For about the last six or seven years my standard rig has been a Carvin R1000 over top of an SWR Goliath III 4×10 cab. I bought the Carvin simply because it had the most horsepower for the money. The Super Red Head 2×10 combo I had before it just wasn’t loud enough for the bands I was playing in so as a knee-jerk reaction I just went for as many watts as I could afford at the time. While the R1000 has been an absolute tank (4-8 gigs/month for the last 3 years) it isn’t exactly a tone monster. While it has two channels of EQ and a lot of other bells and whistles it just doesn’t have the kinda tone dreams are made of. Lol, my Custom Shop P-Bass makes anything sound decent but it wasn’t exactly butter

Flash to present, we’re either using our own killer PA (which we didn’t always have) or the clubs we play have a killer system which they want us to make the most of because it’s piped all around the joint… They don’t want us blowing it up on stage because we think people in the bathroom need to hear every note directly from our amps. The term “stage volume” kinda takes on new (real?) meaning and suddenly, I’m thinkin’ it’s time to lighten the load… After all, I can’t remember the last time I turned my amp up past 3…

Enter The MarkBass Little Mark II, Marco Limited Edition 08 coupled to the Traveler 102P resting casually in my living room… By no means my first choice as replacement for the Carvin/SWR set up but after playing just one gig with it, now it’s my only choice.

Being a satisfied, existing Line 6 customer (Pod 2.0, Bass Pod XT Live) I was really leaning on the idea of something from The Line 6 “Low Down” LD series bass combos as a replacement for my R1000 but I just couldn’t quite talk myself into the idea anything smaller than the LD300 Pro was going to be able to cut the mustard… I played an LD150 in the store and according to reviews, the LD175 isn’t appreciably louder… Considering the LD300 weighed in at 89lbs, I wouldn’t have been doing myself any favors as that’s the exact same weight as my Goliath 4×10… Yes, I would’ve eliminated having to deal with the 35 or so pounds of the R1000 but we’re still talking about one load in, one load out humping 90lbs in one shot. Don’t want it anymore, thanks…

Anyway, while I’m diddling this LD150 in the store, I see these previously “unknown” (to me anyway) cabs with the yellow drivers and the tiny little heads sitting on them. Hmm… “MarkBass”… Never heard of it, and away I went, empty handed.

Later that evening I’m looking at all kinds of stuff online trying to figure out how to “downsize without compromise” and ultimately decided to look up one of these little yellow things I saw in the store. I was shocked to find rave reviews everywhere… Reviews from people coming off  SVT’s, 5500’s and 400RB’s… Practically anything else you can think of… NOBODY was complaining with the possible exception of the absence of a mute function for tuning. When I found out this little 6 pound booger eater was voted Best Bass Head and Best All Around New Product in Bass Player Magazine’s 08 Readers’ Choice Awards… Back to the store I went.

Right out of the box and with minimal diddling, this thing just punches through like my Carvin never could… I’d say it’s literally the polar opposite of my R1000 in that it’s so simple and small, yet the sound is just huge. What the Carvin did with watts, this thing does with tone. It’s just so punchy and responsive it’s big without being muddy. It just sounds so fucking good… Even my drummer and guitar players were blown away and were like, “Jeez, can ya turn down a bit?” It really is stunning, the sound that comes from a mere combined weight of about 42 lbs between the head and the 2×10 cab…

Less than half the weight, double the fun… I still haven’t run the Little Mark II at 4ohms yet (upping the ante from 300 to 500 watts) but I’m going to run it with my 4×10 Goliath and then with a 1×15 to see what it does at full bore.

Sadly I haven’t had a lot of time for meetube over the last few months… I mean, it’s not all bad because the main reason I haven’t shot any new videos is because Trunkmonkey has been doing so well and I’ve been playing practically every weekend myself. Figure I might as well get it while I can because after all, when I run out of gigs, there will always be somebody else out there playing that I can shoot for meetube.

