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AnotherUTFan

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Everything posted by AnotherUTFan

  1. I mistakenly texted everybody what we made on Sunday. I hung out with Jessica and Jessica that evening cause Garrick had to fly home. I rounded up to the nearest $5 when I paid them. I go down into the bar after work yesterday and Sinjin's there with his girlfriend (who's a sweethheart, btw), said he'd come to "scoop up" that money. I came upstairs and counted it out to the penny for him, only regretting that I had told him what we made - I should have divided it so that those who loaded gear in and out got a bigger cut. Oh well, its not like anybody got rich. He's still all excited from the show and telling me he has a drummer he wants me to meet. I wasn't in the place to tell him. I just said we need to talk about it. Like I said, he's a friend. He's just a shitty bandmate. Here he is leading the mosh pit and high fiving me on stage at the Koffs 1st show. I watched a few of these this morning. God, i love everything about being in this band. When we finally got paid for this one, the owner said that our show was the best night he's had all summer business-wise. https://youtu.be/XoN-8JcA6k4
  2. Tough one today. I had to put it down and come back to it. Wordle 437 4/6* 🟨[emoji834][emoji834][emoji834]🟨 [emoji834][emoji834]🟨🟨[emoji834] [emoji834]🟨[emoji834]🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  3. I already have the Osees and Jackson Browne next week and just got invited to Duran Duran. Gonna be a long week.
  4. It ain't big, but its real skinny! Seriously, see if you can arrange one night a week for therapy. Go to a dedicated spot and work on music for a couple hours. It really is therapy. I was frustrated that I couldn't find a band to join, they were all full. A friend told me to start writing and I'd have a band. Thats the only reason I started writing, I'm really not that into songwriting. But it worked. When you meet other musicians you always say "let's jam sometime" and it never happens. When you say, "I've been working on some stuff, wanna come by after work Wednesday and check it out" they do. Otherwise, im not trying to be a rock star, just an outlet for my creative side and motivation to keep at my guitar. Aside from the weekly therapy, a show every month or two where our friends come out is plenty. Our next is an afternoon gig where ill be home by 6. I figure everybody's not LeBron, but plenty of guys play in a pickup basketball league. Of course I'm not complaining if we get to go play Rock Star in Vegas every year at Psycho. That was super fun.
  5. Yep, when I was forming Vary Mary i always said I'd rather make mediocre music with people I enjoyed being around than great music with people I loathed. Jessica even wrote the song Mediocre about it. We had that and still do with the 3 of us. We even kept Garrick company during covid when he moved away with weekly Zoom game nights. Sinjin is actually a friend, so I was stoked to have him join. Its just something in this context. I think he works his daddy issues put on me or something. Thats how I'm gonna break it to him. Im just gonna say that can't be in a band together and still be friends. https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq0LkU3U_ec&feature=share The Koffs are like brothers. I've known Casey (guitar) almost as long as I've been in SF and never knew he played music until around the 1st of the year. Then he started telling me they had this band but needed a bass player because the Vegas thing might happen. Really selling me on it and the guys. I was not wanting to commit to a weekly half hour drive down the coast and couldn't commit to Vegas in Aug at that point. I made excuses for couple months while they tried several bass players. Everytime id get a story of how they sucked and asked to come down again. I finally went, reminding myself not to commit to anything the entire drive down. We were fairly locked in by our 1st break and I felt like I'd known these guys my whole life. By the end of that 1st practice they invited me to join. Its been a big silly bromine since. Our group band text is like a bunch of teenaged girls. They are all well known in that small town, and people always come up and introduce themselves to me when I'm down there. "You're the new bass player! The guys talk about you all the time! So glad to meet you!" Funny thing is, Casey knows fuck shit about playing playing guitar, but just comes up with great simple riffs one after another. Meanwhile our drummer is actually a guitar teacher. None of them know shit about being in a band. I shared our 1st event to my FB page a few weeks prior and got like 40 going or interested, assuming they're follow my lead. Nope. A week prior I asked them to in the group text. They were like, good idea. Did it and we were at like 150 by the next day and packed that place. Same with the buttons. I made all these. Im like, we are the 1st band the 1st day. Nobody is going to remember who the hell we are if we don't leave something behind. We gave them out at our show, and kept them in our pockets to give anybody who asked about our band. That band already has twice as many FB followers as Vary Mary. Oh ya, I had to create the band page. Im like guys, we have to have a way to connect with our audience. Good idea! Great dudes. I got really lucky there. Separately, I just got back from dropping that amp off at the practice space. Serendipitously ran into the musician who wants to work on this concept thing i wrote. He was at the consol putting beats to the Space Odyssey soundtrack and changing its time signature. I had no idea he could do all that shit. He's ready to start recording it as soon as I get back from my daughter's wedding next month. I dont know if i want to that just me and him as a recording project, or invite a few others and build a small show around it. Im super stocked about it.
