cheddatom

@Billy Apple did he happen to mention if the different kinds of ear plugs were any better or worse?

Sorry, I thought you'd got me the wrong way round! That's very weird that we have the opposite experience. I wonder if it's to do with the shape of our ears? I've been quite tempted by the custom moulded ones but I'm very prone to losing things, and I'm very used to the earplugs I use, so it seems more trouble than it's worth

I'm saying I get that effect with ear defenders (industrial over ear headphones without speakers) but I don't get that effect with the standard disposable foam plugs.

I'm sure I get more of that effect when wearing ear defenders, as opposed to ear plugs. I love to wear ear defenders when playing drums, but there's one bassist I play with, who likes a very dubby sound, and if I wear my ear defenders it feels like my whole head is vibrating and makes me feel a bit queasy - similar to the feeling I get if I'm in a car doing over 50mph with only one window down, which I'm sure is a pressure related thing

I found the title suitably shocking so I had to read what it was all about. The title is "ear plugs don't work", but the content is "ear plugs don't work as well as ear defenders". Fair enough! Thanks for the info. I find that ear defenders give me a low end boost that's quite pleasing when playing the drums, but quite nauseating when playing the bass. So, I use standard disposable foam ear plugs when playing bass or guitar, and when playing drums live. I use ear defenders when playing drums in the studio I don't think any of my bands would let me wear ear defenders on stage!!

Surely fret buzz can always be solved by loosening the truss rod?

Yeh, but we're on on the Friday and I can't hang around... got a band in my studio recording all weekend

My band Headsticks are on. Almost Acoustic stage on Thursday at 4:45, and the Opera House on Friday at 3:20 I'll hopefully catch a bit of Knock Off before our set. Doubt I'll make Terminal Rage but Rich will forgive me

I saw them on the 10,000 days tour, and I saw them again this year at Download, which was equally as good. I'm not one of the crazy fanatics, but I do think there's a lot more to their music than most metal bands. 10,000 days is easily one of my favourite albums. Hopefully the new one is as good!

Fair enough but if the intonation is badly out, it'll be out of tune and you'll sound like an incompetent player

I've only had one of those. I've no idea how long it lasted, I imagine my band mates cut it short. I was on drums and kept going out of time due to a severe concussion

Indeed. There's a tech local to me who seems to set up all guitars with an action so low you can't play without fret buzz

I play with a pro bassist and he really is a brilliant player, but he won't do anything himself. I offer to do it for him but he always says he'd prefer to take it to a tech and pay. He bought a new bass the other day, brought it to rehearsal and the intonation was miles out, but he just kept playing it and looking a bit confused when some notes sounded way out of tune. I could have done it right then in 5 minutes! Weird

I haven't played a bad gig for ages. I only do original stuff, and my busiest band has a decent following that sings along etc A couple of the projects I do I'd happily just jam in the studio all day long, but I do love gigging too

We played The Sugarmill (Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent) on Friday. It's the big local venue and for the first time in the 20 years I've been going there, the place didn't stink of fosters. Maybe I've been whining within earshot of the right people? Maybe they've contracted new cleaners? Anyway, we were supporting The Membranes. They're really nice guys and I actually like their stuff, although I wish the drummer would replace his broken cymbals, I'm sure he's getting paid enough. We had a dep on bass, Pete the guitarist from Slice Of Life. He's done such a good job preparing for these couple of dep gigs, I'm sure he knows the songs better than us. It could be a nerve-wracking experience playing with a dep but this was super tight and loads of fun. Our gigs are a bit thin on the ground at the moment so it was brilliant to get back on stage and play the stinky poo out of my drums.

Yeh I agree

As someone who's struggling to make a living in music part time, it's quite frustrating to read ads like these, but obviously there's more than one way to look at things. If this was marketed as an "experience" for youths coming out of college/6th form, looking to start a career in music, I personally think it'd look great. I'd have persuaded my parents to buy me a train ticket to Edinburgh and give me a bit of spending money, and gone for a month of fun and experience (if I could sight read) EDIT: Anyway, ignore me, the POV of myself at 18 years old is irrelevant because I was stupid and naive and stoned back then

I guess if you're just starting out, 18 and about to go to uni or whatever, it'd be a great experience. It's just a shame it's made out to be aimed at pros but not offering any pay

Agreed!

This is the project of a friend of mine, Eden, who's done some orchestral arrangements for some weird pop and jazz tunes. They recorded the band stuff in my studio, then recorded all the orchestral instruments at other locations in Manchester and Liverpool. All the files came back to me for an absolute sh*t load of editing, mixing, and finally mastering. They filmed all of the sessions and some wiz has edited all that together. There are 6 track in total, no idea how long until they're all done but here's the first:

I've heard all of those examples before. I get that the style of the bass and drums is similar, but all of your examples seem to have a lot more going on in terms of instrumentation and sonic texture in general. Also they all have vocals. A lot of Vulfpeck is instrumental, and the instrumentation is very minimalist. I supposed I understand why people would class them as similar, but personally I think that Vulfpeck sound so unique I can't compare them. Maybe it's a "sound" thing rather than a "song" thing? I'm probably not making much sense.

Can you give some examples of 70s funk that sounds like Vulfpeck? I like Vulfpeck so I'd be interested to check it out If you want funk that's actually a bit original, check out Louis Cole and Knower, or Kneebody, or Nate Smith's latest solo album etc. etc

Agreed!

I don't think Vulfpeck are anything like any classic 70s funk I've heard.

We did two support slots. Friday at The Underground in Hanley which is very local for me. It could be such a great venue if only they'd clean it. Anyway, it went well and we won some new fans I think. Saturday was Albert's in Nottingham. This used to be a Spanky Van Dykes which I gather is some sort of student chain. I'd been in for a drink before but never been upstairs. The room up there is awesome! Great shape and brilliant sound. Unfortunately the venue had told the promoter that there was a 10pm curfew for a club night afterwards so everything was scheduled to be super early. It was only at 6:30 when he was asking about the load out that the venue staff told him the club night had been cancelled, and we could go as late as we liked. It was too late to change much by then, I'm sure more people would have come out if they'd known. To top that off, the venue didn't open the bar upstairs so people had to go down two flights of stairs to get a drink, and the service down there was the slowest I've ever seen. It took me 15 minutes to get a beer after we'd played. Another venue that could be awesome if they get their act together. Still it was a good night. Our bassist has been very complimentary of my playing the last few gigs. Either I've gotten better recently or he's been playing with a crap drummer in one of his other bands