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zzyxx_eternal
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Name: Keith
Country: United States
State: Michigan
Metro: Kalamazoo
Gender: Male
Interests: Leaving this world with a wrinkled head and a brand new heart.
Expertise: Bedouin fires at night.
Occupation: Assembly/Test
Industry: Manufacturing
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
4/28/2004
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| Led worship again this morning (done it a few times now). Songs included "Calling Out Your Name" by Rich Mullins, "You are So Good to Me" by Waterdeep, "God of Wonders," "Made to Worship," "Dear Refuge of My Weary Soul," and "God of This City." I was still a nervous wreck until practice this morning but it went well. The blues band I played in with some guys from work kind of fizzled out. However, I've been jamming with a couple of friends and we'll see where that goes. Right now my amp needs new tubes - at least I hope that's the problem - so it's out of commission. Pretty crazy to look at where I am now as a musician verses five years ago. I've still got a long way to go but I've grown tremendously. I think it'd be awesome to be in a jam band - what can I say, I like playing ten minute guitar solos.
I'm going to try National Novel Writing Month again this year, but I feel busier than I was last year, so we'll see how it goes. I've got a better idea what I want to write, and I'm a better writer than I was a year ago too.
I'm really excited about The Wheel of Time book 12 coming out next week, but I forgot and accidently made plans the same day! Emily says I should cancel but I can't. She says this book coming out is bigger than Christmas for me, and it's true.
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| Hmmm. Four months since my last post. I think I might need to do a roll call to see if anyone even looks at this anymore.
Today I had a writer's group meeting - our fourth I think now. I've got 4500+ words on my current project, which I hope to double in two weeks. I can see growth in myself as an author - I think what I'm doing now is better than what I did last year. If I'm still doing this in a few years, hopefully I'll be even better.
Also had the first practice for a blues band I'm in. Wish I was a little better on guitar, but I couldn't even begin to play this stuff a year ago.
It's fun having these opportunities. Who knows what will happen with them, but it for now it's fun to have artistic outlets.
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| So I picked up the newly remastered/repackaged version of Pearl Jam's epic debut album "Ten" this week - the two disc, almost-deluxe version (I didn't get the one with the DVD or the cassette of their original demo). I just got the simple 2 disc version. Disc 1 - "Ten" remastered. Disc 2 - "Ten" remixed by producer Brendan O'Brien (sort of a director's cut version, even though O'Brien actually was not involved in the production of this album). O'Brien has since gone on to great notoriety by producing the albums that followed ten, as well as many more seminal rock records in the 90s. O'Brien is so much a part of Pearl Jam's career now that it's only fitting he had a chance to tinker with Ten.
So, disc one is your standard remaster. Louder, more crisp, more up front. You can put this one in your car stereo and probably not notice much of a difference, other than you don't have to crank it up as loud - it's already cranked up for you.
Disc two is basically, "Hey Brendan, you've been pivotal to our career but weren't involved in our first album. Why don't you take a swipe at remixing it just to see how you would have handled it?" The result is a fresh perspective on one of the most important rock albums in the last 25 years.
"Ten" is a classic. It didn't change the world the way Nirvana's "Nevermind" did, but it might possibly outlast it. Thanks to the "rock-n-roll-for-dummies" franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, new generations of fans are becoming aware of bands like Pearl Jam, and albums like this won't fall into the crusty obscurity of an older (and therefore obsolete) generation's version of rock music. This album is absolutely furious, and it topples the rock credibility of whoever today's rock giants are.
I'm not much of an audiophile, but here are my observations about the remix:
The two things that jumped right out to me immediately was that Stone Gossard's guitar was way up in the mix, and the reverb on Dave Krusen's snare was way down. This one-two punch literally changes the angle of the album. The lack of reverb on the drums makes the album far more immediate, puts you right in the room with the band. Furthermore, the emphasis on Gossard's guitar tips the balance from blues in favor of metal.
It's hard to believe the original mix is 18 years old, but that's what we've been listening to. The original mix put Mike McCready's blues-influenced strat sound at the forefront and put Stone Gossard's much chunkier double-humbucker rock/metal in the aft. Perhaps this was an unfair balance - McCready was the lead player, Gossard the rhythm player - and instinctively, come on, we all know rhythm players are just guys who aren't good enough to be lead players. This mix, however, allows the listener to see Gossard was (and still is) an incredible player. His playing is furious. The dude could play.
A new mix after 18 years can also be jarring in spots. When different elements are highlighted, certain parts of the album you're used to hearing fall further in the mix. For instance, McCready's blaring, insane solo in "Once" is brought way up, sounds fantastic. However, some of Krusen's drum stops and fills during that solo kind of disappear in the mix. And later, in "Even Flow," McCready's solo is actually brought down during the instrumental bridge. The emphasis becomes less on the solo - it's almost indestinct - as it is on the band awaiting Vedder's return - just as the video for this song shows the band playing while Vedder takes an extended climb through the stage lights. The song sounds like it could go for 20 minutes or end at any time.
"Black" sounds great.
Basically, hearing a rearranged copy of this classic album only becomes further evidence that Pearl Jam's debut is utterly fantastic. And to think that if Mother Love Bone hadn't come to a demise and Red Hot Chili Pepper's drummer Jack Irons hadn't introduced the boys to Eddie Vedder, the album might not have been.
Despite their youth - this album was made by 5 guys playing as though their lives depended on it. You can hear it in every note. Their souls and life blood went into this album. And no matter how you mix it, it blows any of their modern contemporaries to smithereens. | | |
| 1. For the first time since I finished writing my novel, I let someone read it. They really liked it. I think I still hate it, but now I think I'm willing to let me sister-in-law (a newspaper editor) read it.
2. Someone who read my facebook page discovered I like Eric Clapton so she gave a whole bunch of Clapton tapes to my Mom, who gave them to me and now I've been jamming to some 80s blues/rock in my truck's tape player.
3. I just got the only Bob Dylan studio album I didn't already have. A few more live albums and I'll have every thing he's released.
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