Saturday, April 22, 2017

Post-show correspondence


Hey Jon,

I wrote some of my thoughts from last night and I'm thinking about posting them as a blog on the site. I'll attach it so you can approve it first. I think it was a pretty good show, it could have been tighter as you well know but it's all good. I want to simplify things if I can, I'll ponder on that and see if I come up with anything, I'm thinking minimalist. Marisa brought to my attention that when you download the door it has a tag on it that says "The Queue" on the mp3 player. We should try to re tag it so people don't get confused. Also do you think we should ever just be known as Lancaster Project also to avoid confusion?
I will call John and get more info on his drummer acquaintance, we'll see just how punk this guy is. Should we plan on our usual Monday meeting next week?
Jon T

hey there:

As I sit here in the writing center, reading your little blog I must
say:  excellent work.  Great tone, presence, flow.  No grammar issues.
 Beautiful.
Seriously, I really liked it.  You don't have to approve stuff through
me before you post it.  I will always enjoy and approve of the stuff
you write.  Here is my response to both your blog and the questions
that you have.

1.  Last night.  The more I got to thinking about it, and as critical
as I am about my own deficiencies as a musician (you know them all:
playing by ear, lack of experience with sound levels and
equipment—including my own amp and pedal tray, etc. etc.) , I really
think what happened last night was a success.  The essence of who we
are and what we are about (great songwriting, great melodies and
harmonies, unique presentation) came through.  We are different from
the typiocal, and I think that is really, really good for us.  As a
tutor, and really the more that I study art in general, whether it be
writing,  literature or whatever, the more I understand that art is a
process. Last night and right now we are in the early stages of this
particular art project.  If we hadn't have played last night and made
the mistakes that we did, we wouldn't know what we can do to make it
better the next time and the next and the next.  So, last night—even
though I totally screwed some stuff up and felt a little embarrassed
in front of my friends—was a success.  Let's do it again as soon as
possible.

2.      Do I think that we should be called "Lancaster Project"?
Absolutely not.  I know that is kind of a strong opinion, but I really
don't think that there is any confusion, really.  As soon as we tell
them that our name is Lancaster, they will know not to call us
Lancaster Project.  I think I may be able to change our URL on myspace
to say lancastermusic instead… I will see what I can do.  We could
also get a new gmail account that doesn't say lancasterproject if you
want, but I really think that small details like that just don't
matter in the long run.  People will know who we are.

3.      As far as the tag on the door still saying the queue, I will fix
that as soon as I get home.  I am also going to try to have Resolution
done in the next couple of days so that I can get that up there too.

4.      The minimalist thing.  I agree with this.  Nobody likes to feel
like there is too much going on.  I have been thinking about this a
lot actually and here are some of my random, sometimes conflicting,
thoughts on the matter:

a.       I think that the fact that we have two members and what you call
the "curiosity" factor really adds to the strength and appeal of our
band.
b.      I don't think that trying to juggle a million parts on stage is the answer.
c.      I think that maybe adding a member to play bass or guitar (or both)
might be a good idea—maybe John Heidenriech?
d.      I think that doing everything we can to maintain "the sound" with
two members is the best idea—John is always kind of flaky about the
band thing, he can't ever decide if he really wants to be serious
about it or not.  (I really enjoy playing the bass on some songs, I
just need a bit more practice.) Plus, we have never had this much
success as a band in regards to practicing.  Think about it, we have
never been able to practice almost every week. More members are bound
to complicate things.
e.      I don't necessarily want a real drummer.  We have been getting some
love for the fact that we don't have one.  Our beats (your beats) are
really good.  Some of them need a little tweaking, and maybe we can
learn better ways to assemble and edit them.
f.      I think that a real drummer would be great.
g.      I think that if we do have a drummer, they would have to understand
that part of the sound that we are going for included electronic
drums.

5.      I think that we have already caught on to what makes small,
starting bands like ours successful. This is something that we have
never done before and with the miracle of myspace is now very possible
and that is networking with other bands and creating a fan base.  I
think that we need to continue attending as many shows as we can (I am
going to try to go out at least once every 3 weeks or so) and meet
other bands, show them support and get to know them so that we can
play a gig next time with cool bands and not Godplow or Liquor Bike.
The next show that I am going to try to go to is at the Clubhouse in a
few Saturdays from now.  Before Braille is releasing a CD.  Dear and
the Headlights is playing and a few others.  BB are one of the more
successful bands in the valley.  Once we know the bands, I think that
we will be invited to play more often.

Anyway, I think that is it.  Let's try to get another gig ASAP.  I
will talk to you soon.  As far as I know we are on for Monday.

Laters.

Jon S.
____

Yep, let's keep workin' it and refining it, we'll nail it. I just realized Monday is a holiday and nobody's on regular schedule. We're going to Tucson on the weekend but we will be back sometime on Monday so what time do you want to do it?
 
Gigs, yes let's do some. I'll work on Modified and find some other prospects, maybe something will come of it soon. I talked to a guy at a club called Last Exit bar and grill and he said we sounded pretty cool but he is hesitant to book a new band, he told me to get some fans and call him back when we can guarantee 50 -75 people. I'm not super eager to play at all the "bar" venues but he said he will keep us in mind as an opener. I'll look into Borders and try to find some non alcoholic show opportunities. There are some art galleries on Grand in Phoenix that host rock music in the evenings, a place called The Trunk Space and another called Four White Walls. I'll look for some festival, downtown saturday night type events too. In Tucson I know some bands would reserve the outdoor bandstand at Udall park and play shows there, I think they had to pay $25 for the "electricity" but maybe we could organize something like that up here and get a group of local bands into it. When we get a cd we can sell them at shows to make some sweet moolah and the next time The Cure comes to Phoenix I'm sure they will ask us to open for them. We can name our first album The Unathourized Biography of Robert Metzner.
 
