You know what they say: Learn from the past so history doesn’t repeat itself. In this spirit, PG editors, the reader of the month, and guitarist Keaton Simons discuss innovations from guitar’s past, present, and future. Send your own thoughts to info@premierguitar.com.
Matt Hayward -- Reader of the Month
What are you listening to?
Comedian Doug
Stanhope’s The Great White
Stanhope, my friend Chad
Channing’s band Before Cars, and my own
band Lace Weeper’s new EP, Tusk, released
this month.
What era or decade do you think was
the most interesting for guitar and why?
“True art should reflect decay.” No decade
captured that more than the ’90s. Fed up
with the MTV music-video saturation of
the ’80s, I think the ’90s returned a valuable
element of rock to the mainstream
market that was essential.
Tessa Jeffers -- Managing Editor
What are you listening to?
The special, swinging
vibe of young slide-guitarist
Luke Winslow-King’s Delta-dirt-meets-gentle-folk on The Coming Tide.
What era or decade do you think was
the most interesting for guitar and why?
Reading Pete Townshend’s memoir, I’m fascinated
by the firsthand glimpse into the Wild
Wild West landscape of the electric guitar in
the early ’60s (Jim Marshall, a young drummer
experimenting with double-stack amps,
etc.). No strict guidelines or schools, anything
went—the playing was loud and raw,
authentic rock being invented.
Keaton Simons -- Guest Picker
What are you listening to?
The Wood Brothers, Ways
Not to Lose. It’s down-home
swampy blues with deep
sophistication. Gets me right in the gut
every time.
What era or decade do you think was
the most interesting for guitar and why?
The 1960s, because artists were pushing the
boundaries of electric guitar. With brilliant
people like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton,
Pete Townshend, etc. paving the way, electric
guitar hasn’t been the same since.
Andy Ellis -- Senior Editor
What are you listening to?
Frank Vignola and Vinny
Raniolo, Melody Magic.
Stunning, masterfully played
arrangements of enduring classics infused with
the spirit of flamenco and jazz manouche.
What era or decade do you think was the
most interesting for guitar and why?
The
late 1800s—when gut strings gave way to
steel strings in America. Factory-made flat-tops
and archtops defined folk, blues, and
jazz, ultimately spawning the electric guitar.
We take modern guitar sounds for granted,
but the revolution began when we started
stringing up with steel.
Chris Kies -- Associate Editor
What are you listening to?
Queens of the Stone Age’s
single “My God Is the Sun”
is making me drool like
Pavlov’s dogs for … Like Clockwork.
What era or decade do you think was the
most interesting for guitar and why?
I’d
want to be in the eye of the storm in ’71–’72 for my two fave Stones LPs, ’77–’78 to
rip power chords alongside Joe Strummer
and Glenn Danzig, and ’91–’92 to welcome
Pantera’s thrash and the Northwest
grunge assault.
Charles Saufley -- Gear Editor
What are you listening to?
Kurt Vile and the Violators
Wakin’ on a Pretty Daze.
Kurt and collaborators
Jesse Trbovich and Rob Laakso are masters
at converting Vile’s evergreen tunes and
sweetly sardonic turns of phrase into hazy,
drifting reveries. Pretty Daze pretty much
turns everything into lazy afternoon porch
sit. Get it before summer hits.
What era or decade do you think was the
most interesting for guitar and why?
The
future. Stoked to hear what’s next.
Shawn Hammond -- Editor in Chief
What are you listening to?
Kings of Leon, The
Collection Box. Mock the
2010 pigeon-poop gig all
you want, these five albums are still chock-full
of rad tunes, smart guitar parts, and
tasty tones.
What era or decade do you think was
the most interesting for guitar and why?
All eras have innumerable gems. Find new
stuff via friends, authoritative sources, and
cool tech gadgets. Most importantly, keep
an open mind and push yourself to listen
to new things. There are a zillion ways for
guitar to be compelling.
Rich Osweiler -- Associate Editor
What are you listening to?
Junip, Junip. The Swedish
trio’s sophomore effort is a
menu of soft, atmospheric
drone rock done right. Blending thoughtful
acoustic work with a drenching of Moog
tones and patient but driving beats, it’s the
perfect backdrop for José González’s trance-inducing
vocals.
What era or decade do you think was the
most interesting for guitar and why?
A
valid case could be made for so many
decades, but the ’60s gave us more in
terms of innovation and rule breaking
than any other.
Jason Shadrick -- Associate Editor
What are you listening to?
Josh Smith, Don’t Give
Up on Me. With his latest,
Smith’s Albert Collins-meets-Steve Cropper style is in full force,
making one of the better blues albums
released this year.
