Low-end Heroes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jaco Pastorius

Born John Francis Pastorius III, 'Jaco' is regarded as a virtuoso bassist, with his songs being considered among the most technically challenging to play.

He took an early interest in jazz music, and noticing the bass players were relegated to the back of the stage only to provide the rhythm sections, he vowed to change that. By introducing fast chromatic passages, using natural and artificial harmonics, octave chords, and some other innovations, he took bass playing to the main section of the jazz band. Plus, he introduced the electric bass to these bands (he often played a fretless model), which only used upright basses up to that point. Jaco played with many notable musicians and released a few solo albums, but he had his most successful days with the jazz-fusion band Weather Report, where he played from 1976 to 1982.

Unfortunately, he was also characterized by unstable and erratic behavior, as well as for substance abuse. In September 1987 he tried to break into a nightclub and was stopped by one of the employees, who was a martial arts expert. He took such a severe beating, that a few days later he was declared brain dead. He passed away on 21 September 1987.

Answer: Les Claypool

Les Claypool is the leader of Primus, and also played in several side projects, with names such as "Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade" and "The Claypool Lennon Delirium".

His style is heavily rooted in funk, and as such, features extensive use of slapping, tapping and chording similar of that of a guitar. He also incorporates Flamenco-style strumming in some pieces, and makes use of effect pedals and whammy bar bends. His bass lines are usually at the front of the band's music due to their rhythm and melody (a good example would be Primus' "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" -- there's another funny title for you).

Claypool auditioned for Metallica after Cliff Burton's death, but ultimately didn't get the spot. James Hetfield declared that he "should do his own thing", as he was "too good". Claypool, on his side, stated that he just wasn't the right guy for the band.

Answer: Flea

Nicknamed "Flea" because of his extremely active personality, Balzary was born in Australia and spent some of his childhood years there. At a young age he met Anthony Kiedis, with whom he would form the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Since their 1984 debut album, both Flea and Kiedis were the only two members to appear on every album of the band in the first 40 years of their career.

The Peppers owe much of their distinctive style to Flea's energetic, funky playing. His style draws influences from jazz, funk, heavy metal and punk rock, and it ranges from fingerpicking with strong use of slapping, to faster and more aggressive lines played with a pick. In any case, he adds a lot of melody to the songs, even on slower tunes.

Flea also has had an acting career, appearing in many TV series and movies.

Answer: Ryan Martinie

Not your average metal bass player, Martinie has a very distinctive style of playing, prominently using a highly percussive tone and resources such as slapping, popping, octave chord tapping and fast fingerpicking. His mix of sharp plucked notes and slapping on Mudvayne's first single "Dig", led to the creation of the "Brbr Deng" meme, mimicking the iconic sound of the main riff.

Mudvayne were known for his strong visual imagery, with each member adopting strange stage names and with their faces painted. The three wrong options were the other members of Mudvayne.

Since the band's hiatus in 2010, Martinie was involved with other projects, mainly with the jazz fusion band Soften the Glare, which released their debut album on 2017.

Answer: Justin Chancellor

Justin Chancellor was born in England and started his music career there, eventually joining a band called Peach. In 1994, they supported Tool in an European tour, and disbanded the next year. Tool's original bassist, Paul D'Amour, left the band the same year, so Justin relocated to the USA to replace him.

Tool's music is notably complex, with lengthy songs that feature strange time signatures, syncopated lines and polyrhythms. A big part of its intricacy can be attributed to Chancellor, who masterfully leads most of the songs with bass lines that are brooding and melodic at the same time. Some of the songs that best showcase his style of play are "Forty Six & 2", "Schism", "The Pot" and "Aenima".

Answer: Mike Dirnt

Despite the fast-paced and energetic sound of punk, the bass is often limited to follow the guitar playing the base notes (at a very high speed, though). Mike Pritchard (nicknamed "Dirnt" for the sound he made when playing "air-bass" in school) took it one step further and added chromatic passages and more melodic riffing on many Green Day songs. As a result, the bass is very noticeable in the band's sound, especially in the early albums.

The bass line for the song "Longview" (which is mainly driven by the bass) was written by Dirnt when under the effects of LSD. Originally, the bass line was longer and more complex, but he forgot most of it after sobering up, and only the fragments that he still remembered made their way to the song.

He also played distinguishable lines on other songs like "Stuart and the Ave.", "No One Knows", "When I Come Around" among others.

Answer: 'Lemmy' Kilmister

Born Ian Fraser Kilmister, but known worldwide for his stage name 'Lemmy', he was one of the most recognisable voices in rock and roll. Formerly a member of Hawkwind, he founded Motorhead in 1975 and continued performing and touring with them until shortly after his passing on December 28th, 2015, only four days after his 70th birthday.

Lemmy's signature singing and his trademark heavy style of playing (using strong distortion and playing power chords and guitar-like riffs) took Motorhead to the top flight around the mid '80s, with hits such as "Ace Of Spades", "Born To Raise Hell", "Overkill" and "Stay Clean" among others.

Lemmy was also known for a hard-living lifestyle, including chain smoking and heavy consumption of substances.

Answer: John Deacon

Queen's John Deacon is regarded as the more laid-back member, as he was the only one from the band to never sing in their songs (not even providing backing vocals), and usually kept a low profile most of the time. Not that this subtracted at all from his skill -- he was as talented as his bandmates, and his bass lines often added great depth to their music.

He wrote a few of the group's most famous singles, with "I Want To Break Free", "Another One Bites The Dust" and "You're My Best Friend" being the most notable. He also co-wrote "Under Pressure" and "Friends Will Be Friends", among others.

Freddie Mercury's death had a hard impact on Deacon, leading him to retire from the music industry. His last contribution to the band was the recording of "No-One But You (Only The Good Die Young), Queen's final song, recorded in 1997. He hasn't performed with his former bandmates ever since, and didn't even attend the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Answer: The Beach Boys

Carol Kaye started as a guitarist in small club gigs, but switched to session playing in 1957, when she was invited to a recording session for Sam Cooke's version of "Summertime". Her work began attracting the attention of numerous producers (Phil Spector among them), and soon she became a highly demanded session player.

When a bass player failed to show up at a recording session in 1963, she was asked to fill up for him, and found out she felt more comfortable playing bass, though she never abandoned guitar completely. She began playing in a number of award-winning songs and records, as well as playing on several TV and movie soundtracks.

Eventually, she was spotted by Brian Wilson, who invited her to perform with The Beach Boys. She contributed to a few of their albums, such as "Beach Boys Today", "Summer Days (And Summer Nights!)", "Pet Sounds" and "Smile".

Answer: Paz Lenchantin

One of the leading alternative bands of the '90s, The Smashing Pumpkins went through many line-up changes in their history, with singer and guitarist Billy Corgan being the only stable member.

Their first permanent bassist was D'Arcy Wretzky, with whom they released four studio albums. She left in September 1999, being replaced by Melissa Auf Der Maur (formerly of Hole) for the recording of their two final albums before a hiatus in 2000. The band was reunited in 2006, with Ginger Reyes (up to 2010) and Nicole Florentino (up to 2014) taking on bass duties.

Paz Lenchantin is an Argentine-born bassist that has played with A Perfect Circle on their first album. She has also released solo material, and since 2014 has joined the Pixies after the departure of Kim Deal. Lenchantin did share the stage with Corgan, though not with the Pumpkins -- she was part of Zwan, the group formed by Corgan shortly after the SP went on hiatus. However, Zwan broke up in very scandalous terms, with Corgan stating that he would never ever work again with its former members, so it is uncertain whether Lenchantin would ever play alongside Corgan again.