Interesting Rock bassists from the past decade - recommendations please?

[PatrickJ]

Any recommendations for interesting Rock bassists / bass lines from the last few decades? 

I seem to have lost touch with what's happening in music these days but the band I'm playing are looking to get some pub gigs next year and I'm trying to build some set lists.  Most of the songs going on are pretty uninspiring from a bass perspective, it's the usual mix of Foo Fighters, Strokes, Oasis, Kings of Leon etc. I don't mind that and it's what seems to go down well in dive bars but I'm looking for a few songs that will challenge me and be a bit interesting to play and hopefully listen too!

Flea, Tony Kanal, Jeff Ament, Chris Wolstenholme are guys I'm going to check out as they play in bands that would fit but even they are pretty dated now - there must be some more modern stuff that's pretty good that's passed me by. 

Thanks

Edited November 28, 2018 by PJ-Bassist

[Sibob]

Are you looking for songs that will keep your band booked? Or bass lines that will keep you ‘challenged’? The overlap is minimal! Lol

Si

[Cato]

10 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Are you looking for songs that will keep your band booked? Or bass lines that will keep you ‘challenged’? The overlap is minimal! Lol

Si

As above.

There have been a few reasonably, if temporarily, popular rock bands (within a rather broad definition of 'rock' as opposed to the ridiculous number of subgenres formerly known as 'metal') with interesting basslines in the last decade or so.

Arctic Monkeys, Editors and Maximo Park spring to mind.

Whether there's any demand from audiences to hear any of their tracks apart from maybe a couple of early Arctic Monkeys songs is uncertain.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Cato

[Misdee]

If you are prepared to go back as far as the  late 70's / early 80's, then Bruce Thomas playing with Elvis Costello and The Attractions and Andy Rourke with the Smiths were both wonderfully creative players.

[PatrickJ]

22 minutes ago, Misdee said:

If you are prepared to go back as far as the  late 70's / early 80's, then Bruce Thomas playing with Elvis Costello and The Attractions and Andy Rourke with the Smiths were both wonderfully creative players.

I'll definitely have a few older ones in there - 100% agree on Andy Rourke!  I've never listened to much Costello but will take some time too.

But really I'm looking for some suggestions of music produced after 2000.

37 minutes ago, Sibob said:

Are you looking for songs that will keep your band booked? Or bass lines that will keep you ‘challenged’? The overlap is minimal! Lol

Si

LOL surely not, it can't be true! Is Rock n Roll dead after all???

[thodrik]

So many great bassists are in bands that do not lend themselves to a pub rock cover set, as they are not in mainstream ‘everybody knows the songs’ type bands. The bassist in Karnivool is one of the most most talented bassists in semi-mainstream rock, but Karnivool material is not really stuff that that will fit in with a set of Foo Fighters, Oasis and Strokes songs.

You could tweak a couple of Royal Blood or Death From Above 1979 songs for a full band. Some of the trippy, less heavy Deftones or Queens of the Stone Age stuff might work as well as the basslines but they are hardly new and a lot of the songs are in lower than standard tuning. 

Also, I might be on the verge of losing my ‘stoner/doom fan’ credibility but I absolutely love the early We Are Scientists albums. With Love and Squalir is such a cool pop/rock album. Not a great bassist but the songs are so catchy and fun to listen to, with added bonus that the album sold quite well so any of the songs would fit in with a popular modern rock/covers set.

I also don’t mind some of the Kasabian basslines. The basslines in some Elbow songs are pretty cool. Not new bands, but newer than Oasis.

[kyuuga]

Michael Shuman (Queens of the Stone Age)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9OfBcjyxKY

Kevin Baird (Two Door Cinema Club)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXwYJyrKK5A

Chris Edwards (Kasabian) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5iMgG-WJI

Kevin Parker (Tame Impala)

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

Cole Whittle (DNCE) - not really Rock, it's more like Funk-Pop but still a hell of a bassline, very fun to play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myaN5jTh79o

-------------

These aren't really obscure hits or anything (in fact, all of them are mainstream hits) but it's just some modern Rock songs & bands with some great bass playing. There's also great bassists from other genres like Bruno Mars' bassist, Jamareo Artis, Thundercat, etc. Lots of great new bass players out there.

 

[Sibob]

3 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

 

LOL surely not, it can't be true! Is Rock n Roll dead after all???

Far from it, but a purely a ‘challenging’ bass line does not a good song make

Si

[HazBeen]

Pete Griffin, Troy Sanders, Tetsuya Ogawa, Chris Kael, Johnny Christ, Mike d’Antonio are a few worth checking, I do notlike all their bands but appreciate their playing.

