How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...

[uwe]

... that I bought like about 10 Michael Manring CDs and I'm enjoying them all?





No, it's not bass playing as we know it, but it's soooooooo soothing! 

My, I'm getting old. Of course, any CD with "Windham Hill" as the label on it should warn you. 

[TBird1958]

 You'll feel my Dominatrix whip when I return to Ze Fatherland! 

[patman]

I had some of those on vinyl...

He's not a wuss, because he can sure play rings around me...

[uwe]

 


I also own CDs by Michael Hedges!!!

[Alanko]

I dunno man. I dislike that thin, plastic'y bass tone, and I'm always amazed that you have to pony up for ridiculous gear to get that tone. Manring reminds me just a wee bit of a cult leader. Just a little bit too nice, without the warmth behind the eyes to fill it out, and he's been doing the same schtick for ages. Having a bass with four D-tuners on the headstock and then using it to compose something that sounds like faux-Celtic tourist information music? Boring! How much of his repertoire is composed of him hitting natural harmonics and then quickly dumping the string down a whole town?

 So many guys use that right hand tappy polyphonic technique, but they always make the same lush-yet-dull psuedo-meaningful whiteboy-earnest Chris McCandless music. Dull dull dull.

Manring at least throws in some of that squirrelly Jaco stuff. I would mail him my spare Boss ODB-3, but he would probably have no idea what to do with it.



Front row at the Manring gig. Fuggin' narly. I'm totally going to find myself here.

[nofi]

i don't even think grateful dead level drug consumption could make this stuff interesting.

[patman]

Hedges and Manring are both artists...

I love to paint, also...let me put it in visual art terms

Think Picasso, Matisse, Chagall...original inspired thinkers. But you gotta work at it.

These guys are creating art...boldly going where no one has ever gone.

Art sometimes is not easy...I love modern classical music, but sometimes you gotta work at it. Same with modern painting.

That being said, some stuff is crap...but I suspect the two guys above (their music) is not crap. The Manring thing is a little audience participation thing to liven up a concert.  The Michael Hedges piece, I thought, was stunning.

I love all kinds of stuff...in reality there is more to music than soul music and bluegrass.

[mc2NY]

A friend of mine was selling one of those goofy Manring basses of your are REAAAAALLY getting into him Uwe.

You can meeedley meeedly meeedly all day long up that neck.

I'd like to see Manring with Rick Neilsen from Cheap Trick jamming with all those gipuiatrs hanging off them and piled around.  Two polar opposites, musically, but with the same need for too many guitars at once.

[amptech]

Ok, Manrings music might be boring - but so what. He´s dedicated to exploring the bass guitar, he is skilled, and his technique might inspire players to try out fresh ideas. Nothing wrong with doing the same thing year after year, most bands I like stick to their thing.

[uwe]

I dunno man. I dislike that thin, plastic'y bass tone, and I'm always amazed that you have to pony up for ridiculous gear to get that tone. Manring reminds me just a wee bit of a cult leader. Just a little bit too nice, without the warmth behind the eyes to fill it out, and he's been doing the same schtick for ages. Having a bass with four D-tuners on the headstock and then using it to compose something that sounds like faux-Celtic tourist information music? Boring! How much of his repertoire is composed of him hitting natural harmonics and then quickly dumping the string down a whole town?

 So many guys use that right hand tappy polyphonic technique, but they always make the same lush-yet-dull psuedo-meaningful whiteboy-earnest Chris McCandless music. Dull dull dull.

Manring at least throws in some of that squirrelly Jaco stuff. I would mail him my spare Boss ODB-3, but he would probably have no idea what to do with it.



Front row at the Manring gig. Fuggin' narly. I'm totally going to find myself here.

Alan, you need your own cult following!!!  "Having a bass with four D-tuners on the headstock and then using it to compose something that sounds like faux-Celtic tourist information music? Boring! How much of his repertoire is composed of him hitting natural harmonics and then quickly dumping the string down a whole town?"



I agree that Manring comes across as some vegan Californian esoteric merchant. "Whiteboy-earnest Chris McCandless music ..." - delicious!!!! 

Ok, so you're not a fan.  But I'm a great fan of people slamming things in style (irrespective of whether I like it), you just did very well! Can't wait till I can post something about Judas Priest for you to tear into it!

[Alanko]

Judas Priest are a'right? Rob Halford cavorted around in gay bondage gear and nobody batted an eyelid, which tidily encapsulates a lot of the unconscious homoeroticism that seems to occur within metal, especially since the '80s. Quite the tonic for all those mumbling insecure homophobes I used to encounter on the metal scene. 

Their 'cover' of Green Manalishi is pretty horrible though. Its like they read the lyrics but nothing went in. 

[gweimer]

Judas Priest are a'right? Rob Halford cavorted around in gay bondage gear and nobody batted an eyelid, which tidily encapsulates a lot of the unconscious homoeroticism that seems to occur within metal, especially since the '80s. Quite the tonic for all those mumbling insecure homophobes I used to encounter on the metal scene. 

Their 'cover' of Green Manalishi is pretty horrible though. Its like they read the lyrics but nothing went in. 

The Judas Priest version isn't really all that different from Fleetwood Mac's original.  They do make up for it with their cover of Joan Baez' "Diamonds and Rust" 

I interviewed Halford when I was on staff at The Illinois Entertainer.  He was my favorite interview, next to Dee Snider, and Rob is the most articulate musician I ever spoke with.  He never paused fumbling for words, and never used "ummm" or got lost mid-sentence.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

The Judas Priest version isn't really all that different from Fleetwood Mac's original.  They do make up for it with their cover of Joan Baez' "Diamonds and Rust" 

My favorite cover of that song is this one:

[nofi]

succinct and to the point.

[nofi]