Musical ramblings from the manager
Drummers and bass players always appreciate each other because they are the foundation in most bands. Without any disrespect to the four and six string guitar slingers out there, I have also always enjoyed my encounters with keyboard players. My fascination with keyboards may be rooted in my abandonment of piano for the drums way […]
What qualifies as a ‘character’? We all have character, so technically, the term applies to anybody. For the purposes of this article, we will define a ‘character’ as someone with some unique trait or traits that make them, for lack of a more appropriate description, memorable. Naturally, this could open the door to a list […]
National Public Radio has a series called ‘Tiny Desk Concerts’ posted on the internet and they are a source of some interesting insights into musicians from a broad spectrum of genres. The concept is a bit strange: invite a musician to perform in an office and film it as a live, interactive interview. I first […]
There was a twenty year window that opened around 1965 when a lot of great, nationally known bands made their way to Marquette. Living as I did across the street from the Northern Michigan University campus and within sight of Hedgecock Fieldhouse (where most concerts were held before Lakeview Arena was built), all I had […]
It is a great philosophy: K.I.S.S. Engineers use it. Mechanics use it. Mathematicians use it. Even coaches use it. Keep It Simple, Stupid. It is a self admonishment to anyone trying to solve a complex problem or fix a broken widget that (usually) the simplest solution is (usually) the best solution. Oh, we […]
I will give you fair warning – this installment of FTV will not be about music. It is about a book, and I will further warn you that it is not a book about music, musicians, or MTV. This isn’t a book review, either. It is more of a commentary on the topic […]
The more I think about the longevity of some bands, the list of those who would fit in this article gets longer and longer. The original idea was to talk about bands still playing after their early careers came and went. I put a band on my list if they carried on with at least […]
We started a discussion of bands that kept playing after their original line ups broke apart. The caveat here is that at least one original band member has to still be involved for them to enter the discussion. I am not sure if there is any significance in that all the bands in Part 2 […]
There are many examples of bands that have been around a lot longer than one would expect. Bands remind me a lot of machines: they are composed of multiple parts that need to work well together in order to function properly. The integral parts can be changed, but if they don’t mesh well with […]
Multitasking isn’t something that arrived with the computer age. In the old days, multitasking wasn’t something you could do sitting in one place with the digital platform of your choice in front of you. No, in the old days, multitasking usually involved frequent relocation from one jobsite to another. There was a two year period […]