Rain

This is so going on the playlist! Thanks.

This is a little off-topic but, brother... I just cannot stand the sound modern vocals. Even putting aside the whole vocal tuning debate and regardless of how talented the singer is. Two seconds and I feel like yelling "get off me". Generally speaking, there's just no room for the listener in modern music. But I'm an old geezer.

I've been listening to that song for decades, in every possible states of mind. Rational, emotional, spiritual, sober, drunk, drunk AF, high on all kinds of illicit substances - weed, hallucinogenics, nose candy, you name it... I've listened to people analyzing it from every possible angle. And there's always another angle, another truth... Every time I come back to it, I hear it differently. G-d only knows - it's right there in the title...

Thank you, brother. I appreciate more than you could imagine.

And then there's the good old trick of turning the microphone to the crowd for the tough parts. Mostly, I'm not much of a fan of live music because in many cases, it's not about music, but the experience. For starters, it's way too loud to be intelligible. And then there's people and all the idiots with their cell phones... I feel that the senses are overwhelmed by everything that's going on so it's quite hard to appreciate the music. Which might seem ironic, coming from a KISS fan. But that's actually the point I guess. I finally saw KISS in 2014 during their residency. I love their music, regardless of the image and the gimmicks. But I went to the show for the experience, precisely to have my senses overwhelmed. Paul's voice had been busted for years, and even on their last studio albums, it's difficult for me not to cringe when I hear him. But when I was in the pit in front of the stage that night, I couldn't have cared less. I was 8 again, and I had the judgement of an 8 year old, so they got away with it. As a matter of fact, Simmons was solid, and Eric and Tommy played like the pros they are - regardless of whether we think they should or shouldn't be there. Now, when I watched the blu-ray and listened to the CD, that was a whole other story. I was there when some of those songs were recorded, and Paul's songs - reworked as they may be in the studio - are difficult to get through. And that's being generous. So in a sense I guess I understand why people buy tickets to see those old-timers. It isn't really about the music. Especially not nowadays. I feel that a lot of people spend more time filming themselves "having fun" at the show and posting about it on social media than actually watching the show. Me I think I'm done. Especially when I see the prices they are charging these days... I was 14 when I saw Metallica and Metal Church for $11 on the Puppets tour, the equivalent of a little less than 3 hrs work at min. wage. And I was right there in front of the stage, maybe 40-50 ft away from Hetfield. I even managed to find one of his picks and one of Jasons's after the show. No other band will ever be as important to me as Metallica was back then. I worshiped those guys. So the idea of spending the equivalent of 2 or 3 grocery bills to watch a bunch of old geezers on a giant screen from the nosebleed and to have to deal with all the human interaction, meh... Regardless of the singer's abilities. Best of cases, I'll wait for the bluray.

Might as well plug it... Theme song for my cat the genius, something I put together quickly before a session a few years ago. I keep trying to fix it - there's something that sounds off when it goes from A# to C. I do not know what it is, on paper everything is in tune, but something just doesn't quite work - something's flat. I'll figure it out someday I guess. It's just a mock up bit anyway.

Mine was a total pest when she was a kitten but she became the sweetest, easiest to live with. She knows what's off limit - I only need tell her once and we're good. She's 12 now, and we're like an old couple. We have our routine. I think she's a genius. I mean, look at those eyes... It's obvious that she is the brains of this operation.

To me, Beethoven's Late Strings Quartets are one of mankind's highest achievements. The Brentano String Quartet recorded them on 3 CDs, and those are my personal favorite recordings - probably the best that I know of (I'm not a connoisseur by any stretch). No 12 is the very first I heard.

That kick drum, brother... I've been listening to older blues records recently, and plenty of old rock music too, and one thing that struck me is how things are often a little out of tune (sometimes a lot, actually), but somehow, it just works and creates something that's a little more vibrant. I'd never really noticed in this song but hearing the isolated tracks, the fluctuations are all over the place - and it's gorgeous. Even though I am usually a stickler for tuning and intonation in general.

Googled and quickly found a link to the full album on Bandcamp. I won't post the link because I would hate for Lars Ulrich to knock on my door for encouraging illegal downloads. 🤣 I'll have a listen later in the studio. I assume that DM has some flaws sonically even in its unmastered form, but this should at least be a little less of a pain to listen to.

Agreed. It's very frustrating because I like the songs, but I just can't handle the earache. But that riff from That Was Just Your Life - it's my go-to when I want to punish my right forearm. It's super hard to play that run clean, especially the last 3 notes. Even the almighty Hetfield himself struggles with it in the making of, so I don't feel too bad about it. I heard about a version floating around that wasn't as over-compressed - from Guitar Hero or something. I should look for it some time.

