P-Bass Progress Update

When I started playing bass years ago I purchased a forest green Ibanez TR 70 (same model as the one shown to the left). It was a great beginners bass, it was simple to play, light weight, and it looked pretty decent. I used it exclusively in high school with different bands I played with, as well as throughout college.

Around 2007, it occurred to me that I'm probably not going to become a rock star, so I decided to sell off some of my excess gear to buy... more excess gear. I sold two amps at that time, a vintage 70's MusicMan HD-130 (which I regret) and a Dean Markley bass amp that I'm glad to be rid of. The individual who purchased my Dean amp tried it out with my TR 70, and by the end of the evening, convinced me to sell it as well. Even though the bass wasn't for sale, I let my greed get the better of me and sold the bass for double what I paid for it when it was new.

I searched for a few months to find a replacement bass, and ended up with an Epiphone Thunderbird. It was hands down the coolest looking instrument I've ever owned, not to mention it sounded fantastic. That being said, it was incredibly heavy, hard to play, and very top heavy, making it really hard to play standing up for an extended period of time. I tinkered with it quite a bit to improve the playability, but finally came to the conclusion that I never should have sold the TR 70.

Now don't get me wrong, the TR 70 wasn't perfect by any means, the pickups were weak, the pots crackled, the knobs were cheap plastic, and the tuners didn't hold tune all that well. On the other hand the weight, balance, and playability were impeccable. Unfortunately for me, I sold the TR 70 before I had entered the world modding my instruments, and now realize that I could have easily fixed everything I didn't like about the bass.

Now back to my current project, when I first ran my hand down the neck, my first impression was that it felt exactly like my TR 70. The radius and neck profile are spot on, as is the scale. Because of this, I have decided to, in a way, attempt to rebuild the bass I never should have sold.

Here is a mock-up of what I'm planning on attempting:

I'm sticking with the same pickup and control configuration as the TR 70. A jazz pickup at the bridge, and a precision pickup in the middle. Likewise, I'm going with the three knob configuration that the Ibanez had, two volumes and one tone. If you purchase a Fender Deluxe P-Bass, they come with two volumes and two tones, but I think that's excess. Both basses I have owned in the past had the three knob configuration and worked great. Additionally, I think the forth knob looks goofy.

I'm going to move the input jack to the side of the body, same spot as a Tele, because I absolutely hate input jacks on the top of an instrument.

Finally I have chosen to go with a Vintage White finish (it's supposed to be an easy color to spray), and a brown tortoise shell pickguard. The addition of the thumb guard is purely for aesthetics, since I doubt I'll actually use it, but it just looks so cool.

Now that they layout and cosmetics have been planned, it's time to start routing and the body, wish me luck.

-GGT

P-Bass Build 2011!

Christmas 2010 was a great one for me, full of all kinds of guitar goodies (yes, I do realize Christmas was over a month ago...). I received a bunch of new reading material, auto-biographies by George Martin (the fifth Beatle) and George Fullerton (Leo Fender's partner in crime). As for effects, I received a Danelectro Cool Cat Tremolo, very cool for when you're in a smooth 60's mood. And last, but not least (this is actually the most important since it is the main topic of the post) a Saga P-Bass kit from my amazing wife Katie :)

For about a year now, I've been very interested in "building" (I realize this is a kit and not a true build, but hey I've got to start somewhere) my own guitar, or in this case bass. I think I caught the building bug when I started modding my Tele. I really love having a guitar that sounds, looks and plays exactly like I want it to... especially if I can do it for a fraction of the cost of buying a custom guitar.


Upon opening the Bass kit, I was very impressed by the quality of the body and the neck. This bass truly is ready to be assembled with minimal knowledge required. Of course I don't know how to do anything the easy way, so this bass will certainly have a few of my own modifications added to increase the difficult of the project, but increase the awesomeness of the final product (assuming I don't screw everything up).

All of the hardware required is included, although I'm sure the quality is similar to that of a Squier or any other cheap import bass.

The full length of the bass is 46 1/2", it is 12 3/4" at the widest point, and approximately 1 3/4" thick. It has 20 frets, and measures to be a 34" scale. As far as I can gather, this is pretty much right on with a Fender Precision Bass.

The body seems to be routed and sanded very nicely, there is one ding on the top of it, but it is under the bridge, so doesn't really matter much. The pickguard was installed when I received the kit, but I have removed it here to show the body routes.

I'm sure this new project will take me several months to complete, but I will meticulously document my progress here. Please feel free to add any suggestions as I go!

-GGT

I'm back!!!

That's right, I'm back and blogging happier than ever! It has been a while, and several of you (meaning my two faithful readers) have asked when I was going to get back to the blog, and I'm here to announce that 2011 is the year that all of my visions for GuitarGuyTim are to be unveiled!

For starters, I have 10 or so posts that I started last year and never completed. These include reviews of all three major Weezer releases from the fall of 2010, as well as a few other musical insights. Additionally I'm adding a new page/thread which will document my adventures in guitar building. I hope you're as excited as I am about my adventures into the unknown.

Finally, and most importantly, I have some new musical releases that need to see their time in the sun... Right now I'm looking at a copy of CAKE's latest, and I'm listening to Get Up Kids latest. It is going to be an exciting year ladies, gentleman and Emo Children, I hope you're ready for the ride!

-GGT

iTunes, You Sneaky Devil...

So iTunes... For those of you who either know me, or have read a handful of my posts, you know how much I hate music's communist regime, also know as Apple (this includes iTunes, iTunes Music Store, iPods, all of Apple's funky file types, etc.). So the question is, how did I, the anti-Apple, find myself not only at the gates of the iTunes Music Store, but actually downloading AAC files? Well friends, it is a long tail of deception, deceit, and falling from grace... or... I got $25 to the iTunes store for Christmas and decided to find out what it felt like to dip my toe into the forbidden pond of darkness.

So why do I hate the Apple-Machine so much? Well for starters it makes me sick to think that people pay the same amount of money to buy a digital version of an album online as they'd pay in a brick and mortar store. Sure they didn't have to leave their house to get the music, but they don't have a physical copy, and the sound quality is inferior. That being said, I do think it is better you buy inferior music, than steal inferior music.

Anyway, last fall I had a dilemma. As you probably already know, I love Weezer. Not just 90's Weezer, but all Weezer. Yes even Make Believe and Raditude. I am a die-hard Weezerhead. When Weezer came out with Raditude, they launched a special iTunes club that not only included the deluxe version of the album, but also included alternate takes, live tracks, videos, etc. Obviously I wanted all of this material, but I didn't want to have to buy the album twice (because I was already going to buy the physical version) just to get the bonus tracks. So the dilemma came into play, do I A: suck it up and submit to the evil known as iTunes, or do I B: Steal the mp3's? Fortunately there was an intervention, thanks to my mother-in-law and grandma-in-law, I walked away from Christmas with $25 in iTunes credit. Woohoo, Weezer iTunes club here I come.

So last week I finally got around to installing iTunes on to my computer and I set up my iTunes account (I was a little bit irritated that I was forced to give Apple my CC# just to set up an account). Then I was off to downloading my newest Weezer (Rivers, Brian, Pat & Scott, I want you to know that this is your fault, you create your crazy Raditude club pass which includes bonus tracks and videos, thus forcing me to not only buy a physical copy of the said album, but to also buy a communistic digital version).

So what did I think? Well it was super convenient, and the music quality is better than I expected (it should be noted that I've only listened through headphones and my laptop speakers thus far). I was less than impressed with the way Apple organized all of the files. Each week is set up as an individual album, so I have Raditude Club Week #1, Raditude Club Week #2, and so on. Couldn't they have just created a Raditude Club album/folder for all of the tracks? Also, what's up with these crazy AAC files that only play on authorized computers? Thank you for that headache Apple.

In conclusion, I'm not sold yet. I'm not going to give up physical discs for iTunes, although I will gladly accept more iTunes Gift Cards. I do think iTunes makes it very convenient to make those One Hit Wonders of the 90's collections (Just for the record, I have never made it past track 4 on my Deep Blue Something album. Instead of pulling it out of the used bin and paying $2.99 for it, I should have just purchased "Breakfast at Tiffany's" from iTunes... or wait, should I have purchased it from Amazon MP3? That's going to be my next adventure in the digital world. As far as I know Amazon's tracks aren't protected, so you can listen to there anywhere, but I have heard rumors that their sound quality is inferior to iTunes. That alone would be a deal breaker... I'll keep you updated since I know you're dying to hear about my adventures in digital music.

