Guitar Talk @ Jason's Blog

Bookmarks: From Demo To Delivery

2011-04-11T10:11:00.003+08:00

Pre production
Song dynamics. Width, depth n height
Preprocessors - frequency, dynamic n time
Prep work - composition, pre, artwork, website asap
Excerpt sets for different genres
Written plan - composition n mixing
The codes
DDPi
Parametric EQ - gain, freq & Q
Shelving EQ
Master on the loudest section first
Macrodynamics - taking care of the relative dynamics of contiguous soft n loud passages

http://www.amazon.com/Demo-Delivery-Mastering-Music/dp/0240811321

Ingredients to a music artiste success

2010-08-17T00:31:00.001+08:00

The following points on key ingredients to an artistes success came up after discussing with a friend on difficulties that a local artiste face.

1. Accessibility to good production

2. Having a good promotional team

3. Good artiste management

4. Good distribution network

5. Proximity to fans

It's not that Singapore doesn't have all the ingredients but rather most local artistes have some of the ingredients missing. Eg. A band invests 17k on producting a cd, leaving no resources to promotion and artiste management.

Some might argue the need to base oneself in your target market to have proximity to fans but I would propose that with cheap air tickets and ability to reach out to audiences online through *casts and *streams, there's a need for a paradigm shift; we've living in a level playing field like never before where distribution has gone global and it's easier than before to go niche for the long tail.

Electric Bridal Chorus

2010-08-12T11:47:00.000+08:00

My friends Royston and Briony asked if I could do an electric version of the Bridal Chorus like the one done by Queen for their wedding in October.

So I suggested to them that I'll do a version that was ringing in my head. Here's the end product.

Electric Bridal Chorus (Here Comes The Bride) by jasonong

I hope to do more versions of this popular wedding march song in time to come.

Guerilla Music -- songwriting

2010-07-24T15:32:00.001+08:00

Have an original tune burning in your head? Always wanted to write your own songs? In this Guerilla Music series, we'll explore some practical ways to get that song from idea to soundbite.

Record on your phone

Have a melody ringing in your head but not around a computer? Use your phone's voice recorder to capture those lines before it fades into memory abyss. For those who dont have any composition tools can also use this method to capture raw arrangments. Eg. Sing n strum recording or simple sequencing using available iPhone apps.

Pairing up with an arranger

Although you may have gotten melodies and lyrics down it is by no means complete. Pair up with a person that you know who can help you do arrangements -- adding/editing musical parts so the songs becomes more polished and dynamically interesting.

Collaborate with a band

Instead of having to handle all musical parts yourself, why not consider collaboration with a good band? Depending on the members, having more heads can boost creativity.

Learn to use a DAW

This is my favourite but it requires prior knowledge of sequencing basics. Softwares like ProTools, Cubase, Logic have lite versions that are affordable. Some of them even comes packaged with an audiobox which is an essential hardware to record vocals and instruments into your computer. Computing power and memory capacity have come to a point where alot of things which were traditionally done on dedicated expensive hardwares can be done on softwares.

Collaborate with others online

The the web becoming more social it has never been easier to find collaborators if you're open to not having full control and full ownership. With high bandwidth becoming more ubiquitous, things that are traditionally bound to desktops are shifting to the "cloud". Dont be surprised to find garageband served up to you as a web application in the near future.

Make up of a music sale -- where the money goes to?

2010-07-23T23:23:00.000+08:00

CD ($18.98)

Label $5.00
Distribution $1.80
Design/Manufacturing $1.00
Artist Royalty $1.50
Mechanical Royalty $0.80
Recording Costs $1.00
Marketing/Promotion $0.90
Retail Profit $3.00

Digital Download ($0.99)

Label $0.47
Distribution Affliate $0.10
Artist $0.07
Producer $0.03
Music Publisher $0.08
Service Provider $0.17
Credit Card Fees $0.05
Bandwidth Costs $0.02

Wow artist do get paid little. At least in the dying CD trade sales of a million copies would generate $1.5million for the artist. But digital download of singles would reap only $70,000, that is if one can rack up a million purchases at all!

The Big 4

2010-07-23T23:11:00.000+08:00

That is the term for the major labels which over the last 10 years have consolidated from the Big 6.

Universal merged with Polygram to form UMVD in 1999. Sony and BMG in 2004. Here are the Big 4s are some labels under their belts.

UMVD -- Universal Music and Video Distribution

Interscope
Geffen
Island/Def Jam
Universal
UMG Nashville
Hollywood
Disney/Buena Vista

Sony BMG

Columbia
Epic
Arista
J Records
RCA
Jive
LaFace
Razor & Tie
WindUp
RCA Label Group Nashville

WEA -- Warner Music Group

Warner Brothers
Atlantic Records
Bad Boy
Roadrunner
WSM/Rhino
V2 Records

EMD -- EMI Group

Blue Note
Capitol Nashville
Capitol Records
Virgin
EMI Latin

Will be interesting to see how these guys can reinvent themselves with the changing tides of digital singles music consumption.

Maximizing Volume In A Song

2010-07-13T20:04:00.002+08:00

Have you ever wondered why volume of music on your cds sounds roughly about the same? Certain types of songs sounds slightly louder? This is because most albums are professionally mastered to achieve maximum volume and punch for airplay. Recently I've been trying to use my Studio One to master my remix of a song written by my bandmate. Still learning but seem to have small success at it. Here are the "before and after" samples of the track.

