Remembering Ray Manzarek: 1939-2013

There are not many individuals that have truly changed the course of music as we know it, so few who are such an integral part of any band as Ray Manzarek was to The Doors. Together with Jim Morrison, John Densmore and Robby Krieger, he helped to change the sound of the sixties and left behind a wonderful catalogue of music that is not likely to fade away.

I remember the first time I heard the Doors, my guitar player Nick and I were sitting in his room, he put on the L.A. Woman Vinyl and we smoked some shwag weed and that record blew our fuckin minds. I mean, here is a guy who played rock n roll with so much soul that the record practically was dripping wet with it. From then on, we spent our days interpreting the Doors works and doing our best renditions of the all songs from that album.

Until I heard that album, I had never known blues music could be so dynamic. One thing that was so unique about The Doors was the fact that they completely omitted the role of the bass player throughout most of their career.  Even so, Ray Manzareck almost single handedly influenced how I approach bass guitar. Before I ever knew he played all the bass lines on his Fender Rhoads with his left hand, I remember trying to copy those riffs on my old Washburn. His Coltrane inspired work on Light my fire, his haunting bass riff on Riders on the Storm, the way his melody lines and tight rhythms tied everything together like the Dudes rug, I was even trying to mimic his organ sounds on my guitar , albeit unsuccessfully at the time. By opening the doors of musical perception, their self-applied moniker was to be more prophetic and appropriate than they could have known.

Underneath the mysticism and mysterious veneer, was the music that captures the soul of the beatnik poets and blended it with the peace and love ethics of the hippie movement. While Jim Morrison may have been the face of The Doors, Manzarek was the sound. Ray embodied so much of what made the Doors so unique. Baroque, classical, jazz, blues, Cabaret, Chamber music- all of this is heard in his style. Blend that with Jim Morrison’s LSD induced poetry and Robby Krieger’s jazz and blues laden guitar riffs, add a healthy dose of John Densmore on percussion and you get the sound of the Venice Beach summer in California in 1965 and with that sound, they changed the world of music forever. 

Together, they accomplished a sound and feel that had never before been accomplished or since replicated. And to think none of it would have happened if not for one chance encounter in Venice Beach between Morrison and Manzareck in the summer of ’65 in which Jim remarked he had been writing songs. Manzarek heard Jim sing an a capella version Moonlight Drive and that was it. They put a band together. The rest is history.

Looking back in reflection I realize I don’t have the adequate words to describe the man and his music. Ray Manzareck was perhaps most innovative creators of rock in the mid to late 60’s and his melodies are forever with us. The man inspired legions of musicians and added a distinct sound that helped to define the 1960’s.  Even now, my grief unfolds and I realize how intimately I knew the man through his unique music. Thank you for creating my summers and letting me know what music can be when we are fearless in pursuit of our muse.

Ray Manzarek died after a long battle with Bile Duct cancer Sunday night at 9:15 pm in Germany. If there is comfort to be found, it’s that he no longer suffers firm that horrible disease. He was 72 years of age. HE is survived by his wife Dorothy and his son Pablo.

Tim Lambesis, Frontman of As I Lay Dying, Arrested for Solicitation of Murder

As I Lay Dying frontman Tim Lambesis was arrested on solicitation of murder charges. It all stems from  recent filing of divorce  from his wife, Meggan Lambesis. Her lawyer seems to believe there is dome pretty damning evidence, and Tim Lambesis has pled not guilty which suggests that his lawyers seem to believe they have a case. If the charges stick, he's likely to never see the free world again.

For more on this story:
http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/05/09/video-from-tim-labesis-arraignment-more-details-of-prosecutions-alleged-case-revealed/

Deftones Bassist Chi Cheng Dies At The Age Of 42

It is with a heavy heart that I bring you the follwing  news. After a tragic  car accident in 2008 which left him comatose, Deftones bass player Chi Cheng is dead. Cheng and his sister were driving in  traffic collision which rendered Cheng comatose. His sister retained only minor injuries, while Cheng, who was not buckled in, was thrown from the car.

His sister, who was driving, reportedly tried to pass a slow driver in the fast lane who would not let her pass or get in front. That is when she states that she jerked the wheel away after honking her horn and bounced off the car next to her. Subsequently, she rolled over in a car crash that left the 37 year old bass player comatose

Over the years he has marked a steady recovery. He had recently become semi-conscious and regained the ability to move his legs. Unfortunately he did not make it. He died on April 13 after being rushed to the hospital where his heart suddenly stopped pumping.

His mother released this statement at her website OneLoveforChi.com.:

“This is the hardest thing to write to you. Your love and heart and devotion to Chi was unconditional and amazing.I know that you will always remember him as a giant of a man on stage with a heart for every one of you. He was taken to the emergency room and at 3 am today his heart just suddenly stopped. He left this world with me singing songs he liked in his ear.

He fought the good fight.You stood by him sending love daily. He knew that he was very loved and never alone. I will write more later. I will be going through the oneloveforchi site and any other information may not be reliable.If you have any stories or messages to share please send them to the onelove site. Please hold Mae and Ming and the siblings and especially Chi’s son, Gabriel in your prayers. It is so hard to let go.

With great love and “Much Respect!” Mom J (and Chi)”

The Deftones have been a hugely influential band in rock n roll and Chengs loss is deeplyt felt.

The Hazard Report issues the deepest condolences to his fans, his family and his friends. Much love to the One Love Family

(P.S., Please, let his death be a reminder to us all that life is a very precious and fragile thing. We take it for granted but as this unfortunate incident shows, driving is a very serious matter and seat belts really do save lives; one wrong move can snuff it out in an instant so please, be courteous and mindful of others on the road. If someone wants to pass you let them.; your ego is not worth a life. Rest In Peace Chi Cheng)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvFjH_4tAhs

Review: David & Devine (Debut EP)

Candace Devine is a powerful vocalist who has worked with such artists as Christina Aguilera and Stephen Van Zandt (how’s that for diversity?). Dave Yaden is an award winning composer and pianist who has written for and performed with acts like John Mayer and Lady Antebellum. Together, they are David and Devine, soul pop duet that really packs a mean punch.

The debut EP from this dynamic duo is truly a rich and rewarding compilation of well written songs. They have a unique pop sensibility that indulges in soulful vocals, harmonies and instrumentation reminiscent of 70s soul with a touch of modernity to keep it fresh.

The first cut, Til The Sun Comes Up, showcases a Stevie Wonder vibe with a positive and energetic message of love. It’s a truly feel good love ballad that is both well written and masterfully delivered.

Since We Been Together is another inspired song about devotion. It has a flurry of horns and a funky back beat. I’d be remiss not to mention the vague hint of early 80’s Prince.

Leave The Light On. This song is a mellow piano and vocal melody with a sadness that reflects regret and resolve. It picks up with a pleasant string section and simple beat. I can easily imagine this song being rendered in a variety of styles which to me is a hallmark of a well written song.

