Members MikeyParent Posted July 4, 2011 Members Share Posted July 4, 2011 Myself and the guitar player are up to play just about anything to get the cute girlies on the dance floor but we are bumping into resistance to the type of material we can do from the bass player and drummer. Side note: Musically I am not sure we are all on the same page but we really gel and everyone is usually pretty open minded. We have our first gig on Friday and will probably have some lengthy discussions about where we want to take our set list after that is in the books. So for now, I am looking for dance/pop tunes that are not too "techno" or pure dance. We have committed to attempting a mashup of Crazy/Rolling in the Deep. Also this new song by Hot Chelle Rae is probably palatable to everyone involved:[video=youtube;QzlNFcT2aOE] Is there anything else out there that is similar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 4, 2011 Members Share Posted July 4, 2011 I think there's been a couple of threads on this topic recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members guitarguy19 Posted July 4, 2011 Members Share Posted July 4, 2011 We're in the same boat, and want to add just enough new dance/pop tunes to make that a part of our set. One of our goals is to cover a pretty wide variety of stuff while still being basically a rock band at heart. We recently decided (and are working on with good results so far) a medley of In My Head (Jason Derulo), Dynamite (Taio Cruz), and Just Dance (Lary Gaga). We're rocking them out and the medley allows us to skip the parts of the songs that get really layered and hard for us to reproduce. We also do F**k You by Cee Lo with great results. This type of music is just a small slice of our repotoire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted July 5, 2011 Members Share Posted July 5, 2011 What is it with the rhythm section being musical snobs? Wasn't there just another thread where the drummer was being all snooty about song selection? I'd think they, if anyone, shouldn't particularly give a {censored} what tunes the band was playing. Obviously I'm wrong. Not to hijack the thread, but I'm kinda wondering why, if anyone has any insight... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted July 5, 2011 Members Share Posted July 5, 2011 Weren't you the band that just recently posted a promo shot where you guys we're looking silly and having fun? So what's up with getting "resistance" about material? Either those guys are in it to win it or they're not. Tell 'em to grow the {censored} up already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted July 5, 2011 Members Share Posted July 5, 2011 my Trio did Tonight Tonight on Friday. Worked well with our crowd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MikeyParent Posted August 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Good to know - I will pitch it again... did not go well for the current round of song potentials... This did though: I am not a big David Usher fan but this was pretty cool: [video=youtube;HviR9AWnMQ8] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MikeyParent Posted August 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Also, hot chick guitar player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Also, hot chick guitar player. +1. Would. Also, I like that mash-up too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members FitchFY Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Dance-y rock to appease your drummer = anything by Franz Ferdinand. If they disagree, can `em and hire me. I'll pocked the crap out of some Franz Ferdinand for ya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members MikeyParent Posted August 3, 2011 Author Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Lead player is ridiculous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 What is it with the rhythm section being musical snobs?Wasn't there just another thread where the drummer was being all snooty about song selection?I'd think they, if anyone, shouldn't particularly give a {censored} what tunes the band was playing. Obviously I'm wrong. Not to hijack the thread, but I'm kinda wondering why, if anyone has any insight... Well for one... alot of dance music played strictly as 'dance' requires alot of extra or enhanced percussion. Take any modern dance track with it's drop sub kicks and gated percussion, through it at a drummer on a standard kit and say 'let's work this up'... you are going to gain resistance. Our drummer is pretty kick ass... he's a local legend in terms of style and versatility and even he was initially intimidated by trying to 'reproduce' electronic percussion. Our problem is that sometimes we lean to far toward trying to replicate the tune instead of laying off the electronics and playing the song. Sometimes we nail it... other times trying to replicate the song just sounds awkward and a more straight up rock approach is better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melvinspeed Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 What is it with the rhythm section being musical snobs?Wasn't there just another thread where the drummer was being all snooty about song selection?I'd think they, if anyone, shouldn't particularly give a {censored} what tunes the band was playing. Obviously I'm wrong. Not to hijack the thread, but I'm kinda wondering why, if anyone has any insight... Why would the drummer care less than any other band mate about the song selection? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Why would the drummer care less than any other band mate about the song selection? He shouldn't care less, but I don't see why he should be a snob about it. If he has a good reason for not wanting to do a song, fine. But "This song sucks and a player of my talents wouldn't touch it" when he's the one in the back, doesn't carry much weight with me, as opposed to the front person or lead guitarist who has to at least pretend to the crowd that they love it. Edit: I probably read too much into this OP but there had been other threads on the topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members weareasmallaxe Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 beat it by michael jackson....punch you in the eye by phish.......three little birds by bob marley......dynamite by whoever......i am lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members melvinspeed Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 But "This song sucks and a player of my talents wouldn't touch it" I agree with you that this is the issue. That's a lame rationale no matter where you setup on stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 He shouldn't care less, but I don't see why he should be a snob about it. If he has a good reason for not wanting to do a song, fine. But "This song sucks and a player of my talents wouldn't touch it" when he's the one in the back, doesn't carry much weight with me, as opposed to the front person or lead guitarist who has to at least pretend to the crowd that they love it.. Really, shouldn't everyone in a cover band be making an attempt to sell every song? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rangefinder Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Really, shouldn't everyone in a cover band be making an attempt to sell every song? I guess. But if anyone could get away with mailing it in for a few songs, I'd think it would be the drummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mstreck Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 I guess. But if anyone could get away with mailing it in for a few songs, I'd think it would be the drummer. True... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members n9ne Posted August 3, 2011 Members Share Posted August 3, 2011 Today's dance/pop stuff is obviously very synth-oriented....but in many cases, the keyboard/piano parts translate so seamlessly to rock guitar, it's almost as if they were originally written by a guitarist. The transition isn't all that tough....it's just a matter of listening beyond the layers of electronica and hearing "the song within the song". Just a few ideas off the top of my head, from the past few years: Rhianna - S&M , DisturbiaLady Gaga - Poker Face, Just Dance, Love Game, Bad Romance, PaparazziTaio Cruz - DynamiteFloRida - LowBruno Mars - Just the Way You AreKe$ha - Tik Tok, Blow Hopefully you can take one or two of these and turn them into something useful. The only problem is, many of these songs have so many layers of keyboards, it would take 2-3 guitarists with a full range of effects to cover all the necessary parts. You might also check YouTube; there are a lot of bands out there that do exactly what you're talking about....turning pop/dance songs into hard rock tunes. You could blatantly steal some of their ideas, or at least get some idea of how to re-arrange these pop tunes for a more rock-oriented crowd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jeff42 Posted August 4, 2011 Members Share Posted August 4, 2011 You might also check YouTube; there are a lot of bands out there that do exactly what you're talking about....turning pop/dance songs into hard rock tunes. You could blatantly steal some of their ideas, or at least get some idea of how to re-arrange these pop tunes for a more rock-oriented crowd. Yes, find a good cover and use it as a starting point. I sometimes have to do this with the band I play for. Pull up a couple rock covers and say SEE! It can be done! and then we use parts that we like from the covers as a starting point for our cover. One of the first ones we did a few years back was poker face. We started with this cover:[video=youtube;Ut6FzGGD0nY] and ended up with this:[video=youtube;nszlWB9LSjE] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted August 4, 2011 Moderators Share Posted August 4, 2011 Our problem is that sometimes we lean to far toward trying to replicate the tune instead of laying off the electronics and playing the song. ^^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 4, 2011 Members Share Posted August 4, 2011 Our problem is that sometimes we lean to far toward trying to replicate the tune instead of laying off the electronics and playing the song. Sometimes we nail it... other times trying to replicate the song just sounds awkward and a more straight up rock approach is better. Yeah. We usually fall somewhere in the middle because we've only got 1 keyboard player and we have to find room for guitar parts. And we don't have a percussionist. But I've never yet felt that any of our arrangements on the dance tunes didn't work with the crowd because they weren't close enough to the original recording. As long as you're still giving them the "feel" and the "meat" of the song and keeping it danceable, I don't think anyone really cares much if you're filling the space with a percussion loop or with power chords. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wheresgrant3 Posted August 4, 2011 Members Share Posted August 4, 2011 Yeah. We usually fall somewhere in the middle because we've only got 1 keyboard player and we have to find room for guitar parts. And we don't have a percussionist. But I've never yet felt that any of our arrangements on the dance tunes didn't work with the crowd because they weren't close enough to the original recording. As long as you're still giving them the "feel" and the "meat" of the song and keeping it danceable, I don't think anyone really cares much if you're filling the space with a percussion loop or with power chords. The opposite side to that coin is... when you do nail the song with a similar sense of production the original track calls for then you stand on the shoulders of alot of other bands. One of the main reasons we're gunning for that extra production is because there are 10 other bands in our market all playing a similar setlist and all approaching this material with the same 'rocked up' arrangements. So we have the light show... we have the DJ... we have the 'wall of sound' approach to those songs and the other bands are riffing out the Hot 100 on guitar... there's nothing wrong with that except that they all begin to sound the same. We use that opportunity to stand out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted August 4, 2011 Members Share Posted August 4, 2011 The opposite side to that coin is... when you do nail the song with a similar sense of production the original track calls for then you stand on the shoulders of alot of other bands. One of the main reasons we're gunning for that extra production is because there are 10 other bands in our market all playing a similar setlist and all approaching this material with the same 'rocked up' arrangements. So we have the light show... we have the DJ... we have the 'wall of sound' approach to those songs and the other bands are riffing out the Hot 100 on guitar... there's nothing wrong with that except that they all begin to sound the same. We use that opportunity to stand out. Oh I agree. Which is why I said what we do is somewhat "in between". We don't do "rocked up" versions, per se. We tackle them by staying as close as we can to the originals with as much keys and technology as we can and then use the rest of the instruments to fill in the gaps. I'm just saying that NOT nailing those songs sound-for-sound has never seemed to be a deal-breaker on any of them thus far. I would never NOT do a song we can pull off successfully just because we can't nail the original instrumentation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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