Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 3:24 pm Post subject: Check out our jam on 'Busted up' featuring the zen drive
I recorded this last night with my minidisc during rehearsal. We just started playing this song. This is only the second time we've gone through it. I've been using my zen drive for a couple months, but this was the first time I got to try it with my cherry red Parker mojo. It's just the zen drive through a Traynor 40 watt. Recorded in a small garage with a sony stereo mic at head level to minidisc. I turn off the zen at around the 5 min mark, so you hear the difference when the guitar is clean.
For anyone who downloads, please provide feedback and also to let me know exactly how many downloads are possible off that link. I think it's a 7 limit, but I'm not sure. If it doesn't work for someone, let me know and I can reload it.
Excuse the indulgence at 12 minutes, but when the groove hits you, you have to keep going. And when there's no vocalist around, I'll take what I can get! We are still looking for a vocalist for our RF tribute, and have been auditioning every week with no success. Last night we didn't have any auditions, so we got to open up a bit more and jam. I also have some good versions of Rugged road and 'strong will to live' that I can post for download if anyone is interested. We are still intent on gigging within the next two months. Only thing that is holding us up is finding a vocalist that is sane, doesn't have pitch problems, or is influenced by Avril Lavigne. I never thought it would be this much work to find one, but the Vancouver music scene is fairly desolate.
Last edited by spatzi on Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:02 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 646 Location: City of Trees, USA
Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2006 10:06 pm Post subject:
Spatzi: Thanks for posting the recording. Always fun to actually hear what folks on this BBS are up to. And I figure that even seasoned pros are a bit anxious about posting their work to this group.
Now for some thoughts, but with these caveats: I'm a professional listener and club hound, not a professional musician. I don't get too worked up about the technical stuff ("pedals? .... we don't need no stinkin' pedals ..."). What I find myself thinking about is, "How would this go over if I took some of my non-musical friends down to the club to hear this?"
So first off, nice sounds, and nice energy. But yes, it is a bit indulgent. It would hold interest better if you went with a little "less is more" action. E.g., of all of the bassists who've played with Robben, my favorite is Dewayne Pate. More than any of the others, to my mind he holds down the tighest groove. The strongest foundation for Robben, and whoever else is with him, whether drums, keyboards, reeds, whatever. Your own playing will stand out better if your bass player works a more basic bottom-end rhythm, instead of trying to either compete, or keep up, with you. (And the bass will sound better, too.) With the drums, a bit of a mix would work better, e.g., simpler backbeat behind you while you're filling the measures with notes, and then more complicated fills when you're letting chords or legato notes play out.
I'm about to offend every John Coltrane fan on this BBS, but some of 'Trane's later-in-life ensemble stuff (notwithstanding that he had aboard geniuses such as Eric Dolphy and Archie Shepp) sounded like the musical equivalent of giving every guy on the offensive side of the football team his own ball, and having each run like heck, all over the place. Lots of action, yes. Interesting teamwork, no. The lesson for a "power trio" such as yours: Work on trading the energy back and forth, much like the call-and-response in traditional Gospel and blues music.
Working on the "less is more" will help keep the overall beat rock-steady as well. Listners can really get into long jams, but only if the backbeat stays absolutely consistent. As happens a few times in your 12 minutes, once in a while the pooling of energy causes the beat to stutter forward or backward a bit. In a club situation, that risks breaking the trance (and giving the listener a submlinal excuse to stop grooving on the music, and think more about that next drink order). A great example of how to keep that groove with the most simple of instrumentation is the "trance blues" stuff that Otis Taylor does. And it works.
In reading the above, keep in mind that I'm one of those people who just gets bored by the constantly gushing reviews in magazines like Blues Revue, and I much prefer the sort of shotgun scathing criticism found in review magazines such as Jazz Times. But then I understand that even the music that a Jazz Times reviewer pans is still great music.
As for vocalists: Watch out that you're not posting audition notices in places where all of the Avril Lavigne wannabes hang out. (But hey! Avril's OK. She plays a Tele.) Try getting word out to church choirs. That's where folks like Aretha Franklin started (and Rory Block still goes to hone her vocal chops).
