Looking for some feedback/advice/creative help

[VanHorneDog]

ok, so ive got this band. we are in the jamming stages and we have a couple o' tunes.

just wanted to see if you guys could help me out with any ideas, or if you have any comments or critiques.

this is really really rough shit.

i respect a lot of you on here and thought it would be interesting to see if you guys could help out with the creative process.

and of course if any of you live in San Diego and want to play.

here is the sight, we dont really have a defined sound. but it is strongly influenced by funk and hard rock i think.

www.myspace.com/audiojunkyard

thanks guys.

[Ezhuks]

Sun Rise In The East sounds like somebody is falling behind hard or keeps fluctuating in tempo, I think that might me the drummer. I also would suggest for the vocalist to either start singing more powerfully or wait until the song is more evolved and only then start singing, because as of now it just makes things worse.

Mother Funker caught me thinking that I don't hear any bass guitar. Was your bass guitarist missing from that recording session ? Or is it just too quiet for me to hear ? Again, somebody's falling behind.

Love Tiger finally made it clear for me that your drummer can't keep his rhythm when he's doing fills.

[VanHorneDog]

Originally Posted by Ezhuks

Sun Rise In The East sounds like somebody is falling behind hard or keeps fluctuating in tempo, I think that might me the drummer. I also would suggest for the vocalist to either start singing more powerfully or wait until the song is more evolved and only then start singing, because as of now it just makes things worse.

Mother Funker caught me thinking that I don't hear any bass guitar. Was your bass guitarist missing from that recording session ? Or is it just too quiet for me to hear ? Again, somebody's falling behind.

Love Tiger finally made it clear for me that your drummer can't keep his rhythm when he's doing fills.

yeah our bass guitar player was vacant for all these. which blew.

our drummer is pretty new to drumming.

thanks.

[whiteysax]

I second everything Ez said above... unless your drummer drastically improves, I'm not sure I could ever take the songs seriously. I listened to Sun Rise and Dream On and his style is ok for that Sun Rise song (aside from the tempo problems and lack of creativity with fills and drum patterns), but then on a laid back song like Dream On, he comes crashing into with a big fill that almost sounds comical for the mood of the song.
I'd be interested to hear what some of the songs sound like when you get a change to record everyone on separate mics. I felt the vocalist had no clue what he was doing in Sun Rise, but heard much more regard for pitch and melody in Dream On leading me to believe what I was or wasn't hearing in Sun Rise was a result of your budget recording set up.
Guitar work is ok... nothing fancy, but definitely not bad... good mix of melodic line and rhythm strumming for the most part. I felt the solo in Sun Rise could use some fine tuning... I get the modal feel you're going for, but you have to watch where you place some of those half steps.

[VanHorneDog]

Originally Posted by whiteysax

I second everything Ez said above... unless your drummer drastically improves, I'm not sure I could ever take the songs seriously. I listened to Sun Rise and Dream On and his style is ok for that Sun Rise song (aside from the tempo problems and lack of creativity with fills and drum patterns), but then on a laid back song like Dream On, he comes crashing into with a big fill that almost sounds comical for the mood of the song.
I'd be interested to hear what some of the songs sound like when you get a change to record everyone on separate mics. I felt the vocalist had no clue what he was doing in Sun Rise, but heard much more regard for pitch and melody in Dream On leading me to believe what I was or wasn't hearing in Sun Rise was a result of your budget recording set up.
Guitar work is ok... nothing fancy, but definitely not bad... good mix of melodic line and rhythm strumming for the most part. I felt the solo in Sun Rise could use some fine tuning... I get the modal feel you're going for, but you have to watch where you place some of those half steps.

thanks really appreciate it.

as far as the signing goes in general, it was basically just to fill in the timing.

everything so far is just working on the songs, still really early in some of their development. so the solos and such are just improvised as it went but starting to see a theme.

we had some other people comment and have gotten about the same response.

[VanHorneDog]

got a new song up that i think sounds pretty sweet, its the first song called "blue mad dog"

[VanHorneDog]

thought i would post a link to my bands youtube page

http://www.youtube.com/user/AudioJunkyardMusic

got a couple of songs up on there now, check em out if you wish and let me know what you think. (yes i know the levels were off but what can you do? hahah)

[Mr_Walkaway]

It sounds like you have a bit of a blues/funk vibe going on, which seems to be a pretty standard direction for people to go in when they're jamming, but doesn't strike me as extremely original in the feel. Not to say that it doesn't have a place, just that if you're looking to do something unique, it's going to take a bit of a change in several of the aspects.

The drummer needs to be practicing to a metronome, even putting one through some headphones when you guys play together. Seriously. That's my harshest critique.

For everything else, it seems that there are improvements that could be made stylistically (but then again, maybe not, depending on what you're going for), and definitely some that could be made musically, such as song dynamics, song structure, adding some more parts to the songs to give them a bit more variety, and the like.

One thing that has really helped my band in recent years is that I have taken on the role as somewhat of a "benevolent dictator" when it comes to organizing rehearsals. If you're just doing a free-jam thing, then having no one really in charge doesn't matter. However, if you want to accomplish anything, it really helps to have someone that will keep things moving. All that being said to lead to the point that maybe you should take on a role of directing the other members of the band to doing some specific things (such as the practicing to metronome, changing chord voicings, whatever) and get going in a definite direction. That will help shape your sound as well.

The important thing, though, is that you're with a band and that you're playing. Just keep it up, and if everyone in the band is really into it, you'll make natural improvements no matter what you do.

Good luck!

[VanHorneDog]

thanks ^^^

as for the drummer, he has gotten MUCH better recently, its a learning thing for all of us.

appreciate the thoughts and i mimic them. we just got our first gig so we should be hitting rehearsals pretty hard the next month to get up to that.

[VanHorneDog]

www.myspace.com/audiojunkyard

ok guys, we got some recordings up from a rehearsal the other night, they are pretty dirty. but with limited practice i think we can say they are an improvement.

let me know.

[VanHorneDog]

We Have a new Demo, its not finished but i put it up cuz it is as finished as it is going to get for the next few weeks anyway.

please let me know what you think, its all up on the website in my sig.