Black Sabbath in Phoenix, AZ last night 8-30-13 picture from www.azcentral.com
Black Sabbath's latest album entitled, "13" debuted at number one on I Tunes proving that rock is far from dead. I went to see them in concert last night and that's what I want to blog and share some pictures of the show that I did not take.
Guitarist Tony Iommi and Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013.
I was excited about seeing Black Sabbath for several reasons. I've seen Ozzy in concert three times since 1988 and he always puts on a good show, I've never seen Black Sabbath before. But mostly, I wanted to see one of my guitar heroes Tony Iommi play live, especially since he has cancer now, I figured this could be the last chance I get. After I bought my tickets, I looked at some Youtube videos of this tour and I gotta admit I was a little shocked. Ozzy hanging on to the microphone stand for dear life sounded tired and was having trouble hitting a lot of the higher notes. The guitar was detuned so much to presumably accommodate Ozzy's diminishing vocal range that it was hard to listen to the music and make out a lot of the songs like "War Pigs." And very importantly drummer Bill Ward was not present, apparently he said he would not be part of this reunion unless he was offered a, "signable contract." (source wikipedia,) and I'm not a big fan of messing with the rhythm section of a band.
I also found this blog on the Houston Press Website talking about their opening night on Houston. Calling Ozzy's performance, "struggling," "decidedly not in key," "off key mumbling," and, "painful to witness." The link to that blog is here:
I was seriously doubting my decision to go to this concert. I wanted to see a rock and roll show not a funeral.
Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013. If Jesus played drums this is what it would look like. picture from www.azcentral.com
But the show that I saw was not the show that the Houston Press blogged about. The crowd loved it and was going nuts the entire time, the band was tight, and Ozzy's voice was powerful and strong. He was in top form, jumping, and running around on stage for 17 songs. Not bad for being 64 years old. As much of a mess he is in real life, I swear something happens when he gets on stage and it's like he's a completely different person. Rock n Roll just keeps you young that way I guess.
The band also had great videos, lights and an insane 10+ minute drum solo. What ever happened to drum solos? I miss them at concerts.
If anyone has a chance to go this show I highly recommend it. Kids were there with their parents and I sat next to a old lady who must've been at least 70 years old.
Set list
War Pigs
Into the Void
Under the Sun/Every Day Comes and Goes
Snowblind
Age of Reason
Black Sabbath
Behind the Wall of Sleep
N.I.B.
End of the Beginning
Fairies Wear Boots
Rat Salad
(Followed by Tommy Clufetos Drum Solo)
Iron Man
God Is Dead?
Dirty Women
Children of the Grave
Encore:
Paranoid
(Sabbath Bloody Sabbath Intro)
Zeitgeist
Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013. picture from www.azcentral.com
My only criticism is with Ozzy's usual stage antics and gimmicks. He's been doing the same bits for years and if you've never seen Ozzy here's what you can expect when you see him.
1. He can't fucking hear you!: he will say that over and over again, so make sure you yell really loud.
2. He wants to see your fucking hands!: Even though Black Sabbath is not exactly a wave your hands in the air type of band, he will insist on seeing your hands.
3. He loves you very much: and he's not afraid to say it.
Here is the Billboard top ten for this week. I don't know new music these days but I'm pretty sure there are no rock bands in it.
1. Blurred Lines
Robin Thicke Featuring T.I. + Pharrell
Blurred Lines
2. Roar
Katy Perry
Roar
3. We Can't Stop
Miley Cyrus
4. Radioactive
Imagine Dragons
Night Visions
5. Holy Grail
Jay Z Featuring Justin Timberlake
Magna Carta...Holy Grail
6. Applause
Lady Gaga
Applause
7. Get Lucky
Daft Punk Featuring Pharrell Williams
Random Access Memories
8. Treasure
Bruno Mars
Unorthodox Jukebox
9. Cups (Pitch Perfect's When I'm Gone)
Anna Kendrick
When I'm Gone
10.Safe And Sound
Capital Cities
Capital Cities
Some people say rock is dead, and may use the recent charts as proof of this. But I propose that rock has never dominated the charts.
