*I only write about music that I have purchased, this record was bought on Bandcamp
An often unsung hero of the Stirling music scene Kenny Bates has had a significant influence within the folds of a rather healthy community within the gateway to the Highlands.
His lo-fi, alternative carefree approach has resulted in four releases that are available on Bandcamp (and a new album soon) to pick from I had purchased the 2021 release “Good Things Come to You” intrigued by the 4 track approach, namely taped to a Tascam 424 which is the very multitracker on which I cut my home recording skills.
Kenny sent through a cracking wee parcel with the cassette inside, a little laminate of the Tascam, a handwritten note (nice touch) and the tape itself painted glitter yellow, sparkling under the late spring sun as I loaded it into my old DCC player.
Slightly nervous, hoping the DDC wouldn’t eat the tape like a pup with a slipper the heads thwumped onto the tape and a little nostalgic pang erupted in my head as my speakers gently hissed.
The record contributors Mark Lough, Kyle Wood, Andrew Pankhurst and Luc Grindle provide the bass, loops and guitars alongside the composer Kenny, each feature on one of the five tracks. Written and recorded by Quitter over various 4 tracks then posted to the collaborators to add their parts.
Tremolo drenched opener Full Marks begins proceedings with a nice groove, when the beat stops to allow some space in the track, little snippets of studio talk can be heard, I always like this approach, it gives it a live vibrancy. The dreamy Stone has that warm fuzzy analogue sound I miss from my early days of recording, even the DI’d guitar will remind many musicians of their early approaches to recording, the intimacy of this unhurried track is its strength.
Never-ending Naval- gazing has that carefree approach to writing and reminds me of Kenny Andersons early musings. Bridging the final act is Evidence Board, part of the joy of recording music is letting ideas and sounds just flow, in essence capturing a moment that is unlikely to be repeated live. Its looping guitar is surrounded by experimental samples and towards the end simple beats as the pace picks up. Finally, Spoil The Island, arrives with other worldly alien like beeps before the guitars and live drums kick in to cap a thoroughly enjoyable 25 minutes or so.
I often think that supporting the local music scene is far more rewarding than people realise, you just don’t get music parcels like this, indeed Bandcamp still has many artists that fly under their ‘Bandcamp daily’ headline. Other examples include the brilliant Firestations (we’ll get to them later…)
Check out Quitters music on Bandcamp and grab this great wee record before it sells out at the time of writing there are just 6 remaining.
The year started with a mixture of optimism and permission; we had started writing weird decibels 2 and it wasn’t really taking off so we had to find some inspiration from somewhere. We booked ourselves a wee lodge in Oakley for the end of the month.
Before we were due to set off we had the small matter of releasing a new music video. Speak was the song we opted for.
We stayed true to the black and white theme of Weird Decibels 1. It was shot down at the practise room with a mixture of stills and live footage. The idea was to have a bit of fun with each of us switching musical positions. The video did quite well; sitting at over 1000 views and that isn’t taking into account the Blank TV stats. A good start!.
The Falkirk Herald kindly ran a story about the video. Nice folk.
Moshville times wrote a nice piece for us as part of their ‘Band of the Day’; my favourite quote would be ‘not exactly radio friendly (!)’ and ‘ an overall undercurrent of folk’ this led us to utter a new genre Folking Metal!
as January came to a close we headed off to Oakley with the acoustic guitars and a shit load of beer. We wrote 6 songs. ‘I Hear The City’, Little Thoughts Lost’, ‘Digital Takeover’, Curtain Hits the Cast’, ‘Quoted Not Voted’ and ‘Hit Me’ the latter had everyone reaching for their beers a little quicker. ‘Its a song about depression’ quipped Stu. We never played it again.
February
This took us neatly into February and Tommy Clark of the Third Class Ticket Show continued to do us proud by playing us on his show; ‘Speak’ getting the slot.
We were looking forward to playing Stereo but the gig was cancelled. I was gutted at this news; A because I love playing live and B because its a cracking venue.
We also uploaded the remasters of One More Solo to limited success!! I’m not sure if its worth doing the other albums; the overpowering bass of the original master was swamping the album. I like the new master though.
April was quiet for us. I was busy working on Morningday; an album I recorded with Kevin Byrne and Jemma Burt.
May
Derek and Ann tied the knot. Its good to have a least one celebrity wedding a year.
World cup fever was building, we continued to practise the new songs another quiet month.
