It’s a wonderful left turn of a record, released when fans and critics would have welcomed a Metamodern Sounds pt. II. Self-produced, it sounds clear, warm, and open, the Dap-Kings’ soulful horns swirling chocolate-and-peanut-butter-like with Simpson’s brand of slacker psychadelic outlaw country.
Sturgill’s been open about A Sailor’s Guide… being a song cycle written for his family, especially his first child who was born just as his career took off. What he hasn’t said – and there’s a tantalizing hint in the Maron interview about this – is just how deep the concept goes. I think the album is sequenced chronologically beginning with a father singing a song to his newborn son and continuing as the son grows up, maybe having a child of his own.
“Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)” is sung to a newborn
“Breakers Roar” comforts a young child
“Keep it Between the Lines” offers advice to a teen
“Sea Stories” finds a father and his young adult child developing a more mature relationship
“In Bloom” (Nirvana cover)
“Brace for Impact (Live a Little”) reminds a thirty-something child that life can be short, and it should be fun
“All Around You” illustrates a deep connection, only able to be seen through long experience, with a child who is now old enough to have felt real pain
“Oh Sarah” shifts the spotlight to the steady partner whose presence has been felt, but not addressed directly, throughout the record
“Call To Arms” – The old man’s got nothing to lose and speaks his mind (not that he hasn’t always), turning from his family outward toward the world
“In Bloom” is the outlier here, thematically and musically. As it sits in the center of the sequence it strikes me as meaningful, though I’m not entirely sure what to make of it. It’s, for me, the weak point on the record musically as Simpson drops half of the chord sequence from the verse, rendering the tension of the original toothless.
Maybe changing Nirvana’s rager into a lullaby illustrates a father nostalgic for his younger child while simultaneously recognizing the adult he’s become. Or maybe I’m reaching. But the rest of the album makes so much sense – six songs of a child growing up, followed by two turning progressively outward to others – I need a way to understand the intent here.
Simpson can obviously write incisive, vivid lyrics when he wants to. That this record also features some fairly worn cliches struck me as odd at first, though they’re wearing alright with time. Sometimes the language of love and family is what’s comfortable and familiar, said a thousand times and no less true for it.
MR|Review directs readers’ limited attention among works via ratings, and within works via prose, focusing on works where our opinion diverges from critical or popular consensus, or we have significant insight that compliments or challenges readers’ aesthetic experience.
In the back of the blog topic file I found a question from Jill; why is Ventura called “Ventura,” and is it because of Cory?
It is, but I don’t remember why exactly.
The collection of songs was gathered together under the name “Ventura” prior to my one visit there with him in 2006, almost certainly prior to even planning that trip.
At some point early on the east-to-west movement that connected those first few songs became apparent. With the Pacific as the end point of this twenty-something punk symphony to leaving home and growing up, Ventura could stand in for a more mythic place of serenity. It’s a milestone from which to look back on the journey so far, and prepare for the one ahead.
Plus, it’s a cool-sounding, lesser-known California town. I certainly wouldn’t have known its name without knowing Cory.
Ventura, California’s relationship to Ventura is more concrete than Dodge City Kansas’ is to You Have To Wear The Boots’ Dodge, but there’s a symbolic similarity too.
Made this yesterday to house the first Falcon Drive.
I have an idea how to improve the =F= design a bit, but this is pretty much the idea. This will be the demo unit and ultimately go on my board, unless someone has a hankering for serial #0001.
Dark Satellites’ Be Still vinyl is available for pre-order on Bandcamp (click “Buy” below) (you can stream the whole thing, too).
Drew has made an incredibly good record. It’s catchier, it’s heavier, and it’s synth-ier than 2012 Are Here.
If it matters to you, I played drums on “Strange Song,” bass on “Just Dropped Out,” and mastered the album. This is the first thing I’ve ever contributed to that’s been pressed to wax!
The vinyl is a cool gray and taupe splatter to match the cover art, and we should receive it in June. $25 shipped to the lower 48. Drew will break even when every record is sold, basically; we will not profit on this. It is the definition of a labor of love.
This morning I finished the design for a new pedal, the Falcon Drive. I’ll be taking reservations for a small run of them soon.
