The American band SUBNOVA* was a two-piece formed in the San Francisco Bay Area during the latter 1990s by Reverend Bill on 5-string Yamaha electric bass and Matrox on a Carlos steel-string. No known recordings of their sessions exist. Luminous Red Nova continues to explore concepts of DIY garage band music.
(* Not related to [sub]NOVA from Sheffield England or the electronic musician Subnova from Minneapolis)
Did a little upgrade on my pre-lawsuit, SG copy, Ibanez 2383 and added genuine Gibson chrome pickup covers. The gold-colored originals were missing when I purchased this guitar used off eBay. Gold replacements were super-premium priced on Amazon compared to the chrome, but I actually like the chrome's appearance.
The pickups I learned are Epiphone, so it looks like this guitar (or parts of it) was assembled at the Matsumoko Factory in Japan where Epiphones were manufactured in the early seventies. Matsumoko also did work for Fuji-Gen Gakki (Ibanez). Here is a very cool Japanese mark I found beneath the pickups in the center pickup cavity...
A'right, I was tired, after midnight. I wanted to get some tape of my new used guitar - A 1973 Ibanez 2383 pre-lawsuit Gibson SG copy disguised under a "Mann" headstock badge. I cleaned, de-oxidized, replaced the pot knobs with genuine Gibson, new set of strings (Elixer Nanoweb extra-light), intonation, and added a nice strap. Then my Saturday faded away next thing I knew... early Sunday morning (like 1am early). So I mixed three covers I had been wanting to learn with instrumentals of 3 originals. Unpolished mishmash.
C'est la vie.
Set list: Jack of All Worlds (Instr.); Rain Dogs; Song With No Name aka Mandatory Blues (Instr.); Man of Constant Sorrow; Blue Skies & Puppy Dogs (Instr.); and Guns of Brixton.
Arrrggh... my during my field trip to the shed I was lazy and while moving my musical equipment left my cord plugged into the output jack of my electric guitar. Must have knocked it or something because I cracked the plastic housing (it is an enclosed output jack) and the whole housing disintegrated into pieces! I am working on a repair, it's a weird one because I don't see a ground wire attached...? Anyhow, ran through a few new numbers using my acoustic guitar plugged in and began working with guitar and mic. Sorry about the squeaky floor...
Tunes: Robber Dub; Point Blank; Sunday Morning Coming Down; and Death Gripped and Cracked Pipe (Instr.)
Continuing my quest for passable warbles (to myself at least) I journeyed during the dark of night off to a tin shack on the property's periphery trailing an extremely long extension cord. Also did a set during the day, over 100 degrees - whew, sweaty. All covers still: Atlantic City; Danger Bird; Don't Cry No Tears; Daughter; Easy Wind; Girlfriend in a Coma; New Speedway Boogie; Police and Thieves; The River; Roll Another Number; and Tonight's the Night.
I returned to an undisclosed location to attempt some totally unrehearsed sonic-sin. All covers,not originals this day. Atlantic City by The Boss; Roll Another Number; Lookout Joe; For the Turnstiles; Barstool Blues; Cortez the Killer; Through My Sails; Old Country Waltz; and Saddle Up the Palomino all by Neil Young.
Had an opportunity to plug my Yamaha SSC-500 into an early 1980s Rivera era Fender Super Champ. On the last four tunes my first honest attempt to infuse playing live with "vocals" (not yet close to describable as "singing").
Unfortunately the day before recording I caught the fingernail of my picking hand's pointer in the garage door, damn bent half the nail up tore to quick. Ouch! Anyhow, made control of the pick a bit smarting.
Note to self, not a good idear at my age to play sitting Indian-style. Using a chair or standing, much easier on the back.
Beast of a Thousand Young; Blue Skies and Puppy Dogs; Song With No Name (AKA "Mandatory Blues"), Red Blanket (Minus the Latin); Jack of All Worlds (Master of None); Death Gripped and Cracked Pipe (Slow version); and I Don't Need No Hallmark to Tell My Baby I Love Her.
(Verse the First) Let us pray for the most wretched That Almighty God may at length Move the curse And grant them the blessing To be found only in our God And Lord
(Verse the Second) Eternal God, Creator of all things Remember thou alone didst create the souls of infidels Framing them to thy own image And likeness How, to thy dishonor How, to thy dishonor Hell is daily replenished
A little instrumental piece composed last summer. The colorful visuals are from a public domain cartoon from 1936, "Somewhere In Dreamland" by Max Fleischer. I actually used my steel string acoustic guitar plugged in with a slight overdrive effect for the lead, not an electric guitar. As a matter of factuality, I had no electric guitar at this particular moment in time.
Most of the scenes from this video are from George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" with a few scenes at the end from "Carnival of Souls." Both movies are in the public domain. As a result of their transformative nature, in essence the political commentary inferred with interspersing and juxtaposition between the live-action works, the cartoons I would argue fall under the Fair Use doctrine. Hmmm, interesting to see if I'll get a cease and desist for using some famous rodent...
Death Grip & Crack Pipe were two characters I imagined owned our old green minivan from 2002. (It had a permanent hand imprint in the top of the steering wheel like someone had died holding it; and about a dozen razor slashes on the passenger side of the dash, weird)
Anyhow, I adapted the characters to a story about Insecurity Officer Jim Shlong-Dingy-Dong getting caught up in a journey with Frick & Frack, 2 old crankster friends of his, so he could drive to Nevada while they drank beer on the way to buy an armored car. At some point Jim pissed-off Frick & Frack and they dumped him in the Nevada desert for 4 hours before they came back for him.
So with this backstory in mind, David Bowie died. Decided to attempt some sort of pompulous, early Bowie-esque, intellectually dense lyric, adopting the chorus "Vile Mortals..." from the 1857 Gothic poem, "Contemplation," by Charles Baudelaire.
(The video is from an old, public domain cartoon "The Old Pioneer" published in 1934)
