"Pedal Board Spiel (2005)"

OK, people. You all seem fixated, I dare say HYPNOTIZED, by all my damn effects boxes. So here you go: all about my NEW PEDAL BOARD, being used with Wilco and anything else I can find to drag all 75 pounds of it (including swanky road case) to! I confess that it is a bit irritating to me that people seem so fixated on HOW MANY pedals I have. This is because there seems to be something double-edged about it: a kind of fascination mixed with feelings of skepticism and/or disgust, as though it's somehow amazing that I can keep track of it all and at the same time I must be some kind of charlatan to NEED so many pedals! Well, what can I say? I didn't always use them (for quite a while I played mostly acoustic guitar), but I seem to have an aptitude for using them, and I think they're a lot of fun! Seriously, there is way too much emphasis placed on gear in general (read the rest of this column if you haven't already for further amplification of this point), and effects pedals are just another tool, another way to get color into one's life. With Wilco, I have been using more distortion devices than ever (fuzz, overdrive, distortion - sticklers!). This is because I enjoy tailoring my sound very specifically for certain songs. And as I said previously, you can't own too many fuzzboxes in my book! We are living in a time of vast choices in this area - boutique items galore. It wasn't always like this. The 80s were a dark time for a young person looking to get that nasal fuzz sound evident on songs like "Psychotic Reaction" or "Pushin' Too Hard". Everything was all creamy, soaring... Dare I say it, MIDI-controlled, pre-fab hell! At least for me... So take a look at this bunch of colorful crap. It breaks down into 2 areas: the BOARD, and what I call my SCIENCE PROJECT, which is a bunch more stuff elevated on a road case to my right.

THE BOARD:

1) Boss tuner
2) Voodoo Lab Pedal Power II
3) Fulltone Deja Vibe the little one, non-stereo)
4) Digitech Whammy Pedal (the original model)
5) Z-Vex Fuzz Factory
6) Ernie Ball volume pedal (I've managed to break 5 of these things over the years, but still I persist...)
7) (company ?) Hot Cake overdrive
8) Boss CS3 Compressor
9) Boss Vibrato Pedal
10) Fulltone '69 Fuzz
11) Klon Centaur overdrive
12) ProCo Rat distortion (modified)
13) Boss DD-2 digital delay
* floating on and off the pedal planet:
14) Cry Baby wah-wah
15) Electro Harmonix The POG

THE SCIENCE PROJECT:

1) Electro Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay (the original one, not the re-issue - I've had this for 19 years...!!!)
2) Korg Kaos Pad (next to the springs, bottlenecks, egg whisk, and battery-powered drink stirrer)
3) Electro Harmonix Holy Grail reverb
4) Mid-Fi Electronics Glitch Computer

Note: I'm always buying new stuff. May be adding the Black Box Quicksilver Delay to the Science Project soon...

OK, a few words about some (not all) of these devices:

Why the original Whammy Pedal? I've had this one for years, ever since Woody Aplanalp gave it to me. It's the only one I can really MOVE on, and I think it sounds best.

What's up with the Fuzz Factory? I bought this in San Francisco many years ago when, after a Scarnella gig, a guy walked up to me and couldn't believe I didn't know about Z-Vex products. It was only later on that I realized that Henry Kaiser had showed me the Fuzz Factory (only one of many sick Z-Vex creations) while we were making the "Yo, Miles!" CD. Anyway, I went and checked this out and the rest is history. it's not, as some will tell you, "out of control". It is wild. it's on everything I've done since I got the thing. Marvelous. Sick. Classic.

Hot Cake: Scott Amendola gave me this little beauty from New Zealand. When I joined Wilco, I made sure to put this on my board IN ADDITION to my cherished Klon Centaur Overdrive because I wanted to sculpt many overdriven subtleties. Little did I realize that the Marshall JTM 45 I would use with Wilco would fall in LOVE with the Hot Cake! Together, they rule! The Hot Cake works less well with high-wattage amps like a Twin Reverb. It actually sounds like crap. But with that > Marshall...!!!

Boss Vibrato Pedal - PLEASE RE-ISSUE THIS! They're rare as hen's teeth, I LOVE the sound (I like wiggly, what can I say?), and mine took some serious blows in flight. Help!

Fulltone '69 fuzz - When I started playing with Wilco, I went through the many pedals lying around the Wilco loft looking for EVEN MORE DISTORTION SOURCES. Jeff Tweedy had this, and early '69, and he let me have it. One of the things I look for in any distortion device is MASSIVE GAIN. I need stuff that won't get QUIETER when you hit it, and frankly a shocking number of fuzzboxes and the like are super wimpy in this regard. The '69 (new one pictured here - Jeff's broke, and I need it because this new one sounds different...) just makes the grade. Check my Wilco setting: EVERYTHING ALL THE WAY UP.

ProCo Rat has been modified for a little extra poop. The LED is now yellow. The sound is not as fabulous as my old Marshall Guv'nor, but I'm adjusting. Note: Why, when these companies "reissue" things (like the Guv'nor) are they NOTHING like the original??!?!?!??!

Boss DD-2 delay: Because when I turn the thing off I don't want it to trail off (like subsequent Boss delays)! I want it OFF! It works...

