Frank Blank

I think these kind of things are very handy indicators as to who the enemy is.

Patience isn’t something I have a lot of I must admit! GAS is sticky isn’t it, I’m beginning to realise that actually finding the correct bass isn’t the end of it.

Well I have sold the Godin A4 (slight lip wobble) and on Saturday I put the money from the sale down as a deposit on a Chowny SWB Pro via my local music shop, hopefully they will put that order in with Chowny today. This is the first time I’ve ordered an instrument without trying it first so I’m a bit nervous but I’ve done all the research I can and I think it’s the right bass for me. I just happened to be driving past Bass Direct the previous Saturday so I dropped in because I knew they had an SWB Pro so I managed to see one but I didn’t get a chance to try it, let alone buy it, because the guy in the shop was tied up with other customers, so be it, I didn’t have long anyway but just loooking at it gave me some idea of the quality. So, the guy in the shop told me 6-8 weeks after phoning Chowny, now comes the wait. Hopefully I can sell my Fenders (fretless Modern Player and Aerodyne) so I can get an order in for an SWB-1 fretless and see if having all three types of bass in short scale will actually stop GAS?

Man... if that piece of music doesn’t appear to be going anywhere it’s because it’s already arrived. Is there anything better than just being in a groove? I say just like it isn’t a holy thing, an everything... Man... That, right there, is it.

I can’t play with a pick, it feels so odd! Not only that but I only play with one finger, there’s no hope for me!

I too have music made by people I dislike and whom I know to be awful people, in one case I have music by people who have been particularly nasty to me, I still listen if I like the song. Again I realis I’m posting a subject that has no right or wrong answer but I just don’t think it warranted a reaction that made me feel complicit somehow.

So. I was driving a colleague of mine into work the other day and at his request I put some music on, the iPod was on shuffle and obviously in a particularly controversial mood as after the first song, a Talking Heads track, finished the iPod began playing I Didn't Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock and Roll) by Gary Glitter, this is a snippet of the ensuing conversation... Colleague: Is this Gary Glitter? Me: Indeed it is. Colleague: You still listen to him? Me: Clearly. Colleague: But he's a *expletives deleted* paedo.* Me: *light heartedly* Well I'm just not that much of a revisionist. The rest of the journey (after I'd turned the track off due to the look of utter evil I received) was spent in silence and things have been a little frosty since. Despite having my argument down I am beginning to wobble on this. Am I wrong to listen to the track? If we took all the evil doers out of music what would we be left with? Is playing music by this individual some kind of collusion? My library has a copy of Mein Kampf on the shelves does this make my library a nazi library? Discuss...

Amen.

Christ on a bike, I have just realised I'm harping on about the objective/subjective dichotomy of music in this thread when I've not even listed my favourite three albums, I do apologise and here they are... Metal Box - Public Image Ltd Dirk Wears White Sox - Adam and the Ants Cut - The Slits

I do not believe in objective truth nor, it appears, is the speed of light a constant even in vacuum conditions. Led Zepplin are possibly better than The Spice Girls but it isn't, IMHO, a fact.

Please don't take any of this personally, they are just reasoned responses to your grenades and, of course, just an opinion... Is it fair to say that if you can't understand a word that a death metal vocalist utters it's not really singing? The OED defines singing as... To articulate or utter words or sounds in succession with musical inflections or modulations of the voice, so as to produce an effect entirely different from that of ordinary speech; spec. to do this in a skilled manner, as the result of training and practice. ...although the definition neither mentions the need for the words to be understandable nor defines what the definition means by skilled manner I don't really think the definition is tight enough to exclude death metal singers simply because the words are difficult to discern. Was Led Zepplin a better band than Al Krow's two covers bands ever will be? Well on just about every definition going, yes. Hence the unfortunate idea that a set of applied definitions confers quality. IMHO Led Zepplin aren't a better band that The Spice Girls and Tom Waites isn't a better artist than Black Lace. I prefer Led Zepplin to The Spice Girls (admittedly by a surprisingly narrow margin) and I prefer Tom Waites to Black Lace but to just say better and by definition are giving some bands inherent superiority over others and I don't think that's really possible. It can only ever be subjective, surely? There's great rock (and jazz) music and then there's noise. And plenty of stuff in between. It is all just noise, we apply the words, I just applied noise in a broader way that you did, equally the words rock, jazz, great and stuff are applied words and that application is wholly subjective. My Dad would have called System Of A Down noise and never have referred to SOADs vocalist as a singer. We apply the words and when lots of us apply the words great singer they become, by definition, a great singer but I do not think that makes Frank Sinatra inherently any superior to Serj Tankian. I'm only saying this because it's a thing, in society, in groups generally and it is something I find in musical circles particularly, that there is a general consensus that some kind of music or artist is actually better than another and that's fine but then people ridicule others because they may not hold the same orthodoxy and then they belittle those who like (what the others perceive as) inferior (I am not saying you are doing this whatsoever btw) and that isn't a good thing IMHO.

Oooohhhffffff. That, Sir, is a humdinger!

Damn *rushes to find a copy for early Human League, B.E.F., Heaven 17 completist issues* Ahhhh yes...

1. Do you prefer buying from a music shop or online shop? I always buy from a music shop if I am buying an instrument or an amp. Accessories, strings etc. online. 2. Do you prefer to try before you buy? If it’s an instrument or amp, yes. 3. In your experience what is missing from most music stores you have visited? Staff that don’t play some virtuosic riff before they give you the guitar to try thus making you feel inadequate. I find saying “OK, f****** sling yer hook Satriani” usually does the trick. Seriously, patronising musos spoil the music shop experience, not so in my local store which means they get all my hard earned. 4. How far would you travel to go to music shop If I want a particular item and it’s in a distant shop I go get it. I drove from Essex to Edinburgh once to try/buy a guitar. 5. What would attract you to a music shop ie range, price etc It not being staffed by patronising musos who Make me go all finger breaky.

No worries, click get-a-quote then each model.

The starting prices are between $1750 - $1900 according to the website.

I’d say this is bang on as a rule of thumb.

I have a couple of these... Electrician Aluminium Lockable Flight Case Tool Box Storage Plastic Handle New https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B008JAOKB8/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_tai_VrsxAbJ9RP96H

I started playing in bands at 15 yrs of age and it took over twenty years to find a stable committed band and after that finished another ten years to settle into the duo I’m part of now. If my musical collaborator left now I’d pack it in. Actually, thinking about it, my current musical project began in 2004 and we did our first gig in late 2017, so I can’t really comment as I think we are mad. What I might suggest is that if you are good musicians doing covers you might be quicker at getting a set together than bands that are writing original material. Not saying one is superior to the other here btw.

I think it is extremely rare to find committed musicians prepared to work. They are either young and wanting disproportionate success to the amount of work they are prepared to put in or older and too jaded to put work in,it seems difficult to find a sweet spot, I have rarely found musicians who are willing to work in order to get a good set together, it’s either musos wanting a compliant platform from which they can flaunt their virtuosity or pedestrians who didn’t realise making good music is a difficult and arduous task. I think the answer is that you need more luck than anything else and don’t let go of that guitarist. Good luck.

This one?

Hooligans, I do love that word and they sure were, perfect nomenclature.

That was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, a Birthday Party gig, MA wasn’t even onstage. Everyone was looking over the balcony above the stairs when he walked in, someone gobbled and everyone else just joined in, he was soaked, he turned around and left. I remember a similar situation when Orange Juice backed up Killing Joke at Hammersmith Palais, they were spat at so much it was even dripping off the drummer. I remember Edwin Collins leaving the stage with the wry observation of “You’ve got very adhesive spittle”.