When I got the gig playing lead in Mancie in December, I was a bit unsure if I could do it right after ten years removed from my last alternative rock project, Cargo Culte. I had some ideas that I wanted to use, namely I had fallen in love with Joy Division over the years and I heard an element of PJ Harvey, who I like a lot, in Mancie’s music so these were touchstones. But you don’t want to sound like a pastiche of all the coolest and most successful bands from ten, twenty, or thirty years ago, do you? Amazing how Joy Division stills sounds modern after almost forty years, heh heh…
I made lead sheets for all the songs, an eight song set that we would play at Arlene’s Grocery. A bump in the road came when I found that a bunch of the songs were recorded in Eb and the rest in E Standard tuning although the band plays in Eb on stage. I corrected my charts and used a standard tuned Telecaster to practice those tunes and an SG tuned a half step down for the others. I was working off of mp3s and using headphones – the internet age! – not my favorite way to practice but I’m getting used to it…
While I was working up the songs, one that gave me trouble initially was “Happiness (Everything is Everything).” I got the skronking punk/funk rhythm idea, but where to go with the chorus, which had these big, slow chords? I finally hit upon the idea to play the chords as octaves and move them in an upwards direction instead of down. I also did a kind of tremolo, repeated note picking on the octaves. (see video above) I also took over the lead at the end, which Andrea had been scorching with a wah-wah pedal. That's me, Andrea Fischman on guitar and vocals, Mark Feldman on drums, and Sharon Fischman on bass, L-R.
“Fire Away” (see video below) is one that I had a hard time getting into the groove with, that is until I started to double the huge melody in the chorus. I went for a Mick Ronsonesque, sexy bent-note glam type of thing, a kind of thing that I love. That style could carry through to the bridge, as well, where there is a jaunty power chord stomp that includes a major scale riff leading back to the next phrase. Very Mott the Hoople, one of my favorite bands. At least in my interpretation…
There were some cool effects on Andrea’s record, using wah-wah, delay, flanging maybe but definitely some modulation effects. I ultimately decided on a Maxon Chorus, Carbon Copy Analog Delay, Fulltone OCD Overdrive Pedal and Boss Tuner. I don’t like to use too many effects if I can get away with it because I think it can dilute the overall tone. No more than six unless it’s a three hour, cover gig.
The piece de resistance was my Marshall JCM 900 50 Watt Head which I had just gotten completely tuned up. The question of course would be how to set it. My initial temptation was to set the master volume very high and the gain and preamp low but that seemed a little too clean although totally beautiful. It was also ungodly loud. I then moved the master down and the preamp up. There was a rainbow of tone in there, just all kinds of nuances – gritty, smooth overdrive, crunch and all the different colors of the guitar came through. I use all three pickup positions – it was a 2014 Gibson SG “Standard ’61,” – and each setting on the guitar sounded very different. What a pleasure! Unfortunately, the sound mix left something to be desired, unusual for Arlene’s Grocery. All in all a really fun gig though, and a great experience! -Christian Botta
On Practicing Guitar 
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