Stoner/Doom Bassists Thread, Part 90: Maxed Out

[ampegfuzz]

Speaking of suits, I've suggested we change our name to EL VEGA and wear matching mariachi suits on multiple occasions.

Yes do this

 

[kzr750r1]

I'm not trying to sound bitter, or disrespect any labels or bands. nor am i saying the we should be on a label because as a non-touring band i don't necessarily believe we should be or need to be, but I think it is naive of us to think that in s/d world image doesn't mean anything....

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]


yeah there are a few exceptions, but there's also a very clear trend. Also didn't mean to single out tee pee but their site was the most convenient.

All I have to say about this is F em. Be you.

 

[kzr750r1]

Speaking of suits, I've suggested we change our name to EL VEGA and wear matching mariachi suits on multiple occasions.

That would be some stinky wardrobe after the first few shows.

 

[mc_muench]

Poor hygiene is really trending right now.

 

[mbelue]

I'd rather see dudes run in off the street and rock the shag out looking like they just got off work.
Mostly cause I've done that so many times it's not funny.
To me the show is energy and competence. Whether the music is super technical or not isn't nearly as important as playing it well.
Costumes are fine just know the venue. Robes and corpse paint just don't work outside during the day in the middle of summer.

 

[kzr750r1]

Like seeing behemoth for the first time mid day standing in a parking lot converted into one of three stages for the "festival".

I would rather see them at night in a dingy club with low ceilings.

 

[Ron Now]

I think Ron did a Bongripper show in suits. Could be wrong though.

Not quite, I have done a show in a 3 piece suit with my other band cstvt. To be fair it was directly after a wedding that I had to leave early to make the show, so it was kind of necessary to make it on stage at time (I literally walked on stage 2 minutes before we played).

But Bongripper has made a point to never take promo pictures, since shag what you think we should look like. We only take promo pictures at our various members weddings, so far we have a set from our drummers wedding, and now mine.

 

[bassboysam]

@Ron Now been meaning to say that I'm really enjoying Miserable. My favorite Bongripper release so far I think. I like the little extra energy and the production is great.

 

[Ron Now]

Thanks Sam, it's my favorite thing we've done by far. Production wise it's definitely our best, out guitarist continually out does himself on recordings.

I haven't had a chance to hear the whole new monobrow record still as band camp and my work computer (where I do 99% of my steaming) don't work together. But what I've heard, I've dug. I'm looking to rectify that soon though.

 

[Turkeypills]

When I joined the band I currently play with I was told that I could not grow out my hair or cut my beard. I was wearing shorts to the audition and was also told that those were fine for rehearsal but never on stage. I am fine with all of these conditions as I am balding and shave my head anyway, I love my beard so that was a non-issue for me and I actually feel similarly that shorts on stage don't look very metal. Not that I care all that much, it just doesn't feel right. Also I would look like a super oddball compared to the other guys if I wore shorts.

 

[hydrohydra]

Terrible flash flooding here in the Detroit area, my girlfriend got stuck on the freeway and is just now getting home after getting out of work 6 hours ago, local band against the grain's jam spot got flood out and it destroyed all there equipment right before they were gonna leave for tour.
Way she goes boys.

 

[kzr750r1]

Bring some of that earthquake lube out here.

 

[deathsdj]

How come vintage ibanez stuff is so awesome and the new new stuff is so meh...?

Not sure. The only basses I really like the look of are ripped of from 50 or 60 years ago anyway.
Maybe it's just that Ibanez's new stuff is so ugly? (minus the ATK)

You're killin me! I love my new Ibanez.

Trespassed to the lake and my friends dog chased a raccoon family into a culvert and fell 10 feet down a 45 degree incline into a well (I know opposite of lassie this guy). Anyways we couldn't get him and only had the light of my cellphone so we left him ran to the car and starting speeding like crazy so the park ranger would stop us and then we could take him with us, but after we showed him to prove we weren't crazy he made us drive to a maintainance station for a 10 foot rope... So we go back realize that was ******** and he called the firemen who showed up and tied my friend to their effective rope and a flash light and had him run shimmy into the filth to brave the coons and his freaked out dog. He pulled his giant dog out by his neck scruff and we dragged him out by his midsection. The dog is bloodied, stanky and freaked out but alive!