June
We had a gig at Pivo Pivo to look forward to. We were sitting in the practise room mulling over the limited response to the gig (we would learn that gigs are best played on a Friday or Saturday); we got a phone call from PM promotions who had helped us have some cracking gigs in 2013 (Oran Mor, ABC 2). It was to be at the QMU; an old stomping ground for us. The big stage right? We asked the promoter.
Ah no its Jims Bar.
Mmm it still looked ok so we went for it given that Saturday gigs tend to be better. First gig of 2014 booked… in June… Anyway it was to be part of the ‘West End Festival’.
June would also see us attempt our own event. We booked a gig at the brilliant 13th Note with young rockers Ciceros secret, Miss the Occupier and The Dark Arts. Things were picking up!
The 21st of June would see us play Jim’s Bar. I filmed the approach to the gig hoping to start a documentary for the band. It was a clammy summers day, the football was on and the venue was like a an oven. Not the greatest gig; our patience with PM promotions was staring to run low.
The film I made for the Jim’s Bar gig was quickly shoehorned into a video for Joker’ we hadn’t had a presence on YouTube for a while and this was a chance to get back on.
Not our greatest video by any stretch but it was a bit of fun. Views? 120 on our page around 600 on Blank TV. Very disappointing given the success of the other videos. A fickle world indeed!
I was with Lewis sipping a coffee at the Helix when the phone rang. James Trimble from the Falkirk Herald looking for an interview! So look out for our article in the next couple of weeks! Thanks James. This was a Facebook post I wrote the day James Trimble phoned my mobile as I sipped a coffee. You should have seen the looks of the other costumers as I was talking about writing albums and playing gigs!
To top off this fantastic month we played our gig at the 13th Note. One of the best we played and we met some good friends old and new that night. I also highly recommend the Notes veggie burgers!!
Oh before I finish August we had promised for weeks to do the ‘ice bucket challenge; the Facebook craze that had went mega viral, listen close and you will hear Stu scream like a big girl!
We booked another gig; this time at Ivory Blacks. It looked very promising; although it was on a school night…
September was a quiet month of writing and recording practise sessions. We actually started writing in the old room again and the results were pretty good.
October
We launched our very own website this month in a hope not to rely too much on Facebook. Its hard to say where this is going to go. My how did we get to attached to Facebook. Disturbing…
The website will probably evolve to become more of a tribute to our 20 years together. Watch this space.
We started drinking tea and coffee at practise; yes you read that right.
November
Stu rocks the ivory
We hyped the Ivory Black gig as a send off to Weird Decibels 1. A very disappointing gig and a rather sad end to the live life of Weird Decibels 1. Maybe we’ll do another show and send it off in style.
As I write about the highs and lows of unsigned music life there are certain things that quickly pull you back into perspective
Our good friend and fellow musician Chris Masson passed away at the age of 37. Too young. Too soon.
On the 22nd of November the guys brought their gear around to my place and we set up the studio. We wrote another batch of cracking songs for Weird Decibels 2. This will be the way we write in the future given the success of the session.
The band has wrapped up early this year, work and the festive season have taken their toll on our practise sessions.
All is good, we have a batch of songs ready to be rehearsed and eventually recorded next year
2014 has been a mixed bag. Some highs some lows; I feel we lost a wee bit of momentum this year due to different circumstances and perhaps poor choices.
2015 is our 20th anniversary. A new album is due, new videos, gigs, podcast and hopefully a film. So a lot to look forward to,
Massive thanks to the unflinching support of our family and friends
It was a dark and stormy night as we pulled up to the slightly hidden doorway of Ivory Blacks; a venue known for its brand of heavier rock. We were looking forward to this despite the ‘playing on a mid week night’ doubts that were nagging us.
There were three other bands on the bill War head, Ritual Spirit and Fourth Gate, It was nice to speak to Bathgate rockers Warhead they were a sound bunch.
we got some chips for tea and we were ready to go
The sound check was kinda back to front; we wnet on first so we soundchecked and everyone else did a level check. I liked the sound on stage. The venue was empty though and we were due to play in 20 minutes.
the er.. setlist
Thankfully a few of our wonderful friends ventured through the doors just as we were due to strike our first chords. We played well to a largely empty venue. I really enjoyed the gig although it was slightly disillusioning that our final run through of Weird Decibels 1 was to a sparse audience given that we have had some great gigs recently. Forward was played for the first time in a while and it was nailed. Could be a regular again!
Pabs sings his heart out
A huge thank you to all our friends who supported us through the Weird Decibels 1 era. We have learned a lot; we will be more picky about the venues in future and we’ll probably avoid playing midweek shows. See you for Weird Decibels 2.0 live!!