I'm anxious to hear resolution. Do you need the good mic or are you done with vocals?
 
let's just keep lancasterproject@gmail I'm not really too concerned about the whole lancasterproject thing, just a thought, you're right, there won't be confusion.
See Ya
JT

After the show, 29 Aug 2005


By Jon T.

The adrenaline was wearing off as thirst and fatigue were setting in. I didn’t feel like

paying $2 for a 16oz soda knowing it would only momentarily satisfy me, that coupled

with the discord and screaming that was coming from the loudspeaker in front of me led

my friends and I to vacate the premises. Thank goodness for those loyal friends who left

their comfort zones, who left suburbia behind for a night to enter this underground haven

of teenage punk rock all in the name of supporting us (Lancaster) at our first show.

Moments earlier it had been my job to entertain them and I had to justify the $7 they paid

at the door, a steep price considering they only came to see 1 band out of the 6 and our

set was hardly more than 30 minutes long.

In my mind I asked myself “What are we doing here?” as I recognized that Lancaster

stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of the evenings events. But we are a band after

all and for now we take to the stage where we can find one, even if the band following us

has a very different sound than ours. To Neckbeard’s credit, the stage was rather

accommodating and the audience was interested, owing partly to the fact that we were a

curiosity. I didn’t intend on being a curiosity but it just happens when you have 2 guys

trying to sound like 4, I think people just wanted to see if we could pull it off. As I

chugged a 44oz soda at the corner store I pondered the question “did we pull it off?”

Well, if you put aside the equipment glitches, the sound level tweaking, and me faking

my way through verse 2 of Stampkids, there definitely were times when we delivered

“the sound”.

This project has been an experiment. The electronic programming, the keyboard, it’s a

different beast than that of our previous endeavors and we’ve got to prove ourselves. We

don’t expect to do that with the novelty of electronic blips and beeps alone; we know

we’ve got to do it the same way all good bands do it: by having great songs and

performing them well. I think we were successful but next time it will be better. It was

our first time mixing all the components together on stage so there are inevitably a few

adjustments to be made but I went to bed feeling pretty good about it (considering I had

to be up at 4am for work the next day). Before drifting off to sleep I had this thought: we

don’t always have to be 2 guys trying to sound like 4, we can just be 2 guys who sound

like 2 guys.

Neckbeards fliers

Monday, August 29th 2005


here's a potential set list
Instructicide
the door               (bass)
stampkids            (bass)
never told
circus
resolution#9
that will take up most of the time, but we could always add "if only tonight" at the end
I'll talk to you tonight
Jon (Thwaits)

alancasterb
A new band featuring:
J. Marvel & J. Stone

Join us for our DEBUT performance:
TONIGHT!! Monday August 29, 8:15pm



NECKBEARD'S SODA BAR
5070 S. Price Rd.
(SW corner of Price and Baseline roads
Tempe, AZ 85283
(East Valley)

www.myspace.com/lancasterproject
$7= 6 Bands
Rainbow’s Beard 6-630
Kids at Play 645-715
Bender 730-8     
Lancaster 815-845
Insidious 900-930
Lies in Ruin 945-1015


where sonics meets phonics

Some letters from 2004

9.8.2004

Stoneman,
I was thinking about what instruments we should play on various songs and some of them I'm not sure. We have options with bass and keyboards and stuff. Some songs I think we will just have to see how it works out best. It would be good to find an awesome drummer, we can hope. I think also we should try some recording, we can multitrack all the instruments we want then. I don't want to go overkill on the multitracking, sometimes doing too much makes it worse but I like the process of recording, we can do some experimenting and we can always cut tracks out if we don't like them.
Jimmy wanted to use his sampler this week and I don't think he will sell it to me. We should be able to get some good use out of it but we can't count on it all the time, so I'm thinking about other options. I've been wanting to get a Boss BR-8 8 track digital recorder, there are a lot of them on ebay usually they go for around $250. I could use the sampler to put together things and save them on something like that digital recorder which would be convenient for playback in live performances. I also want to get a keyboard, the casio I think is very useable but I'd like to find another with a more realistic piano sound. I still don't have any money to spend just now, my last check was lower than it was supposed to be and I'm in the process of trying get the boss rectify the situation.
So maybe next time we could lay down a few tracks. I am really excited to start recording, I think we can work together to make some good sounding stuff. And we can do drum samples and record electric guitars without making very much noise. I know we can't stay up all night recording, even though I may feel like it sometimes. We don't want Seth and Tina to get irate. I think with the Line 6 we can get some good guitar sounds, on previous things I've done I plugged the guitar straight in to the mixer and that just doesn't sound too great.
I'll be running along now, I just had that stuff on my mind and I wanted to get prepped up for next Tuesday. I'll assume we will get together unless you notify me otherwise.
Have a good week
Jon

9.9.2004

I have a few microphones and some stuff I will bring for recording. Also I will bring some audio on cd of some stuff that we could use for drum samples.
there is an awesome site that you can download a lot of drum samples from classic drum machines, it's useful for cutting and pasting to customise beats and even make completely original loops from. Check it out.
http://www.looperman.com/loops_cats_results.php?loop_cat_name=Drum%20Machine%20Kits

This site has some good drum loops too, I find that all the ones by Fuzz Townshend are really cool. I attached a few for you to listen to.

Here's another good site http://meanbeat.cjb.net/

You can spend hours checking all this stuff out but you probably shouldn't unless you have all your homework finished.
I'm looking forward to next Tuesday, see you then.
Jon