#and his amplifiers and pedals

[cherrylng]

WOTP Dom Howard Interview [INROCK - Muse (October 2022)]

Unparalleled rock trio Muse release first new album in four years, Will of the People.

"We don't want to do a best-of album or a compilation because we're going to keep making new music."

Dominic Howard/Muse INTERVIEW: AI ANAZAWA

Muse have released their new album ‘Will of the People’, their first album in almost four years since ‘Simulation Theory’ (2018). The band has always been big on the soundscale, but this time they've pushed each of the songs to their full potential, making the rock songs harder and the ballads more dramatic, creating what might be described as the ‘strongest’ album yet. The album was self-produced without an external producer due to the Corona disaster, but as you would expect from a seasoned artist, he knows his identity and what he needs to do now. Dominic, who agreed to be interviewed by Zoom, was relaxing in the sunroom of his London home with his dog.

—I saw a picture of you at a recent festival where you were playing drums in a full face mask, is that a new image for the new album ‘Will of the People’? Dominic Howard (dr.): We start the show with ‘Will of the People’ and we also appear wearing the masks that the main characters and groups that appear on the album cover and video wear. It's the opening song.

—Oh, I thought it was hot in the summer (laughs). Dominic: (laughs). I can hardly see anything when I'm wearing that. I can barely see the drums in front of me, so I think Matt [Matthew Bellamy, vo. keys g.] and Chris [Wolstenholme, b.] have an even harder time. They'll be playing while trying to keep an eye on the fretboard. Plus, it's a full face, so it's hard to breathe. And there's a burning ‘Will of the People‘ logo right behind me, so my back is burning hot. But, you know, I'll do anything for rock‘n’roll (laughs).

“I was careful to avoid abstractions, and I was also very conscious of keeping it tight.”

—This album is especially Hard Rock, isn't it? A lot of albums made during the pandemic have been released one after another, but I have the impression that many of them are introspective because of the production environment, but this album is the complete opposite of that (laughs). Dominic: Yeah, it's a heavier, harder rock sound, less introspective… We were definitely working on some of it during the lockdown, though. I think everyone tended to be more introspective back then, and people were making music that sounded a bit more light-hearted, maybe not as bombastic as ours. Anyway, that kind of thing (introspective, light music) is not really our thing, it's more outward expression, more outlandish. Yeah, we haven't done an album as heavy as this one in a really long time.

—I read that you started this album as a response to a label proposal to release a best-of album, but why are you against the idea of ​​a greatest hits album in the first place? Dominic: Realistically speaking, best-of albums aren't what they used to be, are they? Nowadays, a person's top 10 favourite songs on Spotify are their best releases, right? Labels want to do best-of records because they want to promote the band, but we've always been against it because we feel like a best-of record is kind of the end of your career, you know (laughs). We don't want to do a best-of album or compilation because we're going to keep making new music. The labels might have come up with the idea in discussions to see if there was anything they could release during the pandemic, but we've always said no, let's make new material instead.

—I see. Matt describes the album as “best of new songs” and “a montage piece packed with the best of Muse.” Was that the band's goal or perception in the making of the album? Did you actually discuss such things? Dominic: Hahaha, we talk about it all the time. The whole time we were making it. But I don't think it was ever our concept. I'm sure Matt said that because we like the album that much and we think it's like our best album. I think he wanted to say that it's like a collection of the best parts of the band's old sound. It's got the heavy side, the pop side, the acoustic ballads like ‘Ghosts (How Can I Move On)’, it's got the best of what the band has always done. Well, whenever you're making an album, you always think: ‘This is the best album ever! Every song could be cut as a single!’ (laughs). I don't want to release it, or even finish it, unless I'm proud of it as an important representation of the band as it is now. In fact, we were very conscious of only including stuff that we felt was appropriate to be on the album. We didn't want to do anything too experimental… That's a bit of a misnomer. We were careful to avoid abstraction, to keep it to the point and concise, to know where to put the songs on the album, and to keep the production tight.

—There are only ten songs on the album. Do you have any regrets about not being able to keep it tighter on previous albums? Dominic: No, not really. When it's been a year or so since we put out an album, I do think ‘I should have done that’ or something like that, but I wouldn't really call it a regret. We've done some very experimental and abstract albums in the past, because that's what the album needed, especially the first three albums. The second album (2001's Origin of Symmetry) is longer and more experimental. I'm not saying that I want to get rid of that aspect of ourselves, I'm just saying that we've become more conscious of making tighter albums. And I've always wanted to make a 10-song album. We've had instrumental songs that made it 11 songs, so this time we decided to make an album of just 10 songs with songs on it (laughs).

—The content of the song this time is all very depressing, just a little bit… (laughs). Dominic: The lyrics (laughs)?

—Yeah. It's as realistic a fiction as you can get. Are these socio-political and environmental issues always something that comes up in the band? Or is this all about Matt's political views? Dominic: Mostly the latter (laughs). I think the surreal, political fictional world is where he's most comfortable writing. I guess it's easier to write about very personal things than to express them frankly. Of course there are parts of the album that touch on personal things, but I haven't done a lot of songs that are about personal things. Matt's style is to write about the emotions of what's going on in the world and apply them to an imaginary world. Naturally, we would talk about the topic and the direction we wanted the song to go in. But the music always comes first. Then the lyrics (by Matt) can take quite a while, but whatever idea it's based on, the three of us take it and put it into music, and eventually it's something we enjoy playing. The lyrics come after that, so it can be influenced by the vibe and feel of the song's source material.

—Oh, really? Dominic: So it's not the lyrics we talk about the most, it's the music (laughs).

—I see, the three of you live in different parts of the world. How did you make that music during the pandemic, especially during the lockdown? Dominic: It was tough. Especially in 2020, there were months when we couldn't do anything. But we still did things like exchange ideas virtually. Once we were able to get together, we started working in the studio in Los Angeles. Chris doesn't live over here, but we still had him come to LA, and when that wasn't possible, we continued working remotely. In the spring of 2021, we got together in London and we were able to work on it at Abbey Road [Studios]. It was a lot of work, but we found a way to work not only on music, but also on these things (Zoom interviews), and also on business, virtually, without having to move from place to place, didn't we? I think it's actually become more convenient for a lot of people.

—Did you produce this album yourselves because of the restrictions of the Corona Disaster? Or was it a reaction to the fact that your last album, ‘Simulation Theory’, involved a lot of producers? Dominic: It was probably both. It was a pandemic, so from the beginning Matt and I were in the studio alone, trying out different ideas, and we were comfortable with that. Then Aleks (von Korff), the engineer, joined us in the studio and the three of us were in what you might call a bubble (laughs). Of course we had to take coronavirus checks every now and then and be careful while working, but we got comfortable in that situation, and it felt different to invite other people in there. It would be a lot of work to bring someone else in. And we like production work too. We've always co-produced, even when we've had a producer, and we rather like the time-consuming, detailed work.

—Please tell me how did you decide to end the album on a hopeless note with ‘We Are Fucking Fucked’ (laughs)? Dominic: It's interesting to hear other people say the title of this song (laughs). It was the only song we had at the end of the album. If we'd put ‘Fucking Fucked’ anywhere else, it would have given the piece a weird vibe. It's a sarcastic, depressing type of song, after all (laughs). So I think it was right to put it at the end. At first I was thinking of putting ‘Verona’ at the end. That song has a fantastic, relaxed, outro-like feel to it. But I still think ‘Fucking Fucked’ is the right one.

—Which is your favourite song of the day? Dominic: It's hard to pick just one song, I feel bad for the others (laughs).

—Let's limit it to this morning's then (laughs). Dominic: Well, we've been playing ‘Kill or Be Killed’ live recently and it's a lot of fun to play live. Maybe there's a heaviness to it that we haven't ventured into before? It's pretty metal. And I really like ‘Won't Stand Down’. When we were working on the album, I was telling Matt that every song had to make the listener feel something, and we had to make the songs make us feel something, and he asked me what I meant, and I said that sometimes when we listen to our past albums… I actually listened to all our previous albums before we started making this album. Some of them were okay, some of them were a little bit terrible, but they still conveyed what we were feeling at the time. So I had a strong feeling that every song on this album had to make me feel something. ‘Kill or Be Killed‘, when you get into the chorus, it makes you feel it. I like everything else on the record apart from those two songs. And ‘Liberation’ is a lot of fun to play. We haven't done a piano song like that for a while. Is it reminiscent of ‘United States of Eurasia’ (2009's “The Resistance”)?

“What I really want to do is to go around to different sized venues here and there and stay in Japan for two or three weeks.”

—I also like ’You Make Me Feel Like It's Halloween’. And it touches on the serious issue of domestic violence. Dominic: Yes, it does. It's a very fun song, but the lyrics actually touch on emotional abuse in the home. It's the same with ‘Won't Stand Down’. We know people who have been through that, and it's a very real issue that sometimes people don't realise they're going through it. It's such a serious thing with a very pop sound.

—Will you be touring the world after a few shows in the UK in October? Dominic: Yeah, we'll play some smaller theatres in the UK in October and then maybe next year we'll tour overseas, including Japan. We really want to go to Japan. What I'd really like to do is spend two or three weeks in Japan, doing a few more shows here and there at different venues of different sizes. The last few times I've been here, I've been limited to a few cities due to time, schedule and production. Sometimes you have to sacrifice the creative side and the fun side of it.

