Skipapalooza and Beyond!

WOW! our annual bday bash, Skipapalooza was a hoot!  every year, it just keeps getting better on both the music side of things and the personal side.  twas great to see soooo many familiar faces and play the night with the likes of our acoustic duo, Raised on Promises and rawk out with the mtn dukes! the special guests from Luke Dukes Dad to the reunion of our powerpop band, Blenderhead were crazy good! the melding of RoP and the Dukes for a few tunes was a sonic delight to behold and we even played a song solo by request.  that never happens! the cupcake cake was a great idea too AND no plates or utensils required!

our thx to our hosts, OnCue for letting the night happen.  also thx to Mad Mal for attending and bloggin’ about it! plans are already underway to have it again there next year.  here’s how the night ended with some very tired mtn dukes…

looking ahead, we recently had to turn down an opportunity to join with a highly active band to keep doing what we love.  which is playing the bass for fun and good times.  twas a tough choice as the lure of decent $$$ had us thinking hard about it but in the end, we would have had to drop a few of the bass related fun we already have on our plate.  speaking of which, here’s whats up for the next while:

• mtn dukes plan on a show every other month (a late May show perhaps and july 6th at eton house on the danforth is confirmed as next) AND to record some our songs live off the floor in order to get more gigs.  more new tunes also in the mix as the dukes continue to fine tune a night of sonic goodness!
• raised on promises has a show tomorrow night in Barrie at the Local Gastropub.  we also have a June date there as well.  we hope to keep up the pace of a night there every other month moving fwd.  so much fun to play a whole night as a duo and interact with the folk there in such a laid back setting!
• been casually jamming some 80′s alternative tunes with some locals.  we may end up playing a house party here, a bbq there or maybe not at all.  its all about the fun right now.  80′s tunes can be a hoot to play.  as a bonus, so far we’ve stayed away from any serious 80′s cheese too!
• and speaking of good fun, we’ve recently joined the Jon Abrams Band to play a few festivals this summer/fall and hopefully beyond.  getting our country on lately has been more fun than we first imagined!  PLUS there are orgs in the mix.  we’ve blogged often about our continued desire to play orgs and not covers all the time.  this seems like the perfect way to do both as the sets are a good mix.

more bass news to come.  hoping to buy a pbass in the next month or so stay “tuned” for that.  we had to say goodbye to our SG as we weren’t playing it at all anymore and pbass is the direction we are heading.  we are REALLY enjoying our telebass right now. also, expect a post about learning country songs at some point too. until then, thanks for dropping by!

half a stompy nite!

we were lucky enough to score last min tix to the Stompin’ Tom tribute night at the Horseshoe Tavern last night.  we could only stay for half the show but u take what u can get. one day we’ll share a few Tom stories of ours here.  he was definitely an inspiration. we’ll get to that perhaps sooner rather than later.

the tribute show was a blast.  dug all the guests even the one who spilt our onstage beer.  we had fun stompin’ along even though the front row was all cameras.  so we got ours out too so we could fit in.  silly camera peeps.  at least they were friendly.  actually every1 we ran into that night was friendly.  very unToronto but that’s what happens when Tom unites us all.

anyways, here’s the pics and some viz from a stompariffic night we will never forget! ketchup loves pooootatoooooees!

THIS Saturday! Skipapalooza 3!

so much to catch up on!

but first we gotta mention that our yearly bday celebration is this coming Saturday, April 13th at OnCue (349 Jane St) in Toronto!

mtn dukes are the main musical source with a sprinkling of Raised on Promises and some surprises. lotsa pool tables, Toronto’s BEST perogies, bevvy’s and YOU!  it gonna be a hoot!  party starts once the Leafs game ends and goes til close.  lots of songs both new and old on the agenda.  can’t wait!

talkreggaewalk

had this in our head this morn so we quickly grabbed the iphone & recorded it to listen to later.  now that we have, we’d likely alter one wee bit of the line but here it is nonetheless.  kinda sounds better with the bassballs pedal but if the line was in a song, we’d not use the bassballs with it. hmmm, wonder if we’ll keep recording and posting vids?

 

keeping up with gear & movements

time for a gear movement update!

acoustasonic 30 on arrival!

we swapped our circa mid 2000′s Ampeg BA210 for a Fender Acoustasonic 30 recently.  “peggy” as she was called was heavy & great for many gig while we were first making our way around stages.  recently though, she’d just been sitting at home.  never being used.  never quite loud enough anymore. never quite portable enough.  she’d done her service(100 gigs approx) & really owed us nothing. so when the opp presented itself, we thought we’d change it up a bit.  get an amp that is suitable enough at low volumes for both bass & guitar(trying to play more guitar, ie: once a week) & practice our mic/vocals with.  the acoustimatic has 2 channels.  one for instruments & another for a mic.  a great practice setup that we can quietly tweek our pedals with.  another long overdue task. we’ve also added our drum machine into the chain for practice service & so far so good!  so nice to come home & plug into a comfy setup when u only have a few mins to play. if we ever want to get louder with it, it has a lineout that we can plug into anything else.

speaking of effects, we’ve begun to fall hard for our El Grande Bass Fuzz that we’ve had for awhile.  keeping the settings for fuzz & volume really conservative while using the tone in the middle is giving us a great sound that is perfect mix of low end tasty dirt fuzz!  our Carbon Copy delay is also making a rebound.  such a fun pedal to practice with!  messing with different delay times has been a blast!  we are also thinning the herd.  gone is the Bass Metaphors to a new lovin’ home. our Picasso Boost is likely next. maybe our chorus or the bf2 that have sat on the sidelines for awhile.  ah, a pedal family pic from a few months back… we will ever have 10 pedals again?

pedal fam at the end of 2012!

we also got around to finally swapping out the nickel strings our telebass came with.  they were interesting to play with for a time but as time went on, we lusted more & more for the flats we love so dearly.  so this past weekend, we made the swap (despite our dream) to d’addario flats.  one jam in & we’ve never been happier.  a tad bright at the momement cuz they are sooo new but a huge step towards the low end thump thumpy sound we long for. telebass sound with flats= OMG!

d’addario flats in action!

speaking of falling hard, we are in the midst of dealing with our 2nd injury in the past 7 months.  back in August of last year, we separated a shoulder that took awhile to heal. now we’ve gone & cracked/fractured a rib.  amazing how much it hurts when we are in the wrong position or doing something that it doesn’t like.  after getting it checked out on the weekend & being told by a doc to “take it easy, here’s some drugs“, we are finally heeding the advice.  not merely the “we must have slept funny” event as we first thought it was, but the defo result of a very wicked tumble.  hoping for a speedy enough recovery that we can get back to jumping around for Skipapalooza in April.  well at least we can still play the bass, just have to keep the groovin’ movements down a few notches for the next while. in the meantime, our lightweight acoustic bass is getting even more playing time!

acoustic bass with foam fun!

bass dream or twas it a nightmare?

woke up with a start this morn. we had been dreaming…

our dream was bass driven. inbetween takes during a mtn dukes jam session with started playing a goofy slap bassline on the new telebass. we’ve been trying to “get” slap recently. then all the sudden, the bass snaps in half right at the 7th fret! there’s a bit of dust in the air. shocked & amazed by what just happened, we peer at the spot where the split happened. the neck is made of concrete. we shout “OMG” & that’s when we wake up.

last nite we bought new flats for the bass. we want to take the factory set off finally. related? should we change the strings or not? what if… yes, what if…

update!
some of the best responses yet:
- Its a warning-dont play in the key of B
- It’s time for you to buy a 2 neck bass? – You rock so hard you turn wood into concrete?
- watch what u eat before bed
- Must be a fear of technical difficulties while on stage!
- It means you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs. Keep slapping!
- keep your silly slapping above the 7th fret.
- your brain is telling you that you are taking your bass playing far too seriously?

some bassic vizness!

t’was trying to learn a video editing program today.  what better way to learn it with than with some tunes/noize?

