I mean totally by yourself, just looking for strangers?

I've wanted to do this for years but never had the balls to because although I'm confident I could play a guitar within a good band, I'm really not anything special on my own. Now I've been in a band* for a couple of years though, I feel like maybe it's time I tried it.

I really dont know what I'd put on an advert though. I'm thinking "People needed to form band" and a huge list of every band I like. That way anyone who plays any instrument might get in touch, and it's not bound by just a couple of influences.

Anyone ever done this? Any tips for what to put/not to put? Has it got you anywhere?



*the band I'm in is my uncle and 2 of his friends. There's not a single common influence between us. It sounds like Thurston Moore jamming with The Who. Very random.

Every ad I put up, I get calls from either 17-year old Limp Bizkit fans, or 45-year old Stevie Ray Vaughn fans.

On our last tour, we took a bassist with us who we thought understood that she'd be playing with us on a temporary basis. Halfway through the tour, she finally realized that she wouldn't be with us after the tour and got a little upset and very confused.

Upon returning home, I placed an ad in a local paper that read something like:

"Established local punk band needs bassist. Fugazi, Pixies, AC/DC, Karp, Venom, Joy Division. XXX-XXXX."

The day after the paper ran, I got a voice mail from a voice that sounded very, very familiar. "Yeah, I just read your ad, and I like to try out. The Pixies and Fugazi are my two favorite bands, so I think that I'd be a good fit. My name is XXX and my number is XXX-XXXX."

I nearly peed my pants laughing. I saw her at a bar a week later and told her about it. She said she realized who she was calling immediately after hanging up the phone. Very funny.

In the end, a friend asked to try out. We brought him on board, and everything's been swell for the last three months.

MORAL OF STORY: Ads are stupid. Ask your friends instead.

Have had the arse end of this stuff many times. Don't know if it's just a UK thing, but there is a long-running band (and more general) pretty common small ad thing to add 'No Timewasters Please' to any ad you put up.
The last 'band' thing I put up had 'Timewasters Positively Encouraged' which brought in, amongst some tossers, the finest selection of entertaining people I have ever met, some of whom are my friends still.

I would like to form a band right now.

Musicians wanted.
Influences: AC/DC, Girls Aloud
Timewasters welcomed with open arms.
Fuck yo' little bitch ass
Call XXX-XXXX.

everytime I put up an ad, I get the same 40 year old drummer Emailing me, I really am only looking for college ages kids, like myself, os it's ridiculous

pretty common small ad thing to add 'No Timewasters Please'

Yeah, I always thought that was pretty weird. Like I might phone them up and say "Sooooo..... you see Eastenders last night?"

yup. ads suck, but i've met with success on both ends of them. my first band in DC started with me responding to an ad that read something like "guitar player looking for bass, drums. blonde redhead, [some band from baltimore i never heard of], 90 day men." i got in touch, we talked, it was good. we played together once for like 2 hours, it went well. we ran a similar ad, looking for a bassist, in which i asked that we replace [some band from baltimore i never heard of] with polvo. he agreed. the guy who responded said he was a monster polvo fan. the guy who ran the first ad moved back home to canada. the bass player bought a house with a basement we could play in. we got a couple guitar players and a singer who we knew from an internet message forum *vaguely* similar to this one, based outta DC. i liked that band a lot.

so right there, i responded to an ad, ran an ad, and all worked out. we'll skip over the part where we ran an ad for a singer for a while and met with disastrous results, before finally determining that we were to build a fully automated robotic monkey that would act as our singer, while also brandishing a flail and flinging fake poo into the crowd. very shortly after that, the chick that was to become our singer said "i'll be your singer", and we said "okay".

my ex always used to run ads that mentioned Come. anybody that responded saying they loved Come was usually good for making some interesting music. i think the key with that is to throw out an amazing yet quasi-obscure band. people that bite on that may be winners.

either that or give no details whatsoever, but when people respond, ask them what their favorite bands are. that could be a tell as to what kinda music you might end up making. i.e. did they say Brainiac, or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones?

toomanyhelicopters wrote:yup. ads suck, but i've met with success on both ends of them. my first band in DC started with me responding to an ad that read something like "guitar player looking for bass, drums. blonde redhead, [some band from baltimore i never heard of], 90 day men." i got in touch, we talked, it was good. we played together once for like 2 hours, it went well. we ran a similar ad, looking for a bassist, in which i asked that we replace [some band from baltimore i never heard of] with polvo. he agreed. the guy who responded said he was a monster polvo fan. the guy who ran the first ad moved back home to canada. the bass player bought a house with a basement we could play in. we got a couple guitar players and a singer who we knew from an internet message forum *vaguely* similar to this one, based outta DC. i liked that band a lot.

so right there, i responded to an ad, ran an ad, and all worked out. we'll skip over the part where we ran an ad for a singer for a while and met with disastrous results, before finally determining that we were to build a fully automated robotic monkey that would act as our singer, while also brandishing a flail and flinging fake poo into the crowd. very shortly after that, the chick that was to become our singer said "i'll be your singer", and we said "okay".

my ex always used to run ads that mentioned Come. anybody that responded saying they loved Come was usually good for making some interesting music. i think the key with that is to throw out an amazing yet quasi-obscure band. people that bite on that may be winners.

either that or give no details whatsoever, but when people respond, ask them what their favorite bands are. that could be a tell as to what kinda music you might end up making. i.e. did they say Brainiac, or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones?

What band from Baltimore was it?
Great Unraveling?
Convocation Of...?
Universal Order Of Armageddon?
Kix?

yup, i was in a band for a few months with a drummer that was discovered via a placed ad. he's a top guy, and we still see each other every now and then even though the band has long gone. outstandingly loud drummer, too.

hey mr johnnyshape, i was fuckin serious about the drummer needed ad a few weeks ago. where the fuck are you? we're the sound of the underground. and most definitely love machines.

craigslist.com is the best place to put an ad, in my experience.

i do not like ads. i do like to play music, and prefer to do it with my friends, but my friends are not always disposed to play music with me as many of them have their own projects or are not musicians. who knows--maybe you'll make a new friend. maybe you'll meet a total nutball. in a best case scenario, he leaves his gear at your rehearsal space (even though he doesn't have a key) and you get to mess around with it.

if you know how to describe what you're doing musically, you might be able to find a stranger who works with you. more obscure influences usually weed out the weird elders (mentioning AC/DC, love 'em though you may, may serve only to attract creepy old bassists).