Why the Klon Centaur? Henry Kaiser turned me on to this when we did "Yo, Miles!". I've written about it before. It's an amp in a box. No more worries in the world of AMP DU JOUR about overdrive tone. It will always be OK. The Centaur will take care of it. Consumers: It's worth the wait to get one. I've had this thing for years now. What did I ever do without it?

What's a Mid-Fi Glitch Computer? My roommate Bobb turned me on to this little company, which seems to basically be a guy in Massachusetts named Doug and his raw, loud, and SICK creations. Bobb's Glitch Computer is different from mine, but at least mine does what I had hoped for: it makes things sound like they're blowing up. Warning: These boxes (he makes distortion of various types) have so much gain it would be easy to blow up your gear! Start at low gain...

What's The POG? It's multiple-octave harmonizer box that can track exceedingly well and make your guitar sound like an organ. Yes, complex chord voicings confuse it - what did you expect?! But it has possibilities for the guitarist who wants to add some orchestral, non-guitar-specific color to his or her life. And the octaves really track superbly.

OK that's all the geekdom I can handle right now. Remember: These are just MY choices. They may have no relation to your world whatsoever. It's all a matter of personal choices, imagination, And remember: It's YOUR vision. Don't take any shit! We don't have to follow in the steps of others if we don't want to. This is really my only message. It took me forever to figure it out! It's when we stray and find our own way that we move forward and show who we are. There's already enough stale crap out there.

Go ahead: Be yourself! Make my day!

"Sometimes I Get A Session"

For someone like me who has little to say about technique and/or technology, it's always hard to come up with ideas for this column - a column that seems to be quite popular! My essential message always comes out the same: forget about all the externals and follow your instincts, and don't let people railroad you into taking the tried and true path if it's not for you. Admittedly, this is the road with the fewest immediate rewards. But I've been around for a while now, and I've seen some things. There's always enough generic stuff out there. If you're highly imaginative, iconoclastic, or just singular enough in sensibility to stand out, you're needed! Pedals, string gauges, electric/acoustic, techniques - these are all just means to an end. It would be a bit misleading - if not wholly dishonest - of me to trot out some rules or even strong suggestions about how to do things on the guitar or on anything, since I kind of went about everything haphazardly, if not completely wrong! I think "AMP DU JOUR" was so popular because it 's both funny AND it supplies all you gearheads with the ammo you need to be gearheads. So here comes my newest attempt, inspired in part by Tommy Tedesco's wry column in Guitar Player Magazine many years back (hard to imagine even opening GP at this point in time...) called "STUDIO LOG."

For many reasons, I have never been the guy one would call for a so-called normal SESSION, either of the commercial jingle/film & TV variety, or the pop album variety. For one, I've spent most of my life under the radar - in the underground, so to speak - playing free jazz and whatnot. For another, my skills are...well, a bit SPECIFIC. I'm pretty good at designing arrangements- -even a hook here and there - for familiar-sounding songs, coming up with sonic flavors, layers, and the like. But I'm not a great reader, and my desire to do generic stuff (read: hack work) is non-existent. These are jobs for real craftsmen. I really admire those "tonemeister" types who can make a major triad sound compelling, memorable, even fresh. But my concept of tone production really only started developing about 10 years ago! But maybe that's why now...SOMETIMES, I GET A SESSION or, Ruminations on the Recording Session and its Attendant Challenges, Joys, and Inconsistencies. If you look at the records I played a song or more on this year, six of them are by so-called singer/songwriters (and there are two more in some state of half completion that may emerge someday). This is really odd for me, but can be really rewarding as well. In spite of my track record of being mostly uncommercial, if not a bit "out there", I enjoy doing any job well, and certain things that are easy or natural for some players are harder for me (like making that major triad sound absolutely effortlessly fabulous). And as we all know, getting better at something one may not be so great at can stimulate growth. And maybe cause a few gray hairs to sprout along the way, but hell, it could be worth it. So here are some descriptions of a handful of so-called sessions - some in real studios with pros you know, others are more low-key affairs in home studios. What they have in common is that they all required me to COME UP WITH SOMETHING BOTH UNIQUE AND SUBTLY SUPPORTIVE for a fairly familiar-sounding SONG.


(1) MIA DOI TODD: Session for her Columbia debut "The Golden State":