—You have the authority to do what you really want to do, so by all means make it happen. Dominic: Well, yeah (laughs). Anyway, we'll find a time when it's possible and we'll try to fit it into the schedule.

—By the way, there is a sign of a dog from earlier. Dominic: This is Olive, a Boston terrier (he says, showing me the dog stretched out and relaxed in front of him). He's very clever. Where's Floyd? Maybe he's upstairs. They're both very clever.

—Who's going to look after them while you're away from home? Dominic: Actually, I tend to take them with me. Olive is just over a year old and I only got her last year, so she's not ready yet, but Floyd has been all over the place, he's been on a tour of America with me, he's been in Europe. He loves it. He's always happy to play with all kinds of people backstage. Olive likes people too. When the show is over, she jumps in the car and goes to the hotel with me, and every night when she gets into her new hotel room, she jumps up on the bed with great joy (laughs). So I take her with me when I can, otherwise I ask family or friends.

Recorded on 20th July, 2022 in London.

Translator’s Notes: If you’ve noticed it, then you might’ve wondered why the Japanese journalist and the article itself doesn’t use the words “Covid-19” and “pandemic” (other than Dom himself). As I’m not a Japanese native, I don’t fully know the answer either, but I did pay attention to Japanese news over the years to pick up on information. In Japan, the government and the people do know and use the word COVID-19, but unfortunately the name that COVID-19 took in Japan was this: 新型コロナウイルス感染症 / Shingata Coronavirus Kansenshou / new coronavirus infection.

As you can see, that is a whole mouthful that no one has the time to say all of that out loud -even including the word Covid-19 itself- so they shortened it to just using ‘コロナウイルス / Coronavirus’ and ‘コロナ / Corona’ instead.

So I got used to seeing that whenever an artist or celebrity in Japan was confirmed infected by Covid and had to cancel events, they just announce on their blogs and on X [formerly known as Twitter] that they got Corona. And some of these words became familiar to me as well.

コロナ禍 / Korona-ka = Corona Disaster / Covid-19 Pandemic コロナ緊急事態 / Korona kinkyuu jitai = Corona Emergency / Lockdown

BTW, I wasn't sure what Dom's other dog's name was. I know of Floyd, but I can't remember the second dog's name. Was it Olive or Oliver?

[marvelfanfn2187a113]

Thunder

Sam and Dean Winchester & little sister!reader

Requested by anonymous

Synopsis: you have anxiety, and the brothers leave you during a storm

“We’ll only be gone for a couple of days, I promise,” Dean said as he packed his bag.

“But what about—“ you but your lip hard, cutting yourself off. People were dying, you could put your fears aside for that. Not that you had to finish your sentence anyway; Dean had read your mind.

“The rain is supposed to stop later tonight, it’s not supposed to get any worse,” he promised. “It’s not gonna turn into a thunderstorm.”

“I’m fine,” you assured him, trying to keep the quaver out of your voice, because you knew Dean would notice. “But you guys better be careful, and give me updates, a lot of them!”

Dean chuckled softly, ruffling your hair.

“Don’t worry so much, kiddo. We’ll be safe, I promise.”

“We ready to go?” Sam asked, sticking his head in the room.

“Yeah.” Dean zipped his bag up and slung it over his shoulder while Sam accepted the hug you gave him. “Be good,” Dean said to you as he brushed past you towards the door, Sam at his heels.

…

The storm didn’t pass. In fact, you woke up early in the morning to the sound of thunder. The concrete walls of the bunker only served to amplify the sound, so when you awoke you felt as though you were in the eye of the storm.

It was only 4 in the morning—your brothers wouldn’t be back until tonight, so you were gonna be on your own.

Your breath caught in your throat when another crack of thunder all but shook your room, and you pulled your blanket around your shoulders as if it was a protective embrace. The silence that followed the thunder was almost worse than the sound, as you waited for the thunder to inevitably return. Once it did, you couldn’t take it anymore—you jumped to your feet and ran to Sam’s room, barricading yourself in his closet.

The next time the thunder rumbled, it was muffled by Sam’s thick closet walls. Still, it felt as though the earth was shaking around you. You discarded your blanket and instead snatched one of Sam’s jackets off a hanger and wrapped it around your shoulders, huddling into the comforting weight and smell of it.

But a reminder of your big brother could only do so much as the thunder continued on throughout the day. Your exhaustion, thirst, and hunger only grew as you waited for the thunder to stop, but it never did. It was nearing afternoon when you finally couldn’t take it anymore. Hugging Sam’s jacket around you, you ventured out towards the kitchen. The moment you stepped in, thunder clapped, the sound amplified as it shook the metal pots in the cabinets. You whimpered, grabbing a water bottle and an apple and turning to run back to the closet. Another crack of thunder had the breath leaving your body all at once, and suddenly your knees were banging against the floor and your palms were down on the cold tile as your legs gave out from under you.

Your apple rolled in front of your eyes as you rubbed at your chest, gasping desperately for air. Your efforts were futile, and you became more and more lightheaded. It was all you could do to wrap your arms around your knees, trying to burrow in what little comfort Sam’s jacket around you could bring. You wished he was here now, with Dean too, and you were wrapped in their embrace instead of just a jacket.

…

“Dean, slow down. It’s not gonna help Y/N if we crash.”

Dean didn’t acknowledge his brother’s words verbally, but he did ease up on the gas pedal.

“I know,” Dean huffed. “It’s just…I told her it wouldn’t get any worse. She was so scared that it was gonna turn into a thunderstorm. I mean she wouldn’t say it but it was all over her face, and I just…I left anyway.”

“We had to,” Sam said. “And she knows that.”

“Yeah, but now there’s a storm!” Dean argued. “And she’s gotta be freaking out right now.”

Sam didn’t argue; Dean was right, after all.

They arrived at the bunker unscathed and in record time. The brothers wasted no time in entering the building, heading right for your room.

“Y/N!” Dean called out, his voice accompanied by another bang from the thunder. “Y/N we’re home!”

Silence greeted his announcement, and neither brother could find you in your room or theirs.

“Y/N!” Dean called again, not noticing that the thunder muffled the sound.

“She wouldn’t have left, not in this storm,” Sam said. “She’s here somewhere.”

“Alright, we’ll start with the quiet places. You checked your closet, right?”

“Yeah, she wasn’t there,” Sam sighed. “I’ll check the dungeon, you check the library.”

Five minutes later, the boys met back in the war room with nothing to report.

“I guess we should check the kitchen.” Dean frowned. “But I can’t imagine she went in there. It’s the loudest room in a storm.”

Regardless, the brothers went into the kitchen. Dean didn’t see anything at first, but after the echo of thunder died down he heard panicked sobs and ragged breathing. He ran around the kitchen counter to see you curled up on the floor, your knees pressed up against your chest. Your eyes were squeezed tightly closed, so you didn’t see your brothers enter. Dean’s hand on your shoulder had you crying out in shock.

“Shh, hey hey,” Dean soothed. “It’s me kiddo, it’s Dean. Sammy’s here too, we’ve got you.”

“It-it’s so loud,” you sobbed, flinching as another clap of thunder rang through the room. “I was—I was just trying to get some food but-but it was so l-loud, and then I couldn’t bre…” you tried to keep going, but by now you were gasping for breath as tears spilled over your cheeks.

“It’s ok, it’s ok…” Dean repeated the words over and over. He lifted you into his arms, and that’s when he noticed how much you were shaking. “It’s gonna be just fine, I’m gonna take you somewhere quieter, ok?”

You didn’t answer as Dean led you through the halls and to his room. Sam shut the door behind him as Dean settled onto his bed with you in his arms. He wrapped you up in his blanket, but you still hadn’t stopped shaking as thunder once again tumbled through the bunker.

“Ok, alright, we’re gonna have to wait it out in here,” Dean said. You remained inconsolable for several minutes, and after a while Dean spoke to Sam.

“Go get that stupid Celine Dion record that I know you have hidden under your bed.”

“What?” Sam tried to look indignant. “It’s not—I mean, I don’t—“ a harsh glare from Dean shut him up. “Fine.”

Sam returned with the record moments later, and he placed it on Dean’s record player and started it up, turning up the volume until the thunder was nearly drowned out.

“Hey, you hear that?” Dean said softly to you. You nodded, your breathing becoming more even as your hands came up to hold Dean’s. “There we go.” Dean smiled. “It’s not so bad now, eh?”

You nodded again as Sam came up to stand in front of you.

“How’re you feeling?” Sam asked as he brushed your hair away from your tear-stained face.

“Better,” you mumbled. “I’m—I’m hungry.”

Sam laughed. “Ok kid, I’ll get you some food.”

“Wait!” You called to him as a particularly loud clap of thunder roared over Sam’s record. “Don’t-don’t go.”

“Alright.” Sam retreated back to Dean’s bed and sat next to you. “Ok, I’m here.”

“Nothing’s gonna hurt you, ok?” Dean promised.

Dean didn’t tell you that your fear was unfounded. Sam didn’t say that thunder was just noise, and it couldn’t hurt you. Your big brothers held you close for the rest of the night until the storm passed, and even with the thunder raging outside, you never felt safer than you were in your big brothers’ arms.

