desire to take the wet towel off of his speakers.
How about Eddie Van Halen's famous "brown" sound? Again, the majority of people I've known think that that is one of the greatest guitar tones ever captured. But I once met a guy who couldn't stop dissing on everything about it.
I've had the same kinds of conversations regarding Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Pat Metheny, and on and on and on. And that's a good thing, damn it. One of the great things about playing the guitar is the sense of self-expression you get from it. Whether you feel like shredding all out a la Yngwie Malmsteen or Rusty Cooley, or just want to kick back and play simple rhythm guitar, what ultimately comes out of you is YOU. As long as you like the sound you're coming up with, then no one else's opinion matters. Nor should it. If you put your playing out in the wide world, then you should expect to get feedback and criticism. But at the end of the day, none of that matters. Your sound, your tone, is you, distilled.
What drives ME nuts is people who feel the need to sell you on what makes the "ultimate tone". Whether they're shilling for quartersawn maple, nitocellulose lacquer, some uber-special sooper seekrit capacitors, titanium Floyd Rose bridges, nickel-plated tremolo screws (yes, I've heard that conversation before), cryogenically frozen pickups or bridges, or what have you, there are people (who have GREATLY proliferated since the spread of the intrawebs) who will absolutely INSIST that you can't possibly have good tone without this week's snake oil special. They will express their opinions in ways ranging from the "trying to be helpful" to out-and-out venomous trolling. They're very passionate in their arguments.
I have my own ideas about tone, but those will have to wait for my next blog post.
For now, I would like to ask any guitar players that may be reading this blog: What do YOU think makes for great tone? What have you found that works for you?
Once upon a time, during a discussion I was having with another guitarist, he opined that he couldn't understand why so many guitar players spent so much time and money looking for tone because "it's a science".
This left me feeling a bit on the stunned side.
Sound waves are a science. Frequency and response are sciences. The engineering of guitars, amps, pedals, speakers, etc, are sciences.
Tone? I've always felt tone is more of an art. Tone is about as subjective a thing as exists in the world. What one person strives for and finds to be the greatest sound in the world, another finds to be nothing more than ear-splitting noise. As an example, let's take Eric Johnson's tone on "Cliffs of Dover". Now, the vast majority of guitar players I know find that sound to be unspeakably beautiful - rich, full, bell-like, overdriven without being muddy, with a ring to it that send shivers up and down one's spine. However, one of my co-workers once expressed a burning desire to take the wet towel off of his speakers.
How about Eddie Van Halen's famous "brown" sound? Again, the majority of people I've known think that that is one of the greatest guitar tones ever captured. But I once met a guy who couldn't stop dissing on everything about it.
I've had the same kinds of conversations regarding Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Pat Metheny, and on and on and on. And that's a good thing, damn it. One of the great things about playing the guitar is the sense of self-expression you get from it. Whether you feel like shredding all out a la Yngwie Malmsteen or Rusty Cooley, or just want to kick back and play simple rhythm guitar, what ultimately comes out of you is YOU. As long as you like the sound you're coming up with, then no one else's opinion matters. Nor should it. If you put your playing out in the wide world, then you should expect to get feedback and criticism. But at the end of the day, none of that matters. Your sound, your tone, is you, distilled.
What drives ME nuts is people who feel the need to sell you on what makes the "ultimate tone". Whether they're shilling for quartersawn maple, nitocellulose lacquer, some uber-special sooper seekrit capacitors, titanium Floyd Rose bridges, nickel-plated tremolo screws (yes, I've heard that conversation before), cryogenically frozen pickups or bridges, or what have you, there are people (who have GREATLY proliferated since the spread of the intrawebs) who will absolutely INSIST that you can't possibly have good tone without this week's snake oil special. They will express their opinions in ways ranging from the "trying to be helpful" to out-and-out venomous trolling. They're very passionate in their arguments.
I have my own ideas about tone, but those will have to wait for my next blog post.
For now, I would like to ask any guitar players that may be reading this blog: What do YOU think makes for great tone? What have you found that works for you?
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Mmmm, this 7-String crow tastes good!
Let me preface this post with a simple truth:
I don't like seven string guitars.
