In rawk,
P
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
New Bandcamp Site
If you like what you hear and see on the Falcon's Fortress and want to show some support, please head over to my new Bandcamp site. The recently released Falcon rarities collection, Heavy Rawkin' Rare is included!
Thursday, May 14, 2020
B.C. Rich Guitars - An Appreciation
Whether you’ve met me in person or seen me
on stage or not makes no difference. Most folks who have followed my various
musical endeavors know I’m pretty obsessed with vintage B.C. Rich guitars. My
love for B.C. Rich axes is unparalleled except for my similar addiction to Gibsons
(especially vintage ones!). Where it took ages for me to actually get my hands
on a vintage Gibson, I snagged several old B.C. Rich axes during the mid to
late 1990s. I’m glad the company—no longer in the hands of the Rico
family—acknowledges how much of a legacy these awesome looking, feeling and
sounding guitars have in the rock and metal fields. Paying homage to those hoary
and hairy days of yore, original B.C. Rich axe designer/builder Neal Moser returned
to some fine workmanship under his own Moser Custom Shop banner, occasionally
refurbishing old and road-worn BCRs. One simply cannot talk about early B.C. Rich guitars and leave Neal Moser out
of the equation.
Now I’ve decided to allow folks to have a stroll
down B.C. Rich memory lane with me. I’ll go in order of axe acquisition and
ramble a bit about each guitar, plucking random thoughts from upstairs.
1. 1991 Class Axe licensed NJ Series B.C. Rich Virgin (Nagoya, Japan).
 |
| 1993 - with Class Axe-era Virgin |
Bolt-on neck. Color: Black. Stock pickups:
EMG Select. Licensed Floyd Rose tremolo. Diamond mother of pearl inlays.
This was the second guitar I ever owned.
The first was a terrible and frustrating 1989 Charvel Avenger. Since we’re
concentrating on B.C. Riches, we won’t go there.
Back to the Virgin: Originally I wanted to get a black Warlock, but I saw an ad
for the Virgin in a guitar mag, then spied it in the flesh and instantly
thought it was an undeniably cool shape. I had a play on a red Virgin in a
local shop, and ordered one in black. It looked great, but sonically lacked.
The neck joint was enormous and clunky. The stock EMG Select humbuckers were
among the worst pickups I’ve ever played, although I had no clue about pickups
at the time. I’ve tried tons in the years between. But that didn’t matter back
then. I dug the roundish neck profile and the jumbo frets.
Soon I learned that I hated the licensed Floyd Rose trem, found the pickups were very low output and dropped notes out... Still I played the hell out of it. The first kegger I ever played was on this sucker. Even before the keg party, I used the Virgin at the first high school band gig I did in front of a few hundred kids and parents. Took me a good 2-3 years to change pickups. Mistake no. 2. Never trust a music shop salesman to sell you anything. They’re looking at the bottom line and possibly more commission. Do your homework. I realized the EMG Selects were crap, but I had little experience in that area—just knew I wanted to try DiMarzio. Hell, Death’s Chuck Schuldiner used that brand. A dude working at the same shop in Sherman Oaks where I bought the Virgin picked up a little clear pickup box and said, “This has you written all over it, the Humbucker from Hell.” The name exuded wads of output, and I figured I’d be getting my hands on a very hot pickup. Uh... nope. The Humbucker from Hell is a humbucking pickup that emulates the tone of a single coil without the noise. It was decidedly the exact opposite of what I wanted out of a pickup in that blistering heavy metal moment. Live and learn. Had I done my homework, I would’ve settled on the DiMarzio X2N, the high-output ceramic magnet blade humbucker employed by Chuck Schuldiner. The neck pickup I chose was decent, a DiMarzio Air Classic. I clung to the Virgin for another year and a half. At least I didn’t have problems with notes dropping out. Shortly after I joined forces with future Artisan bassist Mike Bear the Virgin was on its way out. I stopped playing the Virgin entirely by late 1995.
In early 1999 I began hanging out with a fellow metalhead named Joey Severance, a guitarist/vocalist who worked for Metal Blade Records. Joey was dying to get his hands on a B.C. Rich, but didn’t have much dough, so I sold him the Virgin cheap. Joey later hocked the Virgin when he moved to Europe. Its whereabouts are unknown. Who knows? Perhaps it rests in the hands of a German, Dutch or Belgian Destiny’s End fan... Still, I’d better clarify that I never played this guitar when I was in Destiny’s End. It was strictly a pre-DE piece of Perry history!
 |
| 1992: with the Virgin and mismatched Carvin/Marshall half-stack |
Soon I learned that I hated the licensed Floyd Rose trem, found the pickups were very low output and dropped notes out... Still I played the hell out of it. The first kegger I ever played was on this sucker. Even before the keg party, I used the Virgin at the first high school band gig I did in front of a few hundred kids and parents. Took me a good 2-3 years to change pickups. Mistake no. 2. Never trust a music shop salesman to sell you anything. They’re looking at the bottom line and possibly more commission. Do your homework. I realized the EMG Selects were crap, but I had little experience in that area—just knew I wanted to try DiMarzio. Hell, Death’s Chuck Schuldiner used that brand. A dude working at the same shop in Sherman Oaks where I bought the Virgin picked up a little clear pickup box and said, “This has you written all over it, the Humbucker from Hell.” The name exuded wads of output, and I figured I’d be getting my hands on a very hot pickup. Uh... nope. The Humbucker from Hell is a humbucking pickup that emulates the tone of a single coil without the noise. It was decidedly the exact opposite of what I wanted out of a pickup in that blistering heavy metal moment. Live and learn. Had I done my homework, I would’ve settled on the DiMarzio X2N, the high-output ceramic magnet blade humbucker employed by Chuck Schuldiner. The neck pickup I chose was decent, a DiMarzio Air Classic. I clung to the Virgin for another year and a half. At least I didn’t have problems with notes dropping out. Shortly after I joined forces with future Artisan bassist Mike Bear the Virgin was on its way out. I stopped playing the Virgin entirely by late 1995.
In early 1999 I began hanging out with a fellow metalhead named Joey Severance, a guitarist/vocalist who worked for Metal Blade Records. Joey was dying to get his hands on a B.C. Rich, but didn’t have much dough, so I sold him the Virgin cheap. Joey later hocked the Virgin when he moved to Europe. Its whereabouts are unknown. Who knows? Perhaps it rests in the hands of a German, Dutch or Belgian Destiny’s End fan... Still, I’d better clarify that I never played this guitar when I was in Destiny’s End. It was strictly a pre-DE piece of Perry history!
Around the time I sold my Virgin a friend
named Dave Bates got his hands on one of Neal Moser’s prototypes. It was like
deja vu. Under Moser’s imprint the axe was/is called a Scythe. Dave’s had a
wacky teal splatter paint job and a bolt-on neck with Neal’s signature on the
back of the headstock.
2. 1980 B.C. Rico Mockingbird (Japan).
 |
| 1995: Soloing on the Mockingbird |
Neckthrough body. Color: Natural (“eastern”
mahogany sides, maple neck and center). Stock pickups: Gotoh. Stock tuners with
B.C. Rich “R” Logo (Gotoh?). Stock bridge: B.C. Rich Quad. Current pickups:
Gibson 500T (bridge) and 496R (neck). Current tuners: Grover Super Rotomatic
with art-deco head.
