The 2021 Suite by Dimaension X

 A "Zappa-inspired" suite of music, i.e., it's progressive rock music with horns, marimba, extended improvised guitar solos, time changes, and other stuff, too. Just one long song, divided into several parts. I figured it's time to visit my roots and go back to some more "fun" sounding music, instead of trying to drag out more doom and drone music. And of course I started listening to Frank Zappa again, so voila. I also listened to the very first Devo album all the way through, and decided I needed some short snippets of Devo in my new music, too. So the segues between the 5 parts are short spurts of Devo songs. Performed by Dimaension X. Recorded & produced by Dave Lanciani. Music composed by Dave Lanciani/Dimaension X. Extra bits and pieces of music by Mark Mothersbaugh, Bob Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale. There's also a not-so-hidden snippet of Aldo Nova's song "Fantasy". See if you can find it. Dedicated to Frank Zappa and Eddie Van Halen. BTW, all the images were created by me, using Photoshop.

New band and more...

New band - yup, I guess that's the first big news - I've actually joined a band. I haven't played with a live band since 1994, but I decided it was time to brush up the live chops and just do it.

My next-door neighbor's band, "The Screamin' Barfys" broke up, or the guitarist was kicked out, or left, or a little of both, due to personality and musical conflicts, etc., so the left-over band, Clint, my neighbor on bass, Jamie on drums (also the drummer for Musclecah!!), and Dan of vox asked me if I'd be willing to step in and help out.

Since I've known these guys for a while now (Clint does live right frickin next-door!), and helped record their first album/demo, I said "sure." And it's been a blast. Really.

Where the Barfys' sound was more like 90's grunge-meets-hardcore, we're a bit more classic/traditional/early heavy metal/hard rock-meets-classic punk rock. If the Sex Pistols, Motorhead and Rollins Band fell into a blender ... well, that's kinda what we're trying. Maybe mid-to-late Entombed with clean singing?

We're pretty much sticking to all-original material (eleven songs written so far), and perhaps an odd cover tune or two if we ever get around to it. Dan has most of the lyrics done, and we're refining things as we practice. I'm also working on demo recordings as we progress, so we can do full versions when we're ready. I'd personally like to try recording the whole band live to capture that "energy."

Oh, we still don't have a name yet.

More news ... new toys - since my Schecter sounds so great with the GFS Mean 90 pickups, I've been oggling other stuff at the Guitar Fetish website, and finally gave in to my G.A.S. disease (Gear Aquisition Syndrome). In the clearance/blemish section, I found a very cool guitar, a Xaviere XV-870 Darkside Edition on sale for a ridiculous low price, plus I had a 15% off coupon code, so I dove in, along with ordering a set of Lil Killer Rail pickups for it. The guitar is basically a Strat-copy, but it looks like David Gilmour's strat, the black one with Maple fretboard and white hardware. It will hopefully be ready in less than a week. Can't wait to crank that thing with the new pickups. I already gave it a test-run with the band, and it really sounded great with the original stock pickups (which are GFS Vintage Alnico Staggers), but I had to adjust the amp and effect settings for traditional single coils, which tend to be a bit thin and trebly. But it did sound great, so these new pickups should really kick butt.

I also upgraded the firmware in my Line 6 Spider IV 75, so I added a bunch of new effects to an already great amp. They finally included their great simulation of the Tube Screamer, which I use all the time in my POD XT Live. There's also a bunch of new delays, and other stuff that I just haven't gotten around to yet. Gotta live Line 6. Yeah, I'm a walking advertisement, but I love their stuff.

And in other Interwebs news - I cancelled/closed my Myspace pages, including the Moroghor and Burn Without Me pages. I am still online here (duh, obviously), and Moroghor and Burn Without Me still have their regular websites where you can still download their albums. I just found that I totally lost interest in Myspace. I guess the new un-named band might still make a Myspace page when we're ready, but for now I'm done. Hmmm. I think I'll probably cancel my account over at last.fm, too.