April 3rd, 2005, We got airplay!!!:
I recently sent a CD of our first recorded/mixed down song, "Perchance to Dream", to the Fairfax Cable Access radio station, so that Deb, host of the Progressive Rock Diner internet/cable access show could preview it and consider playing it. She aired it today, bravely listening for the first time as she broadcasted it to the world. Wowzers - our first airplay.
You should check out her program, btw - it's noon 'til 2:00FM (EST) on Sundays here: http://www.fcac.org/webcasting/webcast.htm (click the "Listen Now" button). In addition to our tune, today, she played some great Rush, Genesis, Happy the Man, and Cathedral, among others. What an honor to share the airspace with those names, eh?
The only complaint Deb had about the song was that it ended with the sound of rain in the background, which, with the weather as it had been the last few days, we're all rather sick of the sound of rain. That includes me, as I'm still bailing out my basement apartment from the resulting flood.
Stay posted!
B Cubed
March 5th, 2005, Afghan Restaurant � Sha�s Wedding!!!:
Well, this was fun � Farhad�s brother was getting married, and asked us to perform at the reception.
Here was our set list, as played it this evening:
March 1st, 2005, Unrelated but Important Announcement!!!:
The SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Movie was released on DVD today!
Feb. 19th, 2005, JAXX - Opening for Seven Witches:
This evening didn�t turn out at all how I expected.
Here we were, a progressive rock band, playing in the midst of 4 heavy metal bands and one heavy progressive band, and I was just hoping we weren�t going to get booed off stage.
Our former battle-of-the-bands competitors Engage (from Richmond) were playing this evening. I didn�t get to see them perform, but I have it on good authority that they, once again, rocked. Not only do they rock, but they�re cool guys.
I was also nervous about my new midi setup. I�m now down to three actual keyboards, but one is a midi controller that controls two rack mounted synthesizer modules. One wrong button on the controller, and I could be spending hours figuring out what the hell I did wrong.
I couldn�t believe how well received we were by the metal crowd. They applauded after every song; they cheered, they clapped during my piano bit in �Still� � I was pleasantly shocked. We played well, and the audience really helped encourage us. It was so damned fun.
After us came Odin�s Court � an edgy prog metal band from Baltimore. They were great, and I would have never known that the lead guitarist and keyboardist were new and only had two practices with the band before playing out with them.
The highlight of the evening came when James Rivera, the lead singer of Seven Witches, acknowledged enjoying the opening bands. After the show, we approached him to shake his hand, and he ended up giving us all bear hugs. He mussed up my hair as he squeezed me, and kissed Farhad on the cheek. It was surreal. What a cool guy!
We left enthused about all the new friends we met that evening, and encouraged about our future prospects.
Feb. 15th, 2005, Update:
I've suggested we change the name of the band to "The Dumped" - seems we're all having female problems.
You know what really blows the big monkey? Getting a call on Valentine's Day, and the woman on the other end says "Thanks for the flowers, but it's over." That's special.
It's times like this when I need to resort to this little mantra to pull me through:
Rocktober 22nd, Jaxx Wildcard Round:
What a @#$&*%? night.
I haven't felt our practices have been going well, lately. But really, it's all me. Not sure why, but I've been seeming to be going through some sort of "spell", as Saadi put it. I've not been too satisfied with my playing.
I got there in time to see all the bands before us. They were all proficient enough, it's just that they all sounded the same. I thought we might have it in the bag because we're the sparkling little gem in the gravel pit, the last bastion of originality, the one band that refuses to attempt to emulate Pearl Jam*.
My first issue came when I put my 70 lb. piano on the stage, and the stand collapsed, slicing my finger as I caught it. Good sign.
Here's a sample of my train of thought as I was playing the other evening:
Okay, combi patch 00/bank B, fade out, then preload the combi sound quickly to patch 07, then to user preset 78/bank A for the solo sound. This song starts on D minor, right? Okay, here comes my solo - can't hear anything!!! Damn soundman - oh, forgot to fade back in. Farhad's looking over and wondering what's goin' on. Who's the hotty in the front row? Okay, relax, you've got the solo thingy going on now. Okay, back to chords - it's A minor, right? Yeah. Hey, that doesn't look right - can't hear it, but it probably doesn't sound right, either. Oh, yeah, right - now I remember: D minor. Are A minor and D minor close enough to make it sound like I was just being creative? RRRrrrrr. Okay, here comes "Weight of the World" - after holding the strings on the X5d, quickly hit the combi button on the X3, then make sure the strings are layered on jazz piano sound on the Yamaha. Cripes.
The 4 times we've played the Battle of the Bands this year, I've noticed that the last band to perform always wins. We were last the first two times we won, and the other two times we lost to the final band. My theory is that the judges have done way too many drugs and therefore have no short-term memory, and could hardly remember the first 5 bands. So the last band wins by proxy. The band who won, Webster, was actually pretty interesting. They did not sound like they were trying to be Pearl Jam clone - which is a good thing.
