Moving...

Hey all. I've decided to move my blog (and begin posting again).

You can access the new blog (easiest) at blog.mikedominice.com.

top 5 tuesday

Here it is again! Of course, I haven't really made a lot of progress in between, but I feel I must continue today to sate the appetites of all those adoring fans.

List 1: Mike's Top 5 Favorite "Christian" Bands:
--> I know that the term "Christian Band" is kind of in flux, and sensitive to most people, so cut me some slack and lets not be controversial.
1. Disciple
2. Red
3. Anberlin
4. Kristian Stanfill
5. dc Talk (its old school, the new birds have knocked 'em down on the list. . .)

similarly . . .

List 2: Mike's Top 5 Favorite "Secular" Bands:
--> The devil's music.
1. Muse
2. U2
3. Dream Theater
4. Opeth
5. Alter Bridge

List 3: Mike's Top 5 Favorite Guitarists:
1. The Edge (U2)
2. John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
3. Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)
4. Mark Lee (Third Day)
5. David Gilmour (Pink Floyd)

top 5 tuesday

Today I'd like to start a new tradition, hopefully it will keep me a bit more regular with my postings.

I'm calling it Top 5 Tuesday, and I'm going to compile a few lists of regular things to share that you will all come to love and adore.

List 1: Mike's Top 5 Favorite Bands of the Week According to His iPod:
--> Determined by bands with the greatest number of songs in the top 25 most played of the week.
1. & 2. Tie between Muse & U2
3. Dream Theater
4. Fee
5. A four way tie between 30 Seconds to Mars, Kristian Stanfill, Alter Bridge, and Aerosmith.

List 2: Mike's Top 5 Favorite Songs of the Week According to His iPod:
--> Determined by top 5 most played songs of the week.
1. & 2. Tie between "Plug In Baby" and "Starlight" by Muse
3. "Magnificent" by U2
4. "These Walls" by Dream Theater
5. Tie between "Burn for You" by Fee and "Moment of Surrender" by U2

List 3: Mike's Top 5 Reasons Money is Horrible:
--> (see Top 5 Reasons Why Mike Needs To Be Less Materialistic, soon to come)
1. There's never enough of it.
2. It never comes in fast enough.
3. It's not edible.
4. It doesn't grow on trees. (Related to #2, I guess.)
5. Money . . . so they say, is the root of all evil today.

after the hiatus / and i'm broke

I hate apologizing for not blogging, but I do feel an explanation is required as to why there has been a substantial lack of posting my yours truly.

Finals. And a new job.

Hopefully, that's about all the explanation you need (mostly because that's all you're gonna get).

Anyway, continuing on.

One of the things that frustrates me the most is that when I have a lot of spare cash lying around, I have no idea what to do with it. However, when I'm short on cash, or when I'm trying to save money (as is the case currently), I can easily find all manner of things upon which to blow inordinate amounts of dough. I'll refer to both situations as 'broke' simply because I have no money to spend on smaller things.

I'm currently in the market for a Boss DD-20 Giga Delay twin pedal. It's essentially the last part to complete the sound package I would 'need' to be exactly where I want to be in terms of effects.

Normally the DD-20 retails for around $220, but I'd like to find one on Ebay for around $100. So far, I've found quite a few of them, but they've all been going for around $120. I really don't want to spend more than that.

It takes some patience. The good thing is that the DD-20 is not necessary to the way I play; the digital delay features on the Boss GT-3 I currently use fulfills that role within my sound adequately. The DD-20 would simply take me to the next level; modularizing the delay and packaging it in a more controllable unit.

I can wait; time is on my side.

let's make sum noyez

One of my favorite things to do when I'm jamming on my own is making noise; I mean, really just making random, a-melodic noises. Not really notes, mostly just scratching and flicking and scraping about to see what kind of textures and moods I can create.

Adding some echo-delay or modulation effects like phasers, flangers, or wah is usually a necessity to get really cool effects. My personal favorite is to tap on muted strings, creating small clicks that, when delay is added, sound like clockwork. Secondary favorite: doing long, slow pick scratches on the lower strings with wah and delay at the end. Sounds like a rocket going off.

It's nice if I can put some kind of chord set to repeat endlessly on a computer or keyboard, and put the noises on top of that to add some interesting color to extended length chords that may have been a bit boring on their own.

What's been really fun is playing with other people who'll do the same thing. Then you can switch doing the noise and playing the "music".

top five: concerts

Whew. The past week has been crazy, and finals are coming up, so things aren't going to slow up for a few more days. Finals start next week, so a week after that, the pressure will be off.

In the meantime, I thought I'd continue blogging. As you have probably noticed, I'm going to see U2 and Muse in October in Charlottesville with my girlfriend, driving with a couple from WEC, Jake and his wife, and meeting a slew of others when we get there.