Before: http://cl.ly/1dNS

After: http://cl.ly/1dYt

Here's some things that I learnt.

1) Have a reference track

Take 1 or 2 songs that you like as reference materials. Watch out for tone and volume of individual instruments.

2) Pan thy instruments

Audio has got spatial components - stereo and frequency. If all instruments are centered in the stereo spectrum then everything gets muddled. Sorta like everybody queueing up in one straight line. Can't see all of 'em yeah? Spread them out over left/right space and they can all shine together.

3) Find the frequency hoggers

I'm using a multiband equalizer to analyze frequency spectrum. Instruments played at a certain octave will use certain frequency range. If there're a few instruments using the same range then you might have to sacrifice volume of some/all of them. Maybe it's better to change the octave of one instrument?

4) Use limiters to overcome clipping

If you look at the waveform of a song, they'll be spikes even after attempting to balance everything out. Good idea to use a limiter which will "push down" the spikes to unity (0 db).

5) Tone & feel of instruments gets excited with volume

Surprisingly without touching the EQ of the individual instruments, balancing the volume of individual instruments brought out the tone of those which has previously been overshadowed by a hogging instrument. Check out how the guitars and drums sound before where the bass was hogging the spectrums. Then feel the difference after the bass has been toned down and volumes leveled!

Music Concerts - It's also the singles market except maybe Singapore

2010-06-30T20:36:00.001+08:00

According to the Music 3.0 blog, music fans in the US are favoring music festivals over regular single act concerts. Why? Festival match the new listening habits - music fans no longer listen to an entire album, they listen to singles. Quote: "There are usually multiple stages, so if you don't like one act, go find another that suits you."

That may be the case in US and Europe but in a music deprived country like Singapore, it's not necessary true. Recent music festivals that I know of only includes WOMAD, MOSIAC, SingFest & Baybeats and I seem to recall more concerts of artistes & bands, courtesy of eventful's weekly emails. In a country where it's hard to get large scale quality concert it's no wonder we're seeing old acts flying in to cash in on fans of yesteryears - old school mega hair rock outfit Firehouse comes to mind with their scheduled concert on this 30th June.

Music Publishing - It's back to the singles market

2010-06-30T19:39:00.002+08:00

Reading an interview except with a music publisher was enlightening. http://music3point0.blogspot.com/2010/06/interview-with-publisher-richard.html

Licensing Fees

There are 3 main types of income in the music industry - Mechanical royalties, Performance income & Synchronization licences.

Mechanical royalties are derived from direct sales of a "physical" copy of music. Eg. sheet music, vinyls, cds, mp3s.

Performance income are derived from playback the music. Eg. live renditions, radio, tv.

Synchronization licences are derived from using music commercially with moving pictures. Eg. soundtracks for movies & tv shows.

Apparently mechanical royalties have been on the dive ($13billion in 1998 vs $8billion in 2008) while synchronization licences have been on the rise. This is due to the increase in tv/cable networks over the years which results in more broadcasts and more shows produced, thus more music used.

It's Back To The Singles Market

Gone are the golden days of buying an album just to get the piece of music that you like. Even if you ignore the fact that most music can be downloaded for free via torrents, digital distribution of music as a business model isn't doing too well as each music stream/download pays too little. The opportunities in the cloud are great but also presents great challenges in monetization. It'll be interesting to see how things evolve in the months/years to come. Needs a google-adsense like tipping point.

$money - Where art thou inspiration?

2010-06-29T20:26:00.002+08:00

A saxophonist that I respected once said to me that "There are no new melodies under the sun, only reused ones...".

That really stuck with me till today. So when I hear an "original" piece of music in my head, it's most probably credited from some songs that I've heard somewhere before. I'm the kind who'll listen to any music that you throw at me so that could have helped amassing a catalogue of tunes & grooves in my subconscious.

50 cents change in my pocket

It was a nice Saturday afternoon when I was listening to a random playlist of music stored in my personal locker in the cloud (http://mp3tunes.com). The playlist went on to play 50 cent's "In Da Club" and I went "Ah ha! That's where all the armchair gangsta rap inspiration come from!". I have this folder labeled "Hip Hop" within my mp3 collections, courtesy of a nice friend and I must have went through the songs inside somewhere back in time. But I'm also pretty sure that song's one of 50 cent's more popular tunes so I might had heard it over on the radio, in a friend's car, at a home party etc.

Google makes us a genius

That's just one piece of the puzzle. What about the Jay Chou inspiration? Wouldn't need to leave that to chance because all I had to do was to type "Jay Chou rap" in google search and walah! Jay Chou's "Checkmate". Once again I must have heard this song some in the publicsphere because I don't have a habit of listening to JC's song.

So now that I've nailed down 2 pieces of music that I've subconsciously referenced with, I'm beginning to feel that the beats that I laid down were too busy when compared to these giants. Hmm... I might tone it down but I might also just leave it as it is. Let's see how I take this song further in the coming days.

$money - The Verse

2010-06-24T21:22:00.001+08:00

In my last post I've added bassline to the skeletal loop of this song. Here's a recap of how it sounds like.

Chorus drumloop (with meaner bass) by jasonong

Now usually I'll envision the chorus of a song first. It's usually the high point of the song so naturally when I'm jotting down memorable melodies of a song it's gonna be the chorus. So let's set the bars above as the chorus.

The Loop

Now it's time to extend the track beyond just a loop into a verse. Using the beats created in the chorus, I've managed to tone it down to a similar but simpler version that seems to complement with a "Jay Chou-ish" (JC) rap that I'm hearing in my head.