I had played on shows that Mia was also on, so I knew that her music was quite stark. She seems to be a bit of an acquired taste for most people, and the idea of her on a major label like Columbia probably struck a lot of people as a strange fit. But I had met her champion at the label, Yves Beauvais, and a more loyal and devoted admirer one could not imagine. He and Mia both seem to dig my work, so they insisted that I play on this record. Apparently, the producer tapped for the record, Mitchell Froom, didn't want me because he has his own crew of trusted collaborators that he always uses, and he had never heard me before. This, coupled with the fact that I ended up being the last ingredient added to the record, put me more than a little on edge going in to the session, which was to be one whole day of work on an unspecified number of songs. I really wanted to make a good impression because I really like a lot of Mr. Froom's work (especially Los Lobos' brilliant album, KIKO), and I could really use some work in my own town that pays more than forty to one hundred bucks! Anyway, Mitchell and I seemed to ultimately work together rather well. I felt a little bad for Mia, though, because she and Mitchell seemed to have completely different work methods: he is fast, unequivocal, and sure of himself, while Mia wants to take time to mull things over, which means leaving options open. Mitchell is so sure of what he wants that when he gets it, he erases all other attempts and/or ideas right away, so that come mix time, there will be no agonizing over takes, no multiple-choice related anxieties, no time wasted. What was fun and interesting about working with him for me was that, without my knowing it, he was recording every little noodle I made as I was trying to come up with a direction for a guitar part. As such, at one point when I thought I was achieving a solid direction, he said, "Here. Listen to what you were doing when you had no idea how the song went. Now, play more of that". Cool! At one point, as the song "88 Ways" was due to fade out (I had been instructed to play a super-simple, sparse funky guiter bit), he suddenly said, "Play a really really bad guitar lick!" I played a twanky blues riff and he was pleased. Back when I was playing with Mike Watt and The Geraldine Fibbers, such "method" guitar acting was important to making the music successful. Watt would speak in metaphors to get me to come up with parts that were to sound variously like bicycle chains turning, propellors, sailors holloring at each other, for his concept album "Contemplating The Engine Room". On the Fibbers' song "Trashman in Furs", Carla wanted the guitar solo (Fibbers songs rarely had guitar solos at all) to sound like a super sincere but fundamentally incompetent 14 year old playing on his bed. So I'm down with sounding...like a total spaz, if necessary. I recently did a HIDEOUSLY DORKY 60s-style fuzz solo with HORRIBLE tone on a forthcoming Anubian Lights CD... Anyway, by now Mia's album seems lost in the avalanche of hidden commercial product. And the end result for me is that I can barely hear myself on the record, which is neither good nor bad. Obviously, one cannot get attached to any of one's contributions in a situation like this - it's not my concern. I did what I could, and I did it fast - the session was done by 5 PM. I'm on tracks 1, 3, 6, & 9.

(2) BLUE MAN GROUP - "The Complex":



This is their second CD and first one with guest vocalists. I got a message from Josh Haden telling me that The Blue Man Group wanted me to play a solo on their new record. What?! I had seen them once in Boston at a street festival. I had played with Mike Watt and the Crew of the Flying Saucer (Morphine and Shudder To Think had also played, I recall). This was back in 1995. But the guys in the core band had remembered me and were allegedly fans. This could end up being a long story, so I'll try to be brief. The main thing they wanted me to play on was a cover of "Baba O'Reilly", the Who classic. They wanted a wild guitar solo where the viola solo is on the original (at the end, where it speeds up). So they sent a rough of it on a CD-R along with a couple of other things, including a track of Donna Summers' "I Feel Love", also vocal-less. I said 'yes'. Why not? They flew me to New York, put me up in a modest but decent hotel.. Hell, I even booked myself a gig at Tonic while I was there! I went to their soundstage/studio in the East Village where they were rehearsing for their big new show - a real rock tour - with David Bowie, Moby, et al. All the people I met were REALLY nice. When rehearsals ended, it was time for me to go to work. An amp was selected and set up in the soundstage area, and all my pedals and such were in the control room (it's a killer setup they have!). The first thing we worked on was "Baba O'Reilly". The key band members, musical director (the main drummer in the core band), three main (and original) Blue Men, and 2 engineers were present. It was very relaxed. One of the Blue Men, Chris, always has his little dog with him. The guys were constantly having to leave to take calls and such (turns out they were having trouble with Virgin Records people, their label at the time), but that actually put me at ease. Anyway, I played a solo on the Who tune that really flipped them out! The next thing I knew, more and more people started coming into the control room (they had apparently called their wives, friends, and such to come check me out), and I ended up playing on more and more songs - including one that Josh sang on. Some of the tracks were already pretty dense - the opposite of the Mitchell Froom style, they had TONS of tracks going to be selected from later - so I had to rely on my instincts about what would fit, and I fielded a lot of ideas. But the more out there I got sonically, the more they seemed to get excited. Ultimately, I ended up coming back the next night, and even did more when the gang found out that I was in New York a month later (Chris tracked me down on my cell phone and said, "Get over here!"). They had no idea what to pay me (and I never know either), but suffice to say that the gang was generous, gracious, and they're fun to hang out and drink with, too! They saved my ass last year! Anyway, funny things about the album: for one, "Baba O'Reilly" never even got on the record. Apparently, they never found the right vocalist for it (I suggested Carla Bozulich, which I still think would have been potentially amazing and kind of un-obvious). And one song I'm on has that Gavin Rossdale guy from Bush on it! Mr. Stefani! AND, I actually heard their version of "I Feel Love" at my local gas station as I pumped gas into my car - a first for me, hearing myself (sort of, it's really dense) on commercial radio that way. But the funniest/saddest thing is that Virgin had totally been in their shit about almost every aspect of the record, poo-pooing vocalist choices, etc. (they'd already gotten Dave Matthews, for chrissakes!), and they were refusing to commit to a real ad campaign, arguing I guess that the stuff would sell at their shows. The first Blue Man CD (I've still never heard it ) won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Record and had sold something like 350,000 copies with no advertising at all! Now, they wanted to step up, try some things, reach a broader audience, whatever. I just love that Virgin would fuck with a group than can only make them money (all their production is in-house, it's pure profit!). This is why the industry is dying, why people like me have trouble mustering sympathy for their short-sighted plight. Anyway, Virgin U.S. collapsed, and Blue Man got on a subsidiary of WEA called Lava, and everybody's happy. I ended up on 5 tracks, and can actually hear myself on 4 of them (tracks 6, 8, 9, 10, & 13, if you care).