Damn dude!

https://www.facebook.com/hell900?ref=hl

Liked.

My supporting membership to TB just expired. I never use the classifieds so I guess I'll just let it stay expired.

I think ankle length skirts should be the new Doomiform. Just freeball it all.

 

[Korladis]

True, I've always found his "sound" to be more of a finger attack and speaker buzz than a specific string/amp.
His thwack is very hard but controlled. Coupled with some tape saturation of course.

Depends which Geezer sound you mean. He has different sounds different records. My favorite bass tones from him are on Master of Reality and Live Evil.

If you thwack the strings firmly but consistently, and play through a midrangy overdriven tube amp, or at least some mild overdrive, you're in the ballpark already, though.

Speaking of flats, I think I'll throw a old set of Rotos on the white ric and take these old ass rounds off

It would be considered trolling if I said this on most of talkbass, but I honestly find the sounds of flats and dead rounds to be very similar. A lot of people insist they sound different, though, so I guess they probably do.

I like the muted top end and the feel. They play like butter.
Thinking of trying nickel low riders but can't find them local.

See, I actually hate the feel of flats.

Playing bass should hurt me a bit.

I just roll them kinda like when you buy them new. Then I hang them on the corners of my shelves.

Gig pic ibby

I wish Ibanez still made cool basses I liked, like their old stuff.

Sekova

Neck is super bowed and the truss is stripped so it doesn't get played. . It sounds killer though

Get an EGC neck for it? That thing looks crazy.

No I would have enjoyed that.

She got all shi**y with me for not answering her texts for a couple of hours. I was asleep for one and we had just hung out for like 12 hours the day before. I have had bad experiences with chicks like that in the past so I broke it off.

I'm already on to something else. I'm kind of on a roll at the moment. Feels good after a six year hell run and a loooooooooooooooooooong dry spell.

Texting: "It's not really important when you respond, as long as you do so eventually."

If you want someone to respond immediately, you call them.

View attachment 460028

So what does it do?

View attachment 460194

Beast in the field took it to a new level of amplification last night

I'm actually growing tired of all the guitar + drums doom bands. There are some cool ones, but most just sound like they couldn't find a bassist. I feel like we're all supposed to pretend that their level of amplification means the sound is just as full as it would be with bass, but it just isn't. If I'm at a doom show, I want low end. Even a massively downtuned and amplified guitar won't have as much as a bass. Dark Castle is still the only band I've heard pull it off.

So this is like a 30 minute drive from my school. Bummer on the steep price though, otherwise I'd be ALL over that.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

That's a bit much. Still a lovely rig, though.

Not sure. The only basses I really like the look of are ripped of from 50 or 60 years ago anyway.
Maybe it's just that Ibanez's new stuff is so ugly? (minus the ATK)

I like the way the BTB series look. I'm just wholly uninterested in active electronics and five-strings.

The SR series look very generic to me.

Warwick says that to me too.

Yeah, but the Warwick dildo is more interesting looking.

Yeah, I prefer when people in bands just dress normally - but I won't judge bands that do have an image going on until I hear the music.

It depends on the style of music. Sometimes it fits.

It depends on which band I am playing with. If it is the cover band, then it matters where/who we are playing for. Someones party? Depends on how classy it is. Ill wear a tie if you are paying me to. If it is just a bar gig, we generally abide by "Some other band's t-shirt."

I generally wear a band shirt and jeans. I used to wear boots, too, but they need to be repaired.

