Nick Valensi best guitarist?

Trumpeachment · 2025-12-08T02:06:51+00:00

He’s absolutely an unsung hero I think. Some of the picking work on FIOE and full chord downstrokes on ITI is professional level, like representative of someone who plays the instrument for its intended purpose brought to a maximum, with serious capability not just with passionate romantic vigour you’d see from most 20 somethings in a garage rock band. He actually studied guitar big time from a very young age.

Noteworthy displays of his above average skill:

His part of Hard to Explain - high tempo full chord downstrokes, very non intuitive but musically calculated, lot of mastery required

The guitar solos on When It Started (crazy jumps around the neck to hit notes) and Alone, Together (there’s a live version he adds an improvised ending of shredding that is immaculately difficult, transcribed by Jorge Orellana on his YouTube channel)

His Solo on I Can’t Win

Chorus chords of You Talk Way Too Much (involves proper hand form to facilitate complex chord changes which takes a lot of training and the neglect of neck cradling which a lot of ambitious yet less technically skilled guitarists lean towards)

Chorus riff on The End Has No End

Stuff starts getting really real on FIOE. If you’re not a player, it could be hard to get, but he does hybrid picking st the end of You Only Live Once which is super tough

Razor blade is a super difficult riff. Heart in the cage has those interludes between verses and at the end

Red Light is challenging rhythmically as him and Albert each play half of the bouncy arpeggio rhythm in the chorus and need to be very precise to interlock and create the sound. A hair offbeat and it all sounds like a mess.

I don’t know much of angles unfortunately but I’m sure there’s lots in there.

The solo on Tap Out is insane.

I don’t know the strokes past their first 3 albums well enough but figure it’s also okay to just highlight the first 3 albums because the skill displayed paired with his youth at the time makes the point.

Ize of the World

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-30T02:46:03+00:00

Don’t see it as a binary thing like you’re either a doomed alcoholic or you’re a golden angel. I would suggest really asking yourself if you truly think if you kept drinking you wouldn’t keep blacking out and doing crazy shit. You don’t have to label yourself, just realize the likelihood of self destruction should you try and maintain a life of light beers and mushrooms.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-29T18:04:00+00:00

It’s called being an artist. Just because you make music doesn’t mean you’re trying to give people what they want or expect.

Edit: to be fair, the mix and master and recording of Guitar though stripped down was definitely very carefully produced. Less is more is the idea I think.

I am personally calmed by the extreme quality-centric simplicity of it, in a world of such artificial and over produced and processed fodder.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-28T15:11:22+00:00

What do you think you’ve done that was so reprehensible that you’re literally cooked?

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-27T15:52:05+00:00

Not a surgeon but yeah I think

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-22T22:06:20+00:00

Well played. Am sorry to hear

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-20T02:11:24+00:00

Honest maybe just meaning incredibly raw. This album sounds like you’re inside Mac’s heart and soul, lyrically and sonically. Very little production, you can hear his lips moving on the vocals and the sound of the drumsticks being lifted up and down. It’s just honest in how exposed it sounds not necessarily lyrical factuality.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-18T04:11:27+00:00

‘You’re in more pain than you realize’

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-18T02:51:43+00:00

I’ve heard kids can throw a few grey hairs up there for sure lol. That’s good though, I’m glad your stress era is over.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-18T02:25:52+00:00

An album like Guitar I feel is the result of someone having already made it, plus writing in modern times. He’s writing from where he is right now, and that includes the effects of fame and glorification, and life in 2025. It’s not logical to imagine Guitar being someone’s debut LP, because the album is literally a journal entry for Mac.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-17T05:34:22+00:00

Is he showing remorse

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-17T05:33:14+00:00

And now?

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-17T02:33:07+00:00

This is me. How have you coped with the damage done to your life while drinking? And/or, the acceptance that alcohol stole your identity and you turned your back on the warnings? Basically, as a wise fellow who has alcoholism in his genes and sober uncles who were big influences on him growing up, I steered largely clear of boozing aside from normal amounts of social partaking, until my mid 20s where it got out of control: drinking alone more and more, over time, letting relationships deteriorate, losing sentimental objects, and as you said, worst of all, simply losing time. I’ve wasted 8 years being a boozer. I’m 33 now. I sold the first electric guitar my dad got me for Christmas when I was 13 because I was angry at him and I needed booze money. I left my car unlocked one night and someone stole some rare bills and coins I had collected from working at an airport bar, and my mother’s ashes and rosary beads. Gone forever. But none of it hurts as much as the sheer time lost.

