Atheist musicians.
Offline
Atheist musicians.
I know that there are several of us around here. Let's get to know each other as more than just a bunch of godless people. Tell us all a bio and some other stuff.
Of course it is on me to start.
I play bass and keyboard. Mostly 60's and 70's in the blues/progrock genre. Sadly, the keyboards are all in storage ATM but they will be coming out when I get a handle on my spring cleaning. As for the bass gear, I have this list:
Peavey Millenium 5 BXP. Stock J+J pickups and Elixr nanoweb strings.
Fender four string. I can't find the actual model number despite the fact that the serial number is trivially traceable. Odd, yes but it is what it is. What I can tell is that it is a late 90's Japanese item. I got it really cheap because the last guy did not know what he had and he let it suffer a bit. Replaced the strings and tightened up stuff and it is now worth probably five times what I paid for it. Currently running a cheap set of flat wounds (as if there is such a thing as cheap bass strings).
Schecter custom 5. OK, I tried every ax in the store and this was the one for me. It is the one that I am playing in most of my videos. Since I did the videos, it got a set of DR flats. Can you make a great instrument better? Yah, put great strings on it.
For amps, I have a few.
Hartke Kickback 15. 120x15 but with a replacement speaker. I got it used with the new speaker so I can't really complain but it is way heavier than spec. Still, it is enough for medium sized rooms with sound dampening furniture. It will cut through reasonable drummers but not Niel Peart fans.
Hartke HA 5500. 500 watt head @ 4 ohms. This is the main power rig for blasting when needed. Active and passive inputs. Tube and transistor preamps in parrallel. The inline compressor does not seem to do much, as if I care at that point. Two equalizers in series (ten band and two band).
I play that with a Genz Bens Neox 2x12 cab @ 4 ohms so I get the full 500 watts if I open it up.
Marshall MG 30 for grab and go stuff. 30x12. Yah, if you look at the Marshall website, you will only find the MG30 in 30x10 form, so I have to assume that I got some type of rare unit here. It will fill small rooms but I doubt that it could handle even a small bar. Actually, the Kickback in a bar would only be useful as a monitor but even so...
The only nit that I have with the Marshall is that it has a really sterile sound coming from the digital part. Even the clean sound is not really alive. Then the crunch is about the same. I know, sterile crunch does not make a whole lot of sense but you have the hear it. Here is a youtube link that might make it fairly obvious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIdz11uNcVE&feature=related
That much being said, it was only a couple hundred bucks and I can grab it and throw it in the back seat of someone's car when I need to. Since it has the open back, there are a few 80's stomp boxes living there. I suppose that Jim Marshall should be applauded for getting right as much as he did with this but if a grab and go amp needs cheap stomp boxes to get good, then he could have done better.
For rack mount gear, again, stuff.
I have a six space case with rollers and a “suitcase” type of handle for moving it around. In no special order, I have this set up:
BOSS GT-Pro. Front panel connection for axes. Something like 50 stomp boxes built in alog with all the other modern goodies. A whole bunch of effect loop connections so that I can put stuff in parallel as I feel like.
Groove Tubes Trio preamp. Three different 12ax7 tube preamps in one box. Push button and foot switch selectable. Channel one is the pre-CBS fender black face circuit. Channel two is the Fender tweed circuit. Chanel three is an early 70's Marshall circuit. I can also use channel two to predrive channel 3.
A Behringer compressor/limiter. Yah, I know that it is Behringer. Sad panda would apply but for one fact. The day that I bought it, my LMS has three compressors in stock. Two of them were old used units with hardly anything for features. That and the Behringer. That and what really can go wrong with a compressor limiter anyway?
The last space is the power conditioner. I suppose that the fact that it has lights is a good thing but when I move stuff around, I put the cover on first so no settings ever really get messed in moving stuff around. So yah, I have yet to actually use the lights.
The whole deal is pretty much one big box of plug and play stuff.
Never ever did I say enything about free, I said "free."
=
- Login to post comments
the comment space for my youtube video "godless america"(the link is below in my signature line) is a regular shit-hurling forum between xians and atheists. you would think i was the anti-christ from some of things they say, but it makes for fun reading.
www.derekneibarger.com http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=djneibarger "all postures of submission and surrender should be part of our prehistory." -christopher hitchens
Welcome to the forums, religioniswar!
