'Brasswitch and Bot' by Gareth Ward - book review

Hi all!

Now I'm writing books myself, I'm noticing more things about other authors' work. I've just finished reading Gareth Ward's latest book, and realised that one day I'd like my work to be compared (favourably) to his! So here you go, my take on 'Brasswitch and Bot'.

Gareth Ward has already won acclaim for his work, and his third book is even more accomplished than his previous ones.  The writing is tight and full of action, while also creating space for characters to develop. Numerous witty rejoinders and puns (wait till you see his take on G-mail) pepper the prose, and always in a way that doesn’t detract from the action.

It speeds along at a cracking pace. Indeed, if I have any criticism, it’s that sometimes things race along so fast that you might miss something. I imagine that Ward’s hands had trouble keeping up with all the ideas spilling from his brain as he wrote.

The sheer inventiveness is impressive. The story is set in an alternate version of York, populated with “aberrations/remarkables” (people with supernatural powers), mechanical beings, and eldritch horrors.

‘Regulators’ hunt down those with supernatural powers. People like Wrench, a young woman who is falsely accused of creating an accident by using her Brasswitch power to affect mechanical things. Wrench tries to convince the Regulators that Aberrations are people too, and should be accepted rather than feared and shunned. In the midst of this, someone is attempting to summon evil gods from another realm, and Wrench is recruited to help stop them.

Marketed to tween/teen readers, this book will have a lot of adult fans too.

Bottom line: if you like fun, you’ll like this book.

Bing Turkby

Why writing a book is hard

I'm halfway through the first draft of my sequel to The Musomancer, and it's hard work. You know why? Cos I'm pretty lazy, and ever so easily distracted. I actually love writing. Once I get started, I'm happy as an ungulate in sludge. Even just writing that last sentence, I convinced myself I had to search up some words in a thesaurus, which could potentially have lost me down a wordy rabbit-hole for half an hour or so. I'm getting a little better at this writing thing, though. Just like in tai chi, you have to keep doing it, and accept that you won't be great at it to start with because you're a beginner. That's cool, it just means you have a lot of cool stuff to look forward to learning!

In news of stuff I actually managed to finish, here's my latest EP: The Serene Chromatic Assembly of Music Mages. It's an all-instrumental deal, 5 short tunes. The idea was to make the weirdest textures and stereo effects I could. Again, it's a step along that direction. Hopefully I can go much weirder in future!

Thanks for reading. The words would have been terribly lonely without you.

Ngā mihi.

Bing

Locking it down with the 'Nockers

The very first band I was in was called Simnock On Steel, and we were horrible. That's how we all remember it, anyway. And yet, once Covid-19 appeared and swept the world in a wave of desolation, Simnock On Steel took the opportunity to record a new version of our very first song - Mark III Wagon - and it wasn't as ear-abusingly bad as we thought it was going to be.

Our respective parts were recorded separately and then stitched together in a triumph of unity over distance.

Stove, Jay and myself know how fortunate we are to be able to do something like this while other people around the world are having a pretty shit time. So we share this with you in the hope that it gives you a bit of a laugh, or lets you forget some of the bad stuff for a few minutes.

Looking forward to connecting with some of you kanohi-ki-te-kanohi (face to face) in a sunny future situation when the pandemic is hopefully just a memory.

Books that inspired The Musomancer

Hi!
I should be writing the sequel to The Musomancer right now, but instead, I'm going to write about some of the books that inspired me to write The Musomancer. Don't question my methods.

When I was young, I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I loved the absurdity, the adventure, the stupid names for things (Vogons, Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, etc.) The fact it was a trilogy in three parts delighted me to a ridiculous degree. Along with The Lord of the Rings (you've probably heard of that one, it's like a Peter Jackson movie but with 50% fewer battle scenes), this is probably what made me want to be a writer. Unfortunately, it wasn't until a good 30 years later that I realised to be a writer you have to actually write something.

Books like Stephen King's On Writing and Steven Pressfield's The War Of Art helped me start off. (What is it about Stephens or Stevens that's so inspirational?)
I also like Pressfield's Nobody Wants to Read Your Sh*t.

Victor Wooten's The Music Lesson and Peter Bebergal's Season of the Witch showed me that, no matter how crazy an idea about music I thought up, other people had probably already gone further out into the deep end.

