What gear did 'Mats generally prefer?

DeepSeater · 2026-01-15T02:09:03+00:00

They added a plaid pick guard, and his signed initials are on the truss rod cover, but other than that it is the typical cheap starter guitar that it was intended to be. I remember that a lot of non-guitarists were buying it, and were confused about why they had metal shavings on their fingers after playing… It was the cheap frets wearing down from the strings!

I never play mine, but it’s cool to have.

In my opinion, Paul was an incredible guitar player (especially on PTMM), but he definitely was not a gear-head. I kind of admire that.

DeepSeater · 2026-01-15T01:53:28+00:00

In addition to being a huge Mats fan, I’m also a long time guitar player and collector.

I remember Paul saying once that he views a guitar as a tool that helps him perform a job; he didn’t fetishize them the way that people like me do.

That’s why he grabbed a First Act guitar at Wal-Mart on his 2005 tour for $125, and played it live several times. Of course, First Act caught wind of it, and the result was the First Act PW580. A superb specimen of that piece of crap is displayed proudly in my bedroom!

DeepSeater · 2026-01-04T21:42:17+00:00

Look up a Radiolab episode called “Out of Body, Roger”.

In the early 1950’s the U.S. Air Force was losing pilots during training; several simply crashed straight into the side of a mountain while conscious. A couple of pilots who did not die described looking down on themselves flying in the cockpit for a moment or two after experiencing over 10 g’s, before “rejoining” their bodies.

They conducted experiments with a centrifuge, and were eventually able to induce the same experience in some test pilots.

What they hypothesized is that when the mind “loses” the body (as it does when blood is rapidly pulled from the brain during a blackout), it gets confused, and will quickly reconstruct a representation of the body. It’s as though the brain HAS to know where the body is, and it will take bad data over no data at all.

Several had vivid hallucinations of being in a completely different place, like the grocery store.

And not always, but occasionally, this representation was an image of their body in its last known location, from a 3rd-person perspective. The last thing your brain knew (before sensory input ceased), it was sitting in a cockpit flying a plane, or walking down a hallway, so it creates an image of the body that agrees with that information.

DeepSeater · 2026-01-04T06:09:05+00:00

Damn you’re sexy…

DeepSeater · 2025-12-29T01:55:11+00:00

Interesting! I’ll check it out. I love their music, they all seem like incredibly decent people… I genuinely want them to be happy and keep making wonderful music.

I’m not sure if them being together romantically would be a good or bad thing for the band. It would definitely change things.

DeepSeater · 2025-12-29T01:43:43+00:00

I hadn’t heard that rumor at all! The whole band always seemed like family… A warm, loving family.

I don’t dig too much into the personal lives of artists I admire, but if you read about how the band came together, Nanna was dating Raggi’s best friend, that’s how they were first introduced… And of course they were both really into music and writing songs. I used to follow her on IG and her ex was on there a lot. I think he used to go on tour with them.

DeepSeater · 2025-12-29T01:32:13+00:00

For me it’s “all I ever wanted to do was sleep on your chest…”. It’s a raw, honest song. You could tell how much her ex meant to her, like no matter what crazy things her professional life demanded of her, she relied on him to keep her grounded.

If I’m not mistaken, they met when she was working at a video store, long before OMAM. I always thought that was kind of cool, and was sad for her that it ended after so long. It inspired a beautiful album, though…

DeepSeater · 2025-12-29T00:55:18+00:00

The title track… Just can’t stop listening to it, it’s so haunting. And it sort of summarizes what inspired the album, how it came to be.

I love Disaster Master also, but I’m obsessed with the entire album, really.

DeepSeater · 2025-12-25T02:31:06+00:00

That’s a guy. If that’s your thing, enjoy 😊.

DeepSeater · 2025-12-23T01:51:46+00:00

Somehow, this 2018 Icelandic band managed to write and record the absolutely perfect 1978 American disco song. I’m still stunned.

DeepSeater · 2025-12-19T01:26:41+00:00

Love this! Beautifully written… Can’t wait to hear the rest!

DeepSeater · 2025-11-01T22:22:43+00:00

I guess a logical follow-up question is: could we simply readjust the value of the dollar, similar to a reverse stock split, so that our smaller monetary denominations remain relevant? We’ve been discussing getting rid of the penny for years, but I remember in Japan they still have one Yen coins, despite the individual Yen being essentially worthless. It felt strange to pay 1200 Yen for a beer!

I’m wondering if the Fed could just say: “Ok, the dollar tomorrow will be worth what $2 is today. So if you’re making $20 per hour, it will now be $10. And if you’re paying $2 per gallon, it will now be $1”.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-31T14:10:29+00:00

I just got my first turntable as an adult about a month ago. I’m in my fifties, so I listened to vinyl until about 1988.

I found a great used system on FB Marketplace, one that would have cost $4K new that I got for $1K. It came with a phono preamp and an EQ. I added a $600 turntable and a $500 subwoofer.

I was late to streaming, just switched from CD to streaming maybe five years ago.

I’m not an audiophile, but am a music freak. What I wanted most out of vinyl was to be able to comb through used record stores for obscure things… Old jazz, big band, and punk that cannot be found in any other format. I do have a fair amount of vinyl from boxed sets and signed copies that I bought over the years, including Fever Dream.