More Is Better. Is a very Paul McCartney-esque pop song that is a critique on the American way of consumerism yet is more reflective of living with the hustle and bustle of modern life in a very light hearted way without coming across as pretentious; it just is a call to a simple life. It is very piano heavy and has a strong Ben Folds vibe to it.

The last ditty is Save Me From Yourself. This is the breakup song of the EP. And it is appropriately longing in its call to walk away from a bad situation. Anyone who has broken up with someone they love because the situation is intolerable will directly relate to this song. It is emotionally complex and builds to a rewarding close and it's a perfect end cap for a well written combination of songs

This is one of those albums that tells a story. From start to finish, it follows the lives of two lovers as they fall in love, deal with trials, and eventually go their separate ways. Although it is a collection of love songs, it has a lot of energy and combines retro sounds in a way that is rewarding to the ear as well as the heart. Unlike many love songs, this collection has depth and explores the complexity of emotions involved with having a difficult relationship and manages to stay upbeat and poignant throughout.

This is a solid 5 star compilation that says everything it needs to say. I’d almost dock half of a point for it being too short! 

Why Hard Work and Dedication to Your Performance is Essential if You Want to Succeed in Music.

There is one essential element to a professional performer: dedication. If you are not 100% committed to a performance, no one will buy it. More importantly however, you let down your band mates. These are the people depending on you to give a solid and committed effort on stage all the time. This means that when you’re onstage, you are pushing yourself 110% and when you’re offstage, you are thinking of how you can be better onstage. This is the cycle. This is where we separate the men from the boys, so to speak.

Invest Your Time

If you want to be a low to mid-level cover band playing dive bars and birthday parties that’s fine, do that but if you want to take it to the next level and get downright seriously professional, you absolutely need to push yourself.

Not only am I talking stage performance, but the homework has to be done, all the time. When you reach a certain level of musicianship, people expect you to deliver and in order to deliver serious chops you need to be on your ‘A’ game. You don’t need to be fancy mind you, just tight. Everyone needs to be on point all the time, or as close to it as possible.  This means practicing material, taking notes, working on your riffing, soloing, vocals, and swagger. All of it; at home and at rehearsals.

Out of all the bands I’ve been in, only a handful have been at that level where it can potentially go national. These are groups that perform and tour regularly and have a following of loyal fans. Once you are at this level, there is no flaking out, there is no half ass-ing it and there is no stopping a performance midway through. It is not an option.

Don't Take It Personally

This is not a business built on friendship people, although you can be great friends, but it’s the music that comes first. That’s harsh, but necessary because if you can make it to the point where not getting paid is not an option, the only question is how much will you get paid? Festivals, national touring acts and yes, casinos only want the very best they can get so you want to be your absolute best, don’t you? So do your fellow musicians.

This Is Serious Business

Besides, it is more fun when you take your music seriously and accomplish great things on stage. At the peak of your performance, the crowd feels the energy and you feed off of that energy and give it right back: all engines are firing at this point. That feeling is amazing and why were in this unforgiving and godforsaken business in the first place. Do you really want to be the squeaky wheel at this point? Hell no! For my band, whichever band I’m in at the time, this is how I run it, or how I expect it to be run:

1: A Band Is About Music. We are in this band because we are musicians, we may happen to be friends as well but the two are NOT the same. If you want to do something together as friends, let’s play a round of Disc Golf.

2: Musicians Work Hard. I expect everyone in the band to be working hard on being a better musician all the time. I do and so should everyone else. Music is FUN but it is also a lot of work to perform it really well so if you’re not dedicated to that kind of effort, you are no musician.

3. You Will Be On Time. There is no excuse for being late. We are getting paid and like any other job, showing up on time is your responsibility. Check Sigalert.com, if there is traffic, leave early. If we practice at, be there at 8. If load in is at 3, be there at 3. We are trying to get hired again and if you establish a pattern or develop a reputation of being late, guess what? You won’t get hired. Remember, everyone is depending on you! If you simply cannot avoid being late, we're talking car crashes, maybe you're hospitalized, your mother is dying or some extreme circumstance and we understand but treat it like you would your day job and be on time and at least have the courtesy to give us a call and let us know. We take it very seriously and so should you.

3: If You Continue To Perform Poorly, You Will Be Cut. If you are struggling with your parts, come to us, we can help you. However If you really cared about the band, you would put in the extra effort and learn all of your parts make them better and contribute to the improvement of the bands performance on your own. We are trying to do something great and one poor performer can ruin everyone’s hard work. If you are not putting in this kind of effort, you don’t really care and you have no place in this band.

4. If The Performance Is Intentionally Compromised, You Will Be Cut. I’m talking about deliberate and intentional sabotage.  This includes arguing on stage, walking off stage, not showing up, or stopping the performance in any way because of a poor attitude. If you make a mistake, you suck it up, find the beat and get back in. The place to handle your grievances is the following day at rehearsal or band meeting. There is simply no excuse to sabotage a performance, especially for any kind of personal reasons.

Its Fun But This Is A Job

The reason for this hard-nosed approach is that everyone else in the band is working this hard. Everyone else is giving it 110% to get to where the group is and it is simply unfair to the rest of the band if you’re just phoning it in from the sidelines. You make the whole group look bad. Why should you get paid for that? You don’t. We’re compromising our pay for you and if you’re not holding up your end, we won’t pay you; I have a kid to feed with that money.

There is a lot riding on any given performance because you never know what even the smallest gig might lead to if you are all in the pocket. When music is your livelihood, you need to take it as seriously as any job and so do your band members. In any job if you’re not performing at your peak ability, you will eventually have to find another job. Music is the same.

All On The Same Page

As a musician, I have this inner drive to create music with passion and it consumes my pain, and my joy and That has to be matched or even exceeded by my fellow band members otherwise it’s just not being expressed. More, it feels as if my music is being shit on when someone is simply going through the motions or refuses to adapt and change with the flow of the performance.  It’s inborn. I can’t help it. Moreover, if I’m doing my absolute best to make great music, I need everyone else to do so as well otherwise I’m wasting valuable time. I don’t want to waste my time.

I want to make something great that touches people and lifts them up, gives them respite from their daily routine, and makes them forget about their troubles, whatever they may be. To me, it’s a spiritual act and a labor of love. This requires dedication and sacrifice. I have unfortunately had to sacrifice friendships due to my commitment to make the best music possible because, frankly, many of my friends just wanted to have some fun. They didn’t take it as serious as I do and that’s fine, it really is but it does mean we can’t be in a band together. It does not reflect any feelings of friendship one way or another. Go have your fun band and be a friend to me and let me go do my thing with others at or beyond my level.

