“The Sound of 200 Guitars Wailing”
Posted: July 26, 2009 Filed under: Concerts | Tags: A Crimson Grail, Lincoln Center, Rhys Chatham, Starcaster, The New York Times Leave a comment »THE scene at Damrosch Park last August promised something spectacular: amplifier setups for 200 guitarists and 16 bassists, configured in a horseshoe that stretched along the south end of Lincoln Center, across the front of the park’s band shell, and curved up alongside the Metropolitan Opera House. The rehearsals for “A Crimson Grail,” an epic-scale work by the experimental composer Rhys Chatham, had gone exceedingly well — first at the nearby Church of St. Paul the Apostle, then, at 1 p.m. on the day of the event, in the park.
“The sound was so fantastic,” Mr. Chatham recalled recently via Skype from his home in Paris. “It took my breath away.”
Here’s something else, from Lincoln Center, that the Google coughed up on this:
In 2005, the New York composer Rhys Chatham was commissioned by the city of Paris to write a piece of music. The result was A Crimson Grail, a work for 400 electric guitars, which premiered at the basilica of Sacré-Coeur for La Nuit Blanche, an all-night arts festival. For its first U.S. performance, the work has been extensively revised by the composer for an outdoor performance at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park, to suit the dynamics of the park’s outdoor acoustic. A Crimson Grail will call on the talents of 200 guitarists (including 16 electric bassists), who will be selected from an applicant pool drawing on the many talents of musicians in New York City and beyond. The piece was rehearsed and soundchecked in August 2008, but inclement weather forced its cancellation. We are looking forward to its long-awaited World Premiere on August 8, 2009.
Requirements for performing in A Crimson Grail:
1. It is necessary to be a competent guitarist with at least a rudimentary comprehension of standard musical notation. A bit of basic music reading is involved to be able to perform. All musicians participating will be assigned to one of four sections, each of which will have their parts provided in simple written notation and textual instructions, and explained by section leaders.
Also…
Please note the following restrictions: No acoustic guitars. No hollow body electrics. No vibrato or whammy bars.
What? No Starcasters allowed at this gig?
Underwater Moon (2003)
Posted: July 25, 2009 Filed under: Recording | Tags: Effects, Pro Tools, reverb, the internet is really amazing Leave a comment »With not a whole lot in the blogging hopper this evening, I’ll turn to the vast FBdN archives for a tune I recorded six years ago: Underwater Moon.
I did this one in Pro Tools LE, which I haven’t used much at all in the last few years. One thing I liked about the software was the reverb effect. I can’t remember the details here, but I think you could set reverb to “infinite” or something. That made for some sonic weirdness, which shows up a bit in the track.
UPDATE: I tweeted this blog post and got the funniest response nearly immediately: “@fretbuzzdotnet That’s no moon. It’s a space station.” A perfect reply, when you listen to this spaced-out track. But then I checked out who sent the response. The Internet is really amazing.
Hooks: Jay-Z and the Grateful Dead, Genesis
Posted: July 24, 2009 Filed under: Artists, Videos | Tags: Genesis, Grateful Dead, hooks, Jay-Z Leave a comment »More may come this evening, but I’d like to get up on the scoreboard with two quick hits.
- Jay-Z gets mashed up with the Grateful Dead here. Worth at least 10 seconds of your time. I found that one via the Welcome to Now blog, which I found tag surfing.
- Since I’m on a bit of a Genesis bender at the moment, here’s a vid. This song has some gigantic hooks.
Always Nice to Have Something to Look Forward to
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Joy, New Releases, phish 2 Comments »“Joy” release date has been set for 09/08/09.
See Warren Get Shaky!
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Artists, Videos | Tags: Dave Matthews, Neil Young, Warren Haynes, Your Daily Chum Leave a comment »I’ve come to better grasp a few Internet phenomena since starting up the blog. One is the utility of tags. This morning, at a relatively unholy hour, I found myself perusing past posts and clicking on the tags to see what they coughed up. One of them – I can’t remember which – got me to a blog by the name of “Your Daily Chum.” And there I found posted a video of Warren Haynes and Dave Matthews covering Neil Young’s “Cortez The Killer.”
Here’s the video. I wouldn’t call this a must watch, but you can see Warren channel a bit of Neil at around 6:22.
Hey, Apple! Stop torturing us already!
