The nostalgia came, in particular, when I lugged out my bass – my first real instrument. (Bass naturally being where you dump your least talented band member).
How I bought it – using money my dad owed me after he totaled my oh so very sweet ’84 Chevette (stick shift, no AC, FM radio only) in an accident – is a whole ’nother story. That aside, it’s a totem of a time when a teenaged me labored under the delusion that a burning desire to play and participate in music would transcend tedious necessities like having to learn out to play and all that shit. I didn’t – and still don’t – have a fucking clue what I was doing when I picked up an instrument, I just knew I couldn’t sit on the sidelines.
You may have noticed I said my guitars went into storage three years ago. For those of you quick with the math, you’ll realize that’s pretty much the time I started the blog. I couldn’t make a racket in my tiny apartment, but I still had that need to connect, somehow. These days I just don’t have the same desire to pick up and play, myself. But blogging has given me a whole new outlet (and this one actually plays to my strengths, unlike my nonexistent musical skillz). Dragging out and dusting off my guitars made me realize that I’ve simply traded them in for a new axe.And some old habits die really hard.
9 comments:
That's totally awesome. I mean, the stickers are awesome. I was a guitar dude. I expected that when I bought my nice stand-alone house, freed from tiny Brooklyn digs, I'd want to rage all the time, perhaps putting my Randall amp in the attic window and pretending I was The Crow. Didn't happen. Started a metal blog instead.
I was recently discussing my raging college axe days with Dave Schalek. My high water mark (as a one-man death metal band) was a Graf Orlock style movie-metal mash-up, with quotes from "Conan the Barbarian." I had Austrian Death Machine beat by a decade.
But now I'm just rambling...
One of my biggest regrets is never learning guitar despite having the option to, btw I also put the stickers on my laptop too recently had to take one off to fit my "Wormrot 57 Tracks of Singapore Grind Attack"
Interesting mix of genres repped on your bass, dude.
I used to play a little guitar when I was a teenager, but was never really any good at it. I, too, started writing about music instead. First for a Swedish e-zine, and now for a blog one of my buddies started that I don't update nearly enough. I need to do a new review or something soon.
Seeing first the bass, then the laptop all sticker'd-up, and reading "some old habits die really hard," reminded me of that gloriously sentimental scene with that lion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVNTdWbVBgc
Anyway, stickers kick ass. Bad Brains + Emperor? Approved! (That wallpaper, too, must be approved of.) Come on guys, though; (for those of you who it applies to) why completely give up on playing if you'd still kinda like to? Regretting not learning to play because it is "too late" doesn't make enough sense, ever.
I, too, was doing a solo project, starting back in elementary school. Those were ignorant times, before I had even heard Phobia, whose blastbeat corrupted my puerile ears. Very soon, weird metal was recorded (and later, weird grind).
For no specific reason, there have been only three stickers on my (non-bass) guitar for the last two or so years: Corrupted, Dropdead, and a big Birushanah one, but I really ought to get more 'cause I'm quite a sticker kind of guy.
Nice Body Hammer sticker.
Your great with words....ever thought of doing vocals for band bc i'm sure you could write some good lyrics.
My guitar has stickers on it also..not a lot but thats just a matter of time...guitars with out stickers are like a blank canvas to me.
zmaj -- while the emperor thing started out as a bit of a joke, i'm particularly proud of the holographic anthrax sticker below the bridge from the muthafuckin cassette version of state of euphoria. cuz i'm anti... i'm antisocial.
ryan -- i'm a big fan. what can i say?
wet -- i've got a pair of SGs and i refuse to sticker those up cuz they're way too nice for someone like me.
I've a box of stickers just waiting for the next inappropriate, blank canvas. Having already slathered them on a filing cabinet (housing mortgage, car insurance, and other "adult" papers), an external hard drive, and an XBox 360, I'm inclined to ask Bolt Thrower's question from The IVth Crusade: "Where next to conquer?"
all i gotta say is pick your spots cuz i get some rather.... interesting ... looks, particularly form security, when i'm wandering the halls of power in dc.
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