LFA News … And pictures!
While Sir Pent and I proceed to work on what will probably be some sort of EP release that I have entitled “Copyright Is For Losers” (although that title is contested, I believe), Chopper Newt has been in occultation apparently working on an LFA concept album. I mean, if Green Day can do it, why can’t we? Without a doubt we are cooler than Green Day. Poorer, too. I have no idea what the Newtski is really doing, but he revealed some of new lyrics last eve and I was suitably impressed by their po-mo stream of consciousness style.
Meanwhile, the Newt is going to sing on our next single “Dance Theodora,” since he apparently liked my punk-pop composition. At least two more tunes are in works that I think will see the light of day soon, too.
Also meanwhile, I’ve been saying goodbye (temporarily since I’ll be back next month, and then again probably next year) to New York City. I’m not sure LFA can survive without a presence in Brooklyn, so I’m keeping the address.
Here’s new DUMBO graffito that I found quite appropriate:
That’s what I’ve been thinking all month…
Here’s the Manhattan Bridge this morning:
Damn nice morning it was, too.
Here’s my favorite Brooklyn Mexican joint:
And here’s the Gecko last eve after a few beers playing his brother-in-law’s classical guitar (I tried to steal this guitar, which sounds really nice, but was caught. Now it has to stay in Brooklyn when I emigrate back to Ohio for the year. Boo.):
A few more…
Here’s the Brooklyn Bridge in the morning sun:
The Brooklyn Naval Yard (What you see from my apartment when you look away from Manhattan. Not quite so awe-inspiring.)
I should mention we have two cats here: the mother is named Navy and the kitten is named Yard. I didn’t pick out the names.
Here’s New Jersey as seen from an airplane where it’s much more impressive:
And finally, some nice irises for a touch of blue:
May 19, 2009 at 8:14 pm
The last photo frightens me deeply.
May 19, 2009 at 8:33 pm
What’s wrong with the last photo?
May 19, 2009 at 9:20 pm
We are all scared, Herne.
May 19, 2009 at 9:30 pm
FUSP.
You can’t even play drums in time.
May 19, 2009 at 9:41 pm
It’s better to look good than to play good.
May 19, 2009 at 9:42 pm
Well, then you’re two down. Bummer.
May 20, 2009 at 8:06 am
More pictures….
May 20, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I think there is no doubt that Herne has problems.
May 21, 2009 at 6:29 am
What? Are you new? I came back here, didn’t I?
May 21, 2009 at 9:20 am
What would we do if you DIDN’T come back Herne?
May 22, 2009 at 3:34 pm
He’s our biggest fan. He may be our ONLY fan!
May 23, 2009 at 5:25 am
Herne is the Yolanda Saldivar to our Selena.
May 23, 2009 at 7:36 am
I was going to say that Herne is Annie Wilkes to our Paul Sheldon.
May 23, 2009 at 1:26 pm
OK, Chopper is getting a tad obscure here. As usual. Pent, you aren’t so obscure.
May 25, 2009 at 8:35 pm
You erased Russian spam? Are you sure it was spam? I’ve been hitting up Russian podcasts trying to get them to play our stuff!!
Seriously.
May 25, 2009 at 9:19 pm
I assume all Russian stuff is spam. We get tons of it, all in Cyrilic.
Heard the new Chopski version of DT? It’s good. Little more work and it’s finished.
May 25, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Here I am trying to spread our music to Russia and your rock-blocking me!
I’m going to need some time to adjust to the new version.
May 25, 2009 at 9:40 pm
…and am I the only one who noticed that we have gotten a ton of plays on reverbnation the last couple of days>
May 25, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I noticed that your grammar is terrible, as usual. At any rate, if people are writing to us in Russian, it’s not going to be super helpful. But Russian spam is hitting wordpress blogs badly. Check out the forums.
May 26, 2009 at 7:55 am
I initially approved one over the weekend, but then babelfish-ed it and decided it was in fact spam, dis-approved it and erased it. I don’t remember what it said but it was clearly spam. It’s easy enough to put the text in a translator and find out what it is.
May 20, 2009 at 6:12 pm
(Flowers frighten me.)
May 20, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Sounds to me like you have some issues, then ….
May 21, 2009 at 6:38 am
Yeah, that takes some pretty serious issues. If this weren’t my site I wouldn’t even come back here. But I feel some responsibility for it.
Speaking of the site, I think we need a theme change. I’m getting tired of the color scheme.
May 23, 2009 at 3:48 pm
You are a dirty birdie, Pent.
May 23, 2009 at 3:49 pm
And you need to fix the random placement of replies. Sheesh.
May 23, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I don’t know what’s up with that. The blog became postmodern, I guess. Maybe I should move the header to the bottom. And upside down.
May 25, 2009 at 8:31 am
Also…. who among we Lizards just approved the Russian Spam that I had to erase?
Pretty much if it’s Russian, we just erase it, right?
May 26, 2009 at 11:03 am
Indeed. I regularly erase dozens of Russian spam in our spam filter. Don’t know what those crazy Russians are up to. Well, I do, but anyway…. they seem to be the new Nigerians of the internet scam world. I’ve been getting more and more spam on my gmail, too.
Too bad the internet became the wild west of the commercial world, I suppose.
