Death in Vegas

So with Kevin Dubrow's death Jon and I got talking. He was found dead in his home in Vegas. You don't move to Vegas to settle down. You either work there or party there. I imagine he did a lot of both. The conversation moved to what other rock stars died in Vegas?

So far we've got:

Kevin Dubrow
John Entwistle
Tupac

Who else?

Behringer Pedal Copies

J&R are discounting all of the Behringer pedal copies. For the uninitiated Behringer, a very inexpensive German pro audio company, recently started making reversed engineered knockoffs of very popular and expensive pedals for rock bottom prices.

I had been rather intrigued by these but never bit. Right now at J&R all their stock is selling for about $25. These include sansamp copies, Electro-Harmonix copies, Boss copies and a line 6 guitar pod copy.

I bought a Boss EQ copy and the EHX Big Muff. The picture of the "Behringer Vintage Distortion," aka the Big Muff, is on the left.
So I broke it open this weekend. Notice the silver color. Unlike the EHX original this is not metal, but silver colored plastic. Also take note of the small metal stomp in the middle. This is in fact real metal, but not a real selector switch. You know the satisfying click of putting your foot down on one of those stomps and getting the tactile response of a connection being made? No click. It is all for show. It triggers a silent and loose a/b switch. It gets the job done, but I would never use this live. I suspect these pedals are all digital and just fancy plastic houses for a programmed ROM chip.

How does it sound? Like a fucking Big Muff! I've already recorded with it. The thing is cheap, morally suspect and not durable enough to be part of a live rig, but it sounds like it is supposed to. I imagine it could be A/B'ed against the original and someone would have great difficulty telling them apart. I am intrigued to pick up the Small Stone copy, and the MXR Phaser 90 copy. The EQ is still in its packaging but I will be testing and reviewing soon. If I was a small studio owner, and I guess in some ways I am, I would pick all of these up to have a dirt cheap way to add a lot of pedals to my arsenal for clients.

Upcoming Shows

11/30 Ween
12/1 Mudhoney
12/9 Air Supply
12/18 Dillinger Escape Plan
12/21 Twisted Sister
2/17 School of Rock with Gibby Haynes performing an evening of Butthole Surfers!!
3/14 IRON MAIDEN!!!!!!
6/20 The Cure

Feud Live at Sin-e July 2003

As most people who read this blog know, I played in a pretty decent instrumental band called the Feud for about 8 years. We were loud, young, occasionally pretentious, and often straddled the line between indie and progressive. In the summer of 2003 we played a brief tour to support our second album Language is Technology. We ended at Sine-e in NYC. As the band broke up shortly after this may be our last show, or very close to it. Update: Lee confirmed this was in fact the last Feud show ever.

At this point we were a four piece band, having been at 7 members at our most bloated. The core of the band was Larry, Bone and myself. Our drummer was a talented but ludicrously insane guy named Jay. He bailed on the tour less than a week before we were supposed to get in the van. Our friend, and a much better drummer than Jay, Lee Diamond joined up at the last minute to learn the set and save our asses. He learned the entire set in less than 72 hours and hit the road with us. Lee is a diligent archivist and records just about everything he is involved in. Shows, rehearsals, everything. He had a small cassette recorder with him he used for recording our shows.

Tonight Lee sent me mp3s of the Sin-e show. While listening to it I am remembering how much I loved this lineup of the band. This is the tightest the Feud ever was, period. At best we were an inconsistent live act. We improvised a lot, we were very temperamental, and we all got way too drunk for our own good. Sometimes you would get a world class show, sometimes you would get awesome chaotic noise, and sometimes you would get amateur hour. For the two weeks we were on the road in 2003 we were a sick well oiled machine.

The sound is incredibly raw as it is from a cassette but I made an attempt to improve it. Briefly for the nerds I did an analysis of the tape noise/distortion and ran a noise reduction program to kill most of it. I then used some EQ to bring out more guitars and kill some of the muddy tape frequencies. Lastly I used a touch of compression to bring back some of the energy that was lost by the noise reduction.

Download the zip file of the remastered show here via a yousendit link.

The Feud Live at Sin-e July 27th 2003

1 Intro
2 Citizen Beautiful Alien (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
3 XYR Fingers for the Young Ghost Allegiance (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
4 N'finite Rug (Larry Bass, Bone Guitar, Seth Keys, Lee Drums)
5 Don't Be Such a Fucking Harness Joyce (Larry Bass, Bone and Seth Guitar, Lee Drums)
6 Le Passion de Noam Jamski (Seth Bass, Larry and Bone Guitars, Lee Drums)
7 Desized (Larry Bass, Seth Guitars, Bone Keys and Guitars, Lee Drums)