Real Groovy Relapse!

I was doing so well. Since moving cities around 13 weeks ago I had only bought 2 CDs for myself: Zao's Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest for $5 from Cash Convertors and U2's No Line on the Horizon for around $23 new from JB Hi Fi. The Zao album was a find I was particularly pleased with as I have owned it on tape for about 9 years and I have been trying to track it down on CD for around 7 and a 1/2 of those.

In the last 2 years before moving I probably averaged one every week or so, so cutting that down to 2 in around 13 weeks was quite a good effort, although was partially due to the lack of a Real Groovy in the city I'm now living.

I was in Auckland for a couple of nights last weekend, in which I managed to get to Real Groovy twice.
The first visit I managed to acquire for myself:

October - U2 (Which I have never listened to much)
War - U2 (which I own on vinyl, but don't have a player for)
The Unforgettable Fire - U2 (like October, I don't know much of this album except for the singles)
Paranoia - The Chase (Auckland Hardcore band)
Throwing Myself - Luti Kriss (the metalcore band that later changed their name to Norma Jean, not the rapper)

The Second visit I managed to Obtain:
Love, Liberty, Disco - Newsboys (who I'm starting to appreciate again since andrew pointed out how tasty their guitar tone often is.)
Where Meagre Die of Self Interest - 90 lb Wuss (late 90s christian chaotic, abrasive punk - at least that's the impression I got from the one song of theirs I had on a compilation)

All of these CDs were only 4 bucks each -so that's $28 - which is no more than some new releases, Which isn't too bad really is it?

Strain Three: The Dutch Hoarder Approach

This strain of gear acquisition syndrome is characterised by buying the cheapest equipment available that will fulfill a particular function. Over time, unlike the artist whose GAS constantly improves their gear, the dutch hoarder will instead expand their collection to include other cheap gear for different functions.
The acquisition process goes something like this.
- Want an electric guitar — buy a cheap package deal with a practice amp.
- Want a tube amp that could be giggable — acquire one cheaply off a friend who is going overseas.
- Want a guitar with humbuckers — acquire one cheaply off a friend who doesn't play much anymore.
- Want a bass — acquire one cheaply off an auction site, that can be used, but has "character."
- Want a steel string acoustic — buy one at a second hand shop.
- Want a small tube amp for miking at church — buy a cheap one.
- Want a bass amp — scour auction sites until a good deal is found.
Like the previous strain, this is further complicated by effects pedals, however in this case these are mostly acquired by gathering unreliable or odd ones that have been cast off by friends who no longer need them.

Amplification symptoms — multiple amps, all acquired relatively cheaply, but with different functions and problems.
Example of someone who suffers from this strain: Me

Strain Two: The Artist in pursuit of "their" tone

(Perhaps their "Platonic ideal" :) )

This strain of Gear Acquisition Syndrome is characterised by periodic replacement of equipment with something better or more "interesting".

The purchasing process goes something like this:
- Borrow a guitar.
- Buy a medium size combo.
Use them for a while.
- Buy own guitar.
Use it for a while.
- Buy an interesting head and cab.
Use them for a while, and dispose of the old combo.
- Buy a different more interesting guitar.
Use that instead of the old one for a while.
- Buy a different, more interesting head.
Use that and sell the old one
- Make own more interesting cab
This itself is an oversimplification, as there are also effects that come into play, normally progressing by periodic addition and replacement from standard pedals to boutique overdrives and modulations.
Each part is not the most expensive available at the time, and budgetary constraints are considered, but over time the sufferer of this strain of GAS builds up an interesting and unique, but useful signal chain.

Amplification symptoms present as a cab and head, so both can be replaced / upgraded separately. Less versatility in their gear than the engineer, but a more interesting and unique tone.
Example of someone who suffers from this strain : My friend Andrew

Strain One : The Engineers Approach

This strain is characterised by (over?)engineering the solution to each particular music gear function a GAS suffer decides they need— often by buying the best equipment you know of for a particular application.

