"the microphone master DMC cause ONE two THREE four CASUALTIES!"
man, it's been a hiphop day over here in the land of mary. 'tis abe's birthday today, so we went out to eat some thai food and i got him a bunch of cds and a hat at the record store. yes, they sell hats at the record store. he got one of them black 'english gentleman' or run dmc type hats. looks pretty righteous. i got him the first two syd barret records (only 7 bucks all together, used, what a steal!) and the first two public enemy records. told you it was a hiphop day. man, i never realized how great those pe records where! i was into hiphop before i got into rock music (well, elvis came first, but i was 6). didn't dig way back or deep into it, because i was still young, so i never made it to public enemy. but darn, it's good. it's got a bunch of guitar on there, so it almost sounds like a rock record to me. put a lot of stuff in perspective. opened up a whole nother little door/insight into my vocal performance and vocals in general. it really was two turn tables and a microphone, back then. sometimes it was just a drumbeat, sometimes they'd sample old james brown, pfunk, albert king, good old records. it knocked me out, anyway.
man, darnit, if the 'puter just didn't crash on me and got rid of half of my spiel. shoot. anyway, like i was ramblin; i finally finished up the jazzmaster. i'd been collecting parts to put together this guitar, and it's finished, now. got a neck on there made out of african padauk. real stable, pourous, nice wood. it's like playing a sanded tree trunk, don't need no finish. it's a big neck too, 62/srv profile, so it'll fill you're hand up pretty good. rad piece of wood, like playing africa, i back it. i recorded a new tune on it too, this morning. it's improvised, and pretty floaty, but music is music. nothing fancy, recorded with a simple digital recorder. no amp, just the recorded and the guitar in a good sounding room. the one i sleep on the floor in. the song sounds kind of mournfull/arabic, and it's played on a jazzmaster, so i thought i'ma call it 'mourning the master'. put that in your pipe and smoke it.....
get 'mourning the master (demo)' here
i'll leave you all with this rad little new brant bjork song/video i've been grooving on for the past week or so. man, it's good. that guy to me is like bob dylan was to hendrix, or something along those lines. everytime he puts out something new it kicks my ass and makes me just want to rock, get better, and write new stuff. most of this footage is from last years tour. might be some in there that i shot, cale handed me the camera during 'low desert punk' at last year's roadburn festival. i ain't much of a cameraman, but i put a little homage to hendrix in there. on the song machine gun at the isle of wight festival, they had a slow shot going all the way down his body to his foot on the wah pedal. i dig that shot much, so i did the same thing. that ain't in the video, but hey, man, it's a good memory. looking forward to the new brant record too. no doubt that it'll kick my ass for weeks, months even. strap on a fender, turn up a marshall, and rock. digging the half-singing half rap/spoken word thing too. covering a public enemy song brant style crossed my mind today man, i'm telling you.....
'born to rock' - dig it!
