Several things conspired to produce some new music. May 23 was Bob Moog’s birthday – he was a pioneer of synthesizers since the 1960s – that was the main thing that got me going. But I had also recently watched the “Dagger of the Mind” episode of Star Trek (“the original series”), and realized that […]
Read more "Dagger of the Moog Part 1"I actually started on piano, but then guitar, then bass, with a smattering of other instruments. I love the sound of the electric guitar. I spent most of 7th grade listening to the Beatles – I remembering listening to Abbey Road on headphones, and the part before “The End” after the drum solo when they’re […]
Read more "Why Bass?"Just in case there was any confusion, hieronymous and Gyokyo are two aspects of the same person – me! hieronymous is my musical identity – I have been a musician since taking piano lessons in the late ’70s as a kid. I switched to guitar and bass after we moved to Japan when I was […]
Read more "hieronymous = gyokyo"On Sunday, July 5, 2020, the Fare Thee Well shows from Chicago, 2015 were streamed in their entirety. I had never had much interest, having seen the second of the two Santa Clara shows and being somewhat underwhelmed. But now I’m used to watching shows online, with Phish, Dead & Co., and the Grateful Dead […]
Read more "Fare Thee Well Reflections"I’m not a fan of the “post 10 albums – no story, no review, just the picture” thing that’s been on Facebook recently. I want to hear something about the connection of the person with the album – it illuminates both the person and the music. We have more than enough disembodied images as it […]
Read more "Spotify + The Mechanics"One Live Badger is one of those albums that I was vaguely aware of as a Yes fan during the pre-internet days. I had probably seen the Roger Dean album cover in one of his album-cover-art books. It definitely is a cool cover, with a simple winter scene with actually existing animals as opposed to […]
Read more "Review: One Live Badger"This review is for the CD containing the first two albums. I give it 4 stars for prog-loving fans of H. P. Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle stories, the rating would be lower if you were expecting something else! When I first encountered the band, I was already a long-time fan of the author H. P. Lovecraft. […]
Read more "Review: H. P. Lovecraft (the band)"One more installment – realizing that I may have seen Rush four times instead of three! I definitely saw them on the Presto tour in Worcester when I was at Clark, on the Vapor Trails tour at Shoreline in 2002, and on the R40 tour at SAP Center in San Jose. But I have a […]
Read more "#epicrushmemories 3"One of my favorite basses in my collection is a 1976 Rickenbacker 4001 in the somewhat rare Autumnglo finish. I bought it used in 2002 – I even have a picture of it hanging in the window of Cambridge Music before I bought it: I saw it, couldn’t stop thinking about it when I got […]
Read more "Nova Autumnglo: Tale of a Bass Reborn"Another installment of #epicrushmemories! Neil Peart’s death early this year sent me down memory lane. Rush was a very important band to me in high school, and I have been trying to remember when I first discovered Rush. I thought it was in 9th grade when someone suggested I listen to “Tom Sawyer” or Exit… […]
Read more "#epicrushmemories 2"