BLOG
January 30, 2012
It has been a while since we logged in and had a little chat.
The adventure continues...The situation with the economy has created some interesting situations for all of us, not just the band, but everybody. Gigs just dried up without the patronage to keep them afloat. Folks lost their jobs, homes, businesses, minds, etc. Cities with summer entertainment budgets either scaled back or stopped altogether. Festivals disappeared overnight. It was very tough to make what we do work. It wasn't that we didn't want to play, it was just too difficult to make the numbers work. Seeing that half of us live in Michigan and the other half live in California, it's not too hard to understand. So we extend our heartfelt apologies for appearing so dormant. Believe me, we weren't.
Last summer, we did offer a new CD that was available only at our shows. "Blues, Soul & Rock n Roll" was a 5 song disc featuring all new original material. We are busy mixing 4 more tunes to make it a full-length release for this year. We will have it available online in a couple of months.
It does appear that things are improving for most folks and we are encouraged by what we've been getting as far as offers for a summer tour season in 2012. We are dying to play and can't wait to see you all. Check the SHOWS page for updates in a few weeks. As always, if you have any suggestions on places you'd like to see us play, please don't hesitate to get them to hire us. ;-)
Until we meet again,
MC/mt
August 23, 2010
It was bound to happen sooner or later. We are finally getting it together to write about our escapades while touring and recording all at the same time this year.
"All at the same time?" you ask, "How can they occupy two completely different spaces at the same time?"
It's a long story, but it's ours, so here goes;
We started out the year trying to figure out just what the heck we were doing and how we were gonna do it, so we could take a step up towards our goal of playing and recording year 'round. We held a long distance face to face meeting using the Skype thing, between Al & Mark G in MI and Frankie & Mark T in CA. It was a very revealing and rewarding go 'round. We ended up raising the bar for what we wanted as a band and set some new goals for ourselves. We wanted to define our sound, (Blues, Soul & Rock n Roll.) We wanted to be better at everything we were doing; Better players, better singers, better writers and just a better doggone band. We wanted to elevate ourselves to the next level. We didn't want to settle for what we had. We didn't want to just be "adequate." We decided we were gonna go for it.
We have been writing and demoing songs for the last two years. We actually have quite a nice pile. We developed new methods of writing and reheasing together, which is always a challenge when half of your band is on one coast and the other half is in the midwest. Some of the songs we recorded for this disc have been in our live repertoire since last summer. We wanted to play the new songs out before we recorded to give them some confidence and an identity. We also wanted Frankie, (our new drummer) to have enough time work his rhythm-magic-hoodoo-voodoo on the songs and bring them to life. So far so good. We've been getting a great reaction to the new stuff and are very excited to finish this "mountain we are climbing," err, we mean "new CD."
So on to the "two places at once" mumbo jumbo. We basically recorded the basic tracks for this disc in between gigs on our summer tour this year. (Hey, it worked for Led Zeppelin!) We set up at Alliance Recording Co., up near Flint, MI with master engineer and owner Al Hurschman at the board. We had recorded our second CD there and we loved working with Al and his better half, Jamie. We spent a lot of care and time getting the drums to sound as killer as possible. Al H had Mark G bring his vintage "Motown Sound" Ampeg B15 amp to the sessions for that "honest to goodness" SOUL bass tone. OMG! We set up in the big room, sequestered the guitar amps in other rooms and let 'er rip! Jamie kept us afloat between takes with breakfast (with BACON!) fruits, nuts, M&Ms (even brown ones!) sandwiches and coffee, coffee, COFFEE!!!
We spent several days (so far...) getting the "vocal performances of a lifetime" out of Al, Mark G and Mark T, (who all sing lead on this disc at one time or another!) Frankie joined in and everyone sang the backing vocals.
So now the tracks are in LA with Mark T, who is playing solos and some addtional guitar textures to keep things interesting, as well as examining the possibilty of some guest players to "lay a little lovin' on us!" (No, we're not gonna spill the beans.) Lead vocals are nearly done on most of the tracks, there are a couple-three that still need to be finished. We'll do that over the next month. Same with solos and stuff.
Baby steps, folks. "We will sell no disc before it's time," or something like that...
We've never worked this intensely, or intently, on anything we've done before. Ever. It's a new world for all of us. It's the band we've all wanted to be in. We really wanna make this a great record. A really great one. Not just an adequate one. Please stay tuned!
"Abbity, abbity, abbity, that's all folks!" ...for now...;-)
MC/mt
MEASURED CHAOS
Al Jacquez — vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mark Tomorsky — guitar, vocals
Mark Gougeon — bass, vocals
Frank Charboneaux — drums, vocals
(photo: Mark Tomorsky)
BLOG
January 30, 2012
It has been a while since we logged in and had a little chat.
