Black Dog Music

05/08/2025

Good news, everyone!

For your convenience, the new (ish) mixer is now wall-mounted. And there are some extra spots for microphones and cables. I’ll add some cable strain relief points shortly - but not today! I am presently holed up in my backyard with Tracey, the felines and a refreshing beverage whilst congratulating ourselves on being Masters of the Universe (yeah I know, but it was camp as and nobody really remembers much of it).

Anyway, um…hooray! Less stuff taking up floor space.

🤙🏻

04/07/2025

Can everyone keep a lookout please? Not likely the kind of stuff that can be fenced easily so if y’all could watch Marketplace and whatever buy/sell pages you’re on…

21/06/2025

Happy Sunday, rock stars…🤙🏻

18/06/2025

Good news, everyone!

I’ve finally gotten my procrastinating arse to the studio to swap out the amplifiers - I really hope y’all like them! The Bugera is all-valve, so a cheeky little warm-up before full noise would be nice. For the power and standby switches, down is OFF and up is ON. There’s a foot switch in the back of it if you wanna play with that. But please (pretty please) DO NOT mess with the impedance settings/jacks on the head or the cab. They are all on the back panels so it shouldn’t be an issue, but just saying. If someone gets it wrong, the amp will be smoked. Thank you for your cooperation in this matter 😊

There’s heaps more real estate in the room now, and the next bit is mounting the mixer on the wall. All in good time.

Enjoy the new stuff everyone. Have a great week 🤙🏻

D

30/05/2025

Welcome to the weekend, champions!

I’m off to WA tomorrow for a couple of weeks. I haven’t been able to get over to swap out the bass amps yet, so I’m afraid y’all are gonna have to wait a little bit. Tracey will be around to field anything while I’m gone, otherwise everything will just kick on as usual.

A couple more things. Tracey and me have had a bit of a confab about Black Dog Music, and we have collectively agreed to take the studio off the market for now. There will be some changes re: the production side of things, but I’ve decided to hang around a bit longer.

Oh, and there’s a new piece of kit coming to pair with the 210…

Have a smashing weekend, and I’ll see y’all when I get back.

🤙🏻

D

27/05/2025

Happy Tuesday, everyone! And good news!

As hinted at in yesterday’s post (thank you everyone for your support and positive vibes - I’ve needed it) I have in fact purchased some new kit for the room.

The ol’ Ampeg/410 rig is getting a little tired, and is gonna be pulled out of service…well, for a service. Might go into backline hire eventually. Anyway, I’ve got a lovely little Fender 500 combo in a 210 cabinet for your “bottom end” pleasure.

*ahem*

Anyway, expect it to be in service before the weekend. Please enjoy it and don’t feckin’ break it!

💛D

26/05/2025

Welcome to Monday, everyone…

Look I’m gonna have a bit of a gripe here. The general treatment of the studio equipment is getting a bit ordinary, but the treatment of the 58s in particular is really starting to get on my goat.

Every time I come into the room I find at least one of them on the floor. Sometimes two, sometimes all of them. The grilles on every single one is damaged. I’m not sure what some folks are doing with them but there are plenty of microphone stands around.

Y’all have gotta admit that I haven’t exactly furnished the place with s**tty equipment - this is not your average rehearsal space. If this keeps up, I’ll start putting cheap gear in, and the good stuff will only be available by request and at extra cost.

And if you don’t know how to drive a mixing desk without pushing the gains to near max - let somebody else do it. That is a sure-fire way to start breaking stuff.

The place might be up for sale, but in the meantime it’s still mine. I personally own every single thing in there, and folks who abuse it will be invited to take their business elsewhere.

EDIT: whoever has taken off with my cymbal bag, bring it back before I have to go to the tapes…they are EMERGENCY ONLY so to use them and then nick off with the bag is a bit average…

D

09/04/2025

“Don’t touch your idols - a little gold always rubs off.”

No, it’s nothing to do with Locard’s Exchange Principle. (And no, I’m not going to explain it to you. I simply haven’t the time…).

Yesterday and today, I’ve had the pleasure of driving US rockers Winger around for their stay in town. I briefly followed them in the 80s during my own meagre attempts to become a rock star so I knew a little bit of their stuff, but never got into them the way I did a lot of the LA sleaze scene. Nonetheless, these are guys who have been doing it in one way or another for almost longer than I’ve been alive, and that’s a thing. But I really didn’t know what to expect - was this to be a “don’t meet your heroes” moment?

After checking out what they’ve been doing for the past four decades (and we are talking masses of work in one form or another with utmost dedication to their art), watching them do their thing, and talking with them a bit, one comes to realise that besides being giants at what they do both individually and collectively, they are wonderfully relaxed, approachable and open.

Now some of y’all may know that I work with the Hoodoo Gurus quite a bit, and they are - to a man - very generous with their personal space and time. So too I found the boys from Winger. Just before we rolled out from the venue post-show, a punter rocked up and asked the band if they could autograph an album. Despite being dead on their feet and an hour overdue for wheels-up, the boys stopped up for a chat. Turns out the fella had opened for a couple of the guys in “Ratt form” over 20 years ago.

And that’s fu***ng cool.

Plus they signed a floor tom skin for the studio, after David from Shotgun Mistress finished hammering the s**t outta the thing…now these guys are cool cats. A must-see when next they grace our city…

So yeah, thats my wrap-up and take-away. Legends all. Perth is in for a treat. Special thanks to Reb Beach and Bob for the ultra-coolness.

So meet your heroes. The saying goes that you’ll be disappointed if you do, but I reckon you’ll be disappointed if you don’t.

08/04/2025

This is where your drums are tonight folks…Shotgun Mistress tearing the stage up at the Princess Theatre supporting the mighty Winger!

25/03/2025

Good news, everyone!

Effective immediately, I am taking steps to put Black Dog Music on the market. Tomorrow, I will be contacting all my current recording clients (all two of them) to advise of same. Much longer is the list of people I’ve had to turn away over the course of the last year due to (I’m gonna say) “human nature”.

Further, I will not be accepting any future recording requests - this is the driving factor in my decision to sell up, as y’all may be aware.

In the meantime, the “rehearsal space” side of things will tick along as normal. Until I find a buyer or just “fire sale” the place, it’ll be business as usual.

Right, I’m off for a drink. Talk to y’all soon.

D

22/03/2025

All right you lot, pay attention. I’ve got a tonne of new shirts in. Available in a HUGE range of black, with V-neck ladies and standard men’s cuts from size S up to 3XL. Check out the photo of a certain roguishly handsome fellow sporting a BD shirt whilst feverishly mixing Brit Hits Band on Australia Day at Thirsty Chiefs Brewing Company…anyway…$40 each. Several payment options available, including a wide variety of cash. I’m going to hang a couple in the studio hallway before too long so y’all can have a looky-loo. In the meantime, DM if you wanna senselessly throw your money away on such trivialities…

🤙🏻

DM

15/03/2025

Good news everyone!

I’ve finally got my phone back. Which means the Black Dog phone is once again operational. Which ALSO means that the delays y’all have been experiencing the last couple months shouldn’t happen again. For the foreseeable future, anyway.

For your enjoyment, I have attached a reel I found on YT of Professor Farnsworth’s signature entry… you don’t HAVE to have a buzz on to enjoy it, but as sure as my arse points south it doesn’t hurt either…

Good news, everyone! We made a compilation of every time Professor Farnsworth says his favorite catchphrase from seasons 1 to 7! SUBSCRI...