Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Slackness and Guitarists
We've been terribly slack about posting to this blog haven't we. It's part of our plan to bore everyone so senseless that we stop reading the blog and we can start saying the stuff that we shouldn't really let anyone hear!
In actual fact AK's been busy with stuff (and you should check here if you haven't seen his news) and I haven't. Not talking about on Coments worthy stuff anyway. This weekend sees my annual expedition to Ashton Court Festival which should provide a lot of interesting stuff to talk about. Last years highlight was a three and a half armed punk band called Bucky. I wonder if they are playing again this year. The drummer played his floor tom with the stump of his half arm and got up and smashed into his drums at the end of every song. Great stuff.
Anyway, AK's mammoth post about his favourite guitarists led me to a bit of introspection about my own guitar influences. The kind of stuff I like playing, and writing tends to be moody odd sounding undistorted weirdness or full on rocking riffs. I also find it hard to seperate the guitarist from his band. The technically amazing guitarists whos entire act is based around their guitar skills don't interest me at all.
Andy Cairns - Therapy?
In my opinion Therapy? have the greatest collection of brilliant rock riffs of any band in the history of the world, Andy Cairns writes and plays them so he's probably my favourite guitarist of all time. It seems like every guitarist my age can play Screamager but there is a lot more to Therapy? than that. It's arguably one of the weaker guitar songs on that album. Probably my favourite Therapy riff is from the beginning of Stories on Infernal Love (1995). It's not just the riffs themselves that rock it's the way they fit with the rest of the band and the vocals. Therapy? are a great example of a band where the guitars, bass and drums are all working together. A lot of guitar bands almost seem to seperate the vibe of the rhythm section from the vocal and guitar melodies. It's an area where dance and hip-hop tend to work a lot better. Dave Grohl is probably the best drummer for taking a riff that rocks and really beefing it up with drums but Fyfe Ewing from Therapy? (and later Neil Cooper) also does an excellent job. Anyway, speaking of Dave Grohl brings me to...
Josh Homme - Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age et al
Did you think I was going to say Kurt Cobain? He narrowly missed this list. Not because I don't like Nirvana, they were the band that really turned me on to music in the first place. He's not a guitar playing influence for me though. I love listening to Nirvana but find them boring to play.
Anyway, back to Ken... I mean Josh. Kyuss were slow, rumbling deliberate and in a way the complete opposite to what I would normally think of as rock but it was brilliant. They might have been stoner rock pioneers but their quality by far outstrips that of those who followed them. The genius of the guitars on Kyuss records, and the thing I learnt from them, is that less is very often more. The Dave Grohl link comes with Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age probably my favourite rock album of all time. As a rhythm guitarist you have to love someone who can write an extremely hard rocking riff which is basically just one note played at with a rocking rhythm and tempo. His riffs are good on earlier QotSA albums but Dave Grohl's drumming on Songs for the Deaf just breathes new life into it.
Tom Morello - Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave
If Rage Against the Machine had never existed I think I'd be convinced that heavy rock and funky hip-hop beats could work together. Some people will love Morello for his pioneering sounds and solos. For me it's the groove. His guitar riffs flow like a funk bass but still manage to be one of the heaviest things you've ever heard. The interaction with the bass, vital for rhythm guitar, is really well represented by RatM as well. The guitar and bass riffs are often almost interchangeable.
Jerry Cantrell - Alice In Chains
For me Jerry is the king of guitar sadness. He makes the guitar sound like it's going to cry. For once it's not the way the guitar works with the rhythm section that I took from him. It's the way the guitar works with the vocals. Listen to Down in a Hole from the Dirt album for a single song that really shows this, or better listen to the whole album. The album itself moves from almost a celebration of drug highs to a desolate despairing lament at the damage they can do to your life. The vocals go with the change but the guitar follows too. The change in the way the actual guitar parts is subtle but there is a great change in the way it's played.
That's it I think. There are other guitarists who I admire but I think those 4 together sum up how I want to play and also of the things I feel's important to have in a rhythm guitar player. Catchiness, Simplicity, Groove and Emotion. Me actually being able to write and play like a combination of those four is something altogether different. You'll probably notice that all the guitarists were around in the early/mid-90s. Well, that's when I started to learn guitar and when I developed my style. If I was starting out now I'd probably name 4 different guitarists but hopefully the aspects of playing would still be the same. I think the concepts are true for guitarists of any style and at any time.