It was fun, at least, and, again, had great support from our dear friends who always come to see us. Their support is unbelieveable. We appreciate it - a band with no audience is like a tree falling in the forest with no-one around to hear it - who cares what kind of sound it makes!
So, we're off to work on recording. Saadi is working on his drum parts and we'll soon be laying down tracks for, if nothing else, a demo.
Since the 22nd gig, I've already reworked my keyboard setup to perhaps save space. I'm removing the Korg X5d and the Yamaha piano, and adding a midi controller with 2 rackmount synthesizers. This should also prevent me from having to reach between keyboards. Great fun!
* It's a pet peave of mine - the fact that, with little exception, *everyone* has decided to sound like Pearl Jam. Cripes - I can't even stand to listen to Pearl Jam anymore because they unavoidably sound like Pearl Jam.
Sept. 13th, "So You Want to be a Rock & Roll Star?":
Well, the band will soon be meeting to discuss what our next move should be, and how to enact it. Perfect timing that I just finished reading the book:
Sept. 11th, Jaxx Battling of the Bands, round III:
At a distance, there's something comical about playing in a band. For weeks we prepare for a gig in maintenance mode, then in the few days leading up to the gig, we start preparing in recovery mode. That is, we start off practicing and fixing problems, smoothing transitions, note cues for when songs change, etc. Then, in a panic before a gig, we shift our focus to: "How do we recover if one of us screws up and we all get lost" mode.
As I say, from an outsider's perspective, that's bloody funny.
We got to Jaxx to find that one of the competing bands rented a tour bus and brought 50+ kids to vote for them, hoping to win strictly from the numbers. Thankfully, they didn't win.
Before us was the band "Engage" from Richmond and after us was the band "Cock Farm". We got to talk a bit with both of those bands, and they were quite cool. Also, both bands kept most of our band entertained with their Metallica covers. Myself, I especially liked Cock Farm's stirring interpretation of AC/DC's "Big Balls".
But regarding our performance: it was our best ever. We did have to recover once in the song "Post War Requiem" when we all spontaineously started playing in different time signatures, but it came off as seamless. We had fun playing this gig, and we walked away satisfied with our performance. I know that I personally went nuts to the point where I probably resembled Jack Black in the beginning of the movie "School of Rock", but I was too confident and too into the moment to care how much I was embarrassing myself.
We lost.
But we lost to a good band, "Cock Farm". They had a great stage show - appearing in suspenders and other goofy paraphanelia.
Well, it's on to bigger and better things for us, now. We're going to start recording and then visciously promoting ourselves.
Once again, we owe a great deal of thanks to all those who came to support us. We especially appreciate those who've seen us more than once and don't seem to get sick of us, or at least don't let on that you're getting sick of us. Thanks to all of you!!!
August 18th, 2004 � Jaxx Battle of the Bands, Round II:
Whoa, what a night - And I don't mean that in a good way.
For starters, I haven�t had coffee in about 2 weeks. My brain picked today to start complaining about caffeine withdrawal. Oh, thank Heavens for 7-11 24 ounce coffee cups.
Anyway, on to the performance:
Whoa, what a night. Oh, I said that, already.
I think we�d all probably feel that this is the worst performance we�ve had in quite a while.
I won�t talk about others� mistakes, but I as for my own, cripes. It�s embarrassing when I look down at my hands and see they�re a step off.
We ended up going last, as last time. For some strange reason, Farhad loaned his guitar to the rhythm guitarist in the band that came before us, �Blue Sky�. That band was damned incredible � most of them were around the age of 16, except the lead singer, who was about 50. They did all covers of classic Southern rock. I couldn�t believe their sound. Imagine 16 year old kids playing �Layla�. Well, the bummer is, and predictably, that rhythm guitarist broke one of Farhad�s strings. He managed to repair it, but it broke again during last song.
If one thing went right, it was that we had a great crowd. We had such great friend/fan support. It�s unbelievable. I�m always astounded by the number of great folks who show up to see us.
Well, somehow we managed to win. We were fully expecting to lose to the band �Blue Sky�. It feels like a hollow victory with how bad we played and how well they played.
Well, on behalf of all our friends and relatives, thanks very much for coming to support us!!!
Thanks to Steve, who has had years of experience singing with the famous band �The Fabulous Bel Airs�, for giving me some great words of wisdom. He also explained to me that the grumpy old chef Willy has always been grumpy (see the July 25th entry below). Apparently Willy was the keyboardist in The Fabulous Bel Airs years ago, and wasn�t all that thrilled about it. Steve would always try to convince Willy that a lot of people would love to be in his shoes as a keyboardist in a rock band. Apparently Willy has just stayed grumpy � something about being old and not exactly where he wanted to be in that part of his life. Anyway, the lesson from that is�if you�re in a band, don�t bloody complain � so many people would love to be in our position. This is something worth keeping in mind, but truth be told, I love playing in a band, and I don�t see myself adopting a bad attitude about it anytime soon.
