Archive for September, 2009

The Furnace Project

September 28, 2009 by john No Comments »

This week we’ll be replacing our furnace at home. The current unit is approaching 30 years old and has been giving us trouble each winter, resulting in an annual visit from the repairman. This year we decided it was time to replace the unit with a new 2 stage model, and correct some of the existing limitations with the duct routing and air handling. I spent most of yesterday in the attic installing plywood runways along the long axis of the house, and moved the insulation out of the way to make it easier for the installers to walk around up there. I also moved the smoke detector in the hallway to make space for the air return that will be mounted in the ceiling.

The actual installation project is scheduled to begin Wenesday morning and should be complete by mid-day Friday. I’m looking forward to having this project complete despite the price tag and messy inconvenience of having to do it.

 

KISS : 35th Anniversary Tour

September 25, 2009 by john 1 Comment »

kiss_army
I happily admit that I’ve been a KISS fan since 1975. It’s a long and silly saga, but for me they remain the embodiment of rock. It’s amazing to me that the band most feared and demonized in my Catholic upbringing is now considered PG-13 and completly innocuous. What’s changed? Just us. The band remains faithful to their original “business plan”: be loud, be scary but safe, be larger than life, and put on a great show.

Wrapped in their comic book personas, the band has been an interesting trailblazer for the stadium rock shows that have followed. I would argue that there are bands who deliver a trippier live experience with lasers or complex staging (e.g., Pink Floyd) but few bands deliver the massive rock concert carnival ride of KISS. It’s like getting on a great roller coaster… just the right balance of thrills and pure fun. They’re heading my way in November to play a show at the Key Arena, and I’m really looking forward to it.  And yes, I still am in favor of occasionally rocking and rolling all night, provided I can sleep in the next day.

 

New DMQ Web Site

September 24, 2009 by john No Comments »

DudleyManloveI’m in the process of building a new web site for The Dudley Manlove Quartet. This is an interesting exercise in design and development and I’m looking forward to launching it in October. Stay tuned…

 

Thoughts On The 9/18 Dudley Manlove Quartet Gig

September 21, 2009 by john No Comments »

DudleyManloveFriday night The Dudley Manlove Quartet performed at the Fremont Oktobertfest. This was an enjoyable event for many reasons, and being a festival it had a few funny aspects. Our band dressing room was the back of the stage. As in: the area behind the band currently performing. I decided it didn’t matter. It’s Oktoberfest in Fremont. How out-of-place is some guy standing around in his underwear?

Once we started playing things went great. The set is sounding good and I think we’re getting really solid on the material. During the Second set we played “Sister Christian” by Night Ranger. When the song began there were some people in the audience who were unsure whether we were actually going to play the song, or whether it was a gag on the audience. No, we really did it, and by the time we got the second chorus everybody was into it. The Neil Diamond songs are always crowd pleasers too. Closing with “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” always gets enormous audience response though I suppose the beer garden helped a bit… 🙂

My amp spent a few days in the shop last week and it seems to be much better. I am beginning to think seriously about getting a flight case for it. This is an amp I intend to use for a long time and I’d like to keep it in good shape. Hopefully I can find a case at a decent price.

 

Ready For Tonight

September 18, 2009 by john No Comments »

Well, hopefully all my music gear is rested and ready, because tonight The Dudley Manlove Quartet will be playing at Oktoberfest in Fremont. I’m looking forward to rocking the streets of Fremont with our groovy music. Join us for a mug of cheer and some fine tunes!

 

Amp Spa

September 14, 2009 by john No Comments »

spaMy amp is currently enjoying a week of spa treatment at Velvetone Valve Works in Seattle. It’s hard to find a really great amp technician and I’m pleased that Jeff is available here in my home town to work his special magic. Since I bought this amp a few years ago I’ve occasionally wondered if there was a little more goodness to be be teased out. I’m looking forward to hearing it once it’s been retubed, rebiased and generally checked over for loose solder connections and other evil spirits. I am thinking of buying a flight case for this amp to keep my amp in good shape for years to come. Anyone happen to have a spare flight case for a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe sitting in your garage???

 

Thoughts On The 9/9 Dudley Manlove Quartet Gig

September 11, 2009 by john No Comments »

On Wednesday we played at the Tulalip Casino in Marysville. Mid-week shows are something of a gamble (appropriate for a casino I suppose) and we weren’t certain how big a crowd to expect. We arrived to discover the casino was well-organized but not good at communicating their plan to us. We had to figure out some quizzical things through investigation / guesswork but eventually we got set up and ready to rock. It was billed as “80’s Night” which resulted in the addition of several songs to our set [Sister Christian, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Working For The Weekend, Ride Like The Wind, Cars, Any Way You Want It] and some other songs being resurrected from the back pages of our book.

