Getting Into Character

So in a good faith effort to be a dutiful tribute band member, I've been searching for ways to make myself look more like Kim Deal. Thinking about growing my hair out for a circa 1980s KD look...but that'll take a while (I have a wig that fits the bill, but who can stand to wear a wig on a hot stage...millions of actors perhaps, but not me). Lucky for me she cut her hair short a few years back, so I can just say I'm doing her later days look.

How to dress is harder to pin down. Early on she seemed to wear some cute little girlie tops, but eventually it devolved into t-shirts...and lately into longer sleeves/vests/coats. She must get cold on stage now. Not me. I'm a sweaty, sweaty man.

The one thing I've had to latch onto is concert footage from London in 1988. It's all over YouTube and I think it might have been made into a concert film. At that show she's wearing a grey UCLA t-shirt:



I spent a LONG time looking for this, seemingly common, shirt online with no luck. I found a similiar shirt, but it didn't come in grey and was more money than I wanted to spend. Finally I settled on the closest thing I could find for under $20. It is now on its way to me, hopefully in time for the May 19th gig:

Floor Tom to Bass Tom Conversion

So I've got a couple of gigs coming up where I'd like to play a quieter, stripped down kit. A benefit and a camping trip with my on-again-off-again folk/rock/blues/jam band. My plan is to use the high hat and snare and attach a splash via boom arm to the high hat stand. Then I'd use a 16" floor tom as a bass drum with a pedal. I figured out last night that a fully open high hat cymbal makes a sufficient ride for my purposes as well.

Gibraltar and Pearl (and others) make conversion kits to do such a thing (convert a floor tom to a bass drum)...but you either end up having to drill holes in the tom or buy extra hardware...and you come out around $100 down the line with something that, from reviews, is only marginally satisfactory.

My inclination, of course, is to make my own.

The easiest and most available material I have at my disposal is wood. I'm planning to use three 1x4's (front and sides to keep drum from sliding forward or rolling side to side) and two 4x4s (as risers at front and back). There won't be a way to attach a pedal, but I'm not sure how important that is. I think I can just push pedal up flush with riser. If it doesn't stay, I might be able to fashion an attachment. It'll probably end of being a little heavy, but more compact than bringing a full bass drum.

I tried it out last night by putting my tom on some pillows and using the pedal, and even that worked pretty well. So I think I can jerry-rig something that will function, though it won't likely be pretty or super sturdy.

The unbelievable thing is that no where on the internet has anyone posted this kind of project. People post the question to forums and are always directed to just buy a conversion kit. Really? It doesn't seem like it's that hard to make. Internet you disappoint me.

I'm gonna try it out tonight. Pics to come hopefully.

Burning the Candle

Funny old thing, life.

I had a little bit of a crazy few months just past. Added two new bands. Was taking classes two nights a week. Took two major trips.

It all ended with the double header on April 24th and a week of vacation after.

Or so I thought. I thought things would settle down. But it looks like they aren't. Crackity Jones is booked for our second gig May 19th and we have to learn 6 new songs for it. That's six songs in just about two weeks, as our first rehearsal on the new material isn't until May 5th. It is a compressed timeline...but that seems to be how we roll. At this rate (though high hopes that we won't keep this pace up) we'll have the entire Pixies catalog in hand by the end of the year (I'm not kidding).

There's talk about taking my grunge/rock band to 2-a-week rehearsals to prepare for playing out sometime in May/June/July. I think this is a good idea, cause we're kind of just screwing around right now. I thought about having us open on May 19th...but it would be SO nice to only play one set this time. I floated it to the boys, mainly to get us thinking about playing out...hence the 2-a-week idea.

I've tentatively agreed to play a benefit on June 5th...either as a solo act or with the hippy quartet, which only rehearsed together about three times and with whom I haven't sat down with for months. May also play with them at a camping outing May 22nd, likely with no rehearsal. In fact, that'll likely BE our rehearsal for the benefit if we play it.

I'm going to take another class, against my better judgement, for five weeks starting June 22nd. "Singing for Screamers". I had a coupon. Luckily it's 4:30-5:30 once a week...so I won't be there late into the evening and it won't muck up rehearsals.

In a way, it all feels like the new normal...so I think it's okay. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to play so much music with so many different people. Life is good. BUSY...but good.

SSW & CJ, 4/24/10, Frequency

Played my first double header.

Crackity Jones, in which I play bass and sing, opened for Seven Stone Weaklings, in which I play drums and sing. Show started pretty close to 10pm, maybe 10:15. I was home at 12:30am. I ate a good dinner around 6pm. Drank a cup of coffee around 8pm. Had two Bud lights prior to show and a 3rd plus 3/4 of a double Jagermeister on the rocks during the first set. Think I sweated everything out immediately. I also had about 2 pints of water before and 4 pints during show.

