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51st 2009 Grammy Nominee Slap AKA What not to do when sending out a press release about being a 51st 2009 Grammy Nominee Hopeful
The Press Release Blunder (aka My Press release Blunder)
Well, I was included in this years Grammy entry list from which Grammy nominees are chosen (the top 5 in each category become Grammy nominees). For an independent virtually unknown guitarist with no label this was really cool to be listed and who knows maybe suddenly even becoming a Grammy nominee and then taking the music world by storm and winning a Grammy!! YEAH!!! I can see it now [screen begins to fade and we are taken to the "Grimey Awards" announcements: "presented by the gloved ones, Michael Jackson and O.J Simpson, the Worst Press Release Award goes to Guitarist Denis Taaffe......Thank You Gloved one's, I would especially like to thank...."[screen fades back in] oh, sorry I was day dreaming,ok where were we,oh yes.....,Well I had been included in the entry list in the 44th,45th,46th,49th and 50th Grammy entry lists in the past(see Denis's website http://www.dtguitar.com for info on past awards), but did not garner enough votes to become a Grammy nominee.I was hoping this yea would be perhaps a little different. This year they put me in the pop category mostly, actually in the following categories:
Best Pop Instrumental Album: Modern Guitar Vol.110 "The Station" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Performance -for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Performance -for the track "Terrorists" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Composition - For the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Best Pop Instrumental Arrangement - for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Record of the Year - for the track "Now Boarding" see listing here
Album of the Year - Modern rock Guitar Vol.1110 "The Station" see listing here
Well, again I did not garner enough votes to become a Grammy Nominee, but really I was pleased just to be included in this years Grammy entry List.That makes my sixth year and next year I will try for a seventh time. For a unsigned and mostly unknown independent music that is not bad at all and I was thrilled to be listed with some really well known musicians and bands that I grew up listening too. Well, my only gripe is that it has everything to do with album sales and popularity and nothing to do with the quality of the music. Couldn't they have a "mammy" awards where it was all voted on by the quality of the music? Well, anyway, next year is not that far off, i better get to recording.
Oh one more catastrophe and file this one in the totally Lame department: Ok, I figured a little media exposure for my Grammy entry list was in order as I have done in the past. So I set about crafting a press release with the title "
How could this happen?!!? Of course I had to be diligent and contact every radio tv station and newspaper in not only my town ,but my state...hahaha, allI could do was shake my had and laugh at myself, what else could I do. This was an honest mistake, but talk about a slight error hahahaaa...I feel bad for the poor folks who got my "late" breaking news. well, I certainly felt like the boy who cried wolf.
AM Radio Station Blunder
now, even worse and was that an am radio station I usually set my alarm to began talking about the Grammy's and they were spouting off names in each category and so I thought "wow, they must have a copy of the entry list and surely will mention me as I was on the entry list and had sent them my ill-fated press release. At that time i didn't realize that the nominee's had already been named!! hahah.Well, suddenly I hear on the radio, a news DJ say "oh yeah, well speaking of the Grammy nominations, well we got an email {slight Pause}....from some guy I never heard of.....".It had to be my press release , I was sure of that. Looking back,I am thrilled that he spared me the shame and embarrassment of mentioning my name haha. Worse , the guy must have thought that I was either making it up or was a fry short of a happy meal as the nominee's had already been announced and I soon realized that they didn't have the entry list that I was on, but they had the results list which I was not on. haha
Now , without exaggerating, I had even called that station at 6am thinking that they may have thought I was saying I was a Grammy nominee and that no, I was just on the entry list and as I thought they were discussing the entry list, I did call, so I try to explain and the guy on the other end says "congratulations, yeah...we will look for your email"..hahaha oh I should of left bad enough alone hahaa. He probably thought I was some loony tunes wacko crank caller or something...you know it reminds me of when I once tried to call a radio station to tell them "uh yeah ...there's no school today" when i was 15 or so...and I am sure they probably got a few calls like that a week haha.