The Bassline

Using the "rap" as a focal point, I was also able to write down a simple 4 bar melody for the bassline. This bassline is very much more melodic than the chorus. Reason being I wanted a a-tonal "gangsta" rap in the chorus juxtaposed with a melodic rap in the verse where the latter was made famous by JC in chinese music (I THINK, SO DON'T QUOTE ME).

Here's an unpolished product of 8 bars verse + 8 bars chorus and a little DJ scratch in between. Good enough for real looping ;)

Money - Verse + Chorus (1st draft) by jasonong

$money - Big Bottoms

2010-06-14T20:03:00.003+08:00

Bass is the unsung hero of any song. It's there, you feel it but it doesn't sticks out trying to grab your attention. When was the last time you hum out the bass line of a song?

Putting the bass line for my skeletal loop was easy. Most of the notes should coincide with accents in the song to help give some punch. The rest are just fill ins to help drive the rhythm along.

Here's the drum track with a simple bass line using a bass sample that I thought sounded mean.

Chorus drumloop (with bass) by jasonong

But it's a bit too vanilla so I'll just throw in some EQ and compression to boost the lows and give it more punch. I'm not the best person to speak on the audio manipulation techniques because my strength's are in music arrangement, not audio production.

Chorus drumloop (with meaner bass) by jasonong

$money - The Stabs

2010-06-13T17:37:00.000+08:00

In my previous post I was laying down the skeleton of a "gangsta" wannabe loop ringing in my head. But it's just a vanilla loop at this point. Let's make it more "gangsta" sounding with some stabs (pun intended).

Browsing through the midi keyboard sounds on my Studio One's Presence plugin, I found an orchestral keyboard that would sound rad as stabs. Here's my initial draft.

Chorus drumloop (with stabs) by jasonong

It was fine till I started nitpicking at the sustained stab section which although sounded nice with this vanilla loop, didn't quite go well with the rap syncopation that I've been hearing in my head. Thus I decided to tweak it to have more hits.

Chorus drumloop (with stabs) 2 by jasonong

$money - The Skeleton

2010-06-12T14:03:00.000+08:00

And so begins my journey with $money.

When the inspiration first hit me, I was hearing blurry rap in my head - syncopated garbled lyrics with a clear sense of rhythm. The drums were the most distinct so it became the skeleton to work my ideas on.

So I started with basic snare + kick on my PreSonus Studio One. Since I had a gangsta rap in mind. I chose the "Hip Hop" drumkit on a Presence track (midi).

The track below shows the syncopation that was ringing in my head. Notice the slight tinge of hi-hat sound in that sampled kick offered by the kit. Love it.

Money - chorus drumloop (snare + kick) by jasonong

So based on this snare + kick combo, I've decided to lay regular 4/4 hi-hats with a section that actually syncs with the kick. Thought this helps to add color to that rhythmic section.

Money - chorus drumloop (snare + kick + hi-hat) by jasonong

And then I proceeded to add a tamborine just to push the 4/4 beat along and make the loop sound fuller.

chorus drumloop (snare + kick + hi-hat + tamborine) by jasonong

Naked Music Production - $money

2010-06-12T13:31:00.000+08:00

Inspired by my friends doing a startup and journaling their experiences weekly at their blog.

http://nakedstartup.com

So here's a new series that I'm devoting to this blog - Naked Music Production. The first installment will be on a chinese "gangsta" rap that I'm currently working on. The title as of now is "$money". I'll be documenting how the song evolves as I work on it.

The inspiration hit me when there's a recently online controversy regarding how churches spend their devotees donation. Wanted to write something contemporary to reflect the philosophy and motivation behind these donations as well as the church expenditures.

I choose to go with gangsta rap partly due to the ill connotation associated with the genre. Actually I think it'll probably end up more like a Jay Chou-ish rap since I'm hearing chinese lyrics in my head. Thought it would be interesting to see how "gangsta" sounding it can be on a chinese rap.

It's also interesting that I saw a program on Nat Geo on this Shaolin monk (Shi Yan Ming) who defected from China to America on the inaugural Chinese Shaolin Monk tour in the US. He's manage to blend in with commoners, celebrities and hoodlum rappers all at once by accepting their cultures by having a non judgemental attitiude and a quest to spread Buddhist philosophies in the west. Kinda like East meets West.

http://www.usashaolintemple.org/

Hopefully all these gives a feel of what I'm trying to achieve with the song. Okay think that's enough of a introduction. Time to work on my first post - $money's skeleton.

The Good Librarian

2010-03-29T03:35:00.000+08:00

Being a good musician is as much about being a good librarian... ok point taken!

http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-good-librarian/

Midi controller plug and play?

2010-03-29T03:34:00.000+08:00

I bought a nifty little 2 octave usb midi controller Akai LPK25 recently. Expected it to be "plug and play" which in a way it did in how its drivers were installed automatically by WinXP but my PreSonus Studio One needed to "setup" or "reconnect" to the controller whenever I plugged it in.

Optimizing PreSonus Studio One performance on an EeePC netbook

2010-03-21T09:41:00.002+08:00

When playing sequences on the PreSonuc Studio One Artist on my EeePC netbook, I found the following:

- adjusting the netbook performance to "High Performance" causes some jitters during play back.
- switching netbook performance to "Power Saving" mode eliminates the jitters! But this will cause all other applications to be sluggish.

Power Saving mode's better than High Performance for audio stuff? Wierd. Maybe it's the spikes in CPU or the internal fan that's causing problems.

