Gear Watch: Team Awesome! Fuzzmachine Re-Released
Smallsound/Bigsound has released an updated version of their Team Awesome! Fuzzmachine bass fuzz pedal. The new stompbox includes added controls that allow for blending overdrive and fuzz, phase inversion, and higher gain levels. The input signal is split into two channels for clean and fuzz, both having their own volume controls. Also added is an input gain circuit to boost...
Avenged Sevenfold Release “Nightmare”
Avenged Sevenfold has released their newest effort, Nightmare. This is the first album not to feature the band’s original drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, who passed away late last year. In his stead for the album and subsequent touring is Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy. “Mike Portnoy has always been a hero of ours and Jimmy’s,” bassist Johnny Christ told Bloody-Disgusting.com....
Glenn Hughes Announces Solo UK Tour
Former Deep Purple and Black Sabbath member Glenn Hughes has announced a fall tour of the UK. “I’m thrilled to embark on the most extensive U.K. solo tour of my career,” he reports. Most recently, Hughes collaborated with drummer Jason Bonham and guitarist Joe Bonamassa in the supergroup Black Country Communion. Glenn Hughes Solo Tour Dates: Sep. 23 – Academy...
Custom Shop: An Interview with Pierre Erizias
While checking out all the booths at Summer NAMM last month, we ran into custom bass builder, Pierre Erizias. Based out of Montreal, Pierre wowed us with not only his basses, but his cool story of how he got started building. We were able to catch up with him recently to dig a little deeper and find out about his...
R.E.M. Finish Work on New Album
Bassist Mike Mills and R.E.M. have announced that they have completed work on a new album, which will be due out sometime spring 2011. This will be the group’s 15th studio album, following 2008’s Acceleration. Though the group has been keeping the new album’s sound secret, they revealed in an online post that their recording location in Berlin has affected...
Nashville Amp Expo To Show Boutique Gear
Gear fanatics, get ready. The Nashville Amp Expo, which will be taking place August 21-22, is your chance to try out amps, effects, instruments, and accessories as loud as you want. The exhibitors are mostly high-end and boutique dealers that are usually hard to find in local music stores. For only five bucks per day, you can take your own...
Dave Holland Featured on NPR Music
NPR Music’s Karen Michel recently got a chance to sit down with jazz master Dave Holland and released a feature article on his career beginnings and musical philosophy. Holland, who was a “teenaged high-school dropout playing bass with a New Orleans-style jazz band,” eventually found his way into Miles Davis’ band, and of course has since carved out his own...
Justin Chancellor to be Featured on New Intronaut Album
Tool bassist Justin Chancellor will be a featured guest on the upcoming Intronaut album Valley of Smoke, due out this fall on Century Media Records. Chancellor also co-wrote the song he will be playing on, which features an intriguing instrumentation. Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable spoke on the new album. “…We were lucky enough to have this guy Justin (from some band...
Gary Karr’s KarrKamp XIV Wraps Up With Concert
July 27th will bring the culmination of double bass virtuoso Gary Karr’s 2010 KarrKamp program. Karr, who founded the International Society of Bassists in 1967, has been teaching summer school to 18 students each year at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. The pinnacle of each program is the Basses Loaded concert, held this year at the Philip T....
RIP Andy Hummel
Andy Hummel, original bassist for the 70s power pop group Big Star, has passed away after a 2-year battle with cancer. He was 59. This comes just months after the loss of the group’s singer, Alex Chilton. Big Star’s early three-album career influenced many rock bands that followed them, including R.E.M., The Replacements, and The Posies. The younger generation might...
Roger Waters and David Gilmour Plan Surprise Reunion
After years of bad blood between the two, ex-Pink Floyd bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour seem to be patching things up. The duo recently teamed up for the first time since Live 8 in 2005, to perform for the Hoping Foundation in Oxfordshire where they played a 4 song set of Floyd classics, plus a Phil Spector tune. Since...
Bobby Burns Departs Soulfly
Soulfly bassist Bobby Burns announced that he has ended his 7-year stint with the band. He announced the split on his Twitter profile: “To all the fans…Soulfly and I have decided to part ways. Stay tuned for my next projects already in the works. Thanks 4 ur support!!!” Burns replaced original bassist Marcelo Dias when he and two other members...