[Charlie]

The one thing that stood out to me about this whole post was that somebody mentioned there are now 2,000 Dead cover bands out there. That is freakin' amazing.

Today's challenge is to rate them in order of incredibly goodness. So far we have:
1. The Electricians
2. DSO
3. ??
4. ?? Etc

[Chuckles]

Dude comes clean, he's alright in my book (so long as he knows that further teasing is all in jest). Seen too many boards ruined by people who just will. not. back. down. from absurdities.

Welcome, brother. Dug the vids; nice vibe you all have going (you know, once one gets beyond the multiple personalities thing...
<- laughing with, not at, I hope!

[gr8fulbluz]

Dude comes clean, he's alright in my book (so long as he knows that further teasing is all in jest). Seen too many boards ruined by people who just will. not. back. down. from absurdities.

Welcome, brother. . . .

I too agree, seen it on other boards and seen it come and go even here.
I dont think i have seen anything quite like this, (almost like street teaming?) but it is over. Next time dont try so hard, now relax. And Welcome aboard
This board has been around for a long time. A lot of water under the bridge.

This was a very entertaining if unfortunate thread. Oh well.

good lols

[bpg21]

For a bunch of guys who never get to rehearse too often I think they're very good. I read some info on them and the lead guitarist was asked by Lesh to audition for a Further Tour. I like his tone. I wonder if Wicky King has any info on what his rig consists of and what pups he uses.

[jester536]

Bizarre thread...I would never think that anyone would be self-promoting like that...amazed you guys picked up on it so quick. But now that it's all over...I hope...I think that is a very good sounding band.(and I'm not just being nice now that I know who they are) I am constantly amazed by the talent on this board. I wish I could find a whole band of DeadHeads...but then they would have to suffer with me and my half-assed attempts at sounding something like Garcia. Good sounding band and welcome aboard.

[DynaSound1]

Ordinarily I would just accept what Wicky had to say and move on but a couple of things really bother.

1. He saw other posts of bands submit tunes and asking for comments. In fact he had no problem making a comment on my band's post. Others are being honest and sincere here in asking for the community for input. His first impression on the board is one of lying and deceit. And a wise man said to me "Perception is reality"
2. Self promotion is okay but to say you are the best tribute band out there...c'mon have some humility when you are self promoting. And to say flat out that the lead guitarist is better than John K or Mattson???? (Wicky...I hope you are not the lead player. LOL)
3. I've listened to a number of their tunes on YouTube. The band is very good but I don't get a sense of any "heat" in any of the tunes. IMO the playing far exceeds the vocals.

Be truthful and honest. If you want to be critiqued don't try to sway the people who you are asking for their help and input.

Take it as a life lesson, not just something that applies to this board.

Peace to all.

[JonnyBoy]

Ordinarily I would just accept what Wicky had to say and move on but a couple of things really bother.

1. He saw other posts of bands submit tunes and asking for comments. In fact he had no problem making a comment on my band's post. Others are being honest and sincere here in asking for the community for input. His first impression on the board is one of lying and deceit. And a wise man said to me "Perception is reality"
2. Self promotion is okay but to say you are the best tribute band out there...c'mon have some humility when you are self promoting. And to say flat out that the lead guitarist is better than John K or Mattson???? (Wicky...I hope you are not the lead player. LOL)
3. I've listened to a number of their tunes on YouTube. The band is very good but I don't get a sense of any "heat" in any of the tunes. IMO the playing far exceeds the vocals.

Be truthful and honest. If you want to be critiqued don't try to sway the people who you are asking for their help and input.

Take it as a life lesson, not just something that applies to this board.

Peace to all.

Yes agree with the vocals, I didn't know if it may be the recording, but the vocals did have some moments of being on, and other moments of being flat. Only Jerry gets a pass for hitting wrong notes in this game....

