Rain

Like a lot of people these days, I am aware that AI can potentially replace people like myself at work, but sometimes, I wonder how AI will deal with the unfathomable stupidity of a lot of the user questions I answer on a daily basis. How does Artificial Intelligence cope with Genuine Stupidity? There are many cases where you really need to think creatively and do some extraordinary mental gymnastic in order to be able to even read and then understand what it is that those poor souls are trying to express. I'm not talking about typos here, but crippling inability to express oneself in written form (accompanied by an equally severe inability to think or understand simple questions). In other words, you need to be able to think like a complete moron. I have seen some desperate cases where I thought of asking a user to wait a little while I went downstairs in the garage, banged my head on the concrete floor a few times, and sniffed some paint thinner - just to try and level the playing in field a little. I bet you AI can't do that, eh? Who's the intelligent one now? Maybe stupidity is our last best hope. And it seems to be infinitely renewable, so, there's that. Rejoice in thy dumbness I say, rejoice, for the kingdom is at hand.

Deep Purple's Getting Tighter - 2010 remaster vs original. They killed the groove - and that groove was what the song was all about. I watch a lot of music related content on YouTube these days, so of course I get the targeted ads. And essentially, what they are advertising are products and libraries designed to get that sound you're familiar with - and that will make you sound just like everyone else. I cringe every time one of those ads start and I hear those libraries. Back in the days, I read about the making of Nine Inch Nails The Fragile in Keyboard magazine. Trent Reznor had hired a guy (Keith Hillerbrand from memory) to create a huge library of weird, unique sounds for him to use, just for that album. To me, the making of that record always represented everything that was fantastic about DAWs and working with computers. But there are also a lot of opportunities to remove almost every variable from the equation, thereby compromising the chances of creating something original. And it seems that a lot of people aren't making music for the love of art, so they're quite content to just assemble songs. It's their take on the same basic idea. If you spend 5 minutes on social media, it's quite obvious that most people only want to have their turn in the spotlight doing the same thing as everyone else. I remember recording demos with nothing but my guitars, a little Marshall transistor combo, an Akai XR10, a tube distortion, a wah pedal, and a Boss flanger. And the delay on my Sony reel machine. A lot of the things I had in mind like mellotron parts, a Hammond, or horns were simply impossible, so I would have to create something that had vaguely similar sonic qualities using what I had. In many ways, it often made the songs more interesting. It's something I try not to let go of, even now that I have access to all those instrument libraries.

I am watching it right now and came to see if the link had been posted. What an amazing musician he is! I personally think that he stands in a class of his own. IMHO he's the most versatile of that generation of shredders. You can feel his genuine love for simpler idioms, like blues. He’s not holding back anything, he is giving his all to that simpler form. He has that authenticity and that respect for the genre, and even if he has mad skills, he’s not using it as a platform to glorify Paul Gilbert - instead he becomes a blues guitarist. And that goes for everything he plays. Becoming ego-less is probably the toughest skill a musician can acquire - it’s possibly even tougher when you’re blessed with so much talent. Much respect to Gilbert.

Cool song. I like how "real" it sounds - like an actual performance, not something that's put together from the ground up bit by bit. Nice.

We all know what the most important part of that song is and on which instrument it was played, don't we?

Thank you guys! I really appreciate. I guess it's worth finishing the full length thing (and that's also a great excuse to shop for a new mic).

Saw an ad for Scorpions’ residency in Vegas and it prompted me to dig up this thing. A snippet of an early demo of a cover of Scorpions’ Still Loving You for my Post Mortem Spasms project. I call it Still Loving You (in the graveyard). The arrangement popped in my head one night at work and I decided to put a demo together between calls. I recorded this basic vocal track a few weeks later, thinking that it would serve as a guideline for the singer who'd agreed to sing it. But when she heard the demo, she said I had to sing it myself. I hate my voice, my stupid accent, and I can’t sing, but who am I to argue with an actual singer? And I think something inside me agrees. I have to do this one by myself. Plus, she promised to coach me, so I agreed. I am all about learning. I used my old, cheap, beat up AKG hanging from the ceiling fan to record the vocals, with the AC on and all, did 3 takes, and moved on. There was no click, no nothing so the vocal comes in a little rushed and there are a lot of things I need to work on (I’m also not sure why the line “all the way from the starT” sounds like “all the way from the starS”. But it’s only a first draft. I must re-record it before the old iMac downstairs die because that’s the only computer that has all the libraries that no longer work on newer computer, including my beloved Cakewalk Dimension Pro piano. I think the harpsichord is the old Miroslav overdubbed with the Dimension one to add a bit of low end.

I love Songs of Innocence - one of my favorite rock albums of the last 10-15 years and the first U2 album I cared to listened to since Pop in the 90's. I know a lot of people like my then-wife who were really pissed off to see it listed in their library. I must admit that I would have reacted the same if I saw a Rihanna album appear in my purchases even if I didn't have to download it. All seems so strange retrospectively.

Bapoo?

Fantastic job as always mate! Thanks for sharing.

Makes sense, too.

And possibly given this thread a spin that will land it in the forbidden zone. 😁

You've made this guy jealous...

