A tiny section from a visualization of Metallica’s “Ride the Lightning” – particularly taken by the speckles that are throughout.

Had a dream last night of a van pulling a huge pile of amps, tied together with rope.

Attempting to sort by height… ended up with this instead.

Keith Rowe's guitar with bits and pieces

Listening again to Keith Rowe and Christian Fennesz’s album “Live at LU” and found the above image.

Via: Audio Culture

In his liner notes and broadcasts, [pianist Glenn] Gould created more than two dozen alter egos for satirical, humorous, or didactic purposes, permitting him to write hostile reviews or incomprehensible commentaries on his own performances. Probably the best-known are the German musicologist “Karlheinz Klopweisser”, the English conductor “Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite”, and the American critic “Theodore Slutz”.

From the liner notes to Bach Partitas, Preludes and Fugues, p. 14: Sony CD SM2K-52597.

Via: Wikipedia

When I first bought my Fender Squier (above) for about $100 ten years ago, I didn’t know anything about guitars and it was basically the only one I could afford anyway.  After a few years I realized how crummy it was as a status object, even though it played fine.  I was embarassed, thinking that “real” musicians had vintage guitars worth thousands and I had my cheap, Indonesian-made knock-off of the real thing.

Time passed, and I grew up.  The guitar played (and continues to play) amazingly.  Maybe not the delight of a perfect 1960′s Strat but still completely useable.  There have been hiccups in my confidence; nothing could have brought my self-consciousness out more than playing in Rhys Chatham’s “Crimson Grail“.  Four-hundred guitarists in NYC is sure to bring out the gear fetishist in everyone.  That said, I love my guitar and now take pride in playing with it.

Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about my guitar in a slightly different way.  First, that I’ve had this guitar so long that I know how to play it in a way that can’t be bought.  Ten years of learning it’s quirks and touches isn’t something to be passed up.  I don’t have to think, just play.

But more interestingly I think is that I’ve never had any work done on the guitar – it’s never be re-setup, had a fret job, nothing.  So the guitar decays.  I’ve noticed this recently because the neck is starting to get loose.  Much more easily I can push or pull on it and change the pitch.  I enjoy this, because I can now articulate sounds with my whole body, not just my fingers and along with some new tunings I’ve come up with the sound gets really full and subtle, like a Leslie cabinet.

A few days ago I was doing some improvising in preparation for a performance and was tipping the guitar upside down and back.  The weight of the neck alone was causing deflection and pitch change.  The “problem” is easily fixed with a few turns of a screwdriver but I’ve decided to let it go.  I’m going to age with the guitar and see where it takes me.  If, eventually, the neck falls off I’ll be making some weird music for sure, but I like the idea of following path of the instrument.

I’m especially fond of the last four tracks.  Elegantly simple, spare.  Makes me feel like recording.

Via: Pitchfork

Apparently, these kids and their dad James Kochalka started a band named “KaBoomBoom” over their holiday break.  Three songs in total, my favorite is below; how can you beat a song called “Little Robots” and the lyrics “lasers and axes and swords and bombs”?

Theme from the game “Monkey Island” written in 1990.  Not sure why, but I love this.  The whole thing is available for download at the interesting LucasArts Soundtracks website.

Via: Crossfire Designs