CONSIDERABLY LESS THAN ALL ABOUT THAT BASS

A huge thank you to the generous Michael Sundlin for loaning me his lovely bass!

This was an opportunity to chart the boundless abyss that is my comprehensive lack of prowess as a bass player, failing utterly to play anything resembling the bass line I’d imagined for one of the tracks I’m working on. I was going for “Pixies meets the Flaming Lips”; what I achieved instead was “this guy only knows how to play guitar, so he tries to get by playing chords on the bass, which generally misses the point of the instrument”. Totally didn’t work.

But I did mess around with another (much slower) song, plunking along mostly on the root of each chord, and that actually worked pretty well. I’ll just get somebody else to play bass on that other track. Because as it turns out, I am not even remotely about that bass.

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SESSION GUITAR WORK FROM BEN GLAROS

I’ve recently been honored with some remote session work by master guitarist Ben Glaros. He contributed some electric guitar overdubs on a track I started recording around 2002, and that I've lately resurrected, which I’ll eventually be releasing under the “band” name 10 Items Or Fewer. From the crystal-clean passages to the fuzzed-out flourishes, everything he delivered was sublime.

Ben and I used to work together as security guards, during which time we had many conversations about music that usually degenerated into fanning out on Neil Young and Johnny Marr. So I thought he’d be perfect for the track I had in mind here. And he didn’t disappoint! If you’re looking for passionate, emotive guitar work with a vintage flavor, I can’t recommend Ben Glaros highly enough. Find out more at benglaros.com.

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