Yow! What a way to celebrate a birthday. We had a blast playing the Arlene Francis Center yesterday in honor of our amazing front woman Lila. So hell-bent on rocking the socks off our audience we were that the intrepid Leilani risked life, limb and lip singing into an uncooperative microphone intent on sharing it’s electricity with her. Thanks to everyone who turned up. If you weren’t able to make it, please take a listen to our set and experience the energy yourself.
Welcome to the New Year, and a (slightly) New Look for The 50/50s.
Our first band practice of the year went pretty well. Preparations for our upcoming recording session are coming along nicely, with eight songs identified for likely candidates, and an additional tune set to make the grade as well. I’ve been getting my guitars tuned up so that my only goof-ups will be skill related and not technical in nature.
Beyond recording, we are definitely looking forward to playing some live shows in the near future. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further information.
For those of you interested in acquiring a super rare recording by The 50/50s, your opportunity has arrived. Sonoma County’s newest community radio station KWTF is in the midst of a fundraiser. Luckily, not only can you support a noble cause, for a meager donation of $25 you can receive a mixtape that contains the aforementioned Super Rare Recording by The 50/50s. Don’t delay, do it now: http://www.indiegogo.com/KWTF-Radio
We’re back! Ok we never really went away, but all the same, we’re back! After a little realignment, the inimitable Leilani is now playing bass as well as continuing to provide her spellbinding vocals. And that means the inimitable Lila resumes her guitar strumming duties in addition to fronting that which must be fronted. The inimitable Sean continues to propel us forward, and the inimitable Chelsea continues to thread harmonic unity. And the inimitable Will (yup, that’s me) continues to bang sound out of his guitar.
2012 promises to start off with a kablaam as we will be heading into the studio (Wally Sound to be specific) to lay down some tracks for the ages. Fans of The 50/50s will also be able to catch us perform live on occasion. And who knows, there might even be t-shirts for your collection.
That’s right. It’s been a whole year since our first live performance. And what a difference a year makes. Expanding, contracting, evolving, and all the time rocking.
This past Saturday night at the Arlene Francis Center, The 50/50s played our one year anniversary show. While it was all a blur to me, I am told we rocked it pretty well. Cameron and Sean propelled us forward with their expert rhythm section. We had amazing harmonies, thanks to Leilani and Cameron, that perfectly accented Lila’s matchless vocals. Our sound was expanded by the awesome riffing of Chelsea on keyboard. And of course there was me, chugging away on the guitar.
There was also a full roster of excellent bands on hand to help KWTF with fundraising. While Hot Club Beelzebub lured folks in with their irresistible brand of gypsy jazz, Community College kicked things off on the main stage with a powerful punch. The Poppy Seeds held the stage with a golden voice and a strum to match. The Manchus from Mainland China tore through their debut set with the same diabolic intensity of their namesake. Intimate Garçons mesmerized us with a journey through time and space. Immediately after our set, Will Crum rocked us guerilla style from the AFC balcony. Sharky Coast brought their hurricane with them, making Irene look like a mere suggestion of weather. Guy Henry Mueller and Ryan Michael Keller created an alternate, enlightening/frightening universe. And to round it all off, Conspiracy a Go Go schooled us with their rock and roll carnival.
Thanks to all of our families, friends and fans. We have so much more in store for you.
Stay tuned for the further adventures of The 50/50s.
apostrophes used to indicate a missing letter or letters (can’t, we’d) or a possessive (David’s book). Don’t let anyone tell you that apostrophes don’t matter and we would be better off without them. Consider these four phrases, each of which means something different: my sister’s friend’s books (refers to one sister and her friend). my sister’s friends’ books (one sister with lots of friends). my sisters’ friend’s books (more than one sister, and their friend). my sisters’ friends’ books (more than one sister, and their friends). The possessive in words and names ending in S normally takes an apostrophe followed by a second S (Jones’s, James’s), but be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps: Mephistopheles’, Waters’, Hedges’ rather than Mephistopheles’s, Waters’s, Hedges’s. Plural nouns that do not end in S take an apostrophe and S in the possessive: children’s games, old folk’s home, people’s republic, etc. Phrases such as butcher’s knife, collector’s item, cow’s milk, goat’s cheese, pig’s blood, hangman’s noose, writer’s cramp, etc are treated as singular. Use apostrophes in phrases such as two days’ time, 12 years’ imprisonment and six weeks’ holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in nine months pregnant or three weeks old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as pregnant or old) – if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day’s time, one month pregnant. Some shops use an apostrophe, wrongly, to indicate a plural (“pea’s”), but will generally omit the apostrophe when one is actually required (“new seasons asparagus”), a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the greengrocer’s (or grocer’s) apostrophe. Try to avoid this.
