I’ve talked about Hung Dynasty a lot, but now you can check out a preview from the latest recording.
Archive for the ‘About the Band’ Category
A Sneak Peak from our Latest Recording
Sunday, June 7th, 2009Spinal Tap Moment #2
Thursday, June 4th, 2009A quick note about Spinal Tap Moments – they’re not in chronological order. Or logical order of any kind.
One spring, I snagged the band an out-of-town gig. We went to Prescott to play at a venue called Sundance’s Place. It’s near the town’s infamous Whiskey Row, once known as a slab of watering holes for grizzled hermits, cowboys and real outlaw bikers. Now, it’s pretty much the poser crowd – though it still gets lively.
I’ve been to Prescott many times, but never before stopped at Sundance’s. I was in for a treat. This is a real rock ‘n’ roll venue. People are there to hear loud music and get crazy.
I just didn’t realize how crazy. Let’s take a quick inventory:
1. During our entire set, an autistic guy was break-dancing on crutches!
2. A grizzled old rocker kept slapping me on the knee and wanting me to give him “the knuckles” or a high-five after every guitar solo.
3. A buxom drunkette stormed the stage and rubbed various parts of her anatomy all over Todd during one of my solos. Todd kept on playing and actually blocked her from stepping on his pedalboard. The proper course of action, of course, would’ve been to let me worry about the guitar stuff, drop out of the song, and give the lass the proper attention.
4. While leaping off the stage and onto the floor during one song, I mis-judged the awesome power of my quads and rocketed straight into the ceiling WITH MY HEAD. Yes, I might be your hero – but I’m sometimes the goat, too.
Now that is what we call fun!
A Song for an Arizona Flying Ace
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
- Frank Luke with his plane, courtesy of Acepilots.com
Last week, I had a great question from Manny, one of the recording engineers who worked on our latest bunch of tunes. He wanted to know how we wrote the tune “Rampage.”
I’m glad he asked about this one, because it has a great story behind it. He actually was wondering if it was about that early 90s video game!
But here’s the deal: The riffs for “Rampage” came first. They came from a really interesting guitar lesson I had. This lesson was an equal mix of sharpening my chops and my songwriting skills. Anyway, the teacher, who goes by the nickname Ahab, told me to try this trick: Put a movie in the DVD player, hit the MUTE button and play your own soundtrack. A great idea, really.
I’d just bought Conan the Barbarian on DVD, so that’s what I played along to. I then recorded some scratch tracks on my computer and brought the riffs into the rehearsal space for band approval.
Frank Luke's namesake, and some of the planes assigned to it. He deserves it. (Found at glendalerealestate.info)
It didn’t take us long to dream up a subject for the song. I’ve long wanted to write some stuff that stamps us as an Arizona-based band, so it made sense to select an Arizona-based character. I wandered across Frank Luke, a WWI flyer from Arizona and namesake of Luke Air Force Base. We mapped out the story, and Todd worked on weaving the lyrics into the music. The guitar solo was a bit of a laborious process, for some reason, but I’m relatively happy with the way it turned out.
I love playing the entire tune, and the audiences seem to dig it. We’ve opened the last few shows with it, and it gets a great response. I’ll post a clip sometime in the next week or two.
Hung Dynasty – Adjuct Faculty and Members Emeritus
Thursday, May 28th, 2009Hung Dynasty now comprises Chris, Todd, Matt and myself. But some other rather excellent people have contributed to our cause to rock the hell out of a small slice of Arizona. Here’s a little bit about each of them:
Phung the Drum Ninja
Our original drummer. He joined us from a Craigslist ad (see, all you crazy
Live at the Marquee Theater
people hating on Craigslist? Good things come from it, too!). He was really more of a classic rock guy, but he still enjoyed his time with us. And he had a terrific time playing some high-profile gigs.
He left us to go to medical school, and he continues his martial arts studies at the top-secret Center for the Ninja Arts and Sciences. Whoops. I shouldn’t have said that – I don’t hear any ninjas sneaking up on me for spilling the beans, and that’s what worries me.
Stacebass Rockin’ the Place
Live at the Marquee (Photo by Jeremy Cook)
I mentioned Stace (as we usually call her) in a previous post. She’s a longtime friend of Todd and me, and a super-capable musician. Though she’s more of a showtunes/Belle and Sebastian sort, she still joined us in our hour of need – and wound up having some terrific times with us.
