u/jebbanagea

Well, if you’re in an area that sells live lobster, Albertsons (at least Shaw’s, probably Star Market) have live lobsters on sale at 8.99 through today. Not too late! Most of those places will cook them for you. Most other stores had a sale this week too, but most of those ended yesterday. 8.99 is unfortunately a good price this year. Maybe comes down with the Maine season going into high gear soon, but not a lot of good news for prices. Fuel, labor costs, demand, a diminished supply, are keeping lobsters high. Wasn’t too long ago that I could pay 1.99 (rarely) and 2.99 (common) for them. Social media and popularity have played a role in keeping lobsters high. A big roll. Hopefully we will see a 4.99 price on sale, if we’re lucky.

I cook and shuck my own, but I know that’s not for everyone. That’s where frozen (1-2 lb bags) and fresh meat come in. Frozen tends to hold flavor better and is just as good, but needs extra care to get right. Fresh meat will lose flavor the longer away from its cook time is (3, 4, 7 days - seasoning with salt will restore some of that).

For frozen meat (flat pack bag, usually 1-2 lbs, see pic) you need to thaw it in fridge or cold water(still in the bag). The second method is much faster if you forget to thaw overnight.

The secret to frozen is ensuring you get out as much moisture as you can. A few rounds of paper towels and hand pressing (not squishing!) will do it. Maybe a clean Swedish towel would work. I haven’t tried that, so don’t know if they are safe or effective. But when you think you’ve gotten enough out, there’s one more round of paper towels! If there’s any glaze left on the meat from not defrosting, you could run it under cold water bagged up to get the glaze fully melted. Get the meat pretty dry. Not oven dry, towel dry!

If using a classic New England frankfurter roll sliced at top with white sides or any normal size hot dog bun🌭 - (see pic) a traditional amount of lobster salad per roll is 3-5 ounces - 4 is the sweet spot. Of course you can go bigger but then it’s not a classic, but a modern one.

Recipe for a classic:

Mixed lobster meat (tail, claw), chopped or “broken up” into nice chunks.

Mayonnaise ( a little can go a long way. Not the visual example of my pic). You’re probably at around a tablespoon amount per 4 ounces of salad.

Optional but highly recommended- finely diced celery.

You may or may not need/ want added salt. Taste first.

The New England style bun is ideal and traditional due to its great surface area to butter and pan toast/grill.

Enjoy!

Tl;Dr: No talking demo of the Bogren Digital ampsim AMPKNOB FATMAN. Non-pro player or creator. Not sponsored etc etc. Just wanted to share.

Hey guys, with the recent John Mayer (expensive) plugin release bringing a ton of new, less-technical players into investigating the plugin world, I wanted to throw this out there. If you're looking for something a bit simpler or cheaper to see if plugins are actually your thing long-term, check out the Bogren Ampknob "Fatman” trial.

Tonally it’s on par with any plugin from any source, does a much better and accurate Fender sound thing than Neural DSP IMO. No guessing what it is. It’s an achievement, that’s for sure.

It's modeled after a Fender Bassman, it's on sale for $40 right now, and they have a 14-day free trial. The UI is dead simple—no choice paralysis or endless tweaking, you just plug in and play. I actually trialed their Duet plugin too and might clip that later, but I'm totally hooked on the accuracy and tone of the Fatman. Let me know what you think of the sound.

For me, and $40 bucks, plus a free trial - it’s a lower risk (14 days isn’t long enough for someone to see if plugins can work into their flow longer term).

This is not meant to be taken seriously, but I do still love my country and know we will be a better nation again. The World Cup is proving people truly love each other and borders mean nothing. Everyone wants, deserves freedom and a say in the future.

Fourth of July Blues - amp sound courtesy of Bogren Digital (ampknob fatman) and backing track by MCCD sessions on YouTube.

The short: If you can help, please comment with a backing track channel/source on any popular platform (YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify). Please provide a link and name. Not a single track, a source with at least 30+ tracks.

The only other rule, and the biggest, REAL HUMAN BEINGS ONLY!

OK - so here's the WHY:

There is a virus spreading (I use YouTube) of backing track channels by people exploiting AI and NOT disclosing that it's AI. Even if they do disclose it, I think it's a bad thing to support.

The biggest creation tool is SUNO. I can hear SUNO in virtually any track, and many many people cannot. SUNO is effectively theft as it was trained on actual work by actual musicians. It's one thing to use SUNO to sketch ideas, and there are worse things than AI backing tracks, but I don't think publishing AI without being 1000% clear that it's AI with your audience is dishonest. I guarantee you, if more people were as attuned to spot AI these channels would wither and die.

