Soul Asylum Vs. The Rolling Stones, Who ya got?

This is a continuing series on my blog about songs that sound the same.  This is the second blog on this subject.  Here's the first:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/monster-magnet-vs-cream-who-ya-got.html

I was at a few yard sales the other day.  I noticed with the invention of the Ipod, people are getting rid of their CD's.  The good news is that, they generally sell them for one dollar a piece.  I picked up a few that I had missed in the early 90's.  One of the CD's I picked up was Soul Asylum's Grave Dancers Union.  What was funny is that I had their second album, Let Your Dim Light Shine, but had never got around to getting their first album even though it was the better album.

So I'm listening to the whole album as a drive around.  I hear a song that is slightly familar.  I looked at the CD, and saw the song was called, "Without A Trace."  And then, of all the weird things, the memories came flooding back.  Grave Dancers Union was famous for three songs, 1. Somebody To Shove," "Black Gold," and "Runaway Train."  After those songs were played to death Soul Asylum released another song that didn't get much airplay.  That was "Without A Trace."

Here is was twenty years later, and there was something overly familar with the song even though I hadn't heard it for years.  Then it hit me, it was the same melody as The Rolling Stones song, "As Tears Go Buy."

Going all the way back to 1965, The Rolling Stones had a hit with their first ballad with "As Tears Go By," from the album, December's Children (And Everyone's.)

I gotta say, Soul Asylum's take on it is quite brilliant.  The melody is a bit unusual, but really stands out.  If you are going to rip off an artist (or artists,) you might as make rip off the talented ones.

Stickin In My Eye

Back in the early 90's we had a pretty cool public access station here in the Tampa Bay area.  There were a lot of music shows where guys would not only talk about national bands, but local bands as well.  You also had a lot of underground bands get shown.  You could find both videos and live performances getting played.

It just so happened I was flipping through when I saw this great song/video.  It wasn't high quality at all.  It was pretty low rent to be honest.  But the song and video were pretty funny in a punk rock way.  I had no idea who performed the song, only that it was about him having something in his eye.

I'd thought about that song over the years, even though I'd only heard it once.  Well, it occurred to me just the other day to check Youtube.  Even if it was a local band they're stuff gets posted on there as well. 

So I type in, "I've got something in my eye."  The first thing to pop up is NOFX's "Stickin In My Eye."  I thought, "NOFX?"  It couldn't have been them.  But you know what.  It was.

I remember the wild gang of fans singing in a chorus like fashion about them having something in their eye.  I'm just amazed that 20 years later I found this with help from the internet.  I'm going to have to think of other things I wondered about so many years ago.  Thanks internet.

A New Way of Hunting

I first started hunting when I was 12.  It seems like a long time ago, most likely because it was a long time ago.  Back then there was a moderate population of feral hogs.  But lately, the hog population has exploded.  And there are some simple reasons why.  A sow (female hog) can have up to four litters of piglets a year.  They have no natural predators, except for the odd alligator, and of course, man.

I remember back in the 80's there was a big anti-hunting movement.  The animal rights people did not like hunters shooting at bambi.  However, in these past few years the deer population has exploded in Northern states.  The average person has to worry about deer getting in their garbage, crop and flower gardens, and the massive damage that deer can cause when getting hit by a car.  Suddenly, deer aren't so cute anymore. 

In the North, many states have opened up hunting season so that there aren't so many deer competing for so little food during the winter.  I know of one place in Virginia when you buy your licence you get a licence to shoot one buck and two does.  If you fill that, you can go and get another permit for $12.00 letting you shoot one buck and two does.  And it goes on and on like that.  They really just want that $12.00.  But they are so overrun with deer they have to bring down the population.

So what does this have to do with hogs?  Well, in the Southern states we are having the same problem but with hogs. 

 

Here in Florida hogs and deer compete for a lot of the same food.  A lot of deer have been pushed out of their territory by feral hogs.  Just two years ago I shot a hog during the quota hunt season.  But I wasn't the only one.  There were only about 6 deer killed versus about 70 hogs killed during that time period.  Does that say something?  You bet it does.  The hog population has gotten out of control.

Hogs have started to creep into residental areas as well as farmland to seek out food.  The problem has gotten big in Texas.  They have an estimated 2.6 million feral hogs.  They have been destroying farmland in huge numbers.  It has gotten so bad that a bill was passed with help from Ted Nugent to allow hunters to take out feral pigs from helicopters.  That's right.  They can go all Vietnam style, and run down hogs with a helicopter while shooting semi-automatic rifles at them.

Here's the video from a series called "Pigman."

At first I wondered how bad the problem could really be.  If you've seen enough fishing shows, you know they fish over several days to get enough footage for a half hour programs.  At the end of the Pigman show, they said that they flew the helicopter for 8 hours and shot 272 feral hogs. 

Seriously?  272 hogs?  Okay, the problem is as bad as they say if they can shoot that many hogs in just 8 hours.  What you may not see in the trailer is that they are hunting strickly over farmland that has been taken over and destroyed by wild hogs. 

I was telling my Dad about this, and wouldn't it be great for him to get back in a helicopter, and take out a few hogs?  He just gave me "the look."  The background story on this is that, he flew in a helicopter once in Vietnam, and swore he would never get in one again.  You couldn't drag him kicking and screaming into a helicopter ever. 

So if I had the chance to shoot down hogs with an AR-15 rifle out of a helicopter would I do it?  You bet I would.  But Dad would take a pass.   

Guitar Project #7, The Rosewood Telecaster, Part 3

For Part 1:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster.html

For Part 2:  http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2012/05/guitar-project-7-rosewood-telecaster_26.html

So to make a long story short, I finally completed the Rosewood Telecaster.  I'll explain how I did it while posting pictures of my work.

First off, here's the body after routing and shaping.  I got it nice and sanded down.

Next I used Z-poxy to fill the grain.  This really helped one place on the back that had a hallow place in it.

Then I sanded down the Z-poxy.  Sidenote:  It really sands down nicely.

Then I put on the Tru Oil.

After sanding and buffing I had this:

Next, it was time to assemble the guitar. 

I had to use a different bridge pickup than I would have liked, but I will change this one out later.

Here's the shot of the back.

Overall not too bad.  There's a couple of places that I could have done better.  I am going to change the one pickup out when I have the chance/money.  Oh, I also need a strap as I have locking tuners.  So it's playable, but not completely done yet.  But I guess it's close enough for jazz.