what is going on in your musical life

i just invited a stranger
it was terrifying and my stomach jumped when i clicked send but i did it

i personally would be delighted to receive a msg inviting me to something like that, even from a stranger

it's so weird to try to anticipate people's reactions
i guess it's always a crapshoot?! he wrote back already with follow up q's though, i consider that a good sign

god this whole thing is so nerve wracking
it takes way way way more diverse skills than just being able to play an instrument

Putting a band together is way more anxiety-inducing than anything I've bashed my head against.

Would totally skype in some guitar drone to "Sister Ray" at LL's party

i might take you up on that! it is looking to be the most poorly attended publicized event i've ever been to (that is to say it's gonna be me and the spiders) so having a drone beamed in from space would be a nice touch.

he didn't write back after the initial question
i have acknowledged defeat on this front tbrr, ready to move on

also it has been a valuable learning experience
at least i know that it takes way more effort, and maybe a different kind of effort than i thought

i woke up at 4am last night and was obsessing about this one track that is 'done' but just not quite good enough, or not the right thing for the album. eventually, i had the freeing realization that i could just take the chords and melody and build a totally different sort of piece around them.

i'm sure everybody does this from time to time, but realizing when to stop banging your head against the wall is so important, huh? arranging is always more fun than writing for me, so it helps to get to the point where i can treat the raw materials like someone else wrote them.

asking people to play music with me is not unlike asking people to dance
it feels REALLY risky and succeeds infrequently

i find it baffling

an even slightly together drummer in my town would be without a band for approx 30 seconds

i'm starting to think that the less i say, the better

i need to find people to play with (in NYC so there should be at least a few people)

Karl, do you have a practice space?

i don't. right now my drums are stacked up in my kitchen. i've talked to a few people in my neighborhood about possible practice spaces, but the most plausible options involve splitting a monthly rental space with 3-4 other people, and i don't know 3-4 other people interested in splitting it, as of now

an even slightly together drummer in my town would be without a band for approx 30 seconds

this is so true. every competent drummer I know is in like 3 bands. always.

shared practice spaces are a good way to find people to play with.

unfortunately, i have a free comfortable practice space in my basement! there's no way i'm going to pay for one just to meet people.

ok pressed send
phew

i also placed my first craigslist ad mostly for lols but if it garnered any response i would consider it a minor miracle

btw if any bay area drummers on here are looking for a band to play with...

xp

xpost i've always been warned to stay away from craigslist but i'm getting antsy so i'm taking a look right now as well. it's really depressing! everything's like "looking to form alt-rock indie band, influences: filter and bob marley"

oh it's REALLY bad
still there doesn't seem to be a better option so why not

Do you have cool record shops still alive where you are? Do you know the location of rehearsal rooms? They're traditional places to put up "band members wanted" ads - it may be a bit corny but no more so than Craigslist, right? Unless of course this is a major faux-pas in the USA or something... But if not you've probably already thought of it, so I'm no use here.

Btw, further to "what is happening" upthread, mine & dog latin's bands played together - it was weird! But fun!

one time when I was looking for something v specific and sort of rare (baritone sax player to round out r'n'r horn section) I advertised on craigslist and let me just say the responses I got ranged from sad to lol. Got several "I don't play saxophone BUT I have this killer MIDI setup" responses.

"looking to form alt-rock indie band, influences: filter and bob marley"

ahaha, WHY HAS THIS NOT CHANGED IN 20 YEARS???

rehearsal rooms aka practice spaces are definitely a way to go here for posting band members wanted flyers

Btw, further to "what is happening" upthread, mine & dog latin's bands played together - it was weird! But fun!

― emil.y, Wednesday, November 5, 2014 11:03 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It was weird but fun! And it was nice to meet you and some of your bandmates. Really enjoyed your set, and I checked out 'Add' too which is good stuff. I think Phil has some footage of you guys playing if you're interested.

Here are some clips of our set:
The Art of Breathing
Death Rattle

I'm frantically trying to fill 2 Elektron sequencers full of fresh tunage for a live PA in Bath in 12 days time. Looking like 5 hours sleep a night maximum for the next week or so if its going to sound half decent. Might just sack it off and play some 12"s, no one will notice tbh.

I've spent the last week going back and listening to a bunch of productions I was working on in the earlier part of the year and gad got utterly sick of and disheartened about. I'm now convinced they're funking excellent actually and I just need to make a couple more tweaks and ill have a killer EP out by early next year. Happy days!

^so great when that happens.

i woke up at 4am last night and was obsessing about this one track that is 'done' but just not quite good enough, or not the right thing for the album. eventually, i had the freeing realization that i could just take the chords and melody and build a totally different sort of piece around them.

i did this and...it ended up not working at all. so now i'm doing it again (fourth time for this track!). so much for new sounds, Rhodes & kalimba win again.

