| CA Metal Band Wins Bodog Contest, Gets Ripped Off
Laura McCutcheon of California's Ukiah Daily Journal reports that Ukiah, CA-based metal band DEFINITION UNKNOWN (MySpace) won round one in a national contest, but band members lost something near and dear to them in the process: their equipment. About the same time the announcer of "Boot Camp" — also known as round one of the Bodog Battle of the Bands, held earlier this month at the 12 Galaxies in San Francisco — informed the group they'd won first place, their van, parked around the corner with $10,000 worth of musical equipment inside, was stolen, drummer Tommy Shannon said. "We lost every single guitar, including the bass. We lost all of our guitar amplifiers, one speaker cabinet, my kick pedals, my snare drum, two snare stands, a Roland TD-6 drum machine, one drum pad trigger, two China cymbals, and two cymbal stands ...
Larry Martus | Transcendence
Solo recordings have to overcome extra hurdles in order to maintain listener interest. Single-line instruments like the saxophone tend to have the most difficulty because of their limited timbral range and inability to maintain an independent accompanying line. The piano is naturally the most flexible, allowing independent hands to work, but it also has timbral limitations. The guitar is in betweenit can fake true contrapuntal lines, but it also can change its sound through electronics. With Transcendence, Larry Martus has assembled a beautiful collection of original compositions for solo guitar. For the gearheads out there (meaning most electric guitar players of any stripe), a lot of different equipment was used in this recording. Martus lists a 1967 Gibson ES-335, a 1968 Fender Pro Reverb, and an old Fender Stratocaster (with modified electronics, of course) coupled with a 1956 (!) Fender Tremolux and a Roland JC-120 amplifier.
An 'Idol'-ized songwriter
MELANIE CONNER/ Morgan Grace Practicing at home Move over, Kelly Clarkson: Oregonians have their own "American Idol." And ours actually writes music, plays instruments and sings. Late this summer, 29-year Portlander Morgan Grace won first place in the pop category of "American Idol Underground's" songwriting contest for "The Rules of Dating." The cash prize for her catchy pop tune? A cool $10,000. In her basement practice space, Grace recently spoke about the contest and performed the winning song. How did you hear about the contest? The contest sent a mailer to CD Baby (a Portland-based online music store) asking for independent artists, and I thought, "Oh, that might be cool," and then forgot all about it. A year later, I saw a link for it on MySpace and uploaded my song and forgot about it again.
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