Jason Becker had a concert at Slim’s in San Francisco to remind the world that he’s not dead yet!

Jason Becker’s story starts out when he first picked up the guitar as a little kid. He would play Bob Dylan tunes, then Jeff Beck, and right around the age of 16, Paganini. This landed him a deal with Shrapnel Records, the famous shred guitar label, which was a partnership with Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth) in a band they called Cacophony. Their first record, Speed Metal Symphony, was a neo-classical progressive metal breakthrough, and was released when Jason was 17. Soon after, Becker and Friedman recorded two separate solo albums, Perpetual Burn and Dragon’s Kiss (respectively). They did guest appearances on each others works, and then recorded a second Cacophony album, Go Off! They toured, and Cacophony disbanded. Marty Friedman went off to join Megadeth, and Becker joined David Lee Roth. Unfortunately, this was right around the time Jason started to feel a limp in his leg. He got it checked out during the first week of DLR rehearsals. The biopsy revealed that Jason had Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis- ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He would soon lose the movement of his entire body. He did manage to finish recording on David Lee Roth’s A Lil Ain’t Enough record, which went gold. Jason was not able to tour, so he went back to writing and recording mode.

He began to lose the movement in his legs, and was confined to a wheelchair. He played, recorded, and composed what he could on guitar until he couldn’t even lift it with his hands anymore. He then switched to a keyboard. When he lost use of both of his hands, he used the movement in his head to compose the rest. His friend and producer Mike Bemesderfer set up a motion sensor visor, in which Jason would move his head to move a mouse on the computer, and use his jaw to click. He did that until he finished composing the remainder of his album Perspective.

After that, doctors had told Jason he had 3 years to live. Three years later, Jason was still going strong. He could no longer move any part of his body, and had to have a breathing tube installed. His dad came up with a form of communication, an eye-geometry system for Jason to communicate with his eyes. There are two eye movements- one for a box, and one for a letter in each of the various boxes (VIDEO).

He soon began composing again, only this time he had to communicate his ideas directly using this eye communication method to a translator. This ended up being three tracks on his latest release, Collection, in which Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Steve Hunter, and Marty Friedman, to name a few, played what Jason had composed, which were “River of Longing”, “River of Longing (Reprise)”, and “Electric Prayer For Peace”.

It was soon announced that Jason would be planning an event in San Francisco with some guitar giants, and that some filmmakers were starting to plan a documentary about Jason. This turned into Jason Becker’s Not Dead Yet Festival at Slim’s and Perpetual Burn: The Story of Jason Becker.

I got into SF right before 5PM, as that’s when the limited access meet & greet was supposed to start. As I was driving past Slim’s, there was Jason going along the sidewalk into the front entrance. That was unreal! I almost swerved into oncoming traffic, but I soon went looking for parking. I wasn’t the best driver in the Costco parking lot either, I was so excited. I then ran like hell, but we weren’t let in until 5:30. In the meantime, I got to say hi to Mike Varney (owner of Shrapnel Records) as he was helping Jason’s father park the handicap van in front. You want to talk about an awesome dude, Gary Becker is right there in the dictionary definition of ‘awesome dude.’ Then Dave Lopez (of the band Flipsyde) directed us to the back entrance, where we’d get a chance to talk to Jason and take a picture with him in a whole professional studio setup.

As soon as I got to the front of the line, a huge grin burst out across my face. I get to meet my all-time hero. I got to have a heart-to-heart moment with Jason, and someone from his family translated for me. I then took a picture and was off on my way. I got a free special edition Jason Becker tin filled with JB guitar picks, when all of a sudden Marty Friedman pops in. I had a feeling he was going to come, but it was unannounced. Either way, I didn’t know what he was going to be doing there.

I had to leave the club because they were setting up. I was waiting in line for will call, when I noticed this figure standing in front of me. He had long hair, was pretty hefty, and had a distinguishable goatee that continued down his neck. I thought this figure was Gene Hoglan, drummer from Death (Individual Thought Patterns and Symbolic)!  But he was wearing this Charlie Chaplin-esque Fedorah hat, and a black suit jacket. Not the type of threads you’d consider a metal legend to wear. He walked down the street and disappeared.

