Tag: Music

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal

The 1980’s live forever ’round these parts.

Not really, but also kind of really.

Back then we used to go to see most of the big concerts at the Worcester Centum in Worcester, MA. Most bands avoided Boston itself and went about 60 miles to the west to put on their shows at the Centrum. Partly because Boston is tough to get around in a big tractor trailer truck, but also because the only real place to play in the city at that time was the old Boston Garden and Billy Joel said it best when he said even hockey games sound terrible at the Garden.

The Centrum was smaller but easier to get around. Almost all of the big arena bands played there. The stadium bands played the old Foxborough Stadium, but the arena acts went to Worcester.

My first show ever, Triumph was at the Centrum. My first four Rush shows were there. I saw Boston there when they played six sell outs on six consecutive days. I saw the eight man version of Yes there on the Union tour. Absolutely stunning show touring an awful album. I saw a ton of great shows there.

My friends Larry and Mike saw Iron Maiden there in 1988 (I think) when they were touring the Seventh Son album. They asked me if I wanted to go, but I hadn’t caught on to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal thing yet. By the time Maiden returned in 1990 I was fully on board and we all went back to Worcester to see them.

The Worcester Centrum is now called the DCU Center but it’s still the same building. The last thing I saw there was an AHL hockey game back in… 2001? Maybe? I don’t think I’ve been back since.

That changes in November. I just bought tickets for me, Mike, and Larry to go see Iron Maiden once again. It’s going to be freakin’ epic. I saw them that time in 1990, then again on the first tour after Bruce and Adrien rejoined in (I think) 2000, though that show was in Portland, ME. I saw them again at the venue formerly known as Great Woods shortly before the pandemic hit. Was it August 2019? It might have been 2018, but I think it was 2019. And now, come November, I am going to see them yet again at the venue formerly known as the Worcester Centrum, yet again.

Bring on that New Wave of British Heavy Metal one more time, people.

Do you think they’ll play Die With Your Boots On?

I hope they play Die With Your Boots On.

2024 50/90 Challenge Day 1/90

The annual goofiness is underway.

Yesterday I worked on two new ideas. I ended up with a full song form for both of them. The MIDI bass and drums are done, and they both have a MIDI guitar guide track.

That’s all. Not as much as I had hoped, but still a good start.

Directionless

It is weird, you know? Now that I’ve run out of daily writing prompts and have kicked the habit (so to speak) I feel like I’ve lost my blogging mojo somewhat. Like… now what do I do? You know what I mean, jelly bean?

Today is the 4th of July. That is meaningless now that the united states supreme court has declared that the president is above the law. We the people, except for the president, right? Fuck it, I don’t care. My country is dead. Nothing to do now except vote for the guy who won’t abuse his new dictatorial powers. Whatever.

The holiday no longer has any meaning except that it’s now 50 songs in 90 days challenge season. From today through October 1st I am going to try to write a shite load of shitty songs. Be warned, I am going to write about that a lot. It’s only 8:18am and I already have one riff written. There will be tons more to come, I think. Unless I wuss out and lose motivation and stop working… like last year… and almost every year that I’ve tried this dumb thing.

The holiday is meaningless now but it’s still a day off during the summer. The plan is to have a cookout. Burgers on the grill for lunch. Chicken on the grill for dinner. Of course climate change has turned New England into New Seattle and it rains here almost every day. The forecast calls for thunderstorms right around dinner time. Hoo-fucking-ray, am I right?

What else… binge TV watching. What are we checking out these days? The Acolyte is excellent. It was good through three episodes, then ramped up big time starting with episode four. There are six episodes out and two left to go. Really looking forward to seeing how it ends. The Boys has a new episode out today. I haven’t watched it yet. House of the Dragon is just as spectacular as you hoped it would be. Over on Netflix I am trying to get back into The Witcher. I watched each of the first two seasons when they came out. They were okay. I started the third season when it first came out but lost track of it. I’ve watched a couple more episodes this week and am having a hard time remembering who everyone is and what they are trying to do. I’ll power through. I started watching Dark. I think I am three episodes into the first season. It’s okay. It’s a little tough to follow given that multiple actors are playing each character. Also, it’s a German show and I’m having a hard time taking some of the hairstyles seriously. I mean… wow. Not that that sort of thing catches my eye at all, but really… wow. There is also Torchwood on Max. It’s good. It’s not great. I’ll power through it, for completeness sake.

I’m sitting at my desk in the cellar right now. I just saw a spider. That’s not unusual. Our cellar is kind of the Spider Kingdom. I am not one who is afraid of spiders or weirded out by spiders or anything like that. I usually just ignore them and let them eat the other bugs. This guy though… it was big. Like… it’s going to haunt my nightmares big. I tried to terminate it with extreme prejudice using a fly swatter but I missed. I can’t find it now. I fear that it is going to come hunting for me to get revenge. I mean… it was big enough that if we still have mice hiding out down here then they might be in trouble. It was that big.

Yeah… see what I mean about me being directionless, bloggily speaking?

Cold… Again… As Usual

It is 81 degrees out here in Westwood, MA.

I am sitting at my desk, shivering with cold.

Effing air conditioned nightmare*

Here’s a cat to make us all feel better about how cold it is in the office.

*That’s a Steve Hackett reference.

Band Practice

Overall, tonight’s band practice went well. Well… as well as could be expected. My fingers hurt a lot and my arms got really tired, really quickly. My playing was pretty piss poor, but on the whole it went well. We probably won’t practice next week, but we should be back the week after that. There was serious talk of looking for a gig around Halloween.

I’m loving the Les Paul Standard into the AC15. Last time I had some pedal issues, but I cleared it all up tonight. The Ryra Klon clone into the Mr Vermin Rat clone was -chef’s kiss-. The Tri Pi ’70 Big Muff clone into the Ryra though… -chef’s kiss times 10-.

