who needs a guitarist?

[Basvarken]

When you can play bass like this?






Wow! What a great band.

[wellREDman]

proper drum n bass
first song was very voodoo child

[Dave W]

First one is blocked here.

I like the second song, but IMHO if you're playing guitar parts on bass, you still need a bass for a foundation.

[chromium]

Here's a version of the first clip that works in the 'States:




Pretty cool stuff.

[Basvarken]

First one is blocked here.

I like the second song, but IMHO if you're playing guitar parts on bass, you still need a bass for a foundation.

He splits his signal with a Palmer. One signal goes to a POG2 that is set to add higher octaves. And this signal gets a lot of distortion. Then it goes to two guitar amps. The original signal goes to a bass amp. Sometimes he keeps it fairly clean and sometimes he uses another POG2 for this signal. So whenever he plays "guitar" parts there are bass parts underneath.

[uwe]

I'm unimpressed (but then I'm no distorted bass sound fan at all, isn't distortion something guitarists have to do because their puny little instrument lacks any inherent authority?  ). I fail to see the sonic appeal of all these duos that sacrifice an instrument, be it Jack White/White Stripes or these guys. To me it will forever sound empty and rough. Besides, the point of bass and guitar interplay is not that the bass covers everything the guitar does one octave lower - how inane is that? The appeal is that the bass sometimes plays less and sometimes more than the guitar.

I'm playing at a wedding ceremony in church on bass with just a girl singer on Saturday and the rehearsals went fine, but it's nothing I would want to do on a rock stage. Essentially, I play "classical guitar on (an alternately tuned) bass" which suits the occasion, but it's hardly a band experience, I bas(s)ically mimic with chording, empty "drone" strings, arpeggios and harmonics what a guitarist might do. And drop in the low E once in a while to remind people that they are listening to a bass. 

The above guys here remind me of Clatter, btw, the "Ric+Chick+Drum Punk"-Duo Steve Barr championed so energetically in the Götterdämmerung daze of the Dudepit, threads were awash with them for a while. They apparently still exist too:

http://www.clatter.com/



Their stuff has a lot more charm than Royal Blood's "riffage pretending to be songs" IMHO though. And I sure bet Amy of Clatter never heard much Primus or Les Claypool, no, not at all ... 

[nofi]

i think the whole point of bands like white stripes is to sound raw. the blues people they cover, like sun house, never had a bass player nor needed one. the originals can sound either rough or mainstream. not all music demands a bass.

its been so long since i went to mass the acoustic folk thing from the seventies is the last music i remember hearing.

[Basvarken]

I HEARD the band Royal Blood before I SAW them.
And thought they kick ass.  So I checked them out on YouTube. And to my surprise I saw only two musicians making all that cool music.

I usually don't care how many there are on stage executing good rock music. As long as it sounds good and thew songs are good.
But I gotta admit this band blew me away by just being a duo.

[uwe]

i think the whole point of bands like white stripes is to sound raw. the blues people they cover, like sun house, never had a bass player nor needed one. the originals can sound either rough or mainstream. not all music demands a bass.

its been so long since i went to mass the acoustic folk thing from the seventies is the last music i remember hearing.

I hear you. But rawness for rawness' sake is contrived. I remember laughing about the first The Strokes album and how they tried to make those vocals sound like they were recorded via an analog telephone. What is the point to go lo fi? That must have cost them a good deal of money to not use state of the art mics in the studio. Kind of like artificially aged instruments. Or throwing wood chips in a Zinfandel to give it barrique taste.

I believe if you had given Lead Belly (or Leadbelly to avoid drawn out discussions among purists) the chance to record his music in a, say, 16 track studio of mid-seventies standards, he would have gladly taken it in the thirties. And his music wouldn't have suffered in authenticity for it.

No, not all music demands a bass, but a good bass line sure helps!  Electric bass is a wonderful instrument, pop music as we know it wouldn't exist without it. Not sure how the bass run of Yes' Roundabout would have sounded on a double bass. Or with no bass. Or Jack White playing it on guitar with an octaver. 

[uwe]

I HEARD the band Royal Blood before I SAW them.
And thought they kick ass.  So I checked them out on YouTube. And to my surprise I saw only two musicians making all that cool music.

I usually don't care how many there are on stage executing good rock music. As long as it sounds good and thew songs are good.
But I gotta admit this band blew me away by just being a duo.

Huh? I don't know what they do on their studio recordings, but they sure sound like a duo to me live. In a blindfold test I would have assumed a distorted baritone guitar and a drummer plus a singer, nothing else. Not once would I have thought: "Oh, the bass kicks in!" Like it does in Smoke on the Water once Ritchie has played the riff four times (to give an innocent example)!  Have a duo emulate that.

[Basvarken]

Why does it have to be a traditional line up?
Why can't it just be cool in it's own right?

Like i said: I like the music. And I like the energy.

[hieronymous]

Why does it have to be a traditional line up?
Why can't it just be cool in it's own right?

Like i said: I like the music. And I like the energy.

I hear ya Rob. He's doing some interesting stuff, there are parts when it sounds like just the guitar - how'd he do dat?

[uwe]

Why does it have to be a traditional line up?
Why can't it just be cool in it's own right?

Like i said: I like the music. And I like the energy.

Himmel, you are allowed to like it!

I liked them too ...



And from Deep "You-know-the-rest" it's just a small step to Deap Vally





I'm eclectic that way. And filled to the brim with the fervent confidence that during their further ascent to stardom, Royal Blood will certainly also master the finer art of melody as other duos have done before them.

[Basvarken]

Himmel, you are allowed to like it!

Really? Wow! Thanx 

[slinkp]

"Deap Valley" works for me ... funny though that first song sure starts off  familiar... oh right, my other favorite no-bass band
(warning, most people are not going to want to stick out the whole 11 minutes)