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Apr 28 2011
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Mainstream Culture

The Discoverability of Brilliance

Three Saturdays ago, I had a late night debate with my girlfriend and a friend of mine about undiscovered greatness.   The question that pulled us through three bottles of wine was, “Is the recognition of brilliance an inevitability in the modern age?”

Through our debate, we decided that we needed to lay down some ground rules for our undiscovered genius to have a chance at achieving recognition.

1.)  Their work must be physically manifested in a medium that is detachable from its creator.

2.)  The medium must last longer than the life of the artist.

3.)  The brilliance must be almost undeniable.  So much so that to say otherwise is more than 50% likely to make the person you’re talking to think that you are a hipster douche.

The first two are basic.  First, recognition can’t happen without actually having produced anything to be recognized.  Second, the chances of discovery are massively reduced when the window of time is reduced to one human lifespan.  It’s the third condition that’s tricky because it’s just so subjective.  So we agreed on some examples of nearly undeniable brilliance.

Let’s start with some of those:

Van Gogh’s Starry Night


Van Gogh Starry NIght

Bach’s Cello Suite 1 Prelude

Or the performance that got us talking in the first place, Jennifer Holliday’s “I Am Telling You” (If you’re short on time, skip to 3:30)

The question of discoverability has certainly changed in the face of the Internet.  It’s no longer just about diligent friends, family or patrons supporting or holding on to great works until they are found by history.  The process is now far more unpredictable and chaotic.  Every week, millions of people flock to fresh talent once some respected curator or authority validates it and just like most of the other big media forces in our world, it’s a system less dedicated to promoting genius and more to the entertaining.

For example, two former Berklee classmates of mine have been making cover videos for at least two years under the name Karmin.  Last week, after their Chris Brown cover popped up on Reddit’s main page, their video was picked up by the blog, World Star Hip-Hop and today it has over 6 million views.  It turns out, Amy had a real knack for rapping and that has been the key to their recent success.  People are really drawn to the contrast of a cute white girl rapping like Nicki Minaj.  It’s remarkable.  It is worth commenting on.

For more on the concept of Remarkable, check out how Seth Godin reestablishes the meaning of the term in his wonderful TED Talk:

That’s great and good, but when my friends and I were debating three weeks ago, we weren’t talking about remarkable.  Remarkable demands attention, but it doesn’t necessarily last.  We are talking about brilliance.  Brilliance is something that captures the essence of the human condition in such a timeless way that it continues to captivate and inspire for generations.  It is something that becomes a part of the lineage of great works throughout history.

There is a way though, that we can apply Seth’s ideas to this conversation.  Remarkable is the key that opens the door for Brilliant to walk through. It’s not enough to produce fine work.  The work must be so poignant, loud, or arresting that you stop what you’re doing and pay attention.

Another modern thinker, Bob Lefsetz brings a great analogy to the innate power of brilliant work in the age of the Internet.  In a recent blog piece he wrote:

You’re not creating rockets, you’re creating land mines.

A rocket blasts into the air demanding your attention and then disappears, you walk away with little memory, especially after having seen the blast off of a few.

But a land mine is something you’re always watching out for.  Something that could change your life in an instant even though it was buried decades before.

But here’s the rub:  We don’t know how long the Internet is going to last, let alone YouTube and all the videos on it.  We do know that it won’t be forever.  So really, the answer to our big question here is a resounding “No”.  Nothing is inevitable because nothing is permanent.

But the odds are so much better now than they have EVER been.

To me, that is such a motivating thought.  I know that I am not ‘There’ yet in terms of my bass playing or my songwriting or even my ability to gather and share thoughts with the world.  I have not found my Voice in any of my pursuits.  But that’s what this blog is all about: finding my Voice.

That’s all a moot point though because this conversation required fodder for testing the odds of brilliance being found today.  I had nothing.  Conversation over.

Then a week later, I went to Germany and I met Paul Rose.  He is the best guitar player I have ever heard live or recorded.

Paul is a born and bred blues man out of England who plays the guitar with blistering technique and heart-breaking soul yet hardly anyone knows who he is…and he’s sick of being unknown.

We were both there with Warwick Basses at a massive music industry convention.  Paul was playing repeat performances all weekend.  Before his set at the Warwick after party, we spoke for a while about who he is and where he comes from.  He told me about the ‘thirty years of mistakes, abandonment, and alcoholism’ that informed his soulful playing and the ten years he spent practicing his arse off to get those techniques down.  I loved it!  He seemed authentic, sincere and deeply talented.  I immediately wanted to help this man get the recognition I believe he deserves.

