A thread for those of who are in bands to talk about being-in-a-band-related issues and gossip

how do you folks approach songwriting. lyrics first? melody first? groove first?

i keep having to remind myself that lyrics arent poetry. it comes a lot easier then.

I had to invent new song titles all the time, and ended up with about 100 plus titles without songs. They are still writing themselves every so often...

Although "Something to talk about" I had to drop after BDB made one with that title.

We actually write and record things very quickly when we work, but when you can only get together a couple times a month because of other bands and jobs, it draaaags.

Jordan, where do bands like mine play in Milwaukee besides the C@ctus Club? Do you have any idea?

(My friend) Cam to thread, he's the go-to guy for Milwaukee rock n' roll.

(By the way, would it be really bad form to plug the tour on this thread? I didn't want to start up a new one solely dedicated to self-promotion.)

Wed May 11 - Nottingham, The Social (with Martin Grech)
Thu May 12 - Northampton, The Picturedome (with Bearsuit)
Fri May 13 - Edinburgh, The Swamp Bar (with Bearsuit)
Sat May 14 - Glasgow, The Woodside Social Club (with Bearsuit)
Mon May 16 - Stockton Upon Tees, The Georgian Theatre (with Bearsuit)
Tue May 17 - Leicester, The Attik (other bands tbc)
Wed May 18 - London, The Metro (with Bearsuit)
Fri May 20 - Maidenhead, venue tbc (with Exmaark)
Sat May 21 - Reading, The Rising Sun Arts Centre (with Bearsuit)

Please. If you fancy it. You might be washing your hair, I guess. That's okay.

So, since we have this week of gigs in Switerland in a month, we're talking about booking some studio time there and just recording an album no matter what. I don't know what's going to be on it, but it looks like it might be our only opportunity to put some stuff together while we're all in the same place.

My band got some photos taken last night. We were aiming for a kind of Devo thing, I think. We'll see how they turn out. We have a break of about six weeks without playing and then we will hopefully organise some shows in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester, Nottingham and London. Well, we've had 'offers' to play all those places. We probably won't do half of that. Oh well, it'll be fun!

Apropos of nothing, how do y'all handle multi-instrumentality? I usually play the drums for about two-thirds of the set, then the lead guitarist and I switch places. I play guitar on the songs I wrote, and then I go back and finish the set on drums.

At our most recent gig, though, we put "my" songs first, so that I was in the interesting position of sort of opening for my own band. I was apprehensive at first but I kinda liked it.

I would love to play bass on a song or two, because I like the bass. But our bass player plays left-handed so I would have to bring my own bass, which would necessitate adding to the already prodigious amount of gear I need to cart around.

RE: multi-instrumentalism - I got called a multi-instrumentalist in a review the other day, but sadly I am mostly resigned to the keyboards in the ChemEx band... in my other band I get to play keyboards, glockenspiel, accordion and theremin, and I am trying to learn the bass guitar, but so far can only play Smoke On The Water and Sunshine Of Your Love - anyone want to join a rock covers band??

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But we tend to write everything pretty collaboratively, so even on that Beach Boys/Spoon number where the chord progression and piano hook was my idea that I brought to the band, no one ever thinks of that as a "John song." (Except me, sometimes, when I need to feel like I'm awesome.)

I've actually always meant to ask you guys (Fake Fictions) if the songs you individually sing indicate a greater hand in the songwriting of those songs.

Not like I should talk, though, my band is infamous for having massive breaks between tunes while we try to decide what to play next or do schtick at the audience.

Recently we were talking about how I'm the only band member who ever talks on stage, which was awkward at a recent show because I broke a string and neither of the other bandmembers were really talking while I was changing it. So we decided I should taperecord some patter and then if that happens in the future, Sarah can play the tape of my stage patter over the P.A.

I always get anxious about moments like that. We almost always have pre-made set lists, but if we switch from electric to acoustic guitar, or if M.P. has to pick up his bass for the first time, and especially if there's tuning involved, then there can be some dead moments. Sometimes we all look at each other and are like, "Quick! Someone say something! Patter!" So we'll do the "we have a website, we have CDs for sale" spiel. But then when that's over, I have to resort to asking the crowd what their favorite kind of apple is.

as far as the question up-thread about how different people write songs, I have no standard approach. I am always writing down lyric ideas or coming up with little guitar riffs or figuring strange chords out on the organ or coming up with broader, more conceptual ideas (a la "I should write a song about _____") or coming across things I'd like to try and incorporate or rhythms we haven't tried... sometimes all I'll have is a song title, and then I'll try and think up what a song with that title should sound like, what tempo it should be, what the mood of it should be - then I'll cast around for whatever musical ideas I have lying around, or bits of lyrics and try and see what fits. I guess in general that's how I work - I have a larger idea for the song(s) first, then work everything else into that central idea. By the time it gets to the rest of the band, I have very definite ideas for what the instrumentation should be, what the feel of the song should be, maybe specific melodies/harmonies for others to play/sing. I almost always have to give very definite instructions to the drummer, no matter what. If I'm being tyrannical, I can't really tell, cuz very rarely does anyone complain or challenge me... If someone comes up with a part on their own (usually a horn line or a guitar line) I'm almost always happy to use it.

