Nate Dort wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:55 am

Isaac wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:02 am
1. Band practice. Jamming, prepared songs, whatever. It's the best part about being in bands.

I've always wondered how the mega-famous bands handle this part. Does U2 or the Stones still get together and jam, or is just a scheduled 2-day blow-the-cobwebs-off practice sesh right before they head out on tour?

I recently watched a documentary on Blur as they were preparing for one of their latest tours. They all went to a country house (a very big house in the country) and spent several days living there together and rehearsing. The doc was interesting because it showed how each of them has their own vices to cope with it. At times they all seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but other times seemed extremely tedious and work-like.

Based on what I recall, they hadn't seen each other in a while, i.e., they don't rehearse or hang out together unless there is a specific need to do so.

jfv wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 9:42 am

Shananiganz wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 4:11 am What do you try to get out of playing music? Like, how do you view the creative process? Or is it interchangeable with playing badminton?

17-year-old me wanted to be in a band and even more so wanted to make ALBUMS. Like I would make imaginary album jackets with song titles and liner notes.

But albums require songs.

Songs require music and lyrics (though plenty of others have done so, I never considered just being in an instrumental band).

While I lamented previously about not feeling like I could write unique or interesting music/instrument parts, that wasn't really the hard part. It was the lyrics.

Fucking lyrics.

I had a real problem with them. Even when I was at my most prolific songwriting-wise, 98% of the lyrics I wrote ended up getting thrown out, usually including the music that went along with them. And I'm still not all that happy with the 2% that made it through.

I got tired of dealing with my stupid self after 8-10 years and just stopped trying to write.

I still had fun playing music in front of friends and family, though, and didn't have all that much trouble transcribing/learning other peoples' songs, which is one of the main reasons we morphed into a covers band.

Anyway, years later, I've lost a lot of the desire for this. It's much easier to enjoy the process vicariously through others that are better at it than me.

At one point I wrote about 60 % of our lyrics. Now I can'y write my fucking name and I've actually earned my living writing stuff.
I find it harder to write in Finnish than in English (for non-English audience, I guess). You can rely on rock'n'roll dada where in Finnish it all sounds super phony.

And yeah. We've been trying to make an instrumental band happen and it's HARD. Lyrics give structure, you justify certain choices with lyrics.

We were just lamenting how internet has killed gig posters and album art (and lately even music videos). All the nice extra stuff you could bother yourself with, to give your band a little more color.
Sure you can and maybe should do it still, but it's some how more futile. Although it's all futile, in broader sense. It's just stuff that make life nice.

I got super lucky on Craigslist finding the guys who have now been a part of the band since 2021. Well, eventually lucky. Finding a bassist was definitely easier—I had mentioned Sloan in my initial posting and he replied with a spiel about how he had interviewed them before they played Buffalo on the Navy Blues tour, and after our first practice (acoustics at a nearby park) it turned out we had quite a few mutual online friends, a few I met from this very forum. Drummer took a little while longer, but eventually found our guy a few Craigslist reposts later. It’s funny, there’s a 10-year age difference both ways from me to my bassist (older) and my drummer (younger). One of the first things my bassist had said at our first practice was “I could be your dad.” Thankfully, our personalities for the most part clicked.

From there we practiced once a week at local hourly practice spaces—what few of them there are in town—until we were able to start rehearsing at my drummer’s place. He moved house and we practiced at his new place again until his girlfriend gave birth to their kid. We started back up this month at a shared practice space with two other bands we know.

We recorded our first EP as a band with GSE in Oakland a few years ago. Went with someone more local for our latest batch of material (also happens to be the lead guy for the pop-punk band my drummer also plays in). Same studio that Cake and Deftones recorded their earlier albums in, apparently.

Anyhow I’m looking forward to playing shows again in the near future. If we do like one or two a month I’ll be happy. We’re releasing our next batch of songs in singles before putting the whole album out in October, but we want to have CDs and Bandcamp download codes available at shows for those interested. All of us know this band isn’t gonna be our day job anytime soon, and ultimately I just want people to hear what we put out and to play this music for other people.

jfv wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 9:52 am I recently watched a documentary on Blur as they were preparing for one of their latest tours. They all went to a country house (a very big house in the country) and spent several days living there together and rehearsing. The doc was interesting because it showed how each of them has their own vices to cope with it. At times they all seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but other times seemed extremely tedious and work-like.

Based on what I recall, they hadn't seen each other in a while, i.e., they don't rehearse or hang out together unless there is a specific need to do so.

I’ll have to see if I can track that down, I definitely enjoyed the other documentaries from them about their post-2009 tours. Everyone in the band tends to have their Own Thing going so Blur is something they have to plan out a good chunk of time and commitment for. I was very glad to see them last year.

(That said, their latest album was fucking mid. Just a near complete letdown from head to toe, especially when their other reunion album from 2015 was actually really good!)

defendyachtrock wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 12:05 pm

jfv wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 9:52 am I recently watched a documentary on Blur as they were preparing for one of their latest tours. They all went to a country house (a very big house in the country) and spent several days living there together and rehearsing. The doc was interesting because it showed how each of them has their own vices to cope with it. At times they all seemed to genuinely enjoy it, but other times seemed extremely tedious and work-like.

Based on what I recall, they hadn't seen each other in a while, i.e., they don't rehearse or hang out together unless there is a specific need to do so.

