Yo, musiciany-type SC.netters -- what news?

[Spec A!]

I think mostly I just want to be challenged, and have a connection (you musicians know what I mean).

I also have a problem with the whole bringing another drummer to the mix, as I dont know any, and they seem to be pretty scarce in this area.

[Chatchka]

OMG, Spec A. I'm sorry, but your comment about the biker bar and Sweet Home and Tush left me howling. The booking agent for my first band used to have us on the circuit of biker bars around Washington, DC. Ah man, the memories from that experience are some of the best stories I have to tell.

A "couple" having loud sex in the men's room next to the stage and her crawling out on all fours and then jumping onto the dance floor while I crooned Funky Music. Him following her out a moment later and handing her her panties on the dance floor. (Oh yes. Her panties. On the dance floor.)

A toothless, shirtless man wearing overalls greeting me at the door of one venue (he was the doorman, it seems).

Beer bottles being launched at the stage because we played "fuckin' disco shit" in a bar that, when they weren't "hosting" bands, held mud wrestling events, and being "propositioned" (flashed) by the Jaba the Hutt-like manager when I went to get our pay (talk about wanting to stab your own eyes out).

Singing Sweet Home in that same bar SEVEN TIMES that night, even though I didn't, and still don't, know the words. I just made some crap up for the lyrics and they never cared. It was like living the Blues Brothers.

Held "hostage" by my band to sing Preacher Man in another dive five or six times because some redneck got paid that day and hit the tip jar with a $20 everytime I sang it. Getting a fat lip that night when he passed out during the last rendition of Preacher Man and fell into my mic stand propelling it at high speed into my face. (TIIIIIIMMMMMMBBBBBEEEERRRRR)

A "famoush bike rayshher" (his words, he meant motorized, I'm sure) barfing on his own shoes while we were loading IN to a show.

Ahhhhh, good times! Dude, forget feeling dirty. You will never experience finer, scarier, darwinian, bad behavior theatre than throwing down at a redneck biker bar! (I can't imagine how fantastically that would be amplified by being in TEXAS rather than Virginia.) And, you'll have the best seat in the house, because if someone throws a bottle, it'll hit the bass player instead of you. You go DO that gig, my friend; and enjoy the show! A bunch of drunk screaming, dancing, southern-rock infused rednecks will GIVE YOU A SHOW and you have the tools and the skills to whip them into a frenzy. Go. And have a ball. And, don't play no fuckin' disco shit.

ETA: I just have to add that I played a gig last night till 11 (originals, restaurant, uninterested audience) then hit an "Irish" bar nearby with the band where we filled ourselves with Guinness and "sang" off key, unfamiliar-to-us RAP and country karaoke until 3 a.m. My butt is so dragging and I am totally phoning it in at work today, but it was so completely worth it.

[Chatchka]

I've been on the fence about posting this here, but I see others have posted similar items so here goes. If this is inappropriate, let me know and I'll LuAnne it. Just thought I should back up some of my posts with sounds other than the clicking of my laptop keyboard.

You can get the CD from my recent project here >>> http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails. ... B000047622

I sing backing vocals on most of it, but sing lead on Bad Feelin' and False Prophet, and sing lead and play drums on Race Against Time. (Caveat: If you are listening for SpecA/Smax quality drumming skills, you won't find it here. I'm a newby at that instrument.)

And it you want to listen to whole songs (vs. samples) and not pay, you can find a stream on my facebook page, but I'm not posting that address here so shoot me an email if you need it.

Bongo, I listened to your new song on facebook and I love it. It has been several hours since I listened and I still have the melody running pleasantly through my head.

SpecA, Had another thought. Is your band able to hear itself during rehearsal? Monitors? I had a band that could never get itself together in rehearsal until we realized (DUH!) we couldn't hear ourselves.

Smax, What is up, man? Gigging? Recording? Deets!

[BongoBoy]

So much music here eh ? Awesome.

- I previewed a bit Chatchka, nice n clean recording, you sound great!

- Spec A always rules !

- Thanks as always everyone who chimes in here.

and yea I am still a one man band so far. That could change though, my buddy Pup is wicked on guitar.

Who knows, waiting to see if my tune passed the test (my mix) to be on itunes etc.

Cheers.

