Mr. Furious [blog]

So Robot, Creep Closer! is this newish crazy rock band that Tucci (from Shacker) and I are in, along with John, Gina and Jesse. We recently recorded a 4-song demo at Famous Remnants Member Matt Wisecarver's house. We have yet to mix it (roads and tiredness have postponed it so far), but we're getting that done on Sunday. Anyway, we here at MFR decided it might be kind of cool to give our loyal listeners a sneaky-peaky at how the process goes. It's very intricate and complicated, so hold tight!

We showed up to Carver's at like 1. We set up our crud while Matt ate Taco Bell and chain smoked, and then we did some tests with the mics to make sure that everything was sounding oh so hot. We recorded live, except for the vocals, because we're not what many people would call a "tracking band" (PS, "tracking" means recording one instrumental part, or "track," at time, rather than recording all of the instruments at the same time, or "live"). That's because we rock so hard, when we try to track, people don't know what to do, especially us.

We finally got the sound we wanted at about 3 (making good time for recording, which is a very tedious process) and got 4 songs cranked out pretty quickly. Everyone had headphones except for me, so I stood next to the wall that my amp was on the other side of, and tried my best to stay in time. We recorded four songs:

"Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh, No!"
"Just F*cking Forget It,"
"Dynamite Night-Life," and
"I'm Bustin' A Move!"

Needless to say, these all rock very hard. After we got the 'struments done at 4:30 or 5 or something, we set up for vocals. See how complicated this is so far? I'm sweating. That's the second time I've gotten all sweaty during a blog. Vocals are weird, because you can hear the song in your headphones, but no one else can hear the song, so they just hear you yelling the lyrics a capella (cappela? cappella?), and it's like so embarrassing! Plus Wisecarver kept making me scream to test the mic. Plus I was like 6 drinks deep.

We ended up with a quality product, and we're gonna post the sucker on MFR after it gets all done.

Have a good weekend!

My blogs always seem to be a bunch of crud smooshed together in the semblance of some sort of bigger, more important crud. With that in mind, I'm totally going to make this blog about a theoretical mix CD of MFR songs, and there's going to be ten songs on the sucker. This is off the top of my head, because if it weren't, it would take me forever to think of what I'd pick and why. Without further ado, here:

1. Bike, "He Came to Steal Your Children"
2. Sally Ride, "Headbone"
3. D-Rockets, "International Sign for Goodbye"
4. Echoes, "I Don't Even Know how Right This Sounds"
5. Shacker, "Prove It"
6. Bike, "Eye of the Needle"
7. Echoes, "Open Columns"
8. Beach-Puppy, "Nature vs. Nurture"
9. Shacker, "Fully Okay"
10. Sally Ride, "The Last Song"

Wow, that was tough! And let me make it clear that it does not include awesome furious instances like "Lunch by Yourself" or 12-O'Clock Fence, or the X-Mas EP, or any of that. And also, pretend that there are two secret hidden tracks right before track 1 and after track 10, and those tracks are "As Seen from Side A" and "As Seen from Side B." Because it would freak people out and really show them what MFR is all about (freaking people out).

Anyway, I'm all sweaty. Who else has a possible MFR mix CD? The only rules are, there has to be 10 songs, they have to be off of official MFR releases (or not; it's just that too many options freaks ME out), and the track order is of the utmost importance. LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS!

Later, when I think of more crud to say, guess who's gonna leave a comment explaining that crud? Exactly. My Dad.
Cory

Ever since I've been playing live music, I've have many different experiences as far as how the show's been received. I'm sure Howie or Tucci or Nate or Derek or any other MFR artist can tell you the same thing.

Sometimes, there are b-loads of people at shows, and they're loving it; other times, there are just a few people, most of which are friends who are being supportive.

You'd think that the correlation would run something like this: the better the songs/performance are, the more people show up, and the more people enjoy it. Conversely, if the songs aren't that great and the performance is sloppy, you'd expect to see a small crowd. But these factors almost have nothing to do with how well a local band draws a crowd.

The key rests almost solely on these factors:

1. The age of your target audience.
2. How upbeat/dance-able your music is, and
3. How many friends you have.

First, let me talk about the target audience. Most music fans would agree that the majority of people who go to shows are usually under the age of 21 (described in this blog as "kids"), because it's probably the most fun thing they can do on a given Friday or Saturday night. People who are older usually default to bars without live music, because they are old enough to drink, and because they'd rather not pay a cover to have a band drown them out when they're trying to spit sloppy game.

That being said, the younger kids (remember, under 21) seem to like the rock music. Most show-goers in any city are kids, and most of those kids would rather listen to punk/rock/metal/etc. than folk/classic rock/jam bands/etc. If you're playing indie-rock or folk rock, chances are your target audience is 21+, but remember, they don't like going to shows as much as your 16-year-old sister.

Secondly, your music. Even if you have an all-ages show for the kids to come to, you HAVE to make sure you're fun. It's okay if the vocals suck, and it's all right if the musicianship is a little off, but if you can get people in front of the stage, jumping up and down, singing along, and wiggling, then you've got them hooked. We all dance to rap songs that we know are stupid. BUT WE'RE DANCING, RIGHT!?

