The first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit I was in a car with mom. She was an English teacher and not into rock at all. We were stopped for a very long train in Minneapolis and the song came on. It started and she looked at me and said "whoa" then turned it up a bit. By the end of the song she had turned it up all the way. When it was over she turned the volume down turned to me and said "I think these boys really have something going on" the traffic started up and off into the night we went. One of my favorite memories of her. RIP.
The fact that Kurt would pick such an obscure to Americans type of pop song is also a nod to their genius. The fact that Krist didn't come up with that bass line doesn't take away from the plethora of other songs he did make better with his bass prowess.
I taught myself bass by listening to Nevermind over and over again and learning Krist’s parts. I played it so much that when I eventually took the disc out of my cd Walkman, it broke in half. It had literally melted into the player 😂. Kudos to both of you for exploring Krist. He’s criminally underrated, both as a bass player and how he filled in the spaces in Nirvana songs.
The thing a lot of people don't realize about the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" bass line is that Krist plays a different rhythmic pattern than the guitars in the heavy part. Listen to the bass solo'd and you'll see what I mean.
@@charcoal_burst he understands contrary motion to create tension , harmony , and groove, him and Grohl were a very serve the song rhythm section , very underrated, without them even though Cobain was a great musician you couldn't have had better backing band for his material , it's actually really complex pop music not just balls to the wall cave rock , and musicians pay attention and know that.
@@charcoal_burst you mean eighth and quarter notes? if you say fourth it sounds like you are talking about a musical interval of a fourth, tom in slayer does this too, ie plays less notes than the guitar riff
I met the great man in 1999 at a Kings X show and I can report he is very nice and gracious. I talked bass gear with him for a little bit as well which was a huge moment for me.
I can second. He used to come into a shop I worked at in Seattle. Very down to Earth guy. I didn't want to pester him as a fan, but now I kind of wish I would have expressed just how amazing his work was.
06:10 Lounge Act is my absolute favorite Krist Novoselic bass line. It has its own thing going on, and it perfectly compliments the guitar parts. I love how it adds dimension to the song! I would say Lounge Act is my second favorite Nirvana song, after Come As You Are. To me, it’s a perfect song!!
Apparently Kris Novelesic’s arms are so long he can actually tie his shoes whilst he’s stood up straight 😂 I used to try and copy him and have my strap low like that but I couldn’t reach my bass properly ha 😝
I’ve always thought Krist Novoselic was incredibly underrated, usually when people think of Nirvana they usually go to Kurt or Dave Grohl (I’ve also heard people refer to the members as Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and the other guy) but Krist is an absolute beast of a player and I always point out songs like Lounge Act (his best bassline imo), In Bloom, Love Buzz, Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, Drain You, Lithium, All Apologies, Heart-Shaped Box and Sliver as some of his absolute best playing. Plus it’ll always amaze me at how tall he is, like the man is like 6’7 and it’s fucking awesome
Krist's bass and Kurt's vocals were the melodic center of the band. Especially on Nevermind where Grohl was either playing stuff that Chad Channing wrote, or purposely holding back to allow space for other elements. The bass and vocal melodies are the hooks and/or the little flourishes and complications that make things interesting and listenable in a majority of the full band songs. Lithium is a boring, repetitive mess without his bass.
It's because it was Kurt who composed these bass lines, not Krist. Same for drums, but Dave is remembered due to being great instrumentalist and later Foo Fighters career.
The baseline of lithium on the part of "I like it, I'm not gonna crack" is one of fav krist b lines.. even though they didn't comment about it... The baseline on Sappy is maybe my second fav...
I only recently picked up on how clever the bass line is on that song. In verses he uses chord tones instead of root notes and plays a descending line whilst Kurt is doing the root and fifth. It's really sophisticated.
I am from Croatia, lived in Herzegovina until 2006. (Born in 1988). First time I heard SMTS, I was at the soccer game (probably around 2002-2003, and song started from a bar across the street. I heard that beat and riff and I was completely frozen. Never heard such thing before. Next week I bought an album. I will never forget that scene.
Krist is an incredible player, he is the reason I picked up the bass guitar. He is also not afraid to speak his mind even when he knows he will be attacked for doing so. A total legend and inspiration.
Thanks guys a great hang as always ! I remember seeing the Teenspirit video back in the day & thinking - oh, the pop/rock music world has just changed... Krist certainly put his stamp on it.
Awesome video. Krist is definitely an underrated bass player. I didn't realize just how many awesome bass lines he had written until only a few years ago when I picked up the bass.
I'm one of the countless 90s teens whose first basslines learned were Come As You Are and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Do much fun to play, dig in, and rock
I really have to stay tunned with you guys, these kind of videos make me want to pick up my bass and start practicing again. On my days off I tend to play 4 hours on my drums as i've played for more than half my life. I purchased a bass in the fall, played for hours, sometimes it would go to 6 hours a night. started working again in december and i'm so tired to pick up the bass at 11pm
There are a million great things about your videos but #1 thing is when you guys ARE IN THE ROOM TOGETHER,,, watching two best friends rockin THE BASS,,, thank you so much,,, love you both 🎸🤠 from Arkansas USA.
