90's Alt-Rock/Grunge Guitar Hacks You Should NOT Ignore!
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- čas přidán 3. 06. 2023
- Have you ever wanted to write 90's sounding Alt-Rock/ Grunge style guitar like bands such as Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins or Sonic Youth, but not known where to start? Well, today we're going to look into three of the characteristics that I think define the playing style of this genre.
For me, the alternative rock of the early 90's has had a huge influence on the guitar parts I write and play. So, hopefully if you're anything like me you'll find some use in the tips I outline in this video! As always please subscribe to the channel if you're enjoying the videos and I look forward to seeing you here again.
Check out some other videos here:
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Here's a link to my bands channel to see this stuff in action: / @octoberdrift - Hudba
Great to see someone playing in the ballpark of what I'd play instead of always pentatonic bluesy stuff. 😁
Ahhhh mate that’s what I was hoping for with this channel. There’s loads of people here playing tasty blues riffs who are 10x better than me, but I didn’t think there was that many people doing this stuff.
So glad you’re enjoying it!
Exactly. Great stuff. There's this other channel Anyone Can Play Guitar with alt indie post punk shoegaze song lessons and breakdowns. Also theory. Dig deep because he also loves blues and surf rock. Also Corey Hunter, more goth and stoner rock but still alt post punk
I’d like to gently remind everyone that grunge is very much blues based and the minor pentatonic is not an uncommon scale.
@@PavelStankov of course but alt rock and indie are much more modal and major scale based
Bro they are blues
Dude it’s so crazy that you go “I’ll only use these 2 pedals” and then hold up 2 out of the only 3 pedals I own 😂
I know how difficult it can be to create CZcams videos, but please.. please keep making content on this subject. You opened my eyes to a whole new understanding of the music I was playing. Even the super easy progressions and dissection of Sus vs Power chords was brilliant. Please, seriously, keep making content on this subject because there's an entire generation of new musicians who can benefit from your concepts.
Hey Brett this is such a lovely comment. Thanks so much! Don’t worry I’m gonna keep making them. It’s really interesting learning what sort of videos people are liking etc to tailor new ones around. Thanks again! ✌️
I was about to say the same.
RIDE was the best British band in the early 90s. They sub headlined Reading Festival in 1992. The Rickenbacker's sound amazing. Nowhere and Going Blank Again cannot be ignored
Great band! This is not a safe place was one of my favourite albums of 2019 too!
ride I haven't thought of that band in years ive been listening to black rebel motor cycle club recently as well. I'm really grateful i grew up in the 90s
Early 90's kid, guitarist, and big Nirvana fan here - I know you mentioned Nirvana specifically a lot but based on what you talked about and your playing examples, I'd highly recommend Bush, The Pixies, & Melvins to you or anyone else who enjoyed this video. Thanks!
Ahh hell yeah, all awesome bands! 💜
what about the GOAT failure?
I grew up during this time in the early nineties and played in a band. Everything was about the songwriting. Almost nothing was about writing a cool guitar riff. Very different time for guitar playing. Nobody was really trying to be technical. They were just trying to write around the melodies of the singer if that makes sense. Such a great time for music as well. Rock music was very big and everyone was listening to it. I really miss those times my friend. Everybody wanted to be a singer and write a good song. We all thought if a little band out of Seattle could hit the big time, we could too.
Ahh that’s awesome. Yeah I think that’s what I like so much about it and music in general, for me guitar playing has to always serve the song and fundamentally the song is what’s important!
I think there’s still pockets where it happens and I’m sure it will have more of a resurgence, particularly if people can blend it with other genres.
Hey man, you did a great job making this video and everything was easy to understand. Im a huge Nirvana guy and I love playing their music. Im 15 and have been trying to figure out where to start when making grunge style music, this helped me beyond expected and I really appreciate your efforts in this vid. I hope you make more videos like this and keep up the good work. You just earned a subscribe my friend. Rest in Peace, Kurt Cobain...
Thank you! It's cool to know how music is perceived & created by different individuals! Also proves that music is like language. We might tap into the same source but notice different subtleties & then reimagine them through the prism of our own wiring into something authentic & new, yet with a train of gentle references to something meaningful to us, which gives us a sense of belonging and the courage to play around & up the game every time and never get lost.
