Shimmy's Music Blog

Fuzz Bucket Dec 6, 2011

2012-01-02T15:35:00.001-08:00

This is the real Last Jam Session of 2011. We lost 4 of the 8 tracks but fortunately the overhead mics picked up plenty of guitar and bass. I'm pretty happy with some of these jams. I think The Cringe is a new piece we can work on and add to our repertoire if I can get my triplets up to speed. But the idea is there and I likes it! I hope you like it too! Warning: If you are sensitive to sloppy drumming this may not be for you.

Soundcloud widget:

Fuzz Bucket 12.06.2011 by shimster

Soundcloud link:
http://soundcloud.com/shimster/sets/fuzz-bucket-12-06-2011

Nov 30 2011 Fuzz Bucket Jam Session

2012-01-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

This was the last recorded jam session from 2011 featuring all 3 of us. There was another jam but I think we got our memory cards mixed up and lost half of our tracks. I might try to salvage what we've got but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Anyway, this is a jam session where we brought a lot of beer and I think we got a little too loose but as usual there's some good stuff.

soundcloud widget:
Fuzz Bucket 11.30.2011 by shimster

soundcloud link

2012 is just around the corner

2011-12-30T15:42:00.001-08:00

Holy shit! I haven't updated my blog since September! I've been pretty busy with music related stuff but I started posting on soundcloud and facebook and then sort of forgot about my blogger page which kind of sucks but I don't think people really visit this page. I don't blame them since I don't really post any real content except for the occasional sound file. It's hard to find time for blogging though. Work keeps me busy, currently supporting 2 movies, straddling 2 departments and writing pipeline tools. Blogging for me has been difficult because it is mainly a visual medium and all I've got is my sound files. Anyway, it hasn't been a total waste of time. I did post quite a few jams on soundcloud including one jam which I thought was particularly good. If you listen to just one jam check this out. We recorded this on Nov 16, 2010:

soundcloud widget:

link to soundcloud:
http://soundcloud.com/shimster/sets/fuzz-bucket-11-16-2011

I'm pretty sure the entire jam was in the "native" configuration of:
Eric: Guitar
Jamie: Novax ch7 (bass and guitar)
Dan(me): Drums

I hope you like it! I have a few days off so I'll try to post another jam this weekend!
-d

Forgotten Jams 7/15/2011

2011-09-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

I had uploaded these and then spaced out for a few months. Here are the missing jams. These are only 3 of the jams from that night. I'll post more when I have time. Enjoy!

Fuzz Bucket 7.15.11 by shimster

Fuzz Bucket Jam 6/17/11

2011-07-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Location: Astoria Soundworks Room 9
Date: 6/17/2011 10PM to 1AM

This time I promised Eric I would mix his guitar in a wide stereo image since he always plays a stereo rig through 2 amps. Tons of fun if you're listening over headphones. Jamie's CH7 is mixed towards the center with the bass slightly left and the guitar slightly right.
For this jam I split up long jams into smaller chunks. I gave up on posting links to mp3 files so now everything is on Soundcloud with a nifty widget. Oh, and if you can't see the widget (like if you're using Safari on the iPhone, then you can use this link: http://soundcloud.com/shimster/sets/fuzz-live-asw-6-17-2011 or download the free Soundcloud app and look up "shimster".

Hope you like it.
-Dan

Notes:
a Bucket Of Fuzz The Reckoning (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7) - some old ideas hacked together
b Monkey Buzzness (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
c Wonky Monkey (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
d Ice Bucket (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
e Squirrel (d:gtr j:drm e:ch7) -d: having fun with eric's rig.
f Screech : (d:gtr j:drm e:ch7)
g Shit The Bed : (j:gtr e:drm d:ch7)
h STB2 : (j:gtr e:drm d:ch7)
i STB3 : (j:gtr e:drm d:ch7)
j KK : (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7) - trying one of Jamie's original compositions inspired by one of his favorite guitar players
k: Road To Nowhere : (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7) - Rough start (and middle, and end) but I hope to turn this into one of our regular jams. The drumming was tough, I had too many ideas in my head wanting to come out at the same time.

Fuzz Live! @ASW 6.17.2011 by shimster

Fuzz Live! @ASW 5.26.2011

2011-06-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

Trying something new. Even though I'm backed up with jam sessions as far back as March I'm posting the most recent first (although I lagged behind and this is already 2 jams ago). This week we took longer to get set up because the snare had a big tear in the bottom head and the kick pedal was loose. We got room 2 at Astoria Soundworks which is probably our favorite room. It's so quiet I think it inspired our mellow jams. We managed to play shorter jams which is probably easier on those of you brave enough to listen. I think we played more melodic in general and I like the sound of eric's guitar rig which I had fun playing in Squee, Bumble, and Rumble. I like so many of these jams but I think my favorite is the Charlie Hunter inspired "Frosty". Dark Horizon is moody, Good Times is mellow, Gravy is funky and psychadelic. The others are cool too, not to downplay them, it's hard to find adjectives to describe these jams. Check out the soundcloud widget for streaming goodness.

files on .mac (if they don't playback, right click the links to download):

Dark Horizon 7:07 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
Good Times 5:27 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
This Time We Didn't Forget The Gravy 5:34 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
Surfing 8:08 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
Squee 18:14 (d:gtr j:drm e:ch7)
Bumble 6:12 (d:gtr j:drm e:ch7)
Rumble 6:43 (d:gtr j:drm e:ch7)
Bleeding Out 8:56 (j:gtr e:drm d:ch7)
Milieu 6:46 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
Sneakers 3:34 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)
Frosty 4:50 (e:gtr d:drm j:ch7)

soundcloud widget test:

fuzz bucket 5.26.11 by shimster

4 Jams!

2011-04-26T20:29:00.000-07:00

Fuzz Live! 1.13.11 Night of Neverending Jams

flying 12:49
mammoth 5:13
neverending 20:14
beerMilkshake 24:56
Marker5 9:26

Fuzz Live! 1.27.11 Snowmageddon

thumper 14:39
TheBlob 13:24
KangarooPtII 7:49
Blammo 6:00
effigy 4:32
effigyPtII 14:00
creepyCrawlies 1:35
peepers 8:39

Fuzz Live! 02.09.11 Jamie's Retirin'

warmup 5:16
dundun 8:41
formulaG 5:15
wahtsup 13:51
theGist 1:15
waitUp 6:13
choppingBlock 19:02

Fuzz Live! 2.16.11 Bucket Of Fuzz

ghost 6:30
bucketOfFuzz 12:32
dynamo 8:11
marker5 7:45
rain 12:58
thfbt 10:58
groogrux 11:28

Jan 6, 2011 Jam

2011-03-10T12:38:00.001-08:00

I just found these hanging around on my hard drive. Time to get organized...