There it is on the breadboard. Doesn’t look like much, maybe, but it’ll do a nice JFET mostly-clean boost (slight compression, fatness, & edge on the pick attack; nice!), an asymmetric MOSFET/LED overdrive, and a scuzzy Schottky diode drive.
The finished enclosures will be laid out like this, with Kingman-style stamping and finishing. The second footswitch, LED, and colored knob are for a second gain/saturation preset.
True bypass, quiet switching, extremely high (10M) input impedance and low (3.3K) output impedance are featured to preserve treble and drive long cables. The Falcon has a huge range of useable gain; I love it for everything from always-on unity gain buffer to dimed out.
Video coming soon-ish. Before the reservations are closed, for sure, so you can decide if you (or the guitarist in your life) need one!
Over the past two weekends I’ve made progress on my first run of six Kingman pedals, and have finished the first two. I know #0002, the one I’m keeping, will go into immediate use as Mars Lights continues to record our double LP.
Last weekend was given over to figuring out how to finish the enclosures. I tried various combinations of paint, stamping, Sharpie, dry sanding, wet sanding, and clear coating.
Finished enclosures #0001-0006, left to right
Simple as the Kingman circuit is, there’s no circuit board; just parts mounted to the enclosure, point-to-point wiring, and two capacitors.
Dry-fitting jacks, switch, LED, and potentiometers
Yesterday I started wiring. It’s not the prettiest but the connections are solid and it gets the job done. No one can hear my wiring!
#0002 with its LED working
The first one took two and a half hours, but it worked on the first try. I consider that a win.
#0002 alive and kicking!
After getting #0002 running (I numbered based on the enclosures. Wanted to do something special with #0001 and thought it would benefit from me making and correcting any wiring mistakes on my own) I wired #0001 up today. #0001 is the only enclosure I painted and will be the only one with black knobs. Future Kingmen will look more like #0002 with the clear knobs, but without the purple smears. I learned how to fix that, but thought that since purple is a royal color I would leave mine with the weird blurs.
Brothers #0001 (left) and #0002
Like I said, not the prettiest at all. Neither were a lot of great-sounding vintage pedals! I appreciate today’s beautiful PCB and wiring jobs as much as the next guitar player, but they’re not necessary for a circuit to do its job.
Gut shot of #0002
What have I learned?
How to finish enclosures in a unique way. None of these first six are exactly how I plan to do them in the future; I learned how to avoid the smearing you see on #0002 (and to a lesser extent on subsequent ones) as I did the very last step. Future boxes will look similar to #0006 but even cleaner around the stamps.
Stuffing PCBs is a very small part of making a pedal! Honestly if the Kingman had a PCB with 20 components, it would only add maybe an hour or less to the 3 1/2 – 4 hours of labor I put into each of these pedals. I imagine I’ll get faster over time, but there are limits.
Stamping is tricky. Got to hit the stamp (not one’s fingers) square, hard, and on the intersection of any lines (such as where the three lines of a “K” meet).
I’m proud of fitting the input and output jacks on the same side of a mini enclosure, saving players’ pedal board space
I’m not done with this run – four more wiring jobs to do – but I’d do it again, and plan to.
While Drew’s over this afternoon, checking out my work mastering his new Dark Satellites record “Be Still,” please enjoy the track below.
I don’t know how many of you are familiar enough with late-period J.V. All*stars to appreciate this jokey butt-rock take on “Straighten Your Hair” (go listen!) but it is. spot. on. and just gets better as it goes on. It even includes a grunty metal “Ooohhhh!”
Here is the best music we heard in the past year. Most, but not all, was also released in 2015.
Top 12 (in random order) (it would have been 13; Cory tried to list “1989” again!)