Love this video! Krist is an amazing bass player. I loved it when you introduced nirvana’s best ballad and then proceeded to play hairspray queen - literally made me laugh out loud 😂
my lifelong love of nirvana finally got me to pick up and practice a guitar consistently for real like 3 months ago now and this new series of videos feels tailormade for me. thank you guys so much i love it
About 10:15 it's a punk rock thing, which was their background. A lot of punk in the 80s had bass intros and bass parts to back up the pretty simple and in your face guitar power chrords. Also a lot of new wave they loved had prominent, almost leading bass parts.
When I was 15 I heard someone in my guitar class playing the song Polly, so that's how I discovered and got into Nirvana, and I had only been playing bass a few months, so Krist Novoselic was really central in the development of my bass style. To this day I often play Sliver to warm up before a show.
It was summer break from school. I was at a second hand store and bought a tape deck and a tape was in it. It was Smells like teen spirit. My 70 yr old grandmother and I listened respectfully to it driving through downtown Vancouver bc. Thanks value village.
Looks like the most fun you lads have had in a good while. I learned bass through Nirvana in beginning and looking back now there is always more detail in his lines that I just didn't have the ear for back then. As far as I know songs like Lithium and In Bloom were tuned a whole step down (both bass and guitar to D standard) for the studio to accommodate Kurt's vocals.
Ok, I just wanted to comment real quick and say, thank you for mentioning the songs off of Incesticide! I almost never hear anyone talk about that album unless if it's for Sliver. But no, you guys gave love to Dive and even HairSpray Queen! Thanks guys, you rock!
Was driving up to Philadelphia from Virginia for Christmas. In the DC area. Caught the end of it on the radio, thought "that was a pretty cool song". That station went to commercial, so I change stations... and it started again. That, my friends, is how fast SLTS blew up.
I first heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in high school. I was taking a radio broadcasting class and my DJ buddy Greg and I got to spin the song for the school for the first time. It was so authentic and raw. The song just bristled with emotion. Ran through the school like a wildfire. Such a cool memory.
That whole Nevermind album is a goldmine for any teenager wanting to learn rock bass. Great songs, dynamic and groovy as hell and really easy to learn. The slides, the alternate picking and fretting between the drumbeats.. 32 years on and it’s still just as good ❤️
Took you guys a while to mention Krist, it's the guitar parts that at times can be a bit dull which might have been intentional so Kurt could focus more on the vocals. But the bass lines on their albums are friggin amazing
The bass carries every single song. That's not a dis on Kurt, that's just love Krist. He is ALWAYS moving around and it makes the songs so much more than simple power chords.
@@kai326 the earlier songs are actually quite complex at times (e.g. mexican seafood, love buzz, etc). kurt wasn't a bad guitar player, i think he just didn't care about complexity whatsoever. he did whatever complimented the vocals, which i feel he was more proud of than the guitar.
I was 11 at my older cousin's house when I first heard Teen Spirit and Nirvana. He was uploading all sorts of classics like Queen and AC/DC and Aerosmith and Nirvana blew me away. Afterwards I asked my mom if we could ever go see Nirvana play if they came to my country and she told me that the singer had passed away almost 20 years earlier.
Ah fellas! Don't be self-conscious. I write a lot of my songs with the bass coming in solo - my friend that plays bass in the band felt pretty similarly at first but you get such a massive feel when the whole band comes in later. These lines absolutely rule!
I do that all the time too. It's a punk rock thing. You gotta spread the intros around because you've only got three instruments. Plus (in my experience as a bassist), you gotta give the bass player a few bars where the audience can actually hear the bass. Otherwise he'll get demoralized.
Shout out that y'all threw hairspray queen in there. I mean, I know this is about bass but that's one of my favorite vocal performances ever. Total sleeper masterpiece. Good job, fellas
First memory of smell Like teen spirit is my 14 years old cousin listening to it. I was about 6 years old and loved it. When i wad 16 years old this friend showed me Nirvana and everything from my childhood came back and it became one of my favorite bands ever.
krist wrote all his own basslines. he said in an interview that he didn't write them as a bassist. he would listen for what was missing in the song and would follow kurt's lyrical melodies when creating his basslines. his contributions to kurt's songwriting can't be overstated. take any member of nirvana out of the lineup and it's not nirvana. it's hard to express just how impactful their music was to every facet of our lines, how much their music still to this day passes the test of time, and just how quickly they came and went.
A friend of ours, drummer in my band, told me during spanish class- "You gotta come to the music room at lunch. I wanna play you a tape by a new band called Nirvana". We went to the music room with a few other friends and he put the tape in. Teen spirit starts.. Im like.. Okay.. thats nice I guess.. then comes the quiet verse and the guitar line.. and im stunned. "What is this?!" haha,, That moment I will remember forever.
The first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit I was 11 o 12 years old sitting on my grandma's dinning table, I was given the task to listen to some songs by my then english teacher; so I came home from school, opened the family's laptop and Teen Spirit was the first song on that list. Hearing those four chords changed my life forever.