== UPDATE ==

Seems like the problem's solved after upgrading the stock Studio One from installation cd (v1.0.0) to the latest (v1.0.3). No more jitters experienced yet.

Fixing Presonus Audiobox USB problem on Windows XP

2010-03-20T14:49:00.000+08:00

Scenario:

Installed Presonus Audiobox USB drivers from CD and Presonus Studio One. Sound was totally unstable from the get go.

Fix:

Download the latest driver from Presonus website. Apparently there's problem with the old drivers with USB. When installing the new driver, select "Uninstall old drivers" first before trying to install the new ones, else you'll get "blue screen of death". Sound from Audiobox was much more stable after installing the new driver.

Band name origins

2006-09-05T18:37:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Ever wondered how some band names come about? Check these possibilities out! :)

ABBA - Abba is "father" in Hebrew but the band claims that to be unintentional - rather it is an acronym for the first names of the band members: Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid (Frida).

AC/DC - 1) It is said that one of the band member saw it on an appliance and thought it had something to do with power. (It does mean "alternating current / direct current".) The band used it not realizing it was also slang for a bisexual- the band claims NOT to be bisexual.

2) In the vogue of other anti-everything bands it stands for Against Christ/Devil's Children.

ALICE IN CHAINS - a funny rumor is that they were named after a lost episode from The Brady Bunch series!

AMBOY DUKES - Ted Nugent's original band - taken from the title of a 1940's book about street gangs by Irving Shulman.

ANTHRAX - A dangerous bacteria that used to infect many cattle in Europe & could be used for terrorism.

ASPHALT BALLET - The name came from a motorcycle accident Julius was in where the motion of the bike rolling over on the asphalt road was termed an "Asphalt Ballet."

AQUA - suggested by a Danish AQUArium poster that was hanging in their recording studio.

BIG BAD VOODOO DADDY - this neo-swing band takes its name from what legendary bluesman Albert King wrote as an autograph for the band's leader, Scotty Morris... "To the big bad voodoo daddy."

B-52's - The beehive hairstyle popular in the 1950's (worn by band members) was called a B-52 after a type of large US Air Force bomber plane with that designation.

BACKSTREET BOYS - The Backstreet Market was a store in Florida where the guys used to hang out.

BAD COMPANY - A 1972 modern cowboy movie starring Jeff Bridges.

BAD ENGLISH - One day the band members were playing pool and thinking about a name for the band. John Waite went to take a shot and missed. Someone made a comment on how bad his "English" was - English referring to the spin you put on a ball according to where on the ball your stick hits.

BAUHAUS - an artsy name, after a style of graphic design and famous school of architecture.

BEASTIE BOYS - According to Michael Diamond, BEASTIE stands for Boys Entering Anarchistic Stages Towards Internal Excellence.

THE BEATLES - 1) original member Stuart Sutcliffe came up with THE BEETLES , as a play on Buddy Holly's group THE CRICKETS who they loved. They were using the name THE QUARRYMEN and sometimes THE SILVER BEETLES - later it became THE BEATLES emphasizing the BEAT aspect of music (and poetry?).

2) Lennon lists the influence of the film "The Wild One", which featured a motorcycle gang called the Beetles (unconfirmed). John Lennon is generally credited with combining Beetles and Beat to come up with THE BEATLES spelling. Lennon was also fond of saying he had a vision as a child of a flaming pie in the sky that said "You are Beatles with an "A"

JOHN CAFFERTY and the BEAVER BROWN BAND - did the classic soundtrack to the movie Eddie and the Cruisers. The band from the Cranston Rhode Island area was practicing in one of the band member's garages when they saw a Dutch Boy paint can that was called Beaver Brown.

THE BEE GEES - the 60's soft-rockers now best known for disco. "Saturday Night Fever" - some say the BG comes from "Brothers Gibb" since they were brothers named Gibb... however an article on the group suggests that they used the names of 2 friends that helped them get started: Bill Goode and a DJ named Bill Gates... I'll go with the first version.

BELLE and SEBASTIAN - was a French T.V. series in the early seventies about a little boy and his dog, a Saint Bernard named Belle. Belle was put to sleep after she injured another child.

THE BLACK CROWES - it was originally named Mr. Crowe's Garden, after a favorite children's book. They sang under that name until they signed with Def American Records in 1989. They renamed themselves at the suggestion of a producer.

BLACK SABBATH - from a 1960's cheap horror movie starring Boris Karloff , suggesting a holy day of witchcraft.

BLACK UHURU - Uhuru is Swahili for freedom, therefore "Black Freedom".

BLIND MELON - slang for an out-of-work hippie (Weren't they all?) - they were called that by Shannon H's dad - also recalls an old blues singer, Blind Lemon - Melon being an anagram for Lemon.

BLINK 182 - Blink 182 supposedly has NO meaning at all but the band fosters stories on origins. Sample: used to be just "Blink" but was threatened by a lawsuit from a little known Irish band with the same name, so they added the 182 which is the number of times the f-word was said in one of the members favorite movies.

BON JOVI - from the New Jersey bandleader Jon Bon Jovi, whose real name is John Bongiovi, Jr.

DAVID BOWIE - born David Jones, he changed his name to avoid confusion with David (Davy) Jones of THE MONKEES.

CHEAP TRICK - they say the band members asked a Ouija Board what they should call themselves.

