Barking Spiders

At one end of the sound spectrum I'm magnetically drawn to the heavy, bowel shaking riffage from the likes of Rammstein, Slipknot and Lamb of God. On the other I'm a sucker for funky rhythm guitar as arguably heard best in Chic and also the classic chickin pickin on the Telecaster from the likes of Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Vince Gill etc. On the other hand the jangly Rickenbacker type sound you hear in Tom Petty ATH, The Byrds, Smiths, Stone Roses, REM etc is a big turn-off. Probably a key reason I don't like these groups along with the vocals with the exception of the Byrds. I actually do like their vocals.

Oddly enough my fave electric guitar players generally make music I'm not a fan of and don't even own any of their albums. I listen to their songs online just to focus on the guitar work e.g. Billy Gibbons, Dave Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, Steve Morse and Eric Johnson. Conversely, my fave rock bands make great guitar noises but the guitarists aren't among my go tos e.g Clutch, Rammstein, Slipknot, Gojira, Jane's Addiction, Alice in Chains and Lamb of God.

That 'song' is utter bilge. I was thinking her voice is so-so, not the worst I've heard by any stretch but then an unlistenable grime type rap 'solo' comes in. There's much to dislike about modern pop but the rap spot in otherwise OK songs is the pits. I'm well into late 80s - mid 90s east coast and west coast hip hop but from what I've heard from Brit rappers I get why it's one-way traffic between the US and UK.

Huh, that I did not know. Filter's stuff would've sounded good in that film

You got any love for Motley Crue by any chance? I don't have much time for the rest of the Hair scene but the Crue had a good run in the 80s

I've must've be nurturing my inner Goth for 30+ years then as I still play albums by these geezers 😁. Spinning Round by RLYL is one of my go to tunes for putting pedal to the metal .

Since lockdown #1 and with time to spare I've 'discovered' a few fave bands -all US - who've actually been around for at least 20 years or have disbanded. It's a minor regret I'll never see them live or that I overlooked them when they were at festivals I went to. White Zombie and Filter are two such. Dunno how I missed them as I was well into other American alt-rock stuff in the 90s. Only came across Filter via one of producer /musician Rick Beato's vids on YT. If you don't know his YT channel I 100% recommend it. over to you 👉

These days among footy fans / amateur players I'd have thought they're more like to say 'I'm no Messi / Ronaldo' . Anyway pedantry aside, I can't think of any guitarist, let alone bass player, whose name would trip off the tongue of the average person in the street. I mean, even Hendrix means next to nothing to millennials and non-rock fans

Give me an easily recognisable player anyday over these interchangeable hyper-technical plankspankers. Any lurve here for Billy Gibbons and Brian May fr'instance. Also don't know why Edge gets so much shyte, mostly it seems from nerdy teens holed up in their bedrooms judging from posts on YT and various guitar/music fora

I live not far from a well known specialist bass store and have tried out a Ken Smith, vintage Fender Jazz, Fodera, Sadowsky and others over £1k. They're all great and if I made a living as a musician or was stinking rich I'd get a few. But I'm not and for my needs sub £500 models are totally fine.I

Damn right! I love playing bass but it doesn't give me that level of catharsis I get from pounding the skins along to Ace of Spades

A key reason I like playing bass, particularly funk/slap - and the much despised (on BC anyway😁) Mark King style - is because it's like a portable and convenient way of drumming when you haven't got the time or space to set up a full kit to practice on. Since divorce #3 I don't live in a home large enough to have a kit permanently set-up so since then I've been playing a lot more bass and practising on a muted snare but now have acute non-drumming withdrawal symptoms, made more so by lockdowns. Any other drummist chomping at the bit to get back behind a kit?

'Best' for many people voting in any kind of poll equates with what they know and like the most. Objectivity doesn't even come into it.

IMO to be considered a truly great guitarist you'd need to be versatile and highly proficient in several genres or at least capable of playing well in a range of styles if demanded. Could prince play chickin pickin country style, do Travis picking on an acoustic, flamenco, jazz? I don't know for sure but none of his albums feature these. Players who were/are top notch in several styles include Eric Johnson, Danny Gatton, John Jourgensen, Steve Morse, Buckethead, John McLaughlin, Tommy Emmanuel and Guthrie Govan. I've heard nothing done by Prince (including that tribute to George Harrison) that's on the same level as these guys.

I've still got the first three on CD but haven't played them in at least 10 years. This reminds me to dig them out and give a spin. Zenyatta is 50% good but quite a bit of filler IMO. Never really cared much for Synchronicity.

Ah poor Wes Scantlin, seems there's no love for him on the www. I read his reaction to all the comments on YT which suggest he wasn't trying to take the p out of Kurt Cobain's singing style as I'd originally half thought. Add to that Puddle of Mudd has long been derided as one of the worst Johnny-come-lately second wave 'grunge' bands.

Agree viz sport but I've yet to see any ' greatest fish of all time' or 'molluscs, worst to best'. Think these would be more interesting than firkin 'greatest guitar player' , 'greatest album evah' bollix. By the way I can't argue, your wife is the greatest. My first and second definitely weren't 😁.

Well Prince certainly didn't. These guys may've been game changers in rock and blues but there's several other genres to consider. Just because these are not as popular as rock doesn't make them any less valid

What irks me about articles like these and 'who's the greatest' polls is they assume there's no other music genre of note apart from rock. I could name scores of steel string acoustic, jazz, country, Flamenco and classical players off the top of my noggin who could've played the @r$3 off Prince, Hendrix or pretty much most other rock players. For starters let's go with Segovia, Paco de Lucia, Tommy Emmanuel, Albert Lee, Danny Gatton and Joe Pass.

Really looking forward to the new Gojira album next week . This and Amazonia suggest it's gonna be a cracker

Here's Puddle of Mudd doing an unplugged cover of Nirvana's About A Girl. On YT it's got 27k 👎 vs 11k 👍. Are the 11k right thinking it's a p1$$take of Kurt Cobain's singing or are the 27k right knowing this pretty much fits in with PoM's less than illustrious career?

Beneath the heavy riffage on downtuned twin guitars, powerhouse double kick drums and growly vocals it's sometimes hard to pick out the bass but when you get to listen to isolated bass lines you get a whole new level of appreciation for the bass player. I'm a big Lamb of God fan and have been checking out some isolated basslines on YT played by John Campbell and yikes he's some player. Any other quality metal bassists that tend to get drowned out by the guitars and drums?

It's brilliantly done but then I don't care for the original version or Stravinsky in general for that matter. As the thread titles suggests it's a nod to djent, which as a genre demands a high level of technical skill but TBH it lacks the other attributes that make music enjoyable for me to listen to e.g. melody.

On a bit of a Filter tip at the moment (ta dah!😁) . For the non cognoscenti Filter was formed by a former Nine Inch Nails guitarist back in the early 90s. My fave album of theirs is Title of Record and esp this punch to the eardrums

I guess I mean Hughes and ilk's control of dynamics is a bit all over the place, a bit random. On the other hand I hear Mike Patton and it's controlled and on point.