I bought the B.C. Rico Mockingbird in Fall 1995.
I was dying to find a neckthrough B.C. Rich USA axe, but hadn’t seen one
floating around the L.A. area in a while. This axe appeared at Freedom Guitar
Sherman Oaks and instantly demanded attention. It had seen better days, but
that didn’t stop me from buying it. It had a dead fret, which was remedied
almost immediately by a helpful repair tech named Michael Wolf who went on to
work for Mesa/Boogie. I didn’t realize at first that it was actually one of the
first import B.C. Rich neckthroughs, but I found out soon enough. It didn’t
bother overly much, because I was smitten. The fat, round, baseball bat neck
profile was perfect for my big hands. What was less than perfect? Lots! The
Gotoh pickups were fairly low output and squealed like hell when played through
any amp at louder than bedroom volume. No prob with dropped notes though! The
Quad bridge was fairly wrecked by the time I got my hands on the Mockingbird.
It stayed on for a several weeks before my pal Ed Laing hipped me to a Badass
as a replacement. That solved many intonation problems. Tuning problems?
Plenty. The tuners were pretty beat by the time the Mockingbird was in my
possession, but it took years before
I replaced them with proper art deco knob Grover Super Rotomatics. The Rico
Mockingbird was the first of my axes to receive EMG active humbuckers, which Ed
Laing, my good friend and the second guitarist in Stormhaven, swore by. I
didn’t just take Ed’s word for it. James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Zak Wylde
all championed EMG 81s, 85s and even 89s. The need for replacement pickups was
omnipresent. This thing would not stop feeding back when I took it around
Hollywood to demo some amps (finally settling on the Mesa/Boogie Mk IV). While
we’re at it, I’d better address fret-work again. The dead fret band-aided by
Michael Wolf wasn’t the only problem. Thanks to the previous owner the frets were
pretty flat. Moisture had crept under the finish on the side of the fingerboard
to further complicate matters. The solution? Refret! That solved many problems.
Eric Goerisch, Ed’s mentor in luthier work, gave the Mockingbird a sporty
refret with Gibson-type fret wire. Perfect solution! My affair with the
Mockingbird was growing fonder by the day. Until I snatched up my first real USA
B.C. Rich, that is.
3. 1983(?) B.C. Rich Warlock USA.
 |
| The Frankensteined White Warlock |
Neckthrough body. Mahogany neck and body.
Rosewood fingerboard with mother of pearl diamond inlays. Original color: gray
and black tiger-strip (?). Refin color: white. Stock pickups: DiMarzio?.
Pickups when acquired: EMG-81 (bridge) and EMG-89 (neck). Original bridge:
Kahler flat-mount tremolo. Bridge when acquired: Floyd Rose double-locking
tremolo with back-route. Tuners when acquired: Gotoh black chrome. Headstock: 6
inline large Firebird-style, non-reverse.
I bought my white B.C. Rich Warlock from
George Ochoa, one of the guitarists in the Christian thrash metal band Deliverance
in 1995. I answered George’s Recycler
ad. He had two Warlocks for sale. This older, white axe and a late 1980s model
with custom lightning storm graphic. Being more of a traditionalist, I went
vintage. The price was right. It was a love/hate relationship that lasted for several
years. On one hand I couldn’t get enough: it was a heavy slab of mahogany—where
many Warlocks were crafted from lighter/inferior woods like basswood or agathis,
the deep cutaway on the high side allowed for some ultra smooth access to the
upper frets (unlike the Mockingbird with its protruding beak). It was outfitted
with EMG pickups already: an 81 in the bridge and a “dual sound” 89 in the neck
(with a push/pull pot to split the neck pickup for single coil). Clearly there was
a reason George Ochoa was unloading this guitar, though. It had major issues.
Here’s where the hate part comes into play. George told me that he’d taken the
thing over to Bernie Rico Jr. to have the original Kahler flat-mount trem
removed and a back-route to install a new Floyd Rose double-locking trem. While
Bernie Jr. and his team did an admirable job of building my Eagle Archtop
Supreme from late 1998 to early 1999, it’s clear this axe was butchered before anybody
had much experience with floating bridges. George also had the original
tiger-stripe graphic repainted white—the whole axe refinished with heavy
lacquer. One of the annoying issues caused during the refin? Apparently the
neck was sanded too much on the high side. The high E string tended to slip off
the fingerboard if you played high up, like past the 12th fret. But
I was young, and I’d been pining for a USA Warlock for ages, so I snagged it
for $400. I didn’t notice any major issues with tuning or intonation, but
cosmetically there was something very queer about the nut. The Kahler locking clamp
(usually located on the headstock an inch or so above the nut) had been removed
and the original bone nut had been half hacked off. On top of the hacked-away
nut was a black shim (along with a coupla pieces of business card), followed by
a Floyd locking nut clamp. There were tiny cracks in the finish near the nut
where somebody (Bernie Jr.?) had fiddled with removing the bone. Why the hell
did I buy the Warlock if it appeared so butchered, do you ask? It was still
pretty playable and I’m not a gazillionaire. Once my pal Ed Laing refretted it
and modified the string spacing to compensate for the overzealous neck sanding.
I dug the Warlock so much that I used it to record most of my rhythm guitar tracks
on the first Destiny’s End album, Breathe
Deep the Dark in early 1998. I also played it during my very first
Destiny’s End gig at Cardi’s in Houston, Texas. Ed Laing was able to fix the
nut situation. He pried out the butchered bone remains, removing the Floyd
locking nut clamp and fitting a graphite nut in its place. Having seen Dan
DeLucie’s Carlos Cavazo signature Washburn with Kahler Spider trem, I knew it
was entirely possible for a floating bridge guitar to function with a
Kahler-style clamp. Ed installed a new Kahler locking clamp on the headstock
and the problem seemed to be solved. In late 1999 I was writing some new riffs
at the old Destiny’s End rehearsal room in Vernon, CA, when the strap-locks
failed. The Warlock took a dive into my pedalboard and lost a big chunk of
finish and a slight bit of mahogany on the lower right body. I was bummed, but
the damage was minimal. We’d opened up another can of worms with the nut/nut
clamp modification. The three locking screws on the Kahler clamp tended to fall
into the truss rod cavity because of its awkward position. While we probably
could’ve remedied this by making a new truss rod cover, the positioning of the
clamp would’ve made neck adjustments a pain in the ass. I remember those screws
falling into the truss rod cavity just before Destiny’s End was going to leave
for Germany to play Wacken in August 1999. It was a mad scramble and truly
frustrating. I ended up bringing my 1976 Eagle instead. All the lame issues
finally forced the upper hand, and I auctioned the Warlock on eBay in 2001. The
winning bidder was a Destiny’s End fan from Florida. While playable, it surely
didn’t fetch the price it could have if it wasn’t Frankensteined.
4. 1981 B.C. Rich Seagull USA Custom
 |
| On stage at the Key Club with the '81 Seagull |
Neckthrough, quarter-sawn maple neck/center,
carved maple sides and back, rosewood stringers, bound ebony fingerboard, mother of pearl
cloud inlays. Original pickups: DiMarzio. Original bridge: B.C. Rich Quad.
