Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: BeenDown139 on October 01, 2023, 07:46:44 AM
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since this spring i've had 4 band tryouts - #1 died on the vine, #2 blew up on the launch pad, #4 gave me a real technical set list to learn and then went off the grid for 3 weeks. thought they'd gone dark on me when i get an email outta the blue saying we're still on for an audition. sometime soon.
so that leaves band #3: had our 2nd tryout yesterday. the singer/frontman is 72. he says he's still got the juice. he actually could be right, but i'm not 100% convinced so far. in the meantime a guit@r player version of me shows up: impecabbly equipped, tone and chops right on the button, his band of 22 years just broke up and he is a well-worn veteran of the small time music scene here. got a 50-ish sax player (the baby of the band) who can get just about anything outta his horn and the drummer's another burnout like me. the singer calls out "brick house" and we freaking rocked it. ya coulda knocked me over with a feather - i first learned that song when it was on the top 40. same with a couple of other old chestnuts of the same ilk. (btw, the mighty MKDeluxe is just the ticket for that kinda music. and the band agreed.)
so here's where it's at: i told the singer that i like the situation but i'm not gonna get up on stage and sound like i'm in the backing band for methuselah, especially after 5 or 6 songs in a row. so he comes back at me with a 15-song set to learn by next sunday. it's gonna be no cheat sheets, no oxygen tanks, all the way thru the set no stopping no train wrecks and by the way keep smiling the whole time.
gonna be an interesting week. this will be the 5th full set of songs that i'll have learned since this adventure started. i was kinda getting in a musical rut anyways, so it's all good. the basses are getting lotsa playing time. hands are holding up. kinda feel like i'm going into a geriatric cage match this round. we'll see who leaves upright.
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Kick a mudhole in it, then stomp it dry. 😁
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I ‘m not sure what Gregory said…
But you got this! The challenge makes it fun - go show them what the guy with an Olympic can do!
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What Greg said! (I understood it, Paul - must be a hill-folk thing....)
And to put the setlist thing in perspective, Been - on the circuit I worked as a young man, there was a band that did themes; they played out once a month, and every month it was completely different list. At least you'll only have to do this until one clicks.
Peter (who does, in fact, realize the irony of that coming from a guy who has to relearn songs he's been doing for 30 years if he lets them go for a month or two)
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67.5? Hell, you’re still a kid!
hehehehe
Bill, tgo (who himself is 68.5)
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Welcome to the Wayne's World of aging cover bands.
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so the first thing i learned from the guit@r player after i commented on the sound he got outta his briefcase-sized fender reverb amp was the older the player, the smaller the amp.
having showed up with my medium-sized amp setup (featuring both clarity and thump) that fits in my clown car along with 2 basses, a whatnot bag and hopefully a groupie someday, i had to concur. i kinda like this guy already.
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Hope you get a great deal of fun and pleasure making music for the masses. It is a great thing to be able to do what you have a passion for with instruments that share that passion. May you continue in good health and joy for many years to come.
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so it just keeps getting better. the guit@r player had it out with the singer over covering for instruments that we don't have so we're gonna cast our lots together and see what shakes out. apparently he's set up an elderly has-been east denver musician get-together sunday so i'm gonna drag the MKDeluxe and the mighty fretless essence along and see how many people i can get to mis-pronounce "alembic".
too bad my DS-5 is integrated into the home rig. else-wise i could bring along the "good" basses and really cause a stir. or not.
this is my 4th band launch failure since the spring. maybe it's me?
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prospective band #5 tryout yesterday. refugee guit@r palyer and sax guy from band #4 (don't ask). drummer just got out of a springsteen cover band where he had to learn a ton o'songs just to have it blow up on the launch pad. practice is in the basment of the drmmer's multi-megabuck east denver pop-top that the guit@rist architected for him a couple of miles from the house. kinda gives ya an idea ofthe makeup of the band members. looks like we're all on the same page musically. now all we need is a singer. since i'm the bass player somehow i got nominated to beat the bushes of the small-time denver music scene for someone who wants to front a band full of old duffers. it never ends.
so just as that all shook out i get another bite on my bandmix ad (worth the $ btw. craigslist is a wasteland these days. here's my profile fyi: https://www.bandmix.com/tim1719030/ ) from a heavy-hitting jazz band looking for someone to fill their standup bass chair. they saw my fretless in my picture and gave me a call. might be outta my depth on that one. negotiations ongoing
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been little slow around here. so here's the skinny from castle BeenDown: we decided we'd be better off as a backing band for a front person so we're gonna host a cattle call auditions for singers tomorrow at the drummer's house. stop on by. gonna be interesting. so far we've had one cancellation as there's no parking in that neighborhood for 27' mobile homes. i had another young lady answer the call, sends me her repertoire and lo and behold one of the songs on her list is "possum kingdom". i hadda learn that song for my last band. wtf? for a semi-cool obscure song outta the 90's that song sure seems to be in heavy rotation here in the pale white underbelly of the denver music scene. can't wait to back up some sweet young thang while she belts out "DO YUO WANNA DIE?" at the toppa her lungs. whoooo!
