jamielaboz.com

The Cleavers on TV

laboznik — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:37:41 +0000

Well sorta… me and some friends whipped up a new rock-n-roll, cooking show called, Rockin’ Gourmet, that lives on YouTube. The Cleavers perform the stoner-rock, instrumental, “Enter the Sausage”, at the 1:25 mark, then we BBQ some rib-eye. Also check out The Cordials, a new band featuring, Cristina Williams, Laura Kepner-Adney & Courtney Robbins, and their mixology. This is the pilot episode, there’ll be more very soon and some “Snack” episodes in between. Follow us on Facebook.

Happy New Year!

laboznik — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:53:04 +0000

Hope it’s your best year yet! Last year, especially December, was crazy busy. The Modeens got to team up with Seashell Radio’s Fen Ikner and Courtney Robbins, for a Beach Boys extravaganza at the Rialto Theater in Tucson. Here’s some Good Vibrations…

Classic Vibes

laboznik — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:49:49 +0000

I needed a solid bass to do some recording. We have a few vintage-y ones around, like a Danelectro, Crown, Kay & Domino, but for commercial music, i need a bass that’s a bit more solid, more importantly, with great intonation. Enter the Squier. Before i found this Classic Vibe Jazz Bass on Craigslist, for a mere $200, i poo-pooed Squires, with their bleached maple, satin-finished necks and limited boring colors, not to mention cheap hardware & electronics.

Well it seems like with this series, they finally got it right. It has a somewhat heavy basswood body, with a very nice, Olympic White paint job, a beautiful piece of quartersawn maple for the neck, with a very vintage, lacquer finish. The fretboard almost looks like endangered brazilian rosewood. Who knows, after all, it was made in China. Another unique feature is the heavy-duty hardware – thick chrome – the machines, control plate and bridge. It’s a far cry from the stamped metal hardware of previous Squires. Even more impressive are the brass saddles on the bridge, chunky, stable and one for each string – imagine that.

I threw a set of D’Addario flatwounds on, 45-100, some foam near the tailpiece and then it really came alive. The action is smooth & easy, very playable, with great intonation and feel. It sounds fantastic too, round, woody and dense – you can hear it in action, in an earlier post “Surf’s Up”. It was completely worth the discounted price and the full street price too ($349 US). The only suggestion i have to Fender, is to make the pickups a bit hotter, but you can use a preamp to juice it up for live or recording. Also the tortoise-shell pick guard could look a little more authentic.

Other than that, i highly recommend snapping up any guitar or bass in the Classic Vibe series. They’re all well worth the price of admission, look cool and play great. If history repeats itself, and it usually does, Fender will surely discontinue them before it’s time, making them collectible in the not-so distant future, and great players at a budget price for now. Do it!

New Releases

laboznik — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:08:02 +0000

Been busy getting together tracks for these 3 new releases, now available for download. Circuit Bent is a collection of jams on my homemade instruments. Music For TV Vol.10 is an EP of surf, garage & punk (sometimes all three at once). The Green Album (ext) is my psychedelic, concept album from 2008 with 7 bonus tracks. Check em out & tell your friends… have a listen >

KISStory

laboznik — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:43:17 +0000

When i was just 13, i got a rare opportunity to interview the biggest band in the world at the time – KISS! That was crazy enough, but what was even crazier was that they showed up without their makeup – unheard of at that point! It was three of us kids conducting the interview for Kidsday, a kid’s supplement to NY’s Newsday, the night after the Dynasty show rocked Madison Square Garden.

Only Gene & Paul arrived though, in fly, 3-piece suits at the Casablanca Records offices. So i asked where Ace & Peter were. Gene replied, “Some people like to party and other people really like to party”. Of course i had no idea what he was talking about… party? ice cream?? pin the tail on the donkey???

They were really nice to us, giving thoughtful & humorous responses to our often blunt questions, buying us milkshakes and letting us take any KISS records & schwagg we wanted. Strangely, i had an empty feeling afterwards, seeing my rock-god-heroes reduced to suit-wearing, nice, normal, soft-spoken gentlemen. i soon lost interest in the band and moved on…

view the full article >

Nu Wave Shoes

laboznik — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 20:07:09 +0000

Had to break out the skinny tie & pointy shoes, when i recently recorded a collection of new wave tunes for “Geek Love”. It’s a new show on TLC, about love connections at Comic Con. This tune is called “Star Glider”, I’ll post some others to my boombox soon…

Enter The Cleavers

laboznik — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 03:18:36 +0000

The Cleavers, my dual axe-bass, instrumental, stoner-rock band, debuted last night at Tom & Laura’s “Carportapalooza 3″. It was cool to finally bust out our riff-heavy, fuzzed-out rock to virgin ears. We took a wild ride through our originals, Meat Grinder, Ground Round, Enter the Sausage and Hogfoot. Gigs to come soon. Photo by Lisa Healey.

Surf’s Up!

laboznik — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 17:44:17 +0000

For the last few weeks, i’ve been cranking out tunes for the Viacom library, mostly in a surf, punk & garage vibe. I’ve been lucky enough to have Fen Ikner lend a hand, with his awesome drum stylings. Here’s the latest surf jam, “Wave Runner”…

Magic Bus

laboznik — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:36:40 +0000

The other day, i had the pleasure of meeting Paul Nosa. A musician on-the-go, whose live-in bus was complete with recording studio, two drum kits, guitars (strapped to the ceiling) and a bed. It was a truly impressive, mobile-jam-set-up. The pics don’t do it justice. It was pretty spacious and definitely cozy.

Updated Finally

laboznik — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 03:49:17 +0000

I went back to check out my site and was like damn, this sh&t’s older than the hills. So i simplified & updated. Hope you enjoy it, thanks for stoppin’ by.