-Tim

P.S. One of these days I'll get around to reviewing all of the bonus Weezer tracks, but for now I think it's sufficient to say that I loved several of the bonus tracks, especially the alternate "rock" version of "Can't Stop Partying (Coconut Teaser Mix)." The bonus tracks definitely made it worth my while to re-purchasing/download all the stuff I already own.

Gotta Keep the Masses Happy

So I've been getting pretty high tech lately when it comes to my blog. I've added some analytic tracking so I can see what keywords are leading people here. One that has driven a decent amount of traffic is, "guitars used on haarp" and/or "guitars used in haarp." Since I'm pretty sure I haven't actually written about Muse's gear, I figured I better write up a quick post for the Google-driven-masses.

So here we go, Matthew Bellamy uses an assortment of custom built guitars by Hugh Manson of Manson Guitars. Since he pretty much changes guitars with every song, I'm not going to go through all the different models, but they are all Manson's. For more details on Matt's guitar specs, check out his guitar page on Manson's site here.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme has an assortment of basses in his collection including both Fender Jass and Precision basses, custom built Mansons, Rickenbackers, and several others. I popped in the H.A.A.R.P. DVD to see what he's playing in the videos. On Map of the Problamatique and Knights of Cydonia, he is using a Rickenbacker 4003FL. For Time is Running Out, Supermassive Black Hole, Plug in Baby, Butterflies and Hurricanes, Hysteria, Invincible, and possibly others, he is using a red Fender Jazz bass. He also uses two other Jazz basses, a black one on New Born, and a white one on Starlight. Later on for Micro Cuts he uses a blue bass which I'm pretty sure is a custom built Manson (I could be wrong though, I can't get a clear view of it, but I'm pretty sure the headstock in a Manson).

Anyway, there you go as for H.A.A.R.P. guitars. If I have missed any, please let me know and I'll update the list.

-ggt

p.s. Next time we're going to be discussing Rivers Cuomos' gear (Franken-Strats, SG's, Explorers... it's gonna be fun!)

"The Decision" Update

Wednesday - "Hole in My Soul" Aerosmith (I'm not sure why Aerosmith has hit the list twice now, it's not like I'm a huge fan... for a while I even removed them from my Creative Nomad Mp3 Player).

Thursday - "Where is My Mind" The Pixies

Friday (today) - "San Dimas High School Football Rules" The Ataris

The Decision...

Wow, it has been like 3 months since my last post. I sure hope my lack of updates hasn't lost me my two faithful followers...

So today's topic is what I like to call "The Decision." It goes something like this, each morning I go to work and open my iTunes (I know, for how much I bash Apple, I use iTunes at work...) and brows through my list of nearly 9500 songs. I almost always leave my music on random play, so the decision comes in here, what do I start my random play with for the day? Sounds like a simple decisions doesn't it? But it isn't! The pattern of my entire day could be based on this decision. There are days, and I'm not kidding when I say this, where I literally take 30 minutes to make the decision (mind you, I am checking emails while making the decision, I don't just sit there and stare at iTunes for 30 mins with a blank expression on my face).

It was recommended by a friend that I just pick any song, and then hit the skip button and let iTunes randomly pick the song. This does sounds like a good idea, but do I really want to leave my entire day up to chance?

So my question is: Does anyone else deal with "The Decision" every morning, or am i just totally insane?

Here is a list of "The Decision" winners for last week/this week:

Monday 2/1 "Amazing" Aerosmith
Tuesday 2/2 "Rock You Like a Hurrican" Scorpians
Wednesday 2/3 "Put Me Back Together" Weezer
Thursday 2/4 Home Grown When It All Comes Down, the entire EP
Friday 2/5 "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" U2
Monday 2/8 "Good Times, Bad Times" Led Zeppelin
Tuesday 2/9 "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" CAKE

-Tim

Raditude... Super Rad, or Just Plain Bad?

Well folks, although my intentions are really here, my writing has been lacking... Once my thesis is officially done and out of the way, I'm going to become a "super blogger" but until then you may have to wait weeks or even months between posts, but for today I'm here for the most anticipated album of the year for me (MUSE's The Resistance was also highly anticipated and will one day see the light of day on GGT).

As you all know, I'm about as big of a Weezer fan as they come. Although there have been some things over the years that have made me roll my eyes, I've anticipated every album, and more importantly found the good on each album. Upon Weezer's initial announcement of album 7, I was ecstatic, but as the release date (still next week, you've got to love early leaks) grew nearer, my anticipation turned in to fear. First the title Raditude, then song titles like "Girl Got Hot," and "I'm Your Daddy," and finally the announcement about guest Little Wayne (yeah I know it's Lil'). I reached the point where I had to ask myself, "Is this going to be the album that finally loses me?"

The one redeeming factor was the first single, "(If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To" which in my opinion was fantastic, see the previous post for my initial reaction. "I Want You Too" gave me a glimmer of hope. Below we'll discuss whether River's and Co. delivered, or whether Raditude is the straw that broke the camels back... but first...

This is totally random, but I was looking over the track listing, and I'm pretty sure the creation of Raditude started like this. So the Weez's were sitting around and Rivers says, "Hey fella's lets make a new album!" to which Pat replies, "Hey Rivers I think you should write a song called If you're wondering if I want you to, I want you to." They all have a good laugh, but the next day Rivers show's up and demos his newest track. Seeing that the band is thoroughly impressed Rivers comments, "Who's your daddy now?" Over the next few weeks the band members start making up the most random song titles they can like run over by a truck, trippin' down the freeway, girl got hot, and so on... And that was the birth of Raditude.

Okay enough with the senseless babble, lets get to what you came here for.

(If You're Wondering if I Want You Too) I Want You Too - From day one I have loved this track, it's totally different than the traditional Weezer sound, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's upbeat, fun, and the chorus is probably the catchiest thing ever written. Great album opener, great track, and to make things better, the video is awesome!

I'm Your Daddy - I first heard a live version of this track on YouTube from the Fuji festival, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed at all. Honestly I think the lyrics are sub par in comparison to what we know River's is capable of writing (Then again, they are definitely better than the "Everybody Get Dangerous" lyrics). That being said, the chorus is great! Very catch, very fun, not incredibly deep but it's growing on me.

Girl Got Got - I think I already wrote about this in a previous post, but this song has the same theme as a song called "Early Bloomer" I co-wrote with my buddy Devin "Devok" Sheppard, that fact alone makes the song a winner. Like the previous track, I initially heard a live version from Fuji and wasn't impressed, but once I heard the polished version I changed my mind. The lyrics aren't anything special, and from all points of logic I should hate the song, but you know what I don't... in fact I think it's awesome!

I Can't Stop Partying - I was pretty disappointed when I heard this track made the cut, I didn't really like the demo version on Alone II, so I didn't think I'd like this one much. When I heard that Little Wayne was rapping a verse I was convinced that this would be my least favorite track on the album... and you know what, it is. This is pretty much the farthest thing from Weezer that I can imagine. I'm honestly a little disappointed in Pat, Brian, and Scott, I would have thought one of them would have had enough sense to tell River's "Heck No" on this track, but whatever... This may be the first Weezer track ever that I pull from my standard rotation... Oh by the way, did Timberland mix this one... (Okay, that was a really bad joke, but then again so is this entire song).

moving forward...

Put Me Back Together - This is probably my favorite track on the album. When I first heard it, I honestly thought it sounded a little like an AAR song, and I didn't even know that Tyson Ritter co-wrote it with Rivers. Regardless, I love this song, to me this song has ever element of classic Weezer track (well everything minus an amazing guitar solo). I love love love it. I even stayed up late last night figuring it out on the guitar. Yeah, it's that good.

Trippin' Down the Freeway - Okay when this track was released as an iTunes special, everyone on the Weezer forum ranted and raved about what an amazing song this was. Honestly, I'm not a huge fan, it's not good, not bad, just kind of there. The chorus is decent, and the guitar solo's pretty good, but yeah I'm not in love with it.

Love is the Answer - I'm pretty sure the ghost of George Harrison co-wrote this track. This like "Can't Stop Partying" is once again about as far from my idea of what Weezer is that you can get. That being said, I kind of like this track, but I'm not real sure why. It's weird, that's for sure. The sitars are kind of cool, and I like the Indian moaning/vocals at the beginning. I think the lead female vocals in... I don't know Hindi maybe are a bit bizarre, but for some reason I actually like this track quite a bit... It may be the Beatles-esq-weirdness of it... Who knows?

Let it All Hang Out - What's up with River's trying to talk like he's a gangster? Going out with your homies, really? Anyway, this song has probably the best intro of any song on the album. It is very reminiscent of the Green/Maladroit days, which by no means a bad thing. I actually really like this song, I'm not sure why, and I question the word choice of "Homie" but I guess sometimes you just have to go with the flow.