Taglist:

@nyotamalfoy @mrvlxgrl @chocorade @aestheticdaisies @inlovewhithafairytale @that-wannabe-vangoghgurl

[unmarlou]

never you-or-him.

pairings. patrick zweig x fem!reader.

summary. on the morning of your wedding, art’s best man has some unresolved feelings.

lacy says. would u guys hate me if i said im actually not a patrick girl like at all 😞. the canonical lack of deodorant i just </3.

· · ౨ৎ · ·

“you’re marrying him ‘cause that’s what your parents want.”

his cologne is prominent and sharp; nothing at all like art’s, which is soft and ample and lingers but never boisterously. patrick’s is arrogant, loudly head-splitting. you recognize it as the same he’s worn since high school.

patrick has always had this incessant need to invade your personal space. he’s towering over your side without conviction, staring down at your unwilling face like it’s his place to do so, like this is nothing short of natural for the two of you.

you can hardly believe his nerve to waltz into your supposed-to-be moment alone before walking down the aisle and make a remark so aggravating - disturbing the peace in all ways he’s intended.

despite your better judgment, you go from firmly staring into the full length mirror ahead to his insufferable face. your chin raises in challenge while unwaveringly cold and unimpressed eyes hold his, and this, you know, is nothing short of natural for you two.

clear traces of his amusement live to irk you and it takes everything not to give him what he wants, but alas, you speak, “get the fuck out of my face.”

however it comes out as juvenile annoyance - patrick hears every iteration of you he’s ever known; from ages twelve to today.

you say it as he’s only inconveniencing you. and when you step off the pedestal to escape him, he simply laughs: airy and low. you’ve turned away but the lines of his smirk taunt you from behind.

sun light is streaming in from the line of shade-drawn windows on the back wall, making an already stuffy room feel impossibly warm. in a poor and feeble attempt to busy yourself, you fiddle with your bouquet on the coffee table. pathetically moving and petting pedals that were in perfect shape as is.

“this is all so you can live a cushy life - just like they want for you,” his voice is raised but not in any way that alarms you, “i mean, he’s the ticket to a pretty seat on the board, right?”

his lack of fear to speak freely eats at you - is it because he’s never been told he can’t? or because he’s only ever been told he can’t? these thoughts you’ve had since you first met him have never relented, and now being subject of his rash tongue, they persist.

without conscience, your eyes roll and your head shakes.

“you’re gonna be a trophy wife to a husband that wins a less than optimal amount?”

the only thing you can think to say is, “art wins.”

air shoots out of his nose in borderline astonishment, “for now. and when he gets comfortable, then what?” something tells you he isn’t really looking for you to answer.

he’s quiet for what could’ve been only a second or two but it’s deafening for your eager ears. you start with a peek over your shoulder, and in seeing his still silhouette, you turn fully.

his suit is tailored nicely, clean. it lines his body well, the black and white contrasting with his features in a way you can only think is sophisticated - handsome. you realize this is how you’ve always imagined he’d look on this day, though not as the best man.

he puts in hands in his pockets, and his voice lowers to a level of privacy that you all too well, “you’ll resent him for not being your picture-perfect champion anymore. you might already.”

you refuse to let your face fall despite him amplifying the sickening voice in the back of your mind. this horrifying talent of his supersedes him.

it’s disturbing, how well he sees right through you. his nod is slow and deliberate, antagonizing, accompanied by the raise of his lips, “don’t think the world hasn’t noticed you stopped playing since your engagement. i would never ask you to do that.”

“he didn’t ask me to do anything.”

true.

“but he didn’t tell to continue either, did he?”

goddamnit.

he tilts his head softly, you know it to be the same he’s done for years, when he’s trying to see you clearly and get you to see him; in his fleeting moments of humility, as if to say, it’s only me.

and it just so happens, in the same moment, that the previously uninteresting wood flooring requires your attention. in your periphery, you see his head straighten and nod once again.

just below and beyond this room is another, filled with everyone you’ve ever known. and they’re waiting for an age-old tune to play, so they can stand and turn to watch you walk down a single strip and say two - life altering- words to a man that isn’t the one standing directly behind him.

patrick’s dress shoes click as he takes steps towards you. his hands remain rested in his pockets, and he once again, never looks away from your unwilling-to-meet-his-face.

you aren’t sure why, because he’s actually a good amount away from you still, but there’s a second where you anticipate his hand reaching up and tucking a spare piece of hair behind your ear.

“we were going to be the best. all three of us - together.” his tone has returned to normal, and just as normal goes between you two, his irrational words irritate you.

he speaks from a place of, unrecognizable on his part, privilege.

“we were kids. we all had sappy pipe dreams.”

“is that what you think this is?”

for the first time since he’s entered the room you raise your voice, unable to contain your irate disbelief, “of course it is. wake the fuck up, patrick.” you’re staring at him with more than just anger, “life goes on - we can’t be teenage prodigies forever. despite your lifestyle, some of us have grown up and moved on.”

“oh yeah, talk to me like you’re on some fucking moral high ground. ‘grown up and moved on’ means being miserable for the rest of your life?”

your tongue finds home in your cheek, “shouldn’t you be having this conversation with him? you might have a better shot at ending up with one of us.”

he ignores this comment completely. it’s only in this brief interlude that you take the time to notice the gap between you has become significantly smaller.

if there’s anyone you’d go toe-to-toe with, it’s patrick.

“you two have no passion.” he’s smiling, boarding laughing.

simply to be combative, you reply, “how could you possibly know that?”

“you’d never argue with him like this.”

in this transient moment, as you stand face to face with him, you allow yourself to admit what you’ve always known: you’re seeing everything you’ve ever wanted.

after today, after this very interaction, you’ll probably go on to name one of your future children after him, on art’s proposal and your forever compliance. they’ll end up calling him uncle patrick and whenever he visits you’ll pretend that he’s just an old friend, not one you’d spent most of your life imagining as their father. you’ll evade his looks, and do everything in your power to not give him the same.

upon this revelation, you see no harm in speaking once more, leaving it all to rest in this room you’ll never revisit, “it was never you-or-him. it was always you,” he’s listening intently, eyes fixed, “but you’re too much of an asshole to see me as anything other than a competition.

i wanted it to be you today,” he could never begin to imagine the screaming matches you’d have with your parents, over wanting to be with him rather than - not just art - but anyone, “you couldn’t clean up your fucking act…”

you recognize the look he’s giving you, it’s the same you receive when under him. your chest warms with satisfaction, accomplishment, and lifting your white dress slightly, taking a step to close the space, your breaths become shared. you lower to a whisper and twist the knife, “you could never get on one knee.”

silence is pervasive, with the expectation of your breathing. you watch his every move: as he looks you up and down, seemly noticing your wedding dress for the first time. he trails over it, again and again, making you feel like a new item in a display case.

when he finally comes back to the only thing he’s ever been sure of, your beautiful face, he smiles; lines taunting and all.

it occurs to you, you’ve never seen him so angry.

· · ౨ৎ · ·

navigation.

[soberscientistlife]

On this day in 1970, rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix died at 27 years old.

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix ,was a musician, singer, and songwriter. Despite a relatively brief mainstream career spanning four years, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music."

Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army; he was granted an honorable discharge the following year. Soon afterward, he moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the chitlin' circuit, eventually earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later finding work with Little Richard, with whom he continued to play through mid-1965. He then joined Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after having been discovered by bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals.

Within months, Hendrix had earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience", "Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and in 1968 his third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland, reached number one in the US. The double LP was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his first and only number one album. He headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 as the world's highest-paid performer before dying from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27.

Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored over driven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in developing the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source. Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began."

Hendrix was the recipient of several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously.

In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year and in 1968, Billboard named him the Artist of the Year and Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year. Disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970, Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

Rolling Stone ranked their three studio albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, among the 100 greatest albums of all time and they ranked Hendrix as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time.

African archives

[nicksbestie]

Ash teaching Y/N to drum or seeing them drumming and feeling proud

Loved this request <3

Enjoy!!!

Drummer Boy

Pairing - Ashton Irwin x reader

Warnings - none

Word Count - 3583(!!!)

~

You couldn’t believe your life had ended up like this. An incredibly fortunate twist of fate brought you into what you had only dreamt of as a child. A pop star's partner. You had run into Ashton Irwin at a coffee shop while he and the rest of 5 Seconds Of Summer were on tour. It had been purely coincidence, and honestly an embarrassing experience that he loves to remind you of. You’d turned around too quickly, rushing, looking down at your phone, and collided with him. Luckily he’d found the fluster amusing, and continued to come in.

That coffee shop had always been one of your routine trips in the morning, and after conversation after conversation, he’d finally weaseled his way into getting your number, and things had spiraled from there and here you were, waking up, albeit alone, in his bed, all of your stuff covering half of the walls and dressers.  

And he was a drummer, no less. You’d always had a thing for drummers. Maybe it was the easy workout they get, or maybe it was just the fact that you’d always had a thing for members of the rhythm section. You know what they say. 