On jokes between songs: I recently heard Petra Hayden tell the following joke to cover some technical futzing: "What did the pig put on her hurt paw? Oinkment."

haha, lucky you!

Nick, I guess it's not that you guys take a long time switching, it's more like what you said - there's no one else talking or anything else to focus on while it's going on. Maybe your drummer should develop his stand-up routine.

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Personally I hate the "we have crap for sale" banter. I don't encourage much talking from the stage from the other bandmembers, who knows what dumb shit they might say...

For awhile we did this thing where one of the three rhythm section members would call the next tune while we were still playing and we would just hit right into it. It was cool, but I guess we got lazy and started mucking around between songs again. Probably because it's the only time the rhythm section gets to drink.

Plus we "tour" in Sarah's four-door Corolla, so we are not allowed to purchase any more gear.

If you guys need a rich lode of info on how to get your gear from point A to point B this be yer thread!

(do you see?!)

(we're completely fucking shameless)

I think when you're working with a band in any sort of collaborative setting, your song will never truly be JUST YOURS, even if you brought it in to the group. I tend to write songs with something in mind - like, I want to have a song with a NEW P0RNOGRAPHERS sound or I want this to have a BREEDERS sound - but then when I put it in the Fake Ficti0ns machine, it takes on a life of its own.

What I hate more is when bands announce their website. "Yeah, so, check it out. We have a website. It's www dot (band name) dot com..." BO-RING!

J0rdan, my suggestion about the switching instruments thing is that I just never play guitar. I love guitar, but the band (*cough cough*) always seems to want to work against my playing style. It just doesn't seem to flow. But I don't know.

Canasta is kind of a PROMO machine, for better or for worse. Sigh.

Solution: write songs about hustling.

What I hate more is when bands announce their website. "Yeah, so, check it out. We have a website. It's www dot (band name) dot com..." BO-RING!

Are you still mad at me for the time I spelled out the website's address on stage really really slowly?

I love guitar, but the band (*cough cough*) always seems to want to work against my playing style. It just doesn't seem to flow.

What do you mean? It sounds like you're saying the opposite of the thing about you bringing in songs and us making them sound like the Fake Fictions. Or at least it sounds like you're saying that you don't like us to make your songs sound like the Fake Fictions.

Yes! I didn't say a word during our last show. Drummer says, "I didn't hear much banter up there, you're the front man, say something!" NO.

Also I'm not much into rewarding the audience anyway. I figure if they're going to listen they're going to listen.

It's hard for me to find a balance between wanting the band to be kind of succesful and thus doing promotional stuff and not wanting to get tied up into all that and making everything less fun. No, screw that. I'm just lazy.

But surely you need a tambourine player to play the tambourine parts on the cd?

Jordan, if that happened, Ben would totally become the TAMBO (as we call it) player and we'd just get a different drummer. He's obsessed with adding TAMBO to every song.

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http://www.canastamusic.com

Several free mp3s here

Our band is 7-10 people, depending. Our website kinda suxx:

http://www.mamadigdown.com

i just listened to "1995" and it's really really good.

going to download more now.

Haha, we don't have any of those! We've got one tenor sax, and if we're not playing with mic's then even that is superfluous. We got six of the best trombone players in the game, though (usually only 2-3 at a time, but we've gone up to five on those very special nights), not to mention the sousaphone and trumpet players.

I have a number of horror story responses to various ads I've posted ("Hi, I don't play horns, but I've fooled a lot of different people with my MIDI/guitar set-up..." etc) I gave up a few months ago. Either a horn player will come to me as if sent by God, or one of the other horn players will run across someone, or it just won't happen...

One was Oasislike but better, and one was DeLaSoullike (but not as good).

Right now it's a new band so I don't have any band related issues, tra la la. Already got another thread about upcoming gigs. 22nd May at the Brixton Windmill, 28th May at the IPO Festival Liverpool.

We are going in the studio to recd between 4 and 6 songs next week. We will then have a single out after choosing the tracks, mastering, artwork etc. I think there will be some difference of opinion about which tracks are the ones that should go on the single - in fact I know there will. I am in a minority of one, but definitely right. We have no juicy gossip. Next gigs : July 2 (Brighton), July 9 (Bull and Gate).

Sarah said ** think when you're working with a band in any sort of collaborative setting, your song will never truly be JUST YOURS**

Agreed. I took a song in last night and they liked it, but before i hardly had time to play it thru a second time, it had been totally changed. A section of the chorus was repeated over again (actually this was a good suggestion in hindsight), the verse was totally changed with half the chords ripped out (bad) and worse the rhythm was changed from what it really needed i.e a straight ahead 4/4 punk thrash to lots of fiddling about on the toms. It will get sorted because we all get along, but I'd like to have had everyone try it my way first.