In actual fact AK's been busy with stuff (and you should check here if you haven't seen his news) and I haven't. Not talking about on Coments worthy stuff anyway. This weekend sees my annual expedition to Ashton Court Festival which should provide a lot of interesting stuff to talk about. Last years highlight was a three and a half armed punk band called Bucky. I wonder if they are playing again this year. The drummer played his floor tom with the stump of his half arm and got up and smashed into his drums at the end of every song. Great stuff.
Anyway, AK's mammoth post about his favourite guitarists led me to a bit of introspection about my own guitar influences. The kind of stuff I like playing, and writing tends to be moody odd sounding undistorted weirdness or full on rocking riffs. I also find it hard to seperate the guitarist from his band. The technically amazing guitarists whos entire act is based around their guitar skills don't interest me at all.
Andy Cairns - Therapy?
In my opinion Therapy? have the greatest collection of brilliant rock riffs of any band in the history of the world, Andy Cairns writes and plays them so he's probably my favourite guitarist of all time. It seems like every guitarist my age can play Screamager but there is a lot more to Therapy? than that. It's arguably one of the weaker guitar songs on that album. Probably my favourite Therapy riff is from the beginning of Stories on Infernal Love (1995). It's not just the riffs themselves that rock it's the way they fit with the rest of the band and the vocals. Therapy? are a great example of a band where the guitars, bass and drums are all working together. A lot of guitar bands almost seem to seperate the vibe of the rhythm section from the vocal and guitar melodies. It's an area where dance and hip-hop tend to work a lot better. Dave Grohl is probably the best drummer for taking a riff that rocks and really beefing it up with drums but Fyfe Ewing from Therapy? (and later Neil Cooper) also does an excellent job. Anyway, speaking of Dave Grohl brings me to...
Josh Homme - Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age et al
Did you think I was going to say Kurt Cobain? He narrowly missed this list. Not because I don't like Nirvana, they were the band that really turned me on to music in the first place. He's not a guitar playing influence for me though. I love listening to Nirvana but find them boring to play.
Anyway, back to Ken... I mean Josh. Kyuss were slow, rumbling deliberate and in a way the complete opposite to what I would normally think of as rock but it was brilliant. They might have been stoner rock pioneers but their quality by far outstrips that of those who followed them. The genius of the guitars on Kyuss records, and the thing I learnt from them, is that less is very often more. The Dave Grohl link comes with Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age probably my favourite rock album of all time. As a rhythm guitarist you have to love someone who can write an extremely hard rocking riff which is basically just one note played at with a rocking rhythm and tempo. His riffs are good on earlier QotSA albums but Dave Grohl's drumming on Songs for the Deaf just breathes new life into it.
Tom Morello - Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave
If Rage Against the Machine had never existed I think I'd be convinced that heavy rock and funky hip-hop beats could work together. Some people will love Morello for his pioneering sounds and solos. For me it's the groove. His guitar riffs flow like a funk bass but still manage to be one of the heaviest things you've ever heard. The interaction with the bass, vital for rhythm guitar, is really well represented by RatM as well. The guitar and bass riffs are often almost interchangeable.
Jerry Cantrell - Alice In Chains
For me Jerry is the king of guitar sadness. He makes the guitar sound like it's going to cry. For once it's not the way the guitar works with the rhythm section that I took from him. It's the way the guitar works with the vocals. Listen to Down in a Hole from the Dirt album for a single song that really shows this, or better listen to the whole album. The album itself moves from almost a celebration of drug highs to a desolate despairing lament at the damage they can do to your life. The vocals go with the change but the guitar follows too. The change in the way the actual guitar parts is subtle but there is a great change in the way it's played.
That's it I think. There are other guitarists who I admire but I think those 4 together sum up how I want to play and also of the things I feel's important to have in a rhythm guitar player. Catchiness, Simplicity, Groove and Emotion. Me actually being able to write and play like a combination of those four is something altogether different. You'll probably notice that all the guitarists were around in the early/mid-90s. Well, that's when I started to learn guitar and when I developed my style. If I was starting out now I'd probably name 4 different guitarists but hopefully the aspects of playing would still be the same. I think the concepts are true for guitarists of any style and at any time.
# posted by Mike @ 11:30 
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