Well got the car serviced today and since i trust the nice man in garage i left the empeg in it.

However upon returning to colleect car i was on reciving end of a few strange looks

I think i know why

You know that when you got an empeg i tend to download the odd strange song and forget it is on the hard disc

Well got in the car and yes playing away happliy was "seaseme street" as i drove off into the sunset.

Hahahahahaha! Excellent!

I pulled a joke on one of the folks in the office with a player. He is a big Live fan. So I swapped out one of the tracks from "Secret Samadhi" with Barney's "I Love You" song.

I don't think he has found it yet... Or, if he has, he still hasn't locked down his player yet!

Edit: By the way, I used Total Recorder to capture the "Jingle For Goldfish" from a video of the commercial. If anyone needs it...

LOL , I can only imagine what people would think if they heard some of the stuff in my empeg like, the "jerky boys" or some tv show theme songs like "the a team" or "alf" or how about "punky brewster"

I've got a bunch of Anime soundtracks on mine, you can imagine the looks I get in Texas when jpop starts playing.

Greetings!

I have started a thread in Off Topic to cover this. I think this will be an interesting / amusing thread - an anti-Desert Island 10!

Ok, this doesn't have much to do with the Empeg but it is funny. My wife has listened to all of the Harry Potter books on CD on her way to work. One day while listening to book 2 she was going through a drive-through with the volume turned way up. It just happened to be at that part where the disembodied voice is saying "RIP, TEAR, KILL!" She said she got the strangest look from the lady handing out the food.

I told her she should have shrugged calmly and said, "It's my daily devotional!"

Hahahahaha!!! Ways to enliven the dull day of a drive-through employee!

...Barney's "I Love You" song.

/me tries desparately to avoid a Disney rant.

Greetings!

No need. It was obtained purely for satirical purposes - no children were harmed in the obtaining or playing of that file.

/me tries desparately to avoid a Disney rant.

Kingdom In the Sky
by DaVinci's Notebook

Note: Reading this works best if you imagine it being
sung as a gospel-revival-style number...

All my life I have been searching
For the fabled Promised Land
With my sisters and my brothers
We shall walk there hand in hand

Through the trials and tribulations
And the devil's cruel temptations
I know that we will all get there one day

After years and years of wandering
Oh the kingdom we shall find
And the doors may not be open
But we'll gather in the line

And our hearts will swell with pride
The day those gates swing open wide
And we take a walk down Main Street USA

Oh that Magic Kingdom in the sky
We will all be there together by and by
We will all drink from the fountain
And go riding on Space Mountain
When we reach that Magic Kingdom in the sky

Where Mother Minnie, Father Dopey,
And Saint Tinkerbell abide
There'll be no more cares or sorrows
On that heavenly Teacup ride

I will lay down all my fears
When I put on those big black ears
And join the choir to sign in harmony

We will sing the songs of aimless souls
Who once had gone astray
Who were lost but now are found
In the Electric Light Parade

Singing Hakuna Matata
Growing Mouseketeer stigmata
In the only Club that's made for
You and me

Oh that Magic Kingdom in the sky
We will all be there together by and by
All god's children shall be free in
Pirates of the Caribbean
When we reach that Magic Kingdom in the sky

Oh the meekest and the poorest
Their inheritance shall see
And a zillion Japanese tourists
All will join the jamboree

They will ride that Holy Monorail
Into sweet Providence
When they know that their redeemer
Is a mouse in Short Red Pants

Won't you take me to Orlando
Where the sun is shining bright
All the angels are clean shaven
And the people snowy white

Where your problems are all hidden
And unhappiness forbidden
You'll find salvation for a modest fee

Climb into my Winnebago
And if you help with the gas
Then we maybe can finagle you
A five or six day pass

May your afterlife be blessed
Just American Express it
Let MasterCard and Visa set you free

Oh that Magic Kingdom in the sky
We will all be there together by and by
All religions may be practiced
There except for Southern Baptist
When we reach that Magic Kingdom in the sky

Oh that Magic Kingdom in the sky
Manufactured by that Uncle Walter guy
We'll give thanks to that old geezer
And we'll keep him in the freezer
When we reach that Magic Kingdom in the sky

They serviced my car with "Chocolate Salty Balls" from South Park playin...HAHAHA

My 'driving' playlist contains a lot of my loudest 'wake me up' type tracks, and I have a subset of this playlist called 'mental' for the 3am drive from Scotland to Cornwall - you know loud bass, big guitars, screaming vocals etc.