Again, Do Not Take This Personally

Of course, this means I must be willing to do likewise and be let go for the same reasons. I have been let go before and I am still friends with these people. I’ve been kicked out of 2 bands, one because I was not dedicated to the music they were making, and the other, because I simply did not fit with what they wanted to accomplish. I am fine with that because it opened new doors for me and allowed me to find likeminded players. I am still friends with those bands to this day.

The moral of this story is that if you want to be a fun on the side, house party cover band for a weekend here and there, do it with others who want the same but if you want to be in a professional, gigging band then you must make sacrifices and work extra hard to be a better player and be willing to be a part of something greater than yourself. It takes time and patience but it is very rewarding.

Dear Fabby: A New Advice Column For Aspiring Musicians By The Fabulous Miss Wendy

"The Fabulous Miss Wendy is a recording artist from Los Angeles, California. She is a virtuoso guitar player and she writes all her own songs. She has been featured in Guitar World, Guitar International, and many other news outlets. She has toured nationally and has sold over 10,000 records independently."

Dear Fabby,

I think the music scene in Cali is great right now, from metal to rock. My question would be, Which coast east or west has the stronger metal/rock scene, and how does this help my band?

                           - Metal Luva



Dear Metal Luva,

Thank you so much for your question...

If I had to say what part of America is the most "Metal"... in other words, Super Duper-Hard-Rock/Screamo/Any Kind of Angry-Man-Oriented-Music (as opposed to Weak-Subjugated-Female-Rock)...  I would say the Midwest.

People will always tell you, "Oh Town X is happening " or "You need to be in Town Y, & that's where it's gonna happen for you." These people are FULL OF CRAP! The truth is that you need to START in whichever city you live, and you need to go EVERYWHERE, no matter what kind of music you are playing.

Find YOUR OWN audience. Be proactive. Start in your own city and gradually increase your "Circle of Influence." (Thanks to my vocal teacher, Brian Hacksaw Williams, for coining the term "Circle of Influence.")

Begin by getting your CD in the local record stores. Then put up flyers and posters in those stores...

For Metal, you'll want to reach those adolescents (especially the male ones), who hate their parents, hate their school, hate their life, etc, but LOVE angry music. It's probably the only thing (besides masturbation) that they DO love :).  Go to the local high schools, dress like a FREAK to get attention, and pass out posters & flyers.

Another group of people who Loooooove Metal are...."and drum roll please.." ..Musicians!!! (because Metal is soooo technical!) It's a Fabulous idea to distribute posters and flyers at all local instrument shops, rehearsal studios, and rock clubs in your area.

Now go to a bunch of new cities: Rinse, Lather, Repeat. Do this and by golly, you will have a "gorgeous"...whoops I mean "brutal" following! (after all this is metal here)

On a serious note, I have seen a lot of bands that get heavily involved in a particular "Scene." All "Scenes" are fleeting and dissipating. Never be too heavily dependent on any one particular
“Scene.” Be a “Scene-Hopper”... If you are doing it right, your life will feel more like an episode of "Dr Who?" and less like (you know you watch it) "Beverly Hills 90210."

When you start touring, you will notice that some shows you play are "better" than others (as far as attendance, audience reaction etc). Chock those nights up to good shows, rather than that area being good for Metal. The truth is, any area can be great for Metal and any area can be horrible for Metal. It’s what you make of it, hence the importance of finding your OWN audience. It's better to have a Long, Fruitful Career of touring (with Good Nights and Bad Nights in many different cities), than a Burnout career in either your hometown, or worse yet, some city you moved to because Metal is the cool thing there.

If you choose the Burnout Route (ie staying in your hometown or moving to a place where metal is cool), you will feel like a Huge Rockstar because everyone around you will know who you are. You will feel great while it's happening, but you will either hit the Glass Ceiling by oversaturating one market, or you will wake up one day 20 years from now, and realize that the "Cool Scene" that always treated you so well, has dissipated into thin air... Poof there go your dreams...

Don't be that Lame Ass Burnout who thinks the Cool Scene that he or she dominates is going to "make it."  You can waste the next 20 years of your life in The Cool Scene, or you can take my advice and Get your Fucking Brutal Metal Ass on The Road and make Something of Yourself. Your choice. Scenes everywhere await your Angry, Brilliant Music!
 
   - Sincerely
             The Fabulous Miss Wendy

Universal Language: A Super Brief History of the Pentatonic Scale

I’m sure everyone has heard the idiom ‘music is the universal language’ right? That’s definitely true for a lot of reasons but there is one reason why it is literally true and it has to do with our good friend, the pentatonic scale. Hold your moans and groans blues haters, there is a really good reason for this that some of you may not know.

The very first musical scale of repeating notes in pleasant intervals in every ancient music making culture was…drum roll please…The Pentatonic Scale. That’s right, from Asia to the Mediterranean, from Africa to the British Isles, the one thing we all have in common is that little five note scale we all know and love so well. Why is that?

Before mankind came up with modes, the circle of fifths and confusing, complicated chord names like ’ Fsus2 b5/B’, (say that five times fast) we just knew what sounded good to us so to find these notes we used our own very finely tuned instrument: The Human Ear.

Most likely after inventing the camp fire humanity noticed that a plucked string with the proper amount of tension makes a very pleasant sound. After that we discovered that if we pluck a string at half its length, we get the same note, one octave above. This is the first natural interval that sounds pleasant. Now we have two different strings to play with, one octave apart. Now the fact that this is a naturally occurring phenomenon allows for us all to discover this on our own and come up with the same scale.

So now we have our octave but we want a variety of notes to play with so the next step is to find the notes in between the octaves that sound good together. Because we discovered music before mathematics and equations, all we could do is find the next note that naturally sounded the best in relation to that first note.

There are of course several ways to discover these notes. The Egyptians created harps with a series of strings of different lengths; some ancient Chinese instruments only had a bowl and one string. Either way, they can achieve a similar goal.

 You may have noticed a phenomenon called harmonics. This is when you lightly touch a string and it produces a clear note. There are only so many places on a string that will produce a harmonic: half way, on the quarter, and on a third of the length of the string however only by plucking the string at the third of its length (7th fret on the guitar) do we get a new note.

Ah Ha! Ok, were on a roll right? We can apply this make a new string that is shorter by a third. This is the 4^th string on a 6 string harp, 6^th being one octave from the first. Take the harmonic on the third of that string and voila, we get the 2^nd string. Repeat this on the 2^nd, and we get our 5^th string, then our 3^rd and we have our scale and a harp tuned naturally to itself. Now add frets at those same intervals along a one stringed instrument with a neck and we can create melodies over the harp chords.

After our collective ears naturally picked out the whole tones and landed on five whole notes that sounded great together and stopped there for a while. And what is fascinating is that because this is a naturally occurring phenomenon  all cultures developed this scale independently from the each other and we all created harps and lutes of various kinds, all different yet quite similar is function and design. Add these to the drums and percussion instruments that came before, we have ancient bands playing music that could be easily adapted to other cultures. To me, this is absolutely amazing and equally beautiful.