You guys could easily do a whole video on Lithium. That bass part is a work of genius and there’s some really cool playing in the bridge sections. I’d also recommend that every bass player in the world learns Mr Moustache - it’s a very cool and fun bass part to play and your fretting hand stamina will benefit enormously.
'Heart-Shaped Box' was the first song I learned when I brought my first bass home from the music store. Playing those bends helped me develop my calluses and toughened up my fingertips. 'Teen Spirit' was the second song I learned.
First time that I heard this was when I was a kid back in the early 90's. I was living in Bremerton, across the water from Seattle. Loved living there and this song/genre brought me such joy as a youngster! :)
I had just got home from the school my senior year and it premiered on MTV. I’d get home every day, straight to the tv to see what was new. I knew after watching it that music as we knew it then was over. There was already a new movement stewing with bands like Sound Garden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam. But when this came out it blew the whole new scene wide open!! It was such an exciting and inspiring time. As a bass player I was into Steve Harris, Geezer, Cliff, Jaco, Stanley Clarke and all the other greats of that era and still am to this day, but this was the start of something astronomical! It’s hard to describe the feeling and actually living through the transition from hair metal to grunge!! I feel this all happened at the peek of my musical drive and I was so lucky to be right there absorbing it all!!!
Love Buzz was recorded tuned up 1/2 step. They did a whole session like this, including the song Blandest as well. Always wondered if they were somehow mistakenly tuned to F when intending to be in E. But tuning a half step up allows you to incorporate the open D string that is sometimes inserted into the main riff at various times.
Even though I'm not a bassist, this is a very interesting and fun video. Btw. Even though it's a cover and I rarely listen to Bowie, so I don't know if he can claim it but the hook baseline in "the man who sold the world" never fails to make me smile.
4:11 I believe a "girlfriend" at the end of primary school introduced me to Nirvana, it wasn't that well-known in the Netherlands at the time but her brother had gone to the US for a high school year abroad or smth and returned with a bunch of their music and got her a very cool Nirvana shirt :) But hearing this song at a secondary school party when I was around 13 years old was my first introduction with this kind of music in a "proper" setting, and with people wildly jumping into each other (which we called "pogoing" at the time). Soon after that I copied all their albums (and loads of punk and hardcore) from my cousin's CD's to cassette tapes to listen to them over and over again in my walkman. Nostalgia 🥹
Before you get too excited about "Come As You Are", go give Killing Joke's song "Eighties" a listen. Killing Joke had actually filed a lawsuit against Nirvana over the riff but dropped it after Kurt's death.
Beaucoup disent depuis la mort de Kurt Cobain que ce dernier était un génie mais il a beaucoup emprunté (voire plus) aux Pixies, à Sonic Youth et à Dinosaur Jr pour composer sa musique à partir de Nevermind pour avoir plus de succès. Par exemple, quand on écoute le pré-refrain de "Gigantic" des Pixies, on comprend d'où vient celui de "Smells like teen spirit".
I disliked a lot of bands until I picked my bass up again at 40 after not playing since high school. I never liked Nirvana and I thought they were overrated then I took a dive and started learning some bass lines and while they will never make my top ten bands, I do enjoy them now.
So happy Lounge Act is getting the attention it deserves!! That being said, if you want an exercise in working on your timing, try playing Milk It- just a grimy bassline overall and one of my favs
I was in a good band at the time SLTS came out. I kept telling them, that we are not GNR, we can write better, darker, and harder. The first time I heard that song was while waiting, alone in the practice space, turning on the lights and my rig. I left and never went back.
Rick Beato's interview with Krist, Krist said Kurt would start the riff and singing the song and Krist would improvise and Kurt would say yes no until they figured it out.
funny how music works, i just jammed out a whole song on my guitar based off of the single bend you guys emphasized at 15:55. thanks for the idea guys, great video!!
Oh yes, I love The Cure's baselines. Some are so simple but imaginative and really effective. I also love the fact that some songs also have an additional 6 string bass (I think) playing the lead.
We were supposed to go to their concert in the Netherlands in '90 but Kurt had the flu. Couple of months later there was an incessant ringing of the doorbell and it was a friend holding Nevermind. "I have good and bad news, Kurt can actually sing and this album is gonna blow up in such a manner that we will not be able to go to their next concert because we're not the types that ly in front of a store all night in order to get tickets". I never saw them live. But I saw Kyuss some months later, still the best concert I ever attended.
Defined a generation. Yes. I was at a friends place at the age of 13. The dad said what’s this junk. I was like, dude this is not junk this is something the world ain’t seen before. Then, that was it. I loved NIRVANA forever!