May 26, 2009 at 11:28 am
The one I saw in the “spam” folder translated to something like:
good post. Great work!
May 26, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I guess the idea is to get approved for commenting here by sending out innocuous messages that might convince those who aren’t really paying attention–and then the real spam will come in.
May 27, 2009 at 7:40 am
BTW, I understand, sort of, why the reply system has gone screwify: for some reason the domain name has finally changed. Although Chopper had secured “lizardsfromafar.com” for us a while back, if you typed that in the site always defaulted to “lizardsfromafar.wordpress.com.” Not it defaults to “lizardsfromafar.com” and that seems to have brought in various bugs–at least for me. For example, when I’m on the blog, not the dashboard, the site doesn’t recognize me as logged in, even if I’m logged in! Weird.
WHY this has happened, of course, I have no idea.
May 27, 2009 at 8:10 am
I just had to renew the mapping in the last couple days, but it was presented to me as a renewal, not something any different than we’d had for the last year. Also, the comments were wonky a while before I renewed the service.
May 27, 2009 at 8:15 am
Well, there goes that hypothesis. Maybe I can still blame the control panel problem on it.
Had a chance to check the fixed DT drum track? I’m very curious to know if it will work. Haven’t had an opportunity to plug in the guitar for two weeks now. Sigh.
May 27, 2009 at 9:24 am
Are you talking about Cluster Map or the mapping of http://www.lizardsfromafar.com to this blog-site?
May 27, 2009 at 11:11 am
The second thing.
May 27, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I am expecting big things from the next Cluster Map update. We’ve had a lot of visitors over the past few weeks.
(I hear they’d post something if it weren’t for fear that the Gecko would chastise their grammar.)
May 27, 2009 at 1:38 pm
I only correct your grammar, boyo.
May 27, 2009 at 4:48 pm
My grammar is perfectly good
May 27, 2009 at 6:17 pm
Well. Your grammar is perfectly well.
May 27, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Thank you for correcting me.
I have well grammar.
May 27, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Zut alors! Tu parlez tres bon.
In other news, I’m kicking myself for not checking craigslist early enough today. Some poor sap in financial trouble advertised his Fender pro jr, a beautiful little 15 watt tube amp for a mere $200 (they go new for $460) at 6:00 am. I saw the ad by 8:00 and immediately said I’d take it, but somebody had already taken it.
So on my way to a haircut, I stopped by Hauer music. Lo and behold, they have the Pro jr on sale for $375 and said they’d give me $150 for my tele as a trade. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I’d surrender the black tele for $200–for a tube amp–but not $150.
Merde alors!
May 27, 2009 at 8:47 pm
Oh spend the $50 cheapy.
May 27, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Na. It’s the principle of the thing. The guitar is worth more than that.
May 28, 2009 at 9:15 am
Oh, principles. I should get me some of those.
May 29, 2009 at 11:17 am
SO THAT MATT CAN GET BACK INTO HIS 80′S SHAPE:
STEVE VAI TO RELEASE NAKED TRACKS BOX SET:
Hollywood, CA (May 28, 2009) – Steve Vai is set to release his famed Naked Tracks on CD for the first time. Previously only sold on http://www.vai.com and iTunes as downloads only, Vai wanted to give his fans and players of all ages something special – An excellent practice tool for any guitarist. “Through the years, whenever I would mix my records I would usually do a mix of specific songs without the lead guitar. This allowed me to play along with the track or make loops to jam to, and because I figured perhaps someday maybe others would like to do the same,” explains Vai. “Voila! We have arrived at someday!”
Naked Tracks is housed in a special limited edition digi-pack box set. This series of play-along CDs is designed to help create an atmosphere of focus so you can shred yourself into a personally-induced inspirational nirvana. Included in the set are 5 CD’s featuring backing tracks from the following albums:
• Passion And Warfare • Sex & Religion • Alien Love Secrets • Fire Garden • The Ultra Zone • Alive In An Ultra World • Real Illusions: Reflections.
You can download the liner notes, transcripts, tab, lead sheet and scores all available soon at http://www.vai.com/nakedtracks. Here Vai will give the various parameters regarding the key, scale, time signature and more of each track as well as guitar solo transcripts and tabs.
Steve Vai is one of the most influential guitarists of our time. The Naked Tracks box-set is a testament to his vanguard approach and creative mind-set. This box set is a must-have for the aspiring guitarist, the seasoned guitarist and for all Steve Vai collectors.
For more information click on http://www.vai.com or call the Guitar Center nearest you and find out your stores date of arrival for the Naked Tracks box-set! For outside of the USA go to your nearest retail store or if you want it NOW download the full version from http://www.vai.com or iTunes.
June 4, 2009 at 6:01 am
Cluster map update
June 4, 2009 at 7:39 am
Cool. I wonder who the 9 people were who visited here yesterday.
BTW, check your inboxes and listen to the new demo. I’m feeling so country these days.
May 31, 2009 at 3:48 am
Steve Vai is the super geek of the guitar world. Bless him for it.
I’d go get this, but I probably couldn’t play any of his lead tracks to save my life, so it would be a waste of time.
Speaking of time, why the hell am I awake at 4:48 in the morning? Oh, yeah: insomnia.
May 31, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Dude can make his guitar talk. Sweet.