Keep up the reports. It's great to keep track of your progress. Photos would be fun, too. I'm still wondering with the RF Tribute. Are you thinking Bay Area Workingman Blues Bar look, like Robben with his brothers, or more like the make-up, bared-chest, silk-shirt "Tiger Walk" look. _________________ - BlueRunner
Joined: 15 Aug 2003 Posts: 234 Location: Hartlepool, U.K.
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 4:51 am Post subject:
Loved it - great energy and some good ideas in there. The zendrive sounds very Robbenesque. There was quite a change from the overdriven to the clean sound - never heard a Parker before, but I liked what I heard. Keep up the good work! _________________ "Creativeness often consists of merely turning up what is already there. Did you know that right and left shoes were only thought up a little more than a century ago?" - Bernice Fitz-Gibbon 1894-1982
Posted: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:48 am Post subject: Great
Hi, thanks for posting . No problem downloading. once i played a parker , you said your amp is a traynor so i did a search it seems these are old amps ? am i wrong ? What kind of one is yours. Waiting for a Zendrive too, i am very pleased by all the colors you've been through. From the "Robben growl" to almost a fuzzy violin tone. Like another member says : "the zendrive worthes the patience". Thanks for sharing this intimate moment with us ; i like very much the garage band concept , no kidding......
After 6.20 till the end do you switch the Zen again or it's just the killer sound of your amp.
And a great hat off Bluerunner . Thank for the very Constructive and accurate review of this jam. I bet i can apply your counceling to me as well and it will reward.
I liked it. Some excellent playing, a great tone and it sounded very Robben Ford like. At 12 minutes, it does go on a bit put then it is a jam. Well played
I used to own a Parker and it never sounded like that (but then neither did my playing).
Thanks for your input guys. Yes, the jam is too long, but I was just so excited to finally have my Parker back after I had been waiting two months while they replaced my original one that was faulty. And we have had a series of very short sessions just auditioning vocalists, so the last few weeks I haven't had the chance to stretch out on anything. I was ready to pop on this session. It's a real battle between keeping the vocalist happy and keeping yourself (as a player) happy. There is always going to be someone who is standing around bored if you're not careful.
It's so easy to play this guitar, you just want to keep going. Things that took a lot more effort on the loaner I was using (Parker Nitefly) were suddenly effortless again. Once we have a vocalist, that song will be no more than 6-7 minutes and the end jam no more than a 1-2 minutes. At first, I used a wah (on my POD XT live) on that 'busted up' track, but this was the first time I just used the zen alone. I think it will work fine that way. I am finding more and more that the zen and the amp is enough. The hardest thing to get right with this material is the tempo. It's very easy to play the songs too fast, especially when the vocalist is not around. Rugged road, which I will post soon, always speeds up during the solo section, and we have to work on that. Same problem with 'Think twice', 'Don't let me be misunderstood.' I also find that overpracticing the songs is not good. The best takes, at least on the 'loose' material, are always the first one or two. Even though there are screwups, I prefer them to the overpolished material. So, yes, sometimes the energy is abundant, especially when the song is fresh, and we haven't played it to death.
A few more tracks from that same jam coming up. Next is 'Strong will to live' and Rugged road. I nicked the Ford solos because I really like them. Please keep in mind that we've only been playing with this drummer for a couple weeks, and he's just getting familiar with the songs. Last time, he said "You know, I noticed we seem to be doing a lot of RF. We should play other songs or we might become known as an RF cover band." Me and the bass player said "That was the whole point. Not that anyone is going to care if we are one or not. Very few people are going to recognize Ford material anyway." We used to rehearse in a bigger basement, and I have to say being in this small, 15X12 padded garage has done wonders for the recording quality. Not bad considering it's only one Sony ECM MS907 condenser mic with a 1/8 plug. I can't wait until the drummer uses his 'real' kit. He actually doesn't like the one he's using on these songs, but until his insurance covers his expensive kit, he's not moving it into the garage. 'Real' sound mixing using mics for the bass and guitar and vocals will happen once we get the vocalist. We've got a couple good ones that are possibilities in the next couple weeks, so I can't wait to hear them. I will post vocals tracks soon as they're ready.