P.S. where can I get 180 proof vitamin water?

In The Mall - On Red, the only track I like that was contributed by a Weez other than Rivers was Pat's Automatic. Once again, Pat shows us that Rivers isn't Weezers only song writer. This track, like the previous has a Maladroit-ish feeling. The lyrics are more fun than deep, but you know what, it's a pretty good song, plus it has a cool guitar solo.

I Don't Want to Let You Go - This was one of my favorite demo's on Alone II, so I was pretty excited for a polished version. I wasn't expecting a "Kokomo Part II," but you know what, it works. I like the 60's pop/surf sound. It reminds me of early classics like "Buddy Holly." I actually really like this track as the closer for the standard version of the album. It's different, but it works.

Bonus Tracks (You can stop reading now if you want the standard version... that is assuming anyone actually reads this far...)

Get Me Some - This song just cracks me up. Lyrically this one is really weak, but the fact that it sounds like a party song from the 80's hair metal era is just too awesome. This song has some of the best guitar work of any Weezer song, and is totally a great addition to the Weezer catalog. I mean who doesn't love a crazy finger tapping solo every now and then?

Run Over by a Truck - Yeah, so I can tell you why this one made bonus status and not album status... It's just not that good. For some reason lots of other people loved this one, but honestly I just get bored which is pretty bad when the song is only 3:33 long. Oh well.

The Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World - This is another track that I really liked on Alone II, so I was really anticipating a finished version, and fortunately this one delivers. The tempo is a little slower than what I would have imagined, but its fine. I love the loud bass drum keeping the tempo, it reminds me of Ringo Starr. Lyrically this track has some similarities to "No One Else," which is a great thing. At about 2:30 the song breaks into random guitar parts, heavier drums, and vocal wailing... It sounds a lot like something from the Beatles timeless White Album.

The Underdogs - You know, I really love this one too. I think the lyrics are great, the emotion is there. It's different than what I'd expect from Weezer, but you know what it's really good. This track to me is trying to be the "Angel and the One" of Raditude, I'm not sure it's that good, but I do really like it. Just as a side note, I know I've made several Beatles references, but the piano chord progression at the beginning of this song is like the exact same as the progression in George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass." I'm starting to wonder what River's was listening to when he wrote all of this.

Additional Bonus Tracks

I Hear Bells - From what I understand, this is a Green period reject. It's a good track, it's fun and it totally sounds like early 2000's Weezer. I'm not sure it sticks out among other that songs from that period, but that's fine, it's still a good song.

Turn Me Round - I like the edge to the guitar and vocals at the beginning, the chorus is really good. It's a fun song.

So there you go, Raditude and a bunch of other stuff. As you've probably noticed I made a lot of comparisons throughout this review, everything from the Beatles and the Beach Boys, to Weezer classics. I think that alone should be enough to indicate that there is something special about Raditude. As much as I was fearing a let down, it wasn't delivered by any means. The album has its flaws, generic/shallow lyrics, and Little Wayne but over all I really enjoyed Raditude. In fact, I liked Raditude much more the first time through than I did Red, and I really like most of Red these days. I don't think much more can be said about Raditude other than, it's Rad! I give the album a B+.

Hey Rivers, Scott, Pat and Brian, thanks for not letting me down, I don't know why I ever doubted you guys -ggt

09-09-09 And The Beatles Have Arrived!

I was informed this afternoon that I am a "sound snob." As much as I wanted to become all defensive, take this as a huge insult, and be incredibly offended... I realized that this is totally true. I, GuitarGuyTim, am a sound snob! I'm not sure where my level of snobbery began, possibly all the concerts or the hours and hours of sitting in a studio. Regardless, somewhere in my 28 years of existence I've come to love high fidelity sound. In my opinion, there is nothing better than sitting back and listening to a great album on a great set of speakers!

Today, the Beatles, my favorite band of all time gave me something I didn't even know I was missing, truly hi-fi CD reproductions of their music! This afternoon while listening to The White Album, I was blown away by the clarity of Ringo's cymbal crashes and the thump of Paul's bass, among many other subtle improvements.

Musically the first thing you'll notice is that the volume level is substantially hotter (louder). The clarity is so good that the songs literally sound like they were recorded yesterday, not between 40-50 years ago. In addition to the volume increase, you can also hear the individual instrument better. The original '87 remasters were "muddy" sounding, meaning the instruments would blend in with one and other and parts of the mix were all but lost. This is no longer so, if you are familiar with the Beatles catalog you'll be amazed by the array of instruments you haven't noticed in the past.

One particular moment that stuck out to me was the 'bass line' on I Will which is actually sung by Paul. It is far more present and clearly a voice, not an instrument. You'll also notice a heavier reverb sound, amp feed back, longer ring of cymbals and much more. Other things like amp buzz in While My Guitar Gently Weeps and finger scrapes in Blackbird, give these remastered tracks the feeling of being live performances, like only the Beatles could produce.

The only criticism I can find (and it may be unfounded) is that all of the individual albums are in stereo. This maybe unfounded since I haven't listened to any of the earlier albums, but up until I believe either "Hard Days Night," or "Help" everything was recorded on two track tape. One track for the vocals, the other for the instrumentation. Not to be too critical, but I can't see how you can make an amazing stereo mix with only two tracks. Then again, I haven't heard any of the early albums yet, so I may be totally wrong.

So the question is, should you go re-buy the entire collection. The answer to this isn't so easy, obviously the new packaging is cool as are the mini-documentaries that are included with each album, but then again those are more for hard core fans and not casual listeners. If you're going to listen to the actual CD's these are a must have, if you're going to rip them to mp3's and stick them on your iPod, don't waste your time with the new versions. As for me, I'm afraid that I've found something to spend my hard earned cash on.

Thank You Walmart for Screwing Up!

According to my incredibly reliable sources (wikipedia) We have Walmart to thank for the early release of Weezer's latest "If you're wondering if I want you to (I want you to)." Apparently the track was put up for sale on Walmart.com a week early by accident. Instead of freaking out, the folks over at Weez central decided to go with it (although official sales of the single won't be out until next week). So, if you haven't heard it yet... you're going to have to go to weezer.com, sorry they killed the youtube link... ***quick update, this track has been added to my player at the bottom!


My initial reaction was, "Wow this kind of sounds like the Violent Femmes," and although I still think that, I'm really enjoying IYTIWYT(IWYT). I would go as far as saying that I think this may be the best First Album Single since the Maladroit days. I honestly think IYTIWYT is better than both "Beverly Hills" and "Pork and Beans." Now don't get me wrong, I loved both of those tracks, especially the wahwah solo in "Beverly Hills" and the Pinkerton-est sound of "Pork and Beans," so musically this track may not be better, but lyrically I definitley think it is. It seems to fit right in line with Weezer's "glory days" (you know all that early stuff that some of you think is the only "true Weezer").

Along with this official first release, the boys over at Weez-town also gave us a taste of what other portions of the new album are going to sound like last month in Korea and Japan.

The first live track has already been heard by those of use who own Alone II, it's called "I Can't Stop Partying"



Next comes "I''m Your Daddy" and finally to finish things up, "Girl Got Hot" Unfortunately I can't embed either of these since they're not on Youtube. They are being broadcast from some site in Brazil, so if you go to googlevideo.com and search Weezer+the title of the song, you should be able to hear them no problem.

As stated above, I really liked "If You're Wondering..." The other three tracks are iffy, but then again all we have are live versions recorded with cellphones, so undoubltedly the studio versions will be much better, right? All are catchy, I'll give them that, but I'm not sure how I feel about the lyrics/subject matter...

The track "Girl Got Hot" really cracked me up (warning here comes a story from my life so you may want to close your laptop screen...). Several years ago (Pre-Green album), I was a young LDS missionary in Mozambique. I was working with another Elder Devin (Devok) Sheppard, who happened to be a fellow guitarist. While wondering the suburbs (huts) of Matola, we decided that upon returning to the U.S. we were going to start an awesome band called Optimus-Prime. Both being fans of Weezer (Blue and Pinkerton, since that is all that existed up to that point) we decided we wanted to be the band that when people described us, they'd say to their friends, "Optimus-Prime, you know, the guys who sound like Weezer, but aren't Weezer." (keep in mind, we both though Weezer was... well... dead) While in Moz. we wrote (well came up with lyrics at least) for several songs, one being entitled "Early Bloomer" which was about a guy who was really mean to this girl in elementary school/Jr. High because she liked him. Now many years later, he's doing everything he can to get her attention, but she won't give him the time of the day. It is strikningly similar to the subject of "Girl Got Hot."

