Ugh....Chickenshit in new Guitar Player magazine....

[Hardrock69]

On the positive side, the interview is with Satch and Mikey. There are only a few very brief mentions of Spambot The Incompetent. And none of them have to do with anything other than Satch and Mikey came up with killer songs, and Spambot made some sort of drooling fart-like sound that was translated as "Wow! I got some lyrics that will go great with that!"

The downside is there are one or two group photos so I had to look at Spambot's asshole on the front of his skull.

And this is one case where I have to laugh at this fucking bulletin board software.
Usually it is a stupid fucking pain in the ass that it automatically adds tags, and when I try to post something, it gives me an error saying too many tags, or whatever, even though I do not want to fucking add any tags anyway.

But in this case, I view it as even the board software does not want me to post about chickenshit.



That is all. This thread can be closed now. No need to discuss anything.

[Matt White]

I'll go with it HR................been a GUITAR PLAYER reader for *ahem* decades so I bought this one too...

75% of the discusion is Satch.....typical "guitar player" stuff...i.e. tone amps, pickups & such...yadda yadda

Mike is a good sport and fields the obligitory "What's the diff between Joe & Speddie" question......

No kidding....Hot sauce doesn't have to JUST pump the root note here...he can actualy play "bass lines" now....AND he's not buried in the mix!

Nothing earth shattering...good luck to 'em.....if it wasn't Spam singing I'd give it a listen

[Hardrock69]

Yup. It was a good interview because they just focused on what they should have....the guitar playing. They absolutely left out any chance of Spambot getting any kind of word in.
And I am all in favor of Mike getting to play in a project where he can really shine. Though if you look at any live boots of VH back in the day (CVH years), he never really stayed on the root...he was all over the fucking neck. That was part of what made CVH kick total ass, unlike the current 3/4 & 1/2 VH.

[Diamondjimi]

Yup. It was a good interview because they just focused on what they should have....the guitar playing. They absolutely left out any chance of Spambot getting any kind of word in.
And I am all in favor of Mike getting to play in a project where he can really shine. Though if you look at any live boots of VH back in the day (CVH years), he never really stayed on the root...he was all over the fucking neck. That was part of what made CVH kick total ass, unlike the current 3/4 & 1/2 VH.

So fuckin true. Sure we bust on Bassplayer for stickin with The Tubster, Any true CVH fan knows that Mike was less restricted on stage.
I'm sure a lot of what Mike played on recordings was dictated by the sisters. (And Templeman as well).

[Nitro Express]

David Lee Roth once said Mike was the renaissance man of Van Halen. He said him and Mike went around apartments stealing colored flood light bulbs to use in a home made lighting rig. Dave said Mike could go down to Radio Shack, get some stuff and make anything. He said Mike built a custom control box to work all the lights from. He had to play bass, do back up vocals, and run some of the stage equipment at the same time. He also said Mike was the reliable member of Van Halen if you needed help with something.

[Nitro Express]

So fuckin true. Sure we bust on Bassplayer for stickin with The Tubster, Any true CVH fan knows that Mike was less restricted on stage.
I'm sure a lot of what Mike played on recordings was dictated by the sisters. (And Templeman as well).

There really is some good bass playing on Fair Warning. Mike shines on that album.

[DLR Bridge]

There really is some good bass playing on Fair Warning. Mike shines on that album.

I've always felt that Ed's bass tracks for VH went as far back as that album, so I'm still not convinced Mike did the flashy things like Push and Movies. Ed plays with his fingers, Mike was using a pick mostly on the first 3 records. Listen to Act Like It Hurts. I'll bet that demo was just Ed and Al with Ed going back in on bass. If you check out Ed's playing on the Sammy solo album (I know, a daunting task) after 5150, you can hear the same techniques applied on Fair Warning. Mike definitely smokes on every live recording from back in the day and he truly does shine on CF III, particularly the song Lighten Up, which I have to say, is a good one to blast. I'd like to see Mike and Joe stick together and find another singer some day.

[Seshmeister]

He also said Mike was the reliable member of Van Halen if you needed help with something.

Though that's not saying very much...

[sadaist]

Until the Roth Army, I always thought Michael Anthony was a horrid bass player. You guys showed my the error of my thinking. But I based my opinion on his atrocious bass solo he would do. All the guy did was smash the strings & drink whiskey. Sounded like crap. I still haven't got a good explanation why he never did anything that showed talent or groove with his solo. Even more perplexing is how the audience would cheer at this guy during the solo. I just don't get it. Not that I would expect a Cliff Burton type solo, but something resembling some groove would have been nice.

[Hardrock69]

Heck, he is the ONLY arena-level bassist to do solos like that. While it is commonplace for guitarists to smash their guitars, how many bassists do it?

One of my most cherished memories of seeing CVH live was when Mike pummeled the shit out of his bass, then threw it down on the stage.....it was laying their screeching and rumbling louder than a 747....then he kicked it, and spit on it!

Sure....there is no technique involved there...but goddamit, CVH was all about fucking ATTITUDE! And Mike REEKS with attitude in his stage performance.

His replacement has all the attitude of a mouldy dishrag.

[DONNIEP]

His replacement has all the attitude of a mouldy dishrag.

Exactly! I don't care if Wolfie's the greatest bass player that ever lived - the kid just has no business whatsoever being onstage with Van Halen. It's just painful to even think about...