In line, the people from the Jason Becker documentary started to film people in line, and I got to say a few words for Jason, and I hope they were profound enough to be movie-worthy. I signed my release form, and the will call line opened, and I got my ticket. I was in the entrance line, when Jason Becker’s girlfriend walked by. She’s a super-gorgeous sex therapist, to give you an idea. Anyway, she says “nice sweatshirt,” since I was wearing my JB sweatshirt. A small event, but that definitely fit with the flow of the night, encountering all these great people from Jason’s life.

The line starts moving finally, and I look forward to not freezing my ass off and enjoying the show.

The first band to come on is a Van Halen tribute band called Hot For Teacher. The drummer looks braindead, and the singer is all fat, but somehow they put on an excellent show. I’m not much of an EVH fan, but I had a blast. I sang along to “Panama”, to give you an idea of how fun these guys were. The guitarist was using one of Jason’s guitars- the Peavey whose design was used in the new Jason Becker signature guitar made by Paradise Guitars. They closed the set with a cover of one of the David Lee Roth songs that Jason wrote, called “It’s Showtime!”

The second band to come on was called Flametal. The name comes from what they sound like- flamenco metal. They put on a killer performance. The first song they did, the drummer played on a box percussion instrument, and two beautiful flamenco dancers in nothing but flamenco skirts and flameno tops came out and gave a whole new dimension to the songs. Among their songs was an actual classic flamenco piece which originated in Spain.

Thought my Gene Hoglan anecdote was random? Think again! The next band to come up was Kehoe Nation, a sort of biker-type chicken-pickin’ country/hard rock band with the smallest hint of psychobilly with none other than Gene Hoglan of Death on drums. I was floored! I was standing two feet from him, and I didn’t even inquire to see if he was Gene Hoglan himself! They were a pretty energetic band and were really fun to watch. During a short period of silence, I yelled out “Rest in peace Chuck!” and Gene tipped his hat in recognition.

Jeff Watson played, and then Michael Lee Firkins took the stage. He’s a bit more blues oriented, but he played on Becker’s “End of the Beginning” tune since by then Jason couldn’t play guitar and could only compose what he had written prior to his illness (there are various demo recordings of Jason playing many of those licks himself when he was able to play). Firkins played two Hendrix tunes, “Purple Haze” and “Voodoo Child”. He played “Voodoo Child” almost entirely with a slide guitar tool (not an actual slide guitar, but the accessory you put on your finger), which gave it a very different feel and was a completely unique approach to Henrdix’s classic.

Greg Howe took the stage with his more straight-ahead rock style. The guy can shred, no doubt about it. His demeanor was very humble, which added a down-to-earth vibe to his tunes. He played one of his early songs as a tribute to Becker, since they all started out around the same time period.

Richie Kotzen had a brand of laid back rock with a pinch of Alice in Chains, and of course in a shred guitar manner. He did not use a pick, which was quite unique in a line-up of lightning fast players, although he did play quite fast.

Steve Lukather played a very beautiful song, which was sort of Vai-esque in that it was melodic soloing with a lot of feeling. It made me a bit drowsy, since it was getting late, but I enjoyed his skill and feel on the guitar nonetheless.

At this point, I do not know who was going to come on, since Marty Friedman showed up earlier, and I didn’t know what he was going to do there. Well, we were waiting for a while and then we hear the MC introduce Marty Friedman. He comes out, and gives a heartfelt speech for Jason, and then plays a beautiful solo with a pre-recorded background track. It was short, but very sweet. Marty Friedman is definitely a true talent.

It was about time for the Satchsquatch to come out and boogie for us. Joe Satriani tore up the stage, with his energetic stage presence, and his signature shaved head/sunglasses look. Him and Marty Friedman definitely gave me a second wind of energy, and to top it off, blues/rock guitar legend Steve Hunter came out and joined Satch for a few songs and guitar duels, which were all jawdroppingly amazing.

They then closed and the room cleared, and Jason was still there in the crowd meeting fans. I got a chance to talk to his father, Gary, and take another photo with Jason, this time taken by his mom, Pat (Jason blinked in this one, but it’s OK).