Third: a friend once told me that the most popular type of rock in any local scene is "friend rock." This, of course, means that your audience will almost solely consist of friends and acquaintences of the band. If you have a lot of friends and you tell them about the show, they'll probably show up even if you're terrible, because they're your friends, and they're supportive. BUT! If you've got all the ingredients down (you do it for the kids, you have fun music, AND you have a decent amount of friends), your friends will show up, tell their friends, and sooner or later, you'll be playing the Qwest Center (which is huge) with Green Day (who I like and am not making fun of).

Anyway, it's a strange phenomenon. If you like playing shows for playing show's sake, it might not matter. But it just reaffirms something that seemed obvious at first but got lost at some point: people want shows to be FUN, and while many can have great fun at a 21+ folk show, EVERYONE can have fun at an all-ages punk-rock show.

Even when I go see my favorite bands live, I have an incredibly short attention span for the sets.  I get tired of standing really easily, my ears get tired of loud music easily (even with earplugs, sometimes), and I more often than not wish the sets would end about 20 minutes earlier than they usually do.  I've felt this way while watching Death Cab For Cutie, Radiohead, The Faint, Superdrag, and in particular, Built to Spill.

However, once in a while, I see a band perform that doesn't bore me at all, and actually leaves me wanting more.  Some of the best concerts I've ever been to are Jimmy Buffett (my very first concert at 12 years old, and at the time, I was OBSESSED with Jimmy Buffett), The Streets (ultimate dance-party), and now, Spoon/Bright Eyes.

There were two other opening acts; Willy Mason and David Dondero.  I missed Willy Mason because I showed up a little bit late, but I caught most of David Dondero's set, and it was great- he played beautiful folk songs that were both funny and sweet, and he was accompanied only by a drummer, which added great dynamic.  THEN!  Spoon came on!  WOWOWOWOW

Spoon recently became one of my favorite bands ever, and the fact that they happened to be playing a show with Bright Eyes at one of Omaha's best venues (The Orpheum) was just awesome.  Plus, I had Orchestra seats, and was four rows back from the stage.  Spoon started off the set with the first track on their newest album, Gimme Fiction, which is the song "The Beast and Dragon Adored."  People went nuts.  They played at least a few songs off of each of their last three albums, and I knew and sang along to every song.  Their energy was amazing, their performance was immaculate, and Britt Daniel is so very, very cool.  Everyone else was just a little guy compared to him (I believe Britt Daniel is 50 feet tall).

After they were done, I went and got a drink, drank it while in line for the bathroom, and by the time I had finished totally bathrooming, Bright Eyes came on.  The first time I ever say Bright Eyes, it was just Conor, and he played songs off of albums that hadn't come out yet (Wide Awake and Digital Ash)... while it was a good show, I like to sing along.  The second time I saw Bright Eyes, it was in support of Digital Ash after it had come out, and it was a great show, but out of all Bright Eyes records, it's my least favorite (even though it's still really good).  This time, however, he was accompanied by two drummers, a harp, a trumpet, a clarinet, a bassist, a lap pedal guitar, and a keyboardist.  They played songs off of every album, and it was a great mix.  The literal show stopper, though, was the encore: he came back out and sang a few songs, and then for the last, last song, the whole band played "Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and To Be Loved)."  It gave me chills.  The song is a big epic of a song with about 50,000 words, but it was amazing, high energy, and I WAS FLIPPING OUT!!!111111111

Anyway, this show was easily in the top three shows I've ever seen, if not #1.  Wowie!

So anyway, Nate and I formed our first band, Merona. At first, Merona
consisted of Nate (Bike), Cory (Shacker, BP), Mike Papagni (Sexual
Jedi), Yale Ensminger, and Josh Boys. Yale eventually quit, and Josh
did too, because I don't think either of them were super interested in
being in a "serious" band- Josh had a billion other obligations, and
Yale just wasn't feeling it... we recorded two CDs as Merona: "Travels
and Adventures," which was named after a little diary I wrote lyrics
in, and "If I Could Write This in Fire, I'd Write This in Fire." For
the second record, we had with us Jesse Gifford (Aegis) who moved to
Ventura from Minneapolis.

Merona was a joke band, kind of- we had songs named dumb stuff like
"Tractor Beam," "AWAP" (All Women Are Pyscho, ha ha ha ha jay kay), and
"Skelly Bones." We were really into Primus, Weezer, and The Pixies.
We were also kind of a serious band in the way that we all loved music.
Ironically enough, Mike Papagni had only been playing drums for a few
months when Merona formed and Jesse Gifford got his bass maybe a few
months before joining, and now they're super talented. Meanwhile, I
listen to Weird Al.

Anyway, I wrote a lot of the songs, but Nate wrote a lot of them too,
and he usually focused on repetitive, beautiful themes (he was super
into Sparklehorse and Spiritualized at the time, and his favorite band
is/was Radiohead). He didn't sing at the time, so he would write these
pieces and we'd add melodies and words later.

After Merona broke up when I went to college, Nate continued to write
and record his music, coming out with albums like "Johnny Popular Makes
His Mark" and "Have The Terrorists Won?" Meanwhile, I was doing my
thing with Shacker/The Remnants. Sooner or later, Nate thought he'd
buy himself about 1,000 robots so he could force them to make out with
each other and record it...

THE CONCLUSION, PART III, COMING SOON...