Discover Top Posts Tagged with #silent front

Next gig - Homespun Festival, Rochester, Kent - 25th July

At: The Billabong, Victoria Street, Rochester, ME1 1XJ

With: Bear vs Manero, Shitwife, Silent Front, Whitedevilwhitedevil, Sweet Deals on Surgery, Screen Wives, Punching Swans

Event link: https://www.facebook.com/events/751060181688413/

#Bear vs Manero #Shitwife #Silent Front #Whitedevilwhitedevil #Sweet Deals on Surgery #Screen Wives #Punching Swans

Interview - Gareth Thomas - USA Nails

You could call USA Nails somewhat of a obscure 'supergroup' as they are formed from members of Silent Front, Hawk Eyes, Kong and Oceansize BUT I imagine they're pretty sick of being called that by now! SO... USA Nails are a great new four-piece Noise-Rock/Post-Punk/Kraut band based in London. I've seen them play a few times now and they get better every time! Gareth (guitar) is an old friend of mine and this below is my interview with him about himself, his gear and also his 'motors'. (I think he means guitar when he says motor!!) Haha. Enjoy! First of all, how do you manage to be in so many bands at once? Everyone in all my bands has to juggle, their partners, other bands, jobs with strange hours, holidays etc. So I just try and be smart about organising stuff for one band when I know there'll be a lull in another. Sometimes there are clashes of course, but it generally works out pretty ok. What was your first guitar (or most notable early guitar!)? My first guitar was a cheap nylon stringed classical guitar that my parents got me when I was 7. I've bought and sold other acoustic guitars since, but this one is the one i always come back to. My first electric was an Encore Strat copy, which I got aged 10. It's covered in crap stickers, of course. At some point I decided it'd be a good idea to modify it and drop the tuning to BEADGB. It's kind of ruined now but I'd never get rid of it. Aside from Dire Straits at Live Aid, that guitar represented the first time I genuinely got excited about music. I didn't get my first decent guitar until I was 18 - a '72 reissue Custom Telecaster. It's been an absolute workhorse for me, and was pretty much the only motor I used for a good 10 years (I've had it re-fretted twice and re-profiled 3 times). I've used it in a few different bands as it's pretty versatile with the single coil/humbucker configuration.

What is your favourite recorded guitar sound? Not sure I could single out one in particular, but the couple at the forefront of my mind are - Part Chimp, especially on their first album, have that insane super distortion, which makes it sound like your speakers are breaking up. Before I heard that record I hadn't considered that a guitar sound like that would be workable on any record, but obviously, that album sounds so so good. Love it. Spiderland (Slint) sounds great I think, sparkling cleans, and brittle distortion. On paper, a weird mix, but in practice, probably my favourite production job on any record ever. Got 'nuff time for the drum sound too. If you ever start a blog for drum geeks, let me know. Tell me about your guitars, pedals and amps! In as much detail as you’d like! The set-ups I have in the two bands I play guitar in currently, are very different. In Mayors, I use my Custom Tele, with a 1979 50W Marshall JMP going into JCM 800 bass series cab (loaded with GT-65s). My JMP is pure filth, and probably the nicest amp I'll ever own. Having said that, I am considering part-exchanging it for a 100W version, as it's not quite loud enough for Nails, and I think I'd prefer to use a JMP for that band rather than what I currently have (an Orange OTR). I've got an un-necessarily chunky pedal board for Mayors, the most notable lads on it being a Crowther Hot-Cake (best), a Digitech Whammy-Wah (the old type - I use it mostly as an octave pedal. I bought the newer Whammy pedal they made more recently: mouthwash. It doesn't sound anywhere near as beefy as this), a Boss Octave OC-3, a Boss Digital Delay DD-3, a Holy Grail, a Big Muff (American) and Marshall Vibratrem. I also bought me and Claire (bassist) matching Boss EQ pedals, which we set with opposite settings, in an attempt to carve out room in the frequency spectrum for each other! In Nails, my main motor is a Univox Phase II Hi-Flier (with P90s). I use what's labelled as an Orange OTR120 (but my amp tech friend tells me is actually the 80W version), into the same JCM 800 cab I use for Mayors. The amp was built in the 90s and is based on the trad 70s Oranges as oppose to the high-gain monsters they make these days. Interestingly, the OTR range was built by Matamp, using Matamp parts (I checked with Jeff at the factory to make sure). I'd always wanted a Matamp, but this is probably the closest I'll come to having one. Notable pedals are a Harmonic Percolator clone, and a Boss DD-3, and sometimes a Tubescreamer clone my friend built if I'm borrowing an amp that ain't gainy enough. When I'm using the OTR, for 90% of the time i'm just bypassing everything and riding the gain good and hard on the amp. Interestingly, in two days (at the time of writing) we've got our album launch, and I've managed to blow the Orange, and snap the Trem Arm off the Hi-Flier in the last couple of weeks. Lush. So for the interim I'm borrowing Danny's (Nails' Bass lad) JCM 800 Bass Series head, which is proving a nice match for my cab. He's trying to sell it to me actually. I am very tempted. Steve (Nails' other guitar lad) is trying to convince me to buy the same combo he uses (Peavey Renown 400) as they go on eBay for about £100. His blew up on tour so we just bought another one between shows as they go so cheap. It's a great amp actually, the best solid state amp i've ever heard anyway. Other notable motors include a Gordon Smith GS-1, which is essentially an improved Les Paul Jr (with a handwound coil-tapped humbucker, and a brass nut), and a beautiful Kramer DMZ3000 (aluminium necked lad with Strat style 3 single coil pick-up layout). The Gordon Smith is my spare at gigs, and my 'bedroom' guitar. The Kramer is SEX, and one of the safest geezers around...I should probably use him more. If I could somehow attach a Jazzmaster style bridge I would.

