Putting the Band Together

After years of playing music I have discovered that there are some things in music that no amount of lessons or talent can prepare you for.  Pop culture would have us believe that anybody with a garage and a spunky group of musician friends can put together a band and instantly jump into the world of record deals, touring and screaming girls. This could not be farther from the truth. For every band that actually gets off the ground there are ten that blow up on the launch pad. Really the best movie example of the kind of turmoil that band goes through would be The Commitments or maybe  the far less serious This Is Spinal Tap.

I would venture to guess that the average lifespan of bands that I have been in would be about a month. The problem is that there are a huge amount of factors that need to line up for a band to have any sort of staying power. There have been days when I got together with a random group of friends and write three or four songs and have absolutely great band chemistry but never play together again. Then there are other times when I’ve played with bands for months with nothing holding us together outside of the prospects of playing at the House of Blues.

Currently I have been playing with the latter. Call me a sellout, but frankly one cannot make it in the biz without connections and the kids I’m playing with are very well connected. If I have to play some bubble gum Colbie Caillat and Bruno Mars in order to actually have a paying gig for once I’m going to take it. People don’t understand that in the music world opportunity doesn’t knock very often and you have to take it when you can.

The major problem with this group hasn’t had anything to do with the music. The true challenge has been that these kids have never been in a band before. In the music world this is a huge red flag because it means either they are really inexperienced or they simply just don’t play well with others. I found that if I didn’t keep them on track practices would devolve into jamming which normally I would be cool with but when you aren’t a fan of the music and you have limited time it’s a lot harder. It also doesn’t help that they live 20 miles away and until recently lacked a drum set (meaning that I had to pack a full kit into the back of my tiny Honda Civic).

The inexperience of this group has also brought out another challenge to maintaining a band. It has been almost impossible to keep the same musicians playing with the group. In order to have a functioning group there needs to be relatively regular practices and musicians are notoriously flakey (I’ve always said that a good musician is never on time). Thanks to this we have been through a multitude of drummers, pianists and guitarists who, in some cases, have just straight up disappeared. After a year I’ve managed to finally lock in the line-up through all nature of bribes, favors and other incentives.

And I haven’t even started talking about my musical bane of my existence: the diva. I’ll have to devote all of next week to that one. Needless to say this gig better pay off.

Coachella Part 2: the Good, the Bad and the Baked

It has been two weeks to the day since I attended this music festival and there is still so much left to say about it. Its continued occupation of my consciousness has proven inescapable. I have no choice but to continue babbling on about it before I resume the blog as usual.  After having my brain melted time and time again by the heat and the outstanding performances by Radiohead, Explosions in the Sky and so many more it’s no wonder I can’t stop. Last week I gave my favorites, but this week a want to talk a bit about the things that bothered me and continue to bother me about the festival.

So it has been a while since I talked about this, but as I said back when I started this blog is about standing up for downtrodden bassists. Unfortunately there was one very talented group at Coachella who felt it was wholly necessary that the crowd never see the bassist (or the keyboardist for that matter). Even many of the rap and solo acts (like actor turned rapper Childish Gambino) had the humility to share the spotlight with their supporting musicians. The duo of Dan Auerbach (guitar, vocals) and Patrick Carney (drums) seemed almost completely unaware of the two supporting musicians standing only 10 feet behind them. I mean it’s not like they have a 20 piece band or something.  A simple shout out to bassist Gus Seyffert and a bit more light do a world of good when it comes to respect on stage. The real kicker was some of the guys I was camping with sincerely thought that the Black Keys played without a bassist. In their defense they might have had a few too many chemicals in their systems and the Black Keys did I superb job of hiding their bandmates. This is exactly why this blog exists.

Another thing I observed at Coachella that I found a tad bit alarming was the younger audience’s attention span/concert manners. Now it may be true that many of the artists who played over the two weekends of Coachella were or are destined to be one-hit wonders many of them had much more to offer the audience than just that one hit song. Take for example the brilliant drummer turned songwriter Gotye. I’ve been listening to his music for a bit less than a year and his upside-down Australian musical sensibilities have thoroughly impressed me. It came as no surprise to me that his song “Somebody I Used to Know” took the American charts by storm a couple months ago.

He played probably one of the best sets overall of the entire festival and gathered at least half of the Sunday Coachella crowd. About three-quarters of the way into his set he played his big hit (he hardly even had to sing it thanks to the crowd). As soon as he finished this song about 70% of the crowd left. It really irked me that all people there got out of it was that one hit song. I don’t even understand how people can enjoy a show if they are only there for one song. It takes away from the whole experience especially since throughout the rest of the set (and the sets of pretty much every other group I saw) the folks around me felt it was a great idea to blow smoke in my face or sit on their phones ignoring the actual performance. Manners people.

I guess by going on 4/20 weekend I was kind of asking for some of this stuff to happen, but I have a feeling I wouldn’t have been so bothered if that damned sun would have stopped boiling by Nordic blood. Whatever the case I would totally do it again. I don’t mind if other people want to text or get plastered instead of listen to the music, just as long as they don’t get in my way and at least acknowledge the existence of bass players.