Bass of the Week: Bajos Colmenares #22
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 Return with “…Like Clockwork”
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...
Les Claypool’s Duo De Twang: Jerry Was a Racecar Driver
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 and The Band of Gypsys Experience Announce Tour Dates
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...
Nine Inch Nails Announce Tour Dates, New Album
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 Introduces Subterranea Synth/Octave Pedal
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”...
Expanding Hands Music Now Offering Funk Fingers
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...
Booker T. and the MG’s: “Time is Tight”, Live 1970
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.
Alice In Chains Releases “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”
Alice in Chains has released their fifth studio album, and the second since their 2005 reunion. And while The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here carries the group’s signature sludge metal sound, the band says the effort is an evolution of their sonic palette. “We made a unique record that’s completely different from anything we ever did,” guitarist Jerry Cantrell told Rolling...
Larry Graham: Hair
When I started to learn how to slap, “Hair” was the song that stuck with me the most. It’s so much fun to play, and it’s even more fun to watch Larry Graham go wild on it in this clip taken from Japanese television.
Creation Audio Labs Introduces The Funkulator Bass Pedal
Creation Audio Labs has introduced the Funkulator Bass Pedal, an EQ tone shaper designed with old school funk in mind. The pedal is built for simplicity with a single EQ knob that controls a variable upper mid frequency scoop with a gentle hi and low boost. Turning the control up enhances the EQ curve, while the footswitch allows for quickly...
Paul McCartney Reissues “Wings Over America”
While currently on his Out There Tour, Paul McCartney is continuing to reissue his classic material with a new version of Wings Over America. The release is a remastered take of the 1976 triple album that captured the band during their Wings Over America tour of the same year. With performances including “Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Live and Let Die,” and...