The realization of the similarity between these two songs has brought me to two different conclusions, the first being all the similarities of my music which I wanted to sound like Weezer was purely coincidental. The second on the other hand, the one I like to believe is this, clearly I know where the band is headed, more so than they know themselves... Since we know that bassists are the most dispensible part of Weezer, it looks like Mr. Schriner (as much as we love you) has to go to make way for bassist #4. Yup, I'll be rockin' out stadiums with my trusty Thunderbird, booyah!

Just incase you're wondering what ever happened to these Optimus-Prime tracks. Most of them never saw the light of day, probably to the betterment of the music community. A few did make appearances in my band at BYUI, Smells Like A Girl (yes that was our name). They were re-worked by myself and Cory Brown. A handful of lucky... or un-lucky depending on your opinion, people heard variations of "Amnesia" "Early Bloomer" "Childhood Dream" "Another Stupid Girl" "Psycho-Ex" and possibly a few others. At various preformances (Sunrise 43 Living Room, Ward Tallent Show, Jamba Juice... yeah we were playing the big-time venues in Rexburg :)

-T

Thanks Jack Black for Teaching Us the Importance of Music.

A few days ago while flipping through the channels, I came across a movie I absolutely love, but for some reason haven't watched in a while. The movie being, School of Rock. I would personally consider School of Rock to be one of Jack Black's best films, although in my opinion, aside from Nacho Libre there really isn't much competition...

I stared watching right as Mr. Schneee... aka. Mr. S., aka Dewey Finn, realizes that the class members not only play instruments, but play them well. As part of his scheming he organizes his students into a band and the accompanying personnel. The scene following the bands first practice is one of the most powerful scenes in the movie. Larry, the nerdy keyboard player, approaches Mr. S. and tells him that he can't be in the band because only cool people are in bands, and he isn't cool. Later on in the film another similar conversation takes place between Mr. S. and Tomika (a young girl who is embarrassed to sing in front of a crowd because of her weight). Mr. S. explains to her that Aretha Franklin is also over weight, but after she sings, everyone wants to party with Aretha.

These scene really cracks me up when I think about the different friends I played with and bands I played in throughout Jr. High and High School. Although there is some kind of perception that people in bands are cool, nothing could be further from the truth. My first band consisted of a choir member, brass band member, and a drama kid. Not the coolest kids in the school by any means. But you know what, none of that mattered to us. The fact that we weren't on sports teams, weren't in student-body leadership, didn't have girlfirends, and in my case wore Coke bottle glasses, didn't matter. What did matter is that we could pull off half-decent covers of "The Sweater Song" and "Say it ain't so" by Weezer, "She" and "When I Come Around" by Green Day, "Mary Janes Last Dance" and "Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty, and ten or fifteen other tunes. When we were playing it didn't matter that we were 'nerds' all that mattered is that we rocked!

I remember my sophomore year in high school me and a couple of friends were invited to play at one of the "cool" girls birthday parties. It was a little awkward when we showed up, the party goers consisted of all of the members of student government (student-body pres, VP, class presidents, VP's, counsel members, etc.), cheerleaders, football players, you know all the popular kids. Then there we were, we didn't wear cool clothes, didn't really participate in school activities, and we definitely didn't hang out in "Stud Hall." Needless to say, we were out of our element.

We set up our gear, played a few popular songs from the time, probably consisting of Weezer, Green Day, Live, Collective Soul, maybe some DMB or U2, and finally ending with a rendition of "Birthday" by the Beatles.

Post the performance we suddenly fit in, people who wouldn't give us the time of day at school were suddenly talking to us. You'd be amazed by how many high school football players are fascinated by the electric guitar. After that performance things started to change for me. By this point in life I had shed the glasses for contacts and had a decent hair cut (I'm sure those things helped), but now instead of being looked at as just another guy who wore Beatles or Zepplin shirts because it was cool, I was known for wearing them because I was a musician.

Battle of the Bands was always a highlight for me and my friends. It was the one time of year that we got to take over the assemblie, and instead of watching the popular kids put on lame skits, we got to rock everyone's face off! For the week or two after the Battle of the Bands, people we didn't even know would come up and tell us how much our band rocked. It was the ultimate high for the non-athletic, non-popular guitar nerds.

When I look back at my high school days, and early college days, most of my best memories involve me holding a guitar or bass.

It seems as though all of my posts lately have mentioned Weezer and in particular Rivers Cuomo. I fully acknowledge this is due to my excitement about the upcoming Weezer album, but even with that, I think what I have to say is applicable regardless of whether a new album is on it's way or not. It seems like musicians/rock stars have always tried to portray themselves as being cool. This was particularly apparent in the 80's when their hair and guitar solos were as big as their egos. This all changed in the 90's with Weezer. They showed the world that nerds can be cool too. The funny thing is when you think about the percentage of people who are cool or popular verses those who aren't, you'll realize that maybe 10% of the population fits into the cool crowd. I think that's why Weezer has been successful for so long, they sang songs for the rest of us... the un-cool 90% of the world. Weezer's second album Pinkerton has been recognized by many as the first true Emo album. There exists an entire genre of non-cool kids making music now, and all of this can go back to Weezer showing the world that its okay to be yourself, cool or not.

In the end, not everyone is going to be a football or basketball star, not everyone is cut out to be a homecoming or prom king/queen, but everyone can excel and be 'cool' in his or her own respective area. For me, it was music, for others this could be anything; art, drama, math, science... whatever you are good at.

I have heard and read over and over again about school districts pulling the arts from their curriculum to save money. This is essentially depriving a huge faction of their students the chance to excel. From my perspective, the guys playing guitar in the hall of the high school and the guys making pots in the ceramics class are just as important as the guys on the football field. Together they create a society, and once one piece is removed the balance is gone and everyone suffers.

It's kind of funny to think that such important lessons can be taught to us through silly movies staring people like Jack Black, but truth is truth regardless of where it comes from. Things like music help kids who lack confidence gain the confidence they need to succeed, I know playing the guitar did just this for me.

-T

Rivers Cuomo, My Friend and Yours....

Well friends, it has been nearly 9 months since my last post. Life's just been so busy between grad school, work, and having a crazy toddler... but I'm back, and I'm going to start writing again. Besides, there are so many great albums, or at least albums by great bands that are on the horizon. There is no reason why I shouldn't be listening and writing... Enough blabber though, let's discuss the topic at hand.

A few months ago, a good friend of mine made a comment that disturbed me... The situation stemmed from a discussion about the great (in my opinion) and not-so-great (his opinion) band Weezer. My friend informed me that I am not a true Weezer fan because I enjoy their four (soon to be five, hence finally writing about this incident) albums post Pinkerton.

I've thought about this statement of me "not being a true Weezer fan," quite a bit since there seems to be an attitude among many that anything post Pinkerton is worthless teeny-bop-pop-crapola...

I think the best way to address this comment is by creating our own analogy of a friendship... Imagine being in 8th grade back in 1994 (since that's where I was), and you and I make a new friend by the name of Rivers Cuomo... He's kind of a shy, obscure guy, wears Buddy Holly glasses, plays Dungeons and Dragons, loves KISS, has relationship issues, and invites you to destroy his sweater. Somehow this awkwardness/nerdyness becomes cool and suddenly everyone loves Rivers. He rides this trip for a few years, but deep down inside he's really Blue.

Not knowing how to deal with this coolness, in 1997 Rivers tries to open up to all of his friends and show us what's really going on inside. Now instead of dwelling on all the awkward things of '94, he talks about pointless/failed relationships, popularity, half Japanese girls, pink triangles, more Japanese girls and butterflies. After seeing and hearing all of the things that are really going on inside of Rivers, most of you rejected him. Suddenly he wasn't cool anymore. Because of this, our pal Rivers goes into seclusion, sells all his belongings, paints his walls black, and then goes off to Harvard to study.

After a few years, our pal Rivers comes back. Now it's 2001 and we all greet him with open arms. All of his old friends are so happy that he's back in our lives. This time around Rivers is all about hash pipes, tropical islands, photographs, girl friends, etc. Ulike the dark depressed Rivers of '97 that so many friends rejected, the new '01 Rivers is light hearted, and having fun. So what did you do? You sat around and complained that this new happy Rivers isn't as good as the open, depressed Rivers. Yeah, that's right four years ago you didn't like Rivers being open and dark and now you're complaining that he isn't like that anymore... Our good friend Rivers just can't seem to please some of you. The fact is, and you are all going to hate me for this, but the Green album is very similar to the Blue album, a little bit more poppy, but very similar.

