Ellie Thornton Music

Album of the week

Purple Onion – The Les Claypool Frog Brigade

It was released on the 24th of September 2002.

The label it was released under is called Prawn Song Record.

It followed two other live releases by the band, and it is the first release of the Frog Brigade’s original compositions, while the brigade regulars are consistent on the majority of the record such as Jay Lane, Eenor, Skerik and the new percussionist Mike “Tree Frog” Dillon many special guests appear on the album as well!

The Album totals within 56 minutes in length and its genre is Experimental Rock.

My favourite track on the album would have to be either ‘Whamola’ and or ‘Ding Dong’.

‘Whamola‘ was a live show staple and the song was eventually named after the unique instrument that Les employs- it’s a one stringed bass played with a drum stick, which enables him to achieve some pretty cool sounds with just one string.

It features a single string which is manipulated via a pulley-and-lever system, the pulley mechanism is mounted in place of the tuning pegs at the top of a double-bass-style neck, which is attached to a wooden or metal body featuring a bridge, pickup and stand. The Whamola is played by hitting the string with a drum stick and either fretting it against the neck with the other hand or using the lever to alter its tension and change the pitch.

The song then later appeared as the theme for South Park’s Season 10 and on wards, it was remixed with the other song primus made for them also which keeps the authenticity for older fans!

Purple Onion was released on vinyl for the first time on the 24th of November, 2009.

I like this album because it allows Les Claypool to unleash his and vent his madness fluently and it goes without saying that it definitely to pleased his hardcore fans to this very day. His work isn’t as near edgy enough or the same level of his works with Primus but it’s like a well needed breath of fresh air!

Wednesday The 3rd of October 2018

Today we only had half a day to get things done because the college had a open evening, so we only came in for rehearsal, well I did at least because my guitar teacher was at a funeral and I teach myself Bass with some special help from Chris on the side.

Rehearsal was a bit heated as me and the lead guitarist are having a bit of a petty argument over whats going on in the sessions, etc and how I am acting up, which I’m not which is fun times. Apart from that I worked to the best of my abilities whilst feeling like absolute garbage on the side, I felt like I was at fault and I was bringing the drummer and the singer down because me being silent and his bad mood.

After rehearsal, Chris saw my email about him and that was fun, I understand that Chris is a very busy guy at the moment so I just let it play out. But I knew that talking to him and showing him what’s going on would be ten times better than me being sad.

But after that fun was sorted out and Chris cheered me up a bit, I went home and got myself ready to go and help out at the Henry Cort open evening in their music department considering Ben (Mr Chilcott) helped me get as far as I am now in college. Chris and I agreed also that I should come back in on Friday to sort out my basses action out so its a lot easier to maintain so that should be fun also!

Tuesday The 2nd of October 2018

We went over ‘Mercy’ by Duffy in rehearsal today by request of our singer, it’s a Pop Soul song so its fun for her to sing as it’s within her vocal range and she likes the style as well, personally I think it suits her perfectly. The bass line is fun to play around with because the song follows a 12-bar blues progression and it compliments the vocals and the keys also, the drums are pretty laid back and simple but it is just what the song needs to make the impact that it does.

In composition, Chris had to go deal with an issue, so one of the HNC’s ran then class. We started a new 30 second piece based on a washing machine which was interesting, I’m still getting used to Logic X so it was fairly difficult to get into, but I will be sure to improve it before I have to submit it in to Chris. I’ve started off with imitating the sound and the motion of a washing machine on the drums to give it that chugging feel, but I can only get better and it will come together eventually.

After composition, we had Pop Music in Practice with Jason which is always fun times for both parties. My other band mates started to do an analysis of ‘Mercy’ by Duffy but I was still doing my break down of ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ by Bon Jovi, so I was incredibly confused with what I was doing but I didn’t want to frustrate my peers and or interrupt Jason, so I chose to listen in and make a few notes on the song and kept my struggle to myself.

After lunch we had rehearsal again, so we proceeded to go over the structure of ‘Mercy’ which is always fun to do at the end of the day. But we eventually called it a day because we didn’t know our parts incredibly well and we were all getting frustrated and hardwired to self destruct.

Starting from the 1st of October 2018, Weekly Instrumental Diary

Starting from the 1st of October 2018, Weekly Rehearsal Diary

Dorset & Hants 2018, Bournemouth Littledown Centre Gym

On the 29th of September, I competed for the second time this year and I’ve improved in the span of seven months from a Bronze to now a Gold and a Silver. I train with my team on Monday and Thursday evenings, and occasionally Wednesdays if i can get there after college.

Monday the 1st of October 2018

During theory this morning, music business, which consisted of going over our Job Roles within the Music Industry when it comes to Live music.

As previously mentioned, I based my work upon one of Primus’ live gigs and that went very well, Chris enjoyed it but to further improve it he told me to add which role I’d part take within and even consider doing in the future, my report can be found under the Music Business section on my blog!

