Jesus Christ Superstar - Everything's Alright

Well seeing as how its Easter and all, I thought it would make sense to put this up now, this is "Everything's Alright" from the 1973 movie adaptation of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm not a religious person and I don't like musicals, so it is very curious to me that I like Jesus Christ Superstar so much. A big part of it is the way Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice (music and lyrics respectively) present a much more human side to the story of the passion of Christ, showing the compassion in Judas and the fears and doubts in Jesus. Another thing that appeals to me is the actual musical style of JCS, it's not the overly theatrical music of "Phantom" or "Cats", and for the most part it's not cheesy. The music is 60's R&B mixed with rock, the vocal performances are incredible, and the bass playing by Alan Spenner on it is glorious.



This piece is more of a ballad, but its a very interesting song that embodies all of my favorite elements about JCS. First, its the only song where all 3 main characters Jesus, Judas, and Mary sing. Second, its a funky "waltz" in a 5/4 time signature that is done so well and subtly that one can't almost tell that the timing is odd. Third, it presents a soft side to the Judas character, a charitable quality that makes him likeable, and it also shows a logical and realistic side to Jesus in the story "there will be poor always/ pathetically struggling/ look at the good things you've got" he says. And fourth, you can tell there are a couple of small mistakes in the singing and playing on this track (hear Judas' voice "crack" at 1:25) but it wasn't edited or re-done, because the vibe mattered more than everything being perfect. I am a big fan of recordings like this, they are much more real and moving than the sterile and polished picture-perfect ones of recent times.
 
The bass playing on this song is not the most complicated compared to other ones on the musical (listen to "What's the Buzz" for a full out funk workout) but its still intricate, and considering that I'm more of a heavy metal bass player it was quite the challenge. I decided to try and get every single note perfect for my transcription, and i believe i did, but i know that when i made the video i missed a couple of notes here and there. Alan Spenner, the bass player on the original recording, keeps building the intensity and intricacy of the bass lines, and he hardly ever repeats himself, which is a testament to his creativity, specially considering that he most likely improvised the whole thing. A highlight for me is at 1:10 when he slides that A mayor chord into the E mayor chord. I also found it very interesting that at the end of both Jesus' and Judas' singing parts the song changes to a 3/4 time signature, and Spenner showcases a lot of ideas vamping over that B chord and turning around back to the top of the form.  I decided to use my 1976 Rickenbacker for my video to get a bit of that old-school sound, I hope you enjoyed it.

Here's a link to the tab of the bass part here

Annihilator's "Imperiled Eyes" by Timo Ahlström

Timo Ahlström

Wow it is hard to believe that its been almost a full year since I last posted anything on here. I apologize to those of you that check this space for my absence. I have a few videos ready to go and that should catapult me back into posting regularly.

This post is all about my friend Timo from Finland. I first found out about Timo back in 2010 when I auditioned for the bass part in Annihilator. I was checking out some of the videos that people were posting on YouTube for Jeff Waters to see and consider, and that's when I found Timo's video. He was flawless, and making it look extremely easy, so much so that I was sure he was going to get the part. We were able to meet later that year in Frankfurt at an open rehearsal. That's when I found out that Timo is actually a guitar player, and a wicked one at that! Jeff even let him play a song with us at rehearsal and he played that perfectly as well. Check out his rendition of Imperiled Eyes, one of the hardest Annihilator songs out there (I'm still trying to find my jaw after watching his video). Oh and don't forget to listen to Timo in his two bands:

www.freedominationband.net/

www.facebook.com/Horrorfeast




Here's Timo's blurb about Imperiled Eyes:

"Hello people! I’m Timo Ahlström from Finland. I’m a BIG Annihilator fan and I know Al because we both auditioned for Annihilator's bass player spot back in 2010. Al got the job and he deserves it because he’s an incredibly talented bass player. Also we both love Rush!!!

Anyways I love Jeff Waters’ work with Annihilator and I’ve been a big fan ever since I first heard their music. I’m very happy to say that I’ve gotten to know him and he also plays a guitar solo on my band's (Freedomination) song 'Hide Your Self'!!

The first record that I bought from Annihilator was 'Never, Neverland'. This song is from that album and it’s called 'Imperiled Eyes'. The song is F****** HARD TO PLAY! I did quite many takes before I 'nailed' it. Still I couldn’t do the pre-solo and solo part 100 % accurate. What amazes me most is that these guys have actually played the song live!!!