When you get a chance, we'd love it if you'd hop over to General Conversation, introductions and Humor and introduce yourself.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Thank you, I have done a fairly detailed intro, glad to be here. =]
hey man i added you on myspace. i also have tunes.
www.myspace.com/kashioboy
peace
Welcome to the forums, krashioboy!
When you get a chance, we'd love it if you'd hop over to General Conversation, introductions and Humor and introduce yourself.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Musicians and their creativity
Music hasn't been a very big part of my life and what I've tried isn't that great, but I like to listen. Good luck with your music and kick some ass.
good idea. mine'll be shorter than yours, since i'm not near as much of a techie (can't afford to be one, anyway). i'd love to get a basic sound system (two speakers, two monitors, a subwoofer, basic mixer, maybe three or four mics, stands, etc.) just so i could be independent, set up my own gigs wherever i want, and maybe move toward putting together a new band with me in control. if i ever get that kinda jack, i'll have a lot of research to do.
i primarily play guitar. i use my electric mostly for blues, rockabilly, and jazz. i play a lot in open-G as well as standard. i occasionally use a slide in open-G. my electric is a blonde vintage series 1952 reissue telecaster, american made of course. i play it through a fender blues jr. tube amp, and i play pretty clean. little or no reverb (i hate wimpy, watery guitars--never get near me with a chorus effect), but i do jack up the gain and the overdrive. i throw in a little reverb when i do john lee hooker or junior kimbrough-inspired mississippi hill country type blues. i've never had any pedals or anything, so i've always just had to tweak my amp a lot, switch between bridge and neck pick-ups, etc.
as for my acoustic, i play a martin d-16gt, mahogany back and sides. i use it for folk, irish, country, and bluegrass. it has a fishman active pick-up, the kind that is well-hidden. i'm a purist when it comes to acoustics, so i absolutely did NOT want an "acoustic-electric" with a big control panel on top and a nasty-looking cutaway. i was very loathe to even put in a fishman, but i evetually cracked for the sake of speed and convenience. i also carry one of those single-coils you can stick in the soundhole, as a back-up.
with both instruments i generally use a thumbpick and fingerpicks. i only use a flat-pick when i need fast single-string lead, e.g., on bluegrass or chicago blues solos, or when i need powerful, driving acoustic rhythm, like when i play rhythm on a rockabilly number.
on the whole, i'm extremely eclectic and experimental. i love playing with bands but i inevitably get sick of them after a year or so because i like to improvise and i hate playing a song the same way twice. most bands are not that adventurous. i really admire tom waits for doing shit like singing through a megaphone. i love playing solo for the freedom, but i just can't make enough noise by myself. whenever i write a song, i usually hear an orchestra in my head. if i could have any kind of band i want, it would definitely be an old school, hard-thumping soul band, a la otis redding.
as for my other instruments, i play harmonica, banjo, autoharp, and mandolin with varying degrees of proficiency. anything with strings i can usually play passably within an hour or so, unless it uses a bow, because i can't really maneuver a bow. yet.
oh, and i'm a vocalist. i sing baritone-bass, but i do a decent falsetto if i need to. i look up to all the "wrong" vocalists: tom waits, bob dylan, nick cave, willie nelson, howlin' wolf. i love and emulate soul singers too, especially otis redding and solomon burke, and freddie king, who was a blues musician with a soul singer's voice. van morrison is also a huge vocal influence.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
My parents made me go to piano lessons for two years, but I sucked at it, so I stopped.
Some time ago I wanted to learn to play the violin, but I still suck at having to go through all the boring stuff before you reach the "Hey I can play lux aeterna" moment, so I didn't hold out too long.
I have been playing the Didgeridoo for about 10-11 years now and the Harmonica for a little longer, and I've been trying to learn the Accordion for a little while. Personally, I've been trying to find some people to get together and have fun mixing black and death metal/punk/Gypsy/jazz/Klezmer/progressive rock-metal/bluegrass/experimental musical styles. My biggest problem is that I have too many musical loves and I find that many people want to shoehorn themselves into little boxes when it comes to music, so finding people that I can play and experiment with all my tastes is a little hard.
