Joe Gittleman (born April 6, 1968 in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

) is an American musician, best known as the

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

player for

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (informally referred to as The Bosstones and often stylized as The Mighty Mighty BossToneS) were an American ska punk band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 1983. From the band's inception, lead vocalist Dicky ...

. His proficiency on bass earned him the nickname "the Bass Fiddleman."

Career

Gittleman originally played guitar in the Bosstones, but he switched roles with former Bosstone Nate Albert when he realized he had a better bass than guitar. He has also played bass in

Gang Green Gang Green is an American punk rock band originally from Braintree, Massachusetts. Chris Doherty (guitar), Bill Manley (bass) and Mike Dean (drums) started the band in 1980 and broke up in 1983. Doherty reformed Gang Green the following year ...

and sang in and produced records for his band Avoid One Thing. He provided background vocals for the

Street Dogs Street Dogs were an American punk rock band from Boston, Massachusetts, formed in 2002 by former Dropkick Murphys singer Mike McColgan. The band disbanded in early 2020 after 17 years together. History In 1997, McColgan left Dropkick Murp ...

' 2005 album '' Back to the World'' as well as the more recent ''

Fading American Dream ''Fading American Dream'' is the third album by Street Dogs. It was released on October 24, 2006 by Brass Tacks Records, a division of DRT Entertainment. The album was released both with and without a bonus DVD. Track listing All songs by Street ...

''. In addition, Gittleman produced

The Briggs The Briggs are a punk rock band based out of Los Angeles, California. The Band Formed in 1999 under the name "I Decline" by brothers Joey and Jason LaRocca and bassist Matthew Stolarz (a.k.a. Duck). In 2001, with the addition of drummer Chris Ar ...

' new album ''

Back to Higher Ground ''Back to Higher Ground'' is the third album by The Briggs, released on September 12, 2006. Track listing All songs written by Joey LaRocca and Jason LaRocca. #"Back to Higher Ground" – 2:46 #"Let Them Know" – 3:06 #"Song of Babylon" – 2: ...

'' as well as the

Flogging Molly Flogging Molly is an Irish-American seven-piece Celtic punk bandLife Is Good Out Now
Floggingmolly. ...

album '' Whiskey on a Sunday'',

Big D and the Kids Table Big D and the Kids Table is a ska punk band formed in October 1995 in Boston, Massachusetts when its members converged in college. Their first release was on their own Fork in Hand Records label, but have since teamed with Springman Records and ...

's albums '' Strictly Rude'' and '' Fluent In Stroll'' and Chuck Ragan's CD "Los Feliz". Gittleman has also written songs for bands such as

MxPx MxPx () is an American pop punk band from Bremerton, Washington, founded in 1992 as Magnified Plaid. As of 2016, current members include Mike Herrera on lead vocals and bass guitar, Yuri Ruley on drums and percussion, Tom Wisniewski on lead gui ...

("Heard That Sound") and has seen Avoid One Thing covered by

The Bouncing Souls The Bouncing Souls are an American punk band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 1989. By the time of their acknowledgment by the national punk rock scene, they had reignited a "pogo" element to New Jersey punk rock by playing fast light-he ...

("Lean on Sheena"). Since 2005, Gittleman has been a full-time staff producer and A+R for the Los-Angeles-based independent label

Side One Dummy Records SideOneDummy Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1995 by Bill Armstrong and Joe Sib. The label began as a way for them to release music for their friends' bands. Thereafter SideOneDummy launched the car ...

. Gittleman actively posts content on the MySpace site for The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and continues to play in their most recent incarnation. While in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in 1993 with

, Gittleman was stabbed in the chest by an Albanian bootlegger. This was documented in the song "The Pirate Ship" on the vinyl release of '' Question the Answers''. Gittleman began working as an instructor at

Northern Vermont University Northern Vermont University (NVU) is a public university in Johnson and Lyndon, Vermont. Established in 2018 by the unification of the former Johnson State College and Lyndon State College, the university offers over 50 Bachelor's degree pro ...

Lyndonville, Vermont Lyndonville is a village in the town of Lyndon, in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. Lyndonville's population was 1,136 at the 2020 census. It is the closest community to the Lyndon campus of Northern Vermont University. History In 1883 ...

. On May 16, 2012, he was promoted to Assistant Professor.

References

* http://www.angelfire.com/wi/kkimska2/joegbio.html 1968 births Living people Guitarists from Massachusetts American male bass guitarists 20th-century American bass guitarists The Mighty Mighty Bosstones members 20th-century American male musicians {{US-bass-guitarist-stub