I was never sure what the road between here and success looks like for Paul, but he has more than me to help him figure that out so I wasn’t too concerned about how big my role will be in that. I wanted to look at just one thing.  If we get get a piece out there, what can it do?  If all I do is record some decently high quality video of his performance, how far can that go?

So, with his permission, I went to the front of the stage for one of his shows and nearly blew my ears out capturing his renditions of ‘Little Wing’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’.


So there they are…posted this morning.  I don’t know what will happen, but I can say that I do have some concerns over why nothing may happen.

1.)  I’m not sure that these videos stand up as great performances to anyone who doesn’t care about guitar like I do.

2.)  Guitar covers of ‘Little Wing’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’ are inherently unremarkable.  They are a dime a dozen.  Will this hurt the chances of these videos being discovered or even cared about?  Lord knows Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn are tough acts to follow and the Stanley Jordan version of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is downright killer.

3.)  Is Paul Rose even the best out there?  He may be the best in my world, but it’s a big world out there.

So, what do you think?  Have you seen undiscovered brilliance?  Have you seen brilliance being discovered?  How do you even define brilliant?

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Jan 25 2011
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Mainstream Culture, Music

Matt Grundy of Donavan Frankenreiter

Recently I met up with Matt Grundy as he came through Boston on tour with Donavan Frankenreiter.  Matt is a fantastic bassist with a quick right hand and a formidable presence on stage, but he is also a soulful songwriter.  The track above, recorded after our interview in the back of the Frankenreiter tour bus shows the depths to which Grundy’s lyrics and voice can take your heart.

I relate very strongly to Grundy’s position as bass side-man with his heart in his own tunes so it was great to talk at length with him about his experience as a man making it work on both fronts.  As you’ll see in this interview, he finds enjoyment in working with Frankenreiter even when their images or philosophies are not one and the same.  For me, this was one of many great lessons in learning to guide my career towards a happier, more successful place.

Cheers, Matt for taking the time!

WC: Give us a little back-story as to how you came into your role as the bass player for Donavan Frankenreiter.  How did you land the gig?

MG:  I guess I’d have to start back with going to college at a Christian university in Costa Mesa in 1999.  Vanguard University.  I went there for a couple of years, then met a group of musicians and started playing with them.  Eventually the singer from this band called Flood that we were playing in, who was a man of means you could say, wanted to hire a bad-ass drummer.  So he hires this drummer, Dean Butterworth from Los Angeles who had played with Morrissey, Ben Harper, and now with Good Charlotte.  We started playing a lot together and I loved playing with him.  His feel was the same as mine.  When Donavan ended up calling Dean for his solo thing, Dean called me.  I had never met Donavan before, but he was an Orange County guy as well.  Dean probably called me because I was young, hungry and would probably do it for cheap at the time.  So we did a couple of tours with Dean, who went on to the Morrissey gig and here I am nine years later.

WC: Donavan’s notoriety as a surfer is pretty unique for a touring musician.  How does that impact the tour?

MG:  I’ve been around the world I don’t even know how many times with Donavan.  We tour like eight months a year usually, maybe six, but it feels like we’re on the road all year.  We’re never home.  We play places that American Rock bands don’t normally go to.  Because some people know Donavan for surfing, we’ll do like Hossegor in France or Fukuoka in Japan on the beach.  We’ll also play in Australia, being the surf continent that it is.  We’ll do Byron Bay Blues Festival, we’ll go to Perth at least once a year.  We go all through Europe, Japan and South America.  In some places, the music is almost secondary.

WC:  With all this time spent traveling the world with Donavan, what can you say about his life philosophy?  What kind of fans does that philosophy attract to the band?

MG:  The whole Donavan Frankenreiter thing is not just surfer, but like a soul surfer with a vintage vibe.  I don’t know much about surfing, but I guess his whole trip is to surf like the old guys and that’s why he’s so famous in the surf industry.  He’s a real free spirited guy.  A business man for sure, but his whole deal is kind of like the modern hippie surfer, easy, laid-back, everything’s okay musician sort of a vibe.  Jack Johnson is obviously the kingpin of that whole thing.  His fans are cool.  For the most part, his fans are nineteen year old surfer kids, but since he’s a Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) artist so in big Triple A radio towns, you’ll get people that are mid forties or whatever.

WC:  What elements of your playing have served you best as your career has progressed towards touring in an internationally recognized band?  What did you learn along the way?

