Psychedelic Rock Opera for Bass and Drums

[Mark Olson]

I'm just curious if this kind of thing would pique any interest in anybody. See my profile for all the gear I'm using to record these tracks.

These are very cheap home recordings of bass only demos for the psychedelic mini rock opera, entitled "War". I will be updating these demos as I go, I'm still experimenting with a lot of ideas for this, and I may do full band rough demos eventually. My band is contemplating recording this as an EP, so we may have quality recordings of it at some point as well. For this particular piece of music, my guitarist and I will both be playing bass, and the drummer, as always, will be on drums. Check it out:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/defa...bandID=1043598

Start at the top and work your way down to the bottom.

In a nutshell, the story is being told from the point of view of an American dissenter, and every nuance that I've got down so far has very specific metaphorical and allegorical meaning. I've done all these bass parts myself, but my guitarist will use a different guitar/playing style/voice and each of us will represent a different side in this conflict.

[whitespike]

You know, I was very skeptical at first. No reason really. But anyway, I find it fun to listen to. You have to give it a moment.

"Epilogue" is a really odd song.

Get an interesting drummer. I wouldn't get a metal drummer if I were you. Get a drummer rooted firmly in jazz.

[Mark Olson]

Yeah, definitely not a metal drummer. I hate heavy metal with a passion (and all things dealing with affluent white kid angst).

I have a drummer, he's Berklee trained and heavy into jazz. He's pretty versatile, and I know he'll be perfect for this project. And we have a good rapport and lock together well. It'll be great.

[Deluge Of Sound]

Just checked it out. I like it a lot, reminded me a bit of Ogre's Plague of the Planet (another half-hour rock opera). Don't take that as a slight, as that's one of the best records I own.

Any reason why you're opting for two basses?

[Mark Olson]

Yes. Most importantly it's written all on the bass, but also I don't want the two sides of this conflict to be too dissimilar.

As a matter of practicality, some of the riffs rely on the open D and G strings, where a guitar would have to have it's two bottom strings detuned to get those pitches. And then there's also the A string.

I still have a lot of conceptualizing to do with how to represent a lot of things on the second part, and since I can't play guitar I'll be doing it on bass, I'm sure what I come up with will be easier for my guitar player to reproduce on bass.

And finally, and this is a big part of the reason why I play bass and not guitar, is the thickness of the bass. The bass just has a presence that most guitar players don't match, and I feel that that is very important in my music.

[Mark Olson]

I updated a couple tracks, including the epilogue, adding some more guilt, sadness, and feeling small in front of the backdrop of the global war machine. Some anger and frustration is still there, but there's more depth and clarity in this second take I feel.

In case you can't tell, most of this material is freely improvised, so the limitations of my abilities can limit how well I can get across everything I want to. But I'm working on it and conceptualizing how I want to represent all these ideas with sounds.

[Mark Olson]

So I did a little write up explaining what you hear in a little more detail. Some of this stuff doesn't apply yet because I haven't developed the tracks far enough so far, but when we do this as a whole band and I expand it a bit they will. Check it out:

The first track, the "Prologue", presents the "lens" that we should view the rest of the tracks through. That is, in a word, "skepticism". This story is told from the perspective of an American dissenter, and I'm certain I don't need to preach the value of not blindly accepting everything one is told. Faith and trust are good, but there's a certain point beyond which, if one chooses to cross it, one may become easily misled.

The second track, "Humvees/Oil", is about irony. Since the Hummer was produced and marketed to the civilian public, it has gained popularity among materialists and become a very powerful symbol of American oil lust and wastefulness, being the horribly fuel inefficient vehicle that it is. So we have a good deal of these vehicles driving into a country, our enemy in a let's say fictitious war, who certain people happen to say we're at war with because we desire access to their oil rich natural resources. One can appreciate the irony. Some nice wah wah effect on "Oil" provides a slick, oily texture.

The third track, "The Enemy", is where we get to know the enemy. Anyone who has read "The Art Of War" by Sun Tzu will have read of the value of knowing one's enemy. This is the enemy from the perspective of the American dissenter, who sees things differently than so many other Americans that might use such language as "dumb towelheads" to describe the enemy. In our story, the enemy is seen as organized and sophisticated; disciplined and hardy; great tacticians (it was Muslims who invented chess, the ultimate game of strategy). In short, a formidable adversary. In our story these enemies have been able to largely evade the American forces for quite some time, making for a slow and costly war for the Americans. One can hear the enemy slowly marching along in the bassline for this track.

