Jam – 2010-03-10 – Carroll’s

12 Mar 2010 3 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , ,

Middle of the week jam meant for a relatively short run to the finish for the Friday finish line, at least from my perspective.  Being such a Friday as I try to recap the jam is tougher than one would think.  Fortunately I just received the notice from Rich that the MP3s are done so I can post them and use them as a crutch to job my memory.  First of all, we had lots of guests, ironically Scott Bayer not being one of them, but we had Stu, Michael and the rest of the entourage.  It’s always encouraging to see them all especially when they get spinning with the music at a dizzying pace.  I heard a few hoots, an occasional howl, lots of talking and even some singing along with the music.  All of it good.

From my guitar perspective I had a little trouble getting off the blocks.  The Twin I had came with the Fender speakers and it was weak and impotent.  I couldn’t get it moving with it.  I probably tried another one by the third song and that problem was solved.  I was fighting my pick early in the night as it’s point was worn and I was missing strings.  I had some moments where I felt better than other this night.  Once people started showing up I think I played with a bit more urgency and got a little more comfortable with my sound, so I don’t want to hem and haw about my inabilities too much, but come on Larry, I can be clutcher than I am.  I played with some 80s Garband at home earlier in the week so I had practice with the Let It Rock and the Melody, but I blew most of what I practiced in the Let It Rock.

To hear the song from the night, click on the links below.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-10-10/

Jam – 2010-03-04 – Carroll’s

05 Mar 2010 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

We had to switch the jam late in the weekly cycle from a Wednesday to a Thursday due to someone’s scheduling conflict. Unfortunately for Alan W., he wasn’t able to juggle his schedule to make the jam but Alan the Cameraman was so we had him playing guitar this week.

Scott was back from his Further shows at Radio City as well as his Who tribute a Carnegie Hall. This lead us to jamming with a Who Baba O’Reilly MP3 that Kevin had and an eventual playing of the song without the background tracking sounds. I have to say it sounded pretty freaky and cool.

As far as guests, we had the ubiquitous Scott Bayer on bongos sporting an Underdog shirt. Additional, we had Al D’s Bayside buddy, Steve, who also showed up to the jam. Like most Baysiders, Steve plays a little guitar and Al had Steve don his guitar halfway through the night as we played a Smokestack Lightning. Let’s not forget Ken Levine, which I did until I remembered we played a Terrapin and he requested it.

On the way out of the jam, there were 6 of us to jam into the elevator so Al D and Steve stayed behind. I was commenting how good it was to be on the first elevator down which brought me bad karma. When we reached the ground floor Scott and Rich got out but Kevin lagged and before we knew it the door closed on us and we were heading right back up to the sixth floor where we saw Al and Steve who looked at us in bewilderment.

We go a couple of Core-4 songs in before Al D entered, Stop That Train, Russian Lullaby, and then we headed into the freaky Dead with an Alabama Getaway.    We were had no urgency to play long and hard, that’s what she said, so we probably short-changed the jam a bit, but got a nice compliment of songs in.  We started a little late and ended a little early, that’s what she said, but ended with some strength. I don’t know what I’m saying anymore.

It’s good that Rich got a new Mac after his last one left him in the learch, so we can get the songs that we played because remembering becomes harder and harder as time goes on. Deadstein’s soon to celebrate its 20th anniversary in October.  We have to be sure to get Bill there, if no one else.  We played a Terrapin, China, Rider, Grass Onion (Yoko Ono version) and a whole lot more.

Better late than never, on March 14 Rich uploaded the MP3s from this jam in the middle of the night. I think it was in the never-never land of time that comes during the turning the clocks ahead associated with daylight’s savings time.   You think he was passing Obamacare instead of just posting a few MP3 files of Deadstein.  In anycase, thanks for doing it and enjoy.

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/03-04-10/

Look forward to next week when we expect be things from everyone!

Jam – 2010-02-22 – Carroll’s

23 Feb 2010 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , ,

It’s a beginning of the week Monday jam and Carroll’s took us out of the book and did not have a room set for us when we got there.  No big deal, three of the cool dudes from Carroll’s quickly cleared the room  and loaded the Deadstein setup.  It was there stuff anyway.  Carroll’s continues to be the coolest place!  Chris the manager even told us he checked out our website and said it was really cool.  Almost makes it all the blogging worthwhile. Fortunately Kevin got there 45 minutes early and got them into action.

Further (Grateful Dead remnants) are playing at Radio City this week, 30 years from the Grateful Dead’s run, so Scott had to rest up for the shows over the next couple of days.  This gave us the impetus to contact Bill Sloan to play drums with us.  Us being me, Kevin, Rich and Alan.  It was good to play with Bill again.  He knows the music and plays it well.  For those who don’t know, Bill and I used to play squash together at the SUNY Albany gym courts in 1986 when we were college roommates.  There are pictures of our house on the review I did of the Albany Dead shows from 2009. Check it out.

As I was saying, it was a pleasure playing with Bill, we fell apart once or twice but nothing of great concern.  I’ll take much of the fall for much of the fall.  I  never really got my legs under me all night playing leads.  It felt like an opportunity lost on my part.  Nevertheless, you have to forge ahead and make it work for everyone else.  Speaking of which, Scott Bayer was there beating his hands on the bongos for a while.

With Rich’s Mac on the “britz”, as they say where they manufacture those things, who knows if we will get the MP3s he recorded or not, so I will try to remember what we played.  We opened with the Cold Rain and Snow which it is doing right now as I type.  There was the Big Boss man which I never fully got the riff on, but came close.  The Cumberland was weak, but the Mama Tried was strong.  Crazy Fingers was something I can’t forget remembering but it was on Alan’s list and we did it.  On Bill’s list was the Althea which I sang.  I like doing that song these day but not that I did it well this evening.  Kevin was not wearing his ear plugs for the first time for 4 or 5 weeks and I remember he commented that he hit the Mama Tried perfectly for the first time in his Deadstein career.  The same could be said for the Devil where he was oblivious the the existence of the Am in the break.  I knew about, I just didn’t hit it.  We played a Cassidy early in the night,  That was a perfect example of me failing in all the good things I have been learning over the past two or three months. My modal playing just wasn’t there and I couldn’t get it going and there you have it.  Stagger Lee took a restart but it finished well.  At some point we played an Uncle John’s Band.  We ended the night with a Stella Blue –> Throwing Stones -> Note Fadeaway.  The close was the Brokedown Palace and a Feel Like a Stranger.  I can’t say I was thrilled with too much of it from my own perspective in missed opportunities.  I think the Throwing Stones –> Not Fade I was able to get comfortable on but that was primarily cause I was focusing on rhythm and singing. “Whatch” you gonna do?  I don’t even want to mention the Other One that was a difficult paddle upstream but we did reach the  end point.  We probably played 5 or 6 other songs in addition.   At midnight Bill said wow the 4 hours goes quickly even though going into it he thought the four hours would be a long time.

I hope the Further shows are good and Scott come back psyched and eager to play.  Nothing like seeing some shows to get you juices flowing.  Till we jam again.  Freak out.  Don’t forget to follow Deadstein on Twitter to know when updated to the blog are posted or videos get uploaded.  By the way, I brought my shitty little compact digital camera cause I was tired of my iPhone shots and I can’t believe it, the iPhone take’s better pictures.  That thing sucks, it doesn’t focus anymore.  Oh well.  Freak-Out!

Jam – 2010-02-16 – Carroll’s

17 Feb 2010 Leave a comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

It was Tuesday night and this week we were lucky enough to enjoy the sounds of Andy Trister on lead.  at least until 10:30.  Otherwise, it was the five of us, with Alan and I sharing the Bob sounds, until at least Andy left.  It gave me some time to record video via the iPhone and Ustream for some of the songs.  I think I got a few good ones so check them out at (Click here).

