Populuxe -- October, 2013
Mark, Rob and Mike
Hollywood and Highland, August 2004
A beautiful shot from the rear of the stage -- Josh Pickering (guitar) and Chris Barsby (bass) in the foreground, Rob in the distance.
H&H -- 2004
One more from the H&H show, included here because it has a good shot of the 1967 Ampeg B12XT in the background. Bought it in '91 at Willie's American Guitars in St. Paul. Dragged through the snow, up six flights of stairs in NYC and to tons of sessions, a workhorse and dynamite sounding amp
Notes and detritus
Band notes for the tracks -- June 2013
Rob solo -- April 20, 2013
At Bob's Espresso, in North Hollywood, a rare solo gig testing out songs for the upcoming LP
Balinese Room, August 2004
Backstage on the first date of the August 2004 Texas tour, at the now destroyed (Hurricane Katrina) Balinese Room in Galveston. A great shot. And one of the best gigs we ever played. Left to right -- Pete Straub, Chris Barsby, Rob, Joshua Pickering
Populuxe instruments in repose.
The bass is a Schecter, with incredibly powerful passive pickups. This is the ONLY instrument Mike showed up with to the sessions, and aside from playing a Gibson Ripper on "Before We Shed This Skin," Mike played this bass on every single track on the record. All those different sounds? This bass and Mike's fingers.
Big Blue
Found unfinished and never completed in a friend's Brooklyn basement in '96, after some consultation by Bobn Jones, it turns out that this is a mid '50s Gretsch body, mid '50s Gretsch neck, Gibson fretboard, unknown neck joint, and with clumsy hum bucker-sized cavities cut at some point. I finished it with TV Jones Filtertrons, TV Jones wiring harness and a bigsby. The rhythm sound of "Play Her Loud", "Shannon Road" and the lead on "Before We Shed This Skin".
Nightingale and Corvette
My two oldest -- an '87 Guild Nightingale and a '63 Gretsch Corvette, both modified. The Guild now sports a pair of Lollar low-wind Imperials and a Bigsby, and the Corvette was refinished in '92. The Nightingale is all over every record, but has never sounded better than on "Prayer #1" and "Mountainwood Dr." The Corvette ALWAYS cuts -- super low-output HiLo'trons, it just has a signature unlike anything else. It's the riff on "Prayer #1" and "Love is the Only Law"
Italia and Special
2000 Italia Modena and 2010 Gibson Les Paul Special (the latter with Fralin p-90s). The Italia is the solo in "Shannon Road", the six-string in "Sea Shanty", and the surf guitar in "I Will Love You" -- a terrific sounding, great-looking, inexpensive instrument. The Special is one of those lucky finds -- it was exactly what I'd been looking for, and, for whatever reason, it sounds really great wherever and however its played. The right-side guitar on "Play Her Loud", and "Love is the Only Law".
Night Blue
The Danelectro Hodad 12-string, and the Nightingale, appropriately lit, in front of a Swart Atomic Space Tone, aka, the Magic Box. The 12 is anywhere a 12-string is heard on the LP. Bought it for $200. Best $200 I ever spent.
Reverberocket II
Bought this Ampeg Reverberocket II in September 1994, at Chelsea Second Hand Guitars for $400, and immediately sent it off to Jess Oliver, its designer, who happened to live across the Hudson, for servicing. His response: "Gee, this amp sounds great." I agree. Slightly darker, hi-fi sound. THE sound of "a foggy day in brooklyn" (I think I played just about every track through this amp) and "Mayor of Simpleton"
