Chicago Music Exchange is back at it again with their new video “100 Bass Riffs: A Brief History of Groove on Bass and Drums”. Showing some musical love to the less showcased half of a typical rock band, bassist Marc Najjar and percussionist Nate Bauman give us an impressive compilation of the best bass parts in rock history, accompanied by the respective drum parts of each song. Not every riff may be recognizable to the casual listener, but it’s still really interesting to watch. Plus, coming up with these super cuts and performing them has to take some serious talent! My personal favorite part is definitely when they do part of “Moby Dick” by Led Zeppelin. Considering that song is just one big jam session on bass, guitar, and drums, watching them really get into it was awesome.
We have to talk about that new Fall Out Boy song. Roughly a year and a half after their post-hiatus album, “Save Rock and Roll”, came out, FOB announced a new single titled “Centuries”. The reveal was ultra-mysterious, and included them blacking out their social media accounts and releasing a short video in which the title of the single was spelt out in Morse code. All of this lead up to yesterday, in which their new single was finally released, along with the cool video that is handily embedded in this post.
Since Kelci and I are both huge Fall Out Boy fans (she went to the concert, I didn’t, it’s cool though… I was there in spirit), we thought this would be a good time to do something we’ve never done on the blog before: instead of writing two separate posts about the video (and probably publishing it two weeks too late), we decided that we would each watch the video and combine our thoughts on it into one big, opinion-filled post. So click play on that video, enjoy the awesomeness that is Fall Out Boy, and then read below to see what we thought of the song!
Nicole: I’m just going to start by saying that I’m pretty sure that I’ll like whatever FOB comes out with. With that being said, I do miss their earlier stuff. Less electronic sound effects, more just them playing some great pop punk. Patrick’s voice is so amazing that I feel like all the extra effects start to detract from it. I do like this song though. It reminds me of the sound they had on their last album, especially on “My Songs Know What You Did In the Dark (Light ‘Em Up)”. I’m really interested to see what the official video will look like, because of the way they used all their music videos for Save Rock and Roll to tell The Youngblood Chronicles (a really strange story, but a story nonetheless). It’s catchy, fun to sing along to, and well put together. I have a feeling this next album is going to be just as good as the previous ones, because Fall Out Boy never disappoints!
Kelci: Like Nicole said, FOB can do no wrong. We’ve both been fans since the early days and it’s so cool to hear their sound evolve so much. Although there are definitely elements from their last album incorporated into “Centuries”, there’s also something new that sets it apart. Fall Out Boy has done an incredible job of pushing their style limits and trying something different with each song/album they put out. This track has been added to my monthly playlist and will more than likely be stuck in my head for the next few…centuries. I can’t wait to hear the rest of what they’ve been working on. And the best part is that a new album means another tour.
I know this video is already two years old, but I feel like it’s definitely worth posting anyway. I saw this a few months ago, and it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen on YouTube. Just by watching this video, you can definitely see how guitar music has both changed and stayed the same throughout the years. You might be reminded of some old favorite songs, or even be introduced to some new ones (this is the video that led me to start listening to St. Vincent, actually)!
-N
(The playlist only has 96 of the songs, and some are covers.)
Mixtape Musings 