What is your Perception....

More new stuff for your sonic delight from Farkusville Studio

14AMatchD-30 - Mp3 7.3 Mb

McAuliffe's Pub and The Dammitheads Show

A big huge thanks goes out to The Dammitheads - David and Steve, Jennifer, JJ and Ryan McIntyre.

I can't say enough about how comfortable we were playing at JJ's club in Racine this past friday. The vibe was genuine. The crowd was great, friendly and they love live music.

It was one of those moments.

Thanks for having us.

Brad

2 a.m. Post Gig Post

Well I just settled into bed....the fold out futon. It's 2 a.m. and I'm a bit amped up from the HOG gig and I wanted to jot down my thoughts with the buzz I have going.

Soul Amp - loves you...I love you. No shit. tonight I got to watch faces as the lights were not blasting in my face. I was able to make eye contact with lots of people tonight and I saw faces. I saw the faces of my generation...and they were smiling, laughing and talking with people I know....

I felt this love and I had to tell them. Right there on stage I said "I love you". I know it doesn't sound like much as we have heard all the big names say "I love you..." but now in some strange way I think that maybe they really do.

We are such an age classified society. The young challenge all that is old and the old negate anything young so as to not encourage them. That is just wrong...fortunately sometimes you get both young and old sharing a moment, together. Strangers. That happened at the HOG. For a time the early older corwd combined with the younger late crowd and we were there on stage, a bit akward but it happend. The twentiy somethings mingled and mixed with the 40 somethings...

It was good. that is when I said I love you.

It was true. Okay....I maybe I'm little tired and bit drunk...maybe not but I can't really tell...

Despite all reports....

The Rolling Stones rocked the SuperBowl....

There are only a handful of bands that could play the Super Bowl without a safety net and the Rolling Stones in all their chewey sloppiness showed the Super Bowl watchers that they can still rock. They were gritty, spicey and skinny like a meat stick. Keith still looked like death warmed over like he alwys has, Mick was stomping like he always did with a little less grace a little less crispness but still was entertaining and giving it all. Watts was solid on the kit as usual.

So I tip my hat to these uber rock geezers. In a time of painfully self conscious and introverted indie pop it is simply refreshing to see some good old slop bucket rock and roll. It is what is was and it was one of those great moments in rock on TV. - Nirvana Unplugged, The Replacements and recently System of a Down on SNL and Elvis Costello playing Monkey to Man or Wilco's apperance on Letterman. Some may disagree in putting the Rolling Stones on that list but I think time will show that it was yet another peak in an amazing career for the Stones and possibly the swan song.

The Rolling Stones have continued forging new ground in Rock. Maybe not musically, but showing what a life time career in rock is and may actually redefine what everyone thinks a "rock" life is supposed to be.

Hey....we got blogged...

My Old Kentucky Home blogged one of our tunes.

Check it....here.

Thanks My Old Kentucky Home

New Thing Two - Soul Amp

Ripples From The Stone mp3 192/48Khz

New Thing One - Soul Amp

Trilobites Are Old mp3192/48Khz

Gut Wrenching Read

The Day The Music Died - New Orleans

We lost so much as a nation to Katrina.

Burn Versus Cassette

Last summer I set up a "old school" stereo system. I bought at a yard sale a Cassette deck and old JVC with a silver metal face and big honking VU meters, microphone inputs and individual recording level knobs. Really simple...non-logic mechanism. I got it because I had a bunch of old band stuff on tape that I wanted to digitized for prosperity. Well as things would go daughter quickly took to using it for recording her own songs. So I recently replaced that deck with other thrift store "gems". An Akai that won't record but looks awesome. Another JVC that is a adaquate deck but with some issues and I picked up a Pioneer dual cassette deck that plays and records fantastic, sounds great but looks stupid with the vintage silver face Pioneer receiver.

Well getting back to the story....I wanted to record some of the recent albums I picked up onto tape some casual playing. In doing so I rediscovered the joy of "recording" versus simply copying or ripping. Time was when you got ready to record you settled in for a relaxing few hours of listeining to music and paying close attention to levels, and cleaning records, setting up the cassette deck for top performance. I did all this. Cleaning the heads, testing the various settings for noise reduction and finally picking two album that will occupy the same tape. Always a interesting process.