On the money! In fact I was demoing the song on the guitarist's guitar as my amp had packed in, and he'd switched to keybds (which I usually play). I'm not really a keybd player, so I write on the guitar. After all of a pico-second he was flailing away at it, trying new sounds out while I just wanted people to LISTEN.

But morphing usually helps, you're right - I don't claim to be a perfect songwriter, it's just....let's all agree on a starting point and then change it one bit at a time to see what works.

Ours is in this neat old warehouse building, but only the fourth floor has been renovated, so you have to walk up several flights of very creaky old stairs, past boarded up doors to get to our safe haven. Out the windows, you can see an old train yard, old factories, and the el.

Right now I don't have a practice space. Cleft & Cloven records in Scott's sister's basement. He lives with his sister and his other band rehearses there.

When Digdown rehearses, we go to the university and grab a classroom in the Humanities building. It's kinda fun playing and drinking beer in rooms that I had history classes in.

Here's another view of the space, at least the side with the windows, which I've probably posted before. Ben is planning on painting it soon - you can barely see it, but the brown/white mocha looking wall is yuck (we didn't do that).

mine doesnt have windows. its a fiarly big space, but it smells like the worst ashtray in the world, and feels like one. the ceiling is actually corrugated iron, so everything rattles.

For a while, we rented a $35-an-hour place when we wanted to get loud. I found a $25-an-hour place, but it was unhygienic and they had a tough time scraping together a PA and drum set for us to use.

I hate having to set my drums up and tear them down every time I want to play, but can't justify the expense of a permanent dedicated practice space here in DC.

Someday I'd like to buy a house with a basement, but even then, the only foolproof soundproofing for loud rock seems to be a room-within-a-room, which is prohibitively expensive.

i know a good talker and he often reviews a record on stage if there's downtime. i dunno. it's amusing partly because a lot of their songs are about record store politics and other very silly/serious soapbox elements of just being 20s/30s rock fan/rocker types. his song lyrics are also very present in the overall mix and so him being vocal between songs just seems to flow.

i guess it really depends on your band. if you just want to present your music, then i could see the case for no banter. but for some, the music is a direct extension of their personality, so the banter is just more of the same. it's not fear of dead air, but performance.

just quit my band. too much time pressure for me to progress like everyone else wants to. i'm sort of really looking forward to doing some solo stuff. or some short term one offs. 24 hour bands and shit. one night stands! no commitments!
m.

I _guess_ this means we're in a band.

Excellent!

That reminds me, I'm in a band with my girlfriend called the Metatarsals, only we haven't written or recorded anything yet. We plan to spend an evening doing an improvised soundtrack to Apocalypse Now on percussion, bass guitar, and hammered dulcimer though.

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haha! seriously tho, this last band was just sort of a shotgun wedding to friends and i was in it before i really had a chance to evaluate it. had i known ahead of time, i probably would've passed. i remember my first practice with them... two days before our first show... they asked me, "so you think this is cool?" what was i gonna say, "nah." we had a show booked already! and these were super close friends from childhood. it was like getting romantically involved with somebody from that same time period. there's way too much at stake almost. too much baggage. that's how i felt. and maybe i was crazy for feeling like that, but i did.

i'm glad my role is ending on good terms.
m.

Here is an artist's rendering of Douglas playing ukelele and singing:

http://www.edromanguitars.com/rock/Angelo/mikequad.jpg

And here's his wife getting ready to do some vocals inbetween clarinet parts:

http://www.magicravenphotography.com/65%20%20Clarinet%20player%20concentrates%20good_small.jpg

This actually usually irritates me these days. It's a hard act to pull off. You have to be really sincere, and most people aren't.

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We rehearse here : http://www.tweeters2studios.co.uk/html/rehearse.html

or here :

http://www.stanbridgestudio.demon.co.uk/

Both very good.

Anyway if anyone knows a good piano/keyboard player who can also play guitar in the Bay Area who is into Felt/piano magic/mice parade/low/etc then please let me know. They'll have to learn nine songs in three weeks.

This actually usually irritates me these days. It's a hard act to pull off. You have to be really sincere, and most people aren't.

-- n/a

true enough.

Sorry I haven't been on this thread yet. I only just noticed it!

then he emails me and tells me he had to spend time with his needy girlfriend who has been "crying...a lot."

i honestly dont know what they even have in common. i think his life would be so much more free without her. all she does is stay at home watching hours of bad tv, depressed, and now crying.

is that what you have?

And where do you find these musicians without girlfriends? Homeless shelters?

m.

HI DERE.

The Fake Fictions keep coming up on my iPod and I love them!!! I also love the Mouse That Roared. I am definitely going to be checking out all of your websites for hott mp3 action.

What it means, I have no.

My boyfriend and I currently have a guitar, two basses, a drum kit and keyboards in our garage yet have no plans to start a band.I think I'm going to go set them all up as if they were being actively played so we can actively ignore them.

