Bumblefoot Week: Day 1 "Green"06/30/2008 (antiMusic) With a sound described as "The Sex Pistols meets Queen, with innovative guitar and a Zappa-esque twist" how could your interest not be sparked? We are talking about Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal who was thrust into the international spotlight a couple years ago when he joined Guns N' Roses and quickly won the fans over on their world tour. But that new gig hasn't changed Bumblefoot's DIY ethic as he continues to be a champion of the underground with his new self-released CD "Abnormal". That effort from the critically acclaimed rocker is available this week and we asked Bumblefoot to pick his favorite tracks from the album and tell us a bit about each one. He more than delivered! Here is Bumblefoot with today's song: "Green": I hate all my f**king songs. It's not that I hate them, it's just that either I change and don't feel the personal connection anymore, or I've gone through such sh*t to make the song happen, that it's like re-living that time you had to pull a rusty hook out of your foot, and couldn't. Such a song is "Green". I wrote the song 10 years ago. What I mean is I heard the music, the melodies, the arrangement, the instrumentation, and the feeling I got from the song and the message of the words that needed to be written, in my head - just needed to get it out of my head and fill in the missing pieces. Had the music ready for the "Uncool" album I was writing for, but could not get the right words. Nothing said it like it needed to be said. I had to search. I searched for 4 years, sleeping each night with a notebook behind my head, and would sometimes wake up at 4am out of a deep sleep and write down a phrase. I finally had the words, depicting what I saw inside. It took another 4 years before
I was *ready* to sing them. I wasn't ready to take on the song, after all
of that, it was too big a deal. What the f**k, it's just a song, right?
And I'm no Beethoven. So what the Hell's the big deal? I don't know - once
in a while a song rules you like that, and you have to be ready to take
the leap, it'll destroy you if you act too soon. This was one of those
songs. The other was a song called "Heart Attack," written around the same
time as Green. That one only took four years to find lyrics for, then
record. And it took dying and seeing the white light to get that one out. We're frozen inside while the
world keeps on melting Hearing is believing, so go here and grab a free MP3, learn more about Bumblefoot and the new album and buy 'Abnormal.' It's worth the price of admission! Lyrics ©2008 Neanderthal Noise Inc (ASCAP) reprinted with permission. |
Bumblefoot Week: Day 2 "Glad To Be Here"07/01/2008 (antiMusic) With a sound described as "The Sex Pistols meets Queen, with innovative guitar and a Zappa-esque twist" how could your interest not be sparked? We are talking about Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal who was thrust into the international spotlight a couple years ago when he joined Guns N' Roses and quickly won the fans over on their world tour. But that new gig hasn't changed Bumblefoot's DIY ethic as he continues to be a champion of the underground with his new self-released CD "Abnormal". That effort from the critically acclaimed rocker is available this week and we asked Bumblefoot to pick his favorite tracks from the album and tell us a bit about each one. He more than delivered! Here is Bumblefoot with today's song: After getting off a tour, the transition back to civilian life ain't easy - life feels *wrong*, like it isn't yours and ya don't belong there. Within 12 hours, I'm going crazy, have even less tolerance for the little things that piss me off, need to drive faster than a shitty old Hyundai was meant to, and am at a loss on how to budget my time, re-learning what a day is and what it's suddenly supposed to consist of. "Glad To Be Here" came out of one of those moments where you're in the last place you'd want to be. Like in the 80's at the DMV,
when the lines went out the door, ya get to the window and the lady says
there's another form to fill out, and you have to wait on line again for
another 3 hours. Or traffic court, waitin' to see the judge. I think I've
seen half the ones in NJ, one in Westchester, got out of having to sit in
one in Virginia. But yeah, if you're ever in that spot, in that kinda
traffic, in that kinda trouble, or with those kinds of people, think of
the verses to this song, it'll say it all for ya. I'm so glad to be here I could
slit my fucking wrist Hearing is believing, so go here and grab a free MP3, learn more about Bumblefoot and the new album and buy 'Abnormal.' It's worth the price of admission! Lyrics ©2008 Neanderthal Noise Inc (ASCAP) reprinted with permission. |