You’d slid out of bed and had walked down to make coffee in the kitchen, not feeling like going out today. Wandering into the home studio that Ashton had created while working on Superbloom, you sat down at the small stool behind the piano. You knew a few of their songs off the top of your head, playing a slow rendition of Lover Of Mine when an idea popped into your head. 

You decided to create a cover of Lover Of Mine just for Ashton. Valentine’s Day was quickly approaching and you thought it would be super sweet to do. Although, you didn’t quite know how to play Ashton’s drum part. So, you would leave that for last. You knew how to play guitar, piano, and bass, so you’d record those first. Ashton had shown you enough on mics to know how to professionally create a demo, instead of just recording and doing overlays on your music app on your phone. 

Picking through specific tabs, you decided to start with the bass ones to record because they’d be the most suspicious to be caught recording. Ashton already knew you knew how to play Lover Of Mine on the piano, so that wouldn’t be a surprise, and the chords for the song aren’t the only song using them, so guitar could be played off easily. However, the bass tabs were unique so that would have to be the first one that was recorded. 

You’d always had a love for the bass guitar. The other half of the rhythm section had always called your name. It wasn’t too difficult to quickly get used to the movement of tabs and the adjustment of holding the instrument, and it wasn’t hard to quickly record the beat of it. Listening over the track many ,many times until you decided that it was good enough for you to move on, you quickly made sure it was saved so you wouldn’t lose all of your work. Not like it would take a while to redo it, but still. More hassle with not enough time in the day. 

Moving on to the guitar part, you remembered the main reason you liked bass better. It was easier. The guitar chords hurt your fingers as the thin strings dug into them, and the chords made annoying buzzy sounds, but eventually you got the hang of it. You’d been playing guitar for years, but you still weren’t a huge fan of it, or amazing at it. It just wasn’t your best instrument. That’s okay though, you mastered the few simple chords fairly quickly, almost finishing the guitar part just as quickly as the bass tabs.

This left the piano and drum parts left. Knowing the piano version by heart, you moved back over to work on it quickly. You got caught up in it, enjoying the way that the keys pressed down under your fingers and the pedal amplified the gentle sound. Piano has always been a way to relax and let stress roll off of you. It was like Ashton’s drumming. He used it as stress relief as well. But piano felt different, in a way. There was gentle piano, like Lover Of Mine, and then there was your angry songs, like Take Me To Church, with the trauma-filled lyrics and the pounding beat to it. You sat, recording the piano parts, letting yourself get lost in the melody, and the lyrics rolling through your head.

Drums. The drumming part was gonna be hard. You didn’t know drums. But you were going to try your best to get it done. It might take a few days, and you might have to ask Ashton for help, which you would have to try really hard to not raise his suspicion about it. He had a creepy way of always knowing what was going through your head, and while this may help most of the time, right now it definitely wouldn’t.

Luckily, he took a lot of interest and fun into showing other people how to play his favorite instrument, so you knew a little bit. But not nearly enough to learn a full song, so you spent hours googling and tinkering with it trying to figure out how it would all come together. You relistened to the studio track and the live versions of Lover Of Mine, trying to figure out just how important the drumming was to the song. (Obviously, it’s very important, but you were weighing your options of seeing if it would sound remotely similar or close enough without the drumming in it. That way you could just leave the drums out and you’d be more likely to get away with keeping this secret until Valentine’s Day, and you wouldn’t have to ask Ashton for his help.)

You slipped headphones on to listen to the track while trying to match the sounds on the instrument in front of you. Time was quickly passing by, as you kept the song on loop, slowly working part by part to make progress through the song. You’d gotten about halfway through, completely oblivious to your audience. 

Ashton was standing there, leaning against the doorway. He’d decided to not make you aware of his existence yet. He’d been standing there for quite some time, watching your frustration and your moments of elation when you finally matched them and got some of the notes and beat right. He knew he’d taught you most of what you were using, but it also made him super proud that you were even attempting on your own. It shot fondness straight to his heart, knowing that you were trying to figure out and enjoy the instrument he built his entire life on, the one thing that he loved the most, second only to you. 

He didn’t yet recognize the beat you were attempting to play, but that was fine. He didn’t need to know everything. There was enough he could figure out with just watching that he didn’t want to disturb you. He did wonder why you didn’t just wait and ask him for help when he got back, but shrugged it off. You didn’t have to tell him everything, and he’d always admired your strong sense of independence. It was only when your forehead lines started to crease in frustration and your mouth turned into a thin line in anger, that he decided to step in. Your back was to him, the door being behind the drum kit. He didn’t want to scare you, so he walked up and gently placed a hand on your shoulder.

“Do you need some help with that?” 

Despite the gentle touch, you were still a bit startled, not expecting him to be there. You quickly pulled off the headphones and switched off of the tab showing the Lover Of Mine tutorial, hoping desperately he hadn’t seen it. You weren’t quite so lucky. He didn’t say anything about it, but he had a small smile on his face that clearly showed he’d seen it. You were happy he didn’t ask questions. Instead, he just reached for the drumsticks in your hands. 

“May I?” 

You nodded, and let go of them, letting him take them from your grip. You stood up and let him take the stool. He sat down and started to play the song. You had taken a seat on the couch across the room, listening and watching the way he easily hit all the correct notes, all the right rhythms. You were slightly jealous of his ability to easily pick up any single instrument that he tried. You’d never been able to do that. But at the same time it was a talent that you admired in him. Among other things, of course. But it was definitely at the top of the list. He finished the song, smiling. 

“That the one you were going for?” 

You nodded. 

“Yea.” 

“Any specific reason?” 

“Nope.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“You sure? You shook your head oddly fast for it to be a coincidence.” 

“I’m sure.” 

He smiled. You knew he could tell you were lying about it, but he didn’t seem to be too hurt. He was many things, but a fool did not happen to be one of them. He knew there was some secret you were holding, but he wasn’t offended by you not wanting to tell him. He’d always respected your privacy when it came to things you didn’t want to tell him, as long as you weren’t holding back hurtful things. However, he did want to help, if you’d let him. 

“Alright then. Come over here, I’ll teach you to play it.”

About an hour later, you’d pretty much mastered the song. Thank god. You knew full well that you wouldn’t have been able to do it without him, but you were also incredibly relieved that you didn’t completely spill your secret and surprise for the upcoming week when he walked in. Thank god he never asked any questions, and didn’t push you to answer anything you didn’t want to. 

“I think you’ve got it!” 

You smiled. Finally. 

“I think so too. Only took forever.” 

He laughed, a real laugh, not one of the chuckles he forces out in interviews when he’s uncomfortable. That made you so much more relieved. 

“It actually didn’t take that long. I expected more time, to be completely honest. Not like I mind. I love spending time with my two favorite things to do.” 

You gave a playful glare. 

“You really chose that wording?” 

He laughed again. 

“Sorry babe. Couldn’t resist.” 

“You definitely could.” 

It was just banter, there was no legitimate anger behind your words.  

Now, you just had to wait until the next day when he wasn’t around so you could record the drum part without him being suspicious over what you were up to. Which turns out, wouldn’t take that long. Just the next day, he walked into your doorway and gently knocked on the frame. 

“Hey love?”

You looked up from scrolling on your phone. 

“Yea, what’s up?” 

He gave a soft, yet sad smile. 

“I have to go to the studio for a few hours. I know that we were supposed to spend today together, and I’m sorry.” 

“It’s alright! I know you guys have a lot to do, with the album release coming up and all the promo. No worries!! Just text me when you’re on your way back okay? We can take a rain check for now.”

He walked over and hugged you. 

“I don’t deserve you.” 

You rolled your eyes. 

“You deserve me and more. Go get your work done. I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

You were really happy actually, that he finally got out of the house. Not because you didn’t want to spend time with him, but Valentine’s Day was tomorrow, and you had to be able to finish the cover before that morning. Now you would have the opportunity to finish the drum part and the singing part in your short time alone. And that was exactly what you got done. Still remembering the way and rhythm of the drumming, you knocked that out first. You barely made any mistakes and got it done in just a few takes, quickly overlaying it with all of the guitar, bass, and piano cover parts, making sure that it sounded satisfactory to gift. It did. 

You were incredibly happy with the way it was sounding so far, and moved on to start recording the lyrics. You truly enjoyed singing, and had almost gone into it as a career. It was still a heavy secondary part of you. Because of that, you were heavily critical of your own voice. You couldn’t stand listening to it back, which was going to make the recording of it so much more difficult. You recorded triple the takes of every single instrument you’d recorded already put together. You hated the way they all sounded, and you knew in the back of your mind that it was really just your anxiety speaking and that they all sounded fine. However, that didn’t stop the perfectionism in you, so you continued to do take after take until you were satisfied with the results given. 

Finally, you were happy with it, and you moved on to making sure that everything sounded good when it was overlaid and mixed together. It was fairly easy to make sure that all the instruments sounded good, and you decided to just leave it there. You thought the acoustic idea gave it more authenticity and you wanted to keep it that way. It felt more real, more loving. You liked the feeling of it and you hoped Ashton would too. Your phone dinged, right as you were thinking about him, with a message from the devil himself. 

“Hi love, be home in 10. Got everything done, tomorrow is ours!”

