z_Pat Capone's Blog

Resonator Finger-Style Blues Jam - Video

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:28:55 GMT

One of my good friends from back when I was at Second City is now a professional photographer. A couple of days ago he came over to the Patcave with some new gear and was testing it out. So, I did a quick grab for my Gretsch Honey Dipper resonator guitar and started playing some finger-style blues improv while he was filming. It's not perfect by any means, but I thought you might dig seeing what I do when I'm not in the LOOP studios. byPatrick Caponehttp://patcapone.com

Pre- GNR Axle Rose Demo

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 29 May 2013 18:31:13 GMT

As you probably can imagine, being a DJ in Chicago I have heard a lot of band demos over the years. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t very good. Poor audio quality, that’s to be expected, rookie mistakes, yes, poor execution, sure, but the biggest downer… simply bad songwriting. Back in the day, and I’m talking pre-internet here, I thought that if other musicians and bands could simply hear all of these same demos that I was hearing, and realize how many of them have almost exactly the same sound, then they would understand they needed to work on the originality of their songwriting. Makes sense right? Yeah, not so much. Fast forward to the last 10 years and every band on Earth, even some that have never played together but have a MySpace page, are all over the Internet. You can hear demos on YouTube, MySpace, Reverbnation, and yet I ...

Throwback Thursday and the Mad Bomber Run

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Fri, 24 May 2013 14:49:14 GMT

Throwback Thursday.. way back.. and my early hot rods. LOL Here I am with my latest upgraded design for taking on the hills. I added a slightly flexible top for a more comfortable ride and better angle on the front steering. The rear tires narrowed and now tucked under wells to prevent an earlier mishap. The new extended front axle allowed for more room to incorporate feet along with the rope hand controls, wider for a better grip in high speed turns. Notice the lowered rear end. Way ahead of its time here. American Made. Hell Yeah. Merica.My assistant with the hammer is Jay Giamalva, his father taught Spanish at Barrington High for a very long time.It worked like a charm, screaming at high speeds, pulling incredible g forces as it would carve through my neighbors driveways and sidewalks, jumping over curbs as i cut the turns too ...

An Open Mind to New Music

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 22 May 2013 19:09:33 GMT

Someone once said, “Music is life”. While that might seem as a very broad description to some rookie players, any veteran would probably nod his head in agreement. Every culture, every generation, every musician, has their own way of interpreting their life, feelings, emotions, pain, and happiness into their own music. By opening your mind and allowing yourself to listen, to really listen, to the many different styles of music that is available, you are allowing yourself to grow as a musician in ways that a narrower minded musician might never understand.Whenever I meet a brand new guitarist for the first time I usually ask them who they are influenced by musically. What kind of music do they like to listen to? Who are their favorite bands and Guitarists? More often than not, I hear a very narrow list, and almost always it’s from the same musical genre. “I ...

Charity Motorcycle Rides for May 18th & 19th

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 15 May 2013 18:22:32 GMT

The sun is out, the trees have leaves, and our motorcycles are ready to hit the roads. This weekend there are several worthy charity rides that my Rock Mafia Charity Riders MC will be supporting. Hopefully, we will see you at one of these events. For more information about my Rock Mafia Charity Riders: http://patcapone.com/capones-rock-mafia-charity-riders-mc Saturday May 18th, 2013 - The Mooseheart Bike Blessing The Rock Mafia Charity Riders will be supporting and attending the 10th Annual Mooseheart Bike Blessing and motorcycle rally. Come on out and support this amazingly cool organization. Location: Mooseheart Field House 155 S. International Dr. Mooseheart, Illinois 60539 Website: http://mooseriders.org/blessing.asp Costs:Advanced Registration - $20 until May 15thAfter May 15th - $25Concert Only - $10 Schedule:Vendor Booths and registration open at 9am.Campus ride and bike blessing takes off at Noon.Lunch at 1pmConcert starts at 2pm with Entertainment from ...

Chicago Charity Motorcycle Rides

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:45:21 GMT

It’s my favorite time of year in Chicagoland. The leaves are appearing back on trees, the damn river is slowly receding back into its banks, and plenty of Chicago area charity motorcycle rides are starting to take place. I try and attend and help promote as many of these events as I can, and your welcome to join us. Working at a kick ass rock radio station is pretty amazing; working at one that has the heritage and listener base such as The Loop, well.. That’s just incredible. Loyal Loopers, as they are often referred to, are really the heart and sole of the radio station. Truly and honestly we have the coolest group of listeners/friends out of every other radio station in town. Of course, being a Loyal Looper even before I was a DJ here has me a bit biased. Did you know that 50% of everybody who ...

The Next Rock Generation Lives

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:37:31 GMT

As I was cutting through the usual side streets of Barrington this morning on my way into the train station I saw something that gave me hope for a new generation of rockers. Dressed in a very cute summer sun dress and climbing out of her Mom’s silver Mercedes SUV in front of Hough Street Elementary School was a very young girl with an electric guitar. She couldn’t have been more than 9 years old. I loved it. Far too often I hear people comment, “This generation doesn’t this, or doesn’t that, blah blah blah”. I get it; my parents said the same damn things. It must be a symptom of spending years watching the next generation of idiots making the same mistakes you did, except with a different playlist and sense of fashion. I guess it would be easy to assume that new musicians might not even pick up ...

F@&K the Flood!

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:59:57 GMT

I know I’m not the only one who had a house full of water as a result of the recent flooding. Nearly 48 counties in Illinois have already been declared state disaster areas. Let’s face it, this sucks! F@&K the Flood! I grew up here in the NW suburbs of Chicago, spending many a Sunday out at grandma’s ridiculously small cottage up in Fox Lake. None of us in the area are strangers to wet basements, especially in recent years, but I don’t think any of us could have expected or prepared for the disaster that we now face. These days, I have my own small cottage right on the Fox River. My friends quickly nicknamed it the Patcave. In some ways I’m lucky that my place is just above the flood plane. With 180 degree views of the river, I have been watching this all unfold from a birds ...

You Can Never Have Too Many Guitars

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:17:52 GMT

I think my father understood from the start, since he was the one that walked in the house with not one, but two new acoustic guitars for me. It was the beginning of a beautiful obsession – Guitars. Over the years I have had girlfriends, and x-wives, ask “Why do you need so many guitars, you can only play one at a time?” Listen carefully and let me make this perfectly clear, you can never have too many guitars. I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes; I had one thousand and sixty. - Imelda Marcos I’m not sure why, but it almost always seems to be women. Some women simply can not understand why we want more guitars. I say SOME women, because I have certainly run into some very cool women who totally understand our obsessive desire to increase the herd of guitars. You would think more ...

Here Comes Metallica Pinball from Stern

pcapone@wlup.com (Pat Capone) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:37:42 GMT

Metallica and Stern Pinball, now that’s a GREAT combination. All of us old school rockers remember a time when heading up to the arcade was the thing to do. You bummed 5 bucks from your old man, climbed into your buddy’s 69 Firebird, and headed up to the game room to look for hotties, play some pinball, and hear some seriously loud rock music cranking over the crazy electronic sounds from the room full of machines. We won’t talk about what happened out in the parking lot. Making the tokens last in your favorite machine was just as much about skill as it was necessity. If you timed the day right and scored a deal, maybe you got 4-8 tokens for a dollar. Hey man, you got to make that last all night and learning the tricks and techniques for each pinball game could be a challenge. I’m still mystified ...