Day Two: First band practice

Just back from band practice; I was initially quite worried about this since I figured my bass would be out of action while the tuning peg was repaired, but it turns out those wonderful chaps at Wunjo Guitars on Denmark Street put it right in about ten minutes! I also bought a set of cheap drumsticks while I was there; James is usually the last to turn up, so I figured if we had some handy, one of us could drum before he turns up, to keep momentum going.

Anyway, we managed to get through four or five bits today which all sound quite good. Three were from the stash I wrote yesterday, and one Martin had been working on. Once we worked out the rhythm for that one, it cooked!

Similarly, John had an urge to do a jazzy 6/8 type thing, and with a bit of tweaking, that's what The Tindersticks One ended up like. It sounds superb, especially as John wrote a chorus for it pretty much on the spot. He and I swapped roles for that, so he was on bass while I picked out the guitar line.

One of the overriding themes seems to be that we're playing looser and more relaxed than our normal style - again, once we got the drum beat sorted for The Hold Steady One, it all fell into place and got quite Stones-y, not a style we're used to playing. Nonetheless, it suits the songs well, but once I get round to getting the one based around the sequencers, we'll need a bit more rigidity. I'm quite looking forward to that one as I imagine it'll involve lots of layered sounds built up in the studio.

We ended with a brief run through of our setlist for next Wednesday's gig supporting The Features, but gven the amount of effort put in to the new stuff, we approached playing the standards rather half heartedly. We gave up once the spring broke on James's kick drum pedal. Next week we'll have to work a lot harder on it, at the expense of some RPM stuff...might need to book an extra rehearsal at this rate!

Thom