Here is a short of who once called this once Toronto historical music recording studio home at one time in their life.

• RUSH
• Ringo Starr
• Steve Winwood
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Aretha Franklin
• Bachman-Turner Overdrive
• Rosemary Clooney
• Chubby Checker
• James Brown

This ordinary one story unit was called the McClear building. It was located at 225 Mutual St., in Toronto.

“I’m a little saddened that it’s gone,” said former McClear chief engineer Jeff Wolpert. “It could have been designated historical. It had a lot of great ghosts.”

Just a side note here folks but another historical music site is just within ear shot of this place. It’s called Maple Leaf Gardens. Another historical site is within a stones throw as well, it’s the old CBC recording studio’s on Jarvis, directly to the south east of the McClear Building. My favorite and the one who influenced me the most as a very young player was Glenn Gould who recorded at the CBC studios for most of his career.

Scott Yellan, property director for Arsandco Investments, a company with ties Yellan would not precisely describe to both 225 Mutual and the nearby Best Western Primrose Hotel, said the studio building would be replaced by a parking lot. Toronto Star

In the infamous words of Joni Mitchell they paved paradise and put up a (F- – - – - -) parking lot!!! Assholes!

To read more about this story check out this link.

Keep on Jammin’

Ok if you do have these guys in your collection Chris, then my question for you is does Counterpoint play any of their tunes? I’d love to hear one of them at your next show.

Keep on Froggin’

The boys just happen to have all their instruments of honour off to the side and then it happens … Jimmy starts playing this little song called Whole Lotta Love. I don’t know if this was planned but this is the first song that is played with all three sitting together, PERFECT I say!

The other guys just melt when he begins playing. The Edge stands up to get a much closer look at how Jimmy does it (holy shit, I sure would) and it looks like Jack starts to smile and shake inside with excitement! He is trying his best not to totally freak out, check it out. This is the best part of the show!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=suGVO5t96wI

If you haven’t see it then search for it online or go out and buy it, I guarantee you’ll love it. I did. I remember when it first came out I thought that the concept was ideal. Having three generations of guitarists in one movie talking about whatever they want to can’t be all that bad. I didn’t think that they’d actually play but I couldn’t of been more wrong.

Keep on Jammin’

Joni Mitchell was the first guitarist that I encountered using this technique. I never tried this form of playing for a couple of years after playing. When I ventured on this coarse, I found that it opened up a whole new world of guitar playing for me. It certainly took a while to get use to it.

After a while through trial and error, I found that i could expand my chord progressions and better yet, develop that full sound that I have been looking for. Stepping out of your comfort zone is a must for all guitar players. Remember, it’s better to goof up while practicing in the comfort of your own home first before jumping in!

Open Tuning is very frustrating to master at first glance. Check out this link and give it a whirl!

Do you use alternative or open tuning? If so, what are you favorite ones?

Keep on Jammin’

I never believed that U2 wanted to save the whales. I don’t believe that The Beastie Boys are ready to lay it down for Tibet.
Iggy Pop

I’ve never been a real big Iggy Pop lover but the man on stage is raw and inspiring. He work with the stooges is well known and now the man and his band is set to play in Toronto at the Yonge-Dundas Square stage. It’s all part of the NXNE Festival concert line up this year.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfZb26IZq9w

I’d love to go and check his show out live tonight but I have previous plans for today that cannot be changed! I just found out about the show yesterday morning after coming home from an early doctors appointment down the street from Yonge-Dundas Square.

I was walking to the subway to go home and get ready for work when I saw the stage being set up, so I had a few minutes to spare, so I just walked around a bit. I saw this cool older couple sitting a this outside venue at a table and they were having a smoke and a coffee. So I walked up to them and asked then what was up and they told me of the show. Damn, not enough time to change our plans.

Has anyone out there seen these guys live? Am I nuts for not ditching my plans today for the chance to see the great Iggy Pop and the New Stooges play that is 7.9 km (4.9 miles) away?

Keep on Jammin’

I love how he just strums the strings on his acoustic guitar, a Stella I think, that gives off such a warm and inviting sound to the piece. This is a perfect example of how not using a pick can create a very intimate sound to a song. The chord structure and bridges that Mr Costello uses are simple and to the point.

In the beginning part before he starts playing, Elvis makes the point of saying that he would love to hear Barry White sing this one but with no disrespect to Barry, I think only Elvis could pull this one off. Mind you, it would be an interesting version for sure!