So here we are, five thousand years ago and we have an ancient Egyptian, a Persian, a Celt and a Chinese musician all playing the same relative  five note scale in completely different cultures in a different context. Try it out. Find any old folk song form Japan or Syria on YouTube and try playing the relative pentatonic scale on your instrument. Chances are you will find a passable melody. Pretty cool eh?

Now today, we enjoy clashing notes, 7 note scales, semitones, diminished and minor scales, but originally, we were not inclined to find much enjoyment out of semitones, which tend to clash together when played simultaneously so naturally we landed on these pleasant sounding notes and we all thought it was hunky dory.

 Eventually, as all musicians do, we got bored of using the same scale all the time so over the millennia we added semitones, diminished scales and so forth to add complexity and variety to our music but it all started form our good old friend, the pentatonic scale.

How Music Works by John Powel

The Creation of Musical Scales http://vaczy.dk/htm/scales2.htm

Ancient Greek Origins of the Western Music Scale 2.9 http://www.midicode.com/tunings/greek.shtml

How To Enhance Your Songwriting :The Elements of Emotional and Confident Music

Figrin D'an & The Modal Nodes

There comes a time in any serious musician’s life when you stop bashing on your instrument and you start thinking about what exactly it is that you are doing. You want to write a powerful song, everyone does; so what makes a song powerful?

Music has a magical quality that is completely unique; It makes us feel. Some songs are happy, some are sad, but more complex emotions like humor, anticipation and even danger are all easily conveyed if you know how to do it. I’m sure you all know that a lot of music is written to illicit specific emotions but it’s not only what you play, it’s how you play it.

What Message Do You Want To Send?

The first thing you need to do is decide what kind song you want to write. What emotions are you trying to convey? Let’s say you want to write an uplifting song. You will probably want to use a major key with a moderate to fast paced tempo and play it with confidence. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. All You Need IsLove by The Beatles is a good example, or listen to Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 Finale.

These songs incorporate major scales and chords for a dramatic and positive emotional response form the listener. Notice that certain chords are emphasized. For example, In All You Need Is Love, The chorus is very strong, and the instrumentation is a lot more intense. Also notice that the music walks down the major scale in a very frantic way, slightly decreasing in intensity before the chorus crashes in with big, confident strokes backed by a full orchestra in full force. Very dramatic indeed.

On the other hand, if you want a more somber or reflective tone, you will most likely use a minor key at a slower pace. This tends to have a very emotional and pensive feeling. One of my favorite examples of this is Strange Weather by Tom Waits. It’s a simple tune in a 3/4 time signature. Its drags along and is interlaced with Tom’s signature gravely vocals, with a soulful sax and some clever use of horns, clarinets and trombones to add to the melancholy atmosphere.

It’s All In The Approach

The intensity, frequency, and loudness of your approach also affect the song. For instance, a waltz works because the loudness of the first beat accentuates the relative weakness of beats two and three. When this 1-2-3 pattern is repeated in this way, it gives the music that lilting quality that gives the waltz its particular and danceable characteristic.

Not To Touch The Earth by The Doors is a perfect example of the use of semitones (notes that are directly next to one another) to achieve a frantic, anticipating or nervous feel. By repeating the two semitones D and Eb with a frantic tempo, you get the sense that something dangerous is coming. This is accentuated by Jim Morrison’s mysterious lyrics in a terrific example of how the meaning of the song is enhanced by the lyrics and the atmosphere provided by the music itself.

You will want to note that each instrument has its own timbre or tone that gives it a unique quality. Oboes and baritone saxophones tend to have a sad quality while flutes and ukulele’s tend to have a brighter and happier timbre. When these instruments are used to support certain characteristics of the music, it lends to the overall emotional impact of the music as well.

Know When To Break The Rules

Of course, these rules are not strict. A minor key can be played at a quick tempo and be celebratory. I like to cite Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, more commonly known as the Star Wars Cantina Band. The song form the bar scene called Cantina Band is in the key of Dm, but uses a ragtime feel and a fast tempo to give the feeling of a celebration. It moves through the keys of C major and F major for the lifts and give the piece complexity and a genuine levity that most everyone enjoys.

Leonard Cohen, in turn, can make any song somber and reflective. Hallelujah is in C major, but in the hands of Mr. Cohen, it’s downright depressing for his low, smooth vocals over a slow tempo that meanders through the major scale and gives it a very haunting feel.

All of this goes to show that clever use of keys, scales, tempos and modes can greatly enhance your sound and the dynamics of your musical performance and take you well beyond the 3 chord blues or punk rock song. If you’re not doing it now, try experimenting a little with these techniques. Pick your favorite song. Isolate the parts that excite you the most, or have the most impact and pick it apart. What are they doing and how are they attaining that effect? Chances are they are using some of these techniques in their songwriting.

Break On Through

If you feel like you’re in a musical rut, try exploring some of these musical concepts and see if you can create something new and exciting that may re-energize your songwriting process. At the very least, these ideas may help you to write a more compelling piece for your group and might even influence your next album. If it does, make sure to thank me in your liner notes!

Ref.

How Music Works by John Powel

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/timbre.html

The Benefits Of Being A Music Teacher: How I Re Discovered My Appreciation For Rock N Roll

I’m learning a lot by teaching. I think it might be a good idea for every musician to take on at least one student. It forces you to focus on every minute detail of music. The fundamentals; the nuts and bolts. Heck, you might even discover that you missed a little here and there or that your own understanding shifts the way you look at music. It teaches you about yourself. What do you really know? Are you as good as you think you are? You’d better be because this person is going to take your knowledge and run with it. Teaching music has renewed my appreciation for all forms of expression again.

You know, lately I’ve been straying form rock n roll. Not that I have anything against it mind you, but for years, I was consumed by it…I was so involved in it that I lost myself. That can happen with Rock n Roll because rock is excess. It’s is over the top, it is everything society screams against when it’s done right. The fact that society mirrors Rock N Roll in many ways is somewhat disturbing.

 Society is on drugs all the time, staying up way too late and having far too much sex with unsavory characters. That’s what’s wrong with us- we've decided that everyone is a rockstar; every man, woman and child. Hey rockstar, its time to change your diaper again.

 You know, when you watch Star Wars, Darth Vader is awesome, but you’re not supposed to go out in the world and be Darth Vader.He is the bad guy. Rock N Roll is like Darth Vader, strong in the force and a very, very bad guy. They kind you don't take home to mother. And as cool as he is, you don't want to be like him, really. He is living in hell, his mind is constantly being tortured and he lives in constant pain. HE does look good on camera though, ill give him that, but at the end of the movie you leave his excess behind in the theater and resume your daily routine. End scene.