•Marsh, David and Amelia Hodgson: Guardian Style (Guardian Books, 2010)
In case you were wondering, the logo for the band came to me in a dream. I woke up and knew it had to be in Cooper Black. I knew it had to have a Mod-style roundel. One thing I didn’t think of at the time was that the apostrophe between the last zero and the “s” was incorrect. We are multiple, not singular. But thankfully, Chelsea was kind enough to point this out to me recently. I now present you with the corrected logo (see above). Huzzah.
Now that you have read this far, I can tell that you are interested in dreams. Normally I’m not the type to share them with you, but as this was a dream regarding The 50/50s I shall divulge. Read on if you dare. There we were. Playing a show in the basement of a library. We had launched into our new cover song, a mashup of The Dream Syndicate’s “The Days of Wine and Roses” and Tears for Fears “Mad World” (here in the waking world, this not our current cover). Just then I spotted someone leaving the show with my copy of The Royal Guardsmen “Snoopy vs The Red Baron” 45. Naturally I had to nab the culprit, so I passed my guitar to that “Max” kid from Roswell to takeover (unfortunately not John Doe). What does this all mean? I think it means that in 5 years when they make our biopic When I First Met You: The Story of The Fifty-Fifties, they’ll cast Jason Behr as myself. You laugh now, but you’d better start getting your casting suggestions in now!
I’ll come clean. I’ve never been in a band before. Well, unless you count the time I played bass with some fellow floormates in a collegiate talent show. I made as fine a job of nervously plucking my way through “I Melt with You” as someone who was nearly paralyzed with stage fright could, only to discover that the bass amp was never plugged in.
Sure, I’ve played guitar for years, but I was always too self-conscious to make any attempts at forming anything other than theoretical bands. No really, it’s true. For a year and a half I worked as a finish carpenter, and to wile away the hours on one particular soul-sucking job (installing 165 kitchen units in a “luxury loft” warehouse), my co-workers and I had come up with a bitchin’ band. We would be called Maximum Scribe and we were going to play noise dub. Needless to say, this project has yet to come to fruition.
But The 50/50′s aren’t like that. For starters, we really exist and play music in this plane of existance. We are just straightforward rudimentary rock and rollers. And we’re having fun. That is without a doubt the best part. The fun. Sure I was a little stressed out before our first show, but I quickly came to the realization that we were either going to play decently (which we more or less did) or we’d stumble and crash through songs and that would be that (a number of false starts, but I’ll be darned if we didn’t pretty much nail every song). Best of all, it was fun. All right, it also helped that I got to hide behind a monitor for most of the show, but I was right out there in the open for the second show. That second show went even better. In fact, you can listen to the amazing lo-fi monoaural recording of that very show right here on this site.
I’ll let you in on another secret. Coming up with your own material is awesome. You pretty much get to make stuff up as you go along. Sure it’s nice if there’s a recognizable transition from the verse to the chorus, and bonus points if you actually figure out a bridge. But hey, let’s not get too fancy.
Thanks to our amazing rhythm section, I’ve even been able to enter the world of “noodling”. Mind you, I’m never going to be one to shred out 64th-note arpeggio sweeps or drop off-the-wall fills, but I’ll keep it interesting and complimentary.
Closely related is the amazing discovery is that after you play a song so many times, you can definitely find your mind wandering. This is generally put right by finding new ways to voice chords or excursions around the relevant notes. It also gives new appreciation to seeing bands live. I can now completely relate to why some bands will never play the same set list twice. It would definitely keep things interesting.
Anyway, I’ll do my best to keep you filled in on all the wonderful revelations I experience as The 50/50′s progress. Why, in just a month’s time, we’ll be headed into the studio. Who knows what amazing mind expansion will happen there.
Indeed, we are The 50/50′s and we are here to have fun. No really, that is what is all about. That, and your basic primal garage rock. This is the place to hear our music, find out about upcoming shows, experience the discourse of the esteemed members of The 50/50′s, and quite possibly a whole lot more fun. Stay tuned, things are just getting started.