Bumblefoot Week: Day 3 "Redeye"07/02/2008 (antiMusic) With a sound described as "The Sex Pistols meets Queen, with innovative guitar and a Zappa-esque twist" how could your interest not be sparked? We are talking about Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal who was thrust into the international spotlight a couple years ago when he joined Guns N' Roses and quickly won the fans over on their world tour. But that new gig hasn't changed Bumblefoot's DIY ethic as he continues to be a champion of the underground with his new self-released CD "Abnormal". That effort from the critically acclaimed rocker is available this week and we asked Bumblefoot to pick his favorite tracks from the album and tell us a bit about each one. He more than delivered! Here is Bumblefoot with today's song: Redeye: So we're in this club in Tokyo, the band, crew, my wife, friends, having a great time. Only dim red lights in the club. This beautiful Japanese girl is all over us, couldn't understand a damn thing she was saying but spoke for hours. So there's me, my wife, this girl, we're just being silly, whatever, friends are laughing and taking pictures... get back to the hotel the next morning, go to bed, soon after I'm hearing this "voom voom voom" noise a half-second apart, I'm moving back and forth with it, thinking to myself "wow, the water's choppy." Then I realize I'm in a hotel, not on a boat. F**king earthquake. We get out of bed, the first thing I do is throw on a pair of pants - I WILL not die with my dick out, f**k that. We stand in the doorway of the bathroom, I hold my wife and tell her "this is gonna be a very long 30 seconds, just hang tight..." and we wait. The building didn't crumble, we went back to bed. The next time I saw my
friends, the photos they took came up - they said "what was up with that
girl?" Did you see the pictures? They showed me the pictures, and the
white light of the camera flash revealed that our exquisite lady friend
from the night before had some kind of super outbreak of conjunctiva goin'
on, I mean one of her eyes was so red it looked like a crime scene photo.
The lights in the club were red, so it canceled out the redness of her
eye, no one could tell...! And if we died in the earthquake, we never
would have known. It makes ya wonder - when people die, what little bit of
discovery do they miss out on, what would they have learned if they lived
one more day? So deep... For me, it was that the little Japanese girl had
a red eye. Great. Well it started with a sound I
never heard before So we crashed out a little bit
before the quake Hearing is believing, so go here and grab a free MP3, learn more about Bumblefoot and the new album and buy 'Abnormal.' It's worth the price of admission! Lyrics ©2008 Neanderthal Noise Inc (ASCAP) reprinted with permission. |
Bumblefoot Week: Day 4 "The Day After" and "Dash"07/03/2008 (antiMusic) With a sound described as "The Sex Pistols meets Queen, with innovative guitar and a Zappa-esque twist" how could your interest not be sparked? We are talking about Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal who was thrust into the international spotlight a couple years ago when he joined Guns N' Roses and quickly won the fans over on their world tour. But that new gig hasn't changed Bumblefoot's DIY ethic as he continues to be a champion of the underground with his new self-released CD "Abnormal". That effort from the critically acclaimed rocker is available this week and we asked Bumblefoot to pick his favorite tracks from the album and tell us a bit about each one. He more than delivered! Because of the Fourth of July holiday, we wrap up the special today with two song stories. But for the record, this has been one of the most popular artist week specials ever. Bumblefoot proved even more popular than platinum rockers Switchfoot and Rivers Cuomo. Three cheers for DIY! Now here is Bumblefoot with today's songs: "The Day After" This is
an instrumental song that comes after Redeye. A song that feels like the
day after, the earthquake day. The clock doesn't seem to measure time the
way you're feeling it. For the song, I recorded the drums at a faster
running speed so that when the song is played back at the correct speed,
they'd sound slowed down, to enhance the feeling like everything is
happening in slow motion. A "Strawberry Fields" kinda thing, or the very
end of the first KISS album, the "Black Diamond" fade-out. That shit
scared me as a kid. Laid all the guitar solos in one pass, no second
takes, just let it sing from within. Thought about those that didn't
survive, those that need to re-build, not knowing to what extent it would
be or for how many. Hopefully those periods in life where you're tallying
the dead are few and far between. Hearing is believing, so go here and grab a free MP3, learn more about Bumblefoot and the new album and buy 'Abnormal.' It's worth the price of admission! Lyrics ©2008 Neanderthal Noise Inc (ASCAP) reprinted with permission. |