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Dave Kushner – Velvet Revolver

October 23rd 2009 02:50
So, along comes the new century, and along comes the re-birth of the Supergroup. Why it needs to be called anything but a band is beyond me, but people just like to label everything, so whatever.

Anyway, in 2003, word gets our the Slash, Duff and Matt Sorum from Gunners were in a band with Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), and the hard rock fan world was buzzing (myself included) in anticipation. Then the album comes out with all the news and updates and info, and there’s this guy playing rhythm guitar in the band who I hadn’t heard of – Dave Kushner. I remember the first thing I thought – “who is this guy f%$king to get in this band?”

Here is a band that will immediately draw international interest, and guaranteed revenue from touring as fans of both bands have the chance to see their heroes up close as the band would play smaller venues that what their previous bands would be capable of. Weiland is like Midas so the tunes will be great, the guitars will be old-school big with Slash at the helm, so the album will kick too, yet here’s this dude with a Village People moustache standing at the back playing guitar.

After a little homework, I found the link – he went to school with Slash. That’s it – he has scored THE best rhythm guitar job ever (actually – second best after Shiflett joined Foo Fighters in ‘99) because his parents lived in the same neighbourhood as Saul’s. Nothing to do with talent, stage presence or experience (everyone plays guitar) - just postcode (same thing as zip code). At least Shiflett auditioned and earned the spot, he didn’t just grow up around the corner from Dave Grohl.

One of my favourite bands through the 90’s were Infectious Grooves, and even though I know every track of their debut back to front, I didn’t know Kushner played on a couple of tracks. He is not credited as writing any, so he must have just filled in for a bit (right place right time again!)

Both Velvet Revolver albums do the token band credits for songwriting, so it is tough to know exactly what contribution he had to the process. There aren’t really any complex or intricate intertwined guitar parts that complement each other though, only chords and Slash doing the Slash thing. There was nothing to stop Slash recording all the guitar parts on the albums except sympathy (never stopped Page Hamilton though – he plays all the guitars on the Helmet albums and they just credit another guitar player as “live” guitar. At least they’re honest).

His website (with his initials and a skull – oooooh how rock) was last updated in August, and the time before that was September last year, and the time before that June 2007 (right around the time the issues began with Weiland). There were tons of updates before that talking about the touring highs, the recording highs, the everything highs, so it was nice he got to ride the coattails of the good life, but after Weiland left the good life left as well.

I don’t wish anything bad to the guy, and would like to congratulate him for his “Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music” Emmy nomination for co-writing the theme for Sons Of Anarchy, but I bet you a dollar he knows that he could have been anyone else in that band, and if they really wanted a “super band” why didn’t they put Navarro, Cantrell, or even Tracii Guns (okay, pretty crappy example I know) or someone else of their ilk? Another ego in the band would have been a bit excessive obviously, but to market it all as a superband, I want a full superband! We were 20% ripped off! Lenny Kravitz grew up with Slash as well – how did Kushner get the nod over him?
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Mike McCready - Pearl Jam

October 8th 2009 02:14
In the 19 years since Pearl Jam began, various trends have come and gone from popular society, and Mike McCready has managed to jump on every one of them. He was lucky enough to have a school friend named Stone Gossard who got him into the band, where he has proven on many occasions that such a link is enough to keep him in the highlife when he is really just riding the coattails of his brethren.