I like Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant series (starts with Rivers of London) because they're kinda like Jim Butcher's Dresden Files (starts with Storm Front) but less, well, you know... blokey American stuff. Drink lots of Coca-Cola, get beaten really badly but then have some pizza and jump back into the action, gosh that lady has a nice arse, kind of thing. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the Dresden Files series. I just need to be in a certain mood, and for me, Aaronovitch combines a modicum of Pratchettian humour with the supernatural stuff. Oh yeah - Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (The Colour of Magic, book 1). And I just re-read Good Omens so I'd be ready for the TV series that's coming soon.

In my twenties I discovered Robert Rankin (The Antipope, book 1 of The Brentford Trilogy), and thought his stuff was like Douglas Adams on psilocybin. (OK, I've never taken drugs, but I'm taking a stab in the dark with that comment.)

Joe Abercrombie writes fantasy that's as gritty as a tomato sauce sandwich at the beach. I recommend starting with Half a King if you want slightly (slightly) less gore and sweariness. Hmmm.. his stuff didn't really inspire The Musomancer, but his name popped into my head as I was writing, so here he is.

Nicholas Eames' Kings of the Wyld takes a mercenary band on a standard fantasy quest, but gives each member the personality traits of a member of a real-life music band. (You have to guess who is what: the guy who keeps to himself and isn't showy, but keeps things grounded - he must be the bass player, right? The guy always pushing himself to the front and shows off - is he the singer or the lead guitarist?)

But what really got me started with The Musomancer was the day when I flicked through yet another American thriller novel where the author spends a page and half describing a gun. I thought "what if, instead of a gun, you described a guitar?" That was it - I'd found my niche: a book for people who would happily read something where guitars, effect pedals and amplifiers were described in excruciating detail, with a bit of a plot and some action wrapped around it. I hoped I could inject some of the thrill and puzzle-solving of The Da Vinci Code, with references to bands I like rather than references to famous artworks.

Look at all those books listed above. They're pretty bloke-centric, right? I got tired of that, so, next time: Other books I've been reading. (Featuring Ann Leckie, Holly Bourne, Katherine Arden, etc.)

Podcast

Heavy Blarney's song "Sinister Path" is featured at 42:00 in the latest Irish & Celtic Music Podcast, along with a lot of other great music!

'From Bog To Swamp' almost ready!

Heavy Blarney, Bing's Celtic-rock side project, has a new album coming out on May 26, 2018. Have a listen and pre-order at https://turkby.bandcamp.com/album/from-bog-to-swamp
This album features the talents of the folk-tastic Paul Turner (pipes, whistles, fiddle) and the thunderous grooves of Adam Crawford (drums). And thanks to the magic ears of Nigel Mauchline who mastered the album at The Stomach, the songs sound durn spiffy.
Release gig is at Shed 23, Princess Street, Te Papaioea on Saturday May 26th, 2018.
Hope to see you there!

Singing with a Kiwi accent

Gidday and stuff!

I have a Kiwi accent, like my mother before me, and her mother before her, and her mother before her. So my accent comes from Turakina via Kai Iwi and Taihape. It's kind of RKP (Received Kiwi Pronunciation) I suppose you could say.
So, when I sing my own songs, that I wrote myself, I use my own voice. You can hear it on albums such as Atlantean Night Tourists.
Every so often, a reviewer will point out the Kiwi accent as if it's a kind of affectation. Like I'm doing it as an act of self-sabotage, almost, and people should know they're supposed to sing like an American or something.
Perhaps it's coming from a punk/DIY background that gives me the impetus to sound like myself. To represent where I come from. I have played in covers bands for a long time too, and when I play other people's songs I do put some effort into trying to sound more like the way they sang them.
I sang along to other people's songs for many years when I was a kid, well before I was in a band, so I did pick up some of the "80's rock pronunciation", and I do remember examining my pronunciation when I started playing my own songs.
A good example to compare is the word "I". Particularly if the singer holds onto the word for a while, then you can really get a feel for it.
Here's the very first song I ever recorded as the Bing Turkby Ensemble - Crumbly (on a 4-track cassette deck, in the garage-cum-bedroom at the back of my parents' house, 1996):
https://turkby.bandcamp.com/track/crumbly

Was I influenced by Jonathan Richman's completely down-home pronunciation in "I'm Straight"? Very probably.

He had me at the first "I". I love how he sounds like nobody else but himself.

Another example, this time in the chorus: "EMI" by the Sex Pistols. Even under all the sneering, you can tell that John Lydon is British.

