Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss
Synth-heavy bass chords, each ending abruptly and eerily, open Chelsea Wolfe’s 2015 album Abyss. You’d almost think you were listening to some resurfaced soundtrack for 1997’s cult sci-fi epic Event Horizon if it weren’t for the eventual build-up of industrial doom metal and Wolfe’s haunting voice crooning like some kind of space siren. Maybe this […]
Episode 32 – Jim Lauderdale
Chris has coffee with Jim Lauderdale in a Nashville hotel room and gets the story on his incredible life and career. Be sure to listen until the episode's end to hear a stripped down acoustic version of Jim's classic tune, "The King of Broken Hearts."
Talking Gear with the Chicago Acoustic Underground Podcast
Your typical podcast recording setup doesn’t include a 24-channel digital console, a wall of custom-modded guitar amps, and a full drum kit. But Chicago Acoustic Underground isn’t quite your typical podcast. In his quest to capture the work of unknown artists, CAU podcast host Michael Teach has crammed his modest Chicago apartment with musical instruments […]
Perfect Pairings: Reverend Descent & Orange Rockerverb 100 MKIII
September’s Perfect Pairing: Reverend Descent H90 Baritone & Orange Rockerverb 100 MkIII Head This month, we’re plugging the Reverend Descent H90 baritone guitar into the Orange Rockerverb MkIII for 100 watts of earth-shaking low end. The Reverend Descent H90 Baritone features a 26 3/4″ scale neck, which means it’s long enough to accommodate baritone tuning, […]
Five Tips to Get More from Your Gear
Most guitarists don’t start out with top-of-the-line professional gear. Pretty much everyone I know had a no-name guitar, a garage sale drum kit, a keyboard from Craigslist or a hand-me-down instrument from a sibling or relative’s attic. Eventually though if they’re serious about playing, musicians slowly upgrade their gear by mowing lawns, saving allowances and […]
Uncle Acid & the deadbeats – The Night Creeper
If creepiness is a virtue, then English band Uncle Acid & the deadbeats possesses it in spades. For an album that opens with the lines, “There’s a man who’s just been waiting here all night long/As he watches you he’s smiling there all alone,” the band’s fourth full-length, The Night Creeper, sets an eerie tone […]
Fender Acoustic Pro and Acoustic SFX Amplifiers
Looking for the right acoustic guitar amp can sometimes be a daunting task. With so many controls and complex configurations, sometimes all you want to do is just plug in and get to playing. Thanks to the new Fender Acoustic Pro and Acoustic SFX amps, the simple controls and powerful tone you’ve been wanting has […]
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
As my bio and previous posts suggest, I tend to gravitate toward bands and albums of the heavy variety (e.g. Machinist! and Fero Lux), so it is not often nor without a heavy heart that I stray from my niche, let alone find something that will hardly leave my CD player for months at a time. An Awesome […]
Need To Downsize Your Kit?
Above: Terry Bozzio’s not-so-compact-kit. Image Credit: Wikipedia OK, so you want a new kit but you hate big, bulky drums. As much as small drums make me cringe, I get it. You don’t want to go through the trouble of having to try and fit a drum set that comes with a 22″ or 24″ […]
