Fuzz 5.25.12!!!

Finally started mixing new tracks. This jam was productive. I think they gave us an extra half hour for free so we took our time coming up with ideas.  This session took place in our favorite rehearsal studio which has glass sliding doors and glass block window behind the drum kit. All those hard surfaces must create a more resonant environment that seems to inspire better playing, or maybe we just like the way it looks.

Eric's guitar was loud, Jamie's bass was low, drum sticks were flying.

My favorite track is "Eric2Loud" but I haven't listened to them all yet. If you're patient "Patience" pays off in the end. EpicCake has a cool riff at the end and the "TwoMinuteJams" were pretty fun. We attempted to limit each jam to 2 minutes but we probably ended up playing several 6 minute jams.

Don't be turned off by the horrible album artwork!

Yes please, don't be scared away by the scary creepy image on your screen. This is one of the best jam sessions i've had the pleasure of participating in. Yeah, pretty much for the past 2 months or maybe all this year Eric, Jamie, and I have been sticking to our main instruments instead of rotating around goofing off on each other's axes. Eric is rocking his Epiphone guitar and a pretty sweet (borrowed) modular synth guitar rig outfitted with an overdrive/boost pedal that I built. Jamie played the amazing Novax CH7 prototype guitar/bass thing and I played my portable Traps drums drumkit and Paiste/Zildjian cymbals.  After the 2nd or 3rd track we took a break and I took some of the padding out of the kick drum to let it resonate a little more.

So check out "Squeegee" if you only have time for one tune. Otherwise if you can, listen to this while you're working on your computer or during your commute. All of the posts I put on soundcloud are public so you can download them and listen to them on your mp3 player.

Also check this out. Eric posted a rough mix of one of the tracks. I really like this because it's mixed very dry and in-your-face.



Anyway, I hope you enjoy this jam. Sorry about the artwork.

Feb 23, 2012 Jam Session

This jam session took place last week at Astoria Soundworks in room C. I guess we had slacked on booking the room until it was pretty late so we ended up in one of the premium rooms which isn't all that bad but it costs more. I think we got a more spacious sound due to the bigger space. We also checked our volumes better this time. We got scientific and used a decibel meter because I have a hard time playing drums when I can't hear them over the guitars. It seems no matter how low his amp is Eric can find extra juice in his massive guitar rig.

My recommendations for this jam would be Spaghetti Western which was kind of fun. Circus Tent is silly but kind of cool. And Floppy Green Thing is my favorite but it's 19 minutes long. For FGT Jamie started tapping out a cool rhythm so I followed on the drums.

I find my mistakes a lot more tolerable than usual. I think i managed to find more graceful ways out of bad situations. I tried switching up the rhythms quite a lot and Jamie and I are learning how to telepathically stop and start at the same time. Great fun. I also spent a lot of time mixing this down with some new studio monitors as well. The bass guitar sound was almost entirely too low frequency to be heard so I EQed and compressed the bejesus out of it.

Lately we are sticking with the same line-up for the entire jam. I think we're trying to play more seriously in preparation for a gig opportunity some time in the near future.

If you make it all the way to the end of Floppy Green Thing, please listen till the end. It's freaking hilarious!

Fuzz Bucket:
Eric : guitar
Jamie : Novax CH7
Dan : drums

Feb 1 2012 Reunion Jam

Jamie returned from his 6 week hiatus. Eric announced that he was moving to CT, and I got sick with some kind of flu / food-poisoning thing after having my cat euthanized a couple days earlier. I thought I was well enough to play but it turns out I was still feeling really sick and I ended up playing the drums wearing my down jacket and wool hat. I think I played a lot of late fills but it was a pretty successful jam considering the bad shape I was in.

The first couple jams were good considering we hadn't played in 6 weeks. I think we were just getting warmed up. Damn, I'm not sure why it sounds distorted. I might have over-modulated the mix or the mics might have been too hot. I'll look into that...

One thing to note about Traveler is that you can probably hear Jamie trying to mess with me by alternating time signatures. It worked but as long as I play thru it you probably can't tell that I'm confused...

My apologies about "One Whole Song" which was a 47 seconds of a thing that sounded like an intro to something but wasn't. It seemed funny at the time...

I think JetLag was the jam where I started getting into the drum part. I think I managed to play more dynamic than usual before almost passing out.

I think "The Sickness" was when I stopped playing drums and picked up Eric's guitar for a while. That's Jamie on Drums and Eric on Novax. I called it the sickness in reference to my feeling like I was going to die the entire time.

I remember being pretty pissed during the last jam when the assholes at Soundworks came to ask us to wrap up the shithead stood there for 30 seconds and waited for us to stop playing to tell us we had 7 minutes left. Fucking prick.

But i guess it was an 18 minute jam. I tried to stretch it out as long as possible because I was afraid I'd pass out if I stopped playing or something.

1/20/2012 E & D Jam

This was the last jam session with Eric while Jamie was on vacation. We started this one backwards. Usually I'm setting up the drums while Eric is tuning his guitar and we just start playing but this time I was playing the Novax while Eric was setting the volume on the amps. While I was noodling around on the Novax he hopped on the drums and we squeezed out a couple tunes before switching to our more comfortable instruments. I remember having a lot of fun and I seem to recall playing some funky tunes.

While I was mixing these tracks I got a little sentimental about my sick cat. I dug up a funny photo of her and used that as the album art.

1/14/2012 jam session

This set of jams is a real team effort. To start out there were only 2 of us where there are normally 3. So, Eric and I had to modify our rigs and bring a little more gear. Eric's guitar rig got scaled down and split so that he could have a bass rig as well. So he has 2 smaller pedalboards instead of one giant box of wires, lights, and buttons. I brought my Novax CH8 guitar which is a bass/guitar hybrid with "fanned" frets. It's awesome. Our missing third person, Jamie, usually brings his Novax CH7 which is a prototype of my guitar, has 7 strings instead of 8, and a longer scale so the bass gets more overtones. It's pretty sweet. Eric also handled all of the recording and mixing. I just processed the mixes a little and posted them on soundcloud.

Anyway, I took care of all the drumming gear and between the two of us we had a pretty sweet setup. In the past 3 jams Eric and I have been trying out this new configuration and I kind of like it. It's nice to know that if Jamie ever gets hit by a bus we can still have a decent rhythm section. Just kidding Jamie, if you read this...

So as usual we plugged everything in and improvised like crazy people for a few hours and got it all on tape. We usually get all the good jamming done in the first 10 minutes. I don't know why, that's just how it works. So, don't feel bad if you shut it off after a few minutes, you're probably not missing much.

Well, I'm late for this week's jam session... enjoy!

Fuzz Bucket Dec 6, 2011

This is the real Last Jam Session of 2011. We lost 4 of the 8 tracks but fortunately the overhead mics picked up plenty of guitar and bass. I'm pretty happy with some of these jams. I think The Cringe is a new piece we can work on and add to our repertoire if I can get my triplets up to speed. But the idea is there and I likes it! I hope you like it too! Warning: If you are sensitive to sloppy drumming this may not be for you.

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Fuzz Bucket 12.06.2011 by shimster

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Nov 30 2011 Fuzz Bucket Jam Session

This was the last recorded jam session from 2011 featuring all 3 of us. There was another jam but I think we got our memory cards mixed up and lost half of our tracks. I might try to salvage what we've got but I'm not sure if it's worth it. Anyway, this is a jam session where we brought a lot of beer and I think we got a little too loose but as usual there's some good stuff.

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Fuzz Bucket 11.30.2011 by shimster

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