Mr. Jr. in Barrie!

♫ Saturday March 3rd! in Barrie on the bassy thingy with cowpunkers Mr. Jr. as part of a FANtastic night at The Foxx Lounge Rock Bar & Hotdoggery! FB event: Mr. JR / Frankie and Jimmy / A Couple Anancies / Group Therapy!

toronto & whitby this weekend!

live on the bassy thingy for shows in Toronto and Whitby this weekend! woohoo!

Start of 2018 shows!

here’s what’s up for the start of 2018! OMG shows in Toronto, Kingston, Barrie, Oshawa, Beaverton and Ottawa!

♫ Thursday January 4th: double duty! on the bassy thingy with Mr. Jr. AND the hitty thingy with The Mightabins at Cherry Cola’s Rock ‘n’ Rolla Cabaret & Lounge! FB event deats at https://www.facebook.com/events/147206932668048/
♫ Saturday January 6th: on the bass with Tungsten playing yer fave classic rock covers all night at the Atria in Oshawa! FB event deats at https://www.facebook.com/events/1381899951937862/
♫ Friday January 12th: on the bass with Mr. Jr. at The Foxx Lounge Rock Bar & Hotdoggery in Barrie! ohhh lookie, faves Copper Crown on the bill too! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/423897591364122/
♫ Friday January 19th: on the bass with Mr. Jr. at The Paddock Tavern as part of the SOTC – Winter ’18 festivus! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/130841044281475/

♫ Saturday January  20th: on the bass with Tungsten playing yer fave classic rock covers all night at Sham Rocks in Whitby! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/140722759926879/

♫ Friday January 26th: on the bass with Mr. Jr. at The Toucan in Kingston! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/988667861272609/
♫ Saturday January 27th: on the bass with Mr. Jr. at Cafe Dekcuf in Ottawa! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/139475136739012/
♫ Friday Feb 2nd: on the bass with Frankie Foo Lee’s Palace in Toronto! FB Event deats TBA
♫ Saturday February 3rd: on the bass with Tungsten playing yer fave classic rock covers all night at the Sports Bar and Grill in Beaverton! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/353593025118209/

♫ Saturday February 10th: on the bass with Mr. Jr. at The Foxx Lounge Rock Bar & Hotdoggery in Barrie! FB event deats @ https://www.facebook.com/events/1923586224559886/

tag

End of July dates!

after a week off, we return with shows in Toronto & Lindsay next week!

End of May gigs alert!

2 shows to end of a great month of music and both are subbing in on the BASS and playing what we love most… SKA AND REGGAE!

Friday, May 27th – with Frankie Foo and the Yo-Yo Smugglers

Grossman’s Tavern, 379 Spadina Ave. Toronto

10:30p til close – no cover!

more info by clicking here!

and here!

Saturday, May 28th – with Feeling the One Drop

Scarborough Food Truck Festival!

more info here:

 http://www.esbgc.org/2016/04/scarborough-food-truck-festival-2016/

or on FB here.

afternoon sets of fun reggae vibes at 1:45 and 4:45!

See YOU on the dance floor!

 

Girl I’m Gonna Make U Sweat

morning dew?

so over the weekend, we took the bass outta the case to find it covered in a coating of damp dew.  which has us wondering if this happens more & we just don’t know it?

here are the deats of the events:

• gig the previous night ended around midnight beside Georgian Bay
• bass loaded & stayed in the vehicle overnight
• took out bass around 11am the next morning when we arrived at our next show only to find it soaking wet

how it ended up this way has us scratching our heads.  was is the temp change from night to day? was it cuz we were further inland?  did it have to do with the time of night we put the bass in the case?

usually (ok, 9 times outta 10), we bring the bass inside with us overnight but since we were back on the road again in 6 hours, we didn’t this time.  if that was the big factor, we will never do it again.  if this has been happening more often and we just didn’t realize it, we will be taking it out of the case or opening the case every night as well.  from now on, we will be tracking this phenomenon!

New Dynablock in da Hood!

Blue Mtn Crowd!

twas a great weekend of 3 shows with TooNice & we had a new piece of equipment with us as well.  we managed to score a slightly used Traynor Dynablock 400 from a moving sale in the days prior to the shows.  we played an acoustic night with it, then a big stage the next afternoon & then as part of our live rig with a soundman later that same night.  essentially, running it thru our bassic usual paces & it passed with flying colours!

Traynor Dynablock 400!

we are still getting used to the finer points of the controls & finding our sweet spots with it but that will come with time.  already though, the low frequency expander seems a bit silly to us.  a “sound” investment that we hope will last a lot longer & with a lot less headaches than our previous Markbass Little Mark II head.

best buddies!

jazz jag!

so we picked up a 2005 MiM Jazz Jag over the weekend.  it came on the cheap cuz the body is a tad rough. we guess at some point the body had some stickers on it.  when they were peeled off, the coating came off with it and the previous owner attempted to repaint. so it feels rough to the forearm. in reality, it looks fine from afar and the neck is super great. & that’s the most important aspect for us.  it plays really funky and gritty.  we dunno if most jazz/jags play that way or if its only this one with its sorted history.  we are tempted to make this into a “project” bass and see if we can tweak the pickups into providing more low end.  it really does play more like a “geetar” than a “bass” at the moment.  there is one sweet spot with both pickups set in a particular way. that should do for the time being.  we think this will be our “gig spare” and we’ll use it for a few songs in the current set that require a more high end funk sound (cuz this bass is great at that) and keep it handy in case something happens to our main bass of the night.  it is set up with a brand new set of D’addario lights & we shouldn’t let those go to waste just yet! 😉

 

 

 

Funkzilla Stomps on Board!

the funkzilla arrived!  its been played pretty much straight for the last 3 hrs & we love it!

at first, we were drawn to all the tap tempo options.  SO very addictive!

but second sober thought has us just using it as an envelope filter.

that will be the more practical (read: less annoying) use in a lot of the songs we play.

now the board is simple and clean.  tuner – beta – funkzilla

the next add might compression.  and we’ll stop there… ahahaaaa 😉 ahem… right!

a MASSIVE thanks to SOLID GOLD FX for not only making RAD pedals but great service too!

here’s a wee vid we did!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Can’t believe its been almost 6 months since our last post! So much fun has happened since then!  The Mtn Dukes are no more. We’ve rejoined TooNice for the 3rd time (is the 3rd time the charm?…haha) and still playing with Hayley Carro as well.  We’ve relaunched our ska radio program, SKA PARTY that is sporadic but a hoot when it happens!  Great times away from the blog indeed! Shows have been a plenty and here’s some video evidence with the reggae band:

For new gear, we’ve got a new TC Electronics BG250 amp that is lightweight and is great in all situations!  We’ve also added some light percussion instruments for our acoustic shows. A tambourine we can kick at and a stomp box… yes, a stomp box!  It gives us a great kick drum sound that keeps the acoustic shows pumpin’.  Our Cajon is still a heck of a lot of fun to play as well!

Also, been groovin‘ to some great new/old tunes recently so here’s 10 recents that we just can’t seem to get enough of & we are diggin this month.  Feel free to add in the comments what has been tickling your ears of late!  We are always on the look out for new music!

talking heads – the big country
lindi ortega – high
iceberg – les barques
emile simon – desert
cartoon violence – better
dilip & the davs – like a king
flock of seagulls – wishing
spoon – mystery zone
pixies – alec eiffel
ini kamoze – wings with me

Til next time & see you on the dancefloor!