If you are old enough, cast your mind back to when grunge was the word on everyone’s lips. Guys in flannelette shirts and ripped jeans bashing their guitars and wailing about whatever annoyed them last week were getting signed to record contracts after a handful of shows because of their postcode. They had to have videos because MTV (when they played music videos) was the best way to get your music “out there”, so these bands from Seattle got in front of some cameras to show us their wares. Pearl Jam released a couple of videos shot at a live show (Even Flow and Alive), and the impressive part was that the live version accompanied the video instead of the usual practice of using the live footage with the recorded version from the CD playing. That was cool. The thing I thought hilarious then (and still now) though was the guitar player in the film clip dressed in a big overcoat and cowboy hat. He reminded me of Richie Sambora in the Wanted: Dead or Alive days, which was funny enough as it is, but for someone to mimic that in a band that really has nothing to do with that vibe was extremely peculiar. Why the band let him dress like this is for them to know, and for us to speculate – perhaps he wanted to show his respect to Mr. Sambora for guiding him on his journey to be a lead guitarist? Perhaps he wanted to differentiate himself from the “typical” Seattle look (but why he chose L.A cowboy??), or maybe he just was a cowboy. One thing for sure is that he stood out like dog’s balls, which made me pay more attention to his guitar playing, which was a major disappointment.

You can forgive an artist in the early days for not being that good, especially in a younger band. We had to accept that a lot of these bands had not been together long as they were signed as part of the scene, and in pearl Jam’s case they had some interesting songs and a singer who could obviously wail and first impressions told me that he would go on to bigger things. Listening to Alive for the first time, I wasn’t a massive fan, but heard the anthemic chorus and knew it would grow on me. As the track wound down with the long (and extremely unnecessary) guitar solo at the end, I became the frustrated and annoyed. I was 20 at the time, and I knew this guy was older than me, but I also knew that he was not a better player than me, so this was the first time I felt the muso jealousy curse. The curse is when a musician gets the shits because they know (or at least, think) that someone popular or famous isn’t as good as himself or herself. Listening to the Alive outro solo, all I could think about was that it sounded like something from a kid still learning his chops in his garage. The whole thing was played using a pentatonic scale (this is the most basic and safest scale to play solos on guitar, and is a finger pattern / shape used by every guitar player while learning until they get good), which limits you to only 5 different notes, and basically any of them at any time aren’t bad. So, here was a guy on my MTV dressed as a cowboy in a rock song playing a solo I could have done when I was 16 and sitting in my bedroom.

Unfortunately for Mike and Pearl Jam, this is something that has haunted them for the past 19 years. His inability to create a decent guitar solo without it sounding like a teenager, and the fact he has gone with almost every trend about 4 months after it hits. When the movie stars were wearing faux glasses, he turns up in promo shots doing the same. When the short spiky bleach blonde hair look was in, our Mike got rid of the rock star long hair for the same. In the mid 2000’s when more and more people were getting more and more tattoos, our Mike starting appearing in promo shots wearing tank tops to display his arms that had now been covered in ink. The photo on his Wikipedia page at the moment even shows his playing wearing a Motorhead T-Shirt (could you get anymore clichéd? Maybe a Ramones shirt). If you google hard enough, you will see photos with Mike playing a Gibson red double-neck guitar (EXACTLY the same one Jimmy Page uses for Stairway) – come on Mike, if you even needed the double neck, why did it have to be the same one? Even Sambora used a different one for Wanted: Dead or Alive.