Original tuners: Grover Super Rotomatic (bean head). Current pickups: Gibson 500T
and 496R . Electronics: two dual-sound switches, phase switch, Neal Moser
booster and Varitone circuits. Classic 3x3 B.C. Rich Headstock with mother of
pearl “R” logo.
I saw this axe sitting in Freedom Guitar
Hollywood one day in 1996. Bernie Rico Sr. and Jr. had just resumed production
of their fabled axes out of a Hesperia warehouse and debuted some fine creations
at NAMM in January. Pal and bassist Mike Bear was working at Hermes Music in
Sherman Oaks, and I personally spent a lot of time bashing around on several new
neckthrough USA BCRs. At NAMM I’d picked up a new BCR brochure containing an
old picture of Bernie Sr. holding a Bicentennial Seagull. That combined with
watching Dick Wagner wailing on his tobacco burst Seagull in the Alice Cooper – Welcome to My Nightmare home
video were the genesis for my Seagull longing. Remembering I’d seen the blue
one at Freedom Guitar several weeks earlier, I returned to scope it out. It
looked beautiful and had no damage whatsoever to the body, and only minor scuffing
on the headstock. I just had to grab
it. So, I threw $700 down on my credit card. Yet again I was faced with a
project guitar. The frets were pretty flat, so right away Ed Laing gave me one
of his awesome refret jobs with the type of tall wire I liked—not nearly as fat
as jumbo frets. Likewise we swapped out the stock DiMarzio pickups and replaced
with EMG 81 and EMG 85. The electronics had clearly been gutted by the previous
owner. Though the complicated Moser-designed electronics setup was there, it
had been bypassed, and the original BCR knobs had been canned in favor of black
chrome ones. The toggle switches were left unwired. Initially I kept the
simplistic electronics: two volumes and two tones as on a Les Paul or an SG.
The Seagull was a heavy slab with sustain for days and very chunky/heavy tone.
Being that the axe is almost entirely maple, it’s bright and cuts through. I
was in seventh heaven with it for a couple of years. I’d always wanted a Les
Paul, and this was something very similar—a single cutaway, extremely hefty axe
with a thick body. Like a 1950s style Les Paul this ’gull has an extremely round
and fat neck profile with wide string spacing. Perfect for my big-ass hands.
I started to encounter major problems with
the Seagull shortly before recording the first Destiny’s End album, Breathe Deep the Dark, in early 1998. El
Niño was hitting hard that winter, covering Southern California in buckets of
rain. Moisture and wood don’t mix. An already oxidized piece of metal isn’t gonna
appreciate the extra moisture either. I didn’t foresee the Seagull being out of
commission. I was dead-set on using it for half of my rhythm tracks on Breathe Deep the Dark, but I wound up
only being able to bring the ’gull in for one
clean-tone section—“Idle City,” the first part or intro to my signature tune
“The Fortress Unvanquishable.” The high E string was dead, the notes killed by corrosion
and a burr in the Quad bridge/saddle. I didn’t know if I should replace or have
it repaired. I’m definitely not a repair expert, and certainly was far less
experienced in ’98 than I am now. Since Ed Laing was busy with NAMM duties, I
had to rely on other guitar repair sources. On pal and Prototype guitarist
Kragen Lum’s recommendation I took the ’gull to Carruthers in Santa Monica. Big
mistake. They kept the guitar for a week. Instead of advising me to shit-can
the bridge and buy a replacement, the incompetents at Carruthers filed down the
saddle. They told me it was a band-aid job, but didn’t offer any kind of explanation
as to what I could do to properly solve the problem. Though I was
recording my first album for a big indie label, I wasn’t being taken seriously.
I was more than willing to pay for whatever work, but it was painfully clear
that though these fools purported to run a professional shop they did not
conduct business like pros. When the NAMM rush was over I consulted Ed Laing.
The prognosis on the bridge was simple: dump the gold-plated hunk in the trash
or save it as a keepsake and get a replacement. There was bad news, however,
according to Ed the neck was bowing improperly—it needed some attention before
it warped. It’s easy to guess how this happened. The previous owner or Freedom
Guitar had likely left the hard-as-hell maple neck unstrung (no tension to keep
it bowing the right way). El Niño
didn’t help matters. Ed solved both my problems. He set the ’gull up with 11 gauge
strings in E to put some serious tension on the neck and hipped me to the
absolutely life-saving Stewart MacDonald guitar repair supply company. I
consulted with Ed and his friend Eric Goerisch about getting a bridge/tailpiece
combo that would fit and improve tuning stability. I was not impressed with the
Badass, nor did I like the barely adjustable Gibson bridge/tailpiece as seen on
Les Paul Juniors and some SGs. Thankfully I’d seen a fine-tune bridge/tailpiece
combo on a guitar in Hollywood and both Eric and Ed knew exactly what I was
talking about when I brought it up. I ordered a Schaller fine-tune
bridge/tailpiece which not only fit like a glove but improved intonation and
tuning immensely. Likewise they had me replace the stripped-out bean Grover
tuners with Grover Super Rotomatics to go for that old school B.C. Rich vibe.
By the end of the Breathe Deep the Dark
sessions I was almost ready to begin using the ’81 Seagull as my main axe. The
first time I gigged with it was at Club 369 in Fullerton, the debut Destiny’s
End show in Southern California. The fat tone and playability that night made
me infinitely glad I’d weathered (pun intended) through the initial
difficulties.
I had some constructive criticism on the
’81 Seagull from recording engineer/producer and Warrior guitarist Joe Floyd.
He worked with us on the second Destiny End album. Yet again I encountered
intonation problems while recording. Joe explained that he’d owned a late 1970s
Eagle much like the one I bought a year after this ’gull. Said he’d always had problems with intonation on
the G string of his Eagle and that it was the prime reason why he ditched the
guitar in the ’80s. Joe said he loved
his Eagle to death, that the tone was to die for, but that the intonation
issues became so frustrating that he couldn’t stand it any longer. He figured I
encountered the same issue. It was especially a pain when I played octave
chords rooted on the A string. I wish this issue didn’t exist, but I had to
accept it. Joe was right to an extent. But there are many other guitars with
intonation issues. Gibsons (SGs, Les Paul Juniors, etc.) with their old school
bridge/tailpiece combo (instead of the Tune-o-matic) suffer from an almost
complete lack of adjustable intonation. I resigned myself to keeping the ’gull
and living with it. It would be close
enough for rock ’n’ roll as far as intonation and tuning in many other
applications, especially live. Rather than waste time in the studio, I
instantly switched to another guitar that behaved. The well-behaved axe? My
1999 B.C. Rich Eagle Archtop Supreme. Zero intonation probs. I also used my
1976 Eagle, although it suffered a bit too (more on the Eagle later). When Ed
Laing offered his expert opinion, he said the intonation problems were due to
inconsistencies in the fret slotting. In other words, the slots in the
fingerboard to house the frets are meant to be cut straight, and as you move up the fingerboard the frets are meant to
have smaller spaces between. In the case of some old B.C. Riches the slotting
was entirely done by hand and the straightness of the fret slotting and the
space in between frets is not consistent. Fortunately the Japanese are a little
more exact, so my Rico Mockingbird is immune.
