I don't know any bands that practice for eight hours a week. I also don't know any bands that have become successful, so maybe there is a lesson in that, but seriously, I have never met a band that practiced that much ever. Maybe like, the Philharmonic Orchestra.

Practising for eight hours as an individual I could understand. But as a band!?

A few months ago, one of the members of Deerhoof posted in a local (SF Bay Area) music forum looking for a shared rehearsal space for Deerhoof.

He said he was looking for a situation where Deerhoof could use the space between 8AM and 5PM every day.

Angus Jung wrote:A few months ago, one of the members of Deerhoof posted in a local (SF Bay Area) music forum looking for a shared rehearsal space for Deerhoof.

He said he was looking for a situation where Deerhoof could use the space between 8AM and 5PM every day.

I have been in several bands that proved you do not always use practice space for practicing.

Just sayin'.

Not being from the UK, I obviously don't know a lot about the state of music over there, but I will say this:

The U.S. has a lot of great bands. We have a lot of really awful bands, too. I'm not sure how the ratio of good bands to bad bands compares to that of the U.K., but I can't imagine it's too terribly different.

And, as far as 8 hours per week of practice - yeah, that seems kind of excessive. But, then, there are some musicians who are in multiple bands (and, for instance, the person who mentioned Deerhoof - I know all four of those guys have multiple bands, so requiring a lot of rehearsal time doesn't surprise me) where 8 hours just wouldn't be enough time to write and rehearse every week.

My band has 2 practices a week that usually totals somewhere between 3 and 5 hours of rehearsal.

I know the members of Deerhoof, and I can tell you that Deerhoof practices 8 hours a day when they are able to.

I believe it. John used to live in Minneapolis, and I'm disappointed that I'm not going to be able to see him/them on Friday.

Champion Rabbit wrote:I also wondered whether perhaps A&R in the US is more concerned with technical competence than UK A&R is? Perhaps the greater popularity of AOR in the US inspires a greater focus from US record companies on whether the band can actually play well or not...

Well I'll be damned. Arab On Radar influencing US A&R swine.

Think lack of competence is possibly hangover from days of old when such a thing was synonymous with punk and something to be excessively proud of. Still, have seen great many extremely competent UK bands, usually playing music their own way so have developed own competence (i.e. not fudgy powerchords and so forth).

Kill Yourself, for instance. Competent as hell.

Champion Rabbit wrote:

davidpye wrote:Yes you're right, but you proved the other side of my points. Which are not the points I was getting at.

I say, lets agree to disagree. No love lost hey rabbit?

So you're saying that I'm right and you are wrong?

Cool!

No.

Difference of opinions thats all.

davidpye wrote:
No.

Difference of opinions thats all.

Yah, I was funnying, non?