MF 7:39
MFedit 5:00
enFuego 16:01
coolness 11:19
YMe 18:05
trainingDay 9:04
flunky 13:04
gunk 12:01

Double Feature Fuzz Jams

2011-02-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

Been mixing a lot today. I put 2 jam sessions online. Here goes...

November 18, 2010
drive 7:46
King Kong 10:37
Blood 12:21
Deep Fried 16:28
Lightfoot 8:07
Foo 8:15
Goo 10:06
Herbivore 24:04

December 2, 2010:
Catwoman 14:35
Marker 5 Take 2 11:43
Crunch Time 14:21
Downtime 8:18
Endless Jam 17:21
Flapjack 16:14

J & D Live! 11.11.10 a.k.a. quiet time

2011-01-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

Jamie & I figured out how to reduce the noise on our amps and that inspired us to play quietly. I think this resulted in some cool jams.
fuzz.11.11.10.a.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.b.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.cShh.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.d.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.eKeeper.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.f.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.g.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.h3llaKewl.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.i.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.j.mp3
fuzz.11.11.10.k.mp3

Jam Session 10/07/2010

2011-01-24T17:59:00.000-08:00

Jamie: Novax CH7 / drums
Dan: Novax CH8 / drums
Eric: other

fuzz.10.07.10.a.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.b.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.c.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.d.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.e.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.f.mp3 ???
fuzz.10.07.10.g.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.h.mp3 d:ch8 , j:drums, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.i.mp3 d:ch8 , j:drums, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.j.mp3 d:ch8 , j:drums, e:other
fuzz.10.07.10.k.mp3 d:drums, j:ch7, e:other (actually, I think j was playing the ch8 in my whacky tuning)

Taki House BBQ 9-18-10

2010-12-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

bbq.09.18.10aModuleSeven.mp3
bbq.09.18.10bDestroyTheBrain.mp3
bbq.09.18.10cSeaMonkey.mp3
bbq.09.18.10dLooseToof.mp3
bbq.09.18.10eEloosiv.mp3
bbq.09.18.10fFurTive.mp3
bbq.09.18.10gGoonigoogoo.mp3
bbq.09.18.10hHax0r.mp3
bbq.09.18.10iIntermission.mp3
bbq.09.18.10jJanky.mp3
bbq.09.18.10kMisirlou.mp3
bbq.09.18.10lTheEnd.mp3

Fuzzimuth 8/13/2010

2010-12-01T20:37:00.001-08:00

From what I remember about this session, I think we had to scrounge around to get enough mics and we ended up with 6 tracks instead of 8. I guess we were all in weird moods and the jams ran long. Pretty sure Jamie and I were working on our "formula".

Eric: gtr
Jamie: Ch7, drums
Dan: Ch8, drums

fuzz.08.13.10a.uno.mp3 (16:28)
fuzz.08.13.10b.dos.mp3 (22:01)
fuzz.08.13.10c.tres.mp3 (18:11)
fuzz.08.13.10d.quatro.mp3 (25:36)

7.29.10 jam session - Noise Freq Wedge

2010-11-29T20:48:00.001-08:00

Jamie and I tried playing some covers and some new stuff...

nfw.07.29.10aM5.mp3
nfw.07.29.10bWaves.mp3
nfw.07.29.10cWaves-ish.mp3
nfw.07.29.10dHang10.mp3
nfw.07.29.10eReligion.mp3
nfw.07.29.10fDistance.mp3
nfw.07.29.10gNoiseFreqWedge.mp3
nfw.07.29.10hVideoFoot.mp3

Fuzz Live! 7/22/2010

2010-11-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

Eric: guitar + crazy rig
Dan: Novax CH8 (bass/gtr), drums
Sheldon: Keys
Jamie: Novax CH7 (bass/gtr), drums
(instrument-switching documented after each track)

fuzz.07.22.10a.noWarmupNeeded.mp3 E:g D:d S:k J:ch7
fuzz.07.22.10b.ThePixels.mp3 E:g D:d S:k J:ch7
fuzz.07.22.10c.marker-5.mp3 - E:g D:d S:k J:ch7 there's a groove at the end which is infectious!
fuzz.07.22.10d.dufus.mp3 - D:ch8 J:d E:g S:k
fuzz.07.22.10e.spaceMonkeys.mp3 ?:g ?:k (probably E & S but who knows?)
fuzz.07.22.10f.batteryDeath.mp3 D:ch8 J:d E:g S:k
fuzz.07.22.10g.terminator.mp3 E:d D:ch8? S:k? J:g?
fuzz.07.22.10h.spaceGhosts.mp3 D:d J:ch7 S:k E:g

6/30/2010 "Turd Blossoms"

2010-11-28T07:10:00.000-08:00

Missing Tracks! 5.20.10

2010-11-27T09:40:00.001-08:00

Just went back and found 2 tracks that I never posted from our 5/20/2010 jam session. Here they are:
fuzz.05.20.10g.geeWiz.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10h.monstroso.mp3

Fuzzimuth Live! 9/5/2010

2010-09-10T07:43:00.000-07:00

On Sept 5, 2010 Jamie Williams, Dan Shimmyo, and Eric Maurer had a sweet jam session.