Look at the top ten songs ten years ago in 2003:
1
50 Cent
In Da Club
2
R. Kelly
Ignition
3
Sean Paul
Get Busy
4
Beyonce feat. Jay-Z
Crazy in Love
5
3 Doors Down
When I'm Gone
6
matchbox twenty
Unwell
7
Chingy
Right Thurr
8
Aaliyah
Miss You
9
Kid Rock feat. Sheryl Crow
Picture
10
Evanescence feat. Paul McCoy
Bring me to Life
The Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow song 'Picure' is definitely not rock music. Evanescence, 3 Doors Down & Matchbox Twenty are borderline pop bands. The charts ten years ago are dominated with Hip Hop/Pop music.
Look at the charts twenty years ago in 1993:
1
Whitney Houston
I Will Always Love You
2
Tag Team
Whoomp! (There It Is)
3
UB40
Can't Help Falling In Love
4
Janet Jackson
That's The Way Love Goes
5
Silk
Freak Me
6
SWV
Weak
7
Shai
If I Ever Fall In Love
8
Mariah Carey
Dreamlover
9
Wreckx-N-Effect
Rump Shaker
10
Snow
Informer
No rock bands whatsover.
What about thirty years ago in 1983:
1
Police
Every Breath You Take
2
Michael Jackson
Billie Jean
3
Irene Cara
Flashdance... What A Feeling
4
Men At Work
Down Under
5
Michael Jackson
Beat It
6
Bonnie Tyler
Total Eclipse Of The Heart
7
Daryl Hall and John Oates
Maneater
8
Patti Austin and James Ingram
Baby Come To Me
9
Michael Sembello
Maniac
10
Eurythmics
Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
Personally I consider The Police more of a pop band than a rock band but other than that no rock bands.
and finally let's look at 1973, forty years ago.
1
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Ole Oak Tree
2
Jim Croce
Bad Bad Leroy Brown
3
Roberta Flack
Killing Me Softly With His Song
4
Marvin Gaye
Let's Get It On
5
Paul McCartney and Wings
My Love
6
Kris Kristofferson
Why Me
7
Elton John
Crocodile Rock
8
Billy Preston
Will It Go Round In Circles
9
Carly Simon
You're So Vain
10
Diana Ross
Touch Me In The Morning
I'm trying to show you that you can't say rock is dead just because it's not on the top of the charts these days. As you can see, rock music has never been in the top of the charts. Rock has always been a fringe movement. Sure it's had times where it's been more socially acceptable but it has never been the music of 'the people.'
So I started seeing this new psychiatrist back in May [three months ago]. I hadn't been on any medications for almost a year. I was coming off an extremely high elevated manic period and was moving into my next phase which is an extremely high/elevated but intensely irritable, paranoid and anxious phase. My doctor put on Abilify. I thought this was weird because I'm used to being on multiple medications. Also from what little I knew Abilify was used primarily as an add-on to anti-depressants.
The doctor said that Abilify was approved for and is effective in treating bipolar mania and it also has some anti-depressant properties so it's like a 2 in 1 drug. I also told him that I since I have a wife, kids and a full time job I need to be able to be functional and not in a zombie like state all day. Being functional is my primary concern with any medication I take. Besides, I told him, eating cereal, watching cartoons and sleeping for 16 hours a day was not my idea of mental health.
So I decided to trust him and I was given a starter dose of 7 1/2mg a day. After a couple weeks of some uncomfortable side effects I immediately felt the shift. My paranoia and irritability was gone. In their absence, that left room for the rest of my personality to breathe more comfortably. Thus I felt more relaxed, less irritable and generaly more pleasant, friendlier and happier. I felt so happy in fact, that I almost fell for that old trap, which is to think that maybe I feel so good that I don't even need medication anymore. But with the help of my therapist who I see regularly, I was helped to see that the medication was working and I need to stick with it. Then 3 weeks ago, out of nowhere I started feeling bad again.