[smax]

[quote="Chatchka"](Oh yes. Her panties. On the dance floor.)
[Quote]




what have i been doing? recorded third 'punk' band album last week, working title "The Difficult Turd" (as in the difficult third album), although i turned up and did the bass (wot i play mostly) and bv's in about two hours..... commitment to the cause is not high on my list right now: my 37 weeks pregnant wife is taking that prize...... i've also agonisingly turned down a few paying festivals and gigs with other projects 'cos they were going to be around the time when the little one arrives, but i have done a few recent demo sessions for studios near me; the sort that churn out songs for management to pick and farm off to girl groups and xfactor winners.. the punk band have also been offered some dates in july for gigs in north london, but, frankly, i can't see me wanting to play out too much when little un first arrives, especially early days: i've done a million gigs in a million toilets but never had a child before... i'm thinking of bailing out of the punk band; i just need to tell lean, hiddy and pastie (the rest of the band) which doesn't make me happy but has to be done, i think, 10 years playing three chord tricks and going "Oi Oi Oi" in the background takes its toll!
i've been recording some of my own tunes again (after a 5 year hiatus) on logic/reason at a friends studio which has been necessary and really really enjoyable; getting the tunes out of my head, although again i think i'm doing that so that they're 'done' by the time i become a daddy............ not that i'm giving up (fuck no) but i just wanna make sure that i'm devoting myself to the right things, and nothing would break my heart more than spending the night away from lex (wife) and kidlette right now, especially for the first few months when there're gonna be at least two people who need me around and for whom i want to be there...

[Spec A!]

Congrats- life changer, coming up! You always hear people tell you how hard it is, how much it will change your life, but you truly have no idea. Hang on, it's gonna be incredible in so many ways! Here's hoping kidlette acquires the music genes!

Thanks for the support and direction... but I still had to cut the cord. The main dude/guitarist wasn't at all surprised, and we mutually agreed to keep the door open for future collaborations. I didn't feel like a total prick, but what's done is done and I can move on. I have a busy summer ahead anyways, starting with seeing Ben Folds for the first time tomorrow night (can't wait!)!

[plutonic]

Sorry for the x-post, etc.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11499#p183415


Finally got around to putting some demos by my new band, The Grand Candy, up on Facebook/Reverbnation.
Please have a listen to two of our demos: 'Made A Devil' and 'I Need Liftoff!'

http://www.facebook.com/Danielcohn?v=app_2405167945

No Click Tracks were used, or harmed in the making of these recordings.

dc

[DirtyMartini]

Haven't had the chance to listen yet, but glad to hear there's new music, Pluto, Chatchka, and all.

Spec, sounds like you made a good decision. Glad to hear that there was even a temporary gig though. Just getting out there is notable, even if the situation didn't stick.

Smax: anything yet???

[plutonic]

Chachka! I need you up here in D.C. to join my choir.... Amen!

The direct route to evil Candy:

http://www.reverbnation.com/thegrandcandy

Please go and join the fanlist, blah blah, y'all.

It's hard bein' a pimp.

[plutonic]

I have a feeling that those left unsatisfied by Tourzilla will like this tiny piece of rock CANDY from last night.
I'm not going leave it up for long.
The Canary in the background is too loud.

Please Check out:

'Underwater Mining's For The Birds'
http://reverbnation.com/thegrandcandy

[DirtyMartini]

Well? And? So?

How goes, musical types?

Share your wares. Or 'wears. Whatever.

[Spec A!]

www.subdividedband.com

Long story short - in an AWESOME band now, with two musicians at or above the same level as me. Started gigging out. Playing/practicing once a week. It's incredibly fulfilling, satisfying, and enjoyable. Except it's making my knees bad. There's tons more to the story but I can save that for another post when I'm losing motivation at work tomorrow!

To be continued....

[Tamadude]

http://www.subdividedband.com

Long story short - in an AWESOME band now, with two musicians at or above the same level as me. Started gigging out. Playing/practicing once a week. It's incredibly fulfilling, satisfying, and enjoyable. Except it's making my knees bad. There's tons more to the story but I can save that for another post when I'm losing motivation at work tomorrow!

To be continued....

What did you do, tear up your knees on snare lugs like STEWART used to do?

Get on with the story, Tex!

[Mario]

I have been playing touring, writing. Hope is not too invasive but if you want to check see buy my Brazilian Alternative Pop please go to www.mariocostamusic.com

Working on my new album as we speak.

