Friday, June 30, 2006

if you were going to see an acoustic act, what songs would you like to hear???



Here's what i've been working on.....

Pencil Thin Moustache - Jimmy Buffet
Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffet
Run Around- Blues Traveler
No Matter What - Goldfinger
Rockin' in the Free World - Neil Young
Country Roads - John Denver
Tears in Heaven - Eric Clapton
Pink Houses - Mellencamp
Cat's in the Cradle - harry Chapin
Poison Whiskey - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Last Rebell - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Good Luck/Bad luck - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Hotel california - the Eagles I tune down a half step, so yes, I can sing this song!!!!)
You've got to hide your love away - The Beatles
What's Goin on - marvin Gaye
Brown Eyed Girl
Lots of blues tunes..........

Comment away please!!! i really want to add another 20 good songs so I can even think about marketing myself for acoustic shows.....

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Thursday, June 29, 2006

Best $100 Mr D ever spent......


Tommy D, the guitar player in Nasty Habits, just got a computer, seriously, he just got his first computer.... So he's completely new to this whole world of instant-gratification called the internet. Shortly before Mr D got this new joy, I did some searching for him on Ebay, for cheap Japanese guitars called Teisco. I found a guitar that fit his needs (a headstock with the tuners arranged 4 on top and two on the bottom) and proceded to bid. Three days later, I won the auction, for a grand total of $97 dollars after shipping, Mr D was getting a neat old Japanese Teisco. When it arrived, I quickly tuned and stretched the stings (the seller had put new strings on it....) and IMHO it was a pretty decent axe, especially considering it was probably fom the 60's and cost less than $70... Tommy D loved the look of the guitar, and he has a great guitar tech at Thermal Relief who did a complete overhaul (including re-fretting the neck and taking off the old tremolo bridge) with a new hard-tail stop-tailpeice and some work on the electronics, the guitar sings!! Tommy is using the axe for his open tuned guitar for songs like Jealous by the Black Crowes, and Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones.

All in all the guitar ended up costing more than $100, but that was the initial cost and that's what matters to me!! Look for new pics of Tommy D and his Teisco ET-300 from our upcoming gigs!!

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Tuesday, June 27, 2006

lazy days of summer.... OR How I spent my day today

So I'm working on a project for a friend, a recording project. I'm doing a lot of guitar tracks, bass tracks and such here at home with the Casio keyboard as my metronome and my microphone taht came with our computer, it actually does a pretty good job (can't wait to get a proper analogue to digital interface, though, so I can really get pro results....) I've been playing all day.. not that I'm complaining, as a matter of fact, it's probably the first day that I've spent almost the whole day playing. I got a lot done, too.. About 5 songs our ot 8 or nine are ready for critiqing and approval, most of them are songs I already knew, now it's just recording them and overdubbing other tracks (one song has three guitar tracks on it, and two bass tracks)

I decided to get away from the glow of the computer monitor so I went and sat at the pool for an hour, what a beautiful day.... the sun is out, there is a nice breeze, the pool was empty...

anywho, just thought I'd tell you how my day is, seems like noone is bloggin these days..... lazy days of summer.......

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Thursday, June 22, 2006

NH promo pics









Many thanks to Richard Faverty at Beckett Studios, We are certainly pleased with these photos! We ended up with more than 200 pictures (including individual shots) and we now have plenty of work ahead of us putting together new Promo Packs...

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me looking cool



Here is my new personal headshot. Love it, all of you, for it is beautiful!! Also I will post some new promo pictures. we just did a shoot yesterday!!

Monday, June 19, 2006

Pictures and video up on website!!


Nasty Habits had a few gigs this weekend, and we brought along Mel, our staff photographer (and the drummers wife) with her camera(s). She does such a great job snapping shots of the band!!! we even have a few videos on the website!!!

So check out our pics here!!!!
and our Video here!!!!

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A couple of things...