Fear, loathing, dread, panic attacks, anxiety, not sleeping, I even told my wife that I definitely felt depressed, unhappy, and generally unstable for no reason at all. It was affecting my work and at one point I was seriously close to finding a new psychiatrist and even considered hospitalization but then quickly decided against it when I realized I haven't paid the last hospital visit 15 months ago.
My psychiatrist said that the low dose of Abilify had probably stopped working and that I now need the full dose of 15mg/day. That seemed like a reasonable explanation so I bought in and started taking the full dose. It's been two weeks on the full dose and I do feel better. That general feeling of dread is gone as are the panic attacks.
I'm used to being on so many different medications I have a hard time believing that just medication is so effective with me. But I guess anything is possible.
The other thing which has been just as if not more effective with me is therapy. I go every other week. We talk about how I can minimize the stresses around my home and be a better husband and father. It seems that medication can only help so much and if you really want to be stable and stay stable you have to be in therapy on a regular basis. But thats just my opinion.
So it seems that with this latest change in my medication that I'm starting to become stable again. I had a great vacation, my step-daughter has started school, I have the Black Sabbath concert and a couple of football games coming up and I'm looking forward to a pleasant rest of the summer.
Andy Kaufman performing I Trusted You on The Midnight Special in 1977
In 1977 Andy Kaufman performed on a show called The Midnight Special. In the episode, he performs a song called "I Trusted You"The lyrics of which are simply the words I Trusted You performed over and over again.
I wanted to share this because I always loved this performance. Not just because I find it funny but because I think you gotta be pretty gutsy to be a young up and coming comedian, you get a chance to be on national television, for all you know, you may never get another chance to be on television ever again. So do you bring out your best jokes in hopes of 'knocking 'em dead?' - No you just say screw it and sing I Trusted You for almost 4 minutes.
In that respect I think this is a ballsy and brilliant performance that's entertaining as hell.
And in that same spirit here's another clip of a half naked Andy Kaufman performing Slim Whitman's Rosemarie on the David Letterman Show. It's almost as if he's daring you to be entertained. So strangely brilliant.
" ...Truth is, as a professional guitarist, I have never been in a situation that required reading [music] for a performance either in the studio or live." - Dave Eichenberg, professional musician, composer, and contributor to the official Seymour Duncan blog at www.seymourduncan.com/blog
For guitarists the question of whether of not to learn to read standard notation, or 'sheet music' depends largely on what kind of guitar player you want to be. If you want to be a classical guitarist, or do any kind of work with an orchestra or in the theater then definitely yes. But if you want to be in a band with your friends or just want to learn to play your favorite songs then you may be far better off just learning tab.
To play a piece of music in standard notation on guitar can take some time. Standard notation only gives you the names of the notes to be played. Which strings to play, what frets and what fingerings are left for you to figure out on your own.
Guitar tab tells you 'where' to play the notes, which strings and which frets, and assuming the tab is correct, you can play a song in the same way the original artist played it. It's great for learning guitar as it's easier and faster to learn as opposed to standard notation. While guitar tab does not give you the fingerings to use. Knowing which frets and which strings to use gives you more than enough information to be able to figure it out. It gives you a headstart on the fingerings as opposed to just having the names of the notes.
Standard notation does have an advantage over tab in that the rhythms and timings are not built into the guitar tabs. Unless you already know the song very well, you have to listen to the song while you're reading the tab. In standard notation, the timing is built into the notes themselves. With time and practice you can eventually play songs you've never heard of and even play songs from non-guitar sheet music.
