It's the most Progiest Time of the Year

[TinKicker]

Greetinx Prog'ies!!!
We here at the TIИKICKER camp are in a festive mood,
with our first music video shoot planned for early next year
and the third album in the making.
A big Ho,ho, ho goes out to
everybody who helped and supported us in 2011,
and gave "The Playground at the edge of the Abyss"
such a a warm welcome.
Hope your Christmas and the New Year will
make all your dreams come true, you deserve it!
See you! in 2112 ooops!... in 2012!!!!
http://www.myspace.com/tinkicker
Tinkicker / Facebook

[John Watt]

Hey Tinkicker! Yeah, it's not the leap-progiest time of the year, but Christmas is close enough.
I'm thinking "A Hole in One for Children" as an alternate title take, not being about your abyss.
I'll look for you on Facebook and help pump up your stats.
That's the least I can do.

[TinKicker]

Thanks, mr. Hi'Watt's !
-any support is very welcome.
Don't be afraid to press the "I like" button.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/TINKICKER/66700722600

[John Watt]

TinKicker! We must be humming along the same wires here, if you know me that well.
I am afraid to press the "I like" button. I'm very self-conscious getting "likes" myself.
That was my first consideration, logging in today, this new year.
I'm getting a lot of likes, especially from one member, and that's not part of my computer use.
Should I "like" him back, at least once, or will I fall into a "like me"-"like you" habit?
If you're a TinKicker, is there a "TapeTwister" in your band?

Anyway, I got off on your vanishing into the universal horizon, video "liner" notes,
even if some of the musical influences you list didn't resonate with me while listening.
Rush? I jammed with Neil Peart as a local musician, and saw the original Rush in 1970,
with Mark Rutsey on drums, more Led Zep style, how Rush started, a semi-clone act.
I heard a lot of production, but the instrumentation sounded like it was all flowing together,
not a lot of counter-point or lead guitar breaking parts up, or adding a layer of dynamics.
I see what you wrote about your lead singer. Just stomp on his foot before high notes.
That always works.

[TinKicker]

The thing is with pressing "I like" is peoplefeel safer
doing so on a celebrity facebook, showing the world"I'm this kinda
person" just like everyone else..
Our stats show an increasing amount of viewers, but notthe "I likes".
So thank you for being brave, doing just so!
Great anecdotes from the past, we love 'em, our favoritepast time.
Thanks for the tip regarding the high notes, but thosedays are, sadly over,
as he has landed an endorsement deal with one of theleading
manufacturer of safety shoes.
"twisting the nyght away", .......

[John Watt]

You've got a nice Facebook presence, looking at that today, messaging a little.
I asked you there, as someone from far across the ocean,
have you ever tried to involve the as-yet-untitled Frederik Magle with your music?

Too bad about your singer getting stomp-proof.
I'm still sanding my headstock down once in while to remove nicks and dents,
helping the drummer out with his cymbals and other percussive sounds.
The bassist who got fired because he didn't like me lashing him onstage with my cord?
He should have played it out onstage, instead of trying to jam management with a "him-or-me" ultimatum.

Have you or your band members heard of "The Sheepdogs", the Rolling Stone cover winners?
They're almost local for me, and they played in Niagara Falls outdoors for New Years.
I hope your Marshall decorations didn't get too much fake snow sprayed on them.

[TinKicker]

Checked out " the sheepdogs "... a nice bluesy lynyrd skynyrd vibe...great looking geetar...
Regarding a possible F.Magle and Tinkicker co-operation sounds pretty exciting ,- on both sides across the great ocean,...a Suité for marshalls , organ pibes and air raid sirens...
it could be damn interesting ' maybe we should invite him for pizza and cold beer down our rehearsel bunker. Actual it is on our wish list to have a symphonic wall of sound... but I don't think he will settle for a nice dinner and a handshake... any ideas ?... anyways! won't die trying.
our marshalls survived the 'canned' snow... it was nothing ! they been stabbed, burned and flooded twice and still cranks on...solid handywork of those "englishmen".
A Highlander salute from the Lowlands of ol'Denmark...Roll the bones...

