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Read this last night. If true it's totally unforgivable. Coming on the back of the rape of Denmark Street it's enough to make me want to up sticks of f*ck off somewhere that values it's culture like, well, almost anywhere else in Europe. Anywhere with rent control. Seriously, fuck this country.

Just spent a week in Paris, and while there's plenty not to like about Paris, there's a lot of real positives too. A lot of what is great about it stems from the huge majority of small and independent shops, restaurants, cafes and businesses, many of which have been there for generations with reputations built on consistent quality. All but the mainest of main boulevards are chain free. Even right into the centre of town. That and the affordability of central living means that Paris feels like a city for people to work, live, shop, and eat in. The affordability of rent means that businesses are able to exist on much more realistic turnovers and the entire quality and pace of life feels much more sustainable.

Compare that with the homogenised, glass fronted tourist park that is the centre of London where all but the biggest chains get priced out. Nobody lives there, hardly anybody works there except those in the tourist and chainstore retail trade. It's hugely overcrowded, entirely shit, impersonal and bland. And it’s getting worse at a frightening pace. Waterloo and Vauxhall are next btw. There’s a meeting happening next to me right now discussing the new layout. I suspect there will be fewer voices of dissent over that but there you go.

I might suggest that we’re in the process of killing the goose that lays the golden egg by destroying the very thing that that London a cultural tourist destination in the first place but I fear that the big ticket attractions (the royal stuff and misc/ "proper" history) will override the loss of real, personal history of real London and the place will continue it’s transformation into a fucking medieval themed tourist attraction and giant glass fronted shopping mall. I fear it’s already too late for any form of rent control to control or reverse the damage already done. It’s fucking tragic really.

Taken one last punt on guffed-ins. Light japanese grey slim cut. If these don't make the cut I'll not be back. Will probs be having a clear-out soon. Gt way too many pairs that aren't quite doing it for me at the mo.

^^supercool. One day I will own a shed and... probably never do anything like that in it...

Im off t'studio in March. Going back to Soup cos I know and love the guy who runs it.

http://www.soupstudio.co.uk/

Lookin fwd to it.

Shoosh CB. I HAVEN'T tried the foam. And I will. So Thank you.

Good to see you last week btw (this is dooks). Hopefully catch up soon.

A
x

re: E10s, I recommended them on here them within the price range as I also see earbuds as temporary things too. Can't say they're amazing but for £30 I'm really impressed with the clarity. They don't have a hyped or extended low end at all but what i liked about them was a lack of harshness in the highs. I found Sennheiser and Sony efforts at around the same price had bags of low end woof but often had unpleasantly harsh sibilant high ends that the E10s didn't.

Anyone found a solution for wind noise whilst cycling with earbuds in? I find the E10s are particularly prone to this, though which is a bummer.

In studio cans world my DT 880 Pros are still really impressing. Beautifully clear and detailed. Love them.

Oh and I finally gave up and admitted that my Adam monitors are fucked. Going to try and get them repaired under Warranty but can't imagine I'll have much luck as I bought 'em on Gumtree and don't have the original sales invoice . Like a MUG.

Fucking gutted about the rape of Denmark Street. Seriously shitty. London is turning into a fucking glass-fronted theme park for tourists. Fuck em all.

ANYWAY. I banged out this for a friend's budding restaurant business this week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6Gaovww5lg&feature=youtu.be

Bit twee but it seemed to fit the bill and i'm happy enough with the result.

I'm after a bureau desk that I can set up in a corner of the living room with room for a macbook and other connections/interfaces in so I can fold it up and have it out of the way when not in use. Imagine the monitors will sit on top. Anyone seen anything that fits this bill?

chhhhhhheeeeerrrrrrrssssss

Fuck, perfect.

Edit: silver sold out.

Tempted. Where are you?

fuckinghell. had a fuel leak from my little fiat. noticed the smell first, which gradually got stronger every time I went in to the garage over the last week or two. I looked under the car but couldn't really see much in the way of an obvious leak so i drove it to a local garage (via dropping the wife off in town). The guy calls me back on monday to tell me rather than the suspected loose hose or whatever there was an actual hole in the tank. following day i went back to my garage to get my bike and the stench of petrol in there was still almost overpowering. It was only on returning the bike that evening that my lights picked out the tidemark at the edge of the spill. It was right up to, and out of the garage door. The reason I couldn't see the spot where the fuel was leaking was because the entire garage floor was stained with leaking fuel. On closer inspection it had actually run out from under the door, soaked into (and up) the walls and into all the boxes and furniture in there. I'm amazed i didn't go up in ball of flames the last time I started it up and drove out of there. Thank fuck I gave up smoking.

*clang!

I know right!? I only grabbed him for a hover-hand grinning fan photo op after a gig in London. One of his last as it turns out. He was sweet.

I have a garage too which I would LOVE to transform into a mancave/studio. Annoyingly I also have a car. Am seriously considering buying a non-driving neighbours garage.

There's a man-cave thread? I need this.

Re: Big Star, It's pretty pedestrian to be honest. Well written but part of the problem is that the era of most interest to most people, the three albums, were made in such a short timescale with limited source material to draw upon there's not a lot of coverage of them. It feels like a lot of ho-hum backstory then the making of the records flies past in a few pages. But that's how it was I suppose. Did learn a few nuggets about th erecording and production; who wrote and played what etc which I love as a musician nerd.