I just put on the freshly remastered version of Metallica's Load. Regardless of one's opinion about the band and the material, I was shocked when I A-B'd it and found out that it was significantly quieter than the regular version (I dare not say original because I'm sure that the original 1996 master has been tempered with multiple times since). I didn't actually measure, but the difference is quite obvious and this quick screenshot of the meter is clear. Regular version: 2025 Remaster: My experience with remasters has been mostly negative - usually it means they've cranked up the lows and the highs and made everything as loud as possible. This is one of the very rare cases where I think the remaster does sound better. I heard stuff I'd never heard before - one of Jason's bass fill during the last break before the finale for exemple, it really popped out of the speakers, and completely surprised me. I really wish this is the beginning of a new trend.

There comes a time in every party, usually around the 13th beer or the bottom of the 2nd bottle of wine, when I pull out a copy of Pet Sounds and repeatedly treat my guests to God Only Knows, the natural consequence of which is the subsequent hunt for isolated vocal tracks on YouTube...

https://www.stereogum.com/2311466/nitzer-ebb-frontman-douglas-mccarthy-dead-at-58/news/ Today's not a good day...

Test - I can't seem to post. EDIT - Ok, this works here. This site has gone berserk for the last couple of days.

That's awful, man. I'm sorry for you. I don't eat bacon, but no beef and no dairy products either - yikes... Being Vegan voluntarily sounds awful enough, but being forced to? You don't even get to brag and act like you're better than everyone - which is apparently the only outlet for the frustration of being stuck eating grass. Hopefully, you will recover.

I remember seeing her on TV often and hearing her on AM radio when I was growing up in Quebec. She was quite popular and well respected as an artist. Amusingly, I've had that song stuck in my head for the last two weeks because I happened to watch the 66 Batman movie, and the song is performed by Julie Gregg during a scene. I am forever partial to Julie Newmar as Catwoman but Lee Meriwether was easy on the eyes in that dress...

🤣 This is the last bit of cash I have ever touched. It's all that's left from the sale of my Marshall stack in early 2020 when the rough times hit. It's in a hockey puck display case and it's one of the very few trinkets that's always on display in my studio (puck side of course). I am not sure what it symbolizes, but I know it's important. Honestly, I never liked carrying money. I remember getting into a discussion with the owner of a bar where I used to party in the early 2000's because of the fees he incurred. I told him that using the card was the best method I had of tracking myself the next day, to see how much I had drunk and where I had gone. With the quantities I absorbed and the generous tips I left, it wasn't long before the waitresses convinced him to leave me alone. 🤣

Good observation, indeed. I was thinking about cell phones too when I replied, but it was somewhat the opposite. In my line of work for example, I often see people who leave their home with only their cell phone because they have an app for everything - to unlock the door, to start their car, to make payments, etc. Of course, if I hear from them, it's because the software failed for one reason or another. Same with people who think they "should be ok" to make it to their destination on what's left in the tank... Me, even if I have an app to unlock the door, I always take a key with me, and the garage door opener, just in case. Likewise, although I can use my phone to pay, I always carry at least one debit and one credit card with me - and I'll always check my bank account just before leaving, even when I know there's plenty of $ in there. And that's just going to the grocery, a few minutes from here. You should see what travelling out of town looks like... Almost like luggage + backup luggage. I even carry a spare cell phone... 🤣

That part about the one way rental really got to me. The crazy stupid things that you do when you're young, the chances that you take... Nowadays, I have contingency plans for my contingency plans and back ups for everything before I leave the house even if it's just to do groceries.

I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for the reminder. I'll have to watch them again. Manfredini (Friday the 13th) composed the music for at least those first 2, maybe more.

Such a sad news to wake up to tonight... I never got to watch Cheers until 2020 but when I finally did, I immediately understood why the show was so beloved. Farewell, George Wendt. And thanks for all the laughs.

This one... The Fragile, by Nine Inch Nails. It came out at a time when I was transitioning from guitar oriented, hard tock music and starting to experiment with synths and samplers. The album itself was a huge inspiration. Sonically, it covered such a broad palette - from extraordinarily delicate acoustic sounds to harsh electronic noises. Just like the Mr. Bungle album, it gave me a sense of freedom. But the influence was made even deeper when I happened to buy an issue of Keyboard magazine detailing how the album was created, how Reznor rented this old funeral home in New Orleans where he and the guys who worked on the album each had their room with a DAW, with the main studio downstairs and a server so that while one guy was recording their part in the studio, another guy might be in their room experimenting and then uploading the resulting audio on the server. Reznor also hired a guy to build a huge library of long, evolving sounds that he could further mangle. The whole process seemed absolutely fascinating. And the fact that they were using Logic as a front for the Pro Tools hardware didn't hurt. Also, who wouldn't want to live in an old funeral home, right? 🤣