Some TLC for My Mesa WalkAbout

My main amp for the past 20 years has been a Mesa WalkAbout Scout 1x15 combo. It’s a very versatile amp. The three band perimetric EQ is great for dialing out feedback for double bass. I’ve only had to have it serviced once about ten years ago when it started making a cracking sound. Well, it started cracking again last week.

20 Years of the Bottom Dwellers

It’s not terribly common for a band to stick together for a whole decade, let alone two! This year, the Bottom Dwellers celebrate our 20th anniversary! We even threw a big ol’ block party. I figured this would be a good occasion to share a few stories.

On Having Guns

I don’t believe citizens should be allowed to have guns. Not to buy, not to inherit, not to have in any capacity. Because efforts to sufficiently regulate them in the United States have been unsuccessful, I think applying a severe social stigma to having one might be the most effective option at this point.

How I Manage A Busy Gig Schedule

I played 100 shows last year, and I’m on track to play at least that many again this year. These aren’t back-to-back touring shows with the same band every night. There is no tour manager, itinerary, or even a single set list to memorize. This is by far the busiest I have ever been, and it’s really quite challenging to manage a schedule like this. I get asked quite frequently how I do it. This is the answer.

Missing Piece

New Music Tuesday: Kassi Valazza, Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing

Starved for live music during the pandemic, Kristyn and I stumbled upon Kassi Valazza one evening as we desperately scoured social media to find artists streaming online. We were instantly lost in the somber, delicate delivery of her songs, punctuated by the most tastefully haunting electric guitar. It would be three more years before we got the chance to catch her live.

I Built A Guitar Amplifier From Scratch

I’ve been studying the art of tube amplifier design for about ten years now, and actually repairing them for about five. I love analizing schematics, pouring over the inside of an amp chassis, and studying the layout choices made by the designer. It was only a matter of time before I took a crack at it myself. That time finally came.  

Bell Witch Canceled

Bell Witch has been one of my favorite bands since I discovered them some six years ago. Seeing them live has been a huge priority for me. They came through my area a few times prior to the pandemic, but each time, I was booked myself. And then there was the pandemic, of course.

New Music Tuesday: Julianna Riolino, All Blue

A number of Tuesdays have passed since Julianna Riolino’s incredible first full-length solo record, All Blue dropped (and 188 Tuesdays have passed since I last shared new music with you!), but this record is just so good that I had to break the silence.

The Continuing Downward Spiral of My Commute

Longtime visitors to my website will remember that I once worked my ass off to land a job in the town where I live that was only an 8-minute bike ride from my house. That job moved to a neighboring city at the start of the pandemic, and has been the cause of much turmoil ever since.

Fireside Prerelease on Bandcamp

My band, the Bottom Dwellers is offering a pre-release of our new album on bandcamp. Head on over there, throw us a few bucks and Fireside is yours. Yes! The whole thing!

Floss Archive

I have launched a website dedicated to my former band, Floss. I was moved to do this after the untimely passing of two of our friends and band mates. The website features a brief history of the band, music from our 1993 demo tape, a full-length album we finished recording but never released, and a small gallery of images.

This project was more difficult to complete than I had initially anticipated. I have never had a stronger urge to get the band back together while digitizing and mastering these old recordings. The realization that this can never happen is extremely upsetting to me.

Please enjoy the music on this website. I plan to release these recordings on all the streaming platforms in the near future.

The Target Distribution Center in Woodland, CA is HUGE!

I was looking up some directions the other day and couldn’t help but notice the footprint of our local Target Distribution Center. It’s HUGE! After a quick scan of the surrounding area, I determined that not only is it the largest building in town, but the largest in the county, and the greater Sacramento area as a whole.

Luke Bell. Remember In Prime

The light that burns twice as bright burns only half as long.

My Pedalboard for Summer 2022

My pedalboard just got a serious upgrade: a clock!

The True Cost of My Commute

I got sucked into a Twitter thread this week via Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher (@mbonsma) that referenced a Mr. Money Mustache article entitled The True Cost of Commuting. I hadn’t seen this article before, but as someone who regularly sweats the details over how much of my life (and wallet) my commute costs, it found it soberingly gratifying. It’s been a while since I revisited this topic, and a lot has changed since then. We’re due for an update, I think.

Rob Weychert on ProPublica’s Article Layout Framework

Rob Weychert, a Philadelphia-based designer/web developer I’ve been following for decades goes deep on the article layout framework he put developed for ProPublica:

Our articles are built on an underlying grid structure, which varies depending on the size of the reader’s device or browser window. On most mobile phones, the layout is based on a narrow four-column grid. On a tablet, it might be six or eight columns. And in a large desktop browser window, there’s enough room for 14 columns, the largest version of the grid.

[…]

We’ve built all of these layout options into our content management system so they don’t require our producers to have any coding skills to use them. But for code-savvy power users who want to extend the system, it’s built with Column Setter, the open-source tool we developed for grid-based editorial design. We recently updated it with a variety of new features.

As someone who has to revisit this exact issue periodically, it’s really cool to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how it works at one of your favorite news publications, and to hear one of your heroes go deep on fundamentals like this.

Bass Players That Inspire Me

I don’t really get asked this too often, likely because the genres of music I specialize in aren’t necessarily known for great bass players—in the sense of flashy playing. On the contrary, flashy playing is what usually makes a poor bass player. Here are players that inspire me.

Peterson StroboStomp Casualty

During a load in last week, I had a pedalboard casualty. The moral of the story: don’t let your power cable extend beyond the edge of your pedalboard.

K&K Bass Master Mods

I’ve written before about my love/hate relationship with my K&K Bass Master Rockabilly Plus. In short, the sound is phenomenal, but the execution is awful. After suffering with its flaws for the past 15 years, I finally decided I’d had enough and modded it.