MOG - neoprog's Posts

Sick and Tired

neoprog — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:25:38 GMT

I'm sick and FUCKING tired of the RI FUCKING AA.

Ok, now that that's out of my system...This is getting ridiculous. I can't guitar tab online. Anywhere.

I just bought the Foo Fighters Skin and Bones concert DVD. And, I just can't help wishing that I could play guitar like Dave Grohl. So, throughout the little intro to the concert, and the very first song they play, Dave is playing the main little riff (I think that's what it's called) from Razor. It's pretty simple, just maybe 6 or 7 notes, and he plays it faster than I can (I've only been playing for about 2 months), but I really wanted to try. So, I google it.

guitartabs.com guitarmasta.net mxabs.net

This is what I find. The top 3 links, and several more down the line, are not there. Why? Because they've been threatened with legal action. Let me say that again.

LEGAL ACTION.

Why? They had the fucking AUDACITY to post user submitted recreations of songs that they figured out themselves. They didn't photocopy someone's tab booklet, they figured it out. And do you think that this hurts the artists? If you say yes, step away from the computer and GOUGE OUT both of your eyes and eardrums with a spoon. You don't deserve to see or hear anything ever again. If I was a real guitarist and was actually going to cover this when playing for people, or actually going to practice it for real, then guess what I would do. I would buy the version penned by the artist himself. I wouldn't settle for someone else's interpretation. And, if I was a real guitarist, I probably wouldn't need someone else's interpretation - I could get it myself, just by listening to the song. It's only because I'm not that good that I just google it to find some decent interpretation.

I have this urge to hit someone in a suit...really hard...with a bat.

-prog

Acoustic? Really?

neoprog — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 05:37:27 GMT

I think that my first post on this thing was an AiC post, and now I'm back with some more. I've begun to think that their acoustic stuff (Jar of Flies, Unplugged) is in so many ways superior their more 'grunge' sounding material. If Nutshell doesn't give a little chill...I don't know what's wrong with you.

For those of you who care, I actually managed to find a copy of the Jar of Flies cd on ebay for $1 plus a little shipping. A great, if I do say so myself.

Year's Favorite!

neoprog — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 05:19:14 GMT

Oh boy! I've always wanted to have a reason to tell the world that my opinions are better than theirs. It's the end of the year, and I can give you my top picks of albums and artists and stuff in several categories that I deem appropriate.

Most Anticipated: Comatose by Skillet I've been waiting for this album since Collide came out. I'm a huge of fan of these guys (and girl) and I think this is a mature, complete effort from a great band. Standouts - 'Rebirthing' , "Last Night" , "Better Than Drugs'...actually, every track but the last is really good.

Most Improved From Last Album: The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance Not that Three Cheers was that bad, but kind of...I don't know. It never sat right with me. But this, oh, but this. I really like this. Standouts - 'Teenagers' , 'I Don't Love You'

Best Surprise: Broken Boy Soldiers by The Raconteurs I really thought that this band would suck, 'cause I never liked the White Stripes, but with a real band behind him, Jack White is pretty good. Standouts - 'Steady As She Goes' , 'Call It A Day'

Best Accidental Find: Are You Nervous? by Rock Kills Kid I heard 'Paralyzed' somewhere, and googled the lyrics to figure out who these guys were. This is what the Killers wish that they sounded like. Standouts - 'Life's A Bitch' , 'Hope Song'

Best Vocalist: Lance King of Pyramaze, on Legend of the Bonecarver I had never heard of this band before, but I really like progressive/power metal, and I LOVE a good vocalist. King delivers big time, and even thought it's a little campy at times, the CD is good overall. Standout - 'She Who Summoned Me'

Biggest Disappointment: Operation Mindcrime 2 by Queensryche Ah jeez. I really had high hopes. My girlfriend's dad introduced me to Queensryche about a year ago, and I have bought everything of theirs that I can find. But this album, while not horrible, or a total failure, just isn't as good as it could have been. I don't know.

Best Referral Album:Under the Iron Sea by Keane I have to hand it to these guys. Even without a guitarist, they rock. I can't deny it. I enjoy listening to them. The UK is putting out some good bands these days. Standouts - 'Bad Dream' , 'Hamburg Song'

And finally, a category that is here only because I want it to be.

Best Find That Is Not From 2006: Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins How the hell have I never heard this album before? Why have none of my musically inclined friends ever made me sit down and listen to Corgan and company. I didn't really know anything about them, I even thought of them as something akin to Savage Garden! Oh the humanity! Seriously. One you people should have posted comment like, "Hey, I see you have no TSP in your music library. Either buy Siamese Dream, or die." Standouts - Mayonaise' , 'Cherub Rock'

And that, friends, are my favorites of 2006 (and 1993).

Okay, Less Political Commentary

neoprog — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 20:32:35 GMT

Some real music stuff. This [gear.ign.com] is just sad. I've heard lots of bad things about, but never really formed an opinion on them. This has just changed. If half of this is true, I hope that every executive at the RIAA burns in a (metaphorical) musical Hell for a very long time.