This concert left me with a whole new perspective on life, and I’m glad everyone supported Jason in the way they did. The show was completely sold out, and all proceeds from the show and the merch go towards Jason’s medical funds as well as a trust fund for his future medical security. You could see how excited Jason was by the look in his eyes, and by the small facial expressions he is still able to make.

If this story moves you, please donate to Jason through PayPal at pat.becker@intres.com or click here. You can also donate to ALS TDI. Visit Jason Becker’s official site, and be sure to purchase his albums!

“We should drug test every high school student.”

-Dick Morris

I may just be restating what Peter said, but I don’t think Dick Morris would support such a policy if he knew the real implications of it. Would he really support police pointing their guns at teenagers, forcing them to piss in a cup for a drug test as a condition of existing as a citizen in America? I’m sure he doesn’t think in those terms, since it is libertarians’ jargon that laws rest on the idea that if you break them, somewhere down the line a cop will be pointing a gun to your face, if you resist arrest enough.
…Which gets me to thinking if such a law were to be imposed, what happens if they resist drug testing? Are we going to arrest them? Shoot them? Kick them out of school even though they are forced to pay for it through taxes? What about the innocent kids who don’t do drugs, are we going to violate their privacy and dignity, and turn America into a country where everyone is guilty until proven innocent? All socialist countries have the guilty before proven innocent legal framework, Mr. Morris. So if you truly want to repeal Obama’s socialism (as the title of your book suggests), don’t be so quick to unknowingly replace it with a different form of socialism, even though your intentions disregard that. I don’t think he would actually support such a brutal police state, but such a policy that he advocates may have such unintended consequences. All the sort of rhetorical questions I ask above simply address the notion that government is force. I don’t think Dick Morris thinks in those terms, since that notion is typically libertarian jargon, so if he were to read this, I would hope my rhetorical questions would get him to think about the issue.

First I forget to post about Freethought Radio coming back, then I forget to mention that I have a band… and I thought I was a champion of shameless self-promotion.

Anyway, I do what ever small amount I can to shift the entertainment biz away from economic indiscipline through my music. My band is called Obsequy (pronounced ob-si-kwee, meaning funeral …in English), and we are a jazz/fusion-influenced progressive metal band. And yes, my lyrics often concern the ideas of liberty and common sense and the follies of statism and groupthink. Now, I don’t consider my band as a vessel for evil capitalist propaganda, since I put the music first and lyrics second. I write the songs before I put lyrics to it, and I’m a pretty big fan of complex show-off type music, so I spend a lot of time coming up with complex riffs and solos before I even title the song.

The first EP we put out is called Thoughtcrime, and is out on CD Baby, iTunes, Amazon MP3, etc. A few of the songs have nothing to do with liberty, but those that do have some great one liners, such as “the blind follow the false messiah / that preaches hope and change,” referring to “The Messiah” Obama.

As of right now, I’m writing a concept album called Reason, which is based on Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand. The music part still comes first, I have just decided in advance what the lyrical material will consist of. Most of the songs will deal with reason and metaphysics and all the really trippy stuff, but there should be a few long songs with clear, concise arguments for liberty.

This does have an effect. At two different shows, we played one of the new songs from what will become Reason, and both times people came up to me after the show saying they liked the ideas of an Ayn Rand concept album, in fact, one guy bought Thoughtcrime specifically to support supporters of Ayn Rand (my tip to Barstools readers who are musicians: make at least one Ayn Rand song and make sure your audience knows it’s an Ayn Rand song).

I will keep you all updated on the status of Reason. I’m planning on demoing all the songs before we make any recording plans, so follow us on Facebook, where we post all of our music.

Here is Frank Zappa’s Senate hearing regarding censorship of music in the 1980’s:

The Senator’s phrase “voluntary policing” almost makes me want to puke, and that the free enterprise system should make the artists “clean up their act.” “That’s hardly voluntary,” responds Zappa.

Watch all the parts, you’ll even hear from Al Gore! At the end, a female Senator tries to vilify Frank for making a profit off of his music.

A little late, as you might have missed the first episode, which was yesterday.