CHICAGO - Their first album was released as "Chicago Transit Authority", but the city of Chicago sued them because Chicago Transit Authority is the name of Chicago's public transportation department so they shortened it. Don't record companies check these things before they release them?

COLLECTIVE SOUL - a term used in the popular novel "The Fountainhead", by Ayn Rand.

COLOR ME BADD - Sam Watters said the name was an attempt to remove racial, sexual and musical overtones - "If you want to color us as anything, color us as badd." Originally called TAKE 1 (but another group was using the name), Jon Bon Jovi asked them to open a Bon Jovi / Skid Row concert with "Daddy's Home" sung a capella. Jon said, "You guys think you're pretty bad. Let's see how bad you are in front of 15,000 people."

COUNTING CROWS - Comes from old English nursery rhyme which had to do with predicting the future from the numbers of birds seen. Originally the rhyme was about magpies, but as people came over to America, crows were used instead. From the song "A Murder of One" one of the versions of the rhyme goes "one for sorrow, two for joy, three for girls, four for boys, five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret never to be told..." Adam Duritz liked the rhyme...

THE CRANBERRIES - originally called Cranberries Saw Us ( a joke on Cranberries SAUCE) they changed it to the shorter form later.

CREED - This popular Florida band was named after former bassist Brian Marshall's
earlier band Mattox Creed. www.creednet.com

THE CULT - Goth/Rock band 'The Cult' were once known as 'The Sudden Death Cult', then
shortened to 'Death Cult', then finally just 'The Cult'.

DEF LEPPARD - Joe Elliot, lead singer, wanted to use the idea provided by the band Led Zeppelin's logo and transformed what he originally had as deaf leopard.

THE DEFTONES - Because when they started out, people thought they were so bad
that they called them tone deaf - transposed to def tones.

DEPECHE MODE - from the name of a fashion magazine, meaning hurry up fashion

DMX - Dark Man X

DOOBIE BROTHERS - a doobie was 60's slang for a marijuana joint.

THE DOORS - Jim Morrison read poet William Blake who said "if the doors of perception are cleansed, everything would appear to man as it truly is, infinite. "He was also influenced by author Aldous Huxley who referred to the same line when he titled his book on drug experimentation The Doors of Perception. "There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors" Official Doors web site is at http://www.thedoors.com/

DURAN DURAN - named after a character in the Jane Fonda movie Barbarella.

BOB DYLAN - His real name is Robert Zimmerman - he liked the poet Dylan Thomas.

THE EAGLES - originally called TEEN KING AND THE EMERGENCIES , they liked the American sound of Eagles and the way it was aligned with THE BYRDS who had a great influence on them.

ELTON JOHN - Real name: Reginald Dwight. Created from two other British musicians: Elton Dean and Long John Baldry.

EMINEM - from his real name Marshall Mathers he took M&M and rewrote it phonetically as Eminem.

EVERCLEAR - Named after the "Everclear" brand of 190 proof grain alcohol used to make dangerous alcoholic drinks.

EURYTHMICS - a method of music instruction from the 1890's that emphasizes physical response to the music..

EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL - from an ad for a British clothing store that would sell you "Everything but the Girl" that you saw in the ad.

FOO FIGHTERS - a term used by World War II pilots to describe strange flying fireballs they sometimes saw.

FLEETWOOD MAC - a simple one. They just took the last name of drummer Mick Fleetwood and a form of bassist John McVie's last name.

FAITH NO MORE - named after a race horse they saw listed on a racing form.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE - the name of a garden center on Route 46 in Wayne, New Jersey. http://home.earthlink.net/~johncw/fow/html/gen_info.html

GARBAGE - Either lead singer Shirley Manson's father yelled down to the band at one of their basement practice sessions, "Play more quietly - you sound like garbage." or from a friend of Butch Vig (the drummer of Garbage), who said "This stuff sounds like garbage!" check their site at http://www.garbage.com/

GENESIS - The first book in the Bible - their first album's title was "From Genesis to Revelation"

GIN BLOSSOMS - slang for the "blossoms" (burst blood capillaries) on the face particularly the nose from drinking too much alcohol - in the late 1800's gin was a popular cheap alcoholic drink.

GODSMACK - The metal band "Godsmack" was much thought to be named after the Alice in
Chains song of the same name. But according to the band they arrived at the name after one band member made a particularly inappropriate comment and another remarked "God will smack you for that one". Hence forth one would receive a "Godsmack" for bad behavior.

GOO GOO DOLLS - used to be called the Sex Maggots, and when they were told that local newspapers wouldn't print that name, Jonny Rzeznik picked up a magazine from the early 60's with an ad for a doll that cried Goo Goo when you turned it upside down.

GOLDFINGER - after the James Bond movie.

THE GRATEFUL DEAD - originally called The Warlocks, Jerry Garcia found out that another band had the same name. Supposedly, he looked in a reference book at random and found a folk tale about a troubled soul who is put to rest by a traveler. The spirit then helps the traveler with his own quest.

GREEN DAY - 1) It may have come from the sci-fi movie Soylent Green when they said "Tuesday is soylent green day." Soylent green was a food produced by a corporation to feed the way overpopulated masses; turns out they were also making it from the masses!

2) Another story is that when they dropped out of school to be musicians, their principal said "It'll be a green day in hell before you make anything of yourselves".

3) Some say that in drug slang - if you smoked pot and goofed off all day, it was a "Green Day."

GUNS 'N' ROSES - originally two bands L.A. GUNNS and HOLLYWOOD ROSES. Hollywood Roses was headed by Axl Rose, Tracii Guns headed the other band which also featured Slash. The two frequented clubs and played there and were friends.

