Leonard Smalls

Here's my entry for this month's BC compo compo... In order to be as authentic as poss I should have bought an old Fender through a big valve amp, then mixed everything using tape delays and valve mixing desks and whatever else. However, as I have none of that stuff, just a Sandberg bass, a Helix, an Impulse keyboard and battered Squier Strat plus Ableton on a PC and a host of VSTs and plug-ins. But I did play the bassline in 1 with no further overdubs so that might be a touch authentic!

You're So Vein - Carly Simon

When someone says Yellowstone I immediately think of El Capitan, which rises majestically out of Tuolumne Meadows, a mere 811 miles and two states away in Yosemite. So here we have a bit of dub, perfect for watching the sunset from your Portaledge halfway up El Cap's most famous route, The Nose. Bass is Sandberg, guitar a Strat, keys - various from Ableton, Iris, Kontakt, Ujam and EZ keys. Drums programmed using Ableton packs and Loopmasters sounds. Delays/reverbs etc Raum, Objeq, Dubstation 2, Kilohearts plus Phasis phaser. All rolled in Neutron 3 and Ozone 9.

It's actually a final chorus, after 3 verse and chorus combos before. It's a semi-respectable 1'54", so not really Napalm Death length!

Ta! It's only mobile phone footage but worked ok...

Here's a little blast of us being all punky at Rebellion recently...

Carwash -Rose Royce

Let's Start The Dance! -Hamilton Bohannon

Shut Up! - Black Eyed Peas

S'an instrumental piece of music. Or a song without words. Or simply, a ditty.

Some stuff I heard at Rebellion last week:

Mister Bojangles - Sammy Davis Jr.

Fkin A!

My other irrational hatred is when people call every single song a track. It's not, unless you're playing it off an album! Otherwise it's just a humble song, or in my case, a duff little ditty.

Wicki Wacky House Party - The Team

Not quite... "Pocket" can be described as a “sweet spot” where the music feels solid and unified without feeling overly rigid or stiff. It's sort of more "feeling the groove together" rather than rigidly playing to a metronome. It's like the difference between some heavily music-schooled jazz bands that, while exceptionally tight and right-on-time, just lack that syncopated groovy feel.

Turd Uncle - Bauhaus

I once shared a "cigarette" with him while we discussed P Funk at the Chillis aftershow party in the Astoria that I'd somehow blagged my way into. Seemed alright to me!

Der Mussolini - DAF

I remember seeing them at their 2nd ever UK gig - the Mean Fiddler in Harlesden. After 2 songs Hillel couldn't cope anymore wot with being off his face (he died not long after...) and left the stage. So the other 3 continued as they had no real choice. And Flea managed to fill the gap beautifully - did his own lines and threw in some of the guitar stuff too which most certainly isn't a sign that he "can barely play"! So unless he's somehow forgotten how to do the bass thing in the intervening 37-8 years, I suspect that he can still do it. And bear in mind, Stanley Clarke invited him onto the ultimate bassathon, Night School, so it would seem that the hatred is largely irrational - the low point of his career being that terrible StarSpangledGizmo he did at the Pooper Bowl...

Better photo from Rebellion...

Funnily enough, I was sound checking for a gig a couple of weeks ago and thought I'd give my funky envelope filter a go. After a quick wallop through Herbie's Chameleon the guitarist from the other band (serious hardcore punk, they were!) came running up and said how they wanted that sound in their band. I bumped into them again at Rebellion and once again they mentioned it! However, I'm not allowed to use it in Choked - everyone reckons it's "not punk enough".

Happy Talk - Captain Sensible

It was, at least in the acoustic stage! Couldn't see you because of the acres of black cloth on the sides of the stage! I found the Empress, Opera and Casbah all suffered from over loud kick swamping everything at the bottom. Insufficient gating, perhaps coupled with metalhead drum obsession?

After our Rebellion afternoon gig went and watched @cheddatom 's band Headsticks - they were, as usual properly excellent... So following some refuelling with pizza, tiramisu and double espressos we carted our gear 200m to the Washington pub which was surrounded by punks watching Year Zero (decent band!). We schlepped everything (actually, twas only Raph's bass amp, our instruments and cymbals) through the throng, set up and proceeded to play. And we made far fewer mistakes - slight speed errors here and there but starts, stops and changes were perfect. Good thing we'd had a rehearsal at Rebellion earlier 😁. All seemed to go down well, folks jigging about and no complaints when I did unnecessary slap'n'widdle solos. Which was nice! Gear and clothes exactly the same as earlier, apart from provided big Ashdown combo that sounded pretty awesome once I'd tamed the feedback. And the rest of the band went to watch Bad Manners in the Strictly Ballroom while I had a Glenfiddich 15yo in the hotel bar...