Bilting an Army

When I was played in a band, I never gave too much thought to my gear.  I basically played a telecaster through a ProCo Rat and a Line 6 DL-4 into a Fender DeVille.  At the time, I thought I had all that I needed.  

After the band broke up, and I didn't immediately fall in with another group, and I stopped playing for over a year.  Don't ask me how it happened, but it did.  It might have something to do with moving to Minneapolis and trying too hard to have a girlfriend.  By the time I realized that I hadn't been playing, I had completely forgotten how to altogether.  

As I started relearning how to play, I also became more interested in the gear I was playing on.  I learned of the stark, yet technically subtle, differences between overdrive, distortion, and fuzz; as well as the universe of options among them.  

My interest in guitars, amps and effects waxes and wanes depending on how interesting I find a particular item.  For instance, I became obsessed with tracking down a Greenline Overdrive from Smart People Factory because the guitar player in one of my favorite bands played one on their last record.  The pedal was just modded TS-808, and I already had another, more versatile, TS clone.  But I had to have that pedal.  Once I obtained a Greenline, I wouldn't have to worry about another overdrive pedal for as long as I lived.  Yeah right...

I love the Telecaster, and I've owned three of them. I sold one to pay for repairs and modifications to another.  I sold my first telecaster because I didn't know how easily I could have repaired the parts I didn't like about it by myself.  

I've flirted with the Jaguar, but it's shortened scale continues to be too small for my clumsy hands.  I decided that I'd have to settle for a Jazzmaster, which was fine, I just preferred the look of the Jaguar.  

Again, through all of this gear hunting, I keep telling myself that I just needed ONE more thing, and then i'd be set.  I'd be able to start a band again.  I'd amazingly become a better player because I had that guitar, or that pedal, and I was playing through that amp.

I've really made an effort to focus on playing and not the gear I was playing with.  I'm not that serious of a player, and if I want to obsess about gear, I told myself that I had to play in a band.  That worked for a couple of months until I came across this company that makes guitars right in my hometown of Des Moines.

El Hombre Deluxe, Lake Pelham Blue from BilT Guitars on Vimeo.

That sound you heard was my jaw hitting the floor.  Me likey.  

It's Blowing Quality

"All love is love in the dark"
-DCB

BRONCHO Rids Again

I'm really digging BRONCHO right now.  I heard about them through an effects pedal company and like what I heard of them before their album was released.  I'm not generally into the late garage rock/early punk stuff, but BRONCHO had an authenticity and urgency that kept me listening.  I supposed it didn't hurt to learn that Unwed Sailor members Jonathan Ford and Nathan Price were in the band too.  But no matter what I think of the members' other projects, it doesn't mean that they can automatically sell me on their new projects.  

I caught them at the Vaudeville Mews on Tuesday.  Singer Ryan Lindsay spied my t-shirt from half a block away and we began talking right away.  We drank copious amounts of drinks at and the band was gracious enough to geek out with me about gear and our favorite bands.  Ford even politely suffered my telling him that he was one of my all-time favorite bass players.  

I dig that the songs are blistering fast; nothing on the album lasts longer than 2.5 minutes, and there isn't a dull one among them.  I think the band is making a video for every song on the album, which makes sense because they're all singles.

I'm thinking about driving to Iowa City tonight to catch them again. 

Two Lines

"On my side of things, you used me up.  I traded a fuck for what I thought were feelings".

This is my favorite song from the few Decibully tracks that have accompanying videos.  It's not the first song I heard from the album, and I always like it when bands have the balls to place their single so deep into the album that by the time you get to it, you've already heard a half dozen other songs that could have been singles too.  

"Somewhere in the World" opens with an exceptional dueling guitar intro and a rocking drum fill that consists of only three total drums even though it sounds like a 16-piece Rush kit.  

This songs, and, indeed, most of the album, highlights the balancing act of noise that Decibully so expertly mastered in their years together.

The quote used above is the first couple of lines of the song.  They absolutely tear me up, especially after a messy break up. And the way that the song ends, with a broken whisper rather than a bombastic smash, completely conveys the song of a used-up broken heart.  

Reflection. Analysis.

I don't do nearly enough reflection and analysis in this space.  That should probably change soon.  I think I'm afraid that I won't find enough new music to really keep me interested, or that what I have to say about anything won't be anything to keep whoever might read this interested.  I could write about music that really does "it" for me, but I don't want this to turn into sentimental crap.


I've been listening to a lot of the new Beach House record.  It's beginning to grow on me  And I'm always listing to bands like the Lassie Foundation, Starflyer 59, and Unwed Sailor.  I'm looking forward to something new that can really get me going in the head, hard, and pants. 

Cooper Pots

This is one of those songs that always gets me thinking about starting a band.  I listen to this band a lot, which explains all my half-cocked ideas that lead to delusions of grandeur. Quickly, Robin, to the basement!


Unwed Sailor Tulsa, OK from christopher long on Vimeo.

Mark Mallman

Saw Mallman at 80/35 yesterday.  Despite the heat, he rocked it like he always does.  I came across this stripped down version of "True Love" that I'm mostly posting because the guy that introduces the video looks awesome.