Innehållsförteckning för Vol. 161 från Australian Guitar

INTERVIEW It took Brisbane punk quartet Semantics four recording sessions to finish their sophomore LP I Feel It All At Once, so it's no surprise they're stoked and relieved. They were similarly stoked after the release of their 2022 debut album, Paint Me Blue, but as lead singer-guitarist Callum Robinson and guitarist-vocalist Zac Roberton tell Australian Guitar, the production of the songs didn't quite measure up to how it sounded in their heads. In order for the group to find the right sound of the album on their second LP – the one they'd envisioned for the first - they decided to take matters entirely into their own hands. After setting up, recording and editing everything themselves at Robinson's Twin Sound Studios, Semantics then sent the digital stems of vocals…

Born in Atlanta in 1966, Kristin Hersh started writing songs at age 12 when she formed her longest-running band, Throwing Muses. When she was 16, she began hearing music differently, after being hit by a car while riding her bike. Reflecting on her early days, Hersh described her accidental gift like so: “sounds would alter their sonic vocabulary until I was hearing syllables, and drums, then all these words would come”. She was first compelled to craft songs from mental fragments by taking apart pieces of songs that she heard in her mind. A while later, after these resulting songs had made up the debut self-titled 1986 release by Throwing Muses, she learnt that “inspiration is chaotic”. With Hersh as primary songwriter and producer, Throwing Muses would go on to…

LINKIN PARK GET THE TONE CHANNEL DISTORTION Shinoda and Delson have been playing The Emptiness Machine on humbucker-loaded PRS guitars, and over the years they've been known to use Bogner, Mesa/Boogie, Engl and Orange amps. That means you'll need to dial in a modern high-gain tone. If you feel your amp doesn't have enough gain you can use an overdrive pedal to add more saturation, and this also helps to tighten the low end. Lead single from the new album From Zero, The Emptiness Machine features this anthemic twin-guitar riff which has a powerchord part played by Mike Shinoda and a melodic octave part from Brad Delson. The powerchords serve to outline a chord progression in the key of D minor. In drop D tuning, play the three lowest open…

FEATURE Since brothers Howard and Ron Albert transformed their Criteria Studios in Miami from a one-room recording booth into a premier destination for big artists, they've accumulated 40 gold and 30 platinum records. Or so Howard reckons. Their resume includes Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers, Frank Zappa and more, which means he's probably right. While their innovative multi-mic recording technique built their reputation, Ron says that's not the only thing that made Criteria Studios special. “What made it great was that we had several rooms,” he says. “We had a lot of camaraderie between acts. Someone was in one room and they'd come into the next studio, sit in on something, maybe help to do a guitar part. It would happen on so many records. Because of that, I couldn't…

REVIEW RRP $549 CONTACT CMI WEB CMI.com.au The most pivotal guitar effect in 1967 was the Vox Clyde McCoy Wah-Wah pedal. Despite having nothing to do with the innovative design of his namesake wah, big-band trumpeter Clyde McCoy became the marketing face of a pedal intended for band and orchestra players because it emulated his “wah-wah” trumpet-mute technique. However, once guitar superstars like Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton popularized this now-famous wah through legendary songs and live performances, Vox quickly shifted the pedal toward guitarists by removing his name, revoicing it and calling it the V846 Vox Wah, and the rest, as they say, is history. For their rarity and renowned voice, Vox has decided to recreate these two wahs by duplicating their revered circuits with the release of the…

INTERVIEW Currently powering through their 40th year as a live act on the back of their 15th studio album and their own band documentary, while including Prime Minister Albanese as one of their fans and Henry Rollins as a past collaborator, the Hard-Ons haven't wavered from their punk rock ethos of musical energy and creative independence. I Like You A Lot Getting Older is their latest release, and their third album to feature current lead singer and longtime H.O.'s fan Tim Rogers of You Am I fame. Rogers was chosen in 2021 by co-founding bassist Ray Ahn in a successful attempt to highlight the poppy melodies intrinsic to the group's approach. Some of the album's sweeter singles, such as ‘Buzz Buzz Buzz' and ‘Ride To The Station' hark back to…

Using the boredom of a locked-down nation as the impetus to push for exciting new directions in garage rock music, married couple Padraic Skehan and Binx took to their jam room and created Chimers from the humblest of beginnings in 2020. Riff-based and raw, their self-titled 2021 debut merely hinted at the collective power of Chimers' dual minds and eight limbs. The tracks on their 2024 sophomore album Through Today were recorded in three days at Wollongong's Stranded Studios (owned by Party Dozen's Jonathan Boulet). Binx' drums and Skehan's guitars were recorded live along with half of the vocals, before guitar overdubs, more vocals and extra instruments (saxophone and violin) were laid on later. After pulling off their first arduous foray into playing live on a midweek half-capacity gig at…

SMASHING PUMPKINS IN CASE YOU haven't been paying attention, everything Billy Corgan does or says has been making headlines lately. It comes with the territory of being in a mega band. And while that might sound somewhat frustrating, Corgan doesn't think so. “I'm at a point now where I don't even care,” he says. “I don't care what people think. I don't care if they think I'm great; my focus is, I want people to enjoy the band. I want people to listen to our music and see us play.” People have been coming to see the Pumpkins play. They've got a new shredder in guitarist Kiki Wong, who Corgan says has been “putting in the work,” and a new record in Aghori Mhori Mei, which harkens back to the…

The sound of early U2 is one of the most instantly recognisable of the past 40 years in music. It was the delay pedal of guitarist The Edge in particular, along with his clever approach to composing guitar parts that launched the band's career and a million copycats over the decades. The band formed in 1976 when drummer Larry Mullen Jr posted an advert on the notice board at Temple Mount Comprehensive School in Dublin, and was subsequently joined by bass player Adam Clayton, guitarist David Evans (aka The Edge) and vocalist Paul Hewson, who is obviously known by the singular title Bono. The band could barely play their instruments at the time, but the creative energy of being released to make music and learn their craft saw them go…

