Stereo Embers back at it!

Since the Embers stopped playing together, we've been keeping in touch. Timmy joined Planets earlier this year for a few songs and now we're in full swing for our reunion show, next Saturday, at the Sunset.

Tim had reached out a few months ago to see how we felt about it; we'd be playing with Seola Station and Golden West (with Kim Virant, Kathy Moore and Patrick Porter, among others). I felt a little goofy about having a reunion show for a band that was broken up for only 4 years, but I guess people wanted us, so that's sort of cool.

The show at Conor Byrne with Tim went pretty well, we sold it out, after all! He jumped on for a few Embers tunes and then played Holiday Daydream with us. It was fine and fun. Since then, we've been in touch, really ramping up the last few weeks. We've been discussing a set list, but the truth is, it's not like we have 30 songs to choose from. We'll get a set for maybe 14 songs at most, so we'll play all the regular songs, but are also dusting off some songs I never did with the guys, like Tomorrow, Nearly Forgotten Show and Ways of the World.

Last night, we met up at Tim's space in Belltown and ripped through 8 or 9 songs. I got to play through Andy Stoller's huge GK rig, with 2 410s stacked on top of each other. I brought ol' Goldie along and it sounded so aggro with some overdrive. As usual, we were super loud, but it felt great to dust off the songs and hang with the boys.

We played each song twice, except JYD and Boom. We'll hit the rest of the set tomorrow night and likely go top to bottom a few times next week. And by the time we go next Tuesday, hoping to have the new bass on hand to get some reps!

I recorded last night's stuff and it was definitely fine. Need to clean up some notes and stuff, all of us do, but for a first time back together, it was great.

Rehearsal for upcoming gigs

My old mate Dave H. from high school reached out recently and asked me to sit in with him and his old pal Greg Hoy. Additionally, Dave wanted me to sit in with his project, the Greenwood Music Collective (GMC), as his bassist was out of the country for a few weeks. Since I had no shows lined up in the immediate future, I said yes.

Over the past few weeks, I've met up with Dave, Kelly and Jack at Jack's house in North Seattle. We were able to get dialed in on a bit of their tunes, which consist of all three of them singing their own tunes. Kelly has a really beautiful voice and her songs are pretty good as well. Jack plays guitar and banjo and brings his own flavor to things. Dave is on drums and he's an aspiring songwriter who is excited to play his new songs out (and on piano, no less!) for the first time.

After two rehearsals, it turns out that Jack had to bail as his mom has recently passed, so we are revamping things, including having Greg play a few tunes with us. Additionally, I am filling in for Jack on a bass gig with another band called Del Vox, but that's next week.

Until Wednesday of this week, I hadn't played Greg's music with anyone but myself. That all changed as Greg was in town for the start of his tour and we met that night at Dave's house in Woodinville. Dave's house has a large rec room/loft space above the garage that he has all his gear in. We got plugged in and got to work.

Brought the P and played through the 15" combo

Dave's playroom

Greg rolled into town with nothing but a carry on, with the world's tiniest guitar pedal, about the size of two full size candy bars. We started off with his songs and for the most part, they went really well. I tried to sing backing vox on what I could and Greg was super encouraging about what and how we played.

It was interesting playing with Dave; he and I played in a band called the Roundabouts in high school. We were a three piece and despite me not remembering, we did at least play one show outside of his house (there are pictures).

Over the years, Dave was more of a jazz, less rock, drummer. Playing with him was fun because he was solid, but very different than I'm used to. I was able to get through it and we were pretty much ready for the show.

Kelly showed up and we worked on some of her and Dave's songs. Dave's songs are a little challenging as the structure to his songs aren't as traditional as I'm used to. He's learning the art of songwriting, and though I'm no songwriter, I haven't quite latched onto the feeling he's going for on some of his songs. But for the most part, they're do-able and we'll be just fine.

I have 5 gigs in the next three weeks, so I'm pretty excited about that. Good times!

Tonight's rehearsal

I got together with Gregg and David again tonight. We spent 2 hours on about 4 songs, really working out harmony parts. That was fun for me. I spent the past few days really listening to David's songs, and figuring out what parts I might be singing. All the practice did me some good as the singing was good tonight. Now I just gotta work out my bass parts.

The recordings David has from his CD have super bass playing on them. The guys who played the parts really did some fantastic work and I'll be working on cribbing some of the better parts. Singing over them, however, will make things interesting.

We'll be practicing on Thursdays starting next week, so I have a while before we play again. David wants to add a second guitarist, but we'll keep working on what we have and, with any luck, we'll be show ready by mid-summer?