So taking a step into the new, I thought it might be cool to put my favorites from iTunes onto tape, as my carpool has only a cassette. I found this was not easy. I have over a two hundred songs feeely downloaded and all were considered favorties....so now I had to put together a list and organize for recording.

I picked the top 15 songs from the top of the top. Then arranged then to fit snugly on the 45 per side of a 90 minute tape.

Then I queued up the songs in iTunes and ran a line into the aux input on the Pioneer reciever. And Played them, recording them to tape watching the tape slowly advance and eyeing the levels as each song went. Funny thing is as I put together the list it took me a significant amount to time to pick, prep and actually record the tunes. Contrast this with ripping 6-8 audio CDs to MP3s and burning them MP3s to a data disk for transfer to another computer.

iPods are Conehead "mass quantities".

5000-10,000 songs. With playlist generated any number of ways. Very little investment in time to produce. And possibly...thought.

It seem our appetite for more has made obsolete the 90 minutes found in a cassette tape. But to me I find that it is just different.

Picking songs to fill a cassette now is no easy task. One bad tune can make or break the entire cassette. I found a party mix tape made in 1987 or 88 by the singer in the band I was playing in. He made ame a mix tape of various music he thought I would like from his huge vinyl collection. Including Husker Du, Soul Asylum, The Jayhawks, Gear Daddies, Clapton, Peter Himmelman and ::::shudder:::: Concrete Blonde. the result is a tape I like but when it gets to Concrete Blonde and can't take it and stop the tap there. "Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man"....:::::shudder::::::.... Despite that one song I really like everything else on it. And now that much of what is on it is rare it is even a bigger treat.

The trick with cassettes was getting a tape mix that would last all the way through both sides. I think this is almost lost as with a lflick of a finger you can simply move to another song. Select a massive number and move them here and there. With so many songs at ones disposal so quickly one can never learn to grow into a album or song.

In some ways it seems that music is not as special to the iPod generation as it was for those of who made our fist mix tapes on 8-tracks and cassettes.

I have a long hustory with cassettes that goes back to my orange super beetle in 1976. I installed a cassette deck with a 4o watt EQ and some three way speakers in wood cabinets for that little place in the way back of the bug.

For many years after my music collection consisted primarily of cassettes. I learned to appreciated a find cassette deck and when I met someone I would ask if I could bring some tapes, beer and some smoke and pass the time picking some albums to record. Ussually the audiophile would be more than eager to spend a evening making a some recommendations and supervising the recording process. A prossess that would net me three or four tapes worth of music a buzz and a chance to learn more about music I hadn't heard yet.

I found more out about the Talking Heads, The Jam, REM, James Gang, The Band and host of others making tapes with friends.

Not to pine for the old days. Because I like carrying on my notebook with 20 albums and hundreds of free mp3 downloads. BUt I found today I missed the process. The technical beauty of analog tape and taking time to really fully absorb yourself into the pure enjoyment of making a cassette tape. A tape that I am sure will be found in a box twenty years from now, played and enjoyed again.

Family...Teen Invasion....

This is what happens when teens are allowed to be creative....I'm proud of them....they are so cool.



My Daughter, Hannah, 15 is a Myspace teen phenom. She's got this acoustic Emo thing going, that is really unique. Hannah played violin and cello for 6 years and decided she wanted to sing and play guitar instead of pursue the orchestra thing. She'd pretty much commandeered my Martin and so she had to have her own.

Hannah has a fresh intimate and sweet sound with a wonderful sense of phrasing and melody. Her songs are unconventionally structured and influenced by the popular Emo punk bands. With lyrics centered on those relationships that totally saturate daily existence.

We're working on her first EP. Should have the first pre-production burns ready for her show at the Waukesha Battle of the Bands for the cities winter festival the Janboree.

She plays a sweet Auditorium Martin acoustic..

Listen to her songs here.




My nephew Russ - 18 plays bass in Minority Party in NC. When I was in Minneapolis playing in the Masterbeats in the mid-eighties he was a little guy. I didn't get to see him and his brothers much as they were growing up but we hung out some a summer ago. Hannah got to know her cousins a little better.