Feel free to download some, you know, some of my songs, though, from the tM3 website.

I want some news of The Chemistry Experiment tour.

We are playing a gig, on June 17th, with The Amphetameanies.

We have recorded a mini-album and are mixing tomorrow. Anyone else recording at the moment?

1) Stronger
2) Insecurities Trader
3) Magnus

Which are two of our most rockist songs, plus our pure electrocrass song. But Frances reckons they're the ones with the best harmones live.

(And no, it's not a Britney cover. Though it should be, really.)

Our mini-LP will feature Blood & Water/Anaphalactica/Last Train/Where Will You Be?/The Fact Is/Caravan Man/Suburban Ghouls...

...although not in that order

the last mentioned track has some punk-rock harpsichord!

Hormones?

We are considering a phase-cancellation device to cancel out the noise of the vouce but this would require very accurate positioning of the voice-source and the microphone.

If anyone has any ideas please let us know. There are contact microphones which can record a snail's heartbeat, we are thinking of using these to record the sound of the gong when played by voice as maybe this would stop the source-voice overwhelming the signal?

Several of us have just had The Dreaded Talk About Where We're Going. We decided to get rid of spazzy keyboard player who can sing, but shouldn't.

And the bass player whose stage presence is that of a deer in the headlights (who also should not sing) is going to be encouraged to be a bit more dynamic and sing much less.

Both of these bandmates are friends of the lead guitar player, so it's more touchy than it would be if he'd just placed an ad or something. He gets to be the firer, which I'm grateful for--I've never had to kick anyone out of a band before and I'm sure I would make a mess of it.

It's shaping up nicely, though - we need to start working on the next stuff to record, really (I forgot to practice the new one last night but I'm sure I can remember it if you want to give it a go tonight).

RE: Kicking people out - how does this work? The only people I can think of who've done it have managed it by breaking up the original band and then reforming, minus the offending member, under a new name. I'm afraid the actual kicking-out scenario is going to happen to me, though.

But to further explain, I have made a diagram:

http://www.chemistryexperiment.co.uk/gongs-diagram.png

As you can see, the signal coming out of the gong is far smaller than that coming in which is our main problem. So far the snail has no purpose but if we get the microphone that can record a snail's hearbeat then we may record his heartbeat.

And yes, Steven, we're kicking you out of the band. We figure we can do much better without the main songwriter/vocalist/guitarist. Sorry. (We may reconsider if you write some fucking lyrics for 'Rainy Day'.)

Also, Digdown is going to Switzerland in three weeks and I am totally geeked about it.

Then sing at the gong at a point as far away from where the microphone is pointing (11 o'clock).

Have you considered one of them flat (pressure zone) mics? Though I'd worry that anything stuck to the gong would kill the resonance.

Jaymc, you should come to our show June 10th. It will make you excited about the small club scene again/ get you back to your roots. :-D

Anyway, I was depressed yesterday for a few minutes when I had my major sugar crash because I've always loved playing shows, but I realized that one of the main reasons I've loved it is that it's like a big party and all your friends come. It was a lot easier when I lived in smaller cities, but here it's a lot harder to get my friends to come to shows. I think part of it is that there are just SO many fucking things to do in the Big City, that people aren't holding their breaths until one of their friends bands plays. I need an attitude adjustment. Failing that, I need to make more friends at shows.

I was against the idea, myself -- for that same reason. But the idea, as it often is, was less about people coming to that specific show, and more about putting our name in the hands of hundreds of hip music fans.

It's the 3mpty B0ttle, duh.

I'm excited that we might be booking some cool shows soon. :-D

Organising a gig at Manchester for a label called Highpoint Lowlife with Affectian and others DJ'ing, if it goes well and I get to do any more then there's an open invite to any ILXers who want to play, Dr. C or whoever - just email my Gmail account and I'll see what I can do.

Right now we are practicing IN THE PANTRY of my current house. While it is nice being able to signal changes with nudges to/from your right (guitar) or left (guitar/singer), I'm scared we'll get too used to it and end up having to crunch together on stage forevermore.

-- The Square Root Of Negative Two (masonicboo...)

I would also be interested in this information.

A year ago we released our last album. I feel like I've been slacking, since the only thing slated for release is an EP next month that will probably consist of years-old material, but I do have three albums nearly written. If only I could be bothered to getting around to recording them.

You can listen here:

http://www.chemistryexperiment.co.uk/records/melancholydeath/index.html

And click on the link under "Listen".

For some reason all the tracks repeat when they get to the end, does anyone who knows Flash know why? I set "Repeat" to "0 times" but still it repeats. Did I mention I hate Flash?

Last week, the day after rehearsal (which we had to move once already because of conflicting schedules) I proposed the date of our next rehearsal.

So does anyone get back to me? NOOOOOOOOOO...