Run The Jewels, “Run The Jewels 2” (2014) and “Run The Jewels” – These records are from 2014, so I am not going to put them at the top of my list. But, these guys pulled me out of a major music rut (thanks Howie!). According to Spotify, in 2015, RTJ was my most-played artist, “RTJ” was my most-played album, and my most-played song was “Run the Jewels” off of the album “Run the Jewels” by Run the Jewels. I was obsessed. I still am. And I’m still grateful that at 33, I can still get kicked in the ass by something new. -C
Kendrick Lamar, “To Pimp A Butterfly” (2015) – This record is really challenging, which makes it interesting that it’s as popular and lauded as it is. I initially loved “King Kunta,” which is the most straightforward track on the album, but the rest of it went over my head for the first 5-10 listens. I’ve gotten into Sigur Ros records faster than that. (Just kidding, Sigur Ros still confuses me!). Partially, the album is challenging because it’s all over the damn place, and at first, it’s hard to tell whether that way like “The Love Below” (this is a bad thing, because “The Love Below” sucks); or, if it’s diverse like a Streets record (this is enjoyable and positive). Presently, I have determined that Kendrick Lamar is one of the realest, most insightful, and introspective artists I’ve ever heard. When he talks about race, class issues, materialism, self-hatred, and substance abuse he’s so brutally honest that it scares me and gives me the chills at the same time. I’m still peeling back the layers. A highlight: On “The Blacker the Berry,” he says, “So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street / When gang banging make me kill a n**** blacker than me? Hypocrite!” I’m still unpacking that one. -C
Carly Rae Jepsen, “Emotion” (2015) – Every year, there’s some total bubble-gum pop record that I fall in love with. Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift… and now “Emotion” by Carly Rae Jepsen. It helps that Carly Rae is the real deal, vocally. But what really makes this record shine (aside from the fact that the songs are extremely well-written) is that it’s weird enough to be interesting. It has the same overall vibe as a Haim record, except for less gloomy and a lot sillier. The songwriters and producers seem to have gotten together and said, “OK, people like songs about love and sex, and they like big kick drums and 808 sounds, and they like ’80s staccato funk guitar, so let’s put it all together and make people flip.” -C
The Powder Room, “Curtains” (2014) – Like a sturdy, broken-in pair of boots The Powder Room’s pummeling rock reliably doesn’t waste anything. From riff to hook to breakdown and back, “Curtains” gets in and out and leaves me wanting more, even after months of near-daily listening. -h
Major Games, “Major Games” (2015) – There are 80s parts, heavy psych parts, weird noise parts, and super-catchty parts all mixed together. Basically it sounds like the cover art looks. -h
Doomtree, “All Hands” (2015) – MSP hip-hop crew bring it harder than ever, which is *extremely* hard. All tracks bang and flow forever. “Generator” kills me, if you need just a taste. -h
Bully, “Feels Like” (2015) – All summer long, driving home from band practice, blasting Bully with the windows down, no A/C, Alicia’s voice going from purr to scream, the band loosely ripping grunge-pop perfection; nothing better. -h
Kacey Musgraves, “Pageant Material” (2015) – “Same Trailer, Different Park” was so perfect in almost every way that I thought Kacey might strike gold less often with subsequent records, but “Pageant Material” is everything I wanted it to be and more. The melodies are still impeccable, the lyrics are profound in a hokey sort of way, and no matter what kind of song is happening (twangy rocker about small town gossip, folk song about smoking a J and hanging with your boyfriend, or an upbeat bluegrass jam about being a cowgirl), she executes it to perfection. I am still waiting for the day when Kacey becomes the new big pop crossover sensation that appeals to almost any music fan. It can’t be long now. -C
Surfer Blood, “1000 Palms” (2015) – The first two Surfer Blood full-lengths and their “Tarot Classics” EP were instantaneously enjoyable. All songs were four-minute-long hooks that entered your head immediately and refused to leave. “1000 Palms” is their first record that comes with a learning curve. There are definitely songs on the record that are immediately great, but I didn’t love it right away like I thought I would. I listened to it off and on for months, and then one night, I randomly heard “Northwest Passage” on a playlist I’d made, and it finally made sense. -C