The amp is from 2002. The model is Traynor VCV 40. Very bright clean channel. It's overkill for my needs. A 30 watt would have been fine. I never have the volume at more than '2'. They get great reviews on Harmony central. That's why I bought it.
From 6:20 to 7:28, and 8:26 to 10:12 (on 'busted up') it's just the Parker and the amp on the clean channel, the zen is off. When the zen is on, the settings are Tone: 12 o'clock, Voice: 12 o'clock, Gain 5 o'clock, Volume 12 o'clock.
The Parker uses Seymour duncan jazz and JB pu's. The sound on this guitar is a lot hotter than on the nitefly that I used previously. That one had dimarzio's.
Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 646 Location: City of Trees, USA
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:16 pm Post subject:
A total hoot! (There went my lunch hour.)
I see that a band that got its start around this neighborhood, "Led Zepagain," is among the listings. Didn't see another from around here, though, the great "Dread Zeppelin," the Led Zep tribute band with the reggae beat.
The guy who does the Bing Crosby "White Christmas" thing looks like fun, but the folks I really, really want to hear are at http://www.jamesbondtributeband.co.uk/repertoire.html, "For Your Eyes Only" (shouldn't that be "For Your EARS Only"?), the UK-based band that does music from James Bond flicks.
Two questions, though:
1. Wasn't Robben's and his brothers' first band a "tribute" band? I.e., the band name was a tribute to their Dad, Charles Ford.
2. Re the banner sponsor: Isn't that the guy who markets that guitars that are a "tribute" to Gene Baker? ('Tho based on some on-line reviews of the guitars themselves, I can imagine Gene using Abraham Lincoln's great attributed quote about being tarred and feathered.)
Actually, I'm working on a tribute band that will combine the music of a well-known 60's San Francisco band that had hits such as "8:05" and "Hey Grandma" with some of the stage performance distinctions of which Jim Morrison was accused late in his career, and we're going to call the band ...
On second though, maybe I'm not going there. _________________ - BlueRunner
Just going instrumental has crossed my mind. The question is: who would hire us? I"m at the point of giving up on finding a vocalist. I knew Vancouver was lacking, but it's hilarious that we can't find ONE decent blues singer, regardless if we advertise that we have an upcoming paid gig!
That tribute page is a riot. I love 'Four fighters'. Huh? Does that band really deserve a tribute band? They should have called it 'Poo fighters'.
Can you imagine advertising as an RF tribute band on there. Everyone would be asking 'Who's that?' Call it 'Robben Fjord'.
I wish I could sing. Its work to play and sing, but at this point, I'd try it, because I'm sick of the amount of auditions we've had with no luck.
But if we're going to do the RF tribute as accurately as possible, image is also very important. This is how the band is going to look:
I had a hard time finding this incredibly beautiful shirt. Especially 3 for the entire band. I've already got my wig, slicked back with a pony tail. Add a little black stick for the missing tooth, and viola! THE ULTIMATE FORD TRIBUTE BAND!
Joined: 29 Jan 2004 Posts: 1504 Location: Methuen, MA
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:41 pm Post subject:
Not bad, spatzi!
But, it's all in the music. And especially, as you say, no one knows Robben Ford anyway, so why push the look? Get your audience hooked on the sound while just being yourself. You and the band will probably be more comfortable just concentrating on the tunes, and your audience won't be preoccupied with the props, just the music. And, as it all evolves, then so can the look. In my humble opinion, do the music first, then add the act later...
One of the most successful tribute bands here in the New England area is Beatlejuice, with Brad Delp, formerly from the band Boston. They just simply look as they are, but play the heck out of the Beatles' tunes...
Good luck!
And, did I read somewhere that you have a demo cd? I'd really love to have a copy!
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Spatzi: Thanks for posting the recording. Always fun to actually hear what folks on this BBS are up to. And I figure that even seasoned pros are a bit anxious about posting their work to this group.
