Premier Rock Forum

I think most Drop D songs sound like 90's relics, even those recorded later.

andyman wrote: Mon Jun 10, 2024 4:57 am Speaking of which, Jeff Mueller's been doing an At Action Park repress recently and posted some of the stamps on IG. They're really cool.

So cool!

I've only had one listen of To All Trains and yeah it's clearly preoccupied with death, isn't it. But not so surprising with everyone being in middle age. You see where things are going. Didn't think it would be Steve; he never drew odds on the PRF's slightly ghoulish who-dies-this-year polls, but, I didn't think it was going to be friends who died this year, either.

Interesting to hear Shellac turn in an album of tight, compact rock songs at the end, after all the freewheeling experimentalism. But with a 30 year difference in sensibility from At Action Park. It's almost pop music, in the way that 1000 Hurts was almost a pop album, at least by Shellac standards, or at least to me.

I know there are people who most appreciate the band for the no-fuckaround hard rock songs. For sure they had plenty of those. But I personally like the more expansive stuff just as much or even more. Songs like Didn't We Deserve... and The End Of Radio, I don't think they are self-indulgent at all, as some have said; they are perfectly paced. I listened to The End Of Radio the other day, and it was sounding better than ever. The dynamics, the B movie drama, and Steve's guitar so mournful, those anguished-sounding ascending minor/sus4 chords and the little solo, baow-baow-baow...

Live, with the "Is this thing on/can you hear me now?" gag evolving into something more profound over the course of the performance, even better. The first version of the song I heard was a live version and it's such a sly move. One of many from the most intellectual rock band since Steely Dan, an obvious influence.

Krev wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2024 6:10 pm I think most Drop D songs sound like 90's relics, even those recorded later.

Most Shellac songs are dropped D aren’t they? Honestly for me Dropped D is standard tuning. Being able to bar a low strings chord then screw around with a poly chord is a lot more interesting. I get the dislike when someone is just slapping out Helmet riffs but Dropped D isn’t just about that.

Gramsci wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 2:37 am Most Shellac songs are dropped D aren’t they?

Not that many - there's a Quietus article that mentions there are a pool of 5 or 6 songs they did live that they'd retune for. I think FM penningtron is right that they stuck to standard from Terraform.

I’m going to get nerdy.

There’s no Percolator fuzz on Excellent Italian Greyhound, right? I remember being struck by that. Maybe it was the one after it. Haven’t really listened in years and maybe now’s a good time since I’m going back over my old Pynchon favs from my 20’s.

Also, (paraphrasing) on the (now private) Mix W/ The Masters chat w/ FMs Greg and Tim, Greg mentioned that Steve put a lot of thought into the amp selections for Shellac Records, and that he didn’t always use his touring rig in the studio. That might explain a lot about the sound of the guitar changing from record to record later on. I remember commenting that the guitar sounded a lot different on one of them (maybe EIT again), and he replied saying he had new EGC pickups in his main whip… but maybe he was also using different amps?

Greg also mentioned some of the mics used on the guitars and they were a bunch of cool ribbons of course.

Guessing Bob Weston used the TS50B on most everything, though I wrote him once and he said it was a YBA3 on the first LP. I was an embarrassing kid at the time and couldn’t understand how he was getting a good overdriven sound w/ a solid state amp at a time.

Gramsci wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 2:37 am

Krev wrote: Tue Jun 11, 2024 6:10 pm I think most Drop D songs sound like 90's relics, even those recorded later.

Most Shellac songs are dropped D aren’t they? Honestly for me Dropped D is standard tuning. Being able to bar a low strings chord then screw around with a poly chord is a lot more interesting. I get the dislike when someone is just slapping out Helmet riffs but Dropped D isn’t just about that.

We are writing a record RN and it's the same approach as you state. It's not for the taco riffage purposes, but you can get great dissonance with this approach. I use the standard tuning like that as well.

Oddly the thing that keeps me from listening to Excellent Italian Greyhound as much as I could is the pain in the ass packaging of the record

One of my personal pet peeves is annoyingly complicated packaging and no indication of the record side on the record without holding it up to the light to read the engraving.

Boo!!!!

llllllllllllllllllll wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 6:53 am I’m going to get nerdy.

There’s no Percolator fuzz on Excellent Italian Greyhound, right? I remember being struck by that. Maybe it was the one after it. Haven’t really listened in years and maybe now’s a good time since I’m going back over my old Pynchon favs from my 20’s.

Also, (paraphrasing) on the (now private) Mix W/ The Masters chat w/ FMs Greg and Tim, Greg mentioned that Steve put a lot of thought into the amp selections for Shellac Records, and that he didn’t always use his touring rig in the studio. That might explain a lot about the sound of the guitar changing from record to record later on. I remember commenting that the guitar sounded a lot different on one of them (maybe EIT again), and he replied saying he had new EGC pickups in his main whip… but maybe he was also using different amps?

Greg also mentioned some of the mics used on the guitars and they were a bunch of cool ribbons of course.

Guessing Bob Weston used the TS50B on most everything, though I wrote him once and he said it was a YBA3 on the first LP. I was an embarrassing kid at the time and couldn’t understand how he was getting a good overdriven sound w/ a solid state amp at a time.

Steve mentioned in this interview in Premier Guitar that came out in early March that he's used a variety of tube amps on the Shellac records: OR80, the Sam Amp, YBA-3 and 1, JTM45. I've definitely seen pics of him using the blonde Bassman at the studio, not the tuxedo black panel that was in the live rig. But always w/ a solid state amp of some sort going direct.

https://www.premierguitar.com/features/ ... in-session

I think there's at least some Percolator on "Spoke" on EIG.

tallchris wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 11:42 am
Steve mentioned in this interview in Premier Guitar that came out in early March that he's used a variety of tube amps on the Shellac records: OR80, the Sam Amp, YBA-3 and 1, JTM45. I've definitely seen pics of him using the blonde Bassman at the studio, not the tuxedo black panel that was in the live rig. But always w/ a solid state amp of some sort going direct.

Thank you! I even read that damn article and was so stoked about him going into depth on guitar recording that I must have breezed past it, or else just completely forgot.

About to blast Excellent Italian Greyhound in the headphones as I dive deeper and deeper into a spreadsheet hell

Gramsci wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2024 8:48 am Oddly the thing that keeps me from listening to Excellent Italian Greyhound as much as I could is the pain in the ass packaging of the record

My dog ripped mine. The outer sleeve.