Connections/ scenes

When I think of music scenes, geographically speaking i think of many places such as; Detroit during its Motown heyday, Seattle in the late eighties, England in the sixties, and many more. After speaking to a new friend i see that Fresno has a scene that we haven't tapped into yet but really should make an effort to so we can use the countless resources and help our local talent advance in any possible way. I cant help but think that artists bring the best out of one another. Which may be something that is lacking for us in our writing original tunes. As good as isolation is because it really gives us a chance to develop a sound free from influence it also holds us back in many ways. In the simple fact that nobody knows we exist. If we were to have more people around us that may give us ideas on what to do, what not to do and just to gives us some sort of new insight into our music. Our bassist is heading to Mexico this weekend so he will be missing a few gigs. We made the decision to have someone new play bass for the shows which got me to thinking about the old blues men who would stroll into town and pick up local musicians for their one night stands. Not that we would be able to play for a seasoned professional but just the idea of using a new bassist for one gig has the sort of old school feeling about guys who just want to play music with anyone. A lady who saw us play at the Shriner's car show really want us to play for her daughters quinceanera which is something we have done before and not many young bands have really done. Every time we do a quinceanera and don't get bottled or booed is a sort of badge of honor that we wear proudly because it means we have done something right and the audiences we play for are not a bunch of total animals. Anyway Today we are going to meet up with another young band from south E Fresno who seem cool and want to help us. They may not play the same type of music as us but I hope they are as open minded as we are. While reading about the late 70's i saw that many different types of bands would play on bills without thinking about it which is a great attitude to have, as musicians and as consumers of music. Imagine how cool it feels to say that sometime in the past you got to see "the blasters" playing with Black Flag and the minutemen. Or that you saw husker Du playing with The replacements. And imagine how the replacements feel to be able to Say that they have shared stages with Husker Du and Tom Petty. I feel weird when i see "Metal Night" or punk night or country night at a bar because i feel that these people have a different definition of each genre of music and would not accept us at any of these, while i think that Firecat fits into all of it. because the spirit of every type of music along with pop and some radio friendly power rock. Its that type of thinking that makes me seriously re think the whole scene idea but I believe we have had enough isolationism and it is time to branch out and grow as musicians, artists and people.

The stones

The Rolling Stones are my favorite band without question, They have been able to change styles whether they are doing country, blues, rock and roll, folk, disco, reggae, and countless others without making it sound fake or hackneyed and more importantly it sounds good and real. No other band in modern rock can say that about their career. The stones longevity is something that i find weird because i listen to bands who are releasing records and who haven't reached the fifteen year mark and already the sound that they produce is completely different and sounds fake. As a cover band for the last few years we have been able to hone our sound on what we enjoy which is very helpful because we see that we seem to have a preference towards old school stomps or shuffles as opposed to many bands that we have seen who tend to favor exaggerated punk rock cliches or bad metal tricks that can only be done by a select few musicians. I am free to say that i am not a fan but it is their right to make this type of music because I know that Maybe other people will see Firecat and our music as resorting to some old tricks that haven't been used since the 80's but we know we are doing it for ourselves and keep it real and true to ourselves. This is something that Keith Richards always mentions when asked about why the Rolling stones music has had such a lasting appeal He says that its because as long as the music sounded good to them they could release it and feel satisfied. These words always come to me when I find that we are a venue full of young kids or old people and start singing a song called "Stripperfection" or a song about using porn as escapism "Girls on TV" We are doing it for ourselves and do not have to pander to anyone, as ridiculous as this claim sounds we stand by it one hundred percent because pandering would set a bad precedent for any future venues that may want us to keep from playing waht we would like to play. This is a rant but nevertheless an issue that is very important to us in regard to any future events we will play.
Songs im listening to: Misfit Love (Queens of the stone age) Ventilator Blues (Rolling Stones) Between the lines (Stone Temple Pilots)

The cat is back

I decided to check up on the whole blog business and realized that an exact year has gone by since I last blogged. The band decided to take an extended break that lasted from January to Late April. We were hired for the Shriner's car show on May 8th which is the only reason we started practicing again so yet another good deed that the Shriner's are responsible for the reuniting of Firecat. The morning started rough with a weird argument and quick dash involving a recording of the Star Spangled Banner. (They thought it was important to play a version of it before the car show, we disagreed) When we began setting up our instruments an old man, who looked like the exact person that the Tea party leaders are looking for ( white, bitter, rich and a member of the NRA) threatened to shoot through our P.A. system with his .45. It feels weird that those are the type of people we seem to run into the most whenever we play in Clovis. I took this show as the end of an era having decided that we would not play as many covers and start writing original songs and looking for crowds that appreciate what we are doing on stage. Just as the first car show we played we saw who really appreciated what we do we also saw the same kind of reception from two new friends that we had never met in person before and who could be very helpful in our move towards new venues. To wrap this up in a nice, tidy package and not to sound over-dramatic the future looks very uncertain for the band but we hope for the best because that's the best we can do.

