News - Page 298

Former and founding Tool bassist Paul D’Amour is gearing up on new project called Lesser Key. The group also includes Andrew Zamudio, Brett Fanger and Justin Hanson. The group describes themselves as “[representing] an exploration into personal artistic freedom,” and their sound centers around D’Amour’s steely bass tone and hard hitting lines. The Los Angeles based rockers have just announced...

Bassist Julie Slick has teamed up with guitarist Peter Alexius and Chapman Stick player Marc Mennigmann to form SAM, a progressive-rock trio that bases all their music on improvisation. They’ve just released their first album, Another Life, and an accompanying EP entitled Yet Another Life. “This record contains some of the essence of one week in the studio,” the band...

Victor Wooten has added a Music Theory camp to his VixCamps schedule at the Wooten Woods Retreat in Only, Tennessee. Scheduled for September 23rd and 24th, the educational event offers classes for beginning, intermediate, and advanced players in addition to full group classes. The scheduled instructors are Victor Wooten, Anthony Wellington and Bob Franceschini, with more to be announced. Subjects...

Horror punk icons The Misfits will be heading out on a U.S. tour this fall in support of their latest release, Dea.D Alive!. The outing kicks off on October 6th at Evolution in Nashua, New Hampshire and stretches from the Northeast to the West Coast and back again. Fronted by sole original member and bassist Jerry Only, the Misfits’ latest...

The new supergroup known as The Winery Dogs has released their self-titled debut album. Formed by bassist Billy Sheehan, drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist/vocalist Richie Kotzen, the group worked on the album last year. As we reported in December, the project originally included John Sykes, but due to conflicts in schedules and work styles, the group decided to replace him...

Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage have teamed up for a North American tour this fall that will kick off October 22nd in Toronto, Ontario and wrap up November 26th at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, Maryland. Support for the tour includes Testament and Huntress, which brings the bass heavyweight tally up to John Campbell, Mike D’Antonio, Greg Christian and...

Here’s some news that will make death metal fans rejoice: Cannibal Corpse bass legend Alex Webster is teaming up with The Faceless’s Alex Rudinger, Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis and guitarist Keith Merrow on their new project called Conquering Dystopia. The band started as a collaboration between Loomis and Merrow, who got together for a jam session. “We’ve been talking about it...

Following up on their first two books, Alfred Music has released four more Led Zeppelin titles in their “Platinum Bass” series. All the books offer both standard notation and tab for the bass lines, plus the lyrics and vocal melodies. Led Zeppelin: III Platinum Bass Guitar includes transcriptions for “Immigrant Song”, “Celebration Day”, “Since I’ve Been Loving You”, “Out on...

John Scofield’s Grammy-nominated Überjam came out more than a decade ago. And while the guitarist has since released seven albums of his own, and five albums as a co-leader, the followup to Überjam has been in the works. Überjam Deux is the result of that decade-plus of work. “Certain songs have been evolving over the ten years since Überjam; [guitarist]...

Steve Swallow has released Into the Woodwork, a new, multi-textured collection of twelve of the bassist’s original tunes. The album features a revised lineup of Swallow’s quintet with longtime collaborator Carla Bley on organ, Chris Cheek on saxophone, Steve Cardenas on guitar, and Jorge Rossy on drums. “This album is very much about what this cast of characters provoked in...

Seems hard to believe this group started out simply to perform a show at the 2011 Winter NAMM show. The Aristocrats, formed by bassist Bryan Beller, drummer Marco Minnemann and guitarist Guthrie Govan have come a long way since then. This week, the trio released Culture Clash, their second studio album and third overall. Based on the reaction of our...

By the 1950s, Oscar Pettiford had already made a name for himself as a force in the bebop movement and was working as a bandleader. But when the bass legend first arrived in Germany in 1958, he was lauded even more than he could believe. His signature style and use of bass as a solo instrument was extremely popular with...