The Life and Times of Briertone Pt. 1

Briertone drummer Bobby Lucy with new project, Vegas based GoldBoot.

In late 2011, the band had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the San Louis Obispo based, “Outlaw Rock” group, Briertone. Somewhat of a local legend, we were lucky enough to befriend “BTone” and embark on a series of shows together over the course of the next few months.

With their distinct sound and personalities, it was always exciting to be around the group. “Gypsy Girl” is still one of my favorite songs of all time, by any group. 

However, by the summer of 2012, the band seemed to have entered a semi-hiatus, with the various members focusing on other projects, musical or otherwise. But Briertone are back and we’re once again lucky enough to share a stage with them on May 2 in SLO. 

Also on the bill are GoldBoot, the new synth/pop/dance/groove/I don’t even know exactly what to call it project by Briertone drummer and notorious Vegas socialite Bobby Lucy. 

GoldBoot began it’s earliest iteration in 2010, recording the EP “Boot Tease” and performing into 2011 before the members split, leaving singer Logan Lanning to “carry the boot.” 

Now, fast forward to the fall of 2012. Long time friends Bobby Lucy and Logan Lanning begin to toss around the idea of reigniting the GoldBoot flame and taking what was a solid foundation and molding it into something they could call their own. One jam session churned out three songs and the new duo realized they had something special and that GoldBoot was back …stronger than ever. The re-inspired band worked hard molding small ideas into full songs in what seemed like the blink of an eye and in no time at all the two found themselves with six brand new songs and the drive to take GoldBoot further than it had ever been. They quickly found local bassist Jules Manning off a random Facebook inquiry and began working as a three piece to solidify their sound and push the boot quickly to the live stage once again. They reunited with Engineer Mark Gray and have been working hard on a new EP chalked full of energetic new dance tunes with a mid-May release. 

-GoldBoot official bio

"I’ve always been a huge fan of a strong four in the floor dance beat, heavy synth leads, a catchy pop vocal melody and strong ambience," Lucy explained. "The new songs we are developing in GoldBoot have all of that thrown into one, and then some. This band is perfect for me."

Lucy was quick to clarify that his excitement for GoldBoot is in no way meant to be disparaging of Briertone or signify any end to the group. “Not saying I haven’t enjoyed my other musical projects, but this one is right up my alley.”

Check out GoldBoot’s music, Twitter and Instagram account for more on this sultry trio.

Our show with GoldBoot and Briertone is on Thursday, May 2 at SLO Brew. 7:30pm. All ages. The lineup also includes Fialta

Advance tickets are available here for $10. You can also pick up advance tickets at Boo Boo Records in SLO.

I’ll be attempting to catch up with the other members of Briertone to see what they’ve been up to and what’s in store for the band in the weeks leading up to the show.

-RB

Getting Better

A couple weeks back, we got together with our friend Jon Devoto and did a special kind of practice. This wasn’t to rehearse our songs. It was to adjust our tones and dynamics. It was to makes sure that what we were playing was coming out clean and clear, not muffled and muddy. We assembled at Jon’s home studio and had him listen to songs, and then had him give us feedback on tonal and sonic changes.

This was part of a series of practices we were doing at the behest of our manager, Zen. We always mine Zen for live show feedback after sets, and we set about doing some practices that would address aspects of a live show that most bands (in my experience) wouldn’t put much focus on.

We made sure that our tones blended well, so that no one was too muffled underneath the rest of the band. We adjusted volume levels. We gave each other feedback on different aspects of our tone and effects.

It didn’t end there though. At our own personal practices, we set about playing songs meticulously. If there was a section of a verse in a song that wasn’t as locked in or poppin’ as we wanted, we would loop that one part over, and over, and over, and over until we felt that the problem was sounding fixed (a little). Most practices lately, we have only played two or three songs, instead of our usual 9-12.

This is really a very new concept for us as a band. Practice always facilitated us playing a set of songs back to back a couple times and then going on our merry way. This whole process has been really eye opening for me when it comes to what it means to get better at what you do. So often I get caught up in the idea that getting better is a simple session of repetition. While this concept is certainly true to an extent, I forgot that so much about getting better is taking that time to truly polish every part of your art after you have become familiar with your particular piece of work.

Being good at what you do, seems to me, to be about never settling. Always searching. Always improving. Always finding new ways to do an old trick. Pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. The journey has really just started for me in this way. And somehow that feels exciting.

