I was thinking about getting a new drum kit for a long time but the ones that I think are awesome are also awesomly expensive. I played around with the idea of buying just a new base drum and floor tom but it is still pretty pricey. I finally decided on just cleaning up my old set, getting new skins and actually tunning them. I've been playing drums for about 14 years and just learned how to tune them(kinda)! My set sounds totally different and the way I wanted them to sound. I would recommend trying this before throwing down a bunch of money. Also, I've read that drums are supposed to sound better with age. Maybe that's all it takes to get our shit drums to sound decent. Who knows?

Hey man, I've got no access to any pics on this while I'm at work so I can't see if there's a pic of your kit here. I'm guessing this is a newer Gretsch (about 8 years old) which means (most likeley) you get the brighter tom sound than you'd get on an older kit. 24" Bass is pretty bold but you could end up with a brass band set up rather than a full on punchy kit. If you want big floor and big sound go searching for an old Jazz kit. If you just want big sound then go for an old Gretsch or Ludwig - good ones are always really loud. Lets face it they only sort after because they are such fantastic kits. Personally I use an old George Hayman kit and I love it for it's simplicity and tone (I'd still rather have a '66 Ludwig)

May 25th :

Haunted George Special:

Interview +

Haunted George : Panther Howl
Haunted George : Song For World Peace
Necessary Evils : Love Handles
Haunted George : Road Ghoul
Haunted George : Bone Hauler
The Beguiled : I Walk Alone
Haunted George : Graves In The Desert
Haunted George : Broken Hearted Gypsy
Haunted George : Howlin'
Haunted George : Swamp Witch
The Beguiled : Kitten With A Whip
Necessary Evils : Glory Hole
Haunted George : Pile 'O Meat
Haunted George : The Hangman

+

Eyehategod : Depress
Cute Lepers : Cool City
The Gories : There But For The Grace Of God
Terrible Twos : No New Thing
Detroit Cobras : Funnel Of Love
Black Radio : Time's Up
Jack Of Heart : My Love In Vain
Shindiggers : Baby Let Go
The City Kill : Love's Lonely Children
Brant Bjork : Punk Rock Guilt
The Fatals : Get Out Of My Life
CAPS : Six Finger Shake
Fe Fi Fo Fums : You Might Get Me
Alex Gomez : Devil Candy
Eddy Current Suppression Ring : Memory Lane
The Hangmen : Dark Eyes
Kill-A-Watts : Cheap Medicine
Lord High Fixers : Poppa Hoodoo
Jay Reatard : It's So Easy
Sun Ra : Sea Of Sound

We were talking about the Shin-ei earlier in this thread (a piece of Jap crap that is sublime in the way a dentist's root canal is sublime)... you can hear a great example of it on the song "Unlucky In Love" here: www.myspace.com/miketheravens2007 Tell me that doesn't set your teeth on edge...

Here is the website for Soft Science; http://www.softscience.us/ Tell Kevin (the owner), I sent ya!

Got myself one of those Peerless poison Ivy gretsch efforts - way nice - and found a Danelectro FAB Metal pedal by accident (Thanks to Steven James ex-Dogs D'Amour from his shop in Middlesbrough) is a total screamer if used with a nifty fifty already driven a bit gives that "she's about to blow" sound we all want - for £25 and the amps are cheap as well works a blinder with me Tele too!

Fuzz out!

I'm no guitarist but have played with a few and heard many on stage. I'm a huge fuzz fan and am a real fan of a blue fuzzface through a Fender Twin. Guy I played with used this set up when he played a Guild semi - the fuzz was some of rawrest and most authentic I've heard. With this set up you still get the bass tone which is lost with a mosrite, I guess alot of that was due to the amp set up.

I just posted this on my blog about a radio situation in Santa Fe, NM. Anyone else have a corporate vs. local horror story? I was happy to learn that a Santa Fe radio station has started to carry the syndicated Little Steven's Underground Garage. Hosted by Steve Van Zandt, it's a fine that I've often listened to online. I was happy, until that is, I learned when the show plays in Santa Fe -- Sundays, 10 p.m. until midnight. I'm always busy every week during that time, ON THE AIR WITH MY OWN DAMN SHOW, TERRELL'S SOUND WORLD, which, as faithful listeners know, is grounded in garage, psychedelic and punk rock. I'd like to flatter myself and think that the programming geniuses at KVSF think my show is so important that they had to bring the big guns in to compete, creating a McDonald's vs. Bert's Burger situation in the battlefield of garage-rock radio. But something tells me they probably aren't even aware of my show -- een though I've been doing my show at this time slot for more than 12 years. So my biased advice, if you want to listen to Little Steven online. (And for even cooler, edgier online garage sounds, check out the GaragePunk.com podcast jukebox.) But on Sunday nights listen to my show, the sonic equivalent of a Burt's chile cheese burger and a taco on the side.

http://twitter.com/maribelp

Thanks for the link, man. Yeah, nice straight-forward interview encompassing all the basics of Childish. I particularly found Billy's remarks about live concert sound interesting. It might not be well known by everyone that Billy's bands (since Headcoats times at least to my knowledge) refuse to be microphoned/mixed through a P.A. The last time I saw Thee Headcoats (Wild Weekend 1998 in London) the band set up at the side of the venue (quite a large venue, I might add) on two drum risers, using their own small P.A. for vocals only! I was amazed that a large number of the audience (which I perceived to be veteran Garage-Punkers) were very upset and disturbed by this. I even had the feeling that some in the crowd took it as a personal attack as if the band were cheating them by not using the proper technology available. Billy hit the nail on the head when he says that 'you are not aloud to have music from an origin, it has to be surround-a-sound'. I can imagine that most of the younger generation of Garage-Punkers were introduced to the great 60's Punk Nuggets via re-mastered CD's, pushed and re-amplified for modern ears, experiencing live music in modern venues equipped with monster P.A. systems. All of Billy Childish's art is about stripping things down to the basics. Three chord Beat music, non pretentious Van Gogh-ian-like impressionism (see Stuckism), and in-your-face prose/poetry/truism. Thanks for the link.

