SSW, March 30, High Noon Saloon

We got added a few days beforehand to open for B'dum B'dum. Hum Machine was supposed to play, but one of its members got a pulmonary embolism. The show started at 6pm and we played first.

I was a little worried how the show was going to go because I've been out of town and away from the drum kit for a few weeks...the band hasn't had many practices since the last show...and I've been super busy this month and not able to practice much. At dress rehearsal I felt unsteady in my playing.

But all was well. I thought we played pretty great. My playing was solid. A few slips, but nothing major. I can tell my endurance is down, but I made it through.

I brought my own kit. I ate a slice of pizza an hour before the show and drank two pints of spotted cow and one bottle of PBR before the show. Drank a second PBR and a glass of water during the show. Got a decent amount of sleep the night before, but no nap day of. SSW made $80, which estimating how much money was taken to pay the sound and door...I estimate we had 50 people in attendance, which is really pretty decent for a happy hour show. Lots in attendance were our people. Also impressive since we were added to the bill just days before the show. One guy was blown away by Helicopter and wouldn't shut up about it.

Set List:
1. BOSCOBEL BREAKOUT
2. YOU STUPID FUCKING LIBERALS
3. HELICOPTER
4. NEW ROSE
5. FABLE
6. TEENAGE KICKS
7. DANCE (4X) TO THE RADIO
8. MR. SUIT
9. MANIAC
10. WE ARE THE ONE
11. POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING
12. THIS SIDE OF PARADISE
13. THE WAY I LOVE YOU
14. WARSAW
15. FUCKED UP AND WASTED
16. SUSPECT DEVICE

Band Names

I've now been in several bands over the last several years...

Wyrd Tuesday
The Motor Primitives
Pants del Fwego
The Sea Turtles (not our real name, we didn't have a name, this is just what I called it in conversations with myself)
The Lollards
Another Mistake
Shanghai Party Boss
Seven Stone Weaklings
Crackity Jones

As well as some other unnamed short-lived projects.

Of all of those bands, I had very little say in most of the names. Another Mistake was totally my name...but I'm not sure that the rest of the band even knew I was calling it that. The rest were proposed by someone else or evolved organically. I had veto power, I guess, but I didn't much participate in a name selection process. If there was any kind of process at all, it lasted like ten minutes.

I'm playing drums in a band currently that is just starting to think about playing out. We've come to the point where we need a name.

For the first few months of our existance, we've played "grunge" type music...but when we first got together we'd discussed being a classic rock group...or playing Green Day type stuff. I'm not sure how the grunge thing happened, and I'm not sure if it is meant to be permanent or if we will expand into other genres. Not knowing what the final type of music we intend to play is kind of makes it hard for me to think of a name.

I also don't know these guys well. We met over Craig's List, with only two of the five members knowing each other before our first rehearsal. I don't have a strong feeling for their personalities (unlike Shanghai Party Boss, where I knew from the moment I met them that they were total goofballs...or that a couple of the members of Wyrd Tuesday were into medievil things).

There's no one who has taken the mantle of "band leader." We aren't working for one person, like in The Lollards, where it was JA's band (he wrote all the songs and sang lead) or The Motor Primitives (where it was PB's band) and and so we deferred to them on the band name for the most part.

Seven Stone Weaklings started as a band name and became a real band. Crackity Jones was the only logical Pixies song title that hadn't already been swiped by another Pixies tribute band. Pants del Fwego just evolved, no one really ever proposed it. Shanghai Party Boss came out of a five minute conversation..."We need something random, like internet spam...once got an email about the Shanghai Party Boss...done!"

I guess that we have to spend some time together and talk it out. Or start throwing things and see if they stick. Or settle on a genre and go from there. For some reason, the process doesn't seem like as much fun as I always thought it would be. Maybe I'm not invested enough in the group because I'm too busy with other things. I'm really at a loss as to where to even begin.

Lessons: Week 59

I was out of town and missed two weeks of lessons.

He started the lesson by showing me the MuseScore software, which is a free download and, as far as I can tell, totally awesome. It is music notation software, something I've needed. Totally downloading it.

Then we played through three David Bowie songs including Under Pressure.

I asked him to help me with timing open high hats. We talked about ways to practice that.

Drummers: Kiel Feher

My new favorite drummer: Kiel Feher.


I caught him at SXSW with Frank and Derol, but looks like he's just a hired gun for them. He and Andrew Perusi made up the rhythm section...and really tore it up. They were great...and looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Here's Perusi with the big hair he was sporting that day, but sans cool oversized sunglasses:


Here's a few samples of Feher's playing, which show off his range pretty well. He really was a joy to watch.






Feher's Youtube Channel has more vids. Search for vids by Persusi

Bass Class

As mentioned, class was cancelled March 10 and 17. Last night we got back to it. Just when my eyes where rolling back in my head again regarding intense theory (when he said "mixolidian" I thought I would vomit), he started to talk about triads and inversions and passing tones, both scalar and chromatic. All of these things made vast amounts of sense to me, being basically how I play the bass. There were fresh things to be learned here, though...including the idea of moving the same pattern around the neck (which is to say, it is possible to find a root, third, fifth pattern that uses the same fingering no matter where you start...this is useful to me because I've never explored this much before). He suggested basically taking a chord progression...say I, IV, V...and playing the root, third, fifth of each chord. Then invert...same chord progression, but now play third, fifth, root...or fifth, root, third...or whatever. Do that for the entire damn circle of fifths. Try to find those fingering patterns you can move around the neck. This is what I need to learn.

We listened to All Blues again...and a minor blues song by Count Basie...and Alison (for passing tones). And probably a couple of other things that I'm forgetting. He actually had us play more, which really reinforced what he was talking about.

Overall, a good class. Maybe the best yet.

Recording Class

I was out of town for the March 16th class and freshly back in town and unable to bring myself to sit for a three hour class on March 23rd. Hope to make it back next week.

Bass Line Class

Our instructor has cancelled the next two sessions (one of which I was already going to miss) due to gigs. He didn't seem all that apologetic...kind of defensive, actually. An indignant "I'm a working musician" line of talk. Sure...fine...but didn't you commit to teach a class? Anyway...I'm not that upset about it...and he did offer to have make up sessions. We'll see. He just doesn't seem like he was prepared to do this.