My early 80's Roland JC-120

For the last ten years I’ve played a variety of effects and guitars through the same amp – an early 80′s Roland JC120.  It’s been the framework supporting all the various devices and tones that I’ve layered on top of it.  I went in search of one after finding out that Adrian Belew and Robert Fripp both used them in the early 80′s.  The sound is super clean and transparent and it’s been integral to my sound…but one issue comes up time and again, size and bulk.  The JC120 isn’t what I would consider portable.  It has two 12″ speakers and weighs around 60-70lbs.  Also, considering that most venues I’ve played are small clubs, cafes, churches, and recording sessions it’s almost always way more horsepower than is necessary.  So after ten years I’m searching for a amp that’s uber-versatile and uber-portable.  This is going to be a challenge.  The JC-120 has been the basis for all my electric endeavors; it IS my sound.  I can’t imagine playing through anything else and still sounding like me…

It’s also time to change up the effects rig that I’ve used for the past few years.  I’ve been through most of the stompboxes offered by Boss, Line 6, and Digitech without ever really being satisfied.  Whatever I’ve settled on has always been a compromise.  The most recent version of my effects rig consists of a Boss GT-8, Boss DD3, MXR Phase-90, Line 6 ToneCore Constrictor (2 of them), Line 6 ToneCore Crunchtone (2 of them), Digitech Jamman, Crybaby Wah, and a custom built volume pedal.  The effects rig combined with the JC-120 is a challenge to transport, set-up, and maintain.  I’m also dissatisfied with not only the loss of tone, I assume due to the long signal chain, but also the distortion, overdrive, and compression tones.  They tend to be thin or brittle and all efforts at tweaking them just haven’t worked.  Having said that the distortion and overdrive achieved via the amp models in the GT-8 are fantastic, but you can’t toggle between a distorted amp model and an affected JC-120 – you can only toggle between the various amp models, which means you don’t have the option of a just the amp.  The rest of the effects are also impressive, but the unit does way more than it needs to, almost to the point that it feels unnavigable when it comes to programming.

I’ve decided to retain the Jamman and the Phase-90 and jettison everything else in the signal chain (except of course for my guitars).  So with a Music-Man in tow I’m off to test out some amps…

The Lone Rhinoceros LIVE

My father and I have an informal tradition of spending Father’s Day seeing a band and the past two years we’ve ended up at Bearsville in Woodstock.  This year we saw one true luminaries of the guitar – Adrian Belew – at Bearsville.  We’ve seen Adrian about four or five times but this was the first time we’ve seen him sans power trio.  He appears to have shed the small lunar module that used to surround him on stage and has stripped down to an apple laptop, an AXE FX rack unit, a Roland VG-99, and a few floor based stomp effects.  He also had a Tenori-On with him, but he really just used it as a drum-machine.  He played a diverse mix of old and new material along with some improvised pieces.  He’s was tremendous and continually redefines what you can do with an electric guitar.

Belew-tiful Sounds

The Hudson Valley is amazing – I just saw not only K.J. Harris and Michael Bernier, but also Bert Lams and Tom Griesgraber perform in the same evening in a very laid back atmosphere at Keegan Ales in Kingston.  A group of us had followed Bert and Tom from their previous engagement at the Artists’ Cafe in New Paltz the night before and were pleasantly surprised by the opening act.  K.J.’s voice is fantastic and together with Michael they form a fantastic duo.  I had expected Michael to play his Chapman Stick, since he’s a third of Stickmen.  Great to see another side of his music.

