DaveAronow

Lol. This forum still actually exists?

If you include "still here" as me looking at what's new every couple years or so since the forum took a big dump all over itself,  then I guess I'm still here.

Ok. Its been nice. See yall in a couple of years.

All my guitars are named, "Mine! FU*CK OFF!"

Superior tone would suggest that I am trying to sound superior.

I am not trying to be superior.

I just AM.

Haven't seen it. I'm not the least bit of a fan of his music, but I do respect the kid for working as hard as he does. I dont know if you are joking or not, but I have actually heard those exact things from people that have seem it. I haven't seen it so I am not going to knock it at all.

I suspect, if I was flipping through the channels, and came upon it and found it interesting, I would probably watch it. I wouldn't care that it was about Justin Beiber. I dont need to be interested in his music to be interested in his story.

Nobody gets to be that huge of a megastar without working their ass off.

Finally! Someone with a unique, well thought out and original argument!

The old {censored} sandwich cliche! Brilliant!

This pretty much sun's it up.

"The right kind of stupid is exactly it."

I just want to drive home, one last time, not to opt out of the movie because A) you are not in to hair metal. Yes the movie is built around that theme, but the movie without any music is entertaining enough not to miss, even if you despise hair metal. The operative word is fun. It is a fun movie, and when I say that, thinking back on the movie, all the parts I am thinking about as fun, have very little to do with what songs are playing, what genra the music is, or how good or bad the performances are. Most of the fun parts for me dont really even involve music.

B: I forgot what B was, but I think I covered it in A.

Dont overthink it. It is a silly, fun movie. But just know that the music has a lot less to do with the movie being fun than you would expect from a "musical".

If you want to go spend a couple entertaining hours sitting in a theater, this movie WILL entertain you.

So far, the tally is, NO ONE that has reported in this thread as having seen it has said it wasn't worthwhile. If you haven't seen it, all you can do is talk about why you "think" it might suck. The movie is probably not what you are expecting it to be. It was definitely not what I was expecting.

That's all I'm saying. I'll stop trying to convince closed minds that are speaking of which they do not know. Very happy to acknowledge 100% of someone's right to absolutely hate it, if they have in fact, seen it. I would be surprised, but I would respect their opinion. Everyone else is guessing, and most are not exactly getting what the movie is about. It is not really what you are expecting.

No, I got that it was sarcasm.

I didn't get the moral part, and thought a word like intellectually superior, or musically superior fit better since the argument in the thread seems to be about musical performances and what the film delivers or doesn't in that context.

It seemed like morally came out of left field. I still dont see how saying you hate it because you want to feel superior to someone has anything to do with morality.

Anyway, I got the sarcasm part though.

What does morality have to do with it?

I'll give you a hint; the movie really wasn't about singing performances, although there were some great ones, and some equally awful ones.

Tom Cruises singing wasn't great at all, as I would expect, but it was adequate enough to allow him to deliver his "character" in the movie which he absolutely destroyed, in a good way. The singing wasn't the point at all. It was almost an afterthought. Tom Cruise absolutely dominated and stole every scene he was in. This is one of the times when his melodramatic, over the top intense style really worked perfectly. He has a tendency to either nail it big time or flop completely. He so nailed this role I'm not even going to try to explain it with words. And I'm no fan boy of his. I've absolutely hated him in alot of things others have considered him brilliant in.

I will reiterate, Tom's adequate at best singing had nothing to do with his character. It wasn't the point at all and not very important in context. He WAS, however, the ULTIMATE rockstar! After watching the movie, you will get why all of the rock dudes from that era are so eager to give him high marks.

So much hate and overanalyzing is going on in this thread.

You guys are WAY over thinking it and taking it WAY too seriously.

This movie, which may be surprising to those who haven't seen it, is not at all about vocal performances, or musical performances. They sing, almost as an afterthought just to remind you that, oh yeah, I guess since it is a musical that the characters should at least somewhat sing. The songs just help tell the story and move the film along. Come on, did you really expect Alec Baldwin to have a great eighties rock voice? Well, news flash; he doesn't, but in the movie, it doesn't matter and is almost irrelevant. He and Russel Brand were both hilarious.

You guys are way over thinking it.

