Minutemen - Mike Watt -Trilogy of Tunes II on bass - LRRG

"Cut"
"Pure Joy"
"Sell or be Sold"

Here is my second installment of Minutemen tunes on bass...three in all. The tunes featured here come from two of their albums: "What Makes Man Start Fires?", and "Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat".

Once again, for those of you not familiar with the Minutemen, they were an excellent punk band from the 80's that put out a different brand of punk than most...it has funk and style and taste. Their bass player, Mike Watt, is one of the strongest, tightest, most melodic bass players ever...a real powerhouse with fingers or pick. Every bass player that plays punk should learn some Mike Watt...it is kinda of like Les Claypool, but you need strength instead of finesse to play it.

The opening tune, "Cut" is just an all-around rocker....great beat, great feel. The second tune, "Pure Joy", has a real punctate sound that Make Watt was known for, alongside an excellent bridge and ending bass solo. The last tune, "Sell or be Sold" has a great chordy riff that works out the flamenco hand coupled with some strong walky scale work in between. Great stuff, and not too hard to learn since the tunes are short enough (1-2mins) to play over and over quickly (you can only practice "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" 4 times an hour, after all).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Minutemen
• Mike
• Watt
• Buzz
• Howl
• Influence
• Heat
• Why
• Does
• Man
• Set
• Fires?
• Pure
• Joy
• Cut
• Sell
• Sold
• Bass
• Rickenbacker
• LRRG
• punk

[Equinoxx1337]

Hey, I've been playing bass for about 6 months. I was just wondering... what are some Minutemen songs that you would recommend for a mediate bass player ?

Thanks, Kevin.

[zodiakironfist]

Well, "Cut" on this video is an excellent one. Beyond that, I would go with anything at all off of Buzz and Howl and Double Nickles. Try "Toadies"...that's a great one.

[Kenkesey104]

thats acutally faith/ east wind not pure joy. obviously someone doesnt know their minutemen

[zodiakironfist]

They actually say "Pure Joy" in the song and I just got done looking up the lyrics to verify. It seems that you are wrong.

An except:

Money

Survival

Out of necessity

Man-made boundaries

To conquer

And conquer

That's the second song for sure.

[keilan303]

Damn thats a nice looking bass...

Awesome job, I bet you would fkn love to have a jam with Watt...and you know how to play the bass with style!! ;)

Maybe not your thing but are you into Chris Squier at all?

[zodiakironfist]

I freaking love Chris Squire!

And yes, I would definitely love to f'in jam with Mike Watt....even with all of that pick playing and Primusey stuff I do, the core of my sound is Mike Watt. Nobody had a better knack for basslines thank Mike.

[Brozotheclown]

I have that poster

[cai038ify]

you are on badass bassist awesome job ;d

[tan1]

i think you should tab pure joy

[killjoke]

Wow.....awesome job! I'm a big fan of Watt, which is one of the reasons I just started bass lessons....that being said, my teacher has me starting with a pick. Do you think it's possible do any any Mike Watt (eventually) with a pick?

[endthedrugwarvision]

Kick fucking ass! You couldn't have done better!

[badbrain94]

I play guitar but watching this video made me wanna go out and buy a bass really fucking badly. You make it look so fun. Great covers!

[LzrdKng9000]

awesome cover man! i love the minutemen. i was wondering, do you think you would have or know where i can find tabs for stuff off of Politics of Time? really love the stuff on that one

[adebicki]

awesome chops! just curious, what type of rick-o bass is that? what year, toaster or hi-gain pick-up? through what amp? thanks! sounds great!

[jaguar4499]

dude you should tab these, most of these arent available online

plus a lot of minutmen bass lines are hard to figure out by ear because of the chords used

[johnnykaka66]

I wanna play like this but I just suck.....