MG:  Here’s the deal.  When I joined Donavan’s band, I was young.  I was twenty-three years old and I was just about to turn twenty-four.  My whole bass playing thing up until then was being real flashy.  I was into crazy flash.  I spent countless hours laying out Victor Wooten stuff like under-thumb techniques…or at least trying to.  I actually got to the point where I could do some of those sixteenth note triplet things and tap things though.  Then I learned real quick that you’re not going to get a gig doing that.  Maybe you could get a specialized gig, but if you’re going to show up and do a rock record and you’ve got those kind of chops, they’re not going to help you at all.  You’ve just got to find a good part and pocket that part.

Donavan’s music really got me to start doing that.  When I was young, I met Merlo Podlewski (bassist for Jack Johnson) and he’s about the most simple, groove oriented bass player you can get.  There’s a lot of low end and hardly anything that’s going to cut through the mix.  He’s just feel and just really super simple lines.  I remember thinking when I first heard it, “that’s too simple.”  But really it’s not.  It’s really a lot of the reason that Jack’s music feels so good.  This guy’s just thumping away really simple stuff and that’s what I call on, the real simple stuff.  I kind of like to think that I’m driving a lot slower than I can go.

WC:  How do you identify yourself as a bass player?  Are you more of a creative whose focus is on writing or are you a workhorse with a focus on being able to play anything put in front of you?

MG:  I’ve never really been the guy that’s going to sit down and work out bass parts.  I always feel really out of place when people say, “hey do you know this Jaco tune?” or whatnot because people sometimes hear me doing some fast stuff and think, “oh this guy sounds like Jaco so he must know his Jaco tunes.”  Really I don’t.  I’ve heard a couple of songs, I understand his tone, the whole rear pickup jazz bass thing and the real fast stuff and I dig it.  It’s the same thing with Francis Rocco Prestia.  He would be an influence too but I couldn’t play you one Tower of Power song.  I’ve always been the guy that’s like, “I can do this so now I’m going to go join a band and write my own music whether as a collaborator or something else.”  That’s all I’ve ever been.  I’d be the worst top forty bass player ever so I’m glad I don’t have to do it.  Except when it comes to the blues.  I grew up playing blues with my dad and I can play all that blues stuff.  But that’s all the same songs in different keys so it doesn’t really count.

WC:  There are a lot of players out there who would certainly identify with that sentiment.  What advice would you give those players on practicing their skill set?  How do you practice creativity?

MG: My advice is that if you hear a song in your head, try to make it happen.  Those are your songs in your head and they’re there for a reason.  You’ve got to try to get them out.  With everything that I write, especially some of the solo stuff that I write, it’s really not something that I ever have any plan for.  It’s just kind of something that happens and I try to capture it.  If you’re a kid coming up now, well, I don’t know how I would have done it if there were things like YouTube and Flip cameras and Garageband.  If I had Garageband when I was ten, twelve years old, it would have been a whole different game.  Stuff like this is going to make some amazing musicians come out of the woodwork.  I just hope it doesn’t put me out of work.

WC:  How do you cross over from your supporting role as bass player to the leadership role of fronting a band playing your material?

MG:  I’m a horrible bandleader.  I’m finding that out just from trying to coordinate this record.  I’ve always been just a side guy.  I’m working on this record now with my buddies, Sean McCulley on drums, Blake White on bass and my Aaron Geezer on production and engineering.  I’m really bad with organization and I’ve also learned that when it comes to having other people around, I’m totally cool with what they do but it might not be the “right thing” and I can only manage my own parts into being the “right thing.”

WC:  Have you found a way to leverage your post as Donavan’s bass player to further your solo writing career?

MG:  The type of music that I want to write and play isn’t necessarily going to cross over into fans like Donavan’s.  I definitely would jump at the chance to bring my band out and open for Donavan on a tour or something like that if that opportunity were ever to come up.  But I don’t know if my music would appeal to his fans or not.  As far as people that I’m meeting, I always try to make friends with all the people that help Donavan out.  Not that I’m going to send them my CD and they’ll say “oh this is Grundy’s CD so now we’re going to sign him and we’re going to distribute him and book his shows and manage him.”  But you’d be surprised at who’s going to help you out just by being a nice and cordial person.

WC:  What is your music about?

MG:  It’s my first attempt at being a moody, deep singer-songwriter guy like Nick Drake and Neil Young.  I’ve always been a literature fan and poetry fan so I wanted to see if I could write some compelling lyrics.  On the record everything came out the same way, kind of a finger-picky, Iron & Wine kind of thing.  I’m pretty proud of it for what it was.  I got a record deal out in Japan, they put it out and it got some radio play so that was cool.  I made that album in 2008 on a laptop and an M-Box in my apartment.  I had to go to a studio to get some drum tracks.  I couldn’t record drum tracks in my apartment or I would have gotten kicked out.