The gay pool party, the Naughty Schoolgirl Night, being hammered drunk at her final show while singing a cover of The Donnas’ “Take it Off” – none of this would’ve been the same without her. Not only was she fun, but she had awesome music theory knowledge and some cool music ideas. And she’s funny and sarcastic.
“My friend, Lurch, likes your sexy music”
Laura succeeded Stace on the bass. She has an awesome voice, and always showed up to gigs ready to play. She also has an excellent metal glare, and is well-known for an extensive repertoire of amused/horrified/grossed-out facial expressions.
Laura practices the metal glare.
I think her funniest moment was at Sundance’s Place, a great venue in Prescott. A woman in the audience slipped a note onto the stage; naturally, we had to see what it was … and yes, it was “My friend, Lurch, likes your sexy music.” We never did find out who Lurch was, but we never get tired of laughing about this.
Stash, the Visiting BhD
Stash, the lead singer and lead guitarist of Dorks in Space, is also a terrific bassist. His Rickenbacker bass and Ampeg stack absolutely rumble. He may “only” have a master’s degree in electrical engineering, but he has a Doctorate of the Bass, no doubt! He has joined us on several occasions, and he rocked our tunes and rocked them well. The man is also enthusiasm personified.
Stash (far left) gets into the tunes at The Rogue Bar. (Photo by Coinneach Fitzpatrick)
He’s now a new father, and spending most of his free time building his own guitar and bass amps. His first effort nails that Bon Scott-era AC/DC tone. Is there anything this guy can’t do?
Missing the Rock
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009I’m a bit sad right now. Because of Memorial Day, we didn’t rehearse Monday. Todd is going out of town for a family reunion, so I don’t get to rock Friday, either. No gigs this weekend, obviously.
On the plus side, that gives me some time to write and to improve my pitiful skills (time to spin that Paul Gilbert DVD a bit!).
But I can’t tell you how much I miss have a speaker cabinet blaring monster guitar tone at me. And the wonderful feeling of a perfectly executed dual guitar harmony line. And the sharp blast of a pinch harmonic. And watching Chris drop a drum stick – okay, not so much on that last one!
I really love practicing and collaborating. It’s a really good time. I can arrive at practice tired, hungry, in a foul mood. But the rock heals me. Truly it does. It’s worth driving in traffic, the stench of the studio bathroom permeating the hallway and even the mound of keys, retinal scan and body cavity search required to enter the building.
But remember – as much as I like practice … I love playing live AT LEAST THREE TIMES AS MUCH!
“What does your band sound like?”
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009Whenever people find out I’m in a band, they always ask me what kind of music we play. And it’s really a very hard question to answer. The best I can usually do is to tell them some of the cover songs we might mix into a set with our originals.
That usually helps, but the picture is far from complete.
When we first started out, Todd had this man-crush on The Refreshments. So a lot of the songs were in that vein, with kind of cutesy-pop lyrics welded to my much more hard rock-influenced guitar phrasing and tone. That marriage of sounds made one person say we were “a cross between The Scorpions and The Refreshments.”
That changed as new people came into the band, and as Todd experimented more with the heavier side of music. These days, he’s all about Primal Fear and trying to sing like Ronnie James Dio – I approve on both counts.
Early on, people said we sounded like everything from Husker Du to Dick Dale. These days, I hear the phrase “old school metal” a lot. That means no screaming or grunting, but a big, heavy guitar sound and a medium-busy drummer who gives us some nice double-bass drumming.
Drummer – Doing everything to prove the stereotype is true
Monday, May 18th, 2009Good god, rehearsal was an absolute fiasco tonight. The drummer left most of his cymbals at home by accident.
Okay, so how does this happen? We share the practice space with another band. The two drummers share a practice kit, but usually bring their own cymbals, pedals and snares. Well, we were in a recording studio over the weekend, and Chris took his gear home rather than back to the rehearsal space. So Chris was in a hurry to get to work this morning, and it didn’t dawn on him that there’s only a crash and a ride at the rehearsal space. Naturally, this only happens at our last practice before a gig.
But I’m not too worried about that. Chris could probably go on vacation for a month, show up jetlagged and still do pretty well. He obviously struggled a bit working with barely any equipment – it was the equivalent of me showing up with nothing but a guitar and a few cables, but no amp or cabinet. I was laughing at him and calling him Ringo Starr all night.
Next Gig:
Jughead’s
5110 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix
Somewhere around 9 p.m.
