Photo © 2011.
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Potions in fairy tales are either bubbling brews or a single magical drop. No one ever fumbles with a foil pack that won't tear open. (via Twitter) |
28
Jun 11
1963 Fender Jaguar Restoration
In 2010, it was my 1960 Fender Jazzmaster, but in 2011 it’s been a ’63 Jaguar that I’ve been putting back together. The latest parts came from Sweden, where I found someone who finally had the right pickups, and they were sent over to me in time for my birthday. The few things that aren’t ’63 original stock on this one are the mute, the tuners, the main tone and volume potentiometers, and the tremolo bar… but I’ll find them all eventually.
The neat thing about old nitrate celluloid pickguards is that you can tell they’re the real thing by smell. They have a minty, menthol-like odor if you cut them. They’re also highly flammable, which is why they stopped using celluloid after 1965.
Photo © 2011.
19
Apr 11
Quote Unquote
“Punk had winnowed its heritage down to one single inbred white gene, working hairsplitting variations on a simple theme […] since nothing with that blue-collar sound could be underground anymore, indie rock became increasingly the preserve of the more privileged strata of American youth, who favored cerebral, ironic musicians…”
“Perhaps to make up for the seeming elitism, such musicians placed even less of a premium on musical technique than ever. But maybe that was just a flip of the bird to the traditionally working-class emphasis on artisanal values like chops, speed, and power.”
“Punk confrontation was largely gone from the indie world; in its place was a suffocating insularity, whether it was Cat Power’s depressive mutterings or Pavement’s indie rock about indie rock, however beautiful or evocative they might have been […] Many musicians sought refuge in irony, where nothing was revealed and all could be denied.”
“By the mid-Nineties, the indie community began to cast about for new sounds […] Some musicians delved into the past; classic artists as disparate as Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, and the Beach Boys […] The trend eventually bubbled back into indie as “record-collector rock,” an extended game of spot-the-influence.”
— Excerpt from 2001′s “Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991″ by Michael Azzerad
12
Aug 10
Summer Trip to Western Canada
Photo © 2010.
Went home to Canada for much too short a trip. It was sunny and hot in the mountains (above, Kootenay National Park, near Banff) until we got to Vancouver for its first rainy weekend of the summer. But even rainy Vancouver is brilliant.
Photo © 2010.