This weekend is the last full-fledged weekend on our campus, seeing how finals loom around the corner. So live it up ladies and gentlemen. Get out there and see some live music!

This week’s weekend spotlight shines on Zmick bassist Dan Wonsover. Zmick has a busy weekend ahead of them, as they will be playing Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Zmick kicks off the weekend at Lincoln Hall Theater at the Unleash the Jam Humane Society Benefit show. Supporting acts include Sure Fire Groove, The Ruckus, a live DJ between sets and a special appearance by Xtension Chords, before their Acapellapalooza performance Friday at Foellinger. All proceeds from this show will benefit the Champaign County Humane Society. Tickets are $5, available at the quad entrance of Lincoln Hall Theater starting at 7 pm.

This show features (at least) two awesome bassists, with Wonsover holding down Zmick and Sure Fire Groove bassist, Manny Fassbinder. (I will reserve judgment of my own bass skills to the concert goers.)

Sure Fire Groove starts at 8 pm. The Ruckus takes the stage around 9:10, and Zmick will end the festivities from 10:20 onward. Expect some funky-ass shit coming from the fingers of “DanWon” his weekend as he and his band meld grooves together from reggae to techno and samba to bluegrass. Friday night Zmick will be opening up for Groovatron at Canopy Club, an honor I am sure they are extremely proud of. Saturday, they will be playing at a block party in Urbana, so if you’ve already seen Zmick within the confines of walls and ceilings, catch them outside this Saturday.

Pick up a buzz weekly today, and turn to the calendar section to start planning your busy weekend now! This weekend has a slew of options to keep your musical palate occupied.

As I mentioned in the Les Claypool blog, the whamola can be discussed in great detail. As you can see in the picture (provided eventually), Les’ whamola is a homemade job. As the story goes, a fan gave Claypool his first whamola. He made improvements to the design and added a pickup so it would be audible.

This whamola is primarily made out of a metal or wooden rod which holds the bridge and tremolo bar in place. On the main ‘body’ sits a fretless, wooden fretboard When the instrument first hit the stage at The Rave, Les was tapping a funky-ass beat on the lowest note (a low B, perhaps) with a drumstick. As he threw in a slew of muted notes and harmonics, the jam continued to build momentum, culminating with a violent grab of the whammy bar and a one-of-a-kind bass solo from a one-of-a-kind bassist. Claypool’s muscle memory was impeccable, taking the tremolo from its base position to precisely the intended note, time after time.

You can check out Les Claypool playing the song named for the instrument right at the bottom of this page!

Brin Levenson of Whamola Laboratories has been handcrafting these fine one-string bass instruments since graduating from the California Institute for the Arts in 2001. They range in price from $450 to $600, which is the average price range for a standard bass guitar. What makes these whamolas worth the hefty price tag is that each bass is made to order, with great handiwork and attention to detail.

Anyone aspiring to be the next Les Claypool can be that much closer with the purchase (and practice!) of a whamola. Don’t hesitate to shop around, though. I’m sure that there are other luthiers that just might be building whamolas out there, also. Give this obscure bass instrument a look. It might be a bit unnecessary to own, but it is definitely a great listen.

Hello again, Minions of the Deep. Things have been pretty hectic on these parts of Bass Pl. so I’ve been holding off on equipment-related blogs until I get some time to grind those out this weekend.

Taking helm at the bottom spot this week is Rage Against The Machine bassist, Tim Commerford. Often overshadowed by the legendary Tom Morello, Commerford musical styles and personal beliefs are perfect for Rage - aggressive bass grooves and civil disobedience.

Though most hard rock bassists often play with a pick for speed and sharp attack, Commerford can be seen here plucking away with his fingers. The result is a thick, beefy tone with a lot of thunder behind it. The bass he’s playing here is an American made Fender Jazz bass.

Those who spring for the extra cost of the American made Fender basses get rewarded with a nice looking maple neck, and an added switch right on top of the first volume knob. J-basses have great versatility, boasting a wide array of tones, from jazz and Motown to hard rock and alternative.

