News or the same old same old

I hope it all goes well, including the bass player situation.

I've never been in a band, but after seeing so many deal with it, I am pretty confident in saying that I don't want to be in one.

Roy - You don't want to lead a band, but playing in one is great fun.

Yea what Laz said leading kind of sucks but the playing part is cool, but someone has to lead it doesn't ever seem to work well as a democracy.

Maybe i have been just lucky, but in our band we have no leader.

We have an understanding that whenever it is time to learn new songs' we all choose one, and therefore learn four at the same time, so each of us has added a song we really like.

When gigs come around, we rotate who does the set list, so every four gigs, we all have a go at picking the songs.

We also all try to to chip in when it comes to getting gigs (although these days repeat bookings tend to take care of that).

So we don't have a leader, and none of us would like to call ourselves that. However, we did all work together and were friends before the band started, so maybe that helped a lot in establishing a democracy.

Cnev, good luck with the new singer. Hope the gigs start coming thick and fast for you guys :D

I've never been in a band, but after seeing so many deal with it, I am pretty confident in saying that I don't want to be in one.

If the fun doesn't outweigh the drama, you don't want to be in one. Mine usually does. However, I'm learning right now why most bands have outside producers when they record. I'm engineering and producing our current recording project and it is difficult to both wrangle schedules, say things like "your guitar tone sucks", baby sitting everyone's egos about how they sound on tape and saying "doing another 10 takes isn't going to help, that's just how you sound". Being the one in the band that likes to buy recording gear automatically makes you that guy.

and I found out that being the guy with the PA means you get to lug that around too....not fun.

Well the gig went fine although it wasn't much of a gig there were only 20 ppl tops but I didn't really expect much more. We had an extra guitarist play with us. We play with him at the open mics and he is really really good but I think he's in a coupl;e bands already so no chance of him joining up with us but it's always fun to play with him cuz he can tear a guitar up. we also had the rest of the band including the singer.

We played outside in the front of the clubhouse at the apt. complex and the singer came on his Harley. I told him he should have driven up to the mic on his bike and we could have gone right into Born to be Wild probably would have been the only time he'd get to drive his bike on stage..ha.

Everything went down pretty well considering we have never played together and since we had to lead players we added some extra solo's in pretty much every song. There were a couple were we didn't play them exactly right but the audience didn't know and it was just a matter of playing together that's all.

So now that this is over it's time to get down to business and get our set list to together and try to get some gigs no more excuses.

We do have some potential drama with the bass player so we'll see how that goes.

and I found out that being the guy with the PA means you get to lug that around too....not fun.

Do you get paid an extra share or more for the PA?

Yea got two shares of nothing, unfortunately not a paying gig we did this as a favor to the drummer's girlfriend that manages the complex.

Well since there has been so little activity on here lately I figured I'd post something even though it's not really that news worthy.

Finally sat down with the band and ironed out our first list of songs to play. I've been waiting to get this done so we can finally get out there. So the way we are breaking them down is putting approx. 12 songs in each set and then we will get together in two weeks and practice that set and move on to set 2 etc.

This is going to be a little different than the way we have been going about it in the past. The new guitar player who is all about learning the song on your own then just getting to together play it through make sure there aren't any problems and move on. He's not into the play everyweek thing, which is very different for me.

So I'm definitely going to have to step up my game one, because we have changed a bunch of songs and I am going to need learn several new songs in a very short time.

So here is the first 12 songs. They not be the way will will play them in a live situation (we will probably mix the songs up) but it's a start for practicing.

Another thing coming - JP
Day of the Eagle - Trower
Use Somebody - KOL
White Wedding - Billy Idol
Sweet Jane - Mott the Hoople ( never even heard this version)
Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down
Can't get enough - Bad Co.
Mustang Sally - Wilson pickett
Good - Better than Ezra
Back in the USSR - Beatles
Just what I needed - Cars
American Band - Grand Funk

Everyone has two weeks to learn them then we move on to the next 12-13 songs. This isn't bad there are only two that I don't know Back in the USSR and the Mott the Hoople version of Sweet Jane

I had to youtube a couple entries. I never heard the Trower entry and didn't recognize the KOL tune until I heard the first note. I'd never heard Mott the Hoople do "Sweet Jane", either. Looks like a fun, rocking set. Mustang Sally even gives me a chance to go take a whiz if I was watching your gig. :lol:

I'd luve to wiz during Mustang Sally too but everytime I've seen anyone play that everyone gets up and dances to it so we decided to leave it in.

I actually haven't played that with anyone either.

I'm not totally thrilled with all 36 songs but at this point I'll do whatever it takes to get out there this is probably the only real chance I'm going to get at doing this.

There's probably going to be 3 - 4 songs in each set that I don't currently know so I'm going to have to have them down within two weeks. Learning won't be the problem if I have a good transcription of the song and I've relied on my instructors way of transcribing I hate to use anything else but I doubt I can get all these done by then.

This sounds very familiar. We're in the same situation, with 2 sets mostly ready, and many songs to choose from for a 3rd. I'll post our song list in a separate thread later.

So how are you going to market yourself? I'm trying to decide between FB, soundclick, reverbnation or some other choice for a web presence.

Your list is a bit edgier than ours. Plus we have female vocals, so we can do some from the other side. For example, she sings the chiquita verse in American Band, and sings the lady's responses in Alright Now.

Dan,

We have 40 or so songs on the current list we all took turns picking 3 songs to put on the 1st set. Once we get together and practice thes we will pick from the remaining songs and make a 2nd set, and then the same for the 3rd.

Right now haven't thought about the promotion. I think the drummer's girlfriend is setting up a Facebook page. We do have a couple of places that we can get gigs at without any promotion or a CD. One is the place they do open mic at. After that we'll have to decide.

We had plenty of songs to play and then when we got together they changed alot so probably 10 - 12 are new.

I know some but I don't have the entire list but some are Tush, Train Train, Yellow Ledbetter . I really wish we were doing the Lou Reed version of Sweet Jane I can't even find the Mott The Hoople version.

Dan,

We have 40 or so songs on the current list we all took turns picking 3 songs to put on the 1st set. Once we get together and practice thes we will pick from the remaining songs and make a 2nd set, and then the same for the 3rd.

Right now haven't thought about the promotion. I think the drummer's girlfriend is setting up a Facebook page. We do have a couple of places that we can get gigs at without any promotion or a CD. One is the place they do open mic at. After that we'll have to decide.

We had plenty of songs to play and then when we got together they changed alot so probably 10 - 12 are new.

I know some but I don't have the entire list but some are Tush, Train Train, Yellow Ledbetter . I really wish we were doing the Lou Reed version of Sweet Jane I can't even find the Mott The Hoople version.

That all sounds good. Between us, we know 100s of songs, from 50s surfer to Alice in Chains, plus a few originals that we've borrowed from friends. But we've set on a style of solid classic rock. Songs you've heard, but not heard often or recently. We shotgun the suggestions at practice (We donn need no steenkin charts! How does the third verse go again?), and we'll try anything once (things we like, we try twice!). I usually arrange the set list, as I look to alternate voices (we have 3), tempos, styles, etc. I'm told that I'm going to have to consider guitar changes soon. The rest of the gang then tweaks my list.

In and around Philly, there are more bands than bars, so it's hard to get a gig. We're hoping that we are far enough west that we'll get some opportunities, but we'll need a web presence somewhere.

Keep posting your story, and I'll start ours soon.

Latest drama but this time I think it should be OK is that my buddy the bass player is dropping out. He says he's too busy but I doubt that's the reason, but this should be a good thing he didn't really ever to his homework and was into to much drama.

We already found another bass player on Craigslist. He's our age, lives close by and has been playing in bands for years and knows alot of the songs already so he shouldn't hold us back at all.

Rud ro that means I might be the weak link now :shock:

I hope that works out well. Getting a guy that's been in bands might also help on the gig connection front. Maybe? Sounds good in theory, anyhow.

Weak link? I have no clue if true or not, but you're dedicated. Makes up for a lot. 8) 8)