What era or decade do you think was the
most interesting for guitar and why?
My
vote would be for the period between 1971
and 1976. Just far enough away from the
psychedelic ‘60s and before corporate rock
took hold.
![Adrian Belew/BEAT Tour Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53638946&width=600&height=600&quality=85&coordinates=192%2C0%2C368%2C0)
Duane Denison of the Jesus Lizard, EGC Chessie in hands, coaxing some nasty tones from his Hiwatt.
The Jesus Lizard’s sixth album, Blue, served as the band’s final statement from the frontlines of noisy rock for the next 26 years. By the time of their dissolution in 1999, they’d earned a reputation for extreme performances chock full of hard-hitting, machine-like grooves delivered by bassist David Wm. Sims and, at their conclusion, drummer Mac McNeilly, at times aided and at other times punctured by the frontline of guitarist Duane Denison’s incisive, dissonant riffing, and presided over by the cantankerous howl of vocalist David Yow. In the years since, performative, thrilling bands such as Pissed Jeans, METZ, and Idles have built upon the Lizard’s musical foundation.
Denison has kept himself plenty busy over the last couple decades, forming the avant-rock supergroup Tomahawk—with vocalist Mike Patton, bassist Trevor Dunn (both from Mr. Bungle), and drummer John Stanier of Helmet—and alongside various other projects including Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers and Hank Williams III. The Jesus Lizard eventually reunited, but until now have only celebrated their catalog, never releasing new jams.
The Jesus Lizard, from left: bassist David Wm. Sims, singer David Yow, drummer Mac McNeilly, and guitarist Duane Denison.
Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins
Back in 2018, Denison, hanging in a hotel room with Yow, played a riff on his unplugged electric guitar that caught the singer’s ear. That song, called “West Side,” will remain unreleased for now, but Denison explains: “He said, ‘Wow, that’s really good. What is that?’ And I said, ‘It’s just some new thing. Why don’t we do an album?’” From those unassuming beginnings, the Jesus Lizard’s creative juices started flowing.
So, how does a band—especially one who so indelibly captured the ineffable energy of live rock performance—prepare to get a new record together 26 years after their last? Back in their earlier days, the members all lived together in a band house, collectively tending to the creative fire when inspiration struck. All these years later, they reside in different cities, so their process requires sending files back and forth and only meeting up for occasional demo sessions over the course of “three or four years.”
“When the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.” —Duane Denison
the Jesus Lizard "Alexis Feels Sick"
Distance creates an obstacle to striking while the proverbial iron is hot, but Denison has a method to keep things energized: “Practice loud.” The guitarist professes the importance of practice, in general, and especially with a metronome. “We keep very detailed records of what the beats per minute of these songs are,” he explains. “To me, the way to do it is to run it to a Bluetooth speaker and crank it, and then crank your amp. I play a little at home, but when the time comes to get more in performance mode, I have a practice space. I go there by myself and crank it up. I turn that amp up and turn the metronome up and play loud.”
It’s a proven solution. On Rack—recorded at Patrick Carney’s Audio Eagle studio with producer Paul Allen—the band sound as vigorous as ever, proving they’ve not only remained in step with their younger selves, but they may have surpassed it with faders cranked. “Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style,” explains Allen. “The conviction in his playing that he is known for from his recordings in the ’80s and ’90s is still 100-percent intact and still driving full throttle today.”
“I try to be really, really precise,” he says. “I think we all do when it comes to the basic tracks, especially the rhythm parts. The band has always been this machine-like thing.” Together, they build a tension with Yow’s careening voice. “The vocals tend to be all over the place—in and out of tune, in and out of time,” he points out. “You’ve got this very free thing moving around in the foreground, and then you’ve got this very precise, detailed band playing behind it. That’s why it works.”
Before Rack, the Jesus Lizard hadn’t released a new record since 1998’s Blue.
Denison’s guitar also serves as the foreground foil to Yow’s unhinged raving, as on “Alexis Feels Sick,” where they form a demented harmony, or on the midnight creep of “What If,” where his vibrato-laden melodies bolster the singer’s unsettled, maniacal display. As precise as his riffs might be, his playing doesn’t stay strictly on the grid. On the slow, skulking “Armistice Day,” his percussive chording goes off the rails, giving way to a solo that slices that groove like a chef’s knife through warm butter as he reorganizes rock ’n’ roll histrionics into his own cut-up vocabulary.
“During recording sessions, his first solo takes are usually what we decide to keep,” explains Allen. “Listen to Duane’s guitar solos on Jack White’s ‘Morning, Noon, and Night,’ Tomahawk’s ‘Fatback,’ and ‘Grind’ off Rack. There’s a common ‘contained chaos’ thread among them that sounds like a harmonic Rubik’s cube that could only be solved by Duane.”
“Duane’s approach, both as a guitarist and writer, has an angular and menacing fingerprint that is his own unique style.” —Rack producer Paul Allen
To encapsulate just the right amount of intensity, “I don’t over practice everything,” the guitarist says. Instead, once he’s created a part, “I set it aside and don’t wear it out.” On Rack, it’s obvious not a single kilowatt of musical energy was lost in the rehearsal process.
Denison issues his noisy masterclass with assertive, overdriven tones supporting his dissonant voicings like barbed wire on top of an electric fence. The occasional application of slapback delay adds a threatening aura to his exacting riffage. His tones were just as carefully crafted as the parts he plays, and he relied mostly on his signature Electrical Guitar Company Chessie for the sessions, though a Fender Uptown Strat also appears, as well as a Taylor T5Z, which he chose for its “cleaner, hyper-articulated sound” on “Swan the Dog.” Though he’s been spotted at recent Jesus Lizard shows with a brand-new Powers Electric—he points out he played a demo model and says, “I just couldn’t let go of it,” so he ordered his own—that wasn’t until tracking was complete.
Duane Denison's Gear
Denison wields his Powers Electric at the Blue Room in Nashville last June.
Photo by Doug Coombe
Guitars
- Electrical Guitar Company Chessie
- Fender Uptown Strat
- Taylor T5Z
- Gibson ES-135
- Powers Electric
Amps
- Hiwatt Little J
- Hiwatt 2x12 cab with Fane F75 speakers
- Fender Super-Sonic combo
- Early ’60s Fender Bassman
- Marshall 1987X Plexi Reissue
- Victory Super Sheriff head
- Blackstar HT Stage 60—2 combos in stereo with Celestion Neo Creamback speakers and Mullard tubes
Effects
- Line 6 Helix
- Mantic Flex Pro
- TC Electronic G-Force
- Menatone Red Snapper
Strings and Picks
- Stringjoy Orbiters .0105 and .011 sets
- Dunlop celluloid white medium
- Sun Studios yellow picks
He ran through various amps—Marshalls, a Fender Bassman, two Fender Super-Sonic combos, and a Hiwatt Little J—at Audio Eagle. Live, if he’s not on backline gear, you’ll catch him mostly using 60-watt Blackstar HT Stage 60s loaded with Celestion Neo Creambacks. And while some boxes were stomped, he got most of his effects from a Line 6 Helix. “All of those sounds [in the Helix] are modeled on analog sounds, and you can tweak them endlessly,” he explains. “It’s just so practical and easy.”
The tools have only changed slightly since the band’s earlier days, when he favored Travis Beans and Hiwatts. Though he’s started to prefer higher gain sounds, Allen points out that “his guitar sound has always had teeth with a slightly bright sheen, and still does.”
“Honestly, I don’t think my tone has changed much over the past 30-something years,” Denison says. “I tend to favor a brighter, sharper sound with articulation. Someone sent me a video I had never seen of myself playing in the ’80s. I had a band called Cargo Cult in Austin, Texas. What struck me about it is it didn’t sound terribly different than what I sound like right now as far as the guitar sound and the approach. I don’t know what that tells you—I’m consistent?”
YouTube It
The Jesus Lizard take off at Nashville’s Blue Room this past June with “Hide & Seek” from Rack.
Keith Urban has spent decades traveling the world and topping global country-music charts, and on this episode of Wong Notes, the country-guitar hero tells host Cory Wong how he conquered the world—and what keeps him chasing new sounds on his 6-string via a new record, High, which releases on September 20.
Urban came up as guitarist and singer at the same time, and he details how his playing and singing have always worked as a duet in service of the song: “When I stop singing, [my guitar] wants to say something, and he says it in a different way.” Those traits served him well when he made his move into the American music industry, a story that begins in part with a fateful meeting with a 6-string banjo in a Nashville music store in 1995.
It’s a different world for working musicians now, and Urban weighs in on the state of radio, social media, and podcasts for modern guitarists, but he still believes in word-of-mouth over the algorithm when it comes to discovering exciting new players.
And in case you didn’t know, Keith Urban is a total gearhead. He shares his essential budget stomps and admits he’s a pedal hound, chasing new sounds week in and week out, but what role does new gear play in his routine? Urban puts it simply: “I’m not chasing tone, I’m pursuing inspiration.”
