News - Page 293

Megadeth, one of the “big four” bands of thrash metal (along with Metallica, Anthrax and Slayer) has released its 15th studio album, Dystopia. The album started coming together in an unusual way, as the band was between guitarists and drummers. “It was an interesting process. I don’t know of any other record that started with recording the bass to a...

Gary Peacock, the legendary jazz double bassist known for his numerous collaborations, including his work within a trio featuring pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette, has added another collaborator to his list: Robert Kaddouch. Kaddouch is a French jazz researcher interested in the dynamics of duos. Peacock and Kaddouch encountered each other in a recording studio in July 2015...

The Catastrophist is the first release from the quintet Tortoise in seven years. The band, which features Doug McCombs (Eleventh Dream Day, Brokeback) on bass, creates music that’s hard to categorize, and this time out, the primarily instrumental group called in vocalists for a cover of David Essex’s 1970s hit, “Rock On” as well as the ballad, “Yonder Blue.” Check...

Deluxe editions of Black Sabbath’s first three studio albums – Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality – have been released, coinciding with the groundbreaking metal band’s final tour. Each edition features the 2012 remaster of its respective original album, available on CD for the first time, and a disc of outtakes previously unreleased in North America. The deluxe editions...

German psych-rock trio Electric Moon’s live album, Theory of Mind, previously available in 2015 as an import, has gotten an American release. The band, featuring bassist Komet Lulu (who also created the album’s cover art), recorded the album in February 2014 in Heidelberg, Germany, and as the record has filtered out there, response to it has been good. Just check...

The No Treble Crew is in Anaheim, California to cover all the bass-related news from the 2016 Winter NAMM Show. Be sure to check in throughout the show and in the days following for the most complete coverage from the world of bass.

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels’ latest album on Blue Note Records, I Long to See You, features not only the jazz group’s longtime bassist, Reuben Rogers, but also some special guest vocalists. Norah Jones is the featured vocalist on “You Are So Beautiful,” while Willie Nelson steps in for “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.” While the album features...

British rockers Skunk Anansie have released their sixth studio album, Anarchytecture. The band features founding member Richard “Cass” Lewis on bass, and its camp is calling the record “a collection of hard-hitting alternative rock anthems, brimming with punchy riffs and the sort of fire that can only burn from the heart and soul of vocal powerhouse, Skin.” This is the...

Transcriptionist Aidan Hampson has returned with a new set of transcription books: 70’s Funk, Essential Cover Band Songs Vol. 2, and poignantly, with the the Jan. 10 death of David Bowie, Best of Bowie. He has also released his transcriptions from Michael Jackson’s 1979 album, Off the Wall. The books, available as PDF downloads, are feature bass transcriptions of great...

Good news, Weezer fans: the band has announced a new self titled album, an extensive 2016 tour, and a new music video. The whirlwind announcement was made on their website. “This album was inspired by my experiences hanging around the Westside of Los Angeles, which has been our home since Weezer began,” frontman Rivers Cuomo wrote. “Hanging out with people...

Tedeschi Trucks Band bassist Tim Lefebvre is the holder of a very particular and heartbreaking musical honor. He was the bassist on David Bowie’s final studio recording, Blackstar. Blackstar was released on Bowie’s 69th birthday on January 8, just two days before the rock legend’s Jan. 10 death following a previously publicly unknown 18-month battle with cancer. The album’s producer,...

Drummer Peter Erskine, known for his work with a variety of artists and his days in the great fusion band Weather Report, has released a new album, Dr. Um, that takes him back to the kind of drumming he did as a fusion player. Erskine calls it, “the kind of record that I’ve wanted to make for years, the kind...