Members Lee Flier Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 All right, this week's spotlight is a group of HC favorites and Backstage regulars, TK 421! They're a hard rock/metal band in Virginia and you can check them out here: http://www.tk-421.net Or here: http://www.myspace.com/tk421band I'm sure the guys are looking forward to all of your input! And if you guys in the band have any specific areas where you'd particularly like to solicit opinions, let us know. The more participation we get from the band, the better! Tell us about yourselves and what your goals are for your band so we can be as helpful as possible. Let the fun begin!
Members Scheming Demon Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 This time, the music is right up my alley and because of that I'm usually way more critical. I like the overall sound, nice crunchy heavy guitars and tight rhythms. The playing is very good and it sounds professional. A singer who actually sings (what a novelty). I totally dislike the screaming vocals or constipated Satan type vocals. I especially liked the vocal melody in Hallowed by thy Name. FWIW here are my suggestions and take this strictly from the point of view of what I personally would like to hear. Busier drum parts, the drums were on the basic side and I thought they could be spiced up a lot without taking away from the song. Have the vocals vary a little more into different ranges. I know there's no Geoff Tate in the band but try to vary a little more. That's it. I liked your stuff a lot.
Members srsfallriver Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 I love the site! Nice job! Its easy to navagate and answers any questions about the band. My only complaint thus far is that I've found no pictures of the band. Did I just miss them? I have dial-up so I've only listened to one tune so far: Burn Georgia Burn. Again, nice job! You're not as heavey as I expected (at least not in that song). You remind me a bit of Badlands. If you were in my neck-o-the-woods I'd definitely come out to see ya.
Members THX1138 Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Damnit..... So, I decided to update something on our site tonight. I go to the admin page only to find that our admin site has completely changed. I take a few minutes to try to decipher all the changes, and determine how the new setup works. Finally I get to where I need to be. Funny thing with laptops though.... you ever barely touch the pad? Ya know, not really meaning to do anything... but it activates the click anyway? Yeah, that happened to me a little while ago. Turns out that the ole pointy arrow was hovering over the "Delete Directory" button when it happened. So, I managed to remove the entire "Insight" directory from our website. The absolute funniest thing however is that after pulling my hair out and yelling obscenities for a bit I decided to stroll over to HC to relax and chill out for a few. Then I see this thread.
Members Lee Flier Posted March 30, 2006 Author Members Posted March 30, 2006 Agghhh geez. Well if it makes you feel any better, my week's been going like that too. It's going around, as mentioned in another thread. Hopefully you can re-upload those files!
Members squealie Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Originally posted by Scheming Demon This time, the music is right up my alley and because of that I'm usually way more critical. I like the overall sound, nice crunchy heavy guitars and tight rhythms. The playing is very good and it sounds professional. A singer who actually sings (what a novelty). I totally dislike the screaming vocals or constipated Satan type vocals. I especially liked the vocal melody in Hallowed by thy Name. FWIW here are my suggestions and take this strictly from the point of view of what I personally would like to hear. Busier drum parts, the drums were on the basic side and I thought they could be spiced up a lot without taking away from the song. Have the vocals vary a little more into different ranges. I know there's no Geoff Tate in the band but try to vary a little more. That's it. I liked your stuff a lot. Thanks for listening! Please don't talk to our drummer though. I feel like an ass for not participating in the previous 'spotlight' threads....but then again, I am an ass.
Members Lee Flier Posted March 30, 2006 Author Members Posted March 30, 2006 Originally posted by squealie I feel like an ass for not participating in the previous 'spotlight' threads....but then again, I am an ass. Well it's not too late! The threads are still here and I'm sure the bands will appreciate the input. I still haven't commented on the last one so I guess I'm an ass too.
Members THX1138 Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Originally posted by Lee Flier Agghhh geez. Well if it makes you feel any better, my week's been going like that too. It's going around, as mentioned in another thread. Hopefully you can re-upload those files! Well, a few Miller Lites and some serious panic can work wonders. Got the page back up now. Only thing missing is the background jpg, but I can live without that for the time being. Oh and thanks for all this Lee. I know we run amok through this board enough as it is, so its awful cool of you to give us the spot.
