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Music"Eclectic Upright Bass"Finally in my late twenties I started getting into performing other styles of music on the old upright: bluegrass, folk, folk-rock and alt-rock. And these days, I’m happiest playing in groups that combine lots of influences and play a wide variety of music. When I lived in Crested Butte, Colorado. Alex Johnstone, Aaron McCloskey and I had a "new acoustic" trio there called a.k.a laser bunny. I also played off-and-on with talented pianist David J. Rothman as a jazz duo called Martians Go Home. And I recorded/produced songs and played some bass for Jason Valcourt when he lived in the Butte. And waaay back when, I was in the infamous Crested Butte bluegrass band Trainwreck, now long gone. Tree City TravelersTin Shack StringbandYou can see videos on this YouTube Channel The Kyle Van BandPerhaps we were a little too eclectic to bring the crowds out in droves: more of a musician’s band than a music fan’s band. You can’t make a living on free drinks and the tip jar. (Though it’s fun to try!) Sigh. Fickle SoCal music fans. Anyway, the band’s reconfigured now, moving on ... I wish them all the best. Below are a few recordings of KVB from the past couple of years. Like every song on this page, I recorded, mixed and produced all the tracks myself.
a.k.a. laser bunnyThe band performs a diverse range of instrumental acoustic songs, from Gypsy jazz to Irish fiddle tunes to ’70s elevator funk. We sound kind of like Phillips Grier and Flinner, or David Grisman on mescaline. More than half of what we play is original music, and the rest is barely recognizeable from the original after we do the "bunny treatment" on it. Here are some choice "bunny tracks" recorded at various times from 2004-2008:
What is New Acoustic Music?
Best I can describe it, it’s music played with traditional stringed instruments that doesn’t fit any traditional genres like jazz, folk, bluegrass, etc. It’s easier and more fun to listen to than explain, so here are a couple more examples, performed by me and my friends from Spring Creek Bluegrass Band.
Why Upright Bass?I have never been able to groove on a normal electric bass, even after years of trying. The sideways-and-fretted thing just doesn’t work for me, so I play everything on one of my two upright basses: either my NS electric upright, or the big old 1959 Kay hunk o’ wood that I’ve owned since junior high. The hunk ’o wood I’ve played forever, but the electric upright bass is a pretty recent discovery for me. After years of struggling, I finally decided to give up pretending to play normal electric bass. The fretted, sideways thing just wasn’t working for me: despite lots of practice, I never felt I knew my way around it properly, or could really lock into a good groove with other musicians. Literally the same day I put the old bass in a box and shipped it off to its new owner, I stumbled upon a deal on a Ned Steinberger NS-CR4M upright electric bass at Guitar Center. Some poor fool had special-ordered it from them and then backed out of the deal. The sales guy needed to move the thing, and they let me have it for a criminally low price. Electric UprightI can play cranking surf rock, 80’s pop and big band swing all on the same bass, just messing with the pickup and tone controls. There’s no on-stage feedback problems like I have playing at high volume on my acoustic. And the thing sounds better played with a bow than my acoustic bass does. (I have scratchy jazz strings on the Kay that sound terrible bowed.) I recorded a little snippet of a song called Office Funk using the new bass, it’s just me fooling around with the NS and GarageBand for 15 minutes to see how funky I could get it to sound. That’s also me overdubbing the really high legato notes on the NS. |
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7872 Flagler Road • Nordland, WA 98358 • 970-209-5788 |