Rockstar July

NASTY NATHAN’S WATERLOO UNDERGROUND

So, we have the cooler all packed up and ready to go. This year it’s going to be fantastic free music every Wednesday at ‘Blues on the Green’. I must admit to going to more than a handful of these things just because the music was fantastic and it was free. That, my friends, is just on a Wednesday!

Heck, it seems like every time you turn around there is something go-ing on musically in the Austin area.

Now that we have the racetrack hosting even bigger music acts, I doubt there will be a break at all in the music season. Just got through seeing Blake Shelton and Iron Maiden out there, and I must admit it was way cool to see that many people supporting music and Aus-tin. Let’s not forget about the Texas Rockfest, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Batfest, Austin City Limits Music Festival, Eyore’s Birthday Party, The Reggae Music Fest, Topanga Musikfest, The ‘Just Because We’re Brown’ Musikfest, Metal Music Fests, Insert Name Here Music Festival, and that’s just off the top of my head.

Let’s not forget about the Texas Rockfest, Fun Fun Fun Fest, Batfest, Austin City Lim-its Music Festival, Eyore’s Birthday Party, The Reggae Music Fest, Topan-ga Musikfest, The ‘Just Because We’re Brown’ Musikfest, Metal Music Fests, Insert Name Here Music Festival, and that’s just off the top of my head.

We’ll just throw in Pecan Street for free. I googled music festivals in Austin, Texas and there were 72 pages of music fests including the Bluegrass Festival. And who could forget the big one in in Kerrville with all those folk-hippie-cool acoustic people? Man, I’ve always wanted to play that thing! And, if you’re looking for a dance partner, it’s really easy to get sucked into the fun there in Kerrville.

I remember the days when there was only one, Aquafest, and in order to get in the gate for one day you had to have an Aqua Pin. Those were the days! And, you could actually work on the yard and then go see the one festival. The rest of the time it was the local scene. And I will not mention the biggest money stealer of all time that takes musicians’ dreams and uses their money to line their pockets while we get double parking tickets for unloading music gear to play for free.

But, alas, now with all of the differ-ent styles of music there are dif-ferent styles of music festivals. I’m personally looking forward to this year’s Fun Fun Fun Fest with King Diamond and the Judas Priest. Can

you say what WHAT??!! In Austin Texas? Where Joey Belladonna had to stop the song and yell at all the cool kids cause they did not want you rockin’ with Anthrax? Do we deserve all this good rock n roll?

Are we getting so spoiled on the steak that we forget about the potatoes? All the homegrown blues up and down Sixth Street. All the singer songwriters up and down South Lamar and Mancha-cha. What about Nakia and Malford up in North Austin at the Roost. Pound for pound, I think Austin’s music scene has it going on. World renowned players making chicken scratch compared to the big music fests and the big road shows. Eighty bucks a ticket plus the drive and fifteen dollar parking?!! Don’t forget about the eight dollar beers! You can pay a quarter of that and call it a great night!

Shit, sounds to me like us little guys are the best bang for the buck. Then, after that local show, you step right onto the street and go get the best wurst or best slice of pizza that ever was right outside the club door. Or, if you’re lucky and are at Maria’s, you can get a great taco while you’re sipping

your margarita and listening to the music.

Now that, my friends, is a great night of music!

So, go see your six bands on one ticket at the ‘gonna-rape-your-wal-let-fest’, but save a night or two for us local guys, would ya? You are not just another town to us. You are our hometown. And we can’t wait to be your hometown hero!!

SEE YOU AT A SHOWNasty Nathan

[email protected] is the main songwriter/gui-tarist/singer for Austin’s Acoustic Rock Band NATHAN’S STUPID DRAMA and a veteran of the Austin music scene since 1987.

Nasty Nathan’s Waterloo Underground

Page 6 • www.rockstarmagazine.com

Ruby Scholling Photography 512 736-1353 www.rubyschollingphotography.com


The Delicate Art of Killing SquealBy: Christopher Jordan

So there you are. The stage is set in the corner, everybody is tuned up and the natives are getting restless. You step up to the microphone to say your howdys and introduce yourself for the eve-ning when suddenly, louder than a banshee and faster than a typhoon it comes at you. The loud-est, most shrill noise you’ve ever heard. As you turn away from the microphone and wipe the blood away from your ears, you curse your non-existent sound man, the guy who brought him here and whoever it was that booked this gig. Oops, only one problem…all those people are you!

