Announcing The Igc07 Garagegames Band Jam

#1 Sounds great!

One limiting factor in Indie Jams of days gone by was always the singing: lining up people willing and able to sing was hard. I suggest we start like this:

I say we ask people who know songs they are willing to sing suggest songs and musicians can pipe in if that song is easy/hard to make work with the given instruments.

Let's also have musicians suggest songs they can play that they think would be easy to find singers for and we can have singers chime in if they want to sing those songs.

As a musician I will chime in with some songs that would be fun to find singers for:

1. Mary had a Little Lamb - Stevey Ray Vaughan
2. Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
3. Istanbul (not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants (or other version)
4. Brass in Pocket, Precious - Pretenders (or any Pretenders really)
5. Suffragette City, China Girl - David Bowie
6. Every Day I write the Book, Allison, Olivers Army, etc - Elvis Costello

#2 Like I said earlier, my band would kind of fill in and provide the "glue" to hold the jam together like Justin did last time we did this. We'll open, play some in the middle, and play a couple at the end. We have all been playing a long time, as has Paul and Justin. If you have a guitar player or singer that needs back up, if they let us know what song they want to play, it is pretty easy to figure it out.

Evan, we should make sure that Indie Jam is communicated to all of the IGC attendees, so we can get a lot of participation.

The Procrastinators will be playing something like this:

Opening songs:
Mystery Dance - Elvis Costello
Brand New Cadillac - Clash

<<>>

Mid songs:Kids Are Alright - Who
What I Like About You (girl version with Allison Tunnell as singer)

<<>>

Ending Songs:
Margaritaville - Kimmy Buffet
Blitzkrieg Bop - Ramones

#3 What day will this be held?

#4 Hey Rubes! The event will be held the main night of IGC, October 10th.

Jeff; that arrangement definitely works. If we're going for an hour and need about 10-12 songs to cover the time, that'll give us a reliable base to work from. Thanks much!

So -- the question is, what songs are we going for with the rest of the group? Further, are we talking classic rock, alternative, or something else?

#5 A few more song ideas I think are fun to jam on:

Rock And Roll All Nite (Kiss)
Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
After Midnight (Clapton)
Iron Man (Sabbath) though maybe the arrangment is too tough for a pick up jam on this one so substitue Paranoid for some heaviosity
Cumbersome (Seven Mary Three)

Should we decide to do any of these, I can write up some basic lead sheets on each of those songs to serve as a guide for jammers.

#6 Looks like a pretty good list, Ben! And you said that your buddy Jason would be up for singing? Most excellent!

So -- anyone want to pitch a couple more song ideas, if they have any they'd want to see up? If not, we can go straight to voting.

Initial voting list:
-- Mary had a Little Lamb - Stevey Ray Vaughan
-- Sympathy for the Devil - Rolling Stones
-- Istanbul (not Constantinople) - They Might Be Giants (or other version)
-- Brass in Pocket, Precious - Pretenders (or any Pretenders really)
-- Suffragette City, China Girl - David Bowie
-- Every Day I write the Book, Allison, Olivers Army, etc - Elvis Costello
-- Rock And Roll All Nite - Kiss
-- Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf
-- After Midnight - Clapton
-- Iron Man - Sabbath (Ben: though maybe the arrangment is too tough for a pick up jam on this one so substitute Paranoid for some heaviosity)
-- Cumbersome - Seven Mary Three

So! Two elements to the voting. In the first place, please vote for six songs that you'd like to see played -- and more importantly, volunteer to play them. :D Ben's friend Jason has volunteered to sing; we'll need a guitarist, bassist, and drummer, then.

#7 We should get a larger list to choose from so we need more song ideas. Here are some songs that I know tend to be easy to play. If any of these songs strike someone's fancy then let's add them to the list of songs to consider.

I shot the Sherif - Marley, Clapton, etc
Johnny B. Goode - etc
Moon Dance - Van Morrison
Peaceful World - Mellencamp
unchained melody - etc

so many songs really...

Clearly we need even more suggestions that this so...someone else pipe in here.

#8 More songs:

Shout At The Devil (Crue) requires a certain amount of moxie on the drums
Woman (Wolfmother)
Metal Health (Quiet Riot)
Mother (Danzig)
Twist And Shout

Once we get a final list of songs together, I'll have to present them to the singer to make sure they're all in good keys for his range. He doesn't really do the high, Robert Plant type of voice.

Here are some links to some of his vocal work to get an idea of his voice:
Mustang Sally
Last Goodbye
One More Minute
Use Me
Try A Little Tenderness
One For My Baby

#9 Damn, Ben! That's pretty awesome. I'm starting to think that those youtube clips you pointed me to didn't do you guys justice -- the audio quality wasn't nearly as good.

That said -- do you guys have any additional songs to add? We're at 22 to vote from, and six of these getting selected. To provide as much time as possible for people to volunteer to play and to practice, we should get to voting in the next day. I'm thinking to start it at the end of the work day on Friday. Sound fair?