...but seriously, it was probably the best jam Jamie and I ever had playing improvised music on the novax ch7 and ch8 guitars. Eric was itching to play so he came along to provide some haunting leads and cool sound effects.

Jamie on Novax, Eric Guitar, Dan on drums:

1) headFirst 4:06 - J&D playing before Eric was done setting up, spontaneous and awesome!
2) creeper 10:37 - creepy and awesome!
3) onTheRun 10:18 - awesome!
4) epicBBQ 8:48 - oldie with new improved drums and some new chords!
5) goof 1:08 - J&D messing around
6) dogStar 9:31 - more serious now
7) hitOrMiss 8:33 - playing loose now

Dan on Novax CH8, Eric on Guitar, Jamie on Drums:

8) theFormula 18:20 - D testing the new "formula"
9) whatEv 9:58 - waltzy, not sure what this reminds me of but I ripped something off
10) whatTimeIsIt 12:46 - J switching time signatures messing up my playing

Jamie on Novax, Eric Guitar, Dan on drums:

11) shimmyLikeee 11:14 - another updated oldie

Fuzz Live! 5.20.2010

2010-08-02T22:06:00.000-07:00

This is an old jam that I barely remember. This summer the days and weeks have blended together. Anyway, here's some stuff we did. I think it sounds pretty cool too!

(I'll be posting these as they become available...)

fuzz.05.20.10a.falseStart.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10b.shimmyLikee-ish.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10c.rock.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10d.battleSog.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10e.battleDamage.mp3
fuzz.05.20.10f.tripletsOfWhoville.mp3

fuzz.05.20.10a.falseStart.m4a
fuzz.05.20.10b.shimmyLikee-ish.m4a
fuzz.05.20.10c.rock.m4a
fuzz.05.20.10d.battleSog.m4a
fuzz.05.20.10e.battleDamage.m4a
fuzz.05.20.10f.tripletsOfWhoville.m4a

Fuzz Live! 7.8.2010 Now In Technicolor!

2010-07-31T22:59:00.000-07:00

Now In Technicolor!

This jam was accidentally recorded premixed Monophonic sound! But wait! I "remixed" every track in Technicolor "stereo"! Please ignore those old tracks and listen to these! You will not be disappointed!

fuzz.7.8.10.remix.a.rusty.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.b.beebop.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.c.growl.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.d.buggy.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.e.mishmosh.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.f.doomdoomdoom.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.g.robotAttack.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.h.epoch.mp3

AAC versions to see if Rob can play these:

fuzz.7.8.10.remix.a.rusty.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.b.beebop.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.c.growl.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.d.buggy.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.e.mishmosh.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.f.doomdoomdoom.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.g.robotAttack.m4a
fuzz.7.8.10.remix.h.epoch.m4a

Takki House Jam Volume 2

2010-07-31T18:16:00.000-07:00

As promised, the last half of our jam session at Nikki's and Tamara's house.
I might eventually be able to decipher who played what when. I'm pretty sure Andre, who we had just met, played guitar on AVJam and maybe the last 3 tracks.
I recorded this jam on my Edirol R-44 field recorder. I just placed it on the window sill and used the onboard stereo mics. Except for a tiny bit of distortion during the loud parts I'm extremely surprised by the sound quality. We set up the drums in one corner of the livingroom and the two guitarist (when there were two) sat on the couches. It was a really casual environment to play in. The only thing missing was a vocal mic which we'll probably remember to bring next time. We didn't exactly have a set list and 90% of the music we played this night was improvised. I had a blast. Can't wait to play at another party like this. Maybe we'll have some more material to try out.

taki.06.19.10.V2a-Intermission.mp3 11:36
taki.06.19.10.V2b-Knightrider.mp3 12:45
taki.06.19.10.V2c-Groove.mp3 14:42
taki.06.19.10.V2d-AVJam.mp3 1:56
taki.06.19.10.V2e-BillyJean.mp3 1:54
taki.06.19.10.V2f-JJ.mp3 3:48
taki.06.19.10.V2g-EasyPeasy.mp3 3:17
taki.06.19.10.V2h-Sunday.mp3 3:04
taki.06.19.10.V2i-Smells.mp3 4:29
taki.06.19.10.V2j-creep.mp3 2:38
taki.06.19.10.V2k-Sunshine.mp3 1:57
taki.06.19.10.V2l-Ocean.mp3 1:10
taki.06.19.10.V2m-BarbecueShuffle.mp3 4:14
taki.06.19.10.V2n-InExcess.mp3 1:57
taki.06.19.10.V2o-Santana.mp3 2:01
taki.06.19.10.V2p-Cocaine.mp3 6:34
taki.06.19.10.V2q-FunkyBasterds.mp3 4:14

Some pics I snapped on my iPhone:

Takki House BBQ Jam June 19 2010 Vol 1

2010-07-27T21:33:00.000-07:00

This was Jamie's and my first attempt to go play live in front of real live people. It was an incredible success thanks to all the players that joined in to make the party memorable. Sean Palmer sat in on the drums for most of the night. The effervescent Alena Wooten also rocked out a few drum beats. Andre Vanegas played some drums and guitar. At some point Dan Barker may have joined in to play drums or something. There was a lot of beer and it's hard to remember who played what. I think someone said Bonno showed up... Anyway, there were too many hours of music to edit so here's what I could do in one night. I'll post the rest later ... enjoy!

taki.06.19.10a-dreamy.mp3 7:43
taki.06.19.10b-chill.mp3 4:03
taki.06.19.10c-shimmysTurn.mp3 10:15
taki.06.19.10d-myApologies.mp3 4:16
taki.06.19.10e-louder.mp3 17:32
taki.06.19.10f-duelingNovaxes.mp3 5:30
taki.06.19.10g-drePlaysPretty.mp3 4:06
taki.06.19.10h-epicBBQ.mp3 8:46

novax jam #1

2010-07-12T21:13:00.001-07:00

This was our very first time jamming with the Novax CH-8 and CH-7 guitars. This is just me and Jamie on guitar and drums. Check it out!

azimuth.5.6.10.a-pixies.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.b-shimmyLikee.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.c-riffing.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.d-need2brains.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.e-noodles.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.f-slowChildren.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.g-somethingCool.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.h-cheeseburgerMediumWithFries.mp3
azimuth.5.6.10.i-hangOfIt.mp3

fuzz live! 7/8/2010

2010-07-12T21:12:00.001-07:00

In Glorious Mono!