Now, all of a sudden, two days before said rehearsal and I'm getting all these emails going all "oh, I can't do this day or that day, or..." and it's like WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST TELL ME THAT LAST WEEK, WHEN I FIRST ASKED INSTEAD OF IGNORING MY EMAIL?!?!?!?

OK, fair enough, some emergency things happen that you don't know about until the last minute.

But still. It pisses me off and I need to vent.

No, that would be FAAARRR too sensible!!!

(No, actually, it's cause everyone in my band except me is a freelancer and their schedules do change from week to week. Which is fair enough. I just don't understand why it seems to be my job to hassle people until they tell them to me and/or confirm or deny their availability at practise.)

(side point: in the pub tonight there was a sign or a bass player which claimed he NEEDED to play "heavy riffs". Like there was some deep medical condition or something)

Jaymc, Maybe you guys could agree on an artist to hire to do the album art, to make it a little more Chicago-centric and interesting?

I totally sympathise, kate. That's my job in my *other* band (A N4tion Mourns, not Fr4ctured) and I won't do it anymore. The others seem to think that I have finished with the band, but all I've said is that I will be happy to rehearse and do gigs, if the others take a share of the hassle. So far....nothing.

Meanwhile, back in Fractured, we are playing Brighton on Saturday!! It's the Providence on The Western Road and it's FREE!! Onstage 9.30. If any ILXers fancy escaping Live8 and coming to see us instead, we'd be pleased to see you!

However, it's proving difficult and frustrating to align all of our schedules at the moment.

The art on the cover is going to be by a dude named J0hn Gr3gg, whose work we discovered online. He's a Chicagoan, and when we contacted him, he said he'd actually heard us on WLUW. Which is cool! But he has a whole gallery of paintings, and while we all agree his general style suits us, we've argued about which painting we like best.

The actual design of the album will be done by Brand0n Durh@m (B. Kitchen sound dude, P@l@xy Tr@cks frontman), and he may end up having some say in which painting we go for.

At this point, it looks like the image will be of an airplane. But there are two airplane shots we like.

This in turn will perhaps dictate the title we choose. Here are some possibilities:

"We Were Set Up"
"Give Us the Runway"
"Common Lights"
"Take to the Skies"

"We Were Set Up" is the one that the guitarist said he hates. It seems unlikely we'll go with that, because the drummer also hates it. Guitarist thinks that it makes us sound like victims, drummer thinks it sounds too dark and edgy for a band like ours. I don't know. I like it, I think it has a lot of different connotations.

The general worry with "Give Us the Runway" is that it makes us sound cocky. Like "give us the runway cuz we're gonna TAKE OFF, and become ROCK SUPERSTARS." Whatever, though. I think people are (surprise surprise!!!) dissecting it way too much.

There's also a concern (not from me) that "Take to the Skies" is similar to the name of a Tori Amos fanzine or something. I don't care.

I'm debating about whether or not I should place a classified ad in tallahasseeshows.com about wanting to partner up with someone (preferably some rich bloke up in Killearn with plenty of time on their hands, gear, a fair amount of music industry connections, and a passionate love/hate relationship with the Top 40) who wants to start a chart-hit making machine called The Pop Carousel where we'll succumb to the music industry's every whim and release pop songs that they'll eagerly market until we're sick of doing it while making video after video consisting of nothing but the female form in skimpy bikinis. We'll subsequently dissolve the group and send a whole slough of money (that we've earned from the majors) to numerous independent labels like Secretly Canadian, Jagjaguwar, Les Temps Modernes, Projekt, Siltbreeze, 5 Rue Christine, Acute, Emperor Norton, Kranky, and Drunken Fish with notes proudly proclaiming that we stole from the music industry and gave to them, and then we'll inform everyone from Pitchfork to MTV of what we've done. (Admittedly, this also quell all notions that we sold out in order to purchase expensive material possessions.) After that, I'll personally retreat to living a healthy and very minimal lifestyle while coasting on my earnings, record music (my own -- the music I really want to make -- and others as well) in a studio constructed with the money from our advance, publish one anthology of short-stories, and become the next great post-modern theorist. Oh, and I'll stay cheeky, too. The end!

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xpost to myself

The SI?

So, should I?

Yeah, definitely.

We Were Set Up is the best out of those titles, by the way. Common Lights is second.

xpost FAKE ACCENTS

I'm getting fairly excited about my band now that the other dude has quit doing the cooky coke and drinking himself retarded in the afternoon and has started learning how the songs go haha. Maybe soon we will play in front of people that aren't a bunch of drunk fucking hippies.

And where do you find these musicians without girlfriends? Homeless shelters?
-- The Square Root Of Negative Two (masonicboo...)

If by "homeless shelters" you mean "my house", then yes.

This happened with my drummer dude and Lightning Bolt. The thing is though, now that he's sobered up and got his endurance and precision back, it's starting to WORK, because, other than the drum tangents, we sound absolutely nothing like them.

This would be my other reservation with it.

The problem I have at the moment is a lack of ability to find anything suggested by ourselves to be lame and ridiculous, whereas other people seem to come up with good ones all the time. Self-belief and all that.