Dastardly deeds aside, this could be the start of something very, very good for those of us who love music. I don't think that the public or artists will exactly like the fact that artists are getting even less of the profit than usual (which was very little to begin with). Not that they're greedy, but seriously. So I see two very good possibilities that could arise from this situation. First, perhaps the RIAA, through an outpouring of public condemnation, would see the error of their ways and decide to make amends. I hear more and more of how physical media is becoming obsolete. I disagree. I think it's the price of the physical media that is the problem. Who would want a 128kbps mp3 from iTunes when you could have the CD (which is somewhere in the neighborhood of 768kpbs comparatively, if my math is right). So lower the price of a friggin' CD. More will sell, I promise. COME ON. $15 for 12 tracks? If CDs were $10 flat, I would buy every CD I could find. No joke.

Possibility #2, and this is the more likely, in my opinion, is that the RIAA itself becomes obsolete. Artists realize that they have no need for a money-grubbing middle man when they have a cheap, easy distribution medium right in front of them. They can sell their own music on their websites as downloads. Obviously, this is not currently wholly possible, because CDs are still currently very viable and turn a profit, but eventually a better compression algorithm will be developed or a cheaper distribution method, or something will happen to render physical media less effective.

I know that there's a whole host of possibilities, one of which is that nothing will happen, but let's hope that something positive comes from the greed of the record labels and their RIAA.

Also, this is an interesting corollary [negativland.com] to this idea of record label greed.

Sorry...

neoprog — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:19:51 GMT

I really need to stop posting political commentary on my music blog...

But all regret aside, this is a really good piece. No matter what you think of FoxNews, this piece demonstrates that their mantra of "fair and balanced" isn't really that off-kilter. They reported and wrote about good things in Iraq when things were good (relatively). Now, however things are looking worse and worse, and they report on those things. This is a scathing commentary on President Bush's inability to admit that he was wrong. We have persevered, and now we are to "prevail", as the Pres. puts it, in "their civil war", as Estrich puts it.

So I read whatever I can find, and try to evaluate what I think is true based on whatever evidence I can find, and I've come to the conclusion that : A. It's time to leave Iraq B. We've stayed too long C. It is not another Vietnam (there's no draft - BIG difference) and finally D. The Prez is now being pigheaded (he is a man, but still, when EVERYBODY says it's time to fix this or get the hell out, LISTEN)

I like the President, I think he's a good man with good intentions, and I think that if we had had Al Gore in office during Sept. 11, things would be much worse than they are now. W was the right man for the job then, and would even go so far as to say that Sen. Kerry would have been an even worse choice in '04, but it's time for a change.

I'm counting down to '08 - My vote's for McCain at this point, but the Dems haven't put up a real candidate yet (and if you think Hilary's a real candidate, know that she will not be elected - our country's not yet ready for a female president, especially with things like Iraq on the line).

It's About Time

neoprog — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:18:41 GMT

I think the title of my post says it all. It's about time Al-Maliki kicks us the hell out of Iraq. I don't know yet whether I think it was right or good to go into Iraq in the first place (and I sure don't care what you think), but I'm glad that we can give them they're country back (I would like to believe better than we found it), and hopefully they will take care of it, and do some good in the bloodbath of the Middle East. I don't think that they need to emulate our brand of Republican-Democracy, but I think that any kind of real government is better than Saddam executing thousands of Kurds and putting them in mass graves in northern Iraq. There may not have been any WMDs, so whether or not this whole ordeal was worth it remains to be seen.

Guitar Pains

neoprog — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 18:09:12 GMT

So, I've been picking on my dad's old Gibson acoustic guitar for a couple of months now, and I finally found a free weekend where I can stop worrying about maintaining a 3.0 GPR to take a lesson. I thought that I had developed the callouses necessary to play guitar and that the lesson would just be for learning, not some kind of ritual self-sacrifice. Boy, was I wrong. I walked in the room and the teacher asked me if I knew any chords, and I do. I know most of the basics (C, E, A, D, Em, etc). He nodded and then asked what I like to listen to. I said I like classic rock, Zeppelin, Rush, Boston, that kind of thing. The next thing he said astounded me. I expected him to tell me that I was going to practice long and hard to play anything that Jimmy or Alex play, but instead, he suggested rather nonchalantly, "Hm...then let's play some Zep". So I have been practicing the acoustic intro to Ramble On for a couple of days now, and realizing that barre chords are hard. And they hurt. Alot. The joints on my index and ring finger are killing me from that opening E to E/D. Although I think he made me play the chord in a little more difficult manner just to get the hang of barre chords, it still hurts.

So here's to you, guitarists with really tough left hands: I envy you.

Zune

neoprog — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 02:23:25 GMT

So, what is the favored portable music player out there? My guess would, quite obviously, be the iPod, Apple's amazing little player that holds some ungodly amount of market share, like 83%. But, the Zune is coming out in a month of so, we may have a competitor, everybody says. But here's my opinion - if you say it's a competitor, it's not. The only thing that's gonna dislodge the iPod from it's throne is something better, and not so overhyped that anyone who buys it will be disappointed. Plus, there's the cool factor. I mean, I can't beat the simplicity of design, ease of operation, and seamless integration with iTunes (even I'm using Fedora Core more and more now, so that's becoming less and less important) for the money. I have owned a Creative Nomad, and that thing sucked. Hard. Even Creative's newer offerings are decently designed at best, and their software blows. Hard. So anybody use anything other than an iPod that wants to gloat about being unique?

