I am thinking I might start posting to the band’s blog more frequently. By “more frequently” I mean more often than never. I’ll reblog everything here too. Why post to one site when I can post one thing to two?
I used to own a custom domain for that page. It expired ages ago. If a new name is in our future, I’ll wait until we pick something to look into a new domain.
Just saving this for later, as this blog sometimes serves as a browser/machine independent collection of bookmarks for me…
That’s a playlist of my band rehearsing each of the songs currently on our new-singer-audition-to-do-list. I haven’t listened to any of it yet so I don’t even know if the takes are complete or not, and I don’t know if they sound good enough to actually make anything out, and I don’t know if we made any colossal screw ups or anything.
In other words, this playlist might be a waste of time, but I did it during my lunch break so it is morally on the up and up.
I have a wordpress.com blog for the old band too. Maybe I’ll post it there for funzies.
I have two musical goals for tonight after work.
First: Put together a playlist of the songs on our potential-singer-audition-songs list so that I can start practicing the holy hell out of them.
Second: Decide which guitar I want to use for the band’s come back work. As of right now I am leaning toward the birthday Les Paul that my wife bought me for my 50th birthday almost three years ago. I’ve been playing the two 70’s Gibsons that I had all of the repair work done on since November or so, but I think I want to start the return-to-the-band process with my newest guitar.
Whatever guitar I decide to use for the band’s comeback (which is scheduled to start this coming Sunday) is going to need new strings. I have a couple of boxes here, but I might need to order some more from the Amazonians today. We’ll see.
It’s time to start focusing on getting the band running again. I’m mentally ready for it, but not quite ready from a guitar playing ability standpoint. I have a lot of rust to shake off.
These are pictures I took for today’s photo a day challenge, but they are not the guitar I am talking about. Oh well.
I was sitting in the living room working on melodies and lyrics for the two Record Every Month songs when my band’s drummer threw out a list of songs he thinks we should use for singer auditions.
I was going to kick off the discussion over the weekend if one of the other guys didn’t do it sooner. I am really glad someone did it sooner. I was starting to be nervous that maybe I was the only one of us still invested. I’m not. Hear me breathing that huge sigh of relief.
The list of songs he suggested is good. Most of what I was going to suggest is on it. A couple I wanted were not, but I can let the other guys talk me out of them. It’s all good.
Progress is a good thing.
On Sunday I wrote a post about trying to form a plan for moving forward with my band. I wrote out what I thought we might do to find a new singer and hold auditions and all of that fun stuff. I said I was going to send it to the other two guys in the band and that I would probably do it some time on Monday… then I immediately sent them what I had written. It wasn’t the next day, it was the next minute.
Both Mike the Bass Player and Kevin the Drummer agreed with all of it. The first of our singer-audition-preparation-practice will be a week from Sunday. One week after Easter. Over the intervening week and a half I’ll get the conversation started regarding which songs we should work on. I want at least five and at most 10. Enough to give potential new singers something to work with, but not enough to overwhelm us as we try to shake the rust off. We should try and be diverse in singing styles but I am thinking we should stay away from Bon Scott. Something about Greg the Former Singer allowed him to handle Bon Scott era AC/DC while most normal humans probably couldn’t deal with that high pitched screechiness. Greg didn’t sound like Bon Scott at all, yet somehow he could do it. Let’s not ask any potential new singers to go there. Okay… maybe we brush up one song just in case someone is feeling ambitious.
We also need to figure out the P.A. situation. We had a little one that was barely powerful enough to get a voice loud enough to be heard over the drums. That little dinky P.A. thing was replaced by something Greg bought. We don’t have that anymore because… ya know… it is Greg’s, not ours. Hopefully the little dinky thing still works.
So the ball will start rolling again in 12 days. I’ll likely share every single thought the three of us have as we work toward the next step. You know how it is for oversharing nerds like me.
I need to fix what’s left of my band. I don’t know how. I think we need to come up with a plan. Something we can work through that will result in getting everything moving again.
We need a singer. I tried craigslist and got a surprising number of responses, but we weren’t organized enough to act on any of it. Here’s what I am going to suggest to the other two guys…
I am going to send this list to Mike the Bass Player and Kevin the Drummer, probably tomorrow at some point. Hopefully they’ll be up for it and we can get things moving in the right direction again.
When was it, two days ago? The Daily Prompt asked about things you were hoping to do for the first time and I (slightly sarcastically) said I was hoping for the first post-pandemic band practice with all four band members present?
We had something on the books for tomorrow (Thursday) night but I was nervous because our facebook messenger chat had been silent. I sent out a message, are we still on? The drummer and the bass player responded. The three of us have been able to get together to play a few times since lock downs started easing up. It was our singer who was never able to join us.
Well, our singer responded to the chat today and told us that he’s sorry but he feels it’s time to leave the band. I don’t think any of us are surprised, but we’re all a little disappointed. He’s good people and playing music with him, and just hanging around with him was always good fun. I am going to miss it all.
Now we have to start looking for a new singer. I’m not looking forward to the search, but I am looking forward to the end result. Does that make sense?
Thanks for the good times, Greg. It’s been a pleasure.
Last night I sent a message to the band’s Facebook messenger chat. I asked if we were still on for a practice tonight. Everyone said yes.
It’s been almost exactly a year since Mike, Kevin, and I got together without Greg. It has been a whopping 1,258 days since the last time all four of us were together.
I’m really looking forward to this. I should put new strings on my Les Paul, right?
That picture was taken on February 1, 2020. It was the last time the band got together.
The other day I told the guys that if I didn’t have a band practice soon I was going to die. The bass player, Mike, said he was free on Sunday. I said I was too. Today, the drummer, Kevin, suggested 5:00 or 6:00. Mike and I both said sure. A few minutes ago the singer, Greg, said he was in too.
I am not getting ahead of myself here. There’s always the chance it could fall through, but… Oh thank the merciful fates, the band could be getting back together again this weekend.
I’m watching a YouTubes video where folks are talking about how happy they are to be going to concerts again post-Covid. Now we can debate whether or not we are actually post-Covid (we clearly are not) but that’s sort of beside the point. One of the things they are enjoying is the volume level. I have to admit that I miss that. I miss standing in front of my amplifier, slamming an Emin7 chord, and being able to feel the air moving around my legs. It’s a pretty magical thing.
Lizardfish doesn’t really play that loud, whether it’s rehearsals or gigs. We just don’t. We play loud, but not loud enough to quite “feel” it. The main reason for that is the drums. Whichever amp I choose to use on a given day can do it. Mike’s bass amp can do it. Greg’s PA system can do it. Kevin’s drums can’t. In most of the bands I’ve been in it’s been the opposite. The drums were so loud we had to crank the amps to compete. Now we have to keep them somewhat low. I don’t know if it’s because Kevin doesn’t play that loud or if his drums don’t project that well.
What I do know is that the first time we get back together will be the first time I will play through my Fender Deluxe Reverb since February 1, 2020 and I am going to want to run that little bastard as hot and as loud and as crunchy as local noise ordinances will allow. The drums as we know them would not be able to keep up with that. However, after the 2/1/20 gig but before the start of the lock down, Kevin bought new drums. He hasn’t had a chance to play them. If the volume limiter was his actual drums, then what if the new drums project out like crazy and he is suddenly 10 times louder than we’re used to.
That would be awesome. I seriously hope that happens because I am going to want to be stupid loud.
Hopefully the day is coming soon. Please, Covid, let us have our band back.
Inside the Red Head's Head 