Back on Track

Apologies!  It has been two months since my last post. You may think there has been nothing to post, but you would be wrong.  WRONG!  "Wasteland Radio," "Slugger Field," "Down Again" are three amazing songs that have been written and slammed out in the past few months.  We played Local Live on WFHB, if you missed it, you can soon download it as part of their podcast series.  We played Phoenix Hill Tavern and will soon have some videos up from that, so be on the look out.

We are in the process of writing for our next project, and you will be able to stay close to us through the project with videos.

We will be taking band photos in the coming weeks, so get ready to drool.

There will be pictures and videos soon!

Rehearsal.

Our drummer, AJ, describes rehearsal as a fancy meal.  There is the appetizer, or as he calls it "pre-food" (Classy),  The main course, and dessert.  This is a great way to think about practice.  Start with something light; something that will give you a taste for the evening.  Then comes the work.  The main course is where you will spend most of your time, cutting the steak, chewing, cutting, chewing.  Once the main course is done, and you are stuffed, and you don't think you can take anymore...you magically find room for dessert.  (You always do.)

If I had to list my musical meal, I would go with "Sweet Life" for an appetizer.  It's light, fun, not terribly challenging, and its a great warmup.

For the main course, I would say some covers like "Cherry Bomb" or "6th Avenue Heartache" and originals like "Everything's Different" and "Hear Me Tonight."  They are fun, but they also require effort.  Remember words, remember harmonies, remember all the chord changes.  The solos I get to play are tricky, and I like trying new things.

Dessert would have to be "Riders."  It is 100% rock and roll.  It is loud fast and a blast live.

Our rehearsals are fun, but productive, as anything should be.  We discuss future shows, any opportunities, new covers, new originals, tell jokes, make fun of each other, and at the end of the day the band is tighter than when we started.

Next: Booking shows.

The Flow Of A Show

Like Rob Gordon says in High Fidelity:  "The making of a great compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don't wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules."

When you play for 3 hours, timing and sequencing are everything.  Acts like Bruce Springsteen, Phish and Pink Floyd are masters of their craft, the Flow.  Springsteen uses the spiritual power of rock 'n' roll, Phish uses the power of the unknown in a jam (read: drugs), and Pink Floyd tell stories, but it all comes down to a few things.


The live show is the same.  Pull them in, then keep them near climax until the finale.  Sounds like sex?  You're a perv.  Head out of the gutter, please.  Get them on your side, then toy with them.  Play two fast numbers, then when their eyes are open wide, hit the breaks.  Play something in 12/8 and get the asses on the dance floor.  Let the band vamp while the singer talks about how much he wants his baby back.  "Oh darling, you hurt me so bad.  I'm comin' to you, crawlin' on my knees, baby. All the men out there know what it's like, and all the women have heard it one hundred times..."

See when the audience is getting restless, hit them with something well known; "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" or "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"  Something they can all sing and swing their beers to.

Also, know something from every genre.  If a drunk yells out, "Play something country!" and you can do it at the drop of a hat, you have won that drunk's favor and maybe even a few bucks from him.  Know at least one country tune, maybe "Stand By Your Man."  Know one blues tune, or at least something bluesy, like "Cocaine."

If you've got a good frontman, he'll work his ass off to sell the song, which always helps:




Next time: Rehearsal?

What Makes A Good Show?

902s CD Release show

When you are a gigging band, some things are laid out in front of us:

How long we will play, what we get paid, the typical audience.

Some things we just pick up on:

The audience that night, the stage, the scenery around us.

Its all subtle:

So we get in at a bar we've never played at before.  We  have an idea of the audience, we see old tin signs on the wall and a decent row of Harleys parked in the street.  Tonight we play loud.  We probably aren't being paid too much, but we can pass around the tip jar.  Some bar crowds can be very generous, others not so much.  Our job is to make them generous.  Gauge their reactions, go from there.  They liked our over of Dwight Yoakam?  We'd better play some Graham Parsons.  They liked our cover of Springsteen?  Better play some Mellencamp.  Your audience on that given night is more of an influence than anything else around you.  Always keep them in mind.

Next lesson:  The flow of the show.

One CD release down, one to go.

Saturday was our Louisville release show.  The fantastic Levee Bar and Grill was kind enough to host us once again for quite possibly our best show to date.  We fired up at 9.30, and didn't stop until damn near 11.  We stuck mostly to songs from our album, Cold Friday.  We threw in the covers we love playing, and the crowd was on our side the entire night.  We had so much fun we got back up and ripped through another hour of songs for the hell of it!


We can't thank our fans, friends, and family enough for supporting us the past 5 months as we have been putting this all together.

This Friday, Nov. 19th will be our Bloomington, IN CD release show at 902's.  We are very excited to bring our show to Bloomington with the full band, and 902's is the best venue we can think of to put that show on.  They have a great stage, lighting and sound setup, and it is an amazing venue for fans.  From the second floor balcony, feel free to stare down our low cut shirts, and from the main floor, feel free to stare up our short skirts.  The lovely and talented Kristy Brannon will be opening for us, so come and check out The Acquitted and Kristy Brannon for only $3.  For this show only, you can pick up Cold Friday for a cheap 7 bucks, so you'd be a fool not to buy three.

See you Friday night!

T-Minus Two weeks.

Nov. 13th. It can't come too soon. We have been working the much less fun side of the album now. Templates, files, typefaces, proofs. Thursday we shipped the album off to DiscMakers in New Jersey. We have approved the proofs, the images they send us verifying what we want. Now we wait...

We have it on good authority that we will have "Cold Friday" in our hands the 11th. Let's hope that is true.

The 13th is our release party in Jeffersonville, IN. The Levee will be hosting us, and we are grateful to them for all the help they have given us over the past year. We are very excited for everyone to hear what we've been working on for 3 months! Hope to see you there!

More Cover Art!

Piggybacking off of the cover art post, we had a photo shoot on Thursday. Boy god, someone is going to see us on our album somewhere. Brian and I again worked with Eric G. Hanus, and we had a great time. We shot at three different locations; we shot with and without guitars; we got something that might just be worthy of the back cover of Cold Friday. We have something like 600 shots to look through. One day at a time, we get closer to a release...