The drum kit is finally finished!

I’ve been working on this drum kit for over 2 years now. Can you believe it? I started it just after my divorce was final and then things progressively went down hill from there. Of course, the drum building slipped off of my priority list and my pal Jason was left in waiting. He was more than patient during the entire time and the waiting has finally paid off. I’m so happy with the way it turned out!

I built this kit for Jason Thompson of Massacre at the Wake, a local SLC metal band. You can check them out online or at Club Vegas here in SLC. They play a version of metal that definitely raises the bar and many eyebrows.

We put the kit together and he gigged with it this past weekend. Last night we went to the practice space and took some pictures. This kit sings, it’s absolutely gorgeous in looks and sound.

I’ve been building drums now for about 8 years. It started when I removed the wrap from my Tama Swingstar kit and re-finished it. I built a lot of snare drums and several kits over the years but have sold all of it. One of my drums is owned by Dan Whitesides of the band The Used who I met while he was playing with The New Transit Direction. He is now sponsored by C&C Custom and my snare is probably collecting dust somewhere.

A few years ago we were talking and I told him that if he ever happens to get the opportunity to have his pick of all the custom builders out there to go with C&C. I don’t know if what I said had anything to do with his choice but I’m glad to see he is with them. The Cardwells make amazing drums.

Around the summer of 2001 I helped in starting what has become the greatest online drum building site in the world – www.ghostnote.net. If you have any interest in drums or making your own, definitely check out the forum and tell them I sent you.

Oh, the intellectual heights you can reach with text messaging!

This is a conversation I just had with Lance via SMS using Verizon’s vast wireless infrastructure.

Lance: Let’s get together, put on leather helmets and club each other to Yanni’s greatest hits.

Me: I agree with all of that except for the part about Yanni’s hits being great.

Lance: It’s a comparative way of ranking Yanni’s songs differentiating his master works from lesser filler efforts within his wide, all encompassing catalog. It’s not a personal assessment of Yanni “the artist’s” degree of suckitude.

Me: Well, if the ranks are based on the scale of suckitude then greatness is relative whether good, bad or suckish. His greatest suckiness would indeed be considered great among the greatest of sucks.

Lance: Well, sure. That’s a given. I’m not arguing that. I’m simply saying that I have the helmets and clubs right now.

Pandora’s Music Box

Music lovers around the world need to know pandora.com. What is Pandora? It is a project created by a group of musicians/technologists known as The Music Genome Project©.

This site is literally the greatest online music smorgasboard ever created…and it’s free. They have been able to stream all these different genres of music without charging the users, although there is a paid subscription option that I haven’t tried yet.  There are quite a few restrictions on the playlists for the free version.  Check the FAQ site for more info on that.

The quality is great, the music is great and these guys really know how to put together playlists. You simply select a musician or band you’d like to listen to and Pandora starts a stream of songs within the genre of the band you started with.

One of the best features of this wonderful musical tool is quite simple, but genius, and allows you to click on each song that plays and tell them whether you like it or not. That way, if you have a genre you’d like to build a playlist for you can click the thumbs-up or thumbs-down icon to keep the good stuff and dump the crap.

For example, I like to listen to Lou Reed and the music that fits his genre (which is another discussion since he doesn’t really fit a genre) but occasionally The Dandy Warhols show up on the playlist (Lord almighty I hate those morons) and I immediately click the get-this-shit-off-of-my-playlist icon, and I don’t have to hear their dumb asses anymore.

Give Pandora a spin, the element of surprise is what makes it such a great toy and the ability to skip the shit makes it even better.

Metallicious in Utah

The so-called “scene” has taken a turn for the worst in the past many years since producing bullshit such as Limp Bisquick, Kid Mock,The Good Charletons, Korn(hole) and other over produced, under talented and over paid, self self-important jackholes like these. Seattle is the last music explosion I witnessed that produced anything valuable, and just before that we got a healthy dose of ballsy punk out of LA in the form of Jane’s Addiction, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers and fIREHOSE.

Sure, Nirvana was the easy-to-swallow pill that emerged from the Seattle scene but I’m talking about the real Seattle scene. I’m talking about Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Melvins, and other bands with some bite and some staying power. Pop music in all its forms loses flavor after just a few chews, and Nirvana became just that.

With each new metamorphosis our music takes on a new zing but keeps many of the same flavors it has had through the last several transitions. There isn’t much to do that hasn’t already been done. I mean, I can’t really see a Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath coming out of left field ever again unless the musicians back off of the fuzz, rage and Jagermeister just a little bit. But with that Jager-fueled rage I bring you the Salt Lake City, Utah metal scene. Not the place you would expect to find a group of such dedicated and surprisingly talented artists and musicians. Granted, their power comes from the scrotum but isn’t that what gets us all pogoing up and down in front of the stage with our horns held high?

I’m not a big fan of the cookie monster vocal stylings but with a few listens, a little bit of forgiveness of those things that have not yet been understood and an appreciation of the talent and musicianship of these bastards this controlled chaos can be an enjoyable and quite mindblowing experience.

Below is a list of a few of my favorite SLC metal bands, and close pals, along with some live action photography. These links go to myspace pages so be warned that these fellas use naughty words and have adult rated content on their sites.

Separation of Self
MAIM Corps
Massacre at the Wake

Granted, this is not for everyone’s pallet but for those of you interested, please enjoy as they progress and bring us better compositions and recordings. Horns up bitches!