HOOTIE AND THE BLOWFISH - from the nicknames of two friends of singer/guitarist Darius Rucker - one with owl-like eyes (Hootie), another with the puffy "Blowfish" cheeks.

JANE"S ADDICTION - The band got it's name from a girl (Jane) that Perry Farrell knew back in L.A who was a prostitute and called it her addiction.

JETHRO TULL - popular 70's band that is named after the rather obscure inventor of the farmer's seed drill.

JUDAS PRIEST - originally a mild curse said to avoid saying "Jesus Christ" - also from the Bob Dylan song "The ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest".

KMFDM - KEIN MEHRHEIT FÜR DIE MITLEID, loosely translates as "no sympathy for the majority." Founded by SASCHA KONIETZKO from Germany. When Englishman RAYMOND "PIG" WATTS joined the band he never pronounce the name so he just started calling it by the initials.

KING CRIMSON - from the official website http://www.elephant-talk.com The band's original lyricist, Peter Sinfield, created it as a synonym for Beelzebub, which is derived from the Arabic phrase "B'il Sabab", meaning "the man with an aim." (Another, more common etymology of "Beelzebub" is that it is Hebrew for "Lord of the Flies.") In John Milton's 'Paradise Lost', Beelzebub was Satan's chief lieutenant among the fallen angels. Often seen as a red (crimson) figure, he is King of the underworld.

KISS - According to Paul Stanley, Kiss just sounded dangerous (kiss of death) and sexy at the same time. Kiss denies the rumors that the name stands for "Kids In Service of Satan" or the saying "Keep It Simple Stupid."

KORN - There are many stories as to how the name originated, however the most believable is that Korn starts with Kern County which is where Jonathan worked as a Coroner. From that came "KoRn". It was then decided that it would be written like a child would write it, hence the K
instead of a C, and the backwards R.

LED ZEPPELIN - Jimmy Page was drinking with Moon and Entwhistle, who were bitching about their band mates Daltrey and Townshend. They joked about the two of them starting a band with Jimmy, and one of them said "Yeah, that will go over like a lead balloon". When Jimmy formed his own band, he remembered this and thought "Lead Zeppelin" would be good, both from that conversation and the heavy/light contradiction similar to the band named IRON BUTTERFLY. They decided to drop the "a" so Americans wouldn't mispronounce it.

LEMONHEADS - a type of candy.

LEVEL 42 - 1) From the supercomputer in the great & hilarious novel The Restaurant at the end of the Universe, (part of the "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series) computed the meaning of life to be 42

2) Also a possible reference to a sign in the strange film Brazil that says "Level 41".

LIMP BIZKIT - Got the idea from Fred Durst's dog Biscuit who has a limp.

LL COOL J - for "Ladies Love Cool James".

LOS LOBOS - Spanish for "The Wolves"

LYNYRD SKYNYRD - Named after Leonard Skinner, an annoying gym teacher/coach some of the members had in high school. Leonard is said to have moved on to sell real estate in Jacksonville, Florida.

MEGADETH - Dave Mustane was inspired by a government pamphlet he saw after leaving METALLICA. A Megadeath is a military term for one million dead (making World War II an 80 Megadeath)

METALLICA - Lars Ulrich was helping a friend think of a name for a metal fanzine. The choices were Metal Mania and Metallica. Metal Mania was chosen for the magazine & he used Metallica for his band.

MISFITS - A 1961 movie starring Clarke Gable and Marilyn Monroe.

MONSTER MAGNET - 1) Dave Wyndorf, lead man in Monster Magnet, collects sci-fi/Horror collectibles, one is a model called "The Monster Magnet"

2) The Mothers of Invention's first LP Freak Out has that title as its first track.

MÖTLEY CRÜE - A friend said "What a Motley looking Crew" - motley meaning "of great variety" and once describing the appearance of a court jester. The re-spelling was their own invention using the umlauts (those funny dots over letters) came to them while they were partying & drinking Lowenbrau beer.

MOTORHEAD - British slang for a drug user who uses a lot of speed

NIRVANA - In Buddhism it means the state of perfect blessedness attained through the annihilation of the self.

'NSYNC- Justin's mother came up with the name. N is the last letter in Justin, S is the last letter in Chris, Y is the last letter in Joey. N is actually from James Lance Bass because Chris gave him the nickname 'Lansten'. Since Lance doesn't end with a N, they used his nick name,
Lansten. C is from J.C. That's how they came up with 'NSYNC. (info from T.J. Gernon, Illinois & Andrea in San Diego) The whole thing is, of course, a play on In Sync - a term which comes from the movie industry - meaning when the picture & soundtrack are properly aligned or synchronized.

NO DOUBT - a favorite phrase of John Spence, it became the name of the band prior to his suicide.

OASIS - local British origins: a Manchester cab company, a chain of women's clothing stores, a local Indian restaurant and more likely a local club that The Beatles played in during their early years (the band are avowed Beatles fans)

PANTERA - Spanish for Panther and also a pretty cool car.

PEARL JAM - 1) Eddie's grandma supposedly made a peyote (hallucinogenic drug) jelly/jam , which as kids they called pearl jam.

2) I've heard a couple of times that "Pearl Jam" comes from NBA player Mookie Blaylock -- it's his nickname. Band members Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament
were huge fans of Blaylock, loved his peculiar name and wished to just call their band "Mookie Blaylock" but Blaylock protested, so they used his nickname "Pearl Jam" instead.