I never have. I've played several over the years, but I've never found one that felt good to me. Ibanez? Nope. ESP? Uh-uh. Schecter? No.
On top of that, I've never seen a good reason for me to play one. I'm not generally a super drop-tuned metal machine, and I've never been a good Steve Vai type player either. On top of all THAT, I've spent the past 25 years trying to figure out what to do with six strings, so adding a seventh seemed almost silly.
Then work happened. This happens to me a lot.
I work for a guitar parts manufacturer, which is a lot like an alcoholic working at a liquor store. It's being constantly surrounded by temptation, tempered only by knowing that if I spend all my money on guitar stuff, I'm gonna be REALLY hungry in no time flat.
But I digress.
About a week ago, the powers that be did a very quick assembly of some seven string parts to test out the routing we did for the Original Floyd Rose seven string bridge. Being a wee bit on the obsessive side, when I see a guitar sitting around with strings on it, I have to pick it up and start playing with it.
Do you see where this is going?
I picked up the seven string and started playing with it. And damn it, I LIKED it. A lot. Our sevens are a 25" scale. Maybe that has something to do with it. I've always loved the back contours on our necks (in fact, that's why I work where I do). Perhaps that's it. I really couldn't tell you. All I know is that for the first time in my life, I picked up a guitar with that pesky extra string, and I found myself thinking "hmmm, this is cool, I wonder how much it would cost for me to put one together".
I'll be posting some sound clips of the guitar through various permutations of my rig shortly.
Right after I finish choking down this crow.
I don't like seven string guitars.
I never have. I've played several over the years, but I've never found one that felt good to me. Ibanez? Nope. ESP? Uh-uh. Schecter? No.
On top of that, I've never seen a good reason for me to play one. I'm not generally a super drop-tuned metal machine, and I've never been a good Steve Vai type player either. On top of all THAT, I've spent the past 25 years trying to figure out what to do with six strings, so adding a seventh seemed almost silly.
Then work happened. This happens to me a lot.
I work for a guitar parts manufacturer, which is a lot like an alcoholic working at a liquor store. It's being constantly surrounded by temptation, tempered only by knowing that if I spend all my money on guitar stuff, I'm gonna be REALLY hungry in no time flat.
But I digress.
About a week ago, the powers that be did a very quick assembly of some seven string parts to test out the routing we did for the Original Floyd Rose seven string bridge. Being a wee bit on the obsessive side, when I see a guitar sitting around with strings on it, I have to pick it up and start playing with it.
Do you see where this is going?
I picked up the seven string and started playing with it. And damn it, I LIKED it. A lot. Our sevens are a 25" scale. Maybe that has something to do with it. I've always loved the back contours on our necks (in fact, that's why I work where I do). Perhaps that's it. I really couldn't tell you. All I know is that for the first time in my life, I picked up a guitar with that pesky extra string, and I found myself thinking "hmmm, this is cool, I wonder how much it would cost for me to put one together".
I'll be posting some sound clips of the guitar through various permutations of my rig shortly.
Right after I finish choking down this crow.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Album Review: Mark Tremonti - "All I Was"
This is my first album review, and I would like to start by putting out a quick disclaimer:
I'm going to be putting up album reviews periodically, and for the most part, they're going to be reviews of some of my personal favorite albums. This means some of them are going to be of older works. It also means I'm not going to pretend to be entirely objective about them. I intend for them to be more of a look at why these albums mean so much to me, the things I like about the albums, and some of the ways I think the artists maybe fell a little short. All of this will be MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION, so be sure to take it with a 5lb bag of salt.
All right, now that that's out of the way, on to the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfbosghkTg
Let's start off with the good stuff:
I've watched Mark Tremonti's career ever since Creed came out with the "My Own Prison" album, and a big part of what I've loved is watching him grow and evolve over the years. Now it's very easy to rag on Creed, and for good reason *coughScottStappcough*, but even given the posturings of that particular Jesus wannabe, I always loved both the riffs and the tones Tremonti and crew came up with. When it was announced that Creed was breaking up, and that the rest of the band was reforming as Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy on vocals, I was thrilled. When One Day Remains was released, I snapped it up immediately, and was NOT the least bit disappointed. To my ears, it felt like everything I liked about Creed, only with their mediocre singer replaced with one of the great rock vocalists of the modern era.
