cheddatom

The first ever paying customer to my recording studio, an old dude from Stoke, told me that he wrote Purple Rain and he had proof, but didn't want to sue Prince because he seems nice

So cool

I had this recently at a really nice pub with great (but expensive) beer. The last two times we were there we got free beer all night. Last time they just charged me. I'm far too british to ask why so I just paid up

Salty Dog in Northwich last night. I love this venue. We had a bit of a dodgy sound check. I'm on drums and they just mic up the bass drum here. He was just getting loads of boomy feedback. I tried to say in the nicest possible way that it was feeding back, probably due to too much gain, or far too much low end on the system/EQ, but the sound guy looked a bit stressed and I always feel so nervous about treading on toes with sound guys. Anyway, for our 1hr 40m set the only way to make my bass drum heard was to stamp the pedal like it had murdered my cats. My calf is seriously sore this morning. I took a look at the desk after and sure enough the low EQ knob was turned all the way up on channel one, with the fader right down as obviously he couldn't use it due to the feedback caused by the EQ. Very weird I wish there was a handbook on how to tell the sound guy what to do without pissing him off It was a great gig anyway, lots of laughter and loads of tunes we don't usually play, ace night

Katie Fitzgerald's in Stourbridge on Saturday night. The stage is cramped but I don't care because the drums and bass sound so f*cking brilliant in that room. It could be something to do with the hollow wooden stage and curved stone ceiling? I've forgotten most of what I learned about acoustics at uni. Anyway, we played 24 songs and I was totally knackered afterwards - ace gig!

In-Cider Festival yesterday at Pontins near Weston Super Mare. It was the first gig this year and it was ace. I forgot how great it felt. Can't wait to keep going now!

Looking forward to it!

very nice! Terrible production compared to Billie Eilish though

It seems to me, when the music stops for 2 bars and she says "Duh", that is very unusual for popular music. I can't think of another example like that.

I'd never heard that track so I just put it on. It's a standard 4 chord pop tune with dated synth sounds, same constant 4/4 beat all the way through. Bad Guy is extremely minimal. Generic bassline I'd agree but the majority of the sound is made from a quietly sung vocal which some very cool harmonies. The whole sound is very original IMO, almost as original as Bjork on her album Medulla - except this is full of "hooks" meaning it has mass appeal. On top of that, there are big breaks in the beat which is very unusual in pop music. Then the outro is very different, bares almost no relation to the rest of the track and yet fits. Obviously it's all subjective but IMO is a production masterpiece and very original in those terms

What about Billie Eilish with Bad Guy? It sounds very original to me and would have sounded out of place in the 90s, and it was a HUGE single

I often put stuff in my basket, and then think of the unknown expenses that might be in my future, shake my head at how stupid I am, and then empty the basket ...but yeh is it really pretty?

I'd never heard Clean Up Woman before, awesome groove, thanks for that!

I play drums in a pretty heavy band. On the last album there was a song with a riff, which was pretty good, but there wasn't anything really taking the lead in the mix. We put some nice lead guitar on it but it still didn't feel right. I suggested tambourine and the other guys laughed at me, until they heard it. Obviously it'd be out of place on stage at a metal show but on the album it really works

It's the tambourine surely! Take the tambourine out and it'd be a totally different groove

I played drums on Friday night, still not sure if I should be risking it with my sprained wrist. A few people helped me with all of my gear which was really nice, and then I took some painkillers and 4 pints of beer. It got me through, and actually I played really well, but it was probably a bad idea. I still can't play bass and I have a gig on Thursday!

There are loads of bad photos of me but I finally found one I like! From last Thursday at the Rescue Rooms

Thursday night I played at Rescue Rooms in Nottingham and it was awesome. I managed to sprain my wrist during load out. Had to cancel Friday's gig and I'm worried about this weekend. Can't even play guitar at the moment let alone drums.

I've not been able to post since but I did two gigs supporting New Model Army last week Tuesday we played at The Live Rooms in Chester. There was something seriously wrong with the PA, no idea how they managed to take so long to fix it, but it meant our soundcheck was just a very brief line check. This normally wouldn't bother me but the rest of the band (who are big NMA fans) had got me nervous for the first time in ages! It was sold out too so a pretty important gig. Anyway, the sound was crap on stage, and probably out front, but it didn't matter at all. The crowd loved us! Wednesday we played the Boiler Shop in Newcastle. This is such a cool venue. A huge old warehouse with loads of history, done up in a very modern fashion. Brilliant soundcheck and we played really well. We've been asked to support on another date next year so that'll be cool

It's not something I've ever come across before. Are there any particular projectiles you'd recommend?

Is this part of your show? You plant 9 audience members each with inflatable novelty items to throw at the band?

It sounds like chorus but there there are some parts you can hear two plucks (almost) at the same time, so it might just be double tracked. I think you're boosting in the right place, 500Hz. There's nothing above 2KHz at all so maybe cut out all the top end. There's a little bit of dirt there. That could be from the desk pre-amp or over driving the tape input or from a compressor... I don't think a distortion pedal would do that for you. Maybe a compressor I guess some Jaco aficionado will know exactly how it was done.

Sorry to read this! Hopefully you find another band that's a bit less hectic. All the best

Cool! We were on at 8 so I guess it was you lot I heard while we were loading out. We played the small stage at the end of the room. Decent size crowd who were singing back to us, but the sound was pretty bad. I think the guy was just expecting standard 3 or 4 piece punk bands with amps but our guitarist uses a pod for his electric and switches between than and an acoustic. It took about 40 minutes to get everything working before we went on. The sound guy was clearly very annoyed. Oh well, still good fun! There's always such a great atmosphere at the punk gigs

I have a few songs in very weird times like 13/8. It's a lot easier to just count in with 4