Music is a language that can be spoken (played), written or read. Some people say that musicians read music and guitar players read tabs. I don't find this entirely true all the time. There are plenty of famous musicians like Paul McCartney, who can't read music. And I have never seen or heard of someone in a band walking into practice with a page of sheet music expecting everyone else to immediately be able to read and play this song they just wrote. Conversely, I've also never seen or heard of someone in a band writing a song, then taking the time to painstakingly transcribe it onto tab for everyone else to learn either. That doesn't happen.
From my experiences the main way music is communicated is mostly by ear. Meaning you come up with a riff, a lick or a chord progression, you bring it to the rest of the band and the others contribute and build around that. It's a collaborative process with the occasional, "What chord was that you just played?", type questions here and there, and thats it.
Learning standard notation will give you a more complete understanding of music, and broadening you're knowledge is a good thing. If you're learning guitar on your own, then tab is the most widely available and easiest to understand. Unfortunately, most of the tabs available on the internet are incomplete or just plain wrong. So you ultimately have to end up relying on your own ears, or your own eyes if you're into watching Youtube for lessons or performances.
Kyle Landsberger / Guitar, Vocals
Brett Davis / Lead Guitar
T-BoNe Jones / Bass Guitar
Jeremiah Landsberger / Drums / Vocals
I just came back from a vacation to Sacramento, California last week, and I got to see my buddies, White Minorities play at Mandango's in Roseville. I've blogged about them before but I'm going to blog about them again because I think anyone into music should know about this band, and I'm always more than happy to give them a plug.
Sacramento, CA, like the rest of Northern California is extremely musically and culturally diverse. The White Minorities reflect this diversity. The band calls their sound Ghetto Metal and it's hardcore, its raw, it's metal, it's funky and if the
venues they play at had a swear jar, there would be enough in it after
their set to buy the entire crowd a round of drinks.
"Prodigal Son"- The latest music video which debuted at their show this past Saturday July 27th at Mandango's in Roseville, CA.
I recently interviewed Bass player and best friend Troy "T-Bone" Jones. Here's what he had to say about the band, their name, their sound, the state of metal in California and some of the big things they have planned in the future:
Guitardedblog.com:
You were originally the manager of the band. How did you end up playing bass?
Tbone:
I was doing a local radio show with my cousin Cameron
and we had our drummer, Jeremiah "Big Red" come on to our show to
promote White Minorities. The band was in it's infancy but already had a
garage recorded demo we played on the air. I was immediately hooked on
what I heard that I decided to go to a jam practice! They said they needed
someone to do sound for them and help out and I volunteered! After a while they asked if I would be their manager
as well and I agreed. Taking over booking and running promotions and
social media.
We had another bass player who wasn't really working
out for the band. He joined as a replacement for the original bass
player who just stopped coming to jam practice because of personal
issues. Everyone in the band at that time jokingly said it would be cool
if I played bass. I had a little previous classical guitar playing in
high school, so I was already a plucker and knew my way around handling a
stringed instrument, so it wasn't completely foreign to start messing
with the bass.
Guitardedblog.com: how long then before you were playing with the band?
T-Bone: It wasn't very long. To be honest I bought my Dime
bag Darrell Razorback bass guitar as manager after we started getting
fed up with the old bass player. After agreeing I'd learn the songs and
be ready in case we let him go. As crude as that sounds, we never had a
real intent on firing him until he dumped half our equipment on Winding
Road and took off leaving it behind. I had to fire him on the spot and
keep Kyle from killing him. Not only was much of our equipment tarnished,
but a poor cat was run over by him when he was fleeing!
Guitardedblog.com: How did you learn to play so quickly?
T-Bone: Kyle and I spend a lot of time together going over
the songs we had at the time and the rhythm of everything. Like I said,
having a little classical guitar experience paid off. In fact bass was
even more comfortable for me then guitar because it fits me better. I'm a
big guy as you know. *note: Troy is 6ft 8 inches tall*
Guitardedblog.com: Tell us about your gear and setup on stage
T-Bone:
We all run some serious setups. I got a Peavey 3620
bass cab. 2 18" Black Widow subs combined with 2 10" Scorpions all in
one cab. Powered by a Peavey Pro 500 bass amp, Compressor/Limiter/Gate
rack, Line 6 bass bod pro rack a sound maximizer. I play mostly my Queen
Bee, a restored 1985 Japanese Fender Precision Bass with active pickups
and my Double scale Dimebag Darrel Razorback bass.
