RE: [Harp-L] JR's Whammer Jammer

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eric Neumann wrote:
> I assumed he was talking about "goenopheny".
>
> So, are you sure it was "whammer jammer" or just a incredible 18 minute
> "goenopheny" that has a few apparent homages to WJ in it?
>
> If it is in fact an 18 minute cover to whammer jammer - hell yeah - I'd
> like to hear that too.

Yup.  JR's playing an "enRiccied" version of Whammer Jammer these days.
Whammer Jammer Plus you might call it.  He played it as part of his first
set outro at his Lincoln's Roadhouse gig last Sunday in Denver.  And, I have
a recording of it.  Not a very good recording I'm afraid--it was my second
day with my new minidisc recorder and I failed to simulate a "sound
explosion" like JR and New Blood create in my practice recording sessions.
I set the mic gain a tad bit too high so the quality of the sound in spots
isn't great, and probably not worth the trouble of putting it on the 'net.

It is definitely Jason's take on the original WJ, though, with typical JR
embellishments.  After all the original wasn't 18 minutes long!  He started
out and returned to reasonably close covers of the original phrases (within
the limits of artistic interpretation you might say) adding tasteful and
typically exciting detours into pure Jason land along the way.  I wouldn't
say that what I am calling his covers of the familiar phrases were mere
omages, as they were very Magic Dick and formed the most significant
portions of the tune, IMHO.

As to sharing the recording, I think I'll wait a few days and see if someone
else does a better job.  If nothing turns up I'll see if I can get Garry to
help me upload it to archive.org (along with a few other tunes I managed to
catch).

I'm now quite curious about the details of how other Hi-MD users make the
very good quality JR recordings you can download from archive.org.  I do
have a nice stereo stick mic.  I recorded from my table which was front and
center, but behind the dance floor.  I wondered about setting the mic and
recorder on a chair up front but I lost my last recording set up when
someone knocked the mic onto the floor, dragging my nice high-end cassette
recorder to its doom as it crashed to the floor with the mic.  How do you
other "tapers" set up your rigs at a Ricci gig or the like at a small bar?
Unfortunately, I had only one Hi-MD disc, so I used Hi-SP recording mode to
get that long recording capacity.  I suspect that you more experienced Hi-MD
users employ the highest quality recording mode and then swap minidiscs when
the time comes.  I'll try that next time, now that I do have a supply of
minidiscs, but I'm afraid of missing something while swapping them.

Anyway, yes it's Whammer Jammer and yes, it's ~very~ cool!

Michelle