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Is This Normal?

ErebusBass

ErebusBass

Feb 20, 2008
1,107
110
Madison, WI
#1
I was tooling around Craigslist today just for kicks and I found this in an ad.

"Prerequisites : THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BAND YOU ARE IN WHEN YOU GET STARTED. this has been an issue and quite frankly we are done dealing with it. WE want someone who has a true interest in playing with us only. It just seems to work out better that way productively as a group. You must have reliable transportation to and from practice and gigs. We practice in Middleton every Saturday for a few hours and a small session on Sundays. We mostly will be having practice in the mornings or early afternoons. If you are ever a no call no show for practice we will consider you out of the band. If you ever miss a gig you might as well not even bother calling us back. As you can tell we are serious about our time being productive. Hope to hear from you soon."

Do any of you do this with your bands? It seemed kind of ridiculous to me. I would never quit all of my projects to try a new one out, especially one with no recording and (it would seem) no gigs.

Reactions?
 
#2
I don't see whats wrong with it, they want a bass player thats serious about the band and can dedicate all their time towards the band, don't see the issue, obviously you wouldn't be interested since you have alot of other projects but for guys like me who have nothing going on it would be fine
 
#3
Are bassists in short supply where you live? Seems kinda odd that they're requiring that you're only in this band. The mention that people aren't showing up to practice or gigs may suggest that the local rockstars are flakes....or that the band really sucks and people aren't willing to show up or stay in one band.
 
#4
That's a little stronger push-back than normal but yeah, there are probably more bands that don't want a hired gun than there are bands that do.

Showing up for the gig is pretty much a no-brainer.

Missing practice is a fact of life when 4 or 5 guys are involved. My keyboardist flagged practice before last. I don't know why or really care.

I flagged the last one because I have an abscessed tooth and am all pilled up and not about to dive anywhere.

I'm confident both of us will be at the gig Friday.
 
#5
Bullcrap. I call shenanigans. They want to run this new bassist's life. I imagine they want to be serious and all, maybe they've had some bad experiences in the past with bandmembers not showing up or not putting their hearts in it. I can dig that. I wouldn't want that either. But where the hell do they come from just assuming a professional musician can't be on time or reliable or give it his best even when he or she's in another band or two? Hell, most pro's have at least a solo project going next to their main band, and sometimes other bands.

Man, this would be a red flag for me. If I was a betting man, I'd wager these guys will try to control more and more of the bassist's private life. Stuff like "That girlfriend is distracting you from your music! Leave her!", or "what the hell were you doing at that party on saturday, you know you should've practiced!" or even "What? You're still up? It's 22.00 and we've got a rehearsal tomorrow, get your ass to bed" would come to mind. Wouldn't touch this with a ten foot pole if I were you, dude.
 
#7
hahaha,
yeah, i saw this ad a few weeks ago. I guess they must have gotten burned with their previous bassists.
Anyway, it is not a very good way to find someone to play with, i interpret this ad as: these guys must not be very fun to play with.
 
#9
It really could go either way, but about a year ago I jammed with a dude who put up an ad that described my drummer and I to a tee, but added...."does exactly what they're told!" and underlined it. Needless to say, he has lots of trouble finding people and even more trouble keeping 'em.
 
#12
if they really want to make a band work and they want someone who can commit 100% that's fine. but i would still consider this a red flag. the wording sets off a warning. if they've had that many experiences with people bailing/not showing up i kind of wonder if they are as awesome as they imagine themselves to be
 
#13
I can see this type of demand if the band was making a good living at playing, was signed to a record deal and touring. But if this is just a weekend warrior type of band with gigs here and there, then no, I wouldn't even respond because I do play with a bunch of other cats. IMHO, ads like that drive folk in the other direction. That's a very anti-social ad, IMO.
 
#16
Wow. It sounds like that band is composed entirely of Kathy Bates from the movie Misery. "Oh we would love for you to sit down and play bass with us, BUT IF YOU EVER LEAVE.....(insert random horrendous torture here).

If you see a post that has a laundry list of requirements for a bassist that go way beyond the call of duty, scrap it, 99.9% of the time its not worth it.
 
#17
The all CAPS are a bit of a put-off, but I think the idea is there for sure - we've had 2 drummers leave us for other projects and the tough thing about hiring someone who might leave is the amount of work you spend trying to get a new guy in - auditioning, learning songs over, getting used to the fact that this is an entirely different person in your group...it's basically like starting completely over unless they're a superior musician and learn your material on their own with enough time to rehearse with the band for the next upcoming show...
 
#18
I can understand their POV.

My take is this - nobody tells me what to do in the time that I'm away from their band. Regardless if I'm playing with another band or sitting at home. If they're a good enough band then they can book gigs and they will not have to worry about me playing with other bands (why would I want to?). The same goes for me, if they're booking gigs and I'm never available then they need to fire me and find someone else.
 

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