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Nicklab

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Everything posted by Nicklab

  1. There are a handful of Police songs that seem to resonate. Was the Police reunion tour a big deal? Sure. To Police fans, at least. As far as their truly classic songs? I think there a handful of truly great Police songs: "Roxanne", "So lonely", "Walking on the moon", "King of pain", "Every breath you take", etc. Personally I don't feel like "Synchronicity II" is one of those great songs. The funny thing is that I used to really like the song, but it just hasn't held up over the years. At least not for me. To my ears it sounds dated. Some of that is the production, obviously. There are things on the Ghost in the machine album that sound similarly dated, and that's probably because of some of the synth sounds.
  2. So I've been checking out "Lost on the river" by a group called The New Basement Tapes. This project has a cool backstory. Bob Dylan's music publisher came into possession of a collection of Dylan's lyrics from the time when he was recovering from a motorcycle accident. Dylan wrote very prolifically during this period. And he recorded a fair amount of those with The Band that went on the become known as "The Basement Tapes". But some of those songs were only ever conceived as lyrics. Enter producer T-Bone Burnett. He was given those lyrics and assembled some amazing talents to record the material: Elvis Costello, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. The project wound up being a collaboration on many fronts. Dylan provided the lyrics, but generally speaking the artist who sang lead wrote the music for that particular song. All in all it's a pretty cool take on some Dylan songs that hadn't seen the light of day since about 1967. Showtime also premiered a special on the production of the record, and that aired last night. I caught some of it, and as always, it was great to see some really talented people at work in the studio in varying capacities. And it left me thinking that I may have found a new favorite drummer in Jay Bellerose.
  3. As some of you may know I've been on something of a musical sabbatical for the last year or so. This was due in large part to the birth of our daughter and the realization that I just did not have the time to devote to playing with an original act anymore. That decision was bittersweet, because I genuinely loved working with Starnes & Shah during my tenure with them from 2010 - 2013. One of the the last things I did with them was some recording for their new record, Shilling for Dreamtown. I laid down bass parts for 5 songs on the album which came out in October of last year. To be honest, I really had not listened to the record since I got some copies from the band prior to the release. The decision to quit was very tough for me, and it made listening to the record almost unthinkable for some time. But then I saw some news about an upcoming S&S gig. It was one of their biggest shows to date with an opening slot in a theater for a nationally known act. I was genuinely excited for the girls with this news because during my tenure we had only been playing clubs, and moving to a theater stage and an opening slot was a great opportunity for them. Even though I wasn't going to be able to attend the show, it did give me the motivation to finally take a serious listen to the new record. It definitely left me very happy and optimistic for the direction of the band following my departure. So with that, here are two of those 5 cuts on the new Starnes & Shah album that I recorded in December 2012 and January 2013. Soundcloud - Starnes & Shah - "Gatling Girl" Soundcloud - Starnes & Shah - "24 Million"
  4. Tom, the link takes me to a Quicktime page and the video is not found. Wally Had the same problem. The link was to YouTube's mobile site, which is a little weird to access from a desktop. Check out this page:
  5. Starnes & Shah just released our new single today with yours truly on bass. It's called "24 Million". You can check out the preview on iTunes for now. For this track I played my Fender American Standard Precision bass 5 string strung with D'Addario Chromes. My sound was a combination of a Radial JDI into the board and an amp channel that used a vintage Ampeg B-15. The B-15 was mic'd with an EV RE-20.
  6. Great stuff Nick!! Really nice sound cool Harmony vocal makes me think of Jellyfish with female vocal. Thank you for the kind words, Seamy! The girls are amazing singers. And the songs they've written have made playing them a lot of fun. And it turns out that they've posted more songs from that session on YouTube.
  7. Nick, I really, really enjoyed that! Very good song, love your bass playing and tone. Very cool stuff - check your PM. Love the bass playing during the solo of the first song - some cool stuff you are doing there! This sounds better than the stuff with your singer (and I liked his voice). Is this your wife? You guys have a good, full sound for this setting! [edit]Here's my band's rendition of Johnny Lang's "Lie To Me" - this is the track I alluded to in my "small epiphany" thread: Lie To Me I still need to find the sweet spot to place the recorder! Bass line is somewhat shaky towards the end because I was focused too much on the backings Cool version of "Lie to me"! Now, do you have a female singer in the band? Because it sounds like there's a female voice on some of the backing vocals. Oh, and did that link I sent you work for you, David?
