sat*30*july*2011 The music lords giveth and the music lords taketh away it would appear. If you read my previous pointless waffle (which I don't think anyone, other than Pete Major [of Pete Major 'fame'] apparently, ever does) you'll have noticed my fervent excitement at the prospect of getting a new band together with a nice guitar playing chap. The world being the cruel barren place it is, that didn't work out. It seems, upon further thought, 'nice guitar playing chap' doesn't have the spare time to be in a band; even one with such low and laid back aspirations. Not much I can do about that I'm afraid so it's back to square one. In the meantime, another gent has got in touch with me about the prospect of putting a band together. Like my previous example, he's a guitarist (I 'think' he may be a vocalist too) and already has another guitarist on board. As one might imagine, they're looking for a drummer and a bassist to get somewhere toward completing a musical outfit. Apparently I have my choice between the two instruments. Anyone who has heard me play drums would, quite rightfully, suggest I play bass. In my 'ideal world band' we'd switch about instruments a bit anyway. I'll have to meet up with these guitarists to see what their thoughts are on that and many other matters. Hopefully cups of overly sweet and milky coffee/chai lattes shall be drunk and good chat will entail. On first impressions, the fellow who contacted me seems a pleasant sort. I suppose we'll have to see what comes of it. Fingers crossed. |
mon*18*july*2011 Count either my biscuits scared or me afraid of biscuits. Either way, it seems this website (well, just a wee bit of the overall webspace I pay for and not actually this part you're looking at) was touched up by the virtual fingers of a dirty internet hackster. Yeppers, some swine (or, more likely, swines) had their grubby mitts over my webspace. Eeeew! The long and short of it is they had uploaded dodgy files onto my webspace in order to try to defraud bank customers. I believe this illicit practice is called phishing. Thanks to a couple of (slightly scary but still reasonably pleasant) e-mails from RSA and Google, the situation was brought to my attention, files were deleted and (one hopes) the problem eradicated. I still feel a bit 'virtual dirty' though; used and abused by a turd of a nerd. In more pleasant news, I had a jam/josh/practice with a guitar playing gent over the weekend and I'm very hopeful the nucleus of a new band may be coming together. At the moment, we are going under the name Brontosaurus. I like it and hope it's a name we shall stick with. It might be a while (that standard unit of time measurement) before we do anything but I'm feeling very positive. As ever, please keep your eyes peeled and your ears 'whatever the ear equivalent of peeled is'. |
thur*07*july*2011 There's been a bit of a big break since my last witter here. That's not a reference to the TV show Big Break but rather a virtual slap on the wrists for my lackluster web performance. If anyone who wasn't me ever looked near this, I'd apologise. As it is, I apologise to myself inwardly via my brain and refuse to accept it. So, what's new then? I'm no longer one of the sharks in 3D Shark. There was no huge falling out or anything as exciting and unpleasant as that. The others wanted to take a break for a couple of months and, during that time, I decided I'd be happier doing something else musically. As they were on their hiatus anyway, it seemed like the right time to move on. It gave them time to find another (better) drummer without missing a beat (ho ho). I wish them all the best. It would appear 3D Shark is playing (in The Black Box [map]) on October the 1st. I believe that to be a Saturday. It's £5 in and The Sabrejets, Stop! Stop! Start Again and The Dollybyrds shall also be playing. It's being put on by Time to be Proud. That all got a little 'closing titles of Sesame Street' there with my clunky wording. That leaves me a little 'up in the air' musically. I've been accosting people via Fastfude but, for me, it's like having a good hoke through clothes in TK Maxx: I know there's something I like in there but it's going to take quite a bit work to find it. Generally it seems Fastfude's Recruitment forum is rife with people trying to form metal or classic rock bands. That's super if that's what you want to do. Unfortunately for me, it isn't what I want to be doing. I'm not one of those arseholes who thinks the music he listens to is superior to metal or anything like that (which isn't to say that I'm not an arsehole) - I just don't happen to enjoy listening to much metal. Given the number of people trying to get metal bands together, I kind of wish I did enjoy listening to metal. Anyway, I have the nugget of a contact to see about starting a band. Watch this space (or, more likely, the bit above this as this will still be this) for updates. Fingers crossed. |