Although you, and many like you are still complaining about Rivers, he gains a bunch of new friends with his new-found happy attitude. Just for the fun of it, less then a year later in 2002 he decides to do whatever he wants. He says things like, "Sit down and quiet everybody,
you got a long way to go," yeah Rivers is taking control now, he continues, "If you want me, you can't have me," and so on. Essentially Rivers has figured you out, you're never going to be happy, all you're going to do is complain about him and hope he goes back to being depressed, even though you didn't like him when he was that way... Some friend you are. As a side note, I have more than once heard Maladroit referred to as 80's hair-rock... and all I have to say is, are you kidding me? Do you know what 80's rock is? Go listen to some Poison, White Lion, Cinderella, or Bon Jovi... then you tell me if this is the same. Sure Maladroit is Weezer's most guitar heavy album to date, but it is by no means 80's hair-rock. It does happen to be a brilliant album though.

Anyway back to our friend Rivers. In 2005, with or without you, Rivers has become more popular than ever, but now he's enjoying life. He starts singing about things ranging from Beverly Hills, to spiders, drugs, and he even apologizes for not being so nice in his earlier days. What do you do, instead of giving him a chance now, you don't even listen what he has to say, instead you hear one radio hit (sorry I'm straying from the analogy) and you decide it just isn't as good as the good ol' days.

In '08 Rivers is back again, having more fun than ever. He's now into making trouble, dreaming, being the greatest, and of course pork and beans, and like '05 without even giving him a chance you dis the fact that he's now happily married, has a kid and is enjoying life and ask for the guy who lived in an all black apt. 10 or so years ago.

Here's the point, how can you call yourself a "true" Weezer fan, when all you care about is depressed Rivers... Come on, instead of dwelling on '97 why don't you actually give the new four/five albums a chance. You might surprise yourself.

Below I have listed several tracks that are as good as, if not better than a good deal of material on both Blue and Pinkerton.

Green:
Hash Pipe - Sure it was on the radio too much, but it is a great track!
Island in the Sun - Not my favorite track, but is honestly like Holiday part II.
Glorious Day - Love it, love it, love it.

Maladroit:
American Gigolo - I love this track because it really addresses exactly what I'm ranting about today.
Take Control - Great guitar work, particularly the solo, and all around an awesome track!
Fall Together - Can you tell that I really like the heavy tracks?

Make Believe:
Perfect Situation - This one is totally in the top 10 best Weezer tracks ever.
Hold Me - You're looking for the vulnerability of '97, just found it.
Damage to Your Heart - Another honest and emotional song... I read somewhere that Weezer gets less mature with each album, but I'm just not seeing it.

Red:
Pork and Beans - I just have to bring this one up, because musically you know this would have fit perfectly on Pinkerton.
Dreaming - Now we're jumping back to the '94 sound. Very retro Blue-ish track.
The Angel and the One - Forget top 10 ever, this song deserves top 5 of all Weezer songs.

There you go, it's time to get over the hate, get over your wanting to dwell in the depressing past of '97. It's time to grow up like Rivers and embrace him with open arms... At the end of the day, aside from all your complaints, you know that Weezer is still putting out some of the best alt-rock songs on the radio.



***please don't take this too seriously, if you're a Weezer fan I consider you a friend regardless of which albums you preference. And just for the record I love both Blue and Pinkerton, and am anxiously awaiting Pinkerton's Deluxe release.

Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy

Since I started posting again 2-3 days ago, I have been asked the same question a few times now, "What happened to the "Chinese Democracy" review?" I guess I alluded to it so much, that my 3 readers have felt let down since I never actually posted one... So here you go, please realize this isn't actually finished... I found this rough manuscript in my files, and with as much as I'd love to finish it, I just don't care enough to... I haven't listened to "Chinese Democracy" since I started it, and really don't have any desire to finish the last four tracks... That being said, enjoy! -T 8/16/09


We'll I've been alluding to this review for a while, primarily because I have so many ethical issues with this even being considered an authentic GnR album. To me it comes across as an Axel Rose ego trip in which he is proclaiming to the world, "I am Guns N' Roses." I have recently been wondering if asked, if Axel would claim that he was in fact the mastermind behind all the amazing guitar work or true GnR albums, and that Izzy and Slash were a facade... The other option I have come up with is that this is in all actuality a demonstration of Axl's own insecurities... He has realized that without GnR, no one cares about him, and so he's still hiding behind something that died in the early 90's. I think he realized that if he released this as an Axel Rose solo album it's sales would have hit between 5 and 7 disc's it's first week and then never sold a disc again, but by using the nostalgia behind the name GnR he would actually sell a few discs... So here we are, it's obvious that I have wanted to hate this album for quite a while now, so please realize that I am totally biased in this review.

1 - Chinese Democracy - So ummm, I'm pretty sure my first band when I was 13 years old wrote this exact song... maybe I should be suing... Three chords, death metal distortion that sounds like it's coming from a no name $25 stop box... ummm yeah, calling this GnR is an insult to the great guitarists (Slash and Izzy) who are true GnR. The sad thing is it actually starts out pretty cool before the crappy numetal/deathmetal 13 year old guitarist stars playing... Oh well... Axel sounds like Axel, that's the only GnR thing about this track. Then near the end of the track, in order to over-compensate for the lack of guitar work early on, a pseudo-EVH solo comes in... Sorry, but thus far I'm convinced that GnR is dead... Not good, especially when I've just finished the opener.

2 - Shackler's Revenge - Ummm, did I accidentally put in NIN? Oh wait, no there's Axel... So now we have dark-90's-alt with a dance beat... The solo from this track is even more over-compensating than the first track. A truly great lead guitarist (Slash) knows when to play fast and when to play slow. Every guitarist on the album thus far is just trying to show off how fast his fingers can fly... If your EVH more power too you, everyone else... well yeah you get the idea.

3 - Better - I hope the song lives up to its title and the album is getting better... Honestly, the verses aren't bad, they sound like GnR, and the guitar this time around doesn't sound like a 13 year old with a death metal stop box, but the chorus "now I know better, now you know I know better, I know you better..." or something like that... anyway, it's horrible... for the 30+ million and 17 years spent on this album, you would have though someone would have had the heart to tell Axel that his chorus is horrible. Guitar work better (for the most part), verses are decent, but the chorus is horrible.

4 - Street of Dreams - This track starts out with some nice piano and acoustic guitar (say wanna be "November Rain"), the vocals are horrible, they sound to me like Axel doing a really bad Robert Plant impersonation... The vocals just do not fit with this track at all... On the flip side, this track does have the best and most GnR like guitar solo we've heard yet.

5 - If The World - Someone please stop the bad pseudo-GnR... The classical guitar and samba sound is something that should be backing, say Carlos Santana, not Axl Rose. The music is actually pretty cool for what it is, but come on, I'm supposed to believe this is a GnR track?

6 - There Was a Time -This track started out pretty good, but the chorus kills it "It was the wrong time for you, it was the wrong time for me, it was the wrong time for everyone," who writes this garbage? (oh yeah, ego centric Axl Rose) The guitar is kind of cool though, although I'm really missing the interplay between Izzy's rhythm and Slash's lead... Where's my Velvet Revolver CD? Other than missing the rhythm guitar (which has been replaced by violins) I do think the lead guitar is interesting, and pretty cool, particularly the solo, so props to which ever of the 7 guitarists featured on the album that this is...

7 - Catcher in the Rye - So far this is my favorite track, the piano is good, the guitar is good and sounds like GnR, and the vocals fit really well. This is the kind of stuff I expect to hear from GnR. So here goes my first true props to Axl. As much as I really don't want to like anything about this album, I do think this track is pretty cool... It may even go into my GnR mix.

8 - Scraped - I'm getting tired of going on on every song... so no, just no, that's all you get for this one.

9 - Riad n' the Bedouins

10 - Sorry - I kind of like the music, it has an almost Pink Floydesq feel. I hate Axl's voice on this song, but musically its good.

11 - I.R.S.

12 - Madagascar

13 - This I Love

14 - Prostitute


So there you have it, its not a GnR album, it's an Axl solo album, and if he had the least bit of common sense he would have labeled it as so. I know that many of us would have had much more respect for the album if it would have been presented as such. One major issue I ran into is the fact the majority of the tracks are over 4 minutes and just drag, some of them probably would have been better if they would have been shorted. I give it a D+, it's not horrible, but in comparison to what GnR is, this is a joke... I'm sure you'll see hundreds of copies in the used CD stores within a matter of a few months. If you're looking for GnR, this isn't where you should be looking, go pick up the Velvet Revolver albums, you have more of GnR in that band than Axl's GnR will ever have, and additionally you don't have the ego factor behind it.

