The Week's Haul

Arriving earlier in the week was the latest from Three Lobed Recordings. A three-sided LP from Enos Slaughter who features members from Sunburned Hand Of The Man and No Neck Blues Band. The two LPs come on heavy 180g vinyl and a CD of the material is included as well. The music is rather hard to describe as I haven't heard any of the group's previous material. They take acoustic instruments and make a junkyard-like brand of folk music. It's going take more listens to get a handle on what they are doing since no traditional sound structures are used.

From the fantastic distro and label Eclipse Records came a bunch of new releases and reissues. Tompkins Square has reissued a bunch of early material from James Blackshaw that has long been out of print so I ordered the albums I didn't already have. In order to get everything I can get my hands on by Raccoo-oo-oon, I bought my first cassette tape in 13 or so years. The tape is entry number 4 in their Mythos Folkways series. Rounding out the order are a couple of LPs, the latest from Belgium's Silvester Anfang and a pervious CD-R only release from Six Organs Of Admittance.

New Guitar Gear

After buying the G400 and borrowing a small practice amp, I've been looking for decent combo amp for practice and recording. I ended up with the Vox Valvetronix AD30VT. At 30W with a 10" speaker, it should be plenty loud for what I want to do with it. It's a hybrid amp with a 12AX7 tube in the preamp section. I don't know how much I'll use the amp modeling and built in effects, but it will be fun to play around with them.

I broke my first string so I needed a new set. I'm trying some Ernie Ball Regular Slinky 10s at the moment with GHS Boomers 10s and D'Addario XL Bright 10s waiting for a try. Also purchased was a strap, SKB case and guitar stand. Should be a good starter setup for me.

While I Was Away And A Trip To Lou's

While being out of town for awhile, I got a couple of packages in the mail. The second release from Volcom's 7" split series features the pairing of Witch and Earthless doing exclusive tracks. I have a feeling it will be my favorite of the series. As arriving were a pair of releases from Profound Lore - Half Makeshift's Omen and Nadja's remastered reissue of Bliss Torn From Emptiness.

At Lou's Records I picked some new releases that came out on Tuesday by Nine Inch Nails, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and Torche. I also bought newer releases from Silver Mt. Zion, Dead Raven Choir and yet another Nadja reissue.

My New Axe

After many years of wanting a guitar, I finally decided to buy one. My plan is to learn a how to play a bit from a book and try to figure out some things on my own that I can add to future R³ songs. Will the collection of effects pedals I now have, I'll be able to get some even more interesting noise.

Not wanting to spend the big bucks on a Gibson, but wanting their SG style guitar, I went with the Epiphone G400L.

I still see myself as a bass player but I think learning a bit of guitar will only help in my bass playing. Now the search for an amp begins. It sounds alright through my Acoustic B20, but it's definitely missing that bright sound of a guitar amp.