April 23, 2009 Rehearsal Recap

This will be the last post for a few weeks.

On Thursday, 4/23/09 we rehearsed from 9:00-11:00 pm. We played through the entire set list, including Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me."

We had fun and mixed it up a bit this time, as Mark played drums and bass on a few tunes, and Matt moved to drums for the songs where Mark played bass.

In related news, Jason announced his departure from the band on Friday, 4/24/09. Jason's going to pursue songwriting and learning the guitar.

Based on Jason's departure, the rest of us have decided to call a multi-week hiatus to think on it and decide whether or not "Flashing UNserious" will live on.

To be continued....

-Andy

April 15, 2009 Rehearsal Recap

Jason, Mark, and I rehearsed for an hour or so last night. We focused on vocal harmonies and ran though a good handful of songs. Here’s a list of what was covered-

• Gavin Degraw – I Don’t Want to Be. Jason handled lead vocals, while Mark provided harmony / additional vocals.
• Live – Selling the Drama – Jason handled lead vocals.
• Toad the Wet Sprocket – Fall Down. We focused heavily on 3-part harmony during a couple portions of this song.
• R.E.M. – Texarkana. We ran through the entire song, then focused on 3-part harmony. After we played through several other songs we circled back and focused on the 3-part harmonies for this again. There is room for 4-part harmony when Matt makes his return to the basement. It may take us some time to get the harmonies ‘stuck in our heads’ permanently, but if last night’s performance was any indication, it’s going to eventually sound very good.
• Tom Petty – Last Dance with Mary Jane
• Poison – Talk Dirty To Me. We focused on the unison vocal parts during the chorus when we played through this. We did one version with Mark on lead, and another with Jason on lead. Good stuff.
• Stone Temple Pilots – Plush. We also played 2 versions of this – one with Mark on lead vocals and the other with Jason on lead vocals. Everyone loves STP!
• Jason and Andy performed a dirty electric version of TBAP’s “Simple Days” while Mark was indisposed.
• Petie rocked the basement and stared at Jason while we performed but ignored Andy and Mark for the most part. Andy and Mark felt slighted.
• Afterwards, Mark and Jason headed to AA for karaoke at “Banned Fields”. Mark I understand you rocked out on Poison’s “Something to Believe In” ? Towers, are you up for busting out some piano for Poison?

-Andy

April 8, 2009 - The Jam Lives On.

Mark and Andy are planning to get together to rehearse some of the same songs that were covered last week, as well as work on harmonies to "Fall Down" and additional songs.

We extended the invite to Jason, however he has plans to rehearse for tomorrow night's karaoke competition after work tonight so he may or may not be available to jam with us after that.

I will update this post later to include more information about all that was covered.

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As promised, here is the update.

Mark and Andy practiced from about 8 to 10 pm last night. We worked on vocal harmonies for "Talk Dirty to Me" and "Fall Down." From the set list, we also covered "It's a Shame About Ray" in amplified acoustic form.

We also played through the following songs (again, in amplified acoustic fashion), which are remnants of the Profound Existence era (Andy and Mark's band from '93-'95):

• Soul Asylum - Somebody to Shove
• The Lemonheads - Into Your Arms
• Pearl Jam - Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town
• Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - I Could Have Lied
• Pearl Jam - Black
• Gin Blossoms - Hey Jealousy
• Eddie Money - Two Tickets To Paradise
• Stone Temple Pilots - Plush
  
  -Andy

April 2, 2009 Rehearsal Recap: Acoustified Concert in the Basement

Due to scheduling conflicts, only Mark and Andy were able to rehearse last night in Brighton. We had dinner at Lu & Carl's, and watched an acoustic performer there for about an hour. We discussed the fact that we might want to sit down as a group to determine the direction of song selection (primarily - do we want to focus our set list selections to a certain crowd?). Mark mentioned the idea of dividing set lists into 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's music. This is just an idea, and we can brainstorm on other or similar alternatives if we'd like. Andy mentioned the thought that we would build up a complete gig's worth of songs (40 or 50?) and then continue adding to the catalog to build up our diversity and ability to cater to requests (as we see fit).

Afterwards we did an amplified acoustic jam session in the basement for a couple hours, playing through assorted songs. We also learned that many of our set list songs don't seem conducive to an acoustic guitar and vocals, so we did not attempt to play through a large majority of songs on the set list. Below is a list of the tunes that we did play last night.