Posted: July 23, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Apple Logic Studio, Effects, Guitar Rig, Guitars, stompboxes 2 Comments »
The new pro-level DAW from Apple has premiered today, and while the general appearance and feel of Logic 8 appears to be retained (it is not, after all, being billed as Logic 8.x or Logic 9), there are a gaggle of fancy new features, including the lovely stompbox interface featured above. It seems that the goal is to use strong brand identification to get the low-level pro user and, more importantly, the upper level amateur to forgo GarageBand in favor of this comprehensive, all-inclusive, software suite. I think the real pros are content with the multitude of aftermarket plug-ins that have been in use for years. The difference is that modeling tech just keeps getting better and better and better. My GuitarRig software is already getting a bit old, and it still sounds pretty good.
And let me just say this. While the above interface may be easy on the eyes, the $500 price tag for Logic Studio does not include a foot controller. For those of us who have been accumulating real stompboxes over the past umpteen years, the best solution is still what Delarus suggested to me some time ago – you want great sound? Stick a mic in front of your amp and (with all due respect to Bill O’Reilly) do it live!
Robert Cray: “I like my strings a little off the fingerboards.”
Posted: July 22, 2009 Filed under: Artists, Listening, Uncategorized | Tags: Dreams Love and Confession, Post Rock, Robert Cray, Strong Persuader, Washington Post Leave a comment »
Uploaded to Flickr by dynaglyde99
I noticed this morning that the Washington Post has a music blog: Post Rock.
This post on Robert Cray caught my eye.
“Everybody has their own likings; really, it’s just the feel. I like my strings a little off the fingerboards. I use a little bit heavier string than most people. I don’t use a whammy bar. I just like a pretty good workhorse. Then, you know, when it really comes down to it, as anyone will tell you, it all depends on the player that gets the tone out of it.”
“I still use a variety of different guitars in the studio. They could be anything from Silvertones to Gibsons. I have a couple of James Trussart guitars, some older Strats. Or some really cheap, cheap, cheap $50 guitars for what they offer.”
Maybe, for blogging purposes, I’ll try and dig up a college paper I wrote on Robert Cray. Paper was for a classics course called “Dreams, Love, and Confession.” MPomy, what was the full title of the course again? It was taught by this guy, and it was outstanding.
Paper will either stand the test of time as refreshing bit of undergraduate thinking, or it will be completely embarrassing. Blog fodder either way.
Anyway, here’s Cray’s “Strong Persuader.”
Vacation, All I Ever Wanted
Posted: July 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: staycation 2 Comments »
Uploaded to Flickr by Kirstie_Joy
Well, from here to July 28, I am officially on vacation. I’m very much looking forward to leaving first thing tomorrow to fly to Paris spending a quiet couple of days here at home in Washington. That’s right – this will be a “stay-cation,” as I’ve come to know the term lately. We had talked about an NYC hit around this time but bailed on the idea.
The staycation has its advantages. No schlep factor, no ditching the dogs (who have howled on such occasions previously), and perhaps some time to work on my latest musical microblogging endeavor.
And with that, I’ve got nothing much else to add this evening. I’ll leave the quality music blogging to MPomy and his fine gear post earlier.
Where did I put the super glue?
Posted: July 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: chest hair, DR, Guitars, Jamming, loud, new strings, old guitars, super glue, TB1000S, Travis Bean 3 Comments »
Last night I was as good as my word. I put a set of DR 10′s on my old Travis Bean TB1000S. I didn’t really get to far beyond giving the old girl new strings, getting in tune and giving her a haircut. My deposition ended a bit early because my client blew me off. Glad he’s so involved in the case, that painintheass! Anyway, I got back around four, downed a Red Bull and got out of my work clothes to see how those new strings felt. Well, I ended up rocking out so hard that the pickguard came off, as did one of the tone knobs. It was awesome! Sorry neighbors.
SourceAudio Tri-Mod Wah – probably voided the warranty
Posted: July 21, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: auto wah, Effects, effects pedal, Guitars, screwing around with things I don't understand, Soundblox, Source Audio, Tri-Mod Wah 1 Comment »
I’ve never been too good with the wah-wah rocker pedal. Volume pedal is a different story, that I can handle. but the wah has never been my friend. So, several months ago, I picked up this sucker on a whim and it’s a nice sounding unit with lots of versatility. It can do envelope or LFO and the multi-peaks can get real crazy – that’s always a good thing.
Unfortunately, the switch stopped working several months ago and I foolishly never did anything about it. The unit still got power and all the settings seemed to work, but I couldn’t work the pedal. Well, last night, I decided to take a quick look inside and noticed that a spring in the switch had been overly compressed. I gently stretched out the spring and put it back in place, put all the screws back in and ta-dah! The thing is working like a charm. I’ll try to get some recording done so you can hear this beauty. It’s not earth shattering, but it’s a nice little auto-wah/filter unit.
Cross-posted from mpomy.com
