So, something that I've been kicking around in my head for awhile, ever since I found out my old drummer was moving away -- and seeing the absolute stone cold bitch it is to try and find a new one -- is the idea of stripping it back to just two guys, a guitarist(me) and a bass player, sharing vocals, and having the bass hold down the rhythm and the low end(with, obviously, some rhythm guitar mixed in). Obviously, anything can work given the right mix of people, talent, and music, but I was wondering if anybody had tried this, had any suggestions; pitfalls I should look out for, things like that?

Not dead.  Sleepin'.

Chicago's Tijuana Hercules was a really cool trash-blues-punk group. http://www.myspace.com/tijuanahercules

Agreed: there are a lot of bluespunk bands slithering around out there, they are just not at the top of the heap these days and don't get a lot of attention (unless you're talking White Stripes, Black Keys, etc.) Has anybody heard of The Immortal Lee County Killers II from Alabama? I play in a bluespunk two-piece called Las Drogas (based out of Ypsilanti, MI - near Ann Arbor and Detroit) We play a mixture of garage, blues, rockabilly, 50s/60s rock, punk. www.myspace.com/lasdrogasrock http://www.facebook.com/pages/Las-Drogas/136540006382577 Here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MwOsTEsmLU Jon Spencer Blues Explosion had some good stuff, so did Fat Possum Records

And... 24 Brothers at www.myspace.com/twentyfourbrothers is still around from sweden!

http://garagepunk.ning.com/profile/LonesomeGhost?xg_source=profiles_memberList

 

Check out Lonesome Ghost on here on the Hideout....they will be on Volume 2 of It Came From The Hideout.

Wow, that post was over two years old, Alex!

Check out Mottey's Garage on realpunkradio.com .  He does his usual punk and garage shows, but each month, he also does a punk blues show.

Aha, the punk-blues thread revived!

I'll second The Black Diamond Heavies and add The Jim Jones Revue.

punk blues's not dead!

new release of Chicken Diamond on Beast Records next month...

www.myspace.com/chickendiamond

 

My blog: Bleedin Out

 

Punk rock, garage rock, omfug

 

 

Nice! The cut-up! Keith Richards talks about doing that on one of the tunes on Exile.

I love it. The classic Borroughsian "Cut-Up" method! I wonder how man great bands have done the same for at least some of their lyrics. There are some folk who believe that the right "chunk dada dunk da donk de dunk, bwaan ahhhn bahn bum ba!" on the guitars and drums can literally save souls, and a few others beside, who believe that, properly utilized, the cut-up technique can anticipate the future. The Greeks had their "Oracle at Delphi," garage-punks and other rock n rollers have their Oracle at Gibson.

Another tip: Don't just mumble over the music. Hush it, wail it, scream it, bark at it, do whatever you have to to put a full range of vocalizations over the top of the song before you start adding too many words to the mix. I was working on one this morning and the "mumble-with-authoritah" wasn't working for me, so I started vocalizing blasts of brass, Within 10 minutes I managed to dig out a really cool verse for a new song.

I hate writing lyrics.  What I tend to do is get the song pretty well done already and then pull out one of a few notebooks that I have that I keep tossing fragments, bits of poetry, words that pop into my head, and see what fits.  Sometimes I'll grab a whole page from the book, slice it into pieces, and then toss them in a hat to pull out random pieces and see what I can string together.  Usually, I find that figuring out the song, then the melody line, then the lyrics, works best for me, but even better if I already have stuff floating around that I can turn into lyrics, if that makes sense.

Hey man. Writing lyrics is a funny nut to crack. Everybody's suggestions here are great and you should try them all. You never can tell what's going to work and - for me at least - it's a little different for each song. I've definitely done the "mumbling with authority" thing!

I'll say straight out that I'm not an expert, I only know what has worked for me. I've written songs that I thought were pretty good lyrically and definitely a whole bunch that were pretty bad, even embarrassing. So you know, take this all worth a grain of salt.

Mostly I just try to get in a frame of mind where things flow a bit. I have a couple different tricks I use to get something I like. I try to build a big old woodshed of stuff. Brainstorming basically. It's good to have a backlog of material to choose from or to spur more ideas.

One of my favorite methods of brainstorming is to get relaxed (using ones method of choice), put on headphones and just listen to other peoples music - people/bands whose lyrics I really like. While I'm listening I'll get little ideas that maybe rhyme with what I'm listening to, or maybe follow the same rhythm and I write them down. Sometimes one song will really get the juices flowing and I get a couple pages of stuff out of that one song. Do this a lot with a lot of different songs and build up that backlog. Then I try to forget about all of it for long enough that I don't quite remember what songs I was listening to, and I'm not still 'in the moment'. I almost want to feel like I'm reading it for the first time when I go back so that I can be distant enough to recognize the shitty parts. The most important part is when I go back and start mining that stuff I literally throw out %90 of it and just work with the %10 that makes me think "holy shit did I even write that? That's pretty damn good" and work from there.

