Seven 9s and 10s

I decided the best tribute I could offer Jim Marshall would be to go down to the basement in my rock and roll sweater and my poorly fitting rock and roll pants and my SUPER ROCK AND ROLL SLIPPERS and plug my Les Paul straight into my Marshall half-stack and play some rock and fucking roll.

So here’s me playing Go! from FMGreen’s 3-2-1 Go! EP.

Volume at 5… turned up to 11 at the end just to make sure the residents of the neighboring county could hear me clearly.

(Side note… the mic on the iPhone is impressively resilient. The SPL meter in front of me was registering 120+dB the entire time.)

mrsbadcrumble:

Internet, if ever anyone has deserved to go viral, it’s these guys. Please listen to this. It’s two middle-aged guys in a pizza parlor in Utah, BLOWING TOTO OUT OF THE WATER. Seriously, I grew up in the 80s and I have a visceral hatred for the song “Africa.” A minute into this acoustic version and I had honest to God chills. The singer’s voice is incredible, but even the harmonies are perfect. There’s no bleeding; it stays true throughout. 

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go listen to everything they’ve ever done.

I was skeptical, but it’s true: these guys are good and the lead vocalist does a great job with a crazy set of lyrics. My only criticism is that, to my ears, it sounds a bit flat - not in terms of pitch, but in terms of energy. They’re doing a great job of playing the song, but they’re just playing it.

(Also, not to burst any bubbles, but I’m fairly certain that there is some serious auto-tuning being done to their vocals. Granted, they obviously have great voices to begin with, but these pitches are too perfect. It’s especially noticeable when they are harmonizing - I can hear the effect kicking in. T-Pain would be proud of the effort, but disappointed that they didn’t just turn all the knobs up to 10.)

But honestly, that’s a tough song to pull off. FMGreen did a mostly hysterical version for a friend’s bachelor party last August. I’ll see if I can find video.

“David Bazan discusses guitars after living room show”

Remember four months ago when David Bazan played a show in my living room - otherwise known as one of the greatest nights of my life?

After the fans had left, he popped his head into my guitar room where he and I proceeded to have this nice 15+ minute conversation about guitars, which my friend Saby (thankfully) captured on video. The light is weak and the audio is quiet, but I’m glad this exists. It’s a great memory that I’ll carry through my life - talking shop with my favorite musician, in my house, with my guitars.

David Bazan - Strange Negotiations (live on Austin City Limits - Satellite Sets)

I still can’t believe my favorite musician will be performing in my house in less than a month. I’ve driven to DC/Baltimore three times to see him play, and five times to Buffalo, and now he’ll be driving to Rochester to play for me and 30 other fans.

How sweet it is.