I have found that putting my car in for service with the 'mental' playlist selected gets me much better service from the mechanics

I guess Noble's of Penicuik is a heavy rock kinda place.

I have a subset of this playlist called 'mental' for the 3am drive from Scotland to Cornwall - you know loud bass, big guitars, screaming vocals etc.

Interesting. Does that work for you? I found just the opposite to be true for me.

I actually found while driving at night that the best music for keeping myself awake is instrumental stuff, especially Eric Johnson. I have a playlist that is all instrumental which I use almost exclusively at night. It's not really "low key", but engaging without being distracting (in other words, it keeps me awake without drawing too much of my waning attention).

I find that any type of spoken word is better than music for keeping me awake. Even an NPR documentary on rice is better than death metal or Run D.M.C. for me. I think it's because speech stimulates different parts of the brain than song (IANANS(NeuroScientist)).

-Zeke

Yeah, I use my humor playlist for this. Nothing cures road hypnosis like 45 minutes of eddie izzard being a professional transvestite.

Matthew

I actually found while driving at night that the best music for keeping myself awake is instrumental stuff, especially Eric Johnson.

Agreed. That playlist of mine does have mostly instrumentals, including a lot of Eric Johnson.

I'll agree with the spoken word/comedy. I've decided it works best for one reason...it engages the mind, rather than just creating backround noise.

I've also noticed that I can program while listening to most kinds of music, but find it difficult to concentrate while listening to spoken word.

Well, I do find that when I want to sleep during the day, any classic rock (ie Metallica, Deep Purple, Maiden etc) is so familiar that I don't need to listen to it and it soothes me off to sleep, but tracks like "Boiler" by Limp Bizkit or "The Nobodies" by Marilyn Manson just seem to put me in a really hyper mood - I end up grinning if I turn "Boiler" up too high.

Spoken stuff puts me straight to sleep if I'm already tired, which is one of my many reasons for disliking radio..

I have been finding that a good bit of Bartok or Kachachurian keeps me alert, but I don't have enough classical stuff on my empeg yet.

Of course with enough Red Bull, I would be awake no matter what music was playing - I would just be driving far too quickly!

any classic rock (ie Metallica

Am I just getting old, or is that one of the funniest statements ever uttered on this BBS?

Right up there with "You mean Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings?"

You're getting old.

Ohmigod. I missed that the first time around.

frog51, please tell me you're joking. Please. Lie to me if you have to. But please don't tell me you consider Metallica "classic rock."

And for the record, Iron Maiden == classic rock is quote a stretch, too.

I've always had a problem keeping awake on motorways, especially the five hour drive back home from visiting my parents. Because a large amount of it is on the M4 it is necessary to drive very very fast, and falling asleep while doing so often seems unwise.

The *only* thing that can keep me awake is spoken word, which I discovered last time I made the trip. Music sends me straight to sleep, especially if it has a strong bass line; extremely loud music with the windows open only works for a few minutes; and I now have such a strong association between being tired and drinking Red Bull that it sends me straight to sleep.

Unfortunately I'm rapidly running out of spoken material, and may have to raid Mike's collection of Radio 4 comedy once again. If I'm ever faced with the choice of risking death at the wheel or listening to Harry Potter I really don't know which I would choose..

Rob

Yesterday I forgot to turn down the volume when I shut off the motor. So when I got back in, StrongBad yelled, "Hey stupid! The time is..." and a guy on the sidewalk just stared at me real funny...