Bert and Tom are masters at their respective instruments.  They debuted a new song (as far as these ears were concerned) the previous evening titled “Seek & Destroy,” which they reprised at Keegan Ales – best song of the evening.  Apparently the name was derived from a patch on Bert’s Roland VG-99 and has absolutely nothing to do with any nations foreign policy.  Bert and Tom are consummate professionals and it was an overall stellar evening.  If only Jerry Marotta had brought his kit with him…

Bert Lams at Keegan Ales

Specialized BG Sport MTB Shoe

I’ve been a cyclist for 15 years, in the sense that I own and ride a Cannondale mountain/rode bike.  I also own those unsightly cycling shorts, which are a lit like riding a moped: feels pretty good until someone sees you on it.  I’m a bit of a cycling luddite and I’ve used toe-clips for years despite the slabs of derision heaped upon me by the local cycling aristocracy.  At first glance the term clip-less pedal is confusing, or ironic, given the fact that one is “clipped in” to pedal, i.e. attached.  It makes sense if you know that the clip-less pedal is named for the lack of toe-clips or straps attached to a pair of platform pedals.  In place of straps and a platform you have a small pedal that locks to a cleat attached to the sole of a shoe.  I’ve witnessed all manner of brutal crashes, which resulted from a rider being unable to escape from his pedals and the idea of being attached to my pedals just seemed a lot like trying to fight a war in the middle east (oh, wait…).  Having said that I’ve just finished my first summer of pedaling clip-less.  The only thing that suffered injury: my pride.

So, we begin with a pair of clip-less pedals, Speedplay Frogs acquired through eBay.  Next we have a pair of Specialized BG Comp MTB shoes purchase at the Bike Depot in New Paltz.  The Bike Depot also provided the necessary cleats for the bottoms of the shoes that mate with the, um, frogs.  I admit the Frogs did NOT receive an endorsement from bike doctor Tom, aka Belligerent Bike Snob.  Tom gave the Frogs an emphatic thumbs down followed by sounds of disgust.  Tom’s half the reason to go to the Bike Depot, you’ll always know where you and your bike stand.  No ambiguity with Tom.

The good bike doctor Charlie (aka Charmstrong) got my gear set-up all professional like and I headed out onto the Rail-Trail for my first ride, which went really long because, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to un-clip from the pedals.  I rode around in circles for about 45 minutes, eventually passing bike doctor Charlie who was out on a test ride.  I tried to explain the situation as he whizzed past to no avail.  Eventually I finally deciding the only way out was to slow down and crash as lightly as possible onto my side…this is where my pride comes in and falls flat on it’s face.  This wasn’t the last time that I would find myself stuck with the need to crash or die, e.g. “intersection up ahead with moving traffic… can’t get out of my pedals – next move?”  Nothing decreases the learning curve like riding in traffic, which New Paltz has a surprising amount of thanks to all the cidiots/cityots, hipsters, and the fact that there’s only one main artery in and out of town.

I’ve put hundreds of miles on these shoes/pedals in the past three months doing double duty, i.e. using them on a rode bike and on a mountain bike.  Despite their namesake the Frogs are not fans of mud.  On numerous muddy occasions the cleats just wouldn’t stay connected to the pedals and I found myself floundering with no hope of keeping up on group rides.  I also had a fair number of crashes on the trail when faced with imminent doom and I simply couldn’t react fast enough to separate rider from bike.  Having said that, once I figured out how to get in and out of the pedals with ease the shoe/pedal combination proved to be pretty amazing when it comes to comfort and pedal power.  I’ve never climbed hills with the speed and power that clip-less pedals provide.  I was able to catch cyclists on hill climb that I’d never kept pace with in the past.  The Specialized shoes perform fantastically: durable, comfortable, and pretty reasonably priced as cycling gear goes.  I’ve also moved one notch lower on the derision scale for the local cycling aristocracy.  I’m still a cycling serf but now I only warrant a harrumph instead of a direct verbal assault of sarcasm and disgust.

While some of these technologies were created with the intent of being used as a military resource, others like the ‘aeroplane’ and barbwire were not.  Neil Postman has declared that, “technological competition ignites total war…it is not possible to contain the effects of a new technology to a limited sphere of human activity.”[2] In other words you don’t have America plus television or cell phone; rather you have you have post-television or post-cell phone America.  Human activity is radically different.