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I never let singers pick the songs, unless they are pretty well established and can draw a crowd.. It gives them the idea that they run the band.
They always want to sing songs by Maroon 5 or ABBA or crooner stuff that makes me want to toss my cookies. Thank gawd Led Z didn't go with Rod Stewart or they would have been playing 'Do you think I'm sexy'! Ha ha!
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I never let singers pick the songs, unless they are pretty well established and can draw a crowd.. It gives them the idea that they run the band.
we took a slightly different tack - as a band, we've got over 200 years of chops between the 4 of us but we realize nobody wants to see a bunch of over-the-hill has-beens play "fly-by-night" note-for-note at the local dew drop inn. so we decided we'd make a pretty smokin' backup band for the right front person. as far as i'm concerned, as long as he/she can get their best performance out of the song and it's something that people will come to hear us play then i'll play just about whatever. although i think i reached my limit with "hash pipe" in my last band.
looks like we have hte core of the band settled. we're thinking we need to get a second instrument/vocalist at some point. got an interesting compliment from the guit@r player about my playing. he said " i can tell you've played in a lotta 3-piece bands by the way you cover the bottom when i solo". must be my lucky day!
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Nice compliment!
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my other thread veered way afield (not that there's anything wrong with that), be interesting to see where this one goes.
so we snagged an attractive young yoga instructor amazon to front our band. it's been an interesting process. kinda like getting drug thru a keg of nails. i like this girl. here's the set list for our first rehersal tomorrow:
white rabbit
possum kingdom
fever (the peggy lee version)
bad moon rising
dreams
brown-eyed-gril
kryptonite
white rabbit is one of the few jack cassidy bass lines i can do with any confidence. kinda glad she did'nt pick somebody to love. fever and dreams i do on the fretless. so it's gonna be a alembic mono bass showdown at the hoe-down at the drummers underground tomorrow. if this keeps up, might hafta round up a DS-5 of some kind and bring the stereo sisters. yay!
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Brown eyed girl will almost always get folks up on the dance floor...
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Sounds like a promising start. And one cannot go wrong with Peggy! (Though I do really dig Fever Tree's version, as well.)
Peter
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Brown eyed girl will almost always get folks up on the dance floor...
got real ambivalence about this one. played to death. works every time. pretty simple bass part with nice passing notes. we'll see how miss fitness does with it. i'm just titillated enough that i pulled it out dusted if off and got it in good enuff shape to play on the mighty essence 5 fretless.
....Fever Tree's version, as well....
i had no idea. good old fever tree. one and out. gotta grab it while it's hot. searched for it on my utoobe subscription. no soap. i think elvis did a version on his live from hawaii show with my hero jerry scheff on bass. i'm shooting for just a vocals bass and drums arrangement. could be good. or a complete train wreck.
can't wait for tomorrow. big tree-bustin snowstorm movin in. better load the vaporizers.
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Neville Brothers did a great version of Fever, too. Good luck with the new singer, hope she works out!
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....Fever Tree's version, as well....
i had no idea. good old fever tree. one and out. gotta grab it while it's hot. searched for it on my utoobe subscription. no soap.
can't wait for tomorrow. big tree-bustin snowstorm movin in. better load the vaporizers.
Here ya goes:
It was on Another Time, Another Place, 2nd of their 4 albums. As I think I've said here before, their 4th and final, For Sale, included my favorite version of "Hey Joe"; all of side 2.
Peter
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Here ya goes
i'll hafta check that out after my morning session in the sensory deprivation chamber.
so we had our first practice as a band last night. we mutally decided we're gonna roll as a (power) trio backing a singer until we find our sound and ourselves a little better. i like that. getting to know my new bandmates after a convoluted recruiting process. really impressed by our guit@r player. we're night and day personality-wise but totally synched music and direction-wise. our singer's voice is a little untrained but she's cute as a button. yoga instuctor. easy on the eyes. moves like a lioness. scares me a little. no inhibitions about getting infront of an audience to sing and dance.
got somewhat of a bolt outta the blue last night after rehersal. i picked up the bass in '74, by '76 i had fell into a band and hit the road with a guy i went to high school with. our music careers diverged in the mid-80's. we'd jam together but it just wouldn't gell. when i deided to un-retire from performing i kept after him to hook up but his outside life and maybe his trepidation about working with me again held him back. so after i told him what i'd finally landed he decided to come over for an audition wednesday. this is the guy i almost went over a cliff with in a '70 fury III fully loaded with our band and equipment on the way to a gig. we're kinda like brothers in arms that way. starting to shape up. next hurdle is a name. probably don't want me doing that part.