“Sounds great. See you soon! <;3”

You quickly finished up everything you were working on, and made sure the demo was saved, but hid it under a folder of other recordings, hoping he wouldn’t look into that specific one later that night. Right as you finished closing everything off and making sure that the drums didn’t look touched, you heard the door open. You slipped behind the piano, pulling up some of the current songs you’d been working on in your free time, gently beginning to play them and waiting for Ash to walk in on his own. It didn’t take him long at all. He came and sat in the room with you, seating himself on the couch and simply listening. The longer the song went, the more a smile grew across his face. As the song drew to a close, you met eyes and smiled back at him.

“I love listening to you play.” 

The smile remained on your face. 

“I could say the same.”

A ton of songs were covered that night, singing, playing, mostly soft loving ones for the upcoming holiday. 

Waking and sitting up the next morning you let out a small sigh of relief. You’d kept the secret until Valentine’s Day. Admittedly one of your favorite smaller holidays. You liked the special days, the ones filled with love and care, even if you both received and shared that same amount of love and care every day. You wouldn’t have settled for less, but you’d never felt like you settled for anything with Ashton. He was truly above and beyond anything you’d ever asked for. You couldn’t wait to show him the gift you’d made him, but you were going to have to wait a bit, for two reasons. The first being that he wasn’t even awake, and the second one being that you had another thing for him. It wasn’t as huge as the cover, but you’d gotten him sunflower seeds to plant in the backyard, knowing he’d been wanting to for a while, along with a card. 

He shifted next to you, rising. His arm reached out, grabbing yours and pulling you back down to lay next to him. 

“C’mere. It’s too early.” 

You laughed. 

“It’s 10:00, goofball. Get up.” 

He shifted, making eye contact. 

“Still too early. Not moving yet.” 

“Happy Valentine's Day to you too, lovely.”

He lifted himself up to press a soft kiss to your lips.

“Happy Valentine’s Day. Give me another hour and I promise to woo you.” 

You laughed. 

“Fine. I’m getting up though.” 

He pouted. You relented. 

“Okay, I’ll stay for a bit.” 

Watching as his breath evened out, you waited until you were completely sure that he was asleep. Once you were positive, you slipped out of bed to go set out his stuff on the counter, minus the demo. Doing this, you realized it would make more sense to do it in your home studio room, so that’s where you decided to do it. You moved everything into there, and smiled when you realized Ashton had had the same idea. 

Walking in, there was a vase of flowers sitting on the piano bench, a note taped to them, and a card with your name written in cursive on the front. Deciding to open the card later, you read the small note. 

“I set this up last night after you went to bed. If you’re reading this alone, I probably begged you to let me sleep a bit longer because I hate waking up early. I love you!!! Don’t open the card without me please. <;3”

“I see you found my note.” 

You turned around to see Ash standing in the doorway, hair all ruffled and clearly having just gotten up. 

“I did. It’s been less than an hour though, I’m shocked to see you awake.” 

“The bed got cold without you. Happy Valentine’s Day. Wanna open cards? I got you flowers, obviously.” 

You smiled. 

“Absolutely.”

Cards were opened, and Ashton had the biggest smile opening the small packets of sunflower seeds. 

“I can’t wait to plant these.” 

You laughed. 

“I was hoping you’d be excited. I know you love sunflowers.”

“You’re my sunflower.” 

“Don’t be cheesy.” 

He rolled his eyes. You gave him a side hug to placate him. 

“I have one more thing for you.”

His eyebrows raised in questioning. 

“Okay. Should I be scared?”

You gave a playful glare. 

“No. You should be excited.”

Grabbing the headphones, you handed them to him. 

“You have to put these on.” 

He gave a skeptical look. 

“I’m scared.” 

You gave him a hit to the arm. 

“Shut up and put the headphones on before I revoke my gift.”

He laughed. 

“Fine, fine. Don’t play some creepy sounds.”

You didn’t dignify it with a reply, you just reached over and clicked play on your cover. It didn’t take him very long to realize what was playing in his ears, and his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. 

“Babe-” 

“Listen now, talk later, yeah?” 

It didn’t take very long for the song to finish up, and his face was adorned in such a huge smile. 

“You like it?” 

“I loved it.” 

“Thank you.” 

“Wait a minute- that’s what you were learning the drums for?!” 

You laughed. 

“Yes. I had it all planned, I already had the guitar and bass and piano recorded before you got home. You came home earlier than I expected, and I had to accept your help and hope you wouldn’t ask too many questions. Luckily, you didn’t, although I could tell you had quite a few spinning around in your brain. You made my job amazingly easy when you had to disappear for a few hours to the studio for the next day, giving me all the time I needed. You almost caught me recording the vocals though, I had just finished saving, overlaying, and mixing it with all the instrument tracks when you walked in. I was terrified you’d see the nervousness on my face when I quickly moved over to play the piano right as you entered the room.”

He shook his head, shock and amusement on his face. He couldn’t believe you’d pulled this off right under his nose. Well, maybe that was a lie. You definitely had the guts and the persistence to pull it off, and you definitely contain the ability to create the element of surprise. The thing he was mostly shocked about was the fact that you didn’t have the ability to keep a secret for the life of you, so he was floored that you were able to keep this quiet and continue to work on it for two days. Although, I suppose it is easier when he wasn’t even there.

“I can’t decide whether to laugh, cry, or kiss you.” 

You took a few steps closer to him. 

“I’m good with all three, but I’m especially down for the last one.” 

“I figured you would be.” 

He smiled, pulling you a few steps closer for a long kiss. 

“Happy Valentine’s Day, I love you.” 

“Happy Valentine’s Day, I love you more.”

[fuzzkaizer]

Midas - Vivian Stanshall’s ‘Woman’ amp

custom-made approx 1974/75.

Front panel painted by his Bonzos bandmate Neil Innes.

Charlie Buck: "did you hear the story of when the bonzos were all driving to a gig in the US and got pulled over. The cop asked if they had got any guns because they would need them where they were going. Viv said “we’re English, we don’t need guns, we’re armed with charm and good manners!”."

"A 'Midas' guitar amplifier, from the collection of Vivian Stanshall, founding member of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, green-painted and modified to resemble a naked female torso, 63 cm x 61 cm. ... There used to be 2 rubber bicycle horn bulbs in position either side as breasts. ... It was quite an avant garde concept to have all those built in effects contained within the actual amp. In those days they tended to be pedals and outboard items rather than integral with an amp."

cred: facebook.com/Louise Marriott, easyliveauction.com

[thekingofgear]

Jonny’s Summer 2023 Guitar Pedalboard

Jonny about to stomp on a pedal during the Smile's show at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City in late-June, 2023 (elamplimx).

With Radiohead, Jonny is known for very slowly adding pedals to his setup. While Ed often has half a dozen new pedals for a new album tour, Jonny often adds only one (such as his Headrush in 2000 or his Freeze in 2012). And when Jonny swaps out a pedal for a similar one (like one tremolo for another tremolo), it’s usually only when his old pedals are too worn out for touring (such as his original Whammy WH1 and vintage RE-201 Space Echos). One might think Jonny keeps the old pedals around because, since Kid A, he’s often playing other instruments. However, at live shows Jonny is still happy to replicate some recorded sounds on guitar, whether it be the filtered samples on Feral (using volume pedal, Whammy, and phaser) or the col lengo strings on Burn The Witch (using Whammy, overdrive, and a cello bow). It’s clear he enjoys getting the most out of those pedals in that specific arrangement.

But with The Smile, Jonny has been swapping in new pedals pretty regularly. In 2022, Jonny was experimenting constantly, sometimes adding new pedals for only a couple of days before swapping in a replacement. He quickly eschewed some of the Radiohead-favorites heard during the earliest Smile streams, such as his Small Stone, Tremulator, and OD3. In their place came flangers, compressors, and expression pedals: types of pedals he’d never used with Radiohead.

However, it seems like Jonny found a setup he was fairly happy with by the end of the fall 2022 tour. His latest live board is quite similar to the one used during March 2023 recording sessions for the band's upcoming second album, but even so there are a couple surprises!

A photo of Jonny's guitar board at Philadelphia's Franklin Music Hall on July 8, 2023 (photo by Gio H.). He used this setup for the band's North American tour spanning 14 shows in June and July.

Guitar ->

Peterson StroboStomp HD tuner

MXR Dyna Comp compressor

EHX Freeze Sound Retainer

EHX Pitchfork pitch shifter

Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive

EQD Hizumitas fuzz

Telenordia/Tortenmann TA-24 Treble Booster

Boss DD-200 delay

Akai Headrush E2 delay/looper

Boss RE-202 Space Echo delay/reverb

EQD Pyramids flanger

Toadworks True Bypass (laptop send/return loop)

Lehle P-Split III signal splitter (A/B) <

(A) Radial JDI Stereo direct box < Radial Ch1 LOW-Z output -> FOH Mixer Radial Ch1 THRU output -> Fender ’65 Reissue Super Reverb

(B) Strymon Iridium -> Radial JDI Stereo direct box (Ch2 LOW-Z output) -> FOH Mixer

The small lamp over the board is a Mighty Bright HammerHead music stand light.

Jonny previously used a Peterson StroboStomp HD with his Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 on the Smile's 2022 tour. But this is the first time he’s been seen with one on his guitar board. It replaces the Boss TU2 he’s used since the earliest Smile shows.

