PainSticks

Attitude

Fun and friendship come first. I prefer to make music casually but purposefully with good people that I'd hang out with without making music. Be some combination of hippy, rapper, artsy, intellectual, liberal, snowflake, woke, Monty Python, BLM, and sci-fi. Your age, race, and gender don't matter to me, just be cool, stable, moderately sober, not racist or anti-LGBTQ, legally a grownup, and never watching Fox News. (I'm white, straight, cis, male, sober, and married, with a B.A. in English, and an MS in eBusiness.) Louis Armstrong once said good music makes you bob your head and tap your foot. For me, creating a song is about instrumental simplicity, plus lyrical complexity. Because my words are quick, but my fingers are slow. So I prefer the Johnny Cash two-chord plunker, not the Eddie Van Halen virtuoso explosion; the Ringo Starr shuffling break, not the Neil Peart machine guns. Once the group finds that basic groove, the lyrics, all rambling, poetic, and transgressive, come naturally. Or I can stfu and just pound away while you play and sing your own awesome shit. People who can take direction, give direction, and ideally both, would be good.

Influences

Eclectic tastes. The Fall. Bob Dylan. Iggy Pop. Jay-Z. The Sound Defects. The Jesus and Mary Chain. David Bowie. Boris Brejcha. Shit Robot. Ringo Starr. Lou Reed. Joni Mitchell. Iron and Wine. Max Roach. Cypress Hill. Tom Waits. B.B. King. The Stone Roses. Johnny Cash. Gary Clark Jr.. Lauren Hill. Ray Charles. Nirvana. Dianna Ross. Elvis Costello. Ramones. Tenacious D. Too many to list, shooting from the hip. (Taylor Swift, Nickelback, and the fucking Eagles suck big hairy donkey balls.)

Equipment

Roland TD-17KVX-S electronic drums, two pawnshop bass guitars, shotgun mic with stand, ancient (but awesome) Peavy 110 amp, and 32 Ohm headphones. Video streaming setup with three webcams, LED ringlight, cardioid condenser mic, and several muslin backdrop screens with stands. Music production with AV Linux/Ubuntu Studio. Working on a backyard studio as a soundproof space for practice, webcasting, and recording.