So we ended up finding out this interesting juxtaposition between a working musician, Bill Lonero, and a club owner. Bill, the musician, laid out his position in a 15 point manifesto. It was a pretty good manifesto. It was reasoned well. It was articulated well. I found it to be a little snarky with respect to the club owner's perspective (by writing "maybe you shouldn't be hosting live music?"), but at the same time I can totally understand where he's coming from.

We missed April Fools' both because of the too cool news of Les Paul's old pickup winder being put back into service, and because of our work on the Amp Fix-up we'd done.

No more! We will be better prepared next year, we promise! Please enjoy this comic. We got it from one of the many "musician groups" we're a member of on Facebook. See you Monday!

So you may remember that we had taken in a 1980s Randall "RG100 Classic". While we didn't take any pictures of the amplifier when it first arrived here at Thermionic Studios, we did take some after we'd broken it down a bit for repair. We also took pictures of some of the repair work, including using Bondo where necessary.

Well, here's the finished product.
(More pictures and many more notes inside...)

*Not an April Fools' story:

Throbak Electronics is a company that we've been following for a while. We were going to post something else, but we thought this story was too cool and felt we had to post it as soon as we could. In the wake of the Les Paul Estate Sale, Throbak has recently posted that they obtained yet another vintage Gibson pickup winder. This is *THE* pickup winder that Les Paul took from the Gibson factory when Gibson left Kalamazoo and relocated to Nashville.

We never watched Decline of Western Civilization Part I, The Punk Years. But we've seen Decline, Part II: The Metal Years. We were aware of a Part III, but never found it to be showing or were able to get a DVD of it...

Look no longer. Announced TODAY. Decline of Western Civilization, Parts I, II, and III will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on June 30th.

Rolling Stone has announced the release and has a brief story about it.
(YouTube continues)

Not everyone who applies effort into learning a musical instrument does so with the intention to make heaps and heaps of money. Everyone says that they do it for "the love of the music". That "love of the music" can be a convenient cover for:

• Males who are looking for "enhanced opportunities" with females (see Lemmy Kilmister)
• The adulation of a crowd.
• A suitable outlet for expression that would otherwise be antisocial.
• Therapy.

And then there are some who actually do it for the love of the music...

Once you've heard "We're Not Going To Take It" by Twisted Sister, you never forget that drum intro. That song was an anthem of rebellion for many in the early 1980s and beyond. Pero was declared dead yesterday at 11:00 am; apparently of a heart attack while asleep on the tour bus of a part-time band he participated in, "Adrenaline Mob".

More information found at the L.A. Times website HERE.
(Continues)

Steve Albini was recorded giving his thoughts on what one has to do in order to record drums well. This video was taken around 2005 at a convention called "Tape Op Con".

There's quite a wealth of information here in the video considering it's only about 30 minutes. Steve talks about such things as dealing with phase cancellation, using compressors as noise limiters, using a de-esser instead of a noise gate...

(Phase Cancellation explained briefly inside!)

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

Remember the Wizard of Oz?

You'll be amazed at the pictures this site shared:
http://www.she-wolf.eu/technik-fake-boxen-wir-decken-auf-die-ganze-wahrheit/

I wanted to share this interesting article I found shared on a posting on Facebook. As you know, we're all about artists getting their practice routines down so that they are practicing more efficiently, better, faster, and coming to a place where at the end of their practice, there is greater reward. Increased practice discipline, while it can create its own reward, can be taken to extremes. I've read a fanzine article or two about musicians practicing eight hours a day.