We played with another band that had this slow churning death metal style. The lead singer looked like Anton Lavey. Only the drummer had a band shirt. The other guys had some costume type thing happening. This genre always felt like it had a come as you are attitude. That's what I miss about punk rock. There isn't a uniform. You don't have to look a certain way (not that I give two ***** about trends like that anyways). The only common theme is facial hair, which I have had since high school. The only thing that has really changed is the band shirts I'm wearing.

I think we talked about this before, but just double checking, anyone here have certain stage gimmicks? We had a cool intro, but haven't used it in a long time.

Depends what you mean by a stage gimmick. We generally prefer the lights dimmed pretty low. The Rock Shop actually got it about right the last time we played there.

During the end of the set, there's this one part where our lead vocalist plays extra percussion. I suppose some might consider that a gimmick.

I tend to headbang a lot, but that's kinda par for the course in metal.

so i got this 79 big muff V5 over the weekend, sounds like a muff should. its less mid rangy than my blunderbuss is so im gonna keep it (and it has less knobs which i prefer, and its huge haha). the weirdest thing tho is that obviously its not true bypass, but when just plugged into the pedal itself, i seem to get a ton of boost. dont know if any of you have experience with these old muffs but im wondering why it would act that way. ill be running it through one of my loops so it wont matter but it was interesting when i plugged it directly into my hiwatt how loud the pedal made my clean tone. anybody know why it would act that way?

So, what do the other knobs on the Blunderbuss do? Sorry to keep asking this.

I've been cooking all our meals from scratch lately. Since my wife is feeding the baby full time, figured it's only right I feed her. I've made us zucchini fettuccine alfredo, veggie and chicken jambalaya, broccoli and apple salad with dill yogurt dressing. I've been killing it with breakfasts all weekend. Saturday I did banana pancakes, yesterday whole wheat cheddar and jalapeno scones, this morning spiced pumpkin oatmeal. I love cooking everything from scratch, but I always cooked really rich, unhealthy stuff so I haven't cooked that much since we lost weight. So now I'm getting into cooking healthier food with lots of fresh ingredients and spices. When we went grocery shopping last week I loaded up on lots of fresh veggies and fruit, that was about 80% of our cart. So I haven't had hardly any processed/prepackaged food in the last week. My wife is also singing my praises, so that's a nice benefit.

Got my iMac sold, so I'm thinking I might order myself a Carvin P bass to keep in BEAD pretty soon. Just trying to figure out the options I want.

Damn, being all super dad.

Agreed, people have called us narc's and other crap like that, I've seen a bunch of comments over the years complaining that we don't look like people want/expect us to.

I couldn't give a **** what people think though, I'll keep doing what I do and hopefully it'll continue to piss them off.

People called Bongripper narcs.... what... shaging Bongripper... really?

You just look like regular dudes.

Wow so my friend is a neuroscientist phd student and he just called me to say the lab had been broken into and the detectives were there and completely baffled, so they let him in to look at what happened.

He goes in and there's diarrhea everywhere and a botch attempt to clean some of it. He said he had no clue and everything's accounted for then left already knowing the culprit. Apparently one really crappy student known as "snake in the grass" started drinking and showing up to the lab and recently caught a stomach bug or developed IBS. Anyways he drunkenly did some dissections and pissed out his ass all over the lab then ran away... So he's texting him now to confront him, and tell him go clean it.

Wow. ***? Sounds you got a mad scientist on your hands.

Wow... This sucks. So you're telling me, that you guys weren't "cool" enough? That is some lame ass ****. I was mainly talking about bands like high on fire ( no mega beard in that band), Torche (could pass as an opening band for Foo Fighters), Goatsnake (pretty much jeans and tshirts), Boris (no beards), Melvins ( weird looking, but that's it), plus more.

I think the use of amps is more a desire to have a certain sound, than to fit a stereotype. Laz (among others) only uses 1 cab...