In the meantime I’ll be hitting the blog sporadicaly but all the hubbub with the coming election has caused me to put up MoFoCulture.org and I do most of my blogging over there. Initially I started posting political stuff here but I took it down. This sites going to stay about music and I can get my political rocks off somewhere else.

Anyway, I will be uploading new videos from time to time but it’s all unreleased material from last year. I’m still piecing the DVD together, it’s so close but it’s just hard to make time to get everything done. Hang around though, it will be done in time for Christmas!

I just don’t think I can take any more…

Well, it’s that time again boys and girls… Cirkus, the bad boys from Sweden are making another loop through SoCal in September and October. In case you haven’t been paying attention, they’re the guys that really helped launch the whole meetube.com thing back in ‘06. Rumor has it they’ll be shooting a real music video this time around so make sure you turn out for the shows near you… Ya just might get yer mug in the video.

If you’re not already familiar (WHAT?) Cirkus is basically Sweden’s answer to Motley Crue without the excess weight, if ya know what I mean :b These guys put on a great show and are on a mission to bring glam metal back into the spotlight. Doods, go for the music because they totally rock, Bettys, you’ll appreciate the fact that they look good doing it. Roux’d (pronounced “Rude”), their lead singer is particularly limber and eager to please ladies, so dress accordingly and make your move

On a sad note, Dee (bass) will not be returning with his brothers in arms, we wish him the best and won’t forget him. At the same time, the show must go on so we eagerly await the debut of Maston. With a name like that (pronounced mass ton) you can expect “big things”… Pardon the pun…

Cirkus y’all… Check ‘em out at http://www.myspace.com/cirkusmusic for show dates near you. This might be the last time you’ll be able to see them in a small club venue. Get out there now so that by next year when they’ve blown up, you’ll be able to say, “Man, I saw them when…”

Back in August of 2006, Alice in Chains did a free show on the Del Mar fairgrounds infield. I was fortunate enough to be there armed with the first 3CCD Mini DV camera I ever bought… It was bottom of the line for triple chip cameras and I was definitely struggling to hold the camera above my head for so long, but in the end, I ended up with some pretty damn good footage. It’s been languishing on YouTube for the last year or so and “Nutshell” alone has about 100,000 hits on it. Small potatoes I know compared to the millions of hits others get for God-knows-what, but pretty respectable as far as I’m concerned…

So, as I mentioned previously, holding the camera above my head was a bit tedious to say the least. The camera had an electronic image stabilization feature (the good cameras have optical image stabilization) but I turned it off to conserve battery life. I was also using a small aftermarket telephoto lens, which, you really shouldn’t even use unless you’re on a tripod… Needless to say, some of the footage looks as if it were shot from the seat of a thrill ride on the midway. Especially when I tried to zoom in tight on someone; at times it was almost enough to make you go running for a bottle a Dramamine… Enter SHAKE…

Shake is a post production tool that can accomplish many of the same compositing tasks as programs like Adobe After Effects, or Apple Motion 3-D. It requires the user to adapt to what is known as a “node based” work flow but once you get the hang of it, it really is incredible what this software can do. I’m not going to go into the many zillions of features, or even the basics of node based editing because most will be bored to tears… Instead, I’ll just talk about one feature, and how it applies to my AIC videos…

I’ve got to believe that “Shake” is named as such because even if you ignored everything else it does, it is the single best piece of software I have ever scene for eliminating unwanted motion from your footage… No matter how bad it is. I recently dug up the original uncompressed footage of the AIC show at Del Mar and began “re-producing” them from scratch using all the latest software that I simply didn’t have access to two years ago… The results are really amazing… Check out the original videos posted on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/ZenBezier… After you’ve had a look at those, go to http://www.meetube.com/live and check out the first two AIC Secret Stash Videos… They’ve been graded in Apple Color and motion stabilized in (yep, you guessed it) Shake… What a difference… Can’t wait to see the DVD