Anyways, my radio show Freethought Radio is back, at a new time of Wednesdays at 8PM-10PM PST, only on www.ksunradio.com

As always, we have the Dueling Barstools On-Air segment, where the publician-in-chief himself, El Dueling Barstool calls in and we discuss the issues of the day.

The special guest schedule is as follows:

Feb 23- Jimmy McMillan of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party
Mar 2- Tim Aymar, singer of Control Denied (last brainchild of the late Chuck Schuldiner) and Pharoah
Mar 9- Ken Schoolland, author of The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible: A Free Market Odyssey
Mar 16- Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pac/Ron Paul’s 2008 campaign economic advisor
Mar 23- Gary Johnson, former NM Gov and badass truth-teller

Working on getting Howard Kaylan (aka Eddie of Flo & Eddie), who is the vocalist for The Turtles, and was the vocalist for Flo & Eddie as well as Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. Unfortunately Mark Volman (aka Flo of Flo & Eddie) didn’t want to, my guess is media shyness because they are still together performing with the Turtles. They were in The Mothers from 1970-72, starting out in 200 Motels all the way up till Chunga’s Revenge, The Fillmore East June 1971, and Just Another Band From L.A. before Zappa had his stage injury and they took a long hiatus and it would just be Frank Zappa, no Mothers.

Anyways, tune in to my show every Wednesday at 8PM PST!

Jimmy McMillan at the New York Governor's race debate, 2010

The very vocal and eccentric founder of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party, Jimmy McMillan, joins KSUN’s own Freethought Radio this Wednesday, Feb. 23rd at 8PM PST.

Now to my surprise, he did not advocate rent controls. Usually people with little knowledge of economics with throw in the idea of rent/price controls, without knowing the unintended consequences of such policies. Maybe Jimmy is just ideologically all over the place. But let me explain as to why the rent is too damn high (fuck yes, that rhymes!).

I’m self-educated on economics. My mentors (who are probably dead) are Frederic Bastiat, Henry Hazlitt, F.A. Hayek, and Milton Friedman. Naturally, I think the crop of SSU economics professors are sub par, but then again, I can’t think of a single college besides George Mason University that aren’t shills for John Maynard Keynes.

Rent prices are meant to show the most productive use of that land, whether it be residential, commercial office space, or torn down to make a farm. Prices are there to make the risk of investment worthwhile. No one is going to invest in real estate if they aren’t going to get a return, although this principle was overturned thanks to Congress, Fannie, Freddie, and the Federal Reserve completely absolving all risk in the real estate market through regulations, diminishing lending standards, and artificially low interest rates, causing the housing bubble that precipitated in the 2008 recession (more on why the housing bubble was caused by the unintended consequences of government policy in our interview with Peter Schiff on March 16th).

The consequences of artificially lowering the price of rent leads to added fees, such as the ability to charge for use of the key, to various other regulate-and-evade cat and mouse games. The lack of financial reward to the landlords’ risk/investment leads to taking away the incentive to provide for basic upkeep; they therefore choose the renter who would accept the most meager accommodations.

There is a sad, yet tragically ironic, quiz put forth by some professor (someone who writes for the Mises Institute) as to whether his students could tell whether a picture of an apartment complex has either been bombed or subjected to rent controls. The similarity is stunning. That leads to the question, which is worse for a country- war, or the bad consequences of good intentions?

As we see in all areas of commerce with little government “help,” competition improves quality and lowers price. As small-businessman and former NM Governor Gary Johnson puts it- ‘best product, best service, lowest price.’

What people often don’t realize is that regulations are often supported by big businesses- they can bare the costs of meeting these requirements, while their competitors, both big & small, cannot. This ends up placing a huge burden on small businesses.

My mom once helped rebuild a burnt down building in exchange for a reserved apartment, where the rent was very low. Today, you would have to do a ton of meaningless paperwork and probably have to pay a fee to some government agency. These have very little effect on the quality of apartments; it only scares away entrepreneurs, causing shortages and raising prices.