  6. @Goredho That was kinda the original plan. Jessica had "quit" the band previously because she didn't want to put me in the middle. We worked up sone more material with a different drummer, but switched to relearning all the Vary Mary stuff (she had forgotten most of her parts) when we learned our drummer was coming to visit and we booked that show. Singer showed an improved attitude when we started back to work and even she was talking about reviving it. She had a mini-breakdown Fridsy following a rough practice Thursday, but rallied and killed it. When I texted her that I couldnt be in a band with Sinjin, she indicated that she didn't want to be in a band for a while period. To much stress. I got no drummer, no bass player, and no singer. I got no band! Its time to just move on, take the lessons, and focus on the positives. I've got half of an album written for this real conceptual thing I came up with when I had covid. I shared it with a guy who's probably the most talented musician I know and he's been super excited to work on it with me for months. I also have a bunch of high energy punky/rock stuff written to start a new band with - maybe steal a Vary Mary song or 3. Jessica's 1st call on bass if she changes her mind,, or if she just wants to contribute as a writing collaborator maybe that would be better for her mental health. I've got plenty to keep me busy.
  7. Our guitar player drew this and we were gonna make shirts. I modified it to remove the bodies and made buttons we gave out in Vegas. He asked if he should add Koff last names like the Ramones. I was ambivalent, but said the Linda Linda's do it too. Last I heard of that idea.
  8. Thats exactly it. Our guy doesn't come to most practices because he has to "protect his voice", which has never bothered me because we don't really need him there anyway and he always shows up on stage prepared. Since he's rarely there, he has no idea how much work we put into developing these songs and rehearsing our parts to be ready for a show. It was a slap inn the face to all of us to say you want to skip one, elven more to say it right on stage in the middle of the set. I was up there thinking, "this is supposed to be fun and this guy just killed my fun"! If you don't like something, why not come to work with us some time and help make it better? You have any idea how hard it is to come up with and develop an original song? At least for me it is.
  9. @hullabelew I missed this. Walrus Audio Julia. I don't really use it. I left it one there because it was expensive and there was space for it. I really hope to find a use for it some day. Link I bought the Pitchfork because I heard a use for an octave pedal in the song Waiting when I was writing it nd it had great reviews. I only use it for the very end of that song. It's a hella fun pedal and I love having it on my pedalboard. I use it more when I just jamming alone at home. I have it in latching mode, so its only on when my foot is physically on it. So you can just play a few notes with the effect and bring it in and out. Hope to find more to do with it in the future.
  10. Our singer is super talented, but a pain in the ass to work with. That's why we never bothered finding a replacement drummer. He came back into this with brand new, improved attitude because he's seeing me on stage with other bands and wants to play again. So I thought there was hope of resurrecting it and even had a few drummers in mind. By the time we got to the venue I was 90% sure i was done with him, that turned to 100% when mid-set he turns and asks me if we can skip a song on the setlist he doesn't like. I responded by tearing into the riff and letting him decide if he wants to sing it or stand there looking like an idiot. Of course he was long gone by the time load out came. I texted Jessica in the morning that I couldn't be in a band with him anymore and she replied that she didn't want to do it either. Im gonna have to break the news to him next time I see him. Its not gonna go well, he's still high from the success of Saturday. I wrote a bunch of songs, formed a band and got an album out there. I learned a ton and there's a lot I'd do differently looking back, but there's a lot for me to be proud of and a lot to carry into my next project. I have like 3 that have been on the back burner im going to move on to, plus I have The Koffs, they would love for me to write. Speaking of The Koffs, everybody there is so easy to work with and just glad to have each other. Our singer is almost guilty that he doesn't play an instrument and compensates by helping us load gear and doing everything he can to help. Vary Mary was like that until we let one guy in. Be careful who you into your band. I guess thats a big lesson learned.