  8. Nick, I really, really enjoyed that! Very good song, love your bass playing and tone. Very cool stuff - check your PM. Thanks a lot, David! That particular song is one of my favorites to play live. And it's kind of a funny story, too. I've been playing with S&S now for about 3 years, but that particular song was featured on the record that came out about 6 months before I joined up. Apparently, the part I came up with totally transformed the song, and now it's something of a bass feature tune during gigs. For now, I think my take on "Precious" is relegated to the stuff we've put up on YouTube. We have recorded some gigs live to multi-track, but the prospect of releasing a live record doesn't seem like a priority right now. And since I've been getting some more new songs from Dania recently, I don't think we'll be revisiting old tunes on the next studio album. But I can hope!
  9. +1 Honest moment: I've come close to doing the same thing a bunch of times. What's worse, is if I'm really feeling the groove my legs get a little loose, and how I've managed to NOT FALL is really beyond me. Props to you for not falling, too!
  10. The video's a little deceiving there. There were some gobos around the kit, but I could definitely see him from my spot in the room. The drummer for this session, Chris Infusino, has some serious credits to his name. He's super solid, and he's got a great feel.
  11. Please. That drummer makes everyone in the band sound amazing!
  12. Here's a Starnes & Shah rehearsal session that we shot at the recording studio where we made our most recent record, Red Brick Tide. This tune is called "Precious face & familiar bride". [video:youtube] Here's my gear rundown for this particular track: BASS: Fender roadworn Jazz bass w/ Lollar pickups AMP: Ampeg PF-500 Head CAB: Eden D-210XLT The cab was mic'd with an EV RE-20, and I played this tune with a pick (Fender Heavy).
  13. Off kilter sounding "look at me" keyboards, great simple hooks, edgy vocals. Definately smells like Cars! Even the bass line sounds like something Benjamin Orr would write! That's really one of the few riff-based tunes in our repertoire. Thank the Shah half of Starnes & Shah for coming up with that one!
  14. I'm always a little surprised when people draw comparisons with the Cars. But it's kind of cool, too.
  15. Here's some of my live playing with Starnes & Shah: [video:youtube] We'll be playing in NYC again next week.
  16. Here goes! I've had the good fortune to be playing wiht a pretty cool duo called Starnes & Shah for close to the past 2 years. Over the summer we went into the recording studio to record Red Brick Tide. Sorry, I don't have full song samples available for listening at this time.
  17. WOOHOO!!!! Yankees Win The World Series!!!
  18. ZOMG what a game! A pitchers duel between the Twins and the Yanks, and scoring is tight. Hope the Yanks can hold on to win their part of the ALDS.
  19. I've got one very strong recollection of Dave Holland. He was playing with Miles Davis at this Miles Davis & Friends show in Paris. It's available on video somewhere, and I remember watching it on PBS. I believe it's Miles in Paris Anyhow, it's Miles playing with an amazing lineup. Dave Holland on upright, Wayne Shorter on tenor sax, and I think Bill Evans was on soprano sax. The tune? "All Blues". Easily one of the most recognizable tunes in all of jazz, and not just in Miles' career. But these guys are plowing through the tune at such an unbelievably fast tempo that it killed the song. And something about that still irks me to this day, and I associate it so much with Dave Holland and the way he played.
  20. I had that happen to me in the mid 90's when Clinton was in NYC. The cops wouldn't even let you step off of the sidewalk. As for me? I've been rediscovering the joys of vinyl the past few days. I'm listening to a copy of Pink Floyd's Meddle right now, in fact. And there is definitely something to be said for the warmth of vinyl. Anyhow, I took a road trip with a couple of friends down to Philly for some record shopping and picked up some of my favorite albums on vinyl for outrageously low prices. I was amazed at some of the records I was able to score for just $5. A double album of Bill Evans rarities that I've never seen on CD. The Beatles White Album. An album with Paul Chambers and John Coltrane sharing the credits. Stevie Wonder's Songs in the key of life. A couple of Badfinger records. Miles Davis' Round about midnight. And almost every one of these records was only $5. Some of the jackets are worn, but the records play perfectly well with a little cleaning. It really is amazing that people were so ready to abandon a perfectly good music medium.
  21. 5.0 earthquake in Los Angeles less than an hour ago. Hope any SoCal Lowdowners are okay.
  22. So I've been playing at this jam lately. It's mostly blues, but they throw in some standards. Enough so that I've started bringing my Real Book with me. Anyhow, the bandleader knows some pretty serious people who sit in from time to time. So I googled a couple of the guys that I've gotten a chance to play with. It turns out that one is the son of fusion guitarist Larry Coryell (Murali Coryell), and another is Tony Levin's brother Pete. I'm almost glad I didn't know this when I went onstage with these guys, because I did a double take when I found that out and who knows what my reaction would have been on the bandstand.
  23. Och! The keeper rules on the Striped Bass are ridiculous. You have to catch a striper that's nearly as big as your boat in order to keep the damned thing. Nice fish, Moot!
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