YAY. <-- (imagine that multiplied by about a billion)

This show is going to be amazing, and with that in mind, I'll share with you my top five favorite concerts that I've attended.
***
(5) The Devin Townsend Band, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth @ the Norva in Norfolk, VA
***
One of the first bigger shows I went to on my own. Hadn't heard of DTB or Dark Tranquillity, I went to see Opeth. I was pleasantly surprised by both of the openers. Devin Townsend is one of the more interesting personalities in progressive rock to be certain, and his music speaks for itself. Dark Tranquillity started getting me more into the melodic death metal arena, and is still my favorite in that genre. Of course, Opeth was phenomenal. Their stage presence is not impressive, but if you're going to see Opeth, you're going for the music, not the stage antics. Very memorable show. Tim was there.
***
(4) Dream Theater, and the other bands that don't matter @ Pier 6 Pavilion in Baltimore, MD
***
Seeing my all time favorite band for the first time ever in Baltimore was so awesome! Tim can attest that I was probably giggling with glee when they came out on stage. They could have played anything and I would have been more than satisfied with their setlist. I absolutely love it when they do their "play-a-cover-in-the-middle-of-one-of-our-songs" thing, hearing something from The Wall during "Surrounded" was my personal favorite. It was worth the drive, well worth the money, and well worth the wait.
***
(3) Tool, with some other crappy band @ the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA
***
My brother and I (notice a trend here?) hiked up to Richmond to see Tool. We're both big fans of their music, and their performance certainly didn't disappoint there, but both of us were utterly blown away by the visual elements of their show. They had 4 screens behind them and 3 screens above and towards the wings of the stage, all playing synchronized video to their music. Then, for the one of the last epic-length tracks from their latest albums, two of their circular light rigs above the stage began to move around, shining their lights: they were like UFOs! It was freaking amazing, and then when things couldn't get any better, lasers came out from the stage. One interesting note is that while we had nosebleed-section-ish seats, they allowed us to see images that were projected onto the white stage floor that we wouldn't have seen had we been in "better" seats.
***
(2) Blue Man Group @ Broadway in New York, NY
***
For band spring trip in high school one year, we went to New York City, and the best part of the trip was seeing Blue Man Group. Their show is beyond words; you have to see it for yourself. Their house band has one of the more interesting instrumentations: a drummer, a Chapman-stick player, and a pedal steel guitar player, all playing the craziest tribal rock that you'll ever hear. Plus, their show is hilarious.
***
(1) Van Halen @ the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC
***
What can I say, my girlfriend loves me. She bought me tickets to see Van Halen for my birthday last year, and what an adventure! Taking a hot chick to see a rock legend, complete with Eddie Van Halen's still explosive and innovative guitar playing and the original frontman, David Lee Roth, made for the most fun I've ever had at a concert.
***
(0) U2/Muse @ Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, VA
***
I'm putting this on the list preemptively, as I still get close to wetting my pants just thinking about this. It's much too far away. I'm anticipating that it take the top spot.

There you have it. With this subject in mind, I am quite disappointed that I am missing Gov't Mule twice this summer: they are going to be in Denver the week before Keren and I go on vacation to Colorado, and they are going to be in Richmond the day we arrive back from vacation. It is just not meant to be, I guess. Even more of a disappointment since I missed them at the Norva last fall.

easter and guitar at wec

Things went awesome for the Easter services at Waters Edge Church.

Needless to say, things were a complete success, judging by the number of people standing up during the services signifying they had made a decision to follow Christ. That, of course, makes all the practice and waiting and practice and practice SO worth it.

To try to keep with the music theme of things, I'm gonna review things from a music point of view.

Awesome.

The Waters Edge band, I may say, has never sounded better. After seeing a couple vids of performances during practice, everyone looked awsome, and sounded better. The drummers for the beginning were one of the coolest openers for a Waters Edge service.

I was quite satisfied with my playing today. Of course, playing the U2 song, I was in my element completely. Even with the percussion additions, things still kept quite in the neighborhood of where I like to hang out in terms of technique and content. The two worship songs we did, "Happy Day," and "From the Inside Out," are two of my favorites that we do. Thusly, I know exactly what I want to play throughout the song, and feel confident enough to grab little ideas for improv everywhere.

I got exactly what I wanted out of my Tele for each and every moment of every song. Especially, the dual pickup control allowed me to do some awesome volume and tone control that I don't necessarily do normally. I had my bridge pickup turned up all the way, and my neck pickup turned up to about 3. What this allowed me to do is to have a nice full lead tone during times that I was being loud, playing on the bridge pickup. If I wanted to drop the gain down a bit, I'd switch to the neck pickup, and the juice going to the preamp model goes down and the sound gets cleaner. In-between for both pickups. She sang beautifully for me.

I also used the wah pedal to get a further add some tone control since I don't like to mess with my tone knobs. During the last part of the sermon where I'm in the background over the hymn and Stu's speaking, I threw the wah down all the way to spread the tone along the EQ spectrum and make things muddy. I varied it a bit to get add a touch on dynamics here and there, but I rode the low end for the majority.

I had a video camera with me most of the day Saturday during practice and today. Got lots of candid moments with people, and I'll try to get that edited and posted for your viewing pleasure within the next couple of days.