Tag: lizardfish

Bars in the Merrimack Valley

So where oh where is a cover band to play these days?

I haven’t been in a working cover band since 2005. There were only a few places that we would play back then, and I think they’re all either closed or under new management. Most of the places Lizardfish played before I joined have either closed or stopped offering live music.

I have been perusing the Google tonight but there don’t seem to be a lot of tools available online to help cover bands book shows.

Anyone out there know of anything that can help us out? Anyone wanna throw a house party with a super loud band?

I Haven’t Posted Today

What’s going on, Rob?  You slacking or what?

I’m listening to a recording of last night’s band practice.  It had been a couple of weeks and it really showed.  Ouch.  The tape was made with my phone, not my laptop.  Why?  My Lexicon audio interface is producing HUGE amounts of extraneous noise on all channels.  I think she’s dead, Jim.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it… I played my Strat at practice.  It doesn’t sound too bad on the tape.  Different, but not bad.  I still think I’ll be back to the Les Paul next week though.  It just feels more natural to me.

I’d been threatening it, and last night I did it…  I bought a distortion pedal on eBay.  It was 50% off the retail price.  Cool.  Of course that was before I realized I need a new USB audio interface.  Ouch.

Speaking of ouch, I was walking to my car after work and my right leg just gave out.  Huge pain in my calf.  I thought I was going to fall but I kept my feet.  I’ve been limping like mad ever since.  I didn’t step funny or move weird or anything.  One step it was perfectly fine, the next it was hurting like hell.  I hope it’s better tomorrow.

Two in a Row

Today was the first band practice after two weeks off. It was the second practice since I had my really scary pain filled practice. Fortunately, it was the second in a row that was mostly pain free. I had a little issue early on in my right hand, which is pretty unusual. My left hand, where most of the crippling pain happens, was okay. Whew!

Lots of issues though. I plugged in the MacBook and there was a ton of noise coming in on the left channel. I spent a couple of minutes trying to track it down and then just closed the laptop and went on with practice. Next week I’ll get some new cables and bring some compressed air and try and figure out whatever was wrong.

I also had a battery in a stomp box die. I decided to go with the quick fix here too and just plugged the guitar straight into the amp and bypassed the pedal board entirely. That lead to the silly problem. As I was plugging the cable into my guitar I threaded it through my strap, as you should. Unfortunately, the strap popped off and I didn’t re-thread the cable when I put it back on. Wouldn’t you know it, the very next song I stepped on the cable and popped it out of the guitar. Damn it! I plugged it back in, threading it through the strap again, and the strap popped off again. Argh! I literally screamed in frustration… while standing next to my microphone. hehe Woops!

The things we guitar players do, am I right?

I Live to Play Guitar Again

Whatever it was that I did this weekend, it worked. I had very little pain in my hands during last night’s band practice. Every now and then it would flare up just to remind me that it was there, but it was never bad and it didn’t last long.

So what was the cure this time? Increased practicing on my own? Starting to warm up an hour before rehearsal started? Stretching sooner? The double shot of Advil I took just as rehearsal was starting? Playing my Les Paul instead of my ES-335?

Or did I just relax and not tense up the way I usually do.

I don’t know. Some combination of all of them? I don’t know, but I’ll try the same routine next week. With the pain out of the equation, I was able to concentrate on what I was doing and I felt much better about the quality of my guitar playing. My singing too, although who cares about that, amiright?

We played a bunch of new songs, and for the first time since I started mic’ing the room the recording sounds half decent. The vocals still need to come up and maybe the guitar needs to back off a bit (fat chance of that happening, amiright?). I even did a tiny bit of mastering this time. It’s just a stereo track. I put a compresser on the whole track, added a little eq, and just the tiniest touch of reverb. I also unmuted the left side of the drums.

What do you think?

Prep-Time Part 1

Practice is at 6:00 tonight. A little after 1:00 I did some prep work. The Les Paul hasn’t been played in a few months and the strings were rusted and grimy. I took off the strings and gave the neck a serious wiping down. It helped, but it’s not perfect. I need to polish it but can’t find my bottle of goop right now.  
I put on a new set of strings and played through my homework (four songs) a few times. I played sitting and standing, and all four new songs sit around the 2nd fret, which is usually what triggers the pain. No problems at all. Maybe I just need to relax when I play with other people around.
We are going to eat dinner soon. After that I will play again for another 45 minutes or so. I’m also planning to bring a bottle of Advil to practice too. Hopefully all of this combined will keep me mostly pain free tonight and I’ll actually be able to focus on playing the damn guitar as well as I can for a change.

Music from this Past Weekend

I told you all that I played really poorly at this past weekend’s practice, and that the pain in my hand was significantly worse than ever before.

Did I also tell you that I recorded most of the practice and didn’t notice until we were done that one of the two mics on the drums was muted on the mixing board? Other than that the recording is almost okay. Next week I have to turn my vocal mic WAY up and maybe nudge the PA output up a smidgen. Also maybe turn up the guitar a bit. As for the drums, un-mute the right channel (you fat idiot), pull the low end up a little more (again) and maybe turn both channels down a hair so that the crash cymbals don’t blow your brains out when you’re listening with headphones on.

Oh yeah, and don’t play the guitar like a quadriplegic with the IQ of a salmon egg. That will help improve the quality as well.

Here are a few songs from Sunday. I picked the ones with the fewest colossal guitar screw ups, although the guitar is a touch out of tune on the Gaga tune.

Prep Time

I just put new strings on the ES 335. I cleared a bit of space off of the MacBook Pro. All I have to do is clip my fingernails and then I’ll be ready for band practice.

For tonight’s recording, I need to lower the vocals on channel five, raise my mic on the PA, lower Mike’s bass on channel three, and raise Kevin’s drums WAY up on channels one and two. I think I’ll give the bass end on the drums a bit of a boost too. If all works well I’ll be sharing some music later this week.

More likely I’ll be listening to a recording with pretty much nothing but boomy drums.

David Crosby

David Crosby from Crosby Stills and Nash is on Twitter. As celebrity Twitter users go I think he’s my favorite. He answers tons of fan questions, usually in one word answers, and he’s always an entertaining read.

I saw this tweet yesterday:

Well, speaking as one who plays in a cover band, I take that as a challenge! We have three singers in the Lizardfish, but we don’t have three Crosby Stills and Nash level singers. Pulling off songs recorded by what is probably the greatest three part harmony vocals of the last 50 years would be quite a stretch for us.

Fortunately one of my favorite Crosby songs doesn’t have any vocal harmonies at all! We could probably make this work, sort of…

Not Going to Share

I finally did it last night at band practice.

I set up mics on the drums, on the bass amp, and on the guitar amp, and ran a line out from the PA, all into my Mackie board, then into my Lexicon USB interface, and then into GarageBand in stereo. It worked!

But I ain’t sharing any of it. Not this time at least.

The bass guitar is UBER loud (although the tone has a nice snap to it). The drums are really, really quiet and have no bottom end at all. The guitar is a little low compared to the vocals. Kevin’s voice is a touch on the loud side but not too bad. My voice is WAY low in the mix (just how I like it!) and needs to come up.

In other words, the mix is all but unlistenable. I knew that would happen though. I will make some adjustments on the board next week and see how it sounds, and then repeat the process the following week until I have a mix I can live with. I don’t want to take time out of practice to adjust things, so I will just do it week to week based on what sounds bad on each successive tape.

Also, I don’t think we were terribly good last night. After the last two practices being really great. I am pretty disappointed in myself. Listening to a nice clean recording just makes my shitty playing all the more obvious.

Next week I hope to have something to share. Maybe.