Listen. As much as I love sunny day real estate, I have to say a few things
about bass players right now.
Joe Skyward is not one of the most accomplished bass players in indie and
popular music. Playing in the Posies and touring with bands as a "hired
gun" does not make him accomplished. I'm not trying to say he isn't
skilled. If what what was said about him learning the basslines from all
three albums is true, that's pretty impressive. But even if it is true, if
I had jeremy and dan showing me stuff, I doubt it would take me more than
two weeks, if I was a paid professional musician and I could spend all my
time learning them. Besides, he didn't learn "all three albums". They
wouldn't have wasted time and had him learn songs they would never play live
(grendel for example).
If you wanted to call someone one of the "most accomplished bass players in
indie and popular music" you would need evidence of them consistently
breaking musical ground. You could say Lou Barlow for example, or Fred
Erskine (sp?) from June of '44.
On to Nate. I respect Nate Mendel very much, and his basslines are one of
the biggest reasons I picked up a bass in the first place. While he is
definitely one of my favorite bassists, I would hesitate to call him "one of
the best bassists alive right now". First, all jazz musicians make everyone
else look pathetic. Next, there's people like Les Claypool and Flea. After
that, there's all the studio musicians you've never heard of who did things
like play the theme to Seinfeld.
Before you all flame me... please don't look at this as a personal attack on
either Joe or Nate. It just seems to me that they are being overrated.
love dan
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