Golden Smoghead

Agree. And PBS had some thing with the (present-day) Byrds on it recently, was pretty gruesome. I'm sure they were better when they were younger, but definitely dialed my interest-o-meter towards zero. This is meaner than I intend, but I can't think of another way to say it: they seemed like reformed hippies singing songs they now find simplistic and naive.

I kinda agree that sometimes they sounds stilted. I dunno why, and it's probably not true, but sometimes it almost seems like there's a fadeout because someone screws up a part royally so they fade out to avoid it. Especially if it seems like there could be a solo coming up. However, I think the "stinger" is by far the worst way to end a song. You know, that extra note at the end, after a quiet spot, like, (stop) -- BAAAAHHH!!! I think stingers make little 8 lbs 5 oz baby jesus cry.

I agree, does definitely have a Calexico vibe. I think the drum line contributes to that feel.

I think it'd be cool to see who you guys are going out of your way to catch at the local coffeeshop / dive bar. Personally I think our local guy John Bolten is fantastic. Very much country / folk / Americana. I love how he just uses one guitar on these recordings, but still makes them compelling as hell. JB's myspace John's main webpage And to be clear, this is NOT me! haha. I wish I wrote songs this cool, authentic, sincere.

That's really interesting, Lost Highway. You know how I can tell that I'm a songwriter and not a performing artist? Because no matter how good a song I write is, I just don't give a shit about it after maybe 200 plays. NO MATTER how intense the lyrical content, no matter how challenging the parts -- I just can't get into it after some point. Anyway still soliciting mic recommendations and as always, really appreciate the education you folks give out for free. My current leaning: This Studio Projects low-end tube mic that runs $250 new, and the tube pre recommended on the first page.

Now, this is just weird. Check it out. Those "weirdo URLs" I referred to are .txt files that are named "bulk.resource.org/copyright/hids/hid_01/hid_01239100-01239399.txt" for example. Turns out that site is just mirrors the copyright info that is on file with the Library of Congress... So, for example, there is this entry for the Dave Dudley song "Long Time Gone" on the website, which again is derived from the official copyrights on record: nEU950415 (1966) aV2298P210 a(DLC-CO)V 00229821000045 aDLC-CO cDLC-CO 00 aLong time gone / cBy Dave Dudley & Dick Marrison. I don't

I almost-never actually download anything illegally for myself, BUUUT my friends and I often burn each other CDs of things we think the other will like and swap them around. I figure it evens out in the long run. For example, I would've never listened to The National at all if someone hadn't burned me a copy of Alligator -- which led to me legally dl'ing Boxer and Sad Songs. It's just a fact that none of the music I like best really represents itself all that well in the 30-seconds iTunes preview. And in fact, I usually dislike music at first that ends up being my favorite (Steve Earle is

Wow your stuff is really great. I like "On a Wire" best -- can you tell I'm a big Ryan Adams fan?

I really took that for granted when I had the same good luck. Now I've been in a five-year dry spell of not really having any collaborators who live close enough to make it work. Appreciate those guys while you got 'em around!! to BWW: No crap man, no freaking crap!

I may hit this one -- thanks a lot, had no idea!

Thanks very much. allmusic.com doesn't credit my uncle with any of the songs from my "weirdo URLs," boo. I suppose I just might be buying 30ish trucker vinyl LPs, ha, what can you do.

Very cool, thanks

I love RA and think the Cardinals are a good thing (but no Whiskeytown, ya know). However the show they played in DC last October was so bad that I can probably never be persuaded to go to another concert. And again, I'm no RA hater, in fact I think "Pearls on a String" off Easy Tiger is possibly my favorite RA track of all time. Just such, a, bad, show we had here. Everyone says it was a fluke, but I dunno man. It could have been related to the fact that he never even TOUCHED his acoustic guitar the entire show (no shit). It was just sitting at the front of the stage taunting us. I thi

