When I cruise through videos looking for new music to discuss on the Grapevine or just to hear what’s out there I usually look on YouTube. It is the site where most people place their music. It’s where we place our videos. When I listen to a band’s video I very seldom go in to the comments section. I’m not all that worried about what other people think about the song. Also, no big news break here, comment sections can be pretty toxic sometimes. Recently I was looking at videos to watch playing techniques to see what I can pick up. I’m an average player and I’m trying to learn new instruments so watching what some of the best players can do provides some interesting technique tips. When I’m looking through these videos I will often read the comments. A lot of times people will mention other musicians that I haven’t heard of before and it’s one more method of searching out new music and musicians. Unfortunately these comment sections sometimes devolve in to insults and name calling. The one I really don’t understand is the ‘GOAT’ theory. The idea that one individual is ‘the Greatest Of All Time’. These lists have been around forever. The Rolling Stone ‘top 100 guitarists of all time’ has been around since I was a kid. As humans we seem to have the need to rank everything. From cars to peanut butter to people. Here’s my take: I don’t believe there is a ‘greatest of all time’. The concept doesn’t make sense to me. Let’s just look at guitarists (you could pick any instrument). How do you judge the ‘best’ guitarist? There’s so many different techniques. Are you looking at guitarists in all the genres of music – classical, jazz, country, bluegrass, rock? I’m not even going to try to mention all the different styles of music in this post – rock music can be split in to lots of smaller categories as could all the other styles mentioned. Is it just playing techniques or are you also considering song writing? Do you take in to consideration the differences between acoustic and electric playing or how the music affects the audience? It’s a rabbit hole I see no purpose in going down. Yes, there are players who are more talented than others. But ‘greatest of all time’? Nonsense. Some of the best musicians may be sitting on their porch playing and never had any interest in playing in public. They may have been playing before there was a way to record music. And, as stated in a lot of previous posts, art is subjective. What moves me may not move you.
I’m going throw out a few guitar videos for you. This is not my ‘best of’ list (if you didn’t guess from the opening rant, I really don’t have one). Maybe there’s something here that you like and haven’t heard before. If you have anyone you think I should hear, hit me up with a comment or email. I’m always interested in learning something new.
Let’s start with some bluegrass. Cody Kilby won best bluegrass guitarist this year at the IBMA Bluegrass Music Awards.
For a jazz selection here’s Wes Montgomery:
For classical, some Andres Segovia:
For rock, how about some Jeff Beck:
The videos of great players could go on forever. Listen to music with open ears. You might just find a new musical inspiration.
December has arrived. I thought it would be good to start with a Grapevine article and get back in to the groove of discovering new music. The last two months have been hectic. We spent October on a long trip hiking in some National Parks in Colorado and Utah. It was an amazing trip. There’s nothing better than getting out on the hiking trails to clear your head of all the negative vibes that seem to be piling up. We like to start early and hit the hiking trails before sunrise. There’s a number of positives from early rising. First, the trails are virtually empty. Second, there’s a much better chance of seeing wildlife. Third, you get to see the sun rise over some amazing landscapes. There is a feeling I get on the trails that is amazingly similar to the feeling I get creating or listening to music. It’s a feeling that I wish I could have all the time. You’re totally ‘in the moment’. The rest of the world fades in to the background. You can dedicate your entire being to the music (or the trail). The vast majority of your life doesn’t work that way. So much time is spent completing ‘necessary’ tasks like working to earn money, upkeep of the items you own, taking care of the vast list of things you need to do to survive. That’s why I try to not take the good parts of life like art and music for granted. They’re not a given. They’re a gift and recognizing and enjoying the gifts life presents to you is a key to having a healthy, happy life (yikes! this sounds like therapy!). So let’s get back on a roll and take a listen to this month’s selections.
First Up: Deanna Petcoff – ‘Trash Bag’
Let’s start with something that gives off an upbeat feeling. So we’ll discuss the musical end of the song first. The drum beat is very straight forward. The snare is snappy and tight. The kick drum is also a tight sound, with a lot of top end being presented. With all the drums you’re hearing mostly pop and attack without a lot of ring. That’s really helpful if you’re using the drums as a driving force in the song. They also keep the drum beat fairly straight forward with fills coming in for accents and changes between the verses and choruses. There’s multiple guitars. One is keeping an on beat strum that is also used to drive the song. If you listen there’s a second guitar that strums a chord and then let’s it ring over the rest of the music. In the chorus the second guitar plays some single notes and little lead type riffs that add to the feel and help to differentiate the verses from the chorus. The bass keeps a pretty simple line holding down the bottom end of the song. There’s a great little change in dynamics when the second verse starts. The song drops down to just the bass and a simplified drum beat for a few measures with a nice little drop beat added in before the guitar resumes. When the guitar comes back in it’s strummed and held chords and there’s a few piano chords added. It’s these little changes in dynamics that really make a song work. It breaks up a relatively straight forward chord pattern and adds a interesting dynamic to the music. The song also does a change at the end, dropping down to quieter chords and mostly hi hat on the drums. Everything in the song is created to highlight the vocals and in this song the lyrics in particular. The lyrics are what really caught me. Who doesn’t feel this way sometimes – “I’m acting kind of stupid, get used to it, cause I’m not put together all the time”. Awesome.