(3) NOE VENABLE - "The World is Bound By Secret Knots" (Petridish):



This barely qualifies as a "session", because these people are my friends. The recording was done on 2 separate occasions in their house. On the first one, I used my amp, but later I just went direct. I knew that Todd, who records/produces the tracks, was trying out a lot of different players and ideas, casting about for various approaches - more the Blue Man approach than the Froom approach by far. What Todd and Noe wanted mostly from me was sounds, loops, textures to be added here and there. I've worked a lot with Todd in the Scott Amendola Band and with Crater (and since these sessions I've played his tunes in his jazz band), but in his guise as producer I had no idea what to expect. I knew that he and Noe are amazingly bright, sincere, and that they love Radiohead. Anyway, it turns out that after giving them tons of tracks on most of the songs - some were Todd's ideas, some were my "indulge me and let me try this" ideas, that Todd and Noe had so many ways to go on the songs that it was hard to finish the record. Maybe that Mitchell Froom guy's experience really shows in his efficient and unequivocal style. But knowing that just makes me more impressed with what they achieved with this CD. It sounds really great! Noe has always exuded a rare level of talent, and her vision seems clearer and more compelling than ever on this recording. Though she's quite the darling of the modern folk scene in the Bay Area, this is no folk record. Its antecedents are more Kate Bush, Tori Amos, and the like, if I must draw fascile comparisons (OK, maybe Radiohead, too). But to give you an idea, one of my favorite pieces on the record is called "Midsummer Night's Dream". I played various things on this both times I recorded at the house. At one point I did twangy, verby, compressed, Frisell-esque stuff. I did distant howling chords with the Fernandes sustainer pickup guitar Henry Kaiser gave me. At one point, Todd had me playing wah-wah bass notes with lots of delay and the Whammy pedal down an octave. At another point I played rhythm guitar with wah and a big paintbrush. But I'm pretty sure that NONE of this stuff is one the final mix, and it's GREAT. Todd ended up flying in odd loops I had created throughout the disc, sometimes in ingenious and unobvious places. On "Garden", Todd broke down my 12-string hooky chime idea both rhythmically and harmonically. This process was fascinating and fun! On another piece, "Feral", Noe really wanted a cinematic approach, with one section of the tune suggesting a cat running at full speed through brush and plants. Where would I be without my Electro Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay?! I created sputtering bursts of noise and looped them an octave higher in reverse, much to everyone's delight. I don't think any of that is on the final version, but the final version is really good. That's all that matters. Anyway, Todd and Noe gave me a little bit of money, but I would have done it for free. Their great friends, and this was my idea of a good time.


(4) RICKIE LEE JONES - A track for her album, "The Evening Of My Best Day" (V2):



I was pretty floored when I got a call to come down and record for Rickie Lee. Me?? It turns out that she is a big fan of Mike Watt's album "Contemplating The Engine Room", and wanted to record some with that trio (which included percussionist Steven Hodges). Long story short, Pete Thomas (best known as the drummer from The Attractions) ended up on drums. I knew that Rickie Lee had been recording for a while, that Steve Berlin had been producing (Scott Amendola had been called by him to play on some stuff, which would have been brilliant), but he got fired. This kind of cemented the rumor of Rickie Lee being potentially "difficult"! I also knew that Bill Frisell's trio had anchored a couple of tracks. So I was pretty nervous, even though my friends Brad Dutz and Michael Elizondo had played a lot with her and seemed to enjoy it. And she likes Watt.... I showed up with my usual Oliver and Fender Pro Junior amps, plus a bunch of guitars (my regular Jazzmaster, my Fender 12-string, my open-tuned Hagstrom, my Jerry Jones baritone, and my Gibson 335, plus my full pedal board and extra fuzz boxes, wah wahs... one thing I've picked up on is that singer/songwriters don't have much of an interest in distortion, so almost none of these semi-precious gizmos got used). The song was a breezy, almost impressionistic number called "It Takes You There". Watt decided that the bass should be kind of Jamerson-esque. Rickie Lee was really friendly and relaxed while also being all business. I was impressed that she sings and plays guitar 'live' on every take, and in spite of talking like she has the world's worst cold, sings every take amazingly. Anyway, my first idea for the guitar was so dumb: de-tuned Hagstrom a la Thurston Moore (read: a bit intentionally out-of-tune). The idea was gently quashed by guitarist and longtime Jones associate David Kalish. I settled on a Jazzmaster part that got refined later as Rickie Lee made a few suggestions. A was asked to do some sparse fills - this is where I sort of end up trying to channel Phil Manzanera - and as usual, gave them a couple of tracks of 16 Second Delay looping. Later, Rickie Lee and I thought that this old Epiphone hollow-body electric might be cool instead of her Taylor (she seemed unsure about the viability of her own open-tuned track, which was tuned down to C# in the bass). I did some unison tuning on the 'B' string, the guitar was, over initial protests from the control room, miked acoustically and run direct (Rickie Lee and I both thought this might be interesting). Rickie Lee then had me play a simple strumming part and sang me different notes that she wanted emphasized. We later tried a sort of jazz ballad that had a double time latin groove bridge, but as we groped around Rickie Lee pulled the plug on it. The tune haunts me to this day, and I hope she records it some day. Anyway, I got an advance CD in the mail, and the track has VERY little of the approved "hooky" Jazzmaster track, touches of the Manzanera, a shimmer here and there of loops, and mostly that Epiphone acoustic/electric strumming that almost was an afterthought. There is no discernable Rickie Lee acoustic guitar, and there's piano on it, too (I'm dying to know who all's on this record)! The track's nice, but let me tell you, I think there are some KILLER songs on this album - way better than "It Takes You There". I highly recommend the album, actually. But to think of Mike Watt and the Black Gang fans checking us out on this amuses me a bit, because this isn't that vibe at all! And that's kind of what the whole session experience is about, in a way: service, malleability, but with a personal flair. Otherwise, they could have just called Grant Geisman or someone, right? As a bit of a rube on this scene, it still fascinates.

