Woah! It's only been 3 years?

Wow, over three years later, I'm making another post. What's changed since April of 2010? Quite a bit! I've played a bunch of live shows, worked a bit more on my own music, I've got a bunch of new equipment. Overall, I've still been quite lazy.

I'm no longer in a band, however I am still going strong with Friday night Jam Nights with my Dad, Uncle George, Old Ed, Robert, and whoever else decides they want to swing by that week.

What brought this up again? Well, to be honest... a giveaway that I'm more than likely not going to win. lol I got an e-mail for a bass rig giveaway and wanted to sign up. In the giveaway, it asked for bass models owned. The quickest/easiest way to remember them all, was to come here and check. lol

I do have some new equipment and I'll try and post about it all in a later post. I have to make a list of my upgrades. haha

I'm also hoping that by updating this more often, it'll keep me more motivated to buckle down and start doing some home writing and recording.

Here's to another leg of my journey into the lovely world of music.

oh crap!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Show is tonight!!!!!

Graveyard Snake

newer version of one of my bands songs. It's a quick one take recording during practice, and the first recording with me on bass.
Check it out, lemme know what you think. :)

http://home.comcast.net/~caffeine_zombie/Music/Quietis/02%20Graveyard%20Snake-2010.mp3

ahhhhhhhh

So much to post about, because I don't post often enough. This will probably still be fairly brief, and give a quick run down on some news on the music front.

New show lined up!
Quietis is playing the Haverhill Elks club April 9th! $8 a ticket through me, $10 at the door. If anyone wants tickets, let me know. :) I'll put up another post about the show later. I plan on working up a flier at some point.

New Equipment!
Right now, I'm borrowing a nice power amp and 4x10 bass cabinet from my cousin. It's a nice 1,500 watt Peavey power amp, and a Peavey 4x10" cabinet. Sounds killer compared to the 10 watt practice amp I've been playing through at home. To go with that rig, I picked up a Behringer V-Amp pro modeling bass preamp. It's a fun little toy, with some minor effects, and models a bunch of different amp/cabinet combinations.

I also picked up a cheap Washburn 4-string bass. It's definitely going to be the first bass I mess around with as far as new parts go. I plan on giving it a new bridge, pick-ups, etc.

Just because that really isn't enough stuff to put into my apartment, I got a great deal on a Hartke 4x10 bass cab, so that's on its way. :)

So much stuff going on with Quietis, it's awesome. I'm practicing more now than I ever have before. I'm learning new styles of playing, and getting faster. I really do owe a lot of that to learning how to play off the cuff from my Friday night jams over the parents house. At least as far as learning the gist of the bands songs fairly quick. I still have a long ways to go before I can play these songs the way I want to, or hear i in my head, but I'm getting there. The best part of it, is how much the other band mates believe in my playing and that I'll be ready for this show in April. :)

It's an awesome feeling. Knowing that I have some friends in another band playing that show is killer too. It's nice knowing my friends want to play shows with me, knowing that I've never done it before, it's my first band(besides the Mother Pluckers Friday night jam band). I'm having an absolute blast with all this music. :)

yes! but nooo

Less than two weeks into joining the band, we had a show booked! WTF?! I've had one practice! I decided to say sure, what the hell, let's do this, I'll practice like hell, and learn the songs, in only 23 days. YIKES!!! Unfortunately/luckily the show fell through and we're not playing it. So I've got a little more time to learn the songs and play with the guys. We're still looking to book some shows soon, but hopefully a little bit further away than a month, with only one practice a week.
Whew.. I love this whole being in a band thing, it's making me play a whole lot more often, it's really jump started my love for music again. Also... I've got a hankering for a new bass. Which I'm making plans to get... hopefully fairly soon. I am under NO circumstances allowed to buy it until I have AT LEAST 1/2 to 2/3 in cash to pay for it. Then, it's on to the PA with recordable mixer. :) I love making plans, especially when I'm smart enough to follow them.
As usual, donations are accepted. lol ;)

I actually did it!

I joined a band. My second practice with them is tonight. I'm still brand new to this, so I'm still real nervous, but the first practice went really well. At least it seemed to. The other members of Quietis seemed to be pleased with my bass playing. Granted it wasn't too hard to win over my cousin, who I'm replacing on bass, so he can focus on singing. ;) They started me out with about five songs that are fairly easy. Easy changes, and play pretty much what I want, in time and in key. It's still really early on, but so far, it's a lot of fun, and it's got me practicing and playing more at home. A trend I really would like to keep up. It's actually got me wanting to play and write more of my own stuff too. Which means I'm going to need a way to record soon.

Even better, is practice doesn't interfere with my usual Friday night jams with Dad and co. One of my 2010 goals is already checked off and we're not even out of January. I'm going to carry this positivity over into the next 11 months and make this the best year ever:)

Hopefully with all the new musical excitement I'll have more to post about and update MUCH more often. not once every five months or so.
So stay tuned all, Fatty is on a roll.. :)

long time no see

I haven't been over here in a while. I guess I'm due. I haven't been doing much of anything on the art or music front. Just my usual Friday night jamming, which is still a lot of fun. It amazes me how some nights, we actually sounds pretty good, and other nights, everyone is playing in a different time, almost sounds like different songs. It gets kind of frustrating, especially from a bass players point of view. I'm just as much to blame as anyone, I haven't done anything for practice besides showing up on Friday night. My skills seem at a stand still to me. I'm pretty quick, my ear is getting better, but pulling everything together just isn't my strong suit. As I said though, I haven't been practicing. My bedroom in the new apartment is still a mess, it's one of those too much stuff, not enough storage for it type deals, so I've just been ignoring it. When I can easily just grab my guitar or bass and play, it makes it much less likely that I will do so, same with drawing. I don't have a desk, or table I can draw on, so it's my bed, or lap or nothing. Even if I did, I could sit down and stare at a piece of paper for HOURS without putting the pencil to it. I get the most intense artists block. It's as if my brain literally shuts down, and I just see the blank paper in my head. I have so many ideas, and no way to translate them out of my head when I don't have paper, or my guitar in front of me, yet when I do, I don't have the skill, knowledge, or I just plain go blank. Also, I need to learn how to relax when I play, not slow down, but relax.

Man I love iced coffee...