When I started Artisan in 2000 the ’81
Seagull became my #1 axe of choice. You’ll notice from pictures that I played
it at every single Artisan gig, usually
with my 1976 Eagle as backup. For a brief period in 2003 I tried putting a
DiMarzio X2N humbucker in the bridge position of the ’81 Seagull when I decided
to return to using passive pickups. The brightness was overwhelming, and the
tone would’ve suited my old technical and thrashy metal antics well. But I was
in the process of leaving Artisan to concentrate on Falcon, and I quickly
pulled the X2N and opted for Gibson 57 Classic humbuckers. I had a change of
heart with those pickups too, finally settling on Gibson 500T and 496R high-output
humbuckers. These days, it’s the axe I turn to whenever my Les Pauls are
unavailable. And if I have a more modern style metal gig, I also head straight
for the Big Mama ’81 Seagull.
5. 1976 B.C. Rich Eagle Supreme USA
 |
| May 1999: On stage at the Shack in Anaheim, CA |
Neckthrough body. Koa body and neck with walnut
(?) stringers. Bound ebony fingerboard with mother of pearl cloud inlays. Stock
tuners: Grover Super Rotomatics with art deco machine heads. Current tuners:
Grover Imperial with art deco machine heads. Stock pickups: DiMarzio. Current
pickups: Gibson 57 Classic Plus (bridge) and 57 Classic (Neck). Electronics:
two 3-way pickup toggle switches (series/split/parallel), Neal Moser booster
and Varitone circuits.
A year after I acquired my ‘81 Seagull I
came across this ’76 Eagle in the original Reseda, CA, location of Norman’s
Rare Guitars, on the corner of Tampa and Vanowen in Reseda. I was already in
Destiny’s End and was an assistant manager at Big Valley Music in Reseda,
selling extremely cheap and cheeseball guitars, amps and accessories. On the
way to work one day I decided to kill a few minutes in Norman’s, but instead
was a good hour late because I just had
to buy this puppy. Despite the obvious issues it was a genuine beauty with a
fingerboard and action like butter. Yup, a sleek ebony board! The sales dude
plugged me into a Silver Jubilee Marshall half-stack and sarcastically told me,
“Yup, you would grab that sucker and
tune it down to ‘D,’ wouldn’t you?” He was a long-hair, but had “grown out” of
metal. Yes, metal was at an all-time low of popularity.
The obvious probs? The binding was heavily gouged
in spots on the high side of the neck, loose and nearly falling out in others.
The low side with sidemarkers was entirely intact, so I wasn’t too worried. I
knew Ed could work his magic on it. The Badass bridge/tailpiece combo was rusty
and worn, but I was going to replace that straightaway anyhow with the same
Schaller I stuck on the ’81 Seagull. The frets were very worn down too. Another
project guitar, but not Frankensteined like the Warlock. The previous owner had
left the Eagle strung with flat-wounds, which immediately told me he’d been a
jazz player. Pretty weird choice of axes for jazz, but his loss was my gain.
$500 was all it took to bring this mama on home!
Once again Ed Laing restored a 25+ year old
guitar for me. He replaced the shrunken, battered binding on the high side of
the neck. I dare anyone to tell the difference between the original binding on
the low side and the replacement on the high. It was that smooth of a job. Ed
remarked that I was actually very lucky the low side was undamaged, as he
discovered the side markers were made of authentic
tortoise shell, not celluloid imitation. Perhaps not too cool from the
standpoint of animal cruelty, but... hey, I didn’t go out and kill the tortoise
Ted Nugent-style! Likewise, Hawaiian koa wood was endangered back in 1997, so
even though you could have had the recently revived B.C. Rich USA shop build
you an Eagle, it was highly unlikely you’d get one made of koa. Yup, this was a
nice heavy axe that resembled an old ‘50s longboard plank.
While Ed was revamping the electronics for
me (I was using EMG active humbuckers exclusively at the time) I asked him if
it would be possible to keep the complicated old B.C. Rich electronics more or
less intact. I had my doubts because these weird and wonderful gadgets were
initially intended to go along with passive pickups of the 4 conductor wire
variety. I was stoked when Ed handed the Eagle back to me with the preamp/booster
and Varitone circuits functioning perfectly. We left the coil tap switches
unwired though, as I wasn’t going to be using them. The refret job was
impeccable.
The Eagle played and felt like a dream when
Ed was done with it, and it became my main guitar in Destiny’s End. I played it
during our first regional tours of Texas in 1998 and 1999, then on our
full-scale U.S. tour with Iced Earth and Nevermore in May/June 1999. I then
took it on our Euro tour with Sacred Steel, Wardog (and some occasional support
from Slough Feg). In the studio I relied on the Eagle to track the two tribute
album tunes Destiny’s End recorded: “Dressed in White” (King Diamond) and “The
Last in Line” (Dio). Though I babied the Eagle, the rigors of the road took
their toll. The bone nut gave out just as we were recording the second
Destiny’s End album, Transition. I
was able to use the ’76 Eagle for a couple of tracks before switching to my
brand new ’99 Eagle Archtop. Because I was playing fast and technical metal
primarily then, I chose to replace the bone nut with a graphite one. Though this
would take away from the “vintage” appeal, I wanted the tuning stability and extended
lifespan of a synthetic nut.
After I left Destiny’s End I continued
using the ’76 Eagle steadily in Artisan. I usually had it handy as backup to my
’81 Seagull on stage, with my ’99 Eagle Archtop as the main studio axe.
In 2003 I had Ed remove the EMGs in my ’76 Eagle.
An exodus back to passive electronics that I haven’t regretted! In their place
from then on out were a Gibson 57 Classic Plus in the bridge and a 57 Classic
in the neck. Instead of going with two-position mini-toggle switches to split
the coils, Ed persuaded me to go with three-way mini-toggle switches, which
allowed for the added tonal possibilities of parallel and series. Meaning
instead of splitting the coils of say the bridge humbucker–for instance–you
wind up using one coil from the bridge pickup and one from the neck. It’s a
very nifty sort of tonal character to add to your palate for recording, but not
very useful on stage.
In March 2003 I used the Eagle to overdub
some leads on the Falcon demo, switching back and forth with my 1975 Seagull
(more on that in a sec). February 2004 saw me bringing the Eagle to Middletown,
Maryland, to record two guitar solos and a few little overdubs for the
self-titled Falcon album. Rather than play my ’76 Les Paul all over the album,
I wanted some different textures. Too much of an instrument can make things
sound too one-dimensional. I had some genuine fun with the funky electronics. I
split the bridge pickup to a single coil for a twangy tone on the lead to “Downer.”
On the “Throwback” solo I left the mini-toggle switches alone—for a straight
humbucker sound.
6. 1975 B.C. Rich Seagull
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| Laying down some lead-work for the Falcon demo, 2003 |
When I turned 25, I thought to myself:
“Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a 1975 B.C. Rich Seagull? It’d be as old as I
am.” So, I stuck a wanted ad in the Recycler,
and lo and behold a guy named Armando gave me a buzz to say he had a 1975 B.C.