Lately, my trip has been to try to capture the essence of the deep songwriter.  Compelling lyrics, not the every song being about a girl or about whether you’re tough thing.  Not that it’s bad, but there’s a lot of rock and roll lyrics out there that seem like they’re the same. My friend Gary Jules is an awesome example of what I would like to do.  His lyrics are super compelling, his melodies are right on and his arrangements are really unique and they grab me right away.   He’s not topping the charts either by any means, but I’d like to do that and incorporate it in an almost smart rock thing.  So that’s what I’ve been trying to do, to write things especially in odd time where you listen to it and you don’t even realize that it’s in odd time because it flows.

My second record should be out in February and that’s a little more mature and there’s a lot more upbeat stuff on it.  I’m hoping to get closer to a rocking sound that’s not going to put you to sleep.  At least put you to sleep if you don’t have an ear for lyrics.

WC:  How has the lyrical content of your music evolved?

MG:  My first record had a lot of Christian overtones that some people told me seemed like I was a singer frustrated with Christianity or something, which might be the case, but not really.  I don’t know.  Unfortunately until now, I haven’t had too many experiences with writing lyrics sober.  That’s honest.  I can’t remember exactly what I was thinking.  I connect the dots when I’m sober.  I’m actually in a writing slump right now.  I have to finish two songs lyrically and I can’t even sit down to start.  It’s the weirdest thing.  It’s like when it rains, it pours and I’ve literally told people this and I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s like I’m not writing it.  Stuff just slips out and then I make sense of it later.  It’s kind of strange.

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Sep 08 2010
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Music

Performer Magazine: Catching up with David Rhodes

Interviewing David Rhodes turned into a wonderful conversation about songwriting, recording and taking that big leap into fronting your own project that really resonated well with me and I hope it does for you too.  It was comforting to speak with such an accomplished musician in such a similar emotional place with his music as me.

This article originally appeared in the August issue of Performer Magazine.  It can be read in context here.

After decades working and performing alongside some of the industry’s most respected artists (most notably Peter Gabriel), guitarist/singer/composer David Rhodes steps into the spotlight on his upcoming solo record Bittersweet – a dramatic ten-song collection of rock songs with world music undertones, all fueled by his incendiary electric guitar and riveting vocals. Rhodes evokes the ethereal delivery of early Genesis and the fearless musicality of early David Bowie on his confident, gimmick-free debut – this album is the brainchild of a musician’s musician, ready for his own voice to be heard.

Rhodes will tour the U.S. this summer, opening for Cyndi Lauper on a series of dates, and headlining shows of his own. In his dynamic live performances, which have earned raves following a recent European tour, Rhodes performs solo but creates layer-upon-layer of sound via his electric guitar and vocals. Using Native Instruments Guitar Rig 4 and a Gibson Les Paul Studio Robot to create loops of audio on-stage, Rhodes builds his songs as he goes along.

WC: In your songwriting process, how much of your work is done between you and the guitar and you and the mixing board?

DR: When I start, I just start fiddling about. But generally I start with rhythm so I go looking for grooves and start creating drum loops or I have a little groove part that is my starting point. I don’t consciously think I want it to sound like a specific thing or aim for a specific thing. Then it’s just about experimenting to maybe come up with sounds and then try to create a part that suits the sound and also suits the song. It’s better to let [the sonic structures] grow because then you’re not disappointed by what’s going on. It should always be experimental, exciting and exploratory.

WC: What was required of you both personally and musically to step up to the leading role on your latest project? Any words of wisdom for someone looking to make the same leap?

DR: Well, I’ve been nurturing my ego for many years and finally it’s bursting! It’s like trees or cacti that spend many years building up reserves to flower. I’ve always written a bit at home and done things aside my other projects. I was just really waiting to be confident enough in the material to take it stages further. So I guess that took quite a long time. Also maybe getting happier with technology and being able to do quite a lot of demoing quite well on my own. Just gotta keep plugging away and trying ideas. Exploring, experimenting and not getting knocked back.

WC: What are you hoping to accomplish with this album and tour?

DR: Well I hope that people will like the record enough to want to own it. If I can just get to the next stage, I’d like to tour with a band as well. I’ve done a few shows as just a trio, which was quite exciting and that’s quite different for me since I had never done that before. I’d like to be able to up it to that level and do well enough to make another record. Little steps.

WC: Let’s get technical. What guitar effects did you employ on the record? How about your distortion sound? Tube? Solid State? Digital?

