Mr. Haircut

Ryan Hsu, guitar wizardrer of the Fruit Smoothie Trio, Papa Panda and the Bamboo Shoots, and Nylon Lion graces us with his masterly presence on this second episode of our Emotive Energy series. John tries to convince Jonathan that there is some kind of communicative energy hitherto unexamined by science that connects all living things and communicates emotion between musician and audience. John calls it emotive energy, and tries to define it while Jonathan bashes him in the head with fists of logic and Ryan tries to mitigate the damage by expounding on John’s idea and then beating Jonathan with his spiritual nunchucks . Here it is.

** You can stream all of the music from this episode at www.mrhaircut.org **

*-*++ Make sure to crank up your hairphones to maxximum volume production before listening*-*++

Ryan Hsu, better known as Ryan, the guy from Fruit Smoothie Trio that plays the guitar, brought us coffee this morning and we invited him to talk with us about one of the most serious topics we’ve discussed this month. It just so happens Ryan is a guitar player, and so he brought his guitar and ring modulator pedals into the studio and we grilled him about his deepest, darkest fears, basic philosophy and worldview, and hair color.

Can music be objectively good? Are there aspects of a song or recording that make it better than another? John and Jon dive into this deep topic, and play some objectively 'kick ass' music.

Matt Sickels, aka The Hard Part, is our guest this week. We feature the second half of our conversation with him (check episode 3.x for the first part of the Hard Part) and Extra Special event today is the release of our new tune, Tidal Motion at the end of the podcast! We talk and jam in the studio with Matt for a while, about topics ranging from our cover bands to penguins to sex. Sometimes all three.

On today’s episode we have the fabulous Matt Sickles, aka. the Hard Part. He’s used to go with a faux hawk, but has recently shifted to a hard part to minimize setup time, and he usually plays the hard part on guitar with his many bands. Including, as we have recorded here, Mr. Haircut. We got some pretty nasty improvisations this episode, and some deep, inspiring, thought provoking, raucous conversation. I wrote out a script for Matt to follow, but once again, forgot it at home… so this episode is improvised. I think my squirrel already chewed on my script for next week, so we might have to improv that one too. You are in for a treat– biscuits, grandma guitars, speed picking, and cross sticking all make an appearance in this week’s Mr. Haircut.

In this episode John lays down some thoughts and a gripe or two about bass solos and players who are scared to step out of their little boxes, while Jonathan uses his calming voice and giant black-man hands to soothe the irate bassist. This episode includes several nice improvisations from the studio and a great track from a recent concert. Be prepared to have your inner ears tickled.

Welcome to the first episode of Mr. Haircut! John and Jonathan introduce the podcast and get into discussions about what improv can do, why improv is and which Fast and the Furious movie is the most fastest, interspersed with live improv performances in the studio and recordings of gigs they’ve played together.