#10 Songs I vote on and am willing to play if needed:

1. Rock And Roll All Nite (Kiss)
2. Born To Be Wild (Steppenwolf)
3. After Midnight (Clapton)
4. Paranoid (Sabbath)
5. Cumbersome (Seven Mary Three)
6. Shout At The Devil (Crue)
7. Woman (Wolfmother)

I will work with Jason (the singer) to determine optimal keys and feasibility once we have an official list.

Here is the youTube link if anyone is interested in checking them out. Jason is singing in all the "red/blue" lit videos.

In addition to guitarin on a few songs, I am willing to fill in on bass a bit too if needed.

I could probably suggest another 50 or 60 songs if we need it but I've already listed my favorites to play ;)

#11 Sign me up on the bassist roster

#12 Sweet! Will do, Kelly. Now, we still need a drummer. Anyone up for volunteering? Or anyone know a friend who drums who'll be attending? Or, for that matter, that we can drag along?

Jeff, Ben, I'm looking at you. ;)

#13 I can play bass or guitar provided enough beer is in my system :)

#14 Well, there'll definitely be enough beer, so have no fear there!

#15 Here's my 2 cents including some already mentioned and new ideas

Definite crowd pleasers:

Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode -- can't go wrong with anything 12 bar blues in a jam setting
Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild -- good drive, easy to bring together real quick
Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Ride
BTO - Takin' Care of Business -- nice drive, openings for solos / crowd clapping / etc.
Beatles - Twist and Shout -- I'm assuming Beatles?

More good rock tunes:

ZZ Top - Tush
Black Crowes - Hard to Handle
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love

Since we're looking at just tossing these tunes together in a couple of runs so it's probably best to do songs with a straight rock beat and nothing too crazy... Just my opinion.

Like Ben said above, lead sheets would definitely be a good idea to toss together so everybody's on the same page.

#16

Quote:Beatles - Twist and Shout -- I'm assuming Beatles?

Or how about this version (iTunes link).

Seriously though, when talking about doing a cover tune that has already been covered by other artists, how can you pick which version you're doing since it won't be that artist who is playing it? In addition to that fine gem linked above, there are also nice versions by the Isley Brothers, Ike & Tina, the Who, and many others on iTunes! Listen to them all and they are all unique even though it is the same notes being played. If we do the song, it will be our version.

So we've reportedly got three guits, two basses, a singer, and hopefully a drummer will materialize (I'm working on peops but no bites yet). Jeff's band is doing six songs and we are looking for six other songs. I'm guessing we'll do three in the first break for the Procrastinators and three in the second. What about combining two guitarists on stage at a time? With three guitarists that works out perfect to have them play all three possible combinations of two. With two bass players they each play three songs which means each bass player also gets to play at least one song with each guitarist. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. I don't know everyone's names so a simple chart might look like this:

Song 1: Ben+Sean, bassist 1
Song 2: Ben+Sean, bassist 1

Song 3: Sean+guit3, bassist 1
Song 4: Sean+guit3, bassist 2

Song 5: Ben+guit3, bassist 2
Song 6: Ben+guit3, bassist 2

That might make it more natural to split the procrastinators breaks with four in the first and two in the second to minimize the amount of stage dancing. This gives people a little more opportunity to trade solos and will also go a long way to filling out the sound a bit.

Once we figure out who everyone is, maybe we can break into smaller discussions to cement the songs we'll do. Instead of us trying to figure the whole thing out as a committe, it might be easier, say, for me to go to Sean and bassist 1 and say, "Hey, what do you guys think of doing these two songs together?"

#17 Spot on Ben. I agree whole heartedly with your comment about covers. I never want to play a song exactly as the original. Gotta spin it. I guess I was just looking for an artist to tack onto that tune (for reference).

So I guess the next questions are...

How many songs total are we going to play? (the jammers that is)?

Ben's break up was pretty solid. Are we jamming on six tunes total?

If so, I guess it's time for people to chime in on what songs we are going to do...

#18 We've been going with the idea that a solid hour+ of indie jamming would be a good target to plan for -- about 10-12 songs, that should be? But if we run over, well, hell, I'm not going to complain!

With Jeff and crew taking 6, that's 6 for the general pool -- and Ben's break-up looks quite solid, I agree.

Guitar 3 there is Justin Mette; bassists are Paul Dana and Kelly Asay. Kenneth Holst's also volunteered to play guitar or bass provided we give him beer -- and we've got some kegs lined up, so that's a go. ;)

#19 I would like to maybe se a few heavier songs added to the mix.. doesn't have to be speed metal though that would be fun too.

Anything by :

Black Sabbath
(old)Metallica
Iron Maiden

I could bust out with ease on bass or guitar.

#20 We've got some Sabbath planned already. I can certainly always go for throwing down some old 'tallica but with a pickup band that *might* get twenty minutes of practice, I think it is wise to not try anything too challenging.

Ken, are you planning on imbibing your bribe before or after you get on stage? That could be another argument for staying away from the harder songs ;)