Fuller's Earth

STP back on the road...

2008-04-09T08:20:00.001-07:00

Yeah. I am pretty excited. There web site was down the day I heard the announcement. I had originally thought that they were only going to play a few dates and then back to their other projects - but alas! A new album is scheduled for next year!
I know there are a lot of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden etc. fans out there, but, for me, Stone Temple Pilots were the best of the bunch - especially the later albums. "Tiny Music" and "Shangri La Dee Da" were my personal favs. I can see the front man argument, that is really a matter of personal taste - you can't go wrong with any of front men of for mentioned bands (Cobain, Vedder etc.), but STP were a lot smarter musically and really just wrote better songs, the DeLeo brothers never failed to keep my attention - especially later on. Well, that's my 2 cents. I am very happy to see them back together and will be buying tickets for the Cleveland show shortly.

-M

Checkin' In...

2008-03-24T07:01:00.001-07:00

It has been a busy last couple of weeks to say the least. I took a trip out Denver, CO for some St. Paddy's Day madness. I, once again, took part in the doorfromhellradio.com Hooley-Cast broadcast live from the Irish Snug in Denver. There are links to the pics, the audio and everything else over there, just check it out already. The ride out from Cleveland to CO was long, but Karaoke Bob and me kept ourselves quite busy with a disc full of Karaoke tunes to sing too and my newly installed SIRIUS satellite radio. The ride back was another story - 4 states of rain, rain, rain...and it's still raining!
I finally got the first audio promo script for Podcamp Ohio completed and approved - I will cut it tomorrow night so that there is something out there peeps can throw in their podcasts to help promote this cool "unconference". I have a two more donut spots to write and record too...I wish I had more time to work on this stuff.
My boss decided to have her first child while I was in Denver, so no usual boss for the next 12 weeks...that will end being a double edged sword, I will keep everyone posted on that one.
My bands are doing 'OK'. I played with the cover band on Saturday night to a generally young, unresponsive crowd. At one point a guy asked when we were playing some "Metallica or Disturbed or Creed or..." I had no response for him at that moment - I should have just said "Ummm...never". The original band is getting together tonight for practice.
So that's the skinny...Fun!

For all the TV guys out there...Enjoy.

2008-03-03T08:23:00.000-08:00

Pandora, my new online music friend...

2008-02-12T08:08:00.001-08:00

I am always on the lookout for new ways to listen to music at work. I am a Yahoo Music subscriber, but I am not able to download and install the jukebox on my work computer (surprise). A friend introduced me to finetune last year and I was pretty excited about the prospect of building playlists and filling them with my favorite tunes to listen to at work at my leisure. The problem with finetune is that the audio quality, well, sucks. I understand the bandwidth restrictions imposed by being a 'free' service, but I am a borderline audiophile and audio at, I'm guessing, around 24-32kbps just doesn't cut it. So embarked on an adventure to find some thing else with higher audio quality and a price point of zero. My discovery? Pandora. The downside to Pandora is that you don't build playlists, rather, you tell it what type of music you like and it plays what it thinks you will dig. My experience so far has been fabulous. I gave it 6 artists that don't necessarily have anything to do with each other and it plays great songs! Even the artists that I have never heard before seem to fit my musical tastes. Now, it's not 100% on all of the time, so I just give the songs I don't like a 'thumbs down' and it no longer plays them. Along those lines, if you think that you hear a song too often you can tell your 'station' to not play the song for a month - brilliant! You can build as many stations as you wish and assign different artists to each for whatever mood you may be in. You can bookmark songs, artists, etc. Now if it only worked for my Wii I would be golden! So kudos to Pandora. Thanks for keeping music free and semi-controllable for the listening masses!

Fun, Fun, Fun

2008-02-04T08:43:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!

I haven't had a chance to blog in a while - so here goes:

Since I last posted there has been some big news everywhere. Yahoo may, and most likely will, become infected by Microsoft. I say why not, Google needs a real competitor anyways, and did you think that once Google started entering into Microsoft's territory (google docs etc.) that they would really stand for that? Fair competition, nothing wrong with that.

