The Music Thread
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Mowl
Member
The tour is selling out fast, and the venue is one the bigger reasons for it. Cathedrals are amazing spaces for musicians to work in. The first problem to solve is the length and height of the space; then the lack of any sound absorption whether it's marble, stone, or wood. The only wood is the benches and pews, the gallery facade, and they don't absorb anything really. The positives start with the ambience, particularly in relation to how the various instruments are balanced for best effect. One must account for empty room/packed room as bodies and clothing will absorb certain levels. One must also account for room temperature: an empty cathedral is cold from top to bottom, but a packed cathedral is far warmer and warmer air makes for a better sound overall.
The excellence starts with the vocals of the choir: the bigger and 'wetter' (more ambient) the room, the more awesome the choir will sound, so everything else has to be contained so that the vocals are the pinnacle of the sound. I played with UCD orchestra years back and they toured the main churches of Ireland over summer weekends doing the midday mass in places like The Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Galway cathedral, etc. Using drums/percussion in that environment is challenging. You can't just sit and play a regular 4/4 like you're in the garden shed. Sticks are out of the question, so it's brushes and mallets and anything else you can dream of that isn't the whack of a stick on drum. I used kitchen washing tools, the regular scrubber with the brush and long handle. Two of those made for very interesting dynamics. In one section I had to use ten or twelve small thin panes of glass at a certain point in the arrangement by dropping them into a metal wash bucket with a mic over it and ran through a delay. Beautiful.
One kick of the bass drum took around eight or nine seconds to diminish. So that was another challenge, my solution being to stuff the kick drum full of balled-up newspapers until it was full. The paper muted the strike of the pedal and the front head resonance was shorter than for a jazz club. Cymbals struck with a stick? Nope, way to loud. Mallets? Now you're talking.
So when you have a sixty-five piece choir behind you and two dozen reeds to the left, two dozen more brass and strings to the right, everything on the altar has to sing in harmony and with all elements at ease with each other in terms of balance. Like when you watch any orchestra and there are guys at the back playing bass drum, timpani, snare, cymbals, and concert toms, you wonder why there's seven percussion players instead of one drummer using all of the above parts. It's about delicacy, parts moving seamlessly across each other without drowning each other out. Subtle musical parts like these may look easy, especially when there's a conductor out front arranging the elements. Not all notes begin on the first beat of the bar, sometimes they begin several seconds beforehand, but they peak at exactly the right moment before diminishing once again into the overall mix.
Engineering an orchestra's sound and dynamic is a completely different task to engineering a standard three/four piece band, and because the music is written for theatre/altar types stages by dudes like Beethoven, Chopin, etc - they weren't thinking in the mid-1700's about small stages. Quite the opposite. They were writing and arranging these parts for coliseums, ballrooms in castles, amphitheaters, with stone walls, or no walls at all. So trying to emulate that simple fact into the arrangement is essential: no wandering around the church listening for 'sweet spots' but rather looking at ways to contain the overall dynamic without distorting or reducing the delicate balance of one hundred-plus voices and musical elements on the alter/gallery.
Playing the Pro Cathedral was awesome, especially with a full house. I also got to play in the smaller tower of Christchurch Cathedral looking down to the Liffey. RTE later got a license to use the space and they filmed a music show the name of which I can't remember. But it was hosted by Kevin Sharkey and an American lady named Barbara (Babs) who was married to Steve Wickham of The Waterboys. She got me the weekender audition I did with them after their long term drummer Kevin Wilkinson topped himself. Terrible weekend, one of the most draining, tiring, depressing moves I ever made. When it was over I just walked without saying goodbye. Several months later they announced Fran Breen as their new guy. He told me recently that those were some of the worst days of his life and all he wanted was to leave and go back home, such was the tension in the ranks while recording the 'Fisherman's Blues' album.