Next Up: Jack White – ‘Fear Of The Dawn’
Even though I usually try to find musicians and videos that are less known and ‘under viewed’ I’ll certainly make exceptions if the music or the artist lights a fire in me. OK, I’ll admit it, I’m a big Jack White fan. If nothing else, the variety of styles that White is willing to take a shot at makes him an artist I admire. Let’s look at ‘Fear Of The Dawn’. Even at the level of recognition he now has he’s still a ‘throw it against the wall’ type of artist who will take a shot at making the music he wants to do at the time. This song is a loud, blazing guitar rock tune cramming a whole lot of sound in to it’s two minute running time. It’s pretty straight forward with a heavily distorted and effected guitar sound driving the song. The drums and bass keep a persistent beat pushing the song forward. The rhythm parts aren’t complicated and fancy – that’s the whole point of the song. It should carry the phrase I saw on several records in the 1970’s – “for best results play at high volume”. Drums, bass and rhythm guitar pound the song forward. The guitar solo parts are pretty free wheeling, not a lot of smooth melodic lines, instead using a lot of screaming, effect laden, string bending runs. As with most songs the important part is – does this fit the tune? Here the answer is yes. There’s even more buzz in the song by adding the theremin. The vocals are matched to the song the same way the instruments are. White has said he’s a ‘vocalist’ as compared to a ‘singer’. The vocals are used as another instrument in this song. There’s no overwhelming vocal melody here, but that’s by design. For me, the fact that he also did all the playing, recording and production is pretty amazing. Finally, the video itself is the definition of DIY. He picked a single hallway shot in the studio then recorded the video with friends wearing masks and pounding instruments along to the music. They recorded the video on film then scratched, damaged and painted the film to get the final look. Another great entry that shows an artist who has a vision of a song and knows how to get it.
finally: Wet Tuna – ‘Sweet Chump Change’
Lets finish by listening to something to something a little more funky. ‘Sweet Chump Change’ has a deep groove, dance floor type vibe to it. There’s a lot of percussion sound percolating in the background of this tune. You here the snap of the snare and a tight high hat ringing at the top end of the percussive mix. But if you listen closely you’ll also hear hand drums mixed in to keep the deeper end of the beat rolling. Adding to the bubbling bottom end is a very deep bass sound playing a funky line as well as a repeating organ riff. All these sounds are melded together to form the underpinnings of the song, the canvas and background for the rest of the musical painting. The picture on top is created using a more psychedelic feel. Guitar riffs come in and out throughout the tune. They’re usually heavily effected with lots of delay and reverb. The same is true of the vocals. They’re more spoken than sung and are slathered in layers of echo and reverb. Other instruments and sound effects roll around on top as the song progresses. This is the type of song that gives the feel of being in a black light illuminated room, listening on a bass heavy stereo system or sunk in to a chair with headphones on. This is the type of song arrangement that is recorded to create a vibe rather than highlight a single instrument or a vocal or lyric. Different styles of music are often used for different purposes. Sometimes a song like ‘Sweet Chump Change’ is the perfect track to sit back, space out and nod your head to it’s hypnotic beat.
Retro – The Bottle Rockets – ‘Radar Gun’
Let’s finish with some straight ahead guitar rock. The Bottle Rockets came along in the early 1990’s with their mixture of guitar rock and some alt-country underpinnings. I usually pulled this song in to the set of most of the bands I played in since that time. The reason is simple. It’s fun. Great choppy guitar sound for the rhythm guitar. The beat is four on the floor overdrive. Nice meaty lead guitar riffs throughout. The leads are not overdone. No blazing fast finger work that is there just to show of – just solid bluesy riffs. We have a part at about 2:15 where everyone backs down a little bit for a quieter break. The main purpose of this is to allow the song to kick back in at full force at 2:38. There’s little production ideas that make it work. Vocals are clear and right down the middle. Lyrically the idea is simple, riffing at all the small town speed traps set up to make some cash, but delivered in a humorous way. The drums keep a steady consistent beat. The bass usually stays on the key note of the chord and reinforces the straight ahead beat of the drums. The icing on top is at the end of the song where you hear the phone call home from some small town jail where the driver is probably calling for bail money. Sometimes fun can be had with the simplest of song ideas.