The Telenordia Treble Booster is borrowed from Thom. The Telenordia is still marked with Thom’s guitar settings, from when he used it on You Will Never Work In Television Again during December 2021 rehearsals.

Thom stomping on Jonny's current Telenordia Treble Booster during a rehearsal on December 2, 2021 (youtube).

On Radiohead tours since OK Computer, Jonny has always brought a Vox AC30 — an amplifier well-known for its low and mid gain sounds. With an AC30, Jonny can get different flavors of overdrive by balancing between clipping from the pedal (using the pedal’s gain control) and clipping from the amp (using the pedal’s volume/boost control). And of course, he’d use his separate Shredmaster+Eighty-Five chain for heavy distortion on older songs.

But on tour with the Smile, Jonny has been using a Fender ’65 Reissue Super Reverb, an amp with much more headroom than the Vox thanks to a combination of higher wattage and negative feedback. As a result, we hear the overdrive pedal’s sound more clearly — the Boss SD1’s mid-rangy sound is especially noticeable on live versions of Thin Thing. So it makes sense that even Jonny would want to experiment with multiple dirt pedals for different flavors.

Jonny was first seen using an MXR Dyna Comp in a rehearsal photo, most likely taken when preparing for the fall 2022 tour (despite being posted in 2023). Thom and Ed have both previously used the pedal as well. Thom toured with a Dyna Comp only briefly before switching to his current Telenordia Kompressor. So it's interesting that Jonny first toured with a Kompressor (last year), but has gone the other way and switched to a Dyna Comp.

For those curious about the rhythmic delay setting marked on Jonny’s Akai Headrush E2, check out behind-the-scenes photos from The Smile’s Tiny Desk show. However, so far we’ve still only heard the pedal used as a looper.

Placing his Boss RE-202 after his Headrush allows Jonny to add ambient effects to his loops, as he does during the live outro of Skirting On The Surface.

Jonny first used a Strymon Iridium at a performance of Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint at the Hidden Notes festival on September 25, 2022. For that show, it replaced his amp. But with the Smile, he’s using it as a backup for his Super Reverb.

A photo of Jonny's pedalboard from a November 2022 show in Anthem, DC (Facebook).

UPDATE: we originally listed the Telenordia TA-24 Treble Booster as a Telenordia TA-100 Overdrive. Thank you to Kayky for noticing!

[itsmythang]

On this day in 1942, rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix was born. James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix ,was a musician, singer, and songwriter. Despite a relatively brief mainstream career spanning four years, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music."

Born in Seattle, Washington, Hendrix began playing guitar at the age of 15. In 1961, he enlisted in the US Army; he was granted an honorable discharge the following year. Soon afterward, he moved to Clarksville, Tennessee, and began playing gigs on the chitlin' circuit, eventually earning a place in the Isley Brothers' backing band and later finding work with Little Richard, with whom he continued to play through mid-1965. He then joined Curtis Knight and the Squires before moving to England in late 1966 after having been discovered by bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals. Within months, Hendrix had earned three UK top ten hits with the Jimi Hendrix Experience",

"Purple Haze", and "The Wind Cries Mary". He achieved fame in the US after his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, and in 1968 his third and final studio album, Electric Ladyland, reached number one in the US. The double LP was Hendrix's most commercially successful release and his first and only number one album.

He headlined the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 as the world's highest-paid performer before dying from barbiturate-related asphyxia on September 18, 1970, at the age of 27. Hendrix was inspired musically by American rock and roll and electric blues. He favored over driven amplifiers with high volume and gain, and was instrumental in developing the previously undesirable technique of guitar amplifier feedback. He helped to popularize the use of a wah-wah pedal in mainstream rock, and was the first artist to use stereophonic phasing effects in music recordings. Holly George-Warren of Rolling Stone commented: "Hendrix pioneered the use of the instrument as an electronic sound source.

Players before him had experimented with feedback and distortion, but Hendrix turned those effects and others into a controlled, fluid vocabulary every bit as personal as the blues with which he began." Hendrix was the recipient of several music awards during his lifetime and posthumously. In 1967, readers of Melody Maker voted him the Pop Musician of the Year and in 1968, Billboard named him the Artist of the Year and Rolling Stone declared him the Performer of the Year.

Disc and Music Echo honored him with the World Top Musician of 1969 and in 1970, Guitar Player named him the Rock Guitarist of the Year. The Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. Rolling Stone ranked their three studio albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love, and Electric Ladyland, among the 100 greatest albums of all time and they ranked Hendrix as the greatest guitarist and the sixth greatest artist of all time.

[dustedmagazine]

Zachary Cale — Next Year’s Ghost (Org Music)

You think of Zachary Cale.You think of a guitar. Indeed, the Dusted review of his pandemic-era epic False Spring in 2022 started right away with the six-string, observing, “Zachary Cale has a guitar sound that is instantly recognizable, very warm and clear and lucid, surrounded by an amplifying echo but fundamentally unhazed by overtones. Whether acoustic or electric, his playing speaks to you plainly, directly and rather beautifully.” Well you can forget about all that this time, because with Next Year’s Ghost, Cale moves to the piano (and other keyboards). The first note you hear on this eight-song album is the low, reverberating tone found at the far left end of the piano keyboard, and it ushers in a moody, ruminative set of songs with far less guitar than usual.

The story is that Cale spent part of the pandemic wandering over the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn, ending up at artist friend’s studio Red Hook that happened to house a piano. He played at first as a form of therapy, a way to escape the fear and boredom of COVID’s first waves. But over time, songs emerged, with dark-toned and lingering melodies and lyrics about human fragility.

Cale wrote these songs for voice and piano but he brought in friends to realize them fully. Shahzad Ismaily works his subtle atmospherics in bass and various synthesizers. Woodsy Pride guitarist Uriah Theriault fills in on electric. Jeremy Gustin of Delicate Steve and Okkervil River plays the drums.Other Brooklynites turn in arresting cameos like JR Bohannon’s pedal steel in “House on Fire” and Anni Rossi and Brent Arnold’s mini-string section in the haunting “Fragile Line.” There’s no escaping the brooding pall that these songs cast, but the arrangements lend them a bit of lightness and mobility.

Consider, for instance, “Fragile Line” which emerges out of the smoke and shadows of effected guitar, a flickering blues in the way its tone flares and swells. Then the piano joins in, a steady, regular motif giving the song clarity and purpose. Cale’s voice is strong and sound here, cutting through the sound effortlessly and reaching up into the higher registers in the chorus without faltering. And yet though he sings easily, the emotions he describes are more difficult: doubt, confusion, inability to see the point of it all.“Such a fragile line, scribbled on a wall, was that a joke or a prayer, in the bathroom stall,”he croons, and who knows? It was a weird couple of years.

“House on Fire” is one of the best of these songs. Cale sings in the most beautifully resigned way about everything going to shit, a shrug at losses too steep to measure. Still it’s the way that JR Bohannon’s pedal steel weaves the desolation that makes it so good, the way that it threads beauty through the wreckage. Like it, early single “Shatterstar,” puts sad, grey lyrics into a nearly hopeful context, the piano riff lilting up, the chorus a balm, the melody letting a little bit of sunshine slip through the gloom. 

Jennifer Kelly

[raytorosaurus]

hi nic! as someone who seems pretty knowledgable about guitars and music theory etc (especially when it comes to ray!!), can you help with this -- why is it that the guys change guitars throughout the show (aside from the fact it means they don't need to be constantly retuning?). do different ones have different sounds? from seeing the paper setlist with the notes next to it, i guess partly it's for sentimental reasons - like, session guitar for their first song etc. but how else do they chose specific guitars for specific songs, i've always wondered...

oooh ya i'm definitely not an expert in this but yeah different guitars have very different tones and also physically feel pretty different to play!! both of these things depend on a lot of factors in their build, shape, weight, string action, pickups (the things that "pick up" the string vibrations and transmit them to the amplifier to actually produce the sound), neck joints, bridge type, additional parts like whammy bars etc etc etc. like for example ray has historically favoured les pauls (and les paul juniors), which is the shape of his session guitar and most of his main guitars over the years (also of pansy etc), and they're known for their really full, rich tone compared to strats or teles, which tend to be brighter and cleaner (part of the reason a proper gibson les paul's tone is so nice is because they're so heavy lol, which is mainly why frank stopped playing them so much and something ray's also complained about before. but there are advantages and disadvantages to every type of guitar and different sounds and playing techniques you can get out of all of them - ray and frank don't have so many just for aesthetic reasons).

but beyond that a lot of the variation in guitar tone comes from which effect pedals the guitars are hooked up to at which settings, and the tone differences between guitar types interact with the tone differences created by pedals etc etc. when they started my chemical romance neither frank nor ray were very into gear so they just used straight-up overdrive and distortion, but over the years frank in particular has gotten really into collecting pedals. their tones sound sooo fucking good this tour because they dropped $$$ for them lol. but yeah beyond different tones, some my chem songs are also played in different tunings, which is when the open strings of the guitar aren't tuned to the standard E-A-D-G-B-E pattern, so if you had just one guitar you'd have to retune it to different notes between songs which a) is a time-consuming headache and b) can make your guitar less likely to hold its tune and shorten the lifespan of your strings. so i assume they'll each have like, a guitar on standby in half step down or drop d tuning or whatever. also honestly i'd say when you have so many nice guitars you kind of just wanna have a chance to take them out for a spin lol. and i assume using the same guitar to play the same song each time ensures not only a consistent tone but like a familiarity that probably helps with muscle memory for each song etc etc. ANYWAY this got long but yeah they would have put a lot of thought + rehearsal into the guitars and pedals they picked for this tour and which they use for each song. oh to be a fly on the wall.....