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been a little slow around here lately. feelin antsy
Here ya goes:
outstanding. i favor the peggy lee version myself. i usually do it on a fretless. maybe i should pull out the S2 and lay into it with a pick. gotta audition more singers this afternoon. probably not a good idea at this point in time.
practice is turning into a regular thing, twice a week or so. i don't like humping basses back and forth, the MK has already taken a pretty good shot along the line here not too long ago. so they're gonna be camping out at the rehersal room for a while. that leaves me the backup rig for home practice. 1 fretted, 1 fretless. i'm trying to figure out how i reached this point.
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after a lotta heartache and grief, looks like we gotta singer on board. a real firecracker as it were. takin the band in a different direction, this girls not afraid to belt it out with a 3-piece backing her up. guit@r player wants a 2nd instrument and voice but for now i have stage right to myself. shot a video of us playing our first actual song all the way together. since our singer's the star of the show i'm waiting for her go-ahead before i post it. it's on my channel. dunno how it got there. just don't tell anyone.
in the meantime, here's a video capture to give ya the range. shot in the BeenDown school of cinematography methoud: tablet in selfie mode on the music stand. works surprisingly well.
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took 8 tries to get it set up. had some help with the clapperboard. sheesh!
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ok got our singer to relent.
1st practice. 2nd song. 1st take. tablet in selfie mode, push rec, count it in and BOOM!
whaddya think? gonna have fun in this one i think.
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Love that!
What is the singers name? She has great energy. You old guys need some microphones for harmony parts. 😄
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Commented on youtube. This is a great thread. Our bands first live in 24 years is on the 25th of November. I'm going to lend the singer guitarist my Distillate guitar for a song and we'll get a shot of us with both bass and guitar Distillates.
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I sense a hot $#!+ bar band in the making! I love your singer's voice and presence... rest of the band ain't too shabby either ;D
Maybe you could have the singer give your guitarist some "I ain't shy!" lessons? I was waiting for that twangy country lead to kick in.
After filtering through the tablet and yootoob's audio, it was hard to make out the nuances of the bass tone even with good headphones, but there were a few places it came through. Fretless Alembic should be able to fill up some sonic space during leads, and you're clearly playing it with some attitude!
Looking forward to the first gig videos.
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thanx for the comments, folks. this has been such an overnight thing t hat i'm having a hard time gettin my head around it.
bear in mind that video was shot with my tablet in selfie mode on my music stand next to my amp. 2nd practice. i've watched it several times. we go from wondering wtf key we're in and if we're gonna make it to the chorus without a train wreck at the beginning to jumpin and smilin at the end.
i'm letting my fretless essence be my thumper and the MK be the twanger. gonna be covering it all apparently. our singer was a real find. totally unexpected. so now we're trying to decide how we wanna go. right now we're a 3-piece backing a singer. after a lotta brain damage, we decided as a group we're gonna roll that way, get a little tighter and better acquainted. probably not gonna have a full show ready to go by christmas party season, so we're not gonna rush. once we feel the time is right, we'll find a 2nd instrument/voice.
so i'm working with our singer on our set list while we take a breath and get our brains back. she saw my utoob channel and so now she wants to do plush. the peggy lee version of fever. kryptonite. so we've drifted from playing the old folks home to hittin the bars on east colfax. i'm ok with that.
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Sounds great! I've been caught up in a newish band that keeps gathering members. I think we're up to 7 or 8 at this point. 4 women singers (who play various instruments), keys, drums, bass (obviously), fiddle, and another guitarist. We play material from 40s swing to modern hip hop, with side trips into Little Feat, Island music, Queen, and whatever else strikes our fancy (Wild Horse as Afro-pop? Sure!).The other interesting thing is after decades of playing "fancy" basses, I'm now playing a Wilkins P bass, made with ancient wood. The alder and rosewood are both 100 years old and the maple in the neck is 150 years old.
For Colorado folks, we're playing at the St. Julian on December 15th at 6pm.