But then again, atheists obviously don't play music, since we don't have souls! XD <-- Yes, I have in fact been told that.
"This may shock you, but not everything in the bible is true." The only true statement ever to be uttered by Jean Chauvinism, sociopathic emotional terrorist.
"A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished." Mikhail Bakunin
"The means in which you take,
dictate the ends in which you find yourself."
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! Supreme leadership derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!"
No Gods, No Masters!
OK, I don't want you to think that I am made of money or anything. However, I have lived in one place for over 25 years. A bit here and a bit there adds up to quite a bit of gear.
Actually, I have a nice story. I don't think that it is really a good idea to talk about work online all that much but this one seems not a big deal.
So there is this multimillionaire and her son bought everything under the sun. Eventually he became a client (and I will not say a word on that). OK, she has to clean out her basement and she has no idea what to do with all the musical gear. Since we are an actual charity, she came by with a 21 foot truck full of band gear and dropped it all in my office.
My supervisor told me to get some prices so that he would know what was fair on ebay and that is what I did. The total haul was worth about a quarter million bucks. I doubt we got anywhere near that much on ebay but that is not my deal.
Anyway, my supervisor knew about my band and as a cookie for what I did, he told me that I could pick one item that I wanted. Whatever the lowest price that I could find on line, I would pay half that much. So for a database, I use the gear reviews on harmony central. Eventually, I got the groove tubes trio amp for $250.
=
I play guitar in an Iron Maiden tribute band.
I use Jackson guitars, a Boss GT 6 pedalboard, and a 200 watt Randall RH200SC head into two 4x12 cabs.
I dont use tube amps. I like the solid state ones.
tube is best for blues, imo. it's definitely best for amplifying harmonica.
i am looking to invest in a solid state, though, probably a marshall of some kind, because i'm starting to play more dirty music, and it's easier to get a solid state to growl and squeal than a tube.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
I'm a guy who hangs out with musicians aka a drummer.
I play a vintage 4 pc. Ludwig kit with Zildjian cymbals (except for a Wuhan high china) with five Rototoms.
That's the short form - I can go into morbid detail on request.
Musical styles I play - mostly jazz but will try to play damn near anything.
"I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."
— George Carlin
well, their guitars are wired a helluva lot hotter than mine too. i play a tele.
my biggest blues guitar influences are muddy waters, who generally played a tele, and john lee hooker, who played mostly hollow-bodies like a gibson es or epiphone sheraton (similar guitars to lucille, i know, but played much differently). both featured a lot of twang and thump, rather than squeals. i don't know what their amps of choice were, but i'd lay down money muddy played through a tube most of the time. all i know is i can replicate their sounds to my satisfaction through my tube.
as i said, i'm also a blues harmonica player, and all my heroes--little walter, james cotton, carey bell, and especially junior wells--played through tubes.
i have to say, though, i've become a huge hound dog taylor fan in recent years, which is one reason why i'm thinking about a solid state.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
Atheist music? How do musicians play nothing?
I do know a TINY bit about playing. I dabbled in guitar when I was younger. I was ok with cords, but only with one direction with stroking the strings. I never got good at picking or "solos". I do remember how easy it was to tune a guitar and I could spot one out of tune. AND no matter what BOB says about technology, I think hardcore musicians can tell the difference between tube and digital amps. BOB will claim I am fooling myself, but I like old tube technology.
I was, at the time a HUGE tube Marshal fan. I can swear even today if you played the same song off a clean newly pressed(not that they do it anymore) vinyl press LP and the same song on a CD. I could swear there is a difference.
Is that just me? Am I fooling myself as a purist being old school?
Marshall rules and although I never got into the shape of Fenders, I did like their sound quality.
I wanted to start a band called "PISS" Psychodelically Insatiable Sex Slaves. That way we could have an album called "Piss up a rope", "Pissed off".....ect ect. The idea never got off the ground in any real sense. It was nothing but a couple of meetings with a friend brain farting over beer. He played bass but turned out to be a real dick.