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Thanks tissp! It's been getting good reviews thankfully, the NME gave us 8/10 which I was majorly surprised about, last time they reviewed us they gave us an almighty slagging. Now if only people could find it in the shops we'd maybe sell some... It should be there but hardly anbody's seen it yet, except in HMV bizarely.

Bluebonnet Tea Pipeline (A reference to Texas oil companies)

Radio Haiti (named for the national radio station of the country, the history of it explained in the Jonathan Demme documentary The Agronomist about the head of the station, radio figure and national hero Jean Dominique)

Alki (motto for Washington state, meaning "by and by" in some Native American language like Nez Perce or something)

Ave Maria Grotto (described as "Jerusalem in Miniature" -- which I think would make an excellent album title for the debut -- it's this attraction in Cullman, Alabama)

Belfast Dairy (one of those band names I made up for that book -- it doesn't really mean anything but whenever I think of Belfast I start thinking of breakfast and breakfast makes me think of dairy products)

Ruby Fruit Holiday (this piece of artwork by Ed McCartan)

Sault Sainte Marie (obviously the town)

The Pinrose Triangles (M.C. Escher waterfall reference)

The Uptight Squares (perfect indie-pop band name, methinks -- inspired by the first Austin Powers movie where Dr. Evil is considered as such)
The Penfold Three (if you've ever seen the cartoon Danger Mouse, you'll understand)

The Texas Way (inspired by signs at the Texas state line that say "drive friendly -- the Texas way" even though every time I've seen a Texan pass by on the interstate anywhere outside of Texas they're always going about 90 mph)

Last Gasp and the Death Knells (mortality and Westerns)

Thomas the Panzer Tank Engine (need I say more?)

Mexican Dub Cartel (if you ever feel like doing something summery and, erm, "ethnic")

Wet Naked Molly (inspired by how I almost called my former love interest Molly when I was in the shower with her -- she made this pose and I thought she looked like my friend Molly and I was trying to say her name when she did that but it obviously came out differently -- and she laughed and then we got into this funny commentary that resulted in us deciding that Wet Naked Molly would be a great sleaze-punk band name)

Radio Pretoria (if you ever feel like starting controversy, name yourself after this South African radio station where white people yearn for the days of Apartheid and discuss it nostalgically and play songs from that period, including the old South African national anthem)

Society Column (tabloids)

Truth or Consequences (after a 1950's TV show and a New Mexico town who changed their name for it)

And if you're really desperate a name, you can call your group Nonamey (after babies with unknown parents) or Nameless (like a hamlet in Tennessee immortalised in the book Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon).

The Known History
Glacial
Cambro-Ordovician Time (or the uptempo "It's Cambro-Ordovician Time!")
Fluffed
A Lithospheric Plate

Obviously that book works best if you like geology, though.

Lots of goodies here, too! Good names for indie bands taken from geography textbooks

Good names for indie bands taken from cartoons and comics! (hopefully this might be of help, if anyone contributes to it)

Well, it may be an album. It's only 8 songs, although they're all fairly long (and one of them is a Bobby Brown tune!). We haven't heard any of it back yet so we don't know how the recording came out (I'm a little worried about the low-end on the bass drum since there was no close mic'ing or large diaphragm condenser mic), and the only copy of the cd is in someone's luggage that hasn't yet made it back from Switzerland.

Hopefully, it will all sound good and if it's not long enough we can schedule another session to record our Hall & Oates, Janet Jackson, and Terence Trent D'Arby arrangements.

WORDS OF WISDOM

On the other hand, I just rigged up a harness for my keyboard stand to hold this bucket of music toys - voice changers, noise makers, shakers, etc. And I found my Whammy pedal. And I finally got another sustain pedal (I broke my last one with my gigantor Kong-like feet). So, whether these songs suck or not, we sure are ready to play the fuck out of 'em.

However, it's still only eight songs and I'm pretty insecure about selling an 8 track, 35-40 min album. I like short albums, and I know What's Goin' On and Beatles albums and whatever are under 40 minutes, but is it okay in this day and age?

If not, then we have the usual problem that comes from everyone living in different cities. We'll have to squeeze arranging, rehearsing, and recording into the weekend after next when we have gigs on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (which would be stressful and put most people in a bad mood).

Argh, what a weird band situation.

If you need a link, probably best to put the old 22 newsgroup, as any news or anything tends to go there:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/22news/

Kate - do not kill me for using folktronica. I am about to rush away from the computer and have fallen back on lazy journalist cliches.

Which reminds me, Anna, I should try and sign you up to the blog again. Would be nice to have you saying actual proper journalistic stuff about music rather than my rambling about parks and Captain Anderson and the like.

http://silasdilworth.com/homepix/maudekick.jpg

We mixed 3 out of 8 songs last night, and they sound good, but after bouncing the wav files to disk out of Pro Tools, they're unnaturally quiet. I don't suppose anyone knows anything about exporting from PT?

xpost, those are great.

