Joe Lally: From Fugazi to the Messthetics

Best known as a founding member and bassist of the legendary post-hardcore band Fugazi, Joe Lally found his way to the low end listening to his favorite guitarists. “Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Scott Weinrich were moving through my mind when I wrote lines,” he told Psychedelic Baby Magazine. “Writing good riffs like a guitarist seemed to appeal to me more than understanding the traditional role of the bassist.”

Lally spent his teenage years studying albums by those very same artists – The Jimi Hendrix Experience and Led Zeppelin along with The Rolling Stones and Black Sabbath. It wasn’t until he discovered a punk compilation featuring a song by an obscure San Francisco band called Pink Section that he started thinking about starting a band of his own. “They didn’t seem to be studied musicians and yet their music was so cool,” he said. “I was [also] very much into Public Image Limited and Joy Division and was imagining what the music could be like.”

A couple years later, Lally ran into an old high school friend at a Minor Threat show and they decided to start a band. Their first gig was an art opening at a local hair salon. Years later, while working as a roadie for the band Beefeater, Lally crossed paths with former Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye and, together with drummer Brendan Canty and vocalist/guitarist Guy Picciotto, formed Fugazi.

It was Lally’s understated yet unforgettable riffs that helped establish Fugazi as one of the most influential bands to come out of the post-hardcore scene. Now one-third of the instrumental trio The Messthetics – the band he formed with former Fugazi bandmate Brendan Canty and guitarist Anthony Pirog – Lally’s genre-bending style makes him the perfect match for the all-new American Ultra II Precision Bass.

In a new demo, Lally plays through all the new features – from our fastest-playing necks to new Ultra II Noiseless™ Vintage Precision Bass and Vintage Jazz Bass Pickups – as he shows off his own incredible range on the instrument, from searing punk riffs to improvisational jazz. Through it all, he keeps coming back to the incredible sonic versatility of the Ultra II. “A band like The Messthetics plays a lot of different styles… whether I want to be quiet and clear or abrasive sounding, this bass can do all those things… The sculpted heel in the back lets you get your thumb as far as the 15th fret when you play which is kind of amazing… [and] the Luminlay Dots [glow in the dark fret markers] are great for a bass player like me because I hate to play in the dark. That’s pretty amazing.”

As a bassist who grew up emulating his favorite guitarists, it’s no surprise Lally finds parallels between the P Bass and the Strat. “For me, it’s like looking at Hendrix playing a Stratocaster – that’s just the Hendrix guitar. This is the bass… It’s like a hyper-advanced version of what the Precision can be. To me, this is all you need.”

Watch Lally show off the Ultra II Precision Bass and check out the complete Ultra II lineup here.