Hair? I hate long hair. It feels shaggy. And some people can't grow hair. Nick Oliveri is bald as hell. Denim vests? Yeah, but a lot of genres have done the vest thing. The jean vest or motorcycle jacket is just a part of rock and roll music. You'll find this look throughout the history of rock music. The only thing that separates a punk vest from a doom vest, is the band patches that are featured.

You can look like a stoned out mountain man, and I guess that's what y'all are trying to say. I just never thought about this genre commanding a uniform because of the above mentioned bands. I think I'm going to trim my beard back to a goatee and see if I'm any less doom at the upcoming show. Ill probably grow it back for winter though. Social experiment time! Maybe I'll find a nice shirt at goodwill or something too.

And then there's Neurosis. Yeah, Scott Kelly has a big beard now sometimes, but he didn't always. They don't look especially "stoner" to me.

I don't blame the label it's what sells. Like we were talking about a few pages ago the s/d fan base really isn't as sophisticated as we as musicians think it is. Labels want bands that look like they are awesome. You know someone that's living the rock and roll lifestyle, road proven and look like they can do copious amounts of drugs.

So, bags under their eyes?

New YOB track:
http://www.stereogum.com/1697670/yob-unmask-the-spectre-stereogum-premiere/mp3s/

Yeah, I love this song. I was glad they played it in Oakland. The 'chorus'-esque parts were shaging beautiful. I disagree with that reviewer's opinion that Atma is their worst album, though. It's actually my favorite by them.

Trying to come to terms with a conundrum. It seems that I'm incapable of drinking liquor anymore. The slightest sip of alcohol makes me vomit and the smell makes me wretch.

Anyone here ever encountered this?

I drank pretty heavily about a dozen times when I was 18/19. Had some bad blackout drunk times with some pretty bad hangovers. I think this might be my body telling me "No more of that you Sh*thead, you should have learned your lesson by now!". Problem is, now I'd like to be able to have a little drink with my wife, or occasionally to lubricate the creative cogs. The smallest sip of rum (first attempt at drinking anything at all since about March) resulted in immediate unexpected vomiting. *** did I do to myself???

Switch to weed. Or just drink, you know, beer. I can't drink hard liquor very much anymore, myself.

I think we are trying to say the same thing, in a different way. The uniform you describe is more inclusive than just stoner/doom. Long hair and such is just a "rocker" look, IMO. But even still, people can rock without looking like a rocker.

Paul Gilbert used to look like this
View attachment 460907

Now he looks like this
View attachment 460908

Rocker versus local laundromat clerk.

So I guess in that way, yes. There is a certain "uniform". I call that type of stuff flash. Like a punk rocker with a green mohawk. Ask him why he does his hair. You might get something about how he's a nonconformist and such. Then eventually, how he doesn't really care what people think. Well, nows a good time to have some head clippers. I'll bet he won't shave the mohawk. Because it's a part of the image, no matter how much image doesn't matter to him.

So, the people that have denim vests, leather jackets, whatever, I just consider that as flash. Someone trying to advertise themselves in a certain way. I mean as much as we don't want to admit, we DO judge books by their covers. The only bands I have ever had opinions about their looks, are the ones that try to have a look, in the first place. It's obvious which bands spend time putting together outfits, and what band just shows up in their normal **** and let the music talk. Some people just have different normal looks. If we were to go to Chili's for happy hour right now, I'll bet most of us would show up in jeans and tshirts. Why? Because that is what we are comfortable in. Would we then be in uniform?

I can see this debate going in either direction. It wouldn't be the same jeans, the same band shirts, the same shoes... That would be odd. But it's hard not to say a group of trads, hanging out in Levi's, grinders, braces, and Fred Perry's, aren't in a uniform. Especially when they all wear it.

I think it's also a sort of "flag" if you will. Like when I wear metal band shirts. Makes me identifiable as a fan of that band. Other fans might then see this. That can be good or bad, depending on the situation.

I kinda liked how Cult of Luna, in the video of them at Hellfest 2013, was backlit basically the entire time so you couldn't even really see them.

