Archive for November 2014 - Page 8

Many Americans got their first look at singer/songwriter/bassist Suzi Quatro when she appeared on the hit TV show “Happy Days” several times between 1977 and 1979 as rock-and-roll singer Leather Tuscadero. But the Detroit native, while relatively unheralded in the U.S., was already a superstar in Europe, and had number 1 hits in the UK. She didn’t top the charts...

When I first saw this submission for Reader Spotlight, I did a double take… Ron Jaworski? Turns out the ex-Eagle QB is not a bassist (at least that we’re aware of). This Ron Jaworski is, and we loved his story. Ron has a pretty crazy day job, but manages to make time for his band – a band whose name...

Our third entry in the “Basses on a Budget” series includes basses we’ve covered between August, 2013 and August, 2014, with a price tag of $500 or less. As we said previously: This is not a “best bass under $500? list – we don’t like those lists much anyway. We’ll leave that up to you decide. Of course, if you...

Bassist Petros Klampanis is working on his next album and has released this awesome video for the title track. The group mixes jazz, world music, and chamber music into a beautifully organic style of music. Klampanis is currently raising money for his album on Kickstarter.

Everything one could possibly want from mid-1970s King Crimson has been compiled on the massive collection, . The exhaustive 27-disc set pretty much presents the material created by the 1973/74 version of King Crimson — particularly in its live shows — from almost every conceivable audio angle available on CD or DVD/Blu-Ray. The multi-CD and DVD set, which will only...

Luthier Bill Woger decided to make the jump to create his own business last year called Naked Bass and Guitar Company. His fourth bass ever built is the Hitchhiker 5-string, and it’s No Treble’s Bass of the Week. The Hitchhiker is a neck-through design built around an awesome 9-piece multi-laminate neck consisting of maple, mahogany, and wenge. Its body wings...

As bassists, our health is important, and paying attention to our routine is paramount to avoiding injury. Here are five tips to keep in mind to staying healthy and injury free. 1. Stay Loose Keep those joints flexible and muscles moving. Excessive tension is the enemy. Upright players tend to have problems in shoulders and upper back, followed by issues...

Prepare yourself: Erlend Caspersen sent us this playthrough of his band Abhorrent’s song “Reward System Malfunction,” and it’s scary good. The song comes from their upcoming album Intransigence, and while the band has a vocalist, this playthrough removes the vocals to focus on the instruments. Caspersen navigates the song with incredible agility moving between lightning fast fingerstyle and slap.

The Who is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and they’re doing some important work. The band has announced they’ll be performing at a benefit concert on November 11th in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust. The “house band” for the event will include Simon Townshend, Zak Starkey, Pino Palladino, Billy Nicholls, Frank Simes, Loren Gold and John Coury. The...

This week’s top 10 list starts with the sad news of Jack Bruce’s passing. The article was shared more than 13,000 times as the bass world honored the musical legend. Reader favorites making this week’s list include new basses from Fender and Hofner, some terrific bass videos, a beauty of the bass of the week and more. Here is the...

It has been way too long since we’ve featured bassist Russ Sargeant. Russ has just completed a recording of his newest tune for bass and vocals, “Still”. Once again, his incredible musicianship shows through. You should also check out “Beauty” – another of Russ’s videos we shared in 2009. Once again, well done, Russ.

For those of you who just have to have your Joy Division on vinyl — colored vinyl, no less — here’s the for you: “Love Will Tear Us Apart/Leaders of Men.” The limited-edition single, pressed on grey vinyl, is taken from the 1980 Martin Hannett session. (Hannett, who was Joy Division’s producer throughout its career started out in music as...