Members elbow Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Wasn't TK421 one of the stormtroopers on the original Star Wars? I think he was missing and they actually called him by name or somethin... I don't remember for sure. Anyway.. pretty excellent stuff there. I am diggin it. I like the production on the tunes I heard from your web-site clips. I listened for the drum thing from the previous poster and I thought they were fine. I thought the guitars had that cool crunch and tone that hits that sweet spot most of us like, but have a hard time describing to others. Does that make any sense? I guess it's just the right level of sweet for this genre is what I'm saying. The vocals and vocal arrangements are what really sets this apart from the "pack" though. Really good vocal tone and pitch without the screaming ice pick in the forehead some of the heavier bands come at you with. Not many can pull that off and...... then have the killer harmony vocals on top of that? Vocals are excellent. Nuff said. Good stuff.
Members Guitar Centaur Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 I've been round the site, listened to the clips, and to be honest, I can't find a damn thing to critique. The site is slick, the tunes are {censored}ing massive, Spaced is a scary good vocalist. The only reason y'all aren't being played on every heavy station across the country is your location. As a longtime resident of Fredericksburg, I know that it's about as "podunk" as you can get!
Members HuskerDude Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Originally posted by elbow Wasn't TK421 one of the stormtroopers on the original Star Wars? I think he was missing and they actually called him by name or somethin... I don't remember for sure. TK-421 was the stormtrooper that either Luke or Han (it's been a couple years, gimmie a break) konked out and stole their armor when they were breaking into the Death Star in the original SW movie. Now, you'll excuse me while I go back to my tentacle porn and D&D websites.
Members THBv2.0 Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 If you've been here for more than a month you know I'm a big fan of this band! Especially considering their stuff is self-produced, I think it's an amazing effort. To spare myself the writing process, I'll C&P the review I wrote for CDBaby. Indeed, maybe once in a great while a band comes along that has that certain "something." That undefinable quality, or combination of qualities, that grabs you, pulls you close and whispers in your ear, "this is special." Then there's TK-421 and Disengaged. This CD will not be so gentle. It will kick you in that part of you that gets your attention the fastest, get right up in your face and scream "WE {censored}ING ROCK!" It will shake your floors, rattle your windows and move your soul with no quarter asked and none given. Disengaged, simply put, has it all. Go ahead, pick your favorite heavy rock album and this CD will challenge it. The vocals are at once soaring, whispering and wailing with a tone and quality that reminds you of someone you might recall from somewhere in your past - only better. The guitars are like Zakk or Randy on a good day, or any one of a thousand other guitar heroes - with the added distinction of sounding like they're not rahashing the licks someone else did before. The bass and drums are as one, never deviating from the pocket they create out of their sonic solidarity. Again, pick your favorites and this rhythm section is in that league. Needless to say, I've been blown away by TK-421. I was lucky enough to have been given my first copy of Disengaged. I wasted no time in burning a copy for my truck and ordering two more for friends. This is special, and you're going to want to share it with kindred spirits who, like you, are saying, "why doesn't anybody really kick ass anymore?" I sincerely hope I cross paths with these guys somewhere down the road; I'd love to see them play this stuff live. Enjoy.
Members gtrbass Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 These guys ROCK!!! It's just another example that there is great stuff out there being made with virtually complete independence that is high quality and totally marketable. This is a band that should be signed. I see a number of bands that are in this category and it just makes you scratch your head and wonder at the shortsightedness of the label mooks.
Members SunRaFan Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 This is obviously a style of music whose time has largely come and gone at least in a commercial sense. I listened to the first 3 myspace tracks (couldn't get the 4th to work), and one thing that really struck me was that all of them were at a fairly slow tempo. I thought one of the first two could have been done faster, or if you have some faster songs one of those should have been used as a myspace promo thing just to show a little more variety. I also agree with the person who said the drums could have been busier. In general, all of the songs I heard sounded somewhat restrained. There was some nice odd time signature stuff, but other than that, I didn't really hear anything that made me say I need to listen to that a second time to get what's going on. I don't think these songs would really grow on me if I listened to them more than once.
Members fastplant Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 First off, I really don't like the site. I know others do. But for one, dark font on a dark background doesn't work for me. Looks really bland. Also I hate that when you click on a song, you then have to click again on another page to actually hear it. It's also kind of hard to tell what's a link and what isn't. That said, the music is great. Sounds like an updated version of Alice In Chains. Great musicianship and vocals.