So sit back, turn down the lights, fire up a candle or two, OR if it’s raining outside get out your notebook and watch it while the rain is hitting the roof just right and enjoy!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c74V89CA8Y

Keep on Jammin’ Elvis

After taking our dog Midnight out for her morning walk and just before giving her, her breakfast a UPS driver knocked on the door sending Midnight out of her mind. All I was thinking was how to keep her from waking my wife up with her barking! As I opened the door she ran out to investigate and welcome the driver with lots of licks, I actually know him from work. After all the commotion had ended he handed me a package and right there I knew that it was the kindle!

So my wife just got up and we opened the package. The packaging was easy to open and quite sturdy looking. The screen of our new Kindle instructed us to turn it on and the welcome screen showed up after taking a few seconds to load up the program.

I picked it up and I was the first one to turn a page on the Kindle – kind of cool! This thing reminds me of something from Star Track! The reader is set up for easy use if your a left or right handed readers. My wife then hit the button Aa that is directly to the right of the spacer bar on the Kindle’s keyboard. It activated a menu that allows you to initiate the Text-to-Speech software. You have the option to use a male or female voice. The default setting is set to use a male voice. Damn it sounds a lot like the genius Stephen Hawkings!

Later on today we are off to an appointment and hopefully we can download one of the new books that my wife had uploaded to her laptop yesterday before leaving. I know this is not music related post but when we start becoming more literate with this thing, we’ll try all the music related options that comes with it. Wish us luck!

Keep on Kindlin’

Many bands have attempted to play this great song like Humble Pie, New Riders of the Purple Sage or W.A.S.P. (remember them?). John Mayer’s interpretation of this song closely resembles that of John Scofield, which features guess guitarist Mr. Mayer. In Ray Charles adaptation, he has a more upbeat rhythm were as John Mayer’s is performed with a slower tempo with a swampy bluesy swagger.

In I Don’t Need No Doctor, which is a classic 12 bar blues song in the key of E, John hooks his distinctive chording in it. The trumpet player Brad Mason and saxophone player Bob Reynolds fill out the song rather fittingly.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXWKMwnWP4Q

Here are some neat chord inversions that John Mayer plays in this one. For this song, I will provide you with the chords in TAB form that I think he uses. Please be patient with this new TAB tables that I am using here folks. I’m just seeing how it comes up on some people’s screen. Please tell me if there is a problem viewing this post, thanx!

Keep on Jammin’

Heralded as ‘one of the best live dance acts on Earth,’ by the Village Voice (USA)

It was a very moving video. I found myself taking apart the song section by section in my mind, I’m always doing that to any music that I hear. It also got my heart a pumping and adrenalin a racing with the strong beats and bridges that it had. The visual effects that the band uses is not for those with the faint of heart. It could trigger an epileptic seizure for those afflicted with that disease if exposed to, for too long. It makes one wonder how much it costs the venue in electricity for a show like this, just a side thought.

TCM belongs to the style named the American Music genre. The band consist of two members, Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland. Both of them were born in and local DJ’s in the Las Vegas, Nevada. Their studio albums are as follows

* Vegas (1997)
* Tweekend (2001)
* Legion of Boom (2003)
* Drive: Nike + Original Run (2006)
* Divided by Night (2009)

Rolling Stones (R.S.) call them a pair of basement beat scientists. This is a reference to where the band started off in, while perfecting their trade. As the story goes, they bought a home in Glendale, California, which had a small underground shelter beneath the front lawn. R.S. says the techno kings as comfortable on the dance floor as on rock radio, and just as wildly uneven. They also add that the band’s live performances throb with raw inspiration and intense sexual energy.

From a musicians point of view, dance music doesn’t seem all that much challenging at first glance. I use to share in that mindset until I was introduced to it by an old friend Rick Jones from the now defunct G-Force Media of Toronto. It was quite the exposure to this new genre of music that I did not appreciate up until then. He was also the guy that brought to my attention the Tone Port Line 6 and the APEX 420 microphone. The guy was a wizard sitting behind his massive sound board deep inside his recording studio.

Rick is a natural keyboardist with tons of other technical talent to boot. He showed me how he used loop effects, how to program them, then bring them up to be used at the drop of a finger during any song.

I have only a general interest in this form of music because it brings me to a place that I would normally in the past not appreciate. I am referring to the level of musicianship that I thought went along with it, that is. I now think of this type of music as very challenging in it’s own right.

So what do you think of The Crystal Method and their classification of music plus do you listen or play this school of playing?

Keep on Jammin’

The Beer Can Blues

It’s a remarkable piece of art isn’t it?

Keep on Jammin’