Consuming the Tangible

I didn’t intend to be away from the site that long; I started reviews for both the latest Ulver and some boogie rock courtesy of Birth Control. But then life hit, as it does. The stress and events led me down a different path than before: I picked up my guitar and started playing. And a number of events criss-crossed and tangled, and here we are with the above image: my friend at work “loaned” me a Marshall 2×12 cabinet and a Bugera 1990 Infinium head for the month to see if I was interested in buying them.

I have never, in my 30+ years of playing guitar, played through a cabinet and amp head. Ever.

Pair that with a reinvigorated pedalboard and a pet project I’ve been working on called “The Shed” and it all culminated in the gap we have here at Consuming The Tangible. It’s a small detour, though. I’ll be back this weekend with the playlist, 9C file, and then back into the review game. But I wanted to take a minute and explain what I’m doing in case I share it here in the future.

While we’re at it, a few more confessions. I do not know any songs in full. Sure, I can play probably over 100 different riffs, but beginning to end? Nope. I have not learned a single solo. I have released two full-length albums as Necrolytic Goat Converter, numerous EPs and splits and collaborative projects (remind me one day to talk about the wonders of VHHP), but I’d be lying if I said I could even play my own stuff from beginning to end. When you’re a one-man band who hasn’t played with other people since college, you make do with what you got.

What do I got? These are my two main guitars: a 75th Anniversary Fender Stratocaster American Professional II in Olympic White and a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe ’70s Gold Top. I have more than a dozen instructional books for blues, jazz, rock and metal, and at least half a dozen video courses from the likes of Rick Beato and Robert Baker. I have a Boss Katana in my office to give me approximations of whatever tone I need, and I have time.

I’m an empty nester, after all.

So I started putting it all together, trying to create a curriculum that would address my many musical gaps (lack of song knowledge, theory, soloing) and get me to start using all this…stuff I’ve accumulated over the years. The result is The Shed, my private website built to help me do just that. As much as I complain about my job, it has a few enormous benefits for this: I have a corporate AI account that I have to chalk up usage on to toe the company line. I also lead a team of software developers and architects that are WAY smarter than I am (that’s not self-deprecation, that’s a fact) who are experts at this sort of thing and are helping with coding, PRs, and all that stuff. It’s an exciting diversion to create something that will directly help me, and it’s re-engaging me with music in a way I wasn’t expecting — going through different songs to figure out what phase of my course they should sit in, what songs or exercises will specifically address my shortcomings, and most specifically finally beginning to hear what I can do when I’m not surrounded by a ton of plugins and only focusing on four bars at a time (yes, the big secret of my recordings is I do it piecemeal).

It’s been a trip doing this, but the pull of listening to records and writing about them is still there, so this is just a quick note to explain where I’ve been and where I’m going. More reviews coming, and this week’s playlist will be extra long as I add to it all the songs I want to learn. So expect that in the next few days, and back to your regularly scheduled programming next week.

Thanks for sticking with me on this long, strange trip.

(yes, I have some Grateful Dead in the list to learn)