Farmikos

[Aidanspaghetti]

Lovely axe Xssive

 

[Chubtone]

I have listened to this CD at least a dozen times in my car.

I have been one of the main guys keeping Joe's name alive on forums and one of the main guys talking about his tone and playing.

That being said, while the album is very well done, I think if they would have titled it "Bad Motor Facelift Super Unknown Dirt Finger" it would have been a little more accurate. I know why tons of you guys are digging it, but for crying out loud it may be the most derivative thing I've ever heard. Edit: I listened to it again today and it really makes me wonder how this CD would have sounded with a different singer. The guy on here has a great voice but he writes and phrases and harmonizes and sounds so much like two singers from Seattle it almost sounds like he's auditioning for a tribute band.

Joe has killer tone and wicked chops and the drums and bass are great on this too. For the first time in my life I actually wanted to hear what Ozzy would have done vocally with some of these songs.

I'm sorry to be the stick in the mud and everyone knows I am an 80's guy....... BUT SO IS JOE!!!!! It's not like I bought a Jerry Cantrell or Kim Thayill album and wanted them to sound a way they aren't known for sounding. One of the funniest things ever is that one of Joe's buddies in the industry that had heard all the studio stuff kept saying, "this new Joe Holmes album is going to sound like a modern day Deep Purple". Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

 

[metalmaniac93]

I have listened to this CD at least a dozen times in my car.

I have been one of the main guys keeping Joe's name alive on forums and one of the main guys talking about his tone and playing.

That being said, while the album is very well done, I think if they would have titled it "Bad Motor Facelift Super Unknown Dirt Finger" it would have been a little more accurate. I know why tons of you guys are digging it, but for crying out loud it may be the most derivative thing I've ever heard. Edit: I listened to it again today and it really makes me wonder how this CD would have sounded with a different singer. The guy on here has a great voice but he writes and phrases and harmonizes and sounds so much like two singers from Seattle it almost sounds like he's auditioning for a tribute band.

Joe has killer tone and wicked chops and the drums and bass are great on this too. For the first time in my life I actually wanted to hear what Ozzy would have done vocally with some of these songs.

I'm sorry to be the stick in the mud and everyone knows I am an 80's guy....... BUT SO IS JOE!!!!! It's not like I bought a Jerry Cantrell or Kim Thayill album and wanted them to sound a way they aren't known for sounding. One of the funniest things ever is that one of Joe's buddies in the industry that had heard all the studio stuff kept saying, "this new Joe Holmes album is going to sound like a modern day Deep Purple". Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Yeah, I get why you don't dig it as much as most of us!! I love it!!! While I am an 80's guy and still dig most of the stuff from that era, AIC is one of my favorite bands of the 90's and actually one of my favorite bands period (well at least the older stuff). Definitely does not sound like modern day Deep Purple though!!

 

[Glynchfan1]

Tab???? Anyone got any of the song tabbed out? I'm working on by ear, but definetly looking for tab to make the process quicker. Thanks!!!!

 

[suhrimmetal]

I have listened to this CD at least a dozen times in my car.

I have been one of the main guys keeping Joe's name alive on forums and one of the main guys talking about his tone and playing.

That being said, while the album is very well done, I think if they would have titled it "Bad Motor Facelift Super Unknown Dirt Finger" it would have been a little more accurate. I know why tons of you guys are digging it, but for crying out loud it may be the most derivative thing I've ever heard. Edit: I listened to it again today and it really makes me wonder how this CD would have sounded with a different singer. The guy on here has a great voice but he writes and phrases and harmonizes and sounds so much like two singers from Seattle it almost sounds like he's auditioning for a tribute band.

Joe has killer tone and wicked chops and the drums and bass are great on this too. For the first time in my life I actually wanted to hear what Ozzy would have done vocally with some of these songs.

I'm sorry to be the stick in the mud and everyone knows I am an 80's guy....... BUT SO IS JOE!!!!! It's not like I bought a Jerry Cantrell or Kim Thayill album and wanted them to sound a way they aren't known for sounding. One of the funniest things ever is that one of Joe's buddies in the industry that had heard all the studio stuff kept saying, "this new Joe Holmes album is going to sound like a modern day Deep Purple". Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Yeah, I get why you don't dig it as much as most of us!! I love it!!! While I am an 80's guy and still dig most of the stuff from that era, AIC is one of my favorite bands of the 90's and actually one of my favorite bands period (well at least the older stuff). Definitely does not sound like modern day Deep Purple though!!

