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| Gettin' Stuff Done August 26th, 2005 -- I realized a few years ago that in order to ever get anything done, I'd have to do two things: 1. Have goals of things I want to get done. 2. Do things to accomplish those goals. Number one I've known for a while, but number 2, as obvious as it seems, kind of eluded me for about 26 years. It wasn't long after I discovered number two that I started this band. Why did I start the band? One reason was because I thought it would be fun (goal #1 -- have fun). It is fun, and I enjoy it, so mission accomplished on that one. Two, I thought it would be a nice creative outlet (#2). It has been, although the creativity has been more work than I thought it would. What I mean by that is, I kind of thought that I would come up with some basic ideas, and they would magically form into well-developed and perfectly played songs. It's not quite so easy as that, especially when you've had five drummers and two different bass players. We're finally completely and totally in a groove now on that front, and we have a great band that does a great job of playing the music. Three, I wanted to go out and play some live shows (#3). Ok, so on that front we haven't done so well. By my calculations, this particular collection of musicians has never played in front of a crowd larger than, oh, one person (on TWO different occasions, though!) So, in order to accomplish this goal, I have to actually do something. And that something is for me to start the "Great Gig Search of '05", beginning this week. I've previously said that we would play pretty much anywhere, but I'm now refining that, in order to adhere to goal #1. First, it has to be for people that want to listen to music. So, this wipes out playing at restaurants, nasty bars, picnics, corporate events, and church gatherings. Two, it has to be for people that want to hear original music. This wipes out nice bars, weddings, frat parties, and a good number of outdoor city festivals (to be considered for Fall for Greenville, you have to be able to play for two hours straight, so a lot of "original bands" do their forty minutes of music, then fill up the rest of their 80 minutes with extended versions of Mary Jane's Last Dance and All Along the Watchtower.) So, what does that leave? Um, not much. Art bars, open minded-coffee shops, and the random show that someone throws in their church's youth room. Right now, I have a few prospects, but I'm sure you guys out there have a lot more. If you do, let me know, and we'll get something set up. ************************** In other band news, we're finally getting those tattoos done. The main concept is this one, or a slightly different version here, or Cliff's late entry here. Whichever one wins, it should be available at our next show. Which, by the by, you can view the details of right here Keith |
| See That Rug? I'm Gon' Go Cut It. August 19th, 2005 -- One of my pet peeves when I go out and see a band is when the lead singer tries desperately to get people to dance by saying "feel free to come down front and move around a little," or "these songs are meant to get you to shake yer booty," or, my personal favorite, since it insults the audience members, "aren't you guys allowed to dance around here?" As for me, I haven't been in a lot of bands that played music that was conducive to dancing, but I have to admit that it's pretty cool when people do dance. Actually I used to think that The Number of People Dancing = How Good the Band Is The more dancers, the better the band. Then I went and saw a band that was fronted by a guy I knew from high school, and they were awful. They're probably better today, and it wasn't that they weren't tight, they were just completely terrible from an artistic standpoint. However, everyone was dancing like the world was ending at midnight. Also, the first time I saw Phish was back when they were more of a prog-rock technical nerd band, and there were people dancing like crazy at that concert, too. So, I came up with a new formula. Quality of Band + Amount of Alcohol or Other Mind-Altering Substances Taken by Audience Members = Number of People Dancing You could also factor in age, the familiarity that people have with the songs, etc., but . . . I no good at mathy stuff. But, having played in front of a few audiences that had quite a number of dancers, it's an awesome experience. It's awesome to have someone really getting into it when they're hearing a song that you wrote. As a musician you want have an effect on people, and sometimes you don't care what the effect is. If I were a member of Limp Bizkit, I would probably, in the deepest and darkest corners of my mind, think it was pretty cool that people started rioting and some people nearly died during my set at Woodstock. The worst feeling is when you play to a crowd that looks at you with expressionless, bored faces. Actually, the worst feeling is when you are about to start a set and you see a bunch of happy, excited people, and as soon as you start playing they start looking sad. But, I'm old enough now that I realize that people can enjoy music but not necessarily express it on their faces. I know because I do it, too. Maybe I'm just repressed or something, but I haven't danced at a concert in a good long while, and I don't think it's a big deal. I enjoyed dancing back when I did it, but I got to a point where I enjoyed listening to music more, and at a concert, that's just what I do. So, when you come to our concerts, I won't take it personally if you don't dance. I don't know if our music is danceable or not, but I do hope that it affects you in some way. Just don't kill anyone. Keith |
| Vaudeville August 11th, 2005 -- I remember back in the Summer of '98 watching Hopesfall play at the Cornerstone fest up in Illinois. It was their original lineup (only one guy from that lineup still remains), and the music scene was still on the tail end of grunge and nu-metal was really the hot thing. There were a few old school metal bands around, mostly holdovers from the eighties, and the rest were either mainstream pop bands like Sixpence None the Richer or punk bands. Hopesfall was different. They called their music geekcore, but it was really a kind of melodic metal that didn't have the driving rhythm that most metal had. But who cares about Hopesfall's music. I know I never did. What was cool was the show. Amongst a sea of bands where the members either made standard rock star motions or poserific rap poises, Hopesfall made random and crazy flailings seem cool. Guitar heads would go flying around in circles, and human heads often did the same. If a guitarist wasn't playing at a particular moment he would shake violently and rock his head quickly up and down. One of the most popular moves was to stand on tiptoes, then slowly start to fall down at just the right musical moment and then slam down his feet when the music came crashing back to life. It was great. Once. Last night I was away from our house and I had access to cable. I mostly switched between the three music channels and G4. I noticed that every band is now a Hopesfall band. Lots of breaks where a guitarist jumps up in the air, landing right as the chorus starts. Lots of screaming, but not the practiced screaming of hardcore, just the really loud yelling part. Lots of strained faces, lots of intense looks, lots of drop D playing with high singing, catch phrases, and completely and utterly forgettable music. After a while I realized that this is simply rock 'n roll's vaudeville. The spectacle is not the big hair, the tattoos, the crazy sets, the lighting, it's the show by the physical performers. They dance, they jump, they make funny faces, they wear funny costumes, etc. Oh yeah, they also write and perform music. But that's not important, is it? I'm glad I came through classical music and pop music at the same time. I kind of feel like Frank Zappa in a way, because the music I want to write is more complicated than pop music, but it's too simple and rooted in folk art for classical music. The music that we've recorded thus far is absolutely the simplest music we're likely ever to do. Everything I've written since then has gotten more and more complicated, and I'm going to keep challenging us further and further until we get to the point where we can't pull it off live anymore. Hopefully this doesn't make us boring to watch. Maybe it will, but I'm a musician, not a dancer. Maybe when/if we start making some money I can hire some go go dancers to spice it up a bit. Otherwise you're going to have to be entertained by us playing complicated music that tests the upper limits of our ability as musicians, and watching us holding on by the seat of our pants. Should be fun. ******************* In website news, I updated the music page, making it mostly about the good ol' toggle switch techno. I also added that little header and disclaimer up above. Since we're still a relatively new band, I have to make it clear to people that we actually are a band and not some toy-mouse-lover's weblog. We've got a show in the works right now, and I'll send out an email when it gets a little more solidified. Also, I finally set up the website for my guitar lessons, keithgroover.com. Have a great week, peeps. Keith |
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Write Keith at keith@thewind-ups.com |
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