4-12-01 Site goes up. Well, here it is. Take it or leave it! I may get a better website thingy someday, but for now, this does just fine. Here's my e-mail address, just in case! bassist95@hotmail.com
Diary of a High School Bassist in a Microscopic Town
Newest entries will show up at the top of the site.
bassist's diary. may 18, 2001.
a few changes...
As you can see from my home page, I've made a few changes. I had to! The main page was getting too cluttered! I hope you like it this way better.
There's more to come, too. It's just that I'm out of time for now! More to come very soon...
~jean
may 16th, 2001. Wednesday.
I'm finally back. Sorry about the delay, but this being South Dakota, I had to go and help dad haul a load of Holstien (black and white milk cows) hiefers a hundred miles or so to a town even smaller than the one I live in. I was reading the map, so naturally, we were six miles off course and a bit lost. Luckily, the situation was remidied and the hiefers were delivered without incedent.
What does that have to do with the bass? Well, nothing. But it was kind of a funny story anyway, and I figgered you might want to know what was holding up the show.
You know what kind of bugs me? Where I live, largemouth bass fishing is much more popular than the bass, and there are often big fishing contests around here in the summer. Nothing is more heart-breaking than to see a big poster blaring BASS on a bulletin board and find upon closer inspection that they mean bass fishing. AAHHHGG!
But, that's just another little thing I have to put up with as a musician here. There are a lot of stereotypes that exist about this state, like how we all walk around with shafts of wheat in our teeth, and about how cowboys are all still chasing after Indians, and crap like that. Well, none of that is true. We have the Internet, jazz, luxury cars, McDonalds (sadly), and all that other junk the rest of the country is privy to, but some of our musical stereotypes still apply.
For instance, one night I was sitting in the bar with dad, chatting with a bunch of his old friends, and dad mentions proudly that I play bass and am going to music school. Instantly one of his buddies looked over to me and says, "you play any Brooks and Dunn, or are you into all that loud bullshit?" I said, "I like that loud bullshit, but I'll play any damn thing you want to hear." At that our corner of the bar exploded with laughter. I'm my father's daughter, alright.
Yeah, SD is a country dominated state, but we have our little blues and jazz groups hanging around. Come September, the gambling town of Deadwood in western SD has a big blues and jazz jam, where all musicians can come and hang for a weekend and do nothing but play music. Yankton also has a big jazz fest every summer, as does Souix Falls. It's here, you just gotta know where to look. Later, all.
~jean
bassist's diary. may 14th, 2001.
Well, gradution is so close I can almost taste it. THREE DAYS AWAY!!! That is, if I don't keel over and die first. After high school, I'm definately off to study the bass, but I haven't chosen where yet. I'd like to go up to Minneapolis and study at Music Tech, but I've sent in requests for information from them about three times now and they've acted like I don't exist. I've gotta go now 'cuz my ride's here, but I'll finish up tomorrow! Give ya something to look forward to.
bassist's diary. may 7th, 2001.
I GOT NEW STRINGS!!!!
Why is that such a big deal, you ask? Well, the last time I had new strings on my bass was in August of 1999, and my brother had given them to me for my birthday. They were Fender strings, and good strings they were, .110-.50's. That's pretty heavy, but I like it that way. The new ones are Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinkys, in the nuclear orange package, .105-.45's, a little more normal. It's really hard to find strings around here. I mean, I had to drive an hour to get my hands on these, and the music store I went to didn't exactly have what you'd call a "wide selection." There were three different brands for bass; the Ernie Balls, GHS Progressives, and some no-name Washburn hooka that's probably only good for cutting meat and strangling people...
But anyway, the Hybrid Slinkys have a great sound by my ears. My bass is very happy.
~jean
bassist's diary. may 4th, 2001.
Well, I figured that since I've had a few extra hits in the night, I'd better update.
The Jazz Band's latest gig went off without a hitch a few nights ago. The great part about the whole thing is my band leader pretty much gave me free reign on the bass post. I asked him after soundchecks if I had the 80 watt Crate too loud, and he said, "Never." Cool.
Anyway, we played two sets of two songs each, at the very beginning of the concert, and at the very end. Here we are in action, below...
As you can see, I don't usually get a big photo op. There were a lot of other acts that went on in the middle, like the kids that got 1+'s on their solos and stuff like that. We played "Rock This Town" and "String of Pearls" in the first set and "Rockman" and "Heatseeker" in the second. "Rockman" is a Hookville Swingers classic. We play it for everything. I just hope we don't play it at the spring concert coming up next week. I figure the crowd would probably go nuts and pelt us with anything that isn't bolted down.
Well, that's about it for now. Take care, and like my mama always told me, "if you can't be good, be loud."
~jean
bassist's diary. may 1st, 2001.
