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March 13, 2009

Bish Bash Bosh

Okay, considering I was going to take a break from blogging, I seem to have been posting rather a lot lately! I have 10 minutes, so I figured I'd grab myself a coffee and bash out a couple of things.

First off, news to me today was that Placebo have found themselves a new drummer and are in the studio recording a follow-up to the most-wonderful "Meds". They're playing loads of non-UK festivals, but fingers crossed for some tour dates in Blighty over the summer!

Next up, Wacko Jacko at the O2. We have tickets... along with a significant proportion of other Londoners. I wasn't going to go, but Tim insisted. I WILL HAVE FUN (I've been told!)

Thirdly, I was back at Rockschool last night. Just 4 of us in class. The focus of the lesson was on muting, both in terms of using left/right hands to mute non-struck strings to stop them from ringing out and also karate-chop muting with the right hand as part of a strumming pattern. I'm useless at the latter, so I need to practice. We had been told that there would be no Ritual Humiliation (ie performances of the songs we're supposed to be learning) but Teach pulled a 180 with half an hour to go and we had to stand up and do our thing. I have to say that in the three weeks I've not been to class, the other guys have really improved. I've definitely fallen behind. At this point I'm supposed to have 3 songs down and be working on a 4th. I reckon I have 3 half-songs down and no clue about another. Joy, joy!

What else? In 'product' news I've ordered myself some 'Fret Doctor'. Red's fingerboard is really drying out and needs some TLC. Damn high-end guitars! Apparently you just use your finger to smear on a dab here and there, wait, wipe off the excess and bingo! Fingerboard perfection! We'll see how well it works. I'm not one for using too many products like this, but I've heard good things about Fret Doctor and historically I've shied away from 'the other solution' of using lemon oil as I remember reading somewhere that the unfinished Les Paul necks don't like it... I may have misread that, but it stuck in my mind for some reason, freaking me out.

And finally, I ordered an amp cover for the Blackstar HT-5 Combo from Silverstone. Don't want to risk getting dust in my pots, do I?

Hmmm... must be coming up on concert season, too! Lyle Lovett next weekend, followed by Jason Mraz then the Derek Trucks band in both London and Man-chest-er! Good times!

6 comments:

Furtheron said...

Re Kings of Leon - buy it, I think it a really good album

Istvanski said...

Blogging's too addictive - step away from the pc, slowly now...easy does it.

I hope Wacko doesn't mime the words when you see him.

Ken Skinner said...

I was thinking about making up a 'Will Sh*g for Jesus Juice" t-shirt, but then thought maybe not...

It's a shame that we're both over 16. I hear that MJ wanted to let kids in for free...

Aunt Jackie said...

I love Blogging. I thought about taking a break too because I was thinking nobody really read anymore, but really it should be for my enjoyment first then for others, so I should just chill.

We do what we can when we can and enjoy life, no regrets.

I wish I could just feel more creative lately though... where's my muse?

Ken Skinner said...

I think my problem was that after coming home from New Orleans I was brimming with creativity but it wasn't directed towards this, just randomly spraying out into the cosmos.

I like blogging, but I was in the mood to ride the wave, wherever it might take me.

And Spring is definitely on the way over here. Everything's coming back to life and it's a wonderful time of year for me :-)

Ken Skinner said...

@Further: have ordered the last 2 KOL CDs... we shall see!