Songs I'm listening to today: Sink or swim bad lieutenant, Eileen Keith Richards, Here comes that Rainbow again Kris Kristofferson,and Keep on rocking in the free World Neil Young

A crazy weekend

May 2 2009 we played a cinco de mayo celebration in visalia. At first the whole thing seemed as if it was gonna be a place where nothing good was gonna happen except for the pay check. After our first three songs we were asked to vacate the stage for a regional mexican group. After they took an hour or so with bad sound we hit the stage with something to prove and slayed (not literally) the few drunken people who wanted to dance. We came out of it a better band and two hundred dollars richer.
May 3 2009 we had a grand old time at a clovis version of the visalia gig. After a quick soundcheck through the tom petty classic "I wont back down" an old man who looked nothing like Tom petty came up to me and said he was related to him after seeing his drivers license he did indeed share a surname with Mr. Petty so gave him a business card and told him to forward the message that Firecat are huge fans of His and the Heartbreakers. We were also allowed to play on a professional stage with professional soundmen which made a huge difference in how we heard oursleves on stage. We moved oursleves to a smaller stage and also did a good job and made a good chunk of change through donations which we are always grateful for.

Songs recomended for this week
Take it so hard Keith Richards
That kind of Fool Jerry Lee lewis
Glad and Sorry The faces

Courage

Crazy weekend

Hey everyone its been a while but this has been a crazy week. Starting on the Sixteenth we played at a very well to do shopping mall for an audience of about 8 people not including our own families. It ended up being two things for us one, A midweek practice and two a learning experience. We learned taht not everyone is going to like how loud we play. We have decided to turn down our instruments a few decibels.

The seventeenth of april was a party for a friends mother. We played a few sets to a few enthusiastic people who had seen us before and continue to support us. Before the Third set a carload of Girls who were of legal age and drinking my favorite drink for girls "Vodka straight from the bottle" showed up. Everyone in the band quickly lost all signs of fatigue and put on what has to be one of our better performances.

The Eighteenth of April, we added another crazy performance in our log, A baptism. We went in with low expectations so we were able to pass those easily. The night was fun because of the free beer delicious food and the occasional power outages that made the bounce house collapse on the kids not once not twice but thrice.

Recommended songs for everyone this week "Combination of the two" - Big Brother and the holding Co.
"Blue"- The Jayhawks
"Devuelve me a mi Chica"- Los Hombres G
Courage

car show bust

On march 28 we were supposed to play a car show at 4:00 but we ended up starting at 5:00 no problem except that the cars had already gotten their prizes and were on their way out of the park and the beer garden had closd up and was also heading out. I'd like to say that the "cat" is a good band but without some good help we cant expand our listeners or whatever so apart from our good friends and family who stuck around and a couple of the Rams and Raiders booster clubs members we pretty much played to an empty park. This was pretty disheartening and the dj who was ther didnt help the matters by parking his truck right in the middle of our dance floor. We played a really tight set but hey when something is set up against you thats all you anreally do "just push forward and hope for the best while taking the high road. Well everyone who was there is always going to get so much love from us and will forever be a part of the firecat family. So in closing whoever that dj is he will get his karmic retribution in due time so until next time FireCat abides. Courage.

Good time

On march 21 2009 we played a pretty good party and we learned what tequila can do to an audience. Jubilant dancing, loud singing and a constant demand for encores. Our soundman seems to be getting the hang of the P.A. system which is a big plus for us.The rain began to fall at the end of the set which is another first for us. It seems as if this last month every where we play we find something new and find good experiences to use as stories for us to entertain people with afterward. The new songs are going over very well with everyone so hopefully our good luck streak will continue. For our next gig we have decided to split the set list into three different categories 90's tunes, oldies, and stuff that has more of a "pop" feel. As the big day approaches my nerves are only going to intensify but that is one of the funs of playing in public. So until tomorrow Courage.