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

Agenda for 3/19/09 Rehearsal (Rescheduled for 3/20)

This week's rehearsal will be Friday 3/20/09 at Andy's in Brighton. We'll run through all 20 songs (if possible). We'll focus especially on playing through the first 4 songs in the list with Ben. The Moz will also be in attendance, albeit in a limited capacity as he still has at least a couple of weeks where he needs to take it easy on the wrist per Dr.'s orders.

All songs are available for download on the FTP site, with the exception of "Longview." If anyone has that, please upload when you have a chance.

Set List A
1. John Mayer – Vultures
2. The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray
3. The Refreshments - Mekong
4. Jet – Cold Hard Bitch
5. Gavin DeGraw – I Don’t Want To Be (versions 1 & 2)
6. .38 Special - Hold On Loosely
7. Eric Clapton - Cocaine
8. Live - Selling The Drama
9. STP - Interstate Love Song
10. Steve Miller Band - Rock ‘N’ Me
11. Foo Fighters – My Hero
12. Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out

Set List B
1. Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down
2. REM – Texarkana
3. REM – Orange Crush
4. Tom Petty – Last Dance with Mary Jane
5. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
6. Duran Duran – Rio
7. Bush – Machinehead
8. Green Day - Longview

-Andy

Band UNrehearsal Recap - Wednesday, March 11, 2009

This will be short, as there was no band rehearsal to recap.

Here are the highlights-

• Andy spent the evening between Urgent Care and the ER. Arrived home around 1:30 or 2:00 am and finally had Taco Bell dinner at that point.
• Matt couldn't attend the non-existent rehearsal due to sickness.
• Ben the drummer wasn't able to attend due to a family emergency.
• The Moz left a VM for Andy stating he was out for this week (due to commitments to teaching several lessons on Wednesday nights). Also, Mark is still having some remnants of wrist issues and is finally getting it checked out by a Dr. later this week.
  

In honor of the eventful evening, here is a song for you to listen to: Disturbed - "Down With The Sickness"

Next rehearsal agenda:

• Rehearse the 4 previously agreed upon songs with Ben
  
• Work on the R.E.M. tunes, likely focusing on vocal harmonies
• Play through the rest of the set lists
• Add 2 new songs - Bush - "Machinehead" and Green Day - "Longview" - I believe this will bring us to 20?
  

-Andy

Band Rehearsal Recap - March 5, 2009 - Night of the StallMobile

Expect the unexpected. Tonight's rehearsal didn't go exactly as planned, but it was productive nonetheless. Jason was unexpectedly taken out of commission for the night due to his selflessness - he was attempting to help a friend fix her car. Unfortunately the car didn't go along with the plan and decided to stall several times during the day, making it impractical for Jason to attend rehearsal. Stalling on some random back road in complete darkness just isn't a good idea if you can avoid it.

Matt and I jammed for quite a while, and here are the songs we covered-

· Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down
· Tom Petty – Last Dance with Mary Jane
· Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
· Duran Duran - Rio
· R.E.M. - Texarkana
· R.E.M. - Orange Crush
· Bush - Machinehead
· Green Day - When I Come Around
· Green Day - Longview

Not too shabby considering we were sans-lead singer! It gave us an opportunity to polish these songs a bit so we should be in better shape for the next rehearsal.

Next rehearsal will be Wednesday, March 11th from 8:30-10:30 pm in Brighton. As of tonight we are planning to have a full band in attendance next week - including Ben (drummer) and The Moz.

In other news, we have made a decision on a band name: Flashing UNserious. The blog has been updated to reflect the new name.

-Andy

Band Rehearsal Recap - February 26, 2009

Thanks for coming up to Brighton on Thursday. Rehearsal is always a good time.

We rehearsed the following tunes -

· Jet – Cold Hard Bitch
· Gavin DeGraw – I Don’t Want To Be
· The Lemonheads – It’s A Shame About Ray
· .38 Special - Hold On Loosely
· Eric Clapton - Cocaine
· Live - Selling The Drama
· John Mayer - Vultures
· The Refreshments - Mekong
· STP - Interstate Love Song
· Steve Miller Band - Rock ‘N’ Me
· Foo Fighters – My Hero
· Robert Tepper - No Easy Way Out
· Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fall Down
· Tom Petty – Last Dance with Mary Jane
· Red Hot Chili Peppers - Suck My Kiss
· Duran Duran - Rio

No "NEW" tunes for this coming Thursday night. However, we will try REM – Texarkana and/or Orange Crush since they were already on the list.

NEW this past Thursday - a 2nd drummer candidate in attendance - Ben. We will have Ben out for a 2nd time, with a condensed list of songs that we'd like him to work on with us:

-Vultures
-It's A Shame About Ray
-Mekong
-Cold Hard Bitch

Next Rehearsal: Thursday, February 5th from 8:30-10:30 pm in Brighton.

Subsequent rehearsals will be on Wednesday nights, same timeframe, same place. Obviously we'll work out variations each week as needed.

-Andy