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. Can’t say I’ve 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 aren’t 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 90′s. I’ve tried A LOT of distortion/Overdrive pedals and I still keep coming back to that one...so I guess it’s 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. 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 world’s 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. 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, “Under the Big Black Sun.” This album was released in 1982 and was the band first with major label Electra.
How does “Under the Big Black Sun” hold up? Lets find out…
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 Doe’s 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.
That’s 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 while…which 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. You’ll hear one song where she sounds amazing. The next song will completely be unlistenable thanks to her.
So far the first songs have showcased the dual vocals that the band is known for, and they are killing it. What’s next…
Track Three: Riding With Mary
Lame. This track is a dud. The music is fine, but there’s 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 don’t mean that it doesn’t have a chorus, I mean the one that is there is weak. It isn’t 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 50’s song that’s 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 styling’s 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.
Also…lets just talk about the saxophone. I really like it, but I also can’t 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.
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 on…
Hold on there’s a but coming…
But…that chorus…
This is the second song in five tries that is completely sold out by its lack of a decent hook or melody. Now…I know what you are saying, “Gee, not every song needs to be a pop song with a big singalong chorus.”
And you’re right, Not every band needs to have a big chorus in every song. But X does. They aren’t unsane, they are a catchy punk band. They made their bones on playing songs that sound like a hopped up, punk rock version of “Jackson” by June carter and Johnny cash. That’s 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 wasn’t actually a thing in 1982.
Track Six: Because I do.
And just like that we get another good X rock song.
I’d 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. We’re 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. Let’s see what the next song has to offer…
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% songs…
Track Eight: Dancing with tears in my eyes.
This is a cover of a 50’s song that I have never heard of, but it’s pretty great. Billy zoom once again comes through with a cool guitar lick, this time adding a Latin flavor to the track, plus there’s a very tasty lead thrown in for good measure.
It isn’t 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 it’s writing process in the documentary “X: the unheard Music.” It’s a really good song, and the band nails it musically, but I don’t necessarily like the vocal performances that are happening in it.
This is probably Jon doe’s weakest singing moment on the album, and Exene’s 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 it’s blandness. The only redeeming thing about it is a nice Billy Zoom solo.
Track Eleven: The Have Nots
Great Riff. Great Hook. Great song.
Songs like The Have Nots are exactly why X is revered. It’s catchy. It’s musically exciting. The lyrics turn a night of routine drinking into a political statement and beautiful poetic snapshot…and at a certain point it devolves into just a list of the bands favorite bars…and 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: It’s not X’s 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. It’s 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 – 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, it’s important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts we’re 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 7” and EP’s 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 Monument’s 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, it’s important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts we’re 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.
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, it’s important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts we’re 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 world’s 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. 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 “The Cars.” 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 alert…besides those singles, Heartbeat City isn’t that good.
How does “The Cars” hold up? Lets find out…
Track One: Let The Good Times Roll.
My first thought as I dropped the youtube needle on side one track one is…this is what they thought would be an awesome starter? THIS? Don’t 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. There’s some weird EH space drum or drum machine noise happening. Crunchy guitars. 1970’s synths. Rock solid bass.
The song is the definition of fine; it’s not the worst song on the album, definitely not the best. It’s fine…even 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 that’s 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. It’s actually awesome. I imagine the discussions in the studio:
BEN ORR: Wait…you want me to do it again? I’ve 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: so…can we use one of them?
PRODUCER: we are. We’re using all of them. But I need more.
BEN ORR: Do you think that’s wise? I mean-
PRODUCER: I need more Ben! What’s the problem? Sing the goddamn line again!
BEN ORR: Ok. Ok, just…we’ve been here for, like, fourteen hours tracking background vocals-
PRODUCER: 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 “If they got Thunder Appeal, let them be on your side.” Wait…what? 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 Easton’s country guitar licks. The hook. It’s perfect.
Weird lyric number two: “You got your nuclear boots and your drip-dry gloves” what is a nuclear boot? Is this a seventies thing? You know what, I’m 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 it’s the best. I can’t fathom why they didn’t do that for this album unless they where trying to keep Ben Orr depressed so he could continue writing monster jams.
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 Ric’s. His only odd line is the “needed someone to Bleed” at the end of chorus, but I’ll let that go, as it doesn’t mention a sort of atomic footwear or the dubious type of charisma that is somehow thunderous.
We’re eleven minutes in and despite my feelings on Track one, this is a strong ass album. What’s next…
Track Four: I’m 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 it’s three and a half minutes long. It seems so tossed off and half-baked that it’s depressing that they spent so much time and effort in overproducing it. So much alternate percussion, and the whistle. Don’t 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 ref’s throwing up a red card on Ric’s lyrics. You come out onto field with “you get the funk after death, you get the wisenheimer brainstorm” you get sent to bench. That’s 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: Don’t Cha Stop
Ok, this song seems better then it really is because when it comes on you realize that it’s not “I’m in touch with your world.”
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)
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 don’t have problem with it…or this lyric: “Right here, you’re hands are soft and creamy. Right here, your mouth is wet and dreamy…”
It's pretty good, but not great.
Track Six: You’re all I got tonight.
Another super hit in a pretty stacked album. For those keeping score at home, we’re 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 “You’re all I got tonight.” The back up vocals are bananas. So over the top. You can also tell that this is Elliot Easton’s favorite song to play, because he plays fills/solo’s almost all the way through it. Apparently he is a giant fan of hammer on’s..
The only thing this song is missing is the now trending Ric Ocasek terrible line. The closest we get is “you can rock just about anywhere” and that doesn’t touch “Wisenheimer brainstorm.” 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 “shake it up” comes on the radio I think, “ We aren’t you playing Bye Bye Love?” 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.
Also…the keyboard solo. Can we talk about that? It’s Gregs best moment of the record. It’s 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 it’s 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. Here’s the line: “Life’s the same, except for my shoes! Life’s the same, you’re shaking like Tremolo!” 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 wasn’t totally blown away by this cut, but it has totally grown on me and now I think it’s 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: “The cars” is a great album. At nine songs and half an hour it is a quick fun listen, as long as you skip I’m 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. That’s rarer then you would think it would be.
Best Song: this is hard…probably a tie between Just what I needed and Best Friends Girl
Worst song: I’m in touch with your world. It’s not even close.
Would you bump this album again? Totally. It’s great.
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 7/3 – 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, it’s important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts we’re 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 Cthulhu’ s 2003 album “Ride the Blade”
Seattle Music Throwback Thursday 6/26 – 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, it’s important to us that we remember that in our heart of hearts we’re 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.)