Anyway, here's a bit of Fran doing his thing at the laughable 'Self Aid' gig in the RDS back in 1996. You'll also know him for the cracking intro on 'Mustang Sally' from the 'Commitments' album. Fabulous drummer, lovely guy, family man, and great craic onstage:
The excellence starts with the vocals of the choir: the bigger and 'wetter' (more ambient) the room, the more awesome the choir will sound, so everything else has to be contained so that the vocals are the pinnacle of the sound. I played with UCD orchestra years back and they toured the main churches of Ireland over summer weekends doing the midday mass in places like The Pro Cathedral in Dublin, Galway cathedral, etc. Using drums/percussion in that environment is challenging. You can't just sit and play a regular 4/4 like you're in the garden shed. Sticks are out of the question, so it's brushes and mallets and anything else you can dream of that isn't the whack of a stick on drum. I used kitchen washing tools, the regular scrubber with the brush and long handle. Two of those made for very interesting dynamics. In one section I had to use ten or twelve small thin panes of glass at a certain point in the arrangement by dropping them into a metal wash bucket with a mic over it and ran through a delay. Beautiful.
One kick of the bass drum took around eight or nine seconds to diminish. So that was another challenge, my solution being to stuff the kick drum full of balled-up newspapers until it was full. The paper muted the strike of the pedal and the front head resonance was shorter than for a jazz club. Cymbals struck with a stick? Nope, way to loud. Mallets? Now you're talking.
So when you have a sixty-five piece choir behind you and two dozen reeds to the left, two dozen more brass and strings to the right, everything on the altar has to sing in harmony and with all elements at ease with each other in terms of balance. Like when you watch any orchestra and there are guys at the back playing bass drum, timpani, snare, cymbals, and concert toms, you wonder why there's seven percussion players instead of one drummer using all of the above parts. It's about delicacy, parts moving seamlessly across each other without drowning each other out. Subtle musical parts like these may look easy, especially when there's a conductor out front arranging the elements. Not all notes begin on the first beat of the bar, sometimes they begin several seconds beforehand, but they peak at exactly the right moment before diminishing once again into the overall mix.
Engineering an orchestra's sound and dynamic is a completely different task to engineering a standard three/four piece band, and because the music is written for theatre/altar types stages by dudes like Beethoven, Chopin, etc - they weren't thinking in the mid-1700's about small stages. Quite the opposite. They were writing and arranging these parts for coliseums, ballrooms in castles, amphitheaters, with stone walls, or no walls at all. So trying to emulate that simple fact into the arrangement is essential: no wandering around the church listening for 'sweet spots' but rather looking at ways to contain the overall dynamic without distorting or reducing the delicate balance of one hundred-plus voices and musical elements on the alter/gallery.
Playing the Pro Cathedral was awesome, especially with a full house. I also got to play in the smaller tower of Christchurch Cathedral looking down to the Liffey. RTE later got a license to use the space and they filmed a music show the name of which I can't remember. But it was hosted by Kevin Sharkey and an American lady named Barbara (Babs) who was married to Steve Wickham of The Waterboys. She got me the weekender audition I did with them after their long term drummer Kevin Wilkinson topped himself. Terrible weekend, one of the most draining, tiring, depressing moves I ever made. When it was over I just walked without saying goodbye. Several months later they announced Fran Breen as their new guy. He told me recently that those were some of the worst days of his life and all he wanted was to leave and go back home, such was the tension in the ranks while recording the 'Fisherman's Blues' album.
Anyway, here's a bit of Fran doing his thing at the laughable 'Self Aid' gig in the RDS back in 1996. You'll also know him for the cracking intro on 'Mustang Sally' from the 'Commitments' album. Fabulous drummer, lovely guy, family man, and great craic onstage:
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Mowl
Member
Here's a good reference to the type of orchestral containment I'm talking about. It's the final outro section performed by The Leningrad Symphony Orchestra and The Kodo Drummers of Japan. Note how the initial section is moderate in tempo and dynamic, then slowly begins to build as the Kodo drummers rise and fall in levels apart from the largest Japanese drum, which remains consistent throughout.
The orchestra has a snare drummer, another guy for crash cymbals, and another guy for timpani. That's what orchestral percussion is all about, you can't replace all three or four players with one drummer surrounded by drums and cymbals. Individual players can wash over each other, begin their piece earlier to peak with it at just the right time. No sudden stops, starts, or jerks. Rather a fluid and heavily soaked cacophony of multiple layers of instruments all finding their own place in the complete sound. Except they don't get to hear it that - you DO. You're out front, they're surrounded by other players. They generally hear what's closest to them and those elements at the lower end of the pitch, like double bass, cello, timpani - more so than individual voices/vocals, violins, or piccolo.
