bartelby

My sister once fancied a guy who worked there. She sent me in to buy The Pogues Rum, Sodomy and the Lash when it came out, because she was too embarrassed to get it. I was 12 at the time. So I went up to the counter with that and The Damned's Phantasmagoria, that my sister also wanted. Handed them over to the guy who then proceeded to compliment me on excellent taste in music and we talked about bands for about 15 minutes before I left the shop. I never told him the albums were for my sister, she was mad when I eventually came out of the shop. The next time we went into the shop when came over to me and recommended some new releases and had a chat. My sister just stood there glaring at me. I imagine she wanted me to introduce her, but I didn't

Yeah, It's versatile machine and more than just a drum machine. It's more like an Akai MPC. I've had a quick go on the Digikat in a shop, the clacky keys began to annoy me after a few minutes. I also prefer hardware devices. Software instruments are ok for drawing up ideas and such, but I much prefer using actual drum machines, synths, samplers etc. In the same way that the even the best software based bass guitar isn't a replacement for playing a real bass.

That might be a bit of overkill for what you need.

Whilst they're, reasonably cheap, and sound great. They're not the most intuitive machine to program. When I used to program mine a lot I drew out grids for different step resolutions.

I've found that a lot of the songs I prefer on the last few albums are all Vedder's. I do agree there was an intentional change, whether that was to move away from the Grunge scene or to try and avoid radio play I don't know.

Opeth's I got Pale Communion on vinyl for £5 from Amazon and enjoyed it enough to preorder the deluxe box set of The Sorceress . For the dull gig I went to, they were touring Heritage. I thought that album was incredibly boring, it being an album supporting tour the set was heavily weighted to it. In the middle of the set they did 25 mins of acoustic stuff, with only a couple of those songs being from Damnation. The rest were acoustic versions of heavier songs, that just didn't work (for me). I'd always enjoyed Mastodon live before The Hunter tour. Yeah they had moments of sloppiness, but they were spot on for the Crack the Sky gig I'd seen. I didn't like The Hunter and it didn't help Dillinger Escape Plan were the support, I can't stand 95% of their output. So I already wanted to leave before Mastodon hit the stage. The big change was Vedder was involved in more than just lyrics. The instrumentation for Ten and Vs was written by the others without input from Eddie. The next couple of albums were nearly 50% Vedder written songs. Then slowly over the next few albums the song writing became more evenly distributed, other band members started writing lyrics too. Then the last coupe were back to Vedder writing the bulk.

Opeth is the first band that sprang to mind, they seemed to lose their was after Ghost Reveries. Watershed has its moments, but Heritage was just dull. They've slowly been coming back up but, as you imply, with a different sound. Mastodon peaked with Crack the Skye. Since then they've written bland songs to appeal to a wider audience. I saw both the bands several times but the last time I saw each the gigs are right at the top of dullest gigs I've ever been to. Ooh, Pearl Jam. After the first 2 albums they were like a totally different band.

Gazelle Twin, before the weirdness kicked in.

The only thing I'm not sure about are the blot (not dots, but not quite blocks) inlays...

Audio in this post https://www.facebook.com/groups/2442000232/permalink/10155864022070233/

It's a pedal being made for Morgan Nicholls

There is one piece of bass related gear I want. But it's only a prototype at the moment, so who knows how long it'll be before production...

Apart from the odd set of strings I've made no bass related purchases this year. Traded a bass, but no money has been exchanged...

Ned's Atomic Dustbin

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy

Not sure if this counts but, I took the kids to see the musical Matilda (eldest daughter is called Matilda, unless you actually try and call her that. She only answers to Tilly) in Cardiff last night. I have to say, despite it not being my sort of thing I was impressed.

Not being one for grandeur I'll settle for: No Brexit Well funded public services and one of these:

Best Christmas and birthday presents for the next couple of years!!

I saw Pekko Käppi a few years back. I love his traditional Finnish folk stuff.

The Damned - Phantasmagoria

A Squier CV 51P with an added J pickup?

That's what I wanted, but the in-laws are coming over for christmas day... 😔

One gig in an old band I misread the set list, the onstage sound was shocking and there were no monitors. They started one song, I kicked off with next one. It was only when they launched into the chorus, and I was a few bars away from the chorus for the song I was playing, did I realise. After we'd played a punter walked up to congratulate me on a great set, singling out the f'ed song as being particularly good. I explained what happened, he laughed and said it was still awesome. He wasn't being sarcastic either... He may have been deaf though.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Are You Normal?

I’m listening to CD 11 of a 14 CD boxset retrospective of Éliane Radigue. A French pioneer of minimalist electronic music.