If I had to describe this movie in three words, they would be, a "heck of a lot of fun, and oh yeah, Tom Cruise deserves every Penny he makes as an actor".

That is all. There is nothing more complicated to it than that.

If some of you people bashing the crap out of it would get rid of all your expectations of what you think it should be, or what you expect it to be, and just go in with a blank slate and sit and watch the thing, you will enjoy it.

You will have fun.

And lastly, it is hilarious to read some of the reviews in this thread from people who obviously haven't seen it and have no intentions of seeing it but have already made up their minds on what it is about. I've seen a couple reviews literally parroting reviews I have read on the net or in media as if the thoughts are actually coming from the poster. Hillarious.

Just drop all of your expectations of "performances" or songs, guitar playing, etc, because all that is an afterthought. It is not important in the context of the movie and doesn't matter if it is good or bad, although it wasn't by any means all bad.. I would give those of you that absolutely insist on making it about performances the message that the performances ranges from barely adequate, to very good in a few cases. It doesn't matter though.

Go see the thing and I promise, you will have fun and you will enjoy it.

If not, fair enough, but I am telling you, based on all the reviews and critiques I am reading on here from people who obviously and admittedly haven't seen it but have already made up their minds, you are all missing the point, and this movie isn't about what you think it is about.

It is about delivering a good time and a lot of fun to the audience. Simple as that.

In that context, the movie wins.

I absolutely will see it again.

WOW.

Yes, but then Django comes right back with something like this and redeems himself.

A-.

jjpistols has always been OK by my standards.

Wow.

Better be careful all the way out there on that limb!

Jj stuck up for me at my darkest hour when everyone else abandoned me. When people said I wasn't fit to even sleep with sheep, Jj stepped in and not on set people straight by saying I was ditto sleep with sheep, he even showed me HOW to do it.


I will forever be indebted to him for essentially changing my life.

I would vote for JJ for ANYTHING he wanted to run for.

If JJ wanted to run for HEIR Burgermeister Meisterburger,I would even be his campagain manager and make the signs.
"There will be NO TOYS ALLOWED!"

JJ for PRESIDENT!

Or mod.

Or Burgermeister.

Or whatever.

Uh... Smell my arm pit??

Those damned new fangled automatic mobiles. They'll never take off.

Nothing can ever replace the horse and buggy.

Yeah. I never got to see Beethoven, My GOD, perform. I never will.

But you'd better believe if they had the technology back then to capture one of his performances, and then present it in modern day as a hologram performance, I would sell a kidney to go see it! Say, His debut of The ninth symphony in which he guest conducted while being totally deaf, you bet your ass I would sell a kidney to go see it.

It is just technology.

I believe just about all conceivable mediums are fair game for presenting art.

How freeking cool is that we have the ability to see a virtual performance of something that would have been impossible before the technology.

Look at it this way..... Why is it perfectly acceptable to go see a two dimensional performance of a concert, otherwise known as video, but add a third dimension and all of a sudden it is {censored}?

Pretty narrow minded thinking if you ask me.

Careful y'all don't get too close to the edge of the world. You might fall off.

Poidh

Try unplugging the guitar

Yeah, I got burned out in 95. Had played non stop touring the country since 88 and I was just spent. 99% of that was because of other people. It is just really hard to keep a four or five way marriage going that long where everyone has strong opinions, egos,, and ideas and not everyone always sees eye to eye. And those are at good times. I had really just had enough of people and not so much music, so I quit everything except playing writing and recording at home, went to school, got a biology degree, got out of school, ran a company for seven years, then got sucked back into another band. It was fresh, new and fun again, and now about four years and close to 1000 shows later, is still fun, still feels like we are on the way up, everyone still seeing eye to eye and getting along so far.

I just do my job and enjoy what I have when I have it because a band that stays together more than a few years is just really rare and I expect the thing to end abruptly at any time, it's just the way things are, so as long as it is still here, and stays fun, I'll stick with it. Of course the money is very important IF you are trying to do it for a living, but it is way too stressful and too much of a grind and way to risky to try to make a living at it if it is at least not fun. The day the shine starts wearing off this band, I'll start considering my options for leaving. And I fully expect it to. I just don't know if that will be next month or five years from now but I do expect it is inevitable.

Meanwhile, I will still be me, still be my own entity, my own brand and will carry on.