Society needs a reset button. That’s why I’m playing in a folk band. It’s a rocking folk band, to be sure, but it is a folk band. It’s time to drag you all the other way and pull you out of the excess, so rock can mean something more again. God bless the rockers for sacrificing their sanctity in the name of our merriment and escape.Rock has given us people to vicariously live through so that we don’t have to abandon our families, get wasted on Night Train and wake up in a puke stained hotel room with some dreadful woman in your bed. It’s no fun and besides, what do we tell our kids when we stumble through the door at 11 AM, reeking of Stolis and vomit?

Now i can appreciate it again, after taking my brief hiatus. I'm still having way too much fun playing old drunken folk songs and recalling cold winter nights in old European inn's. Everyone's dancing. I like that. It took putting it down, walking away from it to find it again. More specifically  by going back and teaching others why it is so good, I rediscovered what I love about it.

Back to teaching. Teaching allows us to impart all kinds of wisdom about music to open ears that are uninformed and opinionated. What a responsibility and what a joy. We get to go back to the roots ourselves and give it to a new generation, to see what they do with it.

The last thing I want to do is make them play like me. No, no, no. I want them to take my knowledge and write the song nobody’s thought of yet. But in order to do that, they must know everything from the ground up. Nuts and bolts. Then they can build their machinations as they see fit and our past is relived, our metal tested. Dust off the old books and try again.

So learn something about yourself by teaching someone else, you will regain an appreciation for something you never knew you lost. Long live Rock N Roll.

Lil ‘A’ and the Allnighters: Special Project

This is probably one of the most faithful contemporary recordings of classic jump blues and 12 bar blues rock n roll from the 50s-60s sound I’ve come across. Inspired by the harmonica greats like little Walter and William Clarke, this album packs a punch. Fronted by Alex ‘Lil A’ Woodson, this record simply rocks. He is supported by Joe Conde and Anthony Contreras sharing guitar duties, AJ Martel on drums and Norm Gonzales lays the foundation on the bass guitar.

 Each member serves the music and settles right in to tight grooves and boogies all night long with some of the most tasteful guitar playing your find in the genre today and a healthy dose of gritty blues harp. The bass is solid and groovy and the slick back beats, shuffles and marching New Orleans style drumming is not to be ignored either.

Low Down Dog by Smiley Lewis Kicks off with a strong blues harp and heads right into some good old fashioned 12 bar blues rock. It’s definitely for a more mature audience who appreciates the bygone era of music and reflects a musical purity that seems lost on a lot of modern music.

Then into Mellow Down Easy by Walter Jacobs is a similar vein, jumping swinging blues with superb blues harp played on top.

Off the Wall is another Little Walter tune, written for the blues Harp. It’s a classic instrumental blues and it’s executed with terrific authority and understanding. The breaks are all spot on and the backbeat is in the pocket.

Aint Gonna Do It is another Smiley Lewis song and its very jazzy number that picks it up with a solid beat and carries it throughout the song

Chicken Shack is an Amos Milburn tune. This one is right at home in a juke joint in Memphis. It brings to mind hot nights, good booze and great times.

It closes out with A.C. Boogie penned by the groups own Anthony Contreras; it’s a great little boogie woogie number that is smoking throughout.

I’ll say this, you are hard pressed to find a better 50s rock n blues band than Lil A & the Allnighters. They are tight, and have a dedication to the classic blues that really kicked off the Chess Records era of the genre in a terrific fashion and a great Homage to great players and songwriters. The boys have crafted a mighty strong blues record here so If you are a hardcore blues fanatic, you should add this lil gem to your collection.

Meeting Your Fans Will Increase Attendance For Your Shows, And Gain You New Friends Too!

Ah, time for some more sagely advice form yours truly. This is simply reiteration of some of my previous themes but it is all too important: get to know your fans. Now to some of you, this may seem elementary, but others, I find, do not mingle with the fans at all! Instead, they hang out with girlfriends and close personal friends. Now maybe you’re just shy, or maybe your just a dick who thinks you’re better than everyone else. Either way you need to get over yourself and introduce yourself to a fan. You don’t have to run around talking to everybody, although some do, but one or two fans a night is a good place to start.

I say this because it helps your fans get acquainted with you personally and intimately and when a fan becomes a friend they are far more likely to find your shows. Not only that, but they are more apt to tell their friends about your band and possibly you will make some genuine new friends to boot!

A Few weeks ago I had a chance to put this to the test. My band ( The Paper Crowns ) performed at a venue called Hangar 24. It was awesome and part of what made it so good was that before and during the show, we talked to people. I made it a point to go up and introduce myself and have a small chat with a few of the patrons and they in turn had a better time watching us perform. After the gig, they all said goodbye personally and did not feel intimidated in doing so. During the set break, a few came up to tell us how much they enjoyed the show. Man, what a feeling that is, but better than that, we had a show not two nights after and guess what? A few of those same folks came to see us! How about that? One of them that I friended on FB after the gig told me that we were on her “Travel to see
“ list of bands.

Not only did they have a good time, we had a blast with our new friends. There is another thing that works on the same level, and that is introducing yourself on Facebook to some would be fans before a show. Especially an out of town show to which you may not have an innate draw. I went and sought out some of the patrons of Pappy & Harriet’s and personally invited them to the show. I was delighted to find that when we arrived, some of them had shown up there and had brought friends! We introduced ourselves and by the time we took the stage, it was like playing for a bunch of friends.

They loved us and with the reception we got we made some real fans that night. Some of them are now following us. How glad I was that I reached out. We are expanding both our fan base and our friends list and I expect to see this trend continue and all because we were both genuine and friendly with all of the patrons and music lovers.

So if you are one of the bands complaining about low turnout and sulking in a corner, the problem is not the fans, its you. Get out there, meet folks and have a good time already.  

Review: New Blues Revolution

New Blues Revolution is a hybrid blues outfit from Long Beach CA. They are doing their own thing with the blues adding elements of 80s metal ballads, funk, country and even a little grunge. I find it refreshing that a blues group is doing their own thing with the genre as it keeps it interesting (although the blues purists out there will surely bristle at it). 

The first number is Let Me Go. It is straight blues rock with an added touch of 80’s hard rock ballad sensibilities which suits it quite well oddly enough. The vocals are deep and growling and very at home for a rock band and lends gravity to this genre of blues music. What sells it is that is not overplayed or self-indulgent like the 80s music tended to be. Definitely a bit of pain and some sorrow in there. There is a slight element of The Cult in the sound, but it’s more subdued and tasteful but make no mistake, it is a blues song and yes, the purist will argue that point, but they clearly aren’t making music for the blues Nazis out there and thank the good lord for that.

Blue Revolution is the next track and it is a straight funk n blues number. It’s fairly standard but has a great feel to it that keeps my head bobbin on the highway. But out of nowhere comes a sweet Joe Satriani-esque solo…so tasteful and sweet and really ties the piece together. That combined with a tight bass line makes it quite the worthy track.