So there it is. I still don't think I played any beautifully fresh-sounding major triads with mouthwatering tone. Maybe that's best left to David Kalish, or Ry Cooder, or ?? But it's a new world to me, and a challenge. Even when you think you've figured out what the artist wants and how to do it, it's not over till the mix is in your ears. And you never know what's going to be in that mix. Mystery! Suspense! Another wrinkle.....

All About "Instrumentals"
(that CD by The Nels Cline Singers)



Attention gear geeks and minutae-minds! Here are some ramblings about the material, the session, and the tech-esque methodology of "INSTRUMENTALS"! May it entertain, enlighten, and mollify! As you may have read/heard here at nelscline.com, INSTRUMENTALS was recorded in 15 hours - about a day and a half of work, including setup. As such (and like every record I've ever done), it is full of last-minute decisions, mistakes, and dilemmas both resolved and unresolved. I am of the opinion that many of these things are best left unmentioned - why give you info. that colors your experience? After we make the music and you listen to it, it's yours as far as I'm concerned. That said, I sense an insatiable thirst for tiny bits of info out there.
So here goes....

Truth be known, I rarely consider the reaction to a recording of mine before or during its making. But after - oh man! Then I start wondering! And then it's basically too late. So, "too bad", I say to myself. "It is what it is". Plus, I rely on more objective persons to help me get through the whole thing efficiently and without too much self-conscious agonizing. This is where people like Jeff Gauthier and my brother Alex become indispensible. Alex, for example, has had some effect on virtually every record I've done as a leader. Usually, I defer to him - at least in some measure - in matters of song sequencing. If I feel he just "doesn't get" something I naturally and callously blow off his astute observations! But usually his views are crucial. On INSTRUMENTALS, he seemed to like the song sequence, as did Mr. Gauthier.



But my dilemma on this record was its length - lengthened by the inclusion of the track "Lowered Boom", which I did not plan to record. Then we recorded it - "for fun" - and then both Jeff and Alex insisted on its inclusion. I really do think the thing's too long, but I didn't want to delete any of my originally intended program, so there it is: pure indulgence!

Reviews of the record have been very positive, but naturally I prefer to dwell on the tidbits of negative criticism. Downbeat reviewed the album rather favorably, but complained that the disc was too long. The nerve!! But then, they also compared us to Triumph, a Canadian band (I'm told) who my friends in-the-know tell me was "like a more metal-ish second-string Rush". Well well! Having never heard them, I trust their take on this. Other comparisons have been to: Bill Frisell (a constant one that's getting pretty off-the-mark, it seems to me.......I love you, Bill!), Prime Time, Sonic Youth, Mahavishnu Orchestra...but my favorite came from someone called Kevin Hainey in Toronto's Eye Weekly:

"Even though Cline incorporates some post-rock tricks and tones into his oeuvre, making his Al DiMeola-with-restraint style accessible to modern ears, it's not enough to save his new trio from resembling Return To Forever's late-period masturbation"

OUCH!!! He then goes on to say a few rather complimentary things, but OUCH!!!!! Hitting me where it hurts! I, a true survivor of 70s prog/jazzrock, am not sure what "late-period" RTF refers to, but I'm sure that it refers to music I always HATED. Sorry! You all know that I prefer to keep things positive, but....sheesh! As you will read, some things I/we do are constructed with a bit of tongue-in-cheek fun in mind - a playfulness, if you will. But sometimes I may indeed err.....as may our critics, I guess.

Anyway, here are some ruminations on our gleeful masturbation. The session was engineered and mixed by the fabulous Rich Breen, Jeff Gauthier's perennial choice in this department. He's a gentleman, has great ears, knows his shit. I was worried that our music might be a bit strident for his sensitive soul, but he was way down with the aesthetic.



The studio was called The Bakery (North Hollywood, CA), and it had a major problem, which was that the single-coil nature of my guitars hummed extra badly and there was nothing that could be done to minimize it. We recorded the hum so as to reduce it with the appropriate computer program, but it accidentally got deleted when we expunged an undesirable take. OOOPS! Well, let it hum, I said. The recording was all done onto hard drive. I still have wistful rushes of nostalgia for 2-inch tape being slammed hard with sonic info., but I don't fight for its cost and awkwardness much these days....

