My current board: Boss TU-3 Tuner<Boss Dual Overdrive (with footswitch)<SS/BS Team Awesome Fuzz Machine<OBNE Reflector<Boss Super Shifter<Red Witch Synthotron<EQD Disaster Transport SR<OBNE Procession
Submitted by wisconseattle
Dude, this board is seriously sick as fuck! Thanks for sharing. Canât say Iâve had good experiences with that particular boss pedal, but I like everything on the board besides it. Top notch! How do you like the Synthotron??
The Synthotron is pretty cool. The filter side is a noise making machine (like a broken, out of control arpeggiator), which i love. I use a EQD Bit commander in a different band and it does a similar thing as the synth side but in a more controlled way, so at some point the synthotron may get switched out for it...
I know that Boss pedals arenât for everyone (or I should say they start as the pedals that everyone gets first and than moves from) but the Dual Overdrive through a fender twin has been my sound since the 90â˛s. Iâve tried A LOT of distortion/Overdrive pedals and I still keep coming back to that one...so I guess itâs here to stay...
Elektra 1982 / Rhino 2001 Remastered & expanded issue CD 1.The Hungry Wolf 00:00 2.Motel Room in My Bed 03:47 3.Riding With Mary 06:29 4.Come Back to Me 10:1...
A complaint I hear often is that the world today is obsessed with the single as the measuring stick of a bands worth. Â The people who say this point towards our tendency towards playlist creation and digital downloading which, while fair, ignores that the fact that people have been declaring the death of the album since the creation of top forty radio.
Nonetheless, in the spirit of the perhaps bygone age of the album, we took time out of our busy schedule of curating the worldâs greatest Spotify playlist for French electronic music (Circa 1978 - 1980 only) to prove them wrong by actually listening to an album from start to finish. Â Since nothing is real until it is posted on the Internet, we decided to do a track-by-track review as proof that we did not fall victim to our shortened attention spans and access to HBO Go.
This week we selected the third album from X, âUnder the Big Black Sun.â This album was released in 1982 and was the band first with major label Electra.
How does âUnder the Big Black Sunâ hold up? Lets find outâŚ
Track One: The Hungry Wolf.
This song starts out with a tough sounded guitar riff and tom heavy beat. So far the albums off to a good start. Jon Doeâs vocals are pretty awesome, and the next section of music is off time and weird, but X is smart enough to only ride this section for a few bars before launching into an upbeat rock part that is slathered with awesome harmonies.Â
Thatâs all well and good, but by the two minute mark it ends up somehow feeling way too long. The repetition of just three parts over and over again without any sort of building, release, or climax just began to wear on me after a whileâŚwhich is to bad, because the core of the song is good. It just needed either another part or to be a little shorter.
Track Two: Motel Room In My Bed
Ok. Here we go! A classic X rock song.
Exene sounds great on this track, which is very important. As a singer, Exene, may have some of the biggest swings from song to song of any front person in music history. Youâll hear one song where she sounds amazing. The next song will completely be unlistenable thanks to her.Â
So far the first songs have showcased the dual vocals that the band is known for, and they are killing it. Whatâs nextâŚ
Track Three: Riding With Mary
Lame. This track is a dud. The music is fine, but thereâs nothing really exciting or emotional about it. It just kind of sits there.
Lyrically it is a story song, something that X usually excels at, but this seems half formed and devoid of a chorus. I donât mean that it doesnât have a chorus, I mean the one that is there is weak. It isnât a hook, but they sing it like it is.
Nothing about this song is very memorable. I think they meant this song to be a change up from the upbeat first two tracks to the next track, but they may as well of had four minutes of silence.
Track Four: Please Come Back to Me
This is a throw back 50âs song thatâs a nice mellow groove. Needless to say it is much more enjoyable then Riding with Mary. Billy Zoom plays a great swinging clean rockabilly riff.
Exene sounds really good on this song. Normally her vocal stylingâs are better on their punk/rock material, but she really nails the verses. I do kind of wish that she put a little more energy into chorus, though as it seems a little laid back.
