Rob Karloff

Ha... Quite the reverse' date=' I think you'll find...[/quote']

Which? It being a laugh, or us scaring the islanders??

We're playing on the 13h and 14th November in Shetland... Dunno where yet, but sounds like a laugh. Scare the islanders??

I'll remember the comment that Vince Neil made to me 3 years ago at the NHRA Dallas race when the car I was working on was racing the Motley Crue sponsered car in the 1st raceday round... And I quote :

"Hah! If I ever get onstage with those guys again it'll need to involve one helluva paycheck!"

Ahem.

Talk about arguing the pointless...!

Alternative music has become a populist fashion again, much like in the early 90s with grunge, like the mid 80s with metal, and the 70s with punk. I remember not that many years ago when I would positively await with excitement the next Good News To The Sick or Reck 'n' Roll gigs at the old Drakes bar, because there were no other gigs of the like. Sure, you could go see some covers band someplace, but... Before too long word spread, more and more people wanted to come to Drakes and more and more bands staged their fledgeling gigs there. Who remembers the first Dangerfields gig or Cormak lying atop the bar singing "I believe in Rock 'n' Roll"?? Ruptured Spleen? TAR? (and I know there are a great many more people who these days talk about TAR gigs than actually went to them...)

And so the "scene" has grown from that, pretty much. Other venues have followed suit and looked to emulate the success of the Drakes legend and current standing. Many more bands have sprung up, and they now have a wider choice of venues to play and a bigger crowd than they might have had some 5 years ago. At the same time, the mainstream has again tapped the alternative music, and so kids get in on the act long before they ever hear about "Dr Drakes" and "cool local bands".

But, the down side is that many of them are not in it for the love of just music. They're in it for the fashion, the membership of the "scene", to try and emulate their heroes, etc. They will only go to a gig if they think enough of their friends are going, if that band is "cool" to like, and they will only be interested in sticking around for that one band. Yes, it's disheartning to see half the audience leave before you go on, but I'd personally rather play to 20 fans than 50 dis-interested "bodies". The time will no doubt come when alternative is no longer the chosen alternative, and the scene that people love so much will shrink and maybe dissappear again. But, there will still be the diehard musos who love playing music and love seeing bands who will keep some gigs on the go, somewhere.

Then eventually, the cycle will repeat.

Try saving in a non-compressive file format.

I hear Glasgow QMU is looking for a scary band for the 30th. Sadly we're in Kirkcaldy that night, but if you wanna make the scene....

fudge and dignity have never appeared together in the same sentence yet.

Much like "Fudge" and "work", i'd imagine....

man i saw this band on the tv and they fucking awful

Quite.

The selling point seems to be that they have that car-a-zay ex-STP dude singing and Slash smoking cigarettes. Or something.

As usual, the masses will think it's the bomb.

Johnny Walker has been playing this in his Radio2 Drivetime slot for about three weeks now. Get with the program!

Do you have any qualifications' date=' or experience?[/quote']

Isn't being in Starfall enough??

*Tries to book weekend off work*

Hell I know it's Craig's party but I don't travel enough and I could see my cousin!

Nike

Come see the show! Promises to be a belter, then catch us on the 31st in EDINBURGH at Studio24 (http://www.studio24edinburgh.co.uk/) for some serious action!

Big thumbs up to the band who give me a better' date=' less pointless life.[/quote']

But you have to admit, Marsh, it's still pretty pointless even now....

the album is indeed ace

my favourite track is Los

is indeed a softer album but as a whole its brilliant

was sad to find that the intro to meil teil was cut

so i went and bought the single just for that....

Erm, you might have wanted to try rewinding on your CD player past 00:00 for the whole intro... Ahem. Not all CD players will let you do this, though.

Good album, but I still like Mutter best. Moskau reminds me of a Garbage track for some reason... Must be the electronica they used I guess. Last three songs are OK, but feel like they don't "go" with the earlier tracks... Not filler exactly, but like they were not really meant to go on the album with the rest. What I like most about Mutter is that it's a progression, start to finish, just like the best symphonies. Reise, Reise is not so well crafted in this respect. The album is a lot more sinister feeling than Mutter, which relied on the big guitar/big symphony aspect moreso. But, on the whole, I like

Is it possible to split them up a bit? Gets a bit mad some days! For example, have a pane of Gigs (You can filter them on the "[GIG]" prefix I'm guessing), a pane of Clubs, etc. Just a readability issue, really.