[John Watt]

Thanks for checking out the Sheepdogs. They're a hard working band.
Your Lynyrd Skynyrd assessment is right on. I'd like to hear more of an Allman Brothers influence myself.

The reason I mention getting together with the untitled Frederik Magle is seeing his one video, very impressive.
It wasn't so much the airport and airplane or any computer effects that made watching it enjoyable.
Seeing Frederik Magle standing there playing, hearing the fullness of his sound with how it accented the action,
was a very intelligent application of all those resources.

Frederik Magle got back to me about one of my postings. I thought I was being trippy, sincere, but coming from a Jimi Hendrix perspective.
He was into it right away, talking about how the mechanics of the organ created opportunities for sound feeding back at him,
a perspective on the organ I wouldn't have imagined. He also discussed the sounds of the mechanics in front of him.
Maybe before you even finished your meal with him he could improvise some parts that would add a transcendent quality to your songs.
Just hearing that once would be a nice lesson or styling cue for you to use as long as you're getting off on it.

When Marshall stacks first came out, and I had to order directly from England to get the new stuff,
I drilled two holes in the cabinet under the input to use a U-shaped clamp to hold my guitar cord in.
I was out there on the dance floor, and sometimes yanked it out.
The next time I would have yanked it, I pulled the whole stack over, crashing to the stage, stopping everything.
Standing it back up was all it took to keep going. It fell over again, so the clamp came off.
I'm surprised the tubes didn't shatter or pop loose.

A lot of what makes Marshall the amps the way they are is the direct result of Jimi Hendrix visiting Jim Marshall to order.
Jimi not only had a vision of what he'd like from an amp, he also wanted reliable systems around the world.
He ordered complete amp and p.a. set-ups for North America, England, Europe and Australia.
That kept him going around the world.
Now, when you visit Jim Marshall, the sign "Jimi Hendrix put us on the map", hangs over his door.

It's so nice talking about Jimi, after seeing him in Toronto, not that I'm holding him over your head.
But you say Marshall to me, and I also think Jimi.

TinKicker! I wouldn't hesitate to invite Frederik Magle to be part of your sound.
Not to put you down, but I'm sure he's so tech savvy he might surprise you with the immensity of his contribution,
even if it seems like he's just tossing it out. I wish I was in your Denmark location. I'd be asking all the time.

Here's some new minor key lyrics by me. Feel free.
"Dreams are in my heart, and dreams are where it starts, with you girl.
The dreams that are in my soul, are the dreams that are in control, about you girl."

"a Suite for Marshalls, organ pipes and air raid sirens", nice! The ghost of Nicolo Paganini might play along.
I can imagine a graphic like a Marshall stack with an organ pipe, looking like a fool security high-tech gun.
You can hit me with a few notes from that, if you want to.

[TinKicker]

We will follow the path down Magle lane , I am sure that the sounds that comes out of his pibes will sound dramatic and exciting mixed with our bombastic excesses , that we call music.
before I used a marshall amp. from 1972... now I use a JCM 900... oh those memories...
Talking of Jimi.. I have to mentioned pete Townshend and John Entwistle( the man with back-line named after Manhattan skyline)... The folklore according to a Who'oster , Chas chandler saw the Who's arsenal and Jimi was convinced ... and now it is all history... from which we all benefited ... and take a bow...

a marshall loaded with titanium organ pipes...looking like a Hot rod , "as a bat out of hell"...I will pass this on to our graphics "dept."..

[John Watt]

"A Marshall loaded with titanium organ pipes...looking like a Hot rod", made me think a pack of, uh, silver cigarettes.

