2009 October Archive
Mark King Slap Solo
Here is a sweet video of elite bassist Mark King. This guy makes popping look so easy.
Quoted as saying "Hold on a second, I can't hear you over the radiant awesomeness of this shirt"
Here’s a little info on Mark King, via Wikipedia:
Mark King (born 20 October 1958, Cowes, Isle of Wight) is an English musician. He is most famous for being the lead singer and bassist of the band, Level 42. In the early 1980s King popularized the 1970s-era slap and pop style for playing the bass guitar by incorporating it into pop music.
Mark King helped to develop and popularize the slap and pop style of playing the bass guitar in the 1980s. The slapping and popping style was developed in the 1970s by funk bassists such as Larry Graham and further developed by jazz fusion bassists such as Stanley Clarke and Marcus Miller. King developed a rapid playing speed using this technique, and introduced technical elements that enabled him to produce a mix of percussive effects while still playing a bass line.
One of King’s greatest influences was the musician Tom Taylor who gave King guitar lessons at the age of twelve.
King’s bass playing style is largely based on continuous 16th notes (aka semiquavers), variously described as “machine-gun” style. The “machine-gun” style of playing consists of popping a note, hammering on, then slapping (occasionally with a left hand slap combined) very rapidly.
King and Level 42 are considered highly influential artists of the brit funk movement of the 1970s and 1980s.
the art of losing
This is a poem that has kept me alive for longer than I care to remember…
ONE ART
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
–Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
~Elizabeth Bishop
My music is coming with me
when i die
my poems, words
they will come with me
when i cry
my mother, god
they come and lift me
when i sigh
my girl, world
have come and kissed me
my music’s coming with me
i can write it into existence
i can make it vanish in a snap
i can twist it, bend it, lift, suspend it
mend it, send it back
when i long
then my stars
make it so
when ‘im wrong
then it’s ours
this ancient poem
if i’m strong
in the hour
of the great unknown
then my music will come with me
i can write it into existence
i can make it vanish in a snap
i can twist it, bend it, lift, suspend it
mend it, send it back
© Brenton Sinay 2008
Some Massively Inspirational Words
I know you’re probably expecting them to come from me. Sometimes they do! But this time I’m going to defer to Elizabeth Gilbert.
This is an incredible, 18-minute dissection of creativity and how our society abuses the creative soul. It’s funny, it’s got history, and If you have a heart, or if you’ve ever attempted to make something your own in your life, this speech will get to you.
It honestly makes me wish that I lived in ancient Greece (for reasons which will become apparent once you check out the video). Although they didn’t have electricity, which as we all know is critical for guitar amplifiers. Or Trader Joes. That would certainly be a tragedy…but hey, they were into those back then. *cue comedic sting*
Because I’m feeling feisty…
Question 1: If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?
Question 2: It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three candidates.
Candidate A: Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists. He’s had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.
Candidate B: He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.
Candidate C: He is a decorated war hero. He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.
Which of these candidates would be your choice? Decide first… NO PEEKING! Then scroll down for more info.
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Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.
And, by the way, your answer to the abortion question??
If you said YES you just killed Beethoven.
Beethoven pondering... he'd have aborted, too!
One more thing… Can you imagine working for a company that has a little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
29 have been accused of spousal abuse 7 have been arrested for fraud 19 have been accused of writing bad checks 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses 3 have done time for assault 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges 8 have been arrested for shoplifting 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year…
Can you guess which organization this is? Give up yet? It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress! The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line! (This was 2004′s Congress)
More Music From the Expanding Horizons Series by Nicky P
No, this isn’t a PBS special. Just some insane music I’m sure you’ve never heard!
I thought John McLaughlin was just that awesome virtuosic flamenco player from Friday Night in San Francisco (which is also very much worthy of a listen by the way…craziest acoustic playing of all time featuring Al Di Miola and Paco de Lucia as well), but I stand corrected.
I’d heard of the Mahavishnu Orchestra before but I was not prepared for its weirdness and oddly alluring, while simultaneously upsetting, music. I never really realized that progressive bands such as Dream Theater and even Rush have a lot to owe to these early (only slightly earlier in Rush’s case) progenitors.
Check it out for yourself, it’s a real trip.
Sections of note:
- Guitar solo starting at ~1:35, really gets cooking around 2:30
- Crazy fiddle solo at around 3:05
- Weird funky keyboard/bass breakdown at ~5:10
- Sonic the Hedgehog style synth solo at 7:15 (keep in mind this was new and awesome at the time…not at all cliche)
- Hilarious sitcom style introductions near 8:10
- Gnarly drum solo at 8:40…Billy Cobham is ridiculous
What It’s Like From My Perspective
I know I don’t post often on here, but I wanted to share this clip we shot at practice the other night. here is a view of my drums during “Girl, You Don’t Have It.” Enjoy!
Five easy things you can do to help thatwasthen
I would like to be the first to say thank you, to everyone who visits our website on a daily basis. you help us more than you know. your support as a loyal visitor to thatwasthenmusic.com is fueling the potential of a tour, new gear, and future studio recordings.
Here are 5 things you can do, in under 10 minutes, that will help spread thatwasthen across the internets.
