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What It Is

It’s a low- to mid-gain overdrive pedal styled after Marshall 18-watter amps.  The 18 watts are very different tonally from other sounds you’d think of when you think of “Marshall” — like the upper-mid kerrang of JCM 800s, for example.  It’s a tone that has much more in common with tweed-era Fenders.

Foxy Brown has gain and volume knobs.  There’s a lot of volume on tap, so if you goose up the gain you’d have to turn down the volume.  The tone knob is interesting — at noon it’s unity, then when you turn it counter-clockwise it adds bass, when you turn it up it adds treble.  So it doesn’t get darker when you turn it down, it just gets fatter.  Very nice.

The sag knob is interesting.  The more you turn it up, the more the note attack gets “squashed” or develops a tube-amp-like “sag.”  This is a pretty subtle effect and at first I couldn’t really detect it.  It’s more obvious the more gain you have, and if you use Foxy Brown to drive another ovedrive/distortion or an amp’s overdrive, then it is more apparent.  It’s there even when Foxy Brown is the only pedal supplying dirt, but its gain is not enough to really make a pronounced effect on its own.

How It Sounds

Right off the bat, what’s impressive about it is that it perfectly preserves the guitar’s dynamics.  Or should I say — the touch and feel of the guitar is completely unaffected.  You can turn it on, and the feel doesn’t change a single bit, even when the gain is cranked.  It gets loud when you hit it hard, and gets soft when you hit the strings lightly.  Just like plugging into a clean amp, but this doesn’t happen often with guitar pedals.  Very nice.

The overdrive character is expectedly jangly.  It’s not super tight, you can’t really do hard rock with this.  It’s better suited for strumming, but with attitude.  Because the tone knob really doesn’t really roll off the highs, the tone doen’t really mellow out — it gets fatter when the tone knob’s rolled off but it stays raspy in top range.  When you crank the gain it gets fairly distorted, but the character of the overdrive stays the same, but at the highest settings (3 o’clock and up) single notes develop this rubbery/synthy feel that sounds unnatural for an electric guitar.  Couple that with the fact that it has zero compression, and you get a pedal that’s really unsuited for high-gain single-note leads.

My Verdict

If you’re looking for a real amp-like low-gainer with attitude or mid-gain rhythm guitar pedal, this is a great pedal to consider.  Its touch-sensitivity/volume-knob clean-up is as good as a real tube amp, and its built-in sag makes it feel like one, too.  If you want to play single-note leads on it you may want to compress or stack with another, more sustaining pedal, however.  I think it’s another one of those pedals with unique feel/feature, where if that’s not what you’re looking for you may not “get” it, but if it does meet your need, it’ll be an indispensable tool in your arsenal.

I am guilty as charged as well.

I have no idea if I’m typical or not, but I am very feeling-oriented and my productivity goes way up and way down…. if I’m feeling inspired, I get lots done, I feel like being productive.  Other times, I go through periods without getting anything done.

Like posting frequencies on this blog, for example.  I built myself a good habit of Tweeting, and from there built up a good routine of writing blog entries…. and puff!  I hit a wall.  My inspiration runs dry, I have nothing to say.

Now, on one hand, I firmly believe it’s fine to say nothing if you have nothing to say.

On the other hand, I also know that being creative is a habit.  Many successful artists — Diane Warren comes to mind — carve their craft out of regular, highly-routined attempts at being creative.  Inspirations be damned — just like people who jog everyday, you just have a go at it, whether you feel like it or not, and out of the machinegun approach emerge some real jewels.  You get better at doing things by doing them, anyway.  If your batting average is low starting out, just swing many times.   If your average is 10% of what a competent professional should hit, you start out by swinging 10x more to keep up.  In time your craft, your effectiveness will improve, and you won’t have to swing quite so maniacally.  (That’s how true masters make it look easy.  But don’t think for a second that they didn’t pay their dues.)

Building a habit of being creative is actually no different from either creating any new habit or quitting any bad ones.  It’s like building grooves on the ground where your wheels will travel frequently.  It takes some effort to get it going, but once the grooves start taking shape, it gets easier and easier.

Personal Development guru Steve Pavlina has a great article on this that has become a standard among personal development bloggers: 30 Days to Success.  I, for example, had undertaken 30-day challenge to work on songwriting everyday.  And I must say, I was indeed productive!

I also wrote an article on my old personal growth blog that has some relevant points:  The 7 Keys to Breaking Bad Habits

Now, when you’re choosing a new habit to build (or a bad habit to break) it’s a good idea to just focus on one at a time — don’t try to change your life radically, because that’s harder to pull off and failure undermines your self confidence.  If you want to build a habit of being creative, I think a reasonable place to start is to just build a routine/build in a time to have a go at it on a regular basis.  Whether you produce anything worthwhile is beside the point.  The point is to get in the habit of giving it a shot on a regular basis.  After a while, you may surprise yourself at how efficiently you can get creative.  I, as a guitar-based songwriter, have gotten good enough to a point where on most days, I can just mentally turn the switch “on” and write new riffs or guitar parts.