In other news, Stone Temple Pilots will touring this summer! Yep, Scott Weiland will be back in the fold after a semi-aborted attempt at another band (Army of Anyone). The album wasn't too bad, but there is some thing about that line-up with Scott. And to all of those who think Nirvana was the best of that era, guess again. Welcome back STP!

I will check back later with more news and stuff. I gotta get back to my day job...

Fun.

-M

A New Year and even less time...

2008-01-10T06:35:00.000-08:00

I thought I would wait a week or so after the holidays before posting another entry. I seem to be as busy as usual. I've had 5 gig's with 2 different bands over the last 2 weeks, I sometimes forget how intense shows can be or how lifeless (I was 4 for 5 in the 'intense' category during this stretch). Other projects I have going on are as follows: Produce audio promos for Podcamp Ohio, produce training videos for a utilities company (solo I might add), complete the tagging of 15,000 mp3's for my online radio station (coming soon!), purchasing new server space for my new station, Fubar podcast, recreating sites for each of those, etc. I have also been writing a few new songs, finding the time even put down a rough mix of those has been difficult. Now for the less important stuff: doing my first post on Seesmic, trying to make it to the i1002 and Fallout shelter podcasts, seeing a movie or anything not work related would be great - NO TIME LEFT FOR ME! lol...

-M

Stone Temple Pilots Studio Outtake

2007-12-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

I miss the Stone Temple Pilots. I was, and still am, a huge fan. In my humble opinion, each album got better as they progressed. Dean DeLeo was one of the last guitarists to truly bring a new style of guitar playing, phrasing to the forefront of of Rock music. All that being said, I ran across some unreleased demos and outtakes a couple of years back on some random message board. I decided, for now particular reason, to post one of the standout tracks called "About A Fool". It is the easy going - layered - ballad STP that I love so much. I hope you enjoy!

boomp3.com

Manikin Memotron

2007-12-27T14:11:00.000-08:00

I am a musical instrument enthusiast. If it has strings, keys or you can hit it - I want to have some sort of contact with it. I love the sound of old analog synths especially, they could make a or break a song back in the day. One of my favorite keyboard instruments of all time was the "Mellotron". The "Mellotorn" was a keyboard that had physical tape loop sound banks that were recordings of "Live" instruments. It was a bear to haul around, keep in working order etc. - but it was really worth it (I guess) if you wanted the thickest-richest string, horn, choral sounds around at the time (or even today in my opinion). I have seen Mellotrons go for a pretty penny on Ebay, even the ones in shitty condition. They stopped making them several years ago when lighter, easier to care for keyboards like polymoogs and other sweet ass synths were taking over. A few years back I saw that someone had bought up the old factory that made Mellotrons and other variations and were remaking them with improved mechanics. They were fetching a pretty big dollar, around $6000 if I am not mistaken. I could only dream of spending that kind of money on a musical instrument and even if had the loot, 6 grand, no thanks. So, surfing through Ebay the other day I found an ad for what was called a "Manikin Memotron". It is a digital version of the Mellotron and runs about $2500 or so - much more affordable, not to mention transportable. The sound banks are from the original Mellotron tapes (awsome!) and it has a pitch changer (sweet!). You can check out sound samples on their webpage. I am, for once, very happy. i figure i can buy this and throw a tube preamp in front of it to warm it up a bit and instant musical ejaculation. I begin my saving for this item...now.

If your not sure what a Mellotron sounds like, download and listen to one of the following tunes:
Genesis - "Watcher of the Skies" (intro)
The Beatles - "Strawberry Fields Forever" (intro)
The Moody Blues - "Nights in White Satin"

Werd,
M

Have you ever...

