Continuation

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long. But, the guys are back together again... for at least one show.

I'll let Jag have the first word on their return, as he spelled it out so well on the band's (new) website:

We initially shied away from the idea of a 'reunion' in the classic sense, as they usually seem thrown together solely to make some quick cash, and nothing to do with being a band.  We decided that we would definitely entertain ending this silly 'hiatus' thing only if we had new music to go with it.  If you can't write and record together and barely stand each other, why would you even think about 'reuniting'?  For us, these elements all go hand in hand, and have allowed the continuation of IME.

These guys were a centrepiece of my mid-90s Canadian new rock collection. I was lucky enough to see them in concert a few times, both at festivals and small club shows, and they never gave any less that 110% on stage. The popular story is that their label abandoned them during promotion of their fourth album, refusing to help get their music radio play and/or any sort of publicity; there was also some debate over the release of a "best of" album that the band didn't really want to have released (at least, not under the conditions that it was released). This is the history that I remember, but it sounds like the band plans to clear some air about these things on their newly minted The OpenMouth Blog.

The band released four really incredible albums over the years; some of my favourite stuff they've done is the least 'radio friendly' stuff that gets tucked away at the end of their albums... but then I've never had a problem with a song being more than four minutes in length (or even more than 10 minutes long!).

Who knows where it'll go; I'm just happy that they're back together having fun with music. If we get a few good singles, that's great. If it's just a one-off show, then so be it... I'll always have the back catalogue to enjoy.  Are/Were you a fan of the band?  Favourite album or track?

» Found at: I Mother Earth .ca
» Watch: Like the Sun (youTube)

Scaled

This is another one of those projects that immediately hit me as being really cool ... and then cooled off quite quickly as I thought about it more. But, before I get to my opinion, what is it that we're looking at in the photo above this paragraph?

The Loog Guitar is the idea/creation of Rafael Atijas' as a project he started for his Master's thesis at NYU. It's a build-at-home, three-stringed guitar designed for children (ages 6+) to help them learn about music and playing the guitar. There are three interchangeable styles (body and headstock) that you can purchase and swap if you'd like; even two neck lengths depending on the age/height of the child.

Already a successful project on KickStarter, the Loog seems to have found a good niche for itself. It appears to be well built and, from the video on the site, even sounds pretty good when played. However, is teaching a child to play on a three-stringed guitar all that much better than "teaching" them to play on a five-buttoned plastic guitar? Furthermore, the US$215 advertised price point for this guitar is already higher than the price for an off-brand 3/4-scale guitar which offers the opportunity for a fast-learner to jump right into full guitar chords and use any available TAB or guitar music resource to continue learning with.

Don't get me wrong... I do think this is a neat project.  The DIY aspect of it, the care of the design (from the packaging to the guitar stand and everything) and sustainable resources used for it as well. I'm no expert on the guitar, let alone when it comes to guitar theory or instruction, so perhaps I'm totally wrong with my criticism here, but I'm just leery of learning an abbreviated version of something with the idea that you can then quickly pick-up the full version of the technique.

What is your take on the project? Will you be supporting it? Would you consider getting one of these guitars? 

» Found at: The Loog Guitar

Hybrid

A really quick post for a Friday afternoon...

I've always wanted a Gibson Firebird V guitar... something about them just looks so bad-ass. I've seen Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) playing them before, which adds to their bad-ass credibility, IMO.

I've also recently thought that getting a mandolin to play would be pretty cool. Fun for hanging out in the backyard and/or noodling about on around the house and such. But that's probably the influence of Old Man Luedecke and the Elliott BROOD rubbing off on me... which is awesome, 'cause these guys are making some great music.

So, since I'll never likely be able to afford a real Firebird V axe, why not combine these to 'wants' into one awesome hybrid? Enter the Epiphone Mandobird VIII!  (No idea if I'd really want this, or if I'd rather have a mandolin that looks more like 'it should', but when I found this today I just had to post about it!)

» Found at: Epiphone's website