PINK FLOYD - taken from the names of two Georgia bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council - from the early days when the band saw itself as a blues band.

PORNO FOR PYROS - 1) Perry Farrell was reading a fireworks catalog on tour when a friend said the magazine looked like "porno for a pyro(maniac)" - a pyromaniac being one who loves fire.

2) Perry Farrel was up one night late watching the TV coverage of the LA riots and the fires and
couldn't take his eyes off the screen. He said it was like "porno for pyros".

PORTISHEAD - The name of their home town in England.

RADIOHEAD - Named after a Talking Heads' song called "Radio Head."

RAMONES - Paul McCartney used to call himself Paul Ramone. The Ramones all use the last name Ramone even though it's not their given name.

REO SPEEDWAGON - the name of a fire engine made by Oldsmobile in the 1930's. "R.E.O." was the initials of Ransom Elliot Olds, the founder of the Oldsmobile Car Company.

R.E.M. - in the study of dreams, the abbreviation refers to rapid eye movement or that time during sleep when an observable movement of the eyeball occurs indicating that the person is in a dream state. Band member Michael Stipe has said that this is not why the band picked the name.

THE RIGHEOUS BROTHERS - The Righteous Brothers supposedly changed their name when a fan at one of their appearances yelled "That's righteous, brothers." I don't know what they called themselves before. Righteous being a late 1950's slang for great, cool etc.

THE ROLLING STONES - from the Howlin' Wolf blues song "Rolling Stone" - Keith Richards was a fan of the version recorded by Muddy Waters.

SAVAGE GARDEN - a phrase from an Anne Rice novel "Interview With The Vampire"

SEPULTURA - the Brazilian death metal band Sepultura name is the Portugese/Spanish word for a grave or burial tomb.

SILVERCHAIR - 1) The Silver Chair is one of the titles in C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" in which Prince Rilian of Narnia is held captive under the spell of the witch who killed his mother.
During brief moments of returning sanity he is restrained in a silver chair. He is rescued when two children magically transported from earth, and a dour resident of Narnia find him and destroy the chair thereby lifting the curse.

2) A combination of "Sliver" by Nirvana and "Berlin Chair" by You Am I. They were requesting the songs from a radio station and the name was inspired by notes a band member made to himself to remember the song titles while he was calling the station. * Original name of band: Innocent Criminals.

SIMPLE MINDS - taken from a line in the David Bowie song "Jean Genie".

SISTERS OF MERCY - A tribute to the Leonard Cohen song of same name; also an order of nuns.

SKID ROW - Slang for a rundown inner city neighborhoods where alcoholics, junkies, street people can afford to live.

SOUNDGARDEN - A garden of kinetic sculptures that makes music when wind blows through them... a sculpture in Seattle called "Sound Garden".

SMASH MOUTH - football players use this slang term in any game with a lot of blocking or tackling.

STEELY DAN - taken from William Burrough's book Naked Lunch. In it Steely Dan is the nickname given to a giant steam-powered dildo (see cover photo on their first album)

STYX - named after the river of death found in Greek mythology and in Dante's Inferno.

10,000 MANIACS - extension of an old horror movie called "2000 Maniacs".

TESLA - from the largely unknown but important inventor Nikola Tesla who did important research in alternating current, radio, fluorescent lights, X-rays, microwaves...

THIRD EYE BLIND - Our third eye is the imagined one that gives us a kind of sixth sense (telepathy, ESP, etc.) and the band felt that most of us are blind in that sense. There is also a symbolic third eye (all knowing eye) that appears on the back of a U.S. dollar bill.

TLC - nicknames of band members: Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopez and Rozonda is "Chilli" Actually Crystal was going to be the C of TLC, but when they auditioned for Laface, an exec didn't like Crystal's voice, so they replaced her with "Chilli". TLC was going to originally stand for Tionne, Left Eye and Crystal. The idea of "Tender Loving Care" must have worked for them too.

TOAD THE WET SPROCKET - A skit from Monty Python's Flying Circus which is about a weird rock band.

311 - "One of P-Nut's friends (Jim Watson) was arrested, cuffed (naked) and taken home to his parents. He was issued a citation for a code 311 (indecent exposure). We thought this was funny, so we took it as our band name. After the humor of the name wore off - we still kept it because we liked that it was just abstract and that it did not define us in anyway. The name did not describe our sound or our politics, it just let the music speak for itself. Since most interviewers always ask us "What does 311 mean?", we have come up with lots of different answers over the years. Some include.... Nick - "five friends making music", Tim - "a number dictated to me by a higher intelligence", P-Nut - "knowing a little numerology and studying a little magic, which I do; in some factions, three is man and 11 is magic. So 311 is like male magic." from their official site http://www.311music.com

U2 - Three possibilities: 1) A type of spy plane used by the United States in the 1960's - made famous when Gary Powers' U2 plane was shot down over Russia and he was taken as a
prisoner during the Cold War. 2) U2 as in "you too" referring to the audience and its role in the musical experience 3) a U2 is an unemployment form in Ireland (see UB40)

UB40 - Code number of a form people in Britain have to fill out to receive public assistance or welfare. Known in the UK as a signing-off form when you get a job. Hence the title of their first album Signing Off.

URGE OVERKILL - The name of a Parliaments' funk song.

VAN HALEN - after Alex and Eddie Van Halen - suggested by David Lee Roth as being better than their original name "Mammoth." They might have been called 'Daddy Longlegs' if Gene Simmons of KISS had gotten his way - he partially financed and produced one of their original demo records and suggested names and artwork.