2007-12-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

I work for a fortune 500 company. We employ about 160 or so people inside the building I work at. I notice this from time to time, actually a lot of times: I pass someone and say "Hi" and they say nothing back, they just cut off eye contact and keep moving along. I am pretty sure that I didn't say anything that would have offended someone, unless the term "Hi" means "Go Fuck Yourself" in corporate speak. I wonder what "Go Fuck Yourself " means to them. Maybe it means "Hi"...Hmmm...I guess I'll find out the next time they decide not to respond to my simple greetings. Fuckers.

Every Band Take Note!

2007-12-27T05:57:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this video on Youtube the other day. The person being interviewed is Wayne Kramer, former lead guitar player - songwriter for the MC5. He has some pretty interesting things to say about starting a band. I don't agree with some of the statements, but overall this is a good watch...

Time Machine

2007-12-18T10:19:00.000-08:00

I have always said it and will say it again "Todays music has no fire". I am 31, which means that I shouldn't have a grasp on what is "happening" in music today - and I am ok with that. I don't really have unrealistic musical prejudices like some other people. My criteria is simple: make it catchy, maybe a little edgy, an actual performance (no, copy and paste in Pro Tools does not count...sorry) and have some energy. It's not a particular style that I dig over another, I truly like all kinds of music. I could tell you a track listing from Buffalo Springfield album as easily as one from Simple minds or Wes Montgomery. I realize that I am not a fan of performances where someone doesn't give it their all or when an album is made that is transparent. We are in an age where producers like to take all of the credit for 'creating' a great album: Bob rock, Butch Vig, Mutt Lang...the list goes on and on. Remember an album is a document, the performance is what really counts. A performer interacting with an audience and vice versa. Energy. Fire. Talent.
Enough of the ranting. I found this on Youtube. Another band that wasn't promoted well enough in the United States during the 60's: The Move. A few years later they become ELO, but that's a different story. Remember, when it comes to playing live: it's not tools, it's the carpenter. These guys played through an archaic sound system and had to have it together. This performance meets all of the criteria I mentioned earlier. Enjoy.

2007-12-05T07:27:00.001-08:00

"Why don't they ever bring back or remake good shows, like 'BJ and the Bear.' Now there's a concept I can't get enough of, a man and his monkey. "

Brodie Bruce, "Mallrats"

Pod KISS Series 1

2007-12-04T11:02:00.001-08:00

I have decided to start a new series of blog entries called the "Pod KISS Series". The KISS stands for "Keep it simple stupid" which is what I think some people need to start keeping mind when producing a podcast. Now, I won't be covering content, there are plenty of so called 'experts' on that subject, but I will be covering recording techniques, file encoding, and recording equipment.
My first in the series will be on portability: mixers, microphones and recording devices. I will be pimping certain products if I find they deserve that kind of attention, others will be thrown to the dogs. Stay tuned.

-M

Fotofox

2007-12-04T08:01:00.001-08:00

I am always late finding things on the web that I think are cool. Usually some one says "Yeah, I've know about that" and then I say to myself "Hey, how about letting me in on it when you found out about it!".

So here is a cool extension I found while searching through the Firefox Add-ons: Fotofox

What is it? Here's a description from the download page:

"Easily select, tag, title and upload pictures from your computer to an
online photo service. Works with Flickr, Tabblo, 23hq, Smugmug, Marela,
and Kodak EasyShare Gallery."

It does what it says too (unlike some Firefox Add-ons). You simply sign into your Flickr account and then just drag n' drop your photos into the toolbar and hit 'upload'. It even gives you your monthly space quota that is remaining. I only have Flickr, so other users will have to comment on it's usefulness with the other programs mentioned.

Fotofox :: Firefox Add-ons

The effect fo the 'Media Monster' on popular music.

2007-12-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything , but I am making an effort to post more often.