Thanks a TON guys! Appreciate you dumping the info on me. And yeah, definitely agree I don't need the Mojave. However I am inclined towards something tolerant of higher SPL levels, like I said the only REAL, REAL complaint I have with my cheap $35 Samson condensor is just that it overloads fairly easily on me. I know I could control that through technique to some extent, but I'd really just like to find a mic that can tolerate my dynamic range without a lot of thought. So I do a lot of searching around, reading specs, etc. Come to find that the Rode NT-1 you recommended in your first po

Cool, thanks for the heads-up! Please let me know if the Crazy Doggz come around too. Do the doggy bounce!b

Thought you folks might have some ideas on this. I'm not a particularly huge fan of early-60s trucker music, but my uncle (Dick Marrison) played bass for Dave Dudley and the Roadrunners. I think he played the Opry with that group, and my uncle is credited as cowriting some of those Dave Dudley tunes (and claimed to have cowritten many others uncredited). Anyway, my mom and I want to buy the Dave Dudley albums on which my uncle either played or wrote a song, but I'm having a hard time finding scans of liner notes or whatever other documentation might tell me which he's on. Reason this m

Congrats, guys! Good stuff. The best guitar in the world is the one that makes you smile when you start playing it, more power to ya.

Stylistically I prefer some of your other stuff. I think the synth hook pulls together the pieces really well (like someone else said), but the programmed drummy sounds are a little too much in the beginning (since they're out there naked). I'd just mix them a little lower until the guitars come in. Also I would recommend just mixing one of the vocals a little more up-front-y. But please don't take this as hate. I'm experimenting these days too, today I wrote a song using a preprogrammed Yamaha keyboard drum track that opens with the line, "The other night I caught Saved By the Bell, and

Great stuff, thanks guys. Since you raised the issue: what do you think the ideal bitrate for home recording is? Because the only thing limiting my bitrate right now is the el cheapo USB interface I bought, my system does just fine sampling at up to 192 with about five or six tracks (I used to do that when I used a mixer / line-in for recording). However, the 48kbps through the USB actually sounds much better then the 192 line input did -- I think it's because my mixer and cables were inexpensive and added noise but I'm not sure, but it's pretty clear that the vocals sound MUCH better with

Thanks for the tips. I already have a Shura SM-58 that I use for recording my electric guitar amp / playing out, and the Rode is a good tip, I hadn't really looked at that brand. I kinda think this mic from them looks pretty sweet. I dunno if it's wrong on my part, but I have been inclining towards the tube condensor mics. On that note, just from thumbing around the Web, I have been staring at this Mojave tube mic but I dunno if I really want to wait around long enough to save up that kind of cash / drop that kinda dough. This is sort of the basic conundrum for me. I've owned / used mic

I think my version of Adobe Audition claims it can strip out individual tracks, but I haven't tried it -- and it sounds like a stretch to me. I was trying to figure out how to isolate / switch the L/R channels for some reason one time, and discovered there are whole groups of people out there who spend all day trying to strip out the vocal track from songs, so they can put their own vocals over it. That seemed kinda odd to me.

capo it at the second fret instead of trying to play open As or something and I bet it will make more sense to you (basically hammering on / walking around between G, Em, C, etc)

I'm sure this comes up every now and then but I couldn't find anything recent. So, I've been slowwwly upgrading my laptop-centric recording rig (just upgraded to a USB two-channel input, only samples at 44kbps -- yeah, that kind of slow). I think the biggest missing piece for me right now is a middle-of-the-road mic setup. I have read around on these interwebz for some advice, but honestly I respect and like you folks better than most groups / a lot of you are generally into the same style of music as me. A couple questions: - my crappy USB input thing does have phantom power -- but I

Definitely solo acoustic w/ the lovely Ms. Moorer. I would call him a "songwriting god" but that doesn't capture / cheapens what I think of his body of work. I am soooo stoked! Thinking about peeking around on these interwebz to see what setlist he's been playing, but I think I'd rather keep it a surprise?? Tix came today for me too...

Congrats! I really have to agree, buying your first mid-to-upper level guitar is a real eye-opening experience. It's great to just occasionally hear a really-clear harmonic "ring" or something that you KNOW your old guitar would not have produced...