Golden Smoghead

we're safe from that fake bigfoot at least

Just saw these guys at The Red and The Black here in DC... Amazing band out of Raleigh. I had never heard of them before but bought the CDs they had, I love it. They reminded me of Whiskeytown (which makes sense, they have Caitlin and Skillet play on some of their studio stuff). But basically it was a great show, really recommend catching these guys if they come near you. Sorry if there is another thread on this band, but I couldn't discern one amongst all the references to the lyric.

Key: F or Bb Chord: the minor 3rd (a lot of my songs go something like G // Bm --> C --> D) or maybe just Bminor, relative to the capo. Like I love that D --> Bm (like x24432) because the top two notes stay the same, dig? Also guys that theory stuff kind of melted my brain off, but appreciate the general vibe, keep it up...

And others are barely in English. Nobody's perfect.

I've never bought the idea that music is about math. I think it's about tension --> resolution on the technical side (e.g., how satisfying it is when a chord progression resolves). Yes you can describe it with math, and you can probably use math to generate that, but for me I suspect it's about the human drive for order, and fear / fascination with disorder.

True Louie, but the OP was talking about the quality of the songwriting, saying it's gone softer, e.g. takes less risks and deals with more mundane subject matter. I think that's a little different from "this band isn't what it was" or "Jeff Tweedy should be the kind of performer he was 15 years ago." I personally remain very dissatisfied with SBS, I find it a bland snoozer of an album. That said, I disagree with OP. I think if you look at the Loose Fur stuff, etc, Jeff is still writing great songs. And som of the SBS songs are fine-good-ok. I just think that the group of songs on SBS t

haha, that's great!

wow, that one would be incredible! I'd love to hear Old Crow Medicine Show sing the Who's "Real Good Looking Boy" Gillian Welch sing "Big Yellow Taxi" Pearl Jam sing the Big Star song, "Thirteen" Steve Earle sing the Indigo Girls' "Shame on You"

re: Sam's post... "Today I met an amazing guy! So dreamy, smart, sensitive. I can just tell that me and Jason Walker are going to be something special." -diary of Sky Blue Flatts, May 16th, 2028

Do you mind bumping that thread, O-man? I am not sure which one you mean and don't want to presume. I have a few ideas for songwriting games to try out and will float them in your thread if you don't mind.

Thanks GtrPlyr! Hahaha, I'm a big RA fan so that's a compliment to me any way I can get it! Always interesting how a different instrument or adjustment brings out new perspectives. I found the Nashville tuning to make my FINGERS tired, for me usually it's my wrist that gets tired, but my individual fingers felt like this was a workout. I would guess that's because the strings are under higher tension, so it takes more force to push them down. (Also should point out like I said in my original post, that guitar has very high action.) Also maybe was said before, but it's definitely

Here's the song I wrote after we talked about this stuff, guitar is in Nashville obviously: http://www.yousendit.com/download/TTdHRm82bEpWRC9IRGc9PQ Messed up a couple lyrics and I think that D string may be a little flat, but good enough to show you where my head's at!

Yeah good call, appreciate all the inputs! Definitely got some stuff moving, I'll try to get a cut of the song I wrote around this tuning.

I'm curious ... I have an acoustic guitar I want to use more often. The action has drifted high so I was using it for slide guitar only, however I have been mostly playing by myself (aka "with myself") lately so I have not been really messing with it much except when I want to record a slide guitar part. So, I was thinking about putting it in Nashville tuning, but the few youtube videos I found led me to think it's pure kitsch. (Best thing I saw on there for "nashville tuning" was a pretty cool cover of Ryan Adams' "Pearls on a String"). I may do this anyway, but just curious as to how

I use flats on my Gretsch and generally like them. The tremolo pedal has to substitute for bends tho.

I spend a whole lot of time thinking about acoustic guitar strings... I am always looking for brighter, brighter, brighter. Any suggestions? Martin Bluegrass SP Phosphor-Bronze sound the brightest to me, but I would actually like something even brighter... And heck since I'm wishing, I'll add preferably for longer, I only get a max of 12 hours out of the SPs.

Me too, basically. I'm actually largely in the same boat you are, working up some songs for songwriting-display purposes, don't feel like f'ing around with trying to mic a real drumkit / don't play drums.

It was just today, in this very thread, that I realized the irony of a guy who lives in Missouri calling himself Oceanman.

How do those fake drum programs fit in with Cubase or something? I have never understood that part. Are they like a VST plugin that launches a little interface when you add it?

If you have a chance to see this tour, I highly recommend it. Setlist: You Wreck Me Mary Jane's Last Dance I Wont Back Down Even The Losers Free Fallin' Honey Bee Sweet William End Of Line Band Intro Gimme Some Lovin' (w/Steve Winwood) Saving Grace Face In The Crowd Rebels You Don't Know How It Feels Learning To Fly Don't Come Around Here No More Refugee Encore: Runnin' Down A Dream Bo Didley's A Gunslinger/Mystic Eyes American Girl "Learning to Fly" video from last night:

Sounds like a good time, congrats! I am a marginal fan of Centromatic, or le Centromatique as I for some reason occasionally think of them.

I am not sure that all these little images actually are put together with a ton of meaning, a few strike me as being borderline-nonsense, but I love these two: "i want to hold you in the bible-black predawn" -- pretty cool image, though predawn is usually not actually black, right? Isn't the predawn / pre-dawn sort of defined by the return of light to the sky? Anyway I love the idea of something being bible-black, and separately adore the image of holding someone in that depth of the night when it seems like day will never come. It strikes me that I'm currently slightly-younger than the a

$299 pedals make Golden Smoghead a sad boy. seriously looking to venture further out into pedal-land, but the cost factor scares me out of everything I am interested in basically. Right now I'm just using my Boss ME-50 to cover most things... So, I guess my question is, noisemaker under $100 that is worth a damn? If not then eh. I should learn the licks I've been working on better, anyway.

The song in question starts around 12:18. I think if they'd just done Kanye vs Wilco it would have maybe been OK, the first Kanye line over the strings from "Jesus Etc" sounds good-to-great, but the Super Bowl Shuffle parts ruin any chance this smashup had. Not a big fan of these guys' mix either. A lot of these bass lines sound like really crappy 90s midi. It's ok to sample songs that sound like ass, but in places these guys sample the worst part of a bad song.

Earlier today, I swapped out my plastic Martin "came with" bridge pins for the $12 tusq ones I bought. I detect a slight change in tone but nothing dramatic, just a subtle shift towards the bright, and a slight bump in sustain. Either way, the plastic ones were only 2 or 3 months old and starting to warp/bend -- so much so that I was being careful to use the warped ones on the thicker wound strings. These pins seem unlikely to warp in my lifetime.