This jam was accidentally recorded pre-mixed onto the disk instead of in separate tracks *and* in Monophonic sound! It's a little wonky but kinda cool. Anyway, we're back!

fuzz.7.8.10a-rusty.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10b-beebop.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10c-growl.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10d-buggy.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10e-mishmosh.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10f-doomdoomdoom.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10g-robotAttack.mp3
fuzz.7.8.10h-epoch.mp3

6/3/10 Novax Jam #2

2010-06-05T22:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long... I'm backed up about 5 jam sessions. This is the 2nd "novax jam" that I've had with Jamie. The first jam will come later, I'm mixing and posting in reverse order... This time I recorded using the stereo microphones on the Edirol field recorder and they got distorted so I apologize for the crappy sound. We're still getting used to the Novax "CH" (Charlie Hunter) guitars which are a bass and a guitar combined into one instrument. Jamie is playing a 7-string and I have the 8-string version.

Azimuth is a name we came up with after imbibing many beers at the beer garden. Not sure if it'll stick but there you go.

azimuth.6.3.10aGimmeAnA.mp3 19:25- Dan:Gtr/bass Jamie:Drums
azimuth.6.3.10bMoreA.mp3 17:06- Dan:Gtr/bass Jamie:Drums
azimuth.6.3.10cChillin.mp3 7:31- Jamie: Gtr/bass Dan: Drums
azimuth.6.3.10dNurbsForever.mp3 10:49- Jamie: Gtr/bass Dan: Drums
azimuth.6.3.10eWhereIsMyChord.mp3 2:01- Jamie: Gtr/bass Dan: Drums
azimuth.6.3.10fGreatCapo.mp3 11:19- Jamie: Gtr/bass Dan: Drums
azimuth.6.3.10g.pain.mp3 15:23- Dan:Gtr/bass Jamie:Drums
azimuth.6.3.10h.knight.mp3 12:07- Jamie: Gtr/bass Dan: Drums

Fuzz Live! 3/18/2010

2010-04-06T05:06:00.000-07:00

And we're back with yet another jam session. The main thing that stands out from this jam session is that Jamie and I both attempted to do the dual-wielding guitar/bass combo. My attempts were less successful but still interesting. I haven't had a good chance to listen to all of the tracks but I think I've found a favorite. I recommend checking out fuzz.03.18.10d-experimental.mp3 . I found a new way to play the hihat and jamie's dual-wielding rocks.

fuzz.03.18.10a-groovy.mp3 11:03 d:gtr e:bass j:drums s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10b-kickass.mp3 14:38 d:gtr e:bass j:drums s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10c-coolness.mp3 18:27 d:drums e:gtr j:bass s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10d-experimental.mp3 14:49 d:drums e:gtr j:bass/gtr s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10e-747.mp3 7:47 d:bass/gtr e:drums j:e-gtr s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10f-747part2.mp3 7:47 d:bass/gtr e:drums j:e-gtr s:gtr
fuzz.03.18.10g-insane.mp3 16:09 d:s-gtr e:gtr j:drums s:bass

Streaming version of fuzz.03.18.10d-experimental.mp3:

epic jam (streaming audio test)

2010-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is the last jam from our 3.4.10 sessions. I'm just testing out the service from soundcloud.com . I like to have a play button appear in your browser instead of forcing you to download tracks. Pretty nifty.

Fuzz Live! 3.4.10

2010-03-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

This jam session took place in room 13 at Astoria Soundworks. It was a pretty small dead-sounding room. And while we were setting up some kid stops by and asks "Are you guys about to start playing? Good luck! Hehe!" We weren't sure what that meant but we definitely prefer to play in the bigger rooms (A, B or C). Jamie an I brought earplugs this time. I put new strings on my guitar and added a compressor to my pedalboard. I was really happy with my guitar sound this time, both the clean and overdriven sounds (check out track e). In the last jam Jamie plays bass and guitar(left) at the same time Stanley Jordan style.

fuzz.03.04.10a-laserBeam.mp3 13:42 e:gtr j:bass d:drums s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10b-fartKnocker.mp3 5:30 e:gtr j:bass d:drums s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10c-buzz.mp3 14:12 e:gtr j:drums d:bass s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10d-choppinBroccoli.mp3 22:10 e:gtr j:drums d:bass s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10e-room13.mp3 17:20 e:drums j:bass d:gtr s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10f-groovin.mp3 15:49 e:gtr j:bass d:drums s:gtr
fuzz.03.04.10g-epic.mp3 28:49 e:gtr j:bass/gtr d:drums s:gtr

Fuzz 2.18.10

2010-02-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

For those just joining us, Fuzz is what happens when 4 technical directors that work in cg animation get together and make noise with their instruments. We all kind of play guitar, bass, and drums so we have fun switching instruments to make things challenging. Eric usually brings a crazy stereo guitar fx rig, bunch of mics, a 4-track field recorder and records each jam. Sheldon usually brings his guitar/fx rig, which is also crazy. Jamie usually brings his vintage bass gear with vintage pedals (jealous). I usually bring my SG and my pedal board and some cymbals. I also bring my 4-track field recorder so we can link them together and get 8 tracks. We use the drumset and amps provided by Astoria Soundworks. For the past few weeks I've been mixing the jams on my old TiBook using Digital Performer. This time my TiBook almost blew up (again) because I used too many effects again. Almost time to upgrade, not yet...