Playing mostly in SoCalifornia / Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo / going to Europe in April.

Hope to see some of you guys in my shows!

Best!!!

[Spec A!]

Mario- nice stuff!

Tamadude- Here's the deal (let's see if this can squeak in before the forum gets shut down).

Late in 2010 I had received a youtube message from a local guy Brad, who had found me through bandmix.com. I had a profile on that site but never did anything with it, but it did have a link to my youtube vids. He gets in touch and we set up a jam- he's about 20mins North of me so I take the chance. I get to his place and he's about 10 years older than me, with long metal band rocker hair, HUGE house, and his own awesome music studio. Turns out he is part owner of a family business that produces educational products- teaching through music (rocknlearn.com). He and his wife create all the copy and music out of their house, so he has a killer set up. Anyway, I set up and we jam, and gravitate towards some RUSH tunes. He's good on guitar, has a great voice too. I had fun but figured it wasn't really going to go anywhere. Fast forward to December 2010 and I get a call from him to see if I would be interested in forming a RUSH tribute band. He knows I have the chops for it, and if you have a Neil Peart, you're halfway there for a tribute. At this point I had yet to find anything else musically, so what the hell right?

We start auditioning guitarists as Brad and I figure we should do it right- he'll play bass, keys, and sing (all of which he can do effortlessly even though guitar is his main instrument), and we'll need to find a guitarist. We go through 6 weeks of auditioning people from December through January, really had a hard time finding the right person. It spanned from the clueless to the amazing guitar play who also happened to be 3 hours away, and on dialysis (shit you not). Brad suggests we ask a band member of his, someone who he's played with for 10 years, but it actually the bass player for a Led Zeppelin tribute that Brad fronts as well. We have this guy Keith come in, who isn't really a guitarist and turns out it's a really good fit, and he gets the sound pretty well nailed. Plus he comes with built in trust/relationship/chemistry as he already plays with Brad. Awesome!

After 3 months of weekly practice we have a good hour's worth of RUSH songs really nice and solid, and start looking to gig. Our first show ended up being in July of last year, and was fantastic- felt so good to be back up on stage again! And this wasn't some little bar, more like a 9:30 club/HOB sized venue. Still turned out awesome and we had a great crowd too- these are the few live videos you'll see on my youtube page from behind the drums. We continue to practice once a week, playing out about once a month, and also start to do a double show with their Led Zeppelin tribute- RUSH and Zep - we played a few local clubs that way and it worked really well!

Fast forward to this past December, our guitarist drops a bomb on us, he's moving out to Austin. He's been a contract worker for ever and had gone through 3 jobs in the last year alone, was about to lose his current job and has something permanent lined up, but it's out in Austin. So he and his wife made the decision to pack up and leave. Not only does it fuck up the RUSH band, but their Zep tribute is now defunct too. You gotta do what you gotta do, so he leaves, and we start the search again for another guitarist. One year later we're back in the same spot, seemingly starting fresh again.

First guy that auditions- AMAZING! Better than the previous guy who just left us high and dry, has a great feel and chemistry, and personality fits right in with us. Turns out he owns a music instruction studio and does private lessons, and is fairly local too. So Brad and I let him know that night after the audition, there was absolutely no question- this was our new guy! 3 weeks down, and right off the bat we have our band back, and better still the new guy came in really prepared and after only 3 practices so far together we are about 80% of where we were before all of this happened. It's really awesome, we have practically no downtime and should be gigging again in the next month.

So- my name's Anthony, and I'm the drummer for a RUSH tribute band. It's great.

But the knees! Oh the knees....

I've been having general aches and pains and shit over the last year, notice it going up steps, mowing the lawn, after working out, etc. Being back in a regularly practicing band has highlighted these pains too. After playing I'll feel it behind the knees, and it's stiff (that's what she said). I went to the ortho last week to check it out, and after xrays and stuff luckily there's not tendon or skeletal issues, but I've been diagnosed with what's called Runner's Knee. Common injury to the cartilage from overuse, typically seen in runners, but can happen to anyone. Nothing can really be done at this point, but it will get worse over time, and they'll end up having to replace the fluid behind the knee caps. I left with a cortical steroid injection behind the knees, and it really fucking helped, to the point that I've had no pain so far. We'll see how things go....