December Pedal Board Design & Indie Rock

This month we are very fortunate to have some great shows lined up. This Friday, December 16th, we’ll be playing an awesome show at the 86 Club with old friends A Wayward Heart and old/new friends, Language of the Birds. The show is actually a long awaited reunion show for A Wayward Heart and, as a band, we’re pretty honored to have been asked to be a part of it. For years we’ve admired their efforts and have been really close with guitarist/multi-pedalist Brian Beyke and the various out pouring of his talents. We’re also very excited to hear Language of the Birds take the stage. On any other day, they’re two great guys that used to be in Good Morning Gladys (who also had a song called Spheres!!!) but on this Friday, they’ll be two great guys and the most love-able Andy Hull look-a-like … Andy Lay. Quick story about Andy Lay, we had him come up on stage with us in November to smash a plastic Santa with a sledgehammer.

With all this going on on Friday, we decided to get working in the band space and out of respect for Brian Beyke, I decided to switch up my pedal board design a bit. Here’s a google-earth view of it:

To be brief, I went minimalist. Generally I have an octave pedal with a DL4 in the effects loop of it but I decided to try a simpler approach to achieve a little ambient insanity for this show. Notice the Danelectro Daddy-O, an indie rock overdrive classic, in the far right hand corner, it’s intensely modified. It actually is the beginning of an entirely separate effects chain running through the board that my guitar never touches. I have it set up so that a cheap radio shack microphone with a 1/4 inch output plugs into the Daddy-O that is then sent to the Stereo Memory Man, the T.C. Electronics Nova Delay and finally to the mic input of my Boss RC-20XL. What does that mean? That means I’ll have a microphone running through an overdrive and two delay pedals running straight into my Fender Pro-Reverb! What does that mean? Nasty noises! What will I use it for? I don’t really know! I’m just really excited about it!

Expect unnecessary amounts of delayed feedback on Friday. Godspeed You Black Emperor style…

- Corey

Sad News For Indie Rock – Southgate House Closing

Sadly, the historic Southgate House, I can’t believe I’m saying this, is closing. Eachnotesecure.com posted about it earlier today and the Southgate House officially released a statement on their website tonight:

Go Visit the Comet – Cincinnati Music

Griffin and I were re-thinking our summer a couple days ago and for us, one of the most redeeming events that took place was when The Never Setting Suns played at  the Comet every Tuesday in July.

To be honest, I had no idea what to think. I had never been to the Comet before. All I knew is what people told me when I told them we were playing there in July: “Try the burritos man, they are amazing.” A bar that has live music, a bike night, and burritos? Even showing up there and playing our first set, I was thinking, “man, how are we going to do this and play fresh materiel every week? Will our fans continue coming here every week to hear us?” Sure enough, they did, and I think that encouraged us to practice some new tunes, as well as learn some snappy covers to entertain the troops. The Comet, definitely being a cool indie bar that our fans have now grown to love and trust.

For us, it was really perfect timing. We were trying to find the funds to record out latest album (To-Be-Released) and the Comet was more than generous to us. And as I mentioned, it was some of the most fun we had all summer. We found ourselves playing our set until 12:30 or 1 and then just hanging out, dumping quarters into the juke-box, usually playing some Greenhornes.

Bottom line, go there if you haven’t. Go there on a Tuesday and see who is playing. Tuesdays are also bike nights at The Comet and your bound to see a sweet hog.

….Also…its true…the Burritos are amazing.

-Chris

O’Brother – Garden Window Release

I thought today I would share with you all a band that we have been listening to for some time now. That band is O’Brother.

I first saw them after Griffin had raved about them for so long. Him and I made a trip to Columbus to see Manchester Orchestra play and these fellas were opening. Needless to say, I was hooked as soon as I heard them. I remember telling Griffin on the way home “man, that is something I have been waiting for, for a long time.” I remember thinking, how did they craft such beautiful melodies with such powerful, face melting riffs? It was definitely refreshing to hear something so heavily intricate and solid in a generation of “pop” and “indie dance.”

We went to see them a couple weeks later when they came to Cincy at the Mad Hatter (RIP). Talking with them after the show, I was immediately taken back by just how down to earth these guys were. Again, not something I have seen too much in the rock and roll scene before. Not to mention, we realized that many of the influences and things they were listening to, was extremely similar to us, including bands like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Mogwai.

O’Brother’s first full length album (Garden Window) is being released tomorrow. Pick it up (figuratively – MP3s are great too) and listen to it, you wont be disappointed. When they are close by, or not, go to their show. It is a difficult thing to capture the raw intensity that live shows have, this is one of those bands that you want to see live. Go, therefore, and “like” them on Facebook, follow them on Twitter (@obrothermusic), get the EP, and watch their live performance on Audio Tree.

-Chris