This session Eric brought a pedal that allows him to pan his guitar sound between two separate guitar rigs. I brought my usual rig with the crybaby again and borrowed the same Orange amp that I used in the previous jam. We tried a different drum mic setup with one on the kick, another over the snare/hihat and one over the ride/toms. I bought a new korg nano kontrol which helped when I was mixing the tracks. It's like a mini mixing console, so cool. I'm also trying mixing a little more actively to balance the tracks and enhance the psychedelic experience. Oh, I played the drums so damn hard that my arms were sore for a few days. I've also started naming the tracks just to help differentiate each block of music. I know they're silly and the cover art sucks but I was tired and in a hurry.

fuzz.2.18.10a-Where_is_Sheldon.mp3 3:16 E:Gtr J:Bass D:Drums S:?
fuzz.2.18.10b-Technical_Difficulties.mp3 17:08 E:Gtr J:Bass D:Drums S:Gtr (one 4-track failed for the first 3/4 of the jam)
fuzz.2.18.10c-TheDingoAteYourBaby.mp3 11:09 E:Gtr J:Bass D:Drums S:Dark Magic
fuzz.2.18.10d-DeepFriedMonkeyBrains.mp3 9:21 E:Gtr J:Drums D:Bass S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10e-TheyStartedWithoutMeButItWasPrettyCool.mp3 15:07 E:Gtr J:Drums D:Bass S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10f-bassNDrums.mp3 3:05 J:Drums D:Bass
fuzz.2.18.10g-playedYourEyesIn.mp3 13:18 E:Gtr J:Drums D:Bass S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10h-A_Moo_Point.mp3 9:41 E:Drums J:Bass D:Gtr S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10i-CornNuts.mp3 5:07 E:Drums J:Bass D:Gtr S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10j-MyHandsFellOff.mp3 10:48 E:Gtr J:Bass D:Drums S:Gtr
fuzz.2.18.10k-FuzzTastik.mp3 17:09 E:Gtr J:Bass D:Drums S:Gtr

Happy Fat Fuzz Tuesday

2010-02-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Feb 4 2010 Jam Session: I recently added my old "crybaby" wah pedal into my guitar rig. Sounds great! I hope you'll agree. This was a very challenging mix with lots of tracks bleeding through and sync issues along with other mayhem but I scraped it together. Not the best balancing of tracks but pretty listenable I hope.

fuzz.2.4.10a.mp3 1:50 Shel and Jamie playing purty
fuzz.2.4.10b.mp3 1:28 d:drums, j:bass, s:gtr, e:gtr
fuzz.2.4.10c.mp3 7:53 d:drums, j:bass, s:gtr, e:gtr
fuzz.2.4.10d.mp3 8:57 d:drums, j:bass, s:gtr, e:gtr
fuzz.2.4.10e.mp3 2:09 j:drums, d:gtr, s:gtr, e:bass
fuzz.2.4.10f.mp3 8:49 j:drums, d:gtr, s:gtr, e:bass
fuzz.2.4.10g.mp3 10:35 j:drums, d:gtr, s:gtr, e:bass
fuzz.2.4.10h.mp3 5:32 d:drums, j:bass, s:gtr, e:gtr
fuzz.2.4.10i.mp3 19:07 d:drums, j:bass, s:gtr, e:gtr
fuzz.2.4.10j.mp3 6:31 d:bass, j:d-gtr, s:gtr, e:drums
fuzz.2.4.10k.mp3 8:48 d:bass, j:d-gtr, s:gtr, e:drums
fuzz.2.4.10l.mp3 23:42 d:e-gtr, e:d-gtr, s:bass, j:drums

2010 - New Fuzz

2010-02-11T06:29:00.000-08:00

January 21, 2010 : New Fuzz! I took advantage of a snow day and mixed these jams. While mixing, Digital Performer crashed and lost a lot of work but I managed to re-do everything. During rendering of the mixes I managed to max out my poor 1GHz Titanium PowerBook. Almost time for an upgrade. I had to move my project to a faster hard drive and disable some features to get this stuff done.

Edit: 2/14/10 Replaced tracks with remixed versions because they were a little wonky due to my drunk mixing job.

Here are the tracks:
fuzz.1.21.10a.mp3 01:14 - j: bass, d:drums, s:guitar, e:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10b.mp3 10:23 - j:bass, d:drums, s:guitar, e:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10c.mp3 08:03 - d:guitar, j:drums, e:bass? s:guitar?
fuzz.1.21.10d.mp3 21:32 - j:drums, d:bass, s:guitar, e:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10e.mp3 09:42 - e:drums, d:bass, s:guitar, j:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10f.mp3 05:11 - e:drums, d:bass, s:guitar, j:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10g.mp3 21:08 - j:bass, d:drums, s:guitar, e:guitar
fuzz.1.21.10h.mp3 23:00 - j:bass, d:drums, s:guitar, e:guitar

The Last Fuzz Jam of 2009 (for real!)

2010-02-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

There was another jam from 12/17/2009 on Eric's drive. I just finished mixing these down. I'll post track notes later. Hope you like them!

fuzz.12.17.9a.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9b.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9c.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9d.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9e.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9f.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9g.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9h.mp3
fuzz.12.17.9i.mp3

notes:
a: Jamie Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Dan Bass
b: Jamie Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Dan Bass
c: Jamie Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Dan Bass - first half Eric and Sheldon take a break then all hell breaks loose
d: Dan Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass
e: Dan Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass
f: Dan Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass
g: Dan Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass - epic in its epicness
h: Eric Drums, Dan Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass - knightrider-ish
i: Dan Drums, Eric Guitar, Sheldon Guitar, Jamie Bass - hawaii-5-O-ish