AlsoâŚlets just talk about the saxophone. I really like it, but I also canât decide if it is super corny or not. You know what? It is. It totally is. But I like it, because it fits so well with the oldies vibe.Â
Track Five: Under the Big Black Sun
Ok, The verses and pre-chorus on this song are great. The guitar riff is awesome, the drums are driving, and the harmonies between Jon and Exene are spot onâŚ
Hold on thereâs a but comingâŚ
ButâŚthat chorusâŚ
This is the second song in five tries that is completely sold out by its lack of a decent hook or melody. NowâŚI know what you are saying, âGee, not every song needs to be a pop song with a big singalong chorus.â
And youâre right, Not every band needs to have a big chorus in every song. But X does. They arenât unsane, they are a catchy punk band. They made their bones on playing songs that sound like a hopped up, punk rock version of âJacksonâ by June carter and Johnny cash. Thatâs what they do. People like them because their best songs are catchy as hell with weird, vaguely poetic lyrics.
So to have a song that is catchy for the verses and then so anti-catchy in the chorus that I just listened to it and forgot how it goes is a drag. To then have that be the title track off of the album feels like they are trolling me, even though that wasnât actually a thing in 1982.
Track Six: Because I do.
And just like that we get another good X rock song.
Iâd like to take a moment to talk about Jon Doe. His back vocals are frequently nothing less then heroic. If a melody or harmony falls flat, it will not be because Jon Doe was asleep at the switch. That fool is working hard.
Ok. Weâre six songs in. We have one great song, two good ones, one that could have been great but is too long and two weak cuts. I was hoping for a better spread. Letâs see what the next song has to offerâŚ
Track Seven: Blue Spark
This is a sneaky good song. It has a cool intro riff and I really like Exene backup vocals. It could be a little faster, but i think that about 95% songsâŚ
Track Eight: Dancing with tears in my eyes.
This is a cover of a 50âs song that I have never heard of, but itâs pretty great. Billy zoom once again comes through with a cool guitar lick, this time adding a Latin flavor to the track, plus thereâs a very tasty lead thrown in for good measure.
It isnât an essential X track or anything, but in a slightly dodgy album, it is a breathe of fresh air because it is an actually compelling song.
Track Nine: Real Child of Hell
This one is sorta famous because they showed a complete breakdown of the itâs writing process in the documentary âX: the unheard Music.â Itâs a really good song, and the band nails it musically, but I donât necessarily like the vocal performances that are happening in it.
This is probably Jon doeâs weakest singing moment on the album, and Exeneâs harmonizes sound slightly out of key. Because of this the song sounds slightly off putting and grating. Add to that the strong choice to add a stuttering vocal effect to the vocals after the chorus and you have a song that should have been the highlight of the album, but ends up an also ran.
Track Ten: How I (Learned My Lesson)
This songs like old school X, but in a really filler-ish way. The call and response Chorus is very awkward. The song is only two minutes long but seems much longer due to itâs blandness. The only redeeming thing about it is a nice Billy Zoom solo.
Track Eleven: The Have Nots
Great Riff. Great Hook. Great song.Â
Songs like The Have Nots are exactly why X is revered. Itâs catchy. Itâs musically exciting. The lyrics turn a night of routine drinking into a political statement and beautiful poetic snapshotâŚand at a certain point it devolves into just a list of the bands favorite barsâŚand I love that about it.
It also features a honky tonk breakdown and solo from Mr. Zoom that takes the song to another level. It is the standout track to the album, and in a better world it would have been a massive hit.
The Final verdict: Itâs not Xâs best effort by a long shot, but there are some gems to be found if you use the skip button judiciously.
Best Song: The Have Nots.
Worst song: Riding with Mary. Itâs just so bland.
Would you bump this album again? No. Not all of the way through. I would have to skip almost half the tracks, because they are just not that good and I could die at any moment.
This is the Official Music Video for DOUBLE BROTHER, which can be found on WISCON's debut album "DISC". But it here at: https://wiscon.bandcamp.com/track/dou...