mon*04*april*2011 I'm a bit of a moron. No, really. Come to think of it, maybe a Luddite would be fairer. Although I do plenty of moronic things, I have enough moments of clarity to keep my head above water. I'm more of a 'village idiot' or 'super-moron'. My fear and lack of technological knowledge, this time, relates to the 'This Is Not Canada' mp3 thingamajig I posted up in the previous witter. Everything's all good and well with Firefox and Chrome but, when I try to play it using Internet Explorer, things turn markedly Alvin and the Chipmunks. It appears to play about a third faster than it should. Getting back to my 'Ludditery', this means I've no idea how to fix such a problem. All I can do is apologise for it and suggest you download the song if you wish to hear it. Hopefully the downloaded versions will play properly. Sorry for any problems. Continuing in the theme of 'This Is Not Canada', I've re-done a couple of wee bits in it. To hear 'version 2' of 'This Is Not Canada', please listen below (sorry IE users for the 'Chipmunkery Pokery'):
As you'll be able to tell, if you listened, the changes are very minor. They're a couple of wee tweaks I thought would improve the general sound of the song. I recorded the song as a demonstration, to the other members of 3D Shark, of how I imagined it could go. I've no idea if the finished piece will sound like the version(s) here. I suppose I'll just have to wait to find out. As I've said before, it's John Shark's song. All I did was arrange it and play on the recording. Any joy, film/advertisement placements etc. will have to be directed toward him. |
sat*02*april*2011 Oh how thoroughly shameful of me. I've done some hideous 'text speak' typing. I'm far too anal for that. Holding in my poop as a child means I don't do text speak or maybe my not doing text speak means I held in my poop as a child? Either way, it's all bottom waste. Although there still hasn't been anything recorded by 3D Shark, I'm one of them and I did a rough recording of a (prospective version of) a forthcoming 3D Shark song. Please take into account that it is (as stated) rough, quickly thrown together and I'm doing everything in it. That's not to give me full credit for the tune. John Shark wrote it. He's the artist. I'm just the mindless grunt. I daren't post this on the actual 3D Shark site as they would club me to within an inch of my life for bringing their good name into disrepute. KitMitchell.co.uk, however, is outside Shark jurisdiction so...
'This Is Not Canada' is the first tune I've recorded (in any form) for over two years. Obviously that's just home recording but it's good to get back on the wagon (or whatever that expression is) even if it's not a song I wrote myself. In some ways, there's a lot of pleasure to be had messing about and rearranging other people's songs. Maybe having less of one's own self invested (for lack of a considerably less pretentious expression) in them makes them less disappointing? I find songs I make up sound their best while still in my head. Getting them out in the air must taint them somehow. Did I mention it was a rough recording and to please go easy on me? I'm sure I did, repeatedly. |
thur*24*mar*2011 Forget mere 'second gigs' for 3D Shark. It now seems we've got yet another gig lined up. This new gig is actually between our first gig and what I had been referring to as 'second gig'. Does that make it 'gig 1.5'? No silly, of course it doesn't. Don't be stoopid you buffoon! I suppose it's really 'me buffoon' as I'm having one of those awkward part third-person conversations with myself I imagine nutters do. Well, I say imagine... Anyway, 'I.R. buffoon', to get in a contrived reference to a mediocre cartoon. So yes, that's right, someone else wants 3D Shark to play. That someone is a, seemingly very pleasant, chap called Jamie Glover. Jamie seems quite heavily involved with Queen's Radio and has been kind enough to add us to the bill of their 5th birthday celebrations. Thank you very much Jamie. The Queen's Radio 5th birthday spectacular will be taking part in Auntie Annie's (map) on Tuesday the 12th of April at 9-30pm. It's £3 in, which is the price I remember gigs being about fifteen years ago and still have the naivety to assume they'll cost nowadays. The Emerald Armada and Phoenix Fire are due to join us there, as well as some DJ types. I mean they'll be playing too. They're not coming purely to see 3D Shark or me. I don't possess that kind of animal magnetism. Here's hoping both gigs go well. On a personal note, what with this being a personal website and all, I've got an initial practice with another band on Sunday. If it works out, I could be playing bass at gigs some time in the future. That would be in addition to 3D Shark. Don't worry; they all know about one another. I'm not whoring my wares surreptitiously. My tartiness is no secret. If anything comes of 'band two' I'll write some gibberish up here, on this pointless waffle-fest, so nobody but me reads it. |