This is the all too common issue facing a great percentage of you who are just starting out and even quite a few of you veteran weekend war-riors of the stage. Hey let’s admit it, not all of us are gear heads, not all of us are audio engineers and we’ve all had the problem of the anticipatory grimaced face as we approach the microphone. In case you haven’t cued onto it by now this article is about feedback. Not the honest open criticism type that you wish people would give you; but the kind that kills ears, shows and the evening’s fun for everyone around you. By the time you finish this you by far won’t be a pro. Sorry, it’s just really not as simple as 2+2=4. In fact if we wanted to we could get into the calculus and physics involved with calculating the resonant frequencies of the room and the slap-back delay of the far wall in proportion to the front of the main speakers and the rear of stage and dial it into perfection like the uber-pros. Heck even the humidity factors into it. But I think I just saw a couple of eyes glaze over, so in this article we’ll keep it instead to some super simple pointers that will help you with a general 8 input PA head or soundboard setup in a small venue environment. Honestly once you find and master your sweet spots in a small space it’s quite a bit easier to scale it up for larger venues. Let’s start with the first likely culprit, stage vol-ume. It’s a cascading chain of events that leads to what is technically known as a regenerative feedback loop. Here’s the scenario. You want to turn up your amp to rock out. When you do that, the singer now needs more vocals in the monitor because now his voice is buried and he can’t hear himself properly. He turns up the auxiliary moni-tor send on the lead microphones channel on the sound board to get a little more pepper in his mix and…SQUEEEEEEEEE. There you have it, a

regenerative feedback loop arises and you’ve just given birth to a thirty year old deaf guitarist. The diagram below gives a very simple break down of the contributing factors involved in the creation of a typical regenerative feedback loop on stage. Let’s get another perspective of what a feedback loop is. Imagine yourself in your local clothing store dressing room. You put on a pair of pants, turn to take a look and there is one mirror to your left and mirror to your right. Stand at just the right angle and you can see your front and your back individually, take one step to the left or right and whammo, there’s you and your new britches a thousand times over fading off to infinity in both directions. The exact same principle applies to au-dio. When you have the microphone gain coming into the board set just right the monitor speaker will sound perfect and your singer will be able to hear himself without a whole lot of effort. The less he can hear himself the louder he will have to sing. Again louder is not better. Singing in this way is how you miss notes and strain voices, neither of which is good for your singer or band as a whole. I know I harp on it, but stage volume truly makes such a huge difference to everything in a room mix. I don’t even mean that figuratively, literally everything starts with stage volume. Think about it, if you can’t hear the dude next to you talking without screaming your head off or using the microphone you my friend are entirely too loud. Quality of sound, not quantity of sound makes the difference here. “So short of having a sound guy in my back pocket and turning down a notch or two is there anything else that helps?”

I have mentioned in previous articles and will em-phasize again here the many advantages to and importance of early arrivals. This extra time gives you the chance to “sus out” your system as we in the engineers say. This basically means finding the peak point at which the monitor speakers sus-tain the microphone signal on their own and begin

to feedback. This is done for each microphone on stage. That’s right boys and girls, the audio engineer’s dirtiest secret is that we know exactly how to break things “just right” as were. Yeah you heard me. We make the speakers feedback on purpose. This is a tedious and yes dangerous process, but a good one and essential to know if you gig regularly and value your ears. You be-gin by setting the channel EQs to center and the volume fader or knob to unity. Then you begin to ever so slowly increase the channel input gain from the zero point until you hear the microphone start to swell with feedback. At this point you back off the gain until the squeal stops and you now have a gain level that you should consider your new “maximum” gain for that channel because you now know that if you go higher you will start feeding back. At this point you can set EQs to sweeten the mix and repeat the process a second time for good measure. From there it’s wash, rinse repeat for every channel on the board that will incorporate a microphone. It may take some time, but practice regularly with your system in your rehearsal space and get it down there. Just like playing an instrument, learning to “sus out” a system takes time and practice.