[PatrickJ]

8 hours ago, Sibob said:

Far from it, but a purely a ‘challenging’ bass line does not a good song make

Si

I'm happy to forego challenging and settle for interesting.  What I mean is a lot of music I seem to end up playing spends an awful lot of time pedalling the root note :).  

 

Edited November 29, 2018 by PJ-Bassist

[PatrickJ]

8 hours ago, HazBeen said:

Pete Griffin, Troy Sanders, Tetsuya Ogawa, Chris Kael, Johnny Christ, Mike d’Antonio are a few worth checking, I do notlike all their bands but appreciate their playing.

Thanks - all abit metal orientated for your typical pub crowd.

 

[Unknown_User]

I always thought the bass player in the Foo Fighters was pretty good.  Some other suggestions with interesting bass lines that might fit and go down well in pubs:

Holiday - Vampire Weekend

Going for Gold - Shed Seven

Love Cats - The Cure

Rebel Rebel - Bowie

Fire - Hendrix

Rocks - Primal Scream

 

And if you fancy a few in drop D...

Place Your Hands - Reef

On a Plain - Nirvana

Even Flow - Pearl Jam

Edited November 29, 2018 by Unknown_User

[40hz]

Check out Walter Gervers from Foals. Brilliant bass player. A lot of Foals tracks have very melodic bass, Blue Blood being one of my favourites. 

[tonyquipment]

Learn your favourite tracks from now that’s what I call music volumes 46 to 156.

[Nicko]

Nick Oliveri (QOTSA) - No One Knows.

James Johnson (Biffy Clyro) does some interesting chuggy stuff

Mike Dirnt (Green Day) has some killer lines.

Mark Stoermer (The Killers) is worth checking out 

[4000]

18 hours ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Flea, Tony Kanal, Jeff Ament, Chris Wolstenholme are guys I'm going to check out as they play in bands that would fit but even they are pretty dated now - there must be some more modern stuff that's pretty good that's passed me by. 

Thanks

They're all new guys so far as I'm concerned!

Most of my influences were probably 2 decades before. Chris Squire, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Lemmy, Bruce Foxton, Jean Jacques Burnel, Mike Rutherford, Jon Camp, Geezer Butler and probably dozens of others. Unfortunately many of those play music that might not be great 'pub cover band' fare. Although a set consisting of The Gates of Delirium, the whole of Tommy, Supper's Ready and Xanadu would certainly give the audience something to think about.

Edited November 29, 2018 by 4000

[Guest]

+1 on Kevin Parker - check out Apocalypse Dreams and It Is Not Meant to Be. Interpol and Deerhunter are worth a look, and there are some good Strokes basslines! Is This It is pretty iconic

Edited November 29, 2018 by Spaced

[dmccombe7]

4 hours ago, 4000 said:

They're all new guys so far as I'm concerned!

Most of my influences were probably 2 decades before. Chris Squire, John Entwistle, Geddy Lee, Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Lemmy, Bruce Foxton, Jean Jacques Burnel, Mike Rutherford, Jon Camp, Geezer Butler and probably dozens of others. Unfortunately many of those play music that might not be great 'pub cover band' fare. Although a set consisting of The Gates of Delirium, the whole of Tommy, Supper's Ready and Xanadu would certainly give the audience something to think about.

I'd go to that gig 

[mrtcat]

How about Mike Kerr from Royal Blood? Pretty unique and a whole world of fun playing his stuff. 

[PatrickJ]

5 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

How about Mike Kerr from Royal Blood? Pretty unique and a whole world of fun playing his stuff. 

We are actually doing a Royal Blood song, figure it out - but when you re-engineer it to work as a full band and you are simply playing the notes from the lower register it becomes less fun to play.

Edited November 29, 2018 by PJ-Bassist

[mrtcat]

6 minutes ago, PJ-Bassist said:

We are actually doing a Royal Blood song, figure it out - but when you re-engineer it to work as a full band and you are simply playing the notes from the lower register it becomes less fun to play.

Our guitarist goes for a beer when we play Figure It Out

[PatrickJ]

10 hours ago, 40hz said:

Check out Walter Gervers from Foals. Brilliant bass player. A lot of Foals tracks have very melodic bass, Blue Blood being one of my favourites. 

I'm digging the Foals!  Definitely going to look at adding a track or two from this lot.

[4000]

18 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

I'd go to that gig 

Me too!

[thodrik]

On 29/11/2018 at 23:00, PJ-Bassist said:

I'm digging the Foals!  Definitely going to look at adding a track or two from this lot.

Me too thanks to this thread! Really digging their stuff.