Just Make It.

neoprog — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 03:14:21 GMT

Some time ago, I realized something interesting about my musical tastes. I only listen to stuff I can sing to (or want to sing to). So, even if the music is amazing, but the singer has a crappy voice, or I just don't like his voice, or if the singer is a girl, I don't want to listen to it. This isn't to say I'm sort of musical sexist, I respect plenty of female vocalists, but I don't really want to listen to it. And, I don't like bands with either crappy or annoying singers. Interpol is one of those. I have Antics, but I don't like the guy's voice, so I don't listen to it. On the other side of the coin, I don't think I'd listen to a band like Alter Bridge, except for Myles Kennedy. I hate that nu-metal sound of Nickelback, Staind, etc, and Alter Bridge has that same sound, but with far superior vocal talent. I don't think I could listen to Journey with anybody other than Steve Perry. I just love his voice (even though I don't have his range).

Just one of those quirks.

Oh, Beck

neoprog — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 20:26:16 GMT

Wow.

If you've never seen a song performed with just an acoustic guitar and two guys drumming on dinnerware...you're missing out. I caught the end of an old SNL episode from maybe middle of '05 with Beck playing 'Clap Hands' from the deluxe version of Guero . There are no words to describe it. It sounded so natural, I wanted to get up and dance. Like every band in the world should embrace percussion with silverware, and every dinner time prayer should be accompanied by a quick chorus of amazing grace backed by the kids on fork and plate.

Well, maybe not, but still. It was awesome.

FC6

neoprog — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:34:05 GMT

I'm an engineer, and I pride myself on being able to figure stuff out. So, it was humbling experience when I installed Fedora Core 6 on my hard drive last week. I've been posting to different forums and searching for bits and pieces of information for about a week now, getting the thing to do what I want, and I am now almost finished. All I have left to do is to find a decent music player that can handle m4a. I've managed to get both of my monitors set up, the graphics and ethernet drivers installed, and figured out how to mount the ntfs partition that windows is sitting on (it's especially difficult on a raid 0). In fact, I'm posting from fc6 right now :)

So, in music, what does everybody think of the new MCR album, The Black Parade? Regardless of what you thought of their first couple of LPs. I, for one, was impressed. I don't like that every review references Queen (they may be pretty good, but they're not Queen), but aside from that, the glam and melodrama seem to work pretty well for me.

-prog

Ooo! Ooo!

neoprog — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 04:27:12 GMT

Red Steel review on Wired! I'm so stoked about the Wii. PS3? Yeah right. Not for 600 smackers, I don't think so. And the 360? I don't want a console that catches on fire, but thank you. I'm not really a nintendo fanboi, but I can't wait for the Wii to come out. Now I just have to scrounge up the $250 for it in November. :)

-prog

So I Take It Back...

neoprog — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:17:09 GMT

So, I don't hate math tests as much as I thought I did...I just pwnt one. w00t. Anyway, I have just acquired some new music, Phish, to be exact. I'm really a big fan, and I didn't think that I would be, but I like the experimental, spontaneous air about it. Really, invigorating and relaxing at the same time. I like it.

-prog

Phishy...

neoprog — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 23:33:37 GMT

So, somebody tell me why in the heck Phish had to make YEM really weird by adding (apparently) nonsensical words to a really cool song. And if the lyrics aren't nonsensical, then what the heck is he saying?

And thanks for the encouragement in my studies, as it were. This place rocks (literally and figuratively) :)

-prog

Labs? What Labs?

neoprog — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:41:13 GMT

Bahahaha! Finished the engineering lab in engineering lab! Eat it! A little soothing Santana to relax to...until math recitation in 15 minutes...but whatever, I DID THE LAB! The robot went toward the light. pwn.

-prog

Aha!

neoprog — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:03:24 GMT

I knew that someone would eventually find my Mog! :) So, now that I know that someone (or ones) read this, anyone have any suggestions for a utility that'll rename large batches of files (like, I dunno, music files...) at once? I'd like to take all the track numbers off of my files, but it takes eons to do it by hand. Suggestions welcome.

-prog

Depressing

neoprog — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:20:33 GMT

Pffft. I hate math tests....I hate ridiculous engineering labs...this school thing can be a drag when it gets tough.

So, when the going gets tough, the tough listen to Alice in Chains.

Sweet!

neoprog — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 01:16:32 GMT

Skillet's Comatose is out! If you don't have it, get it! If you don't know about Skillet, I'd suggest starting out with Collide, a pretty hard album, and Skillet's seventh(?). It rocks, and I promise you'll love it.

But, about Comatose. It rocks too, but we get more strings with the drums, guitar, and bass. I find string introductions to songs irresistible, and the disc has several to die for. Seriously, buy it, give it a spin.