The way you put it, the playing surpasses the vocal attempts. They are accomplished players, all of them. I think the drummer gets the biggest kudos from me though. Vocal wise, there was only 2 part harmonies on most songs, the dead and popular spins are sporting 3 to 4 parts often, which is much more involved on top of keeping the instrumentation top notch. I know I have much much more kudos for a lead player, or any player for that matter, that is ripping and singing at the same time, I have to say their drummer is top notch for doing such too.

Dynasound IMO is attempting much more complex vocalization while they are playing at the same time. Two different leagues in my book. When a lead guitar player or (keys, bass, drums but especially guitar on SLIP) is playing slipknot note for note and singing it too, that gets many points on my "your- the- shit- o- meter." Then to sing the epic book of a song Franklin's tower after, which is an easy song to play, but tiring to sing. IMO

[Wicky King]

Well, I certainly appreciate the understanding from many of you. I think in the most negative light I could see some of the more negative criticisms re: my initial posts but let me say this: I came across this site checking out some chords in ther tab section, I had no idea there was like a forum here, with posters, deadheads, etc. And I wanted to get feedback on the stuff and honestly-- the last thing I wanted to do was say, "This is me!" I also didn't realize this folder was comprised of mostly musicians, I thought, wrongly, that it was the other way around. I have never been here and obviously this kind of thing has happened before, and it sounds like it happens a lot. I don't normally frequent sites like this and I'm realizing that there are probably a lot of d-bags posting a lot of irritating stuff. I get it. I'm not that guy. Really, this has more to do with my own naivete than anything else. Had I known the actual dynamics in here, how things work, I'd have had no problem saying, "Hi, this is my band, what do you think?" Somehow my instincts said, "Don't self promote." So I regret the way I made my appearance here. But believe me, there really were no ulterior motives. Otherwise I wouldn't be here now.

As far as the lead guitarist's rig: he was playing a Two Rock amp through a Hard trucker cab. He also uses a Zendrive which is one of the greatest pedals I've ever come across.

On the Jack Straw, yeah, just two part harmonies. On most of the other stuff we do there's at least three part, often four. I should've been singing on the Straw but it is hard for me to infuse the music with the detail I want and sing at the same time, although I am geting better at that day by day. In my other bands I am generally the main singer and I can sing and play no problem. But with some of the Dead stuff, what happens is I start to micro-manage the guitar parts and for better or worse, it'll affect my singing, like sometimes I'll space out and not be there for a harmony. But this stuff is being addressed, we haven't really done a lot of shows together, we can't rehearse, literally meeting on stage for souncheck most of time. So all of the philosophical pow-wowing is on the phone and via emails. In order to prepare I rehearse to the Grateful Dead themselves and I'm also in another GD band where we rehearse every week but it's nowhere near the level of the band I linked here.

[Chuckles]

I'd just like to chime in with the observation that Johnny Boy's latest efforts lack 4-part harmonies. So there!

[Rusty the Scoob]

I'd just like to chime in with the observation that Johnny Boy's latest efforts lack 4-part harmonies. So there!

Really? Every word in his post was harmonized in my head by a Bach Chorale with perfect voice leading.

[playingdead]

Gotta just chip in and say, Playing Dead used to rehearse two or three times a year, if that ... and now that I'm in Austin and fly in for shows, I never rehearse with them anymore. Nothing particularly remarkable about that ... and frequently, we will just decide to add a tune to the repertoire, post a version of it from somewhere and then break it out cold. Sometimes we just learn it real fast at soundcheck, although these days, soundchecks are a rarity, too.

John Zias plays occasionally with Uncle John's Band down in Tampa ... I was the founding lead guitarist of that band back in 1995 or so (which was an offshoot of an earlier band called Ugly Rumors) ... and they never rehearsed, either. I think the original lead guitarist from Ugly Rumors, Alan Gilman, moved back to Tampa in the recent past and is playing most of the gigs now.

Any competent musician should be able to step onstage with other good Deadhead musicians and play this music very well. These are not Journey tribute bands where every guitar solo note and drum fill is choreographed to sound like the record. It's supposed to be spontaneous and loose. A good singer can catch the 3-part harmonies off any Dead soundboard and knock it.

