The Bass Geek

Aside from carrying a new amp through a torrential downpour, the weekend turned out fairly well musically. Highlights included the Playboy Psychonauts at a Muncie house party (I threw in the Bass Whammy pedal on this gig, just for fun, and the chorus sound fit in well with some of the songs) and the Hold Steady show down in Bloomington. I’m not sure there’s a better just-that-much-fun rock show out there right now than those boys. Aside from the occasional problems with the PA, it was a great event.

After a little recovery time, I’m going to play a little bit with Pd, just ’cause I don’t have enough to do and I’m a little curious about this particular bit of open source music software.

One of my recent tweets detailed my rule that once the band plays “Brown-Eyed Girl” at any function, I’m out the door.  In this case, said tweet was prompted at a charity event downtown over the weekend.  The band started out tolerably with “What A Wonderful World” and Bruce Springsteen’s “Fire,” but the third song killed out.  The charity already had our money, so I felt no remorse about calling it a night and heading home.  The band didn’t even make the lead singers handle the tune – it was instead turned over to the pony-tailed keyboardist, who probably mastered the tune at a smooth lounge somewhere.  The song was too much of a chore for the regular singers – they had to call in backup.

It seemed to hit a nerve, too.  I got responses uniformly in support of my personal rule, so it made me wonder why the song is still played so frequently.  It’s a song so bad, not even a bass solo could save it.  Van Morrison has infinitely better material, so why not go for that?  The only thing I can come up with is:

1. Instantly recognizable.
2. Drilled into your head.
3. Easily identifiable with the majority of the population.
4. Fast enough to dance to, slow enough to not present a challenge.
5. Some kind of brainwashing and desensitization at birth.  Probably involving needles.

I’m going to stop thinking about it now.  Sorry for the burden. Just stop playing it, please.  That’s all I ask.

eMusic is helping me put some more Mingus on my iPod right now, so it’s a good time to take a look at bassists and their place as jazz bandleaders. The good folks at AccuJazz have put up a bass-centric channel called Covering All The Bassists that feature Mr. Mingus and many, many more. NPR has also gotten in on the act with their Take Five sampler. Some of the best are up there, and it’s a shame there’s only five tracks to peruse. Enjoy.

When Gabe Roth writes that recently stolen items from his studio include “A whole bunch of condensor and dynamic microphones (I still need to figure out exactly what’s missing),” that’s potentially a huge loss. Roth is one of the masterminds behind Daptone Records, and their recording philosophy includes a reliance on older gear. Even if it didn’t cost that much, it can’t be easy to find and replace some of the more unique items. A complete list of the stolen gear can be found here, among other places. Here’s hoping they get their gear back soon. And if this doesn’t serve as a cautionary tale to get insurance and security, I don’t know what does.

Most notable about this night at Radio Radio was the packed house.  It’s a tough sell to get people out on a weeknight in Indianapolis once the temperature dips below freezing, but this band managed a big crowd on a otherwise unremarkable Tuesday.  Nice work.

The fact that the performance justified the crowd level was a bonus.  The Duke Spirit had an instant rapport with the audience despite the singer’s admission that they were wracked with some form of respiratory ailments, and they put on a high-energy show nonetheless.   Trashy, driving fun.

Also, I just found out that Dick Dickinson died Monday, and it’s a huge loss for the Indianapolis music community, jazz or otherwise.  The Chatterbox downtown will have a memorial show Wednesday, December 10th.

Just a quick thought regarding The Roots. Within the past year, this band has:

• Recorded a song featuring the singer from Fall Out Boy and made a video for it starring a porn star
• Recorded a track and appearance for the kid’s show Yo Gabba Gabba
• Likely accepted the house band gig for the Jimmy Fallon show, which replaces Conan O’Brien this March

The new IMN podcast is up – download it directly from here or listen at the site or WFYI.

This is the last time I get the chance to use this picture, and it seemed appropriate to use it here because of the mention on the podcast. As is sometimes the case with tape-delayed (or hard drive-delayed, as the case may be) broadcasting, we had to do the show before the election results were known. Hence, the stupid foolishness at the beginning. In light of the actual outcome, it seems a little out-of-place now. Think of it as a quick glance back before we move forward.

Speaking of quick glances back, I’ve been working my way through Jef Lee Johnson’s Hype Factory the past couple days, and I’m just staggered on how it fits in so well right now, seven years after it was released. The songs aren’t tightly structured (some border on repetitious, others meander amiably), but there’s so much virtuosic ear candy thrown in that it’s impossible to set aside. Not rip-your-head-off, poo-down-your-throat shredding, but little flourishes from bass, guitar and vocals that compliment the song so well that, despite being small touches, they make the song. I remember being excited about getting the album if/when it ever came out quite a few years ago, but it took a chance reminder on eMusic to make it happen.

The last day and night were kind of a blur, mostly because we were three days into a big festival and were probably achey and a bit dehydrated. So this is more of a list of memorable moments more than a full recap:

• The Blind Boys of Alabama were one of the most moving performances I’d ever seen. Even on well-worn songs, they managed to wring out so much soul and emotion.
• Ozomatli and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, while stylistically different, were forces of nature with remarkably similar impacts. Not a single audience member standing still.
• Did Trombone Shorty make a Juvenile guest appearance both entertaining and enjoyable? Indeed, he did. Nice work.
• Some of the most memorable occasions were getting ambushed by random musical events, whether it was a robot, a bull-shaped music cart, or a marching band (even though I think one of the cheerleaders molested my wife)
• The bass was on full display, moreso than any other festival I think I’ve seen (setting up stage plots on the fly is terrible and thankless work). Whether it was Wil-Dog Abers from Ozomatli, Norwood from Fishbone, or Erykah Badu’s set, every bass note was clear, distinct and well-mixed. Kudos to the players and the sound techs.

We ended our stay with a quick stop at a pizza joint near our hotel. No sooner had we sat down than a Latin-tinged dance band was playing and the dance floor was filled with salsa aficionados. Great way to end the weekend.