Archive for June 2016 - Page 9

I love sharing the weekly top 10 reader favorites with you each week. But something about this one feels extra special. Thanks for reading, watching, commenting and sharing. And a big thanks to all of the No Treble contributors and guests, who offer such amazing stuff in the world of bass. 1. MonoNeon on Playing with Prince When Prince died...

Morning Bound is one of my favorite trios. Anchored by bassist Panagiotis Andreou, the band has a very singular sound. It’s hard to pinpoint their genre, and I love that. Here’s a live clip from BAMCafe where the band, including vocalist extraordinaire Tammy Scheffer and drum guru Ronen Itzik, perform “Want for Nothing” from their self-titled EP. Andreou holds down...

Timothy Lefebvre has been having a busy year of album releases. He started 2016 with David Bowie’s epic final release Blackstar, quickly followed by the excellent Tedeschi Trucks Band album Let Me Get By. Now he’s venturing into his more experimental territory with the 19 Foot Trio, a group rounded out by guitarist Cameron Morgan and drummer Adam Gust. They’ve...

Dr. No Effects has released the MotherBrain Analog Delay for guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals. The limited-edition, hand-crafted pedal is described as a “high-end delay that produces classic tones.” It features three controls: Present, Insanity, and Memory. Present acts as a mix of the delay and dry signals, where Insanity is the actual Delay time and Memory controls the repeats/feedback....

Jeff Berlin shared this terrific clip on Facebook of a live performance in Buenos Aires. In this video, the trio of Berlin, guitarist Scott Henderson and drummer Billy Cobham perform Cobham’s “Stratus”. The original tune was on Cobham’s Spectrum, with Leland Sklar. Such an unbelievably great bass line on this one.

Top bass transcriptionist Aidan Hampson has another bunch of downloadable transcription books available — Michael Jackson: Bad, Best of Prince and Best of Aerosmith for Bass. Hampson notes that the Bad transcriptions complete his Quincy Jones trilogy. “There are some fantastic basslines here from the likes of Nathan East and Greg Phillinganes. This is the first time that hits like...

TC Electronic has introduced the WireTap Riff Recorder, a compact pedal that can record 8 hours of recording time stored in CD audio quality. Similar to the Ditto, the new pedal has pared down controls for “plug and play” capabilities. Pressing the footswitch begins and ends the recording process while play, back, and next buttons allow you to listen back...

Rhythmic phrasing is an often overlooked subject in bass guitar education, much of it left to chance and feel. However, the bass guitarist should become “rhythmic aware” as being an integral part of the rhythm section of a band. In this lesson I explain how to use rhythm as motific building blocks to develop your ideas – enabling you to...

Ever since we posted Nenad Vasilic’s solo bass version of “Vranjanka“, I’ve been hooked on his playing. His use of ghost notes and bass percussion create such driving songs, especially for solo bass. Here’s a great clip from a recent concert in Nis, Serbia where he performed songs from his latest album, The Art of Balkan Bass. Check out “Zapevala...

The Monkees’ first album in almost 20 years is part of something bigger – the band’s 50th anniversary celebration and tour. Good Times! features songs written by the three remaining members of the band originally assembled for a 1960s television show — Mickey Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork. The remaining original member, Davy Jones, died in 2012 after suffering...

Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals crafted a new album after reforming for a 2015 tour, and now, the band, featuring the inimitable Juan Nelson on bass, is touring behind that album, Call It What It Is. The Call It What It Is Tour kicks off June 23 at Marymoor Park in Redmond, Washington, and wraps up Dec. 4 at...

There’s crazy stories and then there’s really crazy stories. The timeline of Arthur Barrow’s success falls into the “really crazy story” category (without question). Barrow – a young musician trying to find his way – decides to teach himself the electric bass in 1974 while attending the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas. He was studying composition and organ,...