Interesting Stones Tidbit

Brian Jones Death Revisited.

Munson Gets "Back On Road", Just Like Song

I spent the weekend in Chicago, and it was loads of fun! I will try to upload some pictures shortly, though plenty can be found on my facebook profile.

It was a really amazing trip! I left friday afternoon, and arrived late friday night. Got up nice and early and had a good workout at the hotel gym. I headed out to a fantastic local eatery, then took a trip to the top of the sears tower. Or Willis tower, as they call it now. I then took a 2.5 hour double decker bus tour of the entire city. I saw a bunch of places I had visited as a kid, and a few I hadn't. Also saw a ton of locations from Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. So cool!!

Then it was off to the Cubs game at Wrigley field to see them murder the Mets, 11 to 4. Nice! A train ride took me back, and included a lap on the famou "L" of Chicago.

I spent the evening sipping Margaritas and updating my facebook profile from the lobby bar at the W Hotel, only to wake up early the next morning for another work out and breakfast with some local friends.

I pushed off at about noon, only to arrive back in Columbus six hours later. Along the way I stopped at a roadside produce stand, and picked up a lotto ticket at a farm town I passed through on the final leg.

Overall, an amazing weekend!

now if we could just finish that album!!

The Second Time Around You Made My Queezy.

Not much to report here out in Ohio, other than the fact that we've been gypped once again. Witness:




More good news is that Bill recently sent me the "Pee Pearl-It Squirt Bird" Lucky Lager bottle cap VIA TXT! Which I think officially propels us into the 21st century, and allows us to count ourselves as "cool kids". Still researching that last bit, but early results indicate a true positive.

I have done a first draft of my Potbellie flyer. Yes, the wheels of change spin slowly in Ohio also, but hey, at least they are spinning. I hope to submit my flyer along with a couple of the CD's to the manager by next week.

carry on.

Swamp Update

Actually spending time in the swamp, playing the guitar.

Rest In Peace, Rich Grinnell

Another sad piece of news to report today. This evening, Rich lost his battle with Cancer. His wife has put together a website that chronicles his last few weeks, and the brutality of the hard war he fought against his own body. Truly, an emotional rollercoaster that I've never witness so close at hand. It's a really heart-wrenching read, and I feel great empathy for those close to Rich, and a great deal of sorrow for the passing of the man himself.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/richardgrinnell/journal

Since this blog is about the Stickmen, it's only fair to discuss Rich in that context. I think the long and the short of it is that the band NEVER would have happened were it not for Rich. If there is one single common denominator that brought the band together, it was the Comic Quest, the comic book store owned by Rich and Lisa back in the day. That was our hang out, our meeting ground, and ultimately our practice studio.

Thinking back, I can recall the countless hours we spent there writing songs, playing music, planning our next adventure/gig, or whatever. NONE of that would be possible without Rich and the store. I may have never even met the rest of the band members were it not for Comic Quest. A debt of deep gratitude is owed, and I don't think it can ever be repaid. Maybe we should dedicate the Black and Blue album to Rich's memory.

Sad days indeed. Rich is the first person I've known in my adult life that I have seen pass. I knew a girl in my freshman year of high school who died shortly thereafter, but I didn't know her all that well. We just hung out once or twice. But this is different. Rich played a huge role in my young adult years, and even though I haven't spoken to him in years and years, it's still very sad to think that he is no longer of this earth.

Rich Grinnell, you will be missed!

World Domination, Step Two

Not really a big update, but Rome wasn't built in a day. I called the Pot Bellie today and asked to speak to Rob, the manager, only he was gone for the day! oh no! I did leave my number with the girl who answered the phone, but you know how those things go. I figure if I don't hear back from him by monday, I will give it another shot.

So, progress, though not much!!

New Munson Guitar: a Retrospective

While I was abed with fever recently, I got a morale boosting shot of Classic Stickmen news.  In a surpise move that removes a major roadblock preventing a return to the concert stage by at least one of the "Classic Stickmen," Matt Munson has purchased a stage-ready acoustic guitar.

Yeah, maybe it's kind of jarring that a dyed-in-the-wool rocker like Munson doesn't just always have such a key article close at hand - if not slung right over his back, as he rides his motorcycle, Vanilla Ice-style, right down main street.  So why would he need to buy one?  

Bear with, we'll hash this out.  

Anyway, now that the beans are in full spill, here's the only photo I have seen of Matt Munson's new "club."  (or "axe" if you prefer the archetypal description of a guitar used for rock-and-roll music, but that seems to imply an electric instrument.)

Okay, so far so good.  Looks like a basic, dreadnought-style guitar, making itself at home in Matt's Central Ohio Pad (COP), with the song notebook gig bag close at hand, another auspicious sign. 

But what say we just read a first-hand account from Matt Munson?

The new guitar is pretty nice. Well, let me be specific. It's a used Yamaha. FX-310, to be exact. 

So I got here to Columbus, and without my computer or TV, I don't have a lot to do :) So I got it in my head to go buy a guitar. There's really only ONE street I know in Ohio, so I got on it, and headed east. I figured I'd hit a music store eventually. (man, this story is starting to sound like the stuff of legends!!) 

Anyhow, sure as pooh, I only drove about two miles before I saw a music store in a strip mall. Pulled in, hopped out. Pretty much your cookie-cutter small town music store. there was a punker kid (maybe 12 years old) with a shaven head and a loud t-shirt sitting in the corner "wailing" away on a Fender Strat. The dudes behind the counter looked on with apathy, as if wailing was so old hat. 