DR: I use Rivera amps, which are nice and punchy and have got some good weight to them and I use a pedal board of junk. I’ve got two or three distortions on it. The Rivera has great overdrive and I also use an old Matchless HotBox for tube distortion. I’ve got a couple others that are all digital.

WC: Where do you land on the debate of Analog vs. Digital?

DR: I prefer to work in an analog way that’s very hands on where you just fiddle with something and things happen quickly. Having said that, I’m performing solo and I’m completely in the digital domain. I just use my laptop when I go out and do solo shows.

WC: How much of the recording process on Bittersweet was live band and how much was tracking?

DR: I started off with my demos which I spent quite a while fiddling around with. Then I had the band in for four days during which I rerecorded a lot of the guitars, reacting to what we did record live as a band. I was very lucky to work with some very nice people. Charlie Jones on bass who used to be in Page and Plant and is currently touring with Alison Goldfrapp, Ged Lynch on drums who plays with [Peter] Gabriel as well and a guy called Dean Brodrick playing a very funky keyboard…a kind of clavinet through distortion pedals and delay pedals. He was doing some really lovely, strange, off the wall things. If you listen, there are lots of lovely little details in his playing.

WC: What are the challenges of taking this record on the road and translating the music to the stage?

DR: Multifarious! The biggest challenge is feeling bold enough and courageous enough to do it. I’ve just done a little tour of Europe where I’ve been traveling by train completely on my own…guitar on my back, laptop in the guitar case, a little pedal board in the suitcase and just me with two bags [running] around Europe. It’s kind of scary because there’s no safety net at all. There’s no spare guitar and no one to help you out when things go wrong, but it’s exciting.

WC: With the increased availability of a quality home recording set up, we see more and more readers of Performer self-producing at home. What are some tips for home recording that you can share from your experience?

DR: It’s funny because Richard Evans who co-produced my records, he has a studio we work in a lot. We’re kind of going back more to recording live instruments and performances. I think the main problem with people fiddling around at home is that you can get so absorbed in the detail of sound that you forget about the performance almost. I think the really crucial thing is to get people still really playing so they mean it. That’s the toughest hurdle to overcome. All the other stuff you can spend hours fiddling around with but you’ve still got to have a high level of performance to make things sound good.

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Aug 19 2010
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Mainstream Culture, Music

Watch Trey Anastasio be a Sorcerer

This, video taken from the pit of Phish’s recent performance in Alpharetta, Georgia, is a fantastic window into the performing mindset of Trey Anastasio.  It’s all there…the way he swims in the music and gazes at the crowd in front of him as he improvises his solo.  On a near nightly basis, this man works in front of massive bouncing crowds of devoted phans directing their extremely focused attention on his musical (and for some, spiritual) essence.  In this video, you can really see the pleasure he gets from tinkering with that incredible dynamic through the melodic passages of his guitar.  This is what true performance is all about.  Hopefully some day I will be able to exercise those skills as well…

On a side note, this has been the most exciting Phish tour to date for me despite the fact that I haven’t gone to a single show this year.  Usually I get one in every year and don’t think much about the band, but this year it’s been the opposite.  I’ve been following every one of their shows online for my work at Source Audio.  We met with them at the start of the tour and added some Soundblox pedals to Mike Gordons stage rig and custom made an Envelope Filter pedal for Trey to mess around with off stage.  As a result, I’ve been listening in to every show so far to catch clips of Mike grooving out on his new stuff…and he has been tearing those pedals UP.  They’ve been absolutely on fire this tour.  Don’t listen to the jaded veteran phans who trash the newcomers and this tour.  It’s a very energizing feeling to know that these guys are out there making real rock and roll happen.

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Aug 19 2010
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Mainstream Culture, Music

This is why having The Roots as your house band is always a good idea

The Roots are easily the best reason to watch Jimmy Fallons show.  Really the only reason.  Sorry Jimmy.

Also, please take some time to check out The Roots latest album How I Got Over with guest spots from The Monsters of Folk, Joanna Newsom and John Legend. Look ahead to mid-September for their collaboration project with John Legend too.

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Aug 18 2010
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Life, Mainstream Culture

NPR: Words

NPR is cool sometimes.  Videos like this are why.

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Aug 18 2010
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Mainstream Culture, Music

Why Does Justin Bieber slowed down 800% Sound So Good?

J. BIEBZ – U SMILE 800% SLOWER by Shamantis

Give that a listen…That is a Justin Bieber song slowed down to 1/8th it’s original tempo with the pitch maintained (a nice benefit of modern audio editing technology). Words to describe how it sounds are beautiful, haunting, ambient and sigur ros.