Last night at Scheme rehearsal

For the first time since the Grasshopper/Her Majesty's Secret Service days (way back in 96?), I had band practice in the friendly confines of the Eastside. Good ol' Bellevue. I made the 15 minute jaunt over to the Bel-Red corridor and met David and Gregg at Evolution Studios, a place where bands rent furnished spaces by the hour.

That was cool. I have a feeling that the owners of the place print their own money. For a Tuesday night, the place was packed. Hard to find parking and tons of Soundgarden-y rock, but once we got in the room, it was great. The room itself was quite large, with enough room for a 5 piece band, easily.

They had a Marshall JCM900 4x10 in one corner, a small Mapex drum kit, and an Ampeg something on a 4x10. There was one more guitar rig, but we didn't use it. Also a full PA, as well as a couch. Quite comfy. The room, that is. The couch sucked.

We plugged in and ran through some of David's songs. Keeping in mind that we hadn't played together since late August/early Sept., I think it went pretty well. Altogether, we did about 6 or 7 songs and there's definitely something there. David's songs are super catchy and almost in the singer/songwriter vein, though a bit more rock oriented. He's a competent singer and guitarist and has lots of experience doing both. Gregg is a very solid drummer. He's laid back and plays really tastefully. I guess he was in a rock band years ago that got on a label or something, but didn't get beyond that.

Since the Lunds are down for now, we should have a few weeks to rehearse and see how things go. David wants to add a second guitarist, which would really flesh out the sound. For now, I will be singing a lot more than I am currently with the Bros, which will be a cool challenge.

Check out the Scheme here: obligatory Myspace link

Practice tonight

I was beat tonight. I haven't been wearing my CPAP all night these past few nights for some reason. I go to bed with it on, but somehow I end up removing it. I guess I'm used to having it on because I have been TIRED due to the lack of quality CPAP time.

I drove about 120 miles today. Did about 40 miles of driving for work, then the Tacoma round trip tonight.

We had a decent rehearsal. Not as great as last week, but not a trainwreck like weeks previous. We'll be fine for this Friday. Hopefully we have a good turn out. Apparently Sean has a bunch of people who have committed to come. Me? I have people who have told me they'll be out of town. Lame.

I will have to do some woodshedding this week. My fingers are woefully out of shape and they are sore right now. Maybe I'll work on some moves as well...

Time for bed. Early tonight! Woo hoo!

Surprise, surprise!

I rehearsed with the guys today. There actually was a rhythm guitarist as well; I thought it was gonna be a trio.

Anyway, we all piled into the drummer's rehearsal studio, a Shurgard storage space, and set up. Lucky for us the temperature hadn't hit the 90s yet like it will tomorrow and the space was actually kinda cool. That changed after we finished setting up.

I had dusted off Emilio's CD last night and worked on some of his tunes. Luckily the songs are pretty easy. I didn't have a hard time with them. I mentioned in the previous blog that I was concerned about a certain drummer. Well, we ended up getting him, so I had to make the best of it.

As it turns out, Chris' drumming was quite good. I'm not a fan of his particular style of playing (lots of jazz type stuff), but overall, he did fine. Rather than be picky and stuck up about it, I decided just to play and enjoy myself.

We knocked out 8 songs for a 30-35 minute set. I'm a little concerned about the between song moments as both Emilio and Chris seem to not want to start the songs without making sure it's ok with the other. I did mention to E that he needed to just start the songs and be the rock star. Chris is quite mellow and, in fact, I think he wants E to be more in charge as well.

Later on, Rob, the rhythm guitar, showed up. He really added some fullness to the band. Plus, it helped that the three of them used to play these songs way back when. We ran through the set once or twice with Rob and it felt pretty good. I'm singing some backs on a few songs and everything sounded pleasant.

I looked on the radio station website tonight and saw that the other 4 bands have been posted. One is a chick singer/songwriter with a 'tude. I thought it was gonna be kind of wimpy, but she has a few rocking tracks (think Garbage). There's another band that's a three piece acoustic thing. Can they open for Bon Jovi?? The other two bands are more guitar-oriented rock. One of them, Peepshow, has been around the Seattle scene for a few years. They should be quite tight and I'd consider them the favorites at this point.

Details have been few and far between at this point. I don't know how the bands will be judged. On one person's site, she put that audience participation is a factor. If that's the case, we'll need to do some serious pimping.

Anyway, we're gonna hook up for a few more runs tomorrow, then the big show on Saturday. Let's see what happens...

**UPDATE**

Just heard from Emilio. I guess we play 4th out of 5 bands. That's pretty cool, but we can't count on people staying to hear us play so we'll have to bring our own people. Also, the Mariners will be playing at Safeco across the street. That game starts at 1:00 and it's against the BoSox, so it'll be quite busy down there. But, if we go 4th, that puts us on at about 4-5 or so, and the ball game will get out around then, which could mean a ton of walk up traffic... Hmm.