I totally resent Pete Townsend attempting to feed off the legacy of Jimi Hendrix.
He was the first and only rock star to put Jimi down and try to depict him in unsavory perspectives.
Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney were the first English musicians Jimi was taken to see, and to see him.
It was Paul McCartney who surprised festival owners by insisting on adding Jimi immediately to the lineup.
Backstage, everyone wanted to hear Jimi play, just seeing him and talking to him. He had an incredible presence.
Very gracious, soft, unassuming, moving, aware enough of his total environment to reflect it all in his music.
But Pete Townsend was angry, supposing he was going to lose being the final act of the night.
The whole scene was degenerating into agent hell when Jimi merely stood on a chair with his Strat,
and started playing, unplugged. It got quiet right away, everyone wanting to hear. I still want to hear him.
Pete Townsend was the only person in the room who thought he should still be the closing act.
He thought destroying their equipment and as much of the stage as they could would be dramatic.
Jimi borrowed a can of lighter fluid and the rest is history.
Back then, a lot of people thought Jimi was always burning his guitar and using needles to inject L.S.D. in his eyes.
But he only burned his guitar in the United States this one time, and with a great sense of confrontation,
burned it once in England, much later. Look at the publicity he got.
Pete Townsend had deep personal and health problems. This "loss" with Jimi only exaggerated that.
He would go into a city and buy all the sixties Les Pauls and S.G's and start his sound check by smashing them,
one by one, if they weren't perfectly in tune. He smashed sixteen instruments that way in Toronto, one night.

Too bad he didn't find his own worth within himself simply as a singer-songwriter-guitarist, and stage performer.
Not everybody can be all that, and a master lead guitarist and electronic inventor, like Jimi.
And considering the way Pete Townsend feels entitled to be admired, I don't like him either.
I don't like liars to begin with, even if their promotion makes them look real.

And I don't think of Frederik Magle as just a pipe organ, or cathedral organ, player.
He could plug in a cheap synth and get it resonating along with anyone's frequencies,
and the sounds he would bring would allow a cosmic consciousness to surround you,
not the dour Dane of dark and medieval retro style. Everything is global here. Big globes too.

[TinKicker]

Seeing and hearing Jimi for the first time, most have been a mind blowing experince!?
what do you think of post mortem releases from Jimi's estate ? are they a worthy addition to his heritage ?
An afterThought ! where would Jimi be today, , if he not tragically had died so young ?
You are right, Frederik Magle has a universal and unique talent - shining from our small country..
Call it art or drama ?, but it actually breaks my heart to see the great geetarz, some I can't even afford, to be smashed , burned or blown up ect...
"Oh it breaks my heart to see those stars
Smashing a perfectly good guitar"
words of John Hiatt...
..Sometimes more is less..
Salute , from a winter hit- Denmark with the gloomy nordic mentality ...

[John Watt]

TinKicker! Let me thank you for your creative and personal reactions to my commentary.
It took listening to your music to interest me in getting back to you.

Jimi had two amps for the guitar and bass, with two mikes for everything, vocals too, stereo separation.
He had wires going into the four corners of the arena for remote speakers.
Two separate systems created sound with big knobs on boards up front,
where a roadie watched Jimi waving his guitar, conducting the wash of stereo effects.
That was mind-blowing, hearing Jimi play and hearing the sound follow his movements.
The sound also went front to back and circled around.

The albums Jimi Hendrix released are the only Jimi Hendrix releases. Three albums.
He considered "Electric Ladyland" to be the beginnings of getting it together as he heard.
I hear a third of that album as being Jimi's epitome.
It's interesting to hear other incomplete, authentic Hendrix, for clues to his recording techniques.
I see "Red House" from "Live in the West" and "Woodstock" as live recordings worthy of Jimi onstage.
Jimi had a musical agenda we can only wonder about, other than saying he had yet to present himself completely.
He controlled his image as much as his sound.

If I can ask, what is TinKicker doing for an onstage act, show, or expression of musical solidarity?
If "the gloomy nordic mentality" is where you're at, do you feature stills from an Ingmar Bergmann movie,
photos of older people dressed in winter clothes looking away over the distant horizon of frozen trees?
Or are you like drunken frat boys crashing in the snow, waiting for a St. Bernard's booze barrel?
I heard the reindeer around your studio have had their antlers filed to sharp points with skull studs drilled in.
And I heard you guys run around naked with your guitars in the summer, lichen it or not.

