Buzz
Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings Play Some New Old Soul for the Holidays
Retro-soul group Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings has put its own twist on the holidays with its new album, It’s a Holiday Soul Party. The group, led by bass player, primary songwriter, and producer Bosco Mann (real name Gabriel Roth) melds original and traditional holiday tunes. One of the originals has been floating around in the band’s repertoire for years...
Mass Mental Debuts Its Take on “Come On Come Over” From “Jaco” Soundtrack
Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo’s documentary about the late Jaco Pastorius, who revolutionized electric bass playing, before dying tragically at age 35, is almost here — the film and its soundtrack are set for a Nov. 27 release. The first single from the Jaco soundtrack is Trujillo side project Mass Mental’s version of “Come On Come Over” from Pastorius’ 1976 debut...
Harmless Funk: Ramblin’
Back in October, we shared a video of Harmless Funk, featuring bassist Dave Marks. The group performed the Meters’ classic, “Cissy Strut”. Dave just sent me the next video of the band from that same session. “This time it’s a cover of David Sanborn’s arrangement of [Ornette Coleman’s] ‘Ramblin’” he shared. “…bit more of a ‘bass-ey’ one.” We dig.
The Velvet Underground’s ‘Loaded’ Released in 45th Anniversary Special Edition
Loaded, The Velvet Underground’s last studio album with Lou Reed, is now available in a deluxe six-disc box set called Loaded: Re-Loaded 45th Anniversary Edition. The set features the original 1970 album, remastered in stereo and mono, demos and alternate mixes, a remastered/re-edited version of Live at Max’s Kansas City (recorded during the band’s stand at the venue, which occurred...
Jeanne Sagan Joins Crossing Rubicon
Weeks after leaving her longtime post in All That Remains, Jeanne Sagan is back on the scene with Crossing Rubicon. The Connecticut-based hard rock band, which is fronted by Sagan’s fiancé Scotty Anarchy, has announced their next album, No Less Than Everything, will be released in early 2016. The rest of the band includes guitarists Zach Lambert and Steven Riccio...
Bass Gear Roundup: The Top Gear Stories in October 2015
Time for your monthly dose of the 10 reader favorite gear stories. You’re welcome. (And thank you for reading, commenting and sharing). 1. Sandberg Guitars Forty Eight Bass Sandberg Guitars is now shipping the Forty Eight, a bass that throws back to old school rock and metal. The model is available in several finishes including a metallic hardcore aged red....
Lior Ozeri: Wrecking Ball (Featuring Miley Cyrus)
I’ve somehow avoided listening to Miley Cyrus’s hit tune, “Wrecking Ball”… until now. It is all thanks to bassist Lior Ozeri, who sent me his interpretation of this tune where he drops the original instrumentation and turns it into a bass arrangement behind Cyrus’s vocals. I dig this, and I don’t mind admitting it.
Bass Duo EchoTest Release Sophomore Record
The second album from the bass duo EchoTest, featuring Julie Slick (Adrian Belew Power Trio, Crimson ProjeKct) and Marco Machera has arrived. Le Fil Rouge, recorded at The Bunker Home Studio in Latina, Italy, during the summer of 2014 and mixed and mastered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in January, is billed as blending trip-hop and post-rock elements to progressive rock, creating...
Groove – Episode #11: Alain Caron
When I was growing up – and was a young and impressionable musician – every bass player wanted to be Jaco Pastorius (that’s not true, the rockers wanted to be Billy Sheehan). These virtuosos seemed unreachable. There was no Internet. There was no Twitter. No Skype. All we knew about these icons was what we heard on vinyl, cassettes and...
Dead & Company: Oteil Burbridge’s “Eyes of the World” Solo
Fan clips and audio of the Dead & Company’s recent Halloween performance at Madison Square Garden have been trickling onto the web over the past few days, proving that the group is firing on all cylinders. The band features three original Grateful Dead members – Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann – with the “company” consisting of John Mayer,...
Status Quo Bassist Gets His Revenge, Again
Status Quo bassist John “Rhino” Edwards has released his second album with his side band, Rhino’s Revenge, called Rhino’s Revenge II. The album comes 15 years after the original Rhino’s Revenge, released in 2000. “By any standards, that’s a long time between albums,” Rhino said, “but when you’re fortunate enough to be in a band like Quo, you’d don’t get...
Joey Spampinato Diagnosed with Cancer
NRBQ founder Joey Spampinato has been diagnosed with cancer. The bassist, who has more recently been touring with his band The Spampinato Brothers, will be going on a rigorous 12-month treatment plan. The news was broken via a YouCaring Crowdfunding page by his wife, Kami. “Joey has been diagnosed with cancer. It’s not stage four. We are grateful for that,”...