Sonic Youth Gossip - View Single Post - three instruments you know you'll alway be partial to

atsonicpark · 12.16.2010, 07:17 PM

Er, okay..

Electric guitar because I don't even think 1% of its potential has even been explored yet. You can do limitless things with it. Sure, you can with a synth, too (or any instrument, I guess, if you're imaginative enough), but every time I make a new riff, I know it's a riff that no one else has ever come up with (at the same time, a million other guitarists are thinking the same thing about the riff they just came up with). You can scream into the pickups, scratch the strings, put your fingers all over the guitar and tap away, bend the strings, put things under the strings, use a billion different effects, etc... it's ridiculous how much sound you can get out of a lil' old electric guitar.

At the same time, I worship the bass guitar, probably my favorite instrument to play, because I feel that it's really amazing, how compelling it is... if you know what you're doing, you can make an awesome bass line with just one or two notes.. look at some of those old songs by The Fall, 7 minutes of one note or something, albeit with some fills (I always feel like the fill made THe Fall, as far as their best songs go). I'm always interesting in a band like Joy Divison, where the bass is the lead insttrument, really. Just an amazing instrument, albeit often relegated as a space filler in a band. When it's utilized in an important and interesting way, there's nothing else like it.

Finally, one of my favorite instruments, one I always come back to and one that always makes me smile is a nice Organ. Bands like Le Shok and Phantom Limbs delivered short, spikey organ riffs that add fire, energy, and a haunting intensity to their songs, which would just sound like fractured punk ditties without that beautiful organ keeping it together.. at the same time, Messiaen delivered epic compositions built around a solo organ that is infinitely relistenable -- there is so much majestic, grandiose, amazing beauty with the organ, even when it's not played in such an epic way. It just always has a tone to it that makes my ears perk up.

12.16.2010, 07:17 PM	#18
atsonicpark invito al cielo Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 28,843	Er, okay.. Electric guitar because I don't even think 1% of its potential has even been explored yet. You can do limitless things with it. Sure, you can with a synth, too (or any instrument, I guess, if you're imaginative enough), but every time I make a new riff, I know it's a riff that no one else has ever come up with (at the same time, a million other guitarists are thinking the same thing about the riff they just came up with). You can scream into the pickups, scratch the strings, put your fingers all over the guitar and tap away, bend the strings, put things under the strings, use a billion different effects, etc... it's ridiculous how much sound you can get out of a lil' old electric guitar. At the same time, I worship the bass guitar, probably my favorite instrument to play, because I feel that it's really amazing, how compelling it is... if you know what you're doing, you can make an awesome bass line with just one or two notes.. look at some of those old songs by The Fall, 7 minutes of one note or something, albeit with some fills (I always feel like the fill made THe Fall, as far as their best songs go). I'm always interesting in a band like Joy Divison, where the bass is the lead insttrument, really. Just an amazing instrument, albeit often relegated as a space filler in a band. When it's utilized in an important and interesting way, there's nothing else like it. Finally, one of my favorite instruments, one I always come back to and one that always makes me smile is a nice Organ. Bands like Le Shok and Phantom Limbs delivered short, spikey organ riffs that add fire, energy, and a haunting intensity to their songs, which would just sound like fractured punk ditties without that beautiful organ keeping it together.. at the same time, Messiaen delivered epic compositions built around a solo organ that is infinitely relistenable -- there is so much majestic, grandiose, amazing beauty with the organ, even when it's not played in such an epic way. It just always has a tone to it that makes my ears perk up. __________________
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