LeftyBassist.com

hey guys just wondering what everyone is up to musically, what are you practicing, what are you out playing, to sum it all up what's up with everyone musically?

i myself have been woodshedding for the past three months going out occasionally for open mic jams, practicing my sight reading, ear training and learning any song i can get my hands on. right now im working out of ed friedland's building walking basslines, a jaco pastorius transcription book (his solo on donna lee to be specific) and learning alphono johnson's bassline on gibraltor by ear.

I'm just starting to play out one nite a month at some of Seattle's more interesting small clubs with the folk rock group Steady Skies. The set list is 95% originals, and it's an opportunity to abuse a couple of my prototype builds in a tougher environment so I can see how they perform in less than optimum circumstances. It's also an opportunity to play my Azola live I'll also be taking a couple builds into the studio in April/May when we record our marketing demo

It struck me mid set at our last gig how different things were that night compared to the many hair band shows I played in the 80's and 90's. Sadly there was no budget for pyro, and I suspect city ordinances probably don't allow it anymore. O the good ol days

All the best

R

I just started taking lessons again, after 5 years of just fooling around without a clue what I was doing on my instrument. I know how to play, I just don't know a thing about music theory. I mostly taught myself to play by ear and usually got away with it, but when writing basslines for my bands, I think I could be far more creative when I actually understand where a song is going, and how to match my writing to the song.

Both my bands are working on an album currently.

The Bullfight is a dark pop band with some folkrock influences, similar to the music of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Tindersticks and the likes. Right now we only have one upcoming gig, we're mostly taking our time to write and record new songs. We hope to finish most of it this summer. Our previous album was released in April 2010 and got some raving reviews in the Netherlands and Germany so we really feel we shouldn't wait too long, now that people still know who we are . I'm really looking forward to gigging again.

Annatar has been through some hard times. After 11 years of being a 'promising' act and many line-up changes, we felt it was time for some serious change. The music we're writing now sounds much more modern, positive and catchy than the dark gothic metal with black metal influences the band made 11 years ago. So the thought of dropping the name Annatar and starting all over again with new material. When our keyboardist left the band last December, leaving only one founding member still in the band, we felt that time had come. So right now, we're in a sort of gap between the two bands. We've only kept three (very recent) Annatar songs, all else was freshly written and is due to be recorded onto a full length album this summer to be released during the winter. We had a cool support gig coming up in May as our first public appearance as Eve's Fall, but unfortunately the pregnancy of our singer isn't coming along as smoothly as we anticipated. She still thinks she'll be able to do the gig, but we'd rather cancel now and wait until she has given birth to a healthy daughter and is fully up to her task again than having to cancel the show on short notice and leaving a bad impression with the other bands and bookers when we really need positive publicity to set us off as a newly emerging band.

So I'm quite busy

damn guys that all sounds cool it good to hear you guys are expanding yourselves musically and after all that what being a musician is all about right? jeroen you have more balls then me, i dont know if i would have the balls to change the sound of a band with an already established fan base, but then again that just means youre that confident in your new sound, so right on!

Currently I'm playing in a Who tribute band. We're still dicking around with the material, trying to find out what the best fit for us is. It's been an interesting process as our 'Pete' gravitates to more post-Moon/solo Pete material than the barn-burning Live at Leeds stuff.

I also spent the last year with a fabuluous guitar teacher, who I just recently stopped going to as my work comittements are just insane and I have little to no time to practice. The intent of that journey was to gain confidence and knowledge at playing lead guitar, rather than to get acquianted with theory, which I will declare a success!

Soundpool, the psych-shoegaze outfit, is coming out of hibernation. We met for the first time since Thanksgiving yesterday in Prospect Park, Brooklyn to shoot our next video and also to plan for the summer. It looks like we will be up and down the east coast of the USA most weekends once the weather gets warm. The nut we have been trying to crack is Canada. It's kind of a slow torture to know that Montreal, Ottowa and Toronto are in easy driving distance and yet are inaccessible without a work visa or an illegal gig (which we are too scared to do). Anyone know a person who deals with band situations like this? I'm sure it's the same way for Canadians wanting to go south for a gig as well....

In the meantime, my bubblegum cover band The Lightning Kites, playing Josie & The Pussycats/Banana Splits songs etc, is keeping busy by playing two dive bars in NYC per month to aging punk rockers and alcoholic divorcees. Scooby-scooby-doooooooo! It's the musical equivalent of a Monday night poker game for bottle caps: an excuse to get together, socialize and do the fun music we all love, with no pressure whatsoever.

OMG, he's become Cougar bait!

...... don't feel bad, they stopped looking at me many years ago ......

-Sorry, couldn't resist -

Working on a few originals in my home studio, probably record the drums this week.

Been getting calls for session work lately.

My new Moody Blues tribute band plays its first gig this week.

My long-time(19 years) Beatles tribute band is as busy as we wanna be, current schedule:

2011
April 1 Oasis
April 2 wedding - Barr Mansion 7-11pm
April 9 Nutty Brown
April 12 Highball - benefit - 1 set
April 14 LBJ Ranch - "Reflections of the 60's" 11am - 1pm
April 15 LBJ Ranch - "Reflections of the 60's" 11am - 1pm
April 15 Southpark Meadows
April 17 Hole in the Wall
April 20 Stony Point H.S. 11am-1pm
April 22 Jovita's
April 29 Oasis

May 2 Applied Materials 11-1pm retirement party
May 13 Jovita's
May 14 hold
May 19 UT Golf Club
May 20 Nutty Brown
May 27 Oasis
May 28 35th anniversary party - Lost Creek Country Club