The Delicate Art of Killing Squeal


Another tip is to strip inputs. Yeah you heard me, strip ‘em! Everything in your band need not be running through every monitor. If this is the case please refer back two paragraphs and re-read the part about turning stage volume down. When it comes to monitors it all makes an incremental difference. If you don’t need a microphone in front of the bass amp then for goodness sake don’t put one there. Every microphone on stage is one more opportunity for the demon of feedback to raise his vile head and wreak havoc on you and your audience. Try to only have what you abso-lutely need present in the monitors. Inputs such as vocals, soft acoustic instruments, cue points such as backing tracks that are played to and per-haps a bit of kick, that is after all what I think we are all following. Anyway, you get the point, when it comes to monitor mixes less is more.

Finally a couple of simple notes for the singers, the front men, the faces, the ones whom everyone immediately goes gaga for and recognizes eight blocks away. I cannot emphasize to you enough

the importance of proper microphone technique. It starts with as I said previously, singing. If you are screaming real loud undesired frequencies can tend to be emphasized vocally and things can be muddled and unintelligible. Add to this a micro-phone and all you get is well, amplified unintelli-gible. You must as any musician care for your in-strument properly and practice, practice, practice. Proper singing comes from the diaphragm and not the lungs. Once learned singing with proper projection is actually worlds easier than screaming really loud. Work your core and build endurance by jogging or taking a bike ride with some regu-larity, really any exercise works. Every little bit helps when it comes to hitting and sustaining the high notes. Also, remember when I said how we audio engineers make the speakers feedback on purpose? Well to do that we physically hold the microphone in a semi-cupped hand and point it down toward the monitor speaker. Sound familiar?

Cupping the microphone blocks the sound fre-quencies from passing all the way past the di-aphragm of the microphone. Instead they are

directed back the very short distance to your face and reprocessed by the diaphragm of the micro-phone. This results in a mild rippling effect on the diaphragm of the microphone instead of a clear forward and back motion resulting in a muddied almost woofy sound and when pointed at the speaker…well like I said before, that’s our secret to making them feedback. It’s called a resonant chamber and this effect is generally undesirable and does not provide for clean clearly distinguish-able frequencies. I know, I know. It looks epic. But hey, think of it this way. You are such a freakin’ rock star that when you hold your microphone properly it’s going to set a trend that will take the world by storm and ROCKSTAR magazine will want to interview your band about your new trend setting sound. As a result every band coming up will want to emulate you and will begin to hold their microphones as you do and you and your band will have eliminated the regenerative feedback loop on stage for all future generations and let’s be real, we all want that.

So until our next installment spend some quality time to get more intimate with your gear guys and gals. It’s the easiest way to find the sweet spots on your amps, trouble frequencies in speakers and that perfect stage volume that allows the speakers to do the work for you. Happy hearing and may your stage now be freed of the infernal squeal.

Christopher Jordan has been a live audio/video engineer and recording artist for over 15 years and owns AustinHotMods.com an Austin,TX based pedal modification and repair company.

Have a comment, technical question or an article suggestion? Visit our contact page on AustinHotMods.com and let us know.





ROCKSTAR: Welcome to Rockstar Charlie! How is life treating you these days?

Charlie Mars:: Life is pretty darn good. I just finished recording a new album over in Tornillo, Tx, at Sonic Ranch...which is about 40 miles outside of El Paso, and I’m getting everything together to release it October 14th. “Getting everything together” also means sitting around drinking coffee and screwing around with my Iphone apparently. I spent endless hours writing and editing these songs...its a real sigh of relief to have it all done and be able to listen to a finished product. Other than the record...I’ve managed to keep my shit together enough to pay the bills lately and not cause too much ruckus in my life so i’m feeling pret-

ty satisfied with myself these days :) ROCKSTAR:: Gonna see you this Saturday at the Saxon. What can we expect from your show on July 5th at the Backyard?

Charlie Mars:: You can expect a guy with a guitar from Mississippi singing some songs. Hopefully with a ton of Tex-ans who are ready to sing along! ROCKSTAR: Congratulations on the success of “Blackberry Light”.Have you been in the studio recently?