If Axel gets his act together and the second stamping of this album (if there is one) comes out for what this is, Axel's solo album... I'll considering moving my grade up to a C+...

The best part of this album is definitely the free Dr. Pepper, I'm getting because it came out. Thanks DP

The Killers - Day And Age

After my first listen through the Killers 2006 record Sam's Town, I remember thinking to myself that the band was on their way out, and that they had put all of their great material on 2004's Hot Fuss. I figured that the ultimate fate of the Killers fell into the idea that you have a lifetime to write your debut album, and only two years to write your sophomore album.

Here I sit two years later, and honestly I probably haven't sat down and listened to Hot Fuss in it's entirety in probably 6 or more months, but my last listen to Sam's Town was maybe two weeks ago. When Sam's Town was about to hit the shelves, Brandon Flowers was quoted as saying it would be "one of the best rock albums in the past twenty years" (giant.blackplanet.com, 2006) Like many others, after my first listen through I though Brandon was off his rocker... I have now come to realize that Brandon Flowers knew something that the rest of us didn't... His albums come off as... well... a little bit off, but there is something intriguing and inciting about them that keeps us listening. Then sometime off in the distance future... say 6 months or so, we too suddenly get it and albums like Sam's Town are suddenly in our Top 10 favorite albums. After listening to Day and Age, I'm convinced that once again Brandon knows something and he's waiting for the rest of us to figure it out.

1 - Losing Touch - Very cool opener, it has a little bit too much saxaphone for me, but still a very good track. In someways I wish it had a little bit more of the rock edge that so many of the tracks on Sam's Town had. Iit almost gets there around 2;45 for the second chorus and through the end of the song... but once again the sax takes off the edge that I loved so much. Overall this really is great track, the chorus and guitar solo are the two crowning moments making this track something special.

2 - Human - Total 80's throw back with a modern touch. Like everyone else, I was confused my first few listens while trying to figure out if Brandon was saying "dancer" or "denser" although I was cheering for "denser," after the explanation of "dancer" I'm cool with the lyrics. Verse two has some backing "Nintendo" sounds, as I like to call them which are actually really cool, they totally add to the 80's sound. Although this is a little slower than my preference (as in there is no distortion), still it is one of the best tracks on the album, and a great single!

3 - Spaceman - Who doesn't love a track about being abducted by aliens? This is probably my favorite track on the album. It is very up beat, but it has enough of an edge on it to make a rocker like myself happy. Additionally, there is a lot of deeper meaning to this track for all of us spoiled rich kids who aren't happy with everything we have. Very cool, good job guys!

4 - Joy Ride - Ummm 70's disco... yeah.... not my favorite track. Could someone explain to me where this disco throw back tracks are coming from, I know Maroon 5 (who I don't like, just for the record) had a hit a year or so ago that also sounded like disco... Maybe I'm just out of touch with the "cool kids" who knows. Once again, the way the Killers work, this will probably be my favorite song 4 months from now...

5 - A Dustland Fairytale - This is another very cool track, the slow piano, and lyric style reminde me of "Enterlude" and it's partner "Exitlude" both from Sam's Town, which happened to be two of my favorite moments on that album. The dynamics of this song are great, they remind me in many ways of my current favorite song of '08, Weezer's "The Angel and the One." This was an automatic favorite from my first listen.

6 - This is Your Life - The opening of this track brings back images from the film The Power of One, and P.K. dancing in front of a choir of African inmates. This track is weird, it has African style chanting, a bass line worthy of a Johnny Cash song, 80's keyboard, a U2esq guitar riff, and well Brandon Flowers... but somehow it works, and it's awesome. This one took me a few listens to appreciate it, but it's really good once you get over the weirdness.

7 - I Can't Stay - And the album gets even more bizarre... bring in the harpsichord and steel drums! This really isn't a bad track, although it sounds to me like a cruise ship band covering a Killers track :) It has a very upbeat summery sound, and reminds me of laying by the pool drinking a pina colada in the Bahamas last summer. My only real issue is the blasted saxophone. The sax really is my biggest complaint towards this album.

8 - Neon Tiger - And back to another classic Killers track that sounds great, and has lyrics that make absolutely no sense. I read somewhere that the Killers are the only huge band on the planet that can write songs that make no sense to anyone, and yet are still awesome, this track is a prime example. Although I am sure that after several listens I'll figure out what it's about.

9 - The World We Live In - This track isn't really good or bad, it's just kind of there. It's kind of catchy, but nothing too exiting. It's just kind of there.

10 - Goodnight, Travel Well - This track starts very slow and very dark. The initial percussion is provided by a ticking clock, which is pretty cool. It kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd... actually it really reminds me of Pink Floyd. It's mysterious and kind of all over the place, and ultimately very cool and a great album closer.

Although I miss the gritty edge of Sam's Town, this album has more of it than Hot Fuss did, and delivers nicely as a cross between the 80's pop and 90's pseudo-alternative-grunge the Killers have delivered in the past. Initially I was hoping that this album would be a strong competitor to Coldplay for the best rock album of the year, and although I'm not sure it quite reaches those heights (although once I figure out what Brandon was thinking, it just may...) I give it an A-. It is a very good album, and will almost assuredly make my top 5 favorite musical moments of 2008... but (as of right now) it still seems to fall shy of being an instant classic...

The Rule

So this evening as I've been sitting here trying to get through "GnR's" Chinese Democracy I've created a new rule that I believe should be implemented and enforced throughout the music industry. This new rule will go by the official title of:

"The Two Founding/Significant Member Regulatory Measure of 2008"

The premise of this rule is as follows: In order for a band to continue to produce music under the bands name, at least two founding/significant members MUST be involved (I say significant because there are some people say, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who although wasn't a founding member, was clearly a significant member... The same could be said for Brian Bell of Weezer). I've come to this conclusion because honestly, Chinese Democracy ISN'T a GnR album, it's an Axel Rose solo album. I'd have much more respect for it if that was how it was positioned.

With this new rule in mind, if the members of Velvet Revolver want to change their name to Guns N' Roses, they are welcome too because they curretly have Slash, Izzy and Duff.

I really think that this rule could clear up a lot of confusion in the music industry and should be implemented imediateley.

Thanks for reading my rant :)

-Tim

Moving Forward - Lots of Music in Very Little Time...

I've been sitting here this afternoon looking over my list of albums that either I want to review, or someone has requested I take a look at, and quite frankly... I just don't have time for all of them. Over the next few days/weeks I'm going to write a few articles in which we'll look at multiple albums, and instead of going track by track, I'll just highlight the good stuff and give you a letter grade. My goal is to have everything that is in my backlog taken care of so that I can give next weeks Day and Age by the Killers, Alone II by Rivers Cuomo, Prospekt's March EP by Coldplay (yes they have more music coming out!), and Chinese Democracy by (cough) Guns N' Roses (Axel Rose...) the time and attention they deserve.

Jack Johnson - Sleep Through the Static

Being a huge Jack Johnson fan, this was probably by far one of my most anticipated albums this year. I'm sad to say it left me disappointed. Most of the initial press-releases regarding the album hyped the fact that Jack was going pluged-in, and this really got me excited. If anything, this "electrified" album is slower than the average Jack album.

Don't get me wrong though, there are a few great tracks, for example the album opener "All at Once." I love the drastic panning and slow bluesy guitar on this track, it definitely ranks up there with other great Jack songs.

I also love the ballad, "Angel," and the single "If I had Eyes." Both of which are outstanding tracks! There are a couple of other decent tracks, but nothing that really ads new dimensions to the Jack collection, most of them are more of the same. Overall I give this album a C+. It's slightly better than average, but won't be becoming my preferred Jack album anytime soon.

The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely

I was introduced to the Raconteurs earlier this year by a good friend who was shocked to find out that I was somewhat of a White Stripes fan, but had never listened to the Raconteurs. I say "somewhat" of a White Stripes fan, because they have several songs that I absolutely love, but I find myself having a hard time making it through an entire album. The Raconteurs on the other hand are much better at delivering a complete album that is all listenable. With as much of the musical genius that Jack White is, I think it's good to have him working in a complete band environment where he has to give up a portion of his "creative control." Like I said, the White Stripes have a lot of great material, but some of their music just doesn't work for me, and I think when those songs/ideas come out, it's great to have someone telling Jack to put it on the shelf.