It is really almost never music that is the problem in working with other people. It is the other people themselves, so you have to decide to what degree you are going to let that effect your personal relationship with music itself.

If you look at bands and good working relationships with other musicians as temporary and fleeting, maybe you will be better able to enjoy them when the times are good, and much more able to accept it and move on when they are not.

It works for me.

When the band I am in runs it's course, I will probably take a break for a while, do some writing and recording, and eventually find another great situation that I don't expect will last forever either.

It's just the way it is.

And for all the young guns out there looking to try to make a living with music, this is almost certainly your fate as well. Realize you will most likely be in a lot of different musical situations over the years, and you will work with dozens and dozens of other people over the years. These people will be both the best and worst parts of your careers. Be prepared for that. It is just the way it is.

All you bridge guys are drinking the kool aide..

Some of the twangiest teles I've ever heard are top loaders. The bridge pup, the exact position of the bridge pup in relation to it's distance from the bridge, scale length, and technique are the only things needed to make any guitar twang. If you have these things, you will have all the twang any inbread redneck chicken bangin hillbilly can handle.

The bridge is an extremely popular but misinformed answer. I have played country for years, and know tons of country pickers, pros and amateurs alike. The good ones can make most guitars approach some sort of twang just the way they play, but aside from the good ones, I have just seen WAY too many people twang the crap out of unconventional guitars to attribute it to an ashtray bridge. This is so far down the list of priorities, it is barely worth mentioning.

The idea that you can just also an ashtray bridge on a guitar and all of a sudden you are going to have twang from whence there was non, or you are going to greatly, or even noticeably enhance a guitar that already twangs is just wishful thinking.

Now will come a ton of brainwashed rigid thinking koolaide drinkers to come in and contradict me. That's ok. They may change your mind, but they won't change mine.

I don't care. They will have to erase the mountains of evidence I've seen and heard over years directly associated with great country pickers to change my mind.

One of my alltime favorite country pickers is a local guy and he twangs a Floyd. He does amazing covers of every great country picker you can imagine. Yup. With a floyd.

You got the pup, you got the correct placement of the pup, you got the correct scale length, and most importantly, you have correct twang playing technique, and you can make ANY guitar twang. The bridge doesn't even matter as long as it is properly attatched and mounted to the guitar.

Brent Mason makes a Tele twang.

I used to spend hours just drooling over Warmoth bodies on their site.

That is one of the better ones I have seen.

My favorite are the bengal bursts, but that body is badass.

I was going to say exactly this.

Why he is not your personal favorite has absolutely nothing to do with why he is or isn't the rest of the world's favorite.

Usually when we are talking about greatest of "all time", we are more talking about the collective whole world's favorite and not evilminstrel from L.A.'s personal favorite.

Otherwise the title would have been, is Rd your personal favorite, or something to that effect.

If "sounding like a rock band" means the same to you as it does to most other people, i.e. LOUD, then you would be sitting at home on a Friday night Alot of times other quieter bands would get the gig. It doesn't have to blow your head off to sound like a rock band.

We do a lot of out door venues, Being Florida and all, that have to put up with local sound ordinances that simply get shut down or fined if the band is too loud.

No one that has ever come and seen our band has ever complained we were to quiet.

The key with this type of system is that you have absolute control over the volume and it is always crystal clear. One thing about sound quality is that a crappier sounding band is always perceived as a louder band, so a clear band can always get away with being Alot louder than the crappy sounding band in reality.

And the absolute key to the whole thing is the drums.

I don't know why electric drums would be a deal breaker for you.

T

A band without them can only play as quietly as their drummer plays, and if you have something against a kit that sounds not only sonically perfect, every time, but can dial in dozens and dozens of different sounds or kits, play as loud or quietly as each venue demands, then I would say electric drums aren't for you.

I can tell you, no manager, or club owner, or venue, or festival organizer has EVER said, we don't want that band, they use electric drums. No patron, friend or fan has EVER commented or disapproved of them or left a bar because of it. The only people I have ever heard comment on it are traditionalist musicians, and they mostly comment on how they look, not how they sound. Image is not as important in the Club scene as it wax 20 years ago. Nobody cares. The only time it has ever been an issue is when we your or do supporting shows with major artist and in the few cases where they even cares, our drummer just went ahead and used his badass acoustic set that he never plays much anymore. The overwhelming outcome of our experience with using electric drums as a band has been to turn skeptics into believers. It's hard to argue with something you have complete volume and sound control over and sound awesome every single time you use them.

