The Beach Boys record Pet Sounds in 1966
Has any rock concept album gone further out than Pet Sounds, the troubled Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson’s finest hour? Subject in its 55-year lifetime to a sequence of reissues, box sets, and learned analyses, the sprawling collection of songs was largely recorded in 1966 by the Wrecking Crew, the elite session musicians who appeared on thousands of hits from the era.
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THUMBS AHOY! MIX AND MATCH: ADVANCED SLAP
Welcome! For the last year or so we’ve been working on some very advanced slap bass techniques.
POP MUSIC
Cat Popper has earned her stripes as a bassist with a long list of big names—so a solo career is long overdue. We meet the reluctant star...
MEDICINE MAN
The Foo Fighters return with a new album, Medicine At Midnight, with the low end taken care of as always by the great Nate Mendel. Has he fallen for a five‑string yet? Find out here...
LAKLAND Skyline J-Sonic
A classically-styled Jazz with a sonic twist... does that sound interesting? You bet it does, says Mike Brooks
KIND OF BLUE
Fusion artist extraordinaire and sometime Pat Metheny alumnus Mark Egan brings us up to date with his new album, Electric Blue, recorded with his long-time drummer colleague Danny Gottlieb
I SPY…MIX AND MATCH ARPEGGIOS
Hey there, bass players! We’ve recently dedicated two columns to arpeggios, and for good reason. Whether you’re creating a groove or walking through changes, we do our jobs better by gracefully outlining the notes of the chord and clearly defining the harmony.
HONE YOUR SKILLS: DIG DEEPER WITH YOUR BASS THINKING
Last month we looked at inversions, which are chords where the lowest note is something other than the root. Using the third, the fifth, or even the seventh in the bass—in other words, the lowest note in the chord— offers us a whole lot more interesting options as bass players.
BASSIST Of The YEAR
Meet Danny Sapko, voted by you as Bassist Of The Year 2020!
Haim Sweet Haim
“It’s just me, with no bells and whistles,” explains Este Haim of the bass behind her trio’s acclaimed music
Stephen ‘Thundercat' Bruner – 'Bass Traverses Different Worlds'
Want to learn the secrets of the universe? Then you’d better join us as we sit down with Stephen ‘Thundercat’ Bruner, the pre-eminent bassist of his generation. This one goes deep!
PUBLISHING AMID A PANDEMIC: How Board Games Survived and Thrived in 2020
COVID’s lasting impacts on our health and economy are still far from being understood. It will take many of us years, perhaps even a decade, to unravel what has changed in the last year. But some patterns are emerging, at least in the board gaming hobby, that indicate many publishers were well ahead of the curve even before the threat of a pandemic affected their supply chains worldwide. As the world began locking itself down to quell the threat of COVID-19, people continued to find solace in hobbies. Soon, the business journals and magazines of the world began tracking the increase of sales across a wide swath of interests as people did anything and everything to take their minds away from the weight of a pandemic circling the globe. Turns out, everything from toys, guitars, crafts, and board games were selling well despite a deflated economy. Report Linker’s “Board Games Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026” estimates that sales in the hobby will grow by 13 percent in the next five years, even with continued lockdowns. But what about the hobby as a whole? This article examines how 2020 affected the board gaming industry through three facets — big box stores, local board gaming cafes and stores, and the digital space — and how the pandemic has shaped them in the interim as well as moving forward. Is this projected forecast of its growth still as rosy?
ONCE MORE UNTO THE BREACH IN ‘GODZILLA VS. KONG'
“Godzilla vs. Kong” begins, fittingly, with the big guy asleep.
SLIDING FOR ADVENTURE
For the last 25 years I’ve been riding off road on everything from a 450cc lightweight to a heavily laden 1200cc adventure motorcycle. Although I was usually able to handle anything through rough terrain at slower speeds, I struggled at higher speeds on loose surfaces. And the biggest pucker moments occurred while approaching tight turns on gravel roads at high speed—barely navigating them safely.
“I'm Your Huckleberry” Has a Double Meaning for Old Tucson
Saving the old girl is more than a dream.
How to Spot and Avoid Credit Card Skimmers and Shimmers
The moment I realized how woefully insecure credit and debit cards are is still vividly clear.
GWYNETH GOOPS UP TO RUB OUT WRINKLES!
SLOWLY ripening Gwyneth Paltrow isn’t above using a little “goop” to smooth out the age lines!
King of the Geezer Teasers
Inside Randall Emmett’s direct-to- video empire, where many of Hollywood’s most bankable stars have found lucrative early retirement.
RESCUE DOG RETURNS THE FAVOR!
THE FAVOR! Pulls owner to safety after devastating stroke
TAKE THE HIGH ROAD
Solomonson Family Heirloom the FFG Way
MICROSOFT SERVER HACK HAS VICTIMS HUSTLING TO STOP INTRUDERS
Victims of a massive global hack of Microsoft email server software — estimated in the tens of thousands by cybersecurity responders — hustled this week to shore up infected systems and try to diminish chances that intruders might steal data or hobble their networks.