Here in Sweden is this funny little advert showing an aircraft carrier preparing for what we presume to be a harrier jet take off before cutting to a Wright-Brothers style plane slowly ambling away. The catch phrase being "do you have a TV that's HD ready but no HD channels to watch?"
Not a diss to HD, which I'm sure is good but this can be related to music also when it comes to the fact that.....it doesn't matter how "HD" your TV is, it makes no difference if the program you're watching is shit!
Now, I'm musically raised in a garage and squats - I played gigs with 3-watt amps using the overload and busted speaker as distortion, I recorded demos by breaking the overwipe function on a tape recorder and overdubbing ad infinitum - sticking my head in a tumble dryer to act as reverb.
Basically we're taking steampunk to whole new meaning. All my bands in my younger days just took whatever we could find/afford/borrow and used it...and the thing is, it all worked! And I mean worked, like if I listen to the stuff we made now-a-days it still sounds ok, it sounds like what we wanted it to sound like.
I had played literally hundreds of gigs before I found myself stood on a stage with a monitor...a monitor! Sellout!
These days in music we've got so much technology and bits to add to our other bits that loop round and do this and that, it's easy to spend all the time getting that right and forget about the fucking music!
Lets look at some examples of great records, how many "classic" records had that technology? Did BATHORY have any at all? No they used the same amp, all plugged in at once to record an album and invented a new genre! Did THE STOOGES work for ages to get that "just right" sound or did they just plug in, turn it up and go for it? How did MC5 perform?
You know what I'm saying. I have spent many days and hours playing roadie or stagehand for various bands both big and small and seen all sorts of boxes and contraptions that I thought "why the fuck does he need that?" those huge guitar effects pedal boards always confused me because no matter how many they had I could never hear any difference in the playing - 1000 pedals...I am the best!
I dunno, I don't need sticks to walk 'cos....I can walk. Feelin' me?
I've seen some insane stuff, and I know some people have this infatuation and love for buttons and dials and wires and gadgets that they think they need to play in a band, and others love to be the guy running about setting all the crap up and getting into every single aspect of the definition of the sound - and I know that some people actually make a living out of it and that's fair enough if you're doing what you love but.....why!?!?!?!?
Toni Iommi's guitar sound during the solo on "Paranoid"...what did he use? Answer: None of that crap.
I've seen a drummer wearing big padded headphones for a monitor asking for more drums in his headphones - dude, take the fuckin' headphones off, the drums are those big loud things right in front of you, you'll hear them!
Using a guitar amp the size of a small house then wiring it up through a large PA and several monitors...having to turn the amp down and then standing right front of it and hearing it via the monitors.
I know for some people this sort of thing is a love and for some even an "of course" but for me it's just a pointless waste of time....especially on a small stage in a small venue, even more so if all this cuts into your focus to actually write songs.
Older bands got an album out pretty quick....why? Because they were not sat about pissing around with knobs and buttons for years.
This is why so much good punk is so pure and powerful and good. Amen. Fuck your HD-bands!
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