John and Nigel out first 2 weeks of June.
June 24 Nutty Brown
June 25 Carlos & Charlies

July 1 Jovita's
July 2 Oasis
July 9 wedding - Crested Butte, CO
July 15 Art Festival - Dallas
July 22 Nutty Brown
July 28 Austin Airport - main stage
July 29 Oasis

Aug 13 Blanco,TX
Aug 19 Nutty Brown
Aug 26 Oasis

Sept 10 Bar Mitzvah
Sept 16 Dentist Convention
Sept 23 Oasis

Oct 14 Nutty Brown
Oct 21 corporate
Oct 28 Oasis

Nov 19 Oasis
Dec 3 Ft. Worth
Dec 10 Cantillo&Bennett - Driskill

2012
Feb 11 Spicewood Arts Society Music Series
May 18 Dallas

holy sh*t austin, way to live the dream bro

Hey, I'm 42 so some of those cougars are actually younger than me. MEEEE-OWWW!

Hey Folks:

Good thread. I play out weekly on my church worship band as the regular bassist. I am doing primarily Contemporary Christian, and some gospel. We rehearse once a week, and then play out on Sunday. I probably will be playing mid week for our house groups with a guitar playing friend of mine, for which I will most likely get an acoustic bass. I hope to get into a non-church cover band, though I would be open to playing at other church events as well at some point, but just don't have time between all of the travel I do for work, wife, child, house to maintain, etc.

Anyhow, as far as my practice routine is concerned. I have only been playing for about a year. I am lucky enough to get about every night after my son goes to bed. I am working through the Ed Friedland three volume series, accompanying song books, and usually working on material for our weekend sets. If I am on the road, I have a little more time to practice. My Squier P-Bass pretty much comes everywhere I go on the road. The Jazz Deluxe definitely does not come on the road, unless I need it for some specific event.

Looking forward to seeing what other folks are up to.

You've got some cool stuff going on. Send me your upcoming dates (particularly The Lightning Kites, since I qualify as an "aging punk rocker", LOL) and I'll stop by one night.

I wish I could say I have something going on, bass-wise, but I don't...yet. I'll have to find a band I can join as bassist. My voice has always been my bread and butter, however, so I just recently joined another cover band as lead singer/rhythm guitarist. So I'm in two cover bands now. When I'm not doing that, I'm doing the occasional voice over, most notably various voices for The Venture Brothers on The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. Other than that, I've been playing more guitar than bass lately, primarily acoustic, working on improving my finger picking.

shibbity dibbity pjmuck if you dont mind, what voices? that is hands down my favorite show, in fact as i type this im watching brock and helper arguing zeppelin yea boy

Thank you for the kind words PJ! We are playing tonight actually at Lakeside Lounge on Ave B. On April 27, we'll be at Otto's Shrunken Head on East 14th St (both Manhattan obviously) as part of a Kate Pierson tribute night.

LOVE the Venture Brothers!! By coincidence, my last band Gaijin A Go-Go had some tangental relationships with that show. Our keyboard player used to play goth music with co-creator Eric "Doc" Hammer and his then wife Lisa "Triana Orpheus" Hammer. In an unrelated coincidence with the same band one of our tracks was produced by Kimson Albert who I think is the animation director for the show. Small world!!!

Small world indeed.

I'm not one of the principal characters, but I've done various incidental voices throughout the show. Unfortunately, YouTube's cracked down on people posting clips from the show, so only "authorized" sites are hosting clips now. Here's a link to one of the episodes I was featured in prominently. I did 5 different voices from this episode, (Mummy, Monarch Henchmen #1, U.N. Guard, Solar-Powered Car Scientist, General Manhowers) and the director's cut gave me a lot more screen time (most notably the General's monologue at the end).

http://stagevu.com/video/lqrdbuwvxiap

I just sent in my demo to be the next AFLAC Duck! I'm not sure I was as annoying as Gilbert Gottfried was, but hopefully they're looking for something different. Wish me luck!

They just had AFLAC Duck voice auditions here yesterday.

Couac! Couac! (that's good luck in duck)

On my side, I just got into this R&B project made up only by professional players and I am getting my behind kicked. First of all, I am the only non-pro. The singer/keyboard player catches every mistake I make and does hesitate to point them out. "can you stop making pop noises between notes"..."your triplets are not perfectly in place on this"...I have to admit it, they are all valid and warranted critics. A lot of the covers are challenging too, for exemple "do I do" (Stevie Wonder) or "Virtual Insanity" (Jamiroquai). The drummer is a world class player who has released several drumming DVD's and is a writer for Drummerworld mag.

I had never played with such high caliber musicians and it is, at the same time, highly motivating but also frustrating as I realize how much I have to work on my skills. So it kicks my butt, but in a good way.

Hey All,

On April 2 Paul (PT) auditioned for Rockit! for Kids the musicians age from 8-16. Just last week, 3 of the girls from Rockit, in there early teens made it to the 2nd round =(400 from 9000) at the X-Factor auditions in Newark NJ. As you Know Paul is the youngest member of the forum (I think) he will probably be the youngest member of Rockit this is the first audition since he turned 8 in December. His audition song was Possum Kingdom (Toadies) he nailed it! Today we got the news he made the cut. If anyone is interested I attached the link to Rockit below.

I hope this post finds you all well!

Keep Rocking,
The Pauls

http://www.rockitlive.org/wp/

Come Together on the Hofner! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TEc1fb41ss

Wow, that's awesome news! The kid's off and running. Congrats Paul.

Bummer, I missed your show. I was up in NYC for a conference at NYU and had a little time in the evening to check out a show. Well, hopefully, next time I come up this way I'll pay more attention to people's gigging schedules.