// Category Archive for: Dancing Ourselves Into The Tomb

Way Out Sounds: Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. and Synths That Defined The Seventies

By Ayan Farah

Multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter Roger Joseph Manning Jr. is renowned for the melody-rich, intricately arranged compositions his fans have latched onto throughout his nearly 25-year musical career. In each of his diverse band projects (Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, The Moog Cookbook, TV Eyes, Malibu), his ongoing collaborations with Beck, as well as his stellar solo efforts (2006’s The Land of Pure Imagination and 2008’s Catnip Dynamite), what remains constant is Manning’s unshakable ability to create very complex yet highly enjoyable music that is punctuated by his keyboard wizardry.

His indelible mark in the world of keyboards is embodied by his innovative use of vintage analog synthesizers, while his vast collection of those instruments over the years has cultivated a greater proficiency, intimacy, and almost encyclopedic knowledge of his primary instrument of choice. ” I did a lot of treasure hunting”, explains Manning. “I spent a lot of time in the early Nineties looking for stuff. I was quite the addict for those antique keyboards.”
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Want To Start An Instant Argument? Let’s Talk About ’70s Fenders!

By J Howell

In the exhaustive (and frankly exhausting) world of Internet forum guitar dorkery, few topics seem as sure-fire a heated debate-starter as the mere mention of Fender’s output in the halcyon days of the 1970s. To be fair, even in the mesozoic Internet days of the late ’90s, when I was working in a mostly-vintage-and-used guitar/hi-fi shop, plenty of—ahem—discussion was to be heard nearly any day of the week when it came to Fenders of that period.
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