The WTDP? crew has been working for a while now to come up with a contest/giveaway that would rival our initial one – the Umphrey’s McGee autographed Marion Henry Electric Fuzz Bucket pedal. The response to that contest was awesome, so we wanted to stick to the autographed pedal formula, but could never land the right combo of pedal/signer… until now! Click the Contests link over in the left column of this page and read the who, what and how to win. It’s as simple as an e-mail! We’ll be taking entries through April and will announced the winner during the first week of May. We’re excited about this one… and hope you are too!
As the final, final part of Mrs. WTDP?’s Christmas, I was able to snag front row tickets to Joe Bonamassa – currently her favorite guitarist. The show was last Friday and it was phenomenal… an endless parade of vintage Gibson and Ernie Ball guitars being wrung dry of all the rock and blues Joe could conjure from them – and that, as it turns out, is quite a bit. He opened the show with ‘The Ballad of John Henry’ played through a sexy double neck Ernie with the top being a baritone guitar. Joe is touring on his very recently released album Black Rock. Check out some pics from the show after the jump!
Black Cat Pedals have been around a long time. Born in Texas in 1993, the company was started by early boutique builder Fred Bonte, but in late 2007 he discontinued the line. Now, with the company restructured and the line revamped, Black Cat is back! Using Fred’s original designs, but with a modern boutique makeover, these hand-wired, made in the USA boxes are looking to reclaim some of their former glory. We had the chance to get our hands on a new Black Cat Super Fuzz and run it through its paces. But did we find a purring, fuzzy kitten or an angry stray with claws?
Georgia’s Drive-By Truckers bring a guitar-fuelled edge to their unique brand of Southern story-telling on their new CD, The Big To-Do. Released earlier this month, the 13-track effort is easily their most rockin’ in years as is evident from tunes like ‘Birthday Boy’ and the lead track ‘Daddy Learned To Fly’. On the second night of the SXSW 2010 music festival, WTDP? had the chance to sit down with guitarist Mike Cooley at Stubb’s BBQ. Cooley polished off a late lunch then joined us in the bar area to share stories about the Truckers’ new record, the Truckers’ other new record and his touring gear.
Brian at Wampler Pedals will have a new booster on the market in the coming weeks. The new Talent Booster is designed to be very touch sensitive and warm. According to Brian, it is a very transparent JFET based booster that boasts a Gain control, which allows you to have a hint of dirt, a Volume control, and a Presence switch which will add in some mids and highs. The end result is a pedal that will catapult your signal and make your amp much more responsive. It works well as a simple solo boost too. The pedal should be available next month. The Talent Booster will run $189.
March is messe-time in Frankfurt! WTDP? isn’t in Germany, but never fear! If it is pedal news from the show you desire look no further than Bart’s Effects Database website. Once again, DiscoFreq has set up a page on his site tracking all of the new stomp goodies the show has to offer. Click here to check it out. If you’re up for a more general overview of the gear and mood of Musikmesse you should probably check out Harmony Central’s coverage with Craig Anderton and his crew. There are video updates from the show as well as a dedicated thread on the forums tracking all the latest developments and breaking news.
Down-under pedal guru Burgs has posted a new You Tube video demonstrating Subdecay’s as-yet-unreleased Proteus envelope filter and random sample/hold step filter pedal. One part funky and one part unpredictable, the Proteus can be seen as the little brother of Subdecay’s famous Prometheus stomp. Knob controls are the standard Depth and Frequency (Rate). The random sample/hold step filter is tap-tempo controllable the pedal also has a mini-toggle for a beat division division options – in quarters, eighths or sixteenths. The Proteus should be available to the masses later this spring. Check out the demo video after the jump!
Chris from Rockett Pedals had a cush corner booth at the Austin Guitar Show this weekend, but that’s not all he had. He gave WTDP? the first look at the company’s new dual tremolo prototype pedal. The as-yet-unnamed stomp features two channels, each with their own Depth and Speed knob controls. Rockett also added a Volume knob to the pedal to offset in drop in level. The effects are not stackable, rather run parallel allowing a user to toggle between two unique trem settings at the stomp of a footswitch. The production model will have added LEDs to indicate which channel is active. And yes, it sounds killer! The new pedal, along with a Rockett delay, are coming soon!
