Archive for 2009 - Page 2

Gene Simmons of KISS is being sued for allegedly attacking a couple in a shopping mall in Los Angeles. The couple, Nathan Marlowe and Cynthia Manzo, allege that Simmons “responded negatively” after Marlowe began video taping him and asking him about monogamy. Marlowe claims that Gene Simmons took their camera, then choked and head butted him as well as shouted...

Bassist Jack Bruce and guitarist Robin Trower performed material from their “Seven Moons” album during concert at the Concertgebouw De Vereeniging in Nijmegen, Netherlands. This is the title track from the album, available in both CD and DVD releases.

Former Queens of the Stone Age bassist Nick Oliveri’s Death Acoustic tour starts next month, throughout the U.S. east coast. West coast shows will follow later in the year. East coast tour dates: Jan 22: Middle East in Cambridge MA Jan 23: Pianos in New York NY Jan 24: Khyber in Philadelphia PA Jan 25: Velvet Lounge in Washington DC...

An interview with Lemmy Kilmister of the legendary band Motörhead, shot earlier in the year at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in Hollywood, has been posted by Reality Check TV. Motörhead is scheduled to get into the studio in February to create a new album, which will be a follow-up to their last album, Motörizer. Also recently released was Motörhead:...

Here’s Christian McBride performing his version of the Weather Report tune “Boogie Woogie Waltz”. McBride said Weather Report used to close their shows with this tune, before “Birdland”. You can hear this tune and others on McBride’s album.

Godin Guitars, based out of Montreal, has announced that they will be showing their new bass models, the A4 and A5 SA, at the 2010 winter NAMM show. The models are available as fretted or fretless and in 4- and 5-string versions, but most interesting is the “synth access.” Each bass comes equipped with individual saddle transducers at the bridge,...

Heather Bloomgren of Wichita, Kansas got a very special present this year. Heather has been making a concerted effort to get her favorite band, Level 42, to make an appearance in the United States by creating a Facebook page, and also making a string of funny and interesting YouTube videos. Level 42, a band from the UK driven by singer...

Holy moly, this is the good stuff… Stanley Clarke and Steve Gadd laying down one mean groove, mostly to the Clarke tune “Silly Putty”, and a few other hits.

When we kicked off this site about eight months ago, we set out to connect with bassists around the globe, and cover the news, lessons, and features we thought they’d enjoy. It has been an amazing ride so far. We’ve made many new friends, thanks to Twitter and Facebook. We’ve been lucky to be associated with the best contributors around....

Q: My question is about how to stay healthy. I find when I practice too much or play a particular song that has a lot of notes, my hands and wrists get sore. I know that singers warm up their voice, I usually run through some scales when I am tuning and setting up just to limber my fingers. I...

Check out bassist Neftali Lopez‘s adaptation of Tony Levin’s stick part from the Liquid Tension Experiment tune “Universal Mind”. Neftali is playing this on his six string bass with a Phaser (BOSS ME-50B multieffects) and the bridge pickup at 75%, to make sound similar to a Stick. Check out more on Neftali on his MySpace page.

Meet Brian Derek, our player in the spotlight for December 22nd, 2009. Bio: I studied at Berklee for a few semesters in the ’70’s playing/composing jazz. I have done every type gig imaginable and recorded many independent record/cd projects (a favorite of mine is “The Warning” w/Rory Pastorius in 1986); performed with Pat Metheny, Peter Erskine, Randy Bernsen, Jack Pastorius...