I'm not one to put down a brand, I know that some equipment/products made by a brand may be faulty, or misstreated and therefore will not be the example to judge a whole company by, but I've got to speak against a brand this time... I Hate Mackie equipment. Hate is a strong word, and I mean it! The gear I have used in the past has been functional, but usually not as well appointed as most, and it costs a lot more (my mixer, which has the features of a $1000 mackie, only cost me $300 and it's still 100% working today!!). Again, I've not tested every single peice of ear that Mackie has made, but the gear I have used has been, For the most part, crap! The mixer at church is a Mackie ( I was not running sound when the gear was purchased... that's for sure!) and we've noticed a really bad amount of crosstalk ( when a signal {one of the microphone inputs} can be heard through the routing path of another/other channels. ) THis is usually a problem you find on really cheapo crappy boards, and even then, it's not usually that bad. All the channels were behaving this way, and I even went back to the board to look at things (we have a new soundguy at church) and couldn't figure it out... We had a microphone turned off, no signal was being sent anywhere from that mic channel, yet we could hear it (faintly) through the speakers. What kind of Crap is that? Macklie crap. Daniel, the young man who is running the sound now (moved here a few weeks ago ) agrees with me, Mackie is a no-no, I guess we'll have to deal with it for now, but I just had to say something to someone.....
added 06/20/06...Now to fix my adsense bar...It is advertising for those mixers I just spoke out against.... Behringer has always been good to me, I love my Behringer mixer. I use a Yamaha Mixer with Nasty Habits, it is a little limiting, but I really like my Behringer. My brother bought a Behringer for his church and he loves it!! certainly does the job!! I've even used Allen and Heath boards, they are great!! Eventually I'd like to get some experience on a Midas or SSL or Neve (studio) board. I can't imagine the possibilities with a pro mixer (allen and heath, ssl, neve, midas) and Saw Studio software, that would be killer!! add on some Joe Meek processing and MOTU interfaces, life would be golden!! Behringer rocks!!!

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Friday, June 16, 2006

Are auto manufacturers forgetting about national security?



Nifty idea, really, put multiple storage bins in the floor area where seats will fold down in a vehicle. I must admit, from a consumer standpoint this looks like a grat idea, and makes the horrible memories of moving a bulky bench seat in and out of a minivan go away! But there is another side to this new trend that I'm not sure people may be aware of. national security. that's right, our general safety is being put at risk by these 'convenient' designs in vehicles. I have no articles to back this up, it just occured to me the other day.

K and I were sitting in line at the Bellagio Self Park entrance (going to dinner) , where the security guards were checking out the vehicles that were entering (which they have donbe at that property since 9-11). THe guards even went as far as to open the trunk of one of the cars ahead of us, very thourough. K an I had no problem driving in, as our back seats are folded down so I can get all of my gear into the Jeep for the weeked. It occured to me, however, that anyone could have anything hidden in the floor bins of their minivan and as long as they don't look 'too suspicious' could then get away with some very disturbing items in their car....

I strongly doubt that, with Las Vegas being both a tourist destination adna business/convention destination, a vehicle with four middle aged men would bring any suspicion, it would be easy to say you were here on business. A vehicle with four 20 somethings or 30 somethings could just say they were having a boy's(or girl's) weekend in Vegas. So the fact that those four 'businessmen' may be driving a vehicle that looks 'ordinary' and none of their cargo is out of the ordinary doesn't mean a thing, what if they have bricks of C-5 stashed in the bins? How safe is any city with these vehicles on the road.

No don't get me wrong, I'm far from a conspiracy theorist (I actually have never made it all the way through that movie from start to finish) and I have no intentions of using my brainstorm for evil, but don't you think that something has got to be done? Forget wire tapping, most of the time they do it, they won't find anything useful, and you'll never know they did it (unless you say something incriminating, then you shouldn't be doing whatever it is you are doing, and you certainly shouldn't be talking about it over the phone, duh, they're tapping the phones now...)

Again, I think that these design ideas will make life a lot easier for those who are minivan bound (although I find the commercial with the wife stuffing all of her shopping bags in the floor so her husband can't see them mildly offensive as it projects the image of men as bumbling once again on the small screen, Come on ladies, like he won't see the credit card bills, please) I must submit that there are dangers to be warned about with this new trend.

If you are a terrorist, Plese disregard this blog post, as there are no ideas for you here..........

Thursday, June 15, 2006

My wife is mildly obsessed with another womans tatas................

If you aren't from Salisbury, Maryland, you may not know who Berry Tilghman is, she is the mayor, and apparently got a little nippy at a meeting, there are pictures on some guys blog....

I would not usually have any problem with someone's lack of preparation when it comes to wardrobe, but the fact that my wife has made a few comments on the blog and she can't stop talking about it is causing me to worry. Last night we even had a short discussion about 'T-shirt Bras" and how they are supposed to stop this from happening.....

I guess I could take a picture of myself on a cold day, maybe that would really float her boat, never knew my wife had this strange infatuation.........

To all woman, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU ARE WEARING THE APPROPRIATE GARMENTS FOR YOUR SITUATION, OR MY WIFE MAY DEVELOPE A DANGEROUS INFATUATION WITH YOUR BREASTS TOO!!!!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

My Public Service Announcement for this month

Men Beware : New Date Rape Drug : Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties & local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman. Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer."The drug is found in liquid form and is available anywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, or from taps and in large "kegs". Beer is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and sleep with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of Beer and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. After several beers, men will often succumb to the desires to sleep with horrific looking women whom they would never normally be attracted.After drinking beer, men often awaken with only hazy memories of exactly what happened to them the night before, often with just a vague feeling that "something bad" occurred. At other times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings, in a familiar scam known as "a relationship."In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage." Men are much more susceptible to this scam after beer is administered and sex is offered by the predatory females.Please! Forward this warning to every male you know.If you fall victim to this "Beer" scam and the women administering it, there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter with similarly victimized men.For the support group nearest you, just look up Golf Courses" in the phone book.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

My Wife's Hitman Name.....