I think it might have been the wrong thing to use the 'bounce to disk' option but 'export selected tracks' wasn't selectable and I don't really know PT.

What have I gotten myself into?

As revenge I should tell them I want them to arrange my solo baritone rep for garage band.

(Really makes me want to hear you now, hint hint double clue)

Does anyone want to contribute some imaginative song names for songs that don't have names even though we've been playing them for two months? We have one song about the cruelty of teenage rebellion, which has never had a name other than "Nick New," a song by Sarah that I don't know what it's about but has been called "Stuck in the Tide" after the first line in the song, and another song by Sarah whose topic I'm unaware of but is tentatively called "Time Machine" but could maybe use a more interesting name. Ideas?

This leads to some confusing recording sessions though.

Is "Dude, Your Beard is Perfect" a suggestion for a song name? That's a pretty good one.

I'm suspect Cleft & Cloven may be over, because the other half of it is just too busy with his other band. Maybe I'll be able to finish it or do something similar in the future if I ever live a place where I can setup a studio.

How's YOUR band, n/a?

Ummm... there aren't really any issues or gossip other than that. I do have a sneaking suspicion that being in a band again is going to make me want to take up smoking again really badly.

The building that we practice in got broken into, the dudes who run it got some stuff stolen, but our space was untouched. But apparently the dudes who broke in knew nothing about musical equipment because they physically detached a $100 PA speaker from the ceiling to steal but left a $1,000 snare drum that was just sitting there. Anyway, the cops were there on Sunday dusting for prints.

One of my favorite things about being in a DUO is how much easier it is to come to a consensus about things other bands disagree on, such as names of things, etc.

xpost

Try being in a SEXTET. (I know, I'll shut up.)

Or an OCTET!

Haha, I am being a martyr about this stuff, aren't I.

We're going to record the weekend of the 7/8 October, hopefully. Provided I've got my laptop back! (Am starting to panic as I've not heard back from the geniuses.)

seriously though, anything with a simple rhythm - no problem. if i have to do anything more complicated on guitar than updownupdownetcetc, it all falls apart. i have issues.

Great rehearsal last night. We are changing quite a lot of the set for each of the next gigs to keep it interesting. Throwing in some good covers too. And I get to play some guitar! Yay! Much as I am enjoying keybds, it's more fun cranking up a Telecaster through a Marshall. How I love my Telecaster! Surely no greater guitar hath man invented than this friendly, growling lump. Anyway....

Next gig is AFC Wimbledon this Friday, followed be :

Fri 23rd Sept : Prince Albert, Brighton
Wed 5th Oct : Pavilion Tavern, Brighton (Part of Brighton Festival week)
Thursday 20th Oct : Cambles Landing, Bristol
Fri 18th Nov - Hope and Anchor, London

+ a couple of dates with The Nightingales in Nov/Dec, not yet confirmed.

COME SEE US!!

Cam AMP not come either? But the pizza I bought is massive ...

The Hope and Anchor on Upper Street Dr C?

I hope lots of ILX folks can come to this because a) it's my birthday and b) we will be really hot rockin' with lots of new songs.

"Octavia was here!" scrawled on the walls of the women's loos. Always makes me smile.

I once cleared the (mini) dancefloor in the Hope and Anchor by doing a very showy and drunk Come Dancing routine to Paint It Black with my flatmate.

(There's a remix of it somewhere as well but I can't remember where.)

ken, that's better than the original, harrharr.

you're not involved with this band anymore, is that right?

http://www.kittenrecords.co.uk/hypotheticals_beat_off.mp3
(balls out, thoughtless)

http://www.kittenrecords.co.uk/veryverysecret.mp3
(balls in, thoughtful)

x-post oh! Oh! I want to listen! Will have to save it to my harddrive and bring in headphones tomorrow. Maybe?

er.

also: good track, Kate! Vocals were kind of early-music-ish, which I like!

Click on the link to the Blood and Water mp3.

Thanks anyway! We like a bit of pop.

I'm having fun working on songs too.

My latest issue is that the bass is just too f'n heavy. I used to switch up on guitar and bass, but now that I'm playing bass all the time, my back is killing me. I've gone to Guitar Center, this huge chain in the US anyway, and thought about getting one of those viola-like Beatles basses, but they're kind of pricey. Then I went to a small cheapo guitar store in my neighborhood, but those basses, while light, also feel, well, cheap. I was thinking I might get a Danelectro bass, but it looks like they aren't even producing them right now. WTF?

(Insert obvious distortion joke)

(Or perhaps I'm conflating two different bands, my memory of that period is poor. If it wasn't Lloyd Cole nicking drummers, it was Jeff Buckley.)

Depends what you want him to do and what yr music is like. Unless your doing anything really complex it should work OK with a stand-in drummer. I would make sure that he has a tape of the songs that you're going to do well in advance so that he can practice along or at least just get an idea of what he'll be playing.

