Quick list of favorite movies about music/rock (no rules, throw anything out there - documentaries are ok!):
5. U2 - Rattle and Hum
4. Almost Famous
3. That Thing You Do
2. This is Spinal Tap
1. Hard Days Night
honorable mention: The Rutles, All You Need is Cash (well, ok, this was a made-for-TV movie...)
-Terry
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Monday, June 9, 2008
Song Selection - you can help!
If you come out to see a Funk:30 show, you will hear a variety of songs, some you know, some you are not so sure about. That's ok, in fact, it's kind of the plan. There's lots of great music out there that doesn't get much exposure. In our small, tiny way, we hope that we can bring some exposure to some of our favorite artists. Names like Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Coco Montoya, Tommy Castro, Jeff Golub...
But there is a flip side to this - sometimes we see blank looks out there as we play some of the more obscure tunes. I can assure you, that doesn't help the set, nor does it get people in the mood for dancing. Familiar songs always work better. But, how familiar do our songs have to be for us to be considered a "good band" by our listeners? I can say with certainty that we are not interested in just picking the most popular songs you have heard a million times before. Where's the fun or challenge in that? Still, we definitely want our guests to come out of the gig feeling great about the time they spent with us. So how do we do that? It's a question we ask ourselves a lot, and something we ponder at just about every practice.
Unofficially, we've come up with a formula that we use when we decide what songs we will add to our set. I'd like to share that formula, then ask you to contribute any ideas that might get generated from this discussion. Let's see where that takes us, shall we?
So here we go.
The song must be danceable - that can be at any tempo, so slow songs still work. But ideally, it has a good medium tempo beat, could be bluesy or funky, but not metal, not punk, not grunge...there could be exceptions, if we can "funkify" the tune to make it our own. But put simply, sing the song to yourself and ask "could I, or would I want to dance to this?" If the answer is "yes", it has a chance.
Familiarity. This is a toughy, and is always up for debate. Trust us, we have had many! Too popular and it tends to lose our interest. Too obscure and we face the ordeal of losing the dance floor. We've made that mistake, believe me, and are doomed to make it again and again. The ideal song is probably something you have heard in the past, but that you really don't hear much anymore. The kind of song that comes on and you say "Yeah! I used to LOVE this song!" (if you are over 40, replace "love" with "dig"). We started playing The Spinners "I'll Be Around" which is a great example of a song that worked really well. We also do The Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Woman", and it qualifies as too popular, but darn, people seem to love dancing to it, so we keep playing it. Tommy Castro's "My Kind of Woman" is up tempo, very funky, loads of fun to play, great for dancing. Quick vote: How many of you know the original?
See? This is a tough business, I'm telling you.
Now it gets even harder. Now that you might have a handful of ideas in your head, you can further filter them down over their playability. Keep in mind, we are a four piece, with only three full time instruments (Guitar, bass, drums). We're going to be in trouble if you throw a song that is 100% keyboard/piano driven. Or maybe one with a big orchestra backing that is essential to the song. Or that needs a horn section to pull off. Get the idea? We have to translate most songs to fit our instrumentation; some work, others don't. Sometimes we don't know until we try it. So feel free to suggest it, be prepared for rejection solely on the fact that...we can't play it!
Have I thrown enough obstacles in the way yet? There are probably others, such as the key of the song. Some songs REQUIRE they be played in a certain key in order to work musically on the guitar (songs in the key of E or that use lots of open strings, for instance, cannot be easily or often successfully transposed to another key). But let us worry about that for now.
So, come on America, toss some ideas our way and I'll try to give you an objective response as to why they might or might not work for us. This could be fun. Use the Comments option to reply.
--Terry
But there is a flip side to this - sometimes we see blank looks out there as we play some of the more obscure tunes. I can assure you, that doesn't help the set, nor does it get people in the mood for dancing. Familiar songs always work better. But, how familiar do our songs have to be for us to be considered a "good band" by our listeners? I can say with certainty that we are not interested in just picking the most popular songs you have heard a million times before. Where's the fun or challenge in that? Still, we definitely want our guests to come out of the gig feeling great about the time they spent with us. So how do we do that? It's a question we ask ourselves a lot, and something we ponder at just about every practice.
Unofficially, we've come up with a formula that we use when we decide what songs we will add to our set. I'd like to share that formula, then ask you to contribute any ideas that might get generated from this discussion. Let's see where that takes us, shall we?
So here we go.