With so many cover bands operating in and around San Diego (lol, I’m in one of them), I figured it might not be a bad idea to start showing some love to those of us who will never land “The Big Deal” but continue to play anyway… Even if it is someone else’s material…

Enter the Venue Report, a new segment I’ll be doing reviewing music venues I’ve had first hand experience with so first timers will have an idea what to expect before hitting the road. Starting with, in no particular order…

1st Street Bar - 656 S Coast Highway 101 - 4 sets - 9PM to 1AM

This is one of my favorite venues because of the mix of people who show up there. You really get everything from non-descript locals to people who, by their attire obviously started out at a fancy restaurant earlier in the evening. Either way, there’s definitely eye candy for all. The stage is very small and I really don’t know how 4 and 5 piece bands manage. I play in a trio and am still constantly on the lookout against hitting the neck of my guitar on a poll on the left side of the stage. They have small JBL’s (I believe they’re 12’s w/horns) mounted overhead in front of the stage but they do not have a mixer or power amps. You’ll need to supply your back line, a powered mixer, and monitors if you want to hear yourself on stage. There is one group of outlets for power in the back corner of the stage but you’ll need a strip and or extension cord to access any additional power. They have some stage lighting but nothing on a chaser, nothing blinking.

Like many clubs, this place starts really getting fired up around 10:30 or 11PM so make sure you leave yourself some “A” material for the third and fourth sets. It’s also the kind of place where if you just stand there and play your music without attempting to engage the crowd verbally, they’ll ignore you. 1st Street has the kind of crowd that can be “too cool for school” in that you’ll see them boppin to the music and singing the songs but then they won’t clap for you… You have to artfully call them out when you see they’re having a good time but aren’t making any noise. Some nights, there’s just nothing you can do, some nights you can get them fired up enough that they’ll ask for as many encores as management will let you get away with.

There’s good parking in the back with load in pretty easy through the back door. The only negative is the smally dumpster you have to endure that’s about 20 ft from the back door. A little incentive to make for quick set up and break down.

Generally there is very little fighting at this club BUT, occasionally things can get a little rambunctious by the end of the night. We tend to finish up our last set with some pretty bombastic stuff… Seek and Destroy, Bro Hymn, Guerrilla Radio just to name a few… Management has asked us to stop more than once because people were getting too fired up at such a late hour. They still love us though because we tend to make people drink

I’m not going to go into compensation here because first timers aren’t going to get the kind of money we get but I will say this… Like many bars, you do a good job for them, they’ll take care of you.

Next time, we’ll go North and check out something in the Temecula area…

Okay, so it’s taken awhile but here at last is a pseudo-in depth look at the Independence Jam artists appearing on the Casbah/Local 94.9 Stage. We looked at the acts on the main stage in a previous post and for my taste, they’re only batting 50% with the line up. Yea to Flogging Molly, The Ting Tings, Santogold and The Whigs - Nay to The Cold War Kids, The Hold Steady, MGMT and Nortec Collective. The way I see it, I’m at $10 per band if I plant myself in front of the main stage and don’t move. Let’s see if there’s something on the local stage to add value to my experience… Same rules apply, we’ll look at the bands and list them by MySpace stats and see what’s what…

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Transfer - Obscure Magpie Records MySpace Friends 7091 / Profile Views 142,218

Wasn’t real familiar with this band but I listened to their top two songs on MySpace, “Bring a Knife” and “You are The Wolf”. I was shocked at how much I like both songs right off the bat. I mean seriously, listening to these guys left me wondering why I’m getting stuff like Nortec Collective jammed up my ear’s ass when in this listener’s opinion, Transfer is going to sell more tickets by comparison with a little air play. I’m just listening on my iMac, but it didn’t seem like the production value was sub par for radio play, especially for an independent station. If 94.9 would have played “You Are The Wolf” as many times at they rode Nortec Collective’s “Brown Bike” it might have been a better use of marketing air time. I guess since the show is in Chula Vista, they’re trying to attract some show goers from South of the Border…

