Archive for April 2018 - Page 6

The original lineup of Dokken reunited in 2016 for a string of dates in Japan. Recordings from that tour are being released this month as Return To The East Live 2016. The members include Don Dokken, George Lynch, Mick Brown, and the great Jeff Pilson on bass. Pilson’s hard rock history is well documented. Besides being in Dokken, he laid...

As music technology continues to grow, it’s fascinating how musicians can incorporate it into their sound. NYC bassist Pedro Zappa shared his latest project, ZYkR, which explores that very concept. “In the past couple of weeks I’ve been having a lot of fun experimenting with playing my electric bass alongside synth bass on the Ableton Push,” he writes. “This is...

Eighteen years after his passing, The Cars bassist and vocalist Benjamin Orr will be the focus of a new biography. Let’s Go! Benjamin Orr and The Cars by Joe Milliken details the life and times of the rock star. The author spent a decade working on the book. “There is an interesting aspect about Ben Orr’s early life that many...

For musicians interested in making their own gear, D’Addario has unveiled a new DIY Solderless Pedalboard Audio Cable Kit with Mini Plugs. The set includes 10 plugs, 10 feet of cable, a mini cable cutter, and a screwdriver. “Featuring solderless plugs that connect to cables in seconds, creating custom lengths has never been easier,” the company writes. “It’s as simple...

Stuart Clayton is back with another transcription and tutorial, and it is killer. “This video is a demonstration of Billy Sheehan’s killer bassline on the classic Mr. Big song ‘Merciless,'” Stuart shared. “The line was performed on a Yamaha Attitude Ltd bass, with the volume for each pickup turned up full. The P-bass pickup was recorded through the EBS Billy...

Another recent King Crimson performance has been released as a live album. Live In Vienna, December 1st, 2016 is a three-disc set that has the two set evening spread across discs one and two with the third offering encores and ambience. “Disc three includes a series of soundscapes edited into newly sequenced pieces,” the album’s notes explain. “Drawn from the...

Q: I’ve been a bassist for 14 years now, when I started out (much like everyone, I assume) I played what we know as “bass lines”, the notes that the bassist played on the recording to the song. As I developed and learned more about chord construction and harmony I started to understand how these lines were built. I got...

Zander Zon is back with another impressive arrangement of a movie theme. This time, he’s taking more of what he describes as a “Bass Orchestra.” “Even though I’ve done three Hans Zimmer arrangements already (Interstellar, Gladiator & Inception), I thought, hey, why not a fourth?!,” Zander shared. “This theme is called ‘Chevaliers de Sangreal’ and it was actually the city...

Norwegian bassist Arild Andersen has released a new live album called In-House Science. The largely improvised jazz album features his trio consisting of Tommy Smith and Paolo Vinaccia from a stellar 2016 performance. “[The trio’s] energies are arguably best captured in a live context, and here the three musicians deliver a characteristically smoking performance at the Villa Rothstein in Bad...

Chapman Guitars has teamed up with Dave Hollingworth to launch a new signature bass. The MLB1 DH was created with the Dorje and Toska bassist to deliver what he considers the perfect bass. A four-string player, Hollingworth’s model doesn’t have a five-string version. Instead, it comes in either regular or fanned fret versions. “I’ve always been a 4-string player and...

Postmodern Jukebox shared this video with this note: “Here’s how Metallica would have sounded back in the 1960s – featuring amazing 15 year old soul vocalist Caroline Baran.” This is one incredible arrangement and performance, with Adam Kubota on bass. The track is available on the band’s album.

Chicago has been steadily rocking the world since the ’60s. Now the band is celebrating with Chicago: VI Decades Live, a 4CD/1DVD set that captures the band across the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, 2000’s, and 2010’s. While the set does not include current bassist Jeff Coffey, it does feature longtime low-enders Peter Cetera and Jason Scheff. The first two discs...