Is it even POSSIBLE to have a songlist that is both 'cool' and also crowd pleasin'?

[Vito Corleone]

 

Hmm hard to tell ,,, its basically just a new nitch kinda deal, and like any new nitch deal its gonna look like a long shot. One thing for sure ,,, if you put together a band like that ,, they could handle alot of material. The big horn bands of the 60s theme sells well,,, and bands seem to ingnore the top 40 soft rock of the latter 60s , no doubt because the vocals would kick their ass. The vocals in that stuff would to be honest would kick pretty well every bands ass that I have seen and heard out in clubs and on here. It basically took three lead singers wiht exactly the the right vocal ranges. NO one really had that back in the day either. We did because I robbed a chamber choir and a jazz band to put that old group together. Its a narrow time period in music and you would have to rely on the holy {censored} factor for those people who were not familiar with that type of music. Most of them no doubt may not have ever heard horns and the really strong harmony vocals used together in rock. It would be a long shot trying to hang your hat on the wow factor. It would have to be geared toward festivals I would think where you have a captive crowd of a large demographic range. The boomers would be thinking ,, aint heard that stuff in years ,,, wow. and the younger ones would be saying ,, I havent heard peopel who can sing like that ever ,, and geesh they got brass. Who knows ,, but for sure no one is doing it.

 

 

If you could put together a band with vocals that strong, that'd be great. If that were the case, I'd suggest making the vocals the focal point and going beyond that small 5-year window of material you're talking about and pull out a lot of great vocal stuff from other eras as well.

[TIMKEYS]

 

If you could put together a band with vocals that strong, that'd be great. If that were the case, I'd suggest making the vocals the focal point and going beyond that small 5-year window of material you're talking about and pull out a lot of great vocal stuff from other eras as well.

 

 

The problem is that its pretty hard to find alot of stuff that has vocals that strong in it after the 60s. I am sure there are some songs ,, but for the most part those vocals are a lost art on rock that followed it in alot of ways. I really doubt that I could ever find the singers to pull it off. Most rock bands out playing today are lucky if they have someone to sing the third really tight ,, let alone be able do so whats needed to handle that stuff. Its kinda sad really ,,, hell teen bands were handling that material back in the day. Now if they need a tenor ,, they pawn the part off on the chick lol

[Vito Corleone]

There are songs, you've just gotta hunt them out.

 

You're talking about a band that would take a LOT of work to get right, so clearly you want to shoot beyond just the small-bar gigs to make it worth everyone's time and trouble. Especially since you aren't likely to find full band of other people who would be as much into it for the love-of-the-material as you are. But there's good singers out there. Especially among older cats who have been gigging for a long time and have the experience.

 

I hear similar stuff from older musicians quite often: that they think it would be the coolest thing to put together a band that focuses on a narrow genre and time-period of material that just "HAPPENS" to have occurred right around the time they were graduating high school. I knew one guy who wanted to put together a band that only did "New Romantic" synth-pop from the early 80s. Another who only wanted to do big-hair pop-metal from the mid/late 80's. Always sounds good on paper--the problem is always A) finding a full band of guys who love the same stuff as much and B) except for audience members pretty much exactly the same age as you, they aren't going to love that narrow niche of material as much either. So to actually make it a venture that can be successful, you need to broaden the scope and find as much other familiar material you can pull under the umbrella of your theme as possible.

[TIMKEYS]

 

There are songs, you've just gotta hunt them out. You're talking about a band that would take a LOT of work to get right, so clearly you want to shoot beyond just the small-bar gigs to make it worth everyone's time and trouble. Especially since you aren't likely to find full band of other people who would be as much into it for the love-of-the-material as you are. But there's good singers out there. Especially among older cats who have been gigging for a long time and have the experience. I hear similar stuff from older musicians quite often: that they think it would be the coolest thing to put together a band that focuses on a narrow genre and time-period of material that just "HAPPENS" to have occurred right around the time they were graduating high school. I knew one guy who wanted to put together a band that only did "New Romantic" synth-pop from the early 80s. Another who only wanted to do big-hair pop-metal from the mid/late 80's. Always sounds good on paper--the problem is always A) finding a full band of guys who love the same stuff as much and B) except for audience members pretty much exactly the same age as you, they aren't going to love that narrow niche of material as much either. So to actually make it a venture that can be successful, you need to broaden the scope and find as much other familiar material you can pull under the umbrella of your theme as possible.

 

 

 

Yea prolly ,, so. even among the older cats ,, I dont hear many that could pull that stuff off ,, even the guys who recorded it have trouble pulling it off on their senior tours. Our band aint gonna do it thats for sure..... we got our nitch and it works ,, so thats not gonna change. Its fun to think about putting the old band together ,, but the reality it , that that old band was pretty much the perfect storm. It fell into place, was up and giggin in a month , ran just under a year and disbanded. zero to a top band in less than a year. To try to do it again would be like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.

[Vito Corleone]

 

Yea prolly ,, so. even among the older cats ,, I dont hear many that could pull that stuff off ,, even the guys who recorded it have trouble pulling it off on their senior tours. Our band aint gonna do it thats for sure..... we got our nitch and it works ,, so thats not gonna change. Its fun to think about putting the old band together ,, but the reality it , that that old band was pretty much the perfect storm. It fell into place, was up and giggin in a month , ran just under a year and disbanded. zero to a top band in less than a year. To try to do it again would be like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.

 

 

Well you know the old saying---"you can never go back again". Wouldn't be as good as you remembered it no matter how hard you tried. Heck, it might not even have ever actually BEEN as good as you remember it being! "time" and "place" are everything in this business.

[TIMKEYS]

 

Well you know the old saying---"you can never go back again". Wouldn't be as good as you remembered it no matter how hard you tried. Heck, it might not even have ever actually BEEN as good as you remember it being! "time" and "place" are everything in this business.

 

 

Maybe ,, but if it wasnt that good ,, there would have been no way to have moved the ball 7 fold in the short time we were together. The vocal harmony was so tight you could hear the overtones rolling off it where it sounded like more part than were actually there. But I agree that you cant go back... we lost the drummer and the horns, and tried to put the thing back together a summer after we pulled chocks and it just didnt click. The new drummer was solid and good ,, but the spirit just wasnt there. We still had the vocals,,, but trying to thow a band together in the summer between every one being in college spread out all over the state was not going to happen.