The purchasing decision process goes something like this:
- Decide to purchase a piece of equipment (eg an amp or a twelve string acoustic).
- Determine a budget.
- Do some research and sample various makes and models within the budget.
- For comparative research sample one of the most expensive models available to see what the difference is between that and the models within budget.
- Ignore/ increase the budget and get the expensive one instead it.

Amplification symptoms present as a preference for expensive amplification that has a considerable level of versatility. Like an engineering model, The parameters are dialed in to achieve various tones based on the intended application.*

An example of someone suffering from this strain is my younger brother.

* Note — this is not the same as using cheap digital modelling gear. Versatility is important, but having the "right" gear is more so. This versatility refers to a multi channel tube amp, with separate gain, master and eq controls for each channel, not a myriad of digital effects that sound artificial.

Strains of GAS

With all the talk about the flu strains such as H1N1, I thought I might pose some thoughts on strains of an affliction that mostly affects guitarists...

"Gear Acquisition Syndrome"

Now you may think guitar geeks are all the same, and those who like acquiring gear only differ in how long they've been collecting and how much they've spent — However I contend that there are at least three strains of GAS, and will introduce you to these. All three are forms of the same condition — the overwhelming urge to purchase or acquire guitar /music gear, but the symptoms present somewhat differently in each case:

The engineer, the artist and the dutch hoarder.

Over the next few posts I will introduce you to these— outlining some of the acquisition process and example symptoms with regard to amplification for each strain.

My music buying habit could get (more) expensive this year

So it seems almost all of my favourite bands have conspired together to all release new albums this year:

New albums, named and about to be released, sample tracks on myspace:
mewithoutYou - it's all crazy ! it's all false ! it's all a dream ! it's alright
Emery - In shallow seas we sail
As Cites Burn - Hell or high water

Currently recording and you can follow their progress on social networking sites:
Project 86 (twitter)
Switchfoot (twitter)
Thrice (twitter)
Fair (twitter)
Grammatrain (facebook)

rumors of EPs
Stavesacre and Starflyer 59

Oh well, at least now I've moved further away from Real Groovy my habit of buying older albums for reasonably cheap has subsided somewhat.

Direct vs Loudness

I've made a discovery. It kind of happened through messing with the settings on the stereo when listening to the new U2 album. The discovery is listening to CDs without the stereo's "loudness" feature turned on.

It comes in many names— loudness, loud boost, bass boost, or some weird indecipherable acronym—and was until recently my default setting for listening to music. I think as music listeners we are often blown away by the extra oomph that we hear as soon as we switch it on, that we are reluctant to switch it off. With small speakers or at low volumes it might be worthwhile, but with a decent stereo, I have discovered that simply turning the music up a little bit provides a more overall satisfying listening experience. Consulting the manual for my amplifer, what it does in my unit is a 9db boost around two frequencies, one low and one high.* This makes the drums and bass and some vocals punch through at a higher volume for the same volume setting. It sounds immediately more exciting, but it also means the mid range is not as audible as if it had been amplified evenly across the frequencies. This meant when listening to the new u2 album, larry and adam cranked, the vocals were ok, but edge was lost. As a guitar geek this I couldn't abide this for long. After mucking around with eq for a while, I found it sounded best for me on the "direct" setting. No bass boost, no eq, no advanced surround effects— just the signal from the CD player, being amplified, and going to the speakers (also helped by improving speaker placement).

Since discovering that with that album, I have gone back to a few others, and thoroughly enjoyed the listening experience including:
I am the Portuguese Blues - Starflyer 59. I'd always kind of enjoyed this, but this time I was just blown away by the guitar tones.
The Crucified - by The Crucified. I've never been able to get into this album much before, but really enjoyed it this time and heard a lot more in it that I had never noticed on previous listens.
Songs to Burn Your Bridges By - by Project 86. I'm not sure whether it was the amp settings, going back to the original indie release, or both, but I enjoyed this much more than I have previously enjoyed the tooth and nail re-release.

*consulting wikipedia - the reason that one would want to boost the highs and lows at a low volume setting is that our ears are less sensitive to these frequencies, and they may fall below a threshold we can hear easily before the mids. This is not necessary at moderate volumes. At loud volumes you are just giving yourself hearing loss anyway - so why bother?

