Severed Fifth

Unfortunately, Ben Gibbs is leaving Severed Fifth – we wish Ben all the best for the future.

As such we are now looking for a new drummer to join the band. We are out to have fun, write music and play shows, and we are looking for someone the same musical interests and outlook.

What we are looking for:

• Great technique – you blend together thrash and heavy metal drumming, have great double-kick technique and stamina.
• Flexible for rehearsals and shows – able to join rehearsals at least twice a week and available for playing shows.
• Available resources – you have all your own gear, are able to drive to practice and shows and able to contribute to the rent of our rehearsal space each month.
• Down with the ethos – Severed Fifth is a different kind of band – we give our music away for free and have a community that works together to help grow awareness of the band, you should be comfortable with this.
• Local – you should preferably be in the Oakland area.

Interested? Send Jono an email to jono AT severedfifth DOT com preferably with a link to some music online that demonstrates your playing. We look forward to hearing from you.

Just a quick heads up for you folks to let you know of two important events this week:

• Severed Fifth Video Update – today (23rd February 2011) at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UTC – I will be running a live and interactive video update to discuss the latest happenings in the band, in the Street Team, the latest studio news (we started recording at the weekend), and more! See it here!
• Street Team Meeting – Thu 24th February 2011 at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UTC – we will be hosting our weekly Street Team meeting in which we put together plans for the next week for growing our global Severed Fifth Street Team in preparation for the album and beyond! To join, simple join the chat channel – everyone is welcome!

I look forward to seeing you at these next two events!

Tonight we had another rehearsal in preparation for our upcoming live shows, and we had an absolutely awesome session. The songs really are coming together nicely, and the band is raging! We can’t wait to get out there and tip up the stage!

A bunch of folks who have been checking out the awesome Severed Fifth YouTube Channel have been wanting to take a peek into the studio, so here is a video I shot tonight of it. Enjoy!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel here!

Ron Crockett was the last member to join the Severed Fifth line-up, providing pounding, melodic, hair-swirling bass duties, reminiscent of Steve Harris from the mighty Maiden.

In this short video interview we talk to Ron about his take on the Severed Fifth music, his thoughts on bass playing and technique, and the fact he is a bank of weird and wonderful knowledge.

Don’t forget to join the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel to keep up to date with all the new videos!

Also, you can often find Ron in the Severed Fifth Chat Channel as roncrockett.

Ben Gibbs was the first other musician to join Severed Fifth, and under recommendation from Chris Kontos (ex Machine Head/Testament/Konkhra, now with Attitude Adjustment). Since he joined Ben has been providing a solid percussive machine, thumping double-bass drums, and plenty of interesting technique.

In this short video interview we talk about Ben’s background, his fave drummers, his views on Severed Fifth music and more!

Don’t forget to join the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel to keep up to date with all the new videos!

Jim Adams joined Severed Fifth recently, taking up guitar duties and bringing a ripping rhythm and lead style to the band. Jim has a long history in metal, playing with Defiance and putting out five albums with them.

In this short video interview we talk about Jim’s background, how he joined Severed Fifth, his influences and more.

Don’t forget to join the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel to keep up to date with all the new videos!

Also, you can often find Jim in the Severed Fifth Chat Channel as jimdefied.

Like any band, Severed Fifth needs some particular tools for us to make an awesome live experience, a live experience that begins on 1st Oct in Livermore, CA. At the Severed Fifth rehearsal studio in Oakland we have all the drums, guitars, amps, mics, and other elements that we need to rehearse for our live show, but we have struggled when it comes to a PA. The PA is the amp that the vocals and the kick drums go into.

When we started rehearsing, Jim (our guitarist) leant us a PA system he picked up on the cheap for $60 or so ages ago, but it has had a bunch of problems: tweeters not working, not very loud, humming and buzzing sounds, electrical shocks, and tonight it finally died. As such we are without a PA system, and as it slowly died it got quieter and quiter, making it hard for me to sing and I felt myself on the verge of blowing my voice out.

So, we need a new PA. This is where you folks come in: we are going to need your help to generate some money to pay for the PA system. We think we can pick up a decent system for the rehearsal space for $500-$600, and while we have some funds in the Severed Fifth account, we are going to need some more cash to get it. The challenge is: we need it pretty quick, as we have a gig coming up and currently no way of hearing my vocals and Ben’s kick drums at rehearsal.

So, we would like to ask the Severed Fifth community to donate whatever you can afford to help buy us a PA that we can use to rehearse for our live shows and take our Free Culture music out on the road.

Fortunately, donating is simple, anyone with a credit card can do it. To show our thanks, everyone who donates between now and when we generate enough money to buy the PA will be mentioned in a blog entry on severedfifth.com and will be mentioned on one of our Severed Fifth TV shows that I do.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE VIA SEVERED FIFTH FAIR PAY

Thanks, everyone!

On Saturday when were at our rehearsal room, the awesome Bungee Brent who is well known in the bay area for his stunning photography, came down to meet the band, get a feel for the music and take some shots. He spent some time at the rehearsal and then we headed out after we finished to take some shots at a nearby art installation. Brent sent us a few samples from the shoot, but we could not resist getting them online, so here are some examples:

Thanks for the photos, Brent!

Yesterday we had a rehearsal at our studio in Oakland and took a few videos to see how the tunes sounded. This was our very first full rehearsal with Ron as part of Severed Fifth, and only the third or fourth as a full band.

We figured it would be fun to take a couple of clips from the songs to give you an idea of how the live band is sounding. As ever, the quality of the audio is not great as it is just the microphone on a FlipCam, but it gives you a good idea of how the band is starting to become a tighter and tighter unit. I am absolutely stoked with the progress and each rehearsal is sounding crisper and crisper, and we are now actively sheening the songs to prepare for a ripping live performance.

To keep up to date with the vids, be sure to subscribe to the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel!

Enjoy!

Chris Kontos, who is currently playing with Attitude Adjustment has a long career playing with established metal bands. He played on Machine Head’s hugely successful first album Burn My Eyes, and has played with Testament, Konkhra, Attitude Adjustment, Exodus, Verbal Abuse, Custard Pie, Anti Trust, The Servants, Dog Faced Gods, Death Angel, Grinch and with James Murphy.

Ben and I went along to see Chris play with Attitude Adjustment in San Francisco and he played the full gig in a Severed Fifth t-shirt:

Chris has had quite the hand in helping Severed Fifth – he put me in touch with Jim Adams (Guitar) and Ben Gibbs (Drums) and he has been incredibly supportive of everything we are doing. Thanks, Chris!