Members squealie Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 I think the 'tempo' criticizm is fair. Our only excuse is, that we write, what we write, and don't dwell too much on what we didn't write. In our preliminary discussions for the next batch of songs, we definately are interested in taking on more diversity in tempo, and mood. We'll see what happens. I'd also agree that 1 listen gets you pretty close to the big picture. I've always been a big fan of songs/bands/albums that contain lots of 'earcandy', where you are always discovering something new on successive listens. Its something we aspire to. But in our defense, those moments are rare, even for real records. If you don't care for 'modern rock', or playing that comes from a place that aint always the brain... you may not find a lot interesting about us. Big thanks to everyone for listening.
Members Mathew Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 i'll comment as i'm listening to "disengaged" - first off, this is not my kind of music, so bear with me- vocals need to come in sooner- nice chorus- very mainstream sounding- this song doesn't hold my attention for long enough- i find it kind of boring sorry, that's all i have time for, i gtg to class!
Members Blackwatch Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Great job guys.The site took me just a bit to get used to, but it is really a cool site. Someone knows what they are doing. Did you guys design it or do you just maintain it?I'm amased at the tightness you guys have. You can tell you've put in the time.If you guys had lived in Seattle in the early 90's you'd be famous right now. Well done....
Members SpacedCowboy Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 For my part, I really appreciate all the comments, compliments AND criticism. Thanks for giving our stuff a listen, guys. The common consensus seems to be as far as things on the minus side are the mood and tempo variations, or lack thereof. I will say in our defense that the few songs we have up on our site may not tell the whole story. As far as our music being somewhat dated, I can see where some may get that sense. However, to sorta quote squealie, we just put the songs together and then get the hell out of the way and let the music take the direction it needs to go. If it ends up being a little reminiscent of 80s' hair metal, so be it. If it's got that modern rock thang, so be it. If it ends up Ramones sounding, etc., etc. But we're definitely not adverse to experimenting with new directions and moods, as the need arises. As a matter of fact, we are planning a complete overhaul of our image, sound, and website in order to be more "in step" with the times. Starting with our name, we won't be called TK-421 anymore, we will be called: "...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Beer.":D Thank you all so much for the comments guys and gals...keep 'em comin'!!!
Members vanlatte Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 I know I have given a few thumbs up for these guys in the past and if I could get to the FREAKING SITE from work right now I would have more to offer... Yea, they rock. And seem like a really cool bunch, to boot. *chuckling at the Star Wars geeks* "You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought"
Members squealie Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 Originally posted by SpacedCowboy we will be called:"...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Beer.":D I was thinking: As I Lay Wanking
Members Blackwatch Posted March 30, 2006 Members Posted March 30, 2006 I hope I didn't give you that, but I can see how you'd take it that way... Good music never goes out of style. You're music isn't what I live and breath for, as I'm from a different period than you guys are, but I can understand how competent you guys are as musicians and artists...And I do like what you do.
Members SpacedCowboy Posted March 31, 2006 Members Posted March 31, 2006 Originally posted by Blackwatch I hope I didn't give you that, but I can see how you'd take it that way... Good music never goes out of style. You're music isn't what I live and breath for, as I'm from a different period than you guys are, but I can understand how competent you guys are as musicians and artists...And I do like what you do. BW...worry not, the joke I made about us was NOT directed at you or anyone else on this forum. It was just our way of saying that we're serious about the music we play but that we don't take ourselves seriously at all. And you gave us your honest opinion and your critisism was constructive instead of DEstructive. We have nothing but props for that and wish for that sort of feedback to continue... That is, until everyone gets bored with us and tells us to go the {censored} away...like they usually do...
Members THX1138 Posted March 31, 2006 Members Posted March 31, 2006 Originally posted by srsfallriver My only complaint thus far is that I've found no pictures of the band. Did I just miss them? There are a few on the "Senses" page. On one side is a human ear diagram with song links, and the other side has a human eye with picture links. The entire background images are links. Get it... ear - audio, eye - pics... I was tryin to be all artsy n {censored}. Eh, nobody ever gets it.
Members DanteRTS Posted March 31, 2006 Members Posted March 31, 2006 Pretty good stuff. Did ya'll track and mix that on your own? Nice levels, guitar sounds, vocal clearity. Nice range on the vox, too. I dig the intricate guitar layers on some of the tracks. Look like a pretty pro band. Logo work, site design (although a bit dark). Seems like you've got your {censored} together. Not to mention some of the worthy comments on threads I've read since frequenting this board. Much respect. Only suggestion: Riffs are a bit stock ("But what's stock?", I know) It just hits me as jamming a riff as soon as you pick your guitar, and putting it on the front of the song. Not that we all don't do it...but it just hit my ears that way. Nice stuff. Do I hear a show swap?
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