Four Strings and the Truth3 Mars 2025

"We are the most underrated and yet most important members of any band" with Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes)

Brian Ritchie is our first guest whose primary instrument - the one that helped make his band Violent Femmes a household name - is an acoustic bass. Today we hear how all that came to be, the band's path from busking on the streets of Milwaukee to rocking stadiums, and why their approach really hasn't changed all that much. Along the way he tells some funny stories about early gigs, opens up about a new acoustic bass he's gotten his hands on and even shares what Flea told him about working with producer Michael Beinhorn.

Also - and this will make sense after you listen - here are two updates to things I say in this episode:

My amazing engineer/mixer Matt Noble pointed me to lutefish.com, a hardware-software set-up that does enable near real-time jamming over distances less than 500 miles. I haven't tried it out, because it requires being hardwired to my modem and that's too far away from my basses.
Parquet Courts' (fantastic) bassist Sean Yeaton doesn't play a stock short scale bass - it's a frankenbass made up of the body and pickups of an '84 Fender Bullet bass (short scale) and the neck of a '50s P-Bass reissue (standard scale). It also has a weird hole in it.

Violent Femmes (https://open.spotify.com/artist/0rpMdBzQXf7aYRnu5fDBJy?si=XfFHPeSkTUyqNHhdWKdAgQ)

Brian Ritchie's solo stuff (https://open.spotify.com/artist/5VlujeJlkf1SEspNUbdhq8?si=pREJiCIQQJKztGtRFon1Og)

Big Johnson Basses (https://bigjohnsonbass.com/) - Brian Ritchie's next new favorite bass? And here's a video demo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KeWe0KUznk) by its creator.

Guitars For Vets (https://guitars4vets.org) - a very cool charity, check it out

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His Band is Better Than Your Band with Damien Sayell (Mclusky, The St. Pierre Snake Invasion)

Coming to you live and direct from the posh green room of Brooklyn club Warsaw, we sit down with gentle giant/Mclusky bassist and singer Damien Sayell, who's been in the band more than a decade now an...

7 Maj 47min

Feeling Minnesota Nice with Greg Norton (Hüsker Dü, Ultrabomb, Buddies)

We continue to tick off the bucket list, player by player. In the wake of a trip to Minneapolis for the Caterwaul Festival, we chat with Minnesota's favorite son, Greg Norton - who filled his time in-...

11 Aug 202544min

Certain Fate Foretold with Clint Conley (Mission of Burma, consonant)

Not exactly nine lives, but the quintessentially Boston band Mission of Burma has had at least two: their initial 1979-1983 foray, which yielded such classics as "That's When I Reach For My Revolver,"...

17 Juli 202559min

Win a "Like New" IdiotBox Effects Blower Box Deluxe!

We've launched a contest to win a "like new" (seriously, I played it once) IdiotBox Effects Blower Box Deluxe pedal. This is an amazing, bass-specific distortion pedal, with clean signal blend and a l...

7 Juli 20251min

Better Bass-ing with Nate Brenner (Tune-Yards, Naytronix)

Nate Brenner has been playing music in front of people since he was four, and it shows. He and his musical/life partner Merrill Garbus have carved out a unique place in the indie-pop cosmos: funky, jo...

26 Juni 20251h 5min

They're Not Booing, They're Only Yelling "Lou" with Lou Barlow (Dinosaur Jr, Sebadoh, The Folk Implosion)

We're kicking (Mini-)Season 2 off with one of our most-requested guests, Lou Barlow - a four string lifer (on bass, ukelele, guitar, etc.) and amiable fellow who's not afraid to lay bare his thoughts ...

13 Juni 20251h 27min

Coming Soon: (The Monosyllabic Mini-)Season 2

We have a clutch of new shows coming very soon with names you might expect...or not.

2 Juni 20251min

"Cool World" by Chat Pile: The Bass-ic Review

As we gear up for our next season of Four Strings and the Truth interviews, we're introducing a new, more bite-sized feature: the Bass-ic Review. This is an analysis of new and recently released album...

3 Mars 202516min