Next we come to the Big House which is the country blues number bordering on a string band. It reminds me of being on the run form the fuzz at a little road house in the desert. It’s laid back and has the sound of a man who has been through the ringer and needs some down time. Slow and low, that’s how this song lays it all out. Very delta blues.

Sway is the next number and immediately takes me to a sunset on the beach on a warm summer night having drinks with a beautiful woman…so sweet and uncomplicated yet it has soul. It is comprised of very simple chord changes and rhythms that settle nicely in the ears.

Take Me To The River is a great Talking Heads cover that is uniquely performed and has that chugging laid back soulful sound that is the hallmark of New Blues Revolution.

Blueline closes it out and is definitely a straight up blues number with some great changes and has an almost a Dr. John feel crossed with Great White. It’s unmistakably unique and rocking at the same time. These boys have crafted a great tune.

What I like most about New Blues Revolution is their unrelenting authenticity and remarkable musicianship they bring to their music. These guys clearly mean to make music their own way and really don’t seem to care what those blues purists have to say about it which is a good thing; no one ever made anything new trying to replicate the past.

The rhythm section is solid, the guitar is tasteful when it needs to be and dynamic when it calls for it. The end result is an album of well-crafted songs played with heart, soul and an integrity that is impossible to deny. The actual album could use a bit more mastering but these guys clearly love what they do and have an innate sensibility that is evident in every track and is had to ignore. I can easily say that what little is lacking in production value is easily made up for in the quality and pure emotion on the songs themselves, which are quite infectious for a lover of blues rock, like myself.

3.75 out of five biscuits, with a heaping pile of sausage gravy smothered all over for the sheer enjoyability of the music itself. 

Favorites, by The Charles Burton Blues Band

Today I am reviewing The Charles Burton Blues Band and their album, Favorites. It is a collection of covers of some of the early roots songs that have inspired generations of blues and rock n roll acts and I must say, they do the tunes justice.  The album is rockabilly styled blues with a swinging backbeat and a solid groove throughout that keeps the whole thing shuffling onward in the most pleasant fashion. The band is in shape and it shows with a sparseness that fits the genre without bogging it down with so much flash that the beautiful simplicity is lost. It speaks volumes of the bands experience and musical knowledge that they do not need to show off their skills at every turn, but instead they serve the songs while adding their voice at the same time. 

Tell Me Why is a blues song written by Duke Robillard and is played with a Jerry Lee Lewis flair Solid groove and excellent licks in between the verses. It’s a very classic sound yet is has a certain freshness that comes from a genuine love of the material.

Turn On Your Love Light is a song originally recorded by Bobby Blue Bland and now rerecorded with a slightly slower tempo which gives it a certain groove that is somewhat unique to this song and lends it a particular signature that is wholly Charles Burton.

Key To The Highway has some great southern fried blues licks to keep it interesting and the whole song has their signature rockabilly blues sound which is rich in its authenticity and delivery.

Out of nowhere comes Sly And The Family Stone’s If You Want Me To Stay. It’s definitely a change but it somehow fits in the album and is a great rendition of this classic and it really shows off the rhythm section with a slick and tasteful bass solo, followed by some drum kit riffing, followed by an extremely bluesy guitar lead which closes the number out. IT really maintains the groove of the original but with an added flair of their own.

The album closes on Gangster Of Love, written By Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson and really takes on the sound of Muddy Waters, and is as blues as it gets on the album…it really slams home and is a nice bookend to the album.

Overall, I would have to say this recording is made by folks who really and truly love these songs and you can easily tell these numbers are where the band pulls their inspiration from simply by the way they handle these songs. Faithful yet unique in their own right. Nothing comes off as cliché or overdone. As a whole, I say they knocked this album out of the park, as far as cover albums go. Any fan of rockabilly, blues, and old time rock and roll with surely find a few gems tucked away on this one.

I rate this  4 out of five stars, with some boogie on the back end.

The Psychology Of Music : How Our Instincts Affect Our Musical Taste

So you’re another hard rock band? Get in line to be ignored, at least for a while. Maybe not by your close friends, or even a small dedicated group of listeners, but by the mainstream music buying audience and therefore the industry at large. I can back this up with science…bear with me.

 One reason may have to do with an interesting fact about music that most people may not know: our ability to appreciate music is directly related to our flight or fight response. You may be asking yourself what that has to do with anything. Let me explain.

The Psychology of Sound

We humans have evolved a highly developed sense of hearing that is primarily used for survival. Noises are either assessed for danger or deemed a non-threat. This means that when you hear a loud crashing noise or a quiet rustling, your instincts immediately evaluate the danger associated with it. Obviously a loud crashing noise to a caveman might mean a huge woolly mammoth is stampeding your way. A quite noise may mean that a stealthy predator is eyeballing the menu, namely you.

However, when a noise persists for a decent length of time, it loses its threat value and our ears put the noise in the background of our mind, training itself on something new. In other words, as soon as our ears determine the sound to be harmless, it forgets about it and moves on to another sound.

A threat is not signified by the type of sound necessarily, just the unexpected addition of it into our immediate experience, although it may seem as if a beating drum is more dangerous that the sound of the breeze, it depends also on the context. A drum may be a pleasant rhythm, or an invading army. The wind may be a harmless breeze or the coming of a dangerous storm. It it the job of our senses to examine whether or not that sound may eventually be coming from something that wants to eat us or at least give us a good thrashing!

What Once Was Dangerous Is Now Safe and Boring

How does this relate to your rock band? Well, how long have rock bands been on the airwaves?  Answer: A very long time now. Hard rock has long been assessed not to be a threat and that is why you don’t see many evangelicals yammering on about it anymore. That is why Republicans are no longer crusading against it as an evil of society. That is why there are now Christian metal bands whereas 30 years ago, it was strictly Satan’s handiwork. (Honestly, it was better when Satan was responsible for it, wasn’t it?).

Yes, Rock has lost the danger, the excitement, the rawness it once help simply because we are all so very used to it now. It’s completely safe, in and of itself, because our ears are no longer assessing its threat level. Our society had embraced it and it is just one more commodity. People want something new.

Assessing the Old as Something New Again

After a while, once we have forgotten a sound, it becomes fresh again and our senses must re assess the danger factor. This may be why we are seeing a prominence of Acoustic, folk rock and roots bands Like Mumford & Sons, Avett Brothers and Monsters of Folk or Avant Garde bands like Florence and the Machine. It is again fresh because we haven’t been bombarded with it since the 70’s, with the brief exception of MTV unplugged in the 90’s.

This is also why after a while, a musical era dies and makes way for a new one so eventually hard rock will once again reign supreme but in order for that to happen, society must put it on the back burner for a while.