After Sister Lovers/Third and Chris's sad decline and fall the last third of the book concentrates on Alex's decent into narcisitic, self-destructive nihilism. It's interesting that the book frames him as some sort of proto-punk sonic explorer/performance artist in this phase whereas it looks very much to me like the account of damaged, unhinged and unhappy man hell-bent of self distruction. More than a few passing references to him behaving like a total c*nt too including burning people with cigarettes etc. Not exactly an uplifting read. But then again I haven't got to the '90s renaisaince/drying out/never-ending greatest hits tour bit yet. He seemed pretty together when I met him the year before he died.

Been readng loads of non-fiction lately. Mainly technical stuff around music production, interviews with songwriters and musician bios. Read the Big Star Biography and have been dipping in and out of Feral by George Monbiot and Roger Deakin's Wildwood as well as Bass Culture: When Reggae was King by Lloyd Bradley. Just started We are all Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler to wean myself back into the literary fold.

Yes they are. Am reading Wildwood at the moment. Have read Waterlog many times. Notes form Walnut Tree Farm is a nice diary too. I find them inspiring and incredibly calming.

Rick haz you ever put a bigsby on a tele? Got any hot tips if so?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAn3JdtSrnY

over and over

^^aside: they shouldn't put a Shrek in it.

"High-resolution images"

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/80304000/jpg/_80304473_main.jpg

Do u even pixl?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886

I know, only messin. I can't be buying any more guitars. One in/one out policy at the mo and I'm not parting with my tele.

FUCJIN TREASURE!

Don't sell the LP Jnr 'Slain.

(If only cos I can't afford/justify any of these bargainz)

lotta typos there. also tl;dr

TS, Although I feel that 2006 me would hate 2015 me for it, i'm all about the clippy headstock tuners now I'm afraid. Or TU-2 for very rare forays into electricland. They are nice though. You can sell me your wilshire if you like?

Had a rush of blood to the head last month (bored over Christmas) and removed the scratchplate and sanded back the thick poly laquer off my little Guild acoustic. I'm not sure it will make much of a difference but it looks pretty cool. My fuzzy mulled wine drenched logic was that freed from the shackles of the thick glossy laquer the wood will dry out, breathe and ages and improve the resonance. Scratch plate went for the same reason. Some after the fact googling tells me it will a: make no difference and b: kill the guitar. I'm not convinced it's quite that drastic tbh. Meh. I put 0.11 DRs on it in an attempt to make it a little easier on my weakling fingers but I quickly realised that they're too thin and weedy sounding. Back to 12s then.

Been having nightmare in production and specifically bass guitar recording world: I've been struggling with this particular mix for weeks now. Alright dammit, months. I've replaced the bass and the guitars at least twice, re-done the banjo and vocals many times. I've gone back to scratch on the mix and tried all manner of drums and pluggins. Whatever I did the whole thing just sounded awful with a big booming bass resonance smearing and intefering with everything else. I even moved my desk around the room (and then back again) to try and alleviate the booming and splurged on expensive monitor headphones to try and mix without the the room modes causing an issue. I keep leaving it and coming back but nothing I did seemed to work. Then last night after yet another frustrating session during which I was starting to doubt my ability to create listenable music full-stop, I decided to try replacing the bass yet again and this time maybe play a different pattern to avoid the offending note (not easy as it's the root that's the problem). I was dinking about on the bass getting warmed up and noticed that fretted notes on the low e-string were a little buzzy. This wasn't a big surprise as I'd been tweaking the truss rod to try and make the action a little more slinky, so I decided to back it off a touch (1/4 turn) and try again. The moment I tuned back up I noticed the A and E strings ringing out like they hadn't in a while. I muted the old bass and plugged in a played a few bars on a new track and it was like having cotton wool removed from your ears. Suddenly the whole mix just jumped into focus. It actually sounded good. I could hear the guitars that I'd slaved over and replaced three times (and still wasn't happy with) and they sounded GOOD! So did the vocal and the banjo and everything else!

It was only then that I reased that although I'd spent countless hours, repacing, eqing, re-amping, compressing and manipulating the offending bass, I'd never really tried listening to the mix without it. I'd solo'd it (and other instruments) thousands of time but never played the whole mix without the bass (which comes in at bar 1 and plays throughout). In a second, the scales fell from my eyes and I realised that when I'd tweaked the truss rod a few months ago then played the bassline with a low E string tuned down to D, that slight fret buzz I hadn't previously worried about had been causing some weird resonant, dissonant booming overtones that had been the couse of all of my issues. It wasn't the note or the room or my monitors or my ears or my mind... it was the fucking guitar the whole time!

I could have fucking cried for the time I'd wasted on this thing, lying awake at night and beating myself up for being unable to finish anything. I was seriously starting to doubt my ability to record my own music thinking I didn't have the necessary critical faculties and or psychological traits required to ever finish anything. I'd even booked the band into a proper studio to see if I had the same problem outside of my house. To be fair, I'd sent rough mixes to a few people, all of whom had winced and comiserated with me and offered (most EQ-based) solutions but none of them had picked up on it either.

I was so deliriously relieved I nailed a new bassline in a couple of takes, banged out a rough mis then stood in the living room cranking it out on the stereo with a very large scotch in hand. Slept properly for the first time in ages. All for a 1/4 turn of fucking truss rod.