Here’s another live rehearsal, this time of song that Rebecca wrote that we’ve been playing forever. I re-arranged my guitar part a few years ago and this is the way we play it now. Ken sings backup vocals on the middle section–one of his first recorded vocals in a Beat Concrete context.
As with the other rehearsal tracks, the audio quality is as you’d expect from the built-in microphones on our lil’ Portastudio.
Note: If you’re using FireFox, you may need to right-click on the file and choose ‘Save Link As…’ to save the file to your computer. Clicking on the link may only play the beginning of the song.
I wrote this song before the economic downturn was fully in effect, but somehow it seems right for the times. This is our first good runthrough of the song, captured at rehearsal on 15 March.
We’ve started bringing a little portastudio to wherever we play so we can record the performance using its el cheapo built-in mics. Have a listen; hope to be playing it live for you soon.
Live the vocals would be mixed louder, but otherwise this is what we sound like live:
Note: If you’re using FireFox, you may need to right-click on the file and choose ‘Save Link As…’ to save the file to your computer. Clicking on the link may only play the beginning of the song.
Fun Fact: Originally, I called this song ‘75% Melancholy’ since that lyric is repeated a lot in the song. But ‘One Quarter Full’ captures the “optimism” of the song. I figure if you’re having one good day out of every four you’re actually doing pretty good.
Fun Fact II: I forgot a line during the runthrough. Here are the last four lines of the second verse so you can spot the flubbed line:
Less every year
The harder I try the deeper I delve
No one owns me
I can’t even afford myself
Beat Concrete is a little Northern California trio that plays original independent music that veers stylistically from rock to britpop to jazz to funk, sometimes in a single song. But it always sounds like Beat Concrete. We’re DIY all the way, firmly committed to operating by the seat of our pants.
The name ‘Beat Concrete’ was inspired by the experimental electronic musique concrete movement of the 50’s, with the philosophy that the band would make beat-driven music that was forward-thinking and thoughtful. Despite the French language reference, ‘concrete’ is pronounced American-style as in the word for ‘real’ or ‘cement’.
The band is composed of songwriter and guitarist/singer David Lee, bassist/singer Beki Li (who also writes), and drummer Ken Hardy (who also sings). Beat Concrete originally formed in Chico before splitting to explore San Francisco, the North Coast, and Europe and then reuniting in Chico to become a full-time band again in late 2008.
Beat Concrete plays gigs around the North State and is committed to making itself available for benefit appearances for worthy organizations.
David Lee
David sings and plays guitar and lots of other instruments. His main guitar is a Gretsch G6120 but he also plays Heritage H-150 and H-150 Les Pauls, a Jeff Beck Strat, a Reverend Wolfman, and a Rick Turner Model One through amps by Budda, Vox, and TopHat.
Beki Li
Beki sings and plays upright, fretless, and electric basses and keyboards. Live, she sings and plays bass, mainly her BSX Half-Note upright bass, which sounds totally phat. She plays Chapman Stick in her spare time.
Ken Hardy
Ken plays the drums really well. It’s almost like he’s had training. He also sings. He plays a Tama Swingstar set with about 10 cymbals.
We have a profile on the excellent ReverbNation service at www.reverbnation.com/beatconcrete that offers another way to stream tracks and keep track of our schedule.
On the social music site Uvumi, we’re at http://www.uvumi.com/#beatconcrete. Uvumi is small, independent site in Austin, Texas, run by musicians for musicians.
On StereoFame, the music site with a ‘game’ element where you can win prizes, we’re at http://www.stereofame.com/beatconcrete. From that link, you can sign up for StereoFame and support Beat Concrete by doing so.