Why Some Bands Have Staying Power and Others are Forgotten

Now, you may be wondering why certain bands never seem to go out of style and the reason is similar. The bands that have staying power simply change how they sound and how they play or their sound is fairly diverse to begin with. Changing the intensity, the tempo and the timbre of your music plays with this fight or flight response. For instance, the reason why a sudden stop catches your attention is the same reason why you get concerned when you can’t hear the kids making their normal ruckus. It’s a dangerous quiet…the quiet that tells you something important has just happened and you don’t yet know the extent of the damage but one thing is certain is that the sudden silence is suddenly different form the droning noise that was just happening and it grabs your attention.

It’s also why good rock bands don’t just hammer away at power chords all the time, they change tempo, play arpeggios, let certain notes ring out and play with harmony. They constantly demand your instinct to assess the situation and once there is no perceived threat, your ear automatically reduces the input and the sound guess to the background. As a band, you generally don’t want to remain in the background so you change your dynamic.

Drawbacks With The Standard Rock Band Format

This brings me back to the rock band format we all know and love: drums, an electric guitar or two, bass and vocals. This format was radical in the 50’s and changed music when Dylan adapted it. It’s quite common today so you don’t feel all that impressed by the suggestion of a lineup like this. The sound produced by this format is simply nothing new to anyone’s ears, no matter how many affects you run through it.

When you play with the standard rock format, people will listen for what is familiar to them and if you’re going to give them the same old power chords and progressions as everyone else, nobody will really care, except for said friends and family. Yes, the crowd may initially respond well, or at least not badly, but they may not immediately download all of your songs because you won’t be giving them anything they don’t have already.

I assume that you don’t usually listen to one song over and over again or one band all the time, and neither will your audience. As a performer, the trick is to find new ways to trigger that fight or flight response in the audience. This is why it is important that you include various scales, chord progressions and tempos.

This is why bands with unusual lineups catch attention. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, for instance, have about 20 people in their band, singer’s piano, acoustic instruments, electric ones, hand drums, a trumpet, an accordion and a bunch of starving musicians! (Seriously, how do you get paid in that band?) Doesn't that sound like something you would want to see?

If you want to make a strong impression, find chord combinations that favor one another yet move the music forward and alters the dynamics of the song. Add new instrumentation that is not so common. Perhaps your song can swell with intensity as the music builds, or it can break down in the middle and come back, but you absolutely positively need to change what you’re doing from time to time and keep things interesting or be forgotten and reduced to background noise

Refrences:

How Music Works by John Powell

Musical Cognition by Dowling and D.L. Harwood 

Why It Is Important To Know When To Open For Someone Bigger Than You

The Paper Crowns

Good Monday Morning Everyone. I realize I may come across as if I know what the heck I’m talking about all the time. This is not necessarily the case. I am full of mistakes, which is OK because there are lessons to be found in mistakes.

Learn From Your Past

This past weekend, we made a mistake. Not a big ol pie-in-the-face- kind of mistake, but more of a missed opportunity kind of mistake. My band, The Paper Crowns ( Note: the video clip is before I joined the group), had a show at The Vault Martini Bar in Redlands, CA this past Saturday and a group called Mad Marionettes opened. We were both very good.

Talent Does Not Automatically Grant You Fans

Although we both killed it on stage,having been together for at least six years the Marionettes have more fans.The Paper Crowns have been playing for over a year so were still growing ours and by the time we took the stage, about ¼ to 1/3 of the crowd left. The rest of the crowd was comprised of our current fan base and a few stragglers from the Mad Marionetts.

Recognize The Benefits of Being an Opening Act

First let me say, it was a blast. We were on our game, as were the Marionettes who stayed for our set and danced their collective arses off. Everyone did.

However, what we should have done was open for them. We could have gained new fans by playing to their crowd, many of whom had never heard of us before. And thus, today's lesson: Don’t be stuck on a particular slot because you think your god enough instead be wise  enough to recognize that if there is a band with a bigger following than you, you have more to gain by playing to those people who will leave after the band they have come to see is done.

Perhaps when performing with bands who share equal admiration with each other, it can be flipped. The new fans you gain, may stay next time to hear you instead of bolting off, and then everyone wins.

So when booking your band, be sure you consider the potential to broaden your fanbase by opening for someone else. It’s a good way to grow your following and until Austin City Limits is knocking on your door, you are going to have to sacrifice top billing now and again. 

The benefits are all there and we learned that next time, we will open for Mad Marionettes simply because we can increase our own base and then share that base with another equally deserving band and they can do likewise. It’s a win-win for all involved if you can sacrifice your ego and realize the potential in such a move.

Happy Birthday John Paul Jones

Today we celebrate the birth of one of the greatest composers in music history, as well as one of the greatest bass players of all time, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. He is largely responsible for laying the foundation of some of the greatest Zep songs alongside John Bonham but what many people don’t know is that all the mandolins, recorders and subtle layers on the Zeppelin albums are actually Jones as well. The man is one of the busiest men in all of music!

 He is a producer, a session man and has been featured on a variety of other artist’s albums from Foo Fighters to Heart and has played live with the likes of Govt Mule, Phil Collins and Ben Harper. Among his other talents, he plays the mandolin, piano, guitar and mando cello and god knows what else.

His intensity, sincerity and all around musical-ness is evident as soon as you pop in a Led Zeppelin album and hear Black dog, Heart breaker, How Many More Times, etc. He drives the songs home with infectious and swinging bass lines the like of which was never heard before.

Both he and drummer John Bonham had a love of Motown’s music, soul, and funk and it definitely shows up in many zeppelin albums, just listen to Ramble On, the bass line is unmistakably groovy and distinctly influenced by the Stax sound. It also happens to be my favorite bass line of all time.

What makes him so special is not only his innate musical sensibilities, but also his versatility and ability to weave through pop culture unnoticed yet be incredibly influential at the same time. I could spend the rest of the article just listing the names he’s worked with in one facet or another. If I was to ask you what to Peter Gabriel and The Butthole Surfers have in common, the answer would be John Paul Jones.

Jesus, every time you turn around, the guy is into something new and he’s 67! Crimeny!

If you want to know to rock, study the man and see what it’s all about!* He has been an influence on Geddy Lee, Flea, Gene Simmons, Les Claypool, and just about any bass player you can shake a dead cat at. Why? Because he is just so damned good at what he does. Innovative and yet in the pocket. Stylish yet aggressive. He adds so many layers of sound yet he does not overburden the music with it. He knows precisely where to be and how to get there. This man is probably my biggest influence and in my opinion, one of the people most responsible for most of the music we listen to today. And so I say Happy 67^th birthday John Paul Jones!

*Here is one of his more current projects, Them Crooked Vultures featuring Dave Grohl ( Foo Fighters) and Josh Homme ( Queens of the Stone Age)

A Call To Action: Why We Should All Be Demanding Payment For Performing

Now that we have started yet another year, perhaps you can add one more resolution to your list: demanding payment for your performances. All of you. I know that a lot of you already do, so I suppose this article is not for you.

