i know there are more than a few nomeansno fans here on the list and being i don't have a scanner (or a life) i decided to type out the article... much credit is due to bass player magazine for doing an article on such a great and under appreciated band.
chris
rob wright - loud means loud
nomeansno's rob wright admits that much of his sound comes from sheer volume. "i don't think i could get away with my stage volume in any other band," he says. "that's my sound. but it's loud music and you can't fake loud music. loudness has a certain impact; it's got to have a visceral feeling. if it doesn't, you're just lip-syncing to your own music."
one of the most explosive bands to come out of the north american punk scene, the vancouver trio has been helmed by brothers rob and john wright since the early '80s. in their earliest days they set out to conquer the punk world as a rhythm-section duo. "with that line-up we couldn't be a static background for solos and guitar work. the rhythm section had to do everything - it had to have all the dynamics, all the melody, and all the changes. i think that's what made us distinctive; by the time we got a guitar player, we had honed ourselves to expect a lot more from the rhythm section."
that's evident from nomeansno's latest alternative tentacles cd, "no one". the disc's unyielding driving rhythms and grooves have a rare energy and conviction. alongside jagged edge story songs such as "our town" and "the graveyard shift", the closes the cd with covers from two very different musical worlds: the ramones' "beat on the brat" and an ingenious re-think of miles davis's "bitches brew", compete with lyrics written by rob. thought the band's muscular beats and changes recall king crimson at times, rob is unassuming about his bass skills. "i don't consider myself a 'player'. jimmy blanton, ron carter, paul chambers, ray brown- those are players. on the bass, i'm a song writer. the playing i do serves the song. it may be hard and complicated, or it may be da-da-da-da-da-da, if that serves the song."
rob, who also sings lead, developed his bass-and-vocals coordination simply by practicing. " most bassists find that hard because they never have to do it- but when you do it all the time it becomes second nature. no matter how different the lyrics' rhythm is to what you're playing, they'll match up at certain points. you have to hit those points and let them be your ground strokes." wright's second nature ability has been turned into a songwriting tool. " i can sit down and play a bass line and start improvising vocals over the top pretty much right away, because i'm used to doing it. it's fu to do that; you can just go off and find things that interweave with your bassline."
wright plays stock fender precision basses. " i like the new ones with the cheap mexican pickups. those pickups are the greatest- they're so hot they're microphonic. the trouble is i sweat so much on my bass that i kill it within a year, and i have to get all the guts replaced because they're completely corroded. i work my bass pretty hard but that's what a hammer is for." he drives a marshall 4x12 guitar cabinet with a 300 watt marshall 3530 solid state head, which includes one tube " to soften the waves". the amp is not common. "everyone else has trace elliots and gallien kruegers; they're great; but that's not my sound. i'm not looking for fat , clean lows.i'm looking for mid range growl- basically a lemmy tone." rob uses a pick on .045 - .105 rotosound strings. his only outboard effect is an eq pedal he sometimes steps on to cut all the highs, turning his sound into "a complete dub bass."
the furious back and forth jamming between rob and john wright makes you wonder if they have an instinctive connection that comes from being family. " i don't know if it's anything spooky or genetic. the ties of playing music keep us close more than the fact that we're brothers. in terms of our syncing up, that's just practice. we've been playing together since '79, so if we dont know where we're going yet, we never will."
- s.l. duff
chris
rob wright - loud means loud
nomeansno's rob wright admits that much of his sound comes from sheer volume. "i don't think i could get away with my stage volume in any other band," he says. "that's my sound. but it's loud music and you can't fake loud music. loudness has a certain impact; it's got to have a visceral feeling. if it doesn't, you're just lip-syncing to your own music."
one of the most explosive bands to come out of the north american punk scene, the vancouver trio has been helmed by brothers rob and john wright since the early '80s. in their earliest days they set out to conquer the punk world as a rhythm-section duo. "with that line-up we couldn't be a static background for solos and guitar work. the rhythm section had to do everything - it had to have all the dynamics, all the melody, and all the changes. i think that's what made us distinctive; by the time we got a guitar player, we had honed ourselves to expect a lot more from the rhythm section."
that's evident from nomeansno's latest alternative tentacles cd, "no one". the disc's unyielding driving rhythms and grooves have a rare energy and conviction. alongside jagged edge story songs such as "our town" and "the graveyard shift", the closes the cd with covers from two very different musical worlds: the ramones' "beat on the brat" and an ingenious re-think of miles davis's "bitches brew", compete with lyrics written by rob. thought the band's muscular beats and changes recall king crimson at times, rob is unassuming about his bass skills. "i don't consider myself a 'player'. jimmy blanton, ron carter, paul chambers, ray brown- those are players. on the bass, i'm a song writer. the playing i do serves the song. it may be hard and complicated, or it may be da-da-da-da-da-da, if that serves the song."
rob, who also sings lead, developed his bass-and-vocals coordination simply by practicing. " most bassists find that hard because they never have to do it- but when you do it all the time it becomes second nature. no matter how different the lyrics' rhythm is to what you're playing, they'll match up at certain points. you have to hit those points and let them be your ground strokes." wright's second nature ability has been turned into a songwriting tool. " i can sit down and play a bass line and start improvising vocals over the top pretty much right away, because i'm used to doing it. it's fu to do that; you can just go off and find things that interweave with your bassline."
wright plays stock fender precision basses. " i like the new ones with the cheap mexican pickups. those pickups are the greatest- they're so hot they're microphonic. the trouble is i sweat so much on my bass that i kill it within a year, and i have to get all the guts replaced because they're completely corroded. i work my bass pretty hard but that's what a hammer is for." he drives a marshall 4x12 guitar cabinet with a 300 watt marshall 3530 solid state head, which includes one tube " to soften the waves". the amp is not common. "everyone else has trace elliots and gallien kruegers; they're great; but that's not my sound. i'm not looking for fat , clean lows.i'm looking for mid range growl- basically a lemmy tone." rob uses a pick on .045 - .105 rotosound strings. his only outboard effect is an eq pedal he sometimes steps on to cut all the highs, turning his sound into "a complete dub bass."
the furious back and forth jamming between rob and john wright makes you wonder if they have an instinctive connection that comes from being family. " i don't know if it's anything spooky or genetic. the ties of playing music keep us close more than the fact that we're brothers. in terms of our syncing up, that's just practice. we've been playing together since '79, so if we dont know where we're going yet, we never will."
- s.l. duff
Victoria,BC was always a hotbed of creative music...not sure why. Fun to see Rob in bass player...