Charlie Mars: Like I said earlier...just finished a new album...which is called “The Money”. I made it with a bunch of Texas musicians...J.J. Johnson on drums, George Reiff

on bass, Billy Harvey on guitar, and a great B3/piano player from New Jersey named John Ginty. Its my third record with that outfit...and Billy Harvey as producer. Its my Texas trilogy. We had such a blast over in West Texas...what a cool part of the world. We recorded alot of it live...its fun to get everything right there in the room. I think its my best record...but I probably said that about all of the records I’ve made...so we’ll see...only time will tell.

ROCKSTAR: Is it true that you can hear a melody in your dreams? Charlie Mars: I did. I had a dream over at Bob Schneider’s house when it was snowing in Austin one night...it did snow once while i was here i promise. I woke up and was singing this song that was in the dream...

it became “Nothing But The Rain”...which is one of my favorite tracks off of “Blackberry Light”. Also Mar-tie and Emily from the Courtyard Hounds sang on it...and they sound beautiful. I wish it would happen more often...sure would make my life easier.ROCKSTAR: Has your songwriting style changed since writing Born and Razed or older albums?

Charlie Mars: I think I’ve gotten better by doing, and I have a better sense of when something rings true. I don’t get behind stuff I don’t really mean anymore. I focus on more of the small details...and if its good...it should sound pretty easy and effortless. ROCKSTAR: What motivates you or inspires you?

Charlie Mars: I think I’m motivated by a drive that I’ve always had to be good at whatever I do. I didn’t make any of the teams I tried out for when I was a kid. I turned to guitar. I was determined to make the team. I’m inspired every day by nature, movies, the look on someones face when they don’t see you watching them. Life is a never ending stream of things that amaze me. When I’m in a good spot...I take the time to notice those things.

ROCKSTAR:What artist CD do you currently have in your car?Who do you jam to recently? Charlie Mars:I bought a Willy Nelson Greatest Hits CD at Starbucks in Ruston, Louisiana, on my way over here. I never get tired of listening to him. He’s a freakin genius.



Interview with Visual Artist Veronica Kumpf by Bill Bushey for ROCKSTAR Maga-zine. Rockstar Magazine: Hello Veronica, and welcome to ROCKSTAR Maga-zine. What is your first memory of creating art?

VK. Gosh, this is going to sound corny, but i remember making one of those collages for my mother when i was in elementary school where you glue on those different colored beans.

Rockstar Magazine: Oh yeah, haha, i remember doing those!

VK. Ha ha, um, yeah, but as far as creating art, i had a fabulous art teacher in high school, and she cre-ated a lot of great art on her own, and she taught us to do lettering. She had done a lettering piece for her husband with a fishing theme, so it had a lot of symbolic meaning to it, so that was one of our class-room assignments. I started doing lettering for everybody I loved. I did one for my sister Miranda with cheerleaders in it and after my son was born, 8 years later I did a piece for him. I tried to integrate all the

things that interested him at the time, like the “E” in his name was shaped like a Nintendo controller and the “N” in his name was like the one in Nike with the Nike “swoosh”. But i think doing that piece for my sister and doing her name with all the things she was interested in was my first early memory of doing my own work.

Rockstar Magazine: When did you first realize that art was what you most wanted to do?

VK. It was in high school. I was having a bad day and........

Rockstar Magazine: Was that around the same time as your lettering piece?

VK. Yes, yes it was! I had a bad day at school and was going through some rough times at home and the nurse at the school, who I found out later was an advocate for me, I found out had exposed something about my family history that, to me, was embarrassing, and i got upset! I think I went to the pay phone and called my dad and was probably screaming at him and I was crying and upset, and it was only like 11am and I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I thought

about walking home, but in a rural area I didn’t want to walk through the tall grass and the Texas heat, so I went to the art room. I sat down and drew a picture, and I can’t remember what the picture was, but it took me over 2 hours to draw this and and it turned out good. After the 2 hours or so i noticed i was calm and peaceful and relaxed and o.k., and i knew then there was something special and therapeutic about creating art.

Rockstar Magazine: What non-art related people or things do you think influence or inspire your art, if any?