Note the conductor and the tympani player on the last notes as the swirling strings take you up to the pinnacle, then drop you into space and silence. Epic. The timpanist starts his roll two seconds or so before the final note, which culminates at a sudden and startling peak, then suddenly stops, and all you hear is the last of the notes ringing out and dissipating into silence. Magic.
The orchestra has a snare drummer, another guy for crash cymbals, and another guy for timpani. That's what orchestral percussion is all about, you can't replace all three or four players with one drummer surrounded by drums and cymbals. Individual players can wash over each other, begin their piece earlier to peak with it at just the right time. No sudden stops, starts, or jerks. Rather a fluid and heavily soaked cacophony of multiple layers of instruments all finding their own place in the complete sound. Except they don't get to hear it that - you DO. You're out front, they're surrounded by other players. They generally hear what's closest to them and those elements at the lower end of the pitch, like double bass, cello, timpani - more so than individual voices/vocals, violins, or piccolo.
Note the conductor and the tympani player on the last notes as the swirling strings take you up to the pinnacle, then drop you into space and silence. Epic. The timpanist starts his roll two seconds or so before the final note, which culminates at a sudden and startling peak, then suddenly stops, and all you hear is the last of the notes ringing out and dissipating into silence. Magic.
Mowl
Member
My old friend and mentor from Ballyfermot, Kevin Malone - another disciple of Samuel Beckett, published this a couple of days ago, his first foray into releasing original compositions. The Beckett influence is apparent right from the start, and he carries the role of the lost and deluded so well. This guy is, by far, one of Ballyfermot's most talented musicians. He's been on the drumming scene for years having guested with just about everybody ever so it's great to see him take his first steps into his own material.
The Panic (aka: Kevin Malone): 'Looking For Love'
The Panic (aka: Kevin Malone): 'Looking For Love'
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Mowl
Member
Great to see that the wee effort I put in yesterday has paid off already for Kevin, with reviews coming in to him from all over the planet. I hit as many obscure sites and destinations as I'm aware of to see the general opinion on his work: it's extremely high, if rather confusing to the man himself who is, although a powerhouse behind the drum-set, an extremely private and shy person who dislikes attention and praise. He's a very complicated individual considering his background is the same as my own.
When I was a kid, we used to visit my aunt's house every Sunday after midday mass. Kevin lived two doors up and when I hear the drums coming from his back garden shed, I climbed the walls to get a closer vantage point. He heard me scrambling on his back garden wall and came out to see what was going on. He had a Mowl on his case and thankfully he did the right thing: 'get down off there before you hurt yourself and come in here til I show you something wonderful'.
And so in my Sunday-best knee-pants I entered his castle, and it was goode - grande in fact. His Yamaha 9000 Custom Recording kit was fully assembled, four toms up and two more down. But that wasn't his quest, his quest was to grant me my one wish: the key to the classic triplet shuffle I'd been trying (but failing) to hold down. Kevin, being a rhythmic scientist of some considerable skill, turned on the little mono record player and put on the 7'' single version of Toto (I know, I hate them too, but there's a point here) playing 'Rosanna' at 33rpm instead of the correct 45rpm.
I sat and listened to his mathematical approach to extricating the marrow out of complicated rhythmic structures and then simplifying them for the common man. After a close listen, he then showed me the sticking pattern on an invisible drum-set we both imagined. He then tried to explain to me that even one single straight beat out of a bar of four beats has many divisions one can apply in order to customize the rhythmic pattern to something unique. This was taking me close to the edge but I held on and kept at it until he could see that I had it - on the invisible set. I then had to replicate it on the actual set, which is a horse of an entirely different colour.
Of course, back then we didn't have instructional videos for free on youtube. Back then you had to buy Modern Drummer to get the latest news on rhythms from around the world. These days anyone can source their information in a variety of online places. Like this one, which was essentially what Kevin was trying to explain to me. The classic triplet shuffle, in half time, with a four-bar long kick-drum pattern, by the Master himself, Jeff Porcaro:
Magic.
