Buzz
Geddy Lee Interview: Clockwork Angels, Writing, Touring and Breaking Through
Rush’s new label, Road Runner Records, recently interviewed bassist Geddy Lee to coincide with the trio’s latest album, Clockwork Angels. Geddy shares the story behind the album, his thoughts on the band’s Time Machine tour, writing music and breaking through as a musician. I was surprised to hear Geddy share that he had some real breakthroughs as a musician on...
Kill Devil Hill Plots North American Tour
Kill Devil Hill has unveiled a boatload of new North American tour dates set to kick off August 1st at the Cheyenne Saloon in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band is trekking to support their self-titled debut, which came out in May and landed at #9 on the Billboard Top New Artist Albums Chart. The group has a solid foundation as...
Bass of the Week: Aries Basses Senes Custom Bass
Aries Basses is a custom shop producing some pretty incredible instruments out of Varazdin, Croatia, including their Senes bass model. The Senes bass sports a singlecut design with a unique hole in the upper horn, offering a distinct look. The bass is completely custom, and can be built with a variety of top woods. Standard options for the Senes includes...
John Scofield with Gary Grainger and Dennis Chambers: “Pick Hits”, Live
Here’s a winning formula for you: let bassist Gary Grainger and drummer Dennis Chambers back you up. That’s exactly what John Scofield did for this live performance. Holy smokes.
In Memoriam: John Koko
Bassist John Koko has passed away at the age of 51, due to complications from a lifelong heart condition. He was a member of The Makaha Sons and had been a fixture of performing and promoting Hawaiian music. Koko started his musical career at just 12 years old when he joined Na Leo O Nanakuli. Later, the Hawaiian native started...
G&L Introduces Tribute Series M-2000 and M-2500 Basses
Late last year, G&L upgraded their flagship bass line with the M-2000 and M-2500 basses. Now the company has announced Tribute Series versions of the instruments, which offer the models at lower price points. Both the 4- and 5-string basses come in two different configurations of either a honeyburst over swamp ash body with a rosewood fingerboard or gloss black...
Progressions: A Guide to Making Practice Productive and Fun
Q: I’m just now three weeks in to my bass lessons so I apologize for the “newb” question. Where can I go to find songs in a specific chord progression that I can play along with? For instance, I’ve learned 12 bar blues in G Major. Now I’m doing web searches to find tunes I can apply what I’ve learned....
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay: Bass & Vocal Arrangement
There’s tap, there’s solo bass arrangements, and then there’s this. Bassist Wes Sperry arranged Otis Redding’s classic “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” for bass and vocals fitting to the original. He even has the whistling part in there! It isn’t how many notes you can play. It is just finding the right ones.
Rush’s “Clockwork Angels” Novelization Sneak Preview Released
Hot on the heels of the release of Clockwork Angels, Rush’s 20th studio album, comes the first glimpse at the album’s companion novel, Clockwork Angels: The Novel. Author Kevin J. Anderson, who is collaborating with Rush drummer Neil Peart, posted news on his blog that a sneak peek booklet for the book has been released as a free download. The...
Reader Spotlight: Robert Asencio
Meet Robert Asencio, a bassist from NJ who has overcome a lot through his music. We love his description of his day gig: “playing bass 24/7”. Nice. Robert is our player in the spotlight for the week of June 26, 2012. Bio: “All is possible through faith in the Lord & hard work.” These words have come to symbolize my...
Tab Toolkit: A Look at the Notation and Tab App for iOS
Seeing as I’ve always had a somewhat “snobbish” aversion to Tab, I had avoided most every app in the store that provided it. So I’m happy to report I overcame that for a minute to try out Tab Toolkit, and I’m glad I did. Tab Toolkit is a pretty wonderful app, beautifully executed and immensely useful. The app comes pre-loaded...
Evan Marien and Dana Hawkins: “Hiii”, Live
I’ve always enjoyed Evan Marien’s “Hiii”, a track from his Here We Are EP, though I wondered how it could be pulled off live. I can now cross that off the list. Here’s Evan with drummer Dana Hawkins (who is awesome, btw), performing the tune live at Matt Garrison’s Shapeshifter Lab in New York.