Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Music Project and Bass Guitar
For anyone that knows me well..which is barely anyone, I've had a very unsuccessful music project called, "Them." Well, maybe a few people know it. Anyway, I never really decided on what direction to take it and I'm contemplating it right now. I've been on a recent binge of glorifying my bass guitar since in recent times I laid down the bass to pursue drumming. I didn't seriously think about playing the bass for quite sometime I was only trying to glorify the drums. I still enjoyed playing bass just not as much as before. That came from a lack of understanding what possibilities you could actually get out of the bass guitar and for so long I thought that every bass player wanted to be someone like, Les Claypool or Flea. That all there was to bass was complex placements of slaps and thumps. So, I strayed away from it when I started paying more attention to drummers, Dale Crover and Dave Lombardo.
One thing I've always found unique about myself that I'm sure other would find self-indulgence is that I face the fact I'm not an expert towards anything so that forces me to ask questions that wouldn't typically go together naturally with something. An example of this was when I read about in the early days of grunge, Dave Grohl would use his floor tom as a rack tom. I thought that was awesome and I couldn't think of any band this day and age that did that as far as I'd heard of. So, I took root and set out to accomplish that. Afterward I ended up with a 16" floor tom for my rack and a 18" floor tom. This left my kick drum awkwardly proportioned to the two drums. So, I go bigger and get a 26" kick drum and turn my old 24" kick drum into a flow tom, throw in a 19" and 20" crash, a 24" China, 24" ride and 14" high hat. Boom surely there are bigger sets but, this was mine and I loved it.
Earlier this year I began to play bass for my friends Kevin's band Robo. I picked up the bass once again, a little rusty at first but, I think I'm back at the potential I use to play at. I started paying more attention to styles like Jared Warren, Greg Anderson and Steve Tanner, who all prominently used Sunn O))) amps. I had a pretty decent bass cabinet from Kustom and a Peavy head with an octave controller build into it so I could easily shatter windows but, I wanted to begin to do more than just piss my mom off by being loud. I wanted to develop some character to my bass rig and get some unique tone and distinction. It started slow at first but in the past 2 weeks I've really started to roll with it. I played my first show with a Boss overdrive pedal and a a small 80 watt orange solid bass amp. It was loud and distorted and apparently caught the ears of some leach the was playing after us because he wanted to use my stuff. Second show, we did I used the big 650 watt Kustom and the Peavy head and by mistake left the octave switch on so the whole room shook. It wasn't until the end of the set I realized this was on when some members of a former local group we played with frequently said my bass was killer and I was a good addition to the band. I won't mention the third show I was playing like shit that night and the whole show was going to Hell.
I "studied" what pedals and equipment bands such as Boris and Sunn O))) used and also some stuff of Trevor Dunn's and listened to quite a number of their albums back and forth and picked and chose what kind of pedal board I wanted to set up. With the help of YouTube I got to hear these things in action and it helped me determine what I would start to build. I've been itching to play another show recently because I've been indulging these urges of progressing my bass skills and sound. I am now the proud owner of a Sunn O))) Beta Bass Head a solid state amp that is loud as fuck, and I couldn't be happier. I still have the Kustom cabinet but, hope to get a big old Ampeg. Just a few days ago I bought the bass to end all basses I hope to ever need which was a Rickenbacker model Diamond with active pick ups from my friend Juan Montoya. As far as pedals I've got a long way to go but, so far I still use my Digi-tech Whammy pedal and Boss overdrive and added a Dearmond Weeper with a stand Big Muff Pi. I plan to expand this board as I progress and will slowly reveal my master pedal board to achieve all the sound I choose to accomplish with them. No pun intended.
Here's what I often consider one of the best tracks I recorded in the early days of Them.