That is a really insightful metaphor. I reckon you’re on to something there!
You may not have been able to listen to early 90s bands back when they were playing but you're teaching me things about them that I never understood at the time!
Ahh thanks so much mate. That means a lot!
Ive started getting super into this style, shoegaze in particular and theres definitely something to love in the ‘simplicity’ of the style
Loving the development of your channel. Chapter markings would be great for repeat listening. Especially where there are tips like this. Looking forward to more shoegaze tips.
Thanks mate. Will have a look at adding some in!
Loving these - giving me great background insight and I'll defo get more out watching it all go on at gigs
Thanks Dan, really appreciate the support! Hope you’re well 🙌
That was insightful and cool, once again. Thank you very much! I REALLY dig your calm, relaxed way of explaining.
Thanks Michael. So glad you’re enjoying the channel ✌️
love your genre videos, thanks!
Great video! There isn't a lot of content related to alt rock music guitar in CZcams, so this was really helpful.
Thanks mate! Glad it was helpful
Love your videos, mate. It’s refreshing that someone has decided to take it on theirselves to just value this simple, heavy forms of music. When you learn more about music it gets easy to overlook the power of simplicity, the fresh ears of those who haven’t been affected by truly complex music. We need this rawness, specially now that they even got AI making music (the ultimate slap in the face, if you ask me). Rock n roll is about emotion and communion, everything else is optional.
Awesome video man. I have that same SP tattoo in the same place but mine says LOVE IS SUICIDE underneath
This is exactly what I was looking for, thank you! Teacher about to be on summer break and its writing time!
Thanks! Enjoy writing over the summer. I’ve got more videos coming asap!
Brilliant video and examples Dan - thanks so much! I love that droning lower register open string with fuzz pedals and the Dropped D riffs sounded massive - really good.
Thanks so much mate!
The riffs in Cherub Rock and Zero have the open E being played inbetween each octave. The best way to not be too exact with it is sometimes use your left thumb to mute the open E as well as using it to control it's ringing out. Great vid!
Great shout! Thank you.
nice video man!
i already use some of this tips especially the use of open strings
imo billy corgan and j mascis (dinosaur jr) are the definition of the alt-rock guitar playing
Thanks so much mate. Yeah they’re both legends for sure
I’m loving the channel. I grew up in the 90s. I loved the bands you’re talking about although these bands were already stadium rockers by 1990. There were loads of others that toured small venues and felt much more personal than these big bands we all know today. The record labels to look out for were Dischord, Kill Rock Stars, Touch & Go, Matador, Drag City…You could spend years exploring those catalogues.
Thanks so much Kipp! This is gonna give me loads of new (to me music) to get through!
@@thesethingsmakenoises you’re very welcome. If you’ve never listened to them then you need to hear Unwound. One of my favorite bands ever. And they’ve started touring again this year!
Awesome!
Another great video, I wish these kind of tutorials would have been around when I started out. Also, these angsty tension drop d sus 2 chords reminded me a lot of the Deftones.
Thanks a lot for passing on your knowledge, for free.
Thanks so much! Yeah deftones use them loads and I absolutely love the sounds they make. What a band!!
Sounds a lot like Hum to me
@@JimTurner-di9hw Hadn't heard of them before your comment, checking them out right now, I like what I hear!
Went to high school in the start of 90s. I like alice in chains, soundgarden, nirvana ...grunge. but love the hair bands of 80s too. (I like all rock styles). But soundgarden andalice can listen to continuously.
Just noticed you have under 1k subs. I assumed you had at least 100k until I finished the video and went to subscribe! Good stuff, 90’s alt rock is my favourite genre ever
Ahh thank you so much! Means a lot. ✌️
I am 49 and what is often spoken of by the players here in California even back in 88? The Cure's album Disintegration had a giant impact in what was a few years later to become a variation of goth music, 'shoe gazer' / drift rock. I play as well and came from the early 90's, using classic self taught pedal configurations BEFORE the internet and double compression on that crazy magnet of a guitar the USA Strat plus. Great video and some interesting points. grunge + goth = 'dirge' aka drift rock/shoe gazer/ (before laptops I used to pong pong pong at times in a U2 style. Now? People rely too much on the laptop to fix these things. ~~~~Thank you for your video.