Kyle has a great Marshall stack setup he also plays a kick ass Flying V guitar and uses a Boss effect pedal for his guitar effects. Believe it or not, Kyle has no vocal effects, all those screams are natural
Jeremiah runs a Voice effects pedal and plays a Pearl drum setup. That's how we get all those devil voices and crazy whale song
Brett has a 5152 guitar amp which is sweet and a guitar effects rack and a few pedals, including his new favorite whammy pedal
"8th Floor" - official music video
Guitardedblog.com:
What is "Ghetto Metal?"
T-Bone:
Ghetto Metal isn't a term we coined really but it
seems to fit in describing our style of music. If we want to throw some rap lyrics in our songs we do. If we want to keep it pure thrash, we
do! If we want to play a ballad, we do. Plus the lyrics are always raw
and have a parental advisory quality to them. That's Ghetto Metal!
Guitardedblog.com: Are there any racist connotations to the band name? Talk about that, how the name came about and what it means.
T-Bone: We are not racists. Jeremiah came up with the name of
the band because he grew up in a neighborhood in Sacramento in Oak Park
where amongst his friends he was the only white guy. So he thought of
the name White Minorities. There was talk early on of changing it, but
we all agree it's a name people never forget and hasn't really
negatively affected the band so far.
Guitardedblog.com: I've never heard of a band that had a sign language interpreter. Tell us how you came to have a deaf following.
T-Bone: Well that is an aspect that I contributed. I have a
career as a Sign Language Interpreter. I have many friends who are Deaf
and as an Interpreter I feel obligated to offer our band to the Deaf
world as well as the hearing. Early on my friend and co worker, Heidi,
volunteered and was really into it. After she left I got my long time
friend, Spanky (Carrie Britton) to jump on board. She has been doing at
least every local show since
Guitardedblog.com: For a metal band, you have a large female following. Why do you think that is?
T-Bone:
I have found that girls love to go out and rock!
HAHA! We have a lot of fans of both genders, girls just seem to have fun
at our shows and plus Kyle takes his shirt off most of the time during
the set, so that seems to help!
Guitardedblog.com: Is metal thriving in California these days?
T-Bone:
Metal seems to always thrive! Of course there are
several different sub genres of metal now and everyone seems to have
their favorite. What I like about our band is that we play music that
reaches a wider audience and doesn't limit ourselves to fans of one sub
genre. I think it depends on promotion too! Bands who promote or get good promotion seem to thrive.
"Torment My Soul" - official music video
Guitardedblog.com: Tell us about you're album and how and where it was recorded and produced
T-Bone: Our album was produced in Southern California by the
Great Rich Mouser! He is an experience producer and engineer of over 30
yrs experience. The lead singer of Oleander (another famous Sacramento
Band), contacted us on Myspace after hearing our garage record tracks.
He dug our music and suggested we get our songs recorded by Rich. We
wholeheartedly agreed and went down and recorded our first 3 song demo.
The production quality is outstanding! He is a genius! And he has quite
an impressive studio and priceless equipment to boot!
Guitardedblog: The White Minorities are practically local celebrities in the Sacramento area. I've seen you get recognized at Walmarts and local restaurants, and fans even get White Minorities tattoos. How does social media play a part in building such a loyal fanbase.
a loyal fan gets a White Minorities logo tattoo
T-Bone: Well Social media only helps for ones who use it
correctly. Just posting on the event page walls doesn't cut it. Personal
connections and messages here are still more effective than mass posts
that people may disregard or scroll past and not even see. In the Myspace days we had more than 86,000 friends and dozens of regional Myspace pages. we added people who lived in those towns to those pages
so when we had shows in that region, the local fans would know about it!
