My Guitarist's Improv Solo

[MPF]

Originally Posted by Maiden33

The problem with everyone picking covers is you start to see the differences in opinions about where every individual is coming from and going to. Also, you realize that some people have awfully distorted perceptions of "realistic", haha. Which for our band is not THAT many things, being a one-guitar band for the past 3 years, with no keyboards, and until we split with our old bassist and acquired our current live bassist, a not-that-great bassist. The full list of songs we've covered (at least once live) to date (first show was March 2005):

In chronological order, starting from earliest: (note, until we get to about See You in Hell, most of these weren't actually played well. We started playing live about 2 years and 2 band members too soon. We're trying to destroy the evidence those first 13 shows ever happened, haha)
Iron Maiden - The Wicker Man (2 guitars)
Iron Maiden - The Trooper (2 guitars)
Tesla - Comin Atcha Live (2 guitars)
Helloween - I Want Out (2 guitars)
Iron Maiden - Revelations (2 guitars)
Iron Maiden - Flight of Icarus (2 guitars)
Queensryche - Empire (2 guitars)
Iron Maiden - Aces High (2 guitars)
Grim Reaper - See You In Hell (2 guitars)
Savatage - Believe (2 guitars, I also played piano)
Iron Maiden - Wasted Years (2 guitars, did it many times with just 1 though)
Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell (only the verses, we put it inside one of our own songs)
WASP - The Idol (2 guitars)
Iron Maiden -2 Minutes to Midnight (2 guitars)
Dio - Holy Diver
Savatage - Power of the Night
Skid Row - 18 and Life
Iron Maiden - The Prisoner
Savatage - Strange Wings
Iron Maiden - Different World (2 guitars, special one-night Maiden tribute set)
Iron Maiden - Reach Out (2 guitars, special one-night Maiden tribute set)
Iron Maiden - Hallowed Be Thy Name (2 guitars, special one-night Maiden tribute set)
Queensryche - Take Hold of the Flame
Black Sabbath - Children of the Sea

This doesn't count the probably 2-dozen more songs we've covered at acoustic shows as just my sister and I over the past year or so.
Also, we were undertaking a whole new set of covers as of a year ago with our temporary drummer and now ex-bassist, which included:
Tesla - Modern Day Cowboy
Bruce Dickinson - Tears of the Dragon
WASP - Wild Child
Judas Priest - Hell Patrol (I was actually going to sing this)
Yngwie Malmsteen - You Don't Remember (I'll never Forget)

That is definitely the probelm we are going through as well as a standard 4 peice band (1 guitar, bass, drums, vocals) It's going to limit our options a lot.

Our guitarist wants to pretty much stick with 4 bands:
Megadeth
Pantera
Iron Maiden
Metallica

Our Bassist wants Thrash like Slayer but newer stuff like Bullet For My Valentine

Our singer I'm not sure yet. He's mainly into Power Metal but he hasn't given us any idea what he's into.

I haven't picked either because I'm very anal about it, every song or band I want to cover has a flaw, be it no keyboardist, 2nd guitarist, vocal capabilities., etc. I would love to do a version of King's X Dogman, or Testament's The Legacy.

But we'll be discussing it hopefully tomorrow.

[Maiden33]

Originally Posted by MPF

That is definitely the probelm we are going through as well as a standard 4 peice band (1 guitar, bass, drums, vocals) It's going to limit our options a lot.

Our guitarist wants to pretty much stick with 4 bands:
Megadeth
Pantera
Iron Maiden
Metallica

Our Bassist wants Thrash like Slayer but newer stuff like Bullet For My Valentine

Our singer I'm not sure yet. He's mainly into Power Metal but he hasn't given us any idea what he's into.

I haven't picked either because I'm very anal about it, every song or band I want to cover has a flaw, be it no keyboardist, 2nd guitarist, vocal capabilities., etc. I would love to do a version of King's X Dogman, or Testament's The Legacy.

But we'll be discussing it hopefully tomorrow.

Tell your singer to pick up a fucking instrument! :P

Dogman would be badass, we're romancing the idea of a full-band cover of Goldilox, since we can actually pull off the harmonies (even though I fuck it up on the video on our channel). The problem with King's X is that if you are a metal band, chances are a King's X song will not "gel" well with the rest of your set.

As far as vocal capabilities go: Do you have anyone else in the band can sing decently? IE: good enough to do a simple vocal harmony? Cause sadly, while that won't quite LIMIT your choices, it will potentially make them sound not that good, such a covering Wasted Years but taking out Adrian's vocal harmony.