I myself have lots of good habits I hope to build…I will share some of my own 30-day challenges to undertake in the near future.

Anyway, it is very possible for you to change yourself so that you get creative often instead of being stuck in a stop/go routine.  The only thing that’s holding you and me back are ourselves.

So let’s make it a point to build a routine of being creative, shall we?

It’s so hard to trust, after you’ve been hurt.  It’s so much easier to put up walls and hide in the safety of your own darkness….

Yet, if we believe that we have a reason, a mission that we need to carry out in this life, then the cozy space inside your own confinement is not the place to do it.  We are called to come out — our own hearts will not let up while we’re in hiding.

It’s not so much the pain
It’s more the actual knife
Pretending, the picture is perfect
I cut myself to sleep
I close my eyes for a second
And meet a fragile soul
I scream to hide that I’m lonely
The echo calls my name

If I ever
If I never
Make me want to stand up for whatever
Make me see
Make me be
Make me understand you’re there for me

Take this life
I’m right here
Take a while and breathe me in

I keep saying, God, this is too scary.  Please do not make me do this, to come out of my shell.  I am so small — I can’t possibly mean anything.

But he keeps extending his hand, smiling, comforting…. And he never changes, even though through my own eyes I portray nothing but fear and distrust.

And I know he’s still there, waiting.  He never changes.

He’s still waiting, for me — to change.

Everyday is a day in which we face the gap between what should be and what is.  And that gap never really seems to close.  If anything, the older I get, the wider that gap seems to be growing.

Well, if that’s the case, why do I even go on?

She’s an American highway flower
Walking, blossoming into nowhere
Digesting tailpipes and babies’ screams
To fill the hole that used to house her dreams

Why all my ideas
Peel and turn to rust
Why I feel I must
Guess I’ll ask the dust

“I wonder what I’m doing here”
She asks the moon but he don’t care
He’s busy shinin’ on the lucky
In the dark she swims toward nothing
Towards nothing

Well, the why is obvious, if not comforting — we live, because we are born to live.  We keep sowing seeds, because we are born to sow.

But perhaps where I got it wrong, is that I dreamed of those flowers blossoming, and about how I am going to make them be how I see them in my mind.

Instead, it seems to be more about discovering what flowers do come up, and what they look like.  We don’t choose what we’re given to sow.  But knowing, and really loving, what it is that we sow, makes a difference in how we tend to our seeds.

And remember — watched kettles don’t boil.

Be glad, be glad that you are alive another day.  Because each day is a seed to sow.

Because we are born to sow.  And to love what come up.

Dada originally came out on the I.R.S. label in early 90s.  I.R.S. was the home to early REM catalog, so the label/artist compatibility seems right, or at least it makes sense.  Their debut, Puzzle had a novelty minor hit “Dizz Knee Land.”  They released two successors on I.R.S. that didn’t really go anywhere, before I.R.S. folded.  They had one last shot at major label glory when they signed on to MCA and released a slickly-produced self-titled album, which again, didn’t do much.

I have most of their major label catalog and the band’s strengths are abound and aplenty.  Catchy hooks, clever songwriting, tight vocal harmonies with distinct timbre. Michael Gurley is a guitar powerhouse with Stevie Ray Vaughan-influences, which is a bit of a surprise for this type of pop/rock, but still, guitar virtuosity can easily be made into an asset rather than distraction.

So what was missing in their quest?

I really think this was the case of not being able to figure out the band’s positioning, both by the label and the band themselves.  They were so talented and so good in every way, that it seems like they just didn’t know what to do with themselves.

Here’s what I’d do if I were to take the band and try to have it a go today.

1. Nail down their identity: both musically and lyrically these guys were all over the place, somber and dark one moment and silly and playful the next.  Their individual songs are brilliant but their albums can be very disjointed listening experience because of this.  The novelty factor of “Dizz Knee Land” really wasn’t their core, though — so don’t push that to the fore.  It seems like the band reverted to Gurley-penned tongue-in-cheek sarcastic, smart-ass persona most often, with lyrics about being a high school geek who secretly wanted to be a jock.  That persona is digestible and matches well with their quarky side — so have them focus on being a quirky, cheeky and experimental pop band, at least until they are well-established.
2. Once “Quirky and Experimental” is identified as the core, we can work on building a web site and online community based around that idea.  I can easily see them getting along with likes of They Might Be Giants, Guster, and even Frank Zappa, in the whole “stoned and goofy geeks” camp.  Print up a bunch of corny T-shirts and sell them at their shows.  Run a contest on goofy geek stories and write songs based on them (“Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” comes to mind)

Really, when I think of what’s most remarkable about Dada, and if they agree with me that it lies in them being Quirky and Experimental pop/rock band with ample chops at their disposal, I can think of many things that can be done to build their own fan community and establish a nice cottage industry on which the three of them could live off.  Dada is an exceptionally talented act — all they need is just a bit of focus and perseverance, and even that they probably don’t need much, because their material just slays.