We have burned probably over 10,000 demos and have hit the streets like
no other too! Personal connection and physical street promoting is
still the most effective! The old ways are still the best ways!
Guitardedblog: I heard you played a gig in Sacramento that was so successful the bar literally ran out of all its liquor! I've never heard of that happening EVER. Is that true?
T-Bone: Yes
actually it was the last day the bar was open. So yeah we emptied out
what was left in the bar and the owner had to go buy some more from a
liquor store haha! We actually broke the record for sales during a night
in over 30 yrs of operation
It was also a free show haha, that helps
"Muzzle" - official music video
Guitardedblog: You guys just recently made a new music video. How important are music video's in the post MTV era?
T-Bone: I want to hit them from all angles! There are several
reasons why videos are still thriving. Recent technology in Canon
camera technology is one thing. These new video cameras can do 1080 HD
video quality that is almost equal to what professionals can put out.
Also the video editing software is something you can do from home now.
Plus the popularity of Youtube and the advent of Smart phones makes
music videos accessible from anywhere. Don't need MTV anymore!
Guitardedblog: Tell us about some of the exciting new projects you're guys are working on
T-Bone:
A couple I can't really say exactly at the moment,
I'll just say we are trying to get our music on some movie soundtracks
and video game soundtracks and also working on getting a European Tour
and Distribution deal. In that regard, we are making a video press kit
about ourselves and making new physical press kits to distribute to
sponsors, labels, etc. We also plan on doing more videos and recording
an E.P. in the near future
You can download White Minorities musicfrom I-Tunes, amazon or CD Baby
I get slammed a lot through comments, email and in person about some of the things I say on this blog.
I'm almost 40 years old, give me a break!
I'm middle aged and set in my ways. My waistline is expanding and my hair is graying. I listen to the classic rock station and remember when most of the songs were just released, and first played on the "regular" rock station. The year I was born Led Zeppelin released "Houses of the Holy," and Pink Floyd released, "Dark Side of the Moon." I remember the night John Lennon died. I saw Metallica in Concert back when they still had long hair.
I'm the musical equivalent of the old man yelling at kids to "get the hell of my lawn."
I'm 40 years old, I don't want to be at a concert with a bunch of teenagers. If I go to a concert I want to be around people my age. Just like when I was a teenager, I didn't want to be at a concert or listening to music that a bunch of 40 year olds listened to.
I also don't want to walk around as a 40 year old man pretending I'm still in late teens/early 20's. Some people may be able to do that convincingly, but thats just not the kind of 40 year old I want to be.
Now I'm not saying that all new music sucks. I'm sure there are some great acts out there doing outstanding work these days. I just don't feel the need to go seek them out. I'm set in my ways. I already have a ton of great music on my I-Tunes these days. I like what I like and I'm entitled to my opinions.
I'm married and have a full-time job and kids. I don't have the time to surf Youtube or Itunes all day looking for new artists, just like when I was teenager and could spend all day long on MTV. I barely have the time to keep up this stupid blog.
I've been accused of being closed minded and not just because I don't listen to a lot of new music but also because I don't like other genres like country music. After all why should I knock them for writing a hit song when what the hell did I ever write?
All I'm going to say is that at my age I think I'm allowed to be a little set in my ways. I think it would be more absurd for a 40 year old man to like every single little teenage music fad that came out. I'm like a fine wine. I've been aged and season to like what I like.
If you're young and think I'm just a closed minded fool, then all I gotta say is, You'll get there too someday.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion. and I'm entitled to mine. But still geez, try to take it easy on the hatred sometimes. If you're that bent out of shape by what I write about, don't read it. Or go write your own blog about it.
On second thought...keep reading, I need the readers.
Black Sabbath perform at US Airways Center in Phoenix on Friday, August 30, 2013.
