Thursday, December 30, 2004

More Pic Work

More Pic Work

A little photoshop work...

Sup...

Well as we head into a new year it is time for news and idle banter. First Soul Amp is chuggin ahead getting ready for the upcomging gigs at Main Stage and Sprizzo. We'lln be doing a 45 minute set at Main Stage. So we are polishing that set. We'll start the ight at Sprizzo with the music not played at Main Stage and then finish with the set from the night before. Expect to here some jams at Sprizzo as I am sure we'll open it up a bit.

M1 is off in Co. for the holidays so M2, EB and I practiced lastnight. It was funh and we got a chance to "just jam" some too as we were'nt too serious about getting anything other that a refresher with M1 abscent. One thing is for sure., Hammond organ and piano sure fills out the sound. With M1 missing it was wierd to play as a three piece, these songs that were arranged for four.

So to make up for M1 not being around we made sure his picture was repeted over and over again in the promo photo collage. Sorry Mike, couldn't resist.

Abbey Road?

Abbey Road?

Nope...it is 40th St in Piggsville.

Happy Smiling People

Happy Smiling People

Smiling like idiots...(lol) as we are freezing. Lucky
there was some tasty Spanish wine waiting....

Promo Photo

Promo Photo

Well here is the first of what will be many
promotional glossies. We had to get one together quick
to start sending out for gigs. This one is heading to
Memphis for the a shot at playing the Beale street
music fest.

Friday, December 10, 2004

Flyers!

Flyers!

Well here you go! We llnaded another gig for January at the Main Stage in Waukesha. So I created some fliers for posting in the clubs and around town. I dig fliers for bands...I used to collect them when I was in Minneapolis and somewhere in the boxes of stuff I have a bunch for the mid 80's. So you flier hunters out their here's your chance to add to your collection. The future rare "Badminton" tour flyers....lol

Flyers!

Flyers!

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Protoype I CD Ready

The Soul Amp's Protoype I CD "New Day" is pretty much completed. If you are interested in purchasing this limited edition pre-production prototype there are few ways to get one. First come to our debut gig at Sprizzo Gallery and Cafe' on Saturday, January 29th 8-10 p.m. 378 Main Steet, Waueksha, WI.

The reason you WANT one is because when they are gone they are gone. There will NEVER be more. It is also likly that some of the songs that appear on the Prototype I disk will not be on the final production CD. I can't tell you which ones becuase we don't know yet...We are still writing tunes and they may bump some of the older songs as we craft the final vision of the album.



Wednesday, December 08, 2004

New Gadgets

Last night M1 and I broke in some new software. iZotopes's Ozone3 mastering plugin.

We spent the eveing figuring our how to use it. I had to borrow my Wife's G4 Ti powerbook to run it. The results were pretty stunning. We will be using in mastering the final production CD.

Also on the horizon is a iMac G5. to repalce my iBook G3 that is currently been the workhorse. Actually the G5 will really be my wifes new graphics workstation as her Ti powerbook is now tipping the years at near 5. Souls Amp will be fortunate to be able to utilize the new G5 for the final push in the production of our debut CD then I'll take over the powerbook and hand the iBook down to daughter bass player.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Ahh Memories

Intro...

Well, I was thinking the other day about all the wacky stuff I've experienced in playing with bands so I thought I would start writing them down. And what better place than right here under the banner of SOul Amp...

..fade to black...

Crossing Paths with Soul Asylum


In the Late 80's Minneapolis, Minnesota the Landslider's the band, I playing in was booked at 7th Street Entry. THe Entry was a small club attached to the famous First Avenue. The premier music and dance venue in Minneapolis. The Entry was more or less a closet attached to First Avenue. The trapezoidal shaped room had maybe five tables and a few stools. Bleacher like carpeted platforms rose up tow levels along the back wall and afforded fans a way seeing over the near floor level stage over the crow on the back level.The entry also known as Minneapolis's largest ashtray was grey and black inside indoor outdoor covers the interior.

Photos are linked from First Avenue and are credited to Dan Corrigan.



Here are the steps leading to basement or the "dressing room".


The lansliders recently off a fresh name change and sporting a new demo tape landed a series of gigs in spring of 87 we were playing out pretty regular doing front gigs mostly. One night as we were setting up for a show at the entry Jay the drummer asked, "Who the fuck is Sunshine on My Shoulder?". I said "I never heard of them." He was pissed because we got the opening slot for this Thursday night and we were a bit bummed at getting bumped by a unknown band. As jay was setting up the kit he stopped and this tall lanky dirty blond guy stroad in with a similar curly haired mutton chop guy Dan Murphy...they passed Jay. I took no notice. Jay said "Isn't that Pirner...?". Asking if it was Dave Pirner of SOul Asylum. I said, "yeah I think so." We continued setting up our gear and the activity was increasing as we started to do our sound check. I seemed as if a who's who of the Minneapolis music scenes was slowly filtering through the place. I though cool we get some discerning ears for tonight's show. Well it ended up being quite a awesome night for sure. Within minutes we realized that indeed SOul Asylum was playing under the alias of Sunshine On My Shoulder. They were kicking off their tour for "While you Were Out". We had heard that they had Twin Tone had just inked a deal with A&M and the independent label was going big time and taking the bands with them.

