a personal music-related dilemma

[cjmarsicano]

please allow me this particular indulgence,

over the weekend i have once again come to wonder if i am even going to be wasting my time desiring to return to performing. it has been something i have thought to myself frequently over the past few years, but i have never thought of discussing it publicly until now.

between june 1985 and october 1996, i played as a bassist in a total of seven bands, doing an estimated 300 or less shows, all in the norhteastern pennsylvania area.

the first band was a top-40 group called _fallacy_, which i did the most shows with of all – approximately 150 to 200 of them between june 1985 and january 1987. enjoyed playing with them, but a couple of members (chief among them the second drummer that was with the band during my time with them) frequently gave me sh*t for playing bass with a pick, and for listening to bands like the minutemen, black flag, flipper, and dead kennedys instead of jazz fusion.

the second band lasted less than a year — the first half of 1987 –, played only a dozen or less shows, and while playing and practicing with them was great, quickly getting to the point where we could pick up songs or even create them on the fly, things unfortunately got boring and disorganized towards the end.

band number three was a hard rock band called _bigg trouble_ that lasted between february 1988 and april 1989. chemistry was good, set list was good (although i can’t figure out why, as all of the original members were sex pistols fans, we _never_ played any of their songs!), but management (the guitar player’s mother) f*cked things up in a big hurry. i was the first to quit (the original drummer was let go in september 1988, to much sadness on my part). the band lasted a mere two months after that with two different bassists.

band number four was a pickup band that i blundered into immediately afterward, what a waste of the summer. the band leader had an elvis fixation and tried to play electric piano (badly). the rest of the group went through a lot of time-wasting auditions for other members and only ever played one gig on its own. group broke up afterward, i limped back to college.

bands number five and six didn’t get anywhere. the first one never got past a couple of months of rehearsals, the second one was another doomed one-gig affair destroyed by ineptitude on the part of the other members. the only saving grace of the latter group was i was reunited with the original _bigg trouble_ drummer and that our only gig was the only time i’ve ever been "bootlegged" (someone taped our show with a microcassette recorder; the whole band, all by coincidence, happened to meet up with the girl the next evening in the mall, and we borrowed the tape and ran over to our practice space (my basement) to copy the recording to a regular cassette deck.

band number seven was another top 40/rock band, and was the only time i was ever deliberately _lied to_ regarding the group’s modus operandi. i was told that we wouldn’t be doing the same old crap all of the other bar bands were doing and that i’d have an equal say and equal share in what went into the set list. i only ever got two or three songs of my choosing into the set list, only one of which was a lead vocal of mine. after about a month or so of shows, the rest of the band were talking about doing _lynyrd skynyrd_ covers to appease the very small handful of bigoted redneck types (one to three at every show, except for one club out in the sticks that was crawling with these subhuman pricks) — a direct reversal of our "not the same old bar band bullsh*t" credo. eventually i got fed up and quit by not even showing up at one of the redneck bars the drummer had started to habitually book us into. i came to the conclusion that those statements made before to me were lies to lure me into the group as they were rather desperate to get a bass player.

that was october of 1996. i have not played in a band since.

thoughts over the past month or so of getting into the swing of things again, this time as a band leader, have frequented my brain, only to be disheartened by the cold hard fact that the type of music i want to play (influenced by minutemen, husker du, meat puppets, dead kennedys, stooges, rollins, bif naked, etc.) is not conducive to an post-nirvana, post-badlees on a&m records environment where anything outside of classic rock and/or southern rock cannot even get into most of the clubs in the area, and where most musicians feel that repitition of these cliches is the only way to succeed in this area.

my only question is, do i give it one last shot, or do i just say "f*ck guitar-based music", get some electronic gear and go down the only non-rock route that has given me infinite pleasure in the wake of tuneless nu-metal alleged music? my only bass amp was stolen by the drummer of band number seven (ironically the only band member who ever respected my musical tastes and who was the only one talked to after i quit), do i even bother spending $400 on a new amp?

i’m at a quandry, dear friends. any input?

at the fork in the road, cj marsicano –

[rosa]

Well, are you more concerned with making money or fulfilling your artistic aspirations (not that they are necessarily two mutually exclusive things)?

[Mattman]

Hey, the very fact that you’re asking this question makes me think that you do want to get back into music… So I say go for it. [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img]

As for the style, if you want to do the punk thing, you just got to advertise and be patient. There are others out there with the same interests, and I think they’re starting to resurface in the face of all the stagnent music out there right now… Hell, if there weren’t roughly a 1000 miles between us, you’d have a guitarist right here, cause I’m in sorta the same pickle… [img]images/smiles/converted/cool.gif[/img]

As for the electronic thing.. Can’t help you, not my department.. [img]images/smiles/converted/tongue.gif[/img]

As for "band number 7" I gotta say that the moment people tell me "we don’t wanna sound like everyone else" is the moment I get the hell outta there… [img]images/smiles/converted/biggrin.gif[/img] Means they’re worrying about what people are going to think about their sound too much.. [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img] You just gotta play what comes to ya.. [img]images/smiles/converted/cool.gif[/img]

[Thought Police]

Hey CJ !

Seems you really had some bad luck [img]images/smiles/converted/frown.gif[/img]. I’m sorry for you, but probably there are some really interesting years lying before you.

As Mattman already pointed out, it seems that you would like to make/play some music; and so I agree with his "go for it".
I don’t know how much fun it is (or how much sense it makes) to play bass just for yourself or if you can compose any good songs, with just this instrument (I play the guitar and think it is pretty obvious that this is possible). But I can tell you that I really enjoy making music alone in my room only for myself (and maybe for that one special person).
We have all the possibilities we want since everyone has a computer and probably some extra cash for a decent sound card and a sythesizer. With today’s software you can record your own songs (if you understand how things work more or less the way you have it represented in your mind), make your own sounds, get your own style, well do whatever you want.

