Articles by Ryan Madora - Page 18

There’s nothing like being in a symphony hall and experiencing the sound of a double bass. The tone of the instrument is enhanced by the beauty of the room and the reverence for hundreds of years of Western musical culture. The low, resonant notes fill the space like fresh coffee being poured into your favorite mug; they are rich and...

Being a bass player is awesome. Not only do you get to hang in the back and groove, but you get to skate by on all of that “theory” stuff that guitar players have to deal with. You know… like chords and whatnot. We only have to play one note at a time! That’s like… way easier. I wouldn’t want...

In the previous BPTK column, we took a look at the early years of punk rock with Paul Simonon of The Clash. It’s time to fast forward to the 1990’s and the punk renaissance that popularized bands such as Green Day, Blink-182, The Offspring, and Weezer. Exercising a modern take on this musical counter-culture, Green Day’s record Dookie personally inspired...

Here I am, once again, on the bandstand with a bass in hand. Two sets down, one to go. It’s a free for all… no official set list and a handful of requests. A guy with a twenty in his hand walks up to the stage and says, “Do ya’ll know ‘Whipping Post’?” The guitar player immediately looks at me...

Spend an afternoon searching through the stacks of a record store and you may stumble upon a few iconic album covers; the colorful eclecticism of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the eerie prism of Dark Side of The Moon, or the adrenaline enhanced act of destruction on London Calling. A Fender was, in fact, harmed in the making of...

I’d like to take a moment to reminisce. It’s the summer before freshmen year of high school and time to join the ranks of “pep” band. My school was more of an academic institution than an athletic one and while we certainly had plenty of competitive aptitude, the science club and debate teams took home the gold. Nevertheless, football season...

There comes a time in every fans life when they get wind of their favorite artist coming to town. You hear an advertisement on the radio or stumble upon a billboard and decide that the show isn’t something you want to experience, but something you have to. I spent a good portion of middle school listening to Beck, singing along...

Walking through the NAMM show is like transporting yourself to the largest Guitar Center in the universe on Black Friday. The instruments on the walls don’t quietly beckon to you — they are in a constant state of demonstration. The showroom floor seems to extend for miles, making you feel disoriented in a sea of bright colors, shiny metals, whatta-tat-tats...

“Come Dancing”, “Play With Me”, “Led Boots”… these were some of the funkiest songs I had ever heard! It was 2005 and a bass player friend had just turned me on to Jeff Beck’s Wired. The groovy keyboard parts, punchy bass lines, and space-age sounds of Beck hooked me like a fish. It was a magical time; strolling down the...

I love pasta. Spaghetti, Bucatini, Ziti, Rigatoni. There are dozens of different types, each originating from different regions of Italy or morphing after be adopted by other cultures and taken across seas. Some are made to look like pumpkins or little ears, some are long cuts, some are bite size, some contain filling, and some are made with different flavors....

Time and time again, I must pay homage to the movie that sparked the flame of my musical obsession… the one that introduced me to a style with more passion and groove than I had ever experienced, with an eclectic history and diverse idioms, and with more influence than any other American genre: Blues Brothers… 2000. While some may say...

It’s the year 2015. Hours are spent each day scrolling though videos on Facebook, clicking links to YouTube, or listening to preset Pandora, Spotify, and Amazon stations. We experience music on television commercials or reality TV shows, with hashtags and at symbols telling us where to go if we happen to like the song that is fed to us. It...