sat*05*mar*2011 It would seem 3D Shark is to perform a second gig. As with 'previous gig' this one shall be in The Black Box (map). That suits me just fine as I think it's an excellent venue (please see previous post for further gushing). As with 'previous gig' we have William from Time to be Proud to thank for putting us on. What a nice chap! Please feel free to say a few cheers for him while reading this. The forthcoming gig is on Saturday the 16th of April and costs £5 in. If you'd like to buy tickets online, you can do so here. I'm not buying a ticket and hope to sneak in buckshee. So far my pretence of drumming has carried itself. Once the limit of my abilities is realised, I could be in trouble. In addition to 3D Shark the lineup shall include The Sabrejets and Robert Holmes. Rumours persist of another act playing but I don't have a clue who that might be and whether they've confirmed. When I know, I'll witter about it here. A little oddly, I'm slightly nervous about this gig because the first one went well. I think I've given myself something to live up to. Everything feel into place so well at 'previous gig' I'm now getting a little sweaty round the collar at the prospect of 'next gig' not being as good. Part of my concern could be (natural self-doubt?) related to our not having practiced since 'previous gig' on February the 4th. A quick refresher course in 3D Shark songs would do me no harm at all. By the way, I (some might say egotistically) got some 3D Shark badges and a cap made up by Awesome Merchandise (I'm not getting anything for linking to them so I hope they appreciate it). Here they are if you would like to look at them. They're also there if you wouldn't like to look at them. I don't wish to mislead anyone by suggesting this website can read your thoughts. At this point, it would be prevalent to state the actual cap and badges aren't 'here' or 'there'; it's just a photo of them. The genuine items are under lock and key in the Tower of London. I don't know how to finish this ramble so I'll awkwardly and abruptly say thanks for reading and bye for now. |
wed*09*feb*2011 Marvellously, I did manage to 'redeem' myself with 3D Shark after all. We played our gig in The Black Box and it was thoroughly marvellous. Everybody played almost completely error free. Certainly any errors we did make wouldn't have been noticed by the listening public. You can see some photos of it via the 3D Shark website. I've got to say, The Black Box is a super venue. Recently I've heard a rumour it may be on its last legs. Here's hoping that's just a rumour and it goes from strength to strength. On a selfish note, I'd very much like to play there again. It was about fifteen years since my previous gig (not counting 'kitchen giglets' of course) and playing live was a real thrill for me. It was also the first time I've ever played drums in front of people. While my drumming was minimal (to say the least) I appeared to keep time and didn't make any shocking mistakes. All was good. Hoorah! If you can think of anywhere we can play (no rude answers, I beg of you) please get in touch. I'm very excited about the prospect of playing more gigs. |
tues*02*feb*2011 Jeepers oh! I'd have preferred Deicide myself (please see the post below for this to make any sense) and I don't even like their music. We played our 'kitchen giglet' on Saturday the 29th of January and I was appalling, even by my own low standards. To say it was 'a nervous performance' would be very kind. My 'performance' (if it could be called that) was completely riddled with errors. It was the Swiss cheese of the music world. Funnily enough, the worst mistakes were when I was doing songs I had written myself. I'd imagine that unintended fifteen minute break while I attempted to get some looping together wasn't a crowd pleaser. If I had even got the looping right at the end, it would have been something. Aaargh! It was a terrible terrible showing on my part. Hopefully I'll redeem myself with a gig in The Black Box (map) this Friday (February the 4th). Although I don't really drum (as will become evident if you're at the gig) I'm drumming for 3D Shark. We'll be opening the evening's entertainment at 9pm (doors open at 8-30pm) and it's free in. You get what you pay for. Above us on the bill will be kAMIkIDS, Stop! Stop! Start Again and The Defects. It'll be the first public (ie. not in our kitchen) gig I've played for about fifteen years. I better wear bicycle clips. Just getting back to the 'kitchen giglet', my thanks to everyone who did play. Some of them have websites: Barry; Robert. Apologies for drowning in my own inadequacies and not getting to that sooner. |
You've reached the start of this year's wittering but there's still some 2010 gibberish to read. Thanks for taking the time to read all these slightly nonsensical ramblings. To look at 2010's babbling, please click here. Thank you. |
