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Monday, July 21, 2008
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Nothing But Nets Part 2
Howdy Cats and Kittens,
I'm really busy getting ready to go to Europe. However, I had to let ya'll know that we raised approximately $388.00 for Nothing But Nets on this last run. Some nice person folded a twenty with a five-er and put it in the jug. Cool. Vancouver donated over $100 Canadian dollars, but, I didn't get the chance to change it yet. We'll put that into the next run for Nothing But Nets or just send it in once I get that changed.
Thanks again so much for your generosity. For more info, go to nothingbutnets.net
As Ernest Tubb would say, Thanks, Thanks A Lot,
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath
7:26 PM
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8 Comments - 12 Kudos
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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Nothing But Nets Update
Howdy Cats and Kittens,
I'm very pleased that on our last tour, we were able to raise $966.42 for Nothing But Nets. I was especially pleased with the generosity of the Canadian fans, but all of our wonderful fans did a great job of giving. Way cool. Malaria is a major problem on our Earth and raising awareness about the need is almost as important as raising the money for the bed netting. So, tell your friends. Tell your family. And remember yourself to visit nothingbutnets.net.
We're out on a really great tour right now with old buddies The Supersuckers and Nashville Pussy. It's great seeing them all and especially Scott Churilla who now plays with The Supersuckers. So come on out and support Rock and Roll as well as one of the best current causes - Nothing But Nets. $10 buys a simple mosquito repellent bed net that will save the life of one or more people.
Don't forget to ROCK.
As Ernest Tubb would say, Thanks, Thanks A Lot,
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath
8:36 AM
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14 Comments - 32 Kudos
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Monday, April 28, 2008
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Nothing But Nets
Howdy Cats an Kittens,
We've been taking donations for "Nothing But Nets" at our live shows and the response has been great. Nothing But Nets buys mosquito nets and ships them to Africa where at least three million children a year die of malaria. Each ten dollar net can save the life of a child or anyone who sleeps under the net. Mosquitos bearing malaria usually just bite their victims at night while they're sleeping. Nothing But Nets is a project jointly worked by the UN, the NBA, The United Methodist Church, Sports Illustrated, VH1 and a score of other major corporations. If you want to learn more, please visit nothingbutnets.net.
At the end of this tour, I'll make a post about how much we've collected and donated. I hope to keep raising money for this cause with every tour as well as other ways too.
As Ernest Tubb would say, Thanks, Thanks A Lot,
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath
10:12 PM
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13 Comments - 26 Kudos
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Thursday, April 17, 2008
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Fan Favorites....
Here is the list of songs chosen by you, the fans, as your favorites. I've also updated the songs on the profile to reflect your top 6 selections. Enjoy.
Songs in quotation marks are older songs that have never been recorded and may not be the real name of the songs. *UPDATE* 400 Bucks was on the list somewhere. I don't know how it got lost. So yeah, it was one of the top 10 songs i do believe.
Big Sky/Baddest Of The Bad
Galaxy 500
Bales Of Cocaine
The Devil's Chasing Me
Big Red Rocket Of Love
Psychobilly Freakout
Where In The Hell Did You Go With My Toothbrush?