When I was a kid, we used to visit my aunt's house every Sunday after midday mass. Kevin lived two doors up and when I hear the drums coming from his back garden shed, I climbed the walls to get a closer vantage point. He heard me scrambling on his back garden wall and came out to see what was going on. He had a Mowl on his case and thankfully he did the right thing: 'get down off there before you hurt yourself and come in here til I show you something wonderful'.
And so in my Sunday-best knee-pants I entered his castle, and it was goode - grande in fact. His Yamaha 9000 Custom Recording kit was fully assembled, four toms up and two more down. But that wasn't his quest, his quest was to grant me my one wish: the key to the classic triplet shuffle I'd been trying (but failing) to hold down. Kevin, being a rhythmic scientist of some considerable skill, turned on the little mono record player and put on the 7'' single version of Toto (I know, I hate them too, but there's a point here) playing 'Rosanna' at 33rpm instead of the correct 45rpm.
I sat and listened to his mathematical approach to extricating the marrow out of complicated rhythmic structures and then simplifying them for the common man. After a close listen, he then showed me the sticking pattern on an invisible drum-set we both imagined. He then tried to explain to me that even one single straight beat out of a bar of four beats has many divisions one can apply in order to customize the rhythmic pattern to something unique. This was taking me close to the edge but I held on and kept at it until he could see that I had it - on the invisible set. I then had to replicate it on the actual set, which is a horse of an entirely different colour.
Of course, back then we didn't have instructional videos for free on youtube. Back then you had to buy Modern Drummer to get the latest news on rhythms from around the world. These days anyone can source their information in a variety of online places. Like this one, which was essentially what Kevin was trying to explain to me. The classic triplet shuffle, in half time, with a four-bar long kick-drum pattern, by the Master himself, Jeff Porcaro:
Magic.
Mowl
Member
Odd coincidence, but this article in the news about a ruckus along Ormond Quay looks to have taken place in what used to be one of my Dublin studios years ago. I had a few projects on the go and didn't want to use commercial studios on a daily/weekly hire basis, preferring instead to have a single room on permanent lease with access both day and night. So I scouted around and spotted an ad in the window of the building for sale in the shot above.
It was owned by a man who ran another business in the rag trade around the corner on Little Mary Street. A decent auld skin, he asked what the purpose was and I told him I wanted to opened a private studio for creative work where I could work whatever hours I needed or wanted to. The initial rental fee was a bit out of my reach and I made him an offer of around 40% less than he was looking for. He looked at me and grinned and said why not? The room you see above with the windows open were my space. So I got the keys, it was in perfect condition with access to a smaller room at the back which had a kitchen and WC for my use, all ready to walk into and get busy. In fact, it would have been an awesome apartment: the view over the Liffey along the quays was lovely when the tide was in. When it went out and the river drained almost down to the bed, it stank like hell.
But I remember one day we were doing some work and I glanced out the window and saw all these people swimming in the River Liffey, it was the big annual river race from up Heuston Station way down into the docklands. I had the place lit up in bright orange, using gels over the tubular bulbs placed in all four corners. We had no neighbours at night so I could make all the noise I wanted to into the night. Had to keep it as secret as possible too, otherwise I'd have gangloads of players looking to use it when I wasn't. That can be very messy, so I avoided it and kept it going for a year before notifying the owner I had to leave for travel purposes. He said not to bother paying the last month in rent, it was going to be vacated as he was deciding what to do with the place. The rent was £400 (punts) a month, which was as much as I was paying in rent for the flat I lived in on Belgrave Square up in Rathmines.
Looks now like it might have been squatted, what with the hassle going on there today.
Amazing how neglected a lot of Dublin addresses are, especially the ones in the city.
€1000 a month doesn't buy very much in dear old Dublin these days, eh.
Lumpy Von Talbot
Member
'I'm going to ghost the third note'... that's the best jazz language comment I've heard for years
Mowl
Member
'I'm going to ghost the third note'... that's the best jazz language comment I've heard for years
The curious thing about ghosting notes is somewhat comparable to painting with water colours: staring at what you're doing and where you're doing it prevents you from seeing the entire body of the painting rather than the detail you're adding. If you do what you're doing manually but keep your eyes on the total/overall composition rather than the square inch you're working on, then the blending of the colours and how thick/dense the strokes are will make your entire finished piece far more harmonic than taking the strict graphic approach.