But you have to remember: It can’t beat the feeling you have playing your own tunes together with people you like. I sometimes try to remember the feelings I had in the past, when we were playing a song and you forgot everything around you and it just felt perfect (all those physiological sensations !!!).

Just my 2 cents, thanks for listening.

Bye,

Stefan,

who really thinks you should get yourself some second hand guitar, some keyboard, a mic and some pirated software and give it a try [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img]

[Thought Police]

Hey CJ !

Seems you really had some bad luck [img]images/smiles/converted/frown.gif[/img]. I’m sorry for you, but probably there are some really interesting years lying before you.

As Mattman already pointed out, it seems that you would like to make/play some music; and so I agree with his "go for it".
I don’t know how much fun it is (or how much sense it makes) to play bass just for yourself or if you can compose any good songs, with just this instrument (I play the guitar and think it is pretty obvious that this is possible). But I can tell you that I really enjoy making music alone in my room only for myself (and maybe for that one special person).
We have all the possibilities we want since everyone has a computer and probably some extra cash for a decent sound card and a sythesizer. With today’s software you can record your own songs (if you understand how things work more or less the way you have it represented in your mind), make your own sounds, get your own style, well do whatever you want.

But you have to remember: It can’t beat the feeling you have playing your own tunes together with people you like. I sometimes try to remember the feelings I had in the past, when we were playing a song and you forgot everything around you and it just felt perfect (all those physiological sensations !!!).

Just my 2 cents, thanks for listening.

Bye,

Stefan,

who really thinks you should get yourself some second hand guitar, some keyboard, a mic and some pirated software and give it a try [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img]

[SG]

Hey CJ
Good to hear from you again,I think you should go the guitar route;there`s enough people making electronic music,there`s enough people making guitar music too but I think you can`t beat the sound of a guitar.
I did`nt get a chance to be a musician,I bought a guitar when I was in my early teens,took guitar lessons which I did`nt like,but at that time I did`nt know alot about music,after I quit the lessons I started learning about music other than top 40,I had musician friends but they did`nt want to help teach me some guitar stuff;actually they we`re not really friends,a friend would have helped me out.So I have a guitar that I don`t know how to play,alot of things are broken on it too,there was always something broken on it!I do have a chord book to help me out but since it was broken so much I did`nt get much a chance to learn to play,I guess I gave up and thought being a fan and musicologist type would be better for me than being a musician.

[AGAP]

Hey CJ,

Agree with more than a few above, you need to keep playing that cool guitar based music it sounds like you enjoyed so much. I understand what you saying though about the quality of people out there who actually share the same ideas and goals being pretty limited..sad but true. Couple of great musicians I know recently have been questioning whether or not to continue as well (Voodoo Guy & Deep Soul Man [img]images/smiles/converted/rolleyes.gif[/img] ). These guys have been playing in punk bands for years, great musicians with loads of style and originality!!! Dedication as well, not into the just playing for the sake of being out there but for the pleasure of making some wicked noise. Bottom line they always seem to come to is that they just enjoy playing too much to stop, that they need to just maintain and keep trying to find someone with the same vision. Think like some have already said you have to try and be patient something good might be right around the corner [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img]

Allison [img]images/smiles/converted/biggrin.gif[/img]

ps sounds like there are two guitarists, one bass player, one drummer and a wicked singer out there looking for the same thing [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img] Too bad hundreds of miles seperate you guys…need to work on that. SG could manage…think you could trust him!!

[Thought Police]

I just wanted to ad the following:

I’m really into this whole guitar-thing an love hand made music. But in the last 5 years I came to the conclusion, that there are so many talented electronic acts out there, who are even able to tranport feelings. I think to combine both, the wiered guitars and the distortion with those nice bleeps, blops and filtered beats.
The biggest problem is (as CJ mentioned) the lack of people who think the same way as yourself. That’s why I turned my back on all of you [img]images/smiles/converted/wink.gif[/img]. No, serious, sometimes a band is just not as contollable (is this an actual word ?) as your computer/sampler/whatever. I always hated the feeling when the song I had in mind turned another direction, because other band members *had some great ideas*.

Bye,

Stefan

[SG]

Last year Versus had an album that had little bits of electronica thrown in,not too any great extent,mixed in with guitar based rock.
I thought about in the last few years why I should bother listening to guitar rock when there`s problably more innovating music being made,but I came to the conclusion that I listen to guitar rock because I like it,duh!I`ve tried listening to electronic music,it does`nt effect me like rock music does,maybe someone else gets more out of it then me,guess I`m old fashioned.
Another good example of a guitar band that`s open to electronica is Mogwai,the 2nd last track of Rock Action is brilliant mix of a guitar piece that changes into electronica and even has some banjo in it.They also do remixes for electronica artists.

[irishwhip]

Hey CJ,

I agree with some of the people here above: it’s very hard to find people who want to make the same music you want to make. I also tried to be in a band, but due to the moving to another town of the drummer it didn’t succeed. It’s very hard to find a drummer and even a bassplayer, it’s even harder to find a place to practice with a drum (at least at my town).

What did I do? I just started making music myself. I use a computerprogram to make the drums and the bass. I mix my guitar in it and finish it all at my computer.
I recently a digital recording studio and now it’s even easier to record all the music I make. I have no one to discuss it with (only with my twinbrother, because he sings), so I can do what I want.

I agree, it’s very hard to make songs with only a bass, but if you want to make other styles of music, I think you just should.

Good luck, maybe we will hear something from you in the future.

Pim

[Author]

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