12/6/2009-BAND PRIMER-Picking Songs in a Cover Band-Songs You Want to Play or Songs Off the Radio-Pt.2

Posted on December 6, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

BAND PRIMER

DECEMBER 2009

PICKING SONGS IN A COVER BAND-SONGS YOU WANT TO PLAY OR SONGS ON THE RADIO-PART 2

Hi there! Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.Last month we started talking about what songs to play if you’re in a cover band-specifically playing popular songs off the radio to hopefully help in bringing in people, getting paid & keeping the club owner happy. However, with a number of musicians, the thought of playing popular songs makes them want to puke-and/or they’ll play popular songs-albeit one’s popular 20 to 30 years ago. Let’s take on the older popular songs 1st.

-When you are doing covers, you’re basically playing the role of a jukebox-albeit a living, breathing one. One thing to keep in mind. Just because you-as a musician- like a song does not mean everyone else does. There’s nothing wrong w/ that BTW. Generally-when playing covers, you’re not there to express yourself, show your ability or other “artistic” things. You’re there to provide a service to the people. Some musicians have a hard time understanding this. Some never do.It’s one reason why DJ’s replace bands. Being “artistic” w/ covers is another subject best left for a future article.

-With older popular songs. It really depends on the song. One good thing to do is go see the popular cover bands in your area & check out what they’re playing. More importantly, see how their crowds react to them. While there are a number of factors involved, chances are if you hear a certain song getting a great reaction a number of times, consider adding it to your set list (keeping in mind factors like style, ability, etc.). This is true with any type of cover song. When it comes to doing older covers, you have to take your audience into consideration. Do you generally draw an older crowd? They might not be into the newer stuff. Same goes with younger crowd w/ older stuff.

-I can hear it already from older musicians-“But what about Guitar Hero/Rock Band video games? There’s a whole new audience for the older stuff. We can play all the classic tunes and they’ll love it!” Maybe-maybe not. Here’s a catch to that-yes, those games introduced that music to the younger generation-but when you were their age,did you generally go see local bands where the age difference between you & them was 15-20+ years? Most people would say no. Young people might be getting into the older stuff, but generally if they want to see a local band play it live, they want a band that’s around their age.group.playing it.

-I know a lot of musicians/bands who don’t want nothing to do with covering modern music-they want to play like it’s the 80’s (for ex.)-and that’s fine per say. Just realize that every year more people that are into that scene leave for various reasons and the crowds for it get smaller & smaller.My friend Mike Merrifield said it best-“Every year someone who’s into the older scene leaves it-never to return. It happens when people get older. On the flip side, every year someone turns 21 and enters the scene-and, for the most part, they want to hear “their” music-not their “Dad’s.” It can be a very bitter pill for musicians to swallow. Of course, there are exceptions to this-as well as other variables to take into account…

-Out of space! Have a Merry X-mas & a Happy New Year! Cya in 2010!

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12/2/2009-PETS-Surprised Kitty Video :)

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

So cute 🙂

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11/8/2009-BAND PRIMER-Picking Songs in a Cover Band-Pt.1

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

-Before I start, I just wanted to say that-although it seems like there was a 2-3 month gap between articles, there’s no gaps at all. I just messed up on the dates and stuff. So I’ll start putting the BP’s in here when the paper comes out-it’ll be easier to keep track-I hope. 🙂 Without further ado…

BAND PRIMER

NOVEMBER 2009

PICKING SONGS IN A COVER BAND-SONGS YOU WANT TO PLAY OR SONGS ON THE RADIO-PART 1

-Hi everyone! Last month I talked about playing cover songs within your abilities-or just slightly higher than them to work on your skills. The next issue is often highly debated among musicians. When playing covers, do you pick songs that are part of your influences and that you-as a musician-want to play? Or…do you play what is on good to heavy rotation on the radio? It’s rare that the two meet. I’ve known people to quit the bands they’re in over this issue. How to avoid getting to that point? Read on…

-1st, as I’ve mentioned in past articles, you have to have a clear idea of what your band is about; what style it’s music is, and what it is that you wish to accomplish. It’s akin to writing a business plan. If everyone in the band is clear about all this, picking cover songs becomes less of a chore.