• The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray
• Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down (including some harmony work)
• REM - Texarkana
• Poison - Talk Dirty to Me
• Several original songs from back in the "Profound Existence" days

Rehearsal for the following 2 weeks is up in the air, due to other commitments for half of the band. We may attempt 2- or 3-man rehearsals if we can work scheduling out to go over vocal harmonies, song structures, and keep the momentum alive. If not, we will resume rehearsal the week of April 20th. Also, we are planning to give Anthony a go on the drums for a rehearsal or two. We'll have to figure out the exact details about that when we are more concrete on rehearsal dates for the next couple of weeks or so.

Mark also suggested the following songs for the Wish List. Note - these are songs that I used to play back in my band during college at MSU (in other words, they should be easier to learn the 2nd time around).

1. Cracker - Low
2. Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson
   

-Andy

April 2, 2009 Rehearsal Agenda

For this week we will rehearse once again on Thursday in Brighton from 8:30 to 10:30 pm. Note: we will rehearsal without a drummer this time around as we continue to search for the drummer that fits us best.

Agenda:

-Learn Poison - "Talk Dirty To Me" and run through it a couple of times.

-Focus on the following songs to iron out any problem areas and tighten them up. Examples of what we will focus on include (but are not limited to) vocal harmonies, individual instrument parts (including solos), lyrics, song arrangements (especially beginnings and endings), and tempo.

1. Green Day - "Longview" (Matt's selection)
   
2. Bush - "Machinehead" (Andy's selection)
   
3. Stone Temple Pilots - "Interstate Love Song" (Jason's selection)
4. Toad The Wet Sprocket - "Fall Down" (Mark's selection)
   

-Run through as much of the remaining set list as possible. We should probably run through the songs that we weren't able to get to last week, which were as follows:

• .38 Special - Hold On Loosely
• Eric Clapton - Cocaine
• Live - Selling The Drama
• Foo Fighters - My Hero
• Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out

-Andy

Flashing UNserious Rehearsal Recap - March 26, 2009.

Thursday night's rehearsal included all 4 original band members, as well as a 2nd audition for a potential drummer. We played through 15/20 songs from the set list, and also jammed Poison's "Talk Dirty To Me" and the Van Halen version of "You Really Got Me." It's guaranteed that we will add "Talk Dirty To Me" to the set list, possibly as early as next week's rehearsal (pending further discussion). For the record, the omitted songs are listed below. We may want to play through these at the next rehearsal just to keep them fresh.

• .38 Special - Hold On Loosely
• Eric Clapton - Cocaine
• Live - Selling The Drama
• Foo Fighters - My Hero
• Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out
  

We are still under discussion about drummers, and will post an update when we have made a final decision.

Next week's rehearsal will be Thursday night from 8:30-10:30 pm in Brighton, unless scheduling conflicts arise - if so I will update this blog entry accordingly.

-Andy

Band Rehearsal Recap for 3/20 & Agenda for 3/26

Band rehearsal this past Friday was a big success. We managed to play through the entire list of 20 songs, which was a first time for a few of the songs (REM, Bush, Green Day). Mark (FINALLY!!) made his return to the band and contributed a ton to the vocals and backup vocals. I think Friday showed some potential for us to be very strong vocally.

Mark suggested to me post-rehearsal that for upcoming future rehearsals we may want to select certain songs and focus on polishing them – we can work on vocal harmonies, arrangements, beginnings and endings. I agree that this is a good idea and we’ve talked about doing this before – I know there are certain songs where we’re guilty of coming in at the wrong spot, etc so it would be good to iron those out and become more consistent. What does anyone else think?

Next rehearsal will be this coming Thursday night from 8:30 – 10:30 pm in Brighton. Does this still work for everyone? No new songs to add – let’s focus on tightening up what we have, especially since Ben will be coming to make a second appearance on the drums.

I’d also like to make a call for Wish List songs. As I mentioned I don’t think we’ll want to add anything new this week but I know all 3 of you have mentioned that you had song suggestions for the future. If you want to reply-to-all on this message, I’ll add those to the wish list on the blog.

Thanks to everyone for your flexibility last week. I know it can be a pain to reschedule, especially at the last minute. I’m glad we were able to get together to rehearse – it was a lot of fun. I think we’re starting to gain some momentum, which is great.

UPDATE: The following songs have been added to the Wish List based on suggestions.

• Matthew Sweet - Sick of Myself
• Semisonic - Closing Time
• The Fray - How To Save A Life
• The Killers - Human
• Ben Folds Five - Army
• Soul Asylum - Somebody to Shove

Finally, band rehearsal this week will retain the same agenda as last rehearsal. See the previous blog post for more information.

-Andy