TRACK ONE: "A Mug Like Mine"
As simple as it gets: my Jazzmaster, my pedals (mostly Klon Centaur Overdrive, vintage Marshall Guv'nor, and the ol' Electro Harmonix 16 Second Digital Delay, the old red Digitech Whammy pedal that Woody Aplanalp gave me - the same stuff I've used for years), my Oliver amp, ages old Seymour Duncan extension cabinet with one 12" EV speaker, Devin's contrabass, and Scott's GMS drums and UFIP cymbals. I think this was take 2 of 2, and the first tune attempted at the session. Just "head-solos-head", a simple line to spring from and interact the way we like to.

TRACK TWO: "Cause For Concern"
Not so much a song as a droning parade of little riffs, this is one of those "fun" ideas I get sometimes that isn't meant to be taken too seriously, though it is meant to ROCK. I just thought it would be a fun and potentially galvanizing event, especially in a 'live' context. The Toronto writer mistook this for "A Mug Like Mine", and I guess the wanky nature of the "power riffing" is what set off the DiMeola-meter. What can I say? The title kind of says it all! The track is also really simple. As with "Mug", it's 'live', unedited, overdub-free. Guv'nor, Centaur (on the hocketed breakdown 'prov), a tiny bounce of delay to make me feel more at ease...Take 2 of 2? # of ??
Sorry, can't remember.

TRACK THREE: "Suspended Head"
This was a piece written pre-Singers for a gig with Alex and Steuart Liebig in San Francisco to celebrate Cryptogramophone Night at Bruno's. It's dedicated to the S.F. band Deerhoof, to my mind one of the greatest and most fascinating bands of all time. It was hard to record for me. All the dynamic/tonal shifts, the need for a "happening" central droneprov (basically F minor over a D pedal point is the underlying idea). The piece uses my basic setup (Jazzmaster and pedal board - note the buzzing compressor) plus my favorite doubling guitar stuff on the ROCK part, which was my 1971 Gibson 335 through a cranked Fender ProJunior (a studio fave). The funny thing was that I was trying to get a contrasting yet compatible sound to go with the original track, and even with the different gear I ended up with an almost identical sound to the Jazzmaster/Guv'nor sound! Went for more rear pickup to solve the dilemma. The arco bass melody Devin plays is meant to remind one of Satomi from Deerhoof's singing, and the arpeggiating guitar at the beginning is some kind of reference to their song "Aho Bomb". I still think this one could have been better on my part, but I loved the drums on it, so again, I live with it.

NOTE: Heard a story once about the great jazz bassist George Mraz. While listening to a take, perhaps with the old John Abercrombie Quartet, all eyes landed on him as a verdict on the take was awaited. He finally said, "I think I'm going to need to get a bigger house." After a moment of perplexity, he explained, "I've been saying 'I can live with it' for so long, I'm going to have to get a bigger space to put all the things I said I could live with!" I know what he means...can't remember which take this is. We didn't usually do more than 2 of anything, I don't think...

TRACK FOUR: "Harbor Child"
Not so much a song as a mood, I just felt that this would be a nice showcase for Devin's bow, and a much-needed break from thrashing, bashing, building up and breaking down. It was Devin's idea to double track the bass after he
heard playback. I left in every note.



Scott's electronic percussion sounds are as he did them "live".

The whirly sound was fun: I created a desirable loop for the 16 sec. DDL, asked Scott to change the octave switch as he saw fit, and I ran the delay into a Smokey amp (Camel Lights), taped the cable to the input jack and swung it over my head in front of two stereo-panned mikes that Rich setup for this purpose. It gave me a tremendous blister, but it was fun, and the kind of thing one doesn't often have time to do on such swift sessions. Oh yeah, the guitar is my Jerry Jones baritone - a truly fabulous instrument! Take 1 of 1.

TRACK FIVE: "Lowered Boom"
As previously stated, this was never intended to be on this CD, but it's a piece we had played once 'live', and it's good fun. I was all inspired by Buddy Guy's "Sweet Tea" album, and John Lee Hooker had recently died - I was feeling some blues, but I wanted the piece to be appropriately post-blues, or maybe one could say, authentically white dude West L.A. Scott set up the loop with care - we spent some time getting it to sound the way we wanted, using the rack tom where a snare would usually hit on 2 and 4. The fuzz and other electronic effects are done 'live' as only Scott can: with a lot of radical whimsy and impact (Rich later ran the whole drum track through an amp modeler plug-in to mess it up even more). Devin came up with the bass line, and surprised me when he decided to bow it. This was a pleasing Bill Tutton-of-the-Geraldine-Fibbers touch for me. Later, Jeff G. suggested that he double it, which I really dig! See the photo for my side of things: A trashed Silvertone (the neck is warped beyond repair and cracked to boot) which is low-tuned from C, rear pickup only, straight into the ProJunior turned all the way up. The doubling on the bridge is just the same thing with the amp turned down for a cleaner sound.



The coda (grunge city!) is the same gear plus a Danelectro French Toast octave fuzz. They're cheap and SICK! As with a few other pieces I've done, this one is not to be taken too seriously as a composition, despite the crunch factor. As with old Trio pieces like "Beer Bottle Collection", it will probably be given more weight than it deserves. But it DOES come from a sincere point of inspiration from the great bluesmen and their "mutator acolytes" (from my liner note), meaning white guys like me and....you know: Beck, Clapton, Gallagher, Winter, Kossoff, Iommi............And the bridge is intentionally "post-Dance of Maya"! Take 1 of 2.

