Saturday, March 15, 2003

 
Happy Saturday everyone.

We did a little practicing and found we are getting tired of My Solution. What a surprise, neh? But pretty soon practices are going to get serious again and work is going to begin on Hang My Head and Rage, possibly Three Years Ago if we can get to it. And after we finish all the songs it's off to the studio to begin recording these wonderful masterpieces, and then it's Bitter to the entire world! Finally! It only took about a year, which is not so bad for a major studio recording.

Let's just hope My Solution doesn't take precedent over all the others...those of us on the inside have too strong a feeling about that song.

Keep it bitter.

Stranglebox: No hope, no future
posted by Josh 10:22 AM

Friday, March 14, 2003

 
Bitter is getting a little makeover.

The song These Chains is being moved out for now, after numerous rewrites. It will return on a later album, don't worry. But as of now, there's another song to be moved in about a thousand times more complete than Chains. The new one's prototype name is Forsaken and probably will not change. Strange that the first name of These Chains was forsaken, with different lyrics, of course. But this new one captures more of the feel of "bitterness" that this album is looking for.

Bitter is also going to have a musical piece called Three Years Ago, a mourn ballad that was writing itself since this morning began.

So comes the new list, as such:

Bitter
----------------------
I. All Fall Down
II. Rage
III. Forsaken
IV. After Memory Has Faded
V. Bitter
VI. Hang My Head
VII. Little Rhyme
VIII. Three Years Ago
IX. Faith In Nothing
X. My Solution
XI. Goodbye My Friend (bonus track)
posted by Josh 10:51 AM

Thursday, March 13, 2003

 
Practice sessions for this May gig are beginning now...at least we'll be well rehearsed.

The setlist includes three Stranglebox songs, Little Rhyme, the acoustical Goodbye My Friend, and My Solution. The setlist also includes John Lennon's Imagine, Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven, The Foo Fighters Everlong, Metallica's Unforgiven and a song called Walk Away, artist undetermined as of yet...we're thinking Dokken or Zebrahead, but the practices shall tell that tale.

I'm playing something or other on every song, mostly vocals and lead (I'm not sure why, but I was given both showoff jobs, that should be fun), whereas Alex is only playing on our songs and Everlong.

The set includes Brady on bass, two other guitarists named Aaron and David; David takes the skinpounder job on the ones that Alex doesn't. There's also a piano player for Imagine, although I have yet to hear anything about him. Brady is taking vocal prescedent on Unforgiven, the one I WANTED to do vocals on, jeez. And, of course, I'm all alone on Goodbye My Friend. And yes, I'll be on stage the entire time.

This is going to be great fun, and also the most tiring thing I've done in my life.

We'll see you at the concert. Keep it bitter.

Stranglebox: No hope, no future
posted by Josh 1:43 PM

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

 
The remaining two members of Stranglebox are going to be playing a fundraiser for Congregation Micah with a few others in May. Yes, sorry, I know it's seemingly stupid planning gigs three years ahead. But that's about all I have to talk about anyway.

Hey...
We need a bass player and lead guitarist. Any auditioners in the Nashville area, drop us a line at stranglebox@yahoo.com.

Keep it bitter.

Stranglebox: No hope, no future
posted by Josh 8:01 PM

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

 
Well guys, auditions are over. We didn't make it because of our lyrics, "too dark for the talent show". That made me snicker.

Later dates soon, see you around.

Stranglebox: No hope, no future
posted by Josh 10:14 AM

Sunday, March 09, 2003

 
And now a little Stranglebox Q&A, all the questions you never thought of that we wanted you to ask.

Stranglebox

How about a brief bio of the band?
We hail from a little town outside of Nashville in Tennessee. Right now we are a three-piece set, which consists of me, Josh, on rhythm and lead (though you won't actually hear me play it, but the albums say otherwise) guitar and lead vocals, Alex Blonder on drums and percussion, handling all those wonderful bone-crunching beats, and Tyler Schaub on bass, back-boning our little conflagration, although he is a bit more temporary than he expects...

How did you all meet?
School. Alex used to live down the street from me and we would jam every once in a while. It wasn't until recently we got our acts together and started writing songs. Tyler came along out of necessity, mostly, but he's been around for as long as I can remember.

So what is it about this song, My Solution?
My Solution is the first structured song I ever wrote for this band. Throughout the course of its existence the lyrics have undergone much metamorphosis, whereas the music has remained almost untouched, except for the occasional embellishment here and there. It is the expression of a dark cloud hanging over my head for a long period in my life, as are most of the songs on Bitter, our first release. It is the most special just because of all the time we put into recording it (four months of putting this damned thing together), and the long break it made us want thereafter, which we did give ourselves, and just the pride I get from hearing such a vision come to life.

Bitter? Stranglebox? Hellshined? What's the connection?
"Bitter" was a band name I came up with a long time ago, but it was later voted off as an album title by Alex, which was actually a great idea, so it has turned out. So Bitter fell to the wayside, whereafter I was sitting in my room with that dark cloud over my head and got the name Hellshined, the utter depressiveness that makes one even fear the touch of the sun, making it hell to come to the light, hence, Hellshined. But even after it had come to be the second name of a now, finally My Solutioned band, it was surrounded by my suspect of it being a name connotating the wrong kind of attentions we wanted. We're not a satanic crusader band by any stretch of the imagination, and thus we did not want to give way to such an idea. So goodbye Hellshined, you have come to be a song. And, of course, Stranglebox came to me in a dream about reading a friend's BLog and seeing a video of us on there, and beneath, a heading: Stranglebox, the best band alive!.

It shall never do to fight fate. Thus, we are Stranglebox.

So, how many songs do you have?
Ten for Bitter, countless others on standby for later albums.

Where have you guys played?
Nowhere yet.

...
Yes?

You call yourselves a real band?
Yes.

Where does the logo: No hope, no future come from?
It's from an article about a guy in Oregon, who defines a song on another album as a "stranglebox--with no hope, no future." And we liked it so much that we adopted it.

Can I get the demo cut of My Solution?
Do you wanna pay for it? CDs don't come cheap, you know. Email us at stranglebox@yahoo.com for more info on these type questions.

And that should be all for now, perhaps more detail when I'm not worried about our first show? Keep it bitter.

Stranglebox: No hope, no future


posted by Josh 1:51 PM