The Well CI: Jesus met the woman at The Well

[RushOfBlood]

Thanks to guitfiddle for the torch.

Keep me busy for a few days, ask away!

Theme for this thread:

[dr. ad]

you've been spotted with some pretty sweet guitars in a recording context earlier this year; care to illuminate?

[woemoejack]

what would you say is your biggest musical road block, be it with songwriting, gear, or playing ability?

[Bones]

If you could go on vacation right now, where would you go?

[GuitarStv]

What inspires you? Do you have a particular routine for writing/making music, or do ideas just hit you at random every now and again?

[RushOfBlood]

you've been spotted with some pretty sweet guitars in a recording context earlier this year; care to illuminate?

Oh, is that so?

Let's see, as far as guitars, between mine and the guys from the band, we had a pretty nice selection going

I've got a Telecaster w/ a Highway 1 body, MIM neck, all SD pickups that I got from Butch Snyder off the forums a few years ago as a father's day present for my dad, but he shares with me. It had a Gibson minihum in the neck that I switched out for a Seymourized Mini Humbucker.





I've got an Agile LP-shaped 12-string that I also bought here on the forums from Brent aka gt5litre. I flipped the string arrangement so that the octave string is on the top side, like a rickenbacker, and put in GFS "Memphis Retrotron"s, Alnico II:




I've got a 1993 CIJ Fender Jaguar that I bought from a friend of mine, Brendan Scholz, who happens to be the nephew of Tom Scholz from Boston/Rocktron fame. He works at Cowtown guitars here in town and has always been one of the greatest players/performers/all around star quality dudes in Vegas, in my opinion. You can hear his latest band here: http://www.myspace.com/lydiavance

It had a buzzstop and dimarzio humbuckers in it when I got it, took me a long time to get it where I wanted it. Now it's got a set of nice american jag pickups w/ new pickguard, flatwound .12 strings.




My dad's got a really nice 1993 Guild that's sort of a semi-jumbo, seems like? I like this guitar a lot. Nice and full sounding.





Also have a ~1967 Gretsch Viking. Amazing guitar, it was the top of the line second to the White Falcon, not a very popular model, but I love it. This guitar was given to my family by a friend, Mayf Nutter.



guitars owned by others include a Rickenbacker 360 in Mapleglo, a 1994 limited edition CIJ Fender Jazzmaster (great playing/sounding guitar), a G&L custom ASAT w/bigsby, a Gibson ES-335, and an American standard Strat in Daphne Blue.

You can see more pictures from the session right here

[RushOfBlood]

what would you say is your biggest musical road block, be it with songwriting, gear, or playing ability?

Hmm, maybe the sort of minimalism I've been writing with recently.

I'm always thinking what sounds best out of stuff that's coming from me is just one instrument usually playing just a few chords, a small drum beat and a vocal, doing some small loop or pattern that's hypnotic for me for a long period of time.

Playing ability, I just need to play along with some different styles of music and really get my chops up. I know I'd get better/get inspired by doing that. No block to me there except getting around to it, basically.

I definitely am conscious to not let gear roadblock me in any way at all. I purposefully use cheap/broken/toy gear and feel my way around it until something legitimate comes from it. I could get into a groove on any setup, I feel.

If you could go on vacation right now, where would you go?

Tokyo, Buenos Aires, or Rio de Janeiro

What inspires you? Do you have a particular routine for writing/making music, or do ideas just hit you at random every now and again?

Inspirations are the thing that hits me at random, they're not clear song ideas or anything, but I'll watch a movie or see something in the street and carry around these images or concepts or whatever it may be with me. These inevitably flow into creative processes when I do them.

When I come up with something, it's because I worked on it. I sit down and decide to write a song. Actually, more like I sit down and decide to play and I know I will make a song from it.
Actual processes change, but what I'm doing right now is that I'll play something on any instrument available to me, get some kind of riff or chords going that either inspire me for a melody or something or they just have a good mojo or sound to it, then I'll record that and loop it, and then just sing over it for a few hours and try to mine that idea for hooks. Then I end up listening and reviewing my hours of work...
I'll usually get an idea for performance of the piece when I'm recording it, I try to imagine myself in that performance. Hard to explain, maybe?

Here's a random list of things/themes that I think a lot about:
Technicolor
Etymology
Ethics
Ecstasy
Electricity
Witches
Candy
Reflection
Life Cycles
Vanity
Machines/mechanics
Exponents
Mortality
Crystal formations/natural-emerging mathematical patterns
Prosthetic knowledge
Space travel
Space missions in general, most specifically and presently Dawn mission; retrospectively on Voyager and Cassini-Huygens.
Fear
Optics
Biology
Sexual power/consent
Manta Rays
Fragrance
Psychology
Darkness
Determinism
Certainty
Glamour
Absurdity
Humanism
Interior design
The gothic and grotesque
Japanese graphic design, movie posters in particular.
Self-expression
Self-awareness
Perception of time
Theoretical ecology
Future of technology
Sisyphus
Mythology

[Bones]

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Is Boise State overrated in the AP rankings for college football?

