Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[Kaa]

Sure, I like driving. When there's no one else on the road.

That is almost never the case. I live in a dense urban area, with tons of hills. Even my dad, who liked driving, hated driving a stickshift in town or in the freeways near here, but liked driving one on lonely country highways. Most of my driving is around Oakland. It's not usually very fun.

Can't drive a stick and shoot at the same time?

 

[LowF]

Just had to put this here.

 

[El Raro]

I'd love to learn stick one day. I only drive auto purely out of laziness but also because I can't really find station wagons down here in anything other than auto.

I'm glad that my crapband's recordings are finally coming to an end. They're sounding good...better than expected anyway...and with a shaky vocalist, I wasn't expecting much. But they're listenable and tolerable at the very least. The engineer did a great job at making the music sound great and not overly "produced" or Hi-Fi. The reverb and double-tracked harmonies he threw into the vocals made a lot of difference and it actually makes the vocalist sound not entirely terrible. My bass sits great in the mix and the Supercollider & Greedtone pedals are mixed in perfectly. Some songs have a gnarly Troy Sanders-ish dirty tone coming through which I'm really happy about. There are a couple nitpicks from the drummer's side that need to be fixed up, some minor mixing errors and maybe some vocals that need to be re-worked which will be finalised by this weekend. All in all, for around $1,000 the 6 tracks sound solid and good enough to throw together onto an EP or mini-album. Whole thing only goes for about 25 minutes anyway.

The guys are starting to talk about hosting an EP launch but my heart's just not in it. We don't have a big enough fanbase to pull numbers into a venue, let alone know a venue who would be ballsy enough give us our own show. I suggested just throwing the tracks up for free just to get exposure but the drummer flipped his lid and wants us to try and get some sort of revenue for the tracks. I'm less than thrilled about the idea considering we don't really have fans who would buy into this stuff.

 

[eyeballkid]

at first i thought you all meant you wanted to learn to play the Chapman Stick.. could be cool for doom.

then i realized you were talking cars.

 

[Korladis]

Can't drive a stick and shoot at the same time?

That's not even close to what I meant and you know it.

 

[Blank_0101]

This is the reason. I find manual much more engaging and enjoyable to drive. I feel much more in tune with the car. Trust me, I'm uber-manly no matter what I drive. (Strikes uber-manly Zap Brannigan pose.)

I envy your velour captain suit.

Can't drive a stick and shoot at the same time?

This means getting a manual transmission truck requires me to hire a mercenary too... See it's the added costs that really get you.

 

[Blank_0101]

Weighted best walking across town in the heat of the day. The night bike ride across and back the other way.

Totally balanced it out with mcdonalds jalapeño doubles. A wee bit too much of the pickled jalapeño I think, they overpower the burger with too much pickly-ness. Fries Dipped in ranch with unsweet ice tea (the only good kind of iced tea IMO).

 

[mbelue]

.... with unsweet ice tea (the only good kind of iced tea IMO).

Boy, you shame the South..

 

[Blank_0101]

Boy, you shame the South..

Sweet tea tastes like diabetus.

 

[El Raro]

Sweet tea tastes like diabetus.

Best kind of betus.

 

[mbelue]

Sweet tea tastes like diabetus.

Mmmmmm, die-A-bet-is.

 

[mbelue]

I'd love to learn stick one day. I only drive auto purely out of laziness but also because I can't really find station wagons down here in anything other than auto.

I'm glad that my crapband's recordings are finally coming to an end. They're sounding good...better than expected anyway...and with a shaky vocalist, I wasn't expecting much. But they're listenable and tolerable at the very least. The engineer did a great job at making the music sound great and not overly "produced" or Hi-Fi. The reverb and double-tracked harmonies he threw into the vocals made a lot of difference and it actually makes the vocalist sound not entirely terrible. My bass sits great in the mix and the Supercollider & Greedtone pedals are mixed in perfectly. Some songs have a gnarly Troy Sanders-ish dirty tone coming through which I'm really happy about. There are a couple nitpicks from the drummer's side that need to be fixed up, some minor mixing errors and maybe some vocals that need to be re-worked which will be finalised by this weekend. All in all, for around $1,000 the 6 tracks sound solid and good enough to throw together onto an EP or mini-album. Whole thing only goes for about 25 minutes anyway.

The guys are starting to talk about hosting an EP launch but my heart's just not in it. We don't have a big enough fanbase to pull numbers into a venue, let alone know a venue who would be ballsy enough give us our own show. I suggested just throwing the tracks up for free just to get exposure but the drummer flipped his lid and wants us to try and get some sort of revenue for the tracks. I'm less than thrilled about the idea considering we don't really have fans who would buy into this stuff.

I've had this same problem before. Band mates who are convinced something "will sell because we paid to have it produced."
I think you really have to have a fanbase that will come to gigs in order to not waste money on a professional printing.. If you opened up for the band they came to see, chances are they're buying the headliner's music/shirt/sticker.
The best way to build a fan base is free music.
You know how Metallica got huge, folks trading bootleg tapes.
Some bands get away with selling their first release, but using it as promotion to get gigs and network is money in the back.
I say sell shirts and stickers, give away the music. At least until you've got some kind of following of people besides the family of band members.

 

[deathsdj]

I put a fan in my jam space.

Yeah I know lame but I got nothing else good going on.

Anyway I like to feel the wind in my beard.

 

[hydrohydra]

I put a fan in my jam space.

Yeah I know lame but I got nothing else good going on.

Anyway I like to feel the wind in my beard.

Fans are the unsung heroes of the jam space

 

[ThatBassistDude]

Anyone else get the new Sleep song on vinyl?

 

[Rushing]

Pretty stoked on the new band art and finally getting to start recording an ep.

Took awhile but to dial it in but I am really loving the Wizard Fuzz.
Practice space H2 recording.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[CL400Peavey]

Morning gents.

 

[Kaa]

That's not even close to what I meant and you know it.

Not really sure how to respond to this.
Are you actually getting worked up about that?
You said getting through Oakland is rough, I obviously took it to it's illogical conclusion.
Mellow, man, mellow, I was only being goofy.

 

[mbelue]

Pretty stoked on the new band art and finally getting to start recording an ep.

Took awhile but to dial it in but I am really loving the Wizard Fuzz.
Practice space H2 recording.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Damn dude, I really like that.
What's up with the noodling wizard, is that some kind of pun or does someone in your band do that?
I have always wanted to try that, sounds like a real fair kind of fishing.

 

[Kaa]

Damn dude, I really like that.
What's up with the noodling wizard, is that some kind of pun or does someone in your band do that?
I have always wanted to try that, sounds like a real fair kind of fishing.

LOL, I thought that was some kind of whacked-out elephant he was riding.