2016 February 26, Friday – Mars Lights at the Replay Lounge, Lawrence KS, with Red Cities and Hyperbor. 6 PM, all ages, ?$
2016 March 4, Friday – Dark Satellites at Frank’s North Star Tavern, Lawrence KS, with Braingea and Ask An Adult. ? PM, ? ages, ?$
2016 April 30, Saturday – Mars Lights at The All Star Rock Bar, Kansas City MO, with TBA
Booking: marslightsnoise (at) gmail (dot) com
2016 January 30, Saturday – Mars Lights at The All Star Rock Bar, Kansas City MO, with From The West, Electropossum, and Bone Spur. 7:30 PM, all ages, $5 ($8 for under 21).
I breadboarded my first partly-original pedal design this afternoon, and it worked!
The Kingman Anti-Drive is a passive volume cut circuit based on the Kinman treble bleed. It’s designed to give guitarists a clean/clean-ish/cleaner sound when placed in front of a saturated amplifier or overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal. Unlike turning down the guitar’s volume knob (which results in a dark, bass-heavy sound) or the Kinman circuit (which is optimized for only one particular point on the volume knob) the Kingman Anti-Drive offers a customizable frequency response with controls for volume, treble level, and treble cutoff frequency.
It’s simple (three pots, two capacitors, and wiring) but really, really useful. My basic live pedal setup for Mars Lights is an always-on treble boost and a Bass Big Muff Pi for choruses and big riffs, but I’m planning to replace that with an always-on Catalinbread Karma Suture (Happy Winter Non-Denominational Snow Time to me) and the Kingman in front of it for verses and quieter parts. (See how it works kind of backwards? You kick it *on* for “less”/quiet parts/cleaner sounds.)
It was really fun to play around with the volume turned pretty far down, the treble level about mid-way, and the cutoff anywhere at all. (Adjusting the cutoff is effectively a mids control, varying from a cool mid-scooped sound to a fairly flat frequency response.) Once I got the circuit in place I played Stones-y riffs for a solid 20 minutes just for kicks.
I’m also breadboarding on a new rig. The briefcase* and mounts for power, input and output jacks, and potentiometers, lets me store and transport breadboarded circuits safely. This first draft of the Kingman will be making its way to Mars Lights practice next week for a bit of testing.
A first test run on Kingmen will be completed in the next month or two I hope. Once everything is worked out I intend to open a store on Reverb.com with the first products being my “Jack of All” DS-1 mod and the Kingman.
Nice to have something work on the first attempt after some months of experimentation, frustrated Googling, and spending money on parts I wasn’t sure I’d need.
If you’re interested in the Kingman and have my email address, please reach out; I’ll be ordering parts this coming week. If you don’t have my email, I’ll be sure to announce the opening of the Reverb store here.
* My old pedalboard, back to howie&scott days
2015 December 11, Friday – Mars Lights at Records With Merritt, Kansas City MO, with Red Cities (Lincoln NE). 8:30 PM, all ages, free show, buy records!
2016 January 30, Saturday – Mars Lights at The All Star Rock Bar, Kansas City MO, with From The West, Electropossum, and Bone Spur. 7:30 PM, all ages, $5 ($8 for under 21).
2015 October 1, Thursday – Dark Satellites at Replay Lounge, Lawrence KS, with Vedettes and A Light Within. 9 PM, ? ages, ? cover.
Mars Lights plays at Mills Record Company in Kansas City MO, with Slave Label. this Wednesday, Sept 23, at 6 PM. All ages, free show, buy records!!
We are on the KC Psych Fest / Haymaker Records stage with Mod Professor (DJ Ray Velasquez), Riala, Freight Train Rabbit Killer, The Philistines, Janet the Planet, and 3 Son Green, and all these bands are playing the fest! $15 advance tickets, all ages, we play at 7:00 at Mod Gallery at 1809 McGee.
7 PM, Jill & Tim’s house (RSVP to jill (dot) puffer (at) gmail (dot) com for the address if you need that)
Featuring:
Benny Bassett (Chicago)
Tim (in his very basement!)
Howie
BYOB. $10 suggested donation at the door to help Ben get back home. Snacks. Here’s what Jill said:
Hey, everyone! Tim and I finally have a day off together on August 29th, and we want to host a party for you!
It’s a House Warming.
It’s a House Show.It’s the House Shwarming.
House will be open at 7, and we have a short line-up of musicians and some art and merch available for purchase!
It’s our house, so the event is private, but you are welcome to invite friends.
See you!
2015 July 18, Saturday – Mars Lights at The Brick, Kansas City MO, with Kill Vargas (Wichita), Hyperbor (Lawrence). $? (maybe $7?), ??? ages, probably 9 PM doors / 10 PM show, FB event.
2015 July 10, Friday – Dark Satellites at Gaslight Gardens, Lawrence KS, with Hyperbor, Belt Notch, Hot and Ugly. $?, ??? ages, ? PM.
2015 July 18, Saturday – Mars Lights at The Brick, Kansas City MO, with Kill Vargas (Wichita), Hyperbor (Lawrence). $? (maybe $7?), ??? ages, probably 9 PM doors / 10 PM show, FB event.
2015 July 30, Thursday – Dark Satellites at the Replay Lounge, Lawrence KS, with Braingea. $?, ??? ages, ? PM.
2015 August 2, Sunday – Dark Satellites at Holy Cow, Kansas City MO. Probably free, probably all ages, afternoon show, details TBD!
As of yesterday morning, I’m recording Valiance guitars. Hoping to do at least 6 tracks this long weekend.
The rig is the EV RE320 close, aimed right at the top frets from slightly above, maybe six inches off. The Rode NT-1 is above and to my right in kind of a shoulder position; my goal with the setup is to match the sound I hear myself when I play, and it’s doing a pretty good job.
Wish me luck. It’s pretty realistic to estimate two weekends for guitars and two for vocals, though I don’t know that I’ll get the next four weekends straight for recording. A four- or five-hour half-day can usually net me three finished tracks.
2015 June 24, Wednesday – Mars Lights at the Replay Lounge, Lawrence KS, with The Rackatees, The Hemorrhoids (Lawrence). $?, ??? ages, 10 PM show, FB event.
2015 June 27, Saturday – Dark Satellites at recordBar, Kansas City MO, with RobotMonkeyMadman and Onward Crispin Glover. $7, ??? ages, 10 PM, FB event.
2015 July 10, Friday – Dark Satellites at Gaslight Gardens, Lawrence KS, with Hyperbor. $?, ??? ages, ? PM.
2015 July 18, Saturday – Mars Lights at The Brick, Kansas City MO, with Kill Vargas (Wichita), Hyperbor (Lawrence). $? (maybe $7?), ??? ages, probably 9 PM doors / 10 PM show, FB event.
Booking: marslightsnoise (at) gmail (dot) com