~~~~~~~~ THURSDAY LUNCH REPORT ~~~~~~~~~

[Katefan]

Hey - its Thursday - Welcome Back!

So today I'm going to offer the final installment of the Dave Gilmour tie-in with Monday's LR teaser, the $40 home organ on TradeMe (NZ's version of Ebay)... but first I want to come back to yesterday's Trivia question which a few of you provided some great answers. Mine was much simpler - they are both friends of Kate Bush. I knew bout the Terry Slater connection but I didnt know bout Lydon being knighted or that they both are atheists. Well done guys!

I'll get to today's Double-shot Thursday Trivia questions later on in the report...

So going to start off with this today -
[youtube]v3JTbBPXRco[/youtube]

Hearing the Carpenters transports me back to my early childhood and many fond memories....I Love how music can be an instant teleporter to another time & space. In the mid to late 90's when I was really getting into STP I also started listening to this easy listening Seattle radio station -
http://www.kixi.com/
WOw - from the looks of their website its apparently now hip to listen to KIXI -Funny...

Here's some info on the station according to wiki...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KIXI

Anyway, I think one of the reasons why I started listening to it then was that my Dad listened to it on the car and in his workshop in the basement of our house. My Dad had the ultimate set of tools tho he wasn't a television repairman he ran and operated Rainier Oven Corp down on 14th & Jackson which my Grandpa and a couple of his brothers started back round 1908. Good Ol' Rainier Oven is no more but the building still stands proudly just north of the Central District of South Seattle & up the hill from China Town and Pioneer Square.

Anyway, My Dad's workshop had bench vises, a grinder wheel, bandsaws, a drill press and heaps of handy tools. I'd constantly be bringing by my latest guitar acquistions to show him and to make whatever repairs they needed so I spent alot of time in that basement listening to the mellow sonic offerings KIXI provided.... My Dad had it rigged so when you turned on the workshop light the shop stereo (old 70's model) would turn on as well.
Interestingly, after hearing the hidden track on Purple, STP's 2nd album round that same time, I suss'd they were a fan of easy listening as well.
I just read an early interview with Dean Deleo (the guitarist) and his said they'd listened to alot of mellow 70's stuff for sanity saying something like it really helped balance out the heavier stuff they were playing.

Anyway, what artists &bands from that era do you dig?
ABBA & early Jackson 5 are faves of mine too.

SPeaking of Purple - here is said hidden track being preceded by a stellar tune imo...
[youtube]Sc-MEKfeNrY[/youtube]


Moving along -

So at last here's the tie-in with Mr. Gilmour & the $40 Yamaha home organ. It all starts with yesterday's tube reel to reel swapmeet score....
I just recently bought a Transtube Peavey Pro Studio 112 of Trademe for $200 for gigging. As I mentioned, gear here is pricey and I can't justify spending a lot of dough at the mo on a tube amp. To give you all an idea - a Peavey Classic 30 fetches $800-900 used here & Fender Deluxe/Deville amps even more. Basically, you're looking at ~$1000 for a decent used tube amp.
So necessity being the Mother of invention I started thinking of a way to get a tube amp on the cheap and the reel to reel tipped me off... old home organs... they're heavy, kinda ugly, take up alot of space and most folks just plain want them gone out of the house... but tube amplifiers (& alnico spkrs) lurk within many of them. True alot were SS but most console organs up and to the late 60's featured tubes as trannys weren't really on the scene /affordably til then...

So I started searching Trademe and looking round town to see what I could find.
I found several SS models with built in cassette recorders and rhythm machines (easy sign of SSville) but from the looks of the pic of the $40 yamaha on trademe I thought it may be tube. I went & checked it out this past weekend and sadly its SS and from the mid 70's. Turns out the pic on the web was blurry and to my eyes, it made the organ look older... It was damn shiny in person! but in doing research on it onthe web, I discovered something cool bout it. It contains a revolving spkr in it to give it a Leslie-like effect. And it turns out that D. Gilmour used a stand alone yamaha unit like this one extensively on Floyd recordings -
[youtube]p84MuaEaBHk[/youtube]
You can barely seen the speakers rotating in it - here's another one with the cover removed....