Love Joe... but I do agree. Im so glad he is back making music and will tour this record!! But I wish it was more in the 80's vein.. riff, after killer riff, 4th chords, Blues, penta, mixo inspired leads, hooky melodies.. I know he can write and play anything. Was surprised and a bit let down at the alt/modern flavor... tho it's still one of the better albums in last year.... and 'Sound of my Gun' is a KILLER track... that song could stay.... just hoping for more 'rock' vibed music in the future from them. IMO

 

[Chubtone]

Love Joe... but I do agree. Im so glad he is back making music and will tour this record!! But I wish it was more in the 80's vein.. riff, after killer riff, 4th chords, Blues, penta, mixo inspired leads, hooky melodies.. I know he can write and play anything. Was surprised and a bit let down at the alt/modern flavor... tho it's still one of the better albums in last year.... and 'Sound of my Gun' is a KILLER track... that song could stay.... just hoping for more 'rock' vibed music in the future from them. IMO

Thanks. I thought I was the only one. Well, except for donbarzini who texted me after reading my post and said I was right on and that he doesn't dig this at all.

I have brought this up before on here, but will do it again. Joe was born in 1963. He took lessons from Randy Rhoads. He was 28 years old when the Seattle grunge/alternative thing hit. I know most people are most inspired by and remain most inspired by the music of their youth. By "youth" I mean WAY before 28. I'd imagine taking lessons from Randy Rhoads, recording an album and touring with Lizzy Borden, replacing Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Jason Becker in David Lee Roth's band and then replacing Randy, Jake and Zakk in Ozzy's band might have had a fairly big impact on Joe. Moreso, I would think than a style of music that was not what he grew up on, not what inspired him to sit in his room and become one of the top players in LA back in LA's glory days etc would not be the first thing on his list of wanting to sound like when he has 100% artistic freedom to do his own thing.

Yes, I know the sounds of 1983-1991 are dated. But wouldn't the sounds of 1991-1993 be pretty damn dated as well?

Just sayin'.

 

[Anonymous]

Tab???? Anyone got any of the song tabbed out? I'm working on by ear, but definetly looking for tab to make the process quicker. Thanks!!!!

I've got most of Am I One, but I haven't written it down...

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

Love Joe... but I do agree. Im so glad he is back making music and will tour this record!! But I wish it was more in the 80's vein.. riff, after killer riff, 4th chords, Blues, penta, mixo inspired leads, hooky melodies.. I know he can write and play anything. Was surprised and a bit let down at the alt/modern flavor... tho it's still one of the better albums in last year.... and 'Sound of my Gun' is a KILLER track... that song could stay.... just hoping for more 'rock' vibed music in the future from them. IMO

Thanks. I thought I was the only one. Well, except for donbarzini who texted me after reading my post and said I was right on and that he doesn't dig this at all.

I have brought this up before on here, but will do it again. Joe was born in 1963. He took lessons from Randy Rhoads. He was 28 years old when the Seattle grunge/alternative thing hit. I know most people are most inspired by and remain most inspired by the music of their youth. By "youth" I mean WAY before 28. I'd imagine taking lessons from Randy Rhoads, recording an album and touring with Lizzy Borden, replacing Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai and Jason Becker in David Lee Roth's band and then replacing Randy, Jake and Zakk in Ozzy's band might have had a fairly big impact on Joe. Moreso, I would think than a style of music that was not what he grew up on, not what inspired him to sit in his room and become one of the top players in LA back in LA's glory days etc would not be the first thing on his list of wanting to sound like when he has 100% artistic freedom to do his own thing.

Yes, I know the sounds of 1983-1991 are dated. But wouldn't the sounds of 1991-1993 be pretty damn dated as well?

Just sayin'.

I would have rather heard something in the vein of the music he was doing in his youth and I also agree that the leads (while viciously well played and having their moments) tend to not really go anywhere memorable.

That said, I do dig this quite a bit, even though it is fairly derivative of the Seattle stuff a lot of the time. I think the songs are cool, especially I am One...

And, who's to say where and when your influences hit you, ya know? I was heavily influenced by Mick Taylor-era Stones when I was really young - it's the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place - but I don't sound anything like that. I mean, clearly EVH has had the biggest influence on me, but I play less like him now than I ever did and I'm way more influenced by Guthrie Govan now - I really got into modal playing because of him and I like playing over stuff I never would have enjoyed playing over in the '80s, including some of the backings Ed D used to post. I certainly didn't hear of Guthrie until way past 28... If I could play that good, I'd probably be more into writing and playing stuff like his instrumental CD now. I guess I'm just saying that for some, not all, different things move you at different times... I'll always love the stuff we did in the '80s though!

