Breeders Tribute Progress Report

53

I'm just gonna take a moment to ponder that number.

[pause]

I have kind of a list-making/task-checking-off personality. It gives me pleasure to finish things.  When the project is a very large one, the final "finished" payoff can take a long-ass time. And the truth is, by the time that I get there I've often discounted the goal and moved on to something else entirely.

But let's just point out here that, over about the last 10 months and one week (4/29/2014 to 3/8/2015) I have learned all the parts and recorded them for 53 Breeders songs. That's about 45 weeks...or 1.2 songs per week on average (though they really were done more in clumped batches than steadily). Along the way I've learned how to play power chords. And about guitar effects. And about slide guitar. And picked up a violin that I barely knew how to play and made sounds with it. And mostly nailed down many drum parts that I never thought I'd get. And almost, ALMOST, figured out barre chords and have begun to be able to play them mostly right. And I've noticed a TON of things about the songs that I never noticed before. And grew to like many of them way more than I used to.

I've accomplished all of this in my "spare" time.

It is kind of mind blowing.

Done:
All of Pod (except the Beatles tune, fuck that Beatles tune)
Half of Safari
All of Last Splash
All of Title TK
About one quarter of Mountain Battles
One quarter of Fate to Fatal
Almost half of Pacer

I'm considerably into the weeds now. Most of the remaining tunes have no tab or chords anywhere to be found. Many of them I don't care that much for, making my motivation mostly about complete-ism...but that's what I thought a dozen songs ago and I've really enjoyed doing those. So we'll see where it goes.

Started learning "Dedicated" last night. It was a hoot.

SVFD Feb 26 Freq

With SS and the Mood Manual.

We kicked ass. I don't know why because we haven't been rehearsing much. Low attendance, but energy was high. Performances excellent.

Setlist:
Rascal
Thigh High
Sergio
Spiderwebs
Point
Dandelions
Lost Again
Superman
Wallet
I Don't Love You
I Will Survive

TD Freq Feb 6

I totally forgot to post about this show. No one was there. The energy was low. Our bass player was being a bitch (he quit the band a few days later). I forget what the setlist was. I played terribly for no particular reason. Let us never talk of this thing again.

What Makes a Good Drummer

A friend recently made a posting about what makes up a good drummer. The summary of her article:

Good:
Pays attention to the band in performance and when writing.
Knows how to read cues from the band
Knows how to give cues
Gives feedback on song structure
Has a strong start and strong stop.
Likes to figure out new beats and tricks.
Has a stage personality.
Keeps time no matter what.

Bad:
Tries to be too fancy.
Doesn't participate in songwriting.
Doesn't hit the drums hard enough.
Hits the cymbals too hard.
Requires an enormous kit.

I think, excepting the comment about not hitting the drums hard enough (I find most drummers do the opposite and hit way too hard) that her assessments are mostly on point. In part because she's not a drummer though, I think she missed a couple of key points...

• Has good limb independence
• Is familiar with a range of styles and knows the basics of most (unless you only need them to do something specific and narrow, in which case I'd still say knowing the other styles is good musical background)
• Practices on their own, both the songs your band plays and fundamentals
• Has enough experience (time spent learning and practicing) to do all the things above and is at least as experienced as the other members of the band (ideally more)
• As with all band mates...the person is easy to get along with
• As with all band mates...the person is reliable (on time, does what they say they will do & not always drunk/doped up)

What a Difference a Mere Three and a Half Years Makes

I was just doing a google search and happened across one of my own posts in which I muse about some day being in a Breeders tribute band but listing all of my misgivings.

In the last 9 months I've recorded most of the Breeders catalog and played everything on the recordings. I've also been asked to join a live tribute and sort of turned it down (but when asked I felt pretty strongly that I'd only want to drum or play lead guitar in such an enterprise, which is no where near what I was thinking when I made that old post). I have even learned to play power chords and then subsequently realized that KiD doesn't really use power chords much and so I've started to learn to play barre chords.

Time is weird.

Getting Back to It

Laid down drum tracks for Safari, Oh!, Glorious, Night of Joy, Mom's Drunk, and Dedicated last night (Safari the day before).

TD Recording at DNA 1/16-1/18/2015

TD went in and laid down drum, bass, and much of the guitars for an upcoming 8 song cd. We spent 16 hours in studio plus 3 hours of load in. I was SUPER nervous and probably played at about 75% of my ability, but it was good enough. The producer/engineer was awesome. After my parts were done it ended up being a great experience, but I'll be ok if I don't have to lay down drum tracks for a pro recording that impacts other people again for a long, long time.