Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 574

Who says you can’t play “Teen Town” on upright? Axel Kühn arranged the tune for his sextet, called Kühntett, and decided to rock it out on his double bass. Not only does he nail the melody, he takes a tasty solo starting at 5:26. Bravo!

Jazz bassist Ben Tucker was killed on June 4th after his golf cart was struck by a speeding car. The veteran musician was 82 years old. Born December 30th, 1930 in Tennessee, Tucker began his career in Nashville before heading to California and New York City where he played with artists ranging from Art Pepper to Dexter Gordon to Quincy...

Bass Orchestra, AKA Ran Mussman, put together this awesome all bass mashup of the Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg songs “Still D.R.E.” and “The Next Episode.” All of the sounds he plays are made on his bass, with a little help from his DAW. Mussman also takes a crack at replicating the video with cars and girls. Well done, sir.

Former Eighteen Visions bassist Mick Morris, aka MickDeth, has died at the age of 35 from a pre-existing heart condition. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, Morris started his musical career on guitar in the straight edge hardcore outfit Clear before joining Eighteen Visions on bass in 2000. He went on to record five albums with the group...

Bajos Colmenares of Venezuela has some pretty beautiful designs, including their model #22. The 5-string bass features neck-through construction with a slender body of cedar and apamate. The fingerboard and headstock cap are ebony. The #22 is fitted with a Nordstrand NJ5 pickup in the neck position and a MM5.2 pickup in the bridge position. Each pickup has separate volume...

Queens of the Stone Age has released …Like Clockwork, their first album in six years. The album’s title comes from the hard-fought process, an effort that began as far back as 2008 but was met with numerous obstacles. “We’d have these great victories and then something would go south for a bit,” leader Josh Homme told Rolling Stone, “and we’d...

This is “Jerry Was a Racecar Driver” like you’ve never heard it. Filmed at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in October 2012, Les Claypool and guitarist Marc “Mirv” Haggard tackle the Primus song in a bluegrass fashion, but that doesn’t stop the bassist from unleashing his signature style. Claypool shouts, “Look at me, Mirv, I’m jamming it up!” before breaking...

Billy Cox will be paying tribute to Jimi Hendrix on a week-long tour of the northeastern U.S. in mid-June with his group The Band of Gypsys Experience. Cox, who anchored the original Band of Gyspys with Hendrix in the ’60s, will be performing the legendary guitarist’s classics including “Machine Gun” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” as well blues and roots...

Weeks after Eric Avery announced his departure, Nine Inch Nails has announced that they’ll be touring starting this summer. Bandleader Trent Reznor has recruited longtime NIN collaborator and guitarist Robin Finck to fill out the ensemble for the trek, which consists of festivals across the world. Things kick off July 26th at Japan’s Fuji Rocks Festival before the group heads...

Iron Ether’s newest pedal is a multi-timbral analog synthesizer and octave pedal. The handmade “Subterranea” pedal features three synthesized voices that track the input pitch, two of which have selectable waveforms and a third that has its own unique sound and lowpass filter. Iron Ether says all of the voices can be mixed together to create a “massive synthesized voice”...

Funk Fingers are available once again thanks to a licensing agreement between Tony Levin and Expanding Hands Music. Levin invented the Funk Fingers after mimicking his intro to Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time,” in which drummer Jerry Marotta played Levin’s bass strings with his drumsticks while the bassist fingered the notes with his left hand. Though he produced them on his...

Here’s a groove that’ll make you feel good. Donald “Duck” Dunn locks in on this jam with Booker T. and the MG’s during a show at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California on January 31, 1970.