So, Michelle and I formed a band called Capital with two of my co-workers - Mike Christiansen (vocals, guitars, bass) and Gia Cypert (vocals, keyboards). John Lucas (drums) was a client of either Mike or Gia's...I can't remember at this point. Mike and I had been talking about starting a band for several months and somehow all of the interested parties gathered into Gia's Shorewood basement.
We were just working on a set of covers and then Mike and Gia starting bringing some originals into the mix. Both are very talented songwriters. Learning and helping to arrange others' songs is a quick study on how to put a well written song together. So, for really the first time, Michelle and I were getting some good experience on writing songs. As a group, we put together our first set, did some really basic recording on my old tascam cassette based four track and went in search of gigs.
The joy of just playing music for fun is extremely energizing. Each practice was a time to enjoy music, enjoy a beer or two and socialize about what bands and music we loved. There were really no expectations for Capital 8. Just to play music and have fun. Playing a gig at a real local venue seemed impossible.
Somehow either Gia or Michelle managed to get Capital 8 booked to "new band night" at the now defunct Globe East in Milwaukee (I'm still a little bitter about it going under...when we still lived in Milwaukee, I would roll my window down and yell "rock 'n roll!" everytime I passed the restaurant that replaced it. Childish, yes...but somehow it made me feel better). The Globe was one of the better rock clubs in Milwaukee generally the spot to see up and coming national indie bands.
New band night was on a Wednesday. We were paired up with some other local outfit, whose name escapes me right now. New band night is a grab bag...not sure we ever heard from them again. Anyway, the first show is pretty much getting your friends out...I think we probably set some sort of record for attendance at a new band night. I think if we had played Captain and Tenile covers all night (at a rock club) they would have asked us back for a weekend gig. Needless to say we didn't play horrible covers all night, but it was a very successful gig. Adding to the success and building for the future were Gia and Michelle's choice of pants - leather for Gia and red satin for Michelle. Those pants probably brought more people to the first few gigs than anything.
With a little success comes expectations...
Friday, February 12, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Rewind, Then Repeat It
Ok - I'm going to rush through some stuff here, mostly because I'd rather write about other things than a history lesson that isn't going to appeal to many people.
Michelle and I met sitting at a friend of ours kitchen table- Eileen's - during a John Hughesesque party. There was all this insanity going around us and we were bonding over our favorite bands and sharing our interest in starting a band. We both loved bands like The Church and REM (this is pre-Out of Time REM. I pretty much can't stand anything after Green. ) During these first moments we decided we would start a band. Michelle had played the piano since she could tap out songs from preschool and I had been playing guitar for about a year.
Somehow during those first "practices" - it was just Michelle and me - she didn't dump me to the curb. I pretty much stunk as a guitar player in those days, I really had no ear, and wasn't a very good technical player in any way. Michelle would figure out my parts on piano and teach them to me. Eventually I got better. Michelle was always good. She didn't sing then...so it was kind of hard to have a band without a singer and a just a guitar player and a piano player. But that's how it all started.
Later - we each had several college bands, that we were not in together, of limited success. They were all fun and a good time, but no one was that serious about it or if they were they were serious about creating something no one could possibly want to listen to. Michelle and I did play one gig together in Milwaukee with a combination of members of each of our band's...surprisingly it was pretty decent. That night we played with a band called Old Number 8, whose members we would work with several years later.
Post college, Michelle and I founded a band with several friends called Capital 8. More on that in the next post.
Michelle and I met sitting at a friend of ours kitchen table- Eileen's - during a John Hughesesque party. There was all this insanity going around us and we were bonding over our favorite bands and sharing our interest in starting a band. We both loved bands like The Church and REM (this is pre-Out of Time REM. I pretty much can't stand anything after Green. ) During these first moments we decided we would start a band. Michelle had played the piano since she could tap out songs from preschool and I had been playing guitar for about a year.
Somehow during those first "practices" - it was just Michelle and me - she didn't dump me to the curb. I pretty much stunk as a guitar player in those days, I really had no ear, and wasn't a very good technical player in any way. Michelle would figure out my parts on piano and teach them to me. Eventually I got better. Michelle was always good. She didn't sing then...so it was kind of hard to have a band without a singer and a just a guitar player and a piano player. But that's how it all started.
Later - we each had several college bands, that we were not in together, of limited success. They were all fun and a good time, but no one was that serious about it or if they were they were serious about creating something no one could possibly want to listen to. Michelle and I did play one gig together in Milwaukee with a combination of members of each of our band's...surprisingly it was pretty decent. That night we played with a band called Old Number 8, whose members we would work with several years later.
Post college, Michelle and I founded a band with several friends called Capital 8. More on that in the next post.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Getting Started
So this blog is going to be focused on a couple of things...primary it's going to chronicle my experiences playing music with my wife, Michelle Anthony. We've been playing music together for many years. I'm purposely not going to tell you how many years, so that when we start lying about our ages the trail is a little more difficult to uncover (I mean seriously, I remember several people who where once my age, are now younger than me).
So, we'll start somewhere near the begining and highlight some of the interesting points along the way.
So, we'll start somewhere near the begining and highlight some of the interesting points along the way.
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