Edison’s invention of a system for producing, distributing, and applying electricity was one of the most disruptive events of the late 19^th/early 20^th centuries.

Ice harvesting was one of the many industries that was permanently altered by electrification.  In the 19th century ice harvesting was a major industry vital to the economy of many regions.  With disruptive technology those who do not adapt risk becoming irrelevant and falling out of the marketplace.

Some see Cloud Computing as disruptive technology.  The term “Cloud Computing” may be defined as “hardware and software available on demand via the internet” or “IT available as a utility much like electricity.”

Proponents assert that Cloud Computing significantly reduces both IT and telecommunication costs by providing shared IT and telecom resources. The savings realized can be hundreds to thousands of dollars per month. Proponents also that that Cloud Computing can substantially decrease the cost of running and maintaining internal IT resources, while freeing up both the time and money typically diverted to that area of the business.  Detractors dismiss Cloud Computing as little more than an overhyped marketing campaign. Proponents are playing fast and loose with their definition and promises of a utopian future for early adopters. The result is a lot of confusion in the marketplace.

Whether you are a proponent, a detractor, or someone unfamiliar with the term it behooves all of us to be aware of any trend that may lead to radical disruption.

No Hardware, No Software, Just Solutions

[1] Neil Postman.  Technopoly, (New York NY: Vintage Books: A Division of Random House, 1992), 18.

[2] Neil Postman.  Technopoly, (New York NY: Vintage Books: A Division of Random House, 1992), 18.

Mark Bernardini & Friends

Robert Fripp is a genius.  He has a tremendous capacity for reproducing his vision and passion in his students while helping them find their own unique voice.  One such student is Marc Bernardini.  Mark, like his professor, plays in New Standard Tuning, which means his guitar is tuned low to high C-G-D-A-E-G#.  I’ve previously witnessed performances of Mark with the Yorktown Guitar Project; however, on this most recent occasion Mark performed solo at the Quimby & Smith Arts Café.

Mark was armed with his acoustic guitar and an Electrix Repeater (and an unused Eventide H7600), which gives him up to 10 minutes of loop time.  Sadly, the maker’s of the Electrix Repeater have gone the way of the buffalo, the mix-tape, and Michael Jackson.  Id you’re new to looping a loop is a snapshot of sound that’s been captured by some type of device, e.g. a Jamman or the Electrix Repeater, so that it can be repeated for as long as the musician desires.  Musicians have the ability to compose mulit-part compositions solo layering one loop on another.   The majority of guitarists that utilize looping, at least those that I’ve had the displeasure of watching perform, shuffle on-stage clad in Birkenstocks and tie-dye, loop a few guitar parts, and proceed to do their best Trey Anastasio or Jerry Garcia impression without the benefits of a tight-knit band and defined compositions to reel them back in after extended ecstatic forays in the universe of noodling.

In stark contrast Mark presented the listener with haunting, hypnotic, and at times dissonant compositions of tremendous complexity.  The patient listener was rewarded with layer upon layer of carefully crafted guitar: some gently decaying away and others coming to a jarring end.  Mark is master at his craft and though he bears the thumbprints of his teacher he has created a unique voice and repertoire that rival many supposedly noteworthy musicians.  Mark Bernardini is a “must see” musician.