Cosmic Ground, “Cosmic Ground 2” (2015) – These four 20-minute modular synth odysseys can transport me, comfort me, absorb me, or help me work on something else depending on the day. Wish I could remember how I ended up on this Bandcamp page; what a find. -h
Baroness, “Purple” (2015) – Everything that was ever great about Baroness – huge riffs, dual guitar leads, shout-a-long anthems – raised a couple notches. Seeing them at Lawrence’s own little Jackpot was extra special. -h
Drake, “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late” (2015) and other recordings – I listened to so much Drake in 2015. Partially because I needed something new; partially because my commute to work is much longer; mostly because people won’t shut up about him and I wanted to see what all of the fuss was about. The most interesting thing about Drake is that he’s nowhere near as great as everyone says he is, and yet, I can’t stop listening to him. He’s not a dynamite MC (not even close). He’s not very complex. His rhymes are filled with bad jokes. His voice actually grates on my nerves. He’s got the Kanye ego without the Kanye talent. But, his music sounds like no other music I’ve ever heard, so I keep coming back. “Hotline Bling” is not a great song, and, I’ve listened to it more than almost any other song this year. -C
Honorable mention
Best Coast, “California Nights” (2015)
Waves x Cloud Nothings, “No Life For Me” (2015)
Selena Gomez, “Revival” (2015)
Beach House, “Depression Cherry” (2015)
A Is Jump, “Weird Nostalgia” (2015)
Blackalicious, “Imani vol. 1” (2015)
Brandon Flowers, “The Desired Effect” (2015)
Carla Morrison, “Amor Supremo” (2015)
Elder, “Lore” (2015)
Failure, “The Heart Is A Monster” (2015)
Halfwit, “II” and “III” (2015)
High on Fire, “Luminiferous” (2015)
Kowloon Walled City, “Grievances” (2015)
Monolord, “Vænir” (2015)
No Cave, “Eyes Brighter Than The Sun” (2015)
Sheer Mag, “II 7″” (2015)
Sleater-Kinney, “No Cities To Love” (2015)
Tame Impala, “Currents” (2015)
Torche, “Restarter” (2015)
Viol, “Deeper Than Sky” (2015)
Descendents, “Milo Goes To College” (1982), “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” (1985), “Enjoy!” (1986)
Joy, “Under The Spell Of” (2014)
Run-D.M.C., “Run-D.M.C.” (1984), “King of Rock” (1985), “Raising Hell” (1986), “Tougher Than Leather” (1988)
Sturgill Simpson, “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” (2014)
I breadboarded my first partly-original pedal design this afternoon, and it worked!
The Kingman Anti-Drive is a passive volume cut circuit based on the Kinman treble bleed. It’s designed to give guitarists a clean/clean-ish/cleaner sound when placed in front of a saturated amplifier or overdrive/distortion/fuzz pedal. Unlike turning down the guitar’s volume knob (which results in a dark, bass-heavy sound) or the Kinman circuit (which is optimized for only one particular point on the volume knob) the Kingman Anti-Drive offers a customizable frequency response with controls for volume, treble level, and treble cutoff frequency.
It’s simple (three pots, two capacitors, and wiring) but really, really useful. My basic live pedal setup for Mars Lights is an always-on treble boost and a Bass Big Muff Pi for choruses and big riffs, but I’m planning to replace that with an always-on Catalinbread Karma Suture (Happy Winter Non-Denominational Snow Time to me) and the Kingman in front of it for verses and quieter parts. (See how it works kind of backwards? You kick it *on* for “less”/quiet parts/cleaner sounds.)
It was really fun to play around with the volume turned pretty far down, the treble level about mid-way, and the cutoff anywhere at all. (Adjusting the cutoff is effectively a mids control, varying from a cool mid-scooped sound to a fairly flat frequency response.) Once I got the circuit in place I played Stones-y riffs for a solid 20 minutes just for kicks.
I’m also breadboarding on a new rig. The briefcase* and mounts for power, input and output jacks, and potentiometers, lets me store and transport breadboarded circuits safely. This first draft of the Kingman will be making its way to Mars Lights practice next week for a bit of testing.
A first test run on Kingmen will be completed in the next month or two I hope. Once everything is worked out I intend to open a store on Reverb.com with the first products being my “Jack of All” DS-1 mod and the Kingman.
Nice to have something work on the first attempt after some months of experimentation, frustrated Googling, and spending money on parts I wasn’t sure I’d need.
If you’re interested in the Kingman and have my email address, please reach out; I’ll be ordering parts this coming week. If you don’t have my email, I’ll be sure to announce the opening of the Reverb store here.