The adventure continues...The situation with the economy has created some interesting situations for all of us, not just the band, but everybody. Gigs just dried up without the patronage to keep them afloat. Folks lost their jobs, homes, businesses, minds, etc. Cities with summer entertainment budgets either scaled back or stopped altogether. Festivals disappeared overnight. It was very tough to make what we do work. It wasn't that we didn't want to play, it was just too difficult to make the numbers work. Seeing that half of us live in Michigan and the other half live in California, it's not too hard to understand. So we extend our heartfelt apologies for appearing so dormant. Believe me, we weren't.
Last summer, we did offer a new CD that was available only at our shows. "Blues, Soul & Rock n Roll" was a 5 song disc featuring all new original material. We are busy mixing 4 more tunes to make it a full-length release for this year. We will have it available online in a couple of months.
It does appear that things are improving for most folks and we are encouraged by what we've been getting as far as offers for a summer tour season in 2012. We are dying to play and can't wait to see you all. Check the SHOWS page for updates in a few weeks. As always, if you have any suggestions on places you'd like to see us play, please don't hesitate to get them to hire us. ;-)
Until we meet again,
MC/mt
August 23, 2010
It was bound to happen sooner or later. We are finally getting it together to write about our escapades while touring and recording all at the same time this year.
"All at the same time?" you ask, "How can they occupy two completely different spaces at the same time?"
It's a long story, but it's ours, so here goes;
We started out the year trying to figure out just what the heck we were doing and how we were gonna do it, so we could take a step up towards our goal of playing and recording year 'round. We held a long distance face to face meeting using the Skype thing, between Al & Mark G in MI and Frankie & Mark T in CA. It was a very revealing and rewarding go 'round. We ended up raising the bar for what we wanted as a band and set some new goals for ourselves. We wanted to define our sound, (Blues, Soul & Rock n Roll.) We wanted to be better at everything we were doing; Better players, better singers, better writers and just a better doggone band. We wanted to elevate ourselves to the next level. We didn't want to settle for what we had. We didn't want to just be "adequate." We decided we were gonna go for it.
We have been writing and demoing songs for the last two years. We actually have quite a nice pile. We developed new methods of writing and reheasing together, which is always a challenge when half of your band is on one coast and the other half is in the midwest. Some of the songs we recorded for this disc have been in our live repertoire since last summer. We wanted to play the new songs out before we recorded to give them some confidence and an identity. We also wanted Frankie, (our new drummer) to have enough time work his rhythm-magic-hoodoo-voodoo on the songs and bring them to life. So far so good. We've been getting a great reaction to the new stuff and are very excited to finish this "mountain we are climbing," err, we mean "new CD."
So on to the "two places at once" mumbo jumbo. We basically recorded the basic tracks for this disc in between gigs on our summer tour this year. (Hey, it worked for Led Zeppelin!) We set up at Alliance Recording Co., up near Flint, MI with master engineer and owner Al Hurschman at the board. We had recorded our second CD there and we loved working with Al and his better half, Jamie. We spent a lot of care and time getting the drums to sound as killer as possible. Al H had Mark G bring his vintage "Motown Sound" Ampeg B15 amp to the sessions for that "honest to goodness" SOUL bass tone. OMG! We set up in the big room, sequestered the guitar amps in other rooms and let 'er rip! Jamie kept us afloat between takes with breakfast (with BACON!) fruits, nuts, M&Ms (even brown ones!) sandwiches and coffee, coffee, COFFEE!!!
We spent several days (so far...) getting the "vocal performances of a lifetime" out of Al, Mark G and Mark T, (who all sing lead on this disc at one time or another!) Frankie joined in and everyone sang the backing vocals.
So now the tracks are in LA with Mark T, who is playing solos and some addtional guitar textures to keep things interesting, as well as examining the possibilty of some guest players to "lay a little lovin' on us!" (No, we're not gonna spill the beans.) Lead vocals are nearly done on most of the tracks, there are a couple-three that still need to be finished. We'll do that over the next month. Same with solos and stuff.
Baby steps, folks. "We will sell no disc before it's time," or something like that...
We've never worked this intensely, or intently, on anything we've done before. Ever. It's a new world for all of us. It's the band we've all wanted to be in. We really wanna make this a great record. A really great one. Not just an adequate one. Please stay tuned!
"Abbity, abbity, abbity, that's all folks!" ...for now...;-)
MC/mt
MEASURED CHAOS
Al Jacquez — vocals, guitar, harmonica
Mark Tomorsky — guitar, vocals
Mark Gougeon — bass, vocals
Frank Charboneaux — drums, vocals
(photo: Mark Tomorsky)