Ghosting notes on the off-beats is quite a similiar feat: you first study the signature of the rhythm. Is it a 4/4 loop or is it twice that (8/8)? Well, 8/8 beaks down to a four-four anyway, so let's look at the underlying quantization: is it sixteenth notes or thirty-second notes? Which are the most relevant to the groove required? If it's carried as eight notes with the right hand keeping time, then what's your left hand doing in response to that? The right hand's playing hard eight notes so the left can complement that by playing the other eight notes in the overall sixteenth note phrasing.
But if instead of dividing the four whole beats of the bar with your right hand (or eight notes, depending) then the left can fill in the 'missing' or 'ghost' notes and use them to flatter the points in between the full notes to give it more expression.
The triplet variation is rather more complex at first: you count all four beats of the bar: 1, 2, 3, 4 - but instead of using eight notes you divide the space in between each on beat with three notes instead of two, or four, or even eight. The difference now is that your 4/4 has twelve notes across the entire bar. Each beat having three notes to it. So instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, you now have 1,l,l, 2,l,l, 3,l,l, 4,l,l. The hard notes are played on the fourths and the spaces in between can be ghosted with the other two triplet notes your left hand is playing against the right hand.
ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and
As opposed to:
ONE, la,la, TWO, la,la, THREE, la,la, FOUR, la,la.
They're both played at the same tempo, but the first lopes along like any 'white man's' beat you know and like: it's four beats long, is carried by eight notes, can be sub-divided into sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes, or even sixty-fourth notes, if you're adept enough to carrying it. The second, on the other hand (literally) opens up the possibilities of using triplet note figures divided down into twelfths, or twenty-fourths, or forty-eights. It's the difference between swing and steady. Jazz players specialize in sub-division of notes, whether on the piano, sax, or even drums. A track like 'Take Five' has five beats to the bar, but Joe Morello uses the fifth-note bar and sub-divides each beat first into triplets, and then into twelfths, and even deeper into twenty-fourths, while still carrying a 5/4 groove.
When an odd time signature (5, 7, 9, 11, 13) loop is being used, the other instruments can then sub-divide their parts as fours (for example) meaning it'll take five bars of real time for them to resolve their loop against yours. Same rules apply to straight time signatures (2, 4, 8, 16, 32). But then you also have your natural triplets (3, 6, 12, 24) which are set as triplet form but again can be subdivided and the ghost notes used to best effect in between the hard notes.
Actually, I think Dave Allen explains this (maybe) a bit better than I can:
Mowl
Member
Jane's Addiction: 'Been Caught Stealing'
Perry Farrell loses it with Dave Navarro last night in Boston.
Bass player grabs Farrell and puts him in a headlock, then pummels his face several times.
Dates cancelled.
Apologies issued.
Global headlines in the music press.
All told?
An excellent stunt even Oasis can learn from.
Think about it: did you even know that Jane's Addiction were out on tour?
Now you do.
So does the entire planet.
Music biz stunts 1: 01.
Perry Farrell loses it with Dave Navarro last night in Boston.
Bass player grabs Farrell and puts him in a headlock, then pummels his face several times.
Dates cancelled.
Apologies issued.
Global headlines in the music press.
All told?
An excellent stunt even Oasis can learn from.
Think about it: did you even know that Jane's Addiction were out on tour?
Now you do.
So does the entire planet.
Music biz stunts 1: 01.
Mowl
Member
I think it's awesome that Suzanne Vega has consistently managed to do a sort of parallel high-wire tango with the likes of fellow underground Lauri Anderson (sans Lou Reed) at her most eccentric while at the same time never allowing fashion, trends, or cult take precedence over substance when it comes to presenting new works. This, her latest release with our own Gerry Leonard (aka: Spooky Ghost from Sutton, Dublin) marks a caustic and fairly sarcastic/winsome return to the roots of the original punk ethos of three chords and the truth.