What I remember perfectly is that Nirvana was my introduction to play bass... By the time I had already keyboard lessons, and when I picked a guitar without knowing how to play it, I started playing the bass notes on it... then I knew I wanted to play the bass, it sounded so cool! So Nirvana was the foundation of bass for me! 😍
The Nirvana drummers who wrote the drums for the songs you chose in this video: 1. Chad Channing - Blew 2. Not a Nirvana Song 3. Dave Grohl - Smells Like Teen Spirit 4. Dave Grohl - Lounge Act 5. Dave Grohl - Come As You Are 6. Chad Channing - Lithium 7. Dan Peter's- Sliver 8. Dale Crover (Melvin's Drummer) - Hairspray Queen 9. Chad Channing - Dive 10. Dave Grohl - Heart Shaped Box
I used to play guitar in 90's, mostly "2nd guitar" and did lead vocals. I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the days. Little story here: I got call from my brother in 1999, "we are in studio and we need bass tracks asap. You should come over and do these for us". I grabbed my own band's bassist's old italian made EKO -bass and went to the studio. "So, what's up, what do i play?" They had no lines ready for me, "just go with the flow. Because you can play guitar, these songs are no brainer..." Yea, right. At the time Krist was the only bass player i knew, so it was obvious i tried to find lines he'd do... Anyways, i did 5 tracks from the scratch in 5 hours and straight to final mix. Since that i've played bass as a main instrument, 25 years and counting. I've sticked to these 80-90's big alt rock bands what comes to my approach: Ben Shepherd, Billy Gould, and Krist. I took my Fender CS presicion bass (-57 duo tone) and played through this video with you guys, thank you. Made my day!
Kris did a interview with the sound garden guitarist awhile back and kurt wrote the guitar and kris would try to fit a the bass into his riffs so yes it was kris who wrote the bass riffs no kurt didn't write the bass kris was a massive part of nirvana though I wasn't a fan when they cams out being a tec guitarist at the time who worshiped dime and learning yngvia so nirvana was out it wasn't until I truly understood music itself not just the shredding guitar parts of music the complete package of music on whatever instrument that's when I went back to nirvana and started to understand why they were such geniuses kris was great just a fact
The first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit I was in a car with mom. She was an English teacher and not into rock at all. We were stopped for a very long train in Minneapolis and the song came on. It started and she looked at me and said "whoa" then turned it up a bit. By the end of the song she had turned it up all the way. When it was over she turned the volume down turned to me and said "I think these boys really have something going on" the traffic started up and off into the night we went. One of my favorite memories of her. RIP.
very touched..
Cool story for real. She knew.
Now that’s great memory. There’s a reason some bands are “classics”, and nirvana were definitely one. Thanks for sharing
That's such a beautiful memory, man. RIP to your mom, but I'm glad you had that experience to remember her by.
Thanks for sharing. That's a beautiful moment to remember. RIP
So happy Krist is getting some love. Massivly underrated
nothing about Nirvana is underrated
@@Ian-qs3fz Kurt's vocal lines and Krist's bass lines have entered the chat
Right like he’s part of why I started playing bass
Fucking love his tone especially in Bleach era
IMO Krist is one of the best bassists of all time. perfect volume nothing wasted.
Been saying this for years and getting crazy looks. Nirvana bass lines are some of the most creative ever.
On the intro of In Bloom where his line follows the Tom hits, awesome! (Amongst many many others!)
Krist was actually what that got me into the instrument. I was a huge Nirvana kid and was just so into his lines, his feel, and his energy
🧡🧡🧡
Me too man, I owe it to him
Same! I'm 14 and started playing on Sunday, already learned the beginning of come as you are! Super fun, but switching from F# to A is hard lol
Love Buzz is a cover. The original band is Shocking Blue from 1969. They invented that line of the main riff
👏 not a lot of people realise this I don’t think
Like “My Sharona” and others 🙌🤟
@@g4r4is My Sharona played by who? Because that is from the Knack
The fact that Kurt would pick such an obscure to Americans type of pop song is also a nod to their genius. The fact that Krist didn't come up with that bass line doesn't take away from the plethora of other songs he did make better with his bass prowess.
The also did Venus the song bananarama covered.
I taught myself bass by listening to Nevermind over and over again and learning Krist’s parts. I played it so much that when I eventually took the disc out of my cd Walkman, it broke in half. It had literally melted into the player 😂.
Kudos to both of you for exploring Krist. He’s criminally underrated, both as a bass player and how he filled in the spaces in Nirvana songs.
🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻
The thing a lot of people don't realize about the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" bass line is that Krist plays a different rhythmic pattern than the guitars in the heavy part. Listen to the bass solo'd and you'll see what I mean.
Totally! We broke that down in a vid from a year or so ago!
yeah, he rather follows drums, Bass buzz did a great lesson of that line when he points that out
also there is not the whole rythm of eighth in the verse parts. The first notes on the e string are fourth
@@charcoal_burst he understands contrary motion to create tension , harmony , and groove, him and Grohl were a very serve the song rhythm section , very underrated, without them even though Cobain was a great musician you couldn't have had better backing band for his material , it's actually really complex pop music not just balls to the wall cave rock , and musicians pay attention and know that.
@@charcoal_burst you mean eighth and quarter notes? if you say fourth it sounds like you are talking about a musical interval of a fourth, tom in slayer does this too, ie plays less notes than the guitar riff
I met the great man in 1999 at a Kings X show and I can report he is very nice and gracious.
I talked bass gear with him for a little bit as well which was a huge moment for me.
I can second. He used to come into a shop I worked at in Seattle. Very down to Earth guy. I didn't want to pester him as a fan, but now I kind of wish I would have expressed just how amazing his work was.