VK. You know, I think it’s the things that piss me off about the world, things I want to shout out about. I want to get people to realize the errors of their ways, so social issues mean a lot to me. They bother me the most, and i feel like when I’m in my most inspired moments, and when I come up with ideas, they are aimed at correcting some of the ills in society, and I don’t know if my work is powerful enough for people to think about those things or have an impact on them. But I’ve read articles on the effects of what viewing artworks have on people. How they studied a group of kids who visited an art museum, versus kids who did not. The kids who did visit had a more empathet-ic and broader view and outlook of the world, and not so narrow as compared to those that didn’t. So it gives me hope that the work that I do that I feel is meaningful will enlighten some people to some of these issues that need attention, and I hope that my art expresses that.

Rockstar Magazine: Where do you see yourself as an artist in 5 years?

VK. I would love to make a living with the artwork that I do. I do try to achieve my goals, and I set them rather high, but I am also a humble and shy person too, so five years from now I hope to have all the education behind me and past my MFA, and to be showing my pieces in a gallery or two. I am in awe at the direction my art is starting to

take, and I hope it is seen as deep and meaningful and not superfi-cial. I want it to be beautiful and to inspire people.

Rockstar Magazine: What are your goals as an artist right now?

VK. The ultimate goal for any visual artist, any fine artist, is to get gallery representation, and for their artwork to be sought after, so I can make a living at what I want to do. I am also a practical person and want to finish in a good MFA program and travel the world to get not only more exposure, but also expanding my horizons and expanding my understanding of our world and our societies in it, and reflect that in my art.

Rockstar Magazine: Is there a particular medium you prefer to work in?

VK. I have always drawn, so the two dimensional is always what i have enjoyed working in. It has been a part of my life forever, and I love painting! I love color and mixing the colors and applying them to canvas, or whatever. I love that someone can take a painting I did and hang it in their home or put it up in their office and just enjoy it. However, some of the most enjoyable and fulfilling experienc-es I”ve had during my education at UT has been in performance art. Outside of the gates at a festival here in Austin I put on a large skirt and covered it with blank paper, and put out a bunch of colored paint cans and brushes and invited people leaving the festival to come paint the lady. That was a perfor-mance art piece that brought in the average Joe on the street to express his/her creative side I think all of us have a desire to create and express ourselves like that. The art world can be a very elitist world, but art also has that very human el-ement to it, and bringing that into this piece was very inspirational to me. We all have a soul and a story and a desire to express that and let it be heard, be it dance, music or visual arts, I believe we all have that within us and it needs to come out.

Rockstar Magazine: Is there any advice you would give an aspiring artist starting out today?

VK. I would say don’t start like I did and go into a safe career that you know you will always at least be able to afford your paints. It is really important to be your original, authentic self and push that to its limits. You know, money is great, but what does it do for your soul? My advice would be to seek out and explore those things you are passionate about.

Rockstar Magazine: That sounds like excellent advice, indeed! Thank you so much for you time Veron-ica, and good luck in your artistic future!

Visual Artist Veronica Kumpf by Bill Bushey

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ROCKSTAR:Welcome to Rockstar Magazine Ben.How is life treating you?

Ben Kweller: Hey man! Thanks. Life’s good. Crazy as always... Swingin’ and duckin’! ROCKSTAR:: What can Kwellerheads expect from your show at512FEST this year?

Ben Kweller: Kwellerheads can ex-pect to rock the f*** out with a few cold ones and the Texas sun beam-ing down on them. Well, hopefully the sun will be down by the time we go on. Lately I’m performing as a trio - Buffalo Meadows on Drums, Andrew Pressman on Bass - It’s a nice rolicking show where I only

play electric guitar. no acoustic, no piano. I play all my ballads on the SG. Good times. ROCKSTAR: Have you recorded any-thing new since “Go Fly a Kite”?

Ben Kweller: Oh yeah! always writing and recording. don’t know what I’ll release next. I’m kindof sick of making albums. I might just start releasing my music as I make it and have it available for my fans at benkweller.com.

ROCKSTAR: You’ve performed all over the world, what is it like hav-ing a Gig at home?

Ben Kweller: I obviously love Austin, so it’s great playing at home. The commute is quite pleasant. Ha! I’ve never played The Backyard before, so I’m looking forward to that. Saw Willie [Nelson] play there a little over a year ago, I dug the venue alot.