Garage Band Test

2010-01-31T20:16:00.000-08:00

I've been planning for a couple weeks to test my home studio setup to see how quickly I can put together a piece of music. So, what I did was this:
1) Open up Garage Band on my ancient Titanium PowerBook and plug in my Korg Nanopad drum pad and record some beats.
2) Edit the beats down to a single bar that I liked and copy and pasted it a bunch of times.
3) plugged my bass directly into my laptop and added some bass line off the top of my head. Not crazy about it but it fit with the beat...
4) plugged my guitar (Gibson SG Special) directly into the laptop and after fiddling with the effects and amp emulator I found a half decent sound so I recorded a quick-and-dirty solo.
5) I realized something was missing so I plugged in the korg nanokey and played a quick organ part.
6) added some compressor, reverb and eq to the drum track, put some echo on the guitar, distortion to the organ, and compressed the bass a bit and voila! Instant thing that might pass for music.
http://homepage.mac.com/dshimmyo/musicForBlog/OneTake.mp3

I'm not crazy about it but I am incredibly impressed that I was able to get a decent guitar sound and actually a pretty sweet organ sound. Dang, I just realized a leslie sound would have been awesome on the organ. Yeah, I'm a huge Deep Purple fan. Can you tell?
-D

Last Fuzz Jam of '09

2010-01-29T07:35:00.000-08:00

Dec 3, 2009: Sheldon returns from hiatus and we're back with 8-track goodness. Among these tracks are some of my favorite jams since I started playing with these guys. (the photo is from a Sonic Youth show). I believe we booked 4 hours or something which would explain the plethora of material. I was really happy with my guitar tone which is rare. Eric, Jamie and I took turns swapping instruments. I believe Sheldon stuck with his Steinberger Guitar rig for most of the jam. Unfortunately, the amp he chose was acting badly on a few tracks.

fuzz.12.3.9a.mp3 - getting the cobwebs out. I think I played bass on this one.
fuzz.12.3.9b.mp3 - still sounding rusty, not sure who's who
fuzz.12.3.9c.mp3 - more cobwebs. still on guitar. I think Eric played drums.
fuzz.12.3.9d.mp3 - i'm on guitar. I think I'm warmed up at this point.
fuzz.12.3.9e.mp3 - short but cool - i'm on drums
fuzz.12.3.9f.mp3 - i'm on drums. Eric on his guitar.
fuzz.12.3.9g.mp3 - best ever! Jamie came up with a great bass line. I'm on drums. Digging Shel's FX and Eric's guitar playing.
fuzz.12.3.9h.mp3 - I'm back on my guitar playing with feedback and having fun. Sheldon's debut on drums.
fuzz.12.3.9i.mp3 - My gtr, sounds like Eric on Drums
fuzz.12.3.9j.mp3 - My drumming, Eric on his gtr, Jamie on Bass, Shel on gtr.

fuzz jam 11.5.09 - Sheldon's Day Off

2010-01-27T21:51:00.000-08:00

This is my first mix using Digital Performer on my old Titanium PowerBook G4. I hope to post many more recording projects using this rig. In today's recordings I spent time adding some gates, compressor and eq to clarify some of the muddy tracks with lots of spillage from the other instruments. I also added a little reverb to the snare. Anyway, it's minimal work but I think it helped a bit. This was also the first time we linked Eric's and my 4-track field recorders to give us 8 tracks to play with. The last track may sound strange because half of our recording rig ran out of space. My guitar is panned right, Eric's stereo guitar rig is also right-ish. Jamie's bass is left-ish and the drums are everywhere. We switched instruments quite a lot so you'll just have to guess who's playing whose rig. enjoy!

1/30/2010 Update: I'll try to fill in some info matching musician to instrument. Also, a little more about our equipment: I'm pretty sure I'm playing the SG but it might be the Carvin with the Floyd Rose Tremolo. Today I think I brought the firehazard pedal that I built.

fuzz11.5.9.a.mp3 - unedited version - (Me: guitar, Eric: drums, Jamie: bass)
Edit: fuzz11.5.9.a.1.mp3 note: split from the original double-length file
Edit: fuzz11.5.9.a.2.mp3 note: split from the original double-length file
fuzz11.5.9.b.mp3 (Me: Eric's guitar, Eric: bass, Jamie: Drums)
fuzz11.5.9.c.mp3 (Me: Bass/guitar, Eric: guitar, Jamie: Drums) - yes I attempted to play bass and guitar at the same time towards the end of the track
fuzz11.5.9.d.mp3 (Eric: guitar and the wiggly sound, Me: drums, Jamie: bass)
fuzz11.5.9.e.mp3 (Eric:guitar , Me: drums, Jamie:bass) - this one is pretty cool
fuzz11.5.9.f.mp3
fuzz11.5.9.g.mp3

Taking a walk

2009-11-03T19:46:00.000-08:00

Here's another from our latest jam. In this one I'm playing bass, attempting a walking bass line. I was inspired by Eric's artistic drumming. I'm guessing Sheldon and Jamie are on Eric's and my guitars but I can't really tell. Definitely one of our more unique jams. Maybe one of my favorites. It's growing on me.
http://thesb.org/fur/fuzz.10.7.9.d.mp3

fuzz 9/03/2009

2009-11-03T19:34:00.000-08:00

This is an older jam that I thought sounded interesting. I think it's me on guitar, Jamie on drums, and I'm guessing Sheldon on Eric's guitar rig and Eric on Jamie's bass. The mix sounds a little guitar-heavy. I'm pretty sure I was playing the carvin which is the guitar on the left in the photo. I was probably testing out a new Wampler Distortion Pedal. Anyway, check it out:
http://thesb.org/fur/fuzz.9.3.9.f.mp3

Smoke break 10/7/2009

2009-11-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I haven't been posting much for a while but I have been jamming semi-regularly for the past couple months with Eric, Jamie, and Sheldon. We usually jam after work and after many beers so we tend to be pretty sloppy but every now and then there's some cool stuff for sure. Here's something I found tonight while listening to our jam on Oct 7, 2009. It sounds like me on drums and Jamie on bass. Eric and Sheldon are out on their smoke break. After a few minutes of the bass/drums jam, Eric and Sheldon start playing. I assume it's Eric on his guitar rig and Sheldon on his rig (guitar or bass, not sure). A plethora of effects to be sure. Check this out:
http://thesb.org/fur/fuzz.10.7.9.h.mp3