Ruphas the Terrible
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People Iced:Thirty Nine
Car Bombs Planted:Fifteen
Favorite WeaponStilletto
Arms Broken:Seventeen
Eyes Gouged:Seven
Tongues Cut Off:Thirteen
Biggest Enemy:Mickey Z

Your HITMAN Name


THis is Kelly's Hitman Name, My Name was Knee Bender....

Friday, June 09, 2006

Ahhhhhh, guess I'm finally getting used to the temps out here.....

You know 93 degrees, right? If you are in Maryland, you know that 93 degrees is usually accompanied by high humidity and lots of tourists... we get them here too, just not so much humidity....
The other day I was getting into the Jeep to pick Kelly up from work and I thought to myself 'Self, it's a beautiful day, I don't even need to use the AC in the car.' I started the car up and looked at the temperature, 93. now you know that 93 degrees is hot, yet it has been so much hotter already that it really felt great!! I cruised down CHeyenne to the highway and through the little backroads to her work (which they have finally filled in the potholes, yay!!) without even breaking a sweat.. I mean, really, compared to the days last week... It wasw awesome!!

Today was another great day, in most spots the temp was 95 or so, with 97 and 98 on the busy highway and in the heat of the day. Obviously we will have more scorchers in store, we haven't even hit July yet, or August (pretty bad temps in those months last year) but so far this summer has been pretty agreeable!

Anyone who doesn't believe the difference between humid/hot and dry/hot aught to come for a week here, you'll notice how amazing the difference is!!

Monday, June 05, 2006

Adrenaline, pros and cons




You know that feeling you get when you are playing a great game of your favorite sport, your team is on fire, you are pumping out energy you didn't even know you had, you take a hit into the boards and it doesn't phase you, you are intent on giving 125% as long as your body seems to be willing.... I get that feeling from a good gig! When everything is together, the crowd response is good, I just get this great boost. THis weekend was awesome, we had a good crowd on Friday night, albeit small, and Saturday night the place was hopping and the folks kept dancing all night long.. one problem with getting this adrenaline rush, what's going to happen when it goes away.... Let me set up the scene for you:

We video taped our gig in Indian springs and watched the video last week (several times) to get a good idea of those things that needed work. I noticed instantly that I was not nearly as animated as I thought I was, mostly kicking back and letting the groove flow without looking like I was into it (at least not looking like I was Really into it). THe vocals needed work, but Saturday night in Indian Springs we wre all kinda hosed. When I talk to the audience, I tend to talk really fast, not so fast that you can't understand, just fast enough for it to sound too fast. So I put it into my head that I needed to go back to the more animated, rockstar stance (you know, legs bent at teh knee, axe slung right in front of you, rockin to the rhythm and moving the axe on big hits...) that I used to always play with, and I needed to slow down and focus on diction when talking and singing. THese tips seemed to help, the
Special thanks to my bandmates, Corey, Bruce, Tommy D. WIthout these guys, I would not have the opportunity to get that rush, and to know that I was in a project that was more than just another bar band!! More thanks to Mel, our 'staff photographer', she comes out to gigs with Corey (her hubby) and takes great pictures for us!!!!

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Wow, economy freight.....

It's interesting to me that a music store in San Diego would send an upright bass economy freight. I'm still waiting for the upright bass that was ordered a week and a half ago and when I called the shipping comany, they said the scheduled delivery date was June 5th.... June 5th... that is nuts. I can see when it came into Las Vegas, it is here in the depot, it has not been scanned into the system yet, and God only knows if is in in an air conditioned area or not.

When I called the customer service number to inquire about the status of the item, I was told that it was shipped economy freight and is not scheduled to be delivered until June 5, I asked the representative about the area the item is located, she didn't know if it was air conditioned or not, I advised her that this was big and expensive and very sensative to temperature extremes, no response, I told her that if upon inspection the item was damaged because of their shipping/holding procedures that I would have no problem, I would simply send it back to the reatiler that sent it to me, but her company would have a very big problem, nothing, no respone, it's like she was a mindless 19 year old, reading only two sentances from her computer 'it shows here that it was shipped economy and is scheduled to be delivered on June 5th'...... I just love when people care, don't you?!

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