Five-O Ford
It's Martini Time
One Time For Me
Jimbo Song
Bad Reputation
Wiggle Stick
Big Little Baby
Eat Steak
Loco Gringos Like A Party
Marijuana
Liquor, Beer & Wine
In Your Wildest Dreams
Loaded Gun
Baby, I'm Drunk
Cowboy Love
Spend A Night In The Box
Like A Rocket
Lonesome Train Whistle
Slow
Callin In Twisted
The Party In Your Head
I Can't Surf
Jezebel
Beer:30
Big Dwarf Rodeo
Crooked Cigarette
Folsom Prison Blues
Suicide Doors
Love Whip
Sue Jack Daniels
Texas Rock-A-Billy Rebel
Generation Why
Lie Detector
The Girl In Blue
Nurture My Pig
Revival
RHH's Big Blue Car
Indigo Friends
Now, Right Now
Bullet
New York City Girls
Rock This Joint
The Bedroom Again
It Hurts Your Daddy Bad
Pride Of San Jacinto
You've Got A Friend In Jimbo
D For Dangerous
If It Ain't Got Rhythm
It's A Dark Day
Johnny Quest/Stop The Pigeon
Livin On The Edge (Of Houston)
Party Mad
Slingshot
Unlucky In Love
Big D Boogie Woogie
Rockin Dog
Sleeper Coach Driver
Someone In Heaven
You Can't Get Away From Me
Cinco De Mayo
Cruisin' For A Bruisin'
The Happy Camper
Hello Mrs. Darkness
Honky Tonk Girl
I Could Get Used To This
I'm Mad
I'm Your Pet Rock
Prophet Stomp
Starlight Lounge
That's Showbiz
Whole Lotta Baby
Couch Surfin
Hello Walls
King
We Belong Forever
Yeah Right
"Four Leaf Clover"
Baby You Know Who
Caliente
For Nevermore
Get Rhythm
Gin And Tonic Blues
Go With Your Friends
Lonesome Man
Octopus Mode
Sermon On Jimbo
Show Pony
Space Heater
Watusi Rodeo
"Flat On My Back"
"Give It Up"
"I Gotta Rock"
"The Longest Gonest Man"
Ain't Gonna Happen
Bath-water Blues
Duel At The Two O'clock Bell
Hey, Johnny Bravo
It Was A Very Good Year
Mi Amor
Put It To Me Strait
Remember Me
Revolution Under Foot
Rumble Strip
Spell On Me
"I'm Texan"
What Child Is This
What's Reminding Me Of You
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Now playing: Kyuss - El Rodeo
via FoxyTunes
12:12 AM
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47 Comments - 61 Kudos
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Thursday, April 03, 2008
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Top 5 Reverend Horton Heat Favorites...
All,
We wanted to take another poll to see what your TOP 5 Reverend Horton Heat songs are. So here’s the deal. Send an email to favorites@reverendhortonheat.com with your selections. They don’t have to be in any specific order we just wanna see what you like. PLEASE DO NOT USE MYSPACE TO SEND YOUR LIST. EMAIL IT ONLY!!!
We’ll give you a week to send in your list and next Friday i’ll post the list of the top 30 songs as a blog. so if you haven’t yet subscribe to the blog so you’ll get a message saying when we’ve posted it.
Thank You All,
Andrew and the RHH crew.
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Now playing: Hank Thompson - May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight Mister
via FoxyTunes
12:57 AM
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36 Comments - 37 Kudos
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Sunday, December 23, 2007
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Have you ever wondered...
What it would sound like if the Reverend Horton Heat was fronted by Lemmy of Motorhead???? Well, if you live in the South West part of the US you're gonna get to find out. Hank III had to cancel dates in December and to make sure the fans got a good replacement Lemmy from Motorhead. Lemmy will be doing a short set with the Reverend Horton Heat as his backing band. The dates of this happening are as follows:
12/27/07 - Los Angeles, CA - Wiltern Theater
12/28/07 - Anaheim, CA - Grove Of Anaheim
12/29/07 - Las Vegas, NV - House Of Blues
12/30/07 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
12/31/07 - San Diego, CA - House Of Blues
If you have yet to get your tickets to one of these shows you better do so NOW, if they aren't already sold out, cause this is something you don't want to miss. Who knows if it will ever happen again.
Happy Holidays,
Andrew and the rest of the RHH crew
1:39 PM
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25 Comments - 38 Kudos
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Tuesday, May 15, 2007
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Rev. Organdrum
As some of you may or may not know, Jim has a side project he's been doing for a while called Rev. Organdrum. It's Jim on guitar, Tim Alexander on Hammond Organ and Todd Soesbe on drums. They have recorded an album and you can now pick it up in the "merch" section of the site. The album is NOT a new Reverend Horton Heat album, It's something completely different than what you're used to, but kick ass just the same. For all the info check out their website or myspace and pick up your copy today.
