Ultrasound and the art of the jam

There are few people in this world that understand me and the way i tick. Usually only these people understand my workings:

1) fellow virgo's
2) family
3) those from foreign lands

Bobby is 2 out of 3.

i woke up this morning with this feeling of caffeine withdrawal so i needed a wee jolt of that coffee goddess' breast milk in order to function properly as this weekend has been a declaration of sorts to laziness. bobby popped up on IM and I asked him to join me for Green Mountain Rain Forest coffee (i bought 4 pounds of it when i was upstate!). Bobby wanted to hit a rehearsal studio and jam for a little since we both have been working so damn hard lately and with MM on hiatus since my main homey Dino's been crazy busy I was itching to play again.


we headed into the city and were discussing the sorry state of music these days which leads me to this diatribe on what sucks in music these days. Payola is where a bands management pays a radio director money to play certain music. this is why the bland is big and the talented are shunned (i.e. Hammers of Misfortune, Refused, and Candiria) Bobby surmised that the industry is a cess pool and the ways of commerce and creativity never should those two meet. we arrived at Ultrasound and i rented an amazing Les Paul guitar (see above) those of you who know me who i can spend a whole blog telling you why i hate the Les Paul but i was hearing a certain sound in my head that only the Paul could provide and (nonmusician readers please excuse the rant) fortunately Ultrasound had an amazing one for rental. i plugged into a Matchless amp and did the usual POP tweak Bass 6 mid 6 treb 8 presence 3 Gain- cranked. the sound was gorgeous and helped to inspire some riffage with my cousin who is just ungodly at coming up with drum lines that accentuate ideas I or anyone he plays with can come up with. we started with a zepplinesque thing that we used to warm up. most of what i thought up was rhythmic pieces that had stops and little pauses and bobby suggested certain ways to arrange what we dreamt up that worked and i had thoughts as well. we hadnt jammed together since skunqpussy (almost 3 years ago) and we gelled very easily as we have similar influences and ideas. bobby has a different count off style than Akil, typically with Ak its 1,2,3,4 then into song, with bobby its 1,2,3,4, drum hit then into song. it was interesting noting how different count offs are and the way rhythm and keeping the beat are different for each drummer. bobby complimented me on my timing which i think playing with MM definitely helped me with as everyone in MM is great and pushed me to develop my playing a bit. I always have ideas in my head of riffs and things that i want to do but earlier i lacked confidence in my playing enough to even attempt them. the medium of playing music live, the jam, and recording is a bug that i will not lose my entire life it is a part of me and i dont feel right if im not playing.

we played well today and had a blast just writing ideas and i think that maybe we got back to the roots of playing not for commerce, not for self indulgence, not for ego, but for fun.

be great.... duplicate
POP