Another attribute that Commerford brings to Rage is his general disdain for oppressive institutions. He was standing right beside de la Rocha and Morello completely in the buff on stage in Philadelphia to protest the PRMC, which was a coalition of mothers in favor of censoring music with explicit lyrics. One of my favorite Commerford anecdotes is when he protested Limp Bizkit’s victory at the Video Music Award (an extremely easy occurrence to protest). I remember watching on TV and seeing some crazed maniac climb the supports for the lighting, shaking it violently. There was a big to-do about all of it, and he ended up spending a night in jail.

Was it worth it? Damn straight. The video for “Break Stuff” sucked, along with everything else involved with Limp Bizkit, and Rage got the shaft because their video for “Sleep Now In The Fire” is one of the best music videos of the 90s. Check it out.

I wanted to embed this video right here on the page. I figured out how to do that like five minutes ago, but Rage has disabled that youtube feature. But you’ve been to youtube, right? Good, now venture away from the217 for a moment, and check out that video!

Well, I think that about does it for this edition of Bassist of the Week. Tim Commerford is a helluva bassist, who sometimes doesn’t get the recognition he deserves. I can’t wait to see him and the rest of Rage Against The Machine play at Lollapalooza this August in Chicago.

Last week, I saw Family Groove Company play their 600^th performance of their fast-growing careers at Canopy Club, and seeing as how I have enjoyed five of those 600 shows thoroughly, I have decided to make FGC bassist, Janis Wallin, 708 Bass Pl.’s inaugural Bassist of the Week.

Wallin is a graduate of Los Angeles’ famed Musicians Institute where she was named her class’ most outstanding bassist. Hailing from Pennsylvania, she met up with Adam and Jordan from Chicago, and Mattias from Sweden at M.I. and started touring as Family Groove Company.

Janis commands the low end of the groove with graceful precision and honed technique. She has quickly become a fan-favorite among the FGC audience and has even made her way to grace the front of the “What Would Janis Do?” t-shirt.

Family Groove Company covers some funky tunes such as Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” and Sugar Loaf’s “Green Eyed Lady” along with the original songs that feature tastefully juicy bass lines that were arranged perfectly within the song. The groove is delivered consistently in the pocket, and it keeps the crowd dancing the whole time.

If you haven’t caught Janis and the rest of FGC, you’re missing out, because they do not disappoint. You can check them out at House of Blues Chicago April 10^th, Friends and Co. in Charleston, IL, April 17^th, Summer Camp Festival, in Chillicothe, IL, Memorial Day weekend, or Wakarusa Festival this June in Lawrence, KS.

Drop by next week to find out who thumps out the “bottom” spot after Janis.

Welcome, friends. This is my first blog, so let me start out by saying that I hope that 708 Bass Pl. will become an online home for everyone who loves bass.

Whoa! I saw Les Claypool play The Rave up in Milwaukee, WI over spring break, and the Sultan of Slap did not disappoint. When Les isn’t performing with Primus, his show takes on a whole new dimension, as he is backed by a saxophone, drum set, and auxiliary percussion. Amazingly, despite the lack of guitar, a strong lead presence was propelled by the saxophone. The sax had a vast effects modeling system, which ranged from the most sultry saxophone tones, to the most distorted lead tones.

The craziness did not end with the sax player. In fact, the drummer and the percussionist did a fifteen-minute drum jam, complete with a marimba on steroids. The marimba was hooked up to its own modeling system that could make the spaciest sounds imaginable. As the drum solo reached its climax, Claypool returned to the stage, with a new mask on and the famous Whamola bass guitar. So much can be said about the Whamola that could definitely use it’s own page of detail. To quickly summarize its amazing-ness, it’s a one string bass, reminiscent of depression-era bluegrass bands, but with a giant tremolo bar attached at the top of the string, which allows the user to dramatically alter the strings tension.

Claypool’s unique lyrics and vocals certainly have given him a reputation for being a wild character, but he is also equipped with a rare amount of poise on stage. To be able to sing such interesting sounding lyrics over brilliant slapping and popping is amazing. The most telling occurrence was when he stopped halfway through the intro to one of his songs to call out a drunken fan that flipped him off.

Les asked, “Are you saying you want to fuck me, or are you just showing me your IQ?”

This set the crowd a-roar, and he went right back to raging. At the end of the night, we had to embark on a snowy journey back to Chicago, but great times were had by all parties during a fantastic live performance.

Check back later this week, for our very first Bassist of the Week!