-Nik

Achieving Your Perfect Sound Pt. 1

Half of a P-Bass pickup capturing sound from the bottom E and A strings.

Scott Lucas, guitarist (and to an extent, bassist) of Local H runs a pretty interesting set up in order to achieve his signature sound. This article on Music Radar includes an interview with Lucas, as well as a video that demonstrates what he describes. I recommend checking the article out for yourself, rather than reading my rehashed version. But I will focus on one quote:

"Actually, there’s still trial and error. I know there’s things I can do to get this setup to sound even better than it does now. The goal has always been to make it sound like there’s four people in the band. I’m always trying new effects and figuring out ways to split the signal. -Scott Lucas to Music Radar

I love the fact that Lucas openly describes his sound as trial and error. For a group that has released seven albums using this unique set up, knowing that  it is still considered a process is very inspirational. 

I’ve always been of the opinion that you never perfect your sound - on record, live or otherwise - you merely improve upon it. There have been plenty of moments where I’ve thought, “THIS is the bass sound I’ve had in my head. This is perfect!”only to find some aspect that’s needed improving shortly after. This constant tweaking should be seen as progress. Of course, you can go overboard and buy every guitar pedal under the sun and turn knobs for hours and hours, only to curse the gods of rock & roll for not allowing you to sound like ________ guitarist/bassist from _________ group, but the key is to strike a balance.

This balance is achieved by doing the following:

1. Finding a sound of your own
2. Never settling
3. Continuous experimentation within proper context

I’m going to put these thoughts out there and get feedback from our fellow musicians as to how they achieve or chase their perfect sound and include them in my follow up blog next Thursday.

Picture Atlantic supports Local H at Bottom of the Hill, Sunday, April 14. 21+, 8:30pm doors. Tickets are on sale now and available here. 

-RB

Selling Out Pt. 3

This article is a continuation of our April 2nd post:

Why people automatically have the reaction of disgust when a band they love gets lots of attention is warranted and expected, if you think about it logically. The connotation with massive success for musicians is along the lines of changing who you are to meet that “mainstream audience” and ultimately letting the ‘suck beast’ out of the cage. And at a quick glance, it would appear history has taught us that this is always true. But I don’t think a quick glance gives a correct and adequate portrayal in many cases about a bands artistic success. Not every band actually sucks in my opinion when they get big, and I truly wonder how much of our dislike for our favorite bands getting big really comes out of an knee jerk, elitist exclusionary reaction, or simply some kind of mob-mentality that we unknowingly project on to each other that stems from an almost superstitious belief that success = suck. Bands can rise and fall, and have albums that resonate with us, or make us slap our foreheads. Bloc Party, for example is a band who’s first two albums I love, but they quickly lost me as they began a spiral of repetitive mimicry in the next two releases. Then bam: this last year they released ‘Four’ which is one of my favorite albums of theirs to date ,and made me forget about the craptastic, uninspired, directionless attempt at an album they released prior (if that sounds harsh, wait til you hear me talk about Coldplay).

Long story short,I challenge you to actually think some of this through step by step from a bands perspective and it may change your mind on the subject.

Also, I am crazy curious to hear what you other musicians or music fans have to say, so please feel free to reply to this blog post with your own thoughts or answers, however long, short, or opposite to my point of view they may be, and I will gladly re-post them for everyone to read. Just to get that potentially kicked off, here are some comments from my post on Facebook when I shared the video there:

“Very interesting points. It’s sad that artists/musicians have to go through things like this to uphold an image or stature, especially the ones that just want to keep making art for the love of it. We need money to keep making music, but we’re not allowed to take money if it’s not from a reputable source..it’s a vicious cycle. Luckily i don’t make any money from music, so i don’t have to think about it too much!" - Jonathan Posadas, vocalist/guitarist of Case in Theory

“Most musicians worry too much about their image and not enough about impact/reach. If you truly believe in your music and think your music is worth listening to, then getting paid to have it listened to by millions is a no-brainer." - Cody Martin, guitarist of Brolly

“I thought I was gonna get mad but they’re making some good points and some of the stuff they say, which is the reality of the music bizz is funny as fuck! I’m not upset or hella for what they are saying. Funny stuff though." - Sahab , solo musician and Milli Vanilli Scholar

Invest In Quality Music,

-Nik