06:10 Lounge Act is my absolute favorite Krist Novoselic bass line. It has its own thing going on, and it perfectly compliments the guitar parts. I love how it adds dimension to the song! I would say Lounge Act is my second favorite Nirvana song, after Come As You Are. To me, it’s a perfect song!!
Lounge Act is one of my favorite bass intros ever.
🔥🔥🔥
I know right just mmm so groovy
The whole song is an absolute masterpiece I can cry to when I hear it.
Drain you into lounge act was my morning go to in high school getting ready
Apparently Kris Novelesic’s arms are so long he can actually tie his shoes whilst he’s stood up straight 😂 I used to try and copy him and have my strap low like that but I couldn’t reach my bass properly ha 😝
I learned bass in the 90s and back then low-slung was just how it was taught. That don’t work for my t-Rex arms.
He is 6'7"😂
I’ve always thought Krist Novoselic was incredibly underrated, usually when people think of Nirvana they usually go to Kurt or Dave Grohl (I’ve also heard people refer to the members as Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and the other guy) but Krist is an absolute beast of a player and I always point out songs like Lounge Act (his best bassline imo), In Bloom, Love Buzz, Come As You Are, Teen Spirit, Drain You, Lithium, All Apologies, Heart-Shaped Box and Sliver as some of his absolute best playing. Plus it’ll always amaze me at how tall he is, like the man is like 6’7 and it’s fucking awesome
Can't forget songs such as Hairspray Queen
@@goregore6259 I honestly need to listen to Incesticide more
Krist's bass and Kurt's vocals were the melodic center of the band. Especially on Nevermind where Grohl was either playing stuff that Chad Channing wrote, or purposely holding back to allow space for other elements. The bass and vocal melodies are the hooks and/or the little flourishes and complications that make things interesting and listenable in a majority of the full band songs. Lithium is a boring, repetitive mess without his bass.
It's because it was Kurt who composed these bass lines, not Krist. Same for drums, but Dave is remembered due to being great instrumentalist and later Foo Fighters career.
@andrewpappas9311 it's the only album I've really listened to but them. Needa dig into they're other material as well.
I honestly can't think of one song Krist didn't completely nail! He's amazing in terms of coming up with these riffs.
👍👍👍
The first time I heard Lounge Act, I realized how much weight Krist really carried in the band. There are so many great bass lines in their catalogue.
Loung act bass part is literally 💰
So iconic.
My favorite. He never stops moving around the neck the entire song. It's great.
So damn funky and groovy. It reminds me of surfing for some strange reason
@@jamesadamgleason9471 You nailed it with that picture✌️
My FAVORITE Nirvana song!
The baseline of lithium on the part of "I like it, I'm not gonna crack" is one of fav krist b lines.. even though they didn't comment about it...
The baseline on Sappy is maybe my second fav...
I only recently picked up on how clever the bass line is on that song.
In verses he uses chord tones instead of root notes and plays a descending line whilst Kurt is doing the root and fifth.
It's really sophisticated.
bass line, dude, come on
I am from Croatia, lived in Herzegovina until 2006. (Born in 1988). First time I heard SMTS, I was at the soccer game (probably around 2002-2003, and song started from a bar across the street. I heard that beat and riff and I was completely frozen. Never heard such thing before. Next week I bought an album. I will never forget that scene.
I just ordered my first bass-bass amp, and I just discovered your channel!!
Subscribed!!!!
Krist is an incredible player, he is the reason I picked up the bass guitar. He is also not afraid to speak his mind even when he knows he will be attacked for doing so. A total legend and inspiration.
Very underrated Bassplayer.
Agreed!
"In Bloom" also has some cool stuff going on in the choruses and the instrumental sections.
I read Krist wrote Lounge Act. So that makes him a genius in my book. I'm very glad these two have covered this
My favorite Nirvana song
@@nicolasstanley1392Mine too!
Heart Shaped Box is just a MONSTER tune of musical brilliance all around.
💯💯💯
Thanks to this video, i realise that the weird guitar solo come from the bass line.
Novoselic energy and cool lines inspired me a lot as a bassist
🧡🧡🧡
Thanks guys a great hang as always ! I remember seeing the Teenspirit video back in the day & thinking - oh, the pop/rock music world has just changed... Krist certainly put his stamp on it.
Awesome video. Krist is definitely an underrated bass player. I didn't realize just how many awesome bass lines he had written until only a few years ago when I picked up the bass.
Bass on Stay Away is on fire!
I'm one of the countless 90s teens whose first basslines learned were Come As You Are and Smells Like Teen Spirit. Do much fun to play, dig in, and rock
I really have to stay tunned with you guys, these kind of videos make me want to pick up my bass and start practicing again. On my days off I tend to play 4 hours on my drums as i've played for more than half my life. I purchased a bass in the fall, played for hours, sometimes it would go to 6 hours a night. started working again in december and i'm so tired to pick up the bass at 11pm
Hey guys! They have to interview Krist Novoselic!!!!
Yes!
We would LOVE to!
Pleaaaasssseeee
That would be amazing
How Kris holds the pick always blew my mind. Index finger tucked in and holding it with middle finger and thumb. Bonkers.