[cherrylng]

Amplifier & Effects [STYLE Series #004 - Muse (August 2010)]

Amplifier & Effects The pedals that are key to Matthew's sound, and the evolution of the amplifiers he uses.

Pedal Board on 1st Japan Tour Matthew's feet are perfectly captured in this photo taken on his first Japan tour. The huge pedal in the centre is a Roland V-Guitar system ‘VG-8’ (the original modelling effects device). Matthew is stepping on the expression pedal ‘EV-5’ connected to it. To the left is what appears to be a Line 6 ‘DL4’ (delay modeller), but the picture is not clear enough to be certain. A Marshall amp can also be seen in the background.

Rack Equipment-A Rack mainly containing effects-related items. Spatial effects such as TC electronic TC2290 (delay multi), Line 6's Echo Pro (delay modeller) and Korg's SDD-3000 (delay multi). In addition to the rack effectors, there are a number of compacts in the drawers and switchers and mixers to control them.

Drawer-1 Contents of the top drawer. Clockwise from top left: Digitech ‘Whammy’ (MIDI-compatible ‘WH4’), Pete Cornish's ‘TB-83 Extra’ (treble booster), Human Gear's ‘Animato’ (distortion), Keely's ‘Compressor’ (compression). (treble booster), Human Gear's ‘Animato’ (distortion), Keely's ‘Compressor’ (compressor), MXR's ‘Phase100’ MXR's ‘Phase100’ (phaser). The use of the Japanese-made ‘Animato’ pedal is a bit of a surprise.

Drawer-2 Contents of the bottom drawer. Clockwise from top left: BOSS ‘OC-2’ (octaver), ‘AC-2’ (acoustic simulator), ‘PS-5’ (pitch shifter), Digitech ‘Whammy’, Z.Vex's ‘Fuzz Factory’ (fuzz) and Keely's ‘Fuzz Head’ (fuzz).

Rack Equipment-2 Rack contains a wireless receiver (‘UR4D’ from Shure), pre-amps (‘SansAmp PSA11’ from Tech21), ‘VT737SP’ (channel strip equipment) from Avalon, switchers etc. The ‘PSA1 1’ and ‘VT737SP’ may be used for vocals.

Drawer-3 The drawer in this rack holds a Rocktron ‘All Access’ MIDI foot controller. Matthew has the same one under his foot, but this is a slave. This is probably used by the guitar tech to switch tones only when Matthew is unable to operate it.

Translator's Note: Oh god, when I finally reached this part of the article to scan, I suddenly understood the previous article that I translated when the journalist and photographer were talking about Matt's fashion style back in 2000. You really can see his denim jeans being cut off at the hem.

[frank-olivier]

Fleetwood Mac - Brown Eyes

"Brown Eyes" the first song that McVie presented to the group for the Tusk album, having done so in April 1978 at the band's rehearsal on Mulholland Drive. The song's structure consisted of three chords across two verses and a wordless chorus. McVie originally claimed that the song was about her dog, although she later confided in Ken Caillat that the song was about Dennis Wilson, who actually had green eyes.

During the song's initial tracking, Mick Fleetwood played a full drum kit and employed rim clicks on his snare drum, Lindsey Buckingham used his white Alembic electric guitar through a volume pedal, Christine McVie played a Yamaha electric piano, and John McVie played a bass guitar through an amplifier as opposed to the band's usual method of sending the bass directly to the mixing console. The backing vocals were not conducted until October 11th, so Stevie Nicks instead danced in the control room as the rest of the band recorded their parts. Additional vocal overdubs were recorded in early December.

Caillat characterized "Brown Eyes" as "a simple song with lots of space that made huge demands on the rhythm section and the melody instruments to fill it with color and ambiance." The band ultimately completed 37 takes before settling on their master recording. During the recording process, Dennis Wilson was present in the control room and provided opinions on how to approach the song, although several people, including Fleetwood and John McVie, dismissed these ideas.

Peter Green, a founding member of the band, also took part in the sessions for "Brown Eyes", but his guitar playing on the track is not credited on the original album release. Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer, remembered that Green still remained in contact with the band and occasionally joined them in the studio. At Fleetwood's request, Green overdubbed electric guitar on "Brown Eyes", although his playing was only included on the fade-out for the official release. The full recording session, dated 20 September 1979, appears on disc three of the 2015 deluxe edition of Tusk, which contains alternate recordings of the album's 20 tracks. This version has McVie singing different lyrics to those on the original album.

In a 1999 interview with The Penguin, Green said that he had no recollection of the recording session, which he attributed to his deteriorating health in the 1970s, but said there was still a possibility that he played on it. Buckingham also did not recall the sessions taking place. “I don’t remember Peter Green coming in, so I don’t think I made any judgement on whether to use [his part] or not. Mick would ultimately have had the decision to use his playing or not. And it was Christine’s song to do with as she wished.“ However, Caillat recalled in his 2019 book, Get Tusked, that Buckingham was unpleased with Green's blues guitar licks, so his parts were muted with the exception of the outro.

-- Wikipedia

Tuesday, May 7, 2024

[teardownit]

DIY Dumble-like sounding MOSFET Overdrive

The Hermida Zendrive guitar pedal we will study, assemble and listen to today is a true masterpiece. Many say its sound is close to the Holy Grail of guitar amplification - Dumble Overdrive Special.

Other people are more pessimistic in their judgments. Still, the precise response to the picking dynamics, the Voicing tuning options, and the sheer beauty of this overdrive's sound are simply impossible not to love.

But before we study the Lovepedal Zendrive or its copy of the Landtone Phoenix song, or the Aion effects Azimuth dynamic overdrive, we'll study the evolution of the MOSFET overdrives that finally resulted in the development of this gem.

Fulltone OCD

Mike Fuller was one of the first to start using MOSFETs instead of diodes to limit the amplified guitar signal in 2004.

His Obsessive-Compulsive Drive overdrive-distortion pedal is built on a standard circuit with one dual op amp. The first operational amplifier, X1, amplifies the amplitude of the guitar signal by a factor from 8 to 463 times, depending on the position of the drive control X3. This is a 1-megohm potentiometer.

Further, through resistor R9, the signal is fed to the limiter, which comprises 2N7000 MOSFETs M1 and M2 connected in parallel. A germanium diode D1 - 1N34A is additionally included in series with M2, which makes the limiter asymmetrical and, therefore, makes more interesting sound.

A limiter in overdrives is usually included in the negative feedback circuit of an operational amplifier (i.e., in parallel with C6). Such a limiter is called a soft limiter.

And here, a hard limitation is applied: clipping sections are included between the preamplifier output of the gain section and the virtual ground - half of the supply voltage Vref, formed by resistors R4 and R7.

Virtual ground is used in the unipolar powering of operational amplifiers to amplify analog signals, such as audio signals. The guitar signal does not change from zero to plus but from minus to plus, passing through zero.

To prevent the signal from being limited to the circuit's ground, it is shifted in the plus direction by half the supply voltage.

Such hard limiting is typical for distortion pedals. But by using MOSFETs instead of diodes or LEDs, the top of the signal is not cut hard but softly rounded. Therefore, OCD can work as both distortion and overdrive.

Due to the smoothed peaks of the limited signal, the sound is highly dependent on the sound's attack dynamics. For rock and especially blues, this is very valuable. With modern metal pickups that compress the dynamic range of the signal, it can help make solos sounding more sweet.

The second operational amplifier X3 amplifies the limited signal by a factor of 3.8, correcting its timbre. Capacitors C6 and C9 prevent the self-excitation of operational amplifiers at high frequencies.

Next is a simple passive tone knob, which implies a treble leak circuit. Potentiometer X4 10 kilohms and capacitor C11 47 nanofarads are connected in the same way as on the pickguard of any electric guitar.

The Switch1 switch changes the circuit's output impedance as if the high-impedance and low-impedance pickups were switched. When it's open, you get a transparent overdrive like the Klon Centaur, and when it's closed, you can get a more aggressive sound like the Marshall Plexi.

Hermida Audio Zendrive

The Zendrive pedal's authors, Hermida audio technology (now produced by LOVEPEDAL LLC), have undoubtedly studied the Fulltone OCD thoroughly. Let's find the differences between the two circuits.

First, the limiter is included in the operational amplifier feedback, that is, between the output and the inverting input, not between the output and virtual ground. That is, here we have a soft limiter.

Secondly, one diode is added in series with each MOSFET. Clipping remains asymmetric: we have one diode in the left arm of the limiter and two diodes in the right arm.

Third, the second operational amplifier is used as a voltage repeater, aka buffer: the output is directly connected to the inverting input.

Fourth, the tone control is implemented a little differently: two OCD`s switchable resistors are replaced by a potentiometer.