I guess I grew more tolerant with the passage of time, as most of these I don't really mind that much. On the other hand, maybe it's because I don't like musicians all that much (as people) - even those whom I genuinely admire. I suppose I've learned to tune them out, so when Gene Simmons or Bono say or do something stupid, I just roll my eyes and move on. The 3 exceptions would be the first one whose name I refuse to even type, Madonna, and Morrissey. I think I hate Morrissey the most because he's the one I'm constantly exposed to. Roger Waters would rank very near if not at the very top of my personal list. Can't stand that bloody antisemite. I'd sooner listen to Bono babble about politics for hours than having to endure a single minute of Waters' ravings. Lars Ulrich. I've always felt that the snare sound on St. Anger was the most accurate musical representation of all that Lars Ulrich is - obnoxious, loud, always in your face begging for attention. Makes you want to give him a proper tuning.

I first checked out Pet Sounds because McCartney himself mentioned that it was an inspiration. I thought there were a few brilliant songs like Wouldn't It Be Nice and God Only Knows but other than the fact that both made abundant use of instruments that weren't typically associated with rock and roll, I don't think they have that much in common.

Well, I'm apparently not that HUGE of a fan. lol I guess I have all the music they officially released, and then some. But I've learned pretty much all those songs on the guitar. That's when I started moving away form playing only root/5ths heavy metal sort of things and learned chords and stuff. I remember using this book which had über simplified arrangements for the guitar as a starting point. As simple as it was, it helped me understand how music works a little better, and that was good place to start from. Of course, I eventually learned to play those songs properly.

I remember seeing Metallica, Metal Church and Sword (Canadian band) for $11 in 1986. Got the t-shirt for $25, and a burger, cola and fries for dinner at A&W for probably $6 or $7. That was on the Master of Puppets tour, so they weren't that big yet, but still... Bigger bands that I liked with more extravagant productions like Iron Maiden charged $15 - $18. Even if you were a kid working a minimum wage part-time job on weekends, attending shows was possible. Personally I can't imagine spending more than $50 to see a band. I think that was roughly the price to see Accept at Vamp'd here in Vegas, the last show I considered attending, early last year. It's a small venue, with a capacity of 280, and I've played there a few of times myself. I would have enjoyed that kind of intimate show a whole lot more than a big arena rock show. John 5 is playing there in a few weeks. $25 on pre-sale, $30 at the door. Paying hundreds of dollars to watch displays behind the stage because you're too far to see anything makes no sense to me. If I'm to stare at a screen, I'd rather buy the blu-ray. But that's just me.

11 out of 12. Didn't recognize Now and Then, but I heard it only a couple of times. 1 or 2 of them were a little trickier but most I recognized instantly. That being said, I play guitar and I'm a HUGE fan, so that helps.

I have 4 editions/translations of that one. The Nietzsche collection is the only part of my library that I brought with me when we moved down here. I usually take good care of my books but a few of them like this one have followed me everywhere for over 30 years, so they're in a very bad shape. It's great to be able to get inexpensive new copies from Amazon.

I'd never listened to these until last year, and I thought they were pretty decent overall - some of them actually very good. I'll always be more of a fan of the Bon Scott era, but it's hard to resist Back in Black and some of those Johnson era songs. Even some songs on Flick of the Switch I thought were great. Stuff like Rising Power - fricking great song if you ask me.

I'm a huge KISS fan, and I love all those old records, but I'm not sure how one would go about determining any significant difference between his style from album to album, or decade to decade. By comparison, you listen to Glen Tipton's solo on Victim of Changes and to what he played on Painkiller 14 years later - now that is a rather drastic change. I bought Anomaly (2009), which I thought wasn't bad, and then the following one (Space Invaders) - even ordered the CD - but that time I just couldn't get past all the compression and the limiting and I figured that I have enough Ace's music to listen to in my library without putting myself through that kind of torture. I still like to rock the old t-shirt on occasion and show my support, though.

I'm a nap-a-holic. I work from home and I have a one hour lunch break. For the first 18 months, I used to spend 20-30 minutes downstairs in the home gym and then have lunch. But then I injured my back and I started napping instead. I've been trying to get back to the old routine but I'm addicted to that power nap now. It's a struggle to get back on track but I am trying very hard this year. I also take another short one (10 minutes) after dinner, before hitting the gym. And I'll occasionally squeeze another 10 minute nap before the Japanese lesson. I'm glad I am able to take short naps. Some people aren't that lucky. Many of my ex gf's would take a nap with me and end up sleeping 2, 3 hours, and wake up all tired and confused.

To me, in rock, the list always boils down to two names: Bonham and Peart. And I cannot really choose between them. If the list extends any further, then it's all debatable. Starr, Watts, Paice are among the first names to come to mind obviously. Phil Collins, too, although maybe not for this top 5 list. I'm not a fan but I do get that Moon would be on the list - on the other hand, Phil Rudd of AC/DC would be on my list, which only testifies to personal preferences. Not sure I'd put him on the top 5 list, but still...

Wow. That stinks, Craig. Makes me glad that I mostly use Amazon for books and blu-rays, and stuff like tea and cat food. I used to watch a lot of movies on Prime but it seems that almost everything requires a subscription to this or that now, and I received an email recently stating that there would now be ads during Prime movies. For movies, imho, it's no longer worth it but I order enough stuff from them to make them membership worth it. Interestingly enough, and on a more positive note, I found out a while a few years ago that they also print certain books on demand. I was looking for a French translation of a book by Nietzsche (mine was falling part) and I received it unexpectedly soon after I passed the order. I've received a few of those since, usually the day after I order because they get printed almost immediately after I order them. Like this one ordered June 15th.