Forgot to post this pic of us in full rock-out mode for the non-believers (stolen from Purevolume, where it was stolen from Belinda’s blog):
Courting Disaster (finally) has a mailing list up if you want to keep up
with happenings. Send an email with "Assimilate Me!" in the subject to courtingdisaster at gmail dot com (Anti-spammed! Replace the at with "@" and dot with "." DUH!).
It’s taken me a while to write about this cause it has been a busy week/ weekend. Job interviews (yes, a real job) and preparing to record occupied most of my time.
Part One: Monkey Business
Our show at the Ugly Monkey was excellent. Thanks to everyone who came out to see us! Despite some monitor/sound problems for Belinda, and the few minor mistakes we made while playing, we rocked the house. I was pleased at the sound I got from the amp we borrowed (stole) from a frathouse at Franklin and my non-reliable, on-its-last-breath Digitech pedal.
Free Smut and the Dead Pinups played great sets. Unfortunately, the Pinups had to play without being doused in fake blood because the last time they played there someone from the outside thought people had been stabbed and called the cops.
The night belonged to the boys from Milwaukee, the Forth Effect. I highly recommend checking them out (Tour dates at: www.fortheffect.com). Besides having a sweet touring van, their equipment was top notch. I’ve never been so jealous of another bands’ gear in my life. Andy, their guitarist/ merch-tablesitter was a cool, laidback guy until he started playing and trashed around the stage in a Tom Morello meets Omar Rodriguez-ish kinda way. His three-tier pedalboard had him tapdancing all over the place.
Best bit? He smashed his Les Paul’s headstock into their vocalists ribcage while spinning around and broke one of his tuning pegs off. A guitar was quickly borrowed from the Pinups and the rocking recommenced. Like I said before, excellent show. Too bad you missed it. Told ya you should have come.
Oh yeah…we made a whopping $35 off the door - excellent wages for our first big gig. Gas money smells sweet indeed!
Part Two: 120 miles to Warsaw
With the show behind us, we trekked to Warsaw, IN to record new & old stuff to replace our crappy stuff we currently have up on Purevolume. Why Warsaw? Cause Joe has a pseudo-proffesional studio and he’d record us for the one time introductory price of FREE! We made it up to Joe’s studio two hours behind schedule, set up the drums and went out for a late lunch.
The tracking went surprisingly smooth. We did the drums for a new one called The Animatronic first, followed by Vitiate and then Ravine Soliloquy. My turn at bat next. Animatronic went down smooth first try. Vitiate took three takes. Ravine took a total of 8 hours. 8 freaking hours.
We had problems with the timing, so we scratched the track and re-did the drums. Same problem pops up. I tried to compensate but the song just sucked all the happy out of me. We gave up and spent the rest of the night on the PS2.
Next day, we went back in and tried again. Ravine just wouldn’t work. I was getting really pissed by this point. ENTER METRONOME! Redo the drums with the constant tick-tock-tick-tock. Redo guitars with the tick-tock-tick-tock. We then did the happy dance cause tracking was done.
Belinda did all the vocals in about two hours. Two takes per song. She made it look so friggin easy. Bloody vocalists and their ease-of-doing-things-ness.
The bass had to wait - Shayne didn’t make it up cause he apparently has some kind of weird island flu, so we’ll be heading up there again to finish up real soon.
The rough mixes (sans bass) sound really good. With a little additional guitar and vocal harmonies, we’ll have the finished product. Give us a little more time and they’ll be ready for your listening pleasure.
This is a longer than usual entry, so I think I’ll end it right here. Actually here is better. I lied. Wait for it…almost there…Okay. It’s over. Now.
Resistance was futile. I have been assimilated. 
Quick plug (yes, you’ll never hear the end of this): We will be playing the UGLY MONKEY (www.theuglymonkey.com for directions) next Wednesday, March 22. Our biggest show ever! Come out and rock out with your fave pseudo-rockstars, Courting Disaster.
They have two rooms: the stage/dance floor and separate full bar. I think it’s 21+ but I’ll get back to you on that. It’s downtown Indy, so you have no excuse (unless you’re in Malaysia/London/Oz/not here. In that case, you can buy forgiveness by purchasing a beverage for me the next time we meet …heh heh).
Anyways, on to the lineup (click on bands to go to websites…try before you buy!):
Courting Disaster
Once again, 9pm on the 22nd. Downtown Indy…we will try to put on a show full of kick-assery (in the words of Shayne) and I will definitely have two guitars in case anything like this happens. We will also have an amp for me by then (details of which we will not go into right now).
Also, we are heading into a quasi-pro studo to record some stuff cause the stuff we have up on purevolume just doesn’t make the cut. The short EP will be given out at shows (FREE!!), as promo material and used in another "secret project" that is currently in the works. I don’t want to jinx it, so that’s all I’ll say. Want to know more? Ask me at the Ugly Monkey. Later.
Are you ready for Bitchfest 2006??
It had to come. My amp just died on me. Shazri thinks its due to static electricity buildup in my hair, but experiments have proved that I can’t even power a lightbulb with it, let alone overload an amp.
Guess what this means? We might have to cancel a cushy opening slot at the Ugly Monkey (Shameles plug: March 22nd 7pm! Sorry kids, 21+ only - if we manage to get a replacement amp soon enough), a recording session on the 24th/25th and another project that will remain secret for now. Belinda returned my backup amp but the lil’ Peavey sounds like crap with the volume past 3, it only rates in at 40watts plus I don’t have a footswitch for it. Foo ate my power cord for the RP300, so I can’t even run through the PA for the gig.
I’m in the process of getting it either replaced or fixed but it seems like I am on the backburner at H&K (US branch). Looks like they have a shitload of repairs going on too…waiting around like this sucks ass. I might have to ship the damn thing to Nashville too. If the cab is the problem, it’s about 100lbs total weight (that’s around 50kg for you metrics). Weight=$$ in the shipping world.
I anyone out there has a decent amp I can borrow, send me an email or message. I’m not asking for much, I’m not a (total) gear whore…a nice, booming clean and a chunky, meaty distortion is all I need - think Deftones on Change (in the house of flies). Footswitch too preferably - I might even stoop to use a freaking metal zone if needed. Let me know… until then, my rockstar dreams are put on hold.
Hopefully the next time I write, I’ll be plugging the show again. Til then, I’ll just mope around and hope for good news from the gods of rock