I'm on the last day of mixing the score for a feature film. Anton Corbijn is the director. He's been telling me stories this week about Captain Beefheart and Palais Schaumburg. Score is good! film is good too.

!

Does that mean that you composed the score or are you just handling the mixing, fgti?

Composed! I think I mentioned it upthread? I got together a bunch of my favourite jazz musicians and had them play forty cues, two hours of the most uneventful ambient music imaginable, then spent two-and-a-half weeks editing and placing it. It's only my third sole credit on a feature film and one of the first where I've really had to be a boss. Finished yesterday with a roomful of veteran post-production people clapping me on the back so *hooray*.

So ~2.5 minutes per cue? Can't wait to hear it.

It's not, like, good or anything. It's basically forty versions of "Ascension Day" played extremely quietly and with all musical elements removed. I did get to work out a few things I'm interested in, some super spare math-y harmony stuff

Dude I can't wait to hear it and I hope there'll be at least a digital OST release? Also I will now call u flamboyant goon teo macero

well my piddly little "I sang a solo in church today and it went well" seems pointless to post about now

Um no it doesn't! Fkin essential IMO.

seriously
if piddliness were a concern i would never do anything
good for y'all on your accomplishments!

finishing mixes for the second album by a band I was in that broke up nine years ago. four months ago, opened up some old pro tools sessions and realized we really had it 90% of the way there and started balancing them out. totally surreal to drive around in my car listening to all these pieces in a row.

We sang an SATB arrangement of the version of "Keep Your Lamps" done by Cantus, an a;;-male group out of the Twin Cities. I was going to record it but then went "eh fuck it"

Milton I want to HEAR THAT

V. cool, fgti. Congrats.

That's p. cool too, Milton. I still have some of your stuff from about 10 years ago!

I've got a piece on this programme: http://www.onmc.info/events/2014/8/10/double-feature-i-chris-goddard-and-felix-del-tredici

I'm a little nervous and ambivalent about the whole thing, I guess. The pianist is fantastic and there are some of the best composers of the 20th century on there so I'm slightly nervous about how my piece will sound next to them, ha. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the piece rn. It is something I wrote two years ago with specific goals in mind. It doesn't necessarily reflect where I am now, compositionally, and I don't think of it as my best work per se but at the same time, I'd like to hear how it sounds played by a really good contemporary pianist on a good acoustic piano. (I only have recordings done on an electronic keyboard by a Baroque specialist.)

Ha, you're probably not supposed to say those things before a performance.

that looks like a solid night out, I suspect it will turn out wonderfully and not ambivalent-making. I've still got that cd of 'shade' from our swap.

fgti once the other band members sign off (one does not yet even know) I will happily send you a preview if that ilxor email works

Thanks, Milton. Hope you're right. I'd be interested in a preview, too, if you're giving them out.:P

since i moved to brooklyn i've been looking for people to play with. it's been a little tough for me to find people organically since everyone at my work is much older and about to retire, and my group of IRL friends in brooklyn is...small. but growing! THE STATE OF THE UNION IS STRONG, uh

so i ignored everyone's advice and looked at craigslist ads to look for opportunities. predictably, almost everyone on there either is terrible at music (going by their soundclips) or is completely insane, or usually both. but after scanning the listings for a while i found a somewhat promising post that had decent musical references, and they seemed somewhat laid back and had a practice space already with drums (the sweat shop in bushwick, which is a great place!). i bit the bullet and did a blind date/jam thing with them.

it went ok! then...i spent hangout time with them last night, away from musical instruments, and it turns out that i can't allow myself to ever talk to them. they're both british and from very wealthy backgrounds, and...they like to make jokes about poor people, LGBTQ people, women, etc etc. they kept making these jokes with me as if i was part of the club, then when i didn't respond positively they turned on me a little and got passive-aggressive. they were obnoxious all night. on at least 5 different occasions, a person standing nearby shot them the Who Are You Fucking Assholes look. luckily Thee Oh Sees started playing and a heavenly moshpit developed and carried me away from the rich assholes and to frontrow, center, smashed against the stage. for a brief moment i thought there was a benevolent god watching over me. after the show was a bit awkward (my favorite bit from the more flagrant asshole of the two assholes: "you know zach, i think i'm beginning to like you more and more"...?), and although we had previously agreed to play again on Saturday, i'm going to send them a message later bowing out of their project.

tl;dr god i just want to play some music with some people who don't remind me of gamergaters.

ok lol

i was talking with my drum teacher last night and i told him about my CANNES ad and he was like hahaha no one who wants to be in a can cover band is looking at craigslist ads and i was like i know but now it's out there in the world. i think i convinced him to try to talk to people for me. he said he would at least. i'll have to follow up and i have a good excuse anyway so i guess this is working better for me than anything else so far.
this, i think, is how it works?

gotta be better human options than those, KM

that's good news, fgti!

xxp yeah definitely a good dodge. I'm v curious how they telegraphed/you became aware of their wealthy backgrounds tho