Music you've created or recorded

**riffer** · 9th June 2006, 13:37

The recent thread on what we are playing at the moment on guitar got me thinking about stuff I've done in the past.

The year was 1989. I was playing guitar for Wellington seminal 80s punk band TAB. I was 22, skinny as, rode a CB350 and had long shaggy hair.

This is a song off the debut record, The Argumentative Bastards, about teenage frustration, drugs and unemployment. The singer, Aaron Watson, now the editor of the Capital Times, grew up in Porirua and wrote about the bored kids in the streets of Porirua at the time. Set to a slow two-chord reggae beat with a searing guitar solo at the end, it received some lukewarm reviews at the time but was ultimately classified as not radio friendly. However student radio loved it...

My inspiration for the lead guitar came from watching Pink Floyd's The Wall movie, in particular the scene in "One of my turns" where Bob Geldof grabs a guitar and disintegrates an hotel room in front of a terrified group. I tried to convey the sense of hopelessness leading to destruction of property and violence, which seemed to be a fitting statement for the times and place, I guess.

Instrumentation: Jackson Charvel Active w/EMGs, Marshall JCM800 Mk II 1987 w 1960A/B cabinets, TS-9 (modded), studio reverb. The amp was placed against the studio wall (anechoic chamber), and I used a 30 foot lead to get far enough away from it, turned everything right up and just wailed.

The trumpet-like sounds in the verses are a "swell" effect on the guitar, done by playing with the volume control.

Anyway, enough harping on. This is me, in 1989...

**Joni** · 9th June 2006, 14:03

I will try and get one of mine in "soft copy" and post it.....

Great idea Simon - it will show the huge diversity in music on KB!

**kiwifruit** · 9th June 2006, 14:38

I quit drinking about 6 weeks ago, much to my mate's dispare
he made me a song (over a half dozen beers) in an attempt to get me back in the groove
It nearly worked

Its to be taken fairly lightly btw

**kiwifruit** · 9th June 2006, 14:40

Originally Posted by riffer

This is me, in 1989...

sounds cool

**Matt Bleck** · 9th June 2006, 14:44

I've got something somewhere from a metal band I was in in the late ninties, Blind Boy Grunt, no we wheren't inspired by Dylan, use to play at the No. Nine bar in Gissy for beer, the good old days... I'll see what I can find, should make ya ears bleed.

**bungbung** · 9th June 2006, 15:02

Mr Riffer, do you have a period photo you can post to complete the picture?

**riffer** · 9th June 2006, 15:05

I'll throw one on in the weekend. Be prepared to piss yourself.

**riffer** · 28th April 2008, 22:48

Here's an interview.

http://smalltakeover.blogspot.com/20...stards-ep.html

It's got a pic in it. I'm the long haired bugger third in the picture.

**Katman** · 29th April 2008, 08:20

In 1981 Blam Blam Blam came to Manurewa and collected together a bunch of pimply faced teenagers, put instruments in their hands and mikes in front of their mouths and tried to teach them some tunes. A few weeks later we were at Mascot studios recording a 45.

PrincessBandit might be able to dig up her copy of Zolo and the Bantam's (yes, to this very day I cringe at the name) rendition of 'The harder they come' and 'Deep, crisp and even' for a public airing. My copy probably became an ashtray not long after release.

(If you get to hear it - I'm the saxophone).

**Mikkel** · 29th April 2008, 09:56

Originally Posted by Katman

PrincessBandit might be able to dig up her copy of Zolo and the Bantam's (yes, to this very day I cringe at the name) rendition of 'The harder they come' and 'Deep, crisp and even' for a public airing. My copy probably became an ashtray not long after release.

Why cringe? I think it's a good name... it kinda... ehrm sticks might be the word I'm looking for

And funny how most things can be used as an ashtray really...

**fridayflash** · 29th April 2008, 10:32

fantastic mate,i like it! i remember your band although i never saw you live, theres a photo of myself somewhere wearing a crudely printed TAB tshirt, i think i got it from a hastings skinhead probably traded for a 'musician cigarette' haha.anyway i think its a great idea for a thread, although ive never been in a fully functioning band,i have played a bit of bass,and lent backup vocs,finger snaps etc to a few recordings mostly punk,alt rock etc
p.s. we must be related b'cos i owned a CB350 in '89 also sporting long hair and an unfortunate physique hehe

**riffer** · 29th April 2008, 10:47

LOL.

There's two T-shirts - one with a stick man with the foot on the foldback playing the guitar, and the other has TAB three times in blocky type with cartoon impressions of the guys in the band in the top one.

**Boob Johnson** · 29th April 2008, 13:46

I made a wicked reggae song on my phone a while back (had a 4 track recording studio on it) but the phone fell out of my pocket while riding the wild back roads of the Naki at warp factor 1.1 (a lil over the limit

)