Greatest punk bassists?
 

We had a great punk guitarist thread... but who are your favorite punk bassists?

The guy from Minutemen. I forgot his name..
He's really good though. Probably my favorite of what I've heard.

Mike Watt. That's his name.

The greatest Punk bass player ever was Alastair Donaldson, AKA William Mysterious from the Rezillos. (born 27 April 1955, Edinburgh; died 18 June 2013, Edinburgh)

I have no idea who this dude is, but that photo is epic.

Cool, I'm glad it has your stamp of approval. It's thje only one I could find. I was surprise how hard it was to find a picture of him.

How are we defining punk here? Punk rock & hardcore, or are we including all the other stuff? Post punk, No Wave ect (Bauhaus, Cure, James Chance & the Contortions)

Post punk I still would call punk honestly.

Nods to Mike Watt


Will Shatter
Kim Gordon
Jeff Pinkus
Paul Simonon

Steve Youth from 7 Seconds is pretty great:

I just can't give Grant Matthews from Rudimentary Peni enough love I guess.

Nobody say that weenie from Primus.

Jean-Jacques Burnel from The Stranglers.

The whole shibang, man. Post-punk, hardcore, post-hardcore. If it relates to punk jot um down.


Glad to see the love for Mike Watt.

^ Hell yea, this was gonna be my 1st choice.

Another one that comes to mind is Matt Freeman from Rancid.

David J (bauhaus, Love and Rockets) is under appreciated imo.

Agreed.

And if we're talking post punk, Jah Wobble is pretty great too.

In that case I'll go....

Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes)
Nigel Harrison (Blondie)
Flea (Red Hot Chilies)
Klause Flouride (Dead Kennedys)
David J (Bauhaus)
Jah Wobble (PIL)
Jamie Stewart (The Cult)
Sean McCarthy (GBH)
Rob Wright (No Means No)

I also like the polka type bassist from early Chaos UK

Are we just naming good bassist or punk bassist? cause i luv Brian Ritchie but i don't consider the femmes are punk.

He's definitely another amazing and under appreciated bassist. I'd say VF kinda skirt on post-punk territory but I've always considered them more of an indie band.

Joe Lally from Fugazi is pretty great. I think they went through a couple bassists but Minor Threat had some good basslines, too.
Tina Weymouth from Talking Heads is great.
Paul Simonon from The Clash.
Chris Gates from Big Boys.

Yes he is, he didn't come to mind at first but he does have good bass lines



I saw another member mention Kim Gordon which is also a huge stretch.

Not only that but she really wasn't that great of a bassist... I mean, I'm not a huge SY fan so maybe I'm forgetting something but I can't think of a single memorable Sonic Youth bassline. They've always been about guitars and drums.

Kim Deal and Kim Gordon, though...

I always considered them to be sort of an American post punk/alternative band as they came out of the same era.

Forgot to add one

Simon Underwood - The Pop Group

Me neither man but she lays a good simple foundation for the songs which is good cause the guitars are always all over the place.

Plus making simple basslines work with making most of her songs artsy poetry.
i can't recall her ever singing a song she's always yapping about Karen Carpenter or some other deep sh*t.

Still, SY is among my Fav bands.

i guess, i always considered Vf to be indie alternative with a touch of country music and blues but post punk doesn't come to mind.

Maybe that's just me though.

I love Mike Dimt! Anyone else, no?

Actually, yeah. I miss Green Day songs about weed and girls... their new material has tainted their old. But Mike always seemed like a topshelf kinda guy and was a pretty good bassist.

That's just silly.

Karl Alvarez is one the greatest of all time. And Tony Lombardo.

^I was just looking at your Last.Fm and remembered how great Descendents' bassist(s) were. So I googled Descendents because I couldn't remember their names and realized you already dropped um.

I guess it is lame to get put off by a band's old material because their new stuff sucks. I would say it's also because Billie Joe is a fart-huffing bag of chlamydia-ridden dicks but then I guess that would be lame too. Still haven't managed to get through an album by GG Allin though.

Im not a punk person at all,
but I do listen to some and I found that Chris 2 from Anti-Flag is phenomenal!


so is Jon Berry from Rufio

Simon Gallup and Todd A should be added to the list

Yes.

who?

Idk

If you've ever seen SY live Kim tears it up


That Broadway **** Green Day did was so bad it made me thankful I never bought into them even was first reading about them and Lookout! Records in MRR.

That's not even so bad it's kind of good. It's so bad I wish they would have died before they made it.

Uh, who's Todd A?

The most non-poser person on the planet

^Todd A.

Wow. Good call. I remember them. Got to see them once and they blew the roof off. My bad on the miss.

I agree, i really hate Green day nowadays and to me they ruined what little credibility they built up as a semi decent punk bank.

But maybe they made the right career choice, as a punk bank they were getting nowhere but as a commercial mainstream band they've found success.

What's with you and the word poser? :P