There's Something at My Window by Them
One thing I've always found unique about myself that I'm sure other would find self-indulgence is that I face the fact I'm not an expert towards anything so that forces me to ask questions that wouldn't typically go together naturally with something. An example of this was when I read about in the early days of grunge, Dave Grohl would use his floor tom as a rack tom. I thought that was awesome and I couldn't think of any band this day and age that did that as far as I'd heard of. So, I took root and set out to accomplish that. Afterward I ended up with a 16" floor tom for my rack and a 18" floor tom. This left my kick drum awkwardly proportioned to the two drums. So, I go bigger and get a 26" kick drum and turn my old 24" kick drum into a flow tom, throw in a 19" and 20" crash, a 24" China, 24" ride and 14" high hat. Boom surely there are bigger sets but, this was mine and I loved it.
Earlier this year I began to play bass for my friends Kevin's band Robo. I picked up the bass once again, a little rusty at first but, I think I'm back at the potential I use to play at. I started paying more attention to styles like Jared Warren, Greg Anderson and Steve Tanner, who all prominently used Sunn O))) amps. I had a pretty decent bass cabinet from Kustom and a Peavy head with an octave controller build into it so I could easily shatter windows but, I wanted to begin to do more than just piss my mom off by being loud. I wanted to develop some character to my bass rig and get some unique tone and distinction. It started slow at first but in the past 2 weeks I've really started to roll with it. I played my first show with a Boss overdrive pedal and a a small 80 watt orange solid bass amp. It was loud and distorted and apparently caught the ears of some leach the was playing after us because he wanted to use my stuff. Second show, we did I used the big 650 watt Kustom and the Peavy head and by mistake left the octave switch on so the whole room shook. It wasn't until the end of the set I realized this was on when some members of a former local group we played with frequently said my bass was killer and I was a good addition to the band. I won't mention the third show I was playing like shit that night and the whole show was going to Hell.
I "studied" what pedals and equipment bands such as Boris and Sunn O))) used and also some stuff of Trevor Dunn's and listened to quite a number of their albums back and forth and picked and chose what kind of pedal board I wanted to set up. With the help of YouTube I got to hear these things in action and it helped me determine what I would start to build. I've been itching to play another show recently because I've been indulging these urges of progressing my bass skills and sound. I am now the proud owner of a Sunn O))) Beta Bass Head a solid state amp that is loud as fuck, and I couldn't be happier. I still have the Kustom cabinet but, hope to get a big old Ampeg. Just a few days ago I bought the bass to end all basses I hope to ever need which was a Rickenbacker model Diamond with active pick ups from my friend Juan Montoya. As far as pedals I've got a long way to go but, so far I still use my Digi-tech Whammy pedal and Boss overdrive and added a Dearmond Weeper with a stand Big Muff Pi. I plan to expand this board as I progress and will slowly reveal my master pedal board to achieve all the sound I choose to accomplish with them. No pun intended.
Here's what I often consider one of the best tracks I recorded in the early days of Them.
There's Something at My Window by Them
The Bride Screamed for A Small Turn of Human Kindness
The Melvins is a band who appreciates their fans way more than they let on to. They come out with a lot of goodies to keep their fans mouths wet with ambition, they tour at least once a year, and since 2006 have released a new album every two years at the beginning of the Summer. It was no doubt that the new release (the Bride Screamed Murder) was sure to not disappoint me or the rest of their fans. But, another favorite band of mine scheduled an unexpected release of their own. My home states native Athenians, Harvey Milk came out with A Small Turn of Human Kindness. Even though, I heard the Melvins album a whole month before I did Harvey Milks release. After much thought I actually prefer Harvey Milk's release over the Melvins' this time. The Bride Screamed Murder has all the formulas in which you would expect out of a Melvins song: scratchy guitar, fuzz drenched bass, and abnormal drum sequences. Talented is too little a word for it. But, as far as Harvey Milk's release I keep constantly referring to it as an unofficial score to theatrical movie. To be honest it reminds me of Melvins album Lysol, I think why there is so much appeal. Though they split the tracks up to be able to skip on the album there's no real need to the songs run together like it's a musical or one large track. Harvey Milk is a band that makes me proud to be a Georgian.
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