This Soundcloud file has gone a bit nuclear on the internet and it’s easy to understand why.  If it’s so easy for so many to bash Justin Bieber as that little twat who made it big on little to no merit for his music, why is it that simply slowing his song down makes it sound like Thom Yorkes hitting puberty?

The answer is Justin Biebers music makes us feel good and that’s what pop music is, always was and always will be.  Pop music is written specifically to be ear candy.  In order to do that, you need to write a song that has compelling chord changes, a sing-alongable melody and a fast, danceable beat.

So, when the Biebz music is slowed down to the point that the beat becomes waves and thunder and we have time to digest each chord, it sounds like art because those sound make us feel good.  Those are also the same chords that every other musician in the world is working with.  At this slow speed, we are suddenly able to spend time in the space between each idea and respect the beauty of the music.

There are many choices an artist makes to select their audience.  In this case, the difference between the Bieber tweenies and the yoga studio is tempo.  So ask yourself, what did your favorite artists do to choose you?

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Jul 14 2010
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Music, My Music

Bass Wah Pedal Extravaganza

Made a new video with Source Audio.  Ickle-Picklestein got herself a little cameo in this one too.  Hope you enjoy!

This one is an all-bass Multitrack Videosong (a la Mystery Guitar Man or Pompaloose) that we filmed in my old apartment in Brighton.  There’s a decent chance of this music becoming a more developed song with vocals later on, but we’ll see about that…

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Jun 09 2010
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Life, Mainstream Culture

Under the Lymelight: The Realities of Chronic Lyme Disease

Pete Smith is a stand-up guy with a big heart who really cares and looks out for his people.  Recently, he’s hit a pretty big bump in the road that’s going to take a lot of energy to get past and he could use some help so he can start living the life he deserves.  I’ll let him speak for himself on this one.  His story:


In December 2007, I graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Psychology. After completing my last semester in a study abroad program in Fiji, I spent the next few months traveling through New Zealand, Africa, Thailand and Hong Kong. I then returned to Boston, MA to begin working as an Associate Consultant at Axia, a business management consulting firm. I lived a fast-paced life of work, play and travel, and I loved every minute of it. Then, all of a sudden, it came to a screeching halt.

In January 2009, I began feeling fatigue and aches that seemed to be beyond the common flu. A few months later, I blacked out at work and was in so much pain I could barely get out of bed. For the next nine months, I saw over 10 specialists in Boston, including the hospital’s top doctors. After 90 pages of blood tests, CT scans, endoscopies, colonoscopies, biopsies, MRIs and any other test you can think of, the doctors remained clueless. The symptoms continued to progress and I started noticing new ones, including cognitive difficulties (trouble reading and remembering, losing short-term memory, mixing up phone numbers and addresses, and a few times forgetting which apartment I lived in); crippling bone, muscle and joint pain; constant headaches, including migraines; weight loss of 25 pounds; extreme fatigue; insomnia; hallucinations; and many others. There were days when I was not sure that I would survive through the night.

Initially thinking of Celiac disease, with the increased symptoms I began to suspect Lyme (which I had when I was six years old living on Long Island). At this time I did not know the political chaos surrounding this disease. When I mentioned Lyme to a doctor, it looked as if I had suggesting drinking Satan’s potion to cure myself. Doctors would stammer, “It’s definitely not Lyme, trust me,” and “Maybe it’s HIV. Let’s check again [for the fourth time].” My primary care told me that it was all in my head; that I should get more sleep and “stop complaining about the pain.” He said I would never find a cure to an imaginary illness so I should learn to deal with it and stop making it worse than it already was. I left each doctor’s office in tears of frustration, pain and anger. How could it be that these world-class doctors would refuse to even test for, or even consider, Lyme disease? Then I learned the true politics of Lyme disease.

In 2006, the Infectious Disease Society of America (“IDSA”), an independent medical association, released the Lyme disease guidelines. Patients with chronic Lyme disease were shocked to see this group of doctors completely denying that Chronic Lyme disease even exists. The panel found that in no circumstances should patients be treated with more than 30 days of antibiotics, and oftentimes less is sufficient. It did not acknowledge that Lyme disease can exist beyond the initial infection, and insisted on a positive Lyme test to show that a patient had been infected at all. This test has been found to be over 50% inaccurate. It turns out that nine out of the 13 board members have direct conflicts of interest, including being on the payrolls of pharmaceutical companies, holding patents to Lyme vaccines and diagnostic tests, and in some cases, even receiving money directly from insurance companies who do not want to pay for long-term antibiotics (oral and intravenous), one of the few, albeit risky, paths to a cure for many Chronic Lyme disease patients such as myself. Despite the Attorney General of Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal’s antitrust suit of the IDSA, the guidelines have persisted. Just recently it was reported that the guidelines were reviewed by an “independent body,” and that not a single change needed to be made. This independent body was of course found to have direct ties to the IDSA. In the true peak of irony, the head of the new independent review committee was in fact the previous head of the IDSA itself.