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For Colorado folks, we're playing at the St. Julian on December 15th at 6pm.
would this be the jazz hands collective? they pinged me when i was shopping myself around but it kinda dropped into the cracks when this roared to life.
rehersal friday. not used to being a musical director, but i've kinda had to morph into that. coupla guys are on vacation so we've had a week long breather. rehersal friday. been working with our singer to get a set list together we can hit an open mic nite with just to get our range. i like this woman. we're gonna do a rent-a-studio so it's gonna be a hit-and-run practice. here's the lineup:
kryptontite
browneye girl
bad moon rising
gimme 3 steps
mama's broken hart
fall in l0ve
runaway
wanted dead or alive
plush
fever
gravity
we're doing this as a 3-piece backing a singer. i got my hands full. kinda sweated how we were gonna do the intro to gravity without a keyboard, so i faked it on the A-bass. gotta learn the rest of hte song next but i tink it'll work out:
side note: i really dig the A-bass. i can tell the guy who built it was a bass player like me. when i'm playing this thing i kinda lfeel ike holding one of my babies. probably not gonna drag this one into the dewdrop inn. this might be an issue as we go along.
gonna drag the selfie tablet along. maybe we'll get another keeper out of it.
long day ahead. gotta hit the hot tub. smoke some more d0pe. hit the woodshed. dunno i can take this pressure.
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been a little slow around here lately.
got a little band hiatus going with vacations and illness. gonna get back in the saddle friday, got a 13-song set we're gonna hammer out. black friday. lock everybody in the bandroom. nobody leaves 'till we're all deaf and sweatin. been working with our singer in the meanwhile. trying to get her range. she gives me these two songs she wants to do. so i learn the riffs and put together a coupla scratch tracks:
i don't think i've ever heard gimme 3 steps rendered on an SII and sung by a woman. we're a 3-piece, so i gotta cover a lotta ground if it's gonna work. so here's what i'm showing up to practice with. props to leon. guy was a monster. i hope i do it justice.
never cared for this song that much, the video was kinda lame imho. once again, doing it as a 3-piece so i hadda get creative. i was pretty baked and at working at high volume on this one. overloaded the tablet mic in spots. glad the nieghbors weren't home, surprized someone didn't call the cops. the open B string on the ebony amazon has t0 be heard in person to be believed. i like that bass :-)
cheers!
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last week the singer went AWOL. just got an email from the guit@rist and drummer, they're going back to their old band 'cause all of a sudden they got gigs and so who cares if thier old singer falls asleep between songs and the bass player can only thump along with roots and fifths. we got gigs! thank you. please come again!
so....band #6 in the works. gotta go get my gear from the drummers house tomorrow. might get tense.
sounds like a trip to the smokehaus and hot tubbe is in oder..
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Sounds frustrating. Maybe wait until after the new year prior to searching again. Go to YouTube and jam along with your favorites until then.
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Sh*t happens. After our gig last Saturday, the keyboard player sent out an email telling us we were all fired and he was putting a new band together and taking the gig we had booked for this afternoon playing at the street fair on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley! I had to contact the event organizer and embarrassingly explain the situation. She confirmed we still have the gig, but a big hassle and total B.S. Band’s are like marriages, except with 4 or 5 people. When they work, it’s great, but they often don’t and then it can be a huge PITA! Good luck on your next project.
Bill, tgo
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Highly suggest trying to find an existing band that is already out working and only needs to replace their bass player. To do so may require hanging out in clubs networking and making personal connections, not looking at Craigslist ads. Can understand the frustration, hang in there... something will come up.
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Best of luck to your quest, Frodo!
Bear in mind that no band lasts forever. Starting your own band is also often a PITA. And the artistic mentality often does not lend itself to good business practices.
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Bear in mind that no band lasts forever
i'd settle for making it to one performance in front of at least 2 living bodies not connected to the band.
to find an existing band that is already out working and only needs to replace their bass player.
this close to the holidays the best i think i can hope for is for someone else's bass player to be hit by a truck just at the same time i'm updating my bandmix profile. tomorrow, that is.
Band’s are like marriages, except with 4 or 5 people
including the part where ya pull up to the house and all yer stuff's piled on the front lawn. that's how i left band #1.
just got back from getting my gear from the drummer's house. i think maybe one word passed between us. both my rotator cuffs are flaking out on me, elsewise violence may have ensued. as it is, i'm not sure i could fight my way out of a wet paper bag these days, so i'm keeping my temper in check. barely.
that being said, somehow my music stand wound up taking out a huge chunk of the ballister on the stairway on the way out to my car. still not sure how that happened. big enuff that it left a skid mark on the stand. kind of a passive-aggressive virtual middle finger from mr. BeenDown that somebody's wife will find later on when she's sprucing up the practice room. she already didn't like me 'cause i busted a sweat when i played and i always smelled like dope.