If you aren’t a very good player, you are kind of limited as to the music you write. This is obvious throughout Pearl Jam’s history with McCready contributing the least amount of music out of the 4 members who have been there from the beginning (although Matt Cameron is catching up). I hate the crap excuse “everyone gets a writing credit” on songs, because SOMEONE had to have the idea, and without the idea, there is no song. I remember reading once that Guns’n’Roses figured out royalties based on who had the idea gets a certain %, then other contributors get a certain % as well, which I reckon is a great call, and how I did it during my 15 minutes. On Ten, Mike gets an “everyone” credits on the last track, Release (Eddie wrote the lyrics for basically all their songs, so I am only talking about the music written for the songs here). On Vs, every track had this so it’s impossible to say who really did what. On Vitalogy, about half the music is credited to everyone, as they started to give credit where credit is due. Once you get to No Code, we see Mike being credited on 3 tracks – Hail Hail, Red Mosquito and Present Tense ***. There were 3 tracks on Yield, but then a notable absence for both Binaural and Riot Act, with Mike only acknowledged on 1 song each album, and that was on an “everyone” credit. Perhaps these were sympathy credits? On Pearl Jam, he did manage to get album-high 5 credits, then 2 tracks on the latest album Backspacer. He may have got his highest music-writing accolades though for the B-side Yellow Ledbetter, which is a popular last song for the band at concerts. This track is McCready’s attempt at Little Wing (Hendrix), and is so blatantly a copy it is bordering on embarrassing. The same chord sequence in the same key, and also using what’s known as “pull-offs” (putting your finger on the guitar and removing it quickly while hearing both the note the finger was on and the following note that is left after its removal), which are highlights of the Hendrix track. They do have Vedder’s soaring melody line to save the track, however we are bored with an improvised and soulless guitar solo both on the recorded and every live version available. One thing I find very amusing is that these bland solos (Alive and Yellow Ledbetter) feature as part of Guitar World's 100 Greatest Guitar Solos named in 2007. This was obviously a suck up from the magazine as he was (deservedly) left out of their 2003 list of 100 Greatest Guitar players of All-Time. Apparently the magazine copped some flack about it from rabid fans, and rather than them just saying he doesn't deserve to be there, the magazine wussed out and apologised then made sure PJ appeared in their next big list so as to not annoy the readers. There is no doubt Pearl Jam have written some great songs, but it doesn't make the guitarist good becuase he's in a good band. Grow a pair Guitar World - they didn't make your list in the first place because you KNOW there are a ton of better players (although the reason I play guitar - Gary Moore - didn't make it either which i thought was odd, but I digress). Rolling Stone - which I subscribe to - also put Mike at #6 on a list of Twenty Five Most Under-Rated Guitarists which i was genuinely shocked to see. Will tigers now lie with antelopes?

I think the problem with his playing is 2 things – he thought he was better than he really was (probably due to media / friends), and he therefore settled and didn’t strive to improve his playing and just went with what he knew. Unfortunately though, this has limited his input into the band and output as a “lead” guitarist. Angus Young, as a lead player, has admitted himself that he really only has 1 solo that he plays over and over, luckily for him though it is a doozy and it is his own. Mike doesn’t have this, and could easily be replaced for better (say a hired gun like Joe Satriani or even Neal Schon) or for worse (well, actually just chuck the best player at your local high school in and see how he goes. Wouldn’t have the musicianship Mike must surely have at this stage after almost 20 years on the road, but for entertainment and novelty value, it would definitely be a lot of fun. It wouldn’t be hard for them to mimic the McCready “look-to-the-sky-I’m-playing- with-feeling” rock star pose, as he is only playing his 5-note solos, and nobody needs to look at their guitar to do this. This is an old bluesman token trademark pose, stolen by many through the years, which of course is why Mike does it.

With bands these days being put together because of their looks, it is too easy to pick apart their lack of talent, and it pretty much is a different kind of right-place, right-time thing as one individual isn’t being carried by the rest of the band, it’s more like the whole band is rubbish but pretty so the record company makes them popular by being back their CDs to put them in the charts (don’t get me started about THAT). For Mike McCready though, he grew up with a damn fine musician and songwriter, and like Adam Clayton (see previous posts) he has hung around like a bad smell to mooch the glory and coin that comes with it. The thing I find the strangest is that they have sacked an amazing drummer (Dave Abbruzzese) in their time, but kept a very ordinary Mike in the band when perhaps they should have tried to solidify their group with more talent. My guess is he just agreed with everything and stayed their “best pal” in times of trouble.

Nice work, Mike.