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 7/31 â Roadside Monument
Although Wiscon has achieved a level of fame around the world second only to the Fudgie the Whale and the guy who invented Put-Put golf, itâs important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts weâre still a Seattle Band.
With that in mind we bring you Seattle Music Throwback Thursdays, a series of weekly posts honoring the dearly departed and but not nearly as famous as us Seattle musical acts that we think should get a little of that Wiscon Shine.
This week we focus on Roadside Monument, a math rock band that crushed it from 1994-1998 (with a brief come back in 2002). They put a few 7â and EPâs as well as three full lengths, before the members went on to play in Raft of Dead Monkeys, Warlord, The Out Circuit and Patrol.
Check out seven minutes and one second of feedback and mathy riffs AKA I am the Day of Current Taste, the title track off of Roadside Monumentâs final album.
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 7/10 - Death List 5
Although Wiscon has achieved a level of fame around the world second only to the Duncan Imperial YoYo and Stefan Urquelle, itâs important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts weâre still a Seattle Band.
With that in mind we bring you Seattle Music Throwback Thursdays, a series of weekly posts honoring the dearly departed and but not nearly as famous as us Seattle musical acts that we think should get a little of that Wiscon Shine.
This week we focus on DeathList 5, a grinding Punk Metal band that blazed around Seattle through out the mid 2000's. They released two albums on the their own Label, Beer Metal Records, and were super fun to party with.
Check out 2:30 of Screaming and Brutal-ness Aka Death list 5 live at the Galway Arms.Â
Although Wiscon has achieved a level of fame around the world second only to Taco bell's Waffle tacos and the dude who invented Jazzercise, itâs important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts weâre still a Seattle Band.
With that in mind we bring you Seattle Music Throwback Thursdays, a series of weekly posts honoring the dearly departed and but not nearly as famous as us Seattle musical acts that we think should get a little of that Wiscon Shine.
This week we focus on The New Mexicans, which played mathy, spazzy Indie Rock from 2001- 2005. They released one seven inch and a full length, which if you try real hard you can still probably find on Amazon right now. Members of this group went on to form Band of Horses and Grand Archives, who you may have heard of...or not. I don't know.
Check out 28:18 of angular riffs, killer drumming and silly song titles AKA The New Mexicans 2003 album "Chicken Head Talking Diamonds"
Band: The Cars. Genre(s): New wave, Pop rock, Power pop. Album: The Cars. Year: 1978.
A complaint I hear often is that the world today is obsessed with the single as the measuring stick of a bands worth. The people who say this point towards our tendency towards playlist creation and digital downloading which, while fair, ignores that the fact that people have been declaring the death of the album since the creation of top forty radio.
Nonetheless, in the spirit of the perhaps bygone age of the album, we took time out of our busy schedule of curating the worldâs greatest Spotify playlist for Norwegian Black Metal (Circa 1988- 1990 only) to prove them wrong by actually listening to an album from start to finish. Â Since nothing is real until it is posted on the Internet, we decided to do a track-by-track review as proof that we did not fall victim to our shortened attention spans and access to HBO Go.
This week we selected the debut album from The Cars, named simply âThe Cars.â This album was released in 1978. Although this album spawned some hits, it would be a full six years and three albums until The Cars reached their peak of popularty with the album Heartbeat City (featuring Drive, Magic and MTV Staple You might think). Spoiler alertâŚbesides those singles, Heartbeat City isnât that good.
How does âThe Carsâ hold up? Lets find outâŚ
Track One: Let The Good Times Roll.Â
My first thought as I dropped the youtube needle on side one track one isâŚthis is what they thought would be an awesome starter? THIS? Donât get me wrong, Let the good times roll is a fine song. Totally fine. It is fairly representative of what the Cars do. The drums are playing a rock beat. Thereâs some weird EH space drum or drum machine noise happening. Crunchy guitars. 1970âs synths. Rock solid bass.Â
The song is the definition of fine; itâs not the worst song on the album, definitely not the best. Itâs fineâŚeven listenable. But this is the very first song on side one of a debut album and it feels like a B-side deep cut, no matter how many layers of backing vocals they throw on it, and thatâs a lot because the second thing that hits you after the kinda turgid nature of this song is how over the top the back ground vocals are. Itâs actually awesome. I imagine the discussions in the studio:
BEN ORR: WaitâŚyou want me to do it again? Iâve already sang it, like, fifty times-
PRODUCER: I know. Please do it again.