Rich Seagull in his possession with a custom flight case. Did I want to see it?
Hell, yeah! We met in the parking lot of Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks, and I
was utterly blown away by how cool this Seagull was. I played it for a couple
of minutes unamped in the lot and fell in love. It had an awesome trans-blue
finish that changed color in different angles of light. Being that my fave color
is blue, I was just stoked.
“I’m not sure I want to sell it yet, but
I’ve got a young son to think about now and it’s just sitting in the closet...
Give me a week or two to think about it.”
A week went by, and I was pining for the
axe big-time. I called Armando back, and he hadn’t sold the ’75 Seagull yet. He
dropped by my old place, and I plugged the ’gull in. Instantly it was a match
made in hell! The stock Guild pickups were warm and ratty—and although I gave
them to friend Eric Goerisch I was torn over whether I should keep them. Years
later I asked if Eric still had the Guilds, but he’d long since thrown them in
one of his own guitars.
In 2003 I used the ’75 Seagull to record
the rhythm guitar tracks for the Falcon demo. I also used it for some of the
lead overdubs. Initially I had EMGs installed, and I used it for many Artisan
rehearsals. Within a couple of years, though, I switched to Gibson P-94s, which
are P-90 pickups in a humbucker housing. I figured that since the ’75 Seagull
is such a light/thin mahogany single-cutaway guitar that I’d throw the P-94s in
to go for that old Les Paul Junior vibe. I mean, if it worked for Leslie West,
it was good enough for me!
[Under construction - 14 May 2020]
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| With B.C. Rich satin tour jacket - thanks to Nardo! |
[Under construction - 14 May 2020]
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
Destiny's End - Live at Wacken Open Air 1999
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| DE European promo glossy |
[4 April 2017: This post is under heavy construction. -P]
I recently acquired the footage of Destiny's End at Wacken 1999 and uploaded it to YouTube for all to view. So, where do I start to blog the tale of the biggest gig of my career as a muso? From the beginning, I suppose...
Metal Blade Germany got Destiny's End a slot on the prestigious Wacken Open Air Festival. The good news arrived shortly before we trekked out on a full-scale tour of the US with Iced Earth and Nevermore in May and early June 1999. A mini-European tour with labelmates Sacred Steel and Wardog was also arranged. We had no idea what to expect in terms of logistics. Would we be travelling in a van like in the US? Would we get shared motel rooms some nights? What about the back-line gear? What sort of guitar speaker cabs, bass rig and drums did Sacred Steel have to loan us?
There were challenges to overcome in order to reach European shores. It was my first trip outside the US, and I was a bit stressed about the long flight. It started with some technical issues with one of my main guitars, a white early '80s B.C. Rich Warlock. I spent the night before our departure at Dan DeLucie's pad. We decided to do some last minute string changing. What should have been a routine job turned sour, and it was crystal clear that I wouldn't be able to bring the Warlock. I was kind of apprehensive about taking one of my more valuable axes, but resorted to my trusty 1976 B.C. Rich Eagle instead. As a backup I had a new Fernandes Vortex, a futuristic V-shape, which I wasn't worried much about. The Fernandes could be easily replaced.
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| Perry with Fernandes Vortex |
As it was impossible for Dan DeLucie and I to bring our bulky amp/effects racks, we resorted to using our Mesa Boogie long-chassis heads. At least we knew we'd have adequate tone with our own amps. I borrowed Boss delay and chorus pedals from my pal Aric Villareal to complete the package. Our gear prayers were answered in an email exchange with the Sacred Steel lads. They had boutique German Engl speaker cabs to share with me and Dan, not to mention a full rig for bassist Nardo Andi and SS skinsman Mathias Straub loaned his Tama double-bass kit to DE's Brian Craig. All Brian brought were his cymbals, while Nardo simply needed one of his two Ibanez basses. Sorted! Well, almost...
We miraculously made it to LAX on time and ready for our long-ass flight. Metal Blade Germany arranged our tickets, and for some bizarre reason it was cheaper to fly to Amsterdam first and catch a connecting service to Hamburg. Budget-wise it was a good decision. On the other hand, it could - and did - cause major problems.
After deplaning and making our way through customs, we hightailed it to the baggage claim area to find our gear. Andreas Reissnauer, one of the Metal Blade Germany guys, was there to greet us. The baggage carousels spun around as the minutes ticked away, with no sign of our gear. The oversized luggage section similarly yielded nothing. Though most of our clothes were intact, it became clear that our gear was lost. Andreas spoke to the Lufthansa luggage people. Did he get the message across? Who could tell? What to do, what to do? Whose fault was it? Was Metal Blade the culprit for flying us out the same day as such a critical festival gig, a scant few hours before stage time, knowing fully well that our gear might not make the same flight as us? Did it really matter who was to blame? Hell no! We needed to devise a solution. And quick!
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| DE at Wacken with Jason from Friday the 13th 'zine |
Awake for something like 24 hours, we weren't very prepared to hatch a desperate backup plan. I slipped in and out of a troubled sleep, sitting up in the van on the way out to the fest. Upon arrival at Wacken, we were greeted by Michael Trengert, the head honcho of Metal Blade Germany. He told us we'd better get cracking on finding some gear to use. Tell us something we didn't already know!? I was understandably pissed off at Michael for not flying us out a day before our scheduled appearance. I was pretty annoyed, but got past it swiftly. Michael walked us through the throngs of camping metalheads to meet our new partners in crime, Sacred Steel. We were totally blown away by the double-decker tour bus. But beyond that, would Sacred Steel be willing to help us out? Fortunately the answer was affirmative. Lucky for me, I scored rhythm guitarist Oli Grosshans' trans red B.C. Rich Mockingbird, while Dan ended up with Jorg Knittel's black Charvel bolt-on. Nardo got Jens Sonnenberg's Ibanez four-string, comparable to his own. Another hiccup was introduced, though. Oli and Juerg explained that Sacred Steel tuned their axes down a whole-step to D, while we tuned to standard (E), in Destiny's End. I broke the news to the DE guys. We couldn't tune up to E, as the axes weren't set up for that sort of string tension. We were forced to stay in D for the Wacken set. Another wrench in the works, eh? James would have to transpose his vocals down on the spot to match our whole-step detuning. I often wondered what DE would sound like tuned to D. My fave ultra-heavy band, Death, played in D, and I tuned to E flat in the short-lived Stormhaven in 1996.
How about the amp situation? Well, it was explained to us that the festival itself had a backline on all of its stages. We made our way through the muddy festival ground, borrowed guitar cases in hand. There was so much metal happening simultaneously, on something like 6 stages. The sheer number of people who flocked to Germany's equivalent of a metal Woodstock was mind-boggling. Looking at the Wacken program, we discovered that we were to play on the Wet stage, one of two smaller stages. Smaller? This was Wacken, and our stage was still pretty massive, easily beating our biggest US gig at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, Colorado. Our adrenaline was beginning to surge. I noted that NWOBHM titans Jaguar, our old touring comrades Nevermore and Metallium (featuring Savatage guitarist Chris Caffrey) were heating up the Party Stage directly across from us.
