Mr. Moderator

When not blogging Mr. Moderator enjoys baseball, cooking, and falconry.

Your “Signature” Piece of Gear, Whether You Own It or Not

Feb 022011

We all know Townsman Hrrundivbakshi‘s most-coveted, would-be “signature” piece of gear is the “harlequin” Gibson Firebird played by Adrian Gurvitz, of Baker-Gurvitz Army fame. (See video.) What piece of musical gear that you own or covet could be (or would be) considered your “signature” piece of gear?

It’s not something I could carry around and impress folks with, but mine is my “Coltrane box,” a Maestro Parametric Filter. If I had the energy to buy a signature axe and really learn to play the way I wish I could play I think I’d get a Fender Jazzmaster, like Tom Verlaine‘s.

Take it from me, you don’t have to be much of a musician (or a musician at all) to have an entry in this thread!

Yesterday’s News Today: The White Stripes Break Up!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 022011

Color me anything but red and white!

The fact that this is new today is news to me: The White Stripes have broken up.

Beside making appearances on Conan I thought The White Stripes broke up a year or two ago. I mean, wasn’t that pretentious film of their tour of Canada supposed to be their swan song, or was that just increasingly wishful thinking the more I watched of that turd?

The band left the following touching statement on their website:

The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.

To celebrate our inheritance of their Jack and Meg’s legacy, I invite you to do any of the following—and whatever else appropriate strikes your fancy:

Please send me your favorite track(s) by the band. You can burn them for me or upload them to the Hall if you have Back Office privileges. I only have 2 songs by them on my iPod, and now that the band belongs to me, I’d like to see if more of their songs are worth my giving repeated listens. The key is, since they’ve turned over the keys to us, I don’t feel like paying.
I don’t know about you, but I was getting tired of the red & white thing. It’s time to rebrand. Please scan or download The White Stripes photo of your choice and use a graphics program of your choice to propose a new color scheme/branding for our band. Submit your designs (jpg, gif, png, pdf) to mrmoderator [at] rocktownhall [dot] com by Friday, February 11. Be creative. The winner will be awarded a really snazzy prize!

Thank you, Jack and Meg, for providing a surefire hot-button focal point for old, bass-obsessed farts and relatively younger, hipper Townspeople; some great guitar sounds; the confidence to learn the drums; the opportunity for some to giggle over terms like “rack toms”; and so much more.

Sweet Spot

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 022011

Sweet!

Musicians and music lovers, is there a “sweet spot” you can identify on an instrument you play? For instance, I love the G chord in barre position on the third fret. I spend a lot of time there. If I come over to your house and check out your guitar I’ll be sure to settle in on that fret. I love the third fret on a guitar, but better yet is the eighth fret on a guitar neck, a position I don’t get as many opportunities to play around as I should, but when I do it’s sweeeeeeeeet!

I am betting that drummers have a sweet spot on their kit, keyboardists have a sweet spot on a keyboard, etc. Let’s hear from you—and if talk of your instrument’s sweet spot gets a little steamy…heh, so it goes.

Suzi Quatro Celebrates The Power & Glory of Rock!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012011

Who says female-fronted bands can’t tap into the Power & Glory? As one of the YouTube commentators wrote:

how can you listen to todays fucked up shit after watching this clip…

Dugout Chatter: Greenberg Edition

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012011

The other night I finally got around to seeing director Noah Baumbach‘s latest film, Greenberg, starring Ben Stiller, as the title character, a depressed 40-year-old former musician who’s house sitting for his successful brother in LA, scene of Greenberg’s dashed music dreams. I liked it, and Stiller was surprisingly restrained in playing the sort of pathetic dick I’ve known too well and verged on being myself. Greta Gerwig co-stars a the cute, goofy, young love interest and Rhys Ifans plays Greenberg’s old band buddy, who sucks it up and manages to help occupy his old friend’s time in hopes of moving past the dick he was and still is.

As in his previous two movies, The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, the film is populated by the sort of liberal arts educated, 100% natural cotton-clad types who tend to dig the daily proceedings in the Halls of Rock. With characters who were former bandmates this movie is especially rock oriented, and the Greenberg character can’t help but see the world through his rock nerd–glasses. The soundtrack was compiled and scored by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, I thought Greenberg touched on some good topics for today’s round of Dugout Chatter. Remember, it’s your gut answers that count!

What’s the best song you’ve heard in a Starbucks?

The first time Greenberg meets Gerwig’s he plays her “It Never Rains in California” and asks her if she remembers the days when LA radio stations played that song whenever it rained. What weather-related song do you most associate with radio stations of your youth?

SPOILER ALERT… Continue reading »

This Is Your Rock Town Hall

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012011

Townspeople,

This is your Rock Town Hall!

If you’ve already got Back Office privileges and can initiate threads, by all means use your privileges! If you’d like to acquire such privileges, let us know. If you’ve got a comment that needs to be made, what are you waiting for? If you’re just dropping in and find yourself feeling the need to scat, don’t hesitate to register and post your thoughts. The world of intelligent rock discussion benefits from your participation. If nothing else, your own Mr. Moderator gets a day off from himself. It’s a good thing for you as well as me! Continue reading »

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: A Very Special Female-Fronted Episode Ending With a Very Special, Very Male Guest Caller!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 292011

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

In tonight’s edition of Saturday Night Shut-In, Mr. Moderator calls on The Power & Glory of Rock to remind him that it’s all right. Along the way he predicts that 2011 will be The Year of the Female-Fronted Band. Finally, a recently pardoned listener emerges from lord knows where to confirm that the show’s request line has finally been repaired.

[audio:https://www.rocktownhall.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/RTH-Saturday-Night-Shut-In-13.mp3|titles=RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 13]

[Note: The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player. In fact, you can even set your iTunes to search for an automatic download of each week’s podcast.]

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