Albums that actually changed my life:

eh Steve tagged me in a facebook thing and I decided to blog it here instead. The meme said to come up with 25 of "the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world. "
Rather than listing 25 of my favourite albums, I thought I would identify a handful that actually changed me, and explain how:

So here goes - in approximately chronological order

The Lads- Arbour Day
The first CD I owned, I got it as soon as it came out as I liked their cassette tape "People I Regularly Associate" because of the silly voiced story that went on between the songs. I remember singing many of its songs to myself in my part time job watering someone's garden while they were overseas one summer.

MIC - Superhuman
I went Parachute 98 being a bit of a fan of the lads, but not overly obsessed with music. I came home and got the title song of this album stuck in my head from it being on the Parachute 98 sampler CD. A couple of weeks later I bought the album, and started spending too much time looking at CDs in Christian bookshops— A trait I still exhibit today.

Bride - The Jesus Experience
The first "Heavy" album I owned— and the first album I played air guitar to. Also, great for getting weird looks from European tourists as they walk past while you eat lunch in the middle of the Abel Tasman National Park listening to it on battery powered computer speakers plugged into a walkman.

Project 86 - Project 86
The first good "Heavy" Album I owned on CD. Until I heard this I didn't realise music, Christian or Otherwise could be this Dark/ Loud/ Angry/ Heavy /Brooding/ Powerful and generally awesome. Also talking about how much we liked this and their next album is how I got to know one of my best friends.

Grammatrain - Lonely House
Hearing about how good these guys were from a mate at school (not a Christian) who was mostly into Metallica and Korn is what started off my search for Christian music that was as heavy or heavier than mainstream bands. I started learning to play guitar from my mate Jeremy teaching me bits of songs from this album. I've bought it on tape about 3 times and also eventually acquired it on CD.

Veggietales - Veggietunes
Where the others have mostly only affected the development of my musical tastes and how that is played out in my personality - this album had a massive impact on my life outside of just music obsession. After moving to go to Uni, I'd set a song from this as my answerphone message on my phone in the hostel. The first conversation I ever had with my now wife included sharing our mutual love for silly singing vegetables, and me telling her to call and check it out - She did, left a message, we got to know each other and about 4 years later we got married.

Dead Poetic- New Medicines
This album is the album that broke me into screamo, and then through that into metal/ metalcore with "extreme" vocals. Heh, and I've just realised that as I'm typing this, I'm wearing a t shirt based on the album cover. An honorable mention could also go out to Further Seems Forever's The Moon is Down for making me like emo (without the screaming) at about the same time.

Chances are, being an extroverted music fan/geek, if I know you, I would be interested in hearing about albums that changed your life too. You could leave a comment, post some thoughts on your own blog or facebook or we could chat about it in real life sometime- preferably with coffee. mmmm coffee.

Saponification : Resurrection

For those of you that have been there since the beginning, you will remember that this started when I was a student mainly to share music news I found interesting and to update people on when Disarm gigs were.

I then got a job, Disarm disbanded so have only sporadically updated now and then.

Well I'm a student again, which means I may blog more, or this could be an isolated sporadic post -you never know - but there have been a few noteworthy developments in the past month or so I'd like to mention.

Grammatrain, my first all time favourite band is reuniting to record a new album and play a couple of shows! more info on Facebook and myspace

Michael Tait from DC Talk is joining the Newsboys and taking over singing from Pete Furler on tour. Pete Furler will continue to be involved in song writing and production.

A certain up and coming band from Fernie in British Columbia has a couple of songs on youtube.

Parachute have cancelled noise conference this year, citing the lack of excellent contributors as the reason.

Project 86 are in the studio working on a new album, MewithoutYou have a new one out soon, as do As Cities Burn, and Stavesacre have recently finished recording another EP.

Oh and for those wondering how the band saponification is going, After and enforced hiatus as both key contributers were living in different cities, we are now in the same city, but taking a break to concentrate on other projects.