Nail Soup

A theory. The electric guitar was an adapted version of an old instrument (the guitar, now known as an acoustic guitar) so has more tradition etc stuck with it. The electric bass was a new instrument, a break from tradition. So bass is more liable to innovation.

Would you say the same thing about bass players? A lot of great bass players could not play in an orchestra pit. Some not even in another genre or band. Then we'd need two different terms - maybe bassist and bass player. and to decide which way round.

Math rock gets serious - like it’s been a barrel of laughs up to now?😉

I've always used the terms the opposite way round to that in the OP. What they have in common is making sounds with the vocal apparatus (Mouth, voicebox etc) ina musical context. It's not necessary for either to be a front-person or star. A singer does their stuff in a way where stuff like pitching etc in of prime importance. A vocalist is where pitching is not important, such as rapping, death-metal and various other forms. Singers are a subset of vocalists. For example, Mark E Smith of The Fall is a vocalist as he doesn't really sing.

I'll miss out the stuff that applies to all band members such as transport and not being a tw*t. 1) being able to play quietly when we have a small PA and loud when we have a big PA/room (taking about no drum mikes of course).. but still maintain the dynamics. 2) Remembering and being able to 'lead' the song... i.e. set the tempo, know when all the sections are so they can play the cue-ing fills and so on. 3) This one goes partly against what some people say, so I've broken it down a bit 3a) Don't have a 'show off' mindset. 3b) Don't have a 'serve the song' mindset either please. 3c) Have an 'enhance the song' mindset.

On the other hand, I've had the opposite problem with a couple of drummers. Good enough drummers, but too worried about 'not showing off' and 'serving the song' that they end up not adding some interesting elements and sticking to straight four etc. Made the song sound boring and ploddy. When they actually did express themselves it sounded great.

Wasn’t Tony Butler a session player when not in Big Country? In which case he could have large body of work … albeit anonymous .

I had to smile at the trainers!

Bandcamp can also ‘sell’ for free - you can put the price at ‘zero or more’ if you are more interested in access than income.

New Irish band Sprints - current song 'Literary Mind'. This is very far up my street., especially when the titular refrain comes in at the second half of the song.

Also got a CD by Shabaka Hutchings' other project, Sons of Kemet

I had a banjo 'on my knee' when I saw the picture. I checked the rules and banjo is not outlawed... So - a banjo song about the devil and original sin. Clawhammer banjo, fingerpicked ukulele and flat-picked bass.

I think you are missing my point. The songwriting is irrelevant in certain cases. If you wrote the bit of the arrangement that is being used, you should get credit/payment even if it's not a significant component of the song. The system needs to be changed to not focus on the songwriter. The song-writer focus of the system is wrong, not Andy Summers or whoever. Imagine if a band writes a song... let's say the singer wrote it. The original version released has no guitar solo. But live the guitarist does an improvised solo - different each time. There is no way that can be considered part of the song using current standards of defining a song. A few bars of one instance of that solo then get used for a TV theme tune... then IMO the guitarist should get all or shared credit/cash. Or a reggae version of a Beatles song with a completely different bassline. The bassline is used for something else... bass player should get credit, without having to get the song recredited to Lennon/McCarney/Shakespeare.

For me, making sense is not a requirement for lyrics. It can be good to leave a bit (or a lot, or everything!) to the imagination. Don't need to be too literal. That said, I do like songs with easily penetrable lyrics too.

Have to disagree here. Not Summers fault, it's the fault of the systems which determines payment. When a snippet is taken out of context of the song, credit should go (at least partly) to who composed the snippet, not wholly to who composed the song. And asking for a share of the songwriting credits "in the first" place is only possible for originals situation were the songwriter takes the song to the band or players.

Totally… Could not have been too difficult to think of a pointy/batty theme for the head. Looks like they just thought F it and stuck on a standard neck.

Got the "Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery" album by The Comet is Coming (from a couple of years ago)

Agree about Alt-rock or Indie. I just looked at my gig list this year, and about 50% of the headliner( or co-headliner) had a female bassist: Grandma's House (All female) Panic Shack (All female, plus male drummer not in official line up) The Bug Club (one female, two male) Porridge Radio (three female, one male) Los Bitchos (all female, plus on male guitar not in official line up) There would have been two more, but these Japanese bands delayed till 2023 due to Covid: Shonen Knife, Otokebe Beaver. 3 of the bands without a female bassist had a female somewhere (singer, singer/guitar, violin)

I love both of those tracks - good job! You really capture an authentic feel. Good luck with the vinyl release.

In my musical neck of the woods (6-music kind of stuff), there are plenty of female bass players. Often as part of all-female or line-ups split male/female. As with male players there are a few stand-out players, but most (like male bass players) are simply doing the right job for the band. As an example I'll give the last gig I went to - Los Bitchos. The bass player (Josefine Jonsson) was not only great, but was nice and audible in the mix.

Surprised more people don't have one as their avatar.

New band "Ideal Host"

Excellent! Would love to hear some reports from you about that.

Slim Harpo