ROCKSTAR: This 512 Fest Gig actual-ly kicks off your U.S. Tour.Are you looking forward to being on the Road?

Ben Kweller: Oh yeah! I love to perform. These days I prefer touring in small doses as opposed to the 6-month mega tours, but I still get a huge buzz every time I play for

people. So I’m looking forward to the rest of 2014.

ROCKSTAR: How are things going with your new Label? Is there a since of freedom there now?

Ben Kweller: With freedom comes great responsibility! The Noise Com-pany is alive and well. It’s amazing having my own musical home, and to be able to offer it up to artists I really believe in. Wild Child has absolutely killed it the past few months. They’ve grown leaps and bounds as a band and I’m so proud of them. Right now we are planning the international release of their album The Runaround. There’s a lot of interest for them overseas and down in South America.

ROCKSTAR: Ben thanks for stopping by... See you July 4th at 10pm!!THE BACKYARD!! Any final shout outs to Austin?

Ben Kweller: psyched to see every-one on the 4th! Owwwwwww!!! 512 Brews in the house. Stay weird and beered.

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ROCKSTAR: Rockstar Magazine: Why the name Alpha Rev?

Alpha Rev: Why? Cause it wasn’t taken by a .com and it was better than “free beer and hot chicks” . Latin derivatives.. I’m not a lan-guage buff.. Just know how to use google translator. Alpha - being the beginning, the first, and rev - a wonderful prefix used to describe change, newness, and understanding... ROCKSTAR: :Have you been record-

ing Casey? Anything new coming out soon since Bloom? Alpha Rev: Yes! Profusely... I’ve been exploring quite a bit with writing and recording.. I’ve got a lot of new songs...sifting through ideas and trying to get inspired.. I just had a baby girl and I’m taking my time and spending a lot of it with her right now! New music in 2015 though for sure :) ROCKSTAR: What can Austin expect from your show July 5th?

Alpha Rev: A deeply convicted and energetic show as we will be deeply convicted that we haven’t rehearsed and energetic at the fact that we haven’t played together in a long time!! Wait.. Should I not have said that?!?!

ROCKSTAR: Who were some of your influences growing up?What bands did you guys find inspiring Alpha Rev: I listed to classical music, Radiohead, Tom Petty, the Beat-les, Pink Floyd, and Jeff Buckley.. I know... Totally obscure artists.. Just look’em up on YouTube. ROCKSTAR:Describe the bands songwriting process.

Alpha Rev:Well...I’ll write about twenty songs, pick the three good ones of the twenty, then I bring

those three to the band and we work’em up only to find all of them are actually rip offs of other songs......just kidding.. kind of... I write a lot and throw away a lot...I’m always looking for a song that parts the clouds for me...inspires me.... And it’s many days when that just doesn’t happens. But, when it does for a moment and I feel like I have a solid Idea, I will try and work it out with the whole group and go from there. Not every written song works great live, and not every live song sounds great as it’s written! ROCKSTAR: You guys jam and we really look forward to your show.Any Shout outs to our readers this July?

Alpha Rev:Thank you! I’d like to say first off, readers, you’re awesome....we really hope you’re at the show.. The Backyard is such a great place to play and hear bands, Rockstar

magazine rules.. And... Hi mom, look... I’m in a magazine!!....I hope you’re proud of me.....Im sorry I nev-er told you about the time I ran over snoodles and everyone thought he ran away! I love you!!

ROCKSTAR: Thanks Casey ! See you soon! Alpha Rev: Thank you! We appreci-ate your love for music and every-thing you do for the arts... All I ask is please don’t make us look bad on this interview! We don’t want to appear overly serious or pretentious or vain or too old or too young or too indie or too mainstream or too rock and roll or too conservative or too successful or too poor or too depressive or too happy or too smart or too stupid or too good looking or too ugly or too normal or too weird :)



“Half Cocked” pt. 1by Charlie Hodge

Right off the bat, a full-assed journalist would do lengthy

research into a subject and due diligently interview experts from both sides of a topic but I’m a half-assed journalist flying off half-cocked. What concerns me though is not my lack of

journalistic professionalism but rather that my above described “half-cocked” style can be taken literally within the confines of this particular column because after 2 kids it’s vasectomy time for Charlie.

