Experimentation comes in many forms. For Scott McMicken—co-founder, guitarist, singer, and songwriter for the jammy indie septet Dr. Dog—recording his solo debut was an opportunity to try something new. Something outrageous. The experiment? To not play guitar.“The guitar has been a revolving relationship in my life that, as of very recently, has taken really interesting turns, and on this record, I didn’t play any guitar,” McMicken says in his endearing, stream-of-consciousness way of speaking, which demonstrates a propensity for run-on sentences. “There’s always been this connection between playing guitar and singing for me where I started to notice that if I am playing guitar and singing while I am recording a song, then that sort of limits what I am able to do on guitar. Over the years, I noticed that I always enjoyed playing guitar on [bass player and co-founder] Toby [Leaman]’s songs in Dr. Dog more because I didn’t have to think about singing. But then, when I do have to think about singing, I tend to lean into basic rhythm guitar, which isn’t necessarily compelling to me—I don’t necessarily want to hear a guitar strumming some chords from the guy who’s singing—so I decided to not play guitar and just stand there singing, and it made the process so cool.”To be clear, McMicken hasn’t abandoned the instrument. Despite his earlier declaration, he admits he may have snuck a few licks onto Shabang as well. “I’ve had this long and weird relationship with guitar,” he says. “It’s my guy. It’s my best friend. It’s by my side. But it’s had a multifaceted position in my life as a musician within the grand scheme of things, and more recently it’s revealed itself, and I see something that I hadn’t been able to see for many years and it’s exciting.” Part of that revelation came in the way he composes songs, some of which were written on an acoustic he got from Reuben Cox at Old Style Guitar Shop in Los Angeles. Cox’s creations are usually beat, low-budget Kays, Harmonys, and other similar models of yesteryear that, according to McMicken, are subjected to a thorough retrofit. The old machines receive better pickups, modern electronics, and a rubber bridge, then they’re given a professional setup and made playable with flatwound strings. You can see them everywhere—the first one was made for Blake Mills, and now Taylor Swift, Phoebe Bridgers, and many others use them as well—and they provide just enough of a wrinkle to help you reimagine the instrument and encourage some creativity.Scott McMicken and THE EVER-EXPANDING – “Diamonds In The Snow” [Official Video]“It’s a game changer,” McMicken says of the old-made-new instruments. “Another person who is big on these guitars is Jeff Tweedy. When I found that out I texted him, and he said something like, ‘Songs just fall right out of those things,’ and he’s so right. There’s something so unique about the way they sound that when you do something basic, like strum a C chord, there’s something about it that engages your mind in a different way. They are really inspiring tools for writing because they give you just that little twist on that familiar terrain that right away, it feels more exotic and engages your imagination more.”“I’ve had this long and weird relationship with guitar. It’s my guy. It’s my best friend. It’s by my side. But it’s had a multifaceted position in my life as a musician within the grand scheme of things.”That warped, lo-fi, rubber-bridge-inspired feel is all over Shabang. The album opener, “What About Now,” could be a campy, slowed-down outtake from Bob Dylan’s Bringing It Back Home, complete with the scratches that came from playing your vinyl copy a million times. The eerie and psychedelic “Mountain Lion” has all sorts of dime-store bells and whistles that seem to emanate from someone’s fretboard, although it’s unclear, despite McMicken’s assertions to the contrary, if those came from him or the album’s primary guitarist, Paul Castelluzzo. Many of the album’s grooves have a reggae-style chink on the two and four, plus an effortless yet danceable looseness that gives the impression of a party happening somewhere nearby. The rubber bridge itself—or something like it—is particularly noticeable on the bouncy title track, as well as the record’s trippy jam “Ever Expanding.” But that rubber bridge is just the tip of McMicken’s revelatory iceberg. For years, he was a champion of underdog gear (check out his 2020 Rig Rundown where he sings the praises of his ancient, handwired solid-state Peavey Vulcan), but when he plugged into a vintage Fender Princeton, “it just revealed to me the sound of guitar in a way that I had never experienced before. It was so pure and so nice in that vintage way that seems perfect, but also kind of flawed. Plugging into a 1965 Princeton, you’re not thinking, ‘What ketchup am I going to put on this?’ You’re thinking, ‘Listen to this.’ You’re more directly engaged in a pure way.”That Princeton led to the acquisition of a 1967 Fender Champ, which, at least for now, is McMicken’s desert-island amp. “I have a feeling that it will never leave my side,” he says. “It has reintroduced me to the way it feels to play a guitar and has left me more inspired than ever before. There’s something about a solidbody Fender guitar into an old, little Fender amp where I feel like you’re hearing the platonic form of electric guitar. You’re hearing story number one, and whatever that super-sweet vintage thing is, it’s not perfect. The reason why it rules for me—and the reason why it’s beautiful—is not because it’s embodying some form of perfection. It actually just sounds busted in some kind of cool way. It took me a long time to realize and to open up to that. But slowly, one piece after another, I’ve been able to appreciate that more.”McMicken’s approach to pedals is also ever-evolving, and he’s recently stopped using delay. “I realized what a disservice I was doing having all these delays,” he says about his experience mixing recordings of live Dr. Dog shows. “There’s so much other stuff going on, and I was smearing it all with all this echo. I need to be much more conservative.”But McMicken is an experimenter at heart. Thinking about his vocal range and the keys he’s most comfortable singing in prompted him to tune his guitars down a step and a half to C# standard. Detuning gives the strings extra slack, which makes the instrument feel different. That affects the way McMicken plays and stimulates his creative muse. Scott McMicken’s GearGuitarsReuben Cox-modded Sears acoustic with rubber bridge (baritone)Oahu acousticPartscaster Tele assembled from a Squier body, anonymous neck, and higher-end electronics1980s Fender StratocasterB&D 1920s tenor banjoAmps1965 Fender Princeton1967 Fender ChampPedalsZVEX Super Duper 2-In-1Strymon DecoElectro-Harmonix Micro SynthStrings & PicksHeavy picks, any brand.013 gauge strings, any brandFlatwound strings on the baritone that came with the instrument“That slack vibe has been blowing my mind on guitar,” he says. “It’s like a whole new effect that I just never got into.” Initially, tuning down was a way for McMicken to sing in lower keys without changing chord shapes. But then he discovered “that the tones of the guitar are so nice with that slack. You have to be more delicate—you can’t wail away on it—but if you exist in a certain parameter of articulation and velocity with your right hand, you can be very dynamic. Of course, it can also fart out and die if you hit it too hard. But even that feels like an asset to me, because as a guitarist, I am evolving my style and working towards playing more mindfully.” “I texted Jeff Tweedy, and he said something like, ‘Songs just fall right out of those things,’ and he’s so right. There’s something so unique about the way they sound when you do something basic, like strum a C chord.”That feel contributes much to his newfound guitar aesthetic, which is a sloppier, noisier take on the instrument—whether he’s actually playing it on Shabang, or is simply drawn to those sounds as a bandleader. But the style isn’t irreverent. “I never identified with the heroic nature of the electric guitar, and I was always drawn to the people who were much more sloppy about it,” he says. “That’s the ethos I’ve been living in for so many years now. But in the last few years it’s shifted, and I’ve woken up to the fact that the electric guitar is beautifully dynamic and expressive, and I can see that when I try to connect to it on a personal level—not just view it as this utilitarian device to execute rock in, but actually feel it and put myself into it.”There’s a freewheeling sensibility all over Shabang that seems to stem from the songwriter’s approach. The band was assembled by the album’s producer, Nick Kinsey, and McMicken only met everyone when it was time to record. (In addition to the songwriter and producer, there are another 13 musicians on Shabang.) “There were no rehearsals,” says McMicken. “It was, ‘Hello, what’s your name? My name is Scott,’ moments before turning the mics on.” This laidback, organic vibe, with an emphasis on spontaneous group improvisation—and a dedication to keeping the recordings as live as possible—brought out an expressive dynamism McMicken has been searching for in his music. Even though, for the most part, he isn’t playing the guitar parts, the vibe is obvious. “I am in hot pursuit of developing more of an immediate relationship with the process of recording music,” he says. “Being more in the moment, and getting as close as you can to recording a ‘live’ finished product with minimal overdubbing. Nick chose the musicians based on different experiences he’s had with them, and I trust him deeply so it was easy for me to say, ‘You pick the players, and I am sure it is going to rule.’ And it did. I met so many wonderful people.”YouTube ItScott McMicken leads his Ever-Expanding collective with his Reuben Cox-modded acoustic. The band’s live take on “Reconcile” could fit neatly alongside any track from The Basement Tapes.