Do Radiohead next. Colin Greenwood has some great basslines!💎
God Colin
If you google Colin And Sweetwater they have a pretty good video / break down of some songs. No Treble has a good article about his influences / etc
There are a million great things about your videos but #1 thing is when you guys ARE IN THE ROOM TOGETHER,,, watching two best friends rockin THE BASS,,, thank you so much,,, love you both 🎸🤠 from Arkansas USA.
I started playing bass with Nirvana...this video is amazing!!
Base tone for Breed is outstanding. When it comes in during the intro I can't help start banging to it. Then the solo.....nuff said
Love this video! Krist is an amazing bass player.
I loved it when you introduced nirvana’s best ballad and then proceeded to play hairspray queen - literally made me laugh out loud 😂
my lifelong love of nirvana finally got me to pick up and practice a guitar consistently for real like 3 months ago now and this new series of videos feels tailormade for me. thank you guys so much i love it
🧡🧡🧡
About 10:15 it's a punk rock thing, which was their background. A lot of punk in the 80s had bass intros and bass parts to back up the pretty simple and in your face guitar power chrords. Also a lot of new wave they loved had prominent, almost leading bass parts.
If you've only got 3 instruments, everyone has to start sometimes. When I played guitar, I'd lay out from time to time, just to add some dynamics.
When I was 15 I heard someone in my guitar class playing the song Polly, so that's how I discovered and got into Nirvana, and I had only been playing bass a few months, so Krist Novoselic was really central in the development of my bass style. To this day I often play Sliver to warm up before a show.
It was summer break from school. I was at a second hand store and bought a tape deck and a tape was in it. It was Smells like teen spirit. My 70 yr old grandmother and I listened respectfully to it driving through downtown Vancouver bc. Thanks value village.
Looks like the most fun you lads have had in a good while. I learned bass through Nirvana in beginning and looking back now there is always more detail in his lines that I just didn't have the ear for back then. As far as I know songs like Lithium and In Bloom were tuned a whole step down (both bass and guitar to D standard) for the studio to accommodate Kurt's vocals.
Great video guys, but ahh! The slides in Lounge Act are everything! Also, the chorus!!
Dive was the very first song I learned on bass. It holds a special place in my heart.
Ok, I just wanted to comment real quick and say, thank you for mentioning the songs off of Incesticide! I almost never hear anyone talk about that album unless if it's for Sliver. But no, you guys gave love to Dive and even HairSpray Queen! Thanks guys, you rock!
All Nirvana songs are hits, all of them!
I love Ian's custom bass so much. I'm still not over it. Every single time I see or hear it I'm like I NEED ONE.
It's an incredible instrument, no question! Lull smashed that one out of the park!
Was driving up to Philadelphia from Virginia for Christmas. In the DC area. Caught the end of it on the radio, thought "that was a pretty cool song". That station went to commercial, so I change stations... and it started again. That, my friends, is how fast SLTS blew up.
I first heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in high school. I was taking a radio broadcasting class and my DJ buddy Greg and I got to spin the song for the school for the first time. It was so authentic and raw. The song just bristled with emotion. Ran through the school like a wildfire. Such a cool memory.
That whole Nevermind album is a goldmine for any teenager wanting to learn rock bass. Great songs, dynamic and groovy as hell and really easy to learn. The slides, the alternate picking and fretting between the drumbeats.. 32 years on and it’s still just as good ❤️
Krist is one of my favourite bass players/musicians. Hes brilliant.
Took you guys a while to mention Krist, it's the guitar parts that at times can be a bit dull which might have been intentional so Kurt could focus more on the vocals. But the bass lines on their albums are friggin amazing
The bass carries every single song. That's not a dis on Kurt, that's just love Krist. He is ALWAYS moving around and it makes the songs so much more than simple power chords.
The guitar parts are dull because Kurt never bothered to really learn the instrument. And he didn’t want to.
@@kai326 the earlier songs are actually quite complex at times (e.g. mexican seafood, love buzz, etc). kurt wasn't a bad guitar player, i think he just didn't care about complexity whatsoever. he did whatever complimented the vocals, which i feel he was more proud of than the guitar.
1st time was at Big Day Out when Nirvana was support band for the Violent Femmes at Southport on the Gold Coast Australia in the early 90's.
I've been yelling this into the void for decades. so glad to have come across this video. thank you!
I was 11 at my older cousin's house when I first heard Teen Spirit and Nirvana. He was uploading all sorts of classics like Queen and AC/DC and Aerosmith and Nirvana blew me away. Afterwards I asked my mom if we could ever go see Nirvana play if they came to my country and she told me that the singer had passed away almost 20 years earlier.
Ah fellas! Don't be self-conscious. I write a lot of my songs with the bass coming in solo - my friend that plays bass in the band felt pretty similarly at first but you get such a massive feel when the whole band comes in later. These lines absolutely rule!
I do that all the time too. It's a punk rock thing. You gotta spread the intros around because you've only got three instruments. Plus (in my experience as a bassist), you gotta give the bass player a few bars where the audience can actually hear the bass. Otherwise he'll get demoralized.
Freshman year in college, in my dorm room studying. My neighbor "Patches" was playing Smells Like Teen Spirit on a loop for 3 hours straight!