Why so passionate? Beyond the simple theft and disregard for creative, there are a number of actual musicians that have put in a LOT of effort over the years and RELY on the income generated for their livelihood. For this slop to come along and erode that share and cost these real creators money is a little shameful in my mind. I couldn't live with myself publishing AI music of any sort...

I hope you'll join me to support the community of real creators by helping me create a whitelist/blacklist. This is about protecting someone's livelihood and not letting AI steal one more music job from us.

CERTIFIED REAL HUMAN:

AUSHER: https://youtube.com/@ausherjamtracks?si=SRIbqVp0IufnNCie

MCCD Sessions (Ice B blues): https://youtube.com/@icebeatmaker?si=twFNPJANuIS99r_2 (He's no longer making tracks, but his tracks are in my opinion the all time best for authentic classic blues.)

Elevated Jam Tracks: https://youtube.com/@elevatedjamtracks?si=_7VS6TbfxlMVulJR (Some blues)

Now You Shred: https://youtube.com/@nowyoushred?si=uBwo8aAdsXmNoQ78 (Yes, he does a lot of tracks based on famous music, but he is at least human being!)

Pat Matrone https://youtube.com/@patmatronemusic?si=ZYo0gRvywNO9jFPY (very limited blues, but some great progressive/modern stuff)

YT Jam Tracks https://youtube.com/@ytjamtracks?si=B-RJgSrT4E5pNjmz (Another OG)

Sebastian Zunino https://youtube.com/@sebastienzunino?si=fjuWFKfcJQE0jeDq (Yep, another OG)

Artmant Studios https://youtube.com/@artmantstudios?si=eWMYM9QlGKCOA3-I (Another, but no longer making new tracks)

Dix Music Studio - https://youtube.com/@dixmusicstudio?si=FWr4QavErCdTs2CN (holy funky stuff)

A crazy week for me, not that anyone cares, but being able to play some blues to forget about it all for a moment is welcome relief. Have a great weekend sub! And happy Father’s Day to the Dad’s in countries celebrating!

Do you use your volume control as an essential part of your dynamics? What other tips do you have for taming when you want it tame, and digging in when you don’t?

I was really happy with how this sounded. Tone Bender close to max, but volume knob on the guitar closer to min at times. Building from there. The fuzz kept the tone thick I think, so I didn’t feel like it was sacrificing anything. Be well blues players. And for you Americans, have a thoughtful and restful Memorial Day. Salute the fallen.

There’s a new Voodoo Child jam track from Now You Shred. This is one of those tunes I find impossible to skip over. Always a good time!

https://youtu.be/EILmtJl3gsI?si=C1E47P3nChFemXwh

ROUGH draft, but I won’t finish on Mother’s Day proper, so it will do for now…

Usual caveats. I’m not a professional player or a teacher of any sort. Just one of the many players enjoying the guitar and wanted to share what could be a helpful concept for a couple of you. Especially if you’re new and are struggling with making melodies on your guitar, or think you need to do this or that technique to play nice things.

In this video I encourage you to learn how to play major and minor scales using only one string at a time. For each key, it’s a good way to start to make more connections with where the intervals are and where the notes you want to play live. And by accident you almost have to try NOT to be musical. So, it’s a nice way to have some fun right away and build up some knowledge while you do it. Anyway, hope it lands for one or two out there. All I care about is making one person break out of a funk, or try something new and get some new satisfaction from playing. I know how frustrating it can be to feel like there’s no music there, just frustrating mistakes and memorization that leaves some of the fun to some undefined date in the future. Doesn’t have to be! Have fun.

Wingin’ it version

Hi sub -

First - I hope others add tips for identifying AI blues. It’s a scourge and a disgrace to the genre. No surprise, the genre is being exploited more than others and this crap is everywhere. I think it’s a con and the people that create these YouTube channels, Spotify accounts, are low character talentless scum. I have a real disdain for the people that distribute this garbage and a genuine sadness that seemingly thousands of people are listening to and supporting this crapola.

Long form compilations and AI thumbnails and visuals are one sign. The cliche blues vocals are another. Guitar tones that appear across different channels so much that you instantly recognize them as the “SUNO tone” is another. Basically, if it’s music that sounds professionally produced but there’s no artist name or a made up cliche blues artist name that you’ve never heard of, it’s almost certainly AI. It’s hard to miss it. This dreck is everywhere and blues is under special assault by these music fraudsters. Support the real thing. Not saying you need to buy anything, but there are many small professionals and even more decent amateurs out there that make decent blues. Anyone that’s trying is 1000% better than all the AI crap combined. This stuff is a blight and blues is being hit especially hard. It really bothers me.

Thanks for letting me rant a bit. I love blues with all my heart and it kills me to see this.

AI blues is theft.

AI blues is an insult to the men and women that created it, only to see their work vacuumed up by an algorithm and spit back out to the ignorant but well meaning masses.