@self-tort
Category: 2008 Blog 1
Just letting you all know that I am to be interviewed <strong>this afternoon</strong> on a local radio station. The interview will start at 5pm Sydney time (which as best I can work out is 7am GMT/UTC or 3am EST - hmm maybe the odd night owl will be up).<br /><br />I will be taking some CDs which will include some mixposure collabs I've been involved in and will probably be doing a couple of live acoustic originals as well. It will go for an hour and from past experience is likely to have some wacky moments. So if you happen to be sleep deprived and need a remedy for insomnia click in and have a listen.<br /><br />Unfortunately there is no chat room or forum on the station's site.<br /><br />The url for the site is <a href="http://www.skidrow.com.au/">http://www.skidrow.com.au/</a> and just click on the "Click Here To Connect" button to stream.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Brian<br /><br />
KED and I have been threatening to do a collab together for some time now. I had started working on an instrumental track called "Lookin' At Ya" in about 2006 and had recorded the drums, bass, pianos and organ tracks, trying to come up with a lead guitar that I was happy with. It had been consigned to the "to do sometime later" list, but then I decided to take KED up on his kind offer to collab with me.<br /><br />Here's the finished result. KED has done a great job on guitar on this and I'm really happy with the result.<br /><br />Lead Guitar: KED<br /><br />Synth, organ, elec piano: Self Tort<br /><br />Drums, bass programming: Self Tort and Stewart Havill
Just letting you all know that I am to be interviewed <strong>this afternoon</strong> on a local radio station. The interview will start at 5pm Sydney time (which as best I can work out is 7am GMT/UTC or 3am EST - hmm maybe the odd night owl will be up).<br /><br />I will be taking some CDs of recently recorded material including some collabs with my friends on mixposure. I will try to get a few plugs in for the site.<br /><br />Unfortunately there is no chat room or forum on the station's site.<br /><br />The url for the site is <a href="http://www.skidrow.com.au/">http://www.skidrow.com.au/</a> and just click on the "Click Here To Connect" button to stream.<br /><br />Sorry for the late notice and my absence here of late but my mother passed away last week after a mercifully short illness. Mum had 93 great years and was mentally alert to the end. She was a great lady and will be sorely missed, but as she said a week or so before she died "I'd rather have had 93 wonderful years than drag on and have another 7 awful ones". <br /><br />Am getting back into the swing of things and hope to be on deck more next week.<br /><br />Cheers<br /><br /><br />Brian
Gary Carciello, Doctor C and I have got a new track up that may have slipped through the cracks. I may be biased but I think it's pretty good.<br /><br />Gary came up with the backing track and asked Doc and I to add keyboards and lyrics/vocals respectively. On the first listen to the backing track I was hooked and it just got better with each version.<br /><br />This is our third collab and hopefully a full CD is not too far away. I'm certainly up for it if Gary and Doc are.<br /><br />The song is up on Gary's page. Here's the link<br /><br /><a href="http://www.mixposure.com/Gary_Carciello/music.php">http://www.mixposure.com/Gary_Carciello/music.php<br /></a><br /><br />Any assistance with the choice of a name for our collabs would be welcomed. Carciello Doctor C Self Tort is a bit longwinded. I toyed with "CRC" (Carciello Ralston Doctor C) as it was the name of a product that used to be available over here. It was a spray that you used to clear gunk from your distributor caps on cars or even get rust off guitar strings. But if anyone has any bright ideas let us know.<br /><br />I've been away with family issues of late but will be back hopefully in the next week or so.<br /><br /><br />Cheers<br /><br />Brian
<p>I've just posted another song from my debut CD "N.I.C". The track is called Get it Right This Time. It was written after I got home way too late from a gig.</p>
<p>I've also posted another video from a live performance I gave in Darling Harbour Sydney last November. The video is of my Paris Hilton Tribute (lol) "What's the Attraction.</p>
<p>And check out the photo of "The Butcher of Bosnia". I used to think it was bad being told I look like Kenny Rogers, but to have people calling me "Butcher" or "Bos" is a bit rich.</p>
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<p>A number of site members (both here and at the old mixposure) have asked me about the white Gibson SG that appears in some of my photos. Each time it has been raised I have felt a trickle of tears run down my cheek.</p>
