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Modern bands with interesting bass guitar?


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I just sat down with a bass and a pick and decided to plough along with some records. Started out with some Joe Jackson, then a bit of Elvis Costello, then some Jam. There's cool bass playing in tham thar records.

Which rock bands have bass parts worth having these days? I'm sure they must be out there, I'd like to hear them please.

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Why these days? if have Spotify you can start with, say. Elvis, work your way through the sixties with the Beatles, Stones. Seventies. The Stones . The Who. Led Zep. The Eighties. Well, you get the picture. there are a million artistes who you could play along with. i take an hour or so every night and play along. Spotify is a wonderful thing.

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[quote name='beerdragon' post='542645' date='Jul 16 2009, 09:49 PM']Why these days?[/quote]

Because that's what I'm interested in - who's doing interesting bass playing [i]now[/i], in rock/pop bands. I've heard old bands, I'm interested in hearing young bands.

I'm not looking for stuff to play along with, that's just what got me curious.

Edited by thisnameistaken
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[quote name='bubinga5' post='542706' date='Jul 16 2009, 10:36 PM']PRIMUS[/quote]

They were about when I was a teenager, which was a bloody long time ago.

[quote name='Tait' post='542731' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:09 PM']muse are the obvious choice[/quote]

I suppose. Too obvious though.

[quote name='Musicman20' post='542732' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:09 PM']Killers (Hot Fuss era)....The Strokes, Kings of Leon, A Wilhelm Scream,[/quote]

I've got Hot Fuss and never really listened to it, bought it on the strength of Mr Brightside but it never grabbed me. Always assumed Kings of Leon were a bit American for me, but I'll give all those a go. Ta. :)

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These guys came on after us at a gig recently:

[url="http://www.myspace.com/thewildmercurysound"]http://www.myspace.com/thewildmercurysound[/url]

And although they are all very young, I was very impressed with their overall sound - very tight - and the bassist had an ultra-cool tone from his jazz out of my Ashdown ABM combo... (irritatingly much better than my own sound ever is! :)). The basslines were very imaginative, punchy and varied. Don't really come out that well in the myspace recordings tho.

Guess as they are unsigned they don't count tho! :rolleyes:

James

Edit: I also like The Rifles - she got standards is great!, Sonic Youth (if they count as modern), The Young Knives ....

Edited by jmstone
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[quote name='jmstone' post='542747' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:19 PM']Sonic Youth (if they count as modern)[/quote]

Any band that had records out before 2005 I don't think count. I've probably heard them. I certainly was a big fan of Sonic Youth (and Pixies, and Dinosaur Jr, and Buffalo Tom, and Swervedriver, and Neds, and ...) when I was 16, I'm 35 now, they definitely don't count!

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='542739' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:12 PM']They were about when I was a teenager, which was a bloody long time ago.



I suppose. Too obvious though.



I've got Hot Fuss and never really listened to it, bought it on the strength of Mr Brightside but it never grabbed me. Always assumed Kings of Leon were a bit American for me, but I'll give all those a go. Ta. :rolleyes:[/quote]
Show how much i know about rock :)

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='542780' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:57 PM']Any band that had records out before 2005 I don't think count. I've probably heard them. I certainly was a big fan of Sonic Youth (and Pixies, and Dinosaur Jr, and Buffalo Tom, and Swervedriver, and Neds, and ...) when I was 16, I'm 35 now, they definitely don't count![/quote]

Ah.. a year younger than me! :)

Nonetheless, the new Sonic `youth album is good, whether it qualifies for this list or not...

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='542630' date='Jul 16 2009, 09:33 PM']I just sat down with a bass and a pick and decided to plough along with some records. Started out with some Joe Jackson, then a bit of Elvis Costello, then some Jam. There's cool bass playing in tham thar records.

Which rock bands have bass parts worth having these days? I'm sure they must be out there, I'd like to hear them please.[/quote]


I play in a covers band that features all the people you list ..

a very fine era for bass .... I'm not sure it has been surpassed melodically or technically.

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[quote name='acidbass' post='542811' date='Jul 17 2009, 12:37 AM']A few years back now, but if you haven't checked them out in detail, you're missing out a hell of a lot of good basslines in Jamiroquai's music![/quote]

I was more a fan of Galliano during the Acid Jazz years, but again they were around when I was 17/18. I don't need to start threads to find out what was good music when I was a kid - I know all about it already.

[quote name='Mr Fudge' post='542813' date='Jul 17 2009, 12:40 AM']I love Dave Meros from Spocks Beard ... They are a contemporary band that play prog that sounds 30 years old.[/quote]

All "prog" sounds 30 years old, because it is. It should be re-named "regressive rock" now.

I should reiterate that I'm looking more for accessible pop music with interesting bass parts. Prog rock and mathcore don't really fit.

Anybody who's playing something more than the average bass player, something more melodic/interesting/daring - someone who's not just plugging away at root notes, someone who is contributing as much as the guitarist, like in the examples I gave before.

I think actually Alex James might be the last person I remember doing something really clever and useful with their bass on rock/pop records. There must've been lots of people since him.

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[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='542817' date='Jul 17 2009, 01:03 AM']I should reiterate that I'm looking more for accessible pop music with interesting bass parts.[/quote]

I'm afraid that doesn't work these days LOL!
I never hear ANY interesting bass in pop music nowerdays...All this indie rock...pah...Euro techno-pop? Pah (all synths)...
In that sence...I don't think you'll find what your looking for...unless you like picking root notes forever? :)

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[quote name='Kongo' post='542832' date='Jul 17 2009, 02:31 AM']I'm afraid that doesn't work these days LOL!
I never hear ANY interesting bass in pop music nowerdays...All this indie rock...pah...Euro techno-pop? Pah (all synths)...
In that sence...I don't think you'll find what your looking for...unless you like picking root notes forever? :)[/quote]

Well... Yeah in a way I suppose I'm looking for indie-rock type stuff with talented bassists. Because that's basically what I was listing in the first post. Maybe it doesn't exist, I don't know, but I can imagine there are as many talented bass players now as there ever was, and they must be making music somewhere, so I figured people younger than me must know where and how they're doing their thing.

As for Euro techno-pop, well, Justice had a single out dominated by a [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxP5YrpdQXU"]really tasty five-string line[/url]. Who would've thought France would become a centre of excellence for funk?

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I think the problem is by the time any band gets general recognition they've been around a few years. Just going down the playlist on my mp3 player, I think these count as modern, but I may be wrong.

Beaten Awake, Benzos, The Bees, Cafe Tacuba, Citay, Ellen Ten Damme, Nada Surf, The National, The Redwalls, Girl in a Coma, Deerhoof.

Local (to me) unsigned band that are good if you like Punk/Metal: Leather Pig.

Going way back, one of my all time, under-rated favourites is Family. And The Electric Prunes, if you're into psychedelia.

I'm very old, by the way, I just like to keep up.

Incidentally, it's worth trawling the Free Music section on the Gibson web site, some good stuff there.

[url="http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/FreeMusic/"]Gibson Free Music[/url]

Edited by spinynorman
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[quote name='Musicman20' post='542732' date='Jul 16 2009, 11:09 PM']Killers (Hot Fuss era)....The Strokes, Kings of Leon, A Wilhelm Scream,[/quote]

Kings of Leon have interesting bass lines?
Dont get me wrong, I love them, But which songs have interesting bass? seams like a lot of route notes to me. I could be wrong.

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