Also, beware "cover curse" in original sets of music. Chances are you want to put it somewhere near the end of the set, because if it's a song a decent chunk of people at a metal show will know, it's going to be the high-point of your set energy wise. We did a 45 minute set last year and played Wasted Years just 3 songs in. The whole rest of the song after that felt awkward because there was nowhere near that level of crowd interest again. What we did at our last show was perfect. 40 minute set. We do 5 original songs, then our cover of Sabbath's Children of the Sea, which gets a LOT of attention these days, then we close it out with a great song of ours that's easy to get into, so we can feel that love and energy carry over into one of our songs.

[MPF]

Originally Posted by Maiden33

Tell your singer to pick up a fucking instrument! :P

Dogman would be badass, we're romancing the idea of a full-band cover of Goldilox, since we can actually pull off the harmonies (even though I fuck it up on the video on our channel). The problem with King's X is that if you are a metal band, chances are a King's X song will not "gel" well with the rest of your set.

As far as vocal capabilities go: Do you have anyone else in the band can sing decently? IE: good enough to do a simple vocal harmony? Cause sadly, while that won't quite LIMIT your choices, it will potentially make them sound not that good, such a covering Wasted Years but taking out Adrian's vocal harmony.

Also, beware "cover curse" in original sets of music. Chances are you want to put it somewhere near the end of the set, because if it's a song a decent chunk of people at a metal show will know, it's going to be the high-point of your set energy wise. We did a 45 minute set last year and played Wasted Years just 3 songs in. The whole rest of the song after that felt awkward because there was nowhere near that level of crowd interest again. What we did at our last show was perfect. 40 minute set. We do 5 original songs, then our cover of Sabbath's Children of the Sea, which gets a LOT of attention these days, then we close it out with a great song of ours that's easy to get into, so we can feel that love and energy carry over into one of our songs.

Actually my singer just bought a bass and amp on Friday. . Both of us are going to doing a side project while our guitarist is filling in on bass for a local band called American Gothic. We're going to be going in a Post Metal direction for it ala Isis, Wolves In The Throne Room. I've never been in a band like that so it's going to be fun.

That is why I want to do Dogman, it's one of King's X best known, heaviest, catchiest songs. Although all of our songs are either in D or E. To me, it would be worth downtuning one song for it. Goldilox would be amazing. It's sad that Dug won't sing it anymore *has the crowd participate for it from now on* but it's always been one of my favorites.

Our guitarist does backups and I've been toying with the idea of singing as well. I mean if Mike Portnoy can play what he does and sing, I have no excuse. Our bassist refuses to sing, which is ok with us, But alas that is what I'm afraid of is vocal harmonies. I want the cover to be as good, if not better then the original, nowhere near worse.

That is actually our plan is to but a cover as the 2nd to last song and finish with our song Souls Of The Damned *it's the perfect closer for us*.

One song that our guitarist is really gung ho about playing is For Whom The Bell Tolls because of how easy it is *sans bass*. But I feel if we cover Metallica, I wanna cover a badass song that will get people going.

I guess that's the other thing I'm really looking for in a cover, I don't want to do the top hit from a band, I'd rather do a lesser known song that people will discover because of us then want to go check out the original.

[Maiden33]

Originally Posted by MPF

Actually my singer just bought a bass and amp on Friday. . Both of us are going to doing a side project while our guitarist is filling in on bass for a local band called American Gothic. We're going to be going in a Post Metal direction for it ala Isis, Wolves In The Throne Room. I've never been in a band like that so it's going to be fun.

That is why I want to do Dogman, it's one of King's X best known, heaviest, catchiest songs. Although all of our songs are either in D or E. To me, it would be worth downtuning one song for it. Goldilox would be amazing. It's sad that Dug won't sing it anymore *has the crowd participate for it from now on* but it's always been one of my favorites.

Our guitarist does backups and I've been toying with the idea of singing as well. I mean if Mike Portnoy can play what he does and sing, I have no excuse. Our bassist refuses to sing, which is ok with us, But alas that is what I'm afraid of is vocal harmonies. I want the cover to be as good, if not better then the original, nowhere near worse.

That is actually our plan is to but a cover as the 2nd to last song and finish with our song Souls Of The Damned *it's the perfect closer for us*.

One song that our guitarist is really gung ho about playing is For Whom The Bell Tolls because of how easy it is *sans bass*. But I feel if we cover Metallica, I wanna cover a badass song that will get people going.

I guess that's the other thing I'm really looking for in a cover, I don't want to do the top hit from a band, I'd rather do a lesser known song that people will discover because of us then want to go check out the original.

Random question, do you use anything that would make it easier for us to talk back and forth? (Facebook chat, AIM, Yahoo Messenger)

[MPF]

Originally Posted by Maiden33

Random question, do you use anything that would make it easier for us to talk back and forth? (Facebook chat, AIM, Yahoo Messenger)

Facebook: Josh Rundquist, The one with a green background and me wearing a Darkest Hour shirt.