Gigs we organise help pay for future recordings. So thanks for coming!!
Weird Decibels live at 13th note 22/08/2014
Our names in lights
A few months ago at practise, Derek suggested that we run and promote our own music night for a change; give the promoters a wee break. So Derek, Greg and Stu ( I was kinda leaving it to them to be honest) fused their music biz minds together and came up with SYTB promotions.(if you’re wondering its Strumit, Yellit, Twangit and Bangit)
A venue was needed, 13th Note were offering their excellent venue plus sound man for a very competitive price. It seemed too easy. The only thing we needed now was other bands.
a solid performance from the Dark Arts
We talked about the bands we have played with over the years and wanted a good mix of styles for our debut event. Up stepped Miss The Occupier, Dark Arts and Ciceros Secret. Three fine and very different bands.
Here is the story of the night.
The first thing that surprised me was my car; the boot swallowed up the bass amp plus two guitar amps without so much as a shrug. Gear packed we battled though the rush hour traffic back to the city of Glasgow which is still basking in the after glow of the Commonwealth Games.
derek couldn’t wait until the photo was taken and kept eating nom nom
We arrived early so I had time to sample some of the 13th Notes grub. Its all veggie; to be honest I could do with a night of the red stuff so I ordered a cracking veggie burger. Once we were fed we headed down stairs to one of the cities most iconic wee venues. For a band our size it feels more like home; even a modest crowd fills the room so that settled us.
The sound check went smoothly; the other bands rolled in. It was nice to see Jon from the Dark Arts; we played for a least three years together in the Seventeenth. Now I’m not saying it was a time of high fives and fist pumps, we had our moments, but it is a time I look back fondly on; it was nice to see the fella again. I was tempted to ask if he still listens to the old Seventeenth records (I do) but I let that one pass.
Ciceros Secret arrived; they are a nice bunch. We played with this young band back in November 2013 at the Garage Attic that was a crazy gig; their fans stormed the stage and the place turned into a mosh pit.
Miss the Occupier are friends of our friends and it was nice to meet them.
Now that the greeting were out the way it was time to get down to business.
The wonderful Miss the Occupier
The crowd floated in as Miss The Occupier took to the stage playing a fine mix of their own tunes which reminded me of Joy Division, they had a really clean, punchy sound; Roz the singer owned the stage. The crowd swelled and the temperature rose; the 13th Note atmosphere was here!
I really enjoyed their set you should check out their excellent video on YouTube
Sometimes it good to hear something you know, the Dark Arts provided a cracking set of rock covers for the now packed audience. Pearl Jams ‘Even Flow’ was excellent; Jon was particularly good on the bass. He had his sound spot on which was not really a surprise given that he was a perfectionist back in the Seventeenth days.
It was our turn to step up and time was pressing I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little rushed. I quickly set up the gear and we were ready to go. Or so I thought.
Set list
Speak
Kill it! Kill it!
Miss Asphyxia
Wonder
Little Thoughts Lost
Deliverance
Joker
I Hear the City
The heat the rock it was all there
We started well with the now stable Speak which often opens our set. This flowed nicely into Kill it! Kill it! Slight confusion at the intro but generally nailed. Then it was a wee hello to the crowd; straight back into Miss Asphyxia. By now I could hear my guitar on stage and it seemed out of tune but we flowed onto Wonder where Stu held the notes. A quick tune up confirmed that the G string was well out (har har). That fixed we moved on to a strong finish. New song Little Thoughts Lost got a little lost in my head! However Deliverance, Joker and new favourite I Hear the City went down well.
It was good to see the crowd right next to us; I was pleased everyone had stuck around to the end. It was hot; my shirt and tie combo was beginning to feel like a bad idea.
Before I knew it we were done and quickly packing up the pedals to allow head-liners Ciceros Secret on.
These guys are in their late teens; their music is high energy experimental metal. Its loud and in your face and I hate to say it but it took me back to the days when we started 20 years ago! Long hair waiving, loud music, playing hard and fast and not caring that some of the crowd were now starting to disperse into the late Friday night.
For those that remained they were treated to a brilliant show; their guitarists weaving through the crowd not missing a note. They were a brilliant end to the night.
We learned a few lessons on the night. Bands will run over, its natural with live music. So I’ll try not to rush my set-up in future. All in all it was a very successful night.
Final thought goes to our fans. Given that many of you have now seen us live many times we feel we are in a unique place that we have a group of friends that want to come tine and time again. The effort you guys make is quite simply brilliant. Thank you for keeping the band live.
weirddecibels.com 