Today

It’s Sunday. What’s going on?

Recently I gave up on my idea of learning how to make sugar free ice cream at home. Somehow, my beloved bride Jennifer responded to me getting off the homemade ice cream wagon by jumping on the homemade ice cream wagon, which has pulled me back into the fray.

Earlier today we went to a grocery store to do some research. How much does stuff cost and how long does it last before it goes bad. We also found a few different brands of sugar free ice cream to try. You know, for ideas and stuff. We don’t have an ice cream maker at the moment, but we’re watching the web for sales. Come on, amazon (you effin’ psychos), let’s put that ice cream maker with the built in compressor on sale!

A few minutes from now I am going to head to my father’s place. He has an issue that requires frequently changing a bandage. My brother and sister and I are taking turns. It’s my turn today. He has stuff to do this afternoon so I am planning on popping in, changing the bandage, and popping out. I am taking a camera with me. There’s a spot near his place that I might stop at for a minute or two if I have the time. Fingers crossed.

After that I will come home and have dinner with the love of my life. After that? Band practice. After that? Come home and hang out with my Jen and then sleep. After that? Work in the office. Oh shit. Today’s Sunday. Crap.

Practice Prep

There will be a band practice tonight. Oh, happy day!

Homework for this week was to learn a song. It is arguably the worst song every written. “I Was Made for Loving You” by Kiss.

Oh my, what pandora’s box of hellness are we opening?

Serial Numbers

A few years ago I found a website that lets you use the serial number from your Gibson guitar to get information about your Gibson guitar. At the time I had two Gibson guitars. I’ll look them up again, then I will look up my two newer Gibson guitars.

First, my Les Paul Custom:

Your guitar was made at the
Nashville Plant, TN, USA
on September 18th, 1978
Production Number: 27

Next, my ES-335 Pro:

Your guitar was made at the
Kalamazoo Plant, MI, USA
on December 5th, 1979
Production Number: 127

Okay then, those are my two older guitars which might technically be considered “vintage.” Now let us check on the two guitars from the 21st century.

Start with my SG Standard:

Well… this is weird. There are two hits.

Your guitar was made at the
Nashville Plant, TN, USA
on March 10th, 2012
Production Number: 286

Your guitar was made at the
Nashville Plant, TN, USA
in 2018
Production Number: 2258

Right. I bought this one new after Gibson declared bankruptcy in 2018. It actually has a stamp on the back of the headstock right under the serial number that says, “Made in USA 2018 Model.” I guess that means it’s a 2018.

Okay, now lastly my Les Paul Standard 50’s:

Your guitar was made at the
Nashville Plant, TN, USA
in 2023
Production Number: 210004

Huh… right… so the guitar that my wife bought me for my 50th birthday back in 2021 was made in 2023… huh… so looks like the app doesn’t know how to handle the serial numbers from 2021. I guess I should Google it to see if I can find anything…

Turns out they changed the serial number format in 2019 and now we have this info:

It was made on November 16, 2020 and is production number 42.

I can tell by the look on all of your faces that you are fascinated by this.

Finally!

1,591 days

The search for a new singer for the band is over. The new singer is our old singer. He’s back and it’s fantastic! It probably means we won’t be changing the name now, but I can get over that.

It was like riding a bike tonight, especially given that my guitar playing sucked. Well, I was doing fine for about 25 minutes and then my fingers decided they were toast and they stopped doing what I wanted them to do. I expect that my sloppy playing on Stevie Wonder’s Superstition will cause the ghosts of Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn to haunt me tonight.

That’s okay, We’ll get back into shape soon enough. I seriously want us to book a gig for October or November, just to push us back into form. We had one practice tonight and now we’ll be off for the next two weeks. We need to spark some serious motivation, you know? Let’s book a gig!

As for gear notes, I played my Les Paul Standard through my Vox AC15. I have a sneaking suspicion that is going to be my primary rig for the near future. I put my clone of a ProCo Rat pedal onto the board and completely forgot that it, like the Vox amp, has it’s tone control backward (it cuts rather than boosts) so when I was trying to make the tone less trebly I was actually making it more trebly. I’ll fix that next time… if I remember that I did things backwards. We’ll see.

Pop Genesis

I don’t remember this, but the Instagram and Threads account for the band Genesis posted this today.

On this day in 1986 Genesis and four of it’s five “classic period” members were all in the US Billboard top 40 at the same time.

Genesis was at 37 with Invisible Touch. Not the worst piece of shit in their 80’s pop period, but definitely on the short list.

Steve Hackett’s band GTR, which also included Yes guitarist Steve Howe, was at 35 with When the Heart Rules the Mind.

Peter Gabriel was at 32 with Sledgehammer.

Phil Collins was at 26 with Take Me Home which is a song I completely forgot existed but I guess was a thing.

Mike Rutherford’s mostly awful pop side project Mike and the Mechanics was at number five with pretty awful All I Need is a Miracle.

Five Genesis and Genesis adjacent songs on the top 40 at the same time. It’s not like that week where The Beatles had something like six songs on the top 10 at the same time, but it’s pretty cool.

If only the five songs were… you know… better songs. Why couldn’t the Genesis song been Tonight Tonight Tonight, and the GTR song been Imagining, and the Peter Gabriel song been In Your Eyes (or This is the Picture, or Don’t Give Up, or Red Rain, or Mercy Street), and the Mike and the Mechanics song been… ummm… that one song that I didn’t hate… Silent Running, or something like that… and the Phil Collins song been something that wasn’t awful and completely forgettable which I am not sure was possible in 1986. When did I Don’t Care No More come out? That was long before ’86, wasn’t it?