It seems that when I dig around in our back files I’ll often come across a new song we never finished, old studio songs by other bands or a live version of a song that we’ve already released. In this the case the song I found was ‘Midnite Cruise’ which was released on Electrostatic Rhythm Pigs EP ‘Celebrity Prostitution’. This was a live version of the song we recorded in the studio. We were all in the main studio room with amps placed in other rooms to stop the live bleed through. If you’re in a band that plays out live a lot (which probably means you’re in a city that that has a decent live original music scene) you’ll often come up with new songs and work them in to shape in front of a live audience. You can try different guitar tones, tempos or vocal deliveries to see what sounds best or if a version of the song connects best with an audience. Unfortunately ERP was never usually in a position to work out songs that way – we often did not have a full band and did a lot of our writing/recording by overdubbing parts in the studio. The good part of recording in the studio is you can try a lot of different approaches and can do a decent recording of them to hear what works and what doesn’t. This version we kept as a ‘live’ lineup version – no overdubs or secondary guitar parts. It also play a little slower than the final EP version. It’s interesting to hear how it differs from the final recorded version. It’s also fun to be able to share alternative versions with everyone who follows our blog.
The sound you get when you’re recording is created by many factors. You start off by deciding what musical equipment you’re going to use. If it’s electric equipment, the guitar, amplifier and electronic effects all put their stamp on the sound you create. A few posts ago we discussed getting a variety of sounds for electric guitar. Picking a specific electronic keyboard has the same effect. Each electronic keyboard will have a slightly different sound – what the brand designates as a ‘piano’ sound will be quite different from model to model. Now throw in amp effect pedals, EQ units and rack mount effect units. For electronic gear the variety available is endless. But you also have this variety available to you when using acoustic instruments. A Martin guitar will have a different sound than a Taylor guitar. To multiply that, each model and style within a brand will sound different. You have the same variety with drums. What size kick or tom you use, what type of drum head are you using?
Now we add another factor. Which microphones ae you going to use to record? We do have a video on our YouTube site with a description of different mics and how they work. That only scratches the surface as the variety of mics with slightly different qualities makes the amount of choices almost endless. Next you have where you place the microphone, what type of pre-amp is it going through. Do you use outboard compression units or the effects included in your mixing board? Multiply all these factors together and the number of choices is staggering. I have found over time that most people who do recording have a number of ‘go to’ equipment items and set ups that they use pretty frequently. It’s a comfort zone where you know what you’re going to get with each set up, so you tend to use it more frequently. If you’re recording, my advice would be to shake things up once in a while and try different equipment combos – you never know quite what you’re going to come up with and it might be a remarkable sound that you wouldn’t have stumbled on if you stayed with your tried and true methods.
Finally, the way you use the sonic spaces available to you adds a final touch to the sound you’re going to get. If your sonic space is one room in the house, you can try different areas of the room. Using the corners of the room for microphones will give you different sound qualities than the middle of the room. Add blankets or other sound deadening devices to change things even further. We’re lucky at ChurchHouse to be able to use the entire house as recording space. Each room has a different sonic signature. The main studio is intentionally a ‘dead’ sound due to sound absorption panels on the wall. We are fortunate to have a large, high ceiling open room that has amazing ambience. All this leads to the video I’m including with today’s post. I’ve shown this video before but it really illustrates the great sounds you can get if you have the right type of space available to you. I call this set up ‘Inspiration Point’ and although it does take some time to set up, the sound you get is worth the work. I was reminded of this on our recent trip, where we hiked in a number of slot canyons and tight spaces and the echoes that occurred even when you are whispering are really amazing. They made me think of field recording an acoustic guitar or vocals in that type of space. Hope you enjoy the video and feel free to send me any questions or comments you have on this subject.
We’ve returned from our latest adventure. After three weeks at some of the Southwest’s most amazing National Parks – where we had one day of rain and usually days of the most beautiful clear blue sky imaginable we have returned to eastern Pennsylvania. And……shocker……….it’s gray and overcast. Of course this is what makes you really appreciate the adventure time. On our trip I try to divorce myself from the phone news feeds and the usually awful info they contain. I was only somewhat successful. But I also look at music videos and try to find something fun and interesting. I came across this video from Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway. It’s their version of the Jefferson Airplane song ‘White Rabbit’. At the most basic level it’s the idea we try to work in our Messin’ With The Music series of covers. Take a song that began as a more electric or fuller band version and break it down to acoustic instruments. The original version of ‘White Rabbit’ was very much an electric band version in the popular ‘psychedelic’ rock style. This version puts in shades of bluegrass, among other styles, to send the song to a different place. It still retains the original spooky vibe with a walking through a graveyard twist associated with a lot of bluegrass hill music. What really puts this over the top? You’re watching players that are all amazing instrumentalists. Molly Tuttle is an award winning bluegrass guitarist, but the entire band matches her level of playing on their individual instruments. And you’re watching them nail it live, no studio punch-ins or overdubs. Amazing ability to retain the feel playing outdoors in the daytime. And they’re wearing flannel – makes sense when you’re playing in Portland Maine. Hearing this set off the gears in my head thinking of new ideas for songs and covers. Hope it has the same effect on you.
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