Tube rules as far as I am concerned. Maybe I am fooling myself, but I like the old days when the men were men and the sheep were nervous.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
=
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
"Muddy Waters"? Don't they have charities to clean up dirty water? You'd think if we were empathetic to the human condition clean water would be a given.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I don't know to what extent that is even valid. Blues as a genre depends on tubes because it evolved when tubes were the only way to make an amp. So that is kind of a standard. That and the great players got great by playing through what they could get cheap at some pawn shop.
In the modern world, if you want to hit some local place for an open mic night, you are going to go through the house system, which will be transistor based. Any specific sound that you want past that much will be from whatever effects you bring with you.
Granted, in a studio, you can mike an amp but how often can you do that in a bar?
If you want a specific sound, you have to bring that with you. The right stomp boxes can do great things for you but apart from a few items, those are all pretty much solid state.
=
i've never played in a bar big enough for that to be an issue. my blues jr. makes enough noise by itself, especially since i rarely play with a drummer in a bar. i have miked my amp on a big outdoor stage before with a full rhythm section, with no problems.
in bars i only run my voice mic and my acoustic through the system.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I play a little guitar because I enjoy it though I am not particularly good and I can't read a lick of music. I play some bluesy/metal stuff, typical I suppose. My favorite guitar player is satch though I can barely struggle through a few parts of a few of his pieces I really appreciate his style and ability. Though I'm very far from pro (I know a few scales and basic chords) it's still enjoyable to make up kinda neat sounding riffs and such. A small reason tool is probably my favorite band, the guitar player (Adam Jones) is not actually that great (imo) but I really appreciate how he uses what he does know to such extreme great effect and I have fun trying to emulate this
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Hi Opy,
By definition, an atheist cannot be a musician. A consistent atheist MUST be along the line of a John Cage type. Look up John Cage. He was a very very consistent atheist via "music" (noise).
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
i'd like to see this definition. OED, if you don't mind.
i have no idea who john cage is. i've already listed my influences here, and i rarely take recommendations from others. i'm certainly not gonna take one from someone like you, who i'm sure doesn't know a zither from his asshole.
put us all in any given bar on the west side of chicago and i'm sure i could play circles around you, jesus christ, and jean calvin with nothing but my 1960s harmony patrician and a dime from my pocket. bitch.
christ, i'm sorry. really, i speak outta respect.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
TG,
I'm not trying to pick the fight. I am very serious. Jackson Polluck via art, and John Cage via Music. An atheist cannot be a musician. John Cage was booed off the stage when he honked and squeked instruments via a concert.
John Cage was making a philosophical statement regarding his atheism and music. That there is no order and no God. Thus there is no beauty, truth, or justice. Polluck did it with art (along with Duchamp). Atheism is the death of thought. Deny it on a forum like this, but in reality, what I say is truth.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Hi TG,
If you are a good musician, it is only because you've been greatly influenced by Christianity.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
Hello,
Well, if we want to be technical, Rock n Roll is not Christian since it is fragmented via it's beat and measures. There is no unity in the music.
Handel's piece along with other Classical musicians have a opening and closing throughout the music bringing it into unity. Jazz in more fragmented then Rock n. Roll. I still listen to Rock and some Jazz. Just because of my culture and so fourth. I'm not perfect. But it is broken music which one could argue is not music at all.
Atheists love fragmentation (e.g. communism, drugs, murder).
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
A Rational Christian of Intelligence (rare)with a valid and sound justification for my epistemology and a logical refutation for those with logical fallacies and false worldviews upon their normative of thinking in retrospect to objective normative(s). This is only understood via the imago dei in which we all are.
Respectfully,
Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).
OMG ! Mr. "H-e-l-l-o U-s-e-r-n-a-m-e," ...."R-e-s-p-e-c-t-f-u-l-l-y" ......Logic, blah blah, God wants to torture u and so do I..... atheists, music....God wants to burn you in Hell and so do I......
Seriously, this guy is way crazier than I could ever be ( .......and I've even spent time in a psychiatric hospital )
Fragmented ? You mean like your thought processes and sentence structure ? Of course we love it, otherwise the moderators would simply ban you from this forum. You do serve a purpose here but not in a way that casts you in a positive light.
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
"Evil creatures cannot sing" -R.A. Salvatore
I wonder if Jean can sing and if he gets this idea from a fantasy novel
I draw fairly well, did I get that from christianity too?
