COVERAGE

The art of bass, most of the time, is to hold everything together without really being noticed — if an untrained, uninterested, musically naïve ear notices the bass, odds are that the bassist has just fucked up.

Now, i don’t mean to limit any ideas of the scope and variety of bassists and bass tones and bass techniques that exist in the breadth of music since rock’n'roll’s 1950s breakthrough… through every branch of genre, every turn of a decade… a bassist can be effective without being boring, and any star bass “prodigy” generally IS boring; writing boring songs that are (not just lyrically) meaningless because they’ve spent more time held up in their bedroom wanking away on 5 or 5+ string basses rather than living real life and having any interesting social experiences.  technique vs. attitude.  i’m trying to make generalizations, somewhat properly grounded, to talk about how exactly Mister Snake manages to utilize two bass guitars more effectively than a lot of bands with a single guitarist, or two guitarists, or a guitar and a keyboard, or whatever line-up you’ve got.  I’m still working this out in my own head, so bear with me…

Mister Snake are simple and straight-forward in their sonic arrangement: a larger man playing a deep growling Precision Bass finger-style as quick, walking, blues-based and arpeggiated as Geezer Butler + a shorter & thinner singing/melodically-screaming punk picking a two-pickup Univox copy of a Mosrite, à la the Ventures, run through a 12″ Fender Hot Rod Deluxe tube guitar combo.  this second bassist acts as a rhythm guitarist, a bassist, and a lead guitarist — carrying melodies punched through a gnarly distortion pedal pushing the tubes to break up even more beautifully on top of it all.  behind them, a solid drummer with a floppy-eared hat who never plays more than he needs to, but with perfect dynamics & tasteful arrangements of snare and ride beatings. The balance is visual as well as aural and they do it so well to the advantage of the songs that nothing about this two-bass arrangement seems strange at all.

Of course, as a bassist, i have a particular bias.  generally though, my bias is merciless toward bassists who don’t know how to fit in with their band, have bad taste, play stupid-looking instruments, or dance inappropriately.  i have absolutely no qualms with Mister Snake, especially after seeing them live & i even look forward to any more output from this trio that i can soak up.  i want to know more, i want to give them money in return for some physical merch goodies, and i want to see them live again.  preferably in a basement.

They’re from Toms River — home of the 1998 Little League World Series champions and another band that I’m a fan of, Ba Babes (well… if not exactly Toms River, close enough).  there must be something in the water that keeps all these kids both energetically American AND respectful of their elders/influences — from baseball to rock’n'roll they live for honest and heartfelt performance — live, unique, feedbacking instruments… real live fun and sweaty entertainment all with very little pretense.  they just do it well.  while Ba Babes may be our saviors of guitar + drums pop-rock, their snakely contemporaries are our saviors of bass + bass + drums riff-rock.  it’s really fucking refreshing in the age of auto-tune, triggered drums, and dolled up bitches of both genders with performance-killing recording studios.

So go out and see them — you might see them roll up in their mustard yellow ’60s VW short bus, and you might see Josh punch himself in the head or writhing around on the floor balancing in skateboarding poses while playing a thick, heavy lead that Toni Iommi could only dream of — because, in all reality, Iommi’s fingers are weak, his strings are thin, and his playing is light.  and fuck Dio.  OZZY BELIEEEEVED, MAN.

Mister Snake Facebook
Mister Snake Myspace
Bedside Manner Collective
Championship Bar & Grill (Trenton, NJ)

photo by Little Punk People,
11.20.10 @ Curmudgeon Records (Somerville, NJ)