Ploughed in the Stars

The Swigs at Spillapalooza 8/10 -- "Turn Magic Wheel"

2010-09-14T02:35:00.001-07:00

Spillapalooza: Center for Biological Diversity Interview

2010-09-14T02:32:00.000-07:00

Swigs CD Release Party at The Red Room, 2/26

2010-03-01T12:53:00.000-08:00

So...the Let it Come Down album got a very killer review from Gene Armstong in the Tucson Weekly, which made us very happy, and filled the Red Room with unfamiliar faces...but a lot of friends were also there, thank you to all of you! Our opening act was the extremely talented and charming Evy Llyan:

Evy Llyan and Eric Snyder (bass, the Swigs)

A splendid time was had by all... very happy to be there, we three Swigs:
(Mike took the pictures...did we not photograph you also Mr. Troupe?)

Eric Snyder and Kevin Henderson (bass and guitar/vox, the Swigs)

Thanks to Mike Troupe (drums, the Swigs) for the photos, to Evy Llyan and the Tone Monkeys for being such arse-kicking acts on the bill, and to every audient/participant in a magical evening. There were more people taking photos with their phones there...please get in touch if you want me to post them!
Bar Culture at the Red Room -- A Berlin Szene-Klub vibe, teleported to Congress Street. You could transport it the other way, to Kreutzberg or Mitte, and it'd fit right in.
View towards the street/stage
More photos as I get them...

NAMM 2009

2010-02-10T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Grooviest Stuff I saw at NAMM 2010...

NAMM is always a madhouse, and this year, in spite of a worldwide recession, all the gear manufacturers, musicians, and Orange County hangers-on were out en masse. The vast majority of the wares were very, very ordinary...the kind of stuff you see being sold at Guitar Centers around the USA... Strat copies, DAW's, plug-ins, amp modelers, etc. Here's some of the stuff that was extraordinary:

Toft Audio Designs Trident A-Range (top) and B-Range (middle) equalizers

Kevin Henderson from the Swigs (that's me) turns the pan on a Toft ATB
Built in China? I suppose it is, but the faders, knobs, and everything
else felt very solid. They had a multitrack tune going through it, which you could
mix...I tried it a few times. It was very hard to make the equalizers sound bad.

Tiptop Audio's suitcase pseudo Buchla synthesizer...
Completely modular, with a modern multi-effects module (at lower right), and a bunch of
weird FM waveforms, and a sequencer that is, in my experience, unique.

Jamie Laboz of the Modeens, showing his hand-held Therasynth to Mike Matthews of Electro-Harmonix. Jamie's device turned heads everywhere we went.

Cristina Williams of the Modeens at the Daisy Rock booth.

The Daisy Rock people were quite friendly in the middle of the NAMM maelstrom, and what's more, their guitars played extremely well. Whatever business formula they're using, it seems to be working. When I got started on guitar, there literally wasn't a new guitar for $150 that was anywhere near as good as the guitars at this booth.

Digital Mellotron on top of vintage Mellotron at Big City Music's booth.

The Cloud Microphones booth. Gorgeous ribbon mics (one of them phantom powered)
in the style of the RCA 77/44, made in Tucson by Steven Sank and crew.

Fret King
Friendly people...I played this guitar for quite a while at their booth.
Well-designed, great playing, interesting guitars from Canada I believe.

Most Environmentally Cool Product -- Wheatware Guitar Picks
What a brilliant idea -- Guitar picks, of varying thickness, made out of wheat!
You can compost them when you're done. The only issue is a fine white dust that appears on your
pickguard, but what the hell, it's organic, right? Sign me up...I bought a pack of them for $2.

Most of the time you're browsing around people-watching...