This post was decided upon because of my absolute distaste for the 'Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame'. I have the online feed of Sirius radio and have been listening to the 'Howard Stern Show' when I get a few minutes to myself. Recently, Howard had Daryl Hall of 'Hall & Oates' on, which turned out to be great interview. During the interview Howard brought up the fact that Hall & Oates were not in the 'Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame', Daryl immediately went on a tirade about how the media machine in 70's praised anyone that covered Bo Diddley or Woody Guthrie and were suspicious of anyone artist who loved Al Green or hung out with the Spinners. The more and more I thought about what he said I realized that he was right. Hall & Oates started out as a Philly soul band (listen to tracks like "She's Gone" or "Sara Smiles" and you'll understand what I mean). They had a string of hits from the late 70's through the early 80's and were, I would guess, one of the biggest selling pop bands of the 80's. So why is it that they are not in the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame? Is it because they were not 'Rock N' Roll? Then why may I ask is Grand Master Flash in the HOF? Is there a reason why the Staple Singers are resting comfortably on the shores of Lake Erie and not Hall & Oates? It's because they played the game. I can't tell you how many times I have seen some asshole from Rolling Stone on a Rock N' Roll documentary (Fricke I think his name is) and just wanted to jump through the TV and tell him to zip it! It drives me insane when someone considers themselves a music aficionado when they don't really know what it is they are talking about. These are the idiots that vote on who gets in the Hall of Fame. They say 'whats cool' and 'what has credibility'. What is criteria?

Here is a list of all of the inductees into the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame since it opened, I will put question marks next to the questionable inductees (not that they shouldn't be there, but why ahead of whomever) and then a short list of artists who absolutely should be (whether I like them or not):

1986
Buddy Holly
Chuck Berry
Elvis Presley
Fats Domino
James Brown
Jerry Lee Lewis
Little Richard
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
The Everly Brothers

1987
Aretha Franklin
B.B. King
Big Joe Turner
Bill Haley
Bo Diddley
Carl Perkins
Clyde McPhatter
Eddie Cochran
Jackie Wilson
Marvin Gaye
Muddy Waters
Ricky Nelson
Roy Orbison
Smokey Robinson
The Coasters

1988
Bob Dylan
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
The Drifters
The Supremes

1989
Dion? (2 top tens hits gets you in ahead of Johhny Cash?)
Otis Redding
Stevie Wonder
The Rolling Stones
The Temptations

1990
Bobby Darin? (seriously, this early?)
Hank Ballard (name his hit?)
Simon and Garfunkel
The Four Seasons
The Four Tops
The Kinks
The Platters
The Who

1991 - the year of R&B and blues
Ike and Tina Turner (for a cover of Proud Mary and other songs they didn't write.)
Jimmy Reed
John Lee Hooker
LaVern Baker
The Byrds
The Impressions
Wilson Pickett

1992 - more R&B
Bobby "Blue" Bland ?
Booker T. and the M.G.'s
Johnny Cash
Sam and Dave
The Isley Brothers
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Yardbirds

1993
Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Etta James
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers? (seriously)
Ruth Brown ?
Sly and the Family Stone
The Doors
Van Morrison

1994
Bob Marley (a little early for this guy)
Duane Eddy
Elton John
John Lennon (where's Paul? I want some asshole to tell me John was more influential)
Rod Stewart
The Animals
The Band (too early)
The Grateful Dead

1995
Al Green
Frank Zappa (too late)
Janis Joplin
Led Zeppelin (too late)
Martha and the Vandellas
Neil Young (ahead of Buffalo Springfield?)
The Allman Brothers Band

1996
David Bowie
Gladys Knight and the Pips
Jefferson Airplane
Little Willie John?
Pink Floyd
The Shirelles
The Velvet Underground (they should still be sitting and waiting)

1997
Buffalo Springfield (too late)
Crosby Stills and Nash
Joni Mitchell (you can tell they had their CSNY family hat on the day she was picked)
Parliament-Funkadelic
The (Young) Rascals
The Bee Gees (waaaay too late)
The Jackson Five

1998
Fleetwood Mac
Gene Vincent
Lloyd Price
Santana
The Eagles
The Mamas and the Papas

1999
Billy Joel
Bruce Springsteen
Curtis Mayfield
Del Shannon
Dusty Springfield
Paul McCartney (waaay too late)
The Staple Singers?

