"Mark Christensen's lead guitar conveys real danger." – All About Jazz
Fell asleep last night with my 5.1 headphones on listening to the surround mix of Bowie’s Reality (one of my favorites of the recent batch of his albums). Stirred long enough to take them off and switch off the player, then sleep took me.
The alarm clock went off with a familiar voice from NPR News saying 4 words that immediately shocked me awake: “David Bowie has died.”
A day of disbelief and sadness but also an invitation to assess David Bowie and his influence on me.
Some other day soon.
The pre-ordered new Bowie disc appeared Friday but I didn’t have a chance to give it a spin until today. Listened to it once on the way to rehearsal and then once on the way home, then one more time as I ran other errands.
With the exception of a couple days of feeble attempts at playing in the studio a few weeks ago I haven
Knocking the dust off and trying to get back to it. I know, it’s been a while.
This is the annual “I’m leaving for South by Southwest so I’d better make sure my web info is current” post.
And we’re back.
Here we have an example of the technological excess that I rely on to make the noise I make. This is my Radio Underground/general rock pedalboard. Yes, it’s heavy and a pain to load in. Yes, it is worth it.
The signal path goes along as such:
guitar input -> Line 6 M5 with expression pedal for whammy and wah presets -> MXR Dynacomp -> Ernie Ball volume pedal – Korg Pitchblack tuner -> B.C. Rich programable swithcher (that swithches between my preamp and distortion/fuzz sounds: a DOD EQ, an early ’80s Ibanez TS9, a Sovtek Big Muff and an Electro Harmonix Tube Zipper) -> ART Tube preamp -> Electro Harmonix Freeze -> Line 6 M9 for delays/modulation/basic looping -> off to the amps!
RU did Das Bierhaus in Burlington last Saturday nite.
Summer has ended and I’m trying to organize/prioritize/categorize my projects. Currently at hand are the following: Stick practice (ongoing), NST practice/repertoire (ongoing) – in anticipation of next Spring’s Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists Northeast USA appearances, mixing the live Radio Underground EP, rehearsing for some forthcoming RU shows, demoing for the next Ghost Ghost recording, exploring booking opportunities for both RU and solo gigs, knocking the dust off of the Pantet repertoire and restarting that behemoth.
Here‘s a tidbit from The Boston Globe that does a pretty good job describing the Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists.