the heartbreak of trying to play with normal people

[coldbrightsunlight]

I play in a rock&roll/jazz covers band that does quite a lot of gigs, and I always go guitar/bass->amp for simplicity setting up and we're always on tiny stages and tbf my amps sound awesome and I love it, but every so often we have a jam and i bring some pedals and get a heavy fuzz or some oscillation/feedback going or suggest a crazy song and everyone's just looking at me like "what are you DOING" and I'm like . The guys are all cool and we gel really well and I try to keep the bluzak to a minimum, but they just don't get crazy noises unless they're high.

[aussy]

maybe the fuzz just didn't work with the song
I don't necessarily think the 'problem' is with everyone else, rather a lack of restraint by pedalheads
its tempting to just start stomping away as you do at home, but sometimes it can just be a slap in the face to other musicians who aren't used to the nuances and other romanticisms of your playing

[Fuzzy Fred]

I feel you. Luckily, my drummer is down for a bunch of stuff, and I've toned it down a bit for the other guitarist and bassist. Luckily, I don't have too much modulation going on, but the fuzz is a blast. I work on some cool trippy stuff with delay and then fuzz the shit out of it.

its a combination of people being freaked out, and then how some people take fuzz and crazy stuff too far.

However, freak on those squares man!

[dubkitty]

i'm getting to the point now where i feel like if i walk into a room and nobody else has anything on the floor other than an amplifier channel switcher or a Toob Screamer, i might as well just turn around and go back to the car...we're gonna be playing fuckin' "Red House" again.

[culturejam]

I don't necessarily think the 'problem' is with everyone else, rather a lack of restraint by pedalheads

I agree.

If you are jamming around for fun, I say anything should go, and people should try to get on your wavelength, at least for a while. And you should try to get down with what they are doing, at least for a while. I mean, it's supposed to be fun, right? And experimental? The informal jams I've done have been this way. They usually start off with three or four different musical directions, and then after a while everyone starts to bend a little toward the middle, and you get a new, cohesive groove going on.

But if you are in a band that wants to play out and have people get into the tunes, angry chainsaw echo loops probably isn't going to be venue-appropriate. I mean, unless you're planing to play only at clubs that cater to that genre of music.

[Derelict78]

The first time I played with the band im in one of the guitarists said while I waxs setting up my rig " WOW you have way too many pedals! I only use my amps natural distortion" He uses a solid state marshall. dont get my wrong it sounds ok but
since than he has gotten much more into what I do (after hearing it) and has picked up some pedals. Im still trying to get him to pick up some fuzz. For the most part I dont use much of my effects but when I do its like BAM a hit in the face and blood out your asshole. 10 more months and I get to move back to the main land (prob. Boston area) and I hope it will be a little easier to find people into playing interesting music.

[dubkitty]

for me it's not that i want to sound like Sunn O))) or something--AT THIS TIME--it's that any sound that departs from the norm of normalcy, i.e. anything you wouldn't hear on an Eagles or lowest-common-denominator "Americana" album, gets received like news of a death camp opening up next door. i'm like "hello, have you heard the last five Wilco albums?" it's not THAT radical. even the weirdest stuff i do is stuff that wasn't all that strange when people like Fripp, Frisell, Garcia, and John Cippolina messed with those ideas twenty to forty years ago. the other day people were all "what were you DOING on that song??" (in a positive way) and i explained "tremolo, short repeat on the delay with the feedback up, lots and lots of reverb on the amp." i.e. it wasn't rocket surgery. it was frickin' Pops Staples with echo added. but even THAT was from Mars.

[phantasmagorovich]

I don't necessarily think the 'problem' is with everyone else, rather a lack of restraint by pedalheads

I agree.

If you are jamming around for fun, I say anything should go, and people should try to get on your wavelength, at least for a while. And you should try to get down with what they are doing, at least for a while. I mean, it's supposed to be fun, right? And experimental? The informal jams I've done have been this way. They usually start off with three or four different musical directions, and then after a while everyone starts to bend a little toward the middle, and you get a new, cohesive groove going on.