In a new interview with “The Logan Show”, DROWNING POOL guitarist C.J. Pierce discussed the departure of the band’s longtime singer Jasen Moreno. Jasen, who joined DROWNING POOL in 2012, exited the group earlier this year, making way for the return of Ryan McCombs.
“Yeah, [Jasen] was in [DROWNING PO…

In a moderately unexpected turn of events, KORN guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer has thrown himself wholeheartedly into the shadowy world of experimental electronic music. A collaboration with US composer and filmmaker Chris Hunt, VENERA switches Munky’s focus from his day job’s unpredictable but rel…

Efficient, economical, and exacting are the key features that allow these pop-rockers’ finely-tuned setups to pump out buoyant ballads and bangers.“‘Stumbled into guitar’ is a good way of putting our start with the instrument. [Spencer Stewart] and I formed the band in 2015 and that’s when I got my first electric guitar,” admits The Band CAMINO’s vocalist and guitarist Jeffery Jordan.That sort of sideways T-bone collision into guitardom allows this pop-minded duo to avoid typical tonal tropes like worrying about tubes versus modeling, or imports versus custom. Their focus was and continues to be translating their danceable melodies into guitar-driven rompers and producing the best live show possible. “We definitely enjoyed a pedalboard-and-amp-era of the band, but the tech has come so far and we’re able to eliminate so much room for error and potential inconsistencies, allowing for a freer performance,” adds Jordan. As we quickly found out in our Rundown with Jordan and Stewart, the band’s approach favors execution over exhibitionism. In mid-September, just before the band commenced their headlining Screaming in the Dark tour, in support of the just-released The Dark album, co-frontmen and dueling guitarists Jeffery Jordan and Spencer Stewart invited PG’s Chris Kies to rehearsal for a gear talk. The main chauffeurs of CAMINO explained how grabbing guitar later in life allowed them to avoid a lot of gear gossip and find tonal solutions that enrich their performances. Plus, they both discuss the stable of studs from Fender, Gibson, and Epiphone that give bounce and beauty to their merging of indie-rock and electropop.Brought to you by D’Addario XPND.A Flashy FenderJeffery Jordan’s first electric was a Strat. He’s long enjoyed the Fender side of things, and one of his main rides for the upcoming tour would be this MIM Fender Telecaster. Two things to note on this T would be its glow-in-the-dark paint job and the addition of the EverTune bridge, making this not only an onstage stunner but a locked-damn hammer always ready to smash. Both Jordan and Stewart exclusively use D’Addario NYXL1052 Light Top/Heavy Bottom strings (.010–.052) on their electrics. They’re normally in standard tuning, but they do explore open-D for a few songs.Backup BlasterThis Fender Jim Root Jazzmaster joins the party if the Tele can’t dance. It comes stock with a set of EMG 60/81 pickups, but Jordan swapped in a couple of Lace Sensors. The bridge is the gold version that offers a classic ’50s Style single-coil sound while the neck Lace is a silver model giving Jordan a fat, ’70s single-coil sound with increased output and more midrange. Again, an EverTune bridge has been added for tuning stability. Bold BirdFor the first time, Jordan will be hitting the road with a Gibson. Three songs are allocated to this regal raptor—a Custom Shop Firebird Custom, decked out with a mahogany body laced with multi-ply binding, elegant gold hardware, and a set of 498T/490R humbuckers.Booming BellThe subtler side of The Band CAMINO is handled by this Gibson J-45 Standard finished in a smoldering tobacco burst. It runs through their Neural DSP Quad Cortex thanks to the included L.R. Baggs VTC electronics.Dancing in the DarkSpencer Stewart joined the