Well, this big flub up by me was par for the course, the whole day was pretty much like this haha.Well, if anything, it certainly kept me humble as I was happy to just put this years Grammy entry list and nominee announcements behind me. As I drove to work, I kept switching stations in the hopes that No station mentioned my late press release,I could jsut imagine a whole radio hour laughing about that. I mean I have to admit I would have found it hilarious.
I even had contacted the well known radio comedy commentators BOB N TOM,hey it would have been nice fro them to say "hey A Indiana based guitarist you never heard of may become a Grammy nominee" ,not news but interesting anyway. Well, my fear was than when i got to work that they would call me at work while on air and say something to the affect of: "DEnis, this is bob n tom and we got your email press release, just one thing "they already announced the winner s and YOU LOST" ahaahhehhoo and then hang up. actually,I think it would have made for a wonderful BOB N TOM skit episode of "Mister Obvious" hahaa.
Well, what can I say, I had not thought it through and assumed that the date of the announcements was correct (not two days behind). hahaa. Well, anyway, I had a really good laugh about this and I think my ego will survive or at least whats left of it haha. Honestly, For this year i am just really grateful just to have been on the entry list and I thought the competition was amazing for this year. I mean bands I grew up listening to and some of my favorite bands were listed, so it was an honor for me to be just listed with these well known musicians.
The Cat's Meow or The Cat's Cradle in the audio studio
Let's Get back to whats important, oh yes, recording in a home audio studio. Well, Yesterday I wanted to recorded a couple of tracks and tryout recording with one of the Crate v33212 all tube combo amps. WEll, I got everything hooked up and the recorder ready to go and setup the sm57 beta microphone a couple of inches from one of the crate combo amps 2x12 cabinets, cool this was going to be en experiment, I had my old solid state 2x12 combo in the left ch and the all tube crate v33 in the right ch. Well, before I recorded I noticed that my cat was hanging out about my mixing console and I tried to get him to leave the room before I recorded. I left the room for a moment and saw that cat was following me out. Ok, I then went back into my studio room and closed the door. Ye, finally a moment to record with my new tube amp. this was very exciting, I started recording and playing and played for a good 5 to 10 minutes and got a good groove of a track where i could then launch into a chimey tube clean solo. Oh it sounded great while I was playing.
ok, I was all excited to hear back the results, betting the tube amp would sound great. So, I put down the guitar and begin to playback the recording on my recorder. First I get no sound?!! at all..nothing..natta...zip..so I looked over the mixing console and find a few channels being soloed...ch' I was not using...that was odd. Anyway i turn off the solo and all the ch's begin working again. What I heard back as the recorder played was some drum samples ,this huge bass guitar sound which muffled a tiny guitar tone why int h distance being drowned out by the overbearing bass sound. I was like "What is this?!?" This is what i recorded? sound's like crap...I was distraught. I then looked on the console again and noticed that my ch that had the bass sound was feeding into my recorder as it should, but there were several extra buttons being pushed down?! The result was that the bass sound was being fed into every ch of my recorder.Surely i could not have been that careless.
I then dawned on me, that my Cat Tobey had been using the mixing console as a step ladder to get to his perch on top of one of my PC monitors. DARN IT, ten minutes of useless recording and my great tube amp test recording was ruined by Tobey. I exclaimed "Tobey BOaB!!".Well,moral of the story, i am not sure, I guess don't let the cats into the studio, but mine like to be in the same room I am in . Well, I learned to double check all my settings before recording before getting unwanted engineer help from my cats. Well, its ok, son,\I will have a all weekend to another test.I do keep the door closed when i record loudly and when i am away, but am happy to have their company, but maybe I should ban them from my studio room, its just when spend hours in there. Anyway, no harm done and for example my old gear the have learned not to disturb it at all.So maybe I need to just not let them hope on the mixer too.
Ok, out of time again....Though next time , I will have the results of my tube amp recording tests, we will see how the crate v33212 combo amps hold up.
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