But if you are in a band that wants to play out and have people get into the tunes, angry chainsaw echo loops probably isn't going to be venue-appropriate. I mean, unless you're planing to play only at clubs that cater to that genre of music.

Sure, you should always listen to the others, a song is only good when it works on an acoustic, yadayada. All of this is true, but it's not as well.

You can play out with ANYTHING, it's just a matter of finding the right places, even if it means looking over the rim of the plate and check out art gallerys, squat houses or the likes. There is also an audience for anything. People get into the minimalist drone I play with my buddy alright. It's not a matter of everybody dancing and getting naked, but with my old band even that happened when we were freaking out max.

[jfrey]

This all sounds very familiar. I'm convinced the people in my current band have no idea what they want to do and most of them I think barely care about making music. They just want to be able to say they're part of a band or something. Only myself and the other guitarist are serious. Our drummer always leaves early. The bassist won't stop "jamming" when we're trying to talk about a composition. And our singer doesn't do anything, we tell him to write lyrics and he comes in with nothing and says something like "I'll just sing the lyrics from some other song."

[coldbrightsunlight]

maybe the fuzz just didn't work with the song
I don't necessarily think the 'problem' is with everyone else, rather a lack of restraint by pedalheads

I definitely agree with you, which is why I only bring that stuff out with the band when we're doing an improv jam for fun, not rehearsing or playing a gig. The whole point of bringing fuzz to the table is to try to steer the jam in a different direction, do something different. Occasionally it totally works, like once we jammed out a super heavy Jumpin' Jack Flash with a sweet noisy organ/guitar jam, it got crazy, but the other guys are only on for doing that every so often.

99% of the time I just sit back and do whatever, and I enjoy it and completely understand why other people wouldn't want to do anything more abrasive or noisy most of the time. It can just get a tiiiny bit boring sometimes.

At the end of the day, I'm happier jamming any boring standards than not playing with anyone at all. Unless it's Oasis or the Kinks.

[Cody_Pole]

I would rather spend countless hours playing by myself than play in a band who's music I do not care for.

[Astricii]

I would rather spend countless hours playing by myself than play in a band who's music I do not care for.

THIS.

I've been REALLLLLLY lucky both of my bands have been with people I consider good friends and on at least some musical level I've clicked with. I was primary songwriter for a decent amount of my guitar band's material. The dudes I play bass with let me do whatever since the guitarist/writer for that band has just as many pedals as I do. it works out wonderfully I always feel really lucky when I read threads like these. You guys just need to move to denver and start an ILF supergroup

[Ironbird13]

i play in an originals thrash metal band, but we try to mix things up a bit (one song is borderline country, another has a flamenco intro etc) my bandmates arent too bad with some of the weird noises i make, i use the HOG in a couple of songs and thats okay, but as soon as i stomp on the Turpisoris (uglyface) our drummer gives me a look like she wants to stab me with her drumsticks
one day soon at a gig im going to set it at a good glitchy stuttery setting and stomp on it and watch the face of the soundtech when he thinks all his gear is frying itself

[Gearmond]

im glad my friend who owns no fuzz lets me play through a cranked univibe with a metric fuckton of feedback

[Snufkino]

i step on the Tone Reaper and everybody turns around and looks at me like i just stomped on a kitten's head. it was right about then that i realized that--AS USUAL IN MY LIFE--the sounds i love are a cul-de-sac that 95% of musicians and listeners will never venture down. anyway, there i was, getting compliments left and right for e.g the truly strange wash of heartbroken Eno/Frisell stuff i cascaded over a version of "Ode to Billy Joe," but they were "what the hell was THAT?" compliments, you know? and nobody really wants someone to do that kind of shit in a band.

You were in the right. Tell them to deal with it and get used to it. You'll take them down roads they only dream about. You go places they wouldn't know how to get back from. That's what fuzz is for.