That and some other delicate/fragile and otherwise unmentionable issues of the soul.
That and some other delicate/fragile and otherwise unmentionable issues of the soul.
Suzanne Vega - 'Rats' (Official Music Video)
Mowl
Member
The only thing worse than being a rock star is being a rock star who just got busted for fucking around and making a baby with some woman who's not his wife. This guy has royally fucked up his life and he's seriously damaged his wife and children in the process. Deciding to take a hiatus now is not only essential, but also something he should have done after Taylor Hawkins died. Heading out on tour with a new guy simply wasn't a good idea. Time out? Fuck, yeah.
Led Zeppelin faced the same choices (though society was different in their day and fucking little girls was rock and roll) after losing Bonham to alcohol. They opted for disbanding and releasing a final coda of previously unheard tracks, pretty much all of which featured some of Bonham's most amazing and incredible recordings of quality drum-takes that still shiver the timbers today. Try the Coda album on your Spotify, the opening track 'We're Gonna Groove' is a monster drum take from start to finish. There's simply no way they could have toured the record because there's nobody out there who can do what John Henry Bonham did under Jimmy Page's production arrangements. Many people seem really confused about how Bonham created his style. The answer is quite simple. When songs were being arranged in the studio, Jimmy Page ran through the riffs that comprised the song at hand and had Bonham play to the guitar riffs to beef them up. Traditionally, drums and bass are brother/sister parts in most arrangements. Zeppelin put down the drums first, then removed everything else and then started to build on Bonham's foundations. So what you hear on the records are takes that make Bonham seem to be 'ahead' of the arrangement, pushing the time forward with great weight behind it, and once his takes were down, he was done. Time to hit the bottle, drinks it, passes out, dead. No more Zeppelin.
Hawkins? He liked his drugs, but he took something that didn't agree with him - expired. Is he replaceable? Fuck yeah. Not easily, mind you - but still yes. Grohl did a lot of the drum parts himself, they even shared parts on some songs in an almost Lennon/McCartney way. Yes Grohl's regarded as one of the world's best rock drummers out there, but that didn't apply to Hawkins. His specialty was ripping off classic grooves and chops and slotting them into his own takes: a borrower, not a visionary. Same applies to Grohl. But at least he's honest about it.
So now Grohl's in the doghouse on his knees and wants his family back: so now the new drummer Josh Freese is in something of a quandary. He signed up for tours and albums but now it looks like he'll do neither and will need to find other work to fill in the time until Grohl figures out what to do about his cheating ways. He hurt a lot of people here: the wife, kids, Mam, extended family, the fans, the players in his band, their roadies and assistants, drivers, tech people, tour management companies, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. But money isn't going to change things, not in any positive way. The lesson here is that after he lost his Number Two, he should have taken time out instead of doing continuing tours so soon after Hawkins tapped out.
But he didn't, and not only that, but he seemed to be turning Foo Fighters into some sort of karaoke band who had guests from the audience up for songs on every date of the tour. It was sweet at first, maybe - giving some twelve year old guitarist a shot at three minutes of fame. But then he started doing it all the time. It got pretty old pretty fast, and his bullshit 'family values' schpiel hasn't exactly given him any accolades. He fucked it all up. Now he's not just a cheater but a fairly brutal liar on top. And his lies are rather gross in the bigger picture. I bet the poor fucker's kicking himself.
Good enough for him: cheating's one thing - but getting caught after making some groupie pregnant is his own mistake. Believe me, there are women out there who play exactly that game: 'I'm your Number One fan, Dave - there's nothing I won't do for you' and he slips on a condom she just handed him that's pierced with a pin. Now he's properly fucked. And it hits everyone down the line. I'd hate to be in his shoes right now, living in an hotel, millions in the bank but nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and nothing he can buy from sports cars to small airplanes is going to fill in the gap.
Poor stupid fucker, this is going to go on for years and years.
Maybe it might even last as long as it takes for Bowie to be canceled for fucking minors. Along with all four members of Led Zeppelin, along several more we can all name. So far cancel culture hasn't his the music business too hard, but things are accelerating and it's only a matter of time before before the shit starts really starts hitting the fan. The lists of names are household. Many have millions of fans. But they're all likely shitting silently into their boots hoping the knock on the door doesn't come before they die. In ten years from now - what will people say about Bowie? Or Page and Plant? Or any of your favourite composers?
