Saturday, April 15, 2017

KLEM FM


Dave Wronski plays guitar in a band called Slacktone. Here he shows how to play his song "Avalon Slip." It's gorgeously crafted and reminds me of sailing to Avalon (even though I've never sailed to Catalina).

The reverb gets me -- it's the "wet" sound -- reminiscent of waves. Instrumental surf is a species of surf music that flourished in that brief window between the death of Buddy Holly and the arrival of The Beatles (The JFK era). Dick Dale invented much of the sound, enabled by Leo Fender. But before Dale was Link Wray. And Duane Eddy is credited with the first "proto-surf" song -- his 1958 'Moovin' N' Groovin''.

Back to Dave Wronski -- here is another Slacktone original -- "Into The Blue Sparkle" (2000):

8 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thanks for posting Chick. I won't be able to for a while.

The Dude said...

I like it, although in that dude's case, "tuning" is a relative term.

He needs to buy a Micro-Frets and be in tune anywhere on the neck.

I like the Skacktone sound, and let us not omit an important element of that sound, the tremolo bar, AKA the whammy bar or vibrato bar. That music would not be the same without that.

Is the name Slacktone related to the Hawaiian slack key tuning? That has a fascinating history, and what they called "kī hōʻalu" was derived from the paniolo musicians. Who knew?

OT, but relevant to our previous discussion, while wandering around YouTube I found a piece of music that has some serious arpeggiatin' goin' on. And, as a side note to an OT, I have been listening to classical music my entire life and I like that I can still find pieces I have never heard before.

Can you Handel it?

Reading the dots it took me a minute to figure out why what I was hearing did not look like what I was reading, then I saw the word written above those beautiful whole note and half note chords. Rock on, GF!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I like the sound of his guitar.

I know next to nothing about guitars, but I like the sound of some more than others. His guitar is definite like. thanks, chickl.

XRay said...

Way off topic, perhaps. But it intrigues me, melody. How it sometimes grabs our soul, Harpsichord or Les Paul or, Neanderthal. Oh wait, we don't know Neanderthal rhythms, but I would bet they had them. Stick on a rock.

Aside from politics, what's thought of Ry Cooder round here.

Nice piece, Sixty.

The Dude said...

A wry take.

chickelit said...

Didn't Ry Cooder teach Keith Richards how to restring his guitar? I also heard that he authored "Honkey Tonk Women."

XRay said...

Great music, Sixty. Thanks for the link.

Hadn't heard that, Chick, but wouldn't disbelieve necessarily.

chickelit said...

The Stones weren't above stealing a great song or two and getting away with it. It's Only Rock And Roll is an example. They even went to great lengths to "cover their tracks."