Steve

 

[XSSIVE]

I was born in 1981 so I grew up with MTV since it was born the same year and I have three older brothers who constantly had MTV on and music playing from the radio or records, so I was subliminally trained to love 80s music which is why I do. The actual music of my teenage youth would be 90's stuff since that's when I started really playing guitar (at 13) and noticing music for more than just something in the background. So bands like Alice in Chains, White Zombie, Soundgarden, Nirvana etc are ones I listened to side by side with Skid Row, Motley Crue, Ratt, Van Halen etc while also being a fan of Sabbath, Zeppelin, Deep Purple etc from the late 60s early 70s. Thus why I love Farmikos, to me it's a blend of 80s and 90s, perhaps not an even blend since the riffs are certainly more 90s but I look at as "what if 90s guitarists actually knew how to solo"...you get Farmikos lol. I think that's why it's my favorite new band and I like it so much, it spans the two musical decades that I relate to most.

Joe's main career took place in the 90s with both Roth and Ozzy which went to 2001. Sure he took lessons from Randy and played with Borden but I guess that didn't have as much of an impact on his writing as touring with 90s bands did. So that was when he was on the road touring, hearing other music, writing riffs in the bus during down time, all in the 90s. This stuff has probably been sitting in his head or on tapes as rough ideas since then (I think he mentioned that work began on some of this many years ago in an interview). My guess is that's why it sounds more 90s, initial riff writing and inspiration quite possibly came from him in the 90s. At least that's my guess.

 

[Chubtone]

I but I look at as "what if 90s guitarists actually knew how to solo"...you get Farmikos lol. I think that's why it's my favorite new band and I like it so much, it spans the two musical decades that I relate to most.

Your post is great and I concede that is how most would feel. I guess the early 90's sounds to me are so frustrating because that is when I figured out at age 25 that I would rather not "make it" than to "make it" playing the new style of music that was coming from Seattle. I understood some dug it. I started teaching Nirvana songs to students all day long and being a guitar teacher went from the coolest job I could imagine to one I dreaded. When I taught a kid 6 Nirvana songs in one half hour and fit them all on a double sided piece of tab paper, I knew I couldn't do that anymore.

I couldn't stand watching LA guys go from the metal look, to the Shout At The Devil look, to the Look What the Cat Dragged In look to the Girls, Girls, Girls/GNR/LA Guns look. Then everyone wanted to wear combat boots and jean shorts and flannels and not shower for a week and start acting like they couldn't play and didn't even know or were ever associated with anyone who was in that pre-Seattle LA scene. I was like WHO ARE YOU GUYS? Do you even know who you are or what you love or what you represent? It was all a chase of a sound and a look and that doesn't represent playing what you love to me.

And the main thing is that it was all so "samey" sounding. "Oh but Curt, these new bands are "moody" sounding". No they weren't. Moody implies more than one mood.

 

[syncrodude007]

First off those Luxxtones look SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Secondly Joe Holmes kicks major ass!
& Lastly, Farmikos is absolutely killer, great record.

this...

 

[ZR4400]

Who is Joe Holmes?

Love my Holmes inspired relic strat, I built.

 

[Bob Savage]

Your post is great and I concede that is how most would feel. I guess the early 90's sounds to me are so frustrating because that is when I figured out at age 25 that I would rather not "make it" than to "make it" playing the new style of music that was coming from Seattle...

I couldn't stand watching LA guys go from the metal look, to the Shout At The Devil look, to the Look What the Cat Dragged In look to the Girls, Girls, Girls/GNR/LA Guns look.

It's interesting how different and similar our perspectives are at the same time. I decided I didn't want to "make it" around the mid 80's because the excess and glam look of LA at the time just didn't do it for me. Whereas a lot of people were/are bitter that Nirvana "killed metal," from my perspective 80's metal had run its course and was just begging to be murdered. While I didn't get into the music scene of the grunge era I did enjoy a lot of Nirvana's music when it popped on the radio. Not a lot of other bands from that era really caught my attention although AIC were killer.

I bought Farmikos too and while I don't regret buying, it the vocals do keep it from entering an ongoing listening rotation. The singer is great at what he does and he can certainly sing but just not my thing, possibly because of the points you made in an earlier post. That said, the fact that they released an album and will hopefully do some live shows is awesome. This kind of music being out there can only be a good thing for crusty dudes like me who want to get back out there and play live again.

 

[Chubtone]

Who is Joe Holmes?

A guy who uses a hot-rodded strat with fake relic wear. Not the first to do it but his sure have inspired some builds. The "relic" wear on his certainly goes beyond natural and into the same territory we go into as we make our guitars look older and more experienced than they really are. Kinda strange doing that to real, early 70's strats. That's the exact reason I would not sell him my super clean '73 Olympic white strat. Sorry bro, that one's not for sale....

