Jeremy Bent

After running into a number of fun covers of the Ventures’ instrumental “Diamond Head,” I decided to do a week dedicated to the song on Fuck Yeah Surf Rock. Each day I’ll be posting a new version of “Diamond Head,” starting with today’s post of the Ventures performing the original track. Diamond Head, in addition to being the name for a film, two separate bands, a record label, a 70s game show and the name of a completely different song by the Beach Boys, is a volcanic tuff cone on Oahu. It looks like a giant crater in the middle of the city, and is a popular tourist destination in Waikiki. Unsurprisingly, Diamond Head has become a popular point of reference for surf bands and other entertainment set in Hawaii.

I should mention “Diamond Head” itself wasn’t a particularly popular Ventures song, although it did chart in the Top 100. It certainly wasn’t in the realm of “Walk Don’t Run” or their covers of “Perfidia” or the Hawaii Five-O theme, for which the Ventures remain well-known. But it’s a good one and I like it. Other musicians seem to enjoy it enough that there’s a wealth of well-done cover versions out there, so I’m declaring it “Diamond Head” week in celebration of its greatness.

Hi all. It’s come to my attention that many of you still visit this website, and yet, you may not be aware of my other web projects. These projects are all updated more frequently than this blog, but I’m working on that as well. But why not take a moment for all of you who read this site and give you an introduction to the others? Then it won’t be awkward when you meet at parties.

Good Songs Bad Lyrics was an idea I had bouncing around in my head for about a year, but I waited to start until earlier this year. I was convinced I would run out of material almost instantaneously. I might, if I focused exclusively on bad lyrics, but the blog has since expanded to cover tacky or ridiculous videos, and bad music industry fashion as well. With that three-part fuel source, I expect us to be able to run indefinitely. Updates every weekday.

Fuck Yeah Surf Rock is new. It’s my own contribution to the narrowcast world of Fuck Yeah tumblrs, such as Fuck Yeah, Tattoos or Fuck Yeah Sharks. I have a deep, deep obsession with surf music that started with the Beach Boys when I was a kid. I definitely know a lot more about it than a guy from Rhode Island who’s never been surfing should, and it killed me that there wasn’t a tumblr for it. So I started it, and it’s fun. Updates every weekday.

I’m also on Twitter now, in case you hadn’t heard. Updates when I feel like it.

I’m also working on other, non-Internet-based projects, but as you might expect, these are difficult for me to link. In any event, I ask that if you like any of the above, please follow, add or visit them appropriately, and maybe, if you’ve got a second, tell your friends about them. Thanks.

It’s a tense weekend for all us improv folk, but remember…

YOU… MUST… CHILL!!

I’ve been itching to start a band for about five years now. This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the same amount of time I’ve owned my bass guitar. But something now is telling me it’s time. It is time to call my allies to my side and form a truly righteous band.

As a bass player, I put myself closer to “tin-eared amateur” than “self-taught wunderkind,” but I have chops enough to manage most rock tunes, with Geddy Lee & Flea-style fireworks being above my level. I also own a guitar and keyboard, although my proficiency with them is far lower. However, I also know I am nowhere near as good as I would be if I were playing regularly, as last summer’s stint with the Stems proved to me. By August, I was probably the best I’ve ever been on bass. And I’m sure I could be better. This is how I’m going to make it happen.

So, I’m looking for a few good musicians. Correction: I’m looking for a few friendly, enthusiastic musicians. Technical proficiency is kind of a side concern at the moment. I’m after people who want to get together and write some songs, play music, get better at both of those things, and have a good time. I feel like I know enough people in NYC that this is possible. A recent poll via facebook revealed that I know many people who play instruments. Clearly it is time to tap this deep well of talent that is my circle of friends. I know I know a couple of drummers. I know enough singers to do a six part harmony, I’m sure. Let’s ferret out some guitarists, maybe some peeps on keys and some weird instruments and make this happen. If I know you and I don’t know you play an instrument, please make me aware.

My dream band sounds like: early B-52s crossed with 80s hair metal times Talking Heads weirdness, Bernie Worrell-style. But I’d be happy if we could just cover “Dance This Mess Around.”

So I’ve got a bunch of rewards points stockpiled on my credit card. Here is my dilemma. Should I:

(a) be responsible and replace my pillows and duvet, which are old and definitely need replacing, and are possibly full of anti-sex mojo, which would explain a lot?

or:

(b) be irresponsible and buy a Muppet?

These are the times that try men’s souls.

Over the Christmas holiday, I was rankled yet again by the inappropriate use of BMI (body mass index). As I mentioned in my previous discourse on the subject, BMI is a guideline for entire populations, not individuals. So imagine my surprise when Wii Fit told me I was significantly overweight due to my high BMI, and saw fit to change my Mii into a chubster. Guess what, Wii Fit? I’m not a spry Japanese man. I am an oversized American man of Scottish heritage, and my feet don’t fit on to your precious fucking balance board.