Winter. What is it now? Scientists always said the global warming would benefit the Niagara Peninsula the most.
As waters warm, being between the bottom of Lake Erie and Ontario means moderated temperatures.
There is no snow outside right now. It's not freezing. It's still January, but it's not winter.
Southern Ontario has a warmer average temperature than Florida, in the last ten years.
The birds are gone, except for the ones that stay, congregating around rivers and creeks.
So it looks like fall, or early spring, but it's still dead and mostly empty, a hybrid of season and seasonality.

For post-sauna winter warmth, I recommend a little oxygen deprivation, Inuit style.
When you are making love, slow down, start kissing softly, and continuously.
Be breathing each other's breath back in and out, slowly losing oxygen, slowly slowing down.
Soon, you will be feeling short of breath, but you are feeling so much more,
when you start panting, not throat-singing, it enhances your mood together,
beyond the body's excitement, bringing your minds together in a kinda comatose way.
If that seems repulsive at all, stay under a blanket re-breathing air.
That might take longer and have less effect, but you'll get the idea and maybe get interested for real.
Yeah, imagine living in an environment where there are no plants, no alcohol,
and unless you're outside for your own survival, you're all living together to be warm.
A little bit of oxygen deprivation can go a long way. That girl I uh, hibernated with?
Oh, I should have married her.
Onstage, a dense fog machine could do the same thing. I recommend a pine scent for you.
Unless a ritual with burning deer dung is a cross-cultural necessity.

As I was leaving some bands, sometimes a musician, usually the keyboard player,
would come up to me and say John, admit it, you never really learned the songs.
Some guys would wave me off, saying I didn't really appear onstage. I'm not sure.
Either way, there usually was a sad looking blonde woman standing there, looking at my horizon,
my slow departure reminding her of the glacial flow of her native country.
Yeah, I landed in more than just a few laps.
smell ya later

[TinKicker]

haha!... thank you for the pictures you started in my head , but you must think about the brave people of Soumi, ....- unfortunately it is not that exciting in Denmark... no deers in the streets , only maybe a stray cat , a sewer rat...-a lost drunken swedish moose could occur, but most animals, live nicely in the forests ect.. You know! this is Fairytale land.... your winter sound very much like the danish one , this year at least. The last 2 years we were covered in snow for 5 months... this year we have , what we call, a green - winter... The winter season, this year, is more a state of mind, due to all the shades of grey and darkness that surround us.. but as northerners , we should be used to it ... I must admit I look forward wake up to 2012's first dawn chorus...Regarding your Inuit-recommendation, it maybe explains why Tinkicker are so happy rehearsing in our Bunker 2 m. under street level..low on oxygen and light... that maybe also explains our late blooming...
TinKicker have discussed the foto and filmic back drop... the chess playing mr.Death from " Det Sjunda inseglet " or the mad clergyman from Fanny og Alaxander ( maybe this is too light! ... but you know the dynamics in 'light/dark'... and also we are working on the psykadellic liquid light show, the fog machine works fine... some times with a sweet intoxicating scent -known to occur in some danish venues ...'
"the blond sad girl" , I think I have met her, her name was Susan, Ginny , Grethe, lisa ect...
Over and out ! , in the lap of the gods...and women

[John Watt]

Yeah! I'm getting off on your reply, but it is so warm outside, my bicycle is calling me.
Time to get out, uh, huffing and puffing my way around the Niagara Peninsula.
Except for waiting to purchase a Frederik Magle recording,
the only Danish I see around here is at the donut shop.
Next time I bite into one, I'll think TinKicker.
Over, and expecting soon to be out.

[John Watt]

TinKicker! I'm just kickin'it to bump you up.

When they were building the underpass for the new Welland Canal bypass,
my friends and I would stomp on a pop can so it bent and stuck to our feet.
The sloping concrete was enough to slide on, and the echoes were loud.
Not exactly tin kicking, just some pop can clomping.