Slated to play on the Wet Stage before us were our So Cal pals Steel Prophet, followed by Agent Steel. It was comforting to see familiar faces. We hung out backstage with Agent Steel and explained our gear situation. Immediately, a lifesaver was provided by AS axemen Juan Garcia and Bernie Versailles, in the form of a chromatic guitar tuner. Phew! We were very appreciative to Sacred Steel and Agent Steel for saving our asses at Wacken. We stared on as Steel Prophet's Steve Kachinsky jumped around the stage like a madman. Texas doomsters Solitude Aeturnus and Canadian thrashers Razor followed in DE's wake.
We were on metal overload, and I was a bit more nervous than usual, fearing I might forget how to play a riff or solo. My anxiety was quickly quelled, though. We exchanged pleasantries with Steel Prophet after they departed the Wet Stage and we climbed aboard to find out what our backline consisted of. A couple of Marshall Major JCM 900 200 watt heads and full stacks for me and Dan. An Ampeg SVT head and 8x10" refrigerator cab for Nardo. Brian got to use a Tama double-bass set much nicer than his own Pearl Export Series kit. James lucked out that he had his stage gloves in his carry-on baggage. But James' stage clothes, like our gear, didn't make the flight to Hamburg. As a result he was forced to hit the stage in a Warlord longsleeve and a pair of black sweat pants. The rest of the DE guys wore street clothes live, so it didn't really matter. I chose my Celtic Frost Emperor's Return bootleg t-shirt. Setup time was minimal thanks to the festival's backline.
Dan and I tweaked settings on the Marshalls to approximate our usual high-gain Mesa Boogie tone. We didn't have overdrive or distortion pedals, so it was a relief that the amps themselves pumped out plentiful gain. The sound engineer must've read my mind, as he threw on Death's Individual Thought Patterns on the enormous PA system. I further tested my hired amp by jamming along to "In Human Form". After all, I was tuned to D!
Before we knew it the set was off to a heavy start with mid-paced cruncher "Unsolved World" as the opener.I felt totally at home on Oli Grosshans' Mockingbird. The Wacken audience got a real treat in Dan's new song "Transition", which became the title track to DE's second album. A major difference between this early live version and the recording was Dan's clean-tone guitar intro accompanied by my lead melody. The intro was ditched by the time we demoed the tune months later. Other tunes in the Wacken set were "Breathe Deep the Dark", "Rebirth", "Under Destruction's Thumb", "To Be Immortal", "Idle City/The Fortress Unvanquishable", a cover of Judas Priest's "Beyond the Realms of Death" and Helstar's "The King Is Dead". The feeling of playing in front of a sea of thousands of metal maniacs was unbelievable. A genuine natural high! The crowd went nuts in between songs, chanting at the top of their lungs, "Hey, hey, hey!"
Following DE's set I spotted Solitude Aeturnus bassist Lyle Steadham and caught up with him. We'd last met at DE's March '99 gig in Dallas/Fort Worth at Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul's Tattoo Bar. My old friend Rob Preston also made the pilgrimage to Wacken, and we watched several bands together, including the German thrash band Warrant. No relation to the glam act of the same name!? An interesting aside: Swedish black metallers Marduk were meant to play the Wet Stage several bands after DE, but they failed to appear. In their place was an S&M striptease act, followed by our cohorts Sacred Steel.
Waking up in the bus the morning after Wacken, we discovered our gear had arrived from the airport. What a relief! My UK pen-pal, Solstice's Rich Walker and his wife Lucy were along for the ride with DE and Sacred Steel. The seeds sown at Wacken and the subsequent mini-Euro tour would eventually lead to me playing with Rich on the Isen Torr EP, Mighty and Superior.
Slated to play on the Wet Stage before us were our So Cal pals Steel Prophet, followed by Agent Steel. It was comforting to see familiar faces. We hung out backstage with Agent Steel and explained our gear situation. Immediately, a lifesaver was provided by AS axemen Juan Garcia and Bernie Versailles, in the form of a chromatic guitar tuner. Phew! We were very appreciative to Sacred Steel and Agent Steel for saving our asses at Wacken. We stared on as Steel Prophet's Steve Kachinsky jumped around the stage like a madman. Texas doomsters Solitude Aeturnus and Canadian thrashers Razor followed in DE's wake.
We were on metal overload, and I was a bit more nervous than usual, fearing I might forget how to play a riff or solo. My anxiety was quickly quelled, though. We exchanged pleasantries with Steel Prophet after they departed the Wet Stage and we climbed aboard to find out what our backline consisted of. A couple of Marshall Major JCM 900 200 watt heads and full stacks for me and Dan. An Ampeg SVT head and 8x10" refrigerator cab for Nardo. Brian got to use a Tama double-bass set much nicer than his own Pearl Export Series kit. James lucked out that he had his stage gloves in his carry-on baggage. But James' stage clothes, like our gear, didn't make the flight to Hamburg. As a result he was forced to hit the stage in a Warlord longsleeve and a pair of black sweat pants. The rest of the DE guys wore street clothes live, so it didn't really matter. I chose my Celtic Frost Emperor's Return bootleg t-shirt. Setup time was minimal thanks to the festival's backline.
Dan and I tweaked settings on the Marshalls to approximate our usual high-gain Mesa Boogie tone. We didn't have overdrive or distortion pedals, so it was a relief that the amps themselves pumped out plentiful gain. The sound engineer must've read my mind, as he threw on Death's Individual Thought Patterns on the enormous PA system. I further tested my hired amp by jamming along to "In Human Form". After all, I was tuned to D!
 |
| Crusaders of the Metal Blade Tour shirt |
Before we knew it the set was off to a heavy start with mid-paced cruncher "Unsolved World" as the opener.I felt totally at home on Oli Grosshans' Mockingbird. The Wacken audience got a real treat in Dan's new song "Transition", which became the title track to DE's second album. A major difference between this early live version and the recording was Dan's clean-tone guitar intro accompanied by my lead melody. The intro was ditched by the time we demoed the tune months later. Other tunes in the Wacken set were "Breathe Deep the Dark", "Rebirth", "Under Destruction's Thumb", "To Be Immortal", "Idle City/The Fortress Unvanquishable", a cover of Judas Priest's "Beyond the Realms of Death" and Helstar's "The King Is Dead". The feeling of playing in front of a sea of thousands of metal maniacs was unbelievable. A genuine natural high! The crowd went nuts in between songs, chanting at the top of their lungs, "Hey, hey, hey!"
Following DE's set I spotted Solitude Aeturnus bassist Lyle Steadham and caught up with him. We'd last met at DE's March '99 gig in Dallas/Fort Worth at Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul's Tattoo Bar. My old friend Rob Preston also made the pilgrimage to Wacken, and we watched several bands together, including the German thrash band Warrant. No relation to the glam act of the same name!? An interesting aside: Swedish black metallers Marduk were meant to play the Wet Stage several bands after DE, but they failed to appear. In their place was an S&M striptease act, followed by our cohorts Sacred Steel.
Waking up in the bus the morning after Wacken, we discovered our gear had arrived from the airport. What a relief! My UK pen-pal, Solstice's Rich Walker and his wife Lucy were along for the ride with DE and Sacred Steel. The seeds sown at Wacken and the subsequent mini-Euro tour would eventually lead to me playing with Rich on the Isen Torr EP, Mighty and Superior.