On totally different tip, I'll take whatever song I'm working on and just make noises wherever I can. The idea being to just figure out what spots I'm actually capable of vocalizing with. This is like what Jonathan was saying above. I play guitar and sing in my band, so figuring out where I can sing is a big part of deciding what to say. A lot of times in that process certain words or phrases pop out that just sound good. Then it's a matter of building around those spontaneous phrases.

Here's another one. Carry a little notebook with you everywhere you go. It's crazy how all of a sudden shit starts popping into your head in line at the 7-11. Plus people say crazy shit all the time, and I write that down for later. In fact, I would say the best thing you can do is just write shit down constantly hahaha. You're friends will think you're a freak, but fuckem. Generate so much material that you have no choice but to jettison most of it - the gems will shine through.

- on one last thing. It can help if you have a buddy who's taste you respect and who you can take criticism from without getting pissed to bounce ideas off of - or even collaborate with.

Good luck man! Figuring this stuff out is fun and after a while you learn what works for you and things start to click a little bit.

Did anyone mention Forbidden Dimension or any other Jackson Phibes' stuff? He's a Canadian that totally rips: punky, smart, fun, technically literate, sings about goth/horror stuff non-stop, and even wears make-up and other horror costume/goth get-up. Check it out: http://forbiddendimension.exophagy.com/main.html

Jeff, I might be up for it but my schedule is a little nuts until May. I do have an enormous Aussie garage/punk collection, it's actually kind of ridiculous how much music I've accumulated specifically from Australia, and as you know I've already got the radio credentials. The only thing is that I am indeed an ex-pat - grew up in Adelaide, but I'm in the U.S. It'd be much cooler if you could get an actual Australian to do it because I lost any traces of my accent back in '89, so it's gonna be obvious I'm a Yank :-)

 

Anyway, you know where to find me I think :-)

 

Jenni/LPL

WORT 89.9 FM, Madison WI

BTW, somewhere around here, I have the video from one of the Sleazefests.  I'll have to dig it up again.

Ahh, just joshin'.  I saw a great Dennis Wilson doc the other night. Came out around the time Smile was being put out.

enz

Renato Carvalho said:

Lol no, Beach Boys of course

enzo said:

Like Marky Mark?

Renato Carvalho said:

D# minor for me. anything sharp minor really but that's the first chord to my favourite verses ever, Good Vibrations.

I'm 25, I have a blog, though I haven't done much with it for a while

 

I don't post in-print stuff, in fact I try not to post stuff other blogs have posted (which is why things are very slow). There have been a few posts where I might have one or two demo songs for a band and those have been very popular, with some people writing back trying to find out where they can buy. Never a whole album.

 

The worst are the ones with ads. No two ways about it, profiting off a band's work

 

 

Ok, I had heard of your mob, they are from Austria the one song I heard of theirs was as good as the New Bomb Turks, if not better. I had a look on their myspace, they list 2 record labels, both of which have websites. German label Flight 13 has their first album still available.

http://www.flight13.com/details/45783/rodriguez-s-t

 

Also their French label Relaxomatic Vibrator Records has a few songs for download on this page, if you scroll down to the bottom:

http://relaxomatic.free.fr/sounds.htm

Hi Fuzzmeister. Nope, this is a much more current release, 2008 I think. It is self-titled, which makes Googling a lot harder. Apparently there are about a billion artists that have the word "Rodriguez" in the their name or album title... :-/ This is band I was talking about: http://www.myspace.com/rodriguezrock

But whoa, that other Rodriguez just blew my mind a little. The Monkeywrench cover "Sugar Man" on their album "Electric Children" (2000), always wondered where that came from. I absolutely love The Monkeywrench, a super-group worthy of the prefix "super". Thanks for the info!

Ben, you didn't read the instructions very closely, did you? I deleted your attachment.

Hi Kopper,

Thanks for creating these opportunities for garage music lovers and creators of...

Formed in January 2011, Silver Sound Explosion are a three piece rock and roll band. 
Ben plays guitar and the sings lead vocals, Kirsty plays two drums (floor tom & snare) with cymbals and sings backing vocals, Chris plays the bass guitar.
A single (two songs) were recorded in March 2011 with producer Fran Ashcroft (Happy Beat) at Whitby Studio's Ellesmere Port for release on iTunes on June 1st...(this date is yet to be confirmed)

We'd like to put forward the flipside track "Telephone Wired" as it best gives off the underlying garage flavour of our music, which is ultimately about stripping things back to the bone, embracing simplicity, and working with Fran was essential to capture that with his understanding of that simplicity.

Hope we may be considered for release for the Comp Series.

Have a great day,

Ben

 

Agreed, there are a ton,
but a couple that quickly comes to mind:
Greasy Rock n' Roll (multiple volumes),
also the Lux and Ivy Favorites (multiple volumes),
Cacophony Records put out a pretty good one about 12 years ago called Ultra Swank,
those Sympathetic Sounds discs that Sympathy for the Record Industry did are kinda cool (esp the Detroit issue)...