HANDS ON PRODUCT REVIEWS SOAPBOX
IKEA AMUSEMENT PARK Words: Shawn Kyle
Well, it was true in the 1970’s and it is still true today: nothing is like a Big Muff. Completely (ELECTRO HARMONIX) untamed, unmanageable, sort of with a life of its own, and easy to work and turn on. I am of course talking about the historic reissue of the USA Electro Harmonix guitar/bass effect pedal. Quite a few styles of music including grunge, stoner rock, psychedelia, alt, indie, and experimental would have suffered an unknown fate without this effect pedal’s trademark “bag full of angry bees stuffed into a Harley motorcycle engine” sound. And as far as the name “Big Muff” goes, it sounds so much more rock and roll than “Brazilian Sugar Wax,” doesn’t it?
BIG MUFF PI USA REISSUE
After years of travel and eccentric living, I occasionally am stunned, staggered and amazed at “normal” things like a 353,000-square-foot colossus of a three-story amusement park/furniture store/eatery/ confusing warehouse/labyrinth called IKEA. I had no idea what an IKEA was, but I ventured into the twilight zone when I had an hour to kill. I now want to buy a sleek and sexy minimalist house made out of aluminum and glass and perched on the edge of a cliff so I can fill it up with sleek and sexy shelves, chairs, mirrors, and assorted whatnots from IKEA. If the Swedes have so easily brainwashed me with their yellow and blue building (possibly pumped full of suggestion and oxygen like a casino), then I fear the world is ripe for a takeover by Bauhaus Design School Vikings and we will all be eating Swedish meatballs with lingonberry compote before it’s all over. Swedish meatballs with lingonberry compote tested at IKEA, Ybor City IKEA.com
Product tested at Green Shift Music greenshiftmusic.com
When ProTools first brought out the original M-Box, a portable and affordable (DIGIDESIGN) two-channel recording interface that worked with the groundbreaking and industry standard ProTools recording software, it started a revolution of indie recording, and initially hinted at the doom of many of the big box recording studios. It also was responsible for everyone you know thinking that they could competently make their own record, only to embarrassingly discover later that there is more to producing, engineering and mixing a recording than knowing how to work the software and the computer. Now, laptop-based recording and production is everywhere, and while the ProTools-based LE version software no longer seems cutting-edge (it is missing plenty of the value-added features of its competitors), it is still a solid way to produce music on the cheap, and bundled with the MBox Mini, a USB-powered analog-todigital interface the size of two packs of cigarettes, it is still, for the time being, an industry standard.
PROTOOLS & MBOX MINI
digidesign.com
VICIOUS INTENT
THE ROCK AND ROLL
ART EXPLOITATION
OF STAINBOY REINEL
(DARK HORSE BOOKS)
Embodying everything that made ‘70’s pulp movies, fast cars & girls with curves haunt the dreams of every rock and roller, Stainboy Reinel has become one of the notable and influential poster artists of this decade. Dark Horse Books has released a retrospective of many of his best and most sought after posters (including the infamous Nashville Pussy tour posters), as well as a detailed view of his inspirations and sketch designs (this dude still hand draws in ink!), and it’s a must for any and all aspiring poster artists. It’s a beautiful book, but don’t let your mother find it on her coffee table.
stainboyreinel.com • darkhorse.com
This is hands down the best new beer that I have had this year. An Indian Pale Ale, but (LAGUNITAS BREWING) not too overwhelmingly bitter, with a complex and citrus-y overtone and an initially round flavor of toasted hops and full malts. It pours a delightful orange color, with a frothy head. IPAs are by nature a great summer beer, and while many people can’t get around the tart aftertaste, they might find this example to be an exception. Apparently a best seller in California, where it is brewed by a bunch of crazy but brilliant master-brewer hippies obsessed with Frank Zappa.
LAGUNITAS IPA
Tested during the sweltering Tropical Heatwave Festival at the New World Brewery Lagunitas.com
ORIGINAL SUN SINGLES ‘56-’60 Back in the 2-LP SET - SUNDAZED RECORDS day, singles were the way to go. You went into a studio and they recorded the band and cut the wax then and there, and went out and pressed the small 45-rpm single records that went into the jukeboxes and onto DJs’ turntables across the country. On this double LP-vinyl reissue, sourced from the original analog mono masters, you get to hear Jerry Lee Lewis help invent rock and roll music. Called “The Killer,” he was a piano prodigy at a young age, and his parents mortgaged their farm in Louisiana to buy him a piano. He soon turned to what was called “the Devil’s music,” and quickly became renowned for playing the piano in a way that no one before him had; songs like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and “Great Balls of Fire” brought him international fame but also 1950s-era protests and boycotts at the music’s obvious sexual overtones. Still, this is music to drive your car fast, drink PBR Product tested at Daddy Kool Records DaddyKool.com and have your girl shake her hips to.
JERRY LEE LEWIS
JUNE 2009 REAX MUSIC MAGAZINE
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