And now the best example of an "80's rock" style of "I" that I can think of right now: 'I Wanna Rock' by Twisted Sister.

It's funny, I don't sound like that when I sing, but now I've dug up this video to check it out, it seems I took almost everything else about my performance style from these guys...

Thing is, these acts sounded very exotic to me when I was growing up in a small town in a small country on the other side of the world from where this was all happening. So my theory is that my Kiwi singing voice might sound similarly exotic to a listener from Taos, New Mexico, or Munich, or Singapore.

Every so often I'll use a different accent in a song just for effect, the same way you might have a trombone solo to make a change from a guitar solo.

Anyway, I firmly believe that you should sing however you want to. Singing (at home, or in the car, or at a pub) is so much fun - don't be scared to do it!

I'd still be interested to know - do you sing in a different accent than the one you use for everyday conversation? If so, did it just happen, or was it a conscious choice?

Happy singing!
Love from Bing.

P.S. Recording update: prep is ongoing for the next Heavy Blarney album. Some songs are very close to being finished, some are still very much in a developmental state. Expected release date is currently March 2018, but with luck, it'll be earlier than that.

P.P.S. Book update: there are still a few copies of The Musomancer book left in the TurkbyTone warehouse. You can also buy e-book or p-book versions from Amazon. The sequel is still stubbornly refusing to write itself. But since I have just started an extramural paper through Massey University, I'll probably start writing the book instead of doing my coursework. Cos I'm like that.

New banjo - new banjo pickup

Greetings to all the lovely readers!
This blog is happy to have your eyes upon it.

So, not too long ago I bought a nice Deering Goodtime short-scale tenor banjo to use for my Heavy Blarney project. Not wanting to run the risk of wrecking it - (rash risks can ruin resources) - I decided not to do what I did with my last banjo. Which was to hot-glue my own DIY pickup onto it.

After looking around at the various pickup options available and then having a look in my wallet, out came the glue gun.

For those who haven't had a go at making their own piezo pickup before, here's a brief overview.

You will need:
- a piezo buzzer, or it might be called a piezo transducer, 2 to 3cm in diameter (from your local electronics shop)
- some shielded hookup wire (from somewhere like stewmac.com, or your local electronics shop)
- a female 6.35mm cable mount jack socket (I used this one. Well, actually I used a cheap one from the local electronics shop initially, but you'll see why I switched it out later...)
- a soldering iron
- a hot glue gun
- some velcro cable ties
- a banjo that looks like it's keen to be a hundred times louder than it currently is.

First you need to carefully open up the housing of the buzzer to get at the piezo element inside. The element is a shiny disc, and it's easy to bend it and wreck it.
Here's what the buzzer looked like to start with:

The specs are here.

I used a craft knife to cut away the black plastic housing, being careful not to cut my fingers off, because I knew I'd need them for the next phase.

Foolishly, I forgot to take a photo of what the piezo element looked like when I got it out. Here's what it looks like now it's installed.

Heh heh.. a lot of it is now hidden under a lump of hot glue, but you can see there's a silvery coating, and that's what the red and black hookup wires were soldered to. I de-soldered them, and then soldered on a length of my own hookup wire. The silvery part is divided in two (on my buzzer it was anyway). One slightly smaller than the other. I soldered the hot wire to the larger part and the ground to the smaller part. I don't know why, it just seemed right to me.

Make sure you figure out how long you want the wire to be - i.e. how far does it need to go to mount your output jack where you want it.
I left a little play in mine because I'm pretty good at misjudging things like that.
I took up the extra slack with a little bit of "Musician's Friend" (gaffa tape) around the banjo's tension rod.

As I said earlier, I initially used a cheap jack but after soldering it up and testing it, there was a horrible crackle whenever I moved around, and that kind of thing can make you want to burn a banjo, so I shelled out a hefty amount of dough for a fancier Neutrik jack. Well, they said it was a Neutrik, but when it arrived it was a "licenced by Neutrik" jack. Either way, it was much better quality.

Because I'm an idiot, I glued the piezo element onto the underside of the banjo head before I had soldered the jack on. This makes it much more awkward, and soldering is awkward enough already. So, if possible, measure it all up and solder the jack and the piezo disc on first, then glue the element to the banjo.

On my old banjo I cut the piezo element in half and put one either side of the bridge, but I found that this single element right in the middle, slightly back from the bridge, works fine.

