This is a amazing set of covers by Built to Spill playing a secret show at this Cafe in San Jose California. I think bands who have a certain unique sound should entertain their roots and songs that inspired them because chances are the experience will be completely natural for them. Maybe not at first when you are looking for that sound but for fun. It’s a way to help connect the fans to real music once again with the ultimate cover band who you know will make you feel it. Enjoy!
Built to Spill: Covering Beast Of Burden – The Rolling Stones
Built to Spill: Covering most of New Order’s Age Of Consent- Cuts off towards end though.
Built to Spill: Covering “Southern” Girls by Cheap Trick
Built to Spill: Covering “Train in Vain” by The Clash
Built to Spill: Covering “Soulful Strut” – Young-Holt Unlimited
Built to Spill: Covering Don’t Fear The Reaper by Blue Öyster Cult
Built to Spill: covering “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths
Built to Spill: Covering “here” by pavement
Built to Spill: Covering “Abba Zaba” by Captain Beef Heart
SINGLE REVIEW: If godflesh were 50% a little mellower and Air a little more agressive that is where this electric jam by Sleep Sleep falls comfortably with a mix with the spacial sounds of the flaming lips in mind. You could it shoegaze but the drum machine will tell you fuck no — that is not exactly right. Then you hear this Smog cover of “Teenage Spaceship” and you’ll start to get it. I hope it comes with a big light show. I hope they have a drummer live but either way this is the good shit from Vienna Austria. Somehow 3leep 3leep have jumped out a delorean fueled by 80s electronica Time machine and landed in 2013.
Hey this tune “Devil Or Angel” Live at Ferber Paris by Lou Doillon is pretty nice. Similar to the “yellow” song by Coldplay. She looks a litte like Patti Smith but has a certain tone we’re ok with over here. Nice. I mean seriously does not take much to be better than Rihanna or some other female pop that passes as music these days.
GUITARS: Are you a guitar nerd? Every wonder where certain guitar twangs come from? Here’s Mr. Doug Gillard’s guitar set-up for all of his bands with some personal notes from him for each thing in his pedal daisy chain. Next week we’ll come back at you with a full on interview but be sure to catch him pushing these knobs and tuning some of his axes on Friday May 31st,2013 at the infamous Asbury Lanes down the Jersey shore with Eastern Anchors, Risk/Reward and Asbury/Brooklyn locals Woods Party. Here’s the facebook invite.
Not many folks can say they have several guitar set-ups for different bands because most normal dudes in bands play in just one band at a time! Doug shares some magic and some surprising guitars in his arsenal with some candid notes from his Guided by Voices days, a coming Death of Samantha LP, Bambi Kino and of course his set-up with Nada Surf!
THE BASICS: Boss floor tuner
Boss EQ pedal set for lg boost
Durham Electronics “Mucho Busto” distortion/boost
Boss EQ set for small boost
Voodoo Lab Tremelo
E-H Holy Grail Nano reverb
Boss Delay
One-Spot power chain.
THE DETAILS: I use 2 Boss EQ pedals for a clean(ish) boost. One set for larger boost, the other for accents or small boosts. For a saturated fuzz controllable by volume, or in some cases just a good distorted boost, I use a Mucho Busto, made by Durham Electronics in Austin, (Alan Durham, maker of the Sex Drive pedal). Its a great little unit, and the led beam is bright and blue, so it’s like an old Spielberg movie when you step on it. The Voodoo Lab Tremelo is versatile, and everyone knows the Holy Grail is the best reverb in pedal form. I end the chain with a Boss DD-3 delay pedal. Good for slapback, or actual delay. I should probably get a more involved delay, but I’m lazy and cheap. This is fine.
All this is loosely velcroed to 2 Ikea cutting boards duct-taped side by side. Hey, you can fold them up when you fly. Done. Fugghed. About. It.
Depending on the application, I use any number of guitars. For my solo band shows, I use mainly my black Les Paul (76) or SG Classic. I just got a ’67 ES-330, so I may use that as well. Amp-wise, I’ll use my Mesa Rectifier and cab if I’m driving, but backline amp at the venue is good most times in the NYC area.
For Nada Surf, its been the Les Paul and SG through my Mesa Rectifier & 4×12 cab. The Mesa doesn’t have the most amazing clean tone, but it has 3 channels, and the main appeal of these amps to me is the “Solo” channel. Its just a dedicated volume knob/boost to whatever channel you’re on at the time, and provides a huge clean boost. What do the kids say today? “Ginormous”? Wait, that was a few years ago.