Messy shit, very messy.
Led Zeppelin faced the same choices (though society was different in their day and fucking little girls was rock and roll) after losing Bonham to alcohol. They opted for disbanding and releasing a final coda of previously unheard tracks, pretty much all of which featured some of Bonham's most amazing and incredible recordings of quality drum-takes that still shiver the timbers today. Try the Coda album on your Spotify, the opening track 'We're Gonna Groove' is a monster drum take from start to finish. There's simply no way they could have toured the record because there's nobody out there who can do what John Henry Bonham did under Jimmy Page's production arrangements. Many people seem really confused about how Bonham created his style. The answer is quite simple. When songs were being arranged in the studio, Jimmy Page ran through the riffs that comprised the song at hand and had Bonham play to the guitar riffs to beef them up. Traditionally, drums and bass are brother/sister parts in most arrangements. Zeppelin put down the drums first, then removed everything else and then started to build on Bonham's foundations. So what you hear on the records are takes that make Bonham seem to be 'ahead' of the arrangement, pushing the time forward with great weight behind it, and once his takes were down, he was done. Time to hit the bottle, drinks it, passes out, dead. No more Zeppelin.
Hawkins? He liked his drugs, but he took something that didn't agree with him - expired. Is he replaceable? Fuck yeah. Not easily, mind you - but still yes. Grohl did a lot of the drum parts himself, they even shared parts on some songs in an almost Lennon/McCartney way. Yes Grohl's regarded as one of the world's best rock drummers out there, but that didn't apply to Hawkins. His specialty was ripping off classic grooves and chops and slotting them into his own takes: a borrower, not a visionary. Same applies to Grohl. But at least he's honest about it.
So now Grohl's in the doghouse on his knees and wants his family back: so now the new drummer Josh Freese is in something of a quandary. He signed up for tours and albums but now it looks like he'll do neither and will need to find other work to fill in the time until Grohl figures out what to do about his cheating ways. He hurt a lot of people here: the wife, kids, Mam, extended family, the fans, the players in his band, their roadies and assistants, drivers, tech people, tour management companies, etc, etc. The list goes on and on. But money isn't going to change things, not in any positive way. The lesson here is that after he lost his Number Two, he should have taken time out instead of doing continuing tours so soon after Hawkins tapped out.
But he didn't, and not only that, but he seemed to be turning Foo Fighters into some sort of karaoke band who had guests from the audience up for songs on every date of the tour. It was sweet at first, maybe - giving some twelve year old guitarist a shot at three minutes of fame. But then he started doing it all the time. It got pretty old pretty fast, and his bullshit 'family values' schpiel hasn't exactly given him any accolades. He fucked it all up. Now he's not just a cheater but a fairly brutal liar on top. And his lies are rather gross in the bigger picture. I bet the poor fucker's kicking himself.
Good enough for him: cheating's one thing - but getting caught after making some groupie pregnant is his own mistake. Believe me, there are women out there who play exactly that game: 'I'm your Number One fan, Dave - there's nothing I won't do for you' and he slips on a condom she just handed him that's pierced with a pin. Now he's properly fucked. And it hits everyone down the line. I'd hate to be in his shoes right now, living in an hotel, millions in the bank but nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and nothing he can buy from sports cars to small airplanes is going to fill in the gap.
Poor stupid fucker, this is going to go on for years and years.
Maybe it might even last as long as it takes for Bowie to be canceled for fucking minors. Along with all four members of Led Zeppelin, along several more we can all name. So far cancel culture hasn't his the music business too hard, but things are accelerating and it's only a matter of time before before the shit starts really starts hitting the fan. The lists of names are household. Many have millions of fans. But they're all likely shitting silently into their boots hoping the knock on the door doesn't come before they die. In ten years from now - what will people say about Bowie? Or Page and Plant? Or any of your favourite composers?
Messy shit, very messy.