We only managed to check our one band on the last day of SXSW… but it was a good one. Oakland-based Rogue Wave played a 40-minute set at the Day Stage Cafe at the Austin Convention Center this afternoon. We took a break from the guitar show downstairs to check them out. Most of the songs in the set were from the band’s latest record, Permalight, that was released earlier this month on Brushfire. The band mixes the mellow California sound prevalent in the 1970s with fresh pop themes. We managed to snap a few pics of the boys and of Zack and Dominic’s pedal boards… good MXR and Fulltone content. Check them out after the jump.
Sweet Apple might be our favorite new band. Yes, this is the band that has J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr, but it is more than that. J played drums on the upcoming record ‘Love & Desperation’, but he played his faithful Jaguar for the afternoon crowd at Waterloo… only the band’s second gig together. The record comes out next month and is chalked full of awesome fuzzed out pop/rock gems. Singer John Petrovik (ex-Cobra Verde) and his former bandmate Tim Parnin and bassist Dave Sweetapple round out the group that recorded the new effort. While you wait for the new record, check out some pics from the gig after the jump!
We spent the third morning of SXSW 2010 at The Bayou Lounge with Dayna and Big Picture Media at a champagne and bagel showcase featuring a healthy portion of pop/rock nourishment for the A.M. crowd. The day kicked off with pop quartet The Colourists, followed by West Coast popsters Frank And Derol… and later, the punk pop spank of the New Collisions. All in all, not a bad way to spend the morning… and hey, Holly won a swanky gift bag with a chilled bottle of Champagne and a swell set of handmade earrings. Check out the pics and particulars from the gig after the jump!
Southern songsmiths Drive-By Truckers had a busy day at SXSW – at least two gigs and a raft of interviews (including one with yours truly – coming soon!) all in support of the very recently released record The Big To-Do. The songwriting trio of Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and Shonna Tucker turn it up a notch on the new effort, a more up-beat and rocking affair than 2008’s mostly somber Brighter Than Creation’s Dark. On the Waterloo stage today, the band played almost all new tunes including ‘Drag The Lake Charlie’, ‘Get Downtown’, ‘Birthday Boy’ and ‘This F@(#ing Job’. Pics, because it happened, after the jump!
Waterloo Records, the best place to buy a record in Austin, had a good line-up today at its solar-powered parking lot stage… which included Shakespearean shoegazing quintet Titus Andronicus. The New Jersey-based group recently released a war-tinged opus called The Monitor and shared several cuts off that effort with the crowd at Waterloo. Singer Patrick Stickles lead the group through a five-song set that featured swelling guitars and even some violin work courtesy of bandmember Amy Klein. The group has some West Coast dates coming up with Let’s Wrestle and deep south dates with Spider Bags in April. Check out pics from the gig after the jump!
At Stubb’s earlier today, we caught a ferocious duo – guitar and drums – called Middle Class Rut. Guitarist Zack Lopez and drummer Sean Stockham pumped out a short set of tight rock songs that ranked as the loudest gig yet for us at SXSW. Lopez played a Les Paul Jr. back through Marshall stacks. His board included a heavily-used Whammy, EXH POG (and a POG2/MXR Bass DI+ pair near the backline feeding some extra low-end into the mix), Boss Digital Delays, Boss RC-50 and Boss Phase Shifter. The band raffled a trip to the UK to see it play in the Download festival later this year. We didn’t win. Pics after the jump!
Living in Houston, we get over to Austin quite a bit… but we had never made it over to Auditorium Shores to see the statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan. We’d heard about it, but stopping by had previously never been in the cards… until today. Amid the dogs and joggers we sat a bit in front of the statue – Vaughan in his signature hat and poncho with Lenny at his side. In his free hand, a few St Patrick’s Day green and white carnations, obviously placed their earlier this week by passers by. If we had a spare Tube Screamer on us, we’d have placed it at his feet. Rest in peace, SRV.
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The WTDP? crew has been working for a while now to come up with a contest/giveaway that would rival our initial one – the Umphrey’s McGee autographed Marion Henry Electric Fuzz Bucket pedal. The response to that contest was awesome, so we wanted to stick to the autographed pedal formula, but could never land the right combo of pedal/signer… until now! Click the Contests link over in the left column of this page and read the who, what and how to win. It’s as simple as an e-mail! We’ll be taking entries through April and will announced the winner during the first week of May. We’re excited about this one… and hope you are too!