I did over 250 shows last year with a band that has zero amps on stage. The guitarists use processors, mostly line 6 x3 live, bass uses sansamp tech 21 bass driver, and the drummer uses electronic kit.

We do have a kickass monitor system though.

Each guy can have anything he wants in his mix, eq'rd, whatever effects, whatever volume, etc.

Sure the band is good as far as players go, we have well over 100 years collective gigging under our belts between the four of us.

Lots of working bands play fine so what?

We play well together as any band that plays this much together should

But what really sets this band apart is the overall sound of the band.

We can blow your head off with volume both out front or on stage, but we have gotten and kept gigs also by our ability to play much quieter on stage and consequently out front than other full bands in our area.

Thing about doing it this way, is that there is absolutely no competition between stage volume and p.a. Volume. What front of house hears is almost pure p.a. Mix and virtually no stage volume.

Not to mention lugging around amps or cabs.

We are not opposed to using amps/cabs, but we have this system so dialed in that we see doing anything else as going backwards. I've played non stop in bands for a living since 1980. Been in tons of bands big and small, jammed with hundreds of musicians, played on maybe 1000 stages. This is the best sounding band I have ever been in both on stage and out front..

It's not just me that thinks that. This band in this configuration has never played a gig yet where we weren't told by patrons, bar owners, etc that didn't tell us it was the best sounding band they have ever had.

I think a significant part of that is the electronic drums too.

The band sound is like a big loud crystal clear stereo cranking your favorite toons.

And when a band sounds this good, most people don't know or care about the details why. They just automatically associate you with being a great band without thought about it must be the way they are set up that makes them sound so good. Most people don't know why or care.

They just think you are good which leads to a bigger following wick leads directly to more gigs and more money.

Not to mention the added benefit that is sounds great for us too!

I know I personally play better, or at least get into it more when it sounds great to me than when it doesn't.

I am so spoiled I am contantly disappointed when I sit in with other bands.,they aJlo sound like all the other bands I have ever played in, which ranges from pure shot to somewhat decent, but none of them approach the,quality of sound that we are achieving now.

It just makes it really fun to go to work when it sounds this good on stage and out front.

So not only would it not be a deal breaker, it is highly recommended.

The key though, it having a killer monitor system including lots of power, great monitors and a great board, etc.

Without that I'd be lugging my amps again.

But with it I will personally never go back when given a choice.

Well, I'll put it to you this way, I started really paying attention not only who the badass guitarists were, but also who the entire world as a collective thought the badass guitarists were. And I can tell you from about 1980 to 1990, Eddie Van Halen was more noticed, more talked about by fans, music lovers, guitarists, musicians, and the media than all other guitar players on Earth put together at the time, and that included the likes of page Hendrix and Clapton. Those guys definitely has their impact, but by the time the world started noticing Eddie, it was already mostly over for those other guys. People like what they like. You don't have to like Eddies playing or appreciate his music, but to deny the impact and influence he had over the rock listening and playing world is just silly. He has influenced more people than any group of twenty musicians that came after him put together. The world has not seen anything like it since. The only real Iconic guitarist, who MAY be close to a household name isn't even close to having the influence and impact Eddie had in those days and that is slash. Slash is more known outside of people who pay attention to rock, more for his image than his music. It was different with Eddie. His name was thrown around on an almost momentarily bases by masses in those days.

Remember the question is who is the greatest rock guitarist.

Mention.img people like Stanly Jordan and trying to compare them with Eddie is outside the scope of this topic.

Greatest rock guitarist of all time?

Yes I'd say quite so. I saw the way the world went nuts for that guy like I've never seen them go nuts for a single musician since. I can't name ONE musician that has become as big of a household name, or as talked about, or as copied, or as revered as Eddie was in his day. Once again, we are talking about rock guitarists. We are not talking about Lady Gaga, or Jlo or Andre Botticelli, etc.

Eddie so completely dominated back then, the world is likely to never see the same impact again in history. Ever.

Eddie Van Halen.

Greatest Rock Guitarist of all time.