It must have been quite a productive evening, Last Night at Band Camp, as I was unable to hear the whole playback of the recorded session. My trip home from rehearsal space to my driveway is just under an hour. Lately, the recordings have been long over by the time I turn off my ignition. Granted, we are known to play takes without the tape rolling. And last night's recording included three takes of DRINK THAT WHISKEY QUICKLY.
But...
Last night was also the first night of the 2010-11 Winter Crappy Weather season, so there were a number of parts in my journey home that were slow going—it was more than an hour's ride home.
Must have been a productive evening...
~slatts
14 December 2010
23 November 2010
Last Night at Band Camp...
We got a little bit of a late start seeing as we seemed to have an important birthday to celebrate (who is this "bossman?").
We all picked songs we sang for our warm-up. And as we are preparing for the 2011 schedule with gigs ranging from an hour to four, we've begun to make our choices from some songs we haven't played in quite some time.
We started with Would Be Blue an original I wrote back in the Sweet Militia days—one that the Mittys have revisited with a funk-flavor. We did this one last week but I wanted to nail it as I'd like to use it in January at our gig at Snowzee's.
Next up was Sonia with Tear My Stillhouse Down. For a song we haven't visited in some time, this came out well.
Jericho was next with Paul on lead vocals. This is a song we kept on most if not all of our set lists for 2010—so, it came naturally.
Last was Sea of Heartbreak, another song in constant rotation during 2010—it was flawless. Jim on lead vocals, here.
Then we began the "new song" section of the rehearsal starting with our new take on Dylan's Don't Think Twice It's Alright via Mike Ness' (of Social Distortion) version. I can now officially say, we have moved from that version as an influence to one that is 100% Walter Mittys.
Then we did a take of Get Rhythm. We had prepared this for our October show at Snowzee's but ran out of time so didn't perform it. We're working on a new ending—which you may or may not get to hear next year.
We wrapped up the evening with a brand new song for Paul in the Big Joe Turner classic Flip, Flop and Fly—this song is going to be a "blues-rocker" if this early take is any indication—looking forward to fleshing this one out!
Well, that's it for Last Night at Band Camp...
We all picked songs we sang for our warm-up. And as we are preparing for the 2011 schedule with gigs ranging from an hour to four, we've begun to make our choices from some songs we haven't played in quite some time.
We started with Would Be Blue an original I wrote back in the Sweet Militia days—one that the Mittys have revisited with a funk-flavor. We did this one last week but I wanted to nail it as I'd like to use it in January at our gig at Snowzee's.
Next up was Sonia with Tear My Stillhouse Down. For a song we haven't visited in some time, this came out well.
Jericho was next with Paul on lead vocals. This is a song we kept on most if not all of our set lists for 2010—so, it came naturally.
Last was Sea of Heartbreak, another song in constant rotation during 2010—it was flawless. Jim on lead vocals, here.
Then we began the "new song" section of the rehearsal starting with our new take on Dylan's Don't Think Twice It's Alright via Mike Ness' (of Social Distortion) version. I can now officially say, we have moved from that version as an influence to one that is 100% Walter Mittys.
Then we did a take of Get Rhythm. We had prepared this for our October show at Snowzee's but ran out of time so didn't perform it. We're working on a new ending—which you may or may not get to hear next year.
We wrapped up the evening with a brand new song for Paul in the Big Joe Turner classic Flip, Flop and Fly—this song is going to be a "blues-rocker" if this early take is any indication—looking forward to fleshing this one out!
Well, that's it for Last Night at Band Camp...
04 November 2010
What was THAT???
Some weeks ago, we moved our recording mic to the other side of our rehearsal space—opposite side of my amp. And though the bass fills the room quite well "live," the recorded versions of late have thrown my guitar very low in the playback mix. As I use these recordings to "rehearse"—reviewing my part and how plays with the rhythm section—during the week, I've had to resort to maxing out my car radio with the bass setting at 6 (yeah, no 11 on this amp) and even this hardly works.
So, I was driving home last night reviewing the night's work. We had another recording snafu that put the output levels of the first half of the session at a very low overall volume. The warm-up songs of our versions of WILD NIGHTS and GET RHYTHM along with the two originals, FREE TABLE and 10 LITTLE INDISCREETS needed to be cranked to even be heard. This problem seemed to be fixed when we got to the first run throughs of our "new" songs DON'T THINK TWICE and Sonia's original DRINK THAT WHISKEY QUICKLY.
Still, the bass was in that "buried" spot on the playback.
But suddenly, my iPod moved to the next track and BLASTING out my CRV's speakers was the heaviest of low E to G - A riffs imaginable! The BOOM nearly shook my little car off the interstate!
What was THAT!?!
Turns out a "somewhat old" recording was downloaded in the mix of recent rehearsal takes. The Mittys were working their heavy-blues-groove stuff on a rearrangement of the classic Berry Gordy tune, MONEY. It was wild! One take had Jim playing tremolo drenched guitar til the second solo when he switched to keys (the first solo in the rough arrangement was a sax solo "played" by drummer Paul in a "wah, wah, wah" scat on the mic). I mean, these two takes were out-of-the-vault as one had former Mitty, Laura Jacques singing back-up (she quit the band over two years ago).