So I play in two bands myself: Freedomination (a metal band which is heavily influenced by Annihilator, Megadeth etc) and also a horror punk band called Horrorfeast (Misfits anyone?!). I hope you enjoy the video!!!
Timo"

Timo jamming with Jeff Waters

Warmachine - Moving On

The Left for Dead line-up

It was a half a year ago that Warmachine began the process of making our first ever music video. It took a long time because some unforeseen circumstances forced us to delay its release. But the wait is over and you can now see the brand new video for "Moving On" here!

To celebrate the release of the Moving On music video, I've decided to put up a video of myself playing along to the it, and tell you a little bit about the story behind the song and video.



When Joe Di Taranto was writing the songs which would end up on our latest album "Left for Dead," the rest of us in the band were quietly putting our own parts together to the demos he would send us every couple of days. Moving On came towards the end of the writing process, and I will never forget the reaction that our then drummer Adam Raymer and I had to the demo Joe sent us: we were both a little puzzled and even worried. The song was in a very basic form, just a skeleton of what it would end up being, and at that stage it sounded so far removed from anything we had done up until that point. I remember thinking that it was too soft, too "mainstream". But Joe kept telling us not to worry, that he had a "vision" in his head of how the song would sound in the end, and that it would be a great track: heavy, catchy, a true Warmachine creation. The song turned out amazing and I have never doubted Joe since then.

I love this song. Even after listening to it 3 million times I'm still not tired of it. It has such a great pace, awesome vocal melodies and performance, wicked drums, melodic solos, in fact the least interesting part of this song is my bass part, ha! There's even a little nod to Jeff Waters and Annihilator in the second guitar solo: as soon as Johnny Salerno came up with his solo for this song I said to him "hey! That's an Annihilator riff". This song was written before I had joined Annihilator, but Joe, Johnny, and myself have been fans of the band for years, so it's no wonder that Johnny would subconsciously use a part of the guitar melody from "21" on his solo here (2:50 on my video of the song)

Warmachine - Left for Dead

The tuning for this is Drop-C (from low to high C-G-C-F) and the bass part is quite simple, I mainly play eight-notes throughout following the rhythm guitar part, except for the bridge which has that sliding part (2:18). However the line I played in the video during the guitar solos is a little different from the one I played on the CD recording, because during the recording I used my 5-string Yamaha instead of the Ibanez Iceman from the video, and so the Bb note at 2:40 (in this tuning its the 3rd fret on the A string) I had to play it an octave higher. You can find the tab to the bass part here.

Big thanks go to Sean Gregory at TRH Music Group and Murray Daigle at MDS Recording who engineered and produced the recording of "Left for Dead" and to all the guys and girls at Otalko Productions who did all the work for the video.

Tip #1: play the same note in a different position

For this post I decided to hand out a small tip for beginner bass and guitar players. You all probably already know this, but just in case: remember that you can play most notes in more than one place on your fretboard. I'm going to use this Baroness song "March to the Sea" from their new album Yellow and Green to demonstrate what I mean. Click here to get the TAB and standard notation.



This song is very very simple in its form. The entire thing: intro, verses, choruses, and guitar solo has the same chord progression:
|F   | F  C/E| Dmi   | Dmi C|F   | F  Ami| Dmi   | Dmi C|
So it is a perfect song to show you how to play the same lines in different positions of the fretboard. For this you will need a good knowledge of the notes on your fretboard. Here's a chart for a 4-string bass tuned to "drop-D". From low to high the tuning is D-A-D-G

Check out how I play the initial line all on the same string (the "E" string tuned down to "D") (see figure a) and how the second time I played the high octave D and C notes on the A string (figure b). The second way of doing it requires less shifting from the left hand, so it should make it easier to play, but there is a slight difference in the tone of the notes even though their pitches are the same. The reason why the sounds qualities are different is mostly because, since the E string is thicker than the A string it produces a "darker" tone. Also when pressing on the 12th fret instead of the 5th the length of string that is vibrating is shorter, affecting the tension and thus the tone. This difference in tone is most noticeable in the way I played the second halves of each verse at 0:56 (figure c) and 1:46 (figure d). You can really hear the much brighter tone of the D note on the G string at 1:50.

Figure a

Figure b

Figure c

Figure d

All this information can be very useful when you are trying to figure out how to play a bass line:

- Having alternative positions in which to play a line can let you find a position that is most comfortable for you. This comes in very handy for beginners reading TABs, don't forget that you don't necessarily have to play it exactly as written.

- You can manipulate the sound of your notes based on where you play them. Want a brighter sound? Go for higher strings and/or lower frets. Or play it all on one string for a more even tone between all the notes.

Try it yourself, can you find other ways of playing this bass line?

Drop me a line here or on Facebook if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for other tips. And don't forget to check out Baroness' new album, it rocks!

"Yellow and Green" Cover art