And for the record, Iron Maiden == classic rock is quite a stretch, too.

Yes, agreed.

I will say that a certain percentage of Deep Purple's catalog does fall into that category, though.

I now have such a strong association between being tired and drinking Red Bull that it sends me straight to sleep.

LOL

Unfortunately I am serious -

"And Justice For All" and "Kill Em All" are two I would consider classic rock/metal. Admittedly I side with most folks on the BBS and consider their recent stuff to be a steaming pile of poo.

Also I tend to class Maiden, Deep Purple, Led Zep and a few others in the classic rock genre.

What would you class as classic rock? I think these meet the relevant criteria of:

Essential part of rock's history from which a great deal of modern music has developed.
Definitely more than 10 years old (okay this one is arbitrary)
Wide appeal (my mother likes the melody progressions in some early Metallica...oh hang on, she also likes some Yngwie...hmmm)

Yesterday I forgot to turn down the volume when I shut off the motor. So when I got back in, StrongBad yelled, "Hey stupid! The time is..." and a guy on the sidewalk just stared at me real funny...

My neighboor has heard mine do this a few times now. One day, I'll probably show him what is causing this. I'll also remember to set the volume to a static level for the time one of these times soon after blasting my ears out with it.

oh hang on, she also likes some Yngwie...

That's not that surprising really. a lot of Yngwie's stuff is basically him playing many different orchestral parts of a classical piece on one electric guitar simultaneously.

Speaking of Yngwie, next Wednesday I should be finding out whether he's slowed down with age. Joe and Steve will be there too

Now I am very jealous! 3 guitar gods at one gig? I'm upset I never got to see G3...sob

Are they releasing any stuff from these gigs?

The ultamite show would include joe, steve, buckethead, and ron thal! Boy would I be pissed if I would to miss that one.

"my mother likes the melody progressions in some early Metallica...oh hang on, she also likes some Yngwie..."
It should also be pointed out that she thought that Van Halen & Van Morrison were one & the same :-)

Deep Purple, weren't they some kinda blues band?

Hahahahaha

I'd forgotten about that

What about "Chevy Van"?

Woohoo. I have the tickets! Dodgy seats, but that's what happens when you're not sure whether you can go until the last minute.

It's the last gig on the tour too. Should be great.

How was the gig - although I know the answer will just depress me and make me jealous:-)

Well, visibility was excellent considering I was basically in the farthest seat from the stage. The Orpheum in Boston is pretty small. The sound back there was pretty bad unfortunately - it got muddied out too easily by drums and bass, and vocals (fortunately few as could be expected) were virtually non-existent.

Yngwie was up first, and hasn't changed much since I last saw him in the Hammersmith Odeon during his Eclipse tour. (I can't even remember which year that was... LOL). One noticeable addition is a pot belly - apparantly Miami Beach life doesn't involve much excercise. He is still insanely fast and entertaining - drop-kicking picks at the audience, throwing guitars at his tech etc. Still likes to be the center of attention on stage. Musically, I thought that he murdered a couple of his best tracks (Black Star and Far Beyond the Sun) by overplaying - the signature melodies seemed to get lost amongst all the improvised notes. He did play an immense acoustic track, and he also played an orchestral movement using an effects box to sound like the whole string section of an orchestra, and amazingly enough, actually sounded like the whole string section of an orchestra as opposed to some guy with a guitar and effects box. I was impressed.

Joe came out _third_ looking like a skateboarder. He played a set comprised of tracks mostly from SWtA, Engines of Creation and Strange Beautiful Music, and with the notable exeption of Midnight they were energetic tracks. He played great, and the show was well orchestrated with the lighting effects etc, but I felt that he never quite totally connected with the audience. He was just getting there when his set ended rather abruptly - none of the crowd realised for a few seconds and were waiting for the next track.
It was great, but just not as great as when I saw him last year on the SBM tour last year - I think that he needed more than 45 minutes, and a couple of more mellow tracks in the middle would have helped.