I’ll have to see if I can track that down, I definitely enjoyed the other documentaries from them about their post-2009 tours. Everyone in the band tends to have their Own Thing going so Blur is something they have to plan out a good chunk of time and commitment for. I was very glad to see them last year.

(That said, their latest album was fucking mid. Just a near complete letdown from head to toe, especially when their other reunion album from 2015 was actually really good!)

This is the trailer for it. Another “this was the best thing available to watch on a plane” moment:



Have never seen them live. It’d be nice but not quite on bucket list.

Agree about the last album. It’s okay. I want maximum guitar playing from Coxon, and at this point his solo stuff is the best way to get it.

If it weren’t for playing in bands, I doubt I’d get out of the house much. I usually have 3 bands going at any given time, all with different sounds and social dynamics. Currently, it’s The Gary, Weird Weather, and Baby Robots.

I wish we could tour, but it seems to get harder to do the older we get. The days of sleeping on floors are a thing of the past, and none of the bands I’m in draw enough to tour comfortably, which would be high priority for band members with health issues. I don’t feel the pull to crank out albums like I once did. I enjoy practicing and playing shows. Hanging out with friends. Ducking into the studio every now and then. That’s band life.

Dave N. wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 5:24 pm If it weren’t for playing in bands, I doubt I’d get out of the house much. I usually have 3 bands going at any given time, all with different sounds and social dynamics. Currently, it’s The Gary, Weird Weather, and Baby Robots.

I wish we could tour, but it seems to get harder to do the older we get. The days of sleeping on floors are a thing of the past, and none of the bands I’m in draw enough to tour comfortably, which would be high priority for band members with health issues. I don’t feel the pull to crank out albums like I once did. I enjoy practicing and playing shows. Hanging out with friends. Ducking into the studio every now and then. That’s band life.

If the world was fair The Gary would draw considerable crowds. Not huge because fuck people, but you know, big enough to make a decent living. It's down right silly it isn't so.

November 2019 I found a couple uncashed checks in my glove compartment (previous months were kind of hectic due to a bad breakup and I think I stashed ‘em for safe keeping and forgot lol). Anyway it added up to a few grand and I bought a modular synthesizer on impulse kinda. It was a Make Noise Shared system FWIW. I had moved into a 4th floor walk-up apartment so there was no chance I could play guitar or even haul my big ass amps up there. The modular had a headphone output. The first thing I did with my new toy was to try and follow a YouTube video to create a patch. I failed hard. The noise coming out of that contraption sounded nothing like the video. But, it sounded cool. Lockdown hit and I was stuck all alone in a tiny apartment with this…thing. I had nothing better to do than fuck around and plug patch cables and tweak knobs.

Flash forward and now I have a whole room full of boxes, pedals and gizmos. Every once in a while I’ll string some of this crap together and see what happens. Expensive hobby. I started posting some of these trial-and-errors on Instagram. Created a separate account. Most of my rock friends and personal friends just seem to scroll on by and write me off as bleep bloop crap but my account actually has somehow amassed around 2500 followers.

I keep threatening to make some kind of record but I struggle to find a concept that doesn’t get boring after 120 seconds…

Currently I find myself only playing in two bands: Service, where I'm on bass, and Live Knives, in which I'm on guitar and writing all of the songs besides lyrics. The latter was a long time in the making. The last band in which I played guitar, Dead Halos, kind of dissolved when I moved from Louisville, KY to Kenosha, WI in 2016. In the year or so leading up to my moving back to the Louisville area, I was playing a lot of guitar again and writing a ton of songs, which ramped up even more once I did finally make it back home at the end of 2022. I assembled a group of people, most of whom I had played with in some capacity before other than the vocalist, who was simply a good friend. One night we met up at a karaoke bar and I saw her do a stellar rendition of "Kick Out the Jams." That's all it took. Started working on stuff, went through a few lineup changes and periods of inactivity while searching for the right new people, until finally settling on the current lineup which just played our first show about three weeks ago. It felt pretty fucking great and I'm looking forward to continuing with this project as long as possible, though I admittedly don't have many goals in mind for the band beyond practicing once every week, making at least one record and playing locally/regionally. No "get in the van" shit happening here. Whereas with Service, we have a 10 day summer tour coming up, with plans to record a new album (their second and the first to feature the current lineup) and hit the road again later in the year. There's been talk of Europe in the not too distant future and, as someone who has never been overseas, I'm pretty excited about that prospect. Really though, I'm simply enjoying making and playing music that I enjoy with friends who I like hanging with, and seeing what cool adventures lie ahead. I feel like I'm in a good spot and, overall, pretty musically satisfied.

At one not-so-long-ago point in my life I was actively playing in five bands. That will never happen again as long as I live.

Isaac wrote: Sat Mar 29, 2025 8:02 am I enjoy playing in bands and do it whenever I can.

The heirarchy of what I enjoy about being in a band:

1. Band practice. Jamming, prepared songs, whatever. It's the best part about being in bands.

2. Talking about and then eating food with bandmates.

3. Recording music. A constant give-and-take, absolutely crucial collaboration necessary, you HAVE to listen to each other, all of that. I genuinely enjoy that, even when my own wants/needs get shoved to the back of the line in lieu of something that was either arrived at by consensus, or goddamnit, you were right, that part does fit.

4. Talking shit.

5. Playing shows would be the very last thing I like about being in bands. I get why Steely Dan quit doing it after they got rich.

Practice rules. I have always loved it. I would probably still be in bands if it was only practice.

Then, for me, recording (which often happens at practice), then shows, then the hangs.