2000
Bonnie Raitt? (Someone please explain this one to me. Ahead of Linda Rondstadt?)
Earth, Wind & Fire (ahead of Chicago?)
Eric Clapton
James Taylor
Lovin' Spoonful
The Moonglows

2001
Aerosmith
Michael Jackson
Paul Simon
Queen
Ritchie Valens (waaay too late)
Solomon Burke
Steely Dan
The Flamingos

2002
Brenda Lee (come on now.)
Gene Pitney
Isaac Hayes
Ramones
Talking Heads
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

2003
AC/DC
Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Righteous Brothers
The Clash
The Police

2004
Bob Seger
George Harrison
Jackson Browne
Prince
The Dells
Traffic
ZZ Top

2005
Buddy Guy (great player, but come on)
Percy Sledge?
The O'Jays
The Pretenders
U2

2006
Black Sabbath
Blondie?
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Miles Davis? (Rock N' Roll, not jazz, shoulda put in Jeff Beck in if they were walking that line.)
Sex Pistols

2007
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five (no comment).
Patti Smith?
R.E.M.
The Ronettes
Van Halen

I want some one to explain to me why the following artists are not in the HOF ahead of some of the artists where I put question marks:

MC5 (eligible in 1989)*
YES (eligible in 1993)*
Chicago (eligible in 1992)*
Genesis (eligible in 1992)*
America (eligible in 1995)
The Guess Who (eligible in 1990)*
The Cars (eligible in 2002)
Deep Purple (eligible in 1993)*
DEVO (eligible in 1997)
Electric Light Orchestra (eligible in 1996)*
ABBA (eligible in 1997)
Emerson Lake and Palmer (eligible in 1995)
Kiss (eligible in 1996)
Free (eligible in 1993)
Humble Pie (eligible in 1994)*
Small Faces (eligible in 1990)* (hey, if the Yardbirds are in, why not a better band?)
Iron maiden (eligible in 2000)
Judas Priest (eligible 1994)*
Journey (eligible in 1998)
Rush (eligible in 1993)*
Styx (eligible in 1997)
The Zombies (eligible in 1986)*
Todd Rundgren (eligible in 1995)
Vanilla Fudge (eligible in 1992)
Hall & Oates (eligible in 1994)*

...and the list goes on and on...I know you can't put them all in at once, but the ones with the asterisk next to them should be getting a written letter of apology by now.

Someone should open a separate Rock N' Roll HOF where the criteria is fair and the voting is done by real music fans and the listening public.

Wii for me....