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Final word - I’ll pay money to see this band - Yea

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Kill Me Tomorrow - GSL and Silver Girl Records MySpace Friends 6794 / Profile Views 101,804

This is a tough call… I really have mixed feelings about this band. I listened to all their songs and for every song I like, there’s one I really dislike. “How Are Things” is cool, then I hit “Xerox My Hand” and it becomes hard to make a decision. This might be a band that grows on me but initial instincts indicate that if I’m having trouble deciding than I’d have to say no, I wouldn’t spend my money. Kudos for making an interesting choice in the name of diversity, but I think a narrow margin of appeal as it borders on artsy industrial noise at times.

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Final word - Just not for me so, - Nay

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The Wrong Trousers - No Label - MySpace Friends 3800 / Profile Views 141,218

This band does a fairly cool cover of “Video Killed the Radio Star” by The Buggles but other than that, they’re keeping with the trend of “just too eclectic for me” set on the Local 94.9 / Casbah Stage. I think I mentioned at some point in the review of the main stage bands that for me, live performances are about energy and I just don’t feel a lot of that based on the MySpace tunes.

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Final word - Just not for me so, - Nay

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The Silent Comedy - Singleton Records MySpace Friends 1982 / Profile Views 69,389

These guys are good at what they do but they’re a very niche’ kinda band if you ask me. I mean, they’ve totally captured the whole silent film era thing they’re doing (based on their songs and MySpace theme) and I would expect to see Charlie Chaplain as a roadie dropping stuff on stage, but I don’t know if it’s what I want to see at an outdoor festival. Like “Kill Me Tomorrow” props for diversity but I wouldn’t normally spend money on this.

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Final word - They’re fine musicians, just not for me - Nay

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The Muslims - No Label MySpace Friends 1918 / Profile Views 90,779

Ha! At first I was a little put off by the name quite frankly, but then I saw their MySpace caption read “fuck these fuckers”…

These guys are like a low-fi garage band with a pretty catchy sound. I’m on the fence about spending money on them, however. I think the real question is how they deliver live. That low-fi sound can be awesome when done right, but if you’re going for that raw feel and the sound person doesn’t have a firm grip on what they’re doing (it happens more than you think) it can turn on you and come out sounding like amateur hour. While they have only a couple fewer friends than the band that precedes them in the list, it’s worth noting they have a lot more views…

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Final word - I’ll go ahead and take a chance - Yea

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Blackout Party - No Label MySpace Friends 1613 / Profile Views 37,631

Well, I’m afraid it’s just not my cup of tea and I find it suspect that the only thing they have booked on their MySpace calendar is this event. To quote Forrest Gump, “That’s all there is I have to say about that.”

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Final word - Fine musicians, not for me - Nay

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So in looking over the totals here, I’m down for 6 of 18 bands for this years Independence Jam. Four on the main stage and two on the local… That would end up at $6.67 per band I want to see plus, they’ve added shuttle bus service from strategic locations around San Diego. I’d have to say that all in all there’s a lot worse way to spend an afternoon. I may not like a lot of the bands appearing but based on what I’ve heard online and on the radio, they’re all certainly competent musicians and a good representation of diversity in San Diego Music. I think I might have to post my own “fantasy line up” for an Independence Jam of my own over in the forum and see how my picks fair…

Well, we did it… Sorta… Last night at The Temecula Wine and Beer Garden (I kept getting it backwards by putting Beer first in previous posts, guess it’s just a personal preference:b) we fired up our Mogulus Channel and attempted our first live Internet feed of a Trunkmonkey performance. What follows is the blow by blow…

