TO A GREAT EXTENT

march 31st (kerplunk-era green day day)

cover: green day - 80

this is my favorite song by my favorite band. I have loved them forever (13 years? 12 years?) and continue to even though they don’t put out good albums anymore and are a bunch of jerks. the bass in this song always felt like it would be impossible to even attempt (the sort of folksy finger-picking-sounding main bass riff, I mean). I decided to go for it, and honestly? though I couldn’t play it at its actual speed (I played it about 25% slower than the actual song) I was still able to play it. I got into a good rhythm with playing it, playing down strokes on the A string and up strokes on the D string, back and forth. it kind of worked! oh and I consulted the hell out of tabs for this one because mike dirnt is so all over the place that it’s hard to even know what he’s doing a lot of the time. I pieced together a couple tabs and changed the parts that sounded wrong to me, and this is what I came up with.

March 30, 2016

Cover: “Blitzkrieg Bop” by the Ramones

hahaha ok so remember how i said i wanted to do a hard song today? that didn’t happen. THANKS, BACK. i know it’s getting old to keep reading me say that but like, it’s getting old having to say it, so don’t worry. i feel like i’m getting better slowly, but my right arm is still basically useless.

Anyway, I decided to just randomly think of an easy bass song that I knew I could figure out quickly, and then just record a take of me trying to remember it and sing it also. This goofy thing is the result. Come hell or high water, i AM going to do the hard song I really want to do tomorrow.

note: I refuse to use any other picture than this because this picture is so good so deal with how pixelated it is.

march 29th (no theme day)

cover: ‘til tuesday - voices carry

-the song/the band: this is one of the greatest songs in the world. I have loved it since I was a kid enjoying the cheesy acting on the part of the abusive boyfriend in the music video (seriously go to youtube and watch the video now). much later I discovered that the aimee mann from ‘til tuesday was the same aimee mann who did the music in the pt anderson movie magnolia. that music isn’t so much my thing but I respect the hell out of it and find it very effective. I’m not surprised that someone who could write one of the most heartbreaking brutal songs I’ve ever heard (’voices carry’) also wrote that intense singalong song in magnolia (also, if you haven’t seen magnolia you obviously should. though it’s not as good as boogie nights. off topic…). I decided to buy the LP a few years ago and found that it was mostly good but no song on it compared to ‘voices carry’. knowing that aimee mann played bass and sang on all of those songs impressed the hell out of me because I suck at playing complicated bass parts while singing. I decided not to attempt it but instead to record all the bass parts, even the complicated ones (seriously, the ending…dude. it’s a lot.) separately from the vocals. honestly the vocals for this song are so hard to sing. see more about that in the process section. OH ALSO did you know the gender pronouns referring to the partner in this song were originally female and the label forced aimee mann to change it because they didn’t think a story about a lesbian relationship would sell? as though this song wasn’t already cool enough!

March 26, 2016

Cover: “A Heart Filled Reaction to Dissatisfaction” by City of Caterpillar

Here’s a cool story: I threw out my back! So, I spent last night and today in a bunch of pain sitting in a chair. I didn’t really even feel up to doing this, but I’m fighting v hard to stay committed in the last week of madbass, and hell if my stupid back is going to stop me.

So, Derek, who is the most amazing human, brought me my bass and helped me learn this song tonight without me having to move much. I played the two progressions through a few times and then recorded them on my phone with some flubs. Quick little jam on a really fun bass line with different types of chords and picking. I always loved these ‘screamo’ (lol) bass lines as a young bb punk.

Nothing like searing pain and feeling helpless to humble you and make you restless af. Hoping tomorrow brings some relief and the opportunity to make a cooler madbass.

march 26th (no theme day)

cover: the simpsons - chimpan a to chimpan z

March 25, 2016

Cover: “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.

Lots of stuff going on here. The bass line was hard when i was trying to use other peoples’ tabs, but made way more sense when i stopped looking at them, haha. Other than that, translating different mandolin and filler/contrasting melody lines was probably the toughest part, which kinda goes hand in hand with layering a bunch of stuff to change the dynamics in different parts of the song.

March 23, 2016

Cover: “Damaged Goods” by Gang of Four

Here’s a very sloppy quick one for ya today. Basically, today was A DAY and i only had about half an hour tonight to quickly try to learn this and record it. It’s mostly variations on the same bass line for the whole song so I just did 1:45 of it and cut it off at the long drum/vox break. Left a very quiet track of the song in there so you can kinda hear how the bass line matches up with the rest of it. 

Someday i’ll come back to this, because it’s really fun to play (a good ol’ fashioned all-4-stringer!) and I’m sure I can get it cleaner/more precise with a little more time!

March 22, 2016

Cover: “Zero” by the Smashing Pumpkins

This is another one bass line/one vocal line jawn, so it’s a little rough but it did the trick for me today. Although it wasn’t complicated, it was actually a little harder than it seemed to go between the melodic line patterns and constantly hitting the open Eb for rhythm. It’s a bass line that fills its own self out within the process of playing it, which i love.