Mowl
Member
Country bumpkin faces the same dead end as Grohl: another big fat cowboy hat cancellation.
www.thejournal.ie
Garth Brooks accused of rape in lawsuit from hair and make-up artist
The woman says the assault occurred when she travelled from Nashville to Los Angeles with Brooks in 2019.
www.thejournal.ie
Mowl
Member
Culchies doing line dancing: fucking hell.
He certainly does know how to put on a show. My ex-bassist Paul Bushnell has been playing with Tim McGraw over the last few years. McGraw's apparently a big deal over the pond and he shifts lots of copy. His stages are monster, massive screens, fuck-off PA, lights, projections, stage gymnastics, the works. In fact, the tour bus he had designed for the core of the band and crew has a gym on board. Either that or one of the buses is the gym, not sure which, but he's a fitness fanatic and Papa Bush has to stay trim to keep his spot. He'd boot me for saying that, and he'd be right. He's fucking unbelievably talented, and he paid his dues right from the start.
Heading out on tour with McGraw no alcohol on the road or behind the stage, drinks can be had with dinner, etc - but no drunkenness is tolerated. Gigs on that scale need the players to be able to hold the entire show together: the lights are programmed, you have to know where on the stage you're supposed to be, no different to the dancers/backing vocalists. If you're not in the right place, you might fuck someone else's moment up. Either or/and both, you're fired. No boozers. No dopers. No two left feet either.
Here's Papa Bush:
A shot of the staging:
When there's this much riding on every show every night, one fuck-up can see you out of work for a very long time. Try acting the bollocks with even McGraw's production and there are literally dozens and dozens of people ready to kick your fucking arse you, you just got them fired too. The investment on one night of a tour of this scale has to be multiple times the investment of making it happen at all, all expenses considered.
It's one thing to be a rick and roll star like Oasis. You can pretty much do what you like so long as you don't attract any negative attention or too many bum notes. Get drunk, stay sober enough to play. Get high, but not high enough that you forget where you fucking are and why. Have a punch-up? The Gallagher brothers milked it already. Every player they take on is disposable, can be replaced in one hour with one phone call.
McGraw's playing to a Christian audience - not that he's some mental case religious freak. Like many Americans, he's in it for the lifestyle. Maybe he goes to church, I don't know. Bush doesn't, I know that much. But every line-up's going to feature new guys and first timers at some point, it's next to impossible to keep one hired band of players going outside the legal obligations and booked dates. One guitarist can't do any dates after June - now they have to drill the new guy so he knows what's going on and when.
Get drunk and blow a song on a tour like that and you're toast.
You're done - stick a fork in your ass and roll over.
I cannot for the life of me stomach that fat bastard's voice.
I hope his spleen attacks his esophagus and chokes him to death.
Here's some Tim McGraw: 'One Bad Habit' (live 2024)
Papa Bush is over on stage right, under his ear goggles, which is a mystery to me.
Mowl
Member
Here's one for the Cap'n: I'm in a James Brown kinda Sunday afternoon mood and have his back catalogue blaring while I'm preparing tonight's traditional Irish Sunday roast dinner. Nam nam. But the big question is: listen to the horns and the snare drum? Notice anything strange happening? If you can measure the loop of the snare/horns in the verses and listen to how it crosses over the chorus section, what did James have his players do?
This is the simple brilliance of Brown's genius, he hears things that aren't there, so he wants the arrangements to nod to them even if they're actually in the wrong place, then right place, then the wrong place again. And all the while, he moves the song along like a speeding train. His mathematical skills are clearly evident in this track more so than too many others - bar The Payback, which is another day's work. But of Brown's entire back catalogue, these two are the grooves I like to jam along with and smile at James's seemingly crackpot ideas that technically shouldn't work yet they really do.
Snare and horns, Cap'n:
This is the simple brilliance of Brown's genius, he hears things that aren't there, so he wants the arrangements to nod to them even if they're actually in the wrong place, then right place, then the wrong place again. And all the while, he moves the song along like a speeding train. His mathematical skills are clearly evident in this track more so than too many others - bar The Payback, which is another day's work. But of Brown's entire back catalogue, these two are the grooves I like to jam along with and smile at James's seemingly crackpot ideas that technically shouldn't work yet they really do.
Snare and horns, Cap'n: