The New Tone Thread

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Haha thanks guys.

Here's a much worse one I forgot about. The sound sucks, but it's kind of funny.
Backstory: Every Christmas season we do this Toys for Tots charity gig. We play about a two hour set, and at the very end, when everyone is very liquored up, I come out from behind the kit and drunkenly sing/play one really terrible song on guitar. Our roadie/helper/5th member buddy Jim comes in on the drums. He's not very good, so the whole thing is a mess, but it's just for fun. We never, ever, ever play this song any other time.

There's a lot of dead time at the beginning, me trying to figure out the wireless and and his pedals and tuning and shit, but it kicks off around :45 seconds or something. That's not my Les Paul, or amps, or even drums. I like this particular gig because I bring nothing but sticks. :D

 
As much as I'd love to see you singing while pissed up, Greg. That video is private!
 
Greg_L said:
Okay see if that stupid shit works now.
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Yup, that got it! ha ha! Excellent. That's nearly as bad as my We Are The Road Crew vocal!
Looks like a great fun gig though.

Lots of good quick punky downstrokes though! The mic on the camera was clipped to death though so it doesn't sound half as good as the Mr Insane clip.
 
Awesome. A friend of mine's band does this tune occasionally. I've been kicking around for years about doing a bunch of TV show themes in between songs. We've been doing Earache My Eye a bit lately and that always gets some attention. BTW, it seems like you're the only animated person on stage (at least in the 2 videos I've seen).
 
Cool...the Gerg & his buddies all liquored up singin' the Jefferson's theme song....:)
 
minerman
I love the intro to the last version of your song that you posted. It eases the guitar tones in, sounds great to me. Still nice slide playing as well.

greg
Cool video from the Crank Case gig. Listening on crappy laptop speakers, but it sounds loud and clear. Singer has some good guitar tone going on there too. And of course, nice drumming :)

Oh and hi Rami!
 
Thanks guys.

As far as being animated, my self-imposed role in Crank Case, besides drummer and all around awesomeness, is to be sort of the comic relief. I try to keep things light and loose. They recruited me from another band, and I was hesitant at first because they were way heavier and way too serious. Those are two things I'm not interested in. I turned them down for about a year. They were slower, heavy, and they just stood there and headbanged like typical angry serious hard rockers do. Not my thing, and at the time the band I was with was doing pretty good. I liked them a lot as people, but that wasn't the kind of band I wanted to be in. I reject slow and heavy and serious at all costs. So I finally joined up and immediately kicked the tempos and fun factor up about 5000 notches. Our songs are less heavy now, more fun, more melodic, and everyone seems to have a good time. I want to play fun music, not get-in-a-fight music. I've been with them for 8 years now and it's been great. We're still a little too buttrocky at times, but overall the songs are pretty good and I can drum this mid-tempo basic rock stuff in my sleep.
 
It sounds like you guys have a pretty sweet setup though. Local notoriety, free reign to play at your leisure at a cool local club, good sense about the audience experience, and good sense of tone and sound. That sounds like a pretty ideal setup for a band nowadays.

I quit playing in bands as soon as I moved to KC and got a job. I sized up the local music scene and it was all either teenagers living with their parents or old fogies playing southern rock/country. Besides that I just didn't like the idea of having to scrounge around for a gig at midnight on a Tuesday in a crappy part of town, just to play cover songs for a half dozen indifferent locals.

The bad part of giving up gigging is that it crippled my ability to play in front of people. Too many years of playing alone to the crickets in my basement have made me extremely self-conscious. I accompanied my wife at a talent show kind of thing for her college's alumni choir gathering last summer. There were maybe 150 people there, although they were all musical savants and professionals. And here I was, just some schlub that knows a few guitar chords. I thought that my hands were going to fall off. I was so nervous that I was literally green. It sucks, it shouldn't be like that. But I have no outlet to play with actual musicians in front of actual audiences. Now I'm my own backing band and I just record multitrack stuff in my studio.
 
Tadpui said:
It sounds like you guys have a pretty sweet setup though. Local notoriety, free reign to play at your leisure at a cool local club, good sense about the audience experience, and good sense of tone and sound. That sounds like a pretty ideal setup for a band nowadays.

I quit playing in bands as soon as I moved to KC and got a job. I sized up the local music scene and it was all either teenagers living with their parents or old fogies playing southern rock/country. Besides that I just didn't like the idea of having to scrounge around for a gig at midnight on a Tuesday in a crappy part of town, just to play cover songs for a half dozen indifferent locals.

The bad part of giving up gigging is that it crippled my ability to play in front of people. Too many years of playing alone to the crickets in my basement have made me extremely self-conscious. I accompanied my wife at a talent show kind of thing for her college's alumni choir gathering last summer. There were maybe 150 people there, although they were all musical savants and professionals. And here I was, just some schlub that knows a few guitar chords. I thought that my hands were going to fall off. I was so nervous that I was literally green. It sucks, it shouldn't be like that. But I have no outlet to play with actual musicians in front of actual audiences. Now I'm my own backing band and I just record multitrack stuff in my studio.
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Tad, I know exactly what you mean. The band I played in last year consisted of a singer/songwriter with a degree in music who's released loads of albums (some very successfully) a drummer who had a music degree, a well known session local session bassist, a keyboard/backing singer who also had a fucking music degree, a guitar teacher and two backing singers one of which was a singing teacher... (those three were also a wedding band and harmony trio) needless to say plebby old me who learned how to play guitar from the In Utero and Black Album tab books felt a bit self concious!

We played a few smaller gigs but for the main gig the audience was all her muso mates and industry people! LOL, I felt like someone was gonna ask me what phrygian dominant 7th was to catch me out at any moment!
 
Lol. I'm the total opposite of all that. I guess it's the corny extrovert in me, but I shy away from nothing. No musical situation intimidates me. I'm OFTEN the worst drummer or guitar player in the room, and you know what? I couldn't fucking care less. I go up there balls on fire and let it fly like I own the fucking place....because really, I do. I do own the place. And every fucker in there. I own all of it. Regular people in the crowd don't care about the technical wizard that stares at the fretboard as he flings notes all over the place. They remember the crazy guy that plays like it's his last gig on earth and he's actually having fun.
 
Tadpui said:
Now I'm my own backing band and I just record multitrack stuff in my studio.
Click to expand...

This is how I discovered recording dude....I just wanted to play my guitar to some backing tracks after about 7 years or so of not even owning a guitar, or picking one up, one thing led to another & here I am...

I'd love to play in a band again, but the place I live in makes it almost impossible...This region just doesn't have very many musicians who would be dedicated enough to try to keep a band together either, so I guess I'll just keep doing the recording thing...
 
@greg that was kewl!,fun stuff ... i agree with you about uptempo fun stuff,gets the chicks moving and where theres chicks theres blokes buying beer :)


@miner is that (dare i say it) stryper in your new avatar? image.webp


@tadpui musics music wherever/whatever you do .. so long as you enjoy it keep loving it :)
 
JDOD said:
Tad, I know exactly what you mean. The band I played in last year consisted of a singer/songwriter with a degree in music who's released loads of albums (some very successfully) a drummer who had a music degree, a well known session local session bassist, a keyboard/backing singer who also had a fucking music degree, a guitar teacher and two backing singers one of which was a singing teacher... (those three were also a wedding band and harmony trio) needless to say plebby old me who learned how to play guitar from the In Utero and Black Album tab books felt a bit self concious!

We played a few smaller gigs but for the main gig the audience was all her muso mates and industry people! LOL, I felt like someone was gonna ask me what phrygian dominant 7th was to catch me out at any moment!
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Yeah, that sounds familiar! Guitar is a weird instrument like that...so many of us guitar players started playing because it's such a popular instrument and is so widely visible in pop music of the last 50 years. So we start playing because we saw our idols doing it. And we hack away and learn the hard way through hours and hours of trial and error. Unlike the concert violinist who has trained in a very structured and formal format for years, studied music and music theory, and plays by very rigid rules. Funny thing is, I'd usually rather listen to the guitarist hack that's playing from his gut than the prissy violinist that's reading it off the page.

Greg_L said:
Lol. I'm the total opposite of all that. I guess it's the corny extrovert in me, but I shy away from nothing. No musical situation intimidates me. I'm OFTEN the worst drummer or guitar player in the room, and you know what? I couldn't fucking care less. I go up there balls on fire and let it fly like I own the fucking place....because really, I do. I do own the place. And every fucker in there. I own all of it. Regular people in the crowd don't care about the technical wizard that stares at the fretboard as he flings notes all over the place. They remember the crazy guy that plays like it's his last gig on earth and he's actually having fun.
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I'd say that part of that is because of something in your personality, who you are. But I'd also say that a big part of it is because you never stopped, you're well-practiced both at your instrument(s) and at the act of gigging. Going through the motions, loading in, setting up, playing to a crowd, loading out, all that. I'm so far removed from it now that I'd be a wreck by the time I even showed up with my gear. I'm sure that a few gigs into it, I'd start to loosen up and enjoy it. But as it is now, I'm not in gigging shape due to too many years of not doing it.

minerman said:
This is how I discovered recording dude....I just wanted to play my guitar to some backing tracks after about 7 years or so of not even owning a guitar, or picking one up, one thing led to another & here I am...

I'd love to play in a band again, but the place I live in makes it almost impossible...This region just doesn't have very many musicians who would be dedicated enough to try to keep a band together either, so I guess I'll just keep doing the recording thing...
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Yeah it seems that you're out in the boonies :) Small towns are tough for jamming just due to the statistics. What are the chances that there is somebody in your area that plays bass or drums or sings that is into the same music, has the same interest in playing shows, etc? Probably pretty slim chances when there are only a few thousand people around.

But that's been the beauty of recording for me. It gives me an outlet for this passion/hobby of mine. I get to do something constructive with it, instead of sitting around being bitter or disappointed about what I could have done with it. And while my bassist and drummer may suck, at least we're on the same page when it comes to our artistic direction :D
 
Tadpui said:
I'd say that part of that is because of something in your personality, who you are. But I'd also say that a big part of it is because you never stopped, you're well-practiced both at your instrument(s) and at the act of gigging. Going through the motions, loading in, setting up, playing to a crowd, loading out, all that. I'm so far removed from it now that I'd be a wreck by the time I even showed up with my gear. I'm sure that a few gigs into it, I'd start to loosen up and enjoy it. But as it is now, I'm not in gigging shape due to too many years of not doing it.
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That's probably true. Familiarity makes it easier. I don't gig as much as Lt boob, but I gig pretty steady. The whole process is pretty "old hat" at this point. But besides that I think I'm just naturally confident, even while completely understanding my very many limitations. Even as a little kid, you bet your ass I'd play football with the big kids. I just don't care. I don't care that I'm not the best guitar player or best drummer. I don't care that musicians in the other bands on the same night are probably way way better than me and judging me under their breath while they draw absolutely no one. I'm gonna roll an obscene display of Marshall goodness on stage, plug in a Les Paul, and make a joyous noise. I'm gonna beat my drums like they stole from me. As long as I do what I do and do it good, that's always been all that matters to me. And it's not like my music is complex stuff. I've always felt that it's better for me to be good at simple music than fumblefuck my way through harder music. It's certainly more fun that way. I always stay in my lane. That has definitely held me back as a player for a long time, but I'm not out there making a fool of myself either. Not unless I'm intentionally making a fool of myself, which is pretty often. :D
 
I feel the same as Tad. Recording is a great outlet for music when you're not in a band
 
JDOD said:
I feel the same as Tad. Recording is a great outlet for music when you're not in a band
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I've always bounced back and forth, or did both. Back in the day, I always had bands and we went to studios, or we recorded our own shit on 4 track. That's all there was. Professional studio or self-made crap cassette demos. I remember the first CD we had made with our own stuff on it. A CD! Our very own CD! Mind completely blown. I learned a lot dealing with only four analog tracks though. And I always paid attention to stuff in the studios. Then for a stretch of about 7 years I stopped doing the band thing and during that time my wife bought me a computer based digital setup. I had a mixer, a 2 channel Tascam, and a computer. Holy fuck, it's like the floodgates opened. I could record my own shit in my underwear and it sounded good. I could make all the CDs I wanted. I had no idea that was even possible. That got me right back into bands again.
 
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