I've been gone ages, I know...but I've got a lot to tell. On Apr. 24th, some buddies and me went to see the Violent Femmes live!! It was really cool, and their bassist got all the good solos!
It's the ultimate crappy site, but it does it's job good enough. I took lots of pics and will show 'em here soon.
Speaking of which, I finally got one of those Stompbox pics scanned. Here it is! Now you can see for yourself the South Dakota music "scene."
Just click on the flames to check it out!
So, anyhow...Not much else, I guess. I just thought I'd update and let you all know what's going on. I'm one step closer to getting a band together, though. I seem to have found a singer/songwriter who knows what he's doing, and that's always a plus. We still need guitarists and drummers, though, and in South Dakota, finding good musicians is like looking at the night sky to find extra-terrestials. Even knowing where to look doesn't help much.
~jean
bassist's diary. april 18, 2001.
Well, here I am and there I go. I'm sitting here, listening to "Come On, Come Over" from the Who Loves You? tribute, and it's by far one of my favorite songs. Just wondering...can any of you Jaco fans point me to the album with the original on it? Thanks!
Well, mom took me, my brother, and our buddy Scott to see STOMPBOX on Friday nite after all, and although I didn't get to sit in, I took plenty of pictures and met the whole band, as well as Betsy (the bass player)'s mother, who introduced me to the drummer as "that bass player from Hookaville everybody was afraid of."
STOMPBOX was the quintessential bar band, their set list including "Sweet Home Alabama," "Old Time Rock and Roll," "Sunshine of Your Love" and that Better Than Ezra song from a few years ago. They were really good, but the Casino Bar where they played was a veritable pit. It used to be a strip club, so the walls were painted in gold sparkles and the stage was tiny, lined with pink lights and mirrored in the back. The roof above the stage was tin, and you could see where the pole used to be. We all had a laugh about it.
I was recruited to get people dancing, but as the crowd was sixty percent potbellied old guys, that task was a bit tougher than it sounded. I got Scott to dance with me for a song, even though he has no sense of rhythm and I stepped on his feet repeatedly. A good time was had by all. They play again in a city close by, and I'm gonna see if I can put posters up and promote. I love doing that.
Anyhow, we had Jazz Band again this morning. We're getting ready for the High School Pops Concert coming up, and our set list so far includes "String of Pearls," "Rockman," and "Leap Frog." Our drummers have learned to swing a bit now, so we sounded pretty good this mornin'.
Also, a girl in the band recently recieved her dad's old bass, a red Fender Musicmaster shortscale circa 1975.
~jean
Tues. Apr. 17, 2001
I said I'd be back on Tuesday, so here I am. I took alot of pics at the Stompbox gig, and I'll put them up as soon as I can scan them and such. More details to come!
Head to the Message Board
Apr.12, 2001
Had Jazz Band this morning, my only real group experience, not counting the time I played "Brain Stew" while sitting in with a Christian rock group at a youth gathering while everybody was downstairs having cookies and juice...get it where you can, right? Anyway, this Jazz Band is the typical high school type, I suppose. The drummers can't swing, the trombones can't gliss properly, and the best of the lot, a flute player (I don't know how to spell "floutist" so I'm not gonna try...) is stuck playing mundane parts on an electric Yamaha piano. Oh, she plays piano, too (shout-outs to Kristal B.! I can spell your name right!!), and she admits that it's all not so bad, but all the other HS students grope and moan when it's Jazz Band time. Not me. I lay down a groove as solid as possible, even if we are playing "String of Pearls" with a straight feel.
Tomorrow is Friday the 13th, and that being the occasion, a fellow lady bassist has invited me to her gig that night. I met her at a Four City High School Concert Band Festival we held here in town on the 2nd. I was up there, rehearsing with the Jazz Band (from here on out refered to lovingly as the Hookaville Swingers), and after I'm through, she comes up to me and asks me about my bass. It's a Fender Precision Standard in arctic white like the one pictured above, but it has stickers all over it, including ones that say "Beware of Dog," "Goddess," and "Mean People Kick Ass." Anyhow, she asks if the bass is mine, and I say it is. (Damn straight it is...I shovelled horse shit at a stable for months to buy it...mom was too poor.) We talk shop awhile. She tells me of the basses she owns, and she tells me she's got this gig coming up on Friday the 13th and asks me to come down. Hell, yeah. I might even get to sit in. (crosses fingers, eyes, and toes).
At any rate, her band, Stompbox, was forced to learn country tunes so that they could even get gigs around here. Up here in South Dakota, we have no music scene. Zip, zilch, nada. Every band has to know a slug of country tunes to even get half-decent gigs, not to mention a warm welcome. I'm gonna take pictures of the gig and post 'em on here, and you can judge for yourself.
Well, gotta be going! See you on Tuesday!
~jean.