A very prominent member of Congress (House or Senate I’m not sure) Jim McGovern left his position to go home and start an inn. However, the cost of meeting fire safety regulation requirements (which he argued had little to no effect on real fire safety, but were just lobbied to be passed by established businesses to keep out people like him) caused him to close up shop. He then returned to the Congress, and warned his fellow liberals about the dangers of over-regulation. While they have the best of intentions, their lack of economic knowledge and obligation to their special interest buddies have many perverse consequences.

The answer is not to get rid of lobbying so that regulations are “pure” and without steering from established businesses/labor unions, because the problem still lies in the absence of economics 101 in the minds of politicians. The answer is to get rid of regulations so that big business/labor never get a chance to get their hands on the direction of regulations in the first place. “Evil” Wal-Mart was in favor of ObamaCare, and now they’re trying to please the Obama administration with their selling of healthier foods as a quid pro-quo for not coming after their non-unionized labor practices. That’s not capitalism. Big businesses would not have to rely on their political connections and subsidies, but rather if they provide the “best product, best service, at the lowest price.” Anyone can emerge from there. Even today, with our heavily regulated, small-business crushing economic environment, boutique shops in all industries can survive, but unfortunately, as Bastiat’s principle of the unseen states, we cannot see all the businesses that haven’t formed because the regulatory framework is so burdensome, it is an ultimate protection of big businesses.

So, if you don’t like big business, support free markets. Now I’m not sure if Jimmy “Rent” McMillan would like to hear that or not… no, really. I don’t know where he stands, because he’s so out there, that he’s not very consistent and is a really tough character to talk to because he blathers on about nothing. But once you’re done, and you listen back to the conversation, it is definitely entertaining to listen to. Tune in this Wendesday at 8PM PST at www.ksunradio.com to hear the man himself. If only someone would tell him that the rent is too damn high because the government is too damn big… I tried, but he just keeps talking and talking and talking and talking…

Frank Zappa has been the subject of government force for more than one occasion. In the 60’s, he was prosecuted by the San Fernando Valley police for producing a “pornographic” audio recording. In the 80’s he was brought to a Senate hearing by the unelected “Washington Wives,” namely Tipper Gore. They wanted to tax offensive music, force businesses to hide offensive music under the counter (similar to modern cigarette legislation), among other Soviet-style draconian free speech/commerce violations. You can find those hearings on YouTube, and a very creative track made out of the hearings by Frank Zappa himself, called “Porn Wars”, off of his album Meets the Mothers of Prevention, where he turns the politicians’ voices into pigs (rightly so).

Anyways, here’s a top 10 list of my favorite Zappa albums for all you DB readers to check out:

1. Just Another Band From L.A.

2. Studio Tan

3. Apostrophe (‘)

4. Weasels Ripped My Flesh

5. Hot Rats

6. Waka/Jawaka

7. The Man From Utopia

8. Sheik Yerbouti

9. Zappa in New York

10. Freak Out!

He has two movies, 200 Motels and Baby Snakes, which are the weirdest things I’ve ever seen. 200 Motels is has a very drug-induced feel to it. Baby Snakes has some very weird claymation, so I would refrain from viewing whilst under the influence.

Did I mention that Frank Zappa never did drugs?

Gary Johnson placed 3rd in the CPAC 2011 straw poll. That may seem like the short end of the stick, but think of the little recognition Johnson got, and how little in advance he scored the speaking position. This just goes to show that people are ready for bold spending cuts, which Gary made sure to mention amounted to $1.5 TRILLION; a balanced budget tomorrow.

I’m glad Ron Paul won, I’d obviously support with full effort a Ron Paul 2012 campaign. But I have to think in real terms. I know it’s hard to say this, I’m just as big of a Ron Paul fan as all of you are, but Ron Paul is not immortal. He’s going to be around 77 in 2012, and has to lead for 8 years. I’m sure he’d rather live stress free with his family rather than the tremendous job of president. Gary Johnson is younger, an extremely fit athlete, and has held a similar position on the state level as governor of New Mexico. That’s just my 2 cents on why I think Ron Paul should not run for president again, even though I’d support him 110% if he did. Now, I’d love to see him really do a lot of significant spreading of the “brushfires of liberty” in the minds of men. R3VOLution of the mind is where it’s at. And even though Gov. Johnson isn’t as philosophical as Ron Paul, you know that he’d go further than just a balanced budget. He’s said time and time again that he supports ending the Fed, and it’s not like he’s 100% cost/benefit. In one of his State of the State speeches, he said “Man is superior to government, not the other way around.” Definitely a consistent belief in the philosophy of liberty, just he also prefers to take it from a business standpoint. It’s easier to sell vetoes to the public when it’s in terms of cost/benefit rather than just pure philosophical. That’ll beget the idea that government can do better with much less, which will lead to an increase in limited government philosophy throughout the nation. Gov. Johnson did shift public opinion on school choice in NM significantly.

