EarthQuaker Session Ep. 40 - Starcrawler "No More Pennies"
Malcolm X Abram
For your musical absorption, we offer the bouncy, pedal-steel laced and country-tinged rock nroll tune “No More Pennies,” from L.A. rockers Starcrawler.
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Filtering by Tag: Bit Commander
The Obsessions Of Ilan Rubin, From Woodstock To Nine Inch Nails To The New Regime
Benjamin H. Smith
When most people were still collecting comic books and dreading middle school, Ilan Rubin was playing the Warped Tour and Woodstock with San Diego pop-punk band F.o.N.
Read MoreBoard To Death Ep. 17: Takeshi (Boris)
Aaron Rogers
“I want [the audience] to use all of their five senses. Forget about the daily life,” says guitarist/bassist Takeshi. To aid our forgetfulness, Takeshi plays through a monolithic array of Sunn and Orange amplifiers plus a pedalboard stuffed to capacity with boutique fuzz pedals, one-off noisemakers, Afterneath, Bit Commander, and Palisades.
Read MoreBoard To Death Ep 16: Justin Pearson & Joey Karam (the Locust, Dead Cross, One Day As A Lion)
Aaron Rogers
“It’s not musical and I like that,” says Justin Pearson.
For more than a decade Justin Pearson (Dead Cross, Retox, Head Wound City) and Joey Karam (One Day as a Lion) have attacked eardrums and melted faces with their deconstructed avant-grindcore assault as members of the Locust. We recently met up with Justin and Joey at an undisclosed Los Angeles locale to concoct some Plague Soundscapes of our own…
Read MoreShow Us Your Junk! Ep. 11 - Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business, Foo Fighters, Tool)
Aaron Rogers
The former Big Business guitarist and regular Melvins collaborator has a long history of engineering and/or producing top-tier rock bands - the bathroom in his Sound of Sirens studio is decorated with platinum records honoring his contribution to albums by Foo Fighters and Tool…
Read MoreBoard to Death Ep. 14: Spotlights' Sarah Quintero
Aaron Rogers
Spotlights are loud. We caught up with bassist Sarah Quintero before the band’s performance at Mahall’s in Lakewood, OH, to shine a light on the deluge of distortion and fuzz pedals she uses to saturate the low frequencies which drive the trio’s sludgy shoegaze riffs straight into your skull.
Read MoreShow Us Your Junk! Ep. 10 - John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Recording
Aaron Rogers
“I’m a sick person,” confesses John Vanderslice.
He’s not wrong.
Vanderslice suffers from a terminal case of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and it’s spreading...
Read MoreGettin' Weird With Har Mar Superstar
Aaron Rogers
Har Mar Superstar are experts when it comes to gettin’ weird. We met up with Mr. Superstar himself, Sean Tillman, and trumpeter Jake Baldwin to see what might happen if we paired up a handful of our wildest Devices with trumpet and vocals...
Read MoreBoard To Death Ep. 8: Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age, Gone is Gone)
Aaron Rogers
The Evil has landed. We caught up with Queens of the Stone Age guitarist and lap steel player Troy Van Leeuwen to take a look at his multi-amp setup combining the best of modern signal routing with the immediacy of old-school, “pedals on the floor” plug-and-play rock and roll raunchiness...
Read More“Mistakes Are Great!” - George Pajon, Jr. (Cairo Knife Fight, the Black Eyed Peas) on His Musical Evolution
Aaron Rogers
You know George Pajon, Jr. Whether he’s co-writing platinum hits with the Black Eyed Peas, producing, writing, or playing guitar for artists as varied as Sting, Ricky Martin, Macy Gray, Sérgio Mendez, or “Weird” Al Yankovic; touring the world with Fergie, or bringing down the house with his new hard rock band Cairo Knife Fight, you’ve heard his music...
Read MoreAaron's Bass Hole: Stupid Bass Tricks - Analog Sequencer Edition
Aaron Rogers
The idea behind this particular effects chain is to let the bass guitar take the lead by using effects pedals to simulate a sound similar to the sequencer module of an analog synthesizer...
Read MoreBoard to Death Ep. 3 - Nick Reinhart (Tera Melos, Big Walnuts Yonder)
Aaron Rogers
We met up with Tera Melos / Big Walnuts Yonder guitar wrangler Nick Reinhart at Juan Alderete’s 5 Starr Sound Labs to dig into a few of his favorite settings on the Bit Commander, Transmisser, and Avalanche Run. As if having killer guitar chops weren’t enough, Reinhart has made a name for himself as a tone-tweaker conjuring expressive and bizarre sounds from any pedal he touches. Today is no different...
Read MoreEarthQuaker Session: Obnox - Enter the Hater
Aaron Rogers
When he's not building pedals, EQD's Lamont Thomas is Obnox aka Nox. Watch him rip thru the garage-punk barnburner "Enter the Hater" and be sure to scoop up the seven (!) records he's slated to release this year. His latest LP, "Niggative Approach" is out now on 12XU!
Read MoreStudio Series - Kurt Ballou (GodCity Studio, Converge)
Aaron Rogers
Kurt Ballou's GodCity Studio is the central hub for crushing, oppressively awesome sounding heavy metal records by the likes of High On Fire, Helms Alee, Skeletonwitch, the Dillinger Escape Plan, and Torche. As if that weren't impressive enough, Ballou is also the guitarist in hardcore trailblazers Converge. And he has the greatest business card of all time...
Read MoreStudio Series - Jon San Paolo (Electrical Audio)
Aaron Rogers
Jon San Paolo, staff engineer, building manager, and "weekend guy" at Steve Albini's Electrical Audio shines some light on the "Electrical Method" and how he uses EarthQuaker Devices to save himself and his clients the heartache of trying to "fix it in the mix..."
Read MorePedal Spiel with Nick Reinhart
Nick Reinhart
Hello pedal enthusiasts. Nick Reinhart here, doing some guest blogging for EarthQuaker Devices. Some of you may know me from my music, namely Tera Melos, or my work with Zach Hill, or possibly a new band I have with Nels Cline, Mike Watt, and Greg Saunier called Big Walnuts Yonder...
Read MoreAaron's Bass Hole - Octaves: Down Low in the Bass Hole
Aaron Rogers
Rumor has it that the Bit Commander doesn't track well on bass. Well, you can just forget about that, because with a little finesse, there's plenty of rump-shaking monophonic sub-octave to be had...
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