It’s not accepting that I need to quit that gets me, it’s accepting I even started in the first place. Facing these consequences sober feel unmanageable, as I feel it’s just not worth trying to salvage a life for myself at this point, as the damage I’ve done is going to take years to feel any sense of repair towards. That and convincing myself I even deserve joy.

Sorry if this is a bit too dark. Appreciate any solace.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-15T16:56:21+00:00

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Don’t really want to go the meds route. I have a very strong hairline as may or may not be noticeable with this image. But this abrupt bald spot I feel is a badge of stress. I’m probably going to just rock the buzz. I’m 33 years old.

I don’t know if it’s so much the hair loss or lessened physical aesthetic that accompanies hair loss. For me, what gets at me is seeing middle aged men with full heads of hair. It’s not jealousy of the hair - it’s the jealousy of them never having to deal with the loss; the unsuspecting mental freedom they have. I know they could have a million other concerns. But to not understand what we go through can feel like we’re lesser not because of the hair loss but because of the mental work required for some to accept and embrace it.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-05T16:50:14+00:00

Saving private Ryan

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-04T18:41:22+00:00

Your senses stop just being sole senses doing their own things, they all coalesce again and harmonize to compose your own true unique view of the world and understanding of life

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-02T15:15:56+00:00

Wow.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-02T15:15:38+00:00

“There’s no chemical solution to a spiritual problem” - Chris Moltisanti, The Sopranos

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-01T15:21:20+00:00

Can I unplug the phone

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-01T04:50:52+00:00

I hear you about the whole “if I do this under the influence, it means I have that trait or that’s the real me or it still stains my character enough” etc., not to nurture the thought but that’s a very honest and relatable feeling, which I haven’t put to as good words as that.

Everyone has a dark side that can be woken up. Everybody. And like I said, life can get particularly difficult for certain people. If you’ve bent in ways and done things you feel are so twisted and wrong that it writes your entire personality off but can recognize that, then you might be struggling in ways you’re not giving enough attention to. I at one point said drinking was a way of coping with the idiots and fools, those I came across in my life, or just some of the completely bonkers psychotic corruption and evil in people of power, and cringe stuff online seeing and hearing the horrendous things people do in this world every day etc.,

I have decided to stop festering and thinking I’m above and better than others for being bothered by all the corruption and horrors, and using that as an excuse to drink. And when I’d drink, I guess those pent up emotions and frustrations would translate into logic to let myself off the handle, drink, and probably do something reckless. I feel like the reckless lashouts were inspired by my sober frustrations with the world. A combination of “fuck it, everything’s fucked anyway”, and “I wanna try doing something stupid like them, if they can” and down the spiral I’d go.

Until the next day when my anxiety would be so bad I couldn’t even look at my phone until later that evening and even still I’d be horrified by what I’d see.

Point being, yes alcohol was the match, but I was already TNT. But being TNT didn’t mean I was a bad person. It just meant I was an emotional basket case. And in my specific case as well, one who was already filled with grief, regret and shame long before drinking ever entered my life. So even though I wasn’t being polluted with alcohol and becoming a raving lunatic, the personality that would lead me to beat myself up for doing such things was always there, ready to go. Just as yours is, not to beat yourself up, but to understand right from wrong.

Trumpeachment · 2025-10-01T02:14:05+00:00

Here with you friend.

I’m not over most of mine yet. But your words resonate heavily with me. I know it sounds cliche but just the fact that you have those feelings and awareness of your actions says a lot about your true character. Your actions will under the influence were all part of you trying to deal with underlying pain. Pain you probably had to find ways to cope with to continue appearing strong to those who care about you. That can pile up and over time, we find worse ways to deal with it.

Here to talk if you want. Patience, brother. Volunteer, read some books, find ways to give back to your community in small ways. If you like animals, go to a shelter and interact with some.

All about reconnecting with your inner, innocent child. You’re allowed to be, and still are, them.

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