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| Jens Sonnenberg, Dan DeLucie, Jim Powell, Perry and Gerrit Mutz |
What about the tour? Suffice it to say that it was a well organized and professional affair. We shared a massive bus with Sacred Steel and got enough sleep in our bunks to be at the top of our game every gig. That's not all we shared with Sacred Steel. We had a tour manager, a merch girl, three roadies, including guitar and drum techs. Dan, Nardo and I didn't even have to change our own strings, which was a breath of fresh air. There was even a wee bit of pyrotechnics in the form of small flash-pots. Although part of the package tour, Wardog travelled on their own in a van with their wives and got motel rooms. Slough Feg was the opener on a couple of dates.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Falcon - Self-Titled Album (2004)
For a limited time I'm offering the eponymous first Falcon disc for free download. I'm down to my last few remaining copies of the second small pressing. Rather than letting it languish out of print and fade into obscurity, I'm making it available to fans old and new.
Here's a link to the compressed .zip file - http://www.falconband.net/sounds/falcon.zip
Simply right-click on the link and "save link as". Then decompress once you've downloaded the .zip file.
Perry Grayson - Guitar/Vocals
Greg Lindstrom - Bass/Keyboard/Additional Lead Guitar on *
Darin McCloskey - Drums
Basic tracks recorded live in November 2003. A few overdubs and mixing conducted in February 2004. Engineered, mixed and mastered by Chris Kozlowski at the Polar Bear Lair in Middletown, Maryland. Produced by Falcon and Chris Kozlowski. Released May 24, 2004 on Liquid Flames Records, piece code LF002.
1. Downer (Grayson)
2. Castle Peak (Grayson)
3. On the Slab [guest lead vocals by Bobby Liebling from Pentagram] (Grayson)
4. The Crying of Lot 246 (Grayson)
5. Throwback (Grayson)
6. Redman [Bang cover] (D'Iorio, Ferrara & Gilcken)
7. High Speed Love (Lindstrom) *
8. Route 666 (Lindstrom)
9. Shelob's Lair (Lindstrom) *
10. Half Past Human (Lindstrom) *
The Eponymous Epic!
The self-titled Falcon album has to be my fave recording experience of my career. Not only do I love it sonically, but I really dug/dig everything about the project from start to finish. I don't use the term "project" to describe Falcon, though. It's a serious band situation.
Me and Greg L. flew out to Pennsylvania on November 19, 2003, for two days of wall-to-wall jamming at Pale Divine's rehearsal space (the Glen Mills, PA community center basement). Then we drove down to Maryland and hit the Polar Bear Lair studio for 5 more days. We banged out the basic tracks within two full days, followed by 3 more days of overdubs and mixing - a couple of guitar solos, vocals, percussion, etc. The result was a spontaneous, raw sounding album. We truly bashed it out as quick as humanly possible! A breath of fresh air compared to the recording sessions of Destiny's End - Breathe Deep the Dark.
Chris Kozlowski did an incredible job engineering and Darin did a killer job behind the kit, despite the fact that we haven't had more than like 6 rehearsals with him! An especially huge thanks goes out to Greg Diener (guitarist/vocalist of Pale Divine) for loaning me his old Sunn Sceptre head for rehearsals. We returned to the Polar Bear Lair from February 18th to 21st to do a couple of last overdubs and to mix.
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| Greg, Darin & Perry inside Chris Kozlowski's Polar Bear Lair, Nov. 2003 |
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| Sunn Sceptre 60 watt head |
For all you gear geeks (like me, Greg and Darin), I used my 1976 Les Paul Deluxe for all of the basic tracking and most of the solos. I brought my 1976 B.C. Rich Eagle Supreme on the February trip to lay down a couple of solos and to double-track some lead passages as well. Greg used his Fender USA Custom Shop Jazz Bass and his Les Paul Jr. (think vintage Leslie West) for his solos. Greg's keyboard parts on "Downer", "Lot 246" and "Half Past Human" was carried out on a Novation K-Station. Amp-wise I used Chris Kozlowski's original Sunn Model T for about 75% of the recording and an Orange Overdrive Series 2 (until it blew up) for overdubs.
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| Sunn Model T 120 watt head |
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| Orange Overdrive Series 2 Head |
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| Perry with his B.C. Rich Eagle Supreme & Marshall stack at the Artisan jam room, NoHo, CA - 2003 |
The Story Behind the Cover
At first we wanted to keep with the Cirith Ungol tradition of using art depicting Michael Moorcock's albino elf anti-hero, Elric. We approached artist Robert Gould to see if we could license the cover of The Elric Saga Part I. It suited Falcon, as it depicted Elric with a bird of prey on his shoulder. At first Gould seemed interested, but eventually he just gave us the cold shoulder. |
| Full color scan of Michael Moorcock's Elric of Melnibone by Robert Gould |
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| Perry's b-day gig in '05 with Shakey Mallard & High Horse. Get your sushi 'n' rawk on!! |
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| The S/T Nitzinger LP cover |
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| The infamous first Falcon gig flyer! |
Track by Track Notes
1. Downer
This one isn't about popping pills. Quite the contrary, it's a philosophy. Taking things raw, without a crutch, heeding "the worse case scene". There's also a politically charged bent to the lyrics. The "banished utopia laid to waste before its time" serves the purpose of having a bite at Uncle Sam. Riff-wise, there's a little tidbit about the intro/outro worth mentioning. Rob Garven, the Cirith Ungol skinsman, said, upon receiving his copy of the S/T Falcon album, "It reminds me of Heart's 'Barracuda'. It wasn't a conscious effort. Just something that occurred by chance. I've always felt it owes more to Pentagram (circa Day of Reckoning) and Quartz (think Stand Up and Fight) than anything else. Greg played the honky tonk piano synth in the solo section of this one.
2. Castle Peak
Castle Peak is a mountain wedged between my old suburb (West Hills) and the ritzy gated community Bell Canyon in sunny Southern California. I hiked it many a time during my early teen trials and tribulations. Climbing Castle Peak cheered me up when I was down, prior to obtaining my very own electric axe. On the lower slopes of Castle Peak there's a cave, fondly referred to as the Bat Cave by the teenage heshers who used to hang out there. Castle Peak was used as a ceremonial site by the Chumash during the solstices, The Cave of Munits – which lies in direct sight of the rocky peak, was said to be the home of a powerful Chumash shaman who was killed after murdering the son of a chief. There are stone alcoves at the summit of Castle Peak. In and near the alcoves were heaps of of heavy rock 'n' metal graffiti. Back in my high school days (daze) there was spray-painted the likes of Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Metallica. Before these sprawling trails were officially preserved as parkland there was an overzealous security guard patrolling this parcel of land, formerly called Ahmanson Ranch. The rent-a-cop brandished a gun loaded with rock salt. Fortunately I was never caught by the guard, although I know others who were shot at and detained. All that nonsense came to a halt in 2004 when the Victory Trailhead, El Escorpion Park and the rest of the former Ahmanson land opened for public use. For once the politics of land/property development sided with the nature loving common person. I was stoked to the max and celebrated the cool situation with a trip to ye old Bat Cave.