  11. My 2nd eagle in a row! Wordle 436 2/6* [emoji834][emoji834][emoji834]🟨🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  12. I posted the wrong song! This is one of my favorites, and I think its the last song Vary Mary will ever play live. Fitting title. Goodbye This one features the Shaggy Screamer for the solo, and a little of how I use my Bigsby. I also noticed my foot is on the Shaggy Screamer in one of the photos I posted above. Great shot.
  13. Wordle 435 2/6* [emoji834]🟩🟩[emoji834]🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Its been a while since I had it in 2.
  14. Vary Mary crushed it last night. We packed a venue that you have to play if you're gonna call yourself a San Francisco band. Everybody loves the orange Gretsch and how it sounds. Several musicians in bands I admire in attendance. I was literally thanked for not drowning the Gretsch out with gain "like everybody else does". Plus we sold some records. Our singer killed it, and I see no way I ever play another show with him. Its a fucking shame.
  15. BTW, I can't tell you what a tickle i get everytime I stomp on that Shaggy Screamer - especially on a stage. It gives me an equal kick when I see some of you guys post your rigs and I see it there. That was one of the most rewarding project I've ever completed. Edit - and while I'm sitting here killing some down time. I dreamt last night that I got a Rickenbacker bass as a backup, but ended up liking it more than my P-Bass. Now I'm going to go play some Rickenbasses. That may have been a premonition.
  16. I re-imagined my pedal board in anticipation of our show tonight. Everything on the bottom i switch off and on during songs, by spacing them out it'll take less concentration to avoid accidently hitting 2. I use nothing on the top with Vary Mary or Dirty Years, but I can run them inline or place the modulation effects in the loop when I do. I can also give the Reverb and Delay to a vocalist when needed. Tonight I'm running the Orange Gretsch into a EVH 5150 iii that I've been practicing with all week. Great amp. The 5150 iii is a contender for my new head, but I'm able to dial in all the gain I need to get my sound from Channel 1. Channels 2 and 3 are a lot of fun, but I dont know that I'd ever need them unless I start a metal band. Actually, I have some material written for a future project that could use Channel 2. [emoji848] I want to spend time with a JCM800 and an Orange Rockerverb 50. I think these are the 3 im down to. Before After
  17. Wordle 434 4/6* [emoji834][emoji834]🟨[emoji834]🟨 [emoji834]🟩[emoji834]🟩[emoji834] [emoji834]🟩[emoji834]🟩[emoji834] 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Lucky guess
  18. Wordle 433 3/6* [emoji834][emoji834][emoji834][emoji834][emoji834] [emoji834]🟨🟨🟩[emoji834] 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I was showing a friend how to play today. He guessed it after my 1st two attempts.
  19. https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mVTByd8asTuEHj503Edm9QgDyvTK9LAu4&feature=share
  20. Today our record released to to all the platforms. Pretty exciting to wake up this morning, search "Vary Mary" on my platform, and there it is!
  21. There's venue down the road from me that often keeps me up too late on work nights because they put on awesome shows all the time. Usually a touring band and a couple local bands in support, with the money at the door going to the touring band. I always think this must be what it was like living near CBGB in the late 70's. I have a feeling I'll be walking down the hill to see your daughter's band in the not too distant future. I do know the band name, and my lips are sealed! We did have an awesome band from San Antonio a few months ago, Pinko.
  22. Wordle 432 5/6* [emoji834][emoji834][emoji834]🟨[emoji834] 🟩🟨🟨[emoji834][emoji834] 🟩🟩🟩[emoji834][emoji834] 🟩🟩🟩[emoji834][emoji834] 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
  23. I got Fred Gretsch (IV?), Tom Jones (of TV Jones), and Joe Carducci (now retired product marketing manager for Gretsch at Fender) to sign it at NAMM not long after I bought it. Gretsch is independent as a manufacturer as I understand it, but Fender handles all their marketing and distribution. Something like that. Or did, its been a while since I paid attention. Joe was at Fender for decades and is one the nicest guys you'll ever meet. I had a few conversations with him at NAMM over the years when I used to go. https://www.gretsch.com/guitarist/joe-carducci/
  24. I just got this one out for the 1st time in a while to put on fresh strings, but evidently i did that the last time she was out. This is a great sounding guitar. Just howls and feedback is always at the ready. Only issue is that it can be hard to hit clean bends above the 12th fret. You can do it, but you better be paying attention.
  25. I just had a 10 pack arrive yesterday, now have a 12 pack on the way. I won't need strings for a while.
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