Cultures were making music well before christianity was birthed by some unhappy socialist pagans.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
I can't read a lick of music, either. I don't bother with tablature because everything I play is strictly from memory ( perhaps good for stimulating neurogenesis to offset my deteriorating brain function ) I currently have just a plain jane Black Ibanez electric. My amps are a Peavey Bandit 112 and a Vox AD50VT ( that I can plug headphones into, as well )
The absolute best guitar I ever had was a Hondo Formula One that was a very high quality electric that looked like a Gibson Explorer. It had a Kahler tremolo that wouldn't detune the strings when you used it and it had a locking nut. It got stolen out of a friends car when we were inside a pool hall. Sucks.
Hi Jean. I don't need to look up John Cage. In fact, if you were even trying to do more than just be an ass, you would have known that I posted a John Cage video in this very thread on Monday afternoon.
Then I must ask that you go back to post # 11.
=
Yea some ex roommates stole my best gear, a jackson guitar made in dallas with that one of a kind spackle paint with a floyd rose tremolo and locking nuts. I had a crate amp as well, it's been a while and I dont remember the model but the crate was from when they actually made them out of wood. I had an extension speaker also made like a wood crate. Never used much hardware but a cheap wah pedal and it was just a cool filter mainly. I really miss these, I think I gave like $800 for the guitar and like $200 for the amp which was a steal, the guy thought it was junk because it looked like a couple of big wood crates I guess, but I can't afford things like this much nowdays.
edit: I do use some regular tab, I used to have boxes of guitar mags that had 3-5 songs tabbed in each, actually I think I still have a box full of them.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
everybody thinks i'm crazy, but bach is the only classical music i listen to. i'm likely to be the only one awake during the brandenburg concertos, and the only one asleep or looking at my watch during a performance of vivaldi or rachmaninoff.
oh, wait, i like rubinstein too.
i recall jack kevorkian, who was a jazz musician with definite fragmentary tendencies, when asked if he believed in any god at all, said, "johann sebastian bach, and at least my god isn't inventive."
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
i have four musical gods myself (well, 6, if you do a headcount): blind lemon jefferson, charley patton, blind blake, and the carter family. everything else comes from them.
my scriptures are the harry smith anthology and the old, original yazoo records catalogue.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
"You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whip cream."--Frank Zappa
http://atheisticgod.blogspot.com/ Books on atheism
I love the piece by John Cage provided to us by AiG. Since I have powers of telepathy I could hear it in my head. It was a bit like Led Zepplin's Nobody's Fault by Mind. Quite thrilling.
I took lessons in the classical guitar for about 10 years and was decent. It was the only kind of music Jesus' approved of. In Christian college I took a hammer and screwdriver and slayed all my evil rock music which include the Rolling Stones and Beatles amongst many others. I didn't want this evil to go into the trash and some poor unsuspecting soul pick it up and be eternally damned.
Beethoven, Chopin were OK. I even took lesson from a classical guitarist who took a few lessons with Segovia. Lovely music. When my oldest daughter was in the womb when I played she would move about which was not her norm. Eventually her and my younger daughter took up music. My ex-wife (baby momma) is quite talented musically. They got her genes in that area. When they started playing I could hear a big difference between the simplistic music they played and the more complicated music I was playing. They had talent and I did not. So eventually I put it aside because I couldn't be the best. It gave me lots of appreciation for music which saved my life as a kid growing up in not the best environment.
So, now I just appreciate how fantastic some people are who were born with talent.
Now between destroying my Beatle albums and buying them in album, cassette, cd and mp3 form I can see how they got so rich. At least I didn't go the 8-track route.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
I don't call myself a musicist, let's just say that I try to hit but not bring harm to the drums with the drumsticks in the most aesthetically way I am capable of.
I like experimenting, and always have been the 'engineer' of the group (one sometimes 2 or 3 guitars, all electrics, a bass, and a voice). I am barely capable of reading a tab (I hit things, don't care about that sissy things you call notes).