[youtube]6zr5da48J8U[/youtube]
Cool -eh?
The yamaha organ just features 1 speaker for the treble freqs but there are aux (RCA jacks) in & outs plus a 1/4" headphone out so you can plug in a guitar or other instruments/devices into it. Anyway, I debated bout getting it but decided against it as the organ sounds on that model are kinda cheesy and while the rotating speak is cool, my intent was to get an organ with a tube amplifier inside it. Jackie wasnt exactly keen bout it becoming an addition to our lounge area and basically it would be big ass stomp box so I passed on it. THe GAS pangs on the tube amp has subsided too so I'm good as.

G&L content -
I mentioned the other day that I recently swapped out Char's stock pu's w/ some Custom made Alnicos MFD's that I bought from Mac(burnt999). I'm really diggin their sound esp with the TT Peavey. I will no doubt at some point replace them with the stock ones again but for now I'm down with them...

HEre are the stock ones - nuthin too exciting but I thought I'd post a couple pics for folks who havent seen what the underside of an ASAT MFD looks like -



Next up - today's swapmeet score -


Its an 70's Japanese made Suzuki Classical that someone El kabong'd - neck broken off from the body joint. To make things worse, the seller used white glue (Elmer's - here its called something different) to try to secure the neck but it wasnt anything even remotely like a proper repair. After seeing it for a few weeks marked at $20+ dollars, the seller finally sold it to me for my offer of $10. In the meantime, I met a guy at the swapmeet who built his own acoustic and I asked if he did repairs. He said not professionally, but he figured he could fix it & said he'd do it free of charge! I was a bit baffled til he shared that he wanted to do it for the experience... Sweet as. Anyway, he did a Fab job and all he would accept was a bottle of wine.
The guitar just needs a bit more to complete it - a couple tuners replaced , new strings and the new bridge saddle sanded down bit.

$10 seems to be the magic # as far as sweet deals go whether the item's worth $100 or 10 times that....

Here's a pic of it along side Char -


Ok, as I mentioned earlier this week, I'm finishing up a month long house-sit and have been taking full advantage of unlimited internet and cable TV... more the former, much less the latter as there aint much on the boobtube that I find interesting...
I'd rather play music or read a book... anyway, I've spent the most time watching music vids on MTV and a couple other music channels...

Here's 2 I saw that I think ya'll will get a kick out of -

[youtube]iEPTlhBmwRg[/youtube]

[youtube]4PkcfQtibmU[/youtube]

Regarding the 1st one, I have to say I'm liking Maroon 5 more & more... or I should say I'm actually listening to them now where as before I never did as I couldnt get past their name.... anyway Adam Levine, the singer as alot of you probably know is a coach on the new American Idol spinoff/competitor - The Voice. Jackie & I've watched bout 4 episodes and I have to say its heaps better than AI. What do you all think? As far as network tv goes anyway...

Trivia Time!

And its the doubleshot Thurs edition...

THis leads off Question #1 -
[youtube]Y21VecIIdBI[/youtube]

That is Sonic Youth's version of the highly popular Carpenters' hit.
The Carpenters didnt write it - Which of the following artists did?

A) Burt Bacharach
B) Leon Russell
C) Bernie Taupin
D) Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett

Question #2 -
What is the early 90's film the above Foo Fighters' video based on?

That's it for now... See Ya'll tomorrow!

Cheers,

Kf

[Aussie]

Just managed to check out your clip with Spot in yesterday;s LR ... great stuff and I'm betting that far fewer people in the audience than you think picked up on any tuning issues.

I didnt know bout Lydon being knighted

Hmmm ... I guess anything is possible but given Lydon has been quite open about his views on the monachy and "the estabilshement" I just can't visualise him being offerred let alone accepting an imperial honiour.