Sigh.  Coulda, shoulda, might-have-beens.  But still, I think the idea here is that the most important thing an act needs to have is position.  Or identity.  Once you figure out who you are (and you better really figure it out, because you’re gonna be that persona for years and years), then, from there you can build a community based on that identity.

I really wish Dada would do it,  they are so good.

Well, this is the site that has my name on it, I really can’t run from here.  It’s probably a good thing.

Anyway, I am going to organize my site in the coming months.  It’s going to have a few sections, but two main ones:

1. Pensive Rock: (Heavy) Music Heals — this is going to be my blog for everyone, in which I discuss how (heavy) music is good for the soul.  I’ll continue posting meditations on songs that mean a lot to me.  This will also be the area where I will produce and release my own music.
2. Thoughtful Guitarist/Self-Sufficient Musician — this is going to be a section for fellow guitarists and musicians, where I post thoughts on all things guitar and music career.

In addition, I will also create a portfolio section of me as a web developer and consultant, as I continue to be in demand as one.

Until these structures are established, my blog is going to continue to be a jumbled mess of all things above.  I hope you be patient with me, and kindly ignore posts that don’t pertain to your interest.  Hopefully once I organize the site, you’ll easily be able to see and subscribe to just the areas of your interest.

I am hoping that this next phase is going to be the one that sticks.  We’ll see.

I’ve gotten into a routine of swimming 1k each session.  25 laps.  And I noticed that somewhere in the middle of those laps, there are usually moments when I really feel bad. It’s that time where your muscles no longer have the fresh strength, but your body hasn’t quite gotten used to the exertion.

Now, during those times, if I look down at the deep end of the pool — I can’t help but experience a big of panic inside.

It’s so deep.  And I’m running out of breath.

Irrational? Yes.  I can swim, and I am swimming on the surface.  But yet, during those times, I can’t bear to look down — because the irrational little child in me wakes up, looks through my eyes, and start screaming.

All the sleeping, never waking
All the leaves in need of raking
All the business undertaking
All my bones and muscles aching

Thoughts and minds are surely flaking
Over luncheons hands are shaking
Surety of no mistaking
Cars and horns and glasses breaking

Give me a color, make it black or white
Give me a newspaper, tell me if it’s right
Give me a nail, give me a bat
Give me a skinny, give me a fat

Remembering the times I pray
To let me take my thoughts away
To think about another day
To help me deal with me

They say the enemy is within, and while I don’t disagree, I tend to think of it as my inner child that needs loving. Like when my daughter couldn’t do the monkey bars, even when she was big enough and had plenty of strength, because she was afraid of falling.

Sometimes you have to stop listening to that voice in your head. Sometimes you just have to hold her tight and still make the leap.  Remember, fear can make mundane, innocent objects look like terrifying creatures.

When that happens — and when that fear threatens to take over, making you run for cover or hold on to every thread that appears trustworthy — don’t change course, just keep going. Tell your child that it’s going to be OK.

Every time I swim, I panic and desire to quit in the middle.  But I swim straight through it.

You can, too.

Then I went out into the “real” world, and got squashed.  Many people carelessly swinging their hearts on their sleeves, tossing them about carelessly, not realizing how cheap and shallow they make them look.

Paul is making me nervous
Paul is making me scared
Walk into this room and swaggers
Like he’s God’s own messenger
Changed the name of my brother
Changed the things that he said
Says he speaks to him
But he never even knew the man
But I’d give my life for him

Take whatever you’re needing
Take whatever you can
We are broken from within
Run to another land

Like water through my hands
Or is it just beginning
But if he’s all you say
Would he fly from heaven
To this world again
To this world again

They said, if you cared, you’d go shout out loud.  If you really believed, then you’d act it out.

But the more I cared, the more I couldn’t show any more.  I couldn’t stand the little jabs and bruises.  It was like seeing your precious little child getting kicked around by uncaring mass.  It’s not that most of them are mean, it’s just that most of them didn’t notice.  The gap grew wider between what I held inside and what’s been discussed on the outside, to the point where I don’t even recognize what they are talking about.

What I have is important, what I hold is desperately dear to me. I want to close that gap between what I am inside and what I became on the outside.

Is it OK to expose it to the world?  Will it still be mine, even after they make what they will out of it?

Is it OK to accept that I still believe?