16:57 "ugh, it's horrible. I love it!"
Lithium is such great bass work overall and many don't pay attention to the bass in the Bridge. The bass is all over!
Shout out that y'all threw hairspray queen in there. I mean, I know this is about bass but that's one of my favorite vocal performances ever. Total sleeper masterpiece. Good job, fellas
Yup
And aero zeppelin
I almost forgot how much I love Nirvana. These guys rocked. Great video fellows!🤘
you guys are legends for your energy AND for playing Hairspray Queen!
First memory of smell Like teen spirit is my 14 years old cousin listening to it. I was about 6 years old and loved it.
When i wad 16 years old this friend showed me Nirvana and everything from my childhood came back and it became one of my favorite bands ever.
🧡🧡🧡
Speaking of 90s, you should talk about Tony Kanal from No Doubt
krist wrote all his own basslines. he said in an interview that he didn't write them as a bassist. he would listen for what was missing in the song and would follow kurt's lyrical melodies when creating his basslines. his contributions to kurt's songwriting can't be overstated. take any member of nirvana out of the lineup and it's not nirvana. it's hard to express just how impactful their music was to every facet of our lines, how much their music still to this day passes the test of time, and just how quickly they came and went.
A friend of ours, drummer in my band, told me during spanish class- "You gotta come to the music room at lunch. I wanna play you a tape by a new band called Nirvana". We went to the music room with a few other friends and he put the tape in. Teen spirit starts.. Im like.. Okay.. thats nice I guess.. then comes the quiet verse and the guitar line.. and im stunned. "What is this?!" haha,, That moment I will remember forever.
The first time I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit I was 11 o 12 years old sitting on my grandma's dinning table, I was given the task to listen to some songs by my then english teacher; so I came home from school, opened the family's laptop and Teen Spirit was the first song on that list. Hearing those four chords changed my life forever.
If you haven't, check out Geddy Lee's 4 part series 'Are Bass Players Human Too?' It's awesome. E4 is his Krist episode
You guys could easily do a whole video on Lithium. That bass part is a work of genius and there’s some really cool playing in the bridge sections. I’d also recommend that every bass player in the world learns Mr Moustache - it’s a very cool and fun bass part to play and your fretting hand stamina will benefit enormously.
'Heart-Shaped Box' was the first song I learned when I brought my first bass home from the music store. Playing those bends helped me develop my calluses and toughened up my fingertips. 'Teen Spirit' was the second song I learned.
First time that I heard this was when I was a kid back in the early 90's. I was living in Bremerton, across the water from Seattle. Loved living there and this song/genre brought me such joy as a youngster! :)
The "I'm not gonna crack" section is my favorite for the bass part, hes so groovin there and kind of off on his own.
I had just got home from the school my senior year and it premiered on MTV. I’d get home every day, straight to the tv to see what was new. I knew after watching it that music as we knew it then was over. There was already a new movement stewing with bands like Sound Garden, Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam. But when this came out it blew the whole new scene wide open!! It was such an exciting and inspiring time. As a bass player I was into Steve Harris, Geezer, Cliff, Jaco, Stanley Clarke and all the other greats of that era and still am to this day, but this was the start of something astronomical! It’s hard to describe the feeling and actually living through the transition from hair metal to grunge!! I feel this all happened at the peek of my musical drive and I was so lucky to be right there absorbing it all!!!
Love Buzz was recorded tuned up 1/2 step. They did a whole session like this, including the song Blandest as well. Always wondered if they were somehow mistakenly tuned to F when intending to be in E. But tuning a half step up allows you to incorporate the open D string that is sometimes inserted into the main riff at various times.
Even though I'm not a bassist, this is a very interesting and fun video.
Btw. Even though it's a cover and I rarely listen to Bowie, so I don't know if he can claim it but the hook baseline in "the man who sold the world" never fails to make me smile.
4:11 I believe a "girlfriend" at the end of primary school introduced me to Nirvana, it wasn't that well-known in the Netherlands at the time but her brother had gone to the US for a high school year abroad or smth and returned with a bunch of their music and got her a very cool Nirvana shirt :) But hearing this song at a secondary school party when I was around 13 years old was my first introduction with this kind of music in a "proper" setting, and with people wildly jumping into each other (which we called "pogoing" at the time). Soon after that I copied all their albums (and loads of punk and hardcore) from my cousin's CD's to cassette tapes to listen to them over and over again in my walkman. Nostalgia 🥹
Before you get too excited about "Come As You Are", go give Killing Joke's song "Eighties" a listen.
Killing Joke had actually filed a lawsuit against Nirvana over the riff but dropped it after Kurt's death.
Beaucoup disent depuis la mort de Kurt Cobain que ce dernier était un génie mais il a beaucoup emprunté (voire plus) aux Pixies, à Sonic Youth et à Dinosaur Jr pour composer sa musique à partir de Nevermind pour avoir plus de succès. Par exemple, quand on écoute le pré-refrain de "Gigantic" des Pixies, on comprend d'où vient celui de "Smells like teen spirit".
I can't believe you did not include In Bloom, easy but beautifully effective bassline, shame not to hear it personally.