Fugg, Robin Williams is dead by apparent suicide. Damn.

Yep. Pretty terrible.

All I'll say on the image thing is I'd be lying if I said image wasn't important to me. How people dress has long been a way to associate with a certain group, it's how people identify themselves as part of something larger than themselves and display that association to others. Now, am I going to write a band off for not having a bunch of long hairs in it? No. But if I see a a photo of a band that I think looks cool, has some image going for them, I'll be far more likely to give them a listen, and I know that's really shallow. But if a band can play, a band can play, and that's ultimately what matters. I do however believe that when you're playing for people, you're putting on a show. I've said this in other threads as well, but I don't want to see a band that looks like they just walked in off the street. I could go to any bar in America and see some dudes like that playing music. I want to see a god damn show, music being the main thing, but the presentation also being pretty important. But you can dress to the nines in whatever uniform you want, and if you can't provide the goods, if you can't play, well then it's all over. Image has always been a big part of music, and I think it will continue to be, but telling a band they don't look stoner enough is ridiculous. Honestly I'd love to see a stoner rock band who only dress in suits or something, just to mess with people.

Actually, in that Cult of Luna video I mentioned, they're all wearing collar shirts.

Rebecca and Kim from SubRosa sometimes seem to wear skirts and dresses live, though when I saw them they weren't dressed formally. Levi and Andy just wear t-shirts, lol. Not sure if Sarah ever dresses up.

Speaking of suits, I've suggested we change our name to EL VEGA and wear matching mariachi suits on multiple occasions.

It would be "La Vega," actually, I think?

Poor hygiene is really trending right now.

Is it? How so?

When I joined the band I currently play with I was told that I could not grow out my hair or cut my beard. I was wearing shorts to the audition and was also told that those were fine for rehearsal but never on stage. I am fine with all of these conditions as I am balding and shave my head anyway, I love my beard so that was a non-issue for me and I actually feel similarly that shorts on stage don't look very metal. Not that I care all that much, it just doesn't feel right. Also I would look like a super oddball compared to the other guys if I wore shorts.

Huh. Pretty sure the only member of Catapult who I've never seen wear shorts, besides myself, is the keyboard player/third guitarist.

 

[Korladis]

So, my reverb pedal has decided that it no longer wants to work properly.

Anyone know of a good but cheap reverb pedal that also doesn't take up much board real estate?

 

[Ekimus]

About the look debate, I agree that it seems to have become a gimmick for most new bands. But I still think most fans don't have to see the band in "stoner uniform" to appreciate them. After all, Salem's Pot were quite famous even when nobody had even seen them.

And yep Sartori, the Cult of Luna gig was one of the best I've ever seen, and my eyes were closed most of the time. The light show coupled to the music was just amazing !

 

[El Raro]

New YOB track is shaging greeaaaatttttt!

Caught Neurosis over the weekend too. First time ever in Australia. I felt 18 again...they opened with "A Sun that never sets" and ended with my favourite song "Stones from the sky". Solid two hour set and well worth the ensuing neck and back pain. No gimmicks, no cheesy encore, no banter. Just pure Neurosis from start to finish. I'm smiling just thinking back on it.

 

[kzr750r1]

Sartori it's a Delay/Boost. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[ampegfuzz]

@Sartori

Mostly tried them again since they were kinda cool in the brown ric (and obviously I saved them) so threw them on the white one to tune down to drop c for machete. The neck is slightly weaker on the white ric so the added tension of the Rotos and the low tuning keep the neck where it needs to be. Thanks on the ibanez, it's a beast. And putting a EGC neck on the sekova would be like putting lipstick on a pig.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Terrible flash flooding here in the Detroit area, my girlfriend got stuck on the freeway and is just now getting home after getting out of work 6 hours ago, local band against the grain's jam spot got flood out and it destroyed all there equipment right before they were gonna leave for tour.
Way she goes boys.

No flooding here, but my practice space is on the second floor, in a building on top of a hill.