I'm a fan still, just sayin'. The fact that he played Charvels his whole time in LA up through and past David Lee Roth says something too. As soon as it became unhip to use Charvel's or Jackson's, Joe switched to Fenders and tried to make them feel just like his old Charvels. IMO the guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne doesn't need to follow trends, he sets trends, but Joe hid his Charvels and Charvel-ized those strats. Had he done that in '87, or '89 or '91 I'd be impressed. Doing it when he did it was like buying a Seahawks jersey two years ago and a Patriots jersey this year etc. Know what I mean?

 

[Chubtone]

It's interesting how different and similar our perspectives are at the same time. I decided I didn't want to "make it" around the mid 80's because the excess and glam look of LA at the time just didn't do it for me. Whereas a lot of people were/are bitter that Nirvana "killed metal," from my perspective 80's metal had run its course and was just begging to be murdered. While I didn't get into the music scene of the grunge era I did enjoy a lot of Nirvana's music when it popped on the radio. Not a lot of other bands from that era really caught my attention although AIC were killer.

I bought Farmikos too and while I don't regret buying, it the vocals do keep it from entering an ongoing listening rotation. The singer is great at what he does and he can certainly sing but just not my thing, possibly because of the points you made in an earlier post. That said, the fact that they released an album and will hopefully do some live shows is awesome. This kind of music being out there can only be a good thing for crusty dudes like me who want to get back out there and play live again.

Bob, I moved to LA in 1985 so I missed bands like Armored Saint, and Malice and Lizzy Borden and early Rough Cutt and that more metal sound and look. I got here right after that and things did start getting very glammy as soon as Poison got signed. We met Bret and CC on our first night in LA and they were in full stage clothes and make-up just promoting their next show at the Troubador. My buddy and I had just arrived that day from Chicago and we were not used to that level of glam.

But MANY bands never went that glammy. We never did. Terriff with Joe, Lion with Doug Aldrich, Racer X, and tons of other bands stayed with a more traditional look and a harder sound. You didn't HAVE to go glammy but I can certainly understand the annoyance at the majority of the scene chasing it.

As for Nirvana's music, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[ejecta]

I've been playing since 84 and I'm just so beyond glad I'm not stuck in one era of music.

 

[Chubtone]

I've been playing since 84 and I'm just so beyond glad I'm not stuck in one era of music.

So are we! I don't think your input to this forum would be nearly so valuable otherwise.

 

[H Golf Sport]

beyond glad I'm not stuck in one era of music.

+1

Never heard of Joe before the rig-talk hypefest of best tone ever etc... Got me curious. All that was out there was lousy youtube vids playing sabbath and ozzy tunes.
Never heard or saw his hair metal days. Seems like a logical chain of influence to me. Sabbath->Ozzy->AIC/soundgarden->Farmikos. Seems like heavy rock moving fwd to me.
Would it really have been less derivative if it was some rehashed glam metal?

I get the prob some have with the singer but I can live with it. Didn't bother me as much as I thought it would from the first teasers. Then again I dig a lot of that 90's alt thing. Was bummed at the trend of no leads or I don't bother to learn my instrument beyond basics during that time but lots of great songs/ albums came out.

 

[ejecta]

I've been playing since 84 and I'm just so beyond glad I'm not stuck in one era of music.

So are we! I don't think your input to this forum would be nearly so valuable otherwise.

So you speak for everyone on here now. Interesting.

Would it really have been less derivative if it was some rehashed glam metal?

Nope.

 

[Bob Savage]

Bob, I moved to LA in 1985 so I missed bands like Armored Saint, and Malice and Lizzy Borden and early Rough Cutt and that more metal sound and look. I got here right after that and things did start getting very glammy as soon as Poison got signed. We met Bret and CC on our first night in LA and they were in full stage clothes and make-up just promoting their next show at the Troubador. My buddy and I had just arrived that day from Chicago and we were not used to that level of glam.

But MANY bands never went that glammy. We never did. Terriff with Joe, Lion with Doug Aldrich, Racer X, and tons of other bands stayed with a more traditional look and a harder sound. You didn't HAVE to go glammy but I can certainly understand the annoyance at the majority of the scene chasing it.

As for Nirvana's music, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah, getting here in 85 was right about the time I started losing interest. Loved the scene up to about then. Yeah, I know a lot of bands didn't go the way of the glittery. Who are Terriff, Lion and Racer X?

As far as Nirvana's music, I've always loved good hooks and thought they had some great ones. Catchy melodies are what grab me, even when there aren't guitar solos or complicated guitar rhythms. The fact that I've never really paid much attention to lyrics may have allowed to me to enjoy them more than those who do pay attention, but I wouldn't know because to this day I still have no idea what their songs are about.