Let’s talk Kindle. It’s probably the most popular reader out there; Amazon sold about 500,000 units last year and hopes to sell a million this year. The fact that Apple had sold nearly 160,000,000 iPods by the end of 2008 reveals how much of niche item the Kindle really is.* Why? The Kindle really does just one thing well: it displays monochromatic text sans splashy graphics; i.e. there’s no eye-candy.  Reality: the vast majority of us read periodicals because of the layout, graphics, and photos. This is especially true of the periodicals I read on a regular basis, e.g. National Geographic, Fine Homebuilding, Outside, Bicycling, and Guitar Player. I’ll read The New York Times Book Review without the pictures; Sports Illustrated…not so much. So my question is “why add one more device to my already bloated briefcase of gizmos?” I already carry a cell phone, an iPod, and a Mac laptop, which, I might add, has 15 glorious inches of screen real estate. The Kindle was antiquated on arrival and most likely we’ll end up with a million or so in our landfills in the next few years as they’re replaced by better solutions. Does that really sound green, all that plastic filling a hole in the ground in New Jersey (where I assume all trash goes to die)?  Soon someone, perhaps Sony, will release an OLED based e-reader with vibrant colors and touch capability.  The Kindle will rapidly go the way of the buffalo (thank you Charles Darwin).

Let’s revisit the aforementioned Macbook and those 15 brightly lit and brilliantly colored inches. Rather than purchase an e-reader I want the ability to read books and magazines on a device I already own and carry around. Magazines could be available as a subscription based PDF released on a monthly basis retaining all of the layout and graphics.  Books could be available through iTunes, or more logically through the yet to be released iRead service (that’s your cue Mr. Jobs). Imagine books for $9 or available as chapters for .99! All those college reading assignments where you were required to read one chapter in a $75 text book would no longer mean an endless string of dirty laundry and meals consisting of Hot Pockets and Ramen Noodles.

Which brings us to my real point: Rumors have poured forth endlessly on the yet to be released Apple Tablet, a device that could basically be an iPod Touch, netbook, iPhone, and e-reader all in one. Imagine access to all of your email, music, documents, videos, and now books and periodicals through one device! Currently there are already over a million people reading e-books on their iPhone thanks to Stanza.** Add to this device a MiFi personal Wi-Fi hotspot from Verizon and Skype and you now have an enormous iPhone!  Finally, add to this the fact that Apple is spending 1 billion dollars on a data-center in North Carolina.  My guess is that Mr. Jobs is planning to offer iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, and other applications as part of a cloud based service, i.e. all our photos, videos, music, and documents will be hosted at an Apple run data-center as a subscription based service and we’ll no longer have to store huge amounts of data on our local machines.  At the same time thanks to the aforementioned MiFi and Apple Tablet we’ll be able to get all our photos, videos, music, and documents anywhere in the world. Suddenly that bag of gizmos I carry around feels a lot lighter.

Adrian's Acid Trip LIVE at Maxwell's

Ginger Baker & Jack Bruce, John Entwhistle & Keith Moon, John Bonham & John Paul Jones: all on the short list of engines, fueled by blood fire, of the truly great rhythm sections.  Soon to be added: Eric & Julie Slick, graduates of the Paul Green School of Rock.  They make the case for human cloning.  I soon hope to procure my very own pair of Slick clones (I have yet to tell the rest of the band).  Eric and Julie’s prodigious talents were on display this past Saturdy with the Adrian Belew Power Trio at Maxwell’s in Hoboken.

The Power Trio played through the material on their new album “e” with a few Crimson covers and early Belew classics interspersed.  As always someone in the crowd called out for Crimson tunes that clearly weren’t on the set list.  Seriously, Dinosaur… that’s the tune you just have to hear? At times thrashing and lumbering like a Viking horde, at other moments playing with deft virtuosity.  In the midst of their wall of sound Mr. Belew continues to be the most innovative and amazing of all Zappa alumni churning out a steady stream of music that’s truly a unique voice.  He stood in a circle of amps, effects, and gizmos looping layer upon layer of jagged, screeching, and twisting guitar parts.  He turns the traditional trio format into a vehicle for rock orchestration.

Adrian has no rivals and continuously reinvents the vocabulary of rock guitar.  Belew has secured the future of rock music by bringing the Slicks into his belewniverse.  Great rhythm sections define great power trios: Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Rush, The Police and now The Adrian Belew Power Trio.