Leonard Smalls

Sounds like a cuíca to me too - probably played by Carl "Butch" Small or Larry Fratangelo… Not the very best of Parliament, though still better(*) than the very very best that most other bands can come up with! * I mean that in a completely subjective way!

We're normally asked to do a 45 minute set, or 1/2 hour if we're first on a bill of 3 or more... Which is 10 songs ranging from 2-6 minutes with only a tiny bit of chat in between. We run 2x2 of them together with just bass feedback to cover the drummer changing the bpm on his metronome!

I preferred them when they were younger and groovier

And just when you were doing so well! Rap is effectively rhythmic speech or chanting, which (arguably! at least one scholarly type has said this!) has its roots in the medieval music of Occitan, or even Gregorian plainsong... You may not like any of those things but it doesn't make it less valid as music. Similarly, thrash/death/heavy metal is thought to come from the industrial heartland of the Midlands, but actually originated with the Gamelan players of Indonesia, though some historians cite the traditional backing music to Japanese Noh Theatre as the true precursor of metal. Which means it would be churlish to dismiss it as mere noise! 🤓

The point is that not liking something doesn't mean that it's necessarily bad music - it just means it's not to your taste. But it's just as valid as music as any other music - I'm quite keen on free improvised jazz which many folks would think isn't actually music, just a noise. But if it sends me on an emotional journey, despite being possibly atonal or arrhythmic, that makes it music! Personally I can't stand most British and Irish folk music (though I like the Unthanks), it makes me want to put a hole in their bodhran and take a drill to their mandolin, which means that despite hating it I've been taken on an emotional musical journey.

Here's a snippet of our best song, just up to where it just about starts getting good

I don't think "self-indulgent" really exists in music; you either like it or you don't! And within those 2 categories there's "well-played" and "badly played". Some folks seem to think that anything with more than 3 notes is "self indulgent", especially if there's complex rhythm, modal or (God forbid!) "outside" playing. Personally I prefer "more outside the better with cojones the size of the moon", but Mr. D played that beautifully, as did the band. Wouldn't buy it though!

Another from Albert's Shed Shrewsbury, complete with crowd joining in - even though they'd never heard it before...

We played at Albert's Shed in Shrewsbury last night... And it wasn't bad at all - we'd sorted out the terrible problems from the previous c@ck-up in Worcester and actually played (nearly) everything well. There was good reaction from the crowd, with dancing! Here's a little bit, sound a bit ropey but could be worse...

Can't remember his name, but it's the guy in the cowboy hat... Does that mean you're with Bang Bang Romeo? Pic of me and Stasi below at the same gig.

I'm amazed at the support act... I played with them once in a tiny village hall in Shropshire, and the drummer from one of my bands was their manager!

I've already had some of those - and mighty groovy they are too. Slowly getting into editing some of my own...

Like this one! I'm currently using an ultra metal no. 98 with added Fwonk Beta and Bass Whammy octave up... It's surprisingly funky!

For anyone near Shrewsbury with nowt better to do on a Wednesday (10th April), Albert's Shed will be reeling under our onslaught 😁

They supported my old band back in 1987 or 88 - IIRC it was the Opera on The Green in Shepherd's Bush though most things from back then are hazy...

I use a buffered FX loop pedal with mine, so it's bass into tuner (acts as kill switch), into Wounded Paw Blender. One loop goes into the FI, another into Fwonk Beta and Darkglass microtubes, and another into Bass Whammy. So all the pedals (apart from microtubes!) get a clean signal, the loop outputs can be blended together and mixed with clean signal. And as a bonus, switching a loop off or on doesn't alter the volume; whereas switching an individual pedal off or on does. Not sure if a Boss LS2 wold do it the same way?

I found a Focusrite 8i6 for £70 on ebay - works with the FI plus has 6 inputs and midi for inputting into a DAW. Needs in/out midi cable as well, but I can now record the whole band live (that's bass, guitar, vox, e-drums and live cymbals) as well as editing the FI...

Difficult to say why; but we'd written 3 new songs in 2 weeks, one of these had 8 different parts with different rhythms which might have confused everybody... So next rehearsal we're going to play them in 2s, i.e. drums/bass, drums/guitar, drums/vox, bass/guitar etc which should beat it into everybody. And we'll make sure the drummer knows how to use the SoundBrenner metronome!

Gig in Worcester last night. And I'd like to say we nailed it. But we didn't... Guitarist cocked up the 1st song by coming out of the break early, then in other bits I had no idea what he was playing - it wasn't what he was meant to and it wasn't in the right key, not even in a good way. I forgot my intro for another song, which has never happened before; drummer stopped in completely the wrong place a few times, then changed patterns in random places, plus couldn't get his metronome to work so we speeded up. Singer got confused and put verses/choruses in the wrong order and wrong places. But on the plus side, we did 4 out of 10 songs well; a punter came up and said "you were messy and not tight enough, but you've got an excellent sound!" - he was right about the 1st bit. Just hope he was also right about the 2nd!

I'm usually pretty near the front... And in the current band I write about 80% of the music which means I can get away with playing far too many notes.

They were excellent every time I saw them (6 times),but then the biggest venue was the Astoria so they were still hungry for it!

Found one of these on ebay for £notverymuch... And it works perfectly! Not only that but now I've got lots more inputs available into Ableton.