BEN ORR: was there something wrong with them or-
PRODUCER: No. They were all great.
BEN ORR: soâŚcan we use one of them?
PRODUCER: we are. Weâre using all of them. But I need more.
BEN ORR: Do you think thatâs wise? I mean-
PRODUCER: I need more Ben! Whatâs the problem? Sing the goddamn line again!
BEN ORR: Ok. Ok, justâŚweâve been here for, like, fourteen hours tracking background vocals-
PRODUCER:Â You can make the record or not make the record, Ben. Greg Hawkes is warming up as we speak. Get in the booth.
This track also starts a new trend for the Cars using lyrics that are just good enough. In this case it âIf they got Thunder Appeal, let them be on your side.â WaitâŚwhat? That made it into the song? No one ever stopped Ric as he started singing to double check that he was using the most up to date lyric sheet?
Track Two: Best friends Girl
P.S. this is more like it. Best friends Girl is a full on classic. Everything about it is great. The hand claps. Elliot Eastonâs country guitar licks. The hook. Itâs perfect.Â
Weird lyric number two: âYou got your nuclear boots and your drip-dry glovesâ what is a nuclear boot? Is this a seventies thing? You know what, Iâm not even mad. This song is amazing.
Track Three: Just what I needed
Another super hit. So good. The greatest hits had the foresight to put this cut on first because itâs the best. Â I canât fathom why they didnât do that for this album unless they where trying to keep Ben Orr depressed so he could continue writing monster jams.Â
It should be noted that when Benn Orr steps up to the mic the results are always golden.  His lyrics are totally emo, but slightly more understandable then Ricâs. His only odd line is the âneeded someone to Bleedâ at the end of chorus, but Iâll let that go, as it doesnât mention a sort of atomic footwear or the dubious type of charisma that is somehow thunderous.
Weâre eleven minutes in and despite my feelings on Track one, this is a strong ass album. Whatâs nextâŚ
Track Four: Iâm in touch with your world.
Oh.
This is legitimately not a good song. It seems like it only took a minute and one half to write, even though itâs three and a half minutes long.  It seems so tossed off and half-baked that itâs depressing that they spent so much time and effort in overproducing it. So much alternate percussion, and the whistle. Donât get me started with the whistle. Even in the dark days of 1978 no song has ever been enhanced by the inclusion of a whistle.
My only hope was that the whistle was the refâs throwing up a red card on Ricâs lyrics. You come out onto field with âyou get the funk after death, you get the wisenheimer brainstormâ you get sent to bench. Thatâs what has to happen. Ride pine and think about what you did Ocasek.
This album has nine songs on it. Maybe they should have thought about eight.
Track Five: Donât Cha Stop
Ok, this song seems better then it really is because when it comes on you realize that itâs not âIâm in touch with your world.â
Things this song has going for it: a tasty lead by Elliot Easton. And some nice organ work by Greg Hawkes (P.S. get your mind out of the gutter)Â
Things working against it: This is a total Ric Ocasek sex song. Your mileage with that may very, since Ric looks like someone put Leather pants and a mullet on IG 88.  I donât have problem with itâŚor this lyric: âRight here, youâre hands are soft and creamy. Right here, your mouth is wet and dreamyâŚâ
It's pretty good, but not great.
Track Six: Youâre all I got tonight.
Another super hit in a pretty stacked album. For those keeping score at home, weâre six track in; three of those tracks are solid gold classic hits. Two of them are pretty good pop songs and one of them is terrible. Any band in the world would take that ratio.