So, the initial idea was to borrow a WiFi enabled laptop, slap a camera on it and just let it rip. With the right equipment, it really is that easy… with the right equipment. I have a Panasonic PVGS320 with a screwed up tape carriage that makes for an excellent web cam connected to a Mac via firewire. Much to my disgust, the same can’t be said of a USB 2.0 connection made to a Windows box… I discovered this maybe two hours before show time. So fucking typical that the only way this camera will communicate via USB 2 with Windows is through some bullshit Microsoft movie editing software you have to buy. Piss on them, and that. Still determined to use the laptop, I abandoned the PVGS320 for my HVX200 to see if that would make things any easier. It didn’t. I mean, I don’t know, I never tried to use the HVX200 as a web cam and I don’t know that it even has that capability but I had to at least try. Since I didn’t have time to do any reading I just fired everything up and hoped for some “plug ‘n play” love. The machine recognized the P2 cards in the camera as removable discs but that was about it. Shit…

Not wanting to have to explain another abandoned live feed attempt (like last week) I simply bit the bullet and decided to go with what I knew worked. I took my freakin’ iMac to the gig and set it up behind a hot dog counter and wired the 320 to it. My iMac picked up on Old Town’s WiFi immediately (Macs rule by the way… And I was born wired to a PC) and a quick network test claimed we had 570kbps on the upload. Mogulus recommends a minimum 400kbps so it was lookin pretty good. Unfortunately, it was too close to go time to get logged in and cue up the mogulus/meetube studio so I just had to wait until the first break to actually start web casting.

We played a set, as soon as the break came I went back to work on the computer. I logged in and cued everything up and at 8:33PM we went live for the first time! It was exciting to see everything actually working the way it was supposed to. Or at least so it appeared…

For some reason, the Mogulus software defaults to what it calls the “built in mic” (the computer) for audio when you hook up a web cam. I wanted to use the mic in my PVGS320 (the camera) because the mic in the computer is shitty and the computer was sitting behind a hot dog cart. Anyway, I didn’t realize the audio had to be set manually until the second break. Our team of viewers we had strategically located throughout the country were armed with their cell phones and the calls came in… They all were saying the same thing, “We see you guys, but we can’t hear anything…” Shit…

Okay, third set’s a charm, right? Well, not exactly… Apparently once the audio situation was corrected, it became obvious that there was considerable lag time from camera to cyberspace… After the third set when I went to look at the computer, I still saw myself on stage in the monitor… Huh??? What’s going on here? Sadly, I don’t have an answer… After a few phone calls we kept getting the same report, the audio sounded good but the video stuttered tremendously. The only thing I can guess is that the connection simply wasn’t holding steady at the 570kbps it tested out at.

Based on the fact that I’ve done short web casts from my living room that worked pretty darn good (with my machine hard wired to the network) I can only assume that WiFi is the issue. I’ve also read up on some of the issues with the current build of Mozilla Fire Fox leaking memory when processing video; next time, a different browser.

So that’s it I guess… Kinda disappointing considering all the effort but, at least now I think I have a firm grasp on what doesn’t work. Live Beta 2, the sequel will be in another couple weeks. The next test will be in a situation where we’re hard wired and I’ll probably run Safari just to see if it makes any difference. It will be great if it works out but I can’t help but feel that this “technology” won’t be all that it can be until you can whip out your laptop and “go live” on a moments notice the way the girl does on the Mogulus video. Our first experience in the field was that it just doesn’t quite work that way, yet…

Well, this is it… We’re going to have another run at the live feed beta test starting tomorrow night at 7PM PST when we attempt our first live web cast from The Temecula Beer and Wine Garden. I really wish I could get up there ahead of time and test their connection speed because if they can’t crank at least 400kbps (preferably 500) we could have a problem. Either way, we’re going to let the camera run and hope for the best. If everything works out and it makes for a good web experience, I’ll go through and do another post detailing the process, what equipment we used, and basically anything else you need to know so that you can start doing this for yourself.

Keep your fingers crossed and tune in tomorrow to check it out!!!