Picking up my trusty glue gun again, I glued two velcro ties to the jack, and secured the jack to two of the banjo's tension hoops.

Using velcro ties means that, unlike my last installation, this one is easily reversible.

Finally I could put the resonator back on the banjo, and fire it up through an amp.

How does it sound? Like a big, loud, scratchy banjo!

Actually, with a bit of EQ, and/or a proper acoustic preamp, this would be pretty decent. Really, it's all you're getting if you buy a fancier piezo pickup, it's just they've done all the assembling for you, and perhaps made it a nicer shape or something.

Straight into an electric guitar amp it's always going to sound bad because they're not made for this kind of thing.
But I'll be using it through a PA, with an EQ pedal and a volume pedal, and that should be fine.

I'll try to record some audio samples soon and post them here.

Happy DIY-ing!
Bing

Second 'Heavy Blarney' album in pre-production

That means 'Bing is trying to get his act together and write some songs for the next Heavy Blarney album'. Recording is scheduled for later this year, hopefully the album will be ready for Christmas!

In other news, work on the sequel to 'The Musomancer' book is slow. Soooo slow. But I was recently kicked into action when I saw this:

What's this? Could it be that they're trying to cover up the entrance to the evil Musomancer's lair? Obviously the book has put the scares up a few people - perhaps those who are part of a musomancical conspiracy...? I will do my best to find out what's happening, and write a fairly silly book about it.

The first Musomancer book is available here, and local luminary Paul Turner says it's the best book he's read all year. He's also man enough to admit that it's the only book he's read all year. That's The Musomancer for you - increasing literacy in the community!

And let's not forget that the latest Bing Turkby Ensemble album is available here. Simon J Crawford says "Bing Turkby what have you done? I can't recall ever hearing anything as original ,honest and down right entertaining as this album." (Since you're reading this, go check out Simon's album here. It's blimmin' great!)

OK, well, keep on being awesome, you lot.

Bing

Andy Anderson 'Andersongs' CD review

For many years I've been reviewing CDs for NZ Musician Magazine. Recently I was asked to review a CD under my own aegis. Here be the results:

Andy Anderson's latest album 'Andersongs' kicks off with an exuberant whoop of a song called Hey I'm Alive, which sets the tone both musically and lyrically. It's a real celebration of life, full of self-deprecating humour (“An ageing wino hippy, quite a few brain cells short”), but with a message of rangimarie and kotahitanga (“Still pushing that peace/love trip. Just because we got stoned and missed it, doesn't mean that the plan was wrong.”) That first song has a great, jammy rock feel. The next one up, Spirit of Parihaka, leans into reggae territory, with a cruisy backbeat and swooning slide guitar. But the lyrical theme of living peacefully with one another is there again (“May the healing of the White Feather pass from hand to hand.”) The whole album is permeated with Andy's mellow, 'let's all be cool to each other' persona.

With Hayden Lauridsen on drums and Adrian Fou on bass, the rhythm section is tight and swinging. Jeff Carr lets rip with some fiery yet tasteful guitar solos. Not an easy feat! Backed by this team, the cream of Palmy rock musicians, Andy plays guitar and harmonica, and his singing takes flight, his voice loaded with life experience.

The guitar playing of Bruce 'Phantom' Robinson is shot through the album like a golden thread. Andy pays tribute to him on All Rise (Phantom's Song). Sadly, Phantom did not live to see the album completed, but his playing lives on in 'Andersongs', as the rest of the band weave their music around his contributions.

Anderson touches on other topics, such as politics (Politricks), the Pike River Mine, and even ends with a heartfelt tribute to his mother. It's a very personal album that was recorded and mixed with real empathy by Nigel Mauchline at Palmerston North's iconic recording/rehearsal/performance venue The Stomach. The sound is polished and professional, yet the album still feels intimate and confessional.

From acoustic ballads to country to swaggering rock, Dr John-style scat to Marley-style reggae, Anderson and his merry crew lead you on a journey through Andy's memories, and leave you with his hopes for the future. Let's hope that Andy surprises us, and maybe himself, with another album soon! As the man himself says: “Outlived my hair, my brain and teeth... If music's the last part of the brain to leave, I'll keep on singing till I'm through”.

