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Weasels, sounds like a bad Roger Rabbit scene.
Don't forget mustard gas, the yellow replacement for mustard diesel.
How many tunes is this band working with? Did you have some sort of financial loss? Is the drummer able to keep up?
I'm being (or trying to be) as empathetic to your situation as possible, but really, you kind of stomped on his good time by limiting the guy! You worked with him "years ago" and now he's back and trying to contribute. I don't see the negative here.
To me, weasel is like having a band record, hiring a member, getting things recorded, and then when everyone's expecting a growth in material, the band is suddenly dropped because the "leader" doesn't care anymore (which happened to me, actually) because the whole band was a facade for other things.
Adding material is extending the life of the project as far as I'm concerned, unless it's the wrong people or the wrong genre that doesn't make it exciting.
To cite Frank Zappa:
Weasels Ripped Your Flesh!
Weasels Ripped Your Flesh!
Yup, I get that, especially at the FIRST practice.
Bigger picture though, were you annoyed over control in a sense? Band was YOUR idea, you get two others who seem compatible, then a 4th member shows up and starts dictating this and that, including a band name, which you may have already had in your back pocket...
I can definitely see you being put out by those things, IF in fact that's what's really going on in your mind. Factor in also, a topic that comes up often: is the band supposed to be a democracy, or are you the boss? The sooner that question is answered in no uncertain terms, the sooner this crap works itself out. If you're the boss, lay down ALL your parameters, in writing if necessary. If it's a democracy, then, maybe he wasn't too outta line, and could just be chalked up to personalities (which can still doom the band of course...).
Edit: just noticed that beans-on-toast said pretty much the same thing a few posts up...
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Great point. I'm sure it had nothing to do with getting tight or working out some kinks. Why run through everything more than once anyways? Its not like people are there to play or enjoy themselves. Thanks for pointing this out as I sometimes forget that playing should be kept to a minimum. I mean, how else was the OP going to get out there to the show circuit and start paying his bills off of a pretenders cover band in the midwest? Thanks for putting everything in perspective for me. I appreciate you taking the time.
My band often runs songs multiple times working on arrangement issues or vocal harmonies... and we go through 20-30 songs in a rehearsal.
I guess there are people out there who enjoy rehearsal that is practice where folks learn their parts. I don't.
Rehearsal is for fixing issues with arrangement and cohesion, not for learning the song. That is practice everyone should be doing beforehand.
Thats awesome that you've displayed how serious you are. Running songs multiple time AND going through 20 or 30 in a single rehearsal? Absolutely fantastic.
It has nothing to do with "how serious I am"... I'm just a mediocre bass player in a cover band. We're nothing special.
It just has to do with efficient use of time - and people learning their parts in a rehearsal is not an efficient use of time for the other band members, AND it isn't an efficient use of time for the person learning their part. It isn't much fun musically either.
...and going through 20-30 songs in a rehearsal just seems pretty basic when we're talking about 3 minute songs. If you're playing 10+ minute Tool or Rush tunes with complicated arrangements, it's a different thing - but we're talking about the Pretenders, not Beethoven Symphonies.
Totally. Its just not an efficient use of time and people should know their parts when they arrive. Practice is practice and rehearsal is rehearsal. Why aren't all of these people pros like the rest of us?? right????
I mean, its almost as if these people want to have fun and get together to play the music of an artist they love and didn't appreciate it when the new guy was trying to quickly push everything into some premature level of seriousness solely for the sake of stroking his ego all over the room as if a pretenders tribute in the midwest is a promising financial endeavor and not something you do for enjoyment. Yuck!!! amiright??????
Hmmmm....sorry, thought this was YOUR band?
Why didn't you tell him to take a walk and get a new guitarist. "Sorry man this just isn't working out. Bye" He'd still be trashing you but at least you'd still have your band while you looked for a new guitarist.
jive1
Commercial User
It's a matter of mindset. People can be of different mindsets, which means there will be variance in approach, attitude, priorities, methods, etc. There's nothing wrong with people just having fun and never leaving the basement. That's totally cool. However, I steer clear of bands like that because I ruin their fun. I just can't help it. Although I do this more for the fun than the money, performing for audiences and getting paid is part of the fun for me. The problem is that neither come out of nowhere or without significant effort, so unless a band is willing to put in the initial effort and share a similar mindset, it just won't work out. I'll just be frustrated and frustrating.
Oh, I agree completely. I just acknowledge the huge grey area in the middle that too many people on this thread refuse to see. A fellow bass player came to talk about a guy that was being a pain and a number of people here saw it as a great opportunity to stroke themselves all over the thread and point out how quickly and efficiently they get things done. They assumed that because the OP was willing to show patience to the other two members and values doing things right before moving on that he is on some lower level and they just couldn't wait to say how above that they were... over.. and over... and over.
I view that as pathetic, unnecessary and the opposite of a community atmosphere, so I commented accordingly.
I was pretty sure this isn't sevenstring.org, perhaps I'm wrong.
A deal breaker for me.
The good thing is that bass players are typically more-- in demand -- than egotistical guitarists.
I sort of assume douchebaggery on the part of Lead Singers and Lead Guitarists now. I would say 95% of the LS's, and 75% of the LG's I've played with over the years were complete and utter sociopathic, egotistical douchebags/bloviating assclowns. it seems to go with the job. I therefore am pleasantly surprised when they are not. but it's so rare
He may have been ambitious and wanted to play paying gigs. You will never play 40 Pretenders songs but you need to have several sets of tunes.
