EssentialTension

and also ... All Gates Open: The Story of Can by Rob Young and Irmin Schmidt – review

Check my avatar ...

Correct.

'I grew up in total ruins': Irmin Schmidt of Can on LSD, mourning and musical adventures Should be of interest to a few of you.

I have some sympathy becasue I'd like to think I rarely if ever listen to 'rock' but four of that list I would listen to thinking it not to be 'rock'. 'Rock' is pretty much a contested yet meaningless concept until someone defines or explains what they mean by 'rock'. And then one finds that the definition or explanation given includes examples which one feels have very little to do with 'rock'.

Overlooking 1971, some people have claimed February 3, 1959 as the turning point.

There was a red Smoked Bass on ebay recently ...

I don't really believe in 'tonewood' but the neck pickup on my mahogany Lakland Decade is creamy and thick.

Very nice.

Thanks for boxing me off but, no, I don't have a pedal board and I don't play in a bedroom. I do have a compressor. I have had other rather different sounding compressors in the past. Sometimes I use a compressor, but sometimes I don't'. More likely I'd use a compressor at a gig or in a studio than at a rehearsal and more likely I'd use a compressor when I am less familiar with the material rather than know it well. None of the four categories apply to me. But it's not important, I'll keep out of it.

I woudl probably tick 'sometimes I use a compressor, but sometimes I don't'.

None of the above.

I have been led to believe, although I don't know for sure, that Peerless make most of a Duesenberg in Korea and then the electrics etc are added in Germany for a German price. The Retromatic is the Peerless version of a Duesenberg. Peerless made the Jack Casady and still do a Peerless version called the Bassmaster ...

Peerless Retromatic B2 ... 34" scale, available in six colours, and also sounds great:

... you forgot 'playing musical instruments while standing on a pile of oversize books'.

I've been very lucky in seeing excellent bands, musically and visually, with music stands, and also very unlucky in seeing poor bands, musically and visually, without music stands.

'You Got Mail'

Here's the antidote ...

Does this count as a tribute?

I don't actually care whether a band is tribute, covers, or so-called originals. All that matters is ... are they any good?

Many years ago I was playing in a 'mostly originals' (for want of a better phrase) blues rock three piece. At one gig - where alongside our own songs we did play rearrangements of a Hendrix song, a Hambone Willie Newbern song, and a Robert Parker song - as we came off stage ... Punter (male, late teens): "Have you always been a tribute band?" Me (male, not late teens): "Tribute band? Why do you say that?" Punter: "You did a Hendrix song." Me: "Er....yeh. What's that got to do with being a tribute band?" Punter: "If you play someone else's song, you're a tribute band." Me: "I don't think so but whatever..." Punter (as I start packing gear): "You were really good for a tribute band." Me: "Thanks." I'm guessing that he was unfamiliar with Hambone Willie Newbern and Robert Parker or we would have been labelled a triple tribute band.

If it was me I would be looking for another band that actually valued my presence.

I have played with a singer who regularly uses a music stand. He was by far the best singer I have worked with. No-one ever came up to me and said 'your singer has a music stand, thats terrible'. Many people came up to me and said 'your singer is fantastic'. Most audience members won't even know what a music stand is.