The Blog of G

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, wait no that’s not right, it was about 20 years ago in pre-Celtic tiger Dublin. Hmm thinking about it maybe I was right to start with. Anyway I digress, back to the story I want to tell you all.

I was young, and with all the things that come from being a teenager who has just finished school and having a dream in my mind that I just knew was mine for the taking I set about a career as a musician, composer, arranger, songwriter and really just all round rock god The next few years were to hold stories of success and failure, of immense joy and deep heartfelt anguish. All the usual stuff a teenager goes through and genuinely believes is unique to them.

My Tenor Sax and EWI

I loved to play, write and arrange music, I enjoyed it immensely and I believed I was really great at it, just the world hadn’t coped on to my genius, eventually I would cop on.

When I did, I ended up in a job I didn’t really want for a while and slowly I drifted away from all my music interests. First I stopped writing and arranging and eventually I stopped playing. I’m really not sure why, I guess I just got caught up in life and decided I had less and less time for it which I’m now discovering was really stupid.

I’m saying this now as I’ve recently started playing again, bizarrely as a result of studying for exams. At some point about two weeks before my exams were due to start, when I was studying, I started to get distracted by thoughts of playing as I got tired from studying. After a day or two of this I gave in dug out my horn and had a blow for about half an hour and then returned to study refreshed like I’d just started.

Even after that first day I suspected that there was something more up with my playing than just a lack of practice and I’ve discovered that my beautiful twenty year old horn is in need of a major overhaul. In the mean time It’s still playable, just not with any other instruments as the tuning is a little wild in places.

It still allows me to practice my scales, arpeggios, long tones and all the other boring stuff that all instrumentalist must practice to play the tunes that everyone loves. Unfortunately this is only a small part of playing and the most fun part, playing tunes as part of an ensemble, be it a real or virtual, is not possible with my baby, until I can afford the overhaul.

My EWI

Hopefully it won’t take too long for me to save the funds to get the work done. Thankfully, I have a solution that will keep the itch scratched in the meantime. A few years back, while considerably flusher than I am now, I invested in an EWI, that’s an Electronic Wind Instrument.

At the time I bought it I practised and played it a fair amount but thanks to a less than simple manual and some difficulty setting it up and familiarising myself with it that didn’t really last long. However in the meantime a number of people have come along and published a number of simple how-to’s on you tube, so I now have it set up to my liking and am getting my playing back in shape reasonably rapidly. Who knows what may come of this.

In the meantime, if you’re an EWI player why not leave a comment below about what style and music you like to play and if you are struggling with an EWI take a look at Saxman999′s channel over on youtube or leave a comment below and maybe I’ll be able to help.

Happy Birthday Angus, 56 years Young (Hee-hee did you see what I did there ) Few musicians can claim to have made the impact on the world that you have. Maybe that’s why so many, from so many different genre’s have covered this one song.

So as a birthday tribute here we have some of my favourite cover versions.

Seriously a hard rock song covered in that many different styles, how can it not be a classic?

But just in case your a purist, you can find the original 1979 AC/DC version here. Just make sure to play it loud.

Here’s to many, many more Angus

The real Kirk and Spock new how to party, will we ever see the likes of them again?

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire… Pork Force

Nuff said

And if this guy is right, then we should just chuck it all in and have one hell of a party, a hundred year party even, makes more sense than a hundred year war

“My Last Porn Film” Not actually porn but a short film by Julian Gough.

Beautiful monologue in an odd sort of way but then Julian always had a way with words. I love the fact that he uses tracks from the band Toasted Heretic for the soundtrack, he was the lead singer, I think it’s time they got a post to themselves on here as well so stay tuned for that.

It may not the best monologue to have playing from your speakers in an office, so you have been warned.

Back in January, I wrote a two posts about a festival myself and Elly were planning on attending at the end of March, The Jam in the Dam and I even admitted that the reason I wanted to go so much was because of one act, Les Claypool, former lead singer and bassist for Primus, without question my favourite band of all time.

Since leaving Primus his music has become more and more interesting (and further from the mainstream) with each album, as he explores the far reaches of his musical influences and his (and his bands) musical abilities.

In the end we only went to one of the three nights. Because of the way the festival is run this meant that we could still take in most of the other acts as well. What a great idea two stages and they change the running order of the bands each night of the concert so if you really want to see all the bands you can catch them all over the three days.

For me, seeing Les was the primary objective of the entire trip and he really didn’t disappoint. While a part of me wishes there had been more classic Primus in the set, it was great to hear the newer material live and it brought the material to life for me in the way that a recording simply can’t. The set followed an almost Jazz like format of theme and variations on almost every track.

The band were astounding in their virtuosity and I cannot find the words to describe the performance other than to say that I have seen many great musicians and Virtuosos play live (Vai, Satriani, Ray Charles, Moving Hearts, Springsteen, Jimmy Cliff, Van Morrison, David Byrne, Stu Hamm, Arlo Guthrie and lots lots more) but Les Claypool and the 3 other members of his band blew me away, taking me on a musical Rollercoaster, I can honestly say, no single band has ever done for me in one concert before.

The closest comparable gig in my memory was the Fleadh Mor in 1993 and even then it takes the full range of bands over two days to equal the journey through a single set.

Apart from the music there was a very cool moment towards the end of the set. A fan simply placed their own Bass on the front of the stage, like an offering to the Gods How he managed to get a Bass into the Gig I don’t know but god loves a trier and on this occasion said fan was rewarded.

Not just having his instrument signed by one of the greatest Bassists of all times, not only having it played by one of the greatest Bassists of all time, but also getting slagged off from the stage because on a cold March evening he managed to get a bass into a hot concert venue and have it (only) slightly out of tune. All in good humour and proving that just because your incredible at something it doesn’t mean you have to be an ass about it, there are a lot of second rate popsters that could learn from Les and not just about music.

As for the rest of the evening, I wanted to see The New Mastersounds and Umphreys Magee, but as Les played first everything that came after was an anticlimax and tiredness set in rather quickly, I can’t help but think that if Les had been playing later, both myself and Elly would have lasted longer.

That said we did catch some of the groove stylings of The New Mastersounds and part of Umphreys Magee’s set and on any other night they would have been great gigs, but on the 22nd march 2010 everyone was outclassed and outperformed by the legendary Les Claypool.

To give you a flavour of the gig here’s some video’s from others that attended…

First up a compilation of some of the performers

And what was (for me) the most memorable track of the gig, Hendershot by Les Claypool, check out the “Surf Cello” in particular. Personally I just love the oddly lurching groove to this track