Sorry Anyway

Tue, 13 Sep 2016 05:00:00 -0700

New Single “Sorry Anyway” Released

Where to find it

It still hasn’t appeared on Google Play as far as we can see. We’ll post an update to this page when we know more!

Thanks!

Another huge thanks to the same crew that helped us produce our first single, Better Than Perfect - Marquinho, Jara, and Stephen at Moondog, Mike from Mike Wells Mastering, and Dan Ring who arranged the horns on this tune!

First Single

Mon, 15 Aug 2016 05:00:00 -0700

We’ve released our first single!

Where to find it

If you are having trouble finding us at the place where you stream or purchase music, let us know!

Thanks!

A special thanks goes out to Marquinho, Jara, and Stephen at Moondog, Mike from Mike Wells Mastering, and Dan Ring who arranged the horns on this tune!

2015 in Review

Wed, 30 Dec 2015 04:00:00 -0800

It’s hard for me to believe, but on this date last year, The Jilters had yet to play our first show. I’d just finished mixing a demo that we recorded in Chris’ spare bedroom. Chris and Chuck had been working the material for awhile but I barely knew it to be honest. For most songs, I was improvising my bass lines from a lead sheet during the recording. What a difference a year makes!

Thirty Two Songs

In 2015, we performed at least thirty two songs live: twenty two originals and ten covers. It was an ambitious effort to get that many tunes prepared in a year. Many of them have taken turns in surprising directions since we first performed them. I can only assume that they’ll continue to develop in unexpected ways as we add horns and begin our first studio recording.

Originals

Smirk or Smile
Better Than Perfect
Again
Sorry Anyway
Anti-Muse
Go Home Joe
Cog
Sunset
To Continue
Messes
Stranded
Either Way
Subject of Your Whims
At All
Walking on the Left Hand Side
Better Man
Send It Back
It’s All on Me
More Complicated
Perfect Atmosphere
Ransom
We’re All Done

Covers

Never There - Cake
Lean On Me - Bill Withers
Get Lucky - Daft Punk
Eminence Front - The Who
Higher Ground - Stevie Wonder
Chameleon - Herbie Hancock
Let’s Stay Together - Al Green
Take the Money and Run - Steve Miller Band
Norwegian Wood - Beatles
King of Pain - The Police

Two Band Members

We’ve added Mike Chong on guitar and Jeff Worrall on trumpet. Mike brings much needed texture and rhythm support to the tunes while Jeff has formed the nucleus of the soon-to-be-world-renowned Jilters Horn Section (watch out Tower of Power).

Twelve Shows

We played our first twelve shows at eight different venues in San Francisco, Alameda, and Hayward in 2015.

Hotel Utah
Rooster’s Roadhouse
Otis Owlapalooza
The Fireside
The Bistro
50 Mason Social House
The Milk Bar
McGee’s

Our first show was opening for Stage 11 at Hotel Utah. That gig caused a frantic scramble because we booked it a week beforehand only to realize that we didn’t have a promo pic, bio, website, stage plot, or really anything that we needed to actually function as a working band. The peak of this chaos was getting together at Lucky 13 and shooting a promo pic with a phone borrowed from the bartender using a random patron as the photographer (Thanks Patrick!). Somehow everything worked out in the end. We still follow Diego and company on Facebook and are looking forward to their upcoming album.

The week leading up to our second show was equally crazy. We booked a date at Rooster’s Roadhouse without enough material to play for the entire evening. This meant we had to find other bands. We had a friend, James Riddle who was a perfect opener but didn’t know anybody else to call. In the end, being the nerd that I am, I built a spreadsheet of almost 400 bands who had played recently in the Bay Area. For each of them, I tracked down a recording and scored them based on how they fit with us musically. We whittled it down to our top 10 choices and Sad Tires were the first to respond. After we had things lined up, Chris had a bit of a panic attack over the fact that we’d never actually met them or seen them live. We’d based the decision on nothing more than a couple of tracks posted to SoundCloud. Luckily, it ended up being a good call. Sad Tires rocked the place, and we later had the pleasure of playing with Scott and Kyle’s other (equally awesome) band, The Old Folks.

After the first two shows, booking and performing shows went a bit more smoothly but there are plenty of stories we’d be happy to tell over a beer or two if you’re interested. Ask about Hayward if you really want to hear the good stuff…

Looking Forward to 2016

The first order of business for 2016 will be to hit the studio and start recording. We’ll likely record and release singles or an EP first as opposed to immediately diving into a full LP. We’ll still be playing shows while we work on recording but it might be at a slightly slower clip early in the year. Expect to see us at McGees in February and and a yet to be determined venue in San Francisco sometime shortly afterwards. Like our Facebook page or join our mailing list so we can reach you as we know more.

Thanks for making 2015 a special year for The Jilters!

Horn Player Update

Sun, 15 Nov 2015 04:00:00 -0800

The Jilters are thrilled to announce the addition of Jeff Worrall to the band on trumpet! Jeff is an amazing player with a masters in trumpet performance who has a background playing everything from jazz to hip hop. We’re thrilled to have him on board.

We’re still seeking alto and tenor saxophone so please contact us to audition! We have a bunch of charts ready to go. We’re ready to hit the studio the second we have the horn section filled out.

To schedule an audition, just e-mail thejilters@gmail.com.

Sunset - Sample Charts (pdf)

Audio

Horn Players Wanted

Sun, 11 Oct 2015 05:00:00 -0700

The Jilters are seeking horn players to complete our sound. We have a number of songs professionally charted and ready to play. All songs are charted for trumpet, tenor sax, and alto sax. We currently have open spots for trumpet and tenor but if you play alto, we’d still love to hear from you. We will certainly need subs from time to time. To schedule an audition, e-mail thejilters@gmail.com.

Sunset - Sample Charts (pdf)