Musomancical goings-on

Howdy!
Well, we did it!
To celebrate the 20th year of the Bing Turkby Ensemble (1996-2016), we managed to release a new album (Atlantean Night Tourists), recorded by the auditory genius Nigel Mauchline at The Stomach in Palmy (with extra noise added at TurkbyTone Rekkids Studio B for Bing).
Me, MacDeth, McBOOOm and Tyrone T. Blowhard are extremely happy with the results, and also with the great artwork perpetrated by William Bennett.

The website - turkby.co.nz - just got a makeover by web maestro Andrew Tregonning, so now the site is really tidy and uncluttered, and works better on mobile devices too.

On top of that, I wrote a book called The Musomancer, which you can get hold of as either an e-book or a p-book at the Amazon link, or you can buy the physical book at Paper Plus nationwide in Aotearoa, and it's also at Groovylicious on George Street and at Begg's on Albert Street, both of those latter places are in Palmy.

Time for a rest? Well... I think it's time for another Heavy Blarney album actually! And I have a couple thousand words done on the sequel to The Musomancer.

Too much fun!

I hope you're all happy and safe, best wishes from everyone at TurkbyTone Rekkids.

20 years of the Bing Turkby Ensemble!

Crikey that went quick. This Easter it'll be 20 years since Bing bought a Tascam 4-track and wrote the song "Crumbly".
Then it wasn't long till this came along:

(Good ol' Peter King and his lathe-cut vinyl!)

Here's a big thank-you to everyone who has given encouragement and support along the way, especially these past and present band members:
Tyrone T. Blowhard
Nemo Spork
Snatchlock Cutpenny
The Night Frog
Mustachio
The Hungarian Thunder
Slapskins McBOOOm
Ajax MacDeth

And of course, where would we be without the stalwart guidance and extravagant wastefulness of that most magisterial of managers, Jim Keltnenhausen. Jim has been there right from the start, so I guess it's all his fault. If he wasn't imaginary he'd definitely be fired by now.

The current incarnation of the BTE will be doing a couple of gigs as part of Palmy's Sounds of Summer concert series, on Feb 7th and Feb 17th - see more details here:
http://www.accessmanawatu.co.nz/initiatives/Sounds-of-Summer.aspx
And what the heck - we might even do a couple more shows! Jim is strong-arming some venue operators for us now so hopefully there'll be more news on that front soon-ish.

We'll also be recording some more songs this year, we can't believe it's been so long since "Summon Forth the Mangonel"!
To refresh your memory, I've put a playlist selection on the sidebar of this blog.
Happy 2016 everybody! Keep it Turkby-like.

SwampFest 2013 Regent show

(Sound-checking at SwampFest UltraMegaParty 2013 at the Regent, Palmerston North)

Thanks to a few well-placed bribes, FaderC (Craig Black) let me MC the big Swampfest gig at the Regent again this year. I was really interested to see what the crowd would be like this time around. I've been lucky enough to be present at many SwampFests and have consistently been blown away by the quality of performances. Last year I introduced Benny Tipene by saying “ Fairies and pretty birds tumble out of the soundhole of his guitar as he thrashes it to within an inch of its life”, and he was only one of the formidable talents onstage that night. Since then the rest of New Zealand has witnessed his gifts on television. So I was very hopeful that people who had seen him on telly would come along to the gig. People who might not normally go to a SwampFest gig, who would then be exposed to more of the local colour, as Captain Malcolm Reynolds puts it.

Well I don't have a demographical breakdown of the crowd but I can tell you it was a very enthusiastic one! One of the best crowds I've seen in terms of showing their appreciation. And SwampFest really turned it on for them.

Once again I was really impressed by the quality of the performances, and I'm left thinking that more of these local artists deserve to be getting more exposure. Luckily, more of them are aware that they have to put in the hard work to make it happen. Look at show openers Dick Tracy. They had a solid set of hard-rocking songs but they didn't just stand there and hope that people liked them. You could tell that they had actually thought about presentation and audience engagement. It's not hokey to actually talk to the crowd – it's called entertainment, and they did it well. They showed obvious pleasure as they played, you could tell they were having a good time and that translated over to the audience. A great, high-energy start to the show.

In an inspired piece of sequencing, FaderC decided to follow that with the solo acoustic guitarist Shayla Armstrong. She spoke directly to the people through her charming songs, and also by... well, by speaking directly to them. Again, another performer who has spent some time thinking about interacting with listeners, but in a completely genuine way, not a calculated fakery of banter.

A high point of the night for me, among a series of jagged peaks like a musical mountain range, was the Jefferys. I'd heard some of their stuff on FacePlantTubeCloud and thought it was pretty cool in a clever, poppy, alt-y kind of way, but seeing them play the songs live unleashed their full energy and made of me a stalwart acolyte. They were loud, quiet, tight, loose, aggressive and tender. Kudos.

When I called for another round of applause for the Jefferys the audience went nuts. I thought that they must have had a similar epiphany as I had, until I looked around and saw that Benny Tipene had walked onstage!

That ruined my plan of doing a Dom Bowden and drawing out his. Intro. With. Excessive... Pauses. But, like a band at a wedding, I had to remind myself that it was his night, not mine. I cried into my wig later when no-one was watching. In the meantime I sucked it up like a professional cowpoke and kept riding that steer. Or something.

(Benny Tipene and David Stevens)

Watching Benny play live some of the same songs I'd seen on the TV was particularly interesting because of the addition of David Stevens on electric gat and vocals. So much more than mere decoration (although he did have some fine pants on), David's contributions were like a shimmering sheen of shiny stuff that stroked the ears. His playing was so selfless it was like he was a Buddhist guitar nun, and the way he worked together with Benny's clever acoustic picking and emotion-filled voice lifted them to a musical apex.

(The Nerines)

Always a sure bet as show closers (I mean that in a nice way!) the Nerines delivered their usual absolutely fantastic, catchy, rowdy, hook-filled stuff. One of the best rock bass tones I've heard in a while too (nice work Fabian), and a drummer so energetic and precise you could watch him all night (kudos, Tadhg). Great vocals, arrangements, drive and, again, good repartee meant that I didn't want the show to end. In fact, I experienced some cognitive dissonance when I realised I was at a rock show that was running slightly ahead of time! I can't recall that ever happening before...

FaderC put out the call for an encore, and what FaderC wants, FaderC gets. With everybody shouting for more, the heroic Nerines pulled another song out of their goodie bag. Even though they professed to be under-rehearsed for it, it went off like a magnesium explosion (again, in a good way.)

So, another blimmin' excellent SwampFest Regent show. I'm almost sad that I've been to a few now, because I'd love to be surprised and amazed at the local talent all over again. Thanks to everyone who makes the shows happen, all those people behind the scenes – you know who you are! I'm so pleased that festivals like this happen in Palmy so that people can come along to a “sampler” gig in a safe environment and get reminded that there's a lot of cool stuff happening in town, and these people who live in our region are making great music for themselves and for us.

To hear more, and support them, have a look at the links below.

https://www.facebook.com/dicktracymusic

https://www.facebook.com/shaylaarmstrongmusic

https://www.facebook.com/TheJefferys

https://www.facebook.com/bennytipene

https://www.facebook.com/TheNerines

Remember there are still more Swampfest events to attend this year! Find them here:

https://www.facebook.com/SwampFestNZ/events

Oh, and don't forget that the Bing Turkby Ensemble are playing at Tankapalooza this year – September 28^th. We get to go hog-wild! Come along and go hog-wild with us!

http://www.tankapalooza.com

Free ebook

OK, if this has worked properly, there should be a link below to a free PDF ebook version of that multi-digit bestseller "Chords, Cartoons and Cookery" which TurkbyTone Rekkids produced some time ago.
Just in case you missed it, here's that link again!

We thought we'd give away the ebook version free, since the limited edition gold-plated jacuzzi version sold out so quickly (20 copies in a mere 4 years!)
Feel free to share it round - we've got enough digits to make digital copies for everyone.
Here's a sample of the kind of flea-bitten drivel you'll find within (click to embiggenate the JPEGS):

"Wanganui" song gets Turnbull Library thumbs-up!

On the latest Turnbull Library mixtape, the first song is "Wanganui" by the Bing Turkby Ensemble!
Staff at TurkbyTone Rekkids WorldWide HQ are said to be "really pretty ruddy well pleased" by this development. Jim Keltnenhausen, spokesman for the democratically-elected Turkby Despotic Rule Party, says "we're as chuffed as a wonky wheelbarrow in a half-inch of snow". Or something. I wasn't really paying attention so I didn't write down what he actually said.

Anyway, the metadata maestros at the Turnbull Library are trying their durndest to collect and catalogue as much Kiwi music as they can, so that when Doomsday arrives, there'll be a good soundtrack, and everyone will know who wrote which songs. It's a great initiative, and we salute them with all our fingers and toes.

Bing himself was particularly pleased with the comments about the song by Mark Crookston, Digital Collection Strategy Leader, who chose the song for inclusion:  “I chose this track because it sparks critical discourse around a range of significant contemporary societal issues. Like the diplomatic uses of beer, or xenophobia in rural NZ... you don't look right, and round here that's a good excuse for a fight."

See what else is on the digital mixtape at their blog, or learn more about the National Library's collections here.
This is the very same place where you can apply for an ISBN when you write your own book, so it's all official-looking. (eg. this one: 9781463590208). Yep, they do a lot of good stuff there. Have a look!

Fuzz battle!

Two Jimis and a Big Muff! Mix well and turn up loud.
I wish I could say that I own all these pedals, but one of the Jimis was just visiting from HotBox Studios. So I thought I'd A/B the fuzzes to see how they fared, with and without the Univibe.

Turned up on full fuzz, the Dunlop Hendrix Tribute Fuzz Face is tight and mean, but it really cleans up well when you back off the volume on your guitar. A really, really handy feature. I tried turning the fuzz control down a little but it just wasn't as much fun for me - leave it on full!
And it absolutely sings with its sibling, the Hendrix Tribute Univibe, as you would expect, since they are part of the same series. (Now I need to get my hands on the Tribute wah and Octavio!)

The Big Muff doesn't clean up so well, but basically it says "why the hell do you want to clean up? I am made to destroy ears!"
This it does very well. It has a massive sweep on the tone control, in fact it reminds me of a wah going through its travel rather than a traditional tone pot. ie. it seems to be a sweepable frequency boost rather than a treble bleed. I don't know if that is true, or even if it makes any sense. I work at TurkbyTone Rekkids, not Electro-Harmonix...
Anyway, I thought the Muff was broken for a while - I couldn't get much volume out of it, and it seemed weak and muffled. Today I realised it was just because I had the Sustain turned down. Doh! It doesn't mean sustain, it means Drive! Suddenly that chainsaw buzz was back, and with heaps of volume and edge.
I'd like it to spit a bit more, I like the way you can dial that in on the Red Witch Fuzz God. But apart from that, I'm very happy with its brutish, antisocial grind.

Both of these pedals play well with the Univibe, always sharing their toys and food. Wait, no, I mean, if you pair them with the Univibe they sound awesome. My two favourite uses are: having the Univibe speed set slow with the Vibe button out, for long, drawn-out, feedbacky chords and notes; or setting it fast with the Vibe button engaged, for very weird, disorientating bursts of single notes.

Here's a badly-recorded video clip of the shootout:

Thanks to Ajax MacDeth for the loan of the Fuzz Face (I'm likely to return it any day now...)

Oh, and here's a clip showing the different tones you can get from the Big Muff:

Happy New Year everybody. Next year you'll get another heaping helping of new Bing Turkby Ensemble songs and maybe even a gig or two - imagine that! Until then, check out the ongoing archival project at http://turkby.bandcamp.com - the latest update is Sick Chutney from the futuristic year 2000.

Fun in the sun

Some keen thumb-dancing competitors were out at the Roslyn REACH community day on Saturday - check out that thumb-dancing action!
They were so good that I gave away TWO rare and fabulous vinyl rekkids because I couldn't decide on just one winner.
Someone got a lovely Englebert Humperdinck best of, and someone else walked away with an enviable Mrs Mills honky-tonk pianner album.

Thanks to Leanna of the local constabulary for getting the day together, and thanks to Fraser and Hugh of Access Manawatu who made sure that the Bing Turkby Ensemble sounded awesome.

We have more outdoorsy gig dates coming up in the new year, one in the Square (Fri March 1st) and one in the Esplanade (Sun Mar 3rd), so practice up your thumb-dancing and you too could be a winner!

One of the songs that got an outing on Saturday was our ode to Palmerston North - Definitely 4th - check it out here. And if you hear someone being rude about Palmy you can sing that at them. That should shut them up.

Outvanned and Outgunned, plus Swampfest photos

They could have parked anywhere, but oh no, they had to prove that their van was bigger than mine!

Anyway, as promised, here are a few photos from the recent SwampFest show, with thanks to Craig Black who I haven't bothered asking if I can use them. Heh heh...

First up, a lesson in accessorising:

If Ken from the Screaming Orgasms is seeing this, see how many of your old effects pedals you can spot on my board! Yep, early 80's Japanese Boss CE-2 and Ibanez compressor. I treasure them, and abuse them wildly.

Secondly,  a hand-raising moment during the show. Probably someone had just yelled out "who wants cake?" MacDeth and Slapskins McBOOOm are too professional to stop for cake mid-song. They have cake waiting offstage because they're more organised than I am.

Thirdly and final-tastically, here's a shot of MacDeth and McBOOOm performing the National Anthem-a-Tronica intro segment. At this time I was busy wandering around amongst the audience yelling silly crap. You can't quite see McBOOOm's Monotron, but check out the ancient-school Omnichord that MacDeth is fingering!

Thank you for your attention. Now I must go and listen to a Stray Cats album I rediscovered when rearranging my vinyl rekkids recently. Ubangi Stomp drives me Ubangi wild!

SwampFest 2012 debrief

What an epic event at The Stomach last night! I always love playing at The Tum for several reasons, some of which are: you reach a different crowd than at a pub because it's All Ages; the sound system is top-notch; the staff are blimmin' awesome; I get to see new bands; and the shows are generally earlier, so I have time afterwards for a cup of tea and a read before bed. (That's Rock'n'roll Survival Tip #39, yours for free today from TurkbyTone Rekkids!)
I hope to have some photos soon, but in the meantime, you'll just have to picture this in your brainpan.
The BTE open the show (yay!) As usual, I talk quite a lot and forget how my own songs go. My newly-minted cardboard crown won't stay on my head properly so I let people in the audience wear it. Someone wins a damn fine crappy vinyl album with my writing on the front in Vivid marker. MacDeth and McBOOOm rock mightily, like towering mounds of basalt and dinosaur bones.
Because I talk too much crap, we have to cut the last two songs from our setlist, which means I forget to do the now-obligatory lolly scramble.
In the spirit of mentoring the younglings (to steal a phrase from Star Wars), I suggest that the next band, the Impediments, might like to do a lolly scramble with the lollies I had prepared earlier. It puts a warm glow in me cockles to see them gleefully take up the mantle.
Black Chrome, The Impediments and Reclusia all rock hard, and add up to a nicely eclectic evening.
I collect the BTE cardboard merch stand - the night's takings come to a massive $0. I bank this on the way home, filling out receipts for Jim Keltnenhausen to audit in the morning.
Then it's home for a Rooibus tea, a shaz, a little light reading (guitar magazine reviewing gear that I can't afford), and then bed, complete with cat trying to sleep on my neck.

It's the best! It's the best! It's the best! Swampfest!

Until I have some photos, I'll put a clip of the BTE playing at Medusa in Wellington, which was a great gig too, but could have been more sweaty...

Bent Horseshoe talent competition

I think everyone should have a go at making music, and not feel self-conscious about it. That means I hate the idea of making music into a competition, and saying Band X is "better" than Band G. I think there are many things that make a musical experience enjoyable, and it's not always about who's technically the best player.

So why, you ask, am I involved in the music competition at the Bent Horsehoe on Friday the 7th?
Has Bing turned into a complete hypocrite? Has he sold out?
Nope, don't worry, I'm certainly not doing it for money!
And I haven't changed my opinion about music not being a competition. After talking with Steve, the guy who runs the Bent Horseshoe, it became clear that it's purely a vehicle for encouraging young talent to emerge.
He wants to get some younger people out to the venue (which is a fantastic venue, by the way - have a look at http://www.benthorseshoe.co.nz to see where they are located, and join their email list to see the great bands that play there).
The idea is to offer some of the young acts opening slots for more established bands. In short, he wants to grow the local scene, which is something I fully endorse.
Plus, I get to dress up and make stupid comments.
That's got to be worth it.

Also, if I see an act that's a bit ragged, and they aren't afraid to make a complete fool of themselves, then I'll have found a great band for the Bing Turkby Ensemble to do gigs with!
I guess that must be why Steve asked me to help out, it's certainly not because I know 5 different modal scales and can sing harmony...

So if you're free on Friday the 7th of September, come along and you should see the following things: 1) a great venue; 2) some entertaining young acts; 3) an eejit (me) saying silly crap; and 4) if you're early enough, a great view out over Horseshoe Bend (which is also an excellent swimming spot in Summer).