The fourth track, "The Desert", is fairly self explanatory. The desert can be a beautiful place in a way, but at the same time very dangerous in many others. By simply acknowledging that the enemy in this conflict has survived in this environment for so many years, one can easily see how hardy they are, and imagine how clever and innovative. This track also represents the calm before the storm of the inevitable battle; a calm backdrop where much violence will soon occur.

The fifth track, "The Chase", consists of some good chase music, as well as some evasion on the alternate part. This is where one begins to hear animosity and other emotions the two sides of this conflict have for eachother, and if one were to listen very closely, one might just pick up on that these two sides of the conflict do not fully understand one another.

The sixth track, "The Storm", represents the battle. Each guitar has different sounds in this track, as each side of the conflict has different weapons and tactics. One can hear the ugly and brutal sounds of war. The pain, the loss, the hatred. The ardently botched execution of carefully crafted plans. Gunfire, bombs, smoke, the smell of burning flesh. And in the end there is no clear victor. The more enemies the Americans kill, the more civilians join the enemies' cause. The more Americans that die, the more the resolve of the American politicians is galvanized and bolstered.

The last track, the "Epilogue", the denouement, goes back to our American dissenter, with increasing feelings of not only anger and frustration, but sadness and guilt over what has happened, as well as feeling very small against the backdrop of the international war machine. The more the war drags on, the more people feel this way.

[Barkless Dog]

I enjoyed it for what it is, rough sketches. Would like to hear it once it fleshed out.

[Mark Olson]

I might be getting the other bass I intend to use for this thing back from my guitar tech later this week, so I can begin the mulittracking and whatnot. I will be updating the tracks here as I go. Some of the tracks will stay as they are; they are purposefully free form improvisation. But "the enemy", "the chase", and "the storm" will all have a lot of stuff added/changed.

[Mark Olson]

So I updated the prologue so it's not so dang muddy, updated the second track so it wouldn't have all that nasty extra clipping from the recording device, and the third track to be as loud as the others. However the background acoustics are still going to be an issue because I have to record at very low volumes in my apartment. That won't be so much of a problem when we bring this material to the studio.

I'm also going to need to update the explanation a lot for the ideas I've got planned. But as it stands it'll give you some sense of what's going on with it right now.

[D.M.N.]

Hey, just giving it a listen through, and I love it. I linked from a thread about Jimi of Bass, and I can definitely hear the sonic similarities, which is awesome. I've been working on trying to get similar sounds too, and I'm now convinced I need a uni-vibe. Awesome. Would Love to hear it with drums and such.

[plangentmusic]

It's a lonely path you take my friend.

I mean that with utmost respect. Obviously, this is not a venture with tremendous commercial appeal, but I love the artistic nature of it. Actually, I'd like to produce it. I believe that adding some additional sonic atmosphere can really bring out the different moods you're going for.

[D.M.N.]

Hey Mark,
How are you getting the vibe effect on Prologue? Is it a pedal? If so, what pedal is it, I'd love to lay my hands on it!

[Mark Olson]

Oh hey sorry guys, I don't subscribe to my own threads and I don't check this forum often.

Thanks for the comments! I am recording this stuff with drums and all now in the studio, I've actually got all my parts recorded and I'm updating the whole sequence of events and everything for present day (end of combat operations in Iraq). You're absolutely right about having very little commercial appeal. Maybe good for a documentary or something, but I do doubt anyone would want to buy it as it's not really casual listening material.

The Vibe effect is a Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe. The only way I've found to get that tone out of it is to run it after a fuzz and into a dirty tube amp (which is how Jimi ran his). Univibes are extremely difficult to get a good sound with, and their inherent intensity and amplitude modulation makes them near useless for playing with on bass in a typical song structure.

My signal chain for these demos is Gibson SG Bass (with Kahler 7410 Vibrato) -> Fender Fuzz Wah -> Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe -> MXR Carbon Copy -> Orange Tiny Terror (the guitar head) -> 2x Orange guitar cabs.

If you have any suggestions for additional sonic atmosphere I'd love to hear them! All we've got so far is bass (and lead bass where it appears in the demos) and drums and there's plenty of room in certain parts to fill it up a bit more.