Artists from the '70's: I didn't listen to much "popular music" during the 70's. My main fare during that decade was the rather eclectic mix of Prog Rock, Hard Rock, Folk, Jazz Fusion and Punk. At the time I disliked ABBA with a passion but remember I did have a major WOW moment when I first heard "I'm a Marionette" - it was so theatrical and kind of left field compared to my perceptions of the band to that point.
[youtube]xzkkrDYRGSU[/youtube]

The Teaser: Those Yamaha RA's look and sound really cool. Note to self - add RA's to watch list!

Q#1: I'm going for (E) Two of the above (although one of them might be debatable) :-)

Q#2: Is it that Douglas one? ....can't remember what its called ... but surely that wasn't nearly 20 years ago? ... was it?

Radio Stations: A really tenuous link to your topic .... but national radio station Triple J just announced today that they will be launching a second station that will play nothing but music from unsigned independent artists. Triple J has a long history of supporting new artists and I'm really excited by today's announcement. This is great news for aspiring young Aussie artists!



cheers, Robbie

[Ahryn]

Little late in the week to say this but I have to say how much I have been enjoying reading your Lunch reports KateFan, especially the origin of char.

Haven't really listened to alot of bands from the 70's but I dig the feel of the music.

Hey Aussie, my dad used to listen to ABBA and I could never figure out why... after listening to I'm a Marionette I think I have a better idea now.

Hah using an organ amp seems like a really unique idea but I can see why you would pass on it although I bet eventually you will see a nice little tube amp and with your luck it'll probably only cost $10

Speaking of $10 seeing that classical reminds me of the one I started on, I hate how wide the necks are but I wouldn't mind picking one up for nostalgias sake... guess I'll have to keep my eye out

Can't help yah on trivia question #1 but I think the answer to #2 is none other than Falling Down.

[Michael-GnL-Michael]

That is Sonic Youth's version of the highly popular Carpenters' hit.
The Carpenters didnt write it - Which of the following artists did?

A) Burt Bacharach
B) Leon Russell
C) Bernie Taupin
D) Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett

It's B and D

Anyway, what artists &bands from that era do you dig?
ABBA & early Jackson 5 are faves of mine too.

This was a formative period in my life. No other decade does the music bring up such strong feelings and memories. Among many are James Taylor, Sly and the Family Stone, Neil Young/CSNY, Grand Funk Railroad, Van Morrison, Carly Simon, Doobie Bros., Carol King, Boz Scaggs, the Beatles as well as each member's solo albums, Badfinger, Zeppelin, Allman Bothers, and so on.

[zapcosongs]

Hey KF. I've been reading but assorted craziness has limited my participation here.
The other day on the (satellite) radio, "One Toke Over The Line" by Brewer & Shipley (I think) came on and I had to smile big. From those days, I fondly remeber Jim Croce, Cat Stevens, James Taylor. They made me want to play guitar.

Great $10 score!

Regarding old tube thingys, my Mom has her Dad's old (think big old piece of furniture) radio that the family used to gather around before TB to listen to "The Shadow" and stuff. That thing is loaded with a bunch of old tubes - from the '30's and '40s probably. The ones that are still good (not all of them, alas) could be worth something. It's a very cool thing.

Appreciating the great Lunch Reports, despite my lack of participation. I'm here and I'm entertained and interested. Thanks! -ed

[GDub]

Great post! I'm not big on The Carpenters because of the CHEESE factor, but hey, pipes is pipes. She had a fine voice. Love your Floyd thing. If I did one like it it would be from the Neil Young "Ragged Glory" album. Barn RAWK!

--GDub

[Ledergeist]

Well I have no idea either Lydon or Gilmour have been knighted, that was just a wild guess!! heheh

70's Stuff? I was lucky to have some older relatives that were in to music, so by '71 I already had stuff like The Yes Album, the first 2 Chicago records, and some Zappa. Once in a while a pop song would come along, but for the most part I went straight from kids records and Partridge Family singles to Prog, Metal, and Blues etc....

Great week of LR's so far,
BW