I taught myself to play guitar in junior high - we’re talking circa 1968 here. I tried to teach my friend Jeannette to play, but she was left-handed and even mirroring my hand positions didn’t seem to help. But she and I and her neighbor Denise were going to be a band. We called ourselves Uniquely Exclusive. We had Denise’s little sister take publicity photos of us (black and white, because we couldn’t afford color film.) We wrote some songs.
BUT, I was the only musician, and Denise couldn’t carry a tune. It was a fun dream for a few weeks one summer. At least the world never knew how truly awful we were as a band.
In the grand scheme of things, I think we did well by disbanding.
A few over the years. Got one four song cassette out in the early 80s.
The last one recorded a song for an indie movie that never got finished. But we got filmed as a band in a club.
Nothing to particularly write home about but I was on the fringe of the scene for a while. Roomed with one of the guitarists from Velocity Girl for two years. It was fun but my talents really lay elsewhere.
A few friends and I got together to jam in college. People heard about us and invited us to play at their partys. That led to a few bar gigs. Coolest gig was a promotion in a small town Dairy Queen parking lot. At least a couple hundred showed up. Best night Dairy Queen had that summer. I think they pretty much sold out their burgers. Running out of buns and meat. But they still had soda and ice cream.
2 guys graduated. A friend and I still needed to finish college. That ended my band experience. It was never anything I expected or planned.
I belonged to a couple of country/pop bands in high school, playing keyboard and singing. We played VFWs, Moose, Elks and American Legions mostly.
After that, my ex, his kids, brothers and I formed a bluegrass group, where my instrument was autoharp and I sang.
Since living in Nashville, I’ve guested with several local blues and country bands as well as done some studio work. I’ve always had to keep a day job though.
I was in a band starting in high school and continuing all through college. We wrote and played our own music, and on long holidays, one of our friends would borrow as much recording equipment from the radio station where he worked as he could get away with for a couple of days (typically, a 4 track machine, a mixing board, and a couple of microphones and not much else) and we’d record “albums” of songs that we had written over the previous months. In college, my roommate was one of the guys that was in this band, and the two of us wrote most of the songs. This was mostly for our own entertainment, but we’d pass around cassettes of our “albums” and we had a small fan group among our friends.
My roommate and I also joined another band. The guy that was in charge of this band had big dreams and kept talking about how this band would be the next big thing, blah blah blah. My roommate and I didn’t have such high expectations, and joined it just for the fun of it. We played rock and roll cover songs. We went through half a dozen singers who would all show up for one or two rehearsals, never to be seen again, and never did play on stage.
After college, I joined a band with a guy I worked with and a few of his friends. It never really went anywhere.
I’ve played on stage a few times. After paying off equipment rentals and other costs and splitting the money we got between all of the band members, I think I walked away with a grand total of about $25 or so from my musical career.
I took piano lessons from when I was in the 2nd grade or so up through high school. I played the trombone in jr. high and high school band. I taught myself how to play the guitar and bass. I can keep a beat on a drum set but I wouldn’t call myself a drummer. I own three electric guitars, two acoustic guitars, three bass guitars, two keyboards, and an electric piano, but I don’t play much these days.
Circa middle school I played cello in an extremely informal string quartet - before and after school concerts we’d huddle together and play through our music at double speed. But I was never cool enough to do anything involving amps and/or drums.
Twice. The first one was in Jr. High. Two guitarists, bass, drums, 2 keyboardists, 2 singers and a saxophone (it was the mid 80s). We knew three songs–“Old Time Rock n Roll” by Bob Seger, “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me” by Billy Joel and the only one we played in front of an audience, “Russians” by Sting. We were call The Offramp.
Second time in high school. We knew two songs, “Home Sweet Home” by Motley Crue and “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath. At the tryout for the school talent show our lead singer got “sick” so we did “Iron Man” as an instrumental. We didn’t make it. Didn’t even bother picking a name.
Yes. I played bass, on a bass that I stole from the school band (don’t worry, I returned it). I wasn’t good and I never wanted to practice my parts. I just wanted to be in a band. We played Pearl Jam and STP and Nirvana and I don’t even know. We played one show, the local “fun fest.”
The leader of the band was a serious guitarist and practiced and stuff. I think her sister ended up taking over bass for me. I don’t remember how far they went as a band. The guitarist put out a few EPs of her own over the past 20 years. I don’t even know if she plays at all anymore now!
I also did a one-time stint sort of “super group” thing with some kids for a “battle of the bands.” It was a ska band and I put it together with some guys from a Real Rock Band (who had graduated) and my friends from band class, and the aforementioned good guitarist and we rocked the shit out of that battle. I played trombone this time. We came in second place behind some other pro band that had real gigs and stuff. Booo.
I played keyboard in a high school band. After that I learned guitar because I thought it was cooler. I then played in the house band at a bar, played in another band that mainly did weddings and pub gigs. Meanwhile I recorded a collection of songs of varying quality with the help of another guy and there are several copies floating around on CD. By several I mean more than 10 and less than 20, a very limited release. I don’t even have a copy myself anymore.