Now you're probably wondering about Steve who actually played second. I left him for last because I have trouble expressing in words his set. He started it by simply walking onto the stage and introducing himself - whilst the house lights were still up. No fussing around, he just said a few words of introduction, solicited another round of applause for Yngwie and then sat down with his triple neck Jem and got on with it. He started with a long and beautiful improvised piece using all three necks, at one point calling over Dave Weiner to help fret one of them. It was pretty amazing to watch. Then he played The Reaper which was a bit unexpected. Throughout his set it was obvious that he and his band were having a complete blast on stage. He then explained how he'd met his wife when they were both studying at Berklee (in Boston), before dedicating Whispering A Prayer to her. whereapon it became obvious that he was stealing the show. I've never seen anyone pour as much feeling and emotion into an instrument before - somehow he seems to have an almost magical connection to it. Not even just the guitar, but his amps and effects too. If he needed the guitar to squeal 'just so', it did. As I said earlier, I just cannot do it justice.
After a few more blissful tracks, he ended with FTLoG where he made me cry (again). It was even better than the live version on the previous G3 CD, Just totally emotional.
I actually found it difficult to applaud after WAP and FTLoG. He nailed those tracks and he already knew it. Despite the audience having paid for their tickets, I don't believe for a minute that he played those tracks to entertain us. He played for himself and applause just seemed completely superflous, an intrusion on a private moment.
I could have watched Steve play all week.

Anyway, rounding out the night was G3, all three on stage together. Yngwie was too loud, and...well, Yngwie.
Joe and Steve were totally in the zone, trading licks off each other with ease, and seemed quite happy to let Yngwie run around the stage by himself. Unfortunately by this time my ears were complaining, and with 3 guitarists on stage with the backline, you can imagine that it was loud and sometimes a bit muddy up in the cheap seats. But it was still immense to see my 3 favorite guitar virtuosos on stage together. and something that I never thought I'd see.

<sigh>

Sounds awesome!

Last time I saw any of them Joe was playing at Glasgow SECC...looking like a skateboarder

Not sure if the three of them are intending to come over again - will continue my hunt through the booking sites.

he ended with FTLoG where he made me cry (again).

Boy am I glad I am not the only one who gets all choked up on that song. Not because of any memory or experience associated with it but his emotion on that song is just so damn powerful it pours right through every single time.
Hold on.....................ok, just had to cue it up on the empeg.

I have to agree with your comments about Steve Vai. I've never seen him live, but on all the video I've seen of him, it's obvious that he truly loves the music, every microsecond of it.

I'll admit to not paying attention: when did Yngwie replace Eric Johnson in G3?

I'll admit to not paying attention: when did Yngwie replace Eric Johnson in G3?

Never. G3 is a thing where Steve and Joe do a tour that includes a third guest guitarist, and the third guitarist always changes. The album and the DVD that you're familiar with were made the year that Eric Johnson was the guest guitarist.

I've looked but haven't seen anything about a European G3 tour, but they are going to release a CD and DVD from this tour.

There's a short tour promo video on www.satriani.com that's worth checking out.

Ok. That's a good answer

I caught this last month in California.

Guess who made a surprise guest appearance during the jam session
as the *fourth* guitarist....

Neal Schon.

I'll have to admit that after that I was wondering if Santana and perhaps Alex Lifeson
were also waiting in the wings to come out and "give it that last
little push." (Santana because he's local. Lifeson because, well, he's Lifeson.)

As much as I love the guy, I don't think Alex would work well jamming with G3. I could definitely see Schon in there, he fits the style well. But Al's playing style doesn't fit that ensemble well. (I'd love to be proven wrong of course.)

A gentle irony;

Steve Vai, during a recent mid-tour interview was asked who he'd like to work with that he hadn;t already done so, and answered, "Carlos Santana".
On the vai.com forums, a recent thread entitled, "Most over-rated guitarist" had the same name winning.