If the 3rd place is an indication of anything, it is to not underestimate Gary Johnson one bit. He could’ve been down in the percentage ranks with Donald Trump for saying “legalize marijuana” at a conservative conference. Think about it… Johnson ‘12.

At 17, Jason Becker had already attained the status of guitar god. He had released a neo-classical progressive metal breakthrough album with Cacophony, a band he formed with ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman, called Speed Metal Symphony. While showing much musical dexterity, they also displayed an immense amount of feeling, many instances of Japanese style (Marty Friedman now lives in Japan), and ability to write catchy licks and listenable solos, setting themselves apart from the generic wash of shred guitarists who just seemed to play scales up and down without doing anything noteworthy with them. They both put Cacophony on hold to simultaneously record solo albums; Becker’s Perpetual Burn and Friedman’s Dragon’s Kiss. Once again, Becker displayed an ability to shred like no other, but also had a great deal of feeling, as can be heard in the first section of “Altitudes,” and his guest appearance on Friedman’s “Jewel.” He also demonstrated many uses of complex and odd progressive style licks, utilizing odd timing and unorthodox note/chord/scale/harmony choices.

They came back together for the second Cacophony album, Go Off! The instrumental title track demonstrated their ability to write crazy riffs, with the intro consisting of very complex syncopated phrasing, but the rest of the album is a bit more of an attempt to have better songwriting, and less showing off.

Cacophony then split ways when Jason tried out for David Lee Roth’s band, as Steve Vai, former Frank Zappa guitarist (Zappa called him his “little Italian virtuoso”), had just quit the band to pursue solo work. Jason then recorded a home demo of Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher,” in which he threw in a few sweep-picking techniques as to ‘one-up’ Van Halen. Jason got the gig, and then they began work on Roth’s A Little Ain’t Enough.

About a week into rehearsals, Jason started to feel a numbness in one of his legs. It began to become a concern to him, so they went to a hospital and ran some tests. It turned out to be Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. At only 19, and at the beginning of a journey into major rock stardom, Jason would start to lose his ability to move. He was able to finish recording the album, which went gold. He could not join the tour, as he was starting to feel weakness in his hands.

He then begun composing and recording what he could. He eventually moved to a keyboard; with both hands, then with only one. Once he could no longer lift his arms, his friend Mike Bemesderfer developed a motion sensor system, in which Jason would wear a visor with two devices on it, that detected motion, which moved a mouse on a keyboard. A device under his chin would be where he would use his mouth to click.

Once all the compositions were gathered, he hired musicians to play what he couldn’t record. Those and the songs he recorded before he lost his ability to play guitar were released in the album Perspective, the first album in music history to be released by a person with ALS.

Doctors told Jason he only had a few years to live, but Jason kept on keepin’ on. He eventually lost his ability to move his head, to breathe, and to speak. His father developed an eye geometry system, allowing Jason to communicate with eye movements.

He took a break from composing for a while, but then began to compose using his eye method to communicate ideas to a person. This resulted in three new tracks on a best of release, Collection. Guitarists who played on these new songs included Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, and Joe Satriani.

Nowadays, there is a documentary in the works, and this Spring, there will be an event at Slim’s in San Francisco, called Jason Becker’s Not Dead Yet Festival, where Jason Becker himself will be in attendance, and Joe Satriani and Richie Kotzen are among the musical acts performing. This will be on March 26th.

Jason’s set on reminding the world that he’s not dead yet!

Jason Becker links:

Official Site
Facebook
Jason Becker Movie
Jason Becker Movie IndieGoGo Fundraising page