Nail Soup

Best gig: hhhmmm one of these three I reckon: The Magic Band (Post Beefheart) 2002 London Dahka Brahka Couple of years ago London Goat Couple of years ago London Worst: Hard to say but I'll go for Stump, late 80's I suppose. I assume the band played OK, but he soundman forgot to put an audible amount of guitar or bass into the mix

And try explaining this joke to the youngsters these days:

Not sure why, but thinking back to a episode in my music 'career'. A guy I worked with was a drummer, and we liked similar music, so we decided to do music together. After while we got chatting to another guy at work. He had image (and music taste) somewhere between rockabilly and Psychobilly. Turns out he had a decent enough singing voice, a A4 folder full of lyrics and seemed like would have been good on stage. Eventually it turned out that he didn't have a clue about music. He would join in anywhere in the bar, with the expectation that the rest of the band would fall in line. He made ridiculous suggestions about what the players should do (like not playing the D string on the bass). The drummer was a happy-go-lucky type who kind of laughed it off, but I quit. The band eventually ground to a halt - meanwhile I reunited with the drummer in parallel and we formed a decent originals band with my brother and an old uni mate of the drummer. Anyone got any stories of singers who don't know about music... even they had some other good qualities?

I used to like this band when they first emerged. They are Brazilian and sang (or rapped?) in the national language. Bonde do Rolê:

Oh no - this is going to kill your natural instincts and creativity ! Only joking - enjoy the lesson(s) 😀!

Agree with some of the comments about set length - I often see bands whose material I'm not familiar with. 45 mins is fine for that. If they are old faves, then I can go much longer. But then what is the mix of songs? Yes, as others have said, don't play the new album in full - takes time too love all the songs. But what to play from the back catalogue? If it's a festival or multi-band line up then OK, play your greatest hits. If it's your headline gig then give us a good bunch of album track faves in the mix.

For quite a few years the Fall never did a cover - which I used to like about them. Then they did one cover, and after that did loads. Good covers though!

OK, let’s talk support bands. Love: Discovering a great or just interesting new band who are playing support ( ok, you have to kiss a few frogs😃) Hate: People ignoring the support band.

True, and counting the number of repetitions before the ending stab gives my covers band serious brain pain too!

Hate: People who talk during the set.

About 80% of home practice is just unamplified instrument. The other 20%: Audio Interface > PC > DAW with amp sim and effects > headphones Nothing through speakers. The biggest problem with the above is that I don't therefore use the pedalboard, so sometimes a bit unrehearsed on which pedal to tread on and when etc. I only practice that at band rehearsals .

I'm feeling some kind of sympathetic trauma just hearing about that!

All the talk so far (I think) has been about covers. But I guess the same could apply to originals. If one band member writes a lyric, do the others get to comment or even veto? I'm not in an originals band, but do write lyrics for my own songs. If that transitioned to a band setting, I'd be happy to listen to occasional concerns about my lyrics. If there were concerns all the time then we are probably in the wrong band together!

I've been working on a song called "Autonomy" for the basschat composition challenge, and therefore listening to it's namesake by Buzzcocks. You know what? I reckon it's the best Buzzcocks song (and it was written by Diggle, not Shelley).

OK, here's this months composition. Inspiration was thinking about the puppet and how she may not want to be controlled, but to be free. Then I though that the people on the ground are not free either... they have to follow directives to synchronise the movements. So I named the song Autonomy and stole a short phrase ("I want you") from the Buzzcocks song of the same name. Gear wise, same as before - Studio One DAW, Shure 58 Mic, Vox Standard 25 Guitar, Squier Tele, Vantage Bass, Studio One Farfisa keyed with a Akai Mini-Play, Studio-One drum set programmed via piano roll. Lyrics in spoiler

I reckon you still have a say, even if you are not the singer. Maybe the singer has more of a "veto", but for me the whole band has a say.

I get all the points and concerns here...... except one. Who cares if there is not a new wave of bands who can fills stadiums and headline mega-festivals? I'd much rather have a healthy range of smaller, diverse artists who have enough income to self-sustain. Anyway stadium gigs are not great, and festival-wise I lean more towards the so-called boutique festivals (not keen on the name boutique mind you!)

Well it seems like my cunning plan to recruit a few fans to The Lovely Eggs has backfired 😀! I just hope that their bass player is not a member here.... oh, hang on, they don't have a bass player 😉.

I'd echo what the others have said....... an untreated bassline is the most flexible. Effects can be added to a raw signal, but not subtracted from a treated signal. The compromise is to send a treated and untreated track to the customer. If you are using hardware effects then that means some sort of splitter. Anyway - you've already solved the difficult bit:- having people ask for stuff! Disclaimer - I'm a home player, I don't record for anyone.

Depending how you define "lyrics" and "sung" (and indeed "banger" ) you could include "Je T'aime"

Kraftwerk - Autobahn is a classic example.

I'm liking the Utopia Strong. Quite a difference to Steve's previous musical collaboration with Chas and Dave:

I’m not a metal player, but this seems like a good place to ask a question. On some other threads there is talk of “Dingwall and Darkglass” as a staple of some metal sub-genres. Could anyone explain to the uninitiated what gear, what sub genre and what sound is achieved?

The perineum maybe?

OK, OK don’t remind me😟