<p>I bought the guitar in 1973. In about 1975 after a particularly good gig, our bass player, who had drunk more than usual that night, tripped over the guitar causing it to crash to the ground and snapping it at the nut. The first attempted repair was a disaster. I think the guy just stuck it back on with Perkins Paste and it only lasted about a fortnight. Then I found a really good luthier who did a great repair job. It lasted from 1975 till a few years ago. Unfortunately the old case had disintegrated and the replacement I got for it was a bit tight. That wasn't normally a problem because being lazy I rarely put it into its case. But just before going on holidays some years ago I decided to put it in the case and when I came back from holidays it had snapped again.</p>
<p>I took it to a guitar shop and they sent it out to a luthier for repair. I needed to have a replacement and being unable to justify the purchase of another Gibson I got a good deal on a PRS which has served me well. After some months the luthier got back to me with a quote which seemed reasonable and I asked him to go ahead. Heard nothing. Had lost his number and couldn't remember his name.</p>
<p>As luck would have it I was looking for someone to give my acoustic a bit of a service and googled luthiers in Sydney. I saw a name that jogged my memory, and sure enough it was the guy who was repairing the Gibson. I emailed him and he rang to say he'd finished it years ago and it had been sitting in his workshop. He'd lost my contact details too.</p>
<p>So today I went and picked it up. He seems to have done a great job on it. It appears seemingly undetectable to my "failing eyes". Anyway, nice to have it home.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Brian</p>
<p>Thanks again to Mike, Dazed and all the mixposure crew for the opportunity to participate in yesterday's Centre State Presentation on Mike's SNR radio show.</p>
<p>It was a real buzz to have so many fellow members in the chatroom and I thank you all for the really kind comments.</p>
<p>Those who were there at the time might remember that Mike played "Light the Flame" from my debut CD "N.I.C". I had only realised a couple of days ago that I've hardly posted any of the tracks from that CD on mixposure. So to avoid any accusation that Mike is outsourcing tracks for his show I thought I'd better post "Light the Flame".</p>
<p>Apologies for dropping out from time to time during the show. We were in the wilds of northern NSW, heading to a "hippy market" and despite my assurances to my daughter that my laptop modem had never been out of range for service.....well it had to happen then, didn't it.</p>
<p>Thanks again. And if you haven't had the opportunity of picking up Mike's show you're missing a great opportunity to listen to some great music and share some wonderful camaraderie with your fellow members in the chat-room.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Brian</p>
<p>I thought I'd upload a song I wrote when my kids were in Primary School. At the time I had the idea of a "Rock Opera" for kids but only got as far as three songs. The first one's "I Hate Homework" which is pretty much every kids' mantra. I posted under "Humour" only because I couldn't find a "Childrens" genre.</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Brian</p>
<p>Sorry I haven't been around much of late. I've had a busy time at work for the last month and with my wife away overseas for the month I took a few extra acoustic gigs that I wouldn't normally do. But she's now back and I've just finished the last of my current workload and am going to give myself a couple of days off to catch up on what's been happening around here and return a few outstanding reviews</p>
<p>If anyone has something special they'd like me to listen to, just send me a PM. Otherwise, once I catch up on my returns I'll just start working through the new songs.</p>
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<p>Cheers</p>
<p>Brian</p>
I finally completed the mixing and mastering of my acoustic CD "The Tort Stripped Bare" yesterday.
As a result I have replaced the earlier versions that I'd posted here with the new mastered versions. Unless I've clicked the wrong button they should be available for free download.
The tracks as
Six O'Clock Swill
Time To Train the Horses
Oldest Roadies on the Earth
Mid Life Crisis
I've also decided to add Come on By as a bonus track to the CD, even though it's not unplugged. Can't imagine it fitting into any other CD I'm likely to do so this seemed a good place for it.
It too has been mastered and the new version has been put up in place of the original.
Not asking people to go back and review their reviews. Just letting you know they're there.
Cheers
Brian
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