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| Philip Parris Lynott - the original Rawker (1949-1986) |
"On the Slab" is my tribute to Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy. I'm heavily influenced by both the Eric Bell-era power trio and the classic lineup with the duelling guitars of Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham. They're a special band for Greg Lindstrom too. He and Cirith Ungol drummer Rob Garven used to wear homemade Thin Lizzy t-shirts on their rounds of SoCal record shops like my old hangout, Moby Disc in Canoga Park. The title stems from the story of the same name by Harlan Ellison. "On the Slab" was Ellison's paean to H.P. Lovecraft. This one's rooted in reality rather than fantasy. It's painfully obvious that this tune is a tale of a smack addict going down the drain on drugs. It could just as easily encompass blow and meth as well. (As in "inhaling your death off a slab".)
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| Bobby Liebling, the voice of Pentagram! |
I originally laid down vocals on both the demo and album versions of the tune, but I just wasn't happy with the results. As the vocal tracking came to a close it was evident that I'd either need to revisit it or... The possibility of Bobby coming in to lend a hand - or pipes. Bobby previously made a guest spot on Pale Divine's Thunder Perfect Mind, on the tracks "20 Buck Spin" (a Penta-cover) and "Dark Knight". So, it goes without saying that both drummer Darin McCloskey and engineer Chris Kozlowski were friends of Bobby's already. The latest version of Pentagram (with the 3 instrumentalists from Maryland doom kingpins Internal Void) was finishing up tracks for the Show 'Em How album, also with Chris Kozlowski at the helm. Kelly Carmichael (guitar) and J.D. Wiliams (vocals) from Internal Void paid a visit to us while we were recording overdubs. At Chris' recommendation I left my lyrics sheet and a note to Bobby with my cell phone number. I didn't expect he'd want to sing it due to the too close-to-home theme. On the contrary, Bobby rang me up and raved about how authentically Lizzy-like the tune was and that he'd be very happy to vocalize a tribute to our and his big hero, Philo. Bobby rang me several times, even during the wee hours of the morning. He left me messages to show me how he wanted to sing parts. We had some good phone chatter. In the end, we were thrilled with Bobby's rendering. Bobby went off the rails again around the time we released the S/T Falcon CD. I called him and he nodded off on the phone. A while later he screwed over the Internal Void guys by collapsing on stage at their first (and only) gig before a note was even played. Hopefully he's doing better now than he was back in '04. To this day I’ve never met Bobby, but we had some good long talks on the phone, and I hope to see him live with Pentagram someday.
The title of this one is a play on Thomas Pynchon's 1965 novel The Crying of Lot 49. Thematically it's slightly similar to "Castle Peak". "Lot 246" also has something in common with Grand Funk Railroad's "Save the Land". It's about conserving land, lashing out against greedy commercial/corporate property developers. Getting back to nature. That sort of thing... Both Greg Lindstrom and I are big fans of Cream, and the chord progression in the chorus of "Lot 246" brings to mind "Tales of Brave Ulysses". Chronologically, this one was the second track I wrote for Falcon - also the second I demoed with a drum machine in autumn 2002.
5. Throwback
For the most part, "Throwback" is just a let loose and have fun type of song. I still managed to inject some seriousness into the fray. The lines "They watch my heroes die / Public eye don't cry" imply that the media doesn't care about the passing of talented musicians. Like say Chuck Schuldiner of Death and Control Denied fame. Randy Palmer (Bedemon, Pentagram) is another that comes to mind. The rest of the lyrics deal with the uninitiated not understanding the world of heavy rock and metal. Claiming it's too loud and "evil" sounding. Let's not forget all that demonic imagery. When I sang "I'm a throwback, baby / Born too late," I was quoting from the Wino-era Saint Vitus classic. I dig stuff that people call dinosaur rock (say Pentagram again!), I let my freak flag fly (the hair is flowin'!) and I love playing through a blaring full Marshall stack. Another Pentagram-related lyric is "livin' in a ram!" (as in "Living in a Ram's Head").
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| Leisure Suit Perry in front of the guitar cab shed at the Polar Bear Lair, Nov. 2003 |
6. Redman [Bang cover]
Bang is one of my all-time fave early heavy '70s bands. I'd call them proto-metal because of that outright heaviness.. They had three albums out on Capitol Records between 1972 and 1974. This one was on the self-titled Bang LP (1972). My old pal Rob Preston (Doomed Planet Records) hipped me to Bang. And they were the first band I wrote about in the pages of Metal Maniacs when I became a staffer in 1999-2000. Not only did I interview drummer Tony D'Iorio, but I became friends with Frank Ferrara (bass/vocals) and Frankie Gilcken (guitar) as well. We hung out one night in Hollyweird in 2000 and also in the studio in 2002 while they were demoing new songs. After the studio visit we adjourned to their friend's Calabasas home. I love the hippie-esque theme of "Redman" - again, a cautionary tale of not allowing the land to be raped by the Man and his penchant for war. Live, Falcon used to lengthen our version of "Redman" with an extended improv jam. Technically speaking, Bang tunes down a half-step (a semi-tone in the UK or Oz) to E-flat, while we tuned down a whole-step to D. This makes it easier on my voice and also adds a bit of heaviness to the whole affair.
7. High Speed Love
"High Speed Love" is an old Cirith Ungol tune from the late '70s. Greg wrote this fun little tune about fast cars. Both Greg and Rob Garven are big car racing fans. They love Ferraris and the like. I've never been much of a car geek, but I can understand their obsession with speedy automobiles. Tim Baker sang the original with backups by Rob and Greg.
8. Route 666
Another one of Greg's old Cirith Ungol songs which they demoed in the mid '70s. Greg wrote both the lyrics and music - and sang the original version himself. It's a horrific tale of a guy who comes face to face with a demon on a lonely desert highway. I had Greg's vocals to base my own delivery on thankfully.
9. Shelob's Lair
Fantasy geeks might realize right off the bat that this is Greg's take on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Like Zeppelin, Rush and Mountain before them, Cirith Ungol used the hippie's fave fantasy series for song fodder. Shelob was the giant spider who tangled with the heroes of the story in Cirith Ungol. Cirith Ungol was the high mountain 'pass of the spider'. Other Tolkien bits Greg inserted into the lyrics were the Ringbearer (Frodo the Hobbit), Samwise (Frodo's Hobbit friend), the Nazgul (Ring wraiths) and the magic sword called Sting. A rehearsal recording sans vocals was my only guide in how to sing/play "Shelob's Lair". I tried to deliver the lines as Tim Baker (the CU vocalist) might have.
10. Half Past Human The subtitle of this one was "A Quarter to Ape". The final S/T Falcon track is Greg's tale of the demise of man on Earth. Cirith Ungol demoed it in the mid '70s. He was heavily influenced by the fantasies of Jack Vance (The Dying Earth) and perhaps a hint of Clark Ashton Smith's tales of Zothique as well. Again, I had no vocal guide to follow beyond Greg's coaching. I tried to instill a bit of Iggy Pop into the line "Thirteen screaming souls / to feed the one within".
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