But back to âYouâre all I got tonight.â The back up vocals are bananas. So over the top. You can also tell that this is Elliot Eastonâs favorite song to play, because he plays fills/soloâs almost all the way through it. Apparently he is a giant fan of hammer onâs..Â
The only thing this song is missing is the now trending Ric Ocasek terrible line. The closest we get is âyou can rock just about anywhereâ and that doesnât touch âWisenheimer brainstorm.â Maybe his benching on track four sent him a message.
Track Seven: Bye Bye Love.
This is one of the best songs on the album. So underrated. Every time âshake it upâ comes on the radio I think, â We arenât you playing Bye Bye Love?â The only nit pick you can throw at this song is that Orr uses a ton of twenty-dollar words in the lyrics, when a quarter would suffice.Â
AlsoâŚthe keyboard solo. Can we talk about that? Itâs Gregs best moment of the record. Itâs so good and weirdly proggy sounding for what is a straight up pop song. Every time it comes on I what to punch someone in the face with happiness.
Here it is...the home stretch. Two songs left. What have you got, Cars?
Track Eight: Moving in Stereo
I remember not liking this song, but itâs actually pretty rad. It sounds like something that would be used in a Nicholas Winding Refn movie, and I mean that as a complement.
Also, Ric is back, baby. Hereâs the line: âLifeâs the same, except for my shoes! Lifeâs the same, youâre shaking like Tremolo!â THAT is terrible. Thank you so much for being you, Ric.
Track Nine: All mixed up.
Moving in Stereo flows right into this moody final track. On first listen I wasnât totally blown away by this cut, but it has totally grown on me and now I think itâs pretty great.
The harmonies are awesome. The opening guitar riff is on point and Greg Hawkes chips in some great keyboards and some surprisingly competent Saxophone.
The Final verdict: âThe carsâ is a great album. At nine songs and half an hour it is a quick fun listen, as long as you skip Iâm in touch with your world, which is the only bad song on the album.
In fact, if we drop that song from the album then you have four classic hits, along with four songs that are legitimately good to great. Thatâs rarer then you would think it would be.
Best Song: this is hardâŚprobably a tie between Just what I needed and Best Friends Girl
Worst song: Iâm in touch with your world. Itâs not even close.
Would you bump this album again? Totally. Itâs great.
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 7/3 â Teen Cthulhu
Although Wiscon has achieved a level of fame around the world second only to the Nacho Cheese Combos and the dude who took over vocals for Van Halen after Sammy Hagar, itâs important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts weâre still a Seattle Band.
With that in mind we bring you Seattle Music Throwback Thursdays, a series of weekly posts honoring the dearly departed and but not nearly as famous as us Seattle musical acts that we think should get a little of that Wiscon Shine.
This week we focus on Teen Chulthu, a metal juggernaut that tore ass through Seattle from 1998 - 2003. They put out a bunch of great records, including a legendary split 10 inch with Akimbo. Members of this group went on to form the super awesome Book of Black Earth, who you should also bump if you dig metal.
Check out 27:24 of screams, riffs and double bass AKA Teen Cthulhuâ s 2003 album âRide the Bladeâ
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 6/26 â Peter Parker
Although Wiscon has achieved a level of fame around the world second only to the Velcro tennis shoes and the guy who invented mini-cupcakes, itâs important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts weâre still a Seattle Band.
With that in mind we bring you Seattle Music Throwback Thursdays, a series of weekly posts honoring the dearly departed and but not nearly as famous as us Seattle musical acts that we think should get a little of that Wiscon Shine.
This week we focus on Peter Parker, a super fun Seattle indie rock band that put out two great albums (Migliore! and semiautobiographical) and rocked out all over the pacific northwest from 1997 - 2002. They reunited for a few shows in 2006, so if we're lucky they may reform again and continue to rock the earth.
Check out the link for Three minutes and thirty seconds of energy and catchiness AKA a song that I don't recognize off of either of the albums. (This is something you may have to get used to for the throwback...we want to give you a taste of the bands, but we can only give you what the internet has to offer.)