*** The last time Pearl Jam played in Sydney, they played Present Tense live with only Mike on guitar and Eddie singing. Mike’s guitar was badly out of tune, so when he played a certain chord in the intro (and throughout the song), it made mine, Eddie’s (you could see the death stares he was giving) and pretty much everyone else’s ears bleed. He hires a guy to make sure the guitar is in tune, so if you start playing a sensitive little number and you hear the guitar not tuned right, you have 2 choices – stop the song, make a bit of a joke at the assistant’s expense, get a new guitar and start again and get through it, ultimately reprimanding the guy after the show. OR, you can just keep playing and allow the sensitive tune YOU WROTE become a farce. Mike chose the latter, and the song was horrible. Eddie tried to stay focused, but every time that certain chord was played, you saw him cringe, and it was only the consummate professional that got him through it. I recall after the song McCready storming to the side of the stage and telling the guy what he thought while grabbing a new guitar, but this should have been done about 4 minutes earlier so we didn’t have to sit through it. You can listen to this track on the bootleg version of the concert – Nov 8, 2006 @ Acer Arena, Sydney).
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Paul Simonen - The Clash

September 17th 2009 03:46
Here is a guy who wanted to be an artist, yet ended up playing bass in (arguably) one of London’s most influential bands of the late 70’s and 80’s – The Clash.

In 1976 he was asked to join The Clash by their lead guitarist, songwriter and sometimes vocalist Mick Jones, and the plan was to teach Paul guitar. Unfortunately that proved to be a bit hard, so they taught him how to play bass instead. I guess this goes with the whole punk ethos of the time, and as they were young they were possibly more interested in having someone “interesting” in the band instead of looking for the best instrumentalist.

He is known as having named the band The Clash, he is known for having a picture of him smashing his instrument on the cover of their album London Calling, and he is known for coming up with stage clothes and backdrops for the band, but I can’t think of a track that features his playing prominently. It is true that he didn’t just play basic 4/4 patterns, and did manage to occasionally use syncopated reggae off-beat bass lines, it was mainly because it was for the band’s reggae / ska tunes.

The Clash released 6 studio albums, and out of these Paul wrote 3 songs (actually 2 because one of the tracks – Long-Time Jerk – was only on the B-side of the Rock the Casbah single in 1982). Ironically, he didn’t even play on Rock the Casbah, with the bass line being played by their (at the time) drummer Topper Headon. There were also 2 tracks from their album Sandanista that he didn’t play on, and a startling 10 of the 12 tracks on Cut the Crap had the bass played by someone else. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2003), but his bandmates didn't think he was good enough to play on certain tracks for their own albums.

He managed to make the public aware of the inter-punk band rivalry of the late 70’s when he got into a fight with the bass player from The Stranglers - again adding to his notoriety but not giving him any kudos for his bass playing. This rivalry still lives in the UK as many artists view their popularity as a competition, which I reckon is disgusting and offensive. If you don’t play music because you absolutely and totally love it, then please just don’t.

Congratulations to Paul on his successes and his legend, as he was involved (barely) in some music highlights that many state they are influenced by. As a bass player though, Adam Clayton could have been in this band and you would have never known as there was nothing musically offered in his tenure with The Clash.
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Adam Clayton - U2

September 16th 2009 01:31
Here is my candidate number 1 for someone who just happened to be in the right place at the right time - Adam Clayton of U2.

The band's signature sound is the amazingly clean and delayed guitar arrangements from The Edge, something that he has forged himself over the many years of the bands' existence. He is a pioneer here, and with the squillions of bands in the world there really are not many that can stand alone knowing they created a sound, and The Edge is certainly one of them


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Right Place, Right Time - who are these lucky buggers anyway?

September 16th 2009 00:59
As a longtime muso with minimal commercial success, it has always annoyed me when I see bands make it good when I know for a fact that there are people in the band who are amazing, but there's also someone in the band who just plain isn't. How do they make their millions when they belong playing in a garage somewhere and not on the world stages?

Maybe they grew up with the other guys, maybe they "had the look" (which is more and more likely in the last 10 - 15 years since music has nothing to do with music at all), or maybe their rich dad paid for the first recording which guaranteed them a spot in the line-up


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