WEEZER - Band member Rivers Cuomo had the nickname Weezer in school because of a breathing problem.

WHITE SNAKE - from a white albino ball python snake owned by David Coverdale while in DEEP PURPLE.

WHITE ZOMBIE - An old horror "B" movie.

WINGS - Paul McCartney's band - 1) in the Paul/Beatles song "Blackbird" you'll hear "Take these broken wings and learn to fly" which is what he did in his next album - a solo effort.

2) When Linda McCartney was giving birth to their daughter Stella, Paul was pacing around hoping everything was going well and he was praying and started thinking of angels and wings. Wings just stuck in his mind.

ZZ TOP - taken from the name of a Texas Blues man ZZ Hill. Though a rumor is that they got their name by combining Zig Zag and Top, two well known brands of "cigarette" rolling papers.

Tags: band names

Welcome to JasonGuitarTalk in concert!

2006-09-05T18:18:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Check out my upcoming concert at the Singapore Indoor Stadium... not! heheh...

Stumbled upon a ticket generator at this website

url: http://www.says-it.com/concertticket/index.php

Fancy a record of your own? ;)

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: ticket generator

Web 2.0 logos!

2006-08-14T11:44:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Web 2.0's all the rage now. Everything new website seems to be in beta and following a certain style.

Time for old logos to be redesigned! Check out these great suggestions in the following thread.

http://yh.yayhooray.com/thread/90661/yh-collab:-redesign-famous-logos-in-web-2-0-format

In the meantime. Check out some suggestions of old band logos redesigned!

Metallica:

"Old"

"New"

Nine Inch Nails:

"Old"

"New"

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: web 2.0, logo, metallica, nine inch nails

Rockstar Supernova's turning up the heat!

2006-08-11T13:15:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Yes it's been long... no excuse, just plain laziness on my part...

This week's Rockstar Supernova blew my mind! For those uninitiated, Rockstar series is a reality program whereby talented singers are auditioned to be in a highly publicised rockband, aka the rock version of American Idol.

The last season saw a guy by the name of J.D. won the competition and ended fronting the band INXS, a legendary rockband from australia. This season's a rock outfit by the name of Supernova's looking for a singer to front their band. This outfit consist of heavy weights from the rock scene:

1. Gilby Clarke: He used to play alongside Slash in Guns n' Roses.

2. Tommy Lee: Drummer of Motley Crue fame. Famous for his marriage with Pamela Anderson too.

3. Jason Newsted: The no-nonsense bassist of Metalica fame.

The band are the judges for this gruelling competition, alongside Dave Nevarro who played for Red Hot Chilli Peppers at some point in his career.

Why do I say this week's episode blew my mind?

The quality of the performers are responsible for the blow. I have never seen a better bunch of talented individuals fighting it out in the singing arena. At this stage, EVERYONE of 'em are sooooo good! I would hate to the one choosing which of them to eliminate every week!

That being said, I do have my favourites; Magni and Lukas. Magni for his great character off stage and commanding presence on stage. Lukas for his out-of-this world performances on stage. They're the dipolar opposites in my opinion. Lukas's spontaneity and unstableness is contradicting to Magni's discipline and composure. I think either one of 'em's gonna win. It'll be interesting to see what the judges themselves think. Enough said. Check out these spine chilling performances by them both below!

Lukas with a rendition of Radiohead's creep:

Magni with rendition of Dolphin's Cry (encore):

Watch more performances by them and the other contestants at YouTube.

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: rockstar supernova, magni, lukas rossi, dave nevarro, gilby clarke, jason newsted, video

Paul Gilbert instructional video

2006-06-30T13:01:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Revisited Paul Gilbert's instructional video on Google Video. For those uninitiated, he's the man behind Mr Big's awesome guitar work. His claim to fame was in playing very fast & furious stuff in Racer X. Somebody told me a long time ago that he held the world record for the most number of pick in a second! Think the figure quoted was 16 picks/sec. That's really fast!!! Now don't quote me on that. I ain't gonna verify that statement. However, watching the video below might justtify abit of that claim...

I never really understood what's the big deal about him in the past. Met so many ppl who has him as their favourite guitarist. I think I'm beginning to appreciate him better after watching this video. Reason being that he doesn't take himself too seriously. He's not concerned about looking cool or out of this world. Just a regular dude who's good at what he's doing and might even make a joke out of it once in awhile. Not to mention that he knows exactly what's in his playing so he's able to teach out what he's able to play in a clear manner.

There are alot of video of him in Google video. I respect that too coz it means that he's not overly protective of his materials. The saddest for a musician is to kick away potential fans just because somebody told you that it's bad to give away things freely!

Before you watch his instructional video, check this tongue twister of his out! :)

runtime: 40secs

Instructional video
runtime: 17mins

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: guitarist, paul gilbert, video

Guitar-slinging singing sensation

2006-06-23T01:37:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

It's been long since my last post! Sorry, was busy doing programming and practising for gigs and such... I promise I'll get back to posting more regularly from today onwards! :)

Saw this on my sister's laptop.... a flash video of an amazing bird singing Scorpion's "Still Loving You"! Got me into such a laughter that I thought should share with you wonderful people. :)

Right click below and select "Play" to begin. Turn up volume for a fuller experience! ;)

Blessings,
GuitarTalk

Tags: scorpion, still loving you, video, bird singing, funny