electric guitar cult in 2015 when forming the Band CAMINO with Jeffery Jordan. He started the band’s existence with a Strat before being seduced by a Gibson Lzzy Hale Explorer. Ever since he’s been cruising and bruising with ’buckers, but one of his current main rides revs and roars with Fishman Fluence pickups. He prefers to record with these guitars because the Fluences are so dynamic and versatile. Originally finished in a stealth black, Stewart jazzed them up with glow-in-the-dark paint and blacklight speckles that make them both dazzle onstage. The red one takes lead, while the blue one hangs in the second position. High FlyerAny songs in open-D are reserved for Stewart’s Firebird Studio ’70s Tribute, still rocking its stock mini-humbuckers. He loves its tone and the added bonus of it being a light-feathered bird. Stolen UpgradesDuring a quick stop at a morning radio show in L.A., the band left their acoustics in the rental vehicle. When they returned from the brief session, the unattended acoustics were gone. Stewart lost an Epiphone Masterbilt and Jordan was out a Fender flattop. Before an in-store performance and album signing at Nashville’s beloved Grimey’s, Gibson offered Stewart a chance to check out this Gibson Hummingbird Studio Rosewood. Needless to say, he’s not giving it back nor letting it out of his sight. The Same But NotA recent venture into a Nashville Guitar Center yielded a déjà vu moment when Stewart saw this Epiphone Masterbuilt DR-500RNS—very similar to the aforementioned looted acoustic. He took it as a sign, and plunked down the plastic to be reconnected with an old friend.Clean BusinessWith less than 10 years under their belt as electric guitarists and growing up with tech, Jeffery and Spencer don’t have a lot of the mental pitfalls more veteran players fall into when thinking about live guitar tones. For these two, it’s all about the precision, practicality, and polished sounds they can achieve for a maximum performance that connects directly with the audience. The one-stop solution for those needs is this rolling buffet that starts with Neural DSP Quad Cortex units. Every moment of their show is programmed in these tablet-sized titans. The other hardware in their rack includes Shure PSM 1000s (in-ear monitors), Shure P10T-G10 Dual Wireless Transmitters, Shure ULXD4D Dual Channel Digital Wireless Receivers, Radial Gold Digger 4 Channel Mic Selectors, Sennheiser AC3200-II Active High Power Broadband antennas, Focusrite RedNet A16R MkII 16×16 Analog Dante Interfaces, Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante Multi-Format Converters, Midas XL48 Preamps, and Universal Audio Apollo X6 Thunderbolt Interfaces. This setup can either pilot a moon mission or make for a smooth, flawless rock show. The Band Camino’s RigFender American Performer Telecaster HumEpiphone SG ProphecyFender Jim Root JazzmasterGibson J-45Neural Quad CortexShure P10TShure ULXD4DSennheiser AC 3200-IIFocusrite Rednet A16RFerrofish A32 DanteUniversal Audio Apollo x6

We have only 100 copies available of Phobocosm’s new LP, Foreordained, on exclusive murky Transparent Blue & Black Marble vinyl. Don’t blow it.
The post Pre-order PHOBOCOSM’s New LP ‘Foreordained’ on LIMITED Decibel-Exclusive Vinyl! appeared first on Decibel Magazine.

Mark Tornillo’s pre-ACCEPT band T.T. QUICK will reunite for a special performance on Saturday, November 11 at Manville-Hillsborough Elks in Hillsborough, New Jersey. The concert will be a memorial event for T.T. QUICK drummer Erik Ferro, who died in June. No cause of death was revealed.
The news of…

Legendary American rockers KISS have canceled their concert in Dubai, United Arab Emirates this week.
All Things Live Middle East, the presenter behind the concert, issued the following statement: “KISS has today confirmed that they have cancelled their show due to unforeseen circumstances and will…