Why is finding musicians to play with so hard?

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:05 pm

Seriously, what am I doing wrong?

Got all kinds of flakes from Craigslist and not a single one met me in person, even.

WTF?

StopReferencing · Post by **StopReferencing** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:23 pm

Go play with the Fatty Acids.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:50 pm

Haha, I realized I know this dude. He's my barista, usually. At least when I lived in Riverwest and went to Alterra on Humbolt all the time, which was only a block away.

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch

Giving their free album a listen. Free download, for those interested: http://thefattyacidsmusic.com/downloads/downloads.html

I may have to go talk to these dudes and talk them into some effects pedals. It sounds like (& live photos look like) Teles into little Fender combos, plus a keyboard player. Need to get them some fuzz & delay goodness, at least.

Their stuff sounds great, though. Didn't even know they existed. :rock:

siamesegun · Post by **siamesegun** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:05 pm

I feel ya, bro. If only I could play every instrument. Simultaneously. Or at least owned them.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 4:11 pm

siamesegun wrote:I feel ya, bro. If only I could play every instrument. Simultaneously. Or at least owned them.

Eh, I'm feeling like I'd be more inspired if I had someone else to jam with. There's some guys at the Makerspace that I hang out with and we make electronic noise boxes like the Atari Punk Console and the Cacophonator, but those aren't exactly instruments.. there's no drum machine yet, even, much less notes, melodies, dynamics.. just a loud noise bleep-blooper into a PA head going BLEEP BLOOP BLEEOP BLOOP really loud over my guitar. Doesn't make music to my ears.

(I'm one of the guys making these boxes and circuit bending toys and stuff, don't get me wrong. Just not what I want to be playing.)

And I can't exactly tell these guys "Hey, let's play like, an 12 bar blues.. BLEEP BLOOP BLEEOP BLOOPLEEP BLOOP BLEEOP BLOOPLEEP BLOOP BLEEOP BLOOPLEEP BLOOP BLEEOP BLOOP"*

Edit: I was thinking of Jazz's AABA form with 32 bars (breaks into 8 bars) but most people don't play that unless they're doing jazz, I guess? :idk:

eatyourguitar · Post by **eatyourguitar** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:12 pm

cause they dont have gas money or they have asshole girlfriends or they are alcoholic drummers...

or they are already in a band with elitist pricks making lots of money

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 5:36 pm

eatyourguitar wrote:cause they dont have gas money or they have asshole girlfriends or they are alcoholic drummers...

or they are already in a band with elitist pricks making lots of money

Yeah man. Who wants to make money?

Certainly no band I'm in will be successful. I'm just not after that. Probably not even playing shows. Just jamming.

andtheLiquidmen · Post by **andtheLiquidmen** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:20 pm

I'm at my wits end as well. One of the bands I'm in hasn't been able to find a replacement drummer since our original one lost his mind. We just had to fire our bassist due to him not learning the material, slopping his way through it, and making excuses for not practicing. We have to hire a drummer, which is going to pretty much eliminate any possibility of making any money from future shows.

My other band...I just don't know. I've got an entire album of stuff demoed and ready to go, but finding competent musicians just seems to be impossible. The music is NOT that hard to play, and I just get the whole "well I sort of learned it but I've been really busy" excuse constantly.

The clincher is that I'm taking both projects very seriously, and I've yet to find anyone else who wants to bust their ass. :mad:

dubkitty · Post by **dubkitty** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:26 pm

given that the ratio of musicians to listeners is pretty low, the number of musicians who play anything odder than lowest-common-denominator stuff HAS to be vanishingly small. it's the story of life. it's like trying to find a pretty girl who's smart and likes someone like you. i've been playing music for forty years, and i've never had a band i was entirely happy with.

Achtane · Post by **Achtane** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:28 pm

There should be an ILF e-band, a collaboration type thing.

Craigslist seems kind of sketchy anyway, I have no idea how half-decent musicians, much less people, find each other there.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:34 pm

Achtane wrote:There should be an ILF e-band, a collaboration type thing.

Craigslist seems kind of sketchy anyway, I have no idea how half-decent musicians, much less prostitutes, find clients there.

Fixed.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 8:45 pm

andtheLiquidmen wrote:I'm at my wits end as well. One of the bands I'm in hasn't been able to find a replacement drummer since our original one lost his mind. We just had to fire our bassist due to him not learning the material, slopping his way through it, and making excuses for not practicing. We have to hire a drummer, which is going to pretty much eliminate any possibility of making any money from future shows.

My other band...I just don't know. I've got an entire album of stuff demoed and ready to go, but finding competent musicians just seems to be impossible. The music is NOT that hard to play, and I just get the whole "well I sort of learned it but I've been really busy" excuse constantly.

The clincher is that I'm taking both projects very seriously, and I've yet to find anyone else who wants to bust their ass.

I don't want to be a professional musician, I don't want to play shows, I just want to jam with folks.

That said, I don't want to smoke weed, get drunk and play shitty loud renditions of Smoke on the Water, either, and that seems to be the main motivation of the folks who reply to the "let's jam" type of ads I've posted. :idk:

mauerkraut · Post by **mauerkraut** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 9:51 pm

Yeah it can be tough. Just got out to shows and meet people. Always be open to opportunities, you'll never know where it leads you. You won't find a drummer at home. Craigslist has very, very few diamonds in the rough you'll find who are on the same page. It can happen though. The important things is to use all the tools available to you.

snipelfritz · Post by **snipelfritz** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:36 pm

I've met with two people/groups from craigslist and communicated with a fair share of others and have completely struck out so far. It doesn't help that I live outside of the city where the only thing around are shitty metal bands and shitty emo bands but mostly annoying-ass acoustic singer-songwriters.

mathias · Post by **mathias** » Mon Apr 18, 2011 10:54 pm

Trying to get myself back on topic..

Achtane wrote:There should be an ILF e-band, a collaboration type thing.

This would be cool, but it doesn't fulfill my need to jam with folks. :idk:

I'd still just be a dude playing with himself in a room. And that's just sad. :lol:

Because it's always more fun with you, err, play with others. :lol:

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Why is finding musicians to play with so hard?

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