General Music Chat

...Two of them stand out for me. One time we were advertising for a sax player. This guy responds, says he was from Canada and had "toured with Jeff Healy" and had been a "symphony conductor." Comes over and won't get on the mic, says he's "warming up." I finally tell him to stop "warming up." He gets on the mic and I swear we would have sounded better with a pig squealing. I tell him to his face he's the biggest BS-er on God's green Earth and go fantasize somewhere else. Another "guitarist" comes over and told me he had "20 years of stage experience." He literally can't play a lick. Not even a beginner. Turns out he was in a union that built stages for huge rock concerts, Rolling Stones, Clapton, Bob Seger etc. At least he didn't lie about his stage experience.

Back in 2007 when I was in the band Cruise Control our drummer quit and left us in a bind. I had upcoming gigs. We were auditioning drummers we would try out 3 drummers a day. We gave them a short list of 4 songs to audition with so we could compare them. This one drummer tells me on the phone "I'm a good no frills drummer" I should have passed but I didn't. When the guy arrives and we start the audition Oh my GAWD I am a better drummer than that guy and trust me when I tell you I am the WORST drummer you would ever hear! It wasn't like we had all the drummers there at the same time. It was just us and him! Needless to say this guy humiliated himself so bad he practically ran out of the rehearsal room. We didn't say anything rude. We suffered through the audition. I called him the next day and I was polite. I simply told him thanks for coming to the audition but you are not the type of drummer we are looking for. He replied I didn't bring my A game. Honestly I felt sorry for the dude!

Haley sounds like he didnt have A game to bring at all.

The flip side, when I was all of 17 I auditioned for these guys that were really good and embarassed myself, so Ive seen both sides of this, in fact 4-5 yrs ago before I got back with my old band I auditioned for this prog instrumental thing, I mean I love old Beck and stuff so I said what the hell, I couldnt play with these guys, every song was in odd time signatures didnt follow any standard patterns I was familiar with. It just didnt connect.

Oddly these guys showed up at one of my gigs and tryed to play Johnny B Goode and just totally sucked, I guess they are stuck in wierd time sig land or something.

Guess Im a redneck 4x4 kinda guy! LOL!

Back in the 80s I put an ad in some national musician referral as a rock singer. I got a call from a band who like my demo and wanted me to join them. They gave me a list of songs that included Styx, Queen, Kansas....high-browed rock.

So I got a bus ticket to meet them in the closest city they would be touring from me....all the way from Dallas to Gnashville.

I walked into the club they were playing and heard "Celebrate good times..come on!" and a couple more disco tunes before walking out without a goodbye.

I'm not really a shredder..But I did stay at a holiday Inn express once.

I auditioned for Ray Stevens one night
down at his Branson theater amped up
on crank, and sang Let It Bleed by the
Stones accapella, I didn't get the job, I
felt like a poser and didn't sleep for a
week.

Here is another side of the issue just for conversation sake:

I've been playing for but a few years. I do OK in my little world but outside of that I'm really at beginner level in a lot of ways.

I have learned so much so fast about equipment and what have you, and I have to assume due to my age and level of confidence while in my " bubble " often people assume that I have been playing my whole life.

Hell, i won't even attempt to tune a guitar to itself by ear because I know it's a lost cause. I always use a tuner.

When I,m shopping around in the music stores some guy invariably wants to hand me a horribly out of tune guitar off the rack to play for them.
I just decline politely ... they'd crap themselves if I walked in with my board and amp. " Hey man, I want to try out that ( insert guitar name here ) "

A lot of folks do just that George! I do especially buying an amp! That V3M is the first amp I have ever purchased that I didn't try out and really put through its paces! I however did a HUGE amount of research on that V3M!

Well then I might just try it.

Saw a nice Gibson ES 339 in a shop today ...

A Simi-hollow not much bigger than an LP with 57's for both pick ups and the new " Memphis " circuit.

I really liked the neck just a shade longer and wider than my Goddess.

I have got it bad for that new Epiphone Ultra II. The wife just left so I CAN talk about it LOL! I showed her the pic. of your stage you have posted on the other thread. I went to your bm site and played Redeemer for her and she liked it! Oh and you ain't no poser Bro. You are a fellow musician its official now.

Thanks Jeff ... no, I'm no poser.
I also know my limitations.
I know how fortunate I am to be playing with some really talented guys.
We grow in leaps and bounds. And we do it together.
The thing I have learned from my associations here is just how truly blessed I am.

( Now, quick, get that Ultra over there while I grab this ES339 )

Lynard - you should have done Gimme Shelter!

Gentlemen Re posers

I'm a terrible poser.

I still believe. Writing songs to me is what I do that matters. It seems somehow like a duty, as much as something that is fun.

I was walking out the door tonight to go practice some new changes in a song I've written with a drummer. I casually mentioned to my wife that I was afraid we wouldn't be too productive because the holiday had interrupted our practice schedule.

She laughed. "Productive? Who cares? Have some fun and get over yourself."

I can't. In for a penny, in for a pound.

One thing matters and that one thing is the reward we're all chasing: the satisfaction of writing, arranging and performing a song in a way that reflects exactly how we envisioned that song when the muse dropped it down the chimney...

All this probably makes me a poser but I can deal with it.

Talbot

Lynard - you should have done Gimme Shelter!

Gentlemen Re posers

I'm a terrible poser.

I still believe. Writing songs to me is what I do that matters. It seems somehow like a duty, as much as something that is fun.

I was walking out the door tonight to go practice some new changes in a song I've written with a drummer. I casually mentioned to my wife that I was afraid we wouldn't be too productive because the holiday had interrupted our practice schedule.

She laughed. "Productive? Who cares? Have some fun and get over yourself."

I can't. In for a penny, in for a pound.

One thing matters and that one thing is the reward we're all chasing: the satisfaction of writing, arranging and performing a song in a way that reflects exactly how we envisioned that song when the muse dropped it down the chimney...

All this probably makes me a poser but I can deal with it.

Talbot

Mike,

I Totally get what you're saying about the drive to write that song... Its like the only thing that matters.....I die a thousand deaths knowing that I don't know what the hell I am doing... Everything I write is a piece of sh*t but in the back of my minds it's a "brilliant" piece of sh*t... Its weird cause its such an undeniable passion...a blessing and a curse all rolled into one phosphorus burrito that burns a hole in my soul./..Gotta get them out...

Talbot, if anything, that proves you are not a poser. Let's define "poser", shall we?

I first heard the term in the 80s and it was associated with hair-farmers in the glam scene. I've always understood it to mean someone who is pretending to be something they are not (rock star).

As long as one has an honest assessment of who they are and where they're heading, they can not be a poser. It's when one starts acting like they are Guns & Roses just because they can (poorly) sing "Sweet Child O Mine" that they become posers. Posers usually look the part since that is all they have, but they can't really back it up.

There have been bands who went on to huge commercial success whom I would label as posers, too. Like Cinderella for example. They were trying to be Aerosmith and Motley Cruë at the same time. Axel Rose is posing as a singer, speaking of Guns & Roses.

But we've all seen the guitarist who is average but acts like he's Hendrix, right? We've all seen the baritone singer who thinks he's a tenor, right? We've all seen the arrogant drummer who can't keep the meter solid to save his life, right? Those are the posers.



.

Axel is at least one of the 10 best singers
of all time.