Unknown_User Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Can anyone recommend any grunge music with good basslines? There's Nirvana obviously. Novoselic is very good. Any others I might have missed? With heavy songs where the chords change pretty fast I find it a challenge to do something more interesting than follow the root notes without it feeling and sounding forced. Can you, the good people of Basschat, recommend any music for me to listen to that might give me some inspiration? Or perhaps offer some of the good advice that's normally in such plentiful supply here? Thanks in advance! 😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickD Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 (edited) Alice in Chains - Dirt. That's just perfect to me. Ben Shepherds's bass on Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Superunknown and Down on the Upside is all great, fantastic tone and interesting choices, also Hiro Yamamoto's lines on Loud Love. Any of Jeff Ament's stuff with Pearl Jam, fretless awesomeness! Edited January 18, 2019 by NickD 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown_User Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 14 minutes ago, NickD said: Alice in Chains - Dirt. That's just perfect to me. Ben Shepherds's bass on Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Superunknown and Down on the Upside is all great, fantastic tone and interesting choices, also Hiro Yamamoto's lines on Loud Love. Any of Jeff Ament's stuff with Pearl Jam, fretless awesomeness! Thanks for the recommendations. All bands that have been pretty much on the periphery of what I listen to, so I will check them out. Pearl Jam definitely an interesting shout. The covers band I'm in briefly did Even Flow, which was a lot of fun to play. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Is it me, or is grunge a bit of a tricky one to define? I feel like it covers a spectrum where you have very punk-influenced groups like Mudhoney at one extreme, and heavy-metal-in-disguise groups like Soundgarden at the other. If you're particularly interested in working with fast changes, Mudhoney are probably essential listening - and having briefly played in a band with a similar style, nailing those changes exactly in sync with the guitars while keeping locked in with the drums can be an art in itself! If you're looking for something with a looser feel, Ament, Shepherd and Yamamoto are all excellent suggestions...though if you're going down that route I might suggest another look at Geezer Butler's style as well! 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickD Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Out of the whole Seattle thing, Nirvana were probably the least interesting for me despite being held up as the flagship. I wasn't paying much attention to popular music, so they kinda passed me by at the beginning, but I was being dragged around a really chic, cliquey hipster store by a girlfriend when I was about 18, feeling totally uncomfortable as I always do in that kind of place, but there was this amazing heavy, grinding riff coming out of the store's speakers, slowly increasing in tempo. Inevitably an assistant (with far too much make-up) asked if she could help.... I asked if she could tell me what the music was. She nipped upstairs and came back with a scrap of paper that said 'Louder Than Love - Soundgarden'... Next stop was EGS Records, just around the corner, who ordered it for me. That was it for the next 5 years... Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, AiC, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog. It's all great stuff, I listen less to it now, but on the occasions I do I still find something in it. I think it's permanently in my playing too, no matter what I'm playing some of that era bleeds in. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickD Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 9 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said: ..though if you're going down that route I might suggest another look at Geezer Butler's style as well! Good Call! All those guys owe him at least a small percentage of their royalties!🤣 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest oZZma Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 16 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said: Is it me, or is grunge a bit of a tricky one to define? I feel like it covers a spectrum where you have very punk-influenced groups like Mudhoney at one extreme, and heavy-metal-in-disguise groups like Soundgarden at the other. It has never been a music genre IMO. It was more a "movement " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burns-bass Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 The template for what a lot of Nitvana did was laid a few years earlier by The Pixies. Limb deal is a good melodic player, worth checking out. If you like that then her band The Breeders are also worth a listen, with Cannonball a great baseline led track. Personal favourite was always the Lemonheads so worth a listen too if you like a more melodic approach. Some good music that soundtracked my early experiments with bass (and other things!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown_User Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 14 minutes ago, EliasMooseblaster said: Is it me, or is grunge a bit of a tricky one to define? I feel like it covers a spectrum where you have very punk-influenced groups like Mudhoney at one extreme, and heavy-metal-in-disguise groups like Soundgarden at the other. If you're particularly interested in working with fast changes, Mudhoney are probably essential listening - and having briefly played in a band with a similar style, nailing those changes exactly in sync with the guitars while keeping locked in with the drums can be an art in itself! If you're looking for something with a looser feel, Ament, Shepherd and Yamamoto are all excellent suggestions...though if you're going down that route I might suggest another look at Geezer Butler's style as well! I agree it's a broad church. To be honest I hadn't even considered Soundgarden grunge as the few songs I'd heard from them seemed much more like metal. In my mind grunge is more like punk, but I could well be totally wrong. There's a first time for everything! 😀 I've been sent a demo for a band I'm looking to audition for and the chord changes are so fast they almost sound like a bass line. So I think it may be mostly a case of keeping in time between the guitar and drums and trying to emphasise a groove rather than messing around with arpeggios and scales. I'm checking Mudhoney out at the moment and quite enjoying them. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown_User Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 12 minutes ago, Burns-bass said: The template for what a lot of Nitvana did was laid a few years earlier by The Pixies. Limb deal is a good melodic player, worth checking out. If you like that then her band The Breeders are also worth a listen, with Cannonball a great baseline led track. Personal favourite was always the Lemonheads so worth a listen too if you like a more melodic approach. Some good music that soundtracked my early experiments with bass (and other things!) Thanks. Again all bands I've heard a few songs by, but never really delved into. Lots of good "missed it first time around" stuff to keep me busy already in this thread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 40 minutes ago, NickD said: Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, AiC, Mudhoney, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog. Add Green River and Screaming Trees to that list too 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Outside of the most obvious ones (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana), you could check out stuff like Melvins, Green River, Mudhoney, Tad, Screaming Trees which to me are far more of an example of 'Sub Pop' grunge than Pearl Jam or Alice in Chains. You won't necessarily get great imaginative bass lines but you will get cool songs that are fun to play. 'Grunge' was a generic term to encapsulate a bunch of rock bands from the same geographic area. Some were way more or less 'punk' sounding than the other. There is so much Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath influences in parts of Soundgarden and Alice in Chains that I would probably recommend that you listen to them if you are not already. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 1 minute ago, thodrik said: Tad I knew there was another one. Couldn't think of the name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FuNkShUi Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 I used to like Silverchair. Cant remember what the bass lines were like tbh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conan Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Stone Temple Pilots. Some interesting bass lines courtesy of Rob Deleo 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabag Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Ah the Pilots - love this. Scott explaining that it's not the song the macho guys thought it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EliasMooseblaster Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 2 hours ago, Conan said: Stone Temple Pilots. Some interesting bass lines courtesy of Rob Deleo Who, of course, also designed and built one of my all-time favourite models of bass guitar. (I feel this is the kind of pointless trivia that's worth bringing up on a bass forum...) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimothey Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 (edited) What about Bush but mostly their early stuff? Edited January 18, 2019 by Jimothey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Grunge is a bit subject to interpretation IMO. Lots of good sugestions already mentioned (Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden...) and not mentioned (Melvins, Mudhoney, Meat Puppets, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins...) so i would sugest other bands that set appart from the original Seattle grunge scene but have some origins connecting them to it: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Queens Of The Stone Age, Guano Apes, Foo Fighters. Here are some great basslines to be found, enjoy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Also around the same sort of time you had bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Rage Against The Machine who are worth a listen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thodrik Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Not grunge but similar time period and some cool bass lines (if you don't mind tuning a bit lower): Kyuss, Sleep, Monster Magnet. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz39 Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Ooh ooh, Dinosaur Jr. Although to be fair the bass is not that stand out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unknown_User Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 27 minutes ago, Ghost_Bass said: Grunge is a bit subject to interpretation IMO. Lots of good sugestions already mentioned (Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden...) and not mentioned (Melvins, Mudhoney, Meat Puppets, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins...) so i would sugest other bands that set appart from the original Seattle grunge scene but have some origins connecting them to it: Tool, A Perfect Circle, Queens Of The Stone Age, Guano Apes, Foo Fighters. Here are some great basslines to be found, enjoy I always found Tool and A Perfect Circle a bit boring if I'm honest. Already on board with QotSA & the Foos. Oliveri and Mendel are good players definitely. Never heard of Guano Apes and although I know of the Melvins and Meat Puppets, I'm not familiar with their stuff. So will check them out along with some of the bands suggested further up. Thanks all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Just now, Unknown_User said: I always found Tool and A Perfect Circle a bit boring if I'm honest. Already on board with QotSA & the Foos. Oliveri and Mendel are good players definitely. Never heard of Guano Apes and although I know of the Melvins and Meat Puppets, I'm not familiar with their stuff. So will check them out along with some of the bands suggested further up. Thanks all! I'm sure you've heard guano apes but don't remember, look up for "lords of the boards" or "open your eyes", i'll bet you'll recognise them from the radio at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bartelby Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 (edited) 27 minutes ago, Daz39 said: Ooh ooh, Dinosaur Jr. Although to be fair the bass is not that stand out. Lou Barlow's bass lines are awesome. They became a bit pedestrian with Mike Johnson. But went straight back to awesome with the reunion Edited January 18, 2019 by bartelby 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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