Sick Riffs: Dave Pirner and Ryan Smith teach you the opening lead lick of Soul Asylum hit Somebody to Shove

Sick Riffs #18: The Sick Riffs series is well under way, and so far we've had lessons on everything from chugging metal to tasty blues rock. In today's episode, Dave Pirner and Ryan Smith, rhythm and lead guitarists respectively in American alt-rock four-piece Soul Asylum, are here to teach you Somebody to Shove, taken from the band's 1992 album Grave Dancers Union.

In the video, Pirner uses a Fender Wayne Kramer Signature Strat electric guitar running through a Peavey Audition Plus combo amp and an Ibanez Tube Screamer overdrive pedal.

Smith uses a Gibson Les Paul Goldtop through a Fender Champ combo, opting for a Fulltone OCD distortion pedal as his stompbox.

"Coronavirus has affected us in a lot of different ways," Pirner says of the pandemic's overall impact. "The most obvious was the cancelation of the rest of the tour we were on, and the loss of gigs. Now, putting out a record and not being able to go out and promote it is surreal. We've also gotten a lot better at washing our hands."

Haven't we all? In between soap sessions, be sure to tune into Soul Asylum's virtual release party for their new album, Hurry Up and Wait from 12:30 CST.

Support Soul Asylum

https://www.soulasylum.com/
https://soulasylum.manheadmerch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SoulAsylum/
https://www.instagram.com/soulasylumofficial/?hl=en
https://twitter.com/soulasylum
https://open.spotify.com/artist/02da1vDJ2hWqfK7aJL6SJm

Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.

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Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.