The End of Basses?

[Cthulhu]

...yeah, right.

According to this article in the Houston Jazz online mag, more and more popular bands are without bass players. Of course, since they also note that lots of those bands then tune their guitars low, it just sounds like there are more bands with 6 string piccolo basses ... In any case, an interesting read, even if I don't buy it. Actually, maybe I'll just claim my 6 string bass is a heavily detuned super-guitar. That should get me in Spin magazine...

[guy n. cognito]

Sounds like the same hype going around in the 80's when synths were all the rage.

[Pruitt]

I found it to be an informative article. It gave me a good list of bands whose music I will now ignore.

[Phil Mastro]

Manhattan's Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a bassless punk trio led by brazen singer Karen O., who regularly douses herself with beer onstage.

Wow, that sounds like an amazing band! Anybody who can play drunk must be reaaaaaal talented.
Other mentionned bands that I personnaly dislike:
The White Stripes
The Kills

Oh, I like this quote:

Nathan, guitarist for the Gossip, says that his band didn't intend to shun the bass.

"We actually had a bassist," Nathan, 22, says from the home he and Beth Ditto share in Olympia. "This girl showed up, but (the experience) was so bad that it permanently scarred us. We never tried again."

'Nuff said

[Kronos]

hah...we'll see where these bands are in a few years.

[Gard]

Originally Posted by Pruitt

I found it to be an informative article. It gave me a good list of bands whose music I will now ignore.

Took the words right outta my mouth...

[Naveed Afzal]

Sleater-Kinney isnt bad.. ive heard all those bands except the Gossips...

i have friends who are eh "indie' heads, and i have to say sleater-kinney isnt all that bad.

[Against Will]

Originally Posted by Pruitt

I found it to be an informative article. It gave me a good list of bands whose music I will now ignore.

Yeah, like the Doors!

This article kind of missed the boat, there's already been a bunch of threads about this, plus several others. The Boston Globe had one a few years ago, and there was another one posted here a year or so ago. Lazy journalism that doesn't have any idea of what's going on.

For one thing, to proclaim the death of any instrument is specious because they all go through fluxes. The saxophone might've died in the 1960's, but that hasn't stopped people from playing or using it. And the accordion's enjoying a revival in recent years.

Secondly; DHC said this in a thread years earlier, most of the bands cited in the article are all in the same genre. Garage-y rock bands where not having a bassist isn't that big of deal because they would've just played roots anyway. And considering there are 10 guitarists for every bassist, it's inevitable that there are bands w/o bass.

Thirdly, it's stupid to not like a band just because they don't have a bass player. There are plenty of great bands, IMO, that don't have basses; Sleater-Kinney, Fed X, Tiny Hawks, etc. There are also tons of bands that don't have guitars, or drums, or singers. Good bands are good bands because they're good, not because of their lineup. I'd rather have an awesome bass-less band than a band that's dragged down by a crappy bass player because it's decorum.

[Cthulhu]

...is that I like the Kills and Sleater-Kinney just fine. In fact, I can't honestly say that having a good bass player in the band is what makes me *like* a band. That being said, I agree with the comments that proclaiming any sound/instrument as "dead" is ridiculous. More importantly, pointing to a band as "heralding" the end of an instrument is even more ridiculous since tastes change every few months. I still remember when Morphine was first hitting it big and all of the music journalists were talking about how they were at the forefront of some new Jazz/Punk era. They had no guitarists, a baritone sax and a two-string bass.

Plus, the Minutemen were one of the best things to ever come off of the SST label, and I think their bass player was pretty good and actually helped define their sound in an era of guitar driven rock & punk. His name was "Mike" something-or-other.

[SundanceChile]

Thinking about, half these bands really aren't MTV material. Hit and miss kind of people. The only reason The Doors are probably big in this day in age is due to kids who "want to be cool". Sort of like the whole nirvana thing, but thats a different story.

Plus, we can always fall back on Hip-Hop and Rap artists.

[keb]

Articles like these are so annoyingly deceptive. They just always focus on a very small *minority* of *rock* bands that just happen to be without bassists. Oh no, an instrument is dead because a very small minority of one genre of music doesn't use the instrument in question. Might as well say synthesizers and saxophones are dead because none of those bands use synthesizers and saxes either.

[Freaky Fender]

Originally Posted by Phil Mastro

Wow, that sounds like an amazing band! Anybody who can play drunk must be reaaaaaal talented.

Yeah, never mind the band is one of the most original sounds I've ever in a long time with great potential, the guitar player does a wonderful job of getting a full sound, the drummer is VERY well locked in a groove, and Karen can have one of the most amazing voices ever, let's focus on what vices they have without ever listening to the music!

[Naveed Afzal]

Originally Posted by keb

Articles like these are so annoyingly deceptive. They just always focus on a very small *minority* of *rock* bands that just happen to be without bassists. Oh no, an instrument is dead because a very small minority of one genre of music doesn't use the instrument in question. Might as well say synthesizers and saxophones are dead because none of those bands use synthesizers and saxes either.

they are trying to make money surely you know this. They have catch your eye with something and surely they have suceeded as it was posted here.

[Freaky Fender]

Originally Posted by keb

Articles like these are so annoyingly deceptive. They just always focus on a very small *minority* of *rock* bands that just happen to be without bassists. Oh no, an instrument is dead because a very small minority of one genre of music doesn't use the instrument in question. Might as well say synthesizers and saxophones are dead because none of those bands use synthesizers and saxes either.

And I know it's off topic but my band A Troop Of Echoes uses both. Just made me laugh.