REVIEW RRP Cort Abstract Delta TBA, Cort Modern Black $1,999 CONTACT Dynamic Music PHONE 02 9939 1299 WEB www.dynamicmusic.com.au Cort guitars are frequent flyers in this magazine, either in the guise of their excellent electric range or, as here, the acoustic wing of the company. Parent business Cortek is based in Indonesia and is, according to its website, responsible for releasing more than a million guitars into the wild each year, which is quite an achievement any way you look at it. Generally speaking, we've been mightily impressed with the models that have featured in these pages in the past, not only for their high standards where build quality is concerned but also for bang-for-your-buck value for money. As we've said, the acoustic side of Cort's business hails from a…

REVIEW RRP $799 each CONTACT Australasian Music Supplies WEB www.austmusic.com.au Whether you like the traditional style of amp head and separate speaker cabinet or a more compact combo configuration, Laney has always had plenty of variety in its roster. These days, though, the pedalboard amp has become a thing as some players make a move to a more flexible and easily transportable rig, something that the company addressed last year with its Ironheart Foundry Series IRF-LoudPedal, a 60-watt amp in a twin-footswitch pedal format. Moving into 2024, Laney has added two new LoudPedals into the mix under its Black Country Customs (BCC) banner. The BCC LoudPedal Ironheart and LoudPedal Lionheart are both designed to be the tone engine of a flexible pedalboard setup with a feature set that replicates the…

A chance meeting and a surprise gig booking were the motivation that Small Town Romance needed to establish their foundations back in 2013. First emerging out of Melbourne's acoustic folk and bluegrass scenes as a cover band, their decision to adopt a country sound sprung from an urge to showcase the Telecaster talents of a guitarist friend from Texas. It wasn't long before Flora Smith and Jim Arneman wrote the nine original songs that made up their 2016 self-titled debut, which paved the way for an evolution in songwriting that can now be heard on Home Fires, eight years later. Existing as a loose concept album about the current realities of Smith and Arneman's shared life as married parents, Home Fires is bookended by its title track and ‘Ordinary Life',…

Melbourne-coastal roots figure Sarah Carroll utilises her straightforward songwriting style to explore grief and change in her fifth solo album, NQR&B, released earlier this year. The first three letters of its title stand for ‘not quite right'. This represents the way Carroll was feeling for five years after the death of her longtime life-music partner, renowned blues musician Chris Wilson (solo, Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls) in early 2019. With the courage she gained through living through the effects of this massive change, Carroll's songwriting was emboldened with the strength to confront more tough issues head-on, while trying to see a lighter side at the same time. After all, in her 30+ year experience as a musician with past experience as a teacher, mentor and carer, the ups and…

Like their astronomical namesake caught between planetary orbits, Melbourne emorockers Ceres (pronounced ‘series') were caught between the tiring tour cycle of their ARIA-charting third album We Are A Team, released in 2019, and the creation of their fourth. Despite never announcing a hiatus they slunk into the shadows, releasing no new music and refraining from gigs until this year. During this time their lead singer and second rhythm guitarist Tom Lanyon was nestled up in the Dandenong Ranges, trying to start a family with his partner in the same scenic bush that provided the backdrop to his childhood. Driving his car down roads he used to cycle on as a boy in the early ‘90s, a wealth of memories came flooding back, leading to new songs. A memory from 1997,…

AMERICAN ULTRA II TELECASTER RRP: $3,799 ∙ fender.com Built for players boldly seeking the best, American Ultra II is our most advanced series of instruments. American Ultra II guitars and basses feature premium materials, precision craftsmanship and cutting-edge design for instruments that both advance the state-of-the-art and stand the test of time. The Fender American Ultra II Telecaster features a select alder body with sculpted body contours. For effortless playability, the quartersawn maple neck features our Modern D profile and smooth Ultra Satin finish. Ebony or quartersawn maple 10”-14” compound radius fingerboards feature Ultra rolled edges, medium-jumbo frets, Luminlay side dots and Graph Tech TUSQ nuts. The tapered neck heel and sculpted body contours allow unparalleled access to the higher register. AMERICAN ULTRA II METEORA RRP: $3,899 ∙ fender.com The…

REVIEW RRP $3,799 CONTACT Fender Australia PHONE 02 8198 1300 WEB www.fender.com/en-au/ The Stratocaster was released in 1954, attributed to Leo Fender but certainly the result of the collaborative efforts of a number of his key personnel, like Freddie Tavares and Don Randall, as well as local players with whom Leo wisely consulted – there's no substitute for real world experience. To put things into a technological and cultural perspective, this was the year when television went colour; the jet age had begun but the beautiful Lockheed Super Constellation airliner was the new standard for travellers; space flight began this year but it would be another seven years before Yuri Gagarin's manned flight; and the FJ Holden hit the roads for the first time. With the stratosphere on everyone's mind,…

REVIEW RRP $339 CONTACT Yamaha WEB au.yamaha.com It's been more than a quarter of a century since Line 6's unmistakable red, kidney bean–shaped modeler burst onto the scene and kickstarted a tonal revolution, laying the foundation for what is today a commonplace alternative to using an amp. The POD, of course, still exists, even if it's in the more conventional floorboard format. Line 6's latest release also falls into the POD family, and while it takes the shape of a stompbox, there are parallels to be drawn with its ancestors. The POD Express comes loaded with HX-derived amp and effects models — seven amps, seven cabs and 16 effects, distilled into a compact-sized pedal. There's an onboard looper, a tuner, a tap-tempo switch and a USB-C audio interface, plus you…