Pirner and Murphy sat against the back wall of the entry while we did our sound check. We peeled our gear off the stage and headed down to the basement to eat pizza and drink some snowshoe grog...or favorite pre-show snort. Well as we were down hanging out chatting with SOul Aslyms Drummer at the time. Who walks into the dressing room but Grant Hart from Husker Du. Grant and his buddy sit down and light a joint and proceed to pass it around. So here we are in 1987 goofing in the Entry with Grant Hart in the Entry.

After splitting a pizza with everyone we got ready for our show and headed up and launched into a high energy set. The place filled up quick as we went through the set and we got a good response from the crowd. Certainly I was now glad we were playing first as Soul Aslyum would pretty much blow away everybody who cam after them.

They took the stage and played a set that was so tight and powerful it ripped your head right off...no kidding.

It was a memorable night and a good gig for us even though I think we were pained like $75 bucks. I always was disappointed in the pay in Minneapolis at the time but it sure beats what new bands have to go through today. Hey wait I'm a new band again...

The Masterbeats only legacy...wow I can't believe I found this pic...(Dan Corrigan)



Look close above the head of the guitarist looking at Peter Buck from REM. You will See scrawled in black marker "The Master Beats", I wrote that on the wall after I played at the a show at the Entry. I think we fronted the Gear Daddies or the Gyrones or something. I believe Peter Buck was in town and sat in with the Gear Daddies.

It must have been around spring early spring 1986 or so. I found this pic at First Avenue's web site. Funny I thought I wrote that in the basement of the Uptown Bar and Grill...well....stuff is pretty blurry from those days...but stuff is coming back to me...I'll toss out some other stories from the past, I 've got a ton of them...like the backwoods ski trolling, and playing after demolition derby, spinning vans on ice, rehearsal in jail....oh my...yeah.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

soul-amp.com lives!

I haven't posted to our blog yet because... well, I haven't had much to
say yet. There's been a sudden flurry of activity in the ol' Cat Box and
elsewhere for us. As you've seen, we've finished up the first prototype
of our CD.

I recently got http://soul-amp.com up and running as well, just a few days
ago. There isn't a whole lot of content there, just an e-biz card for
now. It'll grow and change soon.

As for me, I carry the low end for the band. I'm currently playing on
Fender Jazz 4-string fretless and Brian Moore i5 5-string basses. I
reproduce them with an Eden Metro combo amp. If you want to hear me,
well, you'll have to come see us live or pick up a copy of New Day. And
if you buy one each of every prototype you'll have a nice sonic blog you
can carry around with you.

Thanks for spending time with us...

E.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Sprizzo Saturday Jan. 29th

Sprizzo Saturday  Jan. 29th

Upcoming Gig at Sprizzo January 29th 8-10
Downtown Waukesha WI.

Soul Amp will be squeezed up front of the small funky
cafe' - coffee house - martini bar on Saturday, Jan 29th. $2
cover and we'll be selling a limited number of
prototype I disks...now with 9 tunes recorded in the
Cat Box....

Read below for info the Cat Box and of course Soul Amp.....

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

More Than I Asked For

Last night M1 and I worked on More Than I Asked For. A new tune we recorded the bass, guitar and drum tracks for during rehersal one night.

Well M1 tackled adding a organ track and after about four hours of trying it just wasn't happening. Depression was setting in. We had one passage that was good and the rest it just was not happening. So...it was best to rethink the instrumentation. We dumped the Organ on verses and tried piano. ZOOM! that was it after a couple of takes M1 laid down a very cool piano track keeping the organ in the chorus. Cool thing is this will be able to be done easily with M1's live rig for shows. The song went from a rather plodding death march funeral dirge to a bright snappy , metro, love song...shades of Joe Jackson and Bruce Hornsby...

I then jumped in a nailed the vocals in one take. After four hours of sitting at the console starting and stopping a 5 minute song I was ready... the result..you can hear live at Sprizzo's on Jan 29th.

Soul Amp - CD Prototype 1

Soul Amp - CD Prototype 1



Above is the cover for Souls Amp - New Day prototype CD. What I'm doing is creating prototypes of our upcoming CD. Using desktop technology that most are familiar with, Photoshop, Label printing, labels, CD-Rs and jewel cases I'm "prototyping" our upcoming release. Why? Why not...I am burning disks all the time as we polish and select the tunes for our album. So why not go ahead and start working out the look and feel of the CD as well?

So this is the first prototype titled New Day. Why should you care?

For each protoype that we do the CD will be different in many ways. First the content will likely be different. As we write more tunes some may get "bumped" and others the arrangements may change as well as tracks or the entire recording will be replaced. We will try different song orders as well as art work from a variety of graphic artist types that we happen to know.

So here is the final pitch.

We are considering selling them at gigs. Each protoype will be produced in limited numbers of maybe 20-30. Each will be good sonic quality and represent versions of tunes we are okay with. Also it will help fund the continued production of the final album. We need to raise about $1000 for the professional mastering, printing and reproduction for the first producton run. Since most gigs for original bands pay little we have to make some money somehow. I have always liked homegrown tapes and CDs and think it is way cool when an band lets the listener get a more intimate view of the band and it's progress.

Hence this blog...

So on the 29th of January 8-10 pm...at Sprizzo's Caffe and Coffeehouse we will probably offer some of these prototypes up for sale. Cover is 2$ at the door and the prototype disks will probably be $5 or so....

SO what is up with this design...

Well it is orange. To represent a warmth and glow of a new day. Simple enough. The yellow circle of couse is the sun and the use of green is to create a vivid contrast. The orange is a tip to the past.

That is it.

Below is the label.

Soul Amp - CD Prototype 1

Soul Amp - CD Prototype 1