[gratefulnuge]

Hey guys...I've posted here a bit...about a Michas Wolf I've got and some other stuff. I'm up in Vermont and have started a JGB tribute. We're called Cats Under The Stars. We've been gigging since May and are doing really well at this point. Here's a link to our web site with some of our earlier recordings on it...good stuff but a little bit tinny mix. Let me know what you think, and check out our facebook too! Thanks so much guys...look forward to hearing your comments...I hope ; )

www.catsunderthestars.net

www.facebook.com/catsdownunder

[Pete B.]

Hey I'm a fan of that album and that song (it's becoming a popular band name, too).
Cool.

[DeadAheadNH]

like it !!

[playingdead]

Sounds great!

[tigerstrat]

"Cats Under The Stars: Tribute to the Jerry Garcia Band" ??

We're not concerned with same-named band in a different market, but did you really have to name your facebook page exactly the same as ours?

http://www.facebook.com/catsunderthestars

Even to the exact same wording and punctuation? We've been gigging since April fwiw.

Sounds good, but I can only get the top song selection to play.

[gratefulnuge]

Whoa! I'm super apologetic about the facebook page man! I'm super apologetic. We've been gigging since september '09 but if you want us to change ours, we're totally willing to. Your call...please let me know. Keep rockin'..you guys sound awesome! Peace : )

[playingdead]

Catfight!

No, seriously, I hear you man ... we came up with the name Playing Dead in 2004, and just in the last year or so, there was a band in Western Mass. that decided to call themselves Play Dead, and then try to book gigs in the clubs we were playing out that way. We asked them nicely to change their name -- they had just started -- and the lead guitarist decided to be a prick about it ... fortunately, one of our drummers is a lawyer. That got his attention ... so he changed the band's name to Shakedown. Never mind that JeffM's band in CT has been Shakedown forever, and they play in Western Mass. sometimes, too.

Now there's another band in VT called Play Dead, and they came and played the same Mass. festival Playing Dead's done a few times before ... people get confused ("hey, we thought it was you guys on the bill!"). Plus Playing Dead's done the Killington VT festival for years, played at the Higher Ground in Burlington, Mt. Snow up in VT... etc.

But what can you do? No one owns this music, or the catch phrases associated with it. All you can do is hope people will be kind about things like names and gigs that have been established by someone else ... sometimes they are cool about it. Sometimes they are not.

It's nothing new ... I played in UJB in Tampa for years, and we booked a gig in Key West, and UJB from S. Fla. tried to actually show up and play instead of us. Can't win for trying, sometimes.

[playingdead]

Whoa! I'm super apologetic about the facebook page man! I'm super apologetic. We've been gigging since september '09 but if you want us to change ours, we're totally willing to. Your call...please let me know. Keep rockin'..you guys sound awesome! Peace : )

That's the spirit!

Now, please stay out of Boston ... LOL!

[tigerstrat]

Whoa! I'm super apologetic about the facebook page man! I'm super apologetic. We've been gigging since september '09 but if you want us to change ours, we're totally willing to. Your call...please let me know. Keep rockin'..you guys sound awesome! Peace : )

I'll leave it up to you if you want to alter the wording, just wanted to point it out, and to be fair it's not "exact"-my mistake: you didn't include the word "the". Still very close and possibly confusing to fans though, and we will almost certainly wind up sharing several fans or "Likers".

We've actually been doing JGB tribute shows as a sidebar of Ramblin' Rose since about 2003, but split off from the GD "mother band" and changed the name last spring. Why does your lead post say you've been gigging since May?

[tigerstrat]

we booked a gig in Key West, and UJB from S. Fla. tried to actually show up and play instead of us.

Wow, that sure took a lot of gall!

[playingdead]

we booked a gig in Key West, and UJB from S. Fla. tried to actually show up and play instead of us.

Wow, that sure took a lot of gall!

It was over in a hurry ... we were a six piece, they were a four piece ... LOL!

Getting back on topic, the OP's playing and singing is great, but while the tone's definitely got the Jerry vibe, it's a bit thin sounding to my ears ... turn off the bright switch (if it's on) and get some more mids and low mids in there, and it will be perfect.

[Tennessee Jedi]

Catfight!

I was just waiting for this !

[gratefulnuge]

We never recorded or played a Burlington venue before May...that's when our website and all was fired up...but we've been playing shows since last fall. I'll definitely change the FB page. Vic...thanks for the advice...there should be some videos on our facebook page that have (although a little crappier quality) a sound that might hit you more like the real deal rather than the web site clips. I'm gonna try what you've suggested with my bright switch, and try to fill it out a little more! Thanks so much guys..keep it comin'!

[tcsned]

we booked a gig in Key West, and UJB from S. Fla. tried to actually show up and play instead of us.

Wow, that sure took a lot of gall!

It was over in a hurry ... we were a six piece, they were a four piece ... LOL!

Wow! that was a pretty ballsy move - it's times like those when a second drummer really comes in handy
I play in a band that shares a name with several others out the (The Kind) - I believe Modz is or was in one of them. I've never had any confrontation in 25 years of playing under that name - except some hippie store in VA Beach that threatened to sue at one point until they found out that we preceded them by 10 years. There's only so many good names for Dead bands and most of them have been used at one time or another - I see no reason to get all uptight about it unless they try invading your territory . . . then take off the gloves

[playingdead]

I'm gonna try what you've suggested with my bright switch, and try to fill it out a little more!

I know I've said this before -- I hate people who repeat themselves, if I've said that once I've said it a thousand times -- but after a lot of listening to multitrack recordings and translating my old analog Jerry rig into the digital realm, when you hear the guitar on its own, that bright crispy tone sounds awesome, but when it's in with the rest of the band, you wash out a lot of the mids to the other instruments, and you're left with the bright crispies cutting through. If you make the guitar sound a little honky and too midrangey, it will sit just perfectly in the mix.