So back to the Raconteurs, these guys are one of the two bands in the world who are still delivering good, old fashion, down to earth Rock and Roll (the other being Jet). I love this album because it's gritty, it's raw, it's stripped down, I mean this is the real deal, this is what rock music is meant to sound like, the level of under-production is fabulous. It provides something special that we've heard very little of since the late 60's to early 70's. In fact, in many ways this album sounds like it's straight out of the 70's.

Some of the album highlights include the opener, "Consolers of the Lonely," which is just an amazing opener. "Salute Your Solution" which happens to be track two and is likewise powerful and fun. "Old Enough" has a late 60's folk sound to it, which is a great break from the heavy distortion of the other tracks. Honestly there really isn't a bad track on this album (although many of them do sound very similar).

In many ways this album is better than the Raconteurs first attempt Broken Boy Soldier (which is also a good album). I give it a B+, it's definitely not for everyone. On the other hand, if you're a fan of the White Stripes, love 70's hard rock, think loud distorted guitars are awesome, and anything else along those lines, you'll love this album. If that isn't your forte, this album probably isn't for you.

The Rentals - Last Little Life EP


I don't know how this little EP alluded me for as long as it did, seeing as it is over a year old, but some how I missed out on it. Fortunately, I ran across it by pure accident a few weeks back and am really happy I did.

For those of you who aren't familiar with The Rentals, they are a group that is fronted by former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. The Rentals first album, "Return of the Rentals," came out between Weezer's first and second albums while Matt was still in Weezer. The Rentals second album "Seven More Minutes" came out two years later after Matt had left Weezer. Following this album, The Rentals disbanded for 7 or 8 years while Matt worked a few different solo projects.

Now that the history is out of the way, we find ourselves at the "Last Little Life" which is very promising! Although this little EP only has four tracks (one of which is a remake of the Rentals own track "Sweetness and Tenderness"), it gives a fresh, but reminiscent sound that in many ways reminds us of the Rentals first album. Of the four tracks, I'm particularly fond of "Life Without a Brain," both because the title is just awesome, and because it is a really fun track.

I'm going to give this one two grades. First, for existing Rentals fans, I give it and A! It gives us a lot of hope for what the future may bring. For the general masses I'm giving it a B... I think it has quite a bit of mass appeal, but at the same time I don't think most new comers are going to have near the appreciation for it that long time Rentals fans will.

So there you go, this has been the first installment of "Lots of Music in Very Little Time..." Hopefully I'll be able to crank out a few more of these over the next few weeks.

Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger

I realize I'm a little behind on this review... about a month behind in fact, but by popular demand (primarily pressure to stop being lazy, coming from Jannifer) here it is...

To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to this album near as much as I probably should have been. Although I am a huge fan of Andrew McMahon's work with Something Corporate, his first album as Jack's Mannequin didn't really do anything for me. That's not to say it was bad, it just wasn't as good as it should have been (I know many of you will disagree with that statement, but for me it just wasn't up to the quality I had come to expect from Mr. McMahon).

I'm always intrigued to hear solo albums by members of bands, because in some cases they by far outshine any of the collected works put out by the individuals band. For example Ben Folds solo career has been significantly better than the vast majority of music put out by Ben Folds 5, another example would be the original Dashboard Confessional albums (when it was a solo project) in comparison to Chris' work with Further Seems Forever (this all changed with Mark, Mission, Brand, Scar when DC stopped being an honest solo project and became a wanna be FSF). Other attempts are not so notable say Dave Matthews Some Devil, or... well Mr. McMahon's first attempt at Jack's.

As previously stated, the Everything in Transit wasn't bad... it just felt to me like Andrew was trying to hard to distance himself from his previous grandeur, and because of this, the album came across sounding like a really crappy version of Something Corporate (Kind of like Billy Corgan's re-birth of Smashing Pumpkins, or as I'm imagining the re-invention of Guns n' Roses is going to sound like later this year). There were a few really good tracks on the first album, but overall the best word to describe it is... blah...

So now we find ourselves at The Glass Passenger, let's jump in!

1 - Crashin - The opening line of the album is great, "I wanna hear some music." I'm happy to say the album delivers exactly that. As the lyrics later point out, this isn't radio music... It's something better. Good opener, and great foreshadowing of what is to come. The only downside to this track is I feel that it is a little to mellow for an opener, but still a very good track.

2 - Spinning - This track picks up the tempo a bit. It's a great track that in many ways sounds like it could have been on a Something Corporate album, maybe North. One great thing about this album is that instead of trying to set himself apart from Something Corporate, McMahon is simply writing great songs regardless of whether they reminisce his earlier works. Great track!

3 - Swim - "Swim for the music that saves you when you're not sure you'll survive." Yet another reference indicating that the music on this album is above par, which it is. This is a good track, the chorus in particular is memorable. I also really like the instrumentation in this one, the dynamics both instrumentally and vocally are great!

4 - American Love - This is one of my least favorite tracks on the album, not that it's bad necessarily. Musically it sounds good, but the repetitive lines of "Big heart, big hearts, big hearts are for breaking" just don't do anything for me.

5 - What Gets you Off? - In the nature of the previous track, I just really don't dig the chorus to this track. Musically it's really good, but after a couple of times of hearing Andrew whine, "What gets you off?" I end up skipping the track.

(Tracks 4 and 5 are really the two biggest downers on the entire album for me)

6 - Suicide Blonde - Sorry INXS fans, this isn't a cover... Fortunately though, this is probably one of the coolest tracks on the album. It kind of reminds me of "Punk Rock Princess" by the way it starts out, but come the first chorus it stops reminding me of anything I've ever heard before. The chord progressions are unlike anything I've ever heard, and saying they are anything short of awesome would be a shame. Musically it's exciting, lyrically and vocally it's exciting, this is all around just a great track!

7 - Annie Use Your Telescope - When I first heard this track it almost reminded me of something by Pink Floyd. This song is so much bigger than anything Jack's or Something have ever done. The sonic range is huge and it's great. From about 1:20-1:45 the Pink Floyd-esq sound is really apparent. This is definitely a new venture for Jack's, but they pull it off great and deliver another memorable track.

8 - Bloodshot - I'm not a huge fan of this track, it kind of sounds like the new emo-punk-indy-pop that bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are delivering these days. It's okay, but doesn't do a whole lot for me... but then again neither do any of the tracks I'd categorize with this one that are out right now... Maybe I'm too old to get it :)

9 - Drop Out - The So Unknown - This another track that sounds it could have been on North. This is a very up beat track with that classic piano/indy sound that made Something Corporate great.

10 - Hammers and Strings (A Lullaby) - This is a brilliant track. It is one of my absolute favorites, and I'm guessing will likewise be a favorite for all Jack's fans. I'd venture as far as saying this track will become the ballad that Jack's fans chant for at shows... Similar to what "Konstantine" was for Something Corporate. It's songs like this that remind me why I love music so much.

11 - The Resolution - How often do you find an album where the lead single doesn't show up on the album until track 11? It's pretty rare to say the least. I was instantly drawn to this track. It's a great track and is definitely single worth, I only hope it drew enough interest to Jack's to give this album the credibility it deserves.

12 -Orphans - This is another cool track. It for the most part is very stripped down which I love. It is mostly based around the piano, an acoustic guitar, drums, and vocals that only Andrew could deliver to us. I'm generally not a huge fan of doubling the lyric tracks up so the that the same individual is singing several parts, but for this track, they pull it off and it works great.

13 - I'm not a huge fan of the digital noise in the background when this track begins. I get the point that this is somewhat of a slow artsy piece to take the album out on a nice mellow note (you know the arpeggios, falsettos, strings section, etc), but to be completely honest, the first half of it doesn't really work for me. After the crazy Beatles-esq instrumental part in the middle, the song gets really good and fortunately ends on something worthy of the album, although in some ways I think the album would have been better off ending with "Orphans."

Aside from my few nit-picky remarks, I have to say that this album is a reminder to us all of why we love piano rock. After the first Jack's album, I felt that there was a void left in my music collection where Something Corporate used to be. This album has no only filled that void, but has shown me that Andrew McMahon has the talent to be a great solo artist. Overall I give this album an A-, and recommend that all Something Corporate fans who lost interest after Everything in Transit, go pick it up. I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised.

-T

How iTunes Ruined the Music...

Tonight's topic is one that has been on my mind for quite a while now, and although I spent the entire afternoon listening to Jack's Mannequin's latest with the full intent of reviewing it tonight, I have decided to put it off and rant just a little. (That's my warning. This is a rant, so you may just want to stop reading now...)