The crowd was big and enthusiastic, and included a few friends who made the trek Northward for the gig. Edgars cracked me up with his quick wit. Also in attendance were two special friends from my first professional music experience: Jim Cull and John Jansen. Jim is a great vocalist and John is a wonderful country guitarist and musical sage (inducted into the Western Swing Hall of Fame in 1996). They were both members of the country / Elvis band I played in as a teenager. Seeing them was a treat. I still refer to John’s great guitar licks when I’m trying to come up with something new in the 1 Uppers.

My broken pinky continued to hamper good playing. I taped up to reinforce the break, but it is still quite sore. Some of my solos were difficult, especially the outtro solo in “American Girl” which included a lot of pain and clams (and me yelling “ow! bloody hell!”). Thankfully we had ice backstage and I dunked my offending digit to keep the swelling under control. It seems to be getting better daily and I’m hoping to be back to at least 75% of functionality within another week. My amp misbehaved a bit at the night went on. I couldn’t get a good clean tone during our last set and my overall headroom seemed to be severely limited. I’ve already scheduled my amp for a weekend at the spa and hopefully it’ll come back tanned, rested and ready to roar.

The show was a great success and we intend to play there again. Hopefully we’ll start doing weekends rather than mid-week gigs.

 

Amp Maintenance Time

September 10, 2009 by john No Comments »

hot_rod_deluxeAs the owner of a tube amp, it’s pretty much my expectation that I’ll occasionally need to do some maintenance to keep it happily purring. Last night I noticed that my clean headroom seems to be fading and that the amp sounds a little anemic. My assumption is that I need to get new tubes, which is no big deal. But I’m also aware that all amps have idiosyncracies based on the specific model, and these usually require some specialized knowledge for troubleshooting. My amp is a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and has some well-documented areas where things need to be tightened up or re-soldered. I know it’s strongly recommended to re-solder the connections on the tube sockets and on the op-amp switching circuit on the preamp board. I had the latter work performed earlier this year, but I am quite certain the tube sockets have never been inspected. At a Dudley Manlove Quartet show this summer my amp fell on its back a few times (!) while powered up and hot (!) on a very hot summer day (!) on a stage that was bouncing up and down quite a bit (!). Good heavens. I can’t believe my amp and its tubes survived that crazy ordeal and the fact that it needs a little TLC hardly surprises me.  At any rate, I’ve been wanting to get it to the shop for a few months and I finally have a window of time when I can get it looked at. Hopefully when I get it back it’ll be back to the beautiful tone machine that I know and love.

 

Thoughts On The 9/5 Dudley Manlove Quartet Gig

September 8, 2009 by john No Comments »

DudleyManloveLast Saturday I played at the Tractor Tavern with The Dudley Manlove Quartet. This was another of those amazing gigs with a fun band, where everything went very well and a great time was had. I played this show with a broken pinky on my left hand, which made for a lot of on-the-fly chord voicing changes. In order to facilitate any sort of usefulness in that finger it was fortified. I bent it into an approximately correct position for playing, and my wife put on a layer of pre-wrap followed by some strips of athletic tape. The end result was that I had enough stability to play the few songs that really required four fingers, and for everything else I just kept that finger off the fretboard. What remains now is to keep off it for a few days and do my best to get through the next gig on Wednesday.

At the show Saturday we played many songs that were recent additions to the set list. It made for some fun surprises for the audience and a number of people commented afterwards that the enjoyed hearing those songs. My impression of the gig was very positive. I think we’re sounding better at each successive performance and it makes me look forward to every time we get together. This week we’ll be playing at the Tulalip Casino on Wednesday 9/9. Come on out and join us for a mid-week party!

 

Some Thoughts On Injury And Recovery (Playing On A Busted Finger…)

September 2, 2009 by john 1 Comment »

IMG_0091-smallLast Sunday I injured the pinky finger on my left hand, which led to a doctor’s office visit for xrays and a tetanus shot. The good news is that I’ll be able to play the Saturday evening gig with Dudley Manlove Quartet, just with a bit of pain. I’m planning to tape the knuckle to help moderate the pressure and hopefully between ice / ibuprofen / red wine it’ll be a bearable evening. But it raises an interesting question about “playing through the pain” and I want to offer some thoughts on the topic. I’ve played gigs in some memorably injured and sick conditions. One of the things I absolutely will not do is risk long-term damage to play a show. This finger injury is a situation where playing will definitely be painful, but I’m not at risk of further damage. It’s likely that doing the gig will mean a slightly longer recovery time, but I am willing to live with some discomfort as long as I can play – and as long as I know it’s going to get better. I’m a musician with a long-haul perspective; I intend to continue playing for the rest of my life, and there’s no rational reason to take risks just to make a gig happen.