I’m especially disappointed with this application of BMI as a lot of kids play Wii Fit. BMI doesn’t take into account the physiques of children, which are markedly different, and apparently Wii Fit doesn’t take into account the physiques of Americans. Now, I don’t want to defend the US too vigorously, as we are a fat, fat country. Oh my are we ever rotund. But this is creating a weight problem where there is none. People are differently shaped. People from different parts of the world, doubly so. So maybe Nintendo takes a few extra days of programming time to come up with a slightly differently way to measure how overweight someone is for the sake of accuracy. Because now my Mii is much fatter than anyone on my brother’s Wii, and let’s just say that’s not necessarily the case in real life (sorry bro).

I’ve got a pretty long-standing love affair with video games. Although I liked playing them as much as most kids of the 80s, I think I can trace the obsession back to the fall of 1993. I was in sixth grade, and my friend Cliff bought Final Fantasy (the orig) for the NES at a garage sale for like $15. We played it for like ten hours straight - first at his house, and then Cliff coming back to my house to sleep over so we could keep playing. Computer games were a pretty big constant in my house with my programmer brother and former computer salesman father, but when I got the SNES (and later, the Playstation), my obsession exploded. If it was made by Squaresoft and released in America, I probably played and beat it at some point between 1995 and 1999.

This was more or less pre-Internet. Admittedly, I lived in a stronghold of tech nerds, so we had a modem back in 1990, when there was nothing to see, and I think I registered my first Yahoo! mail account in 1996. But when I say pre-Internet, I mean Internet as we know it now, a well-organized resource with thousands of people contributing information for no apparent gain. Which is to say, I beat most, if not all of these games, without consulting some kind of strategy guide or walkthrough. I believe I used to pride myself on the fact that I could make it through these games without resorting to buying the $15 guide most of my friends relied on. I’m pretty sure I considered that cheating. (more…)

Two people who had never seen me before separately came to the conclusion that I looked like David Hasselhoff.

“But like a young David Hasselhoff!” they said, trying to soothe my horrified reaction.

Damage done, ladies. Time to get this mop chopped.

I’ve been teaching myself the ways of the surprisingly robust Little Sound DJ, a composition tool and music tracker for the Nintendo Game Boy. Coming off the musical high of working with the Apple Sisters, I wanted to keep pushing my brain towards musical endeavors. I got seriously inspired watching the chiptune documentary, Reformat the Planet, and I’d thought I’d try my hand at some 8 bit music.

It’s been interesting. The learning curve on LSDJ is not bad for a program on a system with only 8 buttons. It would’ve been wildly unsuccessful as an actual Game Boy game, because you really do need to read the manual and know how to navigate it, etc. What really shocks me though is how broad the functionality of the program is. Considering the Game Boy is a 20 year old piece of techonology, it’s impressive that you can have it run all of this wave synthesis and so forth with surprisingly complex sound.

I nabbed an old school GB off of ebay the other day, so as soon as I feel comfortable enough with it, I’m going to get the necessary equipment to make my own carts and start playing music off of it. My goal is to come up with a few songs and maybe play an open mike night. There’s a popular one down the street from my apt. that I’d like to perform at if I get some material I like. At the moment I’m torn between whether to keep it all on the Game Boy or to play bass under whatever melody/beat combo I come up with. I assume this will resolve itself when I’ve got things a little more fleshed out. Right now my compositions are more “ringtone” than “actual song.”

I’ve been thinking “I can do this” more than I ever have previously in my life. I mean it in the sense of, “If I devote enough time and energy to this, I can accomplish this and accomplish it well.” Cases in point:

-Roller derby: possibly the jumping off point for all this positivity. I started working with the league a year ago, barely being able to skate on quads, not knowing the rules, etc. Now I skate better than 99% of the population (although still one of the worst in the league) and ref with one of the most respected leagues in the country. One year.

-Novel: Although my progress has slackened significantly, I started working on a novel earlier this year independent of NaNoWriMo and was pretty confident it was write something worthwhile. I’m a little stalled on it, mostly due to time, but I won’t give it up. The 80 pages I have still make me laugh, and I easily rate in the best work I’ve done.

-Playing bass for real: I launched myself into playing bass for the Apple Sisters with as much gusto as my four completely unfocused years of playing would let me, and what do you know? It turned out pretty well. I was rarely note perfect in the first few weeks, but I did learn a lot, have fun, and meet some great people. By the second half of our run, the Stems were sounding pretty tight as well.

And so on. I’m approaching a state where my intimidation factor for attaining almost any new skill is zero. I don’t know where my DIY spirit has been hiding my whole life, but it’s finally starting to get me to ignore the fact that I grew up as essentially a talentless child. Now if only I can find a job as a roller-skating comedy bass player. That’s got to exist, right?