10:32 PM
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22 Comments - 43 Kudos
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Friday, February 02, 2007
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The Problem With Modern Drummers and the Modern Public Address System
Howdy Cats & Kittens, This week's little rant is about how the modern PA system (public address system) has changed the way drummers play. Back in Louis Belson's day, drummers had to have sonic responsibility. In other words, they had to control how much volume they were putting out at all times. PA systems weren't nearly as powerful as they are today. Back then, drummers were often fired for playing too loudly. With one weak microphone, the singers still had to be heard. So, if the drummer played over the singer or soloing instruments, they could really make the band leader mad. But, bandleaders didn't fret too much about the issue. They just fired the guy and gave the charts (back then, most bands had charts) to the new drummer who would be worked into the band the day after the previous drummer was axed. Tough luck, huh! So, putting mics on drums was out of the question. Public address systems were invented for the voice, not the drums - drums were loud enough already! Now, fortunately (or un-fortunately in my humble opinion), we have huge PA systems that have so much power, there's not only ample power for the singer's microphone, but, they even put microphones on the drums! So nowadays, drummers don't really "mix" themselves - the sound man does. Each drum and cymbal has it's own microphone. The sound man turns up the kick drum microphone really loud. The kick drum is the lowest volume of all of the drum set. The sound man turns up the tom-toms. Tom-toms are not as loud as the snare drum which is the loudest of the drums. Anyway, the sound man gets the drums and cymbals balanced, so that, when the drummer hits the kick at full-tilt, it is roughly the same volume (loudness) as the snare and all of the other drums. Then, the sound man, "mixes" in the rest of the band until he thinks that there's a good balance (usually the drums are still the loudest in my humble opinion). Anyway, with this being the situation, the drummer can hit the snare drum really loudly on every back-beat without the worry of some old-timey band-leader firing him. Here's one problem. After decades of the mega-PA, drummers have lost all sonic responsibility. Louis Belson, as well as all of the great drummers from the swing and early rock and roll era had great sonic responsibility. They couldn't just whack the snare drum as loud as they wanted on every back-beat because you wouldn't hear the down-beat on the kick drum (the kick drum being naturally lower in volume than the snare). They couldn't just smash all of the cymbals all at once because it would drown out all of their own drums (except for maybe a loud snare drum). They couldn't just bash and smash all or the time because you wouldn't hear the singers and soloists. Now, just about all drummers, save a very few, smash and bash the drums all they want because they know that the sound man will balance their drum set as well as the whole band. This, however, leads to some other problems as well. Another problem is that on stage, behind the PA, drummers over-take the band. Whenever I set up a recorder with microphones aimed at the stage only, it's all drums. They're about twice as loud as even those loud-ass guitar amps! When drummers hear the recording, they all say, "Recordings just make the drums sound louder than they really are." Wrong again, little drummer boy. The main problem, in my opinion, is not just the volume issue. It's the artistic issue. It's something called dynamics. Louis Belson, Gene Krupa and the great swing drummers (some rock and country guys too), really milked their snare drum for all it was worth. When the singer was singing, or when the trombone solo was going, they would sometimes barely touch the snare drum on each back-beat. Guess what, without microphones on each drum, they had to artfully mix themselves. You could hear the down-beat of the kick drum. You could hear the shimmer of the ride-cymbal. The snare drum might have several different volumes in the same measure. Same with the kick. There was room to breathe. Then, when they really wanted to add some zip, "Whap!" Babies cried, women were startled, and grown men blinked when Louis Belson hit a dramatically loud snare drum note. Then, suddenly, he's back swinging - using all of the sounds and volumes of the snare as well as all of the drums and cymbals. By the way, when, all of the sudden, Louis, or any of those guys, hits a loud kick-drum note, it's called "dropping a bomb." Anyhow, here's what's happening today. Now, it's all boom, whap, boom, whap, boom, whap. As loud as they can play it. Every drummer. All of the time. And, the crowd gets used to the boom-whap that the sound man has so graciously "mixed" louder than even the singer. The