The thought of getting this half-cockening procedure done to my boys makes me squirm in my seat which delivers a thigh rich massage of comfort to my intact, for now, reproductive spheres which in turn makes me continue squirming because it feels so damn good. Will I still enjoy thigh juggling my own junk after I get snipped?

Will my cojone command center be turned into a gonad gallows of ghostly goop? Will I start liking cats?

My minimal research has learned me that the procedure entails a doctor severing the Vasa Def-erentia – the tube connecting twig to berries. But how? With a laser? With a scalpel? Or, as I’m picturing, with a running David Lee Roth-esq knee slide into a medical grade table saw?

This is where being a full-assed journalist would come in handy, no pun intended, because the nuts and bolts of it is that I’ll be putting my nuts and bolts into the hands of a potentially sleep deprived, over worked and grizzled from insurance bureau-cracy doctor who’ll be in charge of blocking my Hwy. 1 to wiener town.

Whether you or someone you know has already had this procedure, you’re thinking about

it or you’d never and plan on propelling thick ropes of fertility the rest of your days this 3 part series of my column will quide you through the entire process of a vasectomy from contem-plation to completion. Now to choose a doctor…

You Got That Right!! HALF COCKED pt 1.by Charlie Hodge

ROCKSTAR: Welcome to Rockstar Magazine guys. Today is the first day of the new Tour in support of the brand new album n “On Time”. Look like its Philly tonight.How does it feel to be back on Tour?

Mingo Fishtrap: It’s good. Really happy that the new album is finally out and we’re able to bring that to folks. understanding... ROCKSTAR: Does the new album “On Time” have meaning for the band in it’s longevity?Since the days in Denton has

Mingo Fishtrap ARRIVED? Are you guys “ON TIME” with your musical careers?

Mingo Fishtrap: The song “On Time” started as a reaction to a conversation I had had with a less than sober fellow at a show. He was upset at American Idol... Just really hated it. I think those kids are super talented and whatever brings a little light into the world is a good thing. But I understand his point; some things need time

to simmer. And so I guess, yeah, you could apply it to our path. I’m happy that this record is getting out there - it’s important to me person-ally and that makes it easy to want to share it. ROCKSTAR: Silver Lining , On Time, Moving, are all tracks off the new album. What was different about recording this new CD?

Mingo Fishtrap: It was recorded in a lot of different places, over a couple years, as we could find the time and the inspiration.

ROCKSTAR: Are shows different for the band playing at home in Austin after performing all around the country?

Mingo Fishtrap: Austin shows are always a blast. Also, you get to sleep in your own bed after... That’s a nice bonus. ROCKSTAR: The new CD sounds awsome! How does the band you feel about it?

Mingo Fishtrap: We’re all stoked about it. It’s the most work we’ve put into an album. The most per-sonal the writing has been for me. It’s something we feel represents the band well. ROCKSTAR: What keeps the band going after 16 or so years of performing?

Mingo Fishtrap: I think it’s a matter of feeling that the kind of music we make is worth making. There’s an addiction in playing live. The

relationships you forge in that one performance. You crave that feeling.

ROCKSTAR: How has success changed the songwriting process if at all in recent years?You sound like your getting better since Succotash or The Private Bag. Mingo Fishtrap: It’s a matter of time and perspective. Hopefully you constantly improve your ability to connect with people. That’s what it’s all about.

ROCKSTAR: What can Austin expect from your new set here in Austin at the 512 Fest? Mingo Fishtrap: It’s gonna be fire! We’re gonna have some special guests and just bring it hard.

ROCKSTAR: Any Shout outs to Austin readers? Mingo Fishtrap: To all the Kick-starter supporters who were so patient and generous. We hope you love the album and we’re

proud to have y’all as part of our fam.

ROCKSTAR: Roger, thanks for your time! Have a great summer tour. And see you guysat the Backyard July 5th! Mingo Fishtrap: Y’all don’t wanna miss this one! See ya at the Backyard!

512 FEST is July4th-5th 2014.



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