He's famous for his heroin antics more than his music. What a great guy. A bit like some other celebs, famous purely for being famous. But it's a typically British thing, to idolise and revere someone who is a little bit crazy and eccentric. They attempted to do it with John Lydon around the TV thing, but thankfully he didn't seem to play the game. Same old same old...

Ministry didn't fill the Carling Academy either, so I doubt TBS would. Ministry gig there was great though, it's a really cool old theatre style venue.

I was surprised it was taken on in the firstplace, although it seems they were only hiring the venue to the promotions company. The writing was already clear on the wall from the press on his London gig and antics. But, the bottom line is that the fans were disrespectful of the faciity and staff at the Lemon Tree, and that is shocking. None of it was their doing, and it was basically un-helpful and un-necessary.

OK' date=' I own one of these:

[img']http://www.feelmusic.fr/upload/1089_pt.jpg

Ibanez GSA60.

Second hand, nay bad but nay great. I want to make it my project though, but I'm new at this. I'd really like somebody to explain modification to me. It lacks a strong bass sound and I'd like to know how to go about improving that. What do I need, how much will it cost to fit. What would a set on new tuning heads do?

Give you more accurate tuning, hopefully. Quality tuners make it easier to tune the string spot on, assuming your guitar is fixed bridge. If they lock, a la sperzel or similar, then you can't accidentally knock them off tune.

Tone in an electric can be tricky though. Part of it comes from the pickup, part from the volume and tone control design (what pots are used, capacitors, etc), part from the level of the controls, part from the guage and quality of the strings, and the rest mostly from the design and construction of the guitar body (neck a little too). Varying any of them will alter tone, and it's worthwhile trying different gauges and makes of string until you find what you like the sound and feel of. Start with the simplest thing, then go forward. Changing the guitar body is essentially like buying another guitar, so ideally you want to start with a body construction and wood that gives the properties you're after.

karloff track is pretty diff to their earlier stuff' date=' more guitar in it!twas ok, but i reckon hellhill house etc are better tracks[/quote']

Thanks for the feedback! It's always good to have a straight honest opinion, good or bad, fan or not.

HellHillHouse and the tracks on "Monsters Ruin" were written before the current Karloff line-up, so the current batch on "Self-Made Monsters" and the way it sounds is really most representative of the current line-up. It's rare to meet many folk who prefered the more psychobilly-esque sounding tracks of old to the new ones, but it's still good to know. Not sure if we'll ever have anything that harks of the same feel as HHH in the future, but I do love that song and I'd love it if we could. I pretty much suck when it comes to writing riffs or songs, but I'm trying to come up with some stuff for the future. I've been listening to a lot of Mad Sin recently courtesy of Mr Ghoulmore's vast psychobilly collection, so hopefully the influence might wear off on me! Thanks again for the comments, but can you tell me whether you prefer the big guitar sound and overall production of this track and the others on "Self-Made Monsters", or the first EP??

Sounds like every Karloff gig ever!

Maybe.

But no Halloween in Aberdeen for us this year. We are playing on the Saturday in Kirkcaldy at the request of Certain Death, then in Edinburgh on the Sunday with the Gin Goblins and others.

Try it on MP3 here and let me know your thoughts. If you like it, you'll love the rest of the mini-album!

It depends what you want from your amp, really.

All I want or need from mine is big-assed r 'n' r and punk sounds, so my JCM800 is the shit for what I play. I took a soldering iron and a handful of resistors to the thing and now I can get *exactly* the tone and drive I've always been after. My JCM2000 languishes and is carried only as a spare in case of any failure. A guy also offered me 400 for my 800 in Manchester as he's been looking for an original 2203 (single channel, etc) for ages. I bought it for 300 inc. p&p on ebay!

But, if you want to use different amp sounds in your playing, then a modeling amp is the only way to go. If you like them and how they sound, then bully.

How many wee kids went "Mummy! Mummy! It's Spongebob Squarepants!!!"...?

The night I live for....

"The fires burning bright...."