And finally, the most critical, fifth difference. A potentiometer is included in the tone correction circuit between the inverting input of the first operational amplifier and the artificial midpoint.

This fourth knob, Voicing, or Character, allows you to smoothly adjust the lower frequencies in the overdrive structure over a wide range, similar to the Resonance control on many tube guitar amps.

The potentiometer is signed as a trimmer in the diagram because some pedal makers don't want to install a fourth knob on the pedal`s body. This is what Landtone did when developing the Phoenix Song Overdrive DIY kit.

The developer suggests installing the trimmer on the PCB, and to access it, you need to disassemble the pedal by unscrewing the footswitch nut and taking out the PCB.

But I will not be lazy to drill an extra hole in the pedal body and install a potentiometer with a knob, connected to PCB by wires instead of the trimmer. Because I consider this regulator simply invaluable and irreplaceable.

Before we get to assembly and testing, let's look at another pedal with a similar adjustment. However, it is based not on the Fulltone OCD but on the Ibanez Tube Screamer.

The Precision Drive

This is a signature pedal by Misha Mansour of Periphery, manufactured by Horizon Devices. Compared to the original Overdrive Pro TS808, the circuit adds a noise suppressor, which we will not consider, and an exciting ATTACK switch.

The Precision Drive scheme was studied and partially replicated by PedalPCB and PCB Guitar Mania. They are manufacturers of DIY kits for guitarists. Their products are called Dwarven Hammer and Collision Drive, respectively. A noise gate is not provided there, but the attack switch is implemented. This is the main difference between Precision Drive and many other overdrive pedals.

In the Fulltone OCD schematic, we saw a resistor switch at the tone shaping circuit in the output section. The Zendrive has a variable resistor in the preamp's RC circuit which is controlling the overdrive structure.

Precision Drive has a constant resistor in the same place, between the inverting input of the overdrive section operational amplifier and the virtual ground, but the capacitors are switched.

This is the same thing: we change the time constant of the RC circuit, which adjusts the audio signal's frequency spectrum. At the same time as the time constant, the complex impedance changes, thus the gain.

A resistor is a resistance to both DC and AC current. At the same time, a capacitor is only resistant to AC current because DC current does not flow through a capacitor. Since DC current does not flow through our RC circuit, there is no difference between adjusting the resistance and switching the capacitance.

But the active/reactive ratio affects the circuit's Quality factor, i.e., its resonance. It's no coincidence that the knob on guitar amplifiers, which adjusts the same frequencies as our potentiometer or switch, is often called RESONANCE. And it is used to adjust to the resonance of the electromechanical system - the loudspeakers in the cabinet, along with the masses of air in and around it.

The reactive impedance accumulates energy and gives it away, except for losses due to dielectric recharging and magnetizing the magnetic core in inductors. This is why coreless inductors are often used in high-end equipment, so-called air inductors. They weigh a lot, take up a lot of space, and are expensive because copper is more expensive than steel. But these are the laws of physics on which technology is based.

Unlike reactive impedance, active resistance converts electrical energy into heat, thus reducing the Q-factor. In some cases, it is necessary and useful. In others, it is harmful. Or it simply creates a unique sound character.

That's why switching capacitors and turning the potentiometer knob in the feedback circuit of an audio frequency amplifier is almost the same thing, but not quite. And it's great that there are such different variants of guitar overdrive pedals!

Landtone Phoenix Song Overdrive

Now you can hear how my Zendrive from the Landtone OD-1 kit sounds, with a Seymour-Duncan SH4 humbucker on a Gibson MM Explorer guitar, into an Orange MT20 with a Torpedo Captor X. And see how I assembled the pedal and also a kitten walking around the table and prancing around.

I liked the pedal, especially its fourth magic Voicing knob, which does things to the sound that other tone controls can't. I also liked the bird on the body. Because I love birds. And in the music world, the decoration of instruments and hardware plays no small role because it inspires creativity. And the fact that the pedal is assembled by my hands also warms my soul and creates inspiration.

[truffulacore]

dreampop's au/lore/arc/???/thing

- He's wanted to be dream pop musician ever since he was 13, but doesn't have the right pedals for his guitar

- Tries to make his own but they just don't have the right tone he wants

- Wonders if there's a frequency outside the human hearing range that he's missing out on, so he goes looking for it, experimenting with sounds in different environments

- Eventually comes across truffula trees and realises the resonant frequency of their tufts is exactly what he needs to try and make that frequency audible (he can amplify one specific overtone which happens to be his mysterious frequency, and that somehow makes it audible?? don't ask me about the frequencies in too much detail I do not know ajdhdkd)

- He invents a pedal that can create any effect, which uses truffula tufts to convert that unheard frequency into one that's audible to the human ear. It makes the most ethereal effects anyone has ever heard and makes all music sound amazing, which leads to him becoming really successful

- What he doesn't realise is that the frequency isn't supposed to be audible, and it causes all sorts of things to go wrong e.g. electronics malfunctioning, living things dying, etc. But he ignores all that and carries on with his business, for typical Onceler reasons

- Eventually all the trees die because of his dangerous frequency and he has nothing to make his pedals anymore. Now his business has failed and he's destroyed half the planet :/

[supersymmetries]

(making a new post since the last one was getting Long and i’m getting entirely off track) @aeolianblues​

agreed-- their music videos took an immersion blender to my brain and rearranged all my neurons.

a built-in whammy pedal would be fun! you could put a pressure sensor on the sole so you could just press into the ground as if you were controlling a pedal. only downside is that you wouldn’t be able to control when it goes off if you’re tumbling around on stage as matt is prone to do. maybe it could be controlled by twisting your foot in or out instead, and in = pitched up and out = pitched lower?

maybe it wouldn’t be very convenient for live performances, but it sounds like a very interesting way to meld music and choreography. smart clothing and wearable tech like google glass or shirts that can determine your body temperature and heat you up/cool you down as needed had a lot of hype about 10 years ago, though they never took off. the only wearable that’s common nowadays are smart watches. and i think that’s for a good reason; smart clothing has practical limitations in day to day use, but i think they absolutely could have a place in more specialized fields like coma patient monitoring or artistic performances.

like, what if you created a whole outfit made of garments that controlled the effects for an instrument? a dancer would wear all those clothes and the musician’s instrument would be hooked up to it. so the dancer would become an active participant in creating the music that they’re dancing to. that’s a concept just asking to be executed with plug in baby.

transcribed tags under the cut since they’re from another post:

#listen Matt plugging in his heels fundamentally changed me as a person#I may be ace af but surely that's a literal sexuality. #if the music video heels were real I wonder what they'd be for. Amplified foot taps? #Muse electronic flamenco? (I'm convinced Muse could pull that off successfully. #I'd point to songs like City of Delusion or Darkshines; even Undisclosed Desires itself. Muse could do it) #Seriously though Matt would absolutely go for something like an in-built pitchshifter pedal in his shoe! #Can you imagine how much that would simplify songs like Kill Or Be Killed and Map Of The Problematique for him? #he currently uses click-track synced off-stage MIDI pitch shifters for the various harmonies on MOTP and the #upward ballooning thingie in the intro of KOBK. If he could activate it with his foot he'd be like fuck yeah #probably #Muse

[mywifeleftme]

24: Hangedup // Kicker in Tow

Kicker in Tow Hangedup 2002, Constellation (Bandcamp)

Hangedup were the twelfth band signed to Montreal’s Constellation Records, and they’re emblematic of the city’s experimental music scene of the era. The general Godspeed You Black Emperor! cinematic universe was basically a rat king of oddly-named projects involving the same twenty or thirty musicians, so you understandably hear a lot of the shared DNA between them. Hangedup are of the string and percussion sturm und drang branch, and despite being a mere duo they manage to kick up a racket that rivals the ten-piece Godspeed at their most frenetic.

Kicker in Tow is pretty evenly split between sparse, rusty free improvisations and songs to soundtrack being chased by steam-driven automata with moustaches and Romanian accents. Drummer Eric Craven plays like an absolute maniac on a kit that sounds like it was Frankensteined out of the bicycle cemetery he hoarded in his backyard. Violinist Genevieve Heistek keeps up with him, bombastically sawing away at her amplified instrument, often with the recursive aid of a looping pedal. These guys were probably a mesmerizing live act, and the unobtrusive production makes it easy to close your eyes and pretend you’re there.

I bought my copy second-hand, and it still contained the circa-2002 Constellation catalogue booklet pictured here inside. Reading it was a reminder of how special a label Constellation has been for more than 25 years now. Of Godspeed’s F♯ A♯ ∞ the booklet notes, “This record remains in print, with hand-glued covers & insert envelope including blueprint & crushed penny. Do not pay ‘collector’ prices for this release.” That’s still true as of 2023 (and in fact as I understand it the label will buy pennies off you if you’re in Montreal and have any lying around, as Canada discontinued their production in 2012). I was talking to a friend at the bar the other day who has a record out with Constellation, and they mentioned how important it was to them when signing to know the label has kept its entire catalogue in print since day one. I can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass this must be to manage, given the bespoke nature of their releases’ packaging, but it speaks to their dedication to their artists and their fans. They, and even their lesser-known acts like Hangedup, are a big reason a lot of people I like ended up in this city. For that I thank them.

24/365