My goal was to pick up a beater. just something that I could play until the Epiphone shows up. Oh, I left the Ovation in storage. So my plan was to get a "classic" acoustic guitar, though not a "classical" acoustic. Know what I mean?? I asked if they carried Seagulls, and they had one behind the counter that they wanted 800 bucks for. Not what I had in mind. Closer inspection revealed that they primarily deal in used gear, which sounded cool to me. 

I headed over to the acoustic section.  They had about 20 guitars. A few were immediate rejects. Either the wrong strings, wrong look, or undersized. Whittled it down to about five. I played all of them, and the prices were all between 90 and 200 bucks. I decided I would not leave without buying one. 

The last one I played was the Yamaha. Action was pretty nice, had a solid, deep tone to it AND it had a pickup, with gain tone sliders. Extra nice, if I decide to do an acoustic gig lately.  I tested the pickup, and it worked fine. Grabbed a gig bag, and I was out the door. 

Looking at the price tag, you can tell that the guitar has been in inventory for a long time. I peeled off the layers of stickers, to see that it's original price was $499. I got it for $119. But the real beauty is that it sounds good, has a solid neck, and it stays in tune nicely. So maybe not the best guitar in the world, but quite nice.

Right on, go Matt.  The new Yamaha should at long last provide decent stage accompaniment that does not disappoint with unpleasant tone or major tuning problems.  Not that there haven't been worthy guitars up until now, but ....  Okay, maybe I should back up and provide some historical context, to highlight the significance of the latest instrument.  Or maybe I shouldn't, but too late now.

So, here goes: A brief history of Munson guitars, from my perspective:

1. Classical guitar "Natalie," acquired c. 1991 - Nice guitar for a recital, but not much use for rock and roll applications.
2. Blue Fender Squier solid-body electric, acquired early 1992 - This was the exact same guitar I had when we first started the band (only mine was black).  Might have been the right choice if we had been a Malmsteen cover band.  But with our style of music, and tendency to play outdoor concerts in inclement weather, we needed guitars that could stay in tune; we could have survived without the 22 frets, whammy bars, Floyd Rose locking bridges, and five-way pickup selector switches.  Wanker nonsense.
3. White Ovation shallow-bowl piezo-acoustic "YD," acquired late 1992 - This guitar was a major step forward, and made us a viable four-piece stage act, but those Ovations reek of the late eighties:  they have have a very brittle, kind of harsh sound, which the shallow bowl and piezo pickup tended to accentuate.  I thought it worked OK live, especially when paired with an electric, but I could tell Munson got more reluctant to use it as the road years ticked on by, and in the studio he usually used my 1963 Gibson acoustic.
4. Fender Stratocaster with hard tail (i.e. no whammy bar), acquired mid-1993 - Just plain bad luck here.  This should have been a great guitar, but every once in a while you just draw a "stinker," and this Strat just had presistent intonation problems that no one could ever solve.  Matt used it on and off, but more often than not it seemed to sound "sour."
5. Vox teardrop solid body electric 12-string, acquired mid-1994 - Matt sold this one right away, having picked it up at a garage sale dirt cheap.  Too bad.  It could have been pretty interesting, in a Brian Jones/Johnny Marr sort of way.
6. Dark sunburst Epiphone semi-solid electric "Coca-Cola," acquired c. 1998 - Finally a good electric, this guitar became Matt's primary stage guitar.  Being very similar to the Gibson ES-335, it had humbucking pickups, same as my Epiphone Les Paul, so I tried to avoid putting the guitars head-to-head because they tended to jumble together - a very minor issue (I had the Rickenbacker anyway).  Only real problem was Matt never had a proper amplifier to go with it, just a PA system that doubled as a guitar amp.  During this period, the Ovation went into eclipse.  I did miss the acoustic + electric lineup, which was probably why I started bringing my Martin acoustic into our regular stage show.
7. Yamaha FX-310 acoustic with pickup, acquired 2009 -  Honest, conventional acoustic guitar, with pickup, including tone control.  Should be a live workhorse.  Too late to help The Stickmen/My New Invention, but no doubt perfect for Black and Blue and/or solo stuff !!

Bottom line: great news, sweet deal, excellent matchup.  Mind you, I have yet to actually hear this thing, but come on.  I strongly suspect that this could pan out into an actual Munson "Slave to the Grounds" style date.  OK, the recent "My Laurels" post was also kind of a tip-off, but either way ...

About freakin' time!

A Minor Curiosity

After my recent post about resting on my laurels, I got to thinking: just what the heck are my laurels? And does it hurt if you put too much pressure on them for an extended period of time? Is that bad for your back? Your skin??

So I turned to google, and learned this:

RESTS ON HIS LAURELS - "Is satisfied with what he (or she) has achieved, so that he stops striving for success or decides that further effort isn't needed. The Greeks awarded wreaths of laurel leaves to the winners of the Pythian Games, and the Romans gave similar awards to distinguished citizens. For some winners, as with winners of gold medals in modern Olympic games, the award is enough; they have reached the pinnacle. Emanuel Deutch's 'Literary Remains' (1874) carries the suggestion: 'Let them rest on their laurels for a while.'" From "Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

who knew?

My Laurels

Just so the fan base doesn't think that me spending most of my time in Ohio means I'm resting on my laurels, I'm here to tell you that I'm not.

I am of course speaking about my rock and roll laurels, mind you.

Today I called up a local sandwhich shop that has live music and made my first swipe at becoming their latest act. Got the name of the manager, when he's available, and what I need to do to put my name into the hat.

So that's pretty much step one in the process. I'll make another call tomorrow to talk to "the man" and see where it goes from there.

Here's a link to the particular store I'm hoping to play

I will def keep the blog posted if there are any updates.

Just One Dollar

Posting this just so Bill can see it: