| Here goes with the first review.
Pick of the tape is Dave Bottom/St. Amand. Definitely radio ready,
the best effort from Dave I've heard over the years since COMMUSIC III.
This style of rock is not my thing these days, but it's very well done
and more than competitive with other bands in the genre. The vocalist
reminded me of Mark Farner!
Coop's HardBall tracks come close to Dave's as rock stuff goes. Good
production and performances, but they are not quite as well realized.
Greg's stuff comes up a third in this category mostly due to what I
thought were some plodding tempos and weak vocals. Guitar work on all
of Coop's and Greg's pieces was very good, though. These impressed me
a lot more than the stuff I heard from them on earlier tapes.
Bob Conroy makes me want to go home and throw the old acoustic onto the
fire. Playing at this level is something I'm envious of.
Tom's songs threw me until I double-checked the liner notes to see that
he played to prerecorded backings (the backup sounded too good!). I
liked the soloing, real fluid and nice phrasing. Where's some vocals,
pal?
John D.'s song was nice but I thought the bass tone suffered, it seemed
like there was a hole in the bottom of it. Reminded me of that Stanley
Clarke piccolo bass sound.
Guy Best's pieces had a great feel despite some wobbly rhythm section
work. His vocals reminded me of Peter Green and he worked with a blues
context on "Sit Back" without doing a cliched 12-bar. The guitar solos
were very good despite the bloopers.
As for my own, the transfer from the master I sent was well done so all
the mistakes are audible for a change!
Brian
|
| I've been listening to Tom Gallo's copy on my Walkman today. My excuse
is that I wanted to check for any of the hum problems others of you
have experienced before I send it to him. I've kept him waiting for it
a long time now...
Anyway, I thought that since I have it handy here and am thinking about
it, I'll post a quick review. overall, this is a good one. Everyone
did a nice job! Congratulations and thanks!
Let's see:
Dave Bottom: Well recorded and performed.
Greg House: What an idiot! Who let this bozo near a recording
deck??!? I love how my old 4-track song done with the cheezoid
equipment sounds a lot better then the one done on the nifty 8-track
system... :-\
Tom Desrochers: Cool guitar sound, well recorded. This isn't
generally the type thing I'd listen to either, but I do find the sound
on "Bad Bones" compelling.
Hardball: I've heard these both before (about a million times). I
really like Will's replacement bass line on "That's All".
Brian Rost: Also well done. I like this version of "Roadhouse" better
then the version on the earlier Guitarnotes tape, good arrangement of
instruments.
John Derrico: I really enjoyed this song! This is my pick for my
favorite on the tape. This is the general style of music that I've
been listening to a lot lately and it's well done here. I'd like to
hear more of your band!
Bob Conroy: What can I say? Bob's simply an amazing player. Too bad
you saturated your tape in a few places on the first piece (where the
crashing chords come in).
Guy Best: The only Live recording on this tape, I like it, warts and
all. I like the improv. style. Both songs have a cool feel to 'em.
Greg
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