What's funny is whenever "Britain's legendary Spinal Tap" reunites Guitar World conducts an exclusive interview with the "band." For example:

NIGEL TUFNEL If you're playing in C you've got a major triad, which is C, E and G. If you flat the third then you've got a minor. Big deal, right? That's not that interesting. But there are these places in between, which I call "caves." You know what a cave is, right? Have you been in a cave ever?

GUITAR WORLD I have once, as a child.

TUFNEL Okay, well, that's not what I really want to know, specifically, about your being in a cave. I just meant if you knew that I call in-between notes "caves." You've got C and D, sharps and flats. In between those are little hidden places that I call "caves," where you hear an overtone. It's not so much naming what scale but what caves you're using. You've got B and you've got B flat. Aha! But in between the B and the B flat is something else, but it's not quite the same, and it creates an illusion that you're somewhere else, and it's subliminal. You can hear the echo of the B and the B flat, but it's not quite the same, and it creates the illusion that you're somewhere else--namely in a cave--sometimes. In that particular solo I went caver. I call it "I'm goin' caver on ya." That's what I say.

What's funny is way back in the late 80s I remember reading this interview with guitar virtuoso Steve Vai where he's talking about "microtones," which I guess are notes in between the notes. It pops up in blues all the time; for example, you play a B flat on the 3rd fret of the G string and do a quarter bend towards B, and you've got a note that resides between the two. Anyway, Vai went on to talk about this whole elaborate system of scales he's worked out using notes that reside in between notes; let's face it, this guy is a little strange, you know? There's always this amazing sense of awareness with the Spinal Tap humor; like, it's funny that "Nigel" is goofing (or possibly "riffing") on the whole eccentric guitar genius stereotype.

My friend Jason was digging through some boxes and found some old magazines I must've let him borrow a long time ago. One is the August 1984 issue of Faces Rocks, which features stories about The Pretenders, Queen, Van Halen (pre-Van Hagar!), The Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, Nena, and Weird Al. The other is the June/July 1984 issue of Video Rock Stars, apparently brought to us by the Teen Beat crew. This one's got Van Halen (they were huge at this point in history), Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Cyndi Lauper, and The Police. There's a "Giant Color Duran Duran Fold-Out" included, which I should probably hang up in my cube at work. Finally, a copy of Musician magazine from 1989 dedicated to the important metal acts of the day, and the Van Halen issue of Rock N' Roll Comics. Awesome! This stuff is priceless.

Yesterday's Flight of the Valkyries show was amazing; every single band was great! I left with three full-length CDs, and a demo CD from a newer band.

lonely_doll informs me that dinner is nearly ready; hooray!!