Apparently, Slash agrees with me. But I digress...
The Blackbird album was even better. Heavier, darker, meaner, etc. And ABIII, while taking me a few times to really "get" it, was a classic. But the whole time, I found myself wondering, "what would happen if Mark had the opportunity to do an album with no restraints, and no having to worry about anyone else in the band?"
With The Tremonti Project's "All I Was", the question has been answered, and the answer is, in my personal opinion, one hell of an album. It has its pluses and its minuses, but overall, I think it's a fantastic rock/metal album. To put it mildly, it's been in constant rotation in my car's CD changer (yes, I still have a CD changer in my car) since I bought it. I haven't gotten sick of it yet.
So what are the pluses? Well, it definitely plays to Tremonti's strengths. The rhythm playing is phenomenal. From the beautiful clean playing on "The Things I've Seen" and "New Way Out" to the ridiculously heavy riffage of "You Waste Your Time" and "Giving Up", I think Tremonti covers the sonic territory better than he ever has before. The songwriting is solid, with melody never taking second place to the guitar playing, and the musical and emotional range of the album covers pretty much all the bases. And for anyone wondering how Tremonti handles vocal duties, well, he's very good. Myles Kennedy doesn't have anything to worry about (IMO, I don't think Kennedy has anything to worry about with any rock vocalist currently walking the Earth), but Tremonti shows himself to be a very very solid lead singer.
As for the minuses, again, strictly in my personal opinion, they're few and far between. There are a few moments where Tremonti doesn't sound entirely comfortable in his role as lead vocalist, mostly when trying to throw in vocal "fills". And while Tremonti is an amazing lead guitar player these days, I've never been a huge fan of his lead style. It always seems to be just a little over the top for the song to my ears. Does this mean he's actually over the top? Not necessarily. Again, and feel free to repeat after me, this is just my opinion. For others, his lead work may hit the perfect spot.
Over all, I love this album. I find myself singing along with the majority of the songs on it, and am genuinely looking forward to hearing the follow up, whenever that happens.
I'm going to be putting up album reviews periodically, and for the most part, they're going to be reviews of some of my personal favorite albums. This means some of them are going to be of older works. It also means I'm not going to pretend to be entirely objective about them. I intend for them to be more of a look at why these albums mean so much to me, the things I like about the albums, and some of the ways I think the artists maybe fell a little short. All of this will be MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION, so be sure to take it with a 5lb bag of salt.
All right, now that that's out of the way, on to the review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfbosghkTg
Let's start off with the good stuff:
I've watched Mark Tremonti's career ever since Creed came out with the "My Own Prison" album, and a big part of what I've loved is watching him grow and evolve over the years. Now it's very easy to rag on Creed, and for good reason *coughScottStappcough*, but even given the posturings of that particular Jesus wannabe, I always loved both the riffs and the tones Tremonti and crew came up with. When it was announced that Creed was breaking up, and that the rest of the band was reforming as Alter Bridge with Myles Kennedy on vocals, I was thrilled. When One Day Remains was released, I snapped it up immediately, and was NOT the least bit disappointed. To my ears, it felt like everything I liked about Creed, only with their mediocre singer replaced with one of the great rock vocalists of the modern era.
Apparently, Slash agrees with me. But I digress...
The Blackbird album was even better. Heavier, darker, meaner, etc. And ABIII, while taking me a few times to really "get" it, was a classic. But the whole time, I found myself wondering, "what would happen if Mark had the opportunity to do an album with no restraints, and no having to worry about anyone else in the band?"
With The Tremonti Project's "All I Was", the question has been answered, and the answer is, in my personal opinion, one hell of an album. It has its pluses and its minuses, but overall, I think it's a fantastic rock/metal album. To put it mildly, it's been in constant rotation in my car's CD changer (yes, I still have a CD changer in my car) since I bought it. I haven't gotten sick of it yet.
