Stormcellar Band Home Page

Howdy folks.

Bill opened the box of 'Stems' for SC8. Contents not quite as advertised.

Fundamentally we have a sonic problem with part of the production chain for these SC8 recordings. It's still fixable but boy it's more work than we'd hoped. Or we can just release it as it is. Meh. Such choices.

Meanwhile, perhaps more importantly, work continues on writing for SC9. 

As does testing and rehearsal

Last night saw us entertain yet another 'oddity'.

Long time Cellar Dweller Ms. H commented that she wanted to hear more 'surprising' stuff from us. She likes the weird ones.

Mr Wizard, upon hearing the new song, decreed that we had met that objective.

I know how much of a mirror of our surroundings we are.

Driving down the freeways listening to each others play lists and arguing about it, swapping you tube clips, seeing and playing with other bands. Somehow we've managed to channel Bills love of complexity into a few new songs that are even more complex than Mr Wizards natural inclination.

Bill got me into this stuff. It's a remarkable mix of Digital Scrubbing/Dub Step/Ambient Electronica/Power Rock Metal/omg. The complexity is high and its not for the faint of heart. 

Now don't fash yourself, we haven't completely lost our tiny little minds, but I already played Harp on Devine Electric's hard rock song and my mate Gray did some Harp on a Metal track so I want in on that action too!  Yep, warned ya a few posts back.

You cant help but be influenced  by your surroundings, that what most of our stuff has been about :-)

So this got me to thinking about the arc of what I realize is really a three part project. We've now spanned Tamworth (The Flood) to Bloomington (Bloomington) to Lenexa Kansas (Push Me Away) back to Indianapolis for the next recording.

Stylistically we've covered a lot of ground over the last two recordings, from the identifiable to the..the...whatever.

We're so busted for being Trans-genre I wondered just how much we can push it before we disappear up our own fundament.

Ok that sounded weird but what I meant was...

The writing and testing continues. Come to a show you'll find the live testing lab in full swing.

Ok that was awesome.

This is Dad's old guitar. He bought it 40 years ago, would have been a mid range guitar back in the day.

It's sat in the closet for almost two decades. Sam thought it had some issues.

Mr Wizard picked it up, risked snapping the strings by tuning it and then played a bit. of 'Rise' and a few other bits and pieces, settling into a song I thought must have been by Tom Petty.  After he'd finished playing it, I asked what song that was. he said he didn't know, that had just come out.

Ok, so that happened.

Even freakin' better I had my freakin' iPhone recording going. yeah baby. I got it and I like it.

Any day you get a new song from an old instrument is a good day.

Thanks Dad.

Well there's a random surprise: a radio (eRadio? ... is that a thing?) show called The Inside Noise Show have chosen us as their band of the week ... referencing our bluegrass phase (it's like Picasso's famed Blue Period ... but perhaps more angular) ... you know like this:

Anyhoo - big thank you to The Inside Noise show!

Cheers,

Rosie

Oh dear. I spent yesterday doing some Significant Life Stuff, taking care of family stuff that was pretty heavy duty.

I'm more confessional within the lyrics than on the blog, even when I don't mean to be, so you'll just have to interpret a song or two to figure out what I'm up to.

Anyway, after dealing with some Heavy Stuff I got home and found a package awaiting me, all the way from KC.

It contains more files from our KC recordings and I haven't been game to open it.

Just when I thought i was out...

There's a great album somewhere in these recordings, but I had promised myself I was off the hook for having to find it.

My last response on the subject had been...PEACE!

Now I have to put on my big boy trousers and return to the subject. Or not.

As fans of Greek Mythology will tell you, sometimes you shouldn't open the box.

Regular 'Cellar Dwellers may be familiar with what I call 'MJEB's Law of Ironic Likelihood'

To whit: 'In any choice from multiple options, the one with the greatest irony or amusement is the likeliest outcome'.

I also have a lesser known 'MJEB's 2nd law of Sphincter Irritation' which is 'in any case of MJEB's first law directly involving MJEB, the outcome that causes the most amusing tantrum from MJEB is more likely.'

(sigh). The funny thing (meta irony?) is that I do find it amusing. Meh. 

Hmm...

Howdy Folks. How you doin'?

I hope, Dear Reader, that your day greets you with as cheerful a face as mine has. Sunlit cold Sydney weather as we head into Faux-Fall.

All the Foreign Trees are confused this time of year. The deciduous natives have given up on cooperation with the seasons and just go their own way.

Yes, Plants Going Their Own Way, (PGTOW, you heard it here first).

Never start your Blog easy or directly I say.

To the gig!

Jo sang with us on Saturday. Someone in the crowd came up and short changed us 'I've seen stormcellar before but not with you OMG etc' yeah chopped liver thanks very much...

Yeah we like it when she sings with us too, makes us sound better. Yeah. I know.

Bec did a great set, we got Multi-encored and if it hadn't been for me judging Band Tolerance we'd still be there playing.

So that's good.

But now for the after gig work that we do, our own internal 'Kaizen' ( a Japanese concept of 'continuous improvement').

1. Managing the Disaster

At the start of the show we had some Sound wobbles on stage. That made us unhappy.

Front of house sound was apparently OK, but onstage we had the dreaded Low Frequency Feedback.

We got this resolved during the set but starting from a wobble means having to find your Mojo again. You can get there but it's work :-) We got there but we need to get there quicker.

2. Match Fitness

Mr Wizard commented about his Match Fitness falling away because we've had a month off.

Historically, we've played so much that rehearsal was just for adding new songs to the set and tweaking stuff.

The downside of evolving into a 'bigger' act includes:

- you get fussy about sound

- you play less often because your shows are..well..'bigger'.

So - more rehearsal and some Chilling on Sound.

3. Get Lyrics Right and Please To Sing The Correct Harmony.

When Jo's not with us, any lapse in concentration on my part is...artistic expression.

I started singing her part during 'Twice Shy Girl' and she looked at me like she'd got the part wrong. Nope. That was me. You were fine Jo. I was singing your bit.

Also, some degree of singing the right words would be good. 

It's amazing how in the middle of a song, suddenly you can start thinking about whether you fed the cat before you left the house, or are my car keys in my pocket? That stuff just pops into your head and then OMFG what was I singing? What is the next word???

4. Song Tribbles

We're at work on songs for our 9th album. I can't remember some of the songs songs from our first 3. 

Oh. Here's a new one.

We brought 'country radio' back into the set and tried a new harmony arrangement. Unfortunately we had failed to tell Jo. 

We had, however, remembered to rehearse it so that's a plus.

Also, it sounded good. A second plus.

5. The Mental Game of Music

Rule #1 - Get you happy on.

Unless you're Metal or Emo or something that doesn't process Happy, in which case, err, go to your BRUTAL/Sad place respectively.

Or if you're Mr Wizard, combine them with Baby Metal. That's Happy Metal!

There are other rules but meh. It's a glorious day and we have much work ahead of us. Our next show is in just over two weeks and by that time there will be more new songs to try out.

More rambling at my next happy opportunity.