So, that was THAT.
~slatts
So, I was driving home last night reviewing the night's work. We had another recording snafu that put the output levels of the first half of the session at a very low overall volume. The warm-up songs of our versions of WILD NIGHTS and GET RHYTHM along with the two originals, FREE TABLE and 10 LITTLE INDISCREETS needed to be cranked to even be heard. This problem seemed to be fixed when we got to the first run throughs of our "new" songs DON'T THINK TWICE and Sonia's original DRINK THAT WHISKEY QUICKLY.
Still, the bass was in that "buried" spot on the playback.
But suddenly, my iPod moved to the next track and BLASTING out my CRV's speakers was the heaviest of low E to G - A riffs imaginable! The BOOM nearly shook my little car off the interstate!
What was THAT!?!
Turns out a "somewhat old" recording was downloaded in the mix of recent rehearsal takes. The Mittys were working their heavy-blues-groove stuff on a rearrangement of the classic Berry Gordy tune, MONEY. It was wild! One take had Jim playing tremolo drenched guitar til the second solo when he switched to keys (the first solo in the rough arrangement was a sax solo "played" by drummer Paul in a "wah, wah, wah" scat on the mic). I mean, these two takes were out-of-the-vault as one had former Mitty, Laura Jacques singing back-up (she quit the band over two years ago).
So, that was THAT.
~slatts
23 September 2010
"It's been a LONG time!..."
Last time I entered a posting here, we were preparing for our debut at SNOWZEE'S! That went quite well and now we're prepping for our return engagement on October 15th.
In between that time, we played a "live on the lawn" show at Gallery 38 in Turners Falls and "other outdoor show"—ARTSfest in Northfield, MA. Both shows, too went quite well! The former—our first outdoor gig where we had to be our own sound crew and the latter—our first show with a substitute palyer—drummer, A.J. Lapinski.
Like I said, both shows rocked—we were quite pleased.
But I wanted to post about something more than just an update.
Last night at Band Camp, we worked on two new original songs to debut are our next show at SNOWZEE'S. And listening to the play back this morning, I could help but think of the days of 45 rpm records. If we were a band back then, we would take Sonia's groovy-blues-based song, "FREE TABLE" and record it as our A side. My straight-ahead "old rock n' roll" ode to "TEN LITTLE INDISCREET LOVERS" would serve as the B side.
Well, such was my little daydream on the way into work...
Maybe you should come check 'em out on Friday October 15th, yes?
In between that time, we played a "live on the lawn" show at Gallery 38 in Turners Falls and "other outdoor show"—ARTSfest in Northfield, MA. Both shows, too went quite well! The former—our first outdoor gig where we had to be our own sound crew and the latter—our first show with a substitute palyer—drummer, A.J. Lapinski.
Like I said, both shows rocked—we were quite pleased.
But I wanted to post about something more than just an update.
Last night at Band Camp, we worked on two new original songs to debut are our next show at SNOWZEE'S. And listening to the play back this morning, I could help but think of the days of 45 rpm records. If we were a band back then, we would take Sonia's groovy-blues-based song, "FREE TABLE" and record it as our A side. My straight-ahead "old rock n' roll" ode to "TEN LITTLE INDISCREET LOVERS" would serve as the B side.
Well, such was my little daydream on the way into work...
Maybe you should come check 'em out on Friday October 15th, yes?
24 June 2010
"I've got nothing to say—but it's OK..."
And so, if I don't see you tomorrow at the show—catch you next time in cyberspace.
23 June 2010
They drew a small crowd...
Well, actually—I did.
At Monday's "dress rehearsal" during one of the instrument changes—when Sonia put down her guitar and picked up her sax and Jim, his accordion for the piano—I made a small joke about 'the game' that is facebook's Invitations to Events, saying "We have five confirmed "Will Attend" guests—but two of them are band members."
Later in the evening, during a similar pause, I went up to the dry-erase board that hangs from a brick pillar a couple feet in front of my microphone and I scribbled three stick people with cheering smiles—one with his hands in the air.
"There!" I exclaimed, "Our audience!"
At Monday's "dress rehearsal" during one of the instrument changes—when Sonia put down her guitar and picked up her sax and Jim, his accordion for the piano—I made a small joke about 'the game' that is facebook's Invitations to Events, saying "We have five confirmed "Will Attend" guests—but two of them are band members."
Later in the evening, during a similar pause, I went up to the dry-erase board that hangs from a brick pillar a couple feet in front of my microphone and I scribbled three stick people with cheering smiles—one with his hands in the air.
"There!" I exclaimed, "Our audience!"
22 June 2010
I'd say the van is packed...
...only, the van is gone. The CRV and RAV4 will have to do.
And they did.
Good thing there's a house PA.
So, now the COUNTDOWN is purely logistical. That and any personal preparation the members of the Walter Mittys must conduct before our debut this Friday at Snowzee's.
See you there!
And they did.
Good thing there's a house PA.
So, now the COUNTDOWN is purely logistical. That and any personal preparation the members of the Walter Mittys must conduct before our debut this Friday at Snowzee's.
See you there!
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