Posted at the Guardian UK website on May 21, 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/audio/2008/may/21/billy.childish I'm attaching an MP3 of it in case the link gets taken down/moved. Any thoughts about this interview? His new band? etc.?

I can dig it...now if they can throw garage tunes into every commercial I may start watchin' the tube again!

And yes beer came sprayin' out my nose when I first saw/heard the ad...the joy of surprise.

Don't cry until "Dirty Water" appears in a Tide commercial.

Another chance for young people to learn about great music;
I agree about the royalties tough; I hope sky gets some money;
As I recall he got zilch for Copland...

I love that song. It seemed weird to hear it on such a "trendy" commercial...

It's called Lynx instead of Axe in the UK, but haven't heard this one yet? I'll just play the track when the next lynx commercial comes on just so I can imagine the vibe your on there.

Do listen to Free/Out Jazz or Shronk? How about John Cage's music? Einsturtzen de Nuebatten or The Residents? How about those Butthole Surfers too. All unconventional stuff by schooled musicians who learned the rules then broke them. Even the great Igor Stravinsky caused a riot in Paris with his "Rites of Spring" when he first performed it in 1914.

Hell, You are right though, if you wanna play Electric Kazoo through a wah-wah and warble like Yoko Ono, that is perfectly all right too. Even chaos has some (anti-)order to it. If you like what you do then cool. Hopefully others will clue into it too. (wink)

I only offered what a simple song structure looks like in a rudamentary way boiled down to easily posted info. But hey, as they say, "Ignorance is Bliss!"

Vive l'Anarchie!

Give society the finger and write what you wanna write. This is music man, there are no rules no preconseptions and no set pieces. You want to put ten choruses and one verse then do it.
To start, you've got to love what ya doing, others will listen. My advise is take no advise and do your own thing. If your after writing fame, then go get an English degree!
- from your friendly short fiesty garage freak -

I've checked out about it for me before, and I fround this CD. http://shorl.com/kifipreprojami The 1st and 2nd albums on 1 CD. The problem is that I haven't bought it yet, haha. But one of reviews says "if you haven't heard Gene Vincent before, start with this CD. It contains Vincent's first two (and best) albums."

What would you all say is a good starter Gene Vincent LP???

"There is a Fine Line between Clever and Stupid"
-Nigel Tufnel- (AKA Chris Guest)
Amen to that!

Yes, many newbie sound engineers/PA folks all seem to be cut from the same cloth, BUT a good one (and I know many) are worth their weight in gold. Being as I started my studio engineer carreer apprenticing (yes apprenticing!) under one of Seattle's premier live sound engineers (Jim Anderson who worked at the Central Tavern, then Crocodile Cafe and now temporarily Slim's!) He took me under his wing and taught be the ropes (so I wouldn't be one of those "dunno what is goin' on" types) He coulda just let me "sink or swim" and told me how stupid I was for not knowing Live Audio, but he didn't. I actually showed the want to learn (and I sure learned a lot too!) He taught me to set the mics and 'Dial In a Mix" then "Listen to the room" and figure out what works from the stage sound and Re-enforce it as opposed to just Amplify it. He also told me how to be polite to the bands and work with them at whatever level they are at and not be condescending to them (even if some are just stupid and didn't wanna listen!) He got the thought into my head that there are many styles and ways to doing any job and I learned though making mistakes (ones that no-one but me and Jim knew) and never screwing a band over on a mix on purpose. I learned to move quickly and fix things that needed to be fixed (on stage and behind the board) without the audience (and sometimes the band) knowing. I never got paid (until later) but I did have his respect. When I finally got to College and started to learn that "Art and Science of Recording" I already had some Reality under my belt and knew a few tricks that even my Profs didn't know and knew how to show them what I knew. I owe a bit of my survival as both a Musician and an Engineer to this.

Yes, there are a lot of wanna-be/neophyte/"I know more than you" types out there (but that is true in Music and especially Garage Music), we all know who they are (as I look in the mirror), so let's not be the one who "casts the first stone" because at some point they may just get thrown back (and a lot harder too) as us. It hurts!

I have had my Bad and Good experience on both sides of the Board and Stage. I know what it is like to Give and to Recieve the stuff we are talking about here. It is never easy so, let's keep the coments contructive and let those who might read them, learn without getting burned (to badly). Believe me when I tell you EVERYONE knows when you screw up, but no one likes to be Trashed for it. I think we all know the sting of that lash.

Meanwhile, I am off to an early morning soundcheck for my solo gig at the University Streetfair, let's hope I follow some of my own advice and not be too much of a hypocrite (hee-hee!)!
Keepa Rockin'!

Hey there, I can't comment on girl vocals but I can confirm the best way we know of to get an authentic garage vocal sound in general is to stick a bit of reverb through the mic channel. I've done it for years (while playing drums coincidently) and as a band we were always praised on our authentic vocal sound. Hardly anyone does it anymore and really lets a good band down when they have really dry vocals. Try it you might like it!

Now mind you, I do like the Beatles (unlike some of the garage nazis), but I was struck recently by how godawful the lead guitar in "Get Back" was... from the tone to the attack (or lack thereof)... noodle city a la Grateful Dead almost... just wretched... it's not rock 'n' roll... more like Muzak... what are some other famous wimpy guitars? Take care that it's wimpy... not technically "bad" or something wanky... just lacking cojones...