The chorus is awesome on bass, krist could play a danceable swinging bassline when he wanted!
I disliked a lot of bands until I picked my bass up again at 40 after not playing since high school. I never liked Nirvana and I thought they were overrated then I took a dive and started learning some bass lines and while they will never make my top ten bands, I do enjoy them now.
So happy Lounge Act is getting the attention it deserves!! That being said, if you want an exercise in working on your timing, try playing Milk It- just a grimy bassline overall and one of my favs
Milk It is my favorite Nirvana deep cut
Believe it or kot Krist's intro from Sliver is the reason I started playing bass.
Stay away has such good basslines. Especially in the post chorus/bridge
Ian's tone for Heart Shaped Box is so fkin grindy I love it, I need it, and I must have it.
The first time I heard Smells like teen spirit was in my car when I was like 6, it felt like the best feaverdream of my life.
I was in a good band at the time SLTS came out. I kept telling them, that we are not GNR, we can write better, darker, and harder. The first time I heard that song was while waiting, alone in the practice space, turning on the lights and my rig. I left and never went back.
Bass in On a Plain is my favorite one.
Such a good song, what a team
Rick Beato's interview with Krist, Krist said Kurt would start the riff and singing the song and Krist would improvise and Kurt would say yes no until they figured it out.
funny how music works, i just jammed out a whole song on my guitar based off of the single bend you guys emphasized at 15:55. thanks for the idea guys, great video!!
Just subbed. I was actually looking for you the other day couldn't think of your name. Thank god for algorithms
Cool underrated riffs!!. Please make a video about The Cure iconic basslines 😊🙏🙏🙏
Oh yes, I love The Cure's baselines. Some are so simple but imaginative and really effective. I also love the fact that some songs also have an additional 6 string bass (I think) playing the lead.
We were supposed to go to their concert in the Netherlands in '90 but Kurt had the flu. Couple of months later there was an incessant ringing of the doorbell and it was a friend holding Nevermind. "I have good and bad news, Kurt can actually sing and this album is gonna blow up in such a manner that we will not be able to go to their next concert because we're not the types that ly in front of a store all night in order to get tickets".
I never saw them live. But I saw Kyuss some months later, still the best concert I ever attended.
In my very personal opinion, which is just my own, its your best video.
Blew is my favourite Nirvana bass line ❤ but Kris holds his pick with his middle finger and thumb which makes it awesome
I'd happily order one box of your absolute optimism and genuine love for music. Thank you for your videos!
Defined a generation. Yes. I was at a friends place at the age of 13. The dad said what’s this junk. I was like, dude this is not junk this is something the world ain’t seen before. Then, that was it. I loved NIRVANA forever!
What I remember perfectly is that Nirvana was my introduction to play bass... By the time I had already keyboard lessons, and when I picked a guitar without knowing how to play it, I started playing the bass notes on it... then I knew I wanted to play the bass, it sounded so cool! So Nirvana was the foundation of bass for me! 😍
The Nirvana drummers who wrote the drums for the songs you chose in this video:
1. Chad Channing - Blew
2. Not a Nirvana Song
3. Dave Grohl - Smells Like Teen Spirit
4. Dave Grohl - Lounge Act
5. Dave Grohl - Come As You Are
6. Chad Channing - Lithium
7. Dan Peter's- Sliver
8. Dale Crover (Melvin's Drummer) - Hairspray Queen
9. Chad Channing - Dive
10. Dave Grohl - Heart Shaped Box
I used to play guitar in 90's, mostly "2nd guitar" and did lead vocals. I was a huge Nirvana fan back in the days. Little story here: I got call from my brother in 1999, "we are in studio and we need bass tracks asap. You should come over and do these for us". I grabbed my own band's bassist's old italian made EKO -bass and went to the studio. "So, what's up, what do i play?" They had no lines ready for me, "just go with the flow. Because you can play guitar, these songs are no brainer..." Yea, right. At the time Krist was the only bass player i knew, so it was obvious i tried to find lines he'd do... Anyways, i did 5 tracks from the scratch in 5 hours and straight to final mix. Since that i've played bass as a main instrument, 25 years and counting. I've sticked to these 80-90's big alt rock bands what comes to my approach: Ben Shepherd, Billy Gould, and Krist. I took my Fender CS presicion bass (-57 duo tone) and played through this video with you guys, thank you. Made my day!
thanks for recognizing the great Kris!!
🧡🧡🧡
I’d love to see them do a full run through of different grunge bass lines
Lol this video is on their list of things to make actually.
Husker Du had some great bass lines. Things like Powerline, It's Not Funny Anymore, Green Eyes, or Ice Cold Ice.
Kris did a interview with the sound garden guitarist awhile back and kurt wrote the guitar and kris would try to fit a the bass into his riffs so yes it was kris who wrote the bass riffs no kurt didn't write the bass kris was a massive part of nirvana though I wasn't a fan when they cams out being a tec guitarist at the time who worshiped dime and learning yngvia so nirvana was out it wasn't until I truly understood music itself not just the shredding guitar parts of music the complete package of music on whatever instrument that's when I went back to nirvana and started to understand why they were such geniuses kris was great just a fact