Is anyone coming to see us at AFCW tonight? I guess most people will be going to Poptimism.

QED

http://www.giveandgo.co.uk/giveandgo7.htm

We're 2 and 3 (below the bouncers). See my lovely Telecaster waiting for action!

http://www.audio-electric-shop.de/shop/catalog/images/DeArmond-Asbory.jpg

Is now a review, not just pictures.

kate, I've switched to only playing bass so that I can concentrate on singing more and thus feel less nervous. It's awesome.

Planning rocks.

I have a hot bass player in my band. Although he is a boy.

Uh oh.

xpost hahaha

Yes, girls like John Entwistle. PS, there will be a star on your door in hell.

Is that a practice bass, Aaron K?

I'm just kidding, Stence. Although even I probably wouldn't want to live in an actual house with another drummer (i.e. and have to listen to him/her practice).

I would love to live in a recordign studio, though.

And the hot female bass player is playing with us. If you come to the show, maybe you can talk to her. Unless you're a girl, in which case, uh, you can talk to one of us.

www.trashbar.com

http://www.thetrashbar.com

(note the "the")

It's FREE and we're on around 9.

now the bassist is in this cover band with a drummer and other guitarist. they play: beatles, tom petty, joe jackson, and radiohead. They offered to join forces and split half covers half my originals. Now i've nothing against covers, but shit, I'm completely burnt out on classic rock, especially of the tom petty joe jackson sort, and the other guitarist is totally a classic rocker/ist. a bit annoying. Yet the drummer is ok, one of the better ones i've come across....

I just dont think i can deal with the extra baggage of this guitarist and those shitty covers. but I seriously want to have a drummer to play my songs. shit. fucking boston. why is it so hard to find good players?

I mentioned this briefly on the Chicago thread yesterday but as part of the fixing-up-our-songs-before-we-record-them process, I am trying to rewrite the lyrics for this song, because they aren't very good, but I'm having a bear of a time because the way it's set up there's a very strict syllabic/rhyming structure I have to follow and it's difficult to squeeze any interesting lyrics in there. So, trying to rewrite lyrics for a song that you already have had lyrics for for a year or more, classic or dud?

On the other hand, I made up keyboard parts for two songs and I've been making myself practice them because I'm a pretty poor keyboard player, but it's been fun forcing myself to get a little better. Rigor!

xpost. no deal, sorry. looks like they've become so happy playing Back in the USSR, Here comes my girl, and Creep.

erg.

I believe that totally original material, plucked out of nowhere, is what everyone should be aiming for, but sometimes I get very wound up when this won't happen on demand for me, and this is the only way to jump-start something.

Do you use anything like this? If not, I'd be interested to hear about (even try) some of your methods...

this is a 20th century conceit! it's now the 21st, away with you!

this is a 20th century conceit! it's now the 21st, away with you!

I refuse to accept the 20th or 21st centuries. 18th all the way, man.

Agreed. I think people spend too much time worrying that they'll be "found out" -- but your perspective is fucked since you're too close to it. You're invariably going to bring your own sensibilities to the band, anyway, even if you try to let go of them.

man, it was so much more eloquent, but just pay attention to where you *dont* or cant sound like your favorite artist and hone in on it.

What the hell do I do?

It does occur to me, however that since the track was made by me in my house that I legally own the rights to it regardless of what they do with it.

I'll put it up on here tommorow when I get some FTP sorted.

I don't know what I can do if the gig is not in fact booked, but I guess it's better to do promo and not have a show than vice versa.

Do you guys believe there is such a thing as "playing out" too much? We have 5 shows in a month lined up and more offers rollin' in. Should we just go for all of them? Plus I just lost my job and could use the scrilla for rilla.

Plus, we now have a myspace where you can see and HEAR US. (only one song, and it's with the OOOLLLDD DRRRUMMMMERRRRR.)

http://www.myspace.com/tenderhooks

http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newanswers.php?board=12

And yes, there is such a thing as playing out too much. Unless you're on tour, you risk exhausting your local audience as well as yourselves. Though playing EVERY DAY FOR A MONTH is a good way of sharpening your chops. (heh.)

thrilling!!!!

lol time of the month

http://www.myspace.com/vietgrove

wtf am i supposed to do w/it?

for those who just joined in i mean this board (I MAKE MUSIC)
http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newanswers.php?board=12

Here is what we are doing:

Jun 15 2006 4:00P Instore @ T-Bone's Records Hattiesburg, MS
Jun 15 2006 10:00P Thirsty Hippo Hattiesburg, MS
Jun 16 2006 10:00P W.C. Don's Jackson, MS
Jun 17 2006 7:00P Magnolia Civic Center New Albany, MS
Jun 18 2006 10:00P Murphy's Memphis, TN
returning majestically for:
Jun 22 2006 8:00P Sundown in the City Knoxville, TN

http://www.quipo.it/mccartney/specials/band73/bndsin17a.jpg

wish us luck! woot!