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Post by brucestevens on Aug 27, 2012 15:02:35 GMT -5
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Post by aliensporebomb on Aug 27, 2012 16:37:59 GMT -5
Sigh. Depressing.
It reminds me of the story of a guy I know with similar situations. But some of his situations were caused by his horrible upbringing - his father beat him physically for years and when he finally hit his teens decided not to take it anymore and fought back then he was kicked unceremoniously out of the famiily house left to fend for himself at age 15 with no money and just the clothes on his back. His mother had no backbone and she lived in fear of the father too or so I understand.
That guy had a Modulus Graphite Blacknife he got somehow and this story totally reminds me of that guy.
The guy in my story rode his bike everywhere because he couldn't afford to drive or own a car and someone tampered with his bike's front wheel so one day he was riding his bike across a bridge, somewhat downhill and he hit the gap between segments of the bridge, the bike went up, his front wheel went careening in a different direction and he went face first into the pavement.
A guy in a pickup truck rescued him when he was choking to death on his own blood but he basically lost most of his teeth and he had to have his jaws wired shut/liquid diet for quite a while. He didn't have medical insurance either.
I lost track of him after the girl he was seeing dumped him because he was stealing money out of her purse to buy drugs. I understand self-medicating was the only thing he could do to tolerate his wretched existence.
Yeah, just a real happy story there too.
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Post by chrissh on Aug 30, 2012 14:12:53 GMT -5
I can't count how many similar stories I have known, self and other. It's just sort of a given with most musicians that stuff comes and stuff goes. I don't mean to trivialize this person's suffering, and I know this story isn't about the guitar, just that material impermanence is obviously at the heart of living. Imho better to recognize that sooner than later, then try to preserve and care for the stuff we reasonably can. A baseline economic stability is ideally a responsibility to at least one's self, but reality is rarely that ideal for people of a certain disposition, and more and more odds are against anyone enjoying lifelong stability. At least decent guitars can be had for cheap nowadays, and perfectly functional with a good setup and a capable operator. Enjoy and admire stuff, love living.
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Post by aliensporebomb on Aug 31, 2012 22:28:48 GMT -5
Indeed. And the biggest thing is that spending years thinking you can get back at those who wronged you is like letting them live rent free in your head for years. Give it up and move on and enjoy life if you can. Indeed.
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Post by theecricket on Sept 4, 2012 19:41:17 GMT -5
Sigh. Depressing. It reminds me of the story of a guy I know with similar situations. But some of his situations were caused by his horrible upbringing - his father beat him physically for years and when he finally hit his teens decided not to take it anymore and fought back then he was kicked unceremoniously out of the famiily house left to fend for himself at age 15 with no money and just the clothes on his back. His mother had no backbone and she lived in fear of the father too or so I understand. That guy had a Modulus Graphite Blacknife he got somehow and this story totally reminds me of that guy. The guy in my story rode his bike everywhere because he couldn't afford to drive or own a car and someone tampered with his bike's front wheel so one day he was riding his bike across a bridge, somewhat downhill and he hit the gap between segments of the bridge, the bike went up, his front wheel went careening in a different direction and he went face first into the pavement. A guy in a pickup truck rescued him when he was choking to death on his own blood but he basically lost most of his teeth and he had to have his jaws wired shut/liquid diet for quite a while. He didn't have medical insurance either. I lost track of him after the girl he was seeing dumped him because he was stealing money out of her purse to buy drugs. I understand self-medicating was the only thing he could do to tolerate his wretched existence. Yeah, just a real happy story there too. I'm sorry but I kept thinking of Jaco P while reading that. |
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Post by aliensporebomb on Sept 4, 2012 23:27:18 GMT -5
Yeah. He was nothing like Jaco in that he really couldn't play - he used it as kind of a prop for a television show he wanted to produce but honestly it was just a sad situation.
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Post by chromedinette on Sept 5, 2012 21:07:40 GMT -5
What strikes me about stories like this is that people in the alternative/diy/whatever you want to call it world are just as susceptible to irrational financial behavior despite the fact that the diy way of doing things was originally, at least in part, a reaction against fancy guitars and spending a fortune on recording.
I really think it's best to make the best music with what you can get without putting yourself into financial harm.
I realize I may sound silly here, being that I have one fancy expensive guitar, but I used a much cheaper guitar for many years and only got the expensive one when I was in a position to do so.
As for recording, I realize that Albini does top notch work and is not expensive in the grand scheme of things, but what i take from the article is that the guys band probably wasn't even ready to be in a studio, and should have done the recording themselves or found somewhere cheaper to do it.
The story kind of reminds me of the band Anvil, who completely wrecked their lives trying to make a record and go on disastrous tours as documented in the movie about them. There are ways to make music, tour and record without going broke.
I sometimes think I should just do like the guys in The Ex and get a Squier tele:
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Post by aliensporebomb on Sept 5, 2012 23:03:21 GMT -5
Well some of this is sound advice: Zappa basically gave the advice for people to get a used strat and a used Marshall 100 watt amp if they wanted to play rock. In the case of my friend, he had no real marketable skills - his best skill was painting apartments (which he only could do when his psyche allowed him to) and painting tiny little metal civil war and dungeons and dragons figures with a paintbrush tip the size of a human hair and would give them uniforms and everything. It was uncanny how skilled he was there but he was so traumatized by his upbringing he could hardly function at times. He spent $120 on that Modulus because the place he got it had no idea what it was. Holy crap, had I been there I would have gotten it and gotten out of dodge, that was a great guitar. You save LOTS of money by buying used but functional gear. This thing? Was technically used but basically sat in a locked guitar case for 12 years.  It was so clean you could have eaten off it. I traded some unused gear for it, slapped the SuperVee on it and it's a real rocker now - check out that cover of the Foo Fighters' "Everlong" I posted in another thread. That's that guitar with the Mesa preamp. |
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Post by chrissh on Sept 6, 2012 11:12:53 GMT -5
Yeah, despite the writer's abilities as a writer, this is a story of emotional pitfalls and cliched rock romanticism. And I empathize. It's just the uncommon guitar that distinguishes it from so many similar stories.
And I totally support using quality things wherever possible and valuing them enough to be a good keeper. Realistically supporting Teuffel is a good thing.
There are plenty of things to be correctly angry about in this world. And there are many intellectual and social "tools" that can empower a symptomatic person (which is most of us, to some degree). But many (or most) people are confused by their anger and instead subsist on frustration and fear.
So yeah, it's funny, 'indie rock' was ostensibly about empowering people, a response (if self-conscious) to empty signifiers. As it happens, it became enchanted by ironic reaction.
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Post by aliensporebomb on Sept 6, 2012 12:35:04 GMT -5
Oh yeah, Teuffel is a good thing to support because usually if you see someone with them they're either an interesting player or maybe someone not conventional.
I'd love to get a Niwa or a Birdfish and just go up there and go nuts, maybe its unconventional appearance kind of gives you a license to go off the leash.
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