Recently I was having a discussion with my good friend Greg about high end recording equipment. He's been looking into possibly upgrading some of the gear in his studio. After discussing several different products and their multi-digit price tags, I told him that I'm starting to feel that purchasing high end equipment in hopes of reproducing a true, natural sound is a waste of money, because in today's world, a sound engineer can work for months to create a beautiful mix, but as soon as it reaches the masses, it is compressed into a .mp3, and all of the magnificent subtleties that took hours of mixing and EQing to produce are essentially flushed down the digital toilet.

Now to iTunes... Not so many years ago, music enthusiasts would go to the local music store and pick up a copy of the newest album... The preferred format since the late 80’s was CD (I know the vinyl guys are waiting for an article about how vinyl is the pure format for music, and CD ruined that... but that whole discussion would take too much time...) Anyway, this CD would then be listened too in the car, on home stereo's, and more recently on computers. As technology got better, people started ripping their CD's to their computers so they wouldn't have to change disks... This was all fine and dandy until Mr. Steve Jobs realized that he could capitalize on this. With the release of the iPod, it suddenly became un-cool to carry around your Discman and your 12 CD wallet. Instead, all of the cool kids were using white earbuds, through which they were blasting low quality reproductions of something that in it's pure form was beautiful... Unless, of course they were listening to rap, in that case the “music” was degraded to start out with ;) Because of the massive music libraries we all now carry around, listening to music has gone from being a form of entertainment to simply being background noise. In many ways, the art of music is gone. People don’t specifically sit down to listen to an hour long album anymore. Instead, they throw all the tracks they like into a playlist, push play, and then at any given moment if you ask what they are listening too, they have no clue… Background noise…

Now don't get me wrong, I love being able to carry 200 albums with me everywhere I go on my Creative Nomad. With my cheap Sony earbuds, even mp3's sound okay. In fact they sound okay on my $10 computer speakers, and even on the stock stereo system in my '97 Escort, but as soon as it comes to my home stereo system, the mp3’s sound like they were recorded inside of a tin can using a $9.99 computer microphone.

The root of the problem comes down to this, we have become a society of convenience, we want quantity over quality. If we can't have instant access to something, it's not worth our time... iTunes gives the individual a way to purchase a song or album and have it on their computer in seconds. Keep in mind, this is a low quality representation of what the artist originally released, and you are playing full price for it, but never the less, it is convenient. Instead of driving to Wal*Mart tomorrow, or ordering the disc from Amazon and waiting a few days, we give up a high quality hard copy for a low quality copy that is gone forever as soon as your computer or iPod crashes.

To illustrate this point even further, I read an article in Ad Age this week about how more people watched the SNL Sarah Palin skits on youtube then they did on NBC. How many of the people who watched it on youtube have a 60 inch HD plasma screen on their wall at home, but instead of waiting up until 8:30 PM on a Thursday night, they threw all the quality out the window for instant access? I reiterated, we are a society of convenience... quantity not quality is what we live for.

I know some of you are thinking, "Tim's ranting because of his background in sound engineering, I can't hear the difference between a CD and an mp3." I have heard this, and I can assure you, anyone with ears can hear the difference, I've proven this to many individuals by simply going back and forth between the same song on CD and mp3.You don't even need an incredibly hifi system to do it. Most home surround sound system, or even decent computer speakers should be good enough to show you that you too can hear the difference. The only exception is Bose... I know some of you are scratching your head thinking, "My iPod sounds awesome through my Bose iPod Doc." And my friend, I'm sorry to tell you that you have been hit with a double wammy. You’re listening to degraded compressed music through "technology" that is about a half a step away from being a complete scam (call or email me if you really care to know all the details).

Now that I've ranted, I'm going to give you all a solution to this problem. Later this month when the new Killers album comes out, don't download it from iTunes. Go to Wal*Mart, Target, Amazon, or any other CD store and buy a physical copy. When you get home, rip it to your hearts content; listen to it on your iPod, computer, in your car and so on. But every now and then, when you have a few minutes, pop in the CD and enjoy an art that is all but lost, the art of listening to great sounding music.

-T

Alone Again...

Alternative/emo/indy/punk/pop/rock/(whatever else you wanna throw in here) guru River's Cuomo announced last week that on November 25th, he'll be releasing Alone II. This new album will be the second official release of Mr. Cuomo's private home recordings, giving Weezer fans another gimpse into the personal life of this musical genius.

I for one can hardly wait for Alone II's release. Last years Alone contained an amazing collection of River's private works... It was so good in fact, that it is now a regular part of my Weezer playlist. According to the artist himself, this collection will be better than the first. Be watching for a full review due the end of this month.

***As a side note, "Longtime Sunshine" from Alone, has been in my playlist below since day one. Go check it out. -T

The Offspring - Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

Wow, it has been a while since I last wrote one of these. I've been so busy lately that I've had little if anytime to review albums. I literally have 4 or 5 sitting here in my main music rotation waiting for their time in the sun... or shade... or whatever Guitar Guy Tim's is...

Enough senseless rambling, let's ramble with some sense. This album actually came out probably 4-5 months back. When I heard the first single "Hammerhead," I wasn't impressed so I blew the album off. Then a few weeks ago I heard the single "Kristy, Are You Doing Okay?" and I honestly didn't believe it was actually The Offspring. When I found that in all actuality "Kristy..." was really The Offspring, I knew I had to check out the album. Without giving too much away, I really think this album was the summers biggest musical surprise!

1. Half-Truism - This is an amazing opening track, it starts out with a slow arpeggio on the guitar which is complemented by a lo-fi record effect. It then goes into full power punk/pop like only The Offspring can deliver. To top this off, the chorus is fabulous! Great Track!

2. Trust in You - I hate to call this a filler track because it honestly sounds like everything else The Offspring have ever done. It's not bad, it's not incredibly good... it's, well... exactly what you'd expect from The Offspring.

3. You're Gonna Go Far, Kid - Single #3 from the album... it's catchy, but it's also full of profanities, so full in fact that I've removed it from my play list. If you buy this one off iTunes, make sure to get the Walmart Edit :)

*Quick Note... I know, you're all thinking, "Tim said he really liked this album, but at 3 tracks in, he's only liked one..." But don't you worry, the best is yet to come -T

4. Hammerhead - So initially I didn't think this track was all that special, after a few listens my opinion has changed. This is a great punk track! I really like how the track starts out with a cool guitar riff, followed by a heavy drum beat, this then leads us into a full on punk track! It's much more innovative than past works by The Offspring, and a great track!

5. A Lot Like Me - This track kind of reminds me of Linkin Park from the intro... The big difference here is that Linkin Park almost always seems to fail at making a good song after having a good intro. The Offspring on the other hand have written another amazing track that will appeal to more than just the traditional Offspring fan base. I could easily see this being another single from the album.

6. Takes Me Nowhere -This is another powerful punk track. It is definitely better than a filler, but isn't really single quality. I like it, but don't love it.

7. Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? - This is officially one of the top two best songs ever written by Dexter Holland. Who knew these guys could pump out a ballad, and a great one at that? Some have criticized the band over this track saying that they have sold out, and are trying to appeal to a broader audience... I, on the other hand, like to look at this track as the band finally displaying to the world that they do have talent beyond yelling, playing power cords and cussing. It is truly a fabulous track!

8. Nothingtown - This track would have fit in nicely on Americana. It has some random profanities, and some what of a juvenile feel, but overall is an okay track... just okay...

9. Stuff Is Messed Up - Just skip this track, not only is if full of explicit language, it's a true filler in all senses of the word (it didn't even get a full play before being deleted from my play list... that bad)

10. Fix You - Here we find the second truly great song that Dexter Holland has written. Katie (my wife) thinks that this is by far the best Offspring song ever, and aside from "Kristy..." I have to agree with her. It is a slower ballad, and is all around an amazing track. I'm guessing this will be another single before too long.

11. Let's Hear It for Rock Bottom - This is a fun track, it has almost a reggae feel too it (well the verses do at least). It's a decent track.

12. Rise and Fall - And the album wraps up with a powerful punk track that leaves us wanting more... I love it when album closers do that :)

This album, in many was, is probably the best album that The Offspring have ever put out. Unlike most of their earlier albums, the songs and their lyrics are more serious and well thought out. I know we all love, "Pretty Fly For a White Guy," but the funny/juvenile songs and lyrics get old real quick. Needless to say, I'm very impressed by the mature change the Offspring has made. That being said, this still is an Offspring album, it has 3 tracks that are clearly explicit, and it is for the most part a punk album. I'm a strong believer in buying whole albums and not individual tracks, but for this one I'd either say buy the .mp3's online, or go buy the Walmart edit.

Okay, with all that out of the way, I give the album a B. It has some great moments, and some amazing material... but even with that, it still doesn't hold up to A quality when compared to albums like Viva La Vida.

-Tim