Lyme disease is an epidemic in this country, surpassing HIV to become the number two infectious disease our country currently faces. This is not limited to the northeast as cases have sprung up all over the east and west coasts. Yet, due to these corrupt IDSA guidelines, doctors are too scared to diagnose Lyme disease and insurance companies are all too quick to deny any payments related to this “nonexistent” illness. Lyme patients have bankrupted themselves while becoming increasingly sick, -oftentimes ending in death. Meanwhile, Lyme-literate physicians such as Dr. Joseph Jemsek, previously of North Carolina, struggle to treat patients. Dr. Jemsek was sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina for $100 million since he refused to follow the IDSA guidelines. He lost the case and his license to practice medicine in North Carolina was suspended for one year, forcing him to relocate to South Carolina and currently, Washington, DC.

This is an unfortunate story of corruption, deceit and death. This is a story which needs to be exposed and I need your help in doing so. I have lost nearly everything to this disease: my apartment, my job, my friends, my money and my independence. But it’s time for the suffering of Lyme patients around the United States to end.

Please contact me if you would be willing to work to expose this corruption. I would be happy to speak with you and answer any questions you may have about this disease and the experience that I am going through.

Thank you so much for your consideration.
Peter Smith

pssmith2@gmail.com

This Monday, June 7th, Pete will have an IV put in for approximately the next six months. The medication Peter will be receiving through the IV will cause him to feel extremely sick (even worse than now), and he will most likely be unable to get out of bed on a regular basis. The upcoming six months will be filled with pain and fear. Peter needs your support.

This IV will cost $1800 per WEEK. Peter is expecting to have the IV for up to 6 months = over $40, 000. Any donations for Peter would be greatly appreciated by all of his friends, family, and of course Peter. Anything you can spare, even just a few bucks could help!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO PETE VIA PAYPAL (send to pssmith2@gmail.com)

Visit the Facebook Group and share your thoughts!

Regardless of how you feel on this issue, Pete and his family need money to afford this aggressive treatment.  As a peer of Pete, I am deeply discouraged to think of him forced to spend these years of his life constricted to his bed, robbed of the opportunities I enjoy every day to be out in the world laying the foundation for my future.  If you can’t afford to donate, you can help by spreading the word.  This is the internet after all.


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Jun 01 2010
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boston, Music

Ghosts in the Machine: The five-year listening study behind the Soundblox Classic Distortion

Referred to as the “best distortion box ever” by both vintage tone champion Adrian Belew of King Crimson and neo-shredder Herman Li of DragonForce, the newly released Soundblox Classic Distortion by Source Audio is showing that analog soul can be captured on a digital chip.

A veritable Ghost Trap a la Ghostbusters, the Soundblox Classic Distortion houses eleven recaptured spirits of prevalent distortion sounds resulting from a five-year listening study of stomp boxes and tube amps.  Sounds from the Big Muff Pi, Fulltone Distortion Pro, Tone Bender, Fuzz Face, ProCo Rat and Octavia can all be selected at the turn of a knob on the Soundblox Classic and then further tweaked by a graphic equalizer, two drive knobs, midrange knob and an output knob.

In addition, Source Audio has provided the option of tweaking the old sounds even further via an expression pedal morphing function, MIDI input connection and a jack for the Hot Hand motion-sensing controller.

Source Audio, now in it’s fifth year as a company, is a true nod to the marriage of music and technology.   Having formed as a spin-off from the well-known semi-conductor company Analog Devices, they were able to request a customized state-of-the-art Digital Signal Processor, the SA601 chip, to pursue their music-centric interests.  The two sets of ears in the listening study, VP of Engineering Jesse Remignanti (former audio systems and software engineer at Analog Devices) and Chief Scientist Bob Chidlaw (former senior engineer at Kurzweil Music) sat down to discuss the listening study, the process of creating the Soundblox Classic Distortion and a few other topics for the audiophile at home.

