The lowstar lowdown 13 - monday 14th august

hey you! the lowstar crew! how are you all doing? yes, the lowdown is back after a 2 week break. why the break? well, its not that nothing happened, it's just that we've only just recovered from an advanced state of hysteria. regular readers will be aware of keith's truly awful record with the weekly woestar award, and two weeks ago, with rob and magic taking holidays and ian out of the country hatching an evil plot to take over the world as his alter ego the paradiddler, he had the equivalent of an open goal, 3 yards out, keeper still in the opponent's penalty area, or 2 sets to love up, 5-0 in the third with henman playing with only one leg and his good arm tied behind his back. ladies and gentlemen, he's only stuck it over the bar and choked it. how on earth he did it from that position is anyone's guess, but it's taken a while to stop laughing. in fact, give me a second.... ok ok i'm back again now. deary me. let me explain... so the others were off doing nothing, so all he's got to do is 'something' and he walks away with it. however, what he did, god bless him, is he wrote some stuff for one of the new songs and when they all came to play it, it didn't work, so he's cost the lowstar valuable reheasal time - it's negative help. it's worse than nothing. brilliant!

still the thing about lowstar is they didn't hold it against him. and the rehearsal took place back in the studio as usual last week. and it was great to be back playing at proper volume with not an acoustic guitar in sight. it was the first sighting of tharpy in a while too, but you'll all be pleased to hear, the hair was as good as ever. it's important to let you know these things. so what happened then? and more importantly, how's ike, the ikea trolley? rest assured, ike is doing great. he was in his usual place and helped us get all our stuff from the storage cupboard to the studio in relatively few trips. ike's great, we love him. he's like the fifth lowstarer. in fact, if i were you, i'd put money on him getting a woestar award before keith. anyway, once stuff was set up, practice began. we rattled through a few from the usual set and i think the songs that we recorded recently are starting to come together after messing about with some many parts in the studio. which is good news. mostly though, lowstar worked on a couple of new songs. one was in b but is now in f#, it has no title as yet, but lowstar lowdown can exclusively reveal that in private, away from prying ears, the band have been heard referring to it as 'the new song that was in b but is now in f#'. i've probably given too much away now, so if you don't hear from me fora while, you'll know why. the other song, sounds great, very very rock, but there have been discussions on where it's going. long discussions, with very conceptual ideas such as 'it's sounding a bit like you know rock, but rock that's at the bottom of a cliff, perhaps there's some seaweed there, but there's too many waves for crabs and whelks and stuff, what we want is rock, sure, but a rock that's been exposed on the top of a tor you know like on dartmoor or something, it's got a bit of moss on it, but rabbits use it for shelter...' or 'yeah, it's good but if it were a bit more of a red than the sort of burgandy that it is at the moment it would be way better.' worringly, i think that they all know what that means, however, it will require some work next week. stay tuned to see what 'redder than burgandy' is. on a sadder note. ian had to play through the practice with a bad back. against doctor's advice, probably. his need for rock outdid his need to lie quietly on a sofa with a mug of tea, drunk through a straw so he didn't have to lift it. it's probably also worth pointing out that magic has recently played through the pain barrier after a nasty knee injury, the throb is way too cool to even mention injuries he may or may not be playing through and keith often complains that he's tired.... so you can see how much it means to them.

anyway, other than creating rock, like many millions of years of pressure does to carbon, or superman does in his hand, further discussions were had on the cd inlay. it's close now. a few decisions left to make but the artwork is nearly there. so onto the woestar award for this week... ... hang on a minute... give me a second here... i'm sorry it just reminded me of the open goal... i'm ok, i'm ok... no. i'm off again.... ok, ok, i'm back. who won it this week then. as usual it was a tight decision, rob's throb was even deeper than usual as he went to a drop d in the new song and as a result we all had to work that little bit harder to keep our dinners in place. magic has worked on his rainbow of rock and finally extended it, he now needs a taxi to get from flange to wah-wah, a problem anyone interested in replicating the rainbow of rock should bear in mind. he also requires his own generator or the lights dip in the immediate vicinity - as a side note, there are unconfirmed reports that the paradiddler's dastardly plan has something to do with this phenomenon, and that maybe while in greece, he met with a professor of evil electronics. keith meanwhile, expanded his personal rainbow of rock. except it's nowhere near a rainbow, it's not big enough to curl like a rainbow and the colours are very poor, it's more like a ruler of rock. still, on the plus side he doesn't bother with all those 'nice' pedals like choruses and flange and phaser etc. oh no. his go loud, louder and loudest. he's a simple man with simple needs. ian on the other hand, while playing through the pain barrier, did some awesome fills and then decided they weren't complicated enough. if he's not hitting two things with each limb, it's just not worth his while. so who wins. well, as much as the adjudicator enjoyed the throb's drop d, he made disparaging remarks about not caring about the award so he's out. magic was in great form, but wasn't playing through an injury and keith... ha ha ha.. oh dear, it's ian. of course it's ian, playing through the pain, dedication and not a hair out of place.

a few thoughts from practice...

- how can keith's new ultra rock 'overdrive' pedal be mauve?
- is it true that rob the throb looks exactly the same in every photo he appears in? rob seems to think so.. if it is true, does it mean that the camera is capturing the inner rob that never changes while for other mortals it captures the outer being. does this mean that rob is an otherworldly being sent to earth and if so, has he been sent for good or evil? photographic evidence that disproves this terrifying thought from practice would be greatly appreciated, we have to share an enclosed space with him every week.
- how cool would it be if ian's fabled ear defenders were glow in the dark? or if they could shoot mind controlled lasers out of them, that would keep magic from standing between him and the mirror in the big practice rooms!
- is a tele better than a telly?
- which one of lowstar is really a take that/barry manilow song in disguise? could it be magic?
- is there a guitarist's playground magic could visit to do swapsies with his pedals... 'got, got, got, need, got, got...'

anyway, that's all, no news on imaginary alan this week, he's probably laughing about the open goal miss. i'm still chuckling here myself. that's right, i said 'chuckling', what about it?! all the best then, see you all same time next week. ish.

lowstar lowstopping

blog list
recording november 2008
gig email - 20 nov 2007
gig email - 24 jul 2007
happy new year - tuesday 16 jan 2007
lowstar lowdown 17 - monday 16 oct 2006
lowstar lowdown 16 - monday 18 sep 2006
lowstar lowdown 15 - monday 11 sep 2006
lowstar lowdown 14 - monday 28 aug 2006
lowstar lowdown 13 - monday 14 aug 2006
lowstar lowdown 12 - monday 31 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 11 - monday 24 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 10 - monday 17 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 9 - monday 10 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 8 - monday 26 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 7 - monday 19 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 6 - monday 05 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 5 - lowstardate 27th may.6
lowstar lowdown 4 - monday 22 may 2006
lowstar lowdown III - return of the blog (15 may 2006)
lowstar lowdown 2 - wednesday 10 may 2006
lowstar lowdown 1 - friday 28 april 2006