Guella: Rehearsal scratchwork and works in progress

Location: San Francisco, CA

Rarely is a band as loose as when it is rehearsing with no audience. This is a place for us to share some stuff from our weekly rehearsals. We keep these recordings mostly so we can listen back to what we've been playing, but everyone is welcome to what we've got here. Some tracks represent works in progress or songs in various stages of development, while others document really nice moments of improvised music. All these recordings are done single-take and live, recorded with stereo ambient mics and a mic'ed PA. there are no overdubs or studio trickery, and there is very little post-production. dig.

November 1, 2010 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
FirstJam >
Gato Negro >
Doom		 8:20 >
9:06 >
6:34		 The black cat has provided a lot of great space for improvisation over the years, and has recently taken on a new life. The slide down into Doom, a newer member of the repertoire, felt just right.

September 27, 2010 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
Ghouls and Goblins >
Jam in Gm >
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere		 7:34 >
6:34 >
3:56		 Ghouls and Goblins is tantalizingly open-ended. We never thought we'd end up on EKTIN, but were happy when we did.

July 7, 2010 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
In The Meantime >
Jam in A >
Gato Negro		 4:00 >
5:38 >
7:31		 Sometimes you just don't want to end a song the way you normally do.

November 30, 2009 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
Jam in F >
The Corner		 6:47 >
6:38		 The first 14 minutes of a 45 minute jam. The moments of quiet are some of the best parts in this section.

September 16, 2009 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
Raincoat >
Jam in C >
2001		 4:53 >
4:35 >
3:51		 Raincoat was still being workshopped. Somewhere after the song ended we stopped worrying so much about playing the song and started to play music. Everything clicked into place. This jam kept us buoyant for weeks on end.

July 14, 2009 (The Audio Box, San Francisco, CA)

Song Length Notes
FirstJam > Fearlessly 12:05 > 6:31 We usually start rehearsals with a free-form improvisation, just to warm up and open up our ears. This warmup segued cleanly into Fearlessly.
Gumbo > Spacemen 6:09 > 11:20 Interesting things start happening when you don't give up on the jam. Lots of good interaction and communication here.