The Breeders

The Heart thing is still a possibility...but I'm back-burnering it until after the first of the year. There are many things to keep an eye on in the current bands and I don't know if I'm ready to commit to a Halloween 2012 project yet. I need to see how some stuff in the current band family is gonna play out.

That said, November and December will be tough months for me. I'm working on some personal improvement on the drinking end...and besides that I'll be going from being in 5 bands and needing to learn about 30 songs to probably 3 bands and not needing to learn anything.

So I need a project to keep myself busy. Kelley Deal picked knitting. I'm picking Kelley Deal.

Well in part anyway. I've been tossing the idea of a Breeders tribute band around for the last year and I think that I'm not so interested in performing the thing as learning the thing. So I'm gonna try to learn all of the parts to 10-15 tunes and record a cd for myself. I may never even give it to anyone else to listen to ever. It's just for me.

Assuming that I pull it off, it'll be my 4th "self-released" all solo record...the other three being made, I think, in 1994, 1996, and 2007. So I put out albums about as often as the actual Breeders do. Seems like a good fit.

But seriously...they are a good fit. I'm a very new fan and have carved out a solid dozen or so tunes that I love and the rest I don't care much about. The musicianship is all within my grasp...there's nothing over the top prog here or ridiculous. It is straight ahead rock...drums, bass, 2 guitars, the occasional violin, and a couple of voices. I think I can manage it.

Proposed track listing (in no particular order):
Hellbound
Fortunately Gone
Cannonbal
Flipside
I Just Wanna Get Along
Divine Hammer
Saints
Drivin' on 9
Son of Three
Full on Idle
Huffer
Bang On
It's the Love
Walk It Off

I may throw in a few more as things go along. Ironically 3 of these songs are cover tunes. So maybe I'm not the world's greatest fan of Kim Deal's song writing after all. But the ones I like I really like...so that's enough.

While it seems an attainable goal (I have enough experience now to have a handle on what I'm getting myself into)...it is daunting in its way. I have to relearn how to use my multi-track recorder and hope that it keeps working. I probably will need to expand my understanding of said recorder too because I really ought to use some effects on some of these songs and I know nothing about that and it freaks me out. And I'd like to do a better job of editing tracks this time around. With the last record I basically recorded a live track, mistakes and all, and called it a day. Might be nice to do a better job this time. Also...I've got to learn lots of chords that I don't know how to play...including power chords. I've started that work, but it is hard for me. And there's playing lead electric guitar...which involves effects again and using a pick, which I suck at. The strings on a guitar are so small and close together. I'm not great at it yet. But if Kelley could learn to do it so can I. And, of course, there are the dreaded vocal harmonies...but I'm less worried about that than the guitar.

All in all I think it will be a nice little project. It is entirely possible that I could have it done around new years...but that would be pushing it pretty hard. I did the 2007 record in three months even without tab for the tunes...but I was unemployed and home all day every day. If it is done by summer 2012 I'll call it a success. Actually, even if I only get one song done I think I'll call it a success...but the plan will be to actually finish a full record within a year's time and not let it sit in the pile of unfinished projects like my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th novels.