As far as guests we had Rob and Miriam who danced and frolicked the night away.  Always good to see them.  In addition, Scott Bayer hung out and banged a bongo or two for a few songs.  I think I witnessed 3 pounds of lox being passed and other than that it was the typical freak-fest. Speaking of which, I think someone from Phish was playing at Terminal 5 so I parked 2 blocks away, so on the way out Kevin gave me a ride to his car and we got caught in a lettuce chewing freak-fest in front of Terminal 5 as the show let out.  Kevin was freaking out, ’twas quite the experience.

We played in the other large studio and we went through several amps until we found 3 that worked.  In the end, there was some operator error but it’s great to play a Carroll’s and have access to their entire amp room.  There’s no other place like this.  I like the playing for most of the night, we just rock, but there were moments of choppiness also, but coming from a week off, we probably had a bit more stamina than we will have next week.  Who know that is tough to predict.  That’s right, Scott’s off to Further next week and we won’t have him to play for use, so we are in search for a drummer for next week.

We played some good stuff.  It included a big Eyes of the World teaching Andy the whole 1974 ending which turned out to be pretty good.  I though the Let it Grow had the best Trister leads of the night.  We also did the Comfortably Numb with Andy which also had the nice leads to it.  We ended the Trister segment with a not so well performed version of Brokedown, but the good thing about it was the use of the new book’s dual versions of the Brokedown Palace.

Alan left a little early also leaving the Core-4 to finish up with a little Dar Side of the Moon music as well as the botched Come Together to close the night.  Botch-Schmotch, at least we are there to botch it!  Let’s get it together for next week.

Jam – 2010-02-04 – Carroll’s

05 Feb 2010 2 Comments

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

Thursday night at Carroll’s and we had to start at 9:00 because Carroll’s was booked with several acts that were filling the studio with lots of people.  When we got there we faced a bunch of dressed up Fiddler on the Roof / Charles Dickens / Amish child actors who all seemed overly happy.  If you ask me, I think they were Scientologists.  In any case, they had enough pull to bump Deadstein to a 9:00 start.  At the beginning of the night Scott was wondering if that meant we could play till 1:00 am.  I’m sure we could have played till 1:00 if we wanted, but come 11:30, Scott was dead on his feet, all sorts of puns intended.
Hey, if Scott was dead on his feet at 11:30, I was Dead on my feet at 9:00, battling a cold that was just past its peak.  January was a rough month for me.  At least my foot felt good.  Yeah, I came in with a bad cold, kept to myself all night, trying not to contaminate others, and the entire evening was foggier than usual.  Usually it is foggy the day after, but I was in a fog during the whole night.  Focusing and reading the book was nearly impossible and my brain was all over the place leading my fingers down paths with no escape.  It was tough to play but I was trying to take it in stride, not letting it bother me too much and in the end I had a good time.  Singing on the other hand was tough. The dry air mixed with the fluid in my lungs lead to many a choking moment.  My sides are hurting this morning from so much hacking.
Al D. joined us as our guest for the night but he had to scoot out by 11:00 or so to catch a serious 11:30 massage; the tough life of Al D.  Good to see him.  The other Alan, Al W., was sporting his Strat, wammy and all.  Rich was totally decked out for the night sporting an upright piano, instead of the traditional grand, and he also got a Korg B3 simulating keyboard, with drawbars and all.  It was a nice soothing sound through the night.  Scott had the nice maroon kit on the maroon Oriental rug and Kevin is still wearing ear plugs and a beard but the facial asymmetry is virtually gone.
For all the sounds we had going in the room, it seemed that we were all open to letting it happen without overpowering it and we had a surprisingly good mix throughout the night.  I was able to hear both keys and the vocals out of the monitor to my left and sonically I was pretty comfortable throughout the night, considering my physical condition.
We meandered into a Dancing in the Streets as our first song and Scott sang us through the whole thing.  It was a nice way to get our feet wet and warmed up.  Somewhere in the middle we pulled out the If I Had the World to Give sheet that I updated earlier. It was an OK first effort at that write-up from a song structure perspective.  I was fairly happy with it.  Unfortunately, the spaghetti in my head at the time was a tremendous hindrance on my ability to lead us through it precisely.  Nevertheless, I’m happy with what happened.  Forever Young was the knockout blow at 11:40 that made the Scarlet that closed the night a song that was also dead on its feet, pun fully intended.
If you want to hear what we played, it’s available at the following:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/02-04-10/

Looking forward to some clear crisp night to close out the winter.