5. Visit our site every day.
The smallest of vibrations will send shock-waves through the ocean of the internet. Each time you visit our site, we receive an increase in ‘Page rank’, or our overall popularity rating on the internet. Google and Alexa are the two main ranking metrics on the internet. Google calculates your visits to our site automatically, thanks to Google Analytics. Alexa however, requires the installation of a Firefox plugin called Sparky. Sparky will simply submit user statistics to Alexa on which sites you most frequently browse (anonymously). When you visit our site with the Alexa Toolbar installed, it will greatly help our cause.
To install the Alexa Toolbar for Firefox: Click Here
4. Comment, and then post your comment to Facebook.
we rely heavily on facebook for maintaining contact with our fans. every time you visit thatwasthenmusic.com while logged into facebook, you will automatically be logged in here. this allows you to comment, post pictures and interact with the site. every time you post a comment or image, you will be presented with the option of posting what you have just written, to your facebook wall. as small as this may seem, it has a resounding effect on the traffic we receive.
If you do not have a Facebook account, click here to sign up!
3. StumbleUpon our site.
StumbleUpon is a ‘social bookmarking’ service. This means you can submit sites that you enjoy (appended with descriptive tags) to other who may be interested in the same thing. Like Alexa Sparky, it is a toolbar that is best used with Mozilla Firefox. If you are the first to ‘discover’ a site by clicking the ‘thumbs up’ icon on the StumblUpon Toolbar, you can type in the ‘tags’ that are associated with this link. Most importantly, you must select the “Category.” Being that we are a band that plays music, we naturally would appreciate you filing our posts under “MUSIC.”
To download/Sign-up for Stumbleupon click here
2. Submit/Up-Vote our articles on Reddit.com
Reddit.com is similar to StumbleUpon in the sense that it is a community based on user submitted content. Users who submit articles will often ask a question in their “title,” while supplying a link to the relevant article. Reddit.com has one of the internet’s most active commenting crowd. People who frequent this site are among the wittiest, smartest, snarkiest users on the tube. Be creative and introduce your own interpretation on whatever it is we have posted. For every person who visits thatwasthenmusic.com, 10,000 visit reddit.com. This is your chance to express your love/interest/question/feelings to the world. We only hope to provide the proverbial stage for you.
To sign up for Reddit.com click here.
1. Send this site to everyone you know.
We realize that 99% of your email is spam. We wish to change that percentage. Email a link to this site to everyone in your contact list who you think will enjoy our music. Hell, even if you don’t think they’ll enjoy it, send it anyways. You never know. thatwasthen has built their emerging empire on word-of-mouth and grassroots methodology. help perpetuate the growth and cultivation of something that you actually care about. for this, you will be eternally thanked.
I would like to add, that we have broken the 400,000 rank on Alexa as of writing this article. From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for your loyalty, support and love.
- Benny Dacks
Vote for thatwasthen for the Orange County People’s Choice Award
Click the image To Procede to the voting area.
The goal of this post is to help thatwasthen win an Orange County Music Award. More specifically, we would like to win the People’s Choice Award.
Your mission is to vote as many times as you can, every day, for thatwasthen. In order for your vote(s) to count, you must use a different email address.
If you only have one email address and wish to vote more than once, you can use a ‘temporary’ email service such as:
- http://slopsbox.com/
- http://www.disposeamail.com/
- http://www.mailinator.com/
- http://www.spamhole.com/
- http://www.10minutemail.com
Happy Voting!
- Benny
Happiness is a warm gun
"Love Is A Warm Gun" by Agosbeatle via DeviantArt
We’ve recently decided to cover The Beatles classic “Happiness is a warm gun” for the upcoming show at Dana Hills High school [flyer] This is by far my favorite Beatles song of all time. I would like to take a moment to explain why. There are several ways one can interpret the meaning of this song. Personally, I connect with this song on the following three:
1. Happiness is a warm gun, wherein the gun is your escape
John Lennon struggled with a severe heroin addiction for many years. We all have our vices, demons and skeletons. We all have unhealthy habits or addictions that we cling to in times of darkness. On Monday morning, how many people would you shoot if you didn’t get your coffee?
In a non-substance related angle, I can identify many instances in which I have resorted to ‘old’ thinking. By ‘old thinking’ I mean, operating in a mindset that correlates to your own consciousness at an earlier period in time. When we fall victim to this cognitive regression, we sink even deeper into the quagmire that is the catalyst for our current burden.
2. Happiness is a warm gun, wherein happiness is something you must work hard for (or, more figuratively: kill for)
John Lennon was cited as being inspired to write “Happiness…” after seeing the cover of a gun magazine that read specifically… “Happiness is a warm gun.” The following quote (via Wikipedia) will elaborate:
According to Lennon, the title came from the cover of a gun magazine that producer George Martin showed him: “I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said ‘Happiness Is a Warm Gun.’ It was a gun magazine. I just thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means you just shot something.”[1]
Further analysis of the song’s lyrics within the context of this quote would imply that John was in fact stating that you must go to great length to attain ‘happiness’. However that may manifest is entirely up to you.
3. Happiness is a warn gun, as in John Lennon wants to bone Yoko Ono.
Well. Not much to say on that… you get the picture.
