Hey, my name is Matt McLoughlin, I’m 24, and have been playing guitar for 9 years and drums for 14 years.
I was wondering if there are any other musicians in this forum that listen closely to Family Man’s basslines.  The music sounds “simple,” however as a little analysis shows - Family Man in particular is doing some very deliberate things with his bass lines to create the groove that he does.

One of the great things Family Man does I’ve noticed, is his perfect integration of chromatic, scale-based, and interval-based movements in his bass lines.  For example, “So Much Trouble.”  The song starts with:

G|12-13-14————-|
D|————-12-13-14|
A|————————-|
E|————————-|

(Chromatic movement)

Then for the verse:

G|———————————————————|
D|———————————————————|
A|——-2-3-2—————7——-5——-5—-5-|
E|-3-5———-5-3-5-5———5——-5—-5—-|

(Scale-based movement, then perfect fifth interval).

Notice how that E (the 7 on the A string) sounds.  It’s the first time that Family Man plays a Perfect Fifth interval in the song(!).  Right when that note is played, the groove sort of just hangs.  The A->D right after that I can only describe as conveying the human emotion “indecision” or “uncertainty” before repeating the verse groove.  For me, my ear picks up that perfect fifth interval as a “significant” musical event.

Following that, he plays the Perfect Fourth interval - which in contrast to the fifth interval, seems less important. 

Anyways, I thought I’d just write about one part of Family Man’s music that I love.  His music continues to inspire me, after many many years of listening to his music.

Matt