boom-whap is so loud, and so "all of the time" that the crowd is now de-sensitized to the loudness of the drums. Babies don't cry, women aren't startled and grown-men don't have to feel the embarrassment of blinking and wincing. The drummer is dropping bombs on every single down-beat. The drummer is using all of his volume on every back-beat. If he wants to play a loud accent on the kick or snare, he can't - there's no where else to go but lower. This is not just a drummer problem. Sound men of today almost always demand that every snare hit on every back-beat is the same volume. They even have limiters and compressors to help them do the job. This way, sound men don't lose a single note of their precious "drum sound". Even if you can't understand the lyrics and the chainsaw guitars are reduced to background humming. You could say, "It's just a different style of drumming." I would say, "It's not as good a style of drumming as Louis Belson." Not as artful, not as musical and kind of dumb. Please...sound men of today. Let's lose some of the drums so we can hear the singers and other instruments (besides the bass - you guys are turning that up too much as well). We all know where the back beat is. You drummers don't have to hit them so loudly. Save that loud WHAP!! for the one note that needs to make the babies cry and sound men blink. Thanks,
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath
7:58 AM
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130 Comments - 166 Kudos
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Friday, January 19, 2007
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How Sound Men Are Ruining Rock and Roll
Howdy Cats and Kittens, Jim "Reverend Horton" Heat here. I know that last weeks post was really sour grapes. Sorry. After reading some of the positive things about "My Secret and Possible Free Way to Meet and Pick-up Chicks - Hopefully", it made me realize that these posts may be more enjoyable to read if I avoided the sour grapes articles altogether. Maybe I should not write the stuff where I pour out my true feelings about a topic or situation, and instead, focus on the funny stuff. However, that would be kind of out-of-whack with the way real life is. Therefore, I guess that I'm apologizing in advance for not trying to be funny all of the time, but, hey, that's not me. And, as I've discussed before, the rants can work pretty well too. This week's rant is about how sound men are ruining rock-and-roll (and "live" music in general). Sound men have taken the chain-saw guitars out of rock-and-roll. But, why? Answer: The drums. Well, the bass too. They love to talk about, brag about, and "get" a great drum sound. They all feel that their whole reputation in the sound business is based on that great drum sound that they "get". Now, every show that I go to, the sound men (or, ladies too in all fairness) have the drums up so loud that, the chain-saw guitars that should sound like a fast ch-ch-ch-ch-rip-ch-ch-ch, instead sound like a droning mmmmmmm in the background. I watch closely as the guitarist plays powers chords using fast up and down picking and it just sounds like a distant hum. It's lost in a sea of "are you enjoying what a great drum sound I'm getting?" By the way, sound persons don't "get" a drum sound. Drummers "get" a drum sound. I can hear the sound man constantly moving faders. When the guitar solo comes in, the sound man (let's just say "man" for our purposes here) has to turn up the guitar because if he didn't, you wouldn't hear the lead solo at all. However, once he turns up the guitar for the solo. a lot of nuance is still no where near being clear audio. This is very frustrating for me, being a guitar player. I can't hear the notes! I can barely make out what he's playing, but, still, it's in the background. Sound men are sometimes like the guy who just put that new sound system in his car. They have to show it off. They have to show the dynamic range by having the kick drum and bass so loud that it completely drowns out the musicians that are playing the so-called "leading" roles. Not to mention the lead vocal. I often wonder that, if these lead singers knew just how un-intelligible their lyrics were, they would trash way more dressing rooms than they normally trash. I'm mean come on! I think that one reason rock-and-roll died out while country music got stronger is that in rock-and-roll, the lead singer might as well not even be there. In country, the lyrics are understandable. In rock-and-roll, lyrics are thrown out the window in favor of the drums. OK. I know what some of those sound men are thinking out there. They're saying to themselves, "Those pounding drums are what rock-and-roll is all about!" Wrong. Let me prove it. Louie Belson was a great drummer. Not rock-and-roll, but a great drummer. He "pounded" the drums. What I think sound men are doing today is making Louie Belson so loud that you can't hear Jimi Hendrix. Here's how they do their afternoon sound check. They start with the most important thing to them. Right - the drums! "Kick drum please." Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...you get the picture. Then, they just say, "Snare." Pop,pop,pop...again, you get the picture. Then it's the tom-tom's. Then it's the cymbals. They all spend by far the most time "tweaking" these things and feeling "professional". Then they move to the bass. Then they move to the guitar. Then finally, as if it were an after-thought, they listen to the lead-vocal microphone. By this time, there is really no room in the PA for vocals or guitar. So...the most important microphone on the stage, the lead vocal mic, gets by far the least amount of time and attention. And, it's the last to be considered. While the loudest instrument on stage, the drum set, gets turned up even louder! The public address audio system was invented for the voice. It was necessary in music so you could hear the singer over the drums. Now they're mis-using it to drown out the vocals all over again. Come on! Here's what I'd like sound men to try. Get your drums sound checked first (if you must), then get the bass, guitars, keys and so on. Get the vocals last if you just can't break with decorum (personally, I think it's stupid to try to listen to drum mics if the lead vocal mic isn't already on and turned up to it's usable volume, but, hey, I'm just a musician). Then, to see just how right I am, get the band to start playing. Once they're going, turn the drums all the way down. That's right buddy, out of the mix completely. Then, just listen and watch for a minute. My bet is that in many, many situations you'll still be able to hear the drums pretty well! You may need to add a little kick drum. But, if you can still hear the drums, they're probably more audible than the guitar was the way you had it before. And let's face it, the lead singer and the soloists are the stars of the show - not "your" drum sound. Slowly bring the drums into the audible range. Remember, it's the vocal and guitar that should be crankin'. Now, do the same with the bass. While the whole band is playing, take it out of the mix. Then slowly bring it back to an audible level. What I tell the sound men who work with me is that their main drum mic is....my lead-vocal mic. You would be surprised at how much drums (cymbals especially) are picked up by the lead-vocal microphone. I know that a lot of sound men think they have a technical solution for this problem. Noise gates, compressor/limiters and stuff like that have their place I guess, but they are no solution. A noise gate on a lead vocal mic means that if the singer backs way off of the mic and let's out some little yells and "oh yeah's" and stuff, those things will be "gated", or, un-hearable. I think it's those little things are what give a performance soul and excitement. I really still want the whole band to be nice and loud, but not mixed so the main players are completely covered up. Keep those chain-saws buzzing and enjoy the lyrics. Your drums and bass will still be there and be audible. Next time you go to hear a band play, listen to see what I mean and tell the sound man about this article. I'm guessing that while you'll be able to hear every little tap on the drums, you won't be able the understand the lyrics and the guitar will be a distant, droning mmmmmmmm. All of this is another reason that going to see bands play is hard for me now. If I ever hear a band whose sound man doesn't do this, I'll let you know. So far, it's been years since that happened, so, don't hold your breath. Next week, I'm going to talk about how close microphones on all of the drums have changed the way the drums are played. Some drummers are not going to be so happy with me, but, some will love me for saying all of this. Drummers do actually like loud chain-saw guitars and lyrics too!
Thanks,
Jim "Reverend Horton " Heath P.S. We're on tour with Junior Brown right now. He used to not let his drummers use anything but a snare and two brushes (no sticks). I heard that when a drummer of his set up a kick drum one day, Junior walked in for sound check, saw the kick drum, picked it up, carried it out the back door and rolled it down the alley. If that's true, that's pretty cool. Drummers please don't hate me.
6:11 PM
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154 Comments - 211 Kudos
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Saturday, January 13, 2007
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Here's a special update from Rev. Horton Heat
Howdy Cats and Kittens, I was just reading some of the replies to my blogs. I just had to write this to say thank you, thank you, thank you and thank you. I've got the best fans in the world. I guess that I can see why some people may be jealous of that. Ya'll ROCK! Sincerely,
Jim "Reverend Horton" Heath
11:40 AM
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59 Comments - 83 Kudos
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