The need for a pedal that housed multiple quality distortion tones was clear to Jesse Remignanti, a veteran guitarist of the New England music scene.  One of his challenges for the creation of the Soundblox Classic Distortion was to design an interface that could work seamlessly on-stage.  He muses, “I’ve seen some guys who have anywhere from six to ten pedals on their board which are just distortion…jumping from one pedal to the other and doing a toe-tapping dance to get one sound to another sound.”  He continues, “It’s easier to just have it called up on a preset or use the expression pedal.  It’s useful for anyone from the pro musician to the guy who’s doing cover tunes and needs a different sound because they’re doing Metallica and then The Cars.”

For Chidlaw, a collector of tube amps, the challenge was to create digital sounds from scratch that matched his standards for analog sounds, which were quite high at the beginning of the project. “When I started at Source Audio, I was a real tube amp snob” states Chidlaw matter-of-factly.  “The only distortion I would use was real distortion from a tube amp.  I would sometimes modify amps to get more gain.  Turning up the gain on a Marshall JCM-800 was one of my little moves.”

To truly capture some of the most notable distortion sounds in the fuzz pantheon, Bob and Jesse would have to explore the world of stomp boxes and as they dug deeper, Chidlaw’s tastes began to open up.  “I had built solid-state distortion devices before.  I really had just rejected them all by this point 5 years ago.” He reflects,  “But then we bought a distortion pedal, the Fulltone Distortion Pro and I thought, ‘wow, this actually does sound quite nice.’ Then when we really started getting into the Classic Distortion we started acquiring a lot more pedals.  I personally bought far too many for my growing collection.  I really came to see the charm in solid-state distortions.  It really gives you something that a vaccum tube can’t.  You can’t get that sound from a vacuum tube amplifier.  It can’t be done.”

In mapping the digital sounds to be placed in the Soundblox Classic Distortion,  Chidlaw had to create each algorithm from the ground up, attempting to capture the essence of each distortion tone.  “An algorithm is a recipe of how the sound is processed…There’s a lot of trial and error; a lot of tweaking… I just have to use my ears to try to compare what the digital system is doing with what the real analog pedal is doing.”

He continues, “You can’t really point to a sound as it goes by. Try to hear just what it is that makes a particular fuzz have it’s own sound.  What is in the sound? All you can say is ‘doesn’t that sound kind of harsh in the high end?’ and maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t strike you that way… If you’re making something analog, you can say ‘I’ll use some of these transistors that were very cheap back in the day when this thing was built’ but what is the digital signal processing equivalent of a cheap transistor?  Not at all obvious…”

Classic Distortions waiting for shipment

The timing of the release for the Soundblox Classic Distortion is fairly fortuitous, coming at a time of heightened expectations for musicians.  As modern music fans gain more access to more music across a longer timeline, they seem to gravitate toward either the eccentric or the tried and true.  A look at the Billboard Top Ten shows a reissue of Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones alongside the likes of Lady Gaga and LCD Soundsystem.

The aim of the Soundblox Classic Distortion is a near precise match for the needs of the modern performer in that it can call up the guitar tone from The Rolling Stones’ ‘Satisfaction’ in one moment and then in the next, it can create a never-before-heard sound.

“It gives you some really interesting effects” explains Remignanti, “because you could get an in-between sound from two completely different pedals.  You could switch from the Rat Tone to the Tube Drive or something just by rocking the expression pedal.”

Chidlaw adds, “You can get some more bizarre things happening in the middle of those morphs.  You could say there is only twelve selector positions on the Classic Distortion, but if you use the morph control, you’ve really got hundreds of more possible selector positions by just, sort of, freezing the morph. Sixty percent of the way between this and this and you’ve got this new sound that’s in there.”

The versatility of the Classic Distortion can be traced back to that signature chip, the SA601 Digital Signal Processor.  The power of the chip allowed the Source Audio engineers to push the pedal into new territories for a distortion stompbox.  When asked about the graphic equalizer, another of the pedals unique features, Remignanti says simply “We had enough room in the processing and in the interface to add a seven-band EQ and it’s programmable for each preset.  You could have the same distortion effect with three different EQ settings and get totally different sounds out of it.  So, it’s a very nice, flexible feature…[It’s] not something commonly seen on distortion pedals.”

A collection of circuit boards used for Source Audio pedals

Matching the considerable uniqueness of the sounds, the aesthetic and layout of the Soundblox Classic Distortion have a simple and modern feel.  Remignanti explains, “Our goal with the overall design was to make them simple in terms of the interface and the overall appearance but also modern looking.  We tried not buy into the whole retro thing in our main design philosophy for the housings and the look of the pedals.  [As for] the interface, we tried to keep it to as low a number of knobs and controls as possible, but still allow the user to get a lot of features and a lot of different sounds.”

For more information on the Soundblox Classic Distortion, please visit: http://www.sourceaudio.net

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