So what are the pluses? Well, it definitely plays to Tremonti's strengths. The rhythm playing is phenomenal. From the beautiful clean playing on "The Things I've Seen" and "New Way Out" to the ridiculously heavy riffage of "You Waste Your Time" and "Giving Up", I think Tremonti covers the sonic territory better than he ever has before. The songwriting is solid, with melody never taking second place to the guitar playing, and the musical and emotional range of the album covers pretty much all the bases. And for anyone wondering how Tremonti handles vocal duties, well, he's very good. Myles Kennedy doesn't have anything to worry about (IMO, I don't think Kennedy has anything to worry about with any rock vocalist currently walking the Earth), but Tremonti shows himself to be a very very solid lead singer.
As for the minuses, again, strictly in my personal opinion, they're few and far between. There are a few moments where Tremonti doesn't sound entirely comfortable in his role as lead vocalist, mostly when trying to throw in vocal "fills". And while Tremonti is an amazing lead guitar player these days, I've never been a huge fan of his lead style. It always seems to be just a little over the top for the song to my ears. Does this mean he's actually over the top? Not necessarily. Again, and feel free to repeat after me, this is just my opinion. For others, his lead work may hit the perfect spot.
Over all, I love this album. I find myself singing along with the majority of the songs on it, and am genuinely looking forward to hearing the follow up, whenever that happens.
Monday, March 4, 2013
A minor introduction
This is the first of what I hope will be many blog posts by yours truly. My goal is to turn this into a blog about guitar playing, music, stuff I like, reviews, etc. Kind of a "this is what I like" sort of thing.
So first, a little about me.
I'm just a guy that's been obsessed with guitars and guitar playing for the past 25 years. My name is Aaron Stultz, and I currently reside in Puyallup, WA. I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old after deciding that I needed to find a way to A) keep up the friendly competition with my best friend, who had been playing piano for several years, and B) to get the interest of the opposite sex. Since I was decidedly non-athletic, and could be most kindly described as a nerd (well before the term became cool), guitar seemed like the best way to do that.
It certainly helped that I had fallen in love with the hair metal scene, as the only thing that scene had going for it was a plethora of great guitar players. But it wasn't until an Uncle of mine sat me down and had me listen to Led Zeppelin IV that I decided for sure that this was what I wanted to do.
That's right, "Stairway" made me want to play guitar. Cliched? Perhaps. Did it work? Yep. So I ain't complaining.
Since then, I've played in a couple of local originals bands, none of which ever did a lot of gigging, and have spent the past 5-6 years focusing on recording my own stuff on my own terms. It can be, and has been, said that I don't always work well with others. Heh.
So that's pretty much me in a nutshell. At least what I'm willing to put out on the wilds of the intrawebs. I'm very much looking forward to moving along with this blog over the next several months and years, and seeing where it takes me, and anyone else that may be inclined to read it. Hopefully the journey will be a fun one for everyone involved.
--Aaron
So first, a little about me.
I'm just a guy that's been obsessed with guitars and guitar playing for the past 25 years. My name is Aaron Stultz, and I currently reside in Puyallup, WA. I started playing guitar when I was 12 years old after deciding that I needed to find a way to A) keep up the friendly competition with my best friend, who had been playing piano for several years, and B) to get the interest of the opposite sex. Since I was decidedly non-athletic, and could be most kindly described as a nerd (well before the term became cool), guitar seemed like the best way to do that.
It certainly helped that I had fallen in love with the hair metal scene, as the only thing that scene had going for it was a plethora of great guitar players. But it wasn't until an Uncle of mine sat me down and had me listen to Led Zeppelin IV that I decided for sure that this was what I wanted to do.
That's right, "Stairway" made me want to play guitar. Cliched? Perhaps. Did it work? Yep. So I ain't complaining.
Since then, I've played in a couple of local originals bands, none of which ever did a lot of gigging, and have spent the past 5-6 years focusing on recording my own stuff on my own terms. It can be, and has been, said that I don't always work well with others. Heh.
So that's pretty much me in a nutshell. At least what I'm willing to put out on the wilds of the intrawebs. I'm very much looking forward to moving along with this blog over the next several months and years, and seeing where it takes me, and anyone else that may be inclined to read it. Hopefully the journey will be a fun one for everyone involved.
--Aaron
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