Bass Geekery

If you're not a bass player, you probably can skip reading this entirely. Listening to a new track posted by a new band called The Shift with Nick Cassarino on guitar and Ben Geis on bass, I started thinking about an idea I wanted to throw up here. The track:

Ben Geis might not be a household name, and his playing on this track is relatively simple, but so effective. The part that really stands out to me (and why I prefaced this with a warning about true bass geekery) is his great decisions regarding note duration - when to hold out a note, when to play short, clipped notes - even if he's just pedaling the root of the chord, it really contributes to the vibe of the song. Which made me think of this track:

The recently Grammy winning, newest Daft Punk album has this incredible song on it (along with a bunch of other gems). James Genus and Nathan East are both credited for the bass part, and my random guess would be the former. The stand out thing about the playing, besides the absolutely gorgeous and perfect bass tone, is how much room there is! So many players would try and fill that space up and it takes a huge amount of restraint to leave all this room. The even crazier thing is how he (whichever 'he' that is) manages to keep this funky, bubbling 16th note pulse going the whole time, while the drums are really only playing half that. Such a cool vibe. Tons of stuff to practice here!