Also, my friend Brent had a reassuring though when I told him that this wasn�t exactly our best gig. He said, �Well, your best gig will be your next gig, and that will always be the case.� Okay, so that isn�t quite syllogistically correct, but it works.
August 7th, 2004 � A day that will live in Encompass infamy:
Well August 7th was the day for us to tape the inaugural show for �Crank it Up� � a newly created show on Fairfax Cable Access channel 10.
For me, the bad mojo began the night before. At home deciding what to make for dinner, a salad seemed the worst idea � after all, what if I sliced a finger and couldn�t play the next day. Resolving to be extra careful, I still managed to slice off the tip of my right thumb. Making a long side-story short, my glow-in-the-dark Sponge Bob Band Aids did the trick until I found this great stuff for sealing the wound without getting in the way. It�s called �New Skin�, which is sort of like crazy glue.
Next issue � we got half way through packing up when we got the call that our initial interviewer was on vacation and our backup interviewer bailed out on us. We called everyone we knew to find a victim, er, volunteer to host the show. Thankfully Nancy, a sister of a friend of the band was happy to do it for us.
Next issue � Nancy had serious laryngitis, which made things difficult for her.
Still another issue: we were responsible for bringing most of the sound equipment for the show, which we couldn�t really adequately supply. We made do, and the sound check seemed to go okay.
Despite our having the questions ahead of time, we still flubbed a bit in the interview. To say it was a humbling experience is putting it mildly.
Next � I messed up quite a bit on the keyboards way too many times to count. This was less of an issue because the sound came out so badly on the tape, and will probably be unusable.
Despite all the problems, it was certainly fascinating to get a glimpse into the world of television show production. My thanks to PimpDaddy Tommy for setting this up for us, and to those who work at the station who volunteered to come in on their day off to help us do this. Also, thanks to Nancy, Patty, Tyler, Muse�, and Shahid for being there to support us.
We left that evening with a bad feeling about the show we�d just finished taping. It certainly caused a great deal of stress in the band. I guess I�ll find out if we�re still a band at rehearsal tonight. That which does not break us up should make us stronger (fingers crossed).
Next � we�re preparing for the quarterfinals of the Jaxx Battle of the Bands, Aug. 18th!!!
August 3rd, 2004 - Status:
We've finished moving to our new practice space and have thus practiced twice. The new space is about 1/2 of what we had previously, but we can�t complain. We have a great sponsor � Belinda.
Two years ago, we were subletting Belinda�s basement. When the band reunited earlier this year, Belinda was happy to take us back. Not sure why � I�m not sure I�d want a noisy bunch rehearsing 4 days a week for hours at a time in my basement. Well, her house got sold, and Belinda was anxious to have us follow her wherever she ended up and continue subletting and playing in her house. She has also given us the largest bedroom in which to practice, which is just too damned nice. So, on behalf of the band, I'd like to say to Belinda,
We�re working on getting ready for our TV show taping this Saturday � to air in about a month. We�re also working on our set list for round two of the Jaxx Battle of the Bands - which is August 18th. Mark your calendars!!!
But tonight � 3 of the 4 Encompass members are going to the Rush concert at Nissan Pavilion. Yay! One of us, who shall remain nameless (Saadi), would rather see Justin Timberlake in concert.
July 25th, 2004 - Jaxx Battle of the Bands:
What an evening.
In short, we won.
The long of it is: We appeared with two bands from Maryland: GoatBag and One Too Many. I didn't watch much of GoatBag, but I watched all of One Too Many. Not only is that a great name for a band, but they were cool.
We were very thankful for our audience, who really encouraged us. Now I know what Jackson Browne meant when he sang:
Me: Howdy, I'm with the band that won last night, and, as I understand, I'm to come here to pick up our winnings.
Willy (rudely): You're supposed to call ahead so I can get a money order.
Me: Okay, well, can I just tell you now, rather than calling, then I'll come back some other time to pick it up?
Willy (rudely, to a coworker): Go up and get me that money order sitting on the desk.
Coworker: Okay, but if it's not there, I'm gonna get my gun.
Me: (look of confusion, mild concern, and slight amusement at this scene straight out of a Tom Waits song)
Another band enters, and says: Hey, we're GrayWall, here to pick up...
Willy (rudely, to GrayWall): Wait a minute - I'm doin' his, now (proceeded to scribble a bit on a money order)
Willy (rudely, to me): Here! Next time, CALL FIRST!
Me: Had I known I needed to, I would have (this excuse was lost on him, I'm sure).
Such is the life of a rock star. Joy.