My drums are electronic, but I had the possibility to join drumset with an acustic one, a pearl, and I like this configuration most. In this way I could change the cymbal in when and how I like (with bfd and superior drummer). I tried some DAWs, like nuendo and cubase, but in the end I don't need them, and reaper is very good (altough I miss some options - but the automation is not comparable to anything else).
A discussion on what I play would be too long (well, on the artists), but put in simple terms I think there is something beautiful in every genre, from dream theater to buddha bar.
Recently I was trying to get closer to reggae and similar rhythms, because it's in some way relaxing, it's some time 'fresh' to have an alternate structure to try, but it will require more time because the culture around off-beat (is this how you call it?) rhythms never allured to me.
Personally I always liked 'hitting things' (following a rhythm), and people constantly insulted me because I never remain still. Things got more complicated when I discovered double bass with fear factory (pretty soon, just when they arrived on the scene), because from then not only I got better (because you need to go faster), but also decidedly more noisy.
Anyway in the end I got a 'guitar' (because a jinrose has not enough honor nor the dignity of being called a real guitar), which is the instrument I use most (being in at home - the drumsets are in a small studio, but they will be soon moved), but I came to like every instrument, from synthesizers to flutes (I tried also a sopranino sax and a sort of 50 euros small violin).
I am always interested in strange instruments, from the guitars of bumblefoot to the 42 strings of metheny, from the contrabbass sax to the biggest drumset of world; absolutely if I will ever buy a decent guitar I will convert the actual to fretless.
@rob
Do you like salieri?
@aig
I like basses, I like their sound, and the 'power' feeling when you struck the big strings and everything get in vibration. If I can, I will try to get the one my bassist now has. Do you know that crazy japanese, if I recall just, with a tremolo on his bass? He belong to a famous group with a name regarding stars, supernova or something like that.
you should try the original by blind willie johnson. you should try anything by blind willie johnson. yes, he was a theist. and so am i during every 3-minute side he cut. and it feels soooo good.
you motherfucker. i have a cousin who did the same shit about 15 years ago. i'm gonna tell you the same thing i told him (and this is for any repentant theist reading this, as well):
DON'T SMASH YOUR CD'S. GIVE THEM TO A HEATHEN LIKE ME FOR WHOM ALBUMS ARE LIKE HEROIN. BY YOUR STANDARDS, I'M GOING TO HELL ANYWAY, AND TRUST ME, YOUR EVIL CD'S ARE NOT GONNA BE THE DECISIVE CATALYST. SO DON'T WORRY.
fuck...
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I don't know diddly about classical music but nevertheless one of my favorite pieces of orchestral music is Prokofiev's Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet. It almost gets me chocked up to listen to it. It's beautiful ( to me ).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_hOR50u7ek&feature=related
So you were in charge of ordering the pizza?
j/k dude. The last band that I was in and for the last couple of years, we were drummerless so as the bass player, that kind of fell to me. Oddly enough, I was also the guy who found new stuff for us on youtube. Sadly, I could never get the rest of them to play Buck Naked and the Bare Bottom Boys. I think is was the dropping of trousers that they had a problem with.
On this, I really have to agree. I play what I like and I like too much to go into in a single post. Since my blues/60's band broke up, I have mostly been exploring folk music. I don't know but most people probably think of it as simple stuff. Really it can get as tricky at points as any other genre.
That and you will find some material that you would never expect just from the basic idea. I could list out lots of stuff but why bother?
For classical music, I really like Stravinsky and Prokofiev.
Well, that is just not enough to go on. Perhaps if you gave me more, I could lock onto a name.
As far as simply liking bass, well, that is in the same area as liking any instrument, I suppose.
I probably said some of this before but let me cover it here in this context and see what comes of it.
My first bass was a five string with a 34 inch neck. If you have not been down that road, you would not know but standard bass strings don't lend well for the low B string, that way.
So I decided to try a four string. Actually, I got lucky beyond belief on that. I played every bass in the store and just kept comping back to the one POS that felt right to me. It had rusty strings and a bad sound but there was something that told me this was a good instrument. Well, after putting a cheap set of strings on it and tightening up some loose screws, it came alive, Then I checked the serial number online. Damn! I paid $175 for a late 90's Japanese Fender!!!1!!one!!1!!