Hope I get to see a show sometime. One thing about Rock and Roll when something new comes around it never really goes away. It simply evolves. Punk is very much alive and well all across America. Minority Party does a great job of keeping references to the classic punk from the late 70's while introducing the more metal and hardcore aspects from the 80's and screamo in just the right amount in catchy high energy songs that no doubt fill mosh pits.

Classic freakin' hardcore punk. With all the energy, angst and political drama and crass humor you would expect from suburban punks.

Give a listen to them here.

Hang With Us....

On January 12th...Thursday we'll be doing a show....well maybe not so much a show but more "playing our tunes" at the House of Guinness in Waukesha. We'll be going on at about 8:30 ish and we might do two sets maybe three....

We typically have a pint after the show and your welcome to hang out and introduce yourself. We'll have some giveaway CD burns of new stuff we've been writing for the next album. And certainly we'll sell you a copy of Strip Mall Heaven and toss in a Pint too for $10 bucks.

So come hang with us....we'll make sure we put our teeth in.

Trapped In Your Clothes

Here is a another freebie from Farkasville studio.

Trapped in Your Clothes

If you like this tune and are planning on keeping it go to iTunes and check out the cut "Division" off our current full length release "Strip Mall Heaven". We think you will like that one as well.

Linoleum in Amin Jam

Nine minutes of greasy modern funk. For you.

If you like this tune and are planning on keeping it go to iTunes and check out "Shove". You will like that one too...

Your support is important to us and really helps us keep bringing these Podcasts to you.

Thanks
Brad

Okay...Milwaukee is the Shit.

This article proves it.

Milwaukee is the "It" city.

Like Minneapolis, Athens, Seattle now comes Milwaukee.

Microsoft and MTV - mUrge

Microsquash and MonotonusTV will roll out a rival to Apple iTunes called Urge.

The internet music blogpen is taking a "hmmm interesting" attitude.

Whack of the CLUEBAT - anyone over 14 knows MTV in uncool and anyone who has used a computer for more than five minutes knows that Microdorf inhales sharply with lips pursed. So Urge is probably going to be as uncool as Microdump and SpewTV. You might as well rename it to Wal-Tunes. I'll just bet that MS will sue Apple for something over this whole thing.

They should come out with a new Mp3 player they can call it the Microbarf eKnob. I can see it now...Knob casts. People in commercials bobbing with thier Knobs...

Typical of Microslop to come out with a product by waiting until someone refines the idea and creates the culture. Then they throw 40 bazillion dollars at it, roll out some crappy hardware running some wierd hacked Windows OS on it and get Weezer and the Rolling Stones to sign on to promote it.

I digress. I just wanted to clue folks in early that it is okay to diss Urge now. Why wait? We all know allready where it is heading. Right into the MS bank on on every computer sold by Dell, SOny, Hp, etc,etc.....

What does this have to do with Soul Amp?

Nothing....I just felt like bashing Microsoft a little for the entertainment value in it, since I stopped watching MTV sometime in 1984 and have basically avoided Microsoft products when ever possible. Even though if it wasn't for Microsoft I wouldn't have a job now...(probably be touring or working on our fifth album or something "dull" like that.)


Brad

News From Farkasville Studio

The G4 Dual is ALIVE! I sent the logic baord and CPU module to a place in Cali. DT&T Computer Services. They established the CPU was cooked. Logic Board, video and RAM were all okay. We got the new/used CPU module, a dual 1.o Ghz not 1.24 for $350. It was in stock and ready to go so we opted for the 1.0 over the more expensive 1.24.

I installed complete with static wrist strap one adn the Powermac fired up and booted. I took it to Farkasville and we set it up, installed a a airport extreme card for M1's wireless. And did the much needed updates to Panther. I also spent some time debugging the studio set for AudioDesk. I found the the MOTU 828 likes to have it be the clock source. That explained why firewire was having issues during playback.

So we are back and ready to start recording new tunes.