-When performing, does anyone ever say that you sound like another band/musician? If you’ve heard that a number of times, it would be good to grab some songs from that band/musician to cover-you already have a jump on other bands that cover the same material. For example, I’ve been told more times than I can count that when I sing I sound like Paul Stanley-especially on KISS songs. And since my band-CAROLINE BLUE-writes music in a similar style, it’s only natural that we’d pick KISS songs to cover.Don’t pick too many though-or, if you do, plan on rotating them so you might play maybe 2-3 songs from the same artist in any given night. Cover bands are basically viewed like jukeboxes-albeit breathing ones. This is especially true if all you do is play covers-which leads to my next point..

-If you’re a pure cover band that wants to play all night and make money-as well as get return gigs-your best bet is play popular cover songs-specifically ones on the radio. If you go w/ this approach, your goal is to get as many people to your shows as you can and get them on the floor moving-not because you want to see how well people do/butcher dance moves, but because doing that will get a person thirsty-leading them to go to the bar to buy drinks (which if you haven’t noticed, usually have a lot of sodium in them). The more money you can help generate for the bar/club, the happier the owner will be and the more you’ll get paid. Go to any scene and watch the top cover bands there. Are they playing obscure covers? For the most part, no. They’re playing the hits-what is familiar to people. That’s 1 of the reasons why original bands have a harder time building a crowd initially. More on this in another article.

-But what if you have musicians in your band who think all the stuff on the radio is puke-invoking and all the “good” stuff is what’s not played on the radio and/or the old stuff from 10-20 years ago? You’ll have to come back next month to read my thoughts on that 🙂

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11/6/2009-CAROLINE BLUE-New Caroline Blue Dance Video?

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

-Is this the new CAROLINE BLUE Dance Video? Shake it baby! 🙂

CAROLINE BLUE

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11/3/2009-ACTING-I’m Going to be in a Movie (‘Ms. Cannibal Holocaust’)

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

-On Friday November 6, 2009 Director Ron Bonk will be releasing his new movie called “Ms. Cannibal Holocaust.” featuring Nicola Fiora-who has been in several other horror films-& Kellyn Lindsay. I originally auditioned for a role, but didn’t make it. This was back in December 2008. It was a unique experience cause the trial run was suppose to be me in a bed scene w/ a woman-but at the audition it was just me in a chair w/ a guy next to me playing the role of the woman-plus it was my 1st actually audition for a movie so I was nervous & didn’t do as well as I think I could’ve. But now I know what to expect and in the future I plan on doing much better.

-Anyways, Ron had several other minor roles available and, if I had the time, I would’ve probably hit on all of them but we all know how I am currently with time right? (HA!). So I landed a role as a gang member-one of 3 or 4 who attack Nicole in a flashback scene. I have to admit I was hesitant when I read the script cause the scene involved us not only kidnapping Nicole, but also a rape scene. But it’s just a movie ¬not real-but I have to say thru the whole shooting, it really felt strange-but that’s part of acting right? I know my fellow gang members-Brian Hewitt & David Schmitt (plus a few others) were feeling the same way.

-The scene I was in was filmed on Thursday 3/17/09.It was in this atmospheric area under a building on Warren Street in downtown Syracuse, NY. I arrived at around 4 PM & they were in the middle of shooting some other scenes. We didn’t get to our scene until around 8 PM or so. I didn’t really know what to dress up as (I’d never been a thug-HA!) so Ron had sent me some pics-which I used for reference when I got all the clothes at a Salvation Army Store. Ron didn’t like the shirt I’d bought but everything else was fine. There were 2 main scenes I was in-both were “flashback” scenes. The 1st was just after another girl had been killed (played by Rebecca Wemesfelder) and me, Dave & Brian were trying to take a struggling Nicola into another area. Me & David see the “camera” and slowly/menacingly we walk towards it. We did that a few times. One of the crew guys said it looked like we going to come rip his head off! Guess we did good :). The next scene was the actual rape scene. It was actually Nicola’s 1st time at filming this type of scene-although she did say that there was a rape scene in all of the next 3 scripts she had. That was shot several times-for different angles and stuff. One of the guys said out loud that this felt so wrong and we all agreed-but it’s acting

-I had dabbled a little in acting in the past (I was on local TV a few times in my high school days and was in a few plays before that) and, of course, I’ve done music videos w/ CAROLINE BLUE. This was quite an experience and I’m grateful that Ron gave me the opportunity to part of this. I met some great people & made a bunch of new friends with this. Will I be doing more movie stuff? Time will tell….