Building Pedals

2009-05-18T21:09:00.001-07:00

In my search for the perfect guitar rig I've decided to build my own gear. Here's my first attempt at a tube overdrive pedal based on a circuit called the Valvecaster, it incorporates a 386-chip-based boost circuit to get a nice overdriven sound. This is called the "fire hazard" because, well, I wouldn't leave it plugged in unattended...
You can hear my playing through the Fire Hazard pedal in this jam session from a few weeks ago. In this jam you can hear two guitars. Mine is the sort of obnoxious heavy shredding style and the second guitar is the inimitable avant-garde style of the one and only Eric Maurer. I'm also playing around with my wah quite a bit. Jamie Williams is on drums, and Sheldon Chow is on bass.

My second pedal is pure tube, using two tubes (valves). I went for a more crunchy distortion this time. I really like this pedal a lot although I'm not too happy with this demo recording I made the other day. I started calling it blinky because it has 3 knobs that remind me of the 3-eyed fish from the Simpsons. Here's a sample: http://homepage.mac.com/dshimmyo/musicForBlog/blinky01Test.mp3

Mount Kisco Jam 1

2009-02-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

Jon Townley booked 2 hours at Satellite Sound in Mount Kisco. Jamie Williams joined us for a couple hours of cool jams. I had the opportunity to bring out my guitar and some new pedals (Rat Distortion and Digitech Whammy) and some old ones (Dunlop Crybaby and EHX English Muff'n) for a spin. Anyway, check out these jams:
track1_JonGtrJamieBassDanLead.MP3
track2_JonGtrJamieBassDanDrums.MP3
track3_JonGtrJamieBassDanDrums.MP3
track4_JonBassJamieDrumsDanGtr.MP3
track5_JonGtrJamieDrumsDanBass.MP3

Testing a cornford amp

2009-02-01T20:05:00.000-08:00

Jack Ham lent me this amp. I had never heard of it so I took it home and tried it out. It has one of the best british tube amp sounds I've ever heard. I was inspired to set up a recording studio in my livingroom just to see how great this amp sounds recorded so I hooked up a mic and plugged in some pedals and recorded myself goofing around. I started playing the rhythm section of a song called Gettin' Better by Tesla on the Mechanical Resonance album, probably because the tone I was getting sounds a lot like theirs. Just for fun, the left guitar track and solo were recorded with the cornford's built-in overdrive and the right channel guitar gets its overdrive sound from my Electro Harmonix English Muff'n pedal. I'm amazed at how transparent the overdrive pedal is with this amp, I almost can't tell the two guitars apart. Anyway, I recorded my bass and programmed some drums using the midi editor in Garage Band. Added some reverb and did some volume tweaking and chugged out this mp3 file. Well, I like the way this amp sounds so I'll probably be owning it soon...
cornford_test.mp3

Brilliant Jams

2008-09-22T20:38:00.001-07:00

So, I've been jamming regularly with Jamie Williams (bass and drums) and Niall Madden (guitar) and during the past 3 weeks we've been coming up with some pretty cool stuff. For some reason the word "brilliant!" has come up a lot during our jams. Could be the beer talking... The image is of my cat sitting on my keyboard while I was trying to update this blog. This is just 3 tracks from our most recent session. The first is one we've been working on and the other two were improvised. I guess Niall wasn't in a singing mood so these are all instrumental.

092108_1004Mogwai.MP3 - I play bass on this. We've been working on this for a few weeks. I think it has a lot of potential.
092108_1006Waltz.MP3 - Just a random jam. Kinda 6/8 waltzy thing. I'm on bass.
092108_1007HorrorJam.MP3 - Another random jam that we loved. I'm on drums. We hope to develop this into a real song and maybe come up with a different part.

New Toy

2008-09-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

I got a new bass a couple weeks ago so here's one of our first recordings using it. It's one of our "old" tracks. Me on bass, Jamie on Drums, and Niall on guitar and vocals. We have a lot more but I only had time to edit this one track.

ninesEights8-29Edit

jam 11

2008-08-06T12:47:00.000-07:00

I've been too busy jamming to post recordings so I'm posting it during work. Haha! We've been working on some old material but added a couple new tracks to our repertoire. They are all unnamed so I just made stuff up. This is still with the same setup, jamie on drums and bass, me on bass and drums, and niall on guitar. Since it's just me and jamie switching between bass and drums I only noted my instrument.

bubudiboo - drums
new starter -drums
repeat of above -drums
23 -bass
9s and 8s -bass
startStop -bass
funky -drums

Room 14

2008-06-29T21:15:00.000-07:00

Jammed with Jamie and Niall again. This time we got room 14 at Astoria Soundworks. We weren't crazy about the room or the drums or the amps, but we came up with some decent arrangements for 3 of our "songs" Check them out:

"23" - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan Bass
"9" - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan Bass
"funky bass" - Jamie bass, Niall guitar, Dan Drums

Jamming with Jamie and Niall 06/06/08

2008-06-17T20:08:00.000-07:00

3 weeks ago Jamie Williams invited me and his friend Niall over to jam. It turned out to be a productive jam so we've made it a weekly thing. We've discovered that we like to experiment with weird syncopated odd time signatures. I'm posting some clips from our 2nd jam. We hope to have enough small clips of music that we can piece together songs some day. One of the nice things about our lineup is that we can switch places when we get bored.