[JonnyBoy]

Naw man, I use a vocalist harmonizer, we have 10 part harmonies

micro-manage the guitar parts and for better or worse, it'll affect my singing, like sometimes I'll space out and not be there for a harmony

Hear you brother. My best vocal attempts have been with a slight pitch correction system, because I can't sing as well as you. I made those observations being a picky dead head .

[hogan]

Gotta just chip in and say, Playing Dead used to rehearse two or three times a year, if that ... and now that I'm in Austin and fly in for shows, I never rehearse with them anymore. Nothing particularly remarkable about that ... and frequently, we will just decide to add a tune to the repertoire, post a version of it from somewhere and then break it out cold. Sometimes we just learn it real fast at soundcheck, although these days, soundchecks are a rarity, too.

John Zias plays occasionally with Uncle John's Band down in Tampa ... I was the founding lead guitarist of that band back in 1995 or so (which was an offshoot of an earlier band called Ugly Rumors) ... and they never rehearsed, either. I think the original lead guitarist from Ugly Rumors, Alan Gilman, moved back to Tampa in the recent past and is playing most of the gigs now.

Any competent musician should be able to step onstage with other good Deadhead musicians and play this music very well. These are not Journey tribute bands where every guitar solo note and drum fill is choreographed to sound like the record. It's supposed to be spontaneous and loose. A good singer can catch the 3-part harmonies off any Dead soundboard and knock it.

Look at the prettiest girl in the class telling us ugly ducklings how easy it is to be pretty. oy!

[Wicky King]

I think as long as the band members are down with the arrangement/structure of the songs, they're basically transport systems. Intro, verse, verse, chorus, solo, verse, chorus, verse, ending-- however a particular song goes. Within that framework, in my opinion, the idea would then be to reinvent the material in the moment, within that structural framework, i.e., season to taste. Which is what the Dead were doing, basically. The only problem you would then run into is if people are not down with then structure. The major downside of not rehearsing would be the vocals, that's the way it seems to me. The thing about the Dead is they basically created an entire genre of music, like Blues or Jazz, which is why you can also get some blues players together and completely nail a Walkin' Blues or whatever, as everybody knows the structure (I,IV,V or whatever) and then it's just a matter of key, who sings, who solos, intro and outro, and a lot of that can also be worked out in the heat of moment.

playingdead-- ...is that you Seth?

[Billbbill]

Gotta just chip in and say, Playing Dead used to rehearse two or three times a year, if that ... and now that I'm in Austin and fly in for shows, I never rehearse with them anymore. Nothing particularly remarkable about that ... and frequently, we will just decide to add a tune to the repertoire, post a version of it from somewhere and then break it out cold. Sometimes we just learn it real fast at soundcheck, although these days, soundchecks are a rarity, too.

John Zias plays occasionally with Uncle John's Band down in Tampa ... I was the founding lead guitarist of that band back in 1995 or so (which was an offshoot of an earlier band called Ugly Rumors) ... and they never rehearsed, either. I think the original lead guitarist from Ugly Rumors, Alan Gilman, moved back to Tampa in the recent past and is playing most of the gigs now.

Any competent musician should be able to step onstage with other good Deadhead musicians and play this music very well. These are not Journey tribute bands where every guitar solo note and drum fill is choreographed to sound like the record. It's supposed to be spontaneous and loose. A good singer can catch the 3-part harmonies off any Dead soundboard and knock it.

Look at the prettiest girl in the class telling us ugly ducklings how easy it is to be pretty. oy!

Nice one hogan except when you get to that level it DOES get a bit easier - a lot of the hard work and long hours of getting your shit together is behind you - not that you stop learning and evolving mind you. Vic sure doesn't need me to defend him but while I get your point that it sounds somewhat cavalier it is what it is - and it's in the context of the fact that the issues he addressed were a response to those same issues being raised by the OP as yet more reasons why these guys are the best ever!