The Bass Geek

Radio Radio features Everything, Now!, Quiet Hooves and Grampall Jookabox tonight. Freak pop fans, enjoy.

Sam’s Saloon has Mouthbreather, Canadian Rifle, Maravich and Sex Before Marriage tonight. Tomorrow brings A Keen Holiday.

Deano’s Vino presents Shogun Attractions tonight and the John Harden Project Saturday night. It’s also Swing Dance night at the Fountain Square Theater.

And, of course, there’s Victor/Victoria at the American Cabaret Theater this Friday and Saturday night. Also, FezFest’08 at the Mel is tonight!

Feel free to enjoy the goodness at IMN or download it directly.

Also, there’s a Playboy Psychonauts show tomorrow evening at the Melody Inn, which means I’ll be sloughing off the Victor/Victoria mindset to get right with the fez. I’m fully hoping to play two venues within the same hour. Also there will be fellow fez-sters Vinyl Shriner and The Dockers. What more would you expect from a show called Fezfest ‘08?

See, that’s funny ’cause the year implies somebody might again let us put on a show based entirely around a hat.

The passionate devouring of liner notes is an time-honored tradition for the music fan. Hoping to glean every last bit of information from the album, they pore over any credits or notes they can find. While some include the bare minimum of information (or forego the process entirely beyond what might be legally required), others write veritable volumes (sometimes more interesting than the music itself). Some even fight for these precious glimpses of insight - witness those clamoring for an electronic copy of the liner notes for The Roots’ latest album (which, by the way, tell some great stories).

What folks choose to include in the liner notes may say as much about the band as the album does, if I may offer a theory. What would you assume about a band that included the full path of their recording process (other than they had some endorsements to satisfy, perhaps)? Would it be the same assumption as a band who just tossed off song titles and publishing information? Does it matter if a band thanks four full pages of people and organizations, or just a few select entities.

Enough. The whole point of this was that I saw somebody intently focus on the liner notes for a Clay Aiken CD and found it disturbing. INTENSELY disturbing. This person also managed to offend my geek nature by still using a portable CD player, which may have amplified the horror a bit. My mind is not able to comprehend wanting to put that kind of effort into . . . that.

Aside from a sticky footswitch on the second preset, the new bass DI is working fine - good tone and pretty easy to use.  I’m sure the pedal is far out of warranty, so I’m wondering what I need to do to get things rolling again.  A quick opening of the case might be necessary.

I’m getting a lot of Victor Wooten from all sides these days, too.  What was once the provence of geeky bassists is now being touted by XM and PRI’s Bob Edwards (who fairly gushed at every opportunity), the cover of Electronic Musician, and pretty much every “neighbor” list on eMusic.  Some songs on the new albums are fairly interesting, although I’ve always been more impressed by the live show over the songwriting.  And he’s completed a transition from flashy sideman to almost a philosophical mentor for bassists (and other musicians).  It’ll be interesting to see how all of this is received by those outside the four-stringed world.

New episodes of Metalocalypse are back, and I feel that all is a little bit better for it.  Just the right blend of outrageous humor and cringe-worthy brutality.  Amazing.