Cracity Jones soundchecked without bass. I had them turn up my vocals in my monitor. I did NOT play with ear plugs.

First set went pretty well, but was wiped out for second. Had to modify some drum parts to eliminate fast rolls because I was just too tired to execute. I don't think anyone was the wiser. Set change was a bitch, had to go straight from set one to modifying drum kit for set two. Didn't get to take a break. I played Eric's kit mostly...though I removed his left crash and put up Kathy's straight stand with a splash on it instead and I used my own snare stand (with his snare), throne, and bass pedal (I put on the felt beater). Adjusted his floor tom up and his ride as far left as it could go (still too far right for my tastes, but doable). This worked pretty well. I really am glad I brought my pedal. I don't like his Iron Cobra.

Even though I was tired, my feet worked well and SSW set went pretty good. I was sweating like a whore on dollar day. Got up next morning and caught a 7am flight. This I do not recommend.

We got lots of compliments. People said it was accurate (Pixies) and sound guy said I sounded like Kim Deal (I assume he meant my voice). One guys was pretty crazed, came up and told me how great it was...how Pixies convinced him to play bass...how great we were. I kind of thought he wanted to hug me. I was busy packing out and just said thanks.

Crackity Jones setlist:
1. Bone Machine
2. Break My Body
3. Something Against You
4. Broken Face
5. Gigantic
6. River Euphrates
7. Where Is My Mind?
8. Cactus
9. Tony's Theme
10. Oh My Golly
spoken interlude (You Fucking Die)
11. Vamos
spoken interlude (Field Hockey Players)
12. I'm Amazed
13. Brick Is Red
14. Caribou

SSW setlist:
1. PART TIME PUNKS
2. DON'T GIVE ME NO LIP CHILD
3. TEENAGE KICKS
4. BOSCOBEL BREAKOUT
5. DANCE (4X) TO THE RADIO
6. HELICOPTER
7. NEW ROSE
8. FABLE
9. MR. SUIT
10. POLITICAL SONG FOR MICHAEL JACKSON TO SING
11. WE ARE THE ONE
12. HATE AND WAR
13. EVERYBODY'S HAPPY NOWADAYS
14. MANIAC
15. SUSPECT DEVICE
16. WARSAW
17. FUCKED UP AND WASTED

Bass Class

It was our last regular class, though we have two theorectical make up classes yet to go.

He played a bunch of cds again.

Went over modes in brief. We also got sidetracked in a discussion of notation of chords...like major, minor, augmented, diminished, half diminished 7th, etc.

Rearviewmirror

The next song that "the band" has proposed is Rearviewmirror by Pearl Jam. Doesn't look like anything too tricky.

Bass Class and Thoughts on the Bassists Role

I was the only person who showed up to class, which is awkward. He reviewed reggae and played a bunch of cds of different styles...ska/punk, soul, funk. I was reminded that I probably ought to get a Sly and the Family Stone disk...or maybe a Stax compilation. I like that stuff.

He showed a bunch of stuff on his bass...but since he didn't have me do it myself...it was lost on me.

He did explain palm muting and slap bass to me...two things I've always wondered about.

We cut class a half hour early because it was just too painful. Then he tried to convince me to take private lessons from him...which seemed ironic since we couldn't stand to be alone in a room together for an entire class. I told him what I believe to be true...that until I learn the fretboard for myself, lessons and classes like this one won't be of much value.

It's like the last time I took drum lessons before the current stint. I wasn't ready. They didn't help me. I hadn't dedicated myself yet. It wasn't until I became committed to playing that lessons were of any use to me. It's the same with the bass.

Last night after rehearsal I had an interesting conversation with RS. He basically told me that he's had trouble with bass players in bands in the past because they wanted to play lead guitar essentially. They didn't lay down a consistent bass part. He said that he likes the root note based bass parts because "that's what pop music is."

Pretty much my experience with the bass has been to take whatever the guitar chords being played are...and play the root, 3rd, or 5th. That's why the Pixies parts came so easily, because that's essentially all that Kim Deal is doing (that and the fact that most of her parts are available in tab online). I don't yet feel like I can really call myself a bass player because this seems like a lame, overly simplistic, way to play. That said, though, I hate when a bass player tries to be a lead guitar player. I don't feel like that's their role. So somewhere in there...there is a balance.

I've been reading lots about Kim Deal and so many people say that her bass parts are awesome. This combined with RS's comments last night makes me think that maybe I'm not so far away from where I need to be afterall. Yes...I need to learn the fretboard better. But maybe I don't need to learn some complicated way of playing. Maybe the role of the bass...as I see it...is simple. Support the rest of the band. Help the drummer. Give things a bottom. Maybe that's okay. Maybe that's a legitimate way of playing bass. Maybe that's something that lots of bands are looking for.