Tuesnite jammage

So we playt with the new guitarist (me and the drummer, and in the musical, not the Ainglish, sense) a cuppla nights ago. It was a totally interesting jam. The guy is very good, not great, but he can play over anything.  Great laid-back personality, very musical. My only issues are temporary.  He owns a HRDX and a a Peavey Classic 30 (came with a new AmStandard Tele, what he handed to me to play – very refereshing from guys who act like yer asking to feel up their wife to try their axe). He came with the Peavey and a Blues driver, no other effects – says he doesn’t use ’em.  But he listened to my suggestions and said he’s willing to use ’em, just never has.  My feeling is, in a power-trio, you are Clapton/EVH/Page, or ya use effects.  You know, delays, chorus, flangers, etc., at least occasionally. He can play bass, also, altho’, IMNSFHO, I’m better at both – I’m definitely more aggressive as a player – I drive, he kinda follows, at least this time. But he follows very well, and that’s what made it such a interesting jam. I used cheat-charts from my 2014 project, and a cuppla Hungry Drunx charts, and basically had Mark (the drummer) start a beat, or I started playing the  note/chord notations from the paper, just using those and the lyrix as a guide to improvise the songs. The results were spectacular.  In that manner we did nine songs, plus two improv’d songs (1 instrumental) and a version of a Hendrix choon I called, “Voodoobortion”. We fuckin’ RAWKED! We are better together this way then when I played guitar with Bob the bassist – my vocals are better when I play bass, and I can lead the song, also. We don’t have a name yet, but me at 56, the drummer at 58, the new guitarist (Tom) at 65, I do believe we have a logo:

99.114.245.241 carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

Muso ads of the weak – headline edition

From today’s Craigslist:

Lyracist looking for band or beats
Must be able to help me with spelling …

starting b-sides rock band need guitar bass vocals
After which we can try and learn some actual hits …

guitarist wants to push the envelope with competent band mates
After which, we can try to make some music …

Guitar player looking for group or act
After which, we can try to make some music …

ladies, lets make a fucking punk band!!!
After which, we can let them try to make some music …

Let’s suck together
After which, we can try to make some music with a group or act or a fucking punk band!!…

Hip Hop
After which, we can try to make some music with a group or act but no fucking punk band!!…

carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

Jes’ some gear-porn

Comparing some OD’s – the ones I didn’t mount. & a new verb, too.

Amp stackage

While I’m at it:

carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

G.A.S.

Just picked up a 1×10 Blackstar extension cab to go under my Night Train 50, US$120 shipped. That head has been very nice for recording thru a Jet City 1×10 that is reserved for my Tiny Terror, but I can’t wait to get to use the NT/Blackstar live. Bought a Marshall double-switch clone for the channels and boost – works great! It’s like a 4-channel amp.

That said, the Night Train really gets close to the AC sound on it’s “Bright” channel, what was a sound I didn’t have.

And now I do.

Also grabbed a Samson C-Control for about a half-a-C because my DAW (CEP2.1) and the Technics receiver (SA600) I monitor with wouldn’t do mono.

Spent 6 hours yesterday drinking bottled water and eating fresh-made ‘tater chips with the drummer touching up the mixes on 9 trax for the next MVx2 album, and I must say, the mono option reallly speeds things up, especially when persuading him that, the kick is actually loud enuff.

EHX Nano Grail – my new fave verb.

_________________
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THD; blog.
I mix with olive juice.

It was loud!

So I’ve a friend with some money, some of which he decided to spend forming a music company (f/k/a a “record company”). His focus, this 55 y.o. Jew, is rap. Last night I went with him and his friend/employee/bidness-partner to a show put on by a music college, SAE Institute. I sat through 12 rap acts (two or 3 white rappers of whom 1 was embarrassing, and 1 was kind Bieberish, and 1 was fair and partnered with a black guy) a singer like if ya combined Sufijian Stevens and Erasure; two metal bands (technically excellent, not good writing, 7/8 white, a Latino bassist, one was extreme, the other very hard and AIC-ish), one RHCP-type act (fair, with a National Front-looking 6’4″ singer and a Latino drummer, the rest white), a very good female-led 80’s (think The Cure) pop band, and a guitarist with a looper (good with it, not a particularly good player). I did not see the act I was there to, as I hadda catch a train.   Anywhat, it was a trip. The audience was 95% black (mebbe 2-300 people), and 95% of the rap tunes used the words “”fuck” and “nigger”, repetitively;  I only heard “bitch” about 10 times. It was loud, with lotsa synth-generated “bass-lines” and 808-type sounds.  The P.A. was awesome, altho’ the back-line was 2 Line 6 guitar amps, a Line 6 bass rig, and a Twin, real drum kit. The (student) DJ on the P.A. was great, very pro, and the club’s (?) sound man was very good. There was lotsa positivity, very little (relatively) gangster-shite, lotsa on-stage-dancing and it was loud. Did I say it was loud? As a muso, the sounds and song-structures of the rap tunes were interesting, altho’ it became very predictable in many ways, and the lyrics were often silly. Rappers, to my eyes, are much about braggadocio, uplifting themselves and their stagemates and closest friends, and then their hoods, in that order. And over and over and over … There was one female rapper, the female goth-pop singer and … that was it, other than the between-song MC and a female teacher who was like the producer … Except, notably, the “roadies” were female. Not a lotta drinking, but the street outside was filled with smoke, in the open.   One rapper got up and said he’d never worked with his stage-mate before, but the new guy was gonna be his “hype-man”, and so I learned what that was all about – made me kinda think of Morris’ guy, “Jerome” in Purple Rain. I should add that we were seated in the VIP section above the main floor  , which made it much more tolerable on my ears and knees, because it was 4 hours before I left to get my train, 4 loud hours, and I never did get to see the rapper I was there to see, that my buddy has signed.   Sorry, EQ, hadda get my train. But mebbe next time, but with ear-plugs (they were selling ’em from behind the bar, but after the first round I got, I never went back to the bar as my buds had my back, (and my tab   ). And I probably said this before but, it was loud.

162.205.198.38 carpal diem! THD vlayman blog vlayman.bandcamp.com thehungrydrunx.bandcamp.com

A simple descript of the song-writing & recording process

In answer to a question at LO, I posted:

To compare and contrast, I always start with the drums, hopefully ones I recorded (I have about 20 songs in progress that way), and more often than not lately I end up heavily editing same, adjusting sections that I then arrange.

Next – and it makes quite a difference in the result –  I write the song on bass or guitar.

Next – and it makes quite a difference in the result – I do the vocals and the whatever is not done between the bass or rhythm guitar, or the opposite.

When I do the lead vocal, I typically do the 90% of the BV’s. The lyrics may (10%) or not be already existent, so I write ’em if necessary about here. Same with the vocal melody.

Next is additional guitars, if any. Lately, I’ve been trying to get more than rhythm, some kinda melodic or harmony feature or counter-point thing here, also.

Next is keys, if any.

Next is whatever the “lead” is, usually guitar.

Then I do the sweetening.

I mix all along, altho’ I try to leave FX until the end.

Interestingly, I have found that I love to mix drums without gates, but drummers seem to prefer them; I like the livlier feel, me.

EQ is used as needed, but typically not until the final mix, pans are done as I go, same with edits and initial volume-rides, altho’ Granx can tell you I am very fond of “faders-up” until gain-rides are necessary for mix emphasis.