Bambi Kino – Photo Courtesy of Andy Bicknell
With Bambi Kino I use my new old 330, and my Hofner Verithin. (Its a semi hollowbody, but yes, “very thin”!). Sometimes my SG with P-90′s sounds perfect for the old Beatles Star Club lp/BBC sessions sounds though. Amp-wise, I go through my Budda 30w combo with Bambi Kino.
With Death Of Samantha, I use the black Les Paul I got when I was with them and played on those records. I also use my SG, and if possible, my Mesa thing. If not, someone else’s amp will do. And has. We have a new LP coming out this year based on rehearsals for our reunion show a year and a half ago, original lineup. I remember playing Maxwell’s in ’86 or so when Ira Kaplan did our sound! We will be playing a few shows this year, too. Just don’t know where or when yet.
I also own a 94 Strat, a 68 Harmony Rocket which i write on a lot, a nylon/classical which i used to write on a lot, and Alvarez 6-string acoustic, an Alvarez 12-str acoustic, a Kay Old Kraftsman Thin-Twin (Jimmy Reed, Hubert Sumlin, & my dad) and an old Fernandes “elephant” battery-powered built-in speaker guitar. I did some demos to “Mag Earwhig” songs on that, on a Tascam 4-track to Bob’s acoustic demos. Good times.
RIP GEORGE JONES 1931-2013: Man not much we can say but this man had what Elvis did not. He lives a long ass time. He was a man in full. We was the original rockn-rolla. Hell raiser. Drinker. He was known for his country hits but in reality he was the king. He was a badass mother-fucker. Sometimes you just need to pause and think what the hell have I done that would compare to his awesome catalog of music.
SINGLE REVIEW: This song floored me like a blast in the face from a whip-it. Really. Made me feel pretty lazy as a musician, ‘cuz these dudes have some serious chops. You can safely call Relaxer progressive, as they are one of the more forward moving bands going right now, and it is really no suprise to me, as most of the bands that have come and gone in the Akron music scene were, and are WAY ahead of their time.
One thing I especially dig about this jam is the fact that the songwriting and the song do not suffer from the fact that there is so much going on sonically, and to me, that is a difficult feat to achieve in the prog genre. Everything works together so well, and really gels, and just made this a really awesome song to listen to first thing this morning. -TH
SINGLE REVIEW: The first song I listened to this morning was the new single “When I’m Dead” by the Aussie band, The Dead Heads. It was a good way to wake up.
I’ve heard writers using words like “grunge” and other lazy descriptors that might pigeon-hole these guys and turn people away initially. Don’t buy into it. There is so much more than that going on here with this single. It is a sonically brilliant, minimal pop-gem capturing a vibe that lays somewhere between bands like WAAVES and NO AGE – a refined mix of dissonance and melody: a good pop song, and the perfect amount of noise.
Give this jam a spin, It is good sunny day music. -TH
VIDEO SINGLE: Got a fresh jam Thug Dreamz created exclusively for Review Stalker by the brooklyn based band Woods Party. Footage totally remixed and borrowed from Silk. Enjoy the crowd as they dance to this slow burner with equal party keyboard bass drones and melodic emotion. This band Features former Bubble/Gum drummer Trevor Hahn and Jason Montagna from Montagna & The Mouth To Mouth.
Yea man there are so many cool online start-up music programs that remind us of the days of cable access we think there is room for even more like this. Dirty Laundry is no Uncle Floyd Show but the premise is pure and the execution is simple. Bands at some point are on tour need to stop and clean their undies. Host Karrie K (ex-Delta Mirror) and sometimes Special Guest Host Katy Goodman (Vivian Girls, La Sera) interview bands cleaning their jeans or at least interview them in local laundromats sometimes. They talk and sometimes they might be under the influences that our bros in Deer Tick. Simple, real and devoid of pretension. Enjoy!
SINGLE REVIEW: Dear America, somewhere in Connecticut is a band called ATRINA. Which has a new video and single called “a Drone” in support of the album called In Planetery Sugar. At first glistening Atrina’s music reminds us of this canadian group called tristan psionic from Sonic Onion that we saw at the Bugjar many big dogs ago (Tom Bug Reference for any of you bands who stayed at his place) once which was a mix of Sonic Youth and tainted with something airy vocally like Belly meets bjork. Anyway you should support them so they can feel inspired to play a show near you. We like it for what we could describe as guitar thronking and would be a perfect addition for your spring cassette mix.
