Full disclosure: it was supposed to be a "doom" project before I joined but I have the attention span of a two year old, so I may be the reason it's come off the rails.
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Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out
- Thread starter Korladis
- Start date
Screw it. Don't tell my dudes I posted rough, uncut mixes to the internets.
I definitely know how that goes, sometimes bands are less a genre and more a "these people crammed their brains together" soup. I have been in some bands that had an extremely specific starting goal, some or all of us just kind of used it as an in to chase current fascinations, it went off the rails, then years later I listen to the first demo songs and go "why didn't we just do this band?" lol
I get that. To be honest, I've never had a band turn out the way I had planned, but most times, it was an unexpected, pleasant surprise. Sometimes it's a huge mess and never gets off the ground, but never because it wasn't according to concept.
Usually the versions of bands that actually did stuff for me was either friends with similar tastes getting together to just play music and have fun being in a band, or a more focused version of that where it was just "relentlessly work on music, with these specific guidelines, then move on and don't think about it". I joined some bands that were super specific or trying to resurrect an old band and they usually ended up practicing for months or years and hardly ever actually doing anything or just going off the rails. Feels like it's either get together and jam or be incredibly focused and everything in between just treads water. That could just be me though
I can hear a lot of doom-adjacent influence, like some southern sludgecore and heavier grunge, but I get what you're saying. I wouldn't immediately think doom. Sounds good though.
Yes! This definitely started off as a loose jam. I met the drummer when I was buying a piece of studio gear off craigslist. I walk into his space and he's got this freaking Terry Bozzio drum kit. So, I says, "You play some drums, huh"
"Yeah, I've got a guitar player. We just can't find a bass player."
"You don't say..."
I met the guitar player/main vocalist the first time we jammed and found a kindred spirit. It started off just jamming the two songs they wrote with someone else and turned into what it is now.
It's the most fun I've had in years. It's super laid back and we basically have the same goals: write stuff we want to play, record some songs, have a proper vinyl EP pressed and play some locals shows to see how other people take us. No ambitions, no egos... just jams.
Is the output as prolific as I would like? No, but two of the three of us don't have a whole lot more time to commit to it and everyone is okay with it.
We've got a solid two out of three in the music/hang/money split. That's more than enough for me.
"Yeah, I've got a guitar player. We just can't find a bass player."
"You don't say..."
I met the guitar player/main vocalist the first time we jammed and found a kindred spirit. It started off just jamming the two songs they wrote with someone else and turned into what it is now.
It's the most fun I've had in years. It's super laid back and we basically have the same goals: write stuff we want to play, record some songs, have a proper vinyl EP pressed and play some locals shows to see how other people take us. No ambitions, no egos... just jams.
Is the output as prolific as I would like? No, but two of the three of us don't have a whole lot more time to commit to it and everyone is okay with it.
We've got a solid two out of three in the music/hang/money split. That's more than enough for me.
Thanks! It definitely needs polished and tightened up, but that's what practice is for. We should be tracking six songs for a demo in the near future. That was one of the earlier ones. We've drifted even more since then. Even thrown in a bit of post-hardcore and thrash in the mix. They'll be coming sooner than later.
I like the tune! My best "band" so far has been me and two other guys just jamming. The music ranged from sludgy doom-ish stuff to death/thrash, and one of the songs had an almost funk bassline. Our goal was to just make music we like - didn't have to be heavy. Just so happened we typically liked heavy, but not exclusively heavy. And one of the most important things we all did was to make sure everyone had their own sonic space and that we sounded good as a "band", and not just a showpiece or extended volume wars. Miss jamming with those dudes.
That is exactly what we're going for. Everyone being on board makes it fun and makes the songwriting a lot more organic, which I really freaking dig.
I have long been planning to raise the nut of my 4 string 28.6" scale Mikro Bass, and turn it into a slide bass, and when the Eastwood Sandman bass thread came up I decided to take the plunge and go through with it.
Strung with Elxir Nanoweb guitar strings of the gauges .068 - .046 - .036 - .028, and tuned B - F# - A# - D# (that is a baritone kind of tuning).
Tuned to be played single string, 2 strings at the time, or 3 upper strings together.
This is how it looks after the mod:
Raised to about 6mm (~0.24") over the first fret, with a piece of wood cut to size under the nut, and then going ever so slightly upwards, towards the bridge at a quite low angle.
Equipped with a single bridge EMG Geezer Butler J pickup, from the P/J set, and it sounds great.
Definitely going to be used in my doom/stoner rock project.
Slide guitar sounds awesome!
Like this for instance:
Just recorded a bit on my "new" converted slide bass, mind I need serious practice, as it's totally different instrument in a totally different tuning, it's more the sound than what I play here:
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That's kind of cool, and 100% ridiculous.
3 days ago I got kicked out of the day job. No sympathy needed, but I'm always looking for good pranks to F with people or orgs that earned it. Let's hear em...
3 days ago I got kicked out of the day job. No sympathy needed, but I'm always looking for good pranks to F with people or orgs that earned it. Let's hear em...
Stuff that’s legal, right?
It's all legal if you don't get caught. Isn't there some quote to that effect?
Way back when I was in high school, a youth group I was in took a trip. There were two brothers - and they weren't getting along. One was a good friend of mine, but the actual brothers were in a bit of a fight throughout the course of the trip. I decided to mess with all of my roommates in the hotel one night and stole everyone in my room's shoelaces (including my own to prevent suspicion). My friend - assuming it was his brother since they were quarreling - woke up and went on an instant tirade to his brother's room. I tried to stop it, but was barely awake when it happened. I couldn't stop it, and it was hilarious to most of us. I've always been a fan of the non-destructive/damging types of pranks. Good luck, and I hope you share whatever prank you chose.
The closest I ever came to a prank was a matter of survival of the ears of everybody in the band…besides the guitarist. I was in a not so loud outfit, yet the lead guy had a 100 watt Marshall half-stack(when something like a Twin or even a Super would have sufficed). The singer occasionally played second guitar through a 60 watt combo, I had a Cerwin-Vega horn cab with an 18” and a front firing 12”, pushed by a power amp, then the keyboardist had his rig, plus the drummer had some Simmons pads among his kit. The lead guy was still drowning us out. So I got into his cab, unhooked the bottom 12’s, adjusted the ohm load on the amp(he never would have noticed), and that took it down a notch for us. All he heard were the drivers angled up on top.