Disintegration is an amazing album isn’t it. It’s so cool how the cure have just been so consistently awesome for decade’s.
Yeah I do think laptops have made things so accessible and affordable but there is something in them being used to fix everything which breeds lazy guitar playing etc.
@@thesethingsmakenoises Yeah...I was drolling over say some of the newer timing corrections made for metal and various rock. Feels. Thanks for your reply.
I can’t hear those sus2 chords without immediately hearing Superheaven, that chord shape just always sounds so thick and rich. Annoyingly one of those things that once you start using them standard barre chords just aren’t the same anymore
Awesome band!!
Pretty good primer, there. Also, you actually have a good description of how to learn things from your inspirations. Definitely a generational perspective thing going on. I don't know a lot about Sonic Youth, but the grunge bands took a lot of inspiration from the bands of the late 60's and early 70's. Billy Corgan in particular got that open string drone from Tony Iommi in Black Sabbath. Iommi is the first popular recording artist that I know of to make that a core part of his style. Billy was inspired by Black Sabbath to use fuzz pedals, but Tony Iommi never played a fuzz pedal on Sabbath's music. It's a great point to remember that "inspired by" does not mean "slavishly copying".
Thanks for this! That’s super interesting. If I’m right Billy was trying to get the Black Sabbath really distorted orange amp sound when he stumbled on the big muff?
Yeah, I think all the best music is just borrowing bits off the past but not copying exactly. ☺️
It was the band Catherine who showed Corgan the Big Muff sound. Prior to that the Pumpkins were more like a jangly goth new wave band.
I remember reading an interview with Corgan back in the early nineties in Guitar World where he admitted taking the moving-octaves-over-low-E from Hendrix. ‘Third Stone from the Sun’ is a good example.
Keep up the good work with the videos!
Ahh thats awesome! Yeah it does really remind me of Hendrix actually!
Dude this channel rocks, may the algorithm gods favor you 🤘🏻
Legend! 🙌
I really like your content. keep the good work up 🔥
Thanks so much!
Cool video and interesting observations. I love 90’s stuff too and I’m often amazed at how elements of it will connect to an earlier influence that may have been overlooked at the time. For example, I just learned that the chorus of “Come On Come On” by Cheap Trick (esp. the At Budokan version) is the E chord shape moving up the neck but leaving the open strings open instead of barring them as you go up. So you have the four chords of the chorus but the open low and high E strings and the B string are droning on the whole time. Billy Corgan has often praised Cheap Trick and even showed up on one of their live albums. Just one example, but there’s loads of 90’s sounding stuff happening in the more left of mainstream 70’s music if you know where to look.
Ahh that’s so interesting. Yeah it’s awesome how little elements of music from the past gets added to other music.
Not sure if you’ll dive into it but love the drum sound you get with October Drift - would love a breakdown or you approach 🤙🏻🙌🏻
Hey mate, will have a look into it! Might be one for us to do on the October drift channel ✌️
Excellent tutorial! Enjoy your channel! Cheers!!
Thanks so much mate!
The sus2 tip is magic.
Thanks mate! They’re such handy shapes to mess about with.
Great video! This was my era being mid 40s now and for some reason my musical taste didnt really change. I still listen to cladsic rock that my dad played when i was sub teens, and the alt/grunge of my teen age yrs (which i consider "new" still in my head 😂)
There is something to the suspended power chord that i think just makes great tunes. My 3yr loves falling to sleep listening to slowed down a bit pumkins, nirvana, alice in chaines etc played on my acoustic.
I used to play kids somgs for him but quickly realosed he much prefers me to play things I'd normally play on electric, but on the acustic. Im glad he has good taste 😊
Ahh that’s so awesome. It’s weird how music styles we learn when we’re developing our tastes often just stick with us forever isn’t it.
Haha that’s great that your little one is digging it. There’s hope for the kids 🤘
Basically my old band! Another great vid mate
Haha yes! Thanks bud.