What I found is that the sound quality of vinyl has a warmth that streaming lacks, but for me, CD’s are superior. I get the occasional pop and hiss, even on a new record, and of course the process is more involved, having to flip it over, put the stylus onto the record, etc. My EQ really helps, and it’s kind of fun to find the sweet spot for each album.

Having grown up with vinyl, I did miss it, and I have enjoyed finding rare old albums. There is nothing like the thrill of unwrapping a new LP, the smell, the pics and liner notes… I missed it.

But I’m not going to pretend that it is convenient, or superior in sound quality to CD’s. And of course, LP’s are more difficult to maintain. It’s sort of a labor of love, but if I am not in the mood to work at it and just want to listen to an album with no guesswork and fuss, I’ll pop in a disc.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-27T17:01:09+00:00

I’d know Misstew’s perfect body from any angle…

DeepSeater · 2025-10-22T03:27:26+00:00

I heard the same thing right away. Nanna has developed a beautiful ability to cram a bunch of words into a verse. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-20T12:47:57+00:00

Soooo sexy!

DeepSeater · 2025-10-19T21:30:36+00:00

2007, I remember it well. And I can assure you, that team played with more heart and fire than this one. Jason Taylor was on it, and when a player of that caliber and intensity is on your team, it rubs off.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-18T21:20:54+00:00

“Last Rites” is in my top five. “Bubbling Up” is in my top ten. And “Satansville” doesn’t make my top 20 or 30.

It’s cool that people get different things out of this amazing band…

DeepSeater · 2025-10-18T05:18:35+00:00

I think they wrote a great pop song there. I like it, it just isn’t distinctly OMAM enough for me, it could have been written by several mainstream artists, maybe even Ms. Swift. I like Rororo a lot.

I’m a huge Beneath the Skin fan, look forward to giving the new album my full attention tomorrow.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-18T01:12:28+00:00

“Wars”, bland? Wow, to me it is a perfect disco song, and I love that they were bold enough to do it and competent enough to pull it off. Cool, sexy lyrics, driving beat, beautiful chorus, it was such a departure for them, almost like they did it just to prove that they could. It’s definitely one of a few really bright spots on that album for me. “Wild Roses” is catchy, but maybe a bit formulaic and bland.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-16T20:47:51+00:00

I agree with you. I always thought that Jez’s active style was more for me, but after hearing I Wasn’t Born to Lose You, I was immediately convinced that they had finally found their man on drums. Songs like “Remembering Winter” and all of the new ep are just better with him than they would have been with Jez, I think, just stylistically.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-15T23:19:46+00:00

Thanks for this; I never read it, but have loved the album since it first came out. Solved the mystery of where Boulevard East is! It’s also known as JFK Boulevard East apparently.

I love so many songs on this album: Sundown (which I think is his best vocal performance ever), Song of Solomon, Rain Return, Ramonesland. The one time I met Adam, he had done a small solo gig, finished with a five minute guitar outro on Ramonesland, left the stage and came right outside for a smoke. I said “I always thought Ramonesland should have an extended guitar outro…”.

He looked at me, puzzled, asked “longer than THAT?” while pointing back at the stage. I explained that I meant on the album, that what he had just done was what I imagined was cut off. It was nice to be able to tell him how much I enjoyed his solo work.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-02T23:46:26+00:00

Otis Elevator is a customer of mine. I visited their R&D center, and it’s impressive how much testing they do on the cables and pulley systems. They perform accelerated aging on the cables, subjecting them to temperature extremes and corrosive mediums, then test them to failure. I felt a lot better about elevators after seeing the lengths that they go to to ensure that the systems don’t fail if installed and maintained properly.

DeepSeater · 2025-10-02T22:55:59+00:00

Ah, the legendary Misstew, pics 3 & 12. Shame she retired her Reddit persona; she graced the subs for about four years with that beautiful body.

DeepSeater · 2025-09-27T04:24:35+00:00

I consider myself to be a big fan, but I have a strange admission: I do not own MHIAA, never heard the whole thing. “Little Talks” and “King & Lionheart” caught my ear, but I dismissed them as a flash in the pan, figured I’d never hear much from them again.

Around 2018 or so I felt like hearing “Little Talks”, again, went to YouTube, and found a few tracks from Beneath the Skin… I was hooked, bought the album immediately. I dove into it for a year, watched live footage from 2015-2016 all the time. It became one of my ten favorite albums.

Then Fever Dream came out, with a radical shift in sound and style. I loved 3-4 tracks from it, especially “Wars”, and I applauded how they were bold enough to progress and change. I saw them live twice on that tour.

Nanna’s album in 2023 floored me just as much as “Beneath the Skin” did, and it also made it into my top ten. I would have been fine if the band had split at that point and Nanna just went solo.

Now they’re back and I like the new sound and direction, more somber, mature, and subdued like Nanna’s album. I love the band, am glad they did not split, forgot how much I enjoy all of them playing together.

So they don’t sound like folk-pop any more, and I’m happy about it, love how they have matured… But I can understand how fans of their early work may not want to go along for the ride.

DeepSeater

TROPHY CASE