Is there a part of your set up that is integral to your sound? I've thought quite a bit about this...but as it happens...no. Maybe - exclusively using gear that's older than I am, or at least based on stuff that's older than I am. How do you approach playing guitar (thought wise, not physically!)? In Nails, I try not to think much at all! We write fast, and try to trust our first instincts. Which is pretty much the total opposite of Mayors (and Silent Front), where we spend a lot of time mapping out every detail. Each approach has their merits, so it's nice to be able to do both. What did you use for the recording of the brand new USA Nails album ‘Sonic Moist’? In the run up to recording the album, my Orange got parred (it picks great moments to crap out on me), so I used my JMP instead, together with my Hi-Flier. I'm really pleased with the overall sound of the record, it’s loud and 'rough around the edges'. Partly because it was all done in a bit of a rush...for some reason. We tracked everything live including vocals in one day and consequently didn't put too much time into getting guitar sounds, so they ain't perfect, but that kind of fits the aesthetic of the band.

If you could play somebodies rig for one night, who’s would it be? Andy from That Fucking Tank's set-up sounds unreal, it'd be fun to have a go on that. Steve Albini's full Shellac rig is well geezer too (with the custom amp head with the one knob on it), I'd be well up for taking that for a spin, guitar n'all. So much trebs. Neither of these would work in any of my bands though. Tell me about your dream set up!! I would suck a fart out of the arse of a 100W JMP. In Silent Front,Phil (guitar lad) uses one, and that's kind of why I got my 50W in the first place. I didn't know a great deal about them when I got it, but I think they are pretty much my faves now. Even though they are a bit naughty in the highs. Having said that, I wouldn't kick a Bassman out of bed for eating a packet of crisps neither. Guitar-wise, a pre-CBS telecaster might be nice, or an original Travis Bean. A Phase III Hi-Flier would probably give me a death row hard-on. Any plans for your gear or bands you want to talk about? Of all the bands I'm in, I'm the only gear geek really. Steve in particular is really anti that sort of thing, which helps keep me grounded. He gets some great sounds out of a pretty simple set up. I know I don't *need* anything else really, but all my material possessions help keep me distracted from the fact that I'm a sad, sad man. So that given, I am keeping my eyes open for a Phase III Hi-flier (with the high output humbuckers and Jazzmaster type bridge). I could just change out the P90s in my Phase II, but that'd kind of feel like sacrilege. I know Eastwood do a version of those humbuckers...I have no idea if they’re any good though. As far as band plans go, Nails have a European tour in February 2015, and the recording of our next album booked in for March. Silent Front potentially have some really exciting touring plans for next year, but I'd probably better not go into any further detail about that just yet. And Mayors are going to be contributing a track to the next Rip This Joint 12" comp which will be excellent.

Check out USA Nails here;

Facebook

Bandcamp

Videos for : 'Sometimes I'd Rather See It All' & 'Am I A Man Or Not?'

Check out Silent Front here;

Facebook

Bandcamp

Check out Mayors of Miyazaki here;

Facebook

Bandcamp

#usa nails #silent front #mayors of miyazaki #uk #rock #noise #punk #post #bands

'Run James' - Live room recording via the Zoom H2 taken at our gig with Silent Front at The Stag & Hounds on Thursday 20th February 2014.

#live #stag and hounds #silent front #bristol #noise rock #repo man

Visit Original Link

Silent Front - More Is Less

Released earlier this month 'Trust' the latest album by the London trio Silent Front is both an excellent introduction to the groups fiery brand of hardcore-punk/minimal noise rock and an excellent addition to their already distinguished discography.

With their familiar jagged guitar lines, strident bass and rugged percussion firmly intact the group tear through the 8 songs comprising 'Trust' with a shrewdness that sees them breaking up their brooding post-hardcore tension with blasts of noisy punk-rock.

#Silent Front #Noise-rock #post-hardcore #punk-rock #2014