 No, I’m writing to the as of yet unpaid musicians, or even some of the one’s that may play free because they like a certain place. I see a lot of free gigs happening out there and it’s time for this to stop.

Are You Getting Ripped Off?

Think about it: These venues are using you and they’ve been getting away with it for far too long. What they are telling you is that they can’t afford it but what they are actually saying is that you’re not worth it. And guess what? By going along with it, you are agreeing with their sentiment.

Now, think about the places you normally play. How hard is it to get payment out of them? Now think about the kind of business they do. Are they doing well? Do you frequently see customers? IF, so, they can afford to pay you to entertain their customers. After all, we provide a service for them and bringing them business, they very least they could do, is pay us for that service.  If they are in business, they can afford to pay you. If you need help negotiating, you can read my article series on negotiating a better deal here.

I know a lot of you will say “I don’t do it for money, I do it for the love of performing” or “It’s not about getting paid, it’s about music”. I call Bullshit! Please spare me your hippie mentality. Tell me you would turn down a couple hundred bucks if you could get it; I think not! If it was just about the music, you can make that at home.

Think About the Larger Community

This leads me to my next point; you are making it harder for those of us who rely on music to make a living. Many of us value our services and we need to get paid to perform and bring home a paycheck, so to speak. Believe it or not, there was a time when musicians got paid and on a regular basis, and large sums of money.

 In my article with Dino Madellone, we talked about how getting a seven hundred dollar pay out at the end of the night was not uncommon in the 70’s. The 70’s! Of course, you had to be good, but most of you reading this are. Most of you are at least second tier groups who could potentially have earned five hundred a night. That’s right, many of you struggling to earn three or four hundred a night (like myself) would have done quite well in the ‘good old days’. Why is this not so now?

You Have Value

Well, for one thing, there are far too many of you who are willing to work for free. Maybe you don’t know that you are worth something, but you are. If you have an hour or more worth of material, keep the crowd entertained, you are worth at least three hundred bucks, if not more but you can’t get it because there is always some other group who will undercut you, and there is a group who will undercut them, and so on until the restaurant, coffee house, bar, or whatever, finds the cats who will play for free, just to play in front of people. We need stop undercutting each other and start demanding a payday. If they won’t pay, don’t play.

Create Your Own Scene

If you absolutely have to play in front of people, throw a house party! Remember those? Man, back in the 90’s, we used to have amazing house parties and those house parties had amazing bands. In the 1990’s in Riverside, we had the best house parties with bands like Alien Ant Farm, Applekore, Spiderworks, The Skeletones, Voodoo Glow Skulls, to name but a few. 

Those parties were amazing. We charged five bucks at the door, and that gave access to the kegs and music. The bands got paid (usually) and everyone had a blast. That was before social media. Think of what we could do now, with the advent of Facebook and social media? We could take the business from the “We Don’t Pay” venues and perhaps they would think twice. Also, it would greatly build our audience as well.

Go Where You Are Appreciated

But really, my bigger point is that we have to let the venues know that if they are unwilling to pay performers, we performers can take our act elsewhere and make money. It’s been far too long that we musicians have had to settle, and I’m not buying the ‘In this economy… “argument. I see Starbucks filled everyday with schmucks willing to pay five to seven bucks for a cup of coffee so they damn well can afford to sit and but a few drinks and watch bands, or pay a five dollar cover to see us play.

What I am asking, may seem like pie in the sky, and it probably is, but I am going to ask you all anyways. Learn how to negotiate with these venues. If they don’t want to pay out, don’t play. Yes, it means turning down gigs you yourself have tried to book, but if you can’t get the club or venue to value your art, they don’t care about you. They may tell you something else, but it’s just an excuse to not pay you what they owe you. It requires a certain sacrifice but eventually, you will find a place that will pay you then share that venue with your fellow bands and tell those bands what you were paid so that they can receive the same amount. If we start promoting for those venues and getting those venues more quality acts, it will only help us.

Once we start performing for the select few clubs who will pay and only those clubs, we will start commanding a little more respect but first we have to respect ourselves enough to commit to the premise, as I have done. Once I decided that I would no longer play for nothing, I got hired in a working band and I started getting paying gigs. It can happen but we as a community of professionals or would be professional musicians need to band together and help each other out. It means sacrificing a gig or two, but in the big picture, it means getting paid and I’ll take one or two paying gig over five non-paying gigs in a heartbeat.

Why Pay To Play?

As far as Pay to play, well, that is a joke! The club that comes to mind on that first is the Whiskey A Go-Go in Hollywood. They are going to want you to buy tickets form them and sell them to your fans. This strategy is only worth it if you can land a night with a big name headliner otherwise, forget about it. You will eat that 600 bucks just to play a shitty little place that nobody really goes to anymore.

 Perhaps if you can sell enough tickets to make your money back and some on top, it may be worth it, but in order to make that happen, you need to build a solid following and if you have sixty or more people who will pay ten bucks to see you play, you are beyond the point of having to play places like that without being the headlining spot and getting paid for it as well. Bottom line is that it is a racket, they make a killing off of ignorant bands who just want to add the name to their resume`. Fuck that! Besides if no one played to play at the whiskey anymore, well, they’d either have to start paying flat out or they would have to close shop.

God forbid, they clean the place up and hire good bands that could command an audience and a decent ticket price. Never have I seen a lousy dump like this trade in on their past glory as much as the Whiskey. Instead, we should be focusing on building up our venues around our own hometowns and yes, it may hurt them initially, but after that, they may see an increase in business by hiring quality bands that draw paying customers and we may be able to respect ourselves once again. 

The east coast does it. I could move back out there and play the east coast circuit and get paid to do it because they really value good musicians out there and recognize the value in great performances and that in turn, bring customers in on a regular basis who know they will see a performer that won’t chase them out the door in under five minutes.

Demand Respect, Show Respect

So, don’t let these venues bully you around or get away with their cheap excuses, demand payment or play somewhere that cares about you and their own customers enough to pay you. In return, promote your shows, get active in your community and do your part to draw a crowd and let the venue know you are worth it as well. After all, it’s a two way street right?

Finally, lets share the venues with our fellow bands and help share the wealth, so to speak.

 If you score a good gig that pays, let your friends in the music community know about it and get them on board. This way we can build up the places we like, and ignore the places we don't. Perhaps this will send a clear message to promoters and clubs: pay good bands and you will book good bands. 

For one, you can try The Vault in Redlands, they pay. Call them up and ask for their booking agent. or email them at bookingthevault@gmail.com

Maybe I’m crazy, but I think if we all start standing for one another and the music scene in general, we can improve our collective careers.

I would love to hear your thought on this so please comment below and let’s further the discussion.