When I was just starting to play in rock bands and learning how to be a good live musician, I absolutely loved band practice. Hanging out with the guys and learning how to play together as a band was such a great rush. We’d play and talk about music and pig out on junk food. It was great! Over the years though, band practice has become more and more of a burden. It’s not very convenient and once you play live in front of a live audience, practice just doesn’t compare for getting a rush.
The first clip today is a funny scene from The Who’s movie The Kids Are Alright. It’s a bunch of short clips detailing the craziness that followed Keith Moon wherever he went. The man was just a tornado of craziness. The second clip is Steve Martin and Keith Moon doing a comedy sketch about musician ready motel rooms. It’s amazing to watch Keith Moon rip the thing apart for 3 minutes nonstop. He was just a ball of energy.
Every weekend I pick several albums to post on Live Musician Central. The albums I put up are determined by a couple factors. I usually put up a couple that are being heavily promoted by the music industry. These may not be albums that I particularly like but they are albums that are going to be prominent in the public conscience. It’s good for us as musicians to stay current with what’s being promoted by the industry. We can gauge what we’re doing with what is being pushed out there and see how we fit in with the current music scene. It’s also a good source to choose new music for your band to learn and play live or to have on the iPod to play during band breaks. The reasoning here is that you want to play music that people will know and since the albums I post on Live Musician Central are being so heavily promoted, your chances of people knowing the music at your shows is very high.
The rest of the albums that I post are either personal favorites or they are certified classic albums that have sold millions of copies and are familiar to a lot of people. I also like to post a few links to iTunes and a few links to Amazon’s music service. Amazon has DRM free MP3’s that are ripped at 256kbps which is excellent quality at a killer price. So make sure you check them out!
Happy Halloween everyone! I hope that all your Halloween gigs go well this year. Hopefully you’ll get to see some sexy ladies on the dance floor. If you’re not playing a gig, then get out and trick-or-treat and raise some hell with the kiddies. In celebration of Halloween I’m posting up a clip of the classic Halloween song “Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett and The Cryptkickers. It’s an animation done by Gary Ramey and it’s quite well done. I appreciate the fact that the audio quality is so good which is hard to find on YouTube.
There is one piece of equipment that no live sound man should be without and that’s a quality cable tester. In fact, no live musician should go to a gig without having a cable tester in the toolbox. Today I’m going to tell you about the Behringer CT100 Cable Tester. It’s one of the most affordable and most versatile cable testers I have ever found.
The Behringer Cable Tester is controlled by a microprocessor that intelligently checks cables in several different ways. (more…)
Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame as well as the supergoup Asia is one of my favorite rock drummers. He is a highly skilled live musician. He has a light touch and he’s amazingly accurate and fast. Carl was hailed as the rock-n-roll equivalent of jazz great Buddy Rich. I personally like to watch Carl Palmer using the classic jazz grip on the sticks. You don’t see it a lot with rock drummers. Another thing I really enjoy is Carls sense of showmanship. He knows how to put on a good show while playing the drumset. He is truly a great example of a good mix of musicianship and great stagecraft.
Yes here it is, the original and still the best wah-wah pedal on the market. The Dunlop Crybabay Wah-Wah pedal. This pedal is the highest selling guitar pedal of all time and for good reason. It’s been used by some of the greatest artists in Rock-N-Roll history. Here’s a short list of artists who have used the original Dunlop Crybaby Wah-Wah pedal.
I’m always looking for song selection ideas for my band In Stereo. One of the greatest challenges musicians face when playing live music is playing music that the audience knows and wants to hear. One resource I like to use is industry magazines. Rolling Stone magazine has been covering the music scene since 1967 and I believe it has some authority in the music industry. Rolling Stone Magazine has released several articles with compiled lists of the greatest songs of all time. Today I’d like to point you to their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time.
Now I don’t have anything against larger women. In fact, I quite enjoy them. That’s why I’m posting up Steel Panther’s song and video tribute to the larger woman. The song is called “Fat Girl (Thar She Blows)” and I’m sure you’ll find some pretty funny stuff in it.
Every weekend I pick several albums to post on Live Musician Central. The albums I put up are determined by a couple factors. I usually put up a couple that are being heavily promoted by the music industry. These may not be albums that I particularly like but they are albums that are going to be prominent in the public conscience. It’s good for us as musicians to stay current with what’s being promoted by the industry. We can gauge what we’re doing with what is being pushed out there and see how we fit in with the current music scene. It’s also a good source to choose new music for your band to learn and play live or to have on the iPod to play during band breaks. The reasoning here is that you want to play music that people will know and since the albums I post on Live Musician Central are being so heavily promoted, your chances of people knowing the music at your shows is very high.
The rest of the albums that I post are either personal favorites or they are certified classic albums that have sold millions of copies and are familiar to a lot of people. I also like to post a few links to iTunes and a few links to Amazon’s music service. Amazon has DRM free MP3’s that are ripped at 256kbps which is excellent quality at a killer price. So make sure you check them out! The new Labelle album is surprisingly good. It’s comprised of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash.