[RushOfBlood]

Vanilla is tops and I don't know jack about college ball, I am getting pretty interested in actually watching sports now though

[astrozombie]

Your taste in music seems eclectic. could you name a few groups you love, 1 per genre?

[Bones]

Vanilla is tops and I don't know jack about college ball, I am getting pretty interested in actually watching sports now though

Humor me and say they are overrated.

[RushOfBlood]

Humor me and say they are overrated.

screw idaho

[Bones]

screw idaho

YOU MESSED IT UP!

It's not Idaho, it's Boise State!

Anyways, how does the following picture make you feel:

[JOLLY]

I just wanted to say that I am having the soup of the day at the moment.

[JOLLY]

What brought you to this forum?

[RushOfBlood]

Your taste in music seems eclectic. could you name a few groups you love, 1 per genre?

Most of the artists I love most span a bunch of genres in their individual careers like Tom Waits, Scott Walker, Van Dyke Parks, Nina Simone, Serge Gainsbourg, Elvis, Beach Boys, Beatles, Bowie, Roxy Music etc.

I really like standards and older american music from the like that. Stardust is one of my favorite tunes. Obviously I like Frank Sinatra, Ella + Duke, all that.
I also like Judy Garland a lot, Debbie Reynolds, Perry Como, Anita O'Day...

ok, you said one per genre, oops.

I like a ton of Brazilian music, Samba, Bossa Nova...Antonio Carlos Jobim + Luiz Bonfa are great, as is their Black Orpheus soundtrack


I like Afrobeat very much, obviously the definitive artist is Fela Ransome Kuti. There's never gonna be another FELA
I like a lot of African music, also Miriam Makeba



I listen to a lot of Funk/Soul/Boogie music not only popular stuff, but things from other countries in their language.

Japanese:


French:


Nigerian:


etc.


I'm really into the Cambodian 60's-70's music that was going on before the Khmer Rouge, I think all of these artists were killed, but I am in love with Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Sereysothea, Pen Rorn, all of em.



I'm also into Reggae/Roots/Dub music. I love Prince Buster, Lee Scratch Perry, Sly & Robbie productions, all of it.



I like Rockabilly. Kris Jensen, Eddie Sulik, Gene Vincent, again, all of it.



I like really gay Disco/House/Dance music
Arthur Russell/Loose Joints stuff, Hercules & Love Affair



I like 50's/60's pop vocal groups like The Four Aces, Chordettes, all that

I like Punk Rock. The Damned, The Cramps, Screamers, Descendents, Black Flag, all kinds.

I like Jazz. Sun Ra, Coltrane, Miles Davis, Pharoah Sanders, Ornette Coleman

New Orleans piano stuff like Allen Toussaint, Doctor John, Professor Longhair

I like hip-hop. Old School stuff like Kurtis Blow, Grandmaster Flash, later stuff like Wu Tang !!!ODB!!!, Outkast, Goodie Mob

I like New Jack Swing. Mac Band, Bobby Brown, Guy, all of it.

I like Miami Bass. Ghost town DJ's, INOJ, Virgo

I like Shoegaze. My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Cocteau Twins
+ more gothic stuff like Siouxsie, Bauhaus, Love & Rockets, Joy Division

I like Doom Metal. Thergothon, Sunn O))), Skepticism, Funeral

90's stuff like Pixies, Sonic Youth

I listen to recordings from churches, I like gospel music, I love the organ work, the chord voicings, the amazing voices, the energy. I want to go to this church in Brooklyn:



God, there's just too much I haven't even covered.


You can always check out my last.fm page and the 40,000+ songs I have on there


Edit: oh don't forget Japanese and Chinese traditional music, and Calypso! Mighty Sparrow!

[RushOfBlood]

YOU MESSED IT UP!

It's not Idaho, it's Boise State!

Anyways, how does the following picture make you feel:

Thirsty!

What brought you to this forum?

You did, Jolly! or maybe it was playing/working on guitars. It was definitely a long time ago.

[Jeff_H]

Humor me and say they are overrated.

Boise State is a legit top 5 team and will likely be a contender for the BCS title. They will definitely beat Georgia if they ever play.

[Bones]

Boise State is a legit top 5 team and will likely be a contender for the BCS title. They will definitely beat Georgia if they ever play.

A community college's baseball team could beat UGA in football right now.

Boise is overrated, if they were in the SEC they would be average at best.

[SamusChief]

What kinds of amps do you use? Vox, Fender, etc, etc