CD Review in Rick's Cafe

Rick's Cafe is a monthly newsprint music publication out of Madison, WI. They focus on the South Central Wisconsin music scene, primarily on Madison. Waukesha is just on the edge of "south central".

The mag can be picked up for free at many places in and around Madison.

They ran a review of Strip Mall Heaven in this months issue. (December 2005)

John Payne contributing writer penned the review. He did a good job of recognizing what we were going after in this disk. In the issue, as well, we are on "Rick's Rotation", a list of the Editor/Publisher's current listening queue.

"Soul Amp takes sonic cues from a diverse array of artists; the influence of everyone from the Greatful Dead and Phish to REM, David Bowie and Ben Folds is detectable throughout the record. What's remarkable about Heaven is the way these desparate sounds are blended into a singular, homeogenous presentation.
...
But even at the most somber lyrical moments, the spiritied music
always manages to convey a somewhat midwestern keep on truckin' attitude and sence of determination. Occasionally the aesthetic even seeps into the lyrics as well, on stand out tracks such as "Shove" and "She Walks On Up Ahead". Sad stories aside, the music of Soul Amp seems to come to a comforting conclusion about life in America; it's frequently hard, but just as often, it is good." - John Payne Ricks's Cafe, Dec. 2005


They do post the review on thier website, it takes a few months for the back issues to show.

December 8th 1980

I was in my first year of college. I do not recall how I heard that John Lennon was killed. I remember was seeing the crowds of people mourning him on television. I was 18 then and things are a little fuzzy during those years.

Given that that day was a Monday I was probably at home in bed or possibly watching TV late. But I remember hearing that John Lennon was shot and killed in front of his home. Simply it made me quite sad and angry. There would be no reunion. There would be no more music from John. When John died so to did any possibility of one day seeing the Beatles play together again.

Some of my earliest childhood memories are of playing Rubber Soul on our Motorola HI-FI console and my sister spinning beatles 45s on here little portable phonograph.

The Beatles have always been part of my life, like a old friend that is visited time and time again.

Funny though I did see the Beatles play again. It was in a dream I had. A very realistic dream. I was standing at the edge of the stage among several others waiting for the band. No one knew who was playing. Until the band step out from back stage. A thrill went through the small crowd. I looked up and Paul was at the grand piano, and John, George and Ringo were all in place. They started to play...Hey Jude. I watched and listened to the entire song played by the four. It was amazingly real. I remember in the dream knowing it was dream but not waking and hearing the entire song. The actual instruments played by each as I watched. I heard the sound coming from each instrument. I even told myself this has never happened and never could happen for dozens of reasons, but it did anyway...it was a dream.

I looked up at Paul and he looked down at me from the piano and smiled, nodding his head as if to say..."Yes, it's real." He went back to singing, looking across the piano to John. I looked at each and they did the same, meeting eyes and smiling. I've never before have had a musical performance dream like that. I have never had one since. Sometimes I think it was some special gift given to me for a brief few minutes from where or who I have no idea. All I know, it was the single most beautiful dream I've ever had.

We are playing a gig tonight. Our songs are for John, George, Paul and Ringo, The Beatles.

We are On Yahoo Music

You can find us here on Yahoo now. http://music.yahoo.com/release/25776861

Gone to the Hogs

M2 and M1 say "go to the hog."

This HOG.


We've been getting the new studio space in order. It's been a long slow process of tuning the new room. We've got more studio foam on order and have built a half dozen bass traps from sonotube and fiberglass insulation. The room is getting better. I moved the final last bits of the old "cat box" studio over last night. With the Powermac's guts off to Cali for repair we should up and recording by January for sure. We can still track with the Powerbook g4. It just doesn't have enoguh horsepower to mix freely. Still pretty useful little machine though.



And Behind garage door number 2 - A new Bass Trap!

No name yet for the new studio....maybe Farkusville Studio....

As for shows we're playing at the House of Guinness in Waukesha the 2nd Thursday of the month starting next Thursday Dec. 8. We play up to three sets and it is going to be very laid back. We'll be popping new material, jamming, having guests sit in and mixing up the instrumentation to keep our stay at the HOG interesting.

SO hope to see folks come out this next Thursday for a Pint.