Jason Clarke

You know how they say playing music is like riding a bike? Well, it is and it isn’t.

I’d like to say it’s been years since I played bass with any regularity, but the truth is that somehow it’s been years since I played it virtually at all. Even so, this morning I took my “vintage” (okay, just old – I got it 20 years ago!) Ibanez student model electric bass with me to work today, and spent lunch recording a couple of bass tracks for my friend Glen. He’s already posted one of the songs online, and though I’d like another shot at my part, I think it turned out quite nicely. It’s the one titled 2 Minute Ditty, currently at the top of this page.

I played live music for many years (almost entirely upright bass), but regretfully I didn’t do very much recording. The only album-length studio recording I did was for a CD released in 1998 called Thin Man by Robert Wilson. (Wow, has it really been 12 years?) If the embedded player below doesn’t work, you can listen to some short samples at CD Baby or iTunes.

Somehow the Kenny G diatribe I posted earlier led me to an old post from 2004 mentioning that I had a gig with the Molestics that night. On that post is a link to a site called Our Rant, which has a page about the Molestics, including a bunch of their recordings. I don’t know who runs Our Rant, or why they took the time to document a bit of Molestics history, but I’m glad they did. I’m only on two of the tracks, but since the band is long dead and the tracks I recorded with them were never released, I figure it’s okay to post them here. They’re both from around 2001 ~ 2002.

The first is a song called Fun that we recorded in some guy’s huge basement in West Van. I recall that the recording venue was chosen because it a) had a baby-grand piano in it, and b) was offered for free. We recorded live to DAT tape using a stereo microphone, and half of the fun was mixing the old-fashioned way. Basically, we arranged ourselves in the large basement in varying distances from the microphone based on how loud our instruments were (I stood very near the mic because my bass was not amplified), and built a large wall of furniture out of sofas and chairs between the drum kit and the rest of us, to the point that we couldn’t see Rolf (the drummer), and he couldn’t see us. That made visual cues a little complicated. The intro makes me smile to this day; Rolf burping, Sam (the guitarist) calling his name in a frustrated but laughing way. It’s a perfect snapshot of what was wonderful about the Molestics, and I’m so glad it was left on the recording.

Fun – The Molestics

The second one is a song called Whitehorse Blues, which was also recorded in the basement session, though that’s not the version I have here. I wish I had a copy of that, because I have a feeling it’s better than this version is. This version was recorded at the CBC Radio studios in Vancouver, and was featured on a broadcast. We were used to playing dive bars and dance clubs, and I think we got a little intimidated playing in the artificial environs of a real recording studio, in particular because we were on a schedule, and had to bang out 5 songs in about half an hour. Hokum, the style of music the Molestics played, is live music. Separating each player into an isolated sound booth can kill the spontaneity of live music – particularly when you’re not used to it – and I think it dulled this performance. I’m also not a fan of how my bass ended up sounding; the recording engineer took the easy route of taking a signal off of my pickup instead of miking the bass itself. It ends up sounding thin and electr-icky. But given that it’s one of only two recordings I have from my time with the band, I’ll take it.

Whitehorse Blues – The Molestics

Today’s recording was a blast, and yet incredibly frustrating at the same time. I feel like musically I’ve matured since the days these old recordings were made, and I would make better musical choices now. But unfortunately, the link between my brain and my fingers is a little rusty, and more often than not I just couldn’t force my fingers to play what I was thinking. I don’t think it would take long to knock the rust off, though, and today reminded me just how fun music can be. Thanks, Glen.

Please note: I've moved my active blogging over to a new site, called Jason Clarke - Infinite Bass Line. I will leave this site up indefinitely, but if you're interested in my latest posts please consider visiting the new site.