Slayer Likes Satan (and Hell)

Similar to the Metallica Likes Death video, this collects every time Slayer say “Satan” or “Hell” in one of their songs to create a chronological megamix song I like to call “Satanic Hell”. These are fun, I hope they keep coming out.

more about “Slayer Likes Satan (and Hell)“, posted with vodpod

The History of the Electric Guitar Pickup…

Gibson put an excerpt from a book about the history of the electric guitar pickup on their website.  This book looks like it might be fascinating to read.

http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/the-history-of-the-pickup-326/

The Valnott Stompbox: How To Make Black Metal

It wouldn’t be so funny, but it is true.

Transmetropolitan Soup For The Soul #5

Global Metal – The Best Documentary Available In Every Country But The US Evidently…

Sam Dunn is a filmmaker/anthropologist who made an excellent documentary called A Headbanger’s Journey. You might not have known that he followed it up with a documentary about how metal has spread across the globe as part of globalization. He traveled to Brazil, Indonesia, China, Israel, Dubai, Japan, India. The reason you have not seen this movie is that it seems to be available in every country but the United States. If you are close to Canada you can pick up a DVD there. Why is not available in the US? I am guessing it has something to do with the cost of the rights for the music used in the films. So what has been the result of this? The whole movie is available (at low quality) on youtube.

Here is a link to the video channel on youtube it is available on.

Here is a trailer:

Here is a pretty good interview with the filmmakers.

Metallica Likes Death

Pretty funny. Someone mixed every time Hetfield says death into a one and a half minute megamix, bonus points for being in chronological order. You can chart the changes in Metallica’s sound with this too. And the subtitles…the subtitles are the best part.

more about "Metallica Likes Death", posted with vodpod

New Publication

I have a new book review up at the Anthropological Resource Database…well it was published in December but I haven’t put anything up here yet.

Click here…

Jameson , John H. (ed.)
2004 The Reconstructed Past: Reconstructions in the Public Interpretation of Archaeology and History. Walnut Creek, California: AltaMira Press.

Mastodon – Crack The Skye: New Album Out March 24th, 2009Crack

If Rush mixed peyote with crack cocaine and Carlos Castenada they wouldn’t sound like Mastodon, because Mastodon is better.

more about “MASTODON Divinations Official Video -…“, posted with vodpod

Digitech Jimi Hendrix Experience Modeling Pedal…

Usually in pedals I like to have things simple. I like to be able to fix things, resolder, repair…that kind of thing. But they started making these modeling pedals. They are pretty cool and sound nice, but I know when these things break there will be no way that I can fix them.

Well, not wanting to be a Hendrix clone I looked into the Hendrix pedal Digitech makes because I wanted an inexpensive Univibe. A good Univibe is 200 dollars. I got this Hendrix pedal for 90 dollars on ebay.

The pedal is based on some of Hendrix’s biggest hits. Here is a breakdown of the sounds:

1. Purple Haze
Intro and solo: Based on: Fuzz Face™*; 100-Watt Marshall® * Super Lead™* Amp; EMT Plate Reverb; Roger Mayer Octavia (solo)

2. Little Wing
Intro and Solo: Based on: 100-Watt Marshall®* Super Lead™* Amp; Miniature Rotary Speaker (Homemade at Olympic Studios in England)

3. Voodoo Child
Intro and Solo: Based on: Vox® * Clyde McCoy Wah™*; Brown Fender®* Bassman™* Amplifier; EMT Plate Reverb

4. All Along the Watchtower
Intro and Solo: Based on: Acoustic Guitar; 100-Watt Marshall®* Super Lead™* Amplifier; EMT Plate Reverb

5. Foxey Lady
The intro and solo use a DallasArbiter™ Fuzz Face™ distortion pedal, a Marshall™ 100 watt Super Lead™ amp, and an EMT Plate reverb.

6. Star Spangled Banner
Jimi used a Unicord™ Univibe™ pedal, Marshall™ 100 watt Super Lead™ amp, and a hall reverb. The solo adds a Dallas Arbiter™ Fuzz Face™.

7. Wind Cries Mary
The intro and solo both feature an EMT Plate Reverb and a Marshall 100 watt Super Lead™ amplifier.

Since I am not in a Hendrix cover band, and I am a huge fan of his but not someone who tries to emulate him. But this pedal is always on my pedalboard. I also bought the extra foot switch for it.

What makes this pedal great is that it mixes a nice reverb pedal with a univibe, fuzz, octave and some nice wah tones (though I don’t use those too much, I have a Dunlop Dimebag Wah for that). The switch lets you scroll up and down through the settings and you can select a clean and dirty setting by switching between toe down or heel down (or using the extra switch). I was surprised how good these sounds were. I use an Ibanez GAX and an Epiphone Les Paul through this pedal and into a Line 6 212 Spider and it still sounds pretty good.

If I compare it to the sounds on Hendrix records will it match up? I haven’t tried. I prefer guitars with humbuckers for one thing. Also, some of those Hendrix tones – which can be emulated using clones of the original materials or reissues – are so noisy and unstable using vintage or reissue effects. The sounds produced here are scalable and controllable. That is an improvement. The Voodoo Chile tone takes a loud, loud, loud amp to reproduce using analog equipment. Having that set of sounds in a portable and clean sounding pedal is a great thing. Some of us are looking for a 100 watt Marshall lead tone without the volume. It manages to avoid that. It also manages not to cost the same as a garage full of vintage equipment or reissues, which is nice.

This was the pedal that probably pushed me out of the purist mindset when it came to effects. Sure, I had a couple of digital effects around, but I definitely was not sold on the idea of a pedal that was so specific a digital model. In truth the pedal is very versatile due to the controls and the variety of sounds modeled. It is far from perfect, but it makes on hell of a good set of sounds for funk, jazz, fusion, blues and rock. Ultimately, you should not think of this as a shortcut to channel the ghost of Hendrix, but as an expansion with his name on it. There are sounds you can get out of this thing that are not Hendrix, but still very nice.

I only hope Digitech keeps this thing in production as long as they are in business.

Here is a Guitar World review for your consideration. The audio doesn’t really do the pedal any justice, but this is not one of those effects that require you to have a thousand dollar guitar to sound good either.

Watchmen Literary Analysis?

For the interested parties out there, Comic Geek Speak did a very involved series of footnote episodes about the individual issues of Watchman. There is considerable depth here, and it approaches serious literary analysis.

I was going to read the Absolute again, but I waited until I saw the movie so I could be less crestfallen if it was not what I expected.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Episode 8
Episode 9
Episode 10
Episode 11
Episode 12