TRACK SIX: "Lucia"
Another in a series of "free" ballad pieces inspired by people like Paul Bley, Annette Peacock, Jimmy Giuffre, et al. Like the first 2 tracks, this one is just guitar, bass, drums 'live' in the studio. In retrospect, I wish that my solo and the mallet drum feature were a bit shorter - it's all cued by me in the moment. But I will never tire of these kind of works. Trivia buffs: the title is a reference to Charlotte Rampling's character in "The Night Porter", and to me the piece is some kind of meditation on dominance and submission, surrender, and true love.

TRACK SEVEN: "Ghost of the Pinata"
This is a bit of a "drum & bass" groove in 6/4, and features the Jerry Jones 12-string. I think this was take 1 of 1, but I'm not sure. Again, no overdubs, edits or electronics. As usual, all the backward looping is done on-the-fly with the 16 Sec DDL. The "prog/fuse" bridge is supposed to be a bit funny, though for me it's more a reference to John Scofield's great trio from years ago with Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum. I wish I liked the guitar on this one. The guitar is super-squashed by my little Boss compressor pedal, but if I had it all to do again I think I'd use a "drive-y" amp (the Oliver does not overdrive, really) and let it ring out that way. Who knows what that would be...maybe a Top Hat. This piece has a nostalgic feel for me and is in some way meant to reflect my love of Jim "Roger" McGuinn and the profound impact he's had on my life. More on this in the next decade or two.

TRACK EIGHT: "Blood Drawing"
This title is a bit of a pun, and is a reference to many things I won't go into fully here. But a 3 of them are tainted blood, blood rituals, and the artist Liz Young. Anyway, this starts with a long improv that is all 'live'. Scott set up some desirable loops ahead of time, and he mixed and treated them with his pedals (mostly guitar "stompboxes" like the Danelectro Daddy-O, Z-Vex Fuzz Probe, Fulltone Tremelo, etc.) in real time (loops are derived variously from either a 16 Sec DDL, Line 6 Delay Modeler, and/or Oberheim Echoplex, and god knows what else). The guitar is my usual (pedal board items with a pretty heavy emphasis on the Z-Vex Fuzz Factory and Whammy pedal de-tuning at the beginning), with 2 different overdubs: the melody is doubled through the plastic battery-powered Danelectro amp that came with a "gig bag" case I bought for the beleagered Silvertone. It says "Amp In Bag" right on the case - hilarious! Anyway, it has volume, tone, and overdrive (!), and to me it's use here is meant to suggest the timbre of a shenai or nagasvaram (Asian or Middle Eastern double reed instruments). It's just that kind of melody. The other overdub is before, during and just after the "solo", which is really more of a semi-structured modal section, and it's the 335 through the cranked ProJunior (again). Like the percussion overdubbed in this same section, it's meant to deepen the timbral aspects and heighten the drama a bit (I am quite the sonic drama queen, after all). Very little time or thought went into my overdub here - I just hit some notes, let them feed back, writhed around on the floor a bit, doubled the chordal conclusion to get some natural chorusing. One pass. Even though there's quite a lot of edge on the feel on this take (2 of 2), I'm pleased with the results.

TRACK NINE: "Slipped Away"
Several reviews mentioned Bill Frisell, and I guess it's because of this track. But I was thinking of Gospel music and of the great band Low - as well as feelings of loss and regret - when I wrote this. I always intended for it to be the concluding song - and unlike many of the pieces I write, it really is a SONG. Just the Jerry Jones baritone guitar, some Demeter Tremulator, and a bit of reverb. Bass. Drums. Voila. I did have Rich edit the guitar solo a bit to try (TRY) to keep it concise. It's now under 8 minutes! The "solo" section, over an insistent pedal point, ended up reminding me not so much of Indian veena music as I intended, but of Miles Davis' piece "He Loved Him Madly". What do you think? Anyway, Devin and Scott's amazingly controlled feel on this - especially after their blowout on the previous piece - continues to fill me with a warm glow, and I'm just damn lucky they like playing this stuff with me.

There you have it. A humorous thought occurred to me as I was writing all this: Before we went into the studio I was worried I didn't have enough material, so I wrote a new piece which was never recorded and which is now forgotten. And the CD is so long that we thought the tunes wouldn't fit! There was one outtake: A noisy bit of whimsy called "Downstairs at Poodle's" Maybe it's on the Cryptogramophone website...Thanks, again, Jeff! For more explicit views on gear and the like, as well as a dated look at my pedals, read the old copy for this column. And remember: It's not about the gear! It's about you, your hands, your imagination, your feelings. What I do doesn't amount to a hill of beans! Now I'm gonna go have dinner and go listen to Michael Vlatkovitch's gig at The Smell. Wish you could all join me!

It has come to my attention that a lot of folks would like me to address issues of technique and gear/tech choices. Okay, i'll do a bit of this, but to me the most important point on these topics is that it's a personal choice, that everyone is different, that the proof is in the proverbial pudding. Hence, when you come right down to it, IT REALLY ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT. If i can save time for somebody by sharing what i know/feel, then fine. I'm a bit more pre-disposed to talk about thoery/composition than i am about technique on guitar and equipment. In fact, i find equipment talk to be pretty pointless, ultimately. For now, let me make this point: make sure your guitar has the number of strings on it that works for you, that your amp works, and that your gear generally doesn't fail you. After that, you're on your own!

