Welcome to a beautiful saturday. The sun is up, the birds are out and it feels like spring despite the fact it’s fall in Los Angeles and very much so in most of the U.S. and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. Momentarily I’ll be getting my groove on and hangin’ down at Hermosa with some friends. Working on some of that normalcy in life. Sippin’ some beer, catchin’ a football game, chattin’ with friends and eyeing the girls. Letting off some of the week from working on music.
In the meantime, I felt I was long overdue in presenting one of my favorite bands. While I don’t particularly say that any one artist or band has been a sole source of influence I will say that this is one of the few bands whom I followed intensively. I have no idea why. Actually that’s not true. I know that I love the guitar sounds. I love their penchant for doing things off kilter. I love the fact it’s three guys making all that music. I love the their harmonies. I love watching the bassist’s veins pop out of his head and neck when he’s performing live, you can tell he really means what he’s doing and that he’s getting into it. I love their sense of humor towards themselves.
Speaking of humor, I have to relate a performance I saw of King’s X online from the House of Blues. In the middle of a song, Ty – the guitarist – was playing a riff and suddenly it was all out of key. Right in the middle of a live song. Doug and Jerry look at him like what the?!? And Ty took it in stride, threw up his hands and started to laugh. So they stopped and Ty tried to kick into it again and had the same result. Then after several attempts he finally speaks into the microphone and mentions something about the riff in question, explains it, they all laugh and continue on with the song. Interestingly enough… The mistake on the riff became the basis for an entirely new song that came off the follow up album from that performance. Happy accidents eh?
It reminds me of a performance I had once when playing a cover song called Jet City Woman. I was chosen to play the intro guitar solo which is very specific. You screw it up, people know it. Well, the drummer kicks into the song and the lighting guy brilliantly decides to turn off the lights. Now I’m in the dark and unable to get a reference for my guitar to hit the first note. Doh, all of sudden I’m doing the same thing as Ty. I’m playing completely off. So I stop, some lights come on, I start again, again, I missed it. At this point the singer comes over and says in my ear “that’s coming out of your pay.” (he was joking as he said it). I was at a loss, I did the same thing, I thew up my hands and started laughing. I mean what could I do, it wasn’t coming out. I learned an important lesson about that. Several people came up afterwards and said it was the best thing I could have done, to laugh it off. Had I gotten nervous or pissed, it would have made things look and sound worse.
Anyway, one of my favorite types of music is anything that can get me to bob my head. That means it’s got some form of groove that really clicks to me. Often times it means the music has to have some swing, other times is has to have that slap you in the face power. Groove Machine is a great example of both. It’s got some swing and it’s got that slap power. Last couple of times I saw King’s X live, it’s the song they use to open the show. Talk about setting a tone and groove for the evening. This is it. Get it now, I dare ya!
(** Disclaimer: If King’s X label isn’t diggin my groove, I’ll have to tell the machine to forget the audio. The post will remain to show that movement is necessary in life, just don’t take it to seriously. **)