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So I had fun today on a percussive mission that left me feeling like an extra in a Cheech and Chong film ... Theo had damaged a piece of his gear and I'd volunteered to track down a replacement. Many phone calls involved, still hunting, but I am now loving that each phone call went something like this ...

Shop assistant: Hello, Anonymous Music, can I help?
Rosie (in best hoarse voice): Hey man, do you have a bongo head?
Shop assistant: (insert silence)
Rosie: (insert grin)

... you get the idea.

BTW just a reminder we're playing at the venerable Bald Faced Stag in Leichardt this Sunday from 7:30pm - previewing some acoustic songs that we've just finished recording for our next release, as well as songs from our current album Nuevo Retro.

Cheers,

Rosie

In honour of Carl, our Gold Plated Roadie having achieved a ranking of Level 2 Roadie, it gives me great pleasure to bestow upon him his Official Roadie Merit Badges.
 
Gaffer Tape Expert, Level 1
For meritorius deployment of Gaffer Tape in a non-hostage situation

Howdy Folks. well I forgot to take my blogging cam with me, but what a grand night. Last night saw some good blues in Sydney with the Burwood Blues & BBQ's festival featuring most of Sydney's top acts so you would have been forgiven for thinking we'd have a quiet night at the Bald Rock...but no.

People were out, still in football fever mode (Theo's over the moon about Hollands performance) and what i thought was going to be a quiet evening turned into a long, late and jumping one. Thanks to our visitors from Wagga and some familiar faces, we played until close to midnight from an 8pm start, including (I counted) a 20 minute boogie.

Now the 'boogie' (official name, 'over yonder') have been steadily lengthening - Paul wants to top 25 minutes for a single song. Insane? yes! Fun? Definitely.

Cheers to Happy, Lisa and her blonde twin, Darren, Flossy, Jude, Lee and the G Man and everyone from last night. The boys were still recovering from their cumnock adventure, but they were able to get back up and do it all again, including the new material, which is starting to settle in quite nicely.

Rosie was simply on fire last night and I think he hit everything he aimed at. Repo has started explaining to the audience how to do a sing along and everything fell into place. In a bizarre, inexplicable brain function, I've memorised all the new lyrics. I brought my trusty falling-apart lyrics folder with me, with everything written out in BIG easy to read font (what point size is handwriting? hmm) and found I didnt need it. I am not sure how my brain cleared out space to fit new lyrics in, probably at the expense of something I'd previously know, such as how to pull up my pants or something.

Performance and vibe wise, I'd rate last nights gig as Officially Approved (from now on, that's how you drive!)  - it will be interesting to see if we remain as cohesive as we head into the next weekends worth of gigs, or whether that was just one of those good vibe nights. We'll see.

Oh and if you want to see, come to the Pendle Inn or the Bald Faced Stag next weekend and see how we're doing!

The G-Man has given me the raw wav files to have a listen to. The next step was splitting the long sequences into takes and listening to them to find the best ones.

The recordings from the first day (tuesday) weren't saved, so that only leaves recordings from Wed/Thurs and Friday. Shouldn't be too many? Right?

55 takes. 55 takes in three days. Yikes.

IMHO everything except Snowy's song and the acoustic version of Same Old Blues are OK. Snowy sounds like the vocals are pushing too hard (too high for my register), so not sure what to do about that. Same Old Blues will be better electric than acoustic, but it was worth a shot.

The stand out recordings for me so far are Rest My Bones and The Way She Smiles. You can hear the rain falling during Rest My Bones - it's eerie. So now we have to have to obligatory discussion about which takes are the takes.

Over the next few weeks we'll be adding any overdubs and harmonies, then who knows what we'll do with it. As a (truly) independent outfit, no one is hollering at us to finish the project and we've already released 1 album this year. How keen can ya get?

Hmm....I think we're still planning on starting the next album this year anyway. Ok. It's official. We're keen.

More Articles …

  1. Stormcellar at the Bald Rock Hotel Balmain, This Saturday Night 10 July, 8pm free
  2. Carls Chair Report - MJEB Report - Part 1
  3. Cumnock Day 5-6
  4. Cumnock Day 3-4
  5. Cumnock Day1-2
  6. avalon and wallacia gigs cancelled this weekend
  7. Getting ready
  8. Carls' Chair / Dirt Music pre-production underway
  9. Pi and Dee Why - weekend gig report!
  10. Happy Birthday to the Sydney Blues Society!
  11. Stormcellar comes to Cumnock
  12. Stormcellar at Pendle Inn Sat 19th June and Time and Tide Hotel Dee Why Sunday Arvo 20th June