I’m halfway through recording lead guitars for Ventura, and hoping to finish, or get close, this long weekend.

The tone is:

• Epi ES 345 bridge pickup into
• Fulltone GT 500 boost/OD channel, flat EQ, drive dimed, volume/boost at 2 o’clock into
• The old Hot Rod Deluxe clean channel, set for the magic sixes, no reverb, into
• Sennheiser e609, 45 degrees off-axis, pointed at the center of the speaker cone (marked on the grille in duct tape), probably 3-4 inches from the cone center

I’m using the distortion channel of the GT 500 for a bass boost in a couple spots, and I’m using the Apocalypse pictured for one riff in “…Flyover Country.”  The TimeFactor might find use as an auto-wah for bits of “Market Stress.”

Since the 345 runs in stereo, I’m taking the neck pickup’s output and recording it directly into ProTools via an ART preamp, and will re-amp it later through the same pedals and amp settings, except with the reverb up high.  I’ll mix that in, and am going to experiment with pre-delaying that wet signal a bit; might be kind of interesting with the tone of the amp’s own reverb, but the clarity of a little pre-delay.

I’m not sure if this tone will work for “E Harbor Blvd,” so I may try something different – a bit more distorted – there.

Beyond the hits CD — and Christmas In LA, the Killers’ eighth festive charity single — the band will take a breather. Brandon is working on a solo album, but he assures me that he will return to the group when the time is right.

“This is the end of something,” he says. “Maybe we have become too comfortable. I’ll do my solo stuff and then come back to give The Killers a kick in the pants.”

– Interview by Adrian Thrills at The Daily Mail

Two words; Steve Albini.

The Killers are a fantastic live band.  Their hits shake stadiums, and even their deep cuts, which can be weak on record, sound great and earn a response.  They have never made an album that captures that energy; the band has made good albums, but they haven’t maxed out their potential.

Steve Albini tends to record bands live, all at once.  His straightforward approach pushes bands to write and play their best.  He’s a kick in the pants, embodied.

(Wouldn’t this be worth it just to hear Ronnie as recorded by Steve Albini, if nothing else?  Even if the songs weren’t good?  Yes is the correct answer.)

I’d love to hear a lean, raw, aggressive Killers album.  Let the rhythm section wail, lots of guitars, only the keys that Brandon can play while singing, minimal overdubs.  I want to hear the Killers album that Drew could appreciate.  I think they have it in them.

Killers & Albini in 2014!  USA!  USA!

One of the year-end lists I’ve seen – can’t recall which… maybe one of the AV Club’s individual ballots – described Tricot’s album The in a way that sent me straight to Youtube.  Results below; I love the physical joy this band takes in their music.

That was the gist of what she said, anyway.

There’s not a lot of middle ground with metal; most people either love it, or stay as far away as possible.

My taste has gotten heavier over the years, but it’s hard to remember when I really started listening to metal. Not in school, though I loved Deftones and some other borderline stuff. Then five years ago (which is when my iTunes library basically starts) I was ripping Mastodon, Back When, and DragonForce CDs, and reading Pitchfork’s Show No Mercy column (Sunn 0))), Hammers of Misfortune, Kylesa) (sac)religiously. I went back to the beginning, and worked my way through Sabbath. So I came to metal as an adult, mostly on my own, through reviews. I’ll guess that’s an atypical initiation.

Nothing else feels like a great riff. Hearing one is a direct route to egolessness. It’s a creative destroyer; it can stop me short, ending my train of thought, and it may show me a new way to look at time, pitch, and timbre, too. It can give pain a voice or be cathartic, but the best are actually joyful. They communicate the experience of overflowing. They are too much – too much awe, too much saturation, too heavy, too loud, too fast or slow – so they point toward something beyond themselves.

I listen to it because it speaks to me. Because it challenges me (how did they make that sound? Write that riff?) Because it feels great, and at its best, better than anything.

If it bugs you, that’s just because I haven’t found your gateway band yet.

…when the AV Club’s Year in Band Names piece appears.  I didn’t notice any locals this year (Matt maintains that Fifty Bears In A Fight would have been included, had we stuck with it and popped up on their radar).

Still, there were plenty of awfully great band names in 2013.  All hail Warboner!  (Maybe that could replace “hawks” in our political discourse?  Instead of “Senator X is a real hawk on Syria,” we could say “Senator X has a real warboner for Syria.”)