The Last Bass Outpost

Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: uwe on September 02, 2015, 11:41:23 AM

Title: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 02, 2015, 11:41:23 AM
... that I bought like about 10 Michael Manring CDs and I'm enjoying them all?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdYnWH9Aeok

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsF4Uq2_qLs

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

My, I'm getting old. Of course, any CD with "Windham Hill" as the label on it should warn you.  :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: TBird1958 on September 02, 2015, 11:44:28 AM


 You'll feel my Dominatrix whip when I return to Ze Fatherland!  :-*
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: patman on September 02, 2015, 11:45:55 AM
I had some of those on vinyl...

He's not a wuss, because he can sure play rings around me...
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 02, 2015, 11:48:05 AM
 :mrgreen:


I also own CDs by Michael Hedges!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN3439l4HR0
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Alanko on September 02, 2015, 02:32:49 PM
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.

(http://www.christophermccandless.info/images/slideshow.jpg)

Front row at the Manring gig. Fuggin' narly. I'm totally going to find myself here.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: nofi on September 02, 2015, 02:43:45 PM
i don't even think grateful dead level drug consumption could make this stuff interesting. :bored:
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: patman on September 02, 2015, 04:05:03 PM
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.

Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: mc2NY on September 02, 2015, 04:38:58 PM
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.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: amptech on September 03, 2015, 12:07:17 AM
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.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 03, 2015, 02:52:42 AM
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.

(http://www.christophermccandless.info/images/slideshow.jpg)

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

Alan, you need your own cult following!!!  :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: "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?"

(http://ak-hdl.buzzfed.com/static/2015-01/1/18/enhanced/webdr11/enhanced-5155-1420155967-6.jpg)

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

Ok, so you're not a fan.  8) 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!
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Alanko on September 03, 2015, 03:28:49 AM
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.  :mrgreen:

Their 'cover' of Green Manalishi is pretty horrible though. Its like they read the lyrics but nothing went in.  :rolleyes:
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: gweimer on September 03, 2015, 03:35:27 AM
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.  :mrgreen:

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

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"  8)

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.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Psycho Bass Guy on September 03, 2015, 04:27:05 AM
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"  8)

My favorite cover of that song is this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbHacAWg3JQ
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: nofi on September 03, 2015, 07:01:20 AM
succinct and to the point.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: nofi on September 03, 2015, 07:05:54 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybGOT4d2Hs8
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: 4stringer77 on September 03, 2015, 09:16:10 AM
Manring had some ballsy tracks on the Thonk album. Tim "Herb" Alexander on drums probably lent the most machismo.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 04, 2015, 04:36:28 AM
succinct and to the point.

Yeah, but that part isn't even in Joanie's original! Priest added that "Diamonds, diamonds and ru-hu-hu-hust" as a coda/chorus on their own accord. I like the original, I like what Priest did with it, but as even a gay Halford was never in love with Bob Dylan or felt jilted by him, I always thought that him singing "You were so good with words ... and at keeping things vague ..." bordered on the incongruous, it's really something only Frau Baez can sing with the necessary credibility. There is still an ache in her when she performs that song today (I saw her a few months ago), she ain't over Bobby yet.  :-\

Blackers and his Missus do it too and while it's lovely, I hate it when Candice skips the "crummy" in the "from the window of that crummy hotel in Washington Square" - probably because it's not Renaissance enough!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1aB4Be--Jc

That's not Country by the way, too minorish!  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: gearHed289 on September 04, 2015, 08:19:33 AM
I like Blackmore's version, I like Priest's version, I like Joan's version. Guess it's just a great song!

I had a Manring album on cassette back in the 90s, with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones on the flip side. I think I recorded over both...
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 04, 2015, 09:58:32 AM
I need to do something with my ears. Candice is not really singing "the vagina was yours to keep" at 2:35, is she?  :o Blackmore's Night has children in the audience!
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Highlander on September 04, 2015, 03:06:29 PM
How can you mix up a vagina and a Madonna... ;)

(yes, sadly enough, I do have the songbook :rolleyes:)
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: patman on September 04, 2015, 04:40:55 PM
I liked that cut.  She has lovely voice
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Droombolus on September 05, 2015, 12:35:26 AM
Hmm.......... I'm more of a Diamonds & Debris guy .........  :-[
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: amptech on September 05, 2015, 12:53:24 AM
Candice is not really singing "the vagina was yours to keep" at 2:35, is she?

We had a girl in town once who was a decent jazz singer, but her e's was always too long. You can imagine what that did to 'pennies from heaven'.
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: Basvarken on September 05, 2015, 03:25:05 AM
Hmm.......... I'm more of a Diamonds & Debris guy .........  :-[

Great album

(http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0001/988/MI0001988155.jpg?partner=allrovi.com)
Title: Re: How much on the Wussometer do I climb by admitting ...
Post by: uwe on September 07, 2015, 05:38:00 AM
We had a girl in town once who was a decent jazz singer, but her e's was always too long. You can imagine what that did to 'pennies from heaven'.

An elongated feat.