MORE ABOUT EQUIPMENT:

I was looking at some guitar mags recently in my friend's garage studio and, though we all know that selling and promoting equipment is what sustains these 'zines, i was still struck not only by the almost manic emphasis on guitars, amps, effects, strings (what, nothing on straps?!? And I think they're really important!) and the like. And there is so much more out there! What's a poor aspirant to do?

It was an embarassing number of years before i could equate tone with gear. In spite of the fact that i still place more importance on how one touches the instrument, it is true that it is incumbent upon your gear to respond to your coaxing, pleading, and thrashing. For me, my gear epiphanies came in this order: amp, guitar, effects. I played lousy amps for so long that i just got used to the sound! My Gibson 335 (still have it) was wonderful, my Strat (got rid of it) was pretty lousy, but it wasn't until my bandmates in a group called Bloc forced me to get a better amp that i confronted the task of finding my desired sound. It all came down to tubes, and lower wattage. Then came the guitar. It started with a '66 Jaguar (hear every Trio CD) and led me to the Frankensteined '59 Jazzmaster that i currently favor. The neck, body shape, neck pickup tone, and behind-the-bridge possibilities were instantly inspirational for me. And back then these were not costly guitars.

Finally, effects. I didn't use them for years -- not since my all-feedback-no-chops teen years of fuzz and wah (nu-fuzz and nu-wah!). I have gone through many, but i see this time period as a great one for the sound explorer because there is so much choice. With dozens of boutique companies (seemingly all with silly micro-brew names) making unique items (like many, i find Z-Vex, Prescription Electronics, and the esteemed Centaur to be favorites) and vintage gear getting copied, re-issued, and auctioned on eBay, the potential for freakout is vaster than ever. Why do i use what i use? It's really so personal that it seems pointless to discuss it. Too much conversation about this has already taken place here! Although in my book one can't own too many fuzz boxes, that's just me. Pushing a button to instantly become Mr. or Ms. Rad is too easy -- what are we really about? Keep listening and playing from the heart and head and maybe we'll figure it all out together.

I give in! I give in! Here's an "artist's rendering" of my most-used effects array. Note: when i play with Vinny Golia, Christopher Garcia, or Bobby Bradford, almost all of this stays home. But i always bring a volume pedal -- have since the mid-'70's!

CLICK FOR IMAGE:

As I've said, so much time, energy, and MONEY goes into talk about equipment and the like, when only a few things are really of paramount significance when it comes to musicmaking - and guess what, I don't think equipment is high on that list! It still comes down to WHAT NOTES one chooses to play and to HOW ONE TOUCHES THE INSTRUMENT.

When I was 18, I went to a series of "Master Guitar Seminars" with some leading guitarists - mostly jazz guys. Only 2 things from that experience really stand out to this day: One negative and one positive. The negative one involved acoustic session guitarist and onetime Gabor Szabo collaborator (and former Guitar Player Magazine columnist) Jimmy Stewart. He was appalled first that we didn't all have guitars with us (things were pretty unstructured). He then (after handing out several photocopies of his GP column) proceeded to show us all HOW TO HOLD THE PICK. I was pretty much sure at this point that I wasn't going to get too much out of this session! I'd love to accumulate photos of "guitar greats" and focus on their picking hand (those who pick, anyway). It would very quickly become apparent that it's a highly personal matter. Why? Because guitarists quite often are self-taught maroons?? Partially. But also because (I think) that our physiology differs. Look at how Pat Metheny holds the pick ("correctly", in Jimmy Stewart terms) and how John McLaughlin holds the pick (coincidentally very similarly to yours truly). Which one has achieved the greater technique? Who cares! It's obvious that while a few guidelines are OK (to avoid the pifalls of tendonitis or scoliosis perhaps),it's a very individual choice - or accident. To my mind, this holds true for almost all aspects of musicmaking - indeed, of life. One thing that made the Jimmy Stewart Incident so lame was the second, positive thing I came away with at the seminar: Howard Roberts, the late, great jazz and session guitarist (I was already a fan of his wacky records like "Equinox Express Elevator" at the time) had addressed an aspect or two of this very issue weeks earlier. When asked about pick/hand/arm technique, he said (behind his everpresent dark glasses) : Suppose you want to write your name REAL SMALL. You'd probably only use the tiniest finger movements (he went to the chalkboard and wrote his name as tiny as possible - indeed Mr. Roberts' technique with the pick often really did resemble someone handwriting, so this was no empty doctrine). Now, suppose you want to write your name REAL BIG. You might need to use your WHOLE ARM to do it! (He then, with his arm stiff, wrote his name in letters 3 feet tall, using huge, arcing motions) You see?!!? Heheheheheh!!!! (He had a crazy person laugh).I loved Howard Roberts for this moment. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, folks! How you TOUCH the instrument is of paramount importance - hell, it's probably even important to all those guys with super low-action Ibanez 7-strings and walls of cheesewhiz Marshalls! (When I'm reincarnated I'm gonna come back as a 13-year-old who can tell these guys apart). As that terrible old Blind Faith song so sagely stated again and again (and again...), DO WHAT YOU LIKE! And don't take any shit!!