2sday show announcements!

happy. stoked. elated. when it rains, it pours show announcements!

first off, the mtn dukes return to Eton House for a night on Friday, March 1st.  new songs will be in the spotlight as we inch along to a 40 song setlist. this poster nicely sums up what happened last visit!

and the BIG NEWS is that skipapalooza 3 has been finalized!  this year we are taking the party from Newmarket (where our old band was based) and into the epicentre of entertainment, Queen St. West in Toronto!  thx to The Sister for stepping up to the plate to host the hootenanny.  we’ve had the pleasure of playing there a few times but none since the renos.  lookin’ forward to 2 sets from the mtn dukes & then dancing the night away with celtic stylin’s of The Saints Are Coming!  more posts on skipapalooza as the date nears.  just today it feels great to have the event locked down & now we can just prep the fun stuff like… tunes!

Saints and the Dancefloor!

The Saints are Coming!

taking a night off work & a 2 hr journey partially thru a snowstorm was all worth the while to witness one of our fave bands, THE SAINTS ARE COMING CD release show in the Hammer.  not often we get out for a night on the town that doesn’t involve us playing the show as well soooo we made the most of it!  we did manage to get a few pics in & take a video of the opening before we hit the dancefloor.  the sound was great, the band was the tightest we’d ever seen (even with some extra players in the mix) and despite the early 830p start, the dancefloor filled! our most heartfelt congrats go to out to a great band for not only a funstastic party that night but a super cd too! CANNOT wait for the next hootenanny we can get to!

January Shivers

time to do some catching up!

the Mightabins show late December was a great honour to be a part of.  we miss playing original music to ppl & with ppl who play & appreciate the same… if that makes any sense.  Mightabins in true Ramonesque style laid down 13 blistering songs in 30 mins flat. great venue at the Hard Luck & all the other bands on the bill impressed.  for something thrown together last minute during a busy holidazed period, t’was nice to see it work out in the end!

mtn dukes are rawkin’ & a rollin’.  fresh off our first ever all nighter (ie: a full nite of mtn dukes) even thou we did have an interlude featuring some very special Unlikely Guests.  the night had its peaks & valleys but “the good” far outweighed “the bad” & rumours are that we will be back again sometime very soon to Eton House. mucho thx to every1 who came out & danced the night away with us! great learning experience for us as a band.  onwards & upwards!  here’s the setlists from this historic event!

had the pleasure of hitting a few open mic/jams over the past weekend with some free time on our hands.  invaluable experiences to play with & see some different artists.  fun times & a great learning experience.

next show is with Raised on Promises, our acoustic duo.  the show is at The Local Gastropub in Barrie the first weekend of February.  if our recent jams are any indication, it will be a stompy, singalong hootenanny!  new songs & some tighter arrangements will make this a very memorable event!

gear wise, we’ve finally found the sweet spot between our little mark bass head & the telebass.  the magical moment happened sometime during the 2nd set of songs during the last mtn dukes show.  we kept tweaking & tweaking & tweaking til we got it right.  likely something we should have done at home but now at least we found it, memorized it & it’ll be ready next time.  load off our minds indeed! the other funny thing was that for the first time ever, our head kept moving on the cab as we were playing.  its soo light!  we kept having to readjust its position after every song as it was close to falling off.  that was until we got fed up & just put the darn thing on the floor.  gotta think of a better solution! open to suggestions here.  hint, hint

one day we’ll likely jot down a post about exercise.  for now, lets just say we have a snow addiction.  its tough to balance that with everything else when the snow is only here for a short while.  with that in mind, we gotta go.  the outdoors is calling! thx fer dropping in!