-For those of you who’d like to see the movie, it’s going to be playing at The Redhouse in Syracuse, NY on Friday 11/6 @ 8 PM. You can get tickets for the show (which is part of the B-Movie fest which is starting this weekend) by going to http://b-movie.com/catalog3/product_info.php?products_id=119577&osCsid=o18vmo8gtu3knv5b76erdid5v4

-As an added “bonus” if you do go to the movie, afterwards-just a few blocks away-is the Half Penny Pub-where my band CAROLINE BLUE is playing this night & admission is FREE! I’ll be putting up some pics later on today.The 1st band-Clean Slate-goes on @ 10 PM and we go on after that till 2 PM.

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10/15/2009-BAND PRIMER-Picking Songs in a Cover Band-Pt.1-Play Within Your Ability

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

BAND PRIMER

OCTOBER 2009

PICKING SONGS IN A COVER BAND-PT.1-PLAY WITHIN YOUR ABILITY

-So you’re in a band-now what? I’m going to start with being in a cover band 1st and then, in later articles, go into doing your own songs. A good way to do things is to start with covers and then gradually add in your own stuff. But for now, let’s focus on the beginning.

-The 1st thing you should do is look at the band and see what the strengths/weaknesses are-or more specifically, what the limitations are-especially with your singer. This is closely followed by what genres of music you want to cover as well as what songs to learn-all of which we’ll cover in future articles.Many bands will make a huge list of songs that, vocally, goes all over the place. If you happen to have a singer who has a wide range-count your blessings. Most bands don’t-yet will subject their singers to all sorts of ranges. For example, I was invited to jam w/ a band earlier this year. They were having trouble finding a singer. One look at their set list reveled why. They wanted a singer who could go as high as Shinedown (“Save Me”) to as low as Godsmack (“Bad Religion.”) If possible, the singer should be the one who chooses the songs-since he/she will know their range & limits. Bands can get around this by changing the key of the song and this works most of the time. Even a 1/2 step change will do wonders. Make sure everyone agrees to this-some bands have “purists” in them and will not accept playing a song unless it’s exactly like the recording-key and all. When I was in a Black Sabbath tribute band years ago-one of the members would not change the key of the song “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” to accommodate the singer-who was already pushing his voice in the normal parts. When it came to going higher later on in the song, he would sound like someone was ripping his vocal cords out of throat-not good-yet that other guy would not change the key of the song. Needless to say, that song didn’t last long.

-This can also applies to the other musicians in the band. While guitarists/bassists/keyboardists can change keys (and drummers can still hit the same beats), their concern is usually one of technique & feel. Pick songs within your limits or-if you think you can work up to it in a short time-songs that are a little above your playing. I like to do that cause it helps me to improve my playing. There’s no use picking a song by Dragonforce if your guitarist sounds like Ace Frehley (KISS)-it just wouldn’t work. This works the other way too-Sometimes musicians focus so much on their technique that they can’t play simpler stuff without it sounding like a chops fest.While that might be nice for other musicians, most people don’t like it and let you know by leaving-not good for the bar or your band. Stay tuned for more next month!

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10/1/2009-HIRED GUN-Filling in on Bass w/ White Noise @ Dominicks in Oswego, NY on Friday 10/2

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Wayne W. Johnson

Hiya!

-I’m going to be filling in on bass (being a hired gun so to speak) with the band White Noise Friday night at Dominicks in Oswego,NY. I filled in with them back in January at the same place. Their set list is as varied as ever (see my post from 1/24 to get a gist of it) and it should be fun-plus I’m making some money so that always helps! 🙂

-I’ll be back sometime Saturday with a show recap & hopefully some pics. If you happen to be in the area, drop by and say hi! I’ll have my hair tied back and glasses on-I have to read music from a stand ( I can learn songs-for the most part-quick but re-learning 40+ songs taxes even my memory). It’s going to be a good time. I should have some pics too.

-Wish me good luck!

*READ WWJ’s SHOW REVIEW IN THE 1ST COMMENT*

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