Awesome video mate👍
🙌🤘
Just came across your channel and I love this style. Like many other people are saying it’s nice to see someone in my style of playing. I’d love to see some videos of you diving into the work of sonic youth. Small possibility but I could even show you some things, that is if you aren’t knowledgeable in what they’re doing, idrk
Thanks so much! Ahh yeah, that’s something to look into. I do know them quite well musically, and spent ages trying out different tunings used by the band but maybe I could go deeper in a video. Would be awesome if you did have some insights!
@@thesethingsmakenoises yeah for sure man. Sonic Youth forever changed how I looked at and made music. Spent a lot of time watching interviews and docs and live shows
Nice. Love your style man.
Thanks mate!
Very nicely done! Keep it up :)
Thanks Chris!
The music of my childhood! I think you pretty well nailed it. If you want a great mix of the styles you talk about here, I highly recommend the album Chrome by the Catherine Wheel if you've not heard it.
Great band!
Awesome vid you really just got me out of a guitar rutt. Inspirational. 👍
Thanks so much! Glad you’re enjoying it 🤘
Another thing that was great about the '90s was "optimal" compression. No auto-tune yet either. Moreover, there was lots of great outboard analog gear, real tube amps, and even tracking to tape. Too much popular music today is over-processed imo.
I agree! Those records still sound sonically great to me now.
@@thesethingsmakenoises Yep. Example: Old Bush music sounds better than their new stuff. Line 6 is not an improvement.
Great vid man!
Thanks dude!
Hell yeah dude I have that same Smashing Pumpkins tattoo!
🤘🤘🤘 quality!
It ROCKS dude!
Hi Dan! Love your videos, really you’re one of my favorite channel, it’s clearly my style and I love it, thank you. I had questions: I incredibly love your sound (especially the tone in the intro), what’s the settings on your clean amp? I tried to put a Muff into my clean amp but I may have the wrong settings, yours sounds so good, I wanted to know your amp settings. Also do you used the Muff + Plume for the intro tone? Or just the Muff?
I’m not 100% sure on which amp this one would have been. It could have been Kiran ‘front man in my band’ fender twin or my Dr Z maz Jr. A bit of that tone will be from the Strat lace sensor pickups.
I’m pretty much every amp I play though I push the mids to around 2 o’clock, treble down to 10 o’clock or even lower sometimes and bass 12/1 o clock.
I think this was probably with an overdrive pedal going into it for the intro. But it wouldn’t have made too much difference. Also, I expect I probably dipped the odd horrible frequency in logic after! Just to make it easier to listen to through headphones etc.
7:45 sounds like the SP "Gish" era.
Thanks my dude thats what I'm trying to do myself
Glad I could help!
Likeable chap. Thank you
Thanks! 🙌
I’m a big fan of all genres and styles of guitar playing but I can’t express how much I love playing grungey heavy sheeet
It’s so much fun isn’t it!
Great video. Keep doing what you are doing!
Thanks Robert!
@@thesethingsmakenoises I know JHS has already done this but maybe a video about different big muffs in the alt genre?
Good shout!
Cool video, subscribed!
Thanks mate! ✌️
This is a really great video. I was at uni 1989 - 1992 and it was an absolutely insane time to be this age and going to gigs. Just one comment on what it was like to really experience this wave of music - everything was far more mixed up and not separated into clans or genres as you may imagine (saying they went their separate ways). It wasn't like that in these years. At Rock City in Nottingham for example, you'd hear every indie genre at student night - people were into many different types of indie music and it wasn't split. Having said that, upstairs at Rock City they be playing indie pop and dance (Stone Roses, James, Charlatans, Primal Scream) and downstairs the indie was a bit more heavy so to speak. But that was it. I kin d of feel sorry for kids today as the energy and excitement and "atmosphere" (I can't find a word to explain that era) just doesn't seem to be there for young people today. Who knows, maybe I'm wrong.
No you're absolutely right. I came of age during the early 00s and it was a similar vibe. The last great "you had to be there" Rock era cultural moment for sure
That’s such an awesome comment. Thanks for that. I had always thought it was way more ‘sub-culturey’
@@thesethingsmakenoises There's actually a really great video on CZcams titled "Nirvana - Rock City, Nottingham 1991" and you'll see all the kids of that year, no sub-cultures at all. We lived in a Cambrian explosion of music with The Happy Mondays and James etc doing dance remixes of indie tunes. Anyway, no idea why i didn't go to that gig - it would have been amazing at that small space compared to the arenas and stadiums they would end up playing.