Next up, I wanted to try soap bars. Again, I tried every bass in the store and I picked the one that was right for me. That is the one that is in most of my videos on youtube.
Since I am moving into folk music, I thought that I should explore the idea of an acoustic. Now, you will see a lot of folk bands with electric bass because it is not so easy to get an acoustic bass to project without an amp.
Well, I was in Manhattan a year or so ago for other stuff and that plan failed. So I figured that it was time to check the music stores there to see what I could find.
>>>>>>>>>
OK, Major sidebar here.
For those who do not know, there is one block in NYC which is the music center for the whole northeast. That block has like 15 music stores, each with a different specialization. For guitars and related instruments, you go to Manny's Music.
Well, when I got there, it turned out that Sam Ash had bought the entire block. Each store is still the department for what it was historically but it is all one huge deal now.
>>>>>>>>>
Along the way, I have also tried different types of stings. Right now, what I have is this:
Th Fender has a cheap st of flat wounds. They really feel nicer under my fingers compared to any round wound that I have ever had.
The original Peavey 5 string has Elixir Nanoweb strings at a lighter gauge than factory standard. The floppy effect on the low B string is mostly gone and the strings feel really good. The only thing is that I could use a setup to get everything al in one place.
The Ibanez acoustic still has stock strings. Not going to bother right now as the neck neds to be adjusted.
The Schecter has eexpensive flat wound strings. This is my real favorite right now apart from the fact tht I kind of messed up the job since I was pretty drunk when I put them on. Still, I can tell that these are really good string on a really good axe.
=
Hey I was a Christian back then and you know my mind was unchangeable like the glorious god I worshipped. So, it sounds like your cousin also worshipped the same unchangeable god.
Every dopey action is not just a stupid fuck up but has eternal consequences (except if you are Jean). How could I sit in heaven on the streets of gold with a crown on my head and yet my crown is missing one star because I didn't try to save your soul? Even worse I am in the bosom of Abraham staring down and watching you beg for even a drop of water in hell knowing it was because I gave you my beatle/rolling stone/moody blues/hendrix albums? Surely you can see my dilemma.
Is your cousin still heaven bound or has he joined us on the wide and easy road to hell?
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
no idea. i haven't seen him since those days (he's one of those cousins who's a lot older than you, lives far away, etc., so you see him like once every 10 or 15 years). i'm sure he's still a christer, albeit a respectable, settled one.
what irked me was that i was a HUGE fan of early rod stewart in those days. this was long before i could just get shit off torrents, and i was a kid with no money for cds, and the sadistic motherfucker had actually KEPT all the cases, for some reason, and just thrown the cds away. what do i see on his cd rack? an old raincoat will never let you down, gasoline alley, and every picture tells a story, with fucking ron wood on the cover. i mean, you couldn't just find those in wal-mart. i was so goddamn perplexed. the first three solo rod albums in all their glory, but just empty cases, taunting me.
well, i remembered that tonight, so i just downloaded them. illegally (well, for the US it would be, but here in slovakia it actually isn't--it's only illegal to upload copyrighted content). so up your ass, jamie, wherever you are. if i'm going to hell, i'm going listening to "you wear it well."
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I have, like a crazy person, listened to that over and over and over at ear bleeding levels. It is a wonderful piece of music.
Are you fan of his Alexander Nevsky?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy84N_U5jw0
I am a bigger fan of Shostakovich.
I love his symphonies especially number 13 & 11. 11 has to be listening through from beginning to end. It emotes so many feelings and my top piece of music I hope they play in hell. Shostakovich will be there after all.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYnzgHgYAp8
Hitler in hell listening to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AlEvy0fJto
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
That is sick. I at least destroyed and trashed the album sleeves. It would be like ripping out all the pictures of a playboy magazine and throwing them away only. It just reminds you of what was there. That would be a temptation without reward.
I had some cool original albums. I had the Sgt Peppers album with all this extra shit in it and the White Album with the embossed letters Beatles. It really would be fun to have them again. Religion has pushed me to pitch out so many things and messed up important relationships with people. I think every now and again how different my life would have been if I had of rejected it up front. All the fun I could have had and enjoyment of life. See that is wrong I get nothing from Jeebus for those years and sacrifices. He is such a dick.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/