1006a - mellow moody thing - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan bass
1007a - we call this "six" after the time signature - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan bass
1007b - driving alternative groove - Jamie drums, Niall guitar , Dan bass
1010a - jamie's funk - Jamie bass, Niall guitar , Dan drums
1010b - jamie's primus sounding thing - Jamie bass, Niall guitar, Dan drums
1014a - Niall's funk - Jamie guitar, Niall bass, Dan drums
1015a - shimmy's obnoxious drums (mostly 7/8 time) - Jamie bass, Niall guitar, Dan drums
1017d - "nine" - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan bass
1017e - "11" - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan bass
1018a - Ending on a good note - Jamie drums, Niall guitar, Dan bass

Guitars for sale

2008-05-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

I'm planning to sell these beautiful guitars (sniff!)

1996 Emerald Green Paul Reed Smith CE 24 with Dimarzio Pickups and McCarty Style switches

1983 Tobacco Sunburst Gibson Les Paul Standard with graphite bridge saddles

Carvin custom 7-string electric guitar

I'm still working on the asking prices but look at how pretty they are!

Blue Sky Talent Show 2008

2008-04-30T21:19:00.001-07:00

It was a great show! Here's the audio recording in its entirety:

The Players:
Jake Parker (mc and sideshow acts)
Tony Jung (singing, guitar, harmonica)
Joe Bonomo (singing, piano)
Kevin Daly and Jacob Carlson (funny song)
Jamie Williams (guitar and drums)
Ian Etra (plays guitar hero with his feet!)
Rob Cavaleri (drum set)
Dan Shimmyo (electric guitar solo, a.k.a. Eruption, special guest Alex Cuthbert)

bssTalentShow04302008.mp3 - whole show 164MB
bssTalentShow04302008-eruption.mp3 - just eruption 5.3MB

Will post separate tracks later when I get a chance.

More Volume! Less filling!

2007-11-03T15:26:00.000-07:00

This week Jon turned up his amp and I moved the iPod to a new recording position. I didn't use any audio processing on this week's recordings. This is how they sound right out of the iPod. I found the only pair of drumsticks not shredded to bits. Apparently we have a termite problem.
MD: bass
JT: guitar
DS: drums
jam 1 funky warmup to some prog rock
jam 2 This one reminds me of The Police
jam 3 JT's 6/4 (twice as good as 3/4!)
jam 4 We spaced out for a bit

Sometimes I don't know when to stop

2007-10-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

We just plugged in and started playing.
MD: bass
JT: guitar
DS: drums

jam1 warming up with some funk / rock
jam2 simple but addictive, couldn't find the ending...
jam3 jt's 3/4 thing

Double Jammy Lunch

2007-10-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

Instead of lunch I met with MD (bass) and Jon T (guitar and guitar synth). I played drums. We charted out one jam and improvised the second. Check it out.

jam 1
jam 2

2 man blues(ky) jam

2007-09-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

OK, I know it's been a long time... In the past few weeks there have been a couple memorable jams... MD came up with a funky tune in one of them, Maddog got me playing some old school Van Halen, but i just forgot to record them all. Well, this time I didn't forget. On Friday Jon Townley brought his semi-hollow electric and we decided to have a 2-man jam. He let me play his guitar while he played bass. We played for about 20 minutes. I'm posting the last little bit of our jam which was a basic blues pattern. I had a blast soloing over Jon's bass line and I really liked the tone I got from his guitar.

Listen to it here.

Still playing

2007-08-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, yesterday's recording was a little rough. Today's is a lot better. I'm learning how to squeeze more quality out of this relatively cheap microphone. I also threw in a little compression and reverb and voila! It almost sounds professional. Today I'm performing a little piece called Dee by Randy Rhoads. The guitar is a Spanish Guitar by M. Tatay.
Listen

new toy

2007-08-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

When I was a little boy I was fascinated with tape recorders. I used to watch my father dictate into a "handheld" tape recorder a little larger than the earliest Sony walkman. On one of my birthdays he handed me his tape recorder and said "happy birthday son!". It wasn't wrapped or anything. He had probably forgotten my b-day and decided to grab the first thing he saw. But the thing is, I couldn't have been happier. I played with that thing for hours every day. One of my favorite films growing up was Blow Out by Brian De Palma starring John Travolta. After watching that I wanted to be a sound engineer for film. Now I do graphics work on computer animated films and my hobby is music and music production. And I'm still fascinated with recorded sound. So, I'm thrilled by my new toy, the Belkin TuneTalk microphone which lets me record directly onto my iPod. Here's my first test recording of me playing my acoustic guitar. A little noodling turned into a sloppy rendition of Mood For a Day by Steve Howe. Enjoy!

playingWithITalk.mp3

My Introduction

2007-08-04T12:44:00.000-07:00

My name is Dan Shimmyo. This is my first blog page. Music is my hobby, a hobby that I take very seriously. I've decided to share some of my musical experiences in the form of this blog page if I ever get it working. Back in the 90's I recorded myself playing music in my home studio as my preferred (or most convenient) form of expression. Lately I've been more focused on the live performance, especially improvised. I am fortunate to work at an animation studio where just about everyone is a musician, photographer, painter, or rocket scientist. And that's outside of the work that they do for the studio. Anyway, I've had no problem finding people to jam with so occasionally around lunch time or after hours I grab my drum sticks and round up a guitarist and bass player and head down to the lower levels of our building to make some noise. I also play guitar but since the guitarist to drummer ratio is about 100 to 1 I choose to play drums. I'm not a technically impressive drummer but I do keep time pretty well and I'm learning new ways to spice up jam sessions by changing tempo and time signatures on the fly. If my fellow jammers don't mind I should be able to add content to this page in the near future.

To get things started I have an old rock instrumental track I recorded in 1999 for a project called Handz of Danz which was conceived by Dan McAvinchey. My Van Halen , Satriani, and Vai influences are probably the most obvious.

Here's extemporalis: extemporalis.mp3

While extemporalis and most of my previous work is pretty straightforward hard / progressive rock, many of my recent jams consist of rock/jazz fusion which is a lot more fun to play on drums. But I never know from day to day what style of music I'll be playing and that's what makes it so much fun for me. I hope this blog will be just as fun to read and listen to.