Jam – 2010-01-27 – Carroll’s

30 Jan 2010 1 Comment

by deadstein in Jams Tags: , , , , , , ,

Elevator Music

This week we were fortunate enough to be able to organize a jam where we had Jason and Alan joining us for a full and fulfilling evening of Deadstein.   Three guitars is often a recipe for disaster but it didn’t rear its ugly head on this night.  We jammed well, found our space and made some great music.

I set Jason up with a guitar rig, pretty much my rig I’ve been playing over the past few weeks, with the ’79 hard-tail Strat and the new fangled Boss OD-20 distortion pedal.  The good new is my set up sounded great, out of the fingers of Jason, so I know any excuses I can think of into the future are based on my own abilities and techniques, or lack thereof, as opposed to the equipment.  I know I have a good sounding setup because Jason sounded great throughout the night.  Starting with the first song, Jack Straw, it was apparent we were going to have a good night of music.

With Alan playing Bob and Jason playing Jerry I decided to break out the old ’96 Roland Ready Strat and the GR-33 midi box.  I haven’t played this thing in probably 3 years so I broke it out at home 30 minutes before leaving for the jam to make sure it still worked, the cord can be temperamental, and it sounded good and off I went with it.  When I got to Carroll’s I obtained a Roland Cube keyboard amp and I was set;  guitar directed to the Fender Twin and midi sounds directed to the Roland Cube.  From the first moment on it felt good and how to use the whole thing came back to me and I was happy with it for a night.  It was able to fill in lots of nice sounding B3-esqu sounds that Deadstein lacks.  It made for an enjoyable escapade through the world of pre-rendered sounds and the disciplined playing that the midi-guitar requires.  It was fun for a night but over time playing like this and the tones played by the setup get monotonous.  I have to say though, it was fun at times playing the sounds of the  “Keyboardist-du-Formage.”  I do look forward to getting back on the Jerry band-wagon and rocking out in a way that doesn’t wreak of  a “Music-Quesadilla.”

We played 23 songs which is really quite and achievement and most of them were meaningful and engaging.  It made for a night that didn’t drain on you too much but  also a following day that was a chore to survive.  Speaking of which, I unfortunately came home and my main desktop computer died, once again and I’m tired of reviving it so it’s time for me to rebuild my studio computer.  I’m saying this cause I’m now stuck with laptop computers to do my work which isn’t fun, especially when it comes to dealing with images and photos.  The research is probably gonna take me a week or two to figure out what to do, so don’t expect much graphically in the near future.  That doesn’t mean I can’t get you an occasional terrible video that was recording and streamed up to our Ustream repository.  We got as few moments from the other night so don’t forget to check that out at:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/deadstein

In addition, the hear the MP3s Rich recorded from the night go to:

http://www.deadstein.com/audio/01-27-10/

Plenty more to say and write about, but I don’t like the experience on this netbook but it still gets the job done.  Speaking of which, today was the day Steve Jobs announced the new iPad which will come out in 2 months.  Yeah, $500 entrance fee but the ability to have a Deadstein app to keep the books synchronized and and ever expanding is a physically shrinking footprint is exciting.  Our requirement won’t be great of a iPad wanna be that reads PDFs well may be our $179 answer.  Just expect to cleanup the wreckage as they tumble from the music stands.

Speaking of the book, remember the current versions of the book are available on the new Songs page on the blog at:

https://deadstein.wordpress.com/songs/

It’s available from the top banner of the blog.  Till we get together again, Freak Out!

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