Back in the early '90s I was in a bass-less band (we just never found a bass player). I played sax, lead guitar and sang. We also had a rhythm guitar player and a drummer. We were (tentatively) called Captain Trips & the Xenophobe Free Zone (loosely named from the Stephen King novel The Stand). I wanted the word before ‘Free Zone’ to change all the time but we didn’t last long enough for that to happen.
Right now I am my own band: Relapse Cult. I joined ASCAP last year. I have a YouTube channel with a couple of videos and am in the middle of recording/mastering another 4 songs, then I have to make videos for them as well. I am just about to file my paperwork for my music publishing company and my record label, hopefully I can get that all done in the coming week.
I’ve been in quite a few bands over the years. Most didn’t get too far, but two did fairly well. The first was a punk band. We formed around a guy who was formerly a one-man band. On separate occasions of seeing this one-man band, my friend and I approached him to form a band. Eventually he agreed to it. Our first show was booked after we had two practices. At that show, we played a 30 minute version of “Crimson and Clover”. People liked that enough that we got booked for another show the next Wednesday. At that one we played more than one song, but hadn’t discussed how to end any of them. The touring band we opened for said “You guys were really interesting. If you’re still around in a year, we’d love to see you.”
That band actually went on for several years, and was pretty successful. We had regular gigs at several clubs in the DFW area, put out several tracks on compilations, and had a guy who owned a label talking to us about making a full album. One high point was being in a showcase of 15 metal/punk bands, and being the only band to get a slam pit going that night. Alas, the singer ended up forming another band that could play everything we could play and more (jazz students), so he lost interest in us. My username comes from one of our song titles (see signature).
Several bands later, I ended up in an instrumental surf band. This band was pretty successful too, we ended up putting out an EP and had repeat fans who weren’t friends or relatives beforehand. The guitarist has moved out of state, so it requires some preparation to get a show for that band together.
Since that band is an infrequent gig now, I’m in yet another band. It’s kind of hard rock, kind of psychedelic, kind of punk rock. We’ve had a few successful shows, and have more booked in the near future. This one really took the longest of any of my bands to take shape. We practiced different songs with lots of different line ups before it became clear what kind of band we were.
All in all, I’ve had a great time and haven’t gotten rich. I’ve been recognized on the street as “the guy who plays/played X in Y”, which feels pretty awesome. I’ve also been misquoted in the press, which feels less awesome. But hey, they cared enough to write about the band.
With most folks, it is “were you in a band?” With folks like me, scabpicker and many other music types, it is more like “how long has it ever gone between gigs?”
Yes, I have gigged in various combinations for the past few decades since I started playing guitar. Most recently I was in a mid-life crisis band that played all the functions in our town - danceable rock music mostly from the 80’s but some current, too. Fun because the drummer and bassist were seasoned pros in music so we grooved hard, and I was the guitar part of that triangle. Very validating as a player.
Stepped back from that for a variety of personal and work reasons and feel great - was ready to move on. I play out a few times a year at this point, tops. Have been focused on smaller playing - me alone filling in the sound with my approach to acoustic. Been writing songs, something I have never focused on. May try to find an open mic or two at some point far in the future, just to road test them for myself.
I’ve been in a number of bands as a keyboardist. One a poppy metal band that was described as a cross between Poison and Metallica, a blues rock band, an instrumental jam band, and an indie rock band. The last project was by far the most interesting and successful.When I lived in Hungary, I recorded and toured for a band that ended up becoming one of Hungary’s indie rock darlings, as in I’ve actually heard songs I’ve played on play on the radio there and in Germany. A surreal experience, that. I also got to play with some fan-fucking-tactic musicians. That rhythm section was tight, and most nights playing, I would just lose myself listening to the drums and bass. I moved back to the States by the time the next album was cut–that one was produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins, so that was cool. The band lives on and is quite successful in its home market, and a little bit in Germany, where the label is based. I still kinda wonder how I ended up on that project.
Yes. It started in 1979 aand lasted through '85. I played bass. I started playing guitar in 1990 and have been a guitarist since but have only played the occasional studio work. It have never been my main job.
Several of my brother’s friends had (have?) a band that plays occasional bar gigs. One of the guitarists is my husband’s orthopedic surgeon! He didn’t quit his day job.
From '69-'71 I was in a high school garage band called either The Baja Brigade, The Big B.B. or the Puddlenuts, depending on the “album” we were making at the time. We were heavily influenced by The Who, Zappa, and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
I was the main “lyricist”, played bass and did some vocals. We were primarily a studio band–recording in bedrooms, living rooms and garages on a Realistic 909 4-track tape deck. We had weird songs like “Mushroom Root Rot”, “Driving a Dump Truck to Chualar”, “Earthquake in El Segundo” and “Don’t Spare The Mustard” on albums with titles like The Naked Haynes, Organ Abla, and Nash It.
The band evaporated when our lead guitarist/tape deck owner moved away, but it was sure fun while it lasted.
