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Good Grunge Bass


Unknown_User

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I love Grunge, but I agree, it is a mystery. It seems that you had to be a sort of heavy band coming from Seattle in the early 90's and you were considered grunge. I mean Pearl Jam and the Melvins couldn't be much different. I tried to like the Melvins but just found them too tuneless and manic. Alice in Chains is just fantastic, as was Soundgarden, but some of the bands considered grunge are only there because of the time and place that they prevailed.

One of my favourite bass lines, not for its complexity, but for the gorgeous sound, is Would by Alice.

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3 hours ago, ubit said:

I love Grunge, but I agree, it is a mystery. It seems that you had to be a sort of heavy band coming from Seattle in the early 90's and you were considered grunge. I mean Pearl Jam and the Melvins couldn't be much different. I tried to like the Melvins but just found them too tuneless and manic. Alice in Chains is just fantastic, as was Soundgarden, but some of the bands considered grunge are only there because of the time and place that they prevailed.

One of my favourite bass lines, not for its complexity, but for the gorgeous sound, is Would by Alice.

the Melvins are one of my top 10 bands ever -_-

Anyways, as far as I recall, in most of the songs of most of the bands mentioned here bass tend to follow the root notes which is exactly what the OP wants to go beyond, and IMO most "grunge" bands don't offer all that inspiration on "interesting" basslines (aside from Novoselic and Soundgarden)

I think that for more articulate and less predictable solutions, still usable in a """grunge""" context (whatever it means) he could give a listen to some noise rock bands of the same period, such as Jesus Lizard. I think this is one of the best examples of bass "entwined" with guitar instead of just following it

You can never have enough Jesus Lizard if you want to play the heavy, groovy bass  :biggrin:

Edited by oZZma
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2 minutes ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

So was punk , but you still refer as genre of music ? 

 

punk was a movement but it's also an attitude/approach but it's also a music genre with shared musical features 

As pointed above by other users "grunge"  included too heterogeneous bands with almost nothing in common from a musical point of view, and sometimes nothing in common under ANY point of view

Good exaple by @ubit: Melvins and Pearl Jam 

You could argue the Melvins not being "grunge", but still Nirvana and Pearl Jam have nothing to share with each other

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2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Wikipedia, on 'Grunge' ...

Grunge ...

On Wikipedia refer as music genre 

 

Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle sound) is the music genre formed from the fusion of punk rock[1]and heavy metal,[2] and a subculturethat emerged during the mid-1980s in the Pacific Northwest U.S. state of Washington, particularly in Seattle and nearby towns. The early grunge

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1 hour ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

On Wikipedia refer as music genre ...

Maybe not worth labouring the point; it's only semantics and pedantry, really. Does 'blues' come only from the Delta (to some, it does...). Is 'jazz' only New Orleans..? Does Beatlemania include The Dave Clark Five..? There are more, and all good talking points, but... whatever, really. :|
Just my view, of course. B|

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I never thought Pearl jam fitted the grunge label.  Soundgarden neither.  Nor Alice in chains. They just happened to hail from the right area at the right time. 

I always had grunge down as being a more laid back approach to the songs.  Dirty guitars. Sloppy playing. No guitar virtuosity. No blistering solos. A different version of punk really.   Much like punk was the antidote to the prog rock of the seventies, grunge was the antidote to the big hair, leather trousers and fret wankery guitaring of the eighties.

 

Edited by gs_triumph
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