2007-04-20T11:15:00.000-07:00

So, I opened my mouth when I was in Denver that it super easy to find a Nintendo Wii here in the Cleveland area. Well, I stopped at a Gamestop before I left for Denver back in March and they had a few of them...so I figured that they were easy to come by. Flash forward to the beginning of April: I could not find a Wii to save my life. I looked at Wal-Mart, Gamestop, EBGames, Circuit City - you name it I stopped to look. I searched craigslist.org, but everytime someone posted one (at a premium mind you - of anywhere from $50-100 more than retail) they were already gone. I even had friends of mine looking if they were out and about, they would call me with "Sorry man, they said they don't have any and probably won't have any anytime soon". Bah, I actually gave up a week or so ago, but a buddy I work with suggested one of the Wii tracker sites - they track inventory of all of the stores for you so that all you need to do is register & check their site from time to time to see where and when the next shipment will be. I treid one of them before, but it was set up poorly and kinda confusing to use. I did a yahoo search and noticed that someone had posted info on a great tracking site in the "Yahoo Answers" (which, by the way, is usually filled with lame questions and even lamer answers). This guy gave all kinds of ways of finding one of these sweet little entertainment oddities, most of which were, again, a huge pain in the ass to do - except for this website called www.itrackr.com. It was easy to follow, just register , type in your zip code and poof! - results. Of course though, when I typed in my zip yesterday there wasn't a Wii in a 20 mile radius. Everything changed this morning however...I happened to have my alarm clock set an hour early because of an early meeting at work the day before. I woke up at 6:30am and decided to check the site and...suck it! There it was...the Target 5 minutes away had a shipment of 'em. I checked the Target for that locations store hours and...sweet sassy molassy, they opened at 8am! Plenty of time for me to get to the store and still make it to work on time!
I got there at 8:02am, there were a lot of cars in the parking lot, but they were all on one side - so I figured they were all employees...I was right. I walked in and went right to the electronics section - past the digital cameras, past the Playstation stuff...and...in the bottom of the case...there they were, 8 little Wii's and no one else in sight, as a matter of fact there wasn't even a clerk to get it out of the case. I was imagining a crowd of 30 rabid Wii nerds racing in through the doorand me having to fend them off with a set of jumper cables from the automotive department. I finally found a lady who paged a guy who got it out of the case for me. He remarked "I'm not really a fan, I like the XBox 360"...ya, and you probably love Good Charlotte and live with your parents...terd. So there it is, I am at work and can't wait to get home to hook this shit all up. Oh yeah, Knighthawk has my Mii that I created during my St. Paddy's romp in Denver. I can't wait to play progressive bowling on this thing...I am a nerd.

Boring...

2007-03-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot of developments in my life in the last 6 months. I got a nice raise at work, a new apartment, a new car, etc. I have my finances under control for really the first time in a long time, I'm not spending tons of cash on crap and I actually have a savings for the first time in my life. I figured if I got this stuff in order I would feel less stressed and a little more grounded. The problem is I don't. I came to the realization the other night that all I want to do is perform music. I have had this music bug up my ass since I was about 9 years old (almost 22 years...eeeek!) and I always seem to get in musical situations where I have no control (i.e. Body Thief, Sons of the City, etc.). So, today I set the goal for myself to create the band I always wanted to be in and make a cd - I set this goal at a year. Fun, I hope.

My new favorite show

2007-03-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have to say the Penn & Teller's show Bullshit! is my new favorite. I have watched it before, but I caught it on Friday night and just did not want it to end. For those of you who aren't familiar here is a synopsis form good 'ol wikipedia:

"The show aims to debunk an array of popular fads, pseudoscientific ideas, and misconceptions, sometimes supernatural in nature. It criticizes proponents of such things, often citing ulterior or financial motives. The stated aim of the show is to apply critical thinking to misconceptions, and as is indicated by the show's title, the program inherits Penn & Teller's characteristically blunt, aggressive presentation."(wikipedia).

Basically, it puts to bed some of myths that some, or most, of us have fallen for. These topics range from weight loss to religion. I guess I wouldn't care so much, but since I have a such big problem with people who "think" they are educated telling me what to do and think, this show is a big middle finger to them.

Rocky Mountain Hi!

2007-03-19T17:36:00.000-07:00

So, I got back to Cleveland today around 2:05 and, as per usual, the weather was shit: 33 degrees and wet. I'm going to give Southwest airlines a 'B' on the grading scale: they were cordial enough, they served everyone free beverages and they seem to be consistently on time (the flight from Denver to Chicago was actually early). The negatives were minimal: no in flight movie (there really wasn't enough time to watch one) and I'm not so sure about the 'A' - 'B' - 'C' seating that they use. It's great if your ticket says 'A' (from Chicago to Cleveland - first seat..) your golden, but if your ticket says 'C' - forget it, be prepared to pick a middle seat between sweaty pig no.1 and unruly child no.16. The trip to Denver was another to lock in the spaces of my memory: A marathon St. Paddy's Day DFH show, goodtimes with my closest friends and the realization that no matter how much I talk to these butt heads on Skype, nothing makes up for quality time at the local flea market and upping my rating on Wii bowling.