The song must be danceable - that can be at any tempo, so slow songs still work. But ideally, it has a good medium tempo beat, could be bluesy or funky, but not metal, not punk, not grunge...there could be exceptions, if we can "funkify" the tune to make it our own. But put simply, sing the song to yourself and ask "could I, or would I want to dance to this?" If the answer is "yes", it has a chance.
Familiarity. This is a toughy, and is always up for debate. Trust us, we have had many! Too popular and it tends to lose our interest. Too obscure and we face the ordeal of losing the dance floor. We've made that mistake, believe me, and are doomed to make it again and again. The ideal song is probably something you have heard in the past, but that you really don't hear much anymore. The kind of song that comes on and you say "Yeah! I used to LOVE this song!" (if you are over 40, replace "love" with "dig"). We started playing The Spinners "I'll Be Around" which is a great example of a song that worked really well. We also do The Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Woman", and it qualifies as too popular, but darn, people seem to love dancing to it, so we keep playing it. Tommy Castro's "My Kind of Woman" is up tempo, very funky, loads of fun to play, great for dancing. Quick vote: How many of you know the original?
See? This is a tough business, I'm telling you.
Now it gets even harder. Now that you might have a handful of ideas in your head, you can further filter them down over their playability. Keep in mind, we are a four piece, with only three full time instruments (Guitar, bass, drums). We're going to be in trouble if you throw a song that is 100% keyboard/piano driven. Or maybe one with a big orchestra backing that is essential to the song. Or that needs a horn section to pull off. Get the idea? We have to translate most songs to fit our instrumentation; some work, others don't. Sometimes we don't know until we try it. So feel free to suggest it, be prepared for rejection solely on the fact that...we can't play it!
Have I thrown enough obstacles in the way yet? There are probably others, such as the key of the song. Some songs REQUIRE they be played in a certain key in order to work musically on the guitar (songs in the key of E or that use lots of open strings, for instance, cannot be easily or often successfully transposed to another key). But let us worry about that for now.
So, come on America, toss some ideas our way and I'll try to give you an objective response as to why they might or might not work for us. This could be fun. Use the Comments option to reply.
--Terry
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Funk:30 and the Blog
So, this is new and different for us. There are times when we want to say something or acknowledge our friends or latest gigs, and the only way would normally be to use email. But, too much of that, and we start spamming folks. Blogging isn't new, but it is for us, so here we go.
I have no idea how often we'll make some posts, but if we get rolling with it, we'll throw stuff out there every now and then.
To start, let me wish Terry Lawless the best, as he moves on to other endeavors. Terry, as you might know, was sitting in with us occasionally as time and circumstances allowed, on keyboards and sax. What a treat to play with him! If you don't know his lineage, check it out at www.terrylawless.com. He's played and worked for a number of A-list musicians and bands, the most recent being none other than Dublin based U2. Pretty amazing gig, wouldn't you say? Rumor has it that he is going to be headed to Europe to travel with Bruce Springsteen on tour. Nice work if you can get it!
Unfortunately for us, and for several other bands in town, his schedule just starting getting a bit too crazy, and he's decided - for sanity's sake - to cut back on local commitments. We'll miss him, and hope that when he is in town, he'll still stop by to do a show or two with us.
In the meantime, Funk:30 pushes on as a foursome, like we've been doing for over two years now. We are always hoping to find someone that really fits the band (Long Guy! Where are you?!), but we are also very content staying a four piece. Nice place to be.
Ok, I am wrapping this entry up so that I can figure out the technical side of getting this linked to our web page. Thanks for listening!
--Terry
I have no idea how often we'll make some posts, but if we get rolling with it, we'll throw stuff out there every now and then.
To start, let me wish Terry Lawless the best, as he moves on to other endeavors. Terry, as you might know, was sitting in with us occasionally as time and circumstances allowed, on keyboards and sax. What a treat to play with him! If you don't know his lineage, check it out at www.terrylawless.com. He's played and worked for a number of A-list musicians and bands, the most recent being none other than Dublin based U2. Pretty amazing gig, wouldn't you say? Rumor has it that he is going to be headed to Europe to travel with Bruce Springsteen on tour. Nice work if you can get it!
Unfortunately for us, and for several other bands in town, his schedule just starting getting a bit too crazy, and he's decided - for sanity's sake - to cut back on local commitments. We'll miss him, and hope that when he is in town, he'll still stop by to do a show or two with us.
In the meantime, Funk:30 pushes on as a foursome, like we've been doing for over two years now. We are always hoping to find someone that really fits the band (Long Guy! Where are you?!), but we are also very content staying a four piece. Nice place to be.
Ok, I am wrapping this entry up so that I can figure out the technical side of getting this linked to our web page. Thanks for listening!
--Terry
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