After this we had rehearsal until lunch which was alright I suppose, we went over the set list which I’m not to happy with what we are playing. We were told by Chris and Jason that our set has to be more than four genres to be considered acceptable, but at the moment the songs we have are ‘I Want You Back’, ‘Mercy’, ‘Sex On fire’ and ‘Chelsea Dagger’. The first two songs are alright as we can really express ourselves but the other two Rock songs aren’t the best for showing our capabilities, so I’m probably going to ask Chris to come and suggest something else and talk some sense into our guitarist because I don’t have the nerve.

Then we had lunch which was alright, I went to the library and decided to finish up some work as I’m like that and I tend to take a lot of pride within my craft ever since secondary which is nice to see that every thing has transferred over without having Ben by my side.

At the end of the day we had rehearsal again so we went through ‘Chelsea Dagger’, my enthusiasm was lacking whilst playing this and the guitarist soon picked up on this and starting calling me a ‘slacker’ and kept saying that I was ‘slacking’ which cheesed me off. This then resulted in the session ending early which is never okay, so next time I’ll be sure to be more assertive and take control and dominance within the rehearsal sessions.

Album of the week

I don’t know if I’ll keep up with a weekly pace but I’m going to try post a new album I find every week!

This week it will have to be one of my favourite Primus albums that I’ve indulged myself within the past couple of months.

The Desaturating Seven – Primus

It was released on the 29th of September 2017, making the album just more than a year old today.

The labels it was released under are, ATO Records and Prawn Song Records.

It’s the ninth studio album by the American group Primus, it is also the bands first album of original material since their album released within 2011 called Green Naugahyde. And it is also the first LP featuring with the original drummer Tim Alexander since 1995 when they released Tales from the Punchbowl.

The Desaturating Seven is a concept album based on the children’s book The Rainbow Goblins, written by Italian author of children’s books, Ul de Rico. This is also explicitly shown within the colourful album cover which is personally one of my favourites!

The album has been noted as a stylistic change for Primus especially within comparison to their previous works. The album explores more or less the traditional aspects of progressive rock, it’s more or less tailored for fans of Primus in general or those into prog rock with a fun twist, because of the fun childish story to follow throughout the album takes play.

The constant use of panning throughout the majority of the tracks helps to create the surreal feeling Primus were always aiming for. Layering also helps this too because without a doubt something is always happening during a pause and or a build up to something big within the story they’re telling about the The Desaturating Seven!

The band consists of a standard prog rock line up in which being Bass, Guitar, Drums, keys and a hell of a lot of effects such as delay and distortion where it best seeks fit on the tracks.

The track, ‘The Seven’ definitely sets the fun mood for the whole album as it’s more or less an introduction to the seven Goblins that are presented to us on the album cover.

But overall, I think it’s one of Primus’ most creative albums along with ‘Sailing the Seas of Cheese’ and ‘Fizzle Fry’, but if you have the time I high recommending to this album for the sheer creativity of it!

Wednesday The 26th of September 2018

Nothing much happened today, our vocalist wasn’t in again so we couldn’t properly go through our set list and or discuss new songs to play in the future. So instead in rehearsal we played through the songs we have already a few times then proceeded to wait for our instrumental lessons.

Whilst waiting I caught up on some set work and typed up notes for class until the fire alarm went off, everyone then had to go wait outside until we were given the all clear which is always fun times.

In my Guitar lesson we went over a few scales such as the Major Pentatonic and the Blues scale, it was frustrating at first as I keep switching between bass and guitar a lot more than I usually did when I was at secondary school, playing around more than 4 strings was odd and playing with a plectrum is also hard to adjust to also.

Also, within the afternoon I had Music Theory with Chris, we went over the bass clef (the Man Clef) and the treble clef, time signatures again and also Chris’ special tree of justice which is the note division chart but a quality edition.

Tuesday The 25th of September 2018

Yesterday evening I couldn’t find an awful amount of time to practice as I was training within Brazilian Jiu Jitsu because I’m competing on Saturday for the second time professionally this year considering I have just started the martial art.

Keeping that in mind, when I got into Rehearsal today I picked up the bass line fairly fast and yet again the bass line is walking just like the one from ‘I Want You Back’.

Our female singer wasn’t about on the day as she picked up tonsillitis, however our male singer was about and he gave it ago; but at the end of the day he got moved out of band by Chris because he needed to form 4 bands so we worked through that like pros and just continued going through the structure as a trio.

In the morning also, we did composition with Chris we had to compose a 30 second piece based upon a news theme, that was fun to do; it was mainly to get us used to the new programme, it was a great starting point for everyone it was difficult at first but I soon got into the swing of things.

After Composition, we had theory with Jason, I went over my Pop Music in practice notes and made sure I was up to date with everything Jason wanted, I’ll be sure to add more as we progress in the future by analysing the arrangement of the the new songs we’ve learn’t so far!

After lunch, we had rehearsal again which is always a laugh, we went over the arrangement for ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’ and as a band we got roughly about half of it down without the singer which is fairly impressive, but I know we can do better in the future!