Oh amazing. I’ll get on it, that sounds great! All sounds so interesting. Yeah, hindsight is a killer hahaha
@@thesethingsmakenoisesnah it wasn’t sub culture at all, it was the culture. SP, Nirvana, Pearl were all the rage. All over the radio and mtv. Funnily enough Corgan is and was massively influenced by late 70’s “classic” rock. He adored the band Boston and knew Eruption by EVH, It’s up on CZcams him playing it. The thing to remember is those bands were punk inspire rock bands not the other way around. They were all kids in the 60’s and 70’s and had those influences.
There was also trip-hop and big beat music like the prodigy.
Both had a huge influence on the adore and machina albums for Smashing pumpkins.
Yes! That is some great music. I live near Bristol, so that had and still has a massive influence on the culture there
Early 90s, best era in music! So much to enjoy in various genres
Good stuff man! A friend of mind used to call that dropped-D sus2 thing "the Helmet chord". :-)
Haha no way. Gonna start using that!
Nice, I like that! I used to associate it with ‘On a Plain’ (was and still am a massive Nirvana fan)
Whoa, your videos are perfectly tailored to my needs. Also you look like grunge Mark Knopfler.
Ahh that’s amazing, thanks so much. Haha I just need the headband now then!
Ps. Just checked out your band and added it to my I tunes play list awesome stuff mate
Ahh thank you so much!
Who would've thought that my fav guitarist would be somebody who started as a singer and a drummer
🤘
I love the SP's. Everyone back in the day just went into 'cobain 'poularity'' yeah you had the real fans, but also a lot of sheepers. But looking back. IT WAS COOL! Glam rock fading, pop fucked!, many bands mixed lots of shit and made their own 'sound'. We were all 'One', like borg. Faith no more were amazing way back. That is the last of solidarity and true brotherhood I ever knew dude!
that plumes sounds good
Great pedal!
great video!
By the way, if you like Shoegaze-influenced Grunge, definitely check out Narrow Head! They are great
Ahh will do. Thanks!
This tutorial is all I needed see y’all on the charts in 2025 🎸
as soon as I heard you had a SP tattoo , I subscribed
🤘🤘
Great video ! Ever think about making a discord? could be a good way to connect with people and have a little community, I would be interested at least
That is a great idea. I’ll have a look at starting something up.
great idea for next video would be to show combination of those chords in more lets say complex chord progressions and highlight they function. I already intuitively using those accords and trying them fit next to each other by ear. However, it would be awesome if someone show me some inspiring chord progression and shine light on theory behind them.
Ok that’s a great idea! I have a few videos already made but I’ll get that in the works!
This is class
Thanks so much!
I've seen Sonic Youth live five times. Love their tunings / toolings. Mike Shelley is an amazing drummer. Ppl used to call me Billy Corgan because I was a bald nasal sounding singer, too. lol. Now with the long beard they call me ZZ Top. Whatevz. Oh btw you stole my riffs. ;)
I bet they’re an awesome live band! Haha, both cool though 🤙
Haha I’m sorry!
*Steve Shelley 😉
Perhaps it was Swell Maps invented the open E string riffing technique with dirty fuzz on their song Let’s Build A Car?Thurston Moore cites them as an influence. Great channel by the way!
Oh no way! I don’t know them, I’ll check it out
Cool video. Like listening to people who are interested in anything
Thanks Roger!
Nice video dude! Which amp are u using?
Thanks mate! I’m pretty sure this would have been my DR Z ‘Maz Jr 18’ but, I’ve actually bought a Marshall origin 50 since filming this and predominantly use that now.
Funny, i grew up in the 90’s, picked up guitar seriously for the first time in the start of the ‘00’s and the alternative/grunge scene was my original inspiration and what i (attempted) to emulate at the time. Fast forward 20 years and im far more into blues and 60’s-70’s rock than anything more modern. I don’t listen to a lot of stuff from the 90’s anymore and play even less.
Ahh no way! That’s really interesting. What made you listen to more 60/70s? The more technical guitar playing?
Bands like Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Temple of the dog and even sometimes Soundgarden sound very 70s at times
I am wondering if you are a bit....hmmmmmmmm........'Pumpkins Biased' lol. Way too much Corgan, but hey, I like 'em. Me I'm pearl Jam. Love that early sound and the Neil young mirrorball stuff. I got a few pedals, but haven't a clue how to utelise them properly. 48 now; my dream has long gone. But still appreciate these vids. Even though waaaaaaay pumpkins biased lol. Keep rockin dude!
Both Punk and Grunge were to some degree a reaction to the current/previous music trends. Both had a DIY approach that wasn't focused on crazy time signatures, or complex chord progressions - in the case of progressive to Punk era - and the hair metal, shredding virtuoso, pseudo-classical 80's rock bands that was grunge was in part a reaction to.
For me, Punk was more extravert, whereas Grunge was more introvert. Shoegaze was quintessentially British introverted approach to music.
Ahh that’s interesting! I guess in its nature of looking down and ‘shoegazing’ that probably said something about the music in itself.
i wanna be your dog and feels like a big influence when it comes to the application of the open e string
sus 2 and sus 4 chords are also hugely important in modern shoegaze (not the dreamy nonsense)
Yeah 100%! What a great track.
Yeah they are for sure. Awesome sounding chords.
Grunge music was also a reaction to the bubble gum pop that was dominating music at the time. Backstreet Boys, Gerardo, Vanilla Ice, and stuff like that. Or pop country like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain. Like today how Lo-fi is the new grunge-y reaction to pop hop hop.
Yeah that’s really interesting. It’s awesome how great music can be made in response to other music.
@@thesethingsmakenoises thanks for doing this video. You're a good speaker and you seem to be well informed about the topic. Cheers
Thanks!
Coming out of the 80s, our music options were hair metal, heavy metal, and hip hop (not counting country). If you wanted to play guitar, you were expected to play extremely well or not at all. Grunge opened the door for non-technical players. In fact it was the intentional antithesis of technical playing, almost a parody, where the points went to the players with the least abilities. The bigwigs running the music industry swung the grunge hammer to nail the final nails in the coffins of metal. With metal out of the way, the scene was set for a new breed to players, usually with more talent than grunge players, to showcase cleaner guitar chains with lots of single note definition and clarity.
At least that's what I remember as a teenage guitarist in the 90s :)
That’s really interesting! I absolutely love listening to the history of how music changes.
Those sus2 chords really are something else. The plumes seems like a super versatile pedal.
What is your band called?
Yeah it’s really an awesome pedal! I think Earthquaker killed it there.
It’s called October Drift.
Those add9 chords be everything
🤘🤘
What is the sus2 progression derived from, I really recognise it
Angsty Teen also felt like Incubus.
Yes! I’d never listened to incubus that much until recently but I love what I’ve heard.
Maybe its me but it all started with Black Sabbath and maybe MC5.
Heck yeah!
I love that blue colour on guitars, Daphne Blue I think its called
Yeah! I sprayed it myself actually.
Nice, Im busy doing one cherry apple red then going to ask my Dad to do some faint patterns on part of the body using pearl dust, so they only stand out when light hits it, well that's the idea anyway.@@thesethingsmakenoises
Next project though definitely using the blue@@thesethingsmakenoises
Oh nice mate! Sounds awesome!
Metal bands use the same thing with the open E. A lot of slayers songs are open E then on the A string a scale starting on the 7th fret
Hell yeah! 🤘
The Pixies were definitely the biggest influenced all the early grunge bands
Yeah 100%!!
a great video, and very cool niche information. Kudos, humble suggestion, maybe a little less preamble, information not super relevant, and more to point and concise. But outstanding work!
Hey! I think those are really good points and I totally agree. Thanks!
You have to listen Hum a band whith a great sound : iron cloud lou, stars, and centaur : the same place . Matt talbott
Yeah! Awesome band
That sus2 chord is like instant Deftones!
I know right!
At those times I was a beginning guitar player. I could play some punkrock etc. But I didn't understand how these grunge bands made their sounds. Never heard of drop-D for example. I was clueless. That kinda put me off from playing guitar. If only there had been CZcams in those days.
Ahh thank you so much! That’s what I’m hoping with this channel, if I was back 10 years ago just starting out playing the styles I like now, what would I want to learn?
Interesting. Not sure how familiar you are with Bob Mould's guitar tones and playing techniques during the Husker Du days, but imo he was a massive inspiration for this kind of playing. He would avoid power chords, and tended to focus on open chords that would create carrying notes throughout a song. Listen to New Day Rising (song and album), and tracks like Diane, Something I Learned Today, their cover of 8 Miles High, Folklore, Power Line. Arguably the best example is Pink Turns to Blue.
His tone was admittedly strange, but the gain saturation would envelope the entire mix yet without obliterating the drums and the all-important root and anchoring notes of the bass guitar. I searched the term "Mould" in this whole comment section and there was no mention. It sometimes feels like an extremely important player has been all but forgotten, which is such a shame because as I suggested, I think he was hugely important.
Hey, thanks so much. I’ve heard the name before but never actually listened. I’ll check these tracks out!
@@thesethingsmakenoises They had a phenomenal three album run with Zen Arcade, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig. This was July 1984 to September 1985 - and NB, Zen Arcade was a double album! They were never off the road. Also, the 12" EP Metal Circus was October 1983. Because both Bob Mould (guitar / lead vocals) and Grant Hart (Drums / lead vocals) both wrote songs, they were amazingly prolific. Although stylistically firmly in hardcore punk, their commitment to proper songwriting with accessible tunes and immediate, memorable hook-lines was obvious and undeniable (and they evolved very, very quickly too). It's Not Funny Any More (Metal Circus), Never Talking to You Again, Turn on the News (Zen Arcade), Books About UFOs, I Apologise (New Day Rising), Makes No Sense At All, Flexible Flyer, Games (Flip Your Wig) - all genuinely strong and loveable pop songs. I think your key to them will be the guitar sound, and Mould's approach to playing. And from there, you'll be drawn into the songs themselves - Folklore, Chartered Trips, Find Me....there are just so many examples of excellent songwriting. All of it wrapped up in those interesting guitar techniques you've identified. ; - )
Ahh that sounds so awesome. I’m off to record in a studio a few hours away tonight so will put some on in the van!
@@thesethingsmakenoises Have a good 'un!!
which song did you derive the first riff from?
I think it’s from ‘Kool Thing’ off the album ‘Goo’
How about Dinosaur Jr?
What clean amp are you using?
I think this one would have been the Dr Z Maz Jr 18
Was that an “F” chord in the opener?
Woooow
🤘
One thing i don’t think you’ve mentioned (9mins in), and maybe i’m remembering wrong, but i think a lot of songs recorded in that era were tuned half a step down to Eb. And we also started seeing a lot of bands using Drop D tunings as well.
Edit: Oh you just mentioned Drop D then. P.S. Literally everything played on the Guitar sounds like something else to someone nowadays.
Yeah 100%. Good shout! Tuning to Eb gives you that little bit more punch and depth than standard doesn’t it!
@@thesethingsmakenoises These days a lot of bands play a whole step down in D standard.
Lol, i thought the that sus2 shape was the only power chord shape. There are others?!
Haha!!
speaking of SP and shoegaze, listen to the chorus of The Everlasting Gaze, or just the entirety of TheFutureEmbrace. Those are probably Corgan’s most overt shoegaze-y moments. Of course there are others but not like this.
Yeah 100% you can totally hear the influence can’t you. I love that song! 👌
@@thesethingsmakenoises man’s a fiend for the ‘gaze, just like the rest of us.
Haha yes!!
What pickups are those ?!
They’re lace sensors!
What's the name of your band? I'd love to check it out
nvm saw it in the description
Thanks!
@@thesethingsmakenoises No problem m8. You (alt) rock! Just one question, what's the best action height for these offset guitars? Never had a Fender and coming from Gretsch I'm kind of lost
I like the action on mine fairly low. The only problem with the original jazz